Watershed
What is the biggest watershed in the US, and what two features is it between?
The Mississippi watershed and it is located between the Rocky and Appalachian mountains.
What is the difference between point source and non point source pollution.
Point Source: Pollution that comes from a specific site.
Non Point Source: Pollution that comes from many sources rather than from a specific site.
Name the three types of plate boundaries.
convergent, divergent and transform
What is the law of superposition?
that in undisturbed rock, the oldest layers are at the bottom.
Who was the scientist who came up with the theory of continental drift?
Alfred Wegner
What is a watershed?
A watershed is the area of land that is drained by a river system. Watersheds are separated from one another by a ridge or area of higher ground called a divide.
What is an aquifer?
An aquifer is a permeable body of rock or sediment that holds significant amounts of water.
What type of geographical features form at convergent boundaries?
Trenches, Volcanoes, Mountains.
What was the name of the theory before continental drift became widely accepted.
The contraction theory.
What is coral bleaching?
Coral bleaching is the loss of color in corals that occurs when stressed corals expel the colorful algae that live in them.
Describe wetlands and their role in a watershed.
The wetlands are an area of land that is saturated with water for part or all of the year. In a wetland, water collects in flat areas that are too shallow to form lakes. They are sometimes called nature’s kidneys because of their ability to filter pollutants.
What 5 things do we depend on the ocean for?
Water, oxygen, weather/climate regulation, food/medicine, the economy.
Why does subduction cause volcanic activity?
What are the 5 pieces of evidence that support the theory of continental drift?
matching fossils, coastlines, mountain ranges, glacial features and seafloor spreading (will also take superposition as a response).
What is seafloor spreading?
It is the creation of new oceanic crust at mid-ocean ridges as older crust moves away and magma comes up from the mantel to fill the gap creating new crust.
What are the differences between the saturated zone and unsaturated zone and that seriates them?
Unsaturated zone: Closer to the surface. Pores contain a mixture of air and water.
Saturated zone: Deeper below the surface. Pores are completely filled with water.
the upper boundary of the saturated zone is the water table.
What caused the north pacific garbage patch to form and what is this called?
Circular currents trapped the floating debris in what is known as a gyre.
Why do earthquakes happen at transform boundaries?
Earthquakes result from the buildup and rapid release of stress along active plate boundaries.
What is the las of superposition.
It states that in undisturbed rock, the oldest layers are at the bottom.
What powers the whole system of tectonic plates/continental drift?
convection currents.
What are porosity and permeability and how do they affect aquifers?
porosity is the percentage of rock that is pore space.
Permeability is a how easily water can flow through an aquifer. High permeability means how well the pores are connected, so water can flow.
Aquifers with higher porosity and permeability are useful as a water source.
Why is impervious cover and cleared land an issue when it comes to watersheds?
It allows for excess runoff which can carry pollutants that can effect bodies of water and aquifers.
Described what formed the Hawaiian islands and how.
A hot spot is a column of mantel that is hotter than the surrounding material causing it to create volcanic island anywhere on a tectonic plate, so as the plate slowly moved over time new islands were formed as the plate moved over the hot spot.
Describe the lithosphere and the asthenosphere in relation to one another regarding the theory of plate tectonics.
describes Earth's surface as being made up of rigid lithospheric plates that move in relation to each other. These plates "float" on the hot, semi-plastic layer known as the asthenosphere.
The lithosphere, which is cold and rigid, consists of the crust and the uppermost part of the mantle, fitting together like a jigsaw puzzle.
The asthenosphere, which is hotter and plastic, lies underneath and allows the plates to flow and move.
How does water flow in a watershed?