The sphere that includes Earth's core, mantel, and crust.
What is the geosphere?
100
The breakdown of rock through naturally occurring processes (e.g., wind, water, gravity, animal action, plant growth).
What is physical weathering?
100
The process by which sediment and other materials are worn away and removed.
What is erosion?
100
A layer of soil with properties that differ from those of the layers below and above it.
What is a soil horizon?
100
The landform that is created by wave action: waves crash and deposit sediment on the beach.
What is the shoreline?
200
The sphere that protects us from the Sun's harmful radiation.
What is the atmosphere?
200
The process by which oxygen enters a rock and alters its chemical composition, changing the color of the rock?
What is oxidation?
200
What is the difference between erosion and deposition?
Erosion is the wearing away and removal of rock particles. Deposition is the process by which those materials are moved or deposited into a new place.
200
The name for the chemistry of a type of soil or soil's level of acidity?
What is a soil's pH level?
200
Name 2 landforms that can be formed by a river eroding rock and creating a deep crease between mountains.
Canyon and valley
300
Explain how three of Earth's spheres interact when a volcano erupts.
Geosphere: because the mantel of Earth rises up
Biosphere: because the lava can harm/kill animals and plants
Atmosphere: because gases are released into the air
Hydrosphere: because many of Earth's volcanoes are underground
Cryosphere (maybe): if the volcano is close to a glacier and causes the glacier to melt
300
Name the process and the type of weathering: when water seeps into cracks in rocks, freezes, and splits the rocks apart.
What is ice wedging, which is a form of physical weathering?
300
How does gravity affect a stream's ability to erode and deposit sediment?
Gravity pulls sediments into the water. The sediment is then suspended in the water, which flows downstream. The particles are deposited elsewhere.
300
How might a topography impact the rate of soil growth?
Topography relates to an area's physical features. For example, soil on a hillside might erode faster because gravity pushes it downhill. Soil on a flat area with lots of water will grow faster.
300
A landform that is formed when a stream deposits sediment and feeds into many more smaller, slower-moving streams.
What is a delta?
400
Explain how a peach might be a good model for Earth's compositional layers.
The peach pit represents Earth's hard core. The pink park around the core looks like the hot, slow-moving mantel surround the Earth's core. The fuzzy skin is the Earth's crust or could be the Earth's atmosphere, protecting it from the outside.
400
List 4 agents of physical weathering.
Wind, water, animal action, gravity, plant growth, ice, other rocks
400
List the conditions that makes erosion and deposition by streams faster.
A faster flow of water, steeper slopes, more particles in the water.
400
The property of soil that is defined as the space between particles. Determines how fast water and air can flow through soil.
What is permeability?
400
How is a dune formed?
Dunes are formed through deposition by wind. Wind picks up tiny particles and deposits them in a pyramid shape.
500
List three ways that Earth's spheres rely on the Sun.
For energy, for light, for day and night, for climate regulation, for nutrients, to melt glaciers and provide water, for warmth.
500
The process by which rock layers peel away due to pressure changes.
What is exfoliation?
500
How does glacial drift impact deposition?
Glaciers are filled with particles, rock fragments, and sediments, which move as glaciers melt, recede, and move.
500
Explain how soil is formed.
Parent rock undergoes weathering and breaks down. Remains of living organisms form humus, the living component of soil, and help to fertilize the soil. Overtime, animals mix the soil.
500
What requires more energy to create: a sand beach or a pebble beach? Explain your answer.
A pebble beach because pebbles are larger than sand particles and require more energy (wind, water, or gravitational pull) to deposit them and create a beach.