Physical Geology

GEOL 101 - Exam 3 Review

Study hints

The most important activity for you to do to prepare for examinations is read and understand your class notes and required textbook. You should be able, without referring to your notes, to answer all of the questions in this study guide.

Make sure that you are prepared to make connections between major concepts.

For reinforcement of the class notes, refer to the reading in your textbook. I will not expect you to have memorized every detail presented in the book, but your level of comprehension will increase with exposure to the reading.

Earthquakes

Focus or hypocenter

Epicenter

Seismic waves

Primary or body waves (push-pull waves)
Secondary waves (sideways shearing motion
Surface waves (Love and Rayleigh waves)

Seismic waves

Primary or body waves (push-pull waves)
Secondary waves (sideways shearing motion
Surface waves (Love and Rayleigh waves)

Locating earthquakes

Intensity

Modified Mercallie Intensity Scale

Magnitude

Richter
Moment Magnitude Scale

Earthquake Hazards

Ground Displacement, shaking, movement...
Liquefaction
Landslides
Fires
Flooding
Tsunamis

Mass movements

Causes

Slope (Friction vs. Gravity)
Composition of Materials
Bedrock versus unconsolidated sediment
Vegetation
Water

Slow mass movements

Creep
solifluction

Fast Mass Movements

Fall
Slide
Slump
Flow

Streams

Definitions

Floodplain
Head (headwaters)
Mouth
Tributaries
Trunk stream
Distributaries
Watershed (drainage basin)
Drainage divide
Discharge
Velocity - gradient, size and shape of stream channel, (wetted perimeter, cross sectional area) and roughness of bed

Processes of Stream Erosion

Abrasion
Hydraulic lifting
Dissolution

Base level

Ultimate base level
Local or temporary base level

Terms

V-shaped valley
Meandering stream
Braided stream
Point bar
Neck
Cutoff
Oxbow lake

Sediment Load

Dissolved load
Suspended load
Bed load (saltation, traction)

Stream deposits

Bars
Point bars
Floodplains
Deltas
Alluvial fans

Groundwater

Factors affecting infiltration

Surface materials
Vegetation
Topography (slope of hill)
Precipitation

Terms

Zone of aeration
Zone of saturation
Water Table
Capillary Fringe
Porosity
Permeability

Rate of groundwater flow

Hydraulic conductivity
Hydraulic gradient

Aquifers

Unconfined Aquifer
Confined Aquifer
Artesian Aquifer

Threats to groundwater

Cone of depression
Aquifer compression

Glaciers

Glacier formation

Zone of Accumulation
Zone of ablation (melting and calving)
Equilibrium Line (ELA)

Ice Sheets

Alpine Glaciers

Cirque glaciers
Valley glaciers
Ice caps

Glacier Flow

Internal deformation
Basal sliding

Landforms

Cirques
Tarns
Arête
Col
Horn
U-shaped valley
Hanging valley
Fjords

Glacial deposits

Till
Moraines (terminal, recessional, lateral and medial)
Outwash