Erosion and Deposition Study Guide
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A channel along which water is continually flowing down a slope is called a stream.
Because of longshore drift, sediment moves down a beach with the current.
Glacial deposition is the result in the formation of Long Island in New York.
The Missouri River can be called a tributary because it flows into the Mississippi River.
Waves erode the land through impact and abrasion.
Gravity is the force that pulls rock and soil down slopes.
When a river flows out of a steep, narrow mountain valley, an alluvial fan forms because the river water
slows down.
Creep is the type of mass movement that can result in the tilting at odd angles of gravestones and fenceposts.
The till deposited at the edge of a glacier forms a ridge called a moraine.
The amount of sediment in a river is called its load.
The flat, wide area of land along a river is called a meander. (F; flood plain)
The energy of ocean waves comes from the energy of deposition. (F; wind)
A valley glacier covers much of the island of Greenland. (F; continental glacier)
The process by which natural forces move weathered rock from place to place is erosion. (T)
The material moved by erosion is called sediment. (T)
Landslides and slump are forms of mass movement.
The process by which wind removes surface materials is deflation.
A glacier forms in an area where more snow falls than melts.
The process by which erosion lays down sediment in new locations is called deposition.
After a rainfall, the water that moves over Earth’s surface is called runoff.
Explain how a glacier picks up rocks.
o A glacier picks up rocks in a process called plucking. As the glacier moves over land, its weight
breaks rocks apart. Rock fragments then freeze to the bottom of the glacier and are carried away.
How does a sandy beach form, and where does the sand come from?
o Waves deposited the sand that makes up the beach. The sand probably came from rivers that
carried particles of rock into the ocean.
While digging a basement for a house on a ridge in Kentucky, you discover that there is a series of huge
caves within the ridge. Explain what kind of rock probably forms the bedrock of this ridge, and describe how
the caves probably formed.
o Limestone probably formed the bedrock of the ridge, since caves are found in limestone. The
caves probably formed as groundwater chemically weathered the rock, developing holes
underground.
Compare and contrast the movement of sediment by moving water and by wind.
o In water, some sediment moves while dissolved in solution, small sediment moves suspended in
the water, and large sediment rolls or bounces along the streambed. In wind, fine sediment moves
through the air, medium-sized sediment skips or bounces, and large sediment slides or rolls along
the ground.
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You live in a house at the bottom of a hill in a desert. One spring day, it begins to rain in the morning and
continues to rain all day. Should you be worried about anything?
o You should be worried about a mudslide, because they occur after heavy rains in a normally dry
area.
Would you expect to see this river in a mountain region or plains region? Explain.
*You would expect to see it in a plains region where the river spreads out, forming a wide river valley.
What is A called, and how does it form?
*A is a meander, and it forms as a river widens from side to side, eroding outer banks of bends and depositing
sediment on the inner banks of bends.
Identify B, and describe the process that causes it to form.
*An oxbow lake may form when a river floods and high water finds a straighter route downstream. Sediments build
up, and a meander is cut off to become an oxbow lake.
What landform feature does the figure show, and where does such a landform occur?
*The figure shows a delta, which forms as a river ends its journey and flows into a still body of water.
Describe the likely volume of flow, water speed, load, and slope just before the river reached this feature.
How did those factors change to cause this feature to form?
*Just before the river reached this feature, the slope was gentle and the speed was high. As the river flowed into a
still body of water, the slope became horizontal and the river slowed down to a halt. The river dropped its load, and
the delta was the result.