Study Suggestions for Our Next Exam
Groundwater, Karst Landscapes, Rivers & Flooding
Reminders
* The exam scheduled for Friday Nov. 18th
* This exam will be worth approx. 80 pts
* Course evaluations for Chad are on Mon. Nov. 28, please come to class on time and provide an
honest assessment of my teaching skills, nunchuck skills, bow staff skills, bike jumping skills, and
beard-growing skills. I really do use your circled letters and comments to continually make this a
better class and my Professional Assessment Committee at UNI uses them to see if they should keep
me around or fire me.
Chapters from the text…
19 – A hidden reserve: groundwater
17 – Streams and floods: The geology of running water
Groundwater
A. Learn and understand the pathways of the water cycle
B. What is water chemically? What makes it special with respect to human life and as a chemical
compound?
C. What is an aquifer? Are there different types?
D. How do the concepts of ‘porosity and permeability’ figure into an aquifers effectiveness?
E. How may Darcy’s Law be used to understand the movement of water within an aquifer?
F. What conditions are required to develop an artesian well?
G. What are the differences between a recharge area and discharge area?
- What time of year do our aquifers have the best chance for gaining more water, why?
H. What relationships exist between groundwater and surface water?
I. How do people obtain groundwater? Is it of all the same quality?
J. Where does the water come from that we drink in Cedar Falls? How old is it?
K. What types of contaminants does the human race contribute to our groundwater resources? How
can we prevent groundwater contamination? If contamination does occur what steps should we take?
L. What is groundwater mining?
M. Who is responsible for cleaning up groundwater contamination?
N. Does everyone on Earth have access to enough potable water?
Karst landscapes
A. Is water capable of dissolving limestone? How does chemical weathering affect limestone or
dolostone?
B. What factors are necessary for the formation of a karst landscape? Be able to list areas that
possess karst features.
C. What could you observe within an environment that would lead you to believe that an area is
being affected by dissolution and developing karst landforms?
D. Why do geologists concern themselves with karst landscapes? Should the public care? Should
Iowans care?
Streams and floods
A. Why do streams develop? Are they more likely to form more in some environments and less in
others?
B. What differentiates a watershed from a drainage divide? What watershed is UNI in?
C. What variables go together to cause down cutting?
D. Be able to distinguish a dendritic drainage pattern from radial or parallel drainage pattern.
E. Permanent vs. Ephemeral streams
F. Be able to calculate a streams discharge.
G. Learn and understand the geography of a stream (e.g. floodplain, channel, thalweg, eddy, holes,
inner and outer ‘cut’ bank, formation of rapids, etc.)
H. How does a stream erode, transport, and deposit sediment? What is the role of energy? Where
does energy come from?
I. Compare and contrast Alluvium and colluvium.
J. How do streams change the length? Grow?
K. What is the concept of base level?
L. Be able to compare and contrast the major stream types (straight, meandering, braided).
M. Deltas vs. alluvial fans
N. Seasonal floods vs. flash floods, What is a flood? Can rivers really be controlled by dams?
O. Drainage evolution (e.g. beveling topography, stream piracy, and drainage reversal…)
P. Be able to calculate a steam reoccurrence interval R = (n +1)/m
Q. Rivers as a resource (e.g. The effects of urbanization and agriculture on discharge)
R. Learn and understand how to read and use a hydrograph