PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY FINAL EXAM STUDY GUIDE SUMMER 2006
EARTH STRUCTURE/COMPOSITION
CORE - MANTLE - CRUST
Lithosphere? Asthenosphere? Minerals? Formation? Temperature? Depth?
Continental Crust - Oceanic Crust - Differences? Minerals? Density?
Wegener’s Theory of Continental Drift? Mechanism for movement? Plate Tectonics?
Evidence for?
Hot Spots/Mantle Plumes? Name a feature?
Lithospheric Plate Boundaries: Volcanism? Earthquakes? Which boundary type?
Convergent: (# of types? Give examples and description of landforms possible)
Subduction Zone Features
Divergent ( # of types? Description/Examples) Divergent Zone features
Transform (Description/Examples)
EARTH PROCESSES/LANDFORMS
Volcanoes
Forms: Shield - Stratovolcano (composite) - Cinder Cone – Plug Dome – Calderas
Explosivity controls? Magma rising? Erupting? Rock melting processes?
Felsic Magma vs. Mafic Magma - Differences? Controls? Minerals?
Calderas? Krakatau? Mt. Mazama (Crater Lake, Oregon)?
Diastrophism
Isotasy
Folding: Anticline? Syncline? Recumbent fold? Overturned fold
Faulting : Scarp? Normal Fault? Reverse Fault? Reverse Thrust?
Transform/Transcurrent Fault?
Horst and Graben (Give examples) Fault Block Mountains? Folded Mountains?
Earthquakes? P-waves, S-waves? Epicenter? Focus?
Measurement: Richter vs. Mercalli
Significant EQ in recent North American history
Tsunami and other earthquake effects WEATHERING
Physical Weathering (Mechanical)
Frost/Ice Action: Ice Shattering – Ice Heaving - Stone Rings
Salt Crystal Growth: salt-wedging - cave-dwellers
Unloading: Exfoliation – spalling – susceptible rocks
Bioturbation: Animal burrowing - tree roots
Chemical Weathering
Hydrolysis: adding water molecularly – (susceptible rocks)
Oxidation: adding oxygen molecularly - (susceptible rocks)
Carbonic Acid dissolution: limestone susceptibility - basalt
Factors: Climate - Organisms in soil - Time - Mineral composition
MASS WASTING - MASS MOVEMENT Causes/Factors: Gravity - friction - angle of slope - slope
composition vegetation - water in/on slope
Triggers: Natural: - rains - earthquakes - volcanoes - gravity
Human: Mismanagement of soil/water - oversteepening/overburdening slopes –
mining consequences
Slow: Soil Creep
solifluction
Fast: Rockfall landslide earthflow slumps
Catchment Basins
Debris basins
Mudflows
Lahars
Debris flows
GROUNDWATER
Phreatic Zone (Saturation Zone)
Vadose Zone (Aeration Zone) Water Table
Aquifer - porosity
permeability
confined aquifer
unconfined aquifer
artesian wells
aquiclude
aquitard
perched water table
good rock material for aquifers
rock material for aquitard
Aquitard
Management Problems - Land Subsidence
Sources of Contamination
Salt Water Intrusion
Water Table drop
Wells: Cone of Depression and Drawdown
Overdrawing/overpumping
Karst Topography: how forms? Bedrock types? Locations in United States? Globally?
SURFACE WATER
Hydrologic CycleRunoff Slope Erosion
- Rills
Stream Flow Channel
Overland Flow
Gullies
Discharge
Arroyos
Stream Gradient
Laminar Flow
Turbulent Flow
Stream Transportation of material:
Dissolved Load Suspended Load
Bed Load: Saltation and Traction
Stream Capacity
Stream Competence
Graded Stream - Base Level
“Ages” of a Stream - Youth - Maturity - Old Age - Rejuvenation
Drainage Basin
Drainage Divides
Watershed
Drainage Patterns - Dendritic Parallel Radial Trellis
Stream Meanders Development
Floodplain features
Stream Terraces
Deltas