Geology Projects 5 & 6

PROJECT 5

For project 5, please provide short answers for the following:

· Explain how rocks respond to those stresses within the Earth’s crust by brittle, elastic, or plastic deformation, or by fracturing

· Summarize how rocks become folded

· Describe the conditions under which rocks fracture

· Briefly describe the different types of faults, including normal, reverse, thrust, and strike-slip

· Briefly describe the difference between strike and dip

· Briefly describe the hydrological cycle

· Describe a drainage basin and explain the origins of different types of drainage patterns

· Explain how streams become graded

· Describe the formation of stream terraces

· Describe the processes by which sediments are moved by streams and the flow velocities that are necessary to erode them from the stream bed and keep them suspended in the water

· Explain how natural stream levees form

· Describe the types of environments where one would expect to find straight-channel, braided, and meandering streams

· Explain some of the steps that we can take to limit the damage from flooding

· Explain the concepts of porosity and permeability and the importance of these to groundwater storage and movement

· Define aquifers, aquitards, confining layers, and the differences between confined and unconfined aquifers

· Explain the concepts of hydraulic head, the water table, potentiometric surface, and hydraulic gradient

· Describe the flow of groundwater from recharge areas to discharge areas

· Describe how observation wells are used to monitor groundwater levels and the importance of protecting groundwater resources

· Describe some of the ways that groundwater can become contaminated, and how contamination can be minimized

PROJECT 6

For project 6, please provide short answers for the following:

· Explain how slope stability is related to slope angle

· Explain what types of events can trigger mass wasting

· Describe the main types of mass wasting – creep, slump, translational slide, rotational slide, fall, and debris flow or mudflow – in terms of the types of materials involved, the type of motion, and the likely rates of motion

· Explain what steps we can take to delay mass wasting, and why we cannot prevent it permanently

· Describe the timing and extent of Earth’s past glaciations, going as far back as the early Proterozoic

· Explain the differences between continental and alpine glaciation

· Summarize how snow and ice accumulate above the equilibrium line and are converted to ice

· Explain how basal sliding and internal flow facilitate the movement of ice from the upper part to the lower part of a glacier

· Describe and identify the various landforms related to alpine glacial erosion, including U- shaped valleys, aretes, cols, horns, hanging valleys, truncated spurs, drumlins, roches moutonees, glacial grooves, and striae

· Identify various types of glacial lakes, including tarns, finger lakes, moraine lakes, and kettle lakes

· Describe the nature and origins of lodgement till, ablation till, and glaciofluvial, glaciolacustrine, and glaciomarine sediments

· Summarize the factors that control wave formation

· Explain how water is disturbed beneath a wave, and how that affects the behavior of waves as they approach the shore

· Describe the origins of longshore currents and longshore drift

· Explain why some coasts are more affected by erosion than others and describe the formation of coastal erosional features, including stacks, arches, cliffs, and wave-cut platforms

· Summarize the origins of beaches, spits, baymouth bars, tombolos, and barrier islands

· Describe the origins of carbonate reefs