CH 27.3 and 27.4 vocabulary

Question 1

Infiltration

Answer 1

Is the process by which on the ground surface enters the soil. The infiltration capacity decreases as the soil moisture content of soils surface layers increases.

Question 2

Water table

Answer 2

An underground boundary between the soil surface and the area where groundwater saturates spaces between sediments and cracks in rock.

Question 3

Aquifer

Answer 3

Its a body of rock or sediment that holds groundwater. There is two types: confined and unconfined. Confined has a layer of impenetrable rock or clay above them, while unconfined lie below a permeable layer of soil.

Question 4

Porosity

Answer 4

Is defined as the ratio of the volume of pores to the volume of bulk rock and is usually expressed as a percentage.

Question 5

Absolute dating

Answer 5

The process of determining an age on a specific chronology in archaeology and geology.

Question 6

Relative dating

Answer 6

The science of determining the relative order of past events, without necessarily determining their absolute age.

Question 7

Uniformitarianism

Answer 7

The idea that Earth has always changed in uniform ways and that the present is the key to the past. The principle of uniformitarianism is essential to understanding Earth’s history.

Question 8

Principle of superposition

Answer 8

A major principle of stratigraphy stating that within a sequence of layers of sedimentary rock, the oldest layer is at the base and that the layers are progressively younger with ascending order in sequence.

Question 9

Unconformity

Answer 9

Is a buried erosional or non-depositional surface separating two rock masses or strata of different ages, including that sediment deposition was not continuous.

Question 10

Fossil

Answer 10

A fossil is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from the past geological age.