What is the major distinction between internal and external Earth processes?
Internal processes are driven by things like Plate Tectonics, and external processes are driven by the sun.
Which statement best describes erosion?
The process by which weathered rock and mineral particles are removed from one area and transported elsewhere.
Mass wasting, a process that often occurs between weathering and erosion, involves ________.
The transport of material due to gravity.
One important relationship between chemical and mechanical weathering is ________.
Mechanical weathering can produce smaller pieces of rock that have more surface area for chemical weathering to work on.
What two factors speed up rates of chemical reaction and weathering in rocks and soils?
Warm temperatures; very moist.
All of the following are factors that affect rates of weathering except for ________.
Geologic age of earth materials.
Which of the following is not a physical weathering process?
Rocks reacting with organic acids from plants.
Frost wedging is the major weathering process contributing to the formation of which regolith material?
Talus slopes.
A soil that has nearly equal amounts of clay, silt, and sand is called ________.
Loam.
Which term describes a soil formed by weathering of the underlying bedrock?
Residual.
Which of the following best describes the E soil horizon?
Leaching zone.
Which soil horizon represents the uppermost limit of the zone of accumulation?
B.
Rounding of angular edges of rock outcropping and formation of insitu, spherical boulders are both indications of ________.
Chemical weathering and associated spheroidal weathering.
Which of the following is most resistant to both chemical and physical weathering?
Quartz.
Limestone and marble weather faster than granite because ________.
Limestone and marble can be dissolved by weak acids in rain.
Which type of soil would typically be the richest soil?
Transported
Organisms contribute to soil formation by ________.
Contributing organic matter to soil
Degrading organic matter to form humus
Stirring the soil to allow air inflitration
All of the above
Which of the following best describes the process of eluviation?
Removal of very fine-sized silt and clay particles from the A and E soil horizons.
From the land surface downward to the unweathered bedrock, which of the following is the correct order of the different soil horizons?
O, A, E, B, C, bedrock.
Assume that water filling a crack in a rock undergoes cycles of freezing and melting. Which statement is true?
Water expands as it freezes, causing the crack walls to be pushed apart.
Given enough time, what factor is typically most important in soil formation?
Climate.
The word topsoil is commonly used, but the proper definition is ________.
The dark, organic rich layers of O and A.
Which one of the following statements concerning mechanical weathering is not true?
Involves a major change in the mineral composition of the weathered material.
Features like rock ledges in badlands or rock fins standing above adjacent valleys are all examples of ________.
Differential weathering.
