Earth Science - Geology, the Environment, and the Universe – Unit 3, Chapter 9; 210-234; 2 per page
Vocabulary
bed load
discharge
divide
flood
floodplain
runoff
solution
suspension
watershed
delta
meander
rejuvination
stream bank
stream channel
eutrophication
lake
wetland
Comprehension Questions
1. What landscape features are among the most numerous and visible features on Earth?
2. Why is it helpful to understand the mechanics of the water cycle?’
3. What are six things that can happen to runoff?
4. What is necessary for water to enter the ground?
5. What happens to precipitation that falls on vegetation?
6. What happens to the rate of infiltration during heavy precipitation?
7. Why does humus increase a soil’s ability to retain water?
8. What happens to water that falls on a steep slope?
9. What is a tributary?
10. What is the largest watershed in North America?
11. What are three nonliving components of surface water?
12. What adds most of the dissolved load to stream water?
13. What type of moving water can carry larger particles?
14. What is abrasion?
15. Why are most pebbles along the bottoms and sides of streams rounded and polished?
16. What do large streambed potholes illustrate?
17. What three things affect the speed and direction in which water moves in a cannel?
18. When do both water velocity and volume increase in a stream?
19. When does floodwater drop its sediment load onto the stream’s floodplain
20. What is the first and foremost condition necessary for stream formation?
21. What is the surface water’s path like when it first begins to flow
22. What is stream piracy?
23. What is the lowest base level for any stream?
24. What happens to a stream’s slope as it nears its base level?
25. In your own words, explain how erosion and deposit cause a meander becomes more accentuated over time.
26. How is an oxbow lake formed?
27. What happens to a stream as it approaches a larger body of water?
28. What is an alluvial fan?
29. What do delta deposits usually consist of?
30. What happens if the land uplifts or the base level lowers on a stream that had previously reached base level?
31. What determines where a lake can form?
32. How did the Great Salt Lake form?
33. How does water leave holes in limestone to form lakes?
34. What happens to lakes over hundreds of thousands of years?
35. What does the amount of dissolved oxygen in a lake help determine?
36. What human activity can speed up the natural process of eutrophication?
37. How do bogs receive their water?
38. What plants are common in marsh areas?
39. How does a marsh become a swamp?
40. Why have attempts to restrict the release of toxins in Lake Baikal failed?
Written Answer
Write a paragraph with a minimum of six sentences to explain what you have learned in this lesson. Be sure to include a topic sentence, four detail sentences, and a concluding sentence.