Study Guide - Erosion / Water Cycle
The following questions all concern things we’ve read about in the text, discussed in class, watched in movies, worked on with models or activities, or completed on worksheets.
Please look over all returned work, notes, your textbook, and especially your memory to help you find the answers.
Please remember that these questions represent a general overview of the information that we covered. These questions are not intended to be all inclusive. Any material related to these questions may be on the quiz also.
SECTION 1 - Wave Erosion
What is erosion? What are the four agents of erosion?
What does deposition mean?
When does the wind, or a river drop the sediments that it is carrying?
What is a wave? How does wind create a wave?
What is a factor? What are some factors that can contribute to the size of a wave?
What is a wave train? What is a wave period?
How does the wave period influence the amount of erosion that waves cause on the land.
What is surf? What is the difference between a wave and surf?
How do breaking waves form? Why are there no breaking waves in the middle of the ocean?
What is a shoreline?
Describe how sea stacks, arches, and caves form?
What is a beach? How do waves create beaches?
Most sand doesn't come from waves breaking down rocks. So where does it come from?
Why do some beaches have big sediments, and other have small?
Why do some beaches have light colored sand, and others have different colored sand?
Do all beaches have sand on them? Why or Why not?
Section 2 - Wind Erosion
How is wind created?
What is saltation? Deflation? Abrasion?
How are winds like rivers, when talking about erosive energy?
How do sand dunes form?
How do sand dunes move “forward”?
How can you tell the direction of the wind by looking at sand dunes?
Section 3 - Glacier Erosion
What is a glacier? How do glaciers move?
Why are glaciers very good at erosion and deposition?
What are some lanforms that are created by glaciers?
What is till? What are moraines? What is stratified drift?
SECTION 4 - Mass Movement
What is mass movement?
What is the angle of repose?
What are the four types of mass movement? Describe how each might be the same, and
how they are different?
Why do some things move downhill, even at a low angle of repose, and other things don’t
start moving until the angle of repose is much greater?
Which do you think would be greater… the angle of repose for a pile of sand, or the angle for
a pile of pebbles? Why?