Arden's science exam vocab
SCIENCE EXAM VOCAB
Terms
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- kinetic energy
- the energy an object has due to its motion
- fault
- a break/crack in Earth's lithosphere along which rocks move
- oxbow lake
- a meander cut off from a river
- carbon film
- a type of fossil consisting of an extremely thin coating of carbon on rock
- continental glacier
- glacier that covers a whole continent
- soil
- the loose, weathered material on Earth's surface in which plants can grow
- litter
- a loose layer formed by leaves
- meander
- a looplike bend in the course of a river
- humus
- dark colored organic material in soil
- load
- the amount of sediment a river carries
- ice age
- times where continental glaciers cover large areas
- stalactite
- a deposit on the roof of a cave
- moraine
- the till depostied at the edges of a glacier forms a ridge
- turbulence
- a type of movement of water in which water moves in every way
- vertebrate
- animal with a backbone
- flood plain
- flat, wide area of land along a river
- tributary
- a stream/river that flows into a larger one
- bedrock
- the solid layer of rock beneath the soil
- relative age
- the age of rock compared to ages of other rock layers
- petrified fossil
- a fossil in which minerals replace all or part of an organism
- contour plowing
- when farmers plow fields along the curves of a slope
- karst topagraphy
- a region which a layer of limestone close to the surface creates deep valleys, caverns, and sinkholes
- stream
- a channel along which water is continually flowing down a slope
- Dust Bowl
- it ruined farmland in Oklahoma when wind blew dry particles of soil into clouds of dust
- mass extinction
- when lots of living things become extinct all at the same time
- intrusion
- an igneous rock layer formed when magma hardens beneath Earth's surface
- index fossil
- fossils of widely distibuted organisms that lived during only one short time
- mechanical weathering
- type of weathering where rock is physically broken into smaller pieces
- chemical weathering
- the process that breaks down rock through chemical changes
- till
- mixture of sediment that a glacier deposits directly on the surface
- evolution
- the process by which all the different kinds of living things have changed over time
- longshore drift
- the movement of water and sediment down a beach caused by waves coming in to shore at an angle
- sediment
- material moved by erosion
- groundwater
- underground water
- geologic time scale
- a record of the geologic events and life forms in Earth's history
- abrasion
- the wering away of rock by a grinding action
- alluvial fan
- a wide, sloping deposit of sediment formed where a stream leaves a mountain range
- weathering
- the chemical and physical processes that break down rock at Earth's surface
- plucking
- when glaciers pick up rocks when they move
- trace fossil
- a type of fossil that provdes evidence of ancient organisms
- friction
- the force that opposes that motion of one surface as it moves across another surface
- conservation plowing
- when farmers disturb the soil and its plant cover as little as possible
- kettle
- a small depression that forms when a chunk of ice is left in glacial till
- law of superposition
- geologic principle that tells that the deeper you go underground, the older the rock layers [exept for sometimes]
- glacier
- a large mass of ice that moves slowly over land
- soil conservation
- the management of soil to prevent its destruction
- permeable
- when water can seep through the soil
- ice wedging
- process that splits rock when water seeps into cracks then freezes and expands
- sod
- thick mass of tough roots at the surface of the soil
- topsoil
- a crumbly dark brown soil= A horizon
- subsoil
- has clay and other particles washed down from A horizon = B horizon
- extrusion
- an igneous rock layer formed when lava flows onto Earth's surface and hardens
- extinct
- a type of organism that doesn't exist anymore
- sand dune
- a deposit of wind-blown sand
- era
- one of three long units of geologic time between the precambrian and the present
- soil horizon
- layer of soil that differs in color and texture from the layers around it
- invertebrate
- animal without a backbone
- spit
- a beach that projects like a finger out into the water
- valley glacier
- long narrow glacier that forms when snow and ice build up high in a mountain valley
- paleontologist
- a scientist who studies fossils to learn about organisms that lived long ago
- radioactive decay
- the breakdown of a radioactive element releasing particles and energy
- stalagmite
- a deposit on the ground of a cave
- decomposer
- organism that breaks down the remains of dead organisms
- loam
- soil that is made up of equal parts of clay, sand, and silt
- deflation
- wind erosion that removes surface materials
- absolute age
- the age of rock given as the # of yrs since the rock formed
- rill
- tiny grooves in the soil
- erosion
- the process by which water, ice, wind, waves, or gravity moves weathered rock and soil
- energy
- the ability to do work or cause change
- deposition
- occurs where the agents of erosion, deposit sediment
- beach
- an area of wave-washed sediment along a coast
- runoff
- water that moves over Earth's surface
- half-life
- the time it takes for half of the atoms of a radioactive element to decay
- gully
- a large groove in the soil that carries runoff
- delta
- sediment deposited where a river flows into an ocean or lake
- fossil
- the preserved remains of traces of living things
- unconformity
- a place where an old, eroded rock surface is in contact with a newer rock layer
- sedimentary rock
- the type of rock that is made of hardened sediment
- mold
- a fossil formed when an organism buried in the sediment dissolves, leaving a hollow area
- period
- one of the units of geologic time into which geologists divide eras
- cast
- a fossil that is a copy of an organism's shape formed when minerals seep into a mold
- loess
- a wind-formed deposit made of fine particles of clay and silt
- potential energy
- energy stored waiting to be used later