Environmental Geology Final Exam Flashcards for Burkhart

Earth is an open system with respect to energy, but close with respect to matter. As such, the principle of environmental unity holds that everything affects everything else.

1) Observe nature and state the problem

2) Formulate and hypothesis

3) Design and conduct an experiment

4) Observe the Outcomes

5) Accept, reject, or modify the hypothesis and develop a theory

** Observation is the most important step.

--best represented as a parabula

--y=e-kx--formula

--Humans= root cause of environmental degradation

--progressively takes less time for one billion people to arrive.

Marine--midocean ridge

Tenestrial--rift valley (Gettysburg).

Oceanic-Continental--subduction (Pacific NW or Andes Mountains).

Oceanic-Oceanic--2 crusts going against eachother (Japan).

Continental-Continental--nose to nose (Kashmir--Led Zep).

Left Lateral

Right lateral--San Andreas Fault

97% Oceans (not drinkable or irrigatable)

> 2% glacial ice

<1% fresh unfrozen abailable and wise to use water

Watershed--land area that contributes water to a particular stream system

Divide--ridges

Stage

Discharge--quantity of water flowing past a particular point on a stream, usually measured in cubic feet per second or cubic meters per second.

Hazards of floods--deposit mud, immense kinetic energy, itesm will float away.

Reduce Risks

1) Dam-moderate flows, prevent floods, irrigate droughts, hydropower, permit navigation, recreation

2) Levees--may keep the flood plain dry during high flows

3) Retention Ponds--off stream basins designed to store the flood.

Dam--displayed people and wildlife, fluctuation water levels, impede fish migrations, drowning, disrupted sediment dynamics

Levees--may not keep flood plain dry, instills false sense of confidence, promotes downstream flooding, prolong the flood

Retention Ponds

Down slope movement, dominantly under influence of gravity

1) Vegetation removal

2) Over Steepening--to cut beyond the angle of repose, the max slope angle a material can maintain in the long run.

3) Saturating Slopes--beware pools and septic tanks

objects out of plumb, square, and level

slopes that weep

cracks in walls and ceilings

1) I am therefore I pollute

2) There is no "away"

3) NIMBY Rules

4) The adage "dilution is the solution to pollution" is false.