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How can landscapes by physically weathered?
Root pry, expansion + contraction, frost action, and salt crystal growth.
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Describe salt crystal growth/crystallization.
Water runs through rocks, then evaporates, leaving salt behind. More water runs and evaporates, and salt continues to accumulate, growing crystals that continue to enlarge.
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How can landscapes be chemically weathered?
Hydration + hydrolysis, oxidation, and organic acids.
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What is hydration? Hydrolysis?
In hydration, minerals hydrate, creating a wedging pressure. In hydrolysis, minerals chemically react with water, breaking down the silicates in rock.
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How does oxidation work?
Iron in rock combines with oxygen and form iron oxide, or Fe2O3.
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What organic acids eat away at rocks?
Plant acids, such as CaCO3+H2O.
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What is the most important eroding force?
Water.
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What does the term mass movement apply to? What are some examples?
It applies to any unit movement of a body of material propelled and controlled by gravity. Examples would be landslides and mud flows.
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What is a persistent, gradual mass movement of surface soil known as?
Soil creep.
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What is more fluid: earthflows or mudflows?
Mudflows.
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What is the fastest kind of flow?
Spontaneous liquefaction.
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What is a landslide?
A sudden rapid movement of a cohesive mass of regolith or bedrock that is not saturated with moisture.
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What do strong rocks tend to have more of?
Silica, which is powerfully bonded.
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What is the tougesht igneous rock? What does it contain?
Granite, which contains quartz
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What is the toughest sedimentary rock?
Sandstone, which also contains quartz.
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Define regolith?
Loose material that has been weathered from bedrock.
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What is soil?
Regolith mixed with sediment.
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What is spontaneous liquefaction?
A process in which clay particles that have been packed together are exposed to a high water table, which turns the material gooey.
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