Unit 6 - Surface Processes
surface_processes.pdf | |
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surface_processes_class_notes.pdf | |
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Essential Questions
1. What forces shape the Earth's surface?
2. How does pressure and temperature affect rocks?
3. How is water the most powerful force of change on Earth?
4. What part does water have in creating the landscapes and soil around us?
5. What is the difference between deposition by a glacier and deposition by a river?
6. Are we careless in choosing to live where we do?
New York State Standards Addressed:
• Standard 1: Students will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and engineering design, as appropriate, to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions.
• Standard 2: Students will access, generate, process, and transfer information using appropriate technologies.
• Standard 4: Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment.
• Standard 6: Students will understand the relationships and common themes that connect mathematics, science and technology and apply the themes to these and other areas of learning.
Core Concepts / Performance Indicators:
2.1p. Landforms are the result of the interaction of tectonic forces and the processes of weathering, erosion, and deposition.
2.1q. Topographic maps represent landforms through use of contour lines (isolines connecting points of equal elevation.) Gradients and profiles can be determined from changes in elevation over a given distance.
2.1r. Climate variations, structure, and characteristics of bedrock influence the development of landscape features including mountains, plateaus, plains, valleys, ridges, escarpments, and stream drainage patterns.
2.1s. Weathering is the physical and chemical breakdown of rocks at or near Earth's surface. Soils are the result of weathering and biological activity over long periods of time.
2.1t. Natural agents of erosion, generally driven by gravity, remove, transport, and deposit weathered rock particles. Each agent of erosion produces distinctive changes in the material that it transports, and creates characteristic surface features and landscapes. In certain erosional situations, loss of property, personal injury, and loss of life can be reduced by effective emergency preparedness.
2.1u. The natural agents of erosion include:
> Streams (running water): Gradient, discharge, and channel shape influence a stream's velocity and the erosion and deposition of sediments.
· Sediments transported by streams tend to become rounded as a result of abrasion.
· Stream features include V-shaped valleys, deltas, flood plains, and meanders.
· A watershed is the area drained by a stream and its tributaries.
> Glaciers (moving ice): Glacial erosional processes include the formation of U-shaped valleys, parallel scratches, and grooves in bedrock.
· Glacial features include moraines, drumlins, kettle lakes, finger lakes, and outwash plains.
>Wave Action: Erosion and deposition cause changes in shoreline features, including beaches, sandbars, and barrier islands.
· Wave action rounds sediments as a result of abrasion.
· Waves approaching a shoreline move sand parallel to the shore within the zone of breaking waves.
> Wind: Erosion of sediments by wind is most common in arid climates and along shorelines.
· Wind-generated features include dunes and sand-blasted bedrock.
> Mass Movement: Earth materials move downslope under the influence of gravity.
2.1v. Patterns of deposition result from a loss of energy within the transporting system, and are influenced by the size, shape, and density of the transported particles. Sediment deposits may be sorted or unsorted.
2.1w. Sediments of inorganic and organic origin often accumulate in depositional environments. Sedimentary rocks form when sediments are compacted and/or cemented after burial, or as the result of chemical precipitation from seawater.
Earth Science Reference Table
Generalized Landscape Regions of New York State (p. 2)
Generalized Bedrock Geology of New York State (p. 3)
Relationship of Transported Particle Size to Water Velocity (p. 6)
Geologic History of New York State (pp. 8-9)
Learning Targets - key knowledge and skills gained:
Students will be able to:
1. Explain that weathering is the physical and /or chemical break up of rocks at or near the earth’s surface.
A. Identify physical erosion as the breaking down of large pieces to smaller increasing the surface area.
B. Identify chemical weathering as the alteration of, or removal of materials in a rock which can change its physical properties making it easier to alter its size and shape.
C. Explain how surface area affects the rate of chemical erosion.
2. Describe soils as the result of weathering and biological activity over extended times.
A. Describe the different zones in a residual soil
3. Explain that erosion is the transport of weathered materials from one location to another by any means.
4. Describe the major agents of erosion which include: Wind, Glaciers, Flowing fresh waters, Ocean currents and waves, and Gravity induced directed flows.
A. Describe the particle sizes and styles of transport typical of the major agents.
B. Use the Stream Velocity table in the Earth Science Reference Tables (ESRT) to determine stream speeds from transported particle size.
C. Describe the dangers each type of erosional agent is capable of producing.
5. Explain that deposition includes all the processes by which eroded materials are laid down in new location by the agents of erosion.
6. Describe the identifiable features that allow geologists to identify the agent and the conditions of deposition.
A. Identify features and patterns of stream and lake deposition.
B. Identify features and patterns of wave and current deposition.
C. Identify features and patterns of glacial deposition.
D. Identify features and patterns of wind deposition
E. Identify features and patterns of gravity induced deposition.
7. Use the Earth Science Reference tables to describe conditions of erosion and deposition from examples.
A. Use the sedimentary rock table and Stream velocity table to identify sediments by particle size.
B. Use the Stream Velocity table in the Earth Science Reference Tables (ESRT) to determine stream speeds from transported particle size.
1. What forces shape the Earth's surface?
2. How does pressure and temperature affect rocks?
3. How is water the most powerful force of change on Earth?
4. What part does water have in creating the landscapes and soil around us?
5. What is the difference between deposition by a glacier and deposition by a river?
6. Are we careless in choosing to live where we do?
New York State Standards Addressed:
• Standard 1: Students will use mathematical analysis, scientific inquiry, and engineering design, as appropriate, to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions.
• Standard 2: Students will access, generate, process, and transfer information using appropriate technologies.
• Standard 4: Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment.
• Standard 6: Students will understand the relationships and common themes that connect mathematics, science and technology and apply the themes to these and other areas of learning.
Core Concepts / Performance Indicators:
2.1p. Landforms are the result of the interaction of tectonic forces and the processes of weathering, erosion, and deposition.
2.1q. Topographic maps represent landforms through use of contour lines (isolines connecting points of equal elevation.) Gradients and profiles can be determined from changes in elevation over a given distance.
2.1r. Climate variations, structure, and characteristics of bedrock influence the development of landscape features including mountains, plateaus, plains, valleys, ridges, escarpments, and stream drainage patterns.
2.1s. Weathering is the physical and chemical breakdown of rocks at or near Earth's surface. Soils are the result of weathering and biological activity over long periods of time.
2.1t. Natural agents of erosion, generally driven by gravity, remove, transport, and deposit weathered rock particles. Each agent of erosion produces distinctive changes in the material that it transports, and creates characteristic surface features and landscapes. In certain erosional situations, loss of property, personal injury, and loss of life can be reduced by effective emergency preparedness.
2.1u. The natural agents of erosion include:
> Streams (running water): Gradient, discharge, and channel shape influence a stream's velocity and the erosion and deposition of sediments.
· Sediments transported by streams tend to become rounded as a result of abrasion.
· Stream features include V-shaped valleys, deltas, flood plains, and meanders.
· A watershed is the area drained by a stream and its tributaries.
> Glaciers (moving ice): Glacial erosional processes include the formation of U-shaped valleys, parallel scratches, and grooves in bedrock.
· Glacial features include moraines, drumlins, kettle lakes, finger lakes, and outwash plains.
>Wave Action: Erosion and deposition cause changes in shoreline features, including beaches, sandbars, and barrier islands.
· Wave action rounds sediments as a result of abrasion.
· Waves approaching a shoreline move sand parallel to the shore within the zone of breaking waves.
> Wind: Erosion of sediments by wind is most common in arid climates and along shorelines.
· Wind-generated features include dunes and sand-blasted bedrock.
> Mass Movement: Earth materials move downslope under the influence of gravity.
2.1v. Patterns of deposition result from a loss of energy within the transporting system, and are influenced by the size, shape, and density of the transported particles. Sediment deposits may be sorted or unsorted.
2.1w. Sediments of inorganic and organic origin often accumulate in depositional environments. Sedimentary rocks form when sediments are compacted and/or cemented after burial, or as the result of chemical precipitation from seawater.
Earth Science Reference Table
Generalized Landscape Regions of New York State (p. 2)
Generalized Bedrock Geology of New York State (p. 3)
Relationship of Transported Particle Size to Water Velocity (p. 6)
Geologic History of New York State (pp. 8-9)
Learning Targets - key knowledge and skills gained:
Students will be able to:
1. Explain that weathering is the physical and /or chemical break up of rocks at or near the earth’s surface.
A. Identify physical erosion as the breaking down of large pieces to smaller increasing the surface area.
B. Identify chemical weathering as the alteration of, or removal of materials in a rock which can change its physical properties making it easier to alter its size and shape.
C. Explain how surface area affects the rate of chemical erosion.
2. Describe soils as the result of weathering and biological activity over extended times.
A. Describe the different zones in a residual soil
3. Explain that erosion is the transport of weathered materials from one location to another by any means.
4. Describe the major agents of erosion which include: Wind, Glaciers, Flowing fresh waters, Ocean currents and waves, and Gravity induced directed flows.
A. Describe the particle sizes and styles of transport typical of the major agents.
B. Use the Stream Velocity table in the Earth Science Reference Tables (ESRT) to determine stream speeds from transported particle size.
C. Describe the dangers each type of erosional agent is capable of producing.
5. Explain that deposition includes all the processes by which eroded materials are laid down in new location by the agents of erosion.
6. Describe the identifiable features that allow geologists to identify the agent and the conditions of deposition.
A. Identify features and patterns of stream and lake deposition.
B. Identify features and patterns of wave and current deposition.
C. Identify features and patterns of glacial deposition.
D. Identify features and patterns of wind deposition
E. Identify features and patterns of gravity induced deposition.
7. Use the Earth Science Reference tables to describe conditions of erosion and deposition from examples.
A. Use the sedimentary rock table and Stream velocity table to identify sediments by particle size.
B. Use the Stream Velocity table in the Earth Science Reference Tables (ESRT) to determine stream speeds from transported particle size.
Geology Glossary
glossarygeologicterms.pdf | |
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