PROJECT 6

From Chapter 13

Define rain shadow, desertification, dune, inselberg, loess, desert, and four other terms. Give substantive, complete, and original definitions that are your expressions of the terms or concepts—not cut-and-paste definitions. Use citations as appropriate to support your statements.

Rain shadow

An area that experiences little precipitation due to topographic barriers like mountain ranges which makes prevailing winds with moisture to lose it on the windward side before reaching it making it dry

Desertification

 A gradual process of land degradation in arid and semi-arid areas due to exploitive human activities like overgrazing and other climatic changes leading to change of habitable land into a desert particularly in the zones along the margins of deserts

Dune

This is a hill of windblown sand commonly found along low lying seashores and also in deserts occurring in different forms and sizes.

Inselberg

A huge knob, or mountain that is rocky , rising abruptly from gently sloping plain nearly lowland in arid or semiarid regions typically by surviving erosion. Also known as Island Mountain.

Loess

A well sorted, fine grained accumulation of calcareous silt or clay ranging from yellowish to brownish in color relatively homogenous thought to have been deposited by wind.

Desert

This refers to an area that receives low rainfall and it’s normally dry. It’s a barren land with no vegetation making the conditions unfriendly for both plants and animals to endure.

From Chapter 14

Define barrier island, estuary, longshore current, neap tide, spit, spring tide, tombolo, and three other terms. Give substantive, complete, and original definitions that are your expressions of the terms or concepts—not cut-and-paste definitions. Use citations as appropriate to support your statements.

Barrier island

 Long narrow offshore island forming as a result of action of tides and currents parallel to the mainland that protects coast from storms and erosions by surf an tidal surges.

Estuary

A region where fresh water comes into contact with seawater, commonly in a partly enclosed coastal water body. A combination of fresh and salt water where the current of a stream meets the tides.

Longshore current

A current that travels parallel to a shore and is made from the thrust of breaking waves that approach the shore indirectly.

Neap tide

Is a tide with lowest difference between high and low tides occurring twice in a month when sun and moon are at the right angles to the earth producing the smallest rise and fall in tidal level.

Spit

Is a narrow coastal landform made when coast abruptly changes its direction projecting into a body of water .Spit is composed of sand or shingle with one end in the sea or river estuary and the other on land.

Spring tide

Are extremely high and low tides that take place at the time of the new moon or the full moon when the sun, moon, and earth are just about to align.

Tombolo

Its is one or more sandbars or spits that link islands to mainland.

From Chapter 18

Define oil trap, ore, placer deposit, nonrenewable resource, secondary enrichment, geothermal energy, cap rock, and three other terms. Give substantive, complete, and original definitions that are your expressions of the terms or concepts—not cut-and-paste definitions. Use citations as appropriate to support your statements.

Oil trap

A buildup of petroleum which, by a mixture of physical conditions, is stopped from evading laterally or vertically.

Ore

A natural deposit in which a valuable metallic component occurs in high sufficient concentration to make mining economically achievable.

Placer deposit

Natural concentration of heavy minerals produced by the effect of gravity on moving particles. 

Nonrenewable resource

It’s an economic resource that does not renew or replenish itself after it is used. Fossil fuel is an example of nonrenewable resource because once it is used cannot be used again.

Secondary enrichment

A mineral deposit that has been changed and enriched in valuable metals such as copper due to the effect of weathering of surface portion of the vein.

Geothermal energy

It is energy stored in form of heat beneath the earth’s surface. This energy produces electricity which is used for heating buildings and greenhouse.

Cap rock

It’s a layer of rock that placed on top of a sand dome and comprises of limestone and gypsum. Impervious layer of rock that is more resistant and lies on a less resistant rock.

References

Lyell, C., & Rudwick, M. J. (19901991). Principles of geology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Geikie, A. (1904). Geology, (Ed. De luxe. ed.). New York: J. A. Hill and Company.

Dixon, D. (1982). Geology (A Franklin Watts library ed.). London: F. Watts.