Professional Documents
Culture Documents
HW #9
Homework Questions
1) Define the term mass wasting as used by geologists. Mass wasting refers to the downslope
movement of rock, regolith, and soil under the direct influence of gravity. Geologic process that
Mass wasting refers to the downslope movement of rock, regolith, and soil under
often
thefollows
directweathering.
influence of gravity.
3) Creep is a form of mass wasting. What is creep and under what climactic conditions would
creep be unimportant?
Creep is gradual movement of soil and regolith downhill. It is aided by the
Creep is the expansion
alternate gradual movement of soil and regolith
and contraction of thedownhill
surfaceaided by the alternate expansion
material. and
contraction of the surface material particularly because of freeze/thaw cycles. Creep would be
less common in tropical regions.
4) What fraction of the Earths water is in the oceans? Of non-ocean fraction, approximately
how much is in glaciers, groundwater, lakes, streams, and atmosphere?
About 96.5% of Earths water is in oceans and the remaining 3.5 % is
available as fresh water
The 3.5% is distributed as follows:
1.68.7% in glaciers and oceans
2.30.1% as ground water
3. 1.2% in atmosphere and surface water forms like lakes,streams and lakes