Exam 5: Weathering and Soil

Ferromagnesian minerals such as pyroxene, amphibole, biotite, and olivine are chemically altered in the presence of _____.

Expanding ice in soil pushes large boulders down into the ground.

Compared with quartz, minerals that include the positively charged ions of aluminum, iron, magnesium, and calcium are ___ vulnerable to chemical weathering by acidic solutions.

The process of chemical weathering is also called ____.

The _____ horizon is the incompletely weathered parent material lying below the B-horizon.

Oxygen is abundant in the atmosphere but it does not combine with minerals of the Earth's crust.

The solution of calcite in a limestone supplies substantial amounts of ______ to ground water.

Plants, such as roots growing in cracks, and animals compacting the soil, have little influence on mechanical weathering.

What, in terms of Earth systems, forms an essential interface between the geosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere?

When fossil fuels are burned _____, enter the atmosphere to form acid rain.

The reduction of pressure on a body of rock can cause it to crack as it expands.

The ____ describes the process in which this dominant greenhouse gas circulates among Earth systems.

______, formed as water evaporates inside small spaces in rock, helps disintegrate desert rocks.

The only processes that affect rock are weathering and climate.

The _______ horizon is the dark-colored soil horizon that is rich in organic material and forms just below the surface vegetation.

_______ is a byproduct of rock weathering.

Sand-size grains of feldspar can be preserved in a soil profile over great time periods because of feldspar's resistance to chemical weathering.

A soil formed entirely through the weathering of basalt would not contain sand-sized grains of __.

Under wet and humid tropical conditions the least soluble material is the aluminum oxide called _____.

________ forms as a chemical weathering product of iron-rich minerals.