Exam 16: Deserts and Wind

Which of the following characteristics would suggest recent, fault uplift of a desert mountain range?

Wind is included along with gravity, water, and ice as an agent of erosion. In many national parks and other areas of natural beauty, statements are often made that credit wind as having sculpted the landscape. Briefly discuss the importance of wind as an agent of erosion and explain why such statements are probably geologically inaccurate.

Assume that the central slip face of a barchan dune slopes downhill toward the east. What is the direction of the prevailing wind?

________is the skipping and bouncing transport of sand in blowing wind and running water.

In dry lands, ________is the covering of coarse particles left on the surface after the finer particles are carried away by wind and running water.

Inselbergs are ________.

________describes the complex, internal stratification or bedding in a sand dune.

Deposits of windblown silt are called________ .

Which one of the following would probably not affect the size and depth of a blowout?

Desert and steppe lands cover about what percentage of Earth's land area?

________dunes form in areas where the prevailing wind directions change with the seasons.

How is desert pavement formed?

Which one of the following is determined by the angle of repose for dry sand?

Which one of the following statements about sand dunes is correct?

Most dry lands lie between ________degrees north and south of the equator.

How are sand grains transported by the wind?

Desertification has been particularly well documented over the past 50 years in________ .

Deposition of glacial rock flour from blowing winds is responsible for________ .

________are solitary, crescent- shaped dunes whose tips face downwind.

A(n) ________is an intermittent lake on the floor of a desert basin.