Exam 18: The Topography of Arid Lands

Pediments are often covered with a veneer of rocky debris.

The ________ is a depositional feature that accumulates at the mouths of desert canyons.

The ________ is a type of very long dune which might form as an adjustment to two seasonal wind systems.

The barren surface composed of consolidated material, usually of exposed bedrock, is ________.

Flattish erosional platforms with no well-defined scarps or edges are ________.

Desert stream channels contain plentiful rock debris.

The "Four Corners" country of the United States is dominated by a major landform assemblage called ________.

The prime factors in desertification in the Sahel were a natural drought and ________.

Which of the following features is SMALLEST in area?

Using the concept of the water balance that you learned in earlier chapters, speculate why basins of interior drainage are found only in the western United States.

The Nile River ________.

Aeolian transportation may move materials many hundreds of kilometers.

A deflation hollow is an example of aeolian erosion.

In mesa-and-scarp topography, ________ are typically the most resistant layers which form a caprock.

The most common landscape forms in the dry western U.S. are the basin and range and the ________.

In arid lands, intricately rifled and barren terrain is called ________.

Draw and label a cross-sectional sketch of a desert surface which illustrates five of the important terrain-forming processes in arid lands.

Relict ergs are sometimes found in non-desert areas.

Loess is associated with high agricultural fertility.

Dry lake beds with especially heavy salt concentrations are most properly called ________.