ORIGIN AND STRUCTURE OF THE EARTH

Universe and the Solar System

 The Universe is at least 13.8 billion of years old and the Earth/Solar System at least 4.5-
4.6 billions of years old.

Large Scale Features of the Solar System

• Much of the mass of the Solar System is concentrated at the center (Sun) while angular
momentum is held by the outer planets.
• Orbits of the planets elliptical and are on the same plane.
• All planets revolve around the sun.
• The periods of revolution of the planets increase with increasing distance from the Sun;
the innermost planet moves fastest, the outermost, the slowest.
• All planets are located at regular intervals from the Sun.

Small Scale Features of the Solar System

• Most planets rotate prograde (counterclockwise when viewed from above the Earth's
North Pole)
• Inner terrestrial planets are made of materials with high melting points such as silicates,
Fe , and Ni & rotate slower, have thin or no atmosphere, higher densities, & lower
contents of volatiles - H, He, & noble gases.
• The outer four planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are called "gas giants"
because of the dominance of gases and their larger size. They rotate faster, have thick
atmosphere, lower densities, and fluid interiors.

Structure of the Universe:

 The universe as we currently know it comprises all space and time, and all matter &
energy in it.
 It is made of 4.6% baryonic matter, 24% cold dark matter, and 71.4% dark energy.
o baryonic matter - “ordinary” matter consisting of protons, electrons, and neutrons:
atoms, planets, stars, galaxies, nebulae, and other bodies.
o cold dark matter - matter that has gravity but does not emit light.
o dark energy - a source of antigravity.
o Dark matter can explain what may be holding galaxies together for the reason
that the low total mass is insufficient for gravity alone to do so.
o Dark energy can explain the observed accelerating expansion of the universe.
 The three most Abundant elements in the Universe: H, He, Li

Galaxy
 is a cluster of billions of stars and clusters of galaxies form superclusters.
 In between the clusters is practically an empty space.

Classifications of Galaxy on the Basis of Shape:

1) Spiral Galaxies – are flattened disks of stars having distinct arms that spiral outward
from an area of dense stars at its center.
2) Elliptical Galaxies – are football shaped or spherical masses of stars, several are ten
times bigger than the Milky Way.
3) Irregular Galaxies – are some other group of stars that cannot be categorized as
elliptical or spiral.

Light years - the distance light can travel in a year; a unit of length used to measure
astronomical distance.

Cosmology is the study of universe.

Stars
 the building block of galaxies born out of clouds of gas and dust in galaxies.

Note: Instabilities within the clouds eventually results into gravitational collapse, rotation,
heating up, and transformation to a protostar.
Group of Stars:
1) Double Stars – is a pair of stars placed in almost the same position in the sky.
2) Binary Stars – systems of double stars that are gravitationally bound and are in orbit
around each other.
3) Variable Stars – limited individual stars that differ in their seeming brightness as seen
fromEarth.

Types of Stars:
1) Protostar - an early stage in the formation of a star resulting from the gravitational
collapse of gases the core of a future star as thermonuclear reactions set in. It is a
collection of gas that has collapsed down from a giant molecular cloud.
2) Main Sequence Stars - stars that fuse hydrogen atoms to form helium atoms in their
cores. Most stars such as the Sun belong to the so-called “main sequence stars.” It can
vary in size, mass and brightness, but they’re all doing the same thing: converting
hydrogen into helium in their cores, releasing a tremendous amount of energy.
3) A T Tauri star - is stage in a star’s formation and evolution right before it becomes a
main sequence star.
4) Red Giant Star - When a star has consumed its stock of hydrogen in its core, fusion
stops and the star no longer generates an outward pressure to counteract the inward
pressure pulling it together.
5) White Dwarf Star - When a star has completely run out of hydrogen fuel in its core and it
lacks the mass to force higher elements into fusion reaction, it becomes a white dwarf
star.
6) Red Dwarf Star - are the most common kind of stars in the Universe. These are main
sequence stars but they have such low mass that they’re much cooler than stars like our
Sun. These are main sequence stars but they have such low mass that they’re much
cooler than stars like our Sun.
7) Neutron Stars - If a star has between 1.35 and 2.1 times the mass of the Sun, it doesn’t
form a white dwarf when it dies. It is an exotic type of star that is composed entirely of
neutrons. This is because the intense gravity of the neutron star crushes protons and
electrons together to form neutrons.
8) Supergiant Stars - The largest stars in the Universe are supergiant stars. These are
monsters with dozens of times the mass of the Sun. Unlike a relatively stable star like the
Sun, supergiants are consuming hydrogen fuel at an enormous rate and will consume all
the fuel in their cores within just a few million years. Supergiant stars live fast and die
young, detonating as supernovae; completely disintegrating themselves in the process.
9) Black holes - are even more exotic objects than neutron stars. With all the mass
concentrated at a point they have extremely high gravitational fields. They are referred to
as black because not even light can escape from them once it has crossed a region
known as the event horizon. At the event horizon, the escape velocity equals the speed
of light, c. Black holes are therefore hard to observe because they do not emit light at any
waveband. Rather than look for a black hole itself, astronomers infer their presence due
to their effect on surrounding matter.
10)

Thermonuclear Reaction
 a nuclear fusion reaction responsible for the energy produced by stars.

Note:
o In the cores of such stars, hydrogen atoms are fused through thermonuclear reactions to
make helium atoms.
o Massive main sequence stars burn up their hydrogen faster than smaller stars.
o Stars like our Sun burn up hydrogen in about 10 billion years.
o The remaining dust and gas may end up as they are or as planets, asteroids, or other
bodies in the accompanying planetary system.
 o Organization of matter in the universe suggests that it is indeed clumpy at a certain scale.
But at a large scale, it appears homogeneous and isotropic (having physical properties
that are the same when measured in different directions).

2 ways by which astronomers estimate the age of the universe:

1) By estimating the age of the looking oldest stars
2) By measuring the rate of expansion of the universe and extrapolating back to the Big
Bang.

Theories in the Formation of the Universe:

1) Big Bang Theory - is the leading explanation about how the universe began. At its simplest,
it says the universe as we know it started with a small singularity, then inflated over the next
13.8 billion years to the cosmos that we know today. First developed in 1927 by Georges
Lemaitre (1984-1966) • and coined and revised by George Gamow (1904-1968).
2) Steady State Theory - proposed by Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold, and Fred Hoyle in 1928,
this suggests that there is neither beginning nor end to the universe, and it has a constant
mean density. This theory postulates that matter is created throughout the universe at a rate
of about 10-10 nucleon per meter cube per year as a property of space. This violates the
Law of Conservation of Matter and Energy. It states that our universe loos consistently the
same from every spot.
3) Plasma Universe and the Little Bangs – states that Big Bang never happened, and that
the universe is traversed electric current and enormous magnetic field. Galaxies are
gradually formed by plasma interactions.
4) Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB) - the universe should be filled with
radiation that is literally the remnant heat left over from the Big Bang. It was first observed
inadvertently in 1965 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson at the Bell Telephone Laboratories
in Murray Hill, New Jersey.

Quasars are the brightest and most distant objects in the known universe.

Uniform Circular Motion

 All motion in the heavens must be made up of combinations of circles turning at uniform
rates (by Plato).
 the motion of an object in a circle at a constant speed.

Parallax
 it is the apparent motion of an object because of the motion of the observer.
 the apparent angular displacement of a celestial body due to its being observed from the
surface instead of from the center of the earth (diurnal parallax or geocentric parallax) or
due to its being observed from the earth instead of from the sun (annual parallax or
heliocentric parallax).

Geocentric Universe
 a model of Aristotle contained 55 spheres turning at different rates and at different angles
to carry the seven known planets across the sky.
 Earth is imperfect and lay at the center of the universe.

Retrograde Motion
 is the apparent motion of a planet in a direction opposite to that of other bodies within its
system, as observed from a particular vantage point.

Equant
 a point to adjust the speed of the planet, when Ptolemy supposed that Earth was slightly
off center and that the center of the epicycle moved such that it appeared to move at a
constant rate.
 a circle in which a planet was formerly believed to move

Epicycle
  a small circle the center of which moves around in the circumference of a larger circle:
used in Ptolemaic astronomy to account for observed periodic irregularities in planetary
motions.

Deferent
 (in the Ptolemaic system) the circle around the earth inwhich a celestial body or the
center of the epicycle of its orbit was thought to move.

2 Kinds of Hypothesis for the Origin of the Planet in our Solar System
1. Catastrophic Hypotheses – proposed that planets formed from some improbable event
such as the collision of sun and another star.
2. Evolutionary Hypotheses - proposed that the planet formed gradually and naturally as
the sun formed. It is so comprehensive and explains so many observations that it can be
considered to have “graduated” from being just a hypothesis to being properly called a
theory.

Solar Nebula Theory

 supposes that planets form in the rotating disks of gas and dust around young stars
 A rotating cloud of gas contracts and flattens to become a thin disk of gas and dust
around the forming sun at the center.
 Planets grow from gas and dust in the disk and are left in orbit when the disk clears.
 Planetary system formed in such a disk-shaped cloud around the sun

Solar Nebula
 gaseous cloud from which, in the so-called nebular hypothesis of the origin of the solar
system, the Sun and planets formed by condensation.

Note: “It is a common misconception that matter in the solar nebula was sorted by density,
with the heavy rock and metal sinking toward the sun and the low gases being blown
outward.

Emanuel Swedenborg
 a Swedish philosopher
 in 1734, he proposed that the planets formed out of a nebular crust that had surrounded
the Sun and then broken apart.

Rotation
 the movement or path of the earth or a heavenly body turning on its axis.

Revolution
 the orbiting of one heavenly body around another.

Note:
1. The orbit of Mercury is tipped to 7.00 to Earth’s orbit and the rest of the planets’ orbital
planes are inclined by no more than 3.40
2. The sun rotates with its equator inclined only 7.20 to Earth’s orbit and most of the other
planets’ equators are tipped less than 300
3. The rotations of Venus and Uranus are peculiar. Venus rotates backward compared with
the other planets, whereas Uranus rotates on its side with its equator almost
perpendicular to its orbit.

Two Kinds of Planet

 Terrestrial Planet –four inner planet; small, dense, rocky worlds with little or no atmosphere
and have NO rings.
 Jovian Planet – four outer planet; large, low-density worlds with thick atmospheres, liquid or
ice interiors and have ring systems.

Note:
 1. Craters are common. Almost every solid surface in the solar system is covered with
craters.
2. The solar system is littered with several kinds of space debris: asteroids, Kuiper belt
objects (KBOs), comets, and meteoroids.

Great Red Spots

 a large, usually reddish gaseous vortex on the surface of Jupiter,about 14,000 by 30,000
km, that drifts about slowly as the planetrotates and has been observed for several hundr
ed years.
 is a persistent zone of high pressure, producing an anticyclonic storm on
the planet Jupiter, 22° south of the equator. It has been continuously observed for 187
years, since 1830. Earlier observations from 1665 to 1713 are believed to be the same
storm; if this is correct, it has existed for at least 350 years.

Differentiating Meteoroid, Meteor, and Meteorites together with Meteor Shower:

1. Meteoroid
o A small rocky object in space from dust-sized to 1 km (0.62 miles)
o Meteoroids are smaller than asteroids.
o They are thought of as remnants of a “failed planet”—one that did not form due to
disturbance from Jupiter’s gravity.
2. Meteor
o The light we see flashing through the sky and then disappearing fast.
o These are rocks that are burning when enters Earth’s upper atmosphere and
ignites due friction.
o They are usually 80-160 km (50-100 miles) high in the atmosphere.
o They flash across the sky in momentary streaks of light.
o They are commonly called “falling stars” or “shooting stars”
3. Meteorites
o These are rocks that pass through the Earth atmosphere.
4. Meteor shower
 takes place during the Earth’s journey around the Sun wherein it crosses the path of a
comet and picks up the dust and pebbles left behind by the gradually collapsing comet.

Asteroids
 sometimes called minor planets which are small rocky worlds, most of which orbit the sun
in a belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
 They are also known as planetoids which means “little planets”
 The average temperature of the surface of a typical asteroid is minus 100 0F (~380C)
 The asteroid belt lies between Mars and Jupiter.

3 Types of Asteroid’s Compositions:

1. C-Type Asteroids
 Made of carbonaceous materials, typical of the outer asteroid belt and Trojan
asteroids (asteroids sharing an orbit with a planet or generally refers to the
asteroids accompanying Jupiter).
2. S-Type Asteroids
 Made of stony or silicate materials, typical of the inner asteroid belt.
3. M-Type Asteroids
 Made mostly of metals

Comet
 very small celestial body made mostly of ice mixed with smaller amounts of dust and
rock. The main body s called the nucleus, and it can contain water, methane, nitrogen,
and ice. They only have tails when they are close to the Sun.
 For faint comets or bright comets producing little dust, the coma is usually round, comets
which are producing significant quantities of dust have fan-shaped or parabolic comae.
 This is due to the different size of the dust grains released: the larger get left along the
comet's orbital path while the smaller can be pushed away from the Sun by light
pressure.
 the tail always points approximately away from the sun no matter what direction the
comet itself is moving.

Parts of a Comet:
1. Nucleus
 the central solid mass of a comet with sizes that averages from 1km (0.6miles) to
20km (12miles) in diameter and often called “Dirty Snowball”
2. Coma or comet’s coma
 large cloud of gas that melts and sublimates from the snowball due to heat from the
Sun; diameter can reach to 200,000 km
 is the fuzzy haze that surrounds the comet's true nucleus or around the comet.
Together with the tail, the coma is all we actually see of a comet from Earth.
 shape can vary from comet to comet and for the same comet during its apparition,
depending on the comet's distance from the Sun and the relative amount of dust and
gas production.
 The coma has two main constituents: the gas coma (consists of molecules liberated
from the nucleus by solar heating and relative sublimation) and the dust coma (are
dragged from the nucleus by the rush of sublimating gas).
3. Hydrogen cloud
 made of light hydrogen gas
4. Tail
 gas and dust of a coma being pushed back by the pressure of sunlight.
 it is the longest when the comet is closest to the sun.
5. Ion Tail
 ionized gas that is pushed back away from the sun by the solar wind.
6. Dust Tail
 the dust particles released from the ice of the snowball as the ice sublimates into the
coma, The dust tail shines by reflected light.

Note:
1) The solar system comprises the Sun, eight planets, dwarf planets such as Pluto,
satellites, asteroids, comets, other minor bodies such as those in the Kuiper belt and
interplanetary dust.
2) Natural forces created and shaped the solar system. The same processes (condensation,
accretion, collision and differentiation) are ongoing processes .

Constellations
 is a group of stars that are considered to form imaginary outlines or meaningful patterns
on the celestial sphere, typically representing animals, mythological people or gods,
mythological creatures, or manufactured devices.
 The 88 modern constellations are formally defined regions of the sky together covering
the entire celestial sphere.

Circumpolar Constellations
 Constellations that are visibly revolving around Polaris for the whole year.

Kuiper Belt
 a collection of objects consist of a thousand small, dark, icy bodies orbiting in the outer
fringes of the solar system beyond Neptune.
 It is a circumstellar disc in the solar system beyond the planets, extending from the orbit
of Neptune.

Radiation Pressure
 implies an interaction between electromagnetic radiation and bodies of various types,
including clouds of particles or gases.

Half-life
  of a radioactive substance is the time it takes for half of the parent isotope atoms to
decay into daughter isotope atoms.”
 commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo, or
how long stable atoms survive, radioactive decay.

Apollo Lunar Landings

 one goal is to bring lunar rocks back to Earth’s laboratories where their ages could be
measured.

Uncompressed Densities
 the densities the planets would have if their gravity did not compress them, or to put it
another way, the average densities of their original construction materials.
 the density a planet would have if its gravity did not compress it.
 the density you would get if you blew up the Earth and then took the density of the debris.

Condensation
 the process of forming solid particles from the solar nebula.

Ice Line or Frost Line

 boundary farther from the sun beyond which water vapour could freeze to form ice
particles.
 defines the boundary where simple molecules condense (dihydrogen H 2, dinitrogen N2,
dichlorine Cl2, water H2O, ammonia NH3, hydrogen sulfide H2S, carbon dioxide CO2,
methane CH4, ethane C2H6).
 It marks the clear separation between the terrestrial planets and the gas planets.
Condensation Sequence
 the sequence in which the different materials condense from the gas as you move away
from the sun toward lower temperature.
 The sequence in which different materials condense from the solar nebula as we move
outward from the sun.

Planetesimals
 in the development of the planets from the material of the solar nebula disk, three
processes operated to collect solid bits of matter--metal, rock, ice--into larger bodies.
 are solid objects thought to exist in protoplanetary disks and in debris disks.
 one of a class of bodies that are theorized to have coalesced to form Earth and the
other planets after condensing from concentrations of diffuse matter early in the history of
the solar system.

Accretion
 second process of planetesimals.
 The sticking together of solid particles
 An increase in the mass of a celestial object by its gravitational capture of surrounding
interstellar material.

Earth System
 relies on the interactions among a vast combination of factors that enable it to support life
 is dynamic, continually responding to changes.

System
 any entity that consists of interrelated parts or components
 can be divided into subsystems

Subsystems
 are functioning units of a major system that demonstrate strong internal connections

Earth’s Four Major Subsystems

1. Atmosphere- the gaseous blanket of air that envelops, shields, and insulates Earth.
2. Hydrosphere- includes the waters of Earth—oceans, lakes, rivers, and glaciers.
3. Lithosphere- makes up the solid Earth—landforms, rocks, solids, and minerals.
 4. Biosphere- composed of all living things: people, other animals, and plants.

Variables
 individual components of system
 change by interacting with one another as part of a functioning unit.

The Environmental Perspective

 Environment
o can be defined as our surroundings; including all physical, social, and cultural
aspects of our world that affect our growth, our health, and our way of living.
o are systems composed of a wide variety of elements and processes that involve
interconnections among weather (basically the way the atmosphere is behaving,
mainly with respect to its effects upon life and human activities or consists of the
short-term (minutes to months) changes in the atmosphere), climate (description
of the long-term pattern of weather in a particular area), soils ( complex mixtures
of minerals, water, air, organic matter, and countless organisms that are the
decaying remains of once-living things and it forms at the surface of land – it is the
“skin of the earth”), rocks (a solid aggregate of one or
more minerals or mineraloids), terrain (a geographic area or a piece of land),
plants, animals, water, and humans.
 Ecology
o the study of relationships between organisms and their environments.
 Ecosystem
o refers to a community of organisms and the relationships of those organisms to
each other and to their environment.
Biogeographers
 concerned about the environment that support the same plants and animals that are
classified by biologist.

Geographers
 a holistic perspective and a spatial perspective.

Physical Geographers
 processes affect the earth’s physical environments.

Life-Support System
 Earth’s most critical characteristic, whose responsible to produce an adequate supply of
oxygen; the sun interacts with the atmosphere, oceans, and land to maintain tolerable
temperatures; and photosynthesis or other processes provide food supplies for living
things.
 any mechanical device that enables a person to live and usually work in
an environment such as outer space or underwater in which he could not otherwise
function or survive for any appreciable amount of time.
 are designed not only to enable survival in inhospitable environments but also
to obviate the extreme difficulty people sometimes have in working under such
conditions; thus life-support systems promote comfort, efficiency, and safety as well.

Natural Resources
 are resources that exist without actions of humankind.
 may exist as a separate entity such as fresh water, air, and as well as a living organism
such as a fish, or it may exist in an alternate form that must be processed to obtain the
resource such as metal ores, rare earth metals, petroleum, and most forms of energy.

Environmental Overshoot
 this is what you called with the problem of using more resources in a year than their
annual renewal, growth, or replacement.
 occurs when a population temporarily exceeds the long term carrying capacity of its
environment.

Sustainable Development
  (UN definition) a development that meets the need of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Natural Hazards
 refers to natural processes, typically of unusual intensity, that put environments and
human life or property at risk of damage or destruction.

Pollution
 an undesirable or unhealthy environmental contamination that can have negative impacts
on environmental conditions.

Note: A century ago the interconnected Kissimmee River – Lake Okeechobee – Everglades
ecosystem was one of the most productive wetland regions in the world but marshlands
and slow-moving water stood in the way of urban and agricultural development.

Equilibrium
 the system is said to have reached this state if the inputs entering the system are
balanced by outputs.

Dynamic Equilibrium
 the change within a range of tolerance where most systems are continually shifting
slightly one way or another as they react to external conditions (example is reservoir).

Model
 is a useful simplification of a more complex reality that permits prediction, and every
model is designed with a specific purpose in mind.

Different Kinds of Models

1. Pictorial/Graphic Models- includes pictures, maps, graphs, diagrams, drawings, and
computer-generated visualizations.
2. Physical Models- are solid three-dimensional representations, such as a world globe or
a replica of a mountain or stream.
3. Mathematical/Statistical Models- are used to understand processes and predict
possibilities such as river floods or the influence of climate change on daily weather.
4. Conceptual Model- the mind imagery that we use for understanding our surroundings
and experiences.
o Mental Map- important conceptual model, which we use to think about places,
travel routes, and the distribution of features in space.

System Analysis
 a powerful strategy use by physical geographers for analysis to comprehend Earth as a
whole or to understand most of its environmental components.

Note: The Earth and its subsystems “work” by the movement (transfer) of matter and energy
and the process involved with these transfers.

Two Basic Kinds of Systems

(1) Open Systems- both energy and matter move freely across subsystem boundaries as
inputs and outputs. Most Earth subsystems are like these.
(2) Closed System- is one in which no substantial amount of matter crosses their boundary,
although energy can go in and out. Planet Earth is essentially a closed system.

Feedback
 the interactions that cause changes or adjustments between parts of a system.

Two Kinds of Feedback Relationships Operate in a System

(1) Negative Feedback- in which one change tends to offset another (an inverse relationship),
 creates a counteracting effect that is generally beneficial because it tends to maintain
equilibrium in a system.
(2) Positive Feedback- changes that reinforce the direction of an initial change (a direct
relationship).

Threshold
 a condition that causes a system to change dramatically, in this case bringing the positive
feedback to a halt or completely reversing the effect of the feedback.

Feedback Loop
 a circular set of feedback operations that can be repeated as a cycle.

Note: CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons) have been used in air conditioning/refrigeration systems and
if leaked to the atmosphere they cause ozone (O3) depletion.

CHAPTER 3 : Geologic Processes on the Earth’s Surface

Weathering - The breakdown of rock material at and near Earth’s surface.

*Represent a chain or continuum of processes that begins with the breakdown of rock.

-Weathering -Transportation

-Erosion -deposition

Mass Wasting- also known as “mass movement”, is a collective term for the downslope
transport of surface materials in direct response to gravity.

Clasts- is the broken fragments of rock.

Regolith- the inorganic portion of soils.

Physical Weathering- also known as “mechanical weathering” , disintegrates rocks, breaking

smaller fragments from a larger block or outcrop of rock.

Chemical Weathering- decomposes rock through chemical reactions that remove ions from the
original rock-forming minerals.

Unloading- removal of underlying weight.

Exfoliation- is the successive removal of outer rock sheets.

Exfoliation sheet- is the concentric broken layer of rock.

Exfoliation dome- exfoliating outcrop of rock with a dome-like surface form.

Granular disintegration- the breaking free of individual mineral grains from a rock.

Freeze-thaw weathering- sometimes referred to as first weathering or ice wedging.

Oxidation- chemical union of oxygen atoms with another substance to create a new product .

Salt crystal growth- with this, water containing dissolved salts accumulates in these spaces.

Hydration- water molecules attach to the crystalline structure of a mineral without causing a
permanent change in the mineral’s composition.

Clay minerals- are clay-sized minerals formed during chemical weathering, commonly occupy
cracks and voids in rocks and are subject to hydration and dehydration.
Carbonation- is a common type of solution that involves carbon dioxide and water molecules
reacting with, and thereby decomposing, rock mineral.

Hydrolysis- the chemical breakdown of a compound due to reaction with water.

Joints- can be found in any solid rock that has been subjected to crustal stresses.

Joint set- multiple joints that parallel each other .

Spheroidal weathering- is the distinctive, rounded weathered form.

Gravity- is the principal force responsible for mass wasting.

Rockfall- summarizes the type of material and the type of motion. The most common type of
fall.

Soil- means a relatively thin unit of predominantly fine-grained, unconsolidated surface material.

Earth- is the thicker unit of the same type of material.

Debris- specifies a given mss of sediment that contains a wide range of grain sizes, atleast 20%
of which is gravel.

Mud- indicated saturated sediment composed mainly of clay and silt.

Clay and Silt- are the smallest particle sizes.

Slow mass wasting- with this, we can only measure the movement and observe its effects over
long periods.

Fast mass wasting- this motion can be witnessed by people.

Creep- the slow migration of particlesto successively lower elevations.

Soil creep- is the gradual downslope motion

Heaving- causes individual soil particles or rock fragments to be first pushed upward
perpendicular to the slope, and then eventually fall straight downward because of gravity.

Solifluction- literally means “ soil flow”, refers to the slow downslope movement of water-
saturated soil and/or regolith.

Permafrost- a subsurface layer of permanently frozen ground .

Active layer- freezes during winter but thaws during summer.

Falls- the mass wasting events that consist of earth materials plummenting downward freely
through the air.

Talus- a sloping accumulation of angular, broken clasts piles up at the base of a cliff that is
subject to rockfall.

Talus cone- sometimes referred to as a talus slope, or where cone-shaped, .

Avalanche- a type of mass movement in which much of the involved material is pulverized.

Snow avalanches- mind billowing torrents of snow and ice roaring down a steep mountainside.

Rock avalanches- avalanches of pulverized bedrock.

Debris avalanches- are also common and have caused considerable loss of life and
destruction in mountain communities.
Slides- a cohesive or semicohesive unit of Earth material slips downslope in continuous contact
with the land surface.

Rockslides- slides of large sections of bedrock.

Debris slides- contain a poorly sorted mixture of gravel and fines.

Mudslides- are dominated by wet silts and clays.

Slumps- are rotational slides where a thick block of soil, called earth, moves along a concave,
curved surface.

Landslides- a general term popularly used to refer to any form of rapid mass movement.

Flows- are masses of water-saturated unconsolidated sediments that move downslope by the
force of gravity.

Earthflow- occurs as independent gravity-induced events or in association with slumps in a

compound feature called a slump-earthflow.

Flow levees- raised channel rims.

Lahars- during eruptions, emitted steam, cooling and falling as rain, saturates the ash, sending
down dangerous and fast-moving volcanic mudflows.