Review Guide – Exam 3

FLOODING & GROUNDWATER

 

EXAM FORMAT:  the exam format will be a mix of exams I and II

 

You should familiar with the following key concepts and words:

 

PREVIOUS MATERIAL

  1. What are the five ‘spheres’ of earth, and their characteristics.
  2. Plate Tectonic settings
  3. Mass wasting types, landslides and subsidence, as it applies to flooding and groundwater

 

FLOODING

  1. What are the major components of the hydrologic cycle?  How are transpiration and evaporation different and why is it that most rain water never makes it into the groundwater?
  2. Can you list one unique characteristic about H20 on Earth?
  3. What are the “anatomical” parts of rivers/streams: drainage basin, divide, channel, tributary, distributary, floodplain, terraces, and base level?
  4. How do erosion and deposition compare to tributary and distributary?
  5. What factors control the capacity of a river to carry water?
  6. How would a bedrock- versus sediment-dominated channel compare during a flood? (in comparison to flood rate and erosion)
  7. What is a cfs?
  8. How does water carry different types of loads, before/after or during a flood?
  9. What factors determine how a flood will occur?
  10. How do different types of materials affect water infiltration? (our graph)
  11. What are the applications/implications from your study of different material infiltration rates?
  12. What are the soils like between older terraces, younger terraces, and the active floodplain here in Arizona southern basins like Phoenix?
  13. Why does Arizona have hilltop flood insurance?
  14. What are the benefits from flooding to land, life, and society?
  15. What are the negative side effects of flooding, directly and indirectly, and spatial (rural vs. urban)?
  16. What is the general psychology of flooding?
  17. What are the two most important side effects of urbanization and flooding?
  18. What are the methods of flood mitigation (levees, channels, dams, retention ponds)?
  19. What are the pros and cons of each flood mitigation approach?
  20. What are some other interrelated geologic hazards related to flooding?
  21. How is subsidence related to flooding, particularly in Arizona and Louisiana?

 

FLOODING FROM THE BOOK:

1.       Sections 4.1 to 4.6, 4.9.  Case studies 4.3 and 4.4

2.       For the sections, be sure to read over with emphasis where it was also discussed in lecture, otherwise, read over once.

3.       For the case studies, read thoroughly.

 

GROUNDWATER

  1. What is the relative abundance and important uses for groundwater on Earth?
  2. What are the unique aspects of water in general?
  3. Know the anatomical parts of the groundwater “model”: unsaturated zone, water table, etc., etc.  I will have a sketch on the exam of that model we looked at.  Be able to draw flow of groundwater when water is added or removed.
  4. How is porosity and permeability related to certain types of material, i.e. granite, gravel, sand, dirt, clay, limestone young, limestone old (dissolved with caves), etc? This is partially related to your class experiment.
  5. What are the differences between an aquitard and aquifer? (there can be several)
  6. How groundwater is discharged and recharged; know the ways.
  7. Is the Salt River in Mesa and Tempe a losing or gaining river today? 
  8. How does groundwater flow? And how is it determined quantitatively and qualitatively?
  9. How do artesian wells work?  And what is the difference between an artesian well and a spring?
  10. How do caves form?  And what side effect can they have on the surface of land?
  11. What is karst topography and what rock does it form in?
  12. What is the difference between sinkholes and subsidence?
  13. What are the uses of a groundwater well, besides pumping water for use? What kind of information do they provide?
  14. What are potential contaminants to groundwater?  Know them all!

 

GROUNDWATER/SUBSIDENCE FROM THE BOOK (CH. 6):

    1. Reading:  All sections!
    2. No case studies