Soils and Weathering

Steven Dutch, Natural and Applied Sciences,University of Wisconsin - Green Bay
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  1. A transported soil would form from:
    1. a lava flow
    2. a sedimentary rock
    3. fractured granite
    4. flood-plain deposits
  2. How can rain forests be so lush if the soil is so poor?
    1. They get nutrients from rain water
    2. The organisms have evolved to do without soil nutrients
    3. Human slash-and-burn agriculture returns nutrients to the soil
    4. The ecosystem is very effective at recycling nutrients
  3. Which factors enter into soil classification?
    1. age of the soil
    2. parent material
    3. structure of the soil
    4. climate and drainage
    5. all the above
  4. Why small particles weather faster than large ones:
    1. They have more surface area for chemical reactions
    2. They can be more easily eaten by soil organisms
    3. They are easier to break mechanically
    4. They are made of more soluble minerals
  5. The world's best agricultural soils are:
    1. alfisols
    2. oxisols
    3. spodosols
    4. mollisols
  6. Which breaks rocks down by prying the grains apart?
    1. freeze-thaw cycles
    2. growth of plant roots
    3. salt crystal growth along shorelines
    4. hydration of minerals
    5. all the preceding
  7. Exfoliation refers to:
    1. Organic acids from leaves dissolving minerals
    2. The tendency for clay minerals to form during weathering
    3. The tendency for basalt to weather faster than granite
    4. The tendency for rocks to spall off thin sheets while weathering
  8. A deposit of calcite or gypsum that forms in the subsurface of arid soils:
    1. pedalfer
    2. laterite
    3. caliche
    4. mollisol
  9. The B horizon of a soil is the zone of:
    1. leaching
    2. accumulation
    3. unweathered parent material
    4. organic matter accumulation
  10. Rocks weather fastest when:
    1. cold and dry
    2. always wet
    3. hot and dry
    4. damp
  11. The dominant form of weathering in deserts is _____, desert vegetation is _____, and soils are _____.
    1. mechanical, limited, thick
    2. mechanical, diverse, thin
    3. mechanical, limited, thin
    4. chemical, diverse, thick
    5. chemical, diverse, thin
  12. Horizon B of a soil is also known as the:
    1. top soil
    2. zone of accumulation
    3. humus layer
    4. organic-rich layer
    5. alkali zone
  13. The chief ore of aluminum is:
    1. caliche
    2. gossan
    3. pedalfer
    4. bauxite
    5. subsoil
  14. The removal of thin layers of soil by water over a more or less continuous surface is
    1. gullying
    2. leaching
    3. sheet erosion
    4. exfoliation
    5. weathering
  15. The process whereby hydrogen and hydroxyl ions of water replace ions in minerals is:
    1. supergene enrichment
    2. hydrolysis
    3. oxidation
    4. carbonization
    5. laterization
  16. Which of the minerals in Bowen's reaction series is most stable chemically?
    1. calcium plagioclase
    2. biotite
    3. quartz
    4. olivine
    5. pyroxene
  17. Granite weathers more rapidly than quartzite because it contains abundant:
    1. feldspars
    2. carbonate minerals
    3. quartz
    4. caliche
    5. ferromagnesian minerals
  18. The soil and unconsolidated rock material covering the Earth's surface in most places are:
    1. regolith
    2. parent material
    3. laterite
    4. talus
    5. humus
  19. The layers or horizons in a soil profile result mostly from
    1. successive deposition of layers
    2. pressure of the overlying soil
    3. decreasing sunlight with depth
    4. differences in leaching and deposition with depth
  20. The most intense chemical weathering would be expected where?
    1. the Amazon Basin
    2. the Mojave Desert
    3. Northern Alaska
    4. Minnesota
    5. Manhattan
  21. We would expect little chemical weathering, but intense frost action here
    1. the Amazon Basin
    2. the Mojave Desert
    3. Northern Alaska
    4. Minnesota
    5. Manhattan
  22. Little chemical weathering, episodic and violet rainfall with rapid erosion would be most likely here:
    1. the Amazon Basin
    2. the Mojave Desert
    3. Northern Alaska
    4. Minnesota
    5. Manhattan
  23. Rapid chemical weathering because of acid rain would probably happen where?
    1. the Amazon Basin
    2. the Mojave Desert
    3. Northern Alaska
    4. Minnesota
    5. Manhattan
  24. This area would be characterized by moderate chemical weathering, and frequent but moderate rainfall and erosion.
    1. the Amazon Basin
    2. the Mojave Desert
    3. Northern Alaska
    4. Minnesota
    5. Manhattan
  25. Most likely to weather rapidly
    1. granite
    2. gneiss
    3. quartzite
    4. basalt
  26. Least likely to weather rapidly
    1. granite
    2. gneiss
    3. quartzite
    4. basalt
  27. Most likely to weather rapidly
    1. basalt fragments 10 cm across
    2. basalt fragments 1 cm across
    3. basalt fragments 1 mm across
  28. Why clay doesn't weather
    1. the grains are too large
    2. it's chemically stable at the surface
    3. it doesn't occur in areas prone to weathering
    4. it has too many ions
  29. Mechanical weathering is most likely to occur here:
    1. a steep, young mountain range
    2. a gentle, old mountain range
    3. a delta
    4. a coastal plain
  30. Rocks often shatter when they freeze because
    1. ice crystals are sharp
    2. ice expands when it freezes
    3. water becomes more corrosive when it's frozen
    4. rocks contract when they get cold
  31. Mechanical weathering is most likely to be dominant in an area with:
    1. heat and high humidity
    2. a great deal of vegetation
    3. much available water
    4. extensive frost wedging
  32. Elements are leached from soil in the following order
    1. potassium, calcium, iron
    2. silicon, iron, calcium
    3. aluminum, silicon, potassium
    4. iron, potassium, calcium
  33. An element whose major ore is a type of soil
    1. iron
    2. zinc
    3. aluminum
    4. uranium
  34. The best agricultural soils are
    1. Mollisols
    2. Alfisols
    3. Oxisols
    4. Aridosols
    5. Ultisols
  35. The reason blocks of rock weather faster on their corners:
    1. Differential weathering
    2. Exfoliation
    3. Surface to Volume ratio
    4. Abrasion
    5. Hydrolysis
  36. Soils often reach a steady state of development when ____________ equals _____________
    1. Solution of elements …. Growth of new minerals
    2. Erosion from the surface …. Downward migration of weathering
    3. Deposition on the surface …. Solution of elements
    4. Growth of new minerals …. Erosion from the surface
    5. Downward migration of weathering …. Deposition on the surface
  37. Which is an example of differential weathering?
    1. A dike that stands above the enclosing rock
    2. Rocks weathering faster in the tropics than the Arctic
    3. ?????
    4. ?????
  38. Soils in mountainous areas are often poorly developed because
    1. the mountains were recently uplifted
    2. cold climates mean slow weathering
    3. rainfall is often less in mountains
    4. erosion strips the surface as fast as weathering creates soils

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Created 29 December 1996; Last Update 13 December 2004

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