What are the chemical properties of water that affect geologic erosion?
What physical forces affect erosion? ANSWER: Water’s chemistry, H2O, allows it to dissolve soluble calcite cements that hold limestone, marble and sandstone together, thus forming pits and holes in the riverbed. • What is a river’s or glacier’s “load”? ANSWER: The particulate and dissolved matter carried by the stream or glacier as it flows downhill. • What is glacial till? An alluvial plain? How are they related to glacial or riverine erosion? ANSWER: Glacial till is unsorted, unstratified rock rubble or debris carried on and/or deposited by the ice of a glacier. An alluvial plain is a large deposit of sediment located where a stream or river meets level land or floods outside its boundaries. Debris left by a flood is mostly well sorted, not a jumble of 2 kinds of deposits such as characterizes glacial till. • What physical features of a landscape affect the erosive action of rivers and glaciers? How? ANSWER: Glaciers and rivers need to flow downhill in order to move fast enough to er
