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wadi
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A steep-sided valley containing an intermittent stream in an arid region.
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warping
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In tectonics, refers to the gentle, regional bending of the crust, which occurs in epeirogenic movements.
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wash
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A normally dry stream bed that ocassionally fills with water.
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water cycle
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The transfer of water between numerous temporary storage reservoir. These include the ocean, rivers and streams, glacial ice, groundwater and the atmosphere.
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water mass
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A mass of water that fills part of an ocean or lake and is distinguished by its uniform physical and chemical properties, such as temperature and salinity.
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water table
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Surface along which fluid pressure is equal to atmospheric pressure.
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wave
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A regular movement on a surface or within a material when energy travels through it. On the surface of an ocean or body of water, it is usually in the form of a curving swell or ridge.
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wave steepness
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The maximum height or amplitude of a wave divided by its wavelength.
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wave-cut platform
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A gently sloping surface produced by wave erosion, extending far into the sea or lake from the base of the wave cut cliff.
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wavelength
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The distance between two successive peaks, or between troughs, of a cyclic propagating disturbance.
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weathering
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The set of all processes that decay and break up bedrock, by a combination of physically fracturing or chemical decomposition.
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weathering
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Weathering includes two surface or near-surface processes that work in concert to decompose rocks. Both processes occur in place. No movement is involved in weathering. Chemical weathering involves a chemical change in at least some of the mineral within a rock. Mechanical weathering involves physically breaking rocks into fragments without changing the chemical make-up of the minerals within it. Mechanical weathering includes processes such as water in cracks freezing and expanding, or changes in temperature that expand and shrink individual minerals enough to break them apart.
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weathering (surface)
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Weathering includes the processes which mechanically and chemically wear and fragment rock.
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weights of evidence modeling
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Estimation of posterior probability that a hypothesis holds true from its prior probability and a combination of weights associated with presence or absence of features supporting the hypothesis.
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well
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An excavation (pit, hole, tunnel), generally cylindrical in form and often walled in, drilled, dug, driven, bored, or jetted into the ground to such a depth as to penetrate ater-yielding geologic material and allow the water to flow or to be pumped to the surface.
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well-sorted
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Refers to a sedimentary deposit or rock with grain of the same approximate size.
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wrong term
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The movement of sand or fine sediment by short jumps above the ground or stream bed under the influence of a current too weak to keep it permanently suspended.
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wrong term
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Volume of contaminated groundwater that occupies a continuous region of an aquifer and emanates from a single source.
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