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| topography | The shape of the land determined by elevation, relief, and landforms. |
| The topography of an area is determined by the area’s | elevation, relief, and landforms. |
| elevation | Height above sea level. |
| relief | The difference in elevation between the highest and lowest parts of an area. |
| landforms | A feature of topography formed by the processes that shape Earth’s surface. |
| landform region | A large area of land where the topography is similar. |
| plain | A landform made up of flat or gently rolling land with low relief. |
| There are three main types of landforms: | plains, mountains, and plateaus. |
| mountain | A landform with high elevation and high relief. |
| mountain range | A series of mountains that have the same general shape and structure. |
| plateau | A landform that has a more or less level surface and is elevated high above sea level. |
| Scientists divide Earth into four spheres: | the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. |
| lithosphere | A rigid layer made up of the uppermost part of the mantle and the crust. One of four spheres into which scientists divide Earth. |
| biosphere | All living things—whether in the air, in the oceans, or on and beneath the land surface |
| hydrosphere | Earth’s oceans, lakes, rivers, and ice |
| atmosphere | The outermost sphere is the atmosphere, the mixture of gases that surrounds the plane. |
| core | Earth’s dense center, made up of the solid inner core and the molten outer core; also, the central part of the sun, where nuclear fusion occurs. |
| mantle | The layer of hot, solid material between Earth’s crust and core. |
| crust | The layer of rock that forms Earth’s outer surface. |
| rock | The material that forms Earth’s hard surface. |
| geology | The study of the solid Earth. |
| map | A model of all or part of Earth’s surface as seen from above. |
| topographic map | A map that shows the surface features of an area. |
| Topographic maps provide highly accurate information on the | elevation, relief, and slope of the ground surface. |
| scale | Used to compare distance on a map or globe to distance on Earth’s surface. |
| symbols | On a map, pictures used by mapmakers to stand for features on Earth’s surface. |
| contour line | A line on a topographic map that connects points of equal elevation. |
| contour interval | The difference in elevation from one contour line to the next. |
| Global Positioning System | A method of finding latitude and longitude using satellites. |
| biome | A group of ecosystems with similar climates and organisms. |
| The six land biomes are | rain forest, desert, grassland, deciduous forest, boreal forest, and tundra. |
| It is mostly the climate conditions ... in an area that determine its biome. | temperature and rainfall |
| canopy | A leafy roof formed by tall trees |
| understory | A layer of shorter plants that grow in the shade of a forest canopy. |
| desert | An area that receives less than 25 cm of precipitation a year. |
| grassland | An area populated by grasses that gets 25 to 75 centimeters of rain each year. |
| savanna | A grassland close to the equator. |
| deciduous trees | Trees that shed their leaves and grow new ones each year. |
| hibernation | A low-energy state similar to sleep that some mammals enter in the winter. |
| coniferous trees | Trees that produce their seeds in cones and have needle-shaped leaves. |
| tundra | An extremely cold, dry biome. |
| permafrost | Soil that is frozen all year. |
