| A | B |
|---|
| atmosphere | mixture of gases that surround the earth |
| biosphere | all the earth's organisms |
| calorie | amount of heat energy need to raise the temp. of one gram of water by one degree celcius |
| catastrophism | the concept of not being able to be explained by ordinary processes |
| conduction | process by which heat can move through solid rock, or any other solid body without changing the shape of the solid |
| convection | process by which hot, less dense materials rise upward and are replaced by cold, downward flowing and sideways flowing materials to create a convection current |
| Earth system science | science that studies the whole earth as a system of many interacting parts and focuses on the changes within and between these parts |
| erosion | rock is broken down and the products moved around |
| geothermal gradient | increase in temperature as you go deeper |
| global change | changes produced in the earth system as a result of human activities |
| hydrosphere | totality of the earth's water-exclusive of the water vapor in the atmosphere |
| hypothesis | an unproved explanation for the way things happen |
| joule | the work done when a force of one newton acts over a distance of one meter |
| scientific law | statement that some aspect of nature is always observed to happen in the same way and that no deviations have ever been seen |
| plate tectonics | the slow lateral movement of segments or plates of the earth's hard, outermost shell |
| radiation | process by which heat passes through a gas, a liquid, or even a vacuum |
| regolith | irregular blanket of loose, uncemented rock particles that cover the earth |
| rock | any naturally formed, nonliving, firm coherent aggregate mass of solid matter that covers the solid earth |
| scientific method | basis of which is the use of evidence that can be seen and tested by anyone with resources who cares to do so |
| theory | when a hypothesis has been examined and found to withstand numerous tests, scientists become more certain about it |
| principle of uniformitarianism | states that the same earth processes we recognize in action today have been operating throughout the earth's history |
| watt | 1 joule per second |
| lithosphere | solid rock portion of the earth extends from the crust(surface) to the core |
