| A | B |
|---|
| marsh | a tract of low wet land that is usually treeless |
| lowlands | a lower portion of land when compared to the area around it |
| plateaus | flat raised landform made up of nearly horizontal rocks that have been uplifted |
| plains | large, flat landform that often has thick fertile soil usually found in the interior region of a continent |
| organic matter | anything that is living or once living |
| climate | average weather pattern in an area over a long period of time. Classified by temp.,humidity,precipitation,and vegetation |
| glacier | large, moving masses of ice and snow that change large areas of the Earth's surface through erosion and deposition |
| cirque | valley glaciers erode bowl-shaped basins |
| moraine | till that is deposited at the end of a glacier. Here is where a ridge is piled up |
| erosion | process in which surface materials are worn away and transported from one place to another by the 5 agents |
| pores | spaces or air pockets between the pieces of sediment |
| troposphere | the portion of the atmosphere that is closest to the crust-experience weather here. |
| precipitation | water or ice that condenses in the air and falls to the ground as rain, snow, sleet or hail depending on temp. |
| humidity | the amount of water vapor held in the air |
| relative humidity | the measure of the amount of water vapor in the air, compared to the max. it can hold at a specific temp. |
| deforestation | he removal of forests, mostly to clear for farming, construction, mining and drilling for oil |
| minerals | naturally occuring inorganic solid that has a definite chemical composition and an orderly internal atomic structure |
| intrusive | describes a type of ingneous rock that generally contains large crystals and forms when magma cools slowly beneath the surface of the Earth |
| extrusive | describes fine-grained igneous rocks that form when magma cools quickly at or near the surface of the Earth |
| mid-ocean ridge | the place where new ocean floor forms |
| continental drift | Wegener's hypothesis that all continents were once connected in a large landmass that broke apart |
| Pangaea | large ancient landmass that broke apart @ 200 million years ago and drifted slowly to their current locations |
| Earthquakes | vibrations produced when rocks break apart |
| Seismic waves | a type of wave generated by an earthquake |
| Basaltic | describes dense, dark-colored igneous rock formed from magma that is rich in iron and magnesium, poor in silica |
| Granitic | generally light colored, silica rich igneous rock that is less dense than basaltic rock |
| Seismologist | a scientist who studies earthquakes and seismic waves |
| weather | the behavior of the atmosphere-wind, temp.,presure,preciptation at a particular place and time |
| loess | windblown deposit tightly packed, fine-grained sediments |
| magnitude | measure of the energy released during an earthquake |
| conduction | the transfer of heat when molecules collide |
| cemetation | sedimentary rock-forming process in which sediment grains are held together by natural cements that are produced when water moves through rock and soil |
| horizons | each layer of a soil profile A,B,C |
| sill | igneous rock feature formed when magma is squeezed into horizontal cracks between layers of rock and hardens underground |
| nitrogen | the most common gas in the air |
| rocks | a mixture of one or more minerals, rock fragments, volcanic glass, organic matter and/or other natural materials; can be igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic |
| asthenosphere | plasticlike layer of Earth on which the lithosphere plates float and move around |
| lithosphere | a rigid layer of Earth @ 100km thick, made of the crust and part of the upper mantle |
| drainage basin | land area from which a river or stream collect runoff |
| slump | a type of mass movement that occurs whena mass of materials moves down a curved slope |
| isotherms | on a weather map, a line connecting points of equal temp. |
| radiation | the transfer of energy through matter or space by electromagnetic waves |
| grooves | referring to glaciers, these occur when bedrock is gouged deeply by rock fragments that are dragged |
| profile | the three horizons make up the profile of soil |
| floodplains | a broad, flat vallye floor carved by a meandering stream and is often covered with water when the stream floods |
| elastic limit | when the buildup of stress in the Earth's crust, rocks break |
| doldrums | a windless zone near the equator of the Earth |
| magnetic field | the alignment of iron minerals in rocks |
| crater | a steep-walled depression around the volcano's vent |
| transform | slide by |
| epicenter | point on the surface of the Earth directly above the focus |
| greenhouse effect | the natural heating caused by atomospheric gases, trapping heat at the surface of the Earth |
