| A | B |
| solar energy | energy from the sun |
| revolution | one trip of Earth around the sun |
| tropics | regions close to the equator |
| Glaciers | large areas of slow-moving ice |
| surface water | water that is stored in Earth’s streams |
| precipitation | water that falls to Earth’s surface as rain |
| groundwater- | water found below Earth’s surface |
| watervapor | water that occurs in the air as an invisible gas |
| watercycle | circulation of water from Earth’s surface to the atmosphere and back |
| Landforms | shapes on Earth’s surface |
| continents | large landmasses |
| Platetectonics | theory suggesting that Earth’s surface is divided into more than |
| 12 slow-moving plates | or pieces of Earth’s crust |
| Lava | magma or liquid rock that reaches Earth’s surface |
| Earthquakes | sudden violent movements of Earth’s crust |
| Weathering | process of breaking rock into smaller pieces |
| Erosion | movement of sediment from one location to another |
| alluvial deposition | process by which rivers create floodplains and deltas when they flood and deposit sediment along the banks |
| Weather | short-term changes in the air for a given place and time |
| Climate | region’s average weather conditions over a long period |
| prevailing winds | winds that blow in the same direction over large areas of Earth |
| front(Wind) | place where two air masses of different temperature or moisture content meet |
| monsoons | winds that shift direction with the seasons and create wet and dry periods |
| savannas | areas of tall grasses and scattered trees and shrubs |
| steppes | semidry grasslands or prairies |
| permafrost | permanently frozen layers of soil |
| Natural Resource | something found in nature that is useful to humans for food energy or other |
| Nonrenewable Resource | can not be replaced example oil natural gas |
| Fossil Fuels | non renewable resources used for energy examples oil natural gas coal |
| Renewable Resource | natural resource that will naturally replace itself example fish wood |