| A | B |
|---|
| Habitat | An environment that provides the things a specific organism needs to live, grow, and reproduce. |
| Ground Water | Water that fills the cracks and spaces in underground soil and rock layers. |
| Water Cycle | The continual movement of water among Earth’s atmosphere, oceans, and land surface through evaporation, condensation, and precipitation. |
| Evaporation | The process by which molecules at the surface of a liquid absorb enough energy to change to a gas. |
| Precipitation | Any form of water that falls from clouds and reaches Earth’s surface as rain, snow, sleet, or hail. |
| Tributary | A stream or river that flows into a larger river. |
| Watershed | The land area that supplies water to a river system. |
| Divide | A ridge of land that separates one watershed from another. |
| Reservoir | A lake that stores water for human use. |
| Eutrophication | The buildup over time of nutrients in freshwater lakes and ponds that leads to an increase in the growth of algae. |
| Unsaturated Zone | The layer of rocks and soil above the water table in which the pores contain air as well as water. |
| Saturated Zone | The area of permeable rock or soil in which the cracks and pores are totally filled with water. |
| Water table | The top of the saturated zone, or depth to the groundwater under Earth’s surface. |
| Aquifer | An underground layer of rock or sediment that holds water. |
| Artisan Well | A well in which water rises because of pressure within the aquifer. |
| Salinity | The total amount of dissolved salts in a water sample. |
| Seamount | A steep-sided volcanic mountain rising from the deep-ocean floor. |
| Trench | A deep, steep-sided canyon in the ocean floor. |
| Continental Slope | A steep incline of the ocean floor leading down from the edge of the continental shelf. |
| Continental Shelf | A gently sloping, shallow area of the ocean floor that extends outward from the edge of a continent. |
| Abyssal Plane | A smooth, nearly flat region of the deep ocean floor. |
| Wave | A disturbance that transfers energy from place to place. 2. The movement of energy through a body of water. |
| Wave length | The distance between two corresponding parts of a wave, such as the distance between two crests. |
| Frequency | The number of complete waves that pass a given point in a certain amount of time. |
| Wave height | The vertical distance from the crest of a wave to the trough. |
| Tsunami | A giant wave usually caused by an earthquake beneath the ocean floor. |
| Longshore Drift | The movement of water and sediment down a beach caused by waves coming in to shore at an angle |
| Rip Current | A strong, narrow current that flows briefly from the shore back toward the ocean through a narrow opening |
| Groin | A wall made of rocks or concrete that is built outward from a beach to reduce erosion |
| Current | A large stream of moving water that flows through the oceans. |
| Coriolis effect | The effect of Earth’s rotation on the direction of winds and currents. |
| Climate | The average annual conditions of temperature, precipitation, winds, and clouds in an area. |
| El Nino | An abnormal climate event that occurs every two to seven years in the Pacific Ocean, causing changes in winds, currents, and weather patterns for one to two years |
| La Nina | A climate event in the Pacific that typically bring colder than normal winters and greater precipitation to the Pacific Northwest and the north central USA |
| Transpiration | The process by which water is lost through a plant's leaves |
| Permeable | Characteristic of a material that contains connected air spaces, or pores, that water can seep through easily |
| Impermeable | Characteristic of materials, such as clay and granite, through which water does not easily pass |
