| A | B |
|---|
| Geography | The study of earth in all its variety |
| Landform | individual features of the land |
| Environment | natural surroundings |
| Global Positioning System | group of satellites that travels around the earth which can be used to tell exact locations of the earth |
| Geographic Information System | special software that helps geographers gather and use information about a place |
| Artifact | object made by early people |
| Fossil | preserved remains or impressions of humans, animals or plants |
| Solar System | earth, 8 other planets, and thousands of smaller bodies that all revolve around the sun |
| Orbit | path that a body in the solar system travels around the sun |
| Atmosphere | layer of air surrounding the earth |
| Axis | imaginary line that runs through the earth's center between the North and South poles |
| Revolution | one complete orbit around the sun |
| Leap Year | year that has an extra day; occurs every fourth year |
| Summer Solstice | day with the most hours of sunlight and the fewest hours of darkness |
| Winter Solstice | day with the fewest hours of sunlight |
| Equinox | day when day and night are of equal length in both hemispheres |
| Core | center of the earth, formed of hot iron mixed with other metals |
| Mantle | rock layer about 1,800 miles thick between the earth's core and crust |
| Magma | hot, melted rock that sometimes flows to the earth's surface in a volcanic eruption |
| Crust | uppermost layer of the earth |
| Continent | massive land area |
| Plate Tectonics | theory that the earth's crust is not an unbroken shell but consists of plates, or huge slabs of rock, that move |
| Earthquake | violent and sudden movement of the earth's crust |
| Tsunami | huge sea wave caused by an earthquake on the ocean floor |
| Fault | crack in the earth's crust |
| Weathering | natural process that breaks surface rocks into boulders, gravel, sand and soil |
| Erosion | process of wearing away or moving weathered material on the earth's surface |
| Glacier | giant slow-moving sheets of ice |
| Elevation | height above sea level |
| Plain | low-lying stretch of flat or gently rolling land |
| Plateau | flat land with higher elevation than a plain |
| Isthmus | narrow piece of land that connects two larger pieces of land |
| Peninsula | piece of land with water on three sides |
| Island | body of land smaller than a continent and surrounded by water |
| Continental Shelf | plateau off each coast of a continent that lies under the ocean and stretches for several miles |
| Trench | valley in the ocean floor |
| Strait | narrow body of water between two pieces of land |
| Channel | body of water wider than a strait between two pieces of land |
| Delta | area formed from a soil deposit located at the mouth of a river |
