Chapter 2 Flashcards
Meat are the sun and nine other planets, as well as other celestial bodies orbiting the sun, known as?
The solar system
What is a landmass above water on earth?
Continent
What is the center of the earth, made up of iron and nickel, known as?
The core
What is the layer surrounding the core?
Mantle
What is magma?
Molten rock
What is the thin layer of rock at the earth’s surface?
Crust
What is the layer of gases surrounding the earth?
Atmosphere
What is the solid rock portion of the earth’s surface?
Lithosphere
What are the water elements on earth?
Hydrosphere
What is the part of the earth where plants and animals live?
Biosphere
What is continental drift?
The movement of continents
What is the continuous cycle of water between the atmosphere, the oceans, and the earth?
Hydrologic cycle
What is an area drained by a major river and it’s tributaries?
Drainage basin
What is water held in the pores of a rock?
Groundwater
What is the level at which the rock is saturated?
The water table
What are the naturally formed features on the surface of the earth?
Landforms
What is the earth’s surface from the edge of a continent to the deep part of the ocean known as?
Continental shelf
What is the difference in elevation of a land form from its lowest point to its highest point?
Relief
What is the combination of the surface shape and composition of the landforms and their distribution in a region?
Topography
What is an enormous piece of the earth’s lithosphere known as?
Tectonic plate
What is a fracture in the earth’s crust known as?
Fault
What’s it called when plates grind or slip past each other at a fault and cause the earth to shake or tremble?
Earthquake
What is a special device used to detect earthquakes?
Seismograph
What is the point directly above the focus on the earth’s surface?
Epicenter
What tool uses info collected by seismographs to determine the relative strength of an earthquake?
The Richter scale
What is a giant wave in the ocean caused by an earthquake?
Tsunami
What is a crack in the earth’s surface from which flows lava?
Volcano
What is magma that has reached earth’s surface?
Lava
What is the zone around the rim of the Pacific Ocean where the majority of active volcanoes are located?
Ring of Fire
What are the physical and chemical processes that change the characteristics of rock on or near the earth’s surface?
Weathering
What are small pieces of rock created by weathering?
Sediment
What are the processes that break rock into smaller pieces?
Mechanical weathering
What is it called when rock is changed into a new substance, as a result of interaction between elements in the air or water and the minerals in the rock?
Chemical weathering
What is it called when weathered material is moved by the action of wind, water, ice, or gravity
Erosion
What is a fan-like deposition of sediment at the mouth of a river?
Delta
What is wind blown silt and clay sediment that produces fertile soil?
Loess
What is a large, long-lasting mass of ice that moves because of gravity?
Glacier
What is the changing of landforms by slowly moving glaciers?
Glaciation
What is a ridge or hill formed by rocks left behind a glacier?
Moraine
What is humus?
Organic material
