chapter 3 key terms Flashcards
geosphere
The geosphere includes the rocks and minerals on Earth – from the molten rock and heavy metals in the deep interior of the planet to the sand on beaches and peaks of mountains. The geosphere also includes the abiotic (non-living) parts of soils and the skeletons of animals that may become fossilized over geologic time.
hydrosphere
all the waters on the earth’s surface, such as lakes and seas, and sometimes including water over the earth’s surface, such as clouds.
crust
In geology, the crust is the outermost solid shell of a rocky planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. It is usually distinguished from the underlying mantle by its chemical makeup; however, in the case of icy satellites, it may be distinguished based on its phase.
mantle
A mantle is a layer inside a planetary body bounded below by a core and above by a crust. Mantles are made of rock or ices, and are generally the largest and most massive layer of the planetary body. Mantles are characteristic of planetary bodies that have undergone differentiation by density.
core
Earth’s inner core is the innermost geologic layer of the planet Earth. It is primarily a solid ball with a radius of about 1,220 km (760 mi), which is about 20% of Earth’s radius or 70% of the Moon’s radius. There are no samples of Earth’s core accessible for direct measurement, as there are for Earth’s mantle.
lithosphere
the rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle.
asthenosphere
the upper layer of the earth’s mantle, below the lithosphere, in which there is relatively low resistance to plastic flow and convection is thought to occur.
tectonic plate
Plate tectonics is a scientific theory describing the large-scale motion of the plates making up Earth’s lithosphere since tectonic processes began on Earth between 3.3 and 3.5 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of continental drift, an idea developed during the first decades of the 20th century.
Chemical Weathering
the erosion or disintegration of rocks, building materials, etc., caused by chemical reactions (chiefly with water and substances dissolved in it) rather than by mechanical processes.
erosion
Earth’s surface features are continually altered by the action of water and wind
atmosphere
An atmosphere is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelope a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low.
troposphere
the lowest region of the atmosphere, extending from the earth’s surface to a height of about 3.7–6.2 miles (6–10 km), which is the lower boundary of the stratosphere.
stratosphere
the layer of the earth’s atmosphere above the troposphere, extending to about 32 miles (50 km) above the earth’s surface (the lower boundary of the mesosphere).
ozone
Ozone, or trioxygen, is an inorganic molecule with the chemical formula O ₃. It is a pale blue gas with a distinctively pungent smell. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope O ₂, breaking down in the lower atmosphere to O ₂
radiation
In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium.
conduction
the process by which heat or electricity is directly transmitted through a substance when there is a difference of temperature or of electrical potential between adjoining regions, without movement of the material.
convection
the movement caused within a fluid by the tendency of hotter and therefore less dense material to rise, and colder, denser material to sink under the influence of gravity, which consequently results in transfer of heat.
greenhouse effect
the trapping of the sun’s warmth in a planet’s lower atmosphere, due to the greater transparency of the atmosphere to visible radiation from the sun than to infrared radiation emitted from the planet’s surface.
water cycle
The water cycle shows the continuous movement of water within the Earth and atmosphere. … Liquid water evaporates into water vapor, condenses to form clouds, and precipitates back to earth in the form of rain and snow. Water in different phases moves through the atmosphere (transportation).Feb 1, 2019
evaporation
Evaporation happens when a liquid turns into a gas. … When liquid water reaches a low enough temperature, it freezes and becomes a solid—ice. When solid water is exposed to enough heat, it will melt and return to a liquid. As that liquid water is further heated, it evaporates and becomes a gas—water vapor.
condensation
Condensation is the change of the physical state of matter from the gas phase into the liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. The word most often refers to the water cycle
precipitation
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzling, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail.
salinity
The term “salinity” refers to the concentrations of salts in water or soils. Salinity can take three forms, classified by their causes: primary salinity (also called natural salinity); secondary salinity (also called dryland salinity), and tertiary salinity (also called irrigation salinity).
freshwater
Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid/solid water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include non-salty mineral-rich waters such as chalybeate springs.
biosphere
the regions of the surface, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the earth (or analogous parts of other planets) occupied by living organisms.
