Test 2 Flashcards
What is Relative Humidity?
The ratio of the amount of water vapor compared to what the air can actually hold
What is Dew point?
Temperature at which water vapor will go to water
What is Sea Breeze?
A coastal wind which occurs in the daytime; wind comes from the sea
What is a Land Breeze?
A coastal wind which occurs at night,
What is a Vortex?
A whirling mass of water, air(wind), debris, or fire; usually associated with power, force, or a storm of some nature. {plural = vortexes, or vortices}
What is a tornado?
Must lift up off the ground, against gravity; and must come in from different directions.
What are Global Winds?
World wide winds that cover entire latitudes
First type of Global Wind Patterns
Polar Easterlies-Winds at polar latitudes; 60* to 90*; generally blow from the east
2nd Major Global Wind Patterns
Prevailing Westerlies- winds in the middle latitudes; 30* to 60* ; where contiguous USA is located; generally blow from the west
3rd Major Global Wind Pattern
Trade Winds-winds located at the tropics; 0* to 30*; generally blow from the east
What is Solar Radiation?
Solar Radiation are rays from the sun
What is temperature?
Indication, by molecular movement, of the amount of thermal energy in a substance
What is conduction?
Particle to particle molecule to molecular
What is Convection?
Heat/Thermal energy travels by fluid— driven by temperature differences
What is heat?
Thermal energy— moves due to differences
What is a molecule
Distinguished from ions by their lack of electrical charge
First type of Air Mass
Originates over polar, continental region; Canada.
Second type of air mass
Cold & Moist: orginates over polar Oceanic regions; North Pacific and Atlantic
Third type of air mass
Warm & Dry: orginates over tropical, continental regions; Mexico, Arizona, and New Mexico
Fourth type of air mass
Warm & Moist: originates over tropical, oceanic regions; Gulf of Mexico
How is a thermal belt produced?
The cold tube air at surface gets very cold leaving a warming layer
What is happening to the two tubes as they relate to the cool water and the warm land?
The warm and cold air went in a similar motion as the Sea breeze
What are the two general causes of global wind patters?
Speed and convection
How did the smoke move into the different tubes?
An air mass has the same temperature and moisture content throughout the tubes. Once formed, your masses can move and carry their weather conditions to another area.
What is an earthquake?
large and sudden release of energy which causes vibrating & shaking of the earth;
occurs 90% of time along large cracks in the earth’s outer layer- crust
What is a seismograph?
Seismographs can pick up earthquake waves from around the world because earthquake waves travel through the earth and move in different directions.
What is a seismogram?
Seismographs measure the vibrations produced by an earthquake
What is an epicenter?
The epicenter of an earthquake is the earthquakes focus.
What is a fault?
Playes slide past each other
What is the crust?
divided into 2 types:
a) oceanic b) continental
discovered in 1909
What is the Mantle?
Heated Dense rock that moves up and down is in the lithosphere
Outer Core
Liquid inside of the mantle
Inner core
An iron and nickel solid in the middle of the earth
Oceanic crust
3 to 6 miles thick. 1st layer of earth underneath the ocean
Continental Crust
1st layer of earth underneath land. 3 to 6 miles thick
Lithosphere
Crust and upper most solid mantle
Asthenosphere
Hot, moves
Plate tectonics
- Convergent Plate Boundary
- Divergent Plate Boundary
- Transform Plate Boundary
Convergent Plate Boundary
- Subduction
- Uplifting
- Trench Building
Divergent plate boundary
Mid Atlantic Ridge which is new rock coming in that creates a double ridge
Transform plate boundary
San Andreas Fault in California. Plates slide past
each other; picture on pg. 183
Basalt
Oceanic rock
Granite
Continental crust
Moho Line
Boundary line between the cross and the mantal
Subduction
Ocean crust that is driven into the continental crust because the hotness goes under it, pushing it.
Uplifting
Continental plates
slamming into each other; makes mountains.
Himalayan Mountains and Mt. Everest.
Trench building
Oceanic crust
going into each other.
Ridge
An undersea geological landform where
four major plates diverge
Rift
Lithosphere is being pulled apart
What is an earthquake?
Vibrations in the earth caused by the sudden release of energy usually as a result of the movement of rock along the fault.
What is a seismograph?
An instrument that detects, recordes and measures the vibrations produced by an earthquake
What is a seismograph?
The recird made a seismograph; the paper on which earthquake waves are recorded
What is the epicenter?
The area directly above the surface
What is a fault?
Plates sliding past each other
What is a focus?
Where the earthquake starts
What is an aftershock?
Smaller earthquake that occurs after the larger earthquake
What is magnitude?
A measure of the total amount of energy released at the source (focus) of an earthquake.
Intensity
A measure of the kind of damage done in an earthquake
Body waves
An earthquake wave that travels through the body the earth rather than the surface
Surface Waves
An earthquake wave that travels on or near the surface of the earth
P-waves
Primary (compressional) earthquake wave that travels through body of the earth; so named because it is the first wave to reach a seismograph station during an earthquake.
S-waves
Slower wave, arrives after P-wave; moves perpendicular to the direction of the wave
Plates
Plate tectonics
What is the “Ring of Fire”?
Consist of a chain of earthquakes and volcanoes around the edges of the Pacific Ocean.
Why did the Charleston SC have an earthquake?
There was a fault line nearby, and the earthquake just happened to be near charlston
