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"geography wilsonm2
World Geography Vocabulary Chapter 2
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Solar system | consists of the sun and nine known planets As well as other celestial bodies that orbit the sun |
| Continent | a landmass above the water on the earth |
| Core | the earth’s center, made up of iron and nickel; the inner core is solid, and outer core is liquid. |
| Mantel | a rock layer about 1,800 miles thick that is between the earth’s crust and the earth’s core |
| Magma | the molten rock material formed when solid rock in the earth’s mantle or crust melts |
| Crust | the thin rock layer making up the earth’s surface |
| Atmosphere | the layers of gases immediately surrounding the earth |
| Lithosphere | the solid rock portion of the earth’s surface |
| Hydrosphere | the waters comprising the earth’s surface, including oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, and vapor in the atmosphere |
| Biosphere | all the parts of the earth where plants and animals live, including the atmosphere, the lithosphere, and the hydrosphere |
| Continental drift | they hypothesis that all continents were once joined into a super continent that split apart over millions of years. |
| Hydrologic cycle | the continuous circulation of water among the atmosphere, the oceans, and earth |
| Drainage basin | an area drained by a major river and its tributaries |
| Ground water | the water held under the earth’s surface, often in and around the pores of rock. |
| Water table | the level at which rock is saturated |
| Landform | a naturally formed feature on the surface of the earth. |
| Continental shelf | the earth’s surface from the edge of a continent to the deep part of the ocean |
| Relief | the difference in elevation of a landform from the lowest point to the highest point |
| Topography | the combined characteristics of landforms and their distribution in a region |
| Tectonic plate | an enormous moving shelf that forms the earth’s crust |
| Fault | a fracture in the earth’s crust |
| Earthquake | a sometimes violent movement of the earth, produced when tectonic plates grind or slip past each other at a fault. |
| Seismography | a device that measures the size of the waves created by an earthquake |
| Epicenter | the point on the earth’s surface that corresponds to the location in the earth where an earthquake begins |
| Richter scale | a way to measure information collected by seismographs to determine the relative strength of an earthquake |
| Tsunami | a giant ocean wave, caused by an underwater earthquake or volcanic eruption, with great destructive power |
| Volcano | a natural event, formed when magma, gases, and water from the lower part of the crust of mantle collect in underground chambers and eventually erupt and pour out of cracks in the earth’s surface |
| Lava | magma that has reached the earth’s surface |
| Ring of Fire | the chain of volcanoes that lines the Pacific Rim |
| Weathering | physical and chemical processes that change the characteristics of rock on or near the earth’s surface, occurring slowly over many years. |
| Sediment | small pieces of rock produced by weathering process |
| Mechanical weathering | natural processes that break rock into smaller pieces |
| Chemical weathering | a process that changes rock into a new substance through interactions among elements in the air or water and the minerals in the rock |
| Erosion | the result of weathering on matter, created by the action of wind, water, ice, or gravity |
| Delta | a fan-like landform made of deposited sediment, left by a river that slows as it enters the ocean. |
| Loess | wind-blown silt and clay sediment that produces very fertile soil |
| Glacier | a large, long-lasting mass of ice that moves because of gravity |
| Glaciation | the changing of landforms by slowly moving glaciers |
| Moraine | a ridge or hill of rock carried and finally deposited by a glacier |
| Humus | organic material in soil |
| Chaparral | the term, in some locations, for a biome of drought-resistant trees |
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