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APES Unit 4B Vocab
For APES Quiz
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Crust | The thin and solid outermost layer of the Earth above the mantle. |
| Divergent boundary | A tectonic plate boundary where two plates move away from each other. |
| Earthquake | Sudden and violent shaking of the ground, sometimes causing great destruction, as a result of movements within the earth's crust. |
| Erosion | The process by which wind, water, ice, or gravity transports soil and sediment from one location to another. |
| Fault | A crack in the earth's crust where earthquakes occur. |
| Hot spots | Places in the middle of tectonic plates where molten material from the mantle reaches the surface. |
| Leaching | Process in which various chemicals in upper layers of soil are dissolved and carried to lower layers. |
| Lithosphere | The rigid outer layer of the earth that floats on the asthenosphere. |
| Loam | Soil with an equal mixture of sand, silt, and clay that is ideal for agriculture. |
| Mantle | The hot, mostly solid, layer of the Earth between the core and crust. |
| Parent material | The base geological material in a particular location from which the inorganic parts of soil are derived. |
| Permeability | The ability of a rock or sediment to let fluids flow through its open spaces. |
| pH | A scale from 0-14 that is a measure of the hydrogen ion concentration in a substance, with lower values being acidic and higher values being alkaline or basic. |
| Plate boundary | The region where two tectonic plates meet. |
| Plate tectonics | The theory that pieces of Earth's lithosphere are in constant motion, driven by convection currents in the mantle. |
| Porosity | A measure of how much of a rock is open space, which allows it to hold water. |
| Sand | The coarsest size of soil particles. |
| Seafloor spreading | The formation of new ocean crust as a result of magma pushing upward and outward from Earth's mantle to the surface. |
| Silt | The intermediate size of soil particles. |
| Soil | A mixture of inorganic rock fragments, organic material, living organisms, water, and gases that can support the growth of plants. |
| Soil horizons | Horizontal layers of soil with differing characteristics such as color and texture. |
| Soil profile | A vertical section of soil that shows all of the horizons that make up the soil in a particular place. |
| Soil texture | Relative amounts of the different types and sizes of mineral particles in a sample of soil. |
| Stratification | The process in which sedimentary rocks are arranged in layers of deposited minerals. |
| Tectonic plates | Sections of the Earth's lithosphere that move due to convection currents in the asthenosphere below. |
| Transform boundary | A tectonic plate boundary where two plates move past each other in opposite directions. |
| Volcano | A fissure in the earth's crust that allows magma as well as gases to reach the surface. |
| Weathering | The breaking down by wind, water, or chemical means, of rocks on the Earth's surface. |
| Humus | Rich, dark organic material formed by decay of vegetable matter, essential to soil's fertility |
| convergent plate boundary | A tectonic plate boundary where two plates collide, come together, or crash into each other. |
| subduction zone | The region where oceanic plates sink down into the asthenosphere. |
| clay | the finest soil, made up of particles that are less than 0.002 mm in diameter. |
| ore | a rock that contains a large enough concentration of a mineral making it profitable to mine |
| Tsunami | A huge destructive wave (especially one caused by an earthquake) |
| Mountaintop removal | A mining technique in which the entire top of a mountain is removed with explosives |
| Subsurface mining | The extraction of mineral and energy resources from deep underground deposits. |
| Strip mining | involves the removal of the Earth's surface all the way down to the level of the mineral seam. |
| Placer mining | the process of looking for minerals, metals, and precious stones in river sediments |
| Desertification | Degradation of land, especially in semiarid areas, primarily because of human actions like excessive crop planting, animal grazing, and tree cutting. |
| Soil Salinization | in arid regions, irrigation water evaporates, leaving salts behind |
| Tailings | Rock and other waste materials removed as impurities when waste mineral material is separated from the metal in an ore. |
| Slag | stony waste matter separated from metals during the smelting or refining of ore. |
| Soil Compaction | When soil is pressed down tightly resulting in the removal of air pockets; therefore not allowing water to penetrate or plants to grow. |
| Soil nutrients | an inorganic ion that a plant requires for normal growth and reproduction and that it acquires from the soil |
| Overburden | Layer of soil and rock overlying a mineral deposit. Surface mining removes this layer. |
| Remediation | return a contaminated area to its original state |
| Mitigation | The policy of constructing or creating man-made habitats, such as wetlands, to replace those lost to development |