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Earth Sc. Regents R
Earth Science Regents Review (Mostly Vocab.)
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Polaris | The North Star; It's altitude in the sky(above the horizon)= the latitude the observer is at;Directly above the North Pole. |
| Rotation | The turning of a body (like the Earth of Moon) on its axis. |
| Revolution | The movement of one body around another, like the Earth in orbit around the Sun. |
| Anemometer | An instrument that measures wind speed. |
| Meander | Broad, looping bends in a river. |
| Radioactive Decay | The process by which radioactive isotopes emit or capture tiny particles. |
| Tsunami | A very fast, large ocean wave caused by an earthquake, volcanic eruption, or landslide on the ocean floor. |
| Celestial | Something in space such as a planet, asteroid, or star. |
| Absolute Age | The actual date or age of an event in number of years. |
| Relative Age | How old something is, or when something occured, relative to another event. (for example, it is older or younger than something else.) |
| Cyclic | Something that repeats regularly and predictably, such as the ocean tides or the rotation of the Earth. |
| Terrestrial (Planets) | The FIRST 4 planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars. These planets are smaller than the rest and are rocky. |
| Igneous Rock | Rock formed when molten rock (lava or magma) cools to a solid. |
| Sedimentary Rock | Rock formed by compaction and cementation of sediments, or precipitation of minerals from water or evaporation of water. |
| Metamorphic Rock | A rock that forms from changes in previously existing rock, due to heat or pressure. |
| Lava | Melted rock on Earth's surface. |
| Magma | Melted rock below Earth's surface (in the ground). |
| The magnitude of an earthquake... | a measure of the amount of energy released by an earthquake. Measured on the Richter or Moment Magnitude scale. |
| Dew | Water vapor that condenses to liquid water on a surface. |
| Oceanic crust | A part of EArth's crust that is usually below the oceans. Thinner and more dense than continental crust made of basaltic rock. |
| Transform Plate Boundaries | A boundary in which places slide side-to-side past each other. |
| Asteroid | A large, solid, rock-like mass that revolves around the sun. |
| Evolution | The process of change that produces new life forms over time. |
| Luminosity | A measure of how bright a star would appear compared to the Sun if it were the same distances from Earth as the Sun. |
| Foucault Pendulum | Evidence for the Earth's rotation. A pendulum that swings from a ceiling. Over the course of day, the path that the pendulum takes appears to move. In reality, the pendulum is swinging in the same direction, but the Earth is rotating below it. |
| Nebula | Clouds of dust and gas in space. When gravity cause these clouds to clump, stars are born. |
| Zenith | The point in the sky directly above an observer. |
| Luster | The property of a mineral that describes how light is reflected from it (ex. Metallic, Shiny, Dull). |
| Nuclear Fusion | The combining of nuclei of atoms to form a heavier element, releasing a great amount of energy. The source of energy from stars. |
| Transpiration | Water vapor released by plants. |
| Velocity | The speed of something. |
| Erosion | When sediment is moved by wind, water, or ice. |
| Deposition | When sediment is released or dropped. (Think D:eposition and D:ropped BOTH D's.) |
| Insolation | INcoming SOLar radiATION: the solar energy received by Earth. |
| Universe | Everything that exists-all matter, time, energy, and space. The LARGEST thing there is. |
| Weathering | The breakdown of rocks near Earth's surface. |
| Capillarity | The attractive force between soil particles and water. (Think: you need to put a CAP on your WATER bottle or else DIRT will stick or attract to it.) |
| Half life | The time it takes for half of the atoms in a sample of a radioactive element to decay. (Think: HALF of them will die or decay in their LIFE. |
| Isotherms | A line drawn on a weather map through places having the same temperature. (Think: IsoTHERMS are in THERMometers so therefore, think temperatures. |
| Troposphere | The lower layer of the Earth's atmosphere contains most of the water vapor and weather occurs in this layer. (Think: in TROPical areas, there's water and beatiful WEATHER here.) |
| Dew Point | The temperature that the air has to drop to in order for condensation (water vapor turning to liquid) to occur. (Think: Look in your Reference Table it's on that chart!) |
| Sea-Floor Spreading | The idea that oceanic crust spreads outward, allowing magma to rise up between the plates forming new sea floor at mid-ocean ridges. (Think: to yourself, just picture what it would be; basically common sense with MAGMA ;).) |
| Solar System | Stars (such as our Sun), and all of the planets, asteroids, and other objects that rotate around it. What all of these objects are in! |
| Red Shift | A shift in light towards the red end of the spectrum that in seen when the source of light is moving away from the observer. Red shift seen from the stars shows that these stars are moving away from us and that the universe is expanding. |
| Absorption | When something (such as radiation) is taken into a material. (Black= absorbs the heat; White= reflects it; Think: when you're outside you're going to be hot in black clothes.) |
| Kettle Lake | A lake formed when a large block of ice buried in glacial sediments melts, leaving a depression that becomes filled with water.(Think: a kettle HOLDS water therefore this DEPRESSION or indentation will HOLD water.) |
| Drumlin | A low, long, narrow, streamlined oval mound of unsorted sediment that is formed at the bottom of glaciers. The steeper side of the hill points in the direction that the glacier came from. The gradual side points where it was moving. |
| Relative Humidity | The ratio of the amount of water vapor in the air to the maximum amount it can hold. (It's in your REFERENCE TABLES; follow the formula in the title of the chart in your ESRT) |
| Discharge | The volume of water that passes a certain spot in a stream in a specific amount of time. (Think: if you DISCHARGE an army, or dispatch them, you need to let them know WHERE to go, you need to know HOW MANY of them go, to GET there before your opponents.) |
| Mountain | An area of high elevation compared to the area around it. Its internal rocks are folded or distorted. (COMMON SENSE PEOPLE) |
| Plain | A landscape with a low elevation and flat, horizontal rock layers. (Think: if this is tricky, just remember a sheet of printer paper is PLAIN because it's flat.) |
| Plateau | A landscape of relatively high elevation composed of flat, horizontal rock layers. (Think: in a sport, if someone PLATEAU'S, it means they can't do any better so they stay at that height; They rise, rise, until they plateau.) |
| Conduction | The transfer of heat from molecule to molecule when two masses are touching. (Think: of those labs in elementary school when you had to see what CONDUCTed electricity, it was usually HEATED.) |
| Convection | The transfer of heat energy by circulatory movement of a fluid. (a liquid or gas) |
| Radiation | Energy transfer through electromagnetic waves. The only way heat can be transferred through empty space. (Think: RADIATion and a RADIATor are heat. The sun RADIATES heat or gives off RADIATION.) |
| Seismic Waves | The energy waves given off by an earthquake. (The scribbly lines on the Seismic Graph are the Seismic Waves.) |
| Seismograph | An instrument used to detect and record seismic or earthquake waves. (Think: a GRAPH is used to STORE data so this thing is storing data called seismic waves.) |
| Unconformity | A buried eroded surface causing a break or gap in the rock record. (Think: the UN in the word means to undo, and if you undo something you lose it... making a GAP in the RECORDs, specifically in this case, the ROCK RECORDS.) |
| Barometer | An instrument used to measure air pressure. (Think: when you stick your arm out the window in a car, it's a BAR and the faster you're going, the more pressure will be put on the so called "BAR" that's your arm.) |
| Front (Frontal Boundary) | The boundary between two air masses of different characteristics. (Think: the air masses are going "head-to-head" so they're BOTH facing FRONT.) |
| Subduction | When one tectonic plate sinks underneath another. (Think: when you SUBmerge something it's going UNDER something else, in this case, a tectonic plate SUBmerges UNDER another.) |
| Faulting | When rock layers are cracked and moved. (Think: when you fault in a sport, it usually means you did something WRONG so therefore, in this case, the rock layer FAULTED or broke in a way.) |
| Mass Movement | Erosion and deposition done directly by gravity, such as a landslide. (It's pretty much common sense on a slide! It's a MASS or big MOVEMENT by someway or form) |
| Ocean Trench | The long, steep, narrow depression produced by the bending down of subducting plates. (Picture: Finding Nemo, when they go in the scary trench!) |
| Cleavage | The tendency of a mineral to break along flat planes of weakness. (When a rock CLEAVES it breaks evenly, in such case, my teacher said it's as if someone took a knife and sliced it so it looks like you sliced butter.) |
| Fracture | When mierals break along uneven surfaces (Think: When a bone FRACTURES it breaks in pieces that are UNEVEN) |
| Steak | The color of the powder of a mineral left when it is rubbed on a porcelain plate. (Think: when something is streaky, it leaves behind a color or something to tell what it is.) |
| Epicenter | The place on Earth's surface directly above where an earthquake occurs (directly above the focus). (Think: it's epiCENTER it's the CENTER of the earthquake.) |
| S-waves | Earthquakewaves that move in a sidetoside motion.(Think:side to side and S-waves are all S's.)Are slower than P-waves.(Think S is for SLOW so they're SLOWER than Pwaves.)Cannot travel through liquids. Also called Secondary Waves. (Both S's.) |
| P-waves | Earthquake waves that move ina "push-pull" motion.(Push Pull=P-waves; all P's.)Are the fastest earthquake waves. Can travel through any material; solid, liquid gas. Also called Primary Waves.(Think: P-waves=Primary and are the FIRST or FASTEST.) |
| Hurricane | A large, strong, cyclonic storm that forms over tropical ocean waters with winds over 74mph.(Think: of all the devastating Hurricanes like Katrina, etc. all those videos are from the water! So therefore they formed over waters.) |
| Tornado | A small, narrow, cyclonic storm with very high wind speeds and a twisting funnel. They usually form from thunder; cumulonimbus clouds. (Remember: they're on GROUND not water.) |
| Hot Spot | Major regions of volcanic activity that are usually in the interior of tectonic plates away from plate boundaries. (Think: if something is the HOT SPOT, it's the best place to go.So in this case, the best, or major regions of volcanic activity to occur!) |
| Greenhouse Gases | Gases that absorb long-wave infrared radiation in the atmosphere,warming the atmosphere. Includes CO2,water vapor,and CH4=Methane(Think:in a greenhouse,all the heat gets trapped... so therefore, these gases need to beTRAPPEDbecause theyre bad to the env.) |
| Isoline | A line used on a map (field) that connects points of equal value. (Think: EASY; ISOtherms have isoLINES... and a LINE is, well, common sense, a straight mark.) |
| Flood Plain | An almost level plain that borders a stream that is subject to flooding.(Pretty much common sense; when water FLOODs, it's on a PLAIN or almost plain piece of land.) |
| Coriolis Effect | The defelection of winds and ocean currents to the right in the N. hemisphere and left in the S. hemisphere. Provides evidence of Earth's rotation. (Think: since the earth is spinning, the winds and currents will spin also, or they will ROTATE.) |
| Latitude | Horizontal lines that measure distance north or south of the equator. (Think: latitude are lines or steps on a LAdder that are horizontal.) |
| Longitude | Vertical lines that measure distance east or west of the Prime Meridian. (Think: if something/someone is a LONG in jean sizes, they need to expand their pants vertically or up and down because they have LONG legs.) |
| Milky Way | The spiral-shaped galaxy that Earth and our solar system are part of. (Think: ever hear people say, "The Milky Way Galaxy"? Well this is it... it's where WE live!) |
| Galaxy | A large group of millions to billions of stars held together by gravity. (Visualize: the Milky Way Galaxy is a spiral or a fan-like place on which we live upon.) |
| Geocentric model | An early concept of space in which Earth was at the center and all objects rotated around Earth. (Think: in latin, GEO=Earth and CENTtric:think CENTER. Therefore, picture EARTH being the CENTER of all objects.) |
| Heliocentric Model | The modern concept of space in which Earth and the other planets revolve around the Sun. (Think: the Greek root, "Helio"=Sun. CENTric again, think CENTER. Therefore, if you put 2and2 together, HELIOCENTric is when the SUN is the CENTER of all objects.) |
| Condensation | When a gas changes to a liquid, for example, water vapor turning into liquid water.(Ex. WHEN IT RAINS FOLKS!!! THE CLOUDS ARE CONDENSATING!) |
| Evaporation | When a liquid turns into a gas.(Ex. when you boil water, the steam that comes from your pot is some of the water from the pan EVAPORATING into the air!) |
| Convergent | Two things coming together for example, two tectonic plates pushing towards each other. (Think: when something CONVERGES, it's meeting or COMING TOGETHER.) |
| Divergent | Two things moving apart for an example, two tectonic plates moving away from each other. (Think: when something DIVERGES, they're moving apart. Di=latin word for apart(I'm pretty sure anyways ;).) |
| Density | The concentration of mass in an object; how much mass there is in a certain volume= mass/volume. (To remember the formula, draw a heart with a line through it!) |
| Asthenosphere | The plastic, partly solid, and partly liquid layer of Earth's mantle. Just below the lithosphere that allows the plates to move. (Think: Asthenosphere=the opposite of Authentic which is fake; sometimes things that are fake, are plastic. BOTH A's) |
| Saturation | Being filled to capacity for ex., soil that cannot hold anymore water, or air at 100% relative humidity. (Think: when something is saturated, it's FULL of something, and cannot hold anymore.) |
| Permeability | The degree to which a material (such as soil) will allow fluids (such as water) to move through it. How fast water moves through soil.(Whether it's worded permeABLE or permeABILITY, think about how fast WATER has the ABILITY to move through a material.) |
| Impermeable | A material in which liquid (such as water) cannot move through. (If you know what PERMEABLE is, it's THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE.) |
| Runoff | Water flowing on Earth's surface. When precipitation is not absorbed into the ground, it may do this.(Visualize: the water is RUNning OFF the land.) |
| Porosity | The % of open space (pores and cracks) in a material compared to its total volume. It is NOT affected by particle size, only shape and amount of packing. (Think: the pores on your face are open space compared to the rest of it.) |
| Infiltration | Water sinking or seeping into the ground due to gravity. (Think: when an army infiltrates another, they go into their grounds and wage war. They go into...) |
| Precipitation | Falling liquid or solid water from clouds to Earth's surface. (If you don't know what this is, you should go back to 3rd grade. BUT ex. are rain, snow, sleet and hail.) |
| Cementation | The process by which solid sediments are "glued" together by minerals to form sedimentary rocks.(Think: of cement; it's a mixture of rocks and cement.) |
| Metamorphism | The process by which heat and/or pressure can change previously existing rock into metamorphic rocks.(Think: to metamorph something, is to change it from its original, or to morph it.) |
| Contact Metamorphism | When older rocks come into contact with magma or lava and the heat changes the older rock along the line of contact into metamorphic rock. (Think: When a rock comes in CONTACT with the magma, it metamorphs or changes its original rock.) |
| Regional Metamorphism | When metamorphic rock is formed over a large region due to heat and pressure caused by tectonic plate movement.(Think: usually a region is a LARGE area, and METAMORPHISM is heat and pressure.) |
| Solar Eclipse | When the moon blocks out part or all of the Sun's view. It can only occur during the New Moon phase, when the moon is between the Sun and Earth.(Think: SOLAR=Sun, and ECLIPSE=to OBSCURE and obscure means to KEEP FROM; so all together, a Solar Eclipse.) |
| Lunar Eclipse | When the moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the mood the briefly appear dark. It can only occur during the full moon phase, when the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon.(Think: Lunar=Moon and Eclipse=to KEEP FROM; so all together,LunarEclipse.) |
| Index Fossil | A fossil used for relative dating rocks. Must have lived for a short time and have been distributed over a large geographic area.(Think: of an index in book; it's showing where information or DATA is at a certain place,also within that particular page.) |
| Gravitational Force/Gravity | The force that exists between any 2 objects in the universe.The strength of the force increases with the size of the objects and is stronger, the closer they are to each other.(Why things don't float:because Gravity is holding them down with that force.) |
| Jovian Planets | Jupiter,Saturn,Uranus,&Neptune.The outerplanets of our solarsystem that are larger than the inner planets and mostly made of gases.(Think:JOVIAN strts w/ J& so does Jupiter,so it's the beginning of the Jov. plnts.Incld the rest(-Pluto bc it's not a plnt.) |
| Sorted | A deposit of sediments that are similar in size. (Think: if something is SORTED, they're grouped together in similar characteristics, in this case, SIZE.) |
| Clastic | A rock that is made of PIECES of other rock, organic material, etc.(Think: pLASTIC is not real, so think the opposite of pLASTIC is real, or ORGANIC. So...a clastic rock has organic bits.) |
| Delta | A deposit of sediment at the end of a river or stream,where it flows into a still body of water.(Think:the symbol for Delta=triangle;to draw one, you start at the top, and draw your lines outward;the sediments start at the top of the delta,or triangle.) |
| Moraine | A mound of unsorted, unlayered sediment deposited directly from a glacier.(Think: MORaine means they are trying to expand or have MORE of their sediment elongate, or stretch out.) |
| Escarpment | A steep slope or cliff. (I've never heard this word used in my entire life, so I wouldn't worry about it :).) |
| Glacier | A large mass of naturally formed ice on land that moves downhill due to gravity. (Think: GLAss is similar in appearance to sheets of ice, which are GLACiers.) |
| Psychrometer | An instrument used to measure the amount of water vapor in the air, or humidity. |
| Elliptical | Something that has the shape of an ellipse, or an oval. (Think: of an Elliptical in a gym; it's not moving in an exact circular motion, it's more of an oval motion.) |
| Specific Heat | The heat required to raise the temperature of the unit mass of a given substance by a given amount(usually one degree). |
| Watershed | The area of land drained by any one stream. Also called drainage area, or drainage basin. (Visualize: In your shower, someone with long hair will SHED the WATER by squeezing it from your hair and it'll go down the one and only drain in your tub.) |
| Igneous Intrusion | A mass of igneous rock formed when melted rock (magma) squeezes or melts into preexisting rocks. (Visualize: the IGNEOUS INTRUSION is so hot that is cuts through the OLD rocks; so it's the newest.) |
| Characteristic | A distinguishing feature or quality that can be used to describe something. (Pretty sure you already know this... I don't know why it's on here but it's better than not putting it on!) |
| Duration | The amount of time something takes or occurs for. (Ex. someone saying, "a DURATION of time" meaning the amount of time it took to do something.) |
| Accumulation | An increase or growth in something by continuously or repeatedly adding to it. (Think: when someone ACCUMULATE's something, they're adding to something.) |
| Transparency | How easily light, or another form of electromagnetic energy, can pass through something. (Visualize: If something is transparent, like a sheer(light or see-through) piece of cloth, a lot of light can shine through.) |
| Process | A series of actions that lead to a result. (Ex. Erosion: the PROCESS of it was that water sunk into the ground causing it to erode.) |
| Evidence | The material or data that can help to prove something. (In a crime scene, you NEED evidence to prove what went on in the case.) |
| Inference | An interpretation of an observation. (In simpler words, it's what you THINK the outcome will be based on your explanation as of why it's your outcome.) |
| Classification | Arranging a group of things into categories based on shared characteristics. |
| Observation | The perception of some aspect of the environment by one or more of the senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, or smell: without scientific instruments.(If-then-because-statement.) |
| Elevation | The vertical distance or height above or below sea level. (BASICALLY,how high or low something is to the ground.) |
| Horizon | The line at which the Earth's surface and the sky appear to meet. |
| Retention | When something continues to hold something. Ex. water that is held in soil and not drained out. Such that of a pond or lake. |
| Altitude | The angle that a celestial object appears above the horizon OR how high something is above the Earth's surface, such as the height of a mountain. (Altitude and Elevation are the same thing!:).) |
| Apparent | How something appears. For an example, the sun APPEARS to move across the sky each day(when really WE(Earth) are the ones revolving and rotating around the sun) |
| Contraction | When something gets smaller because its pieces move closer together.(Ex. when your muscles contract, they appear to be smaller, when really, they are the same.) |
| Probable | Likely to be the case, or likely to happen. (PROBABLY) |
| Observer | A person or thing who is watching something. (Ex. someone how sees Polaris in the sky is an observer) |
| Parallelism | When two things are side by side and always the same distance from one another. They're PARALLEL. |
| Extensive | Large in amount or scale. |
| Perpendicular | Crossing at a right-angle (90 degrees) |
| Displacement | When something's position is moved. It is DISPLACED. |
| Angle of Incidence/Angle of Insolation | The angle at which the Sun's rays hit the Earth's surface.(The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection(or the angle as to which the human eye can see the rays.)) |
| Orbit | The path of an object revolving around another object, such as the path of the Earth around the Sun. |
| Eccentricity | How oval an ellipse it, or how far it is from a perfect circle. The higher the value, the LESS circular the shape is. |
| Refraction | The change in speed and direction of waves when they pass through a material, bending the waves.(Ex. putting a pencil in a glass of water; seeing how the picture of the pencil is distorted from the picture of the pencil outside the water.) |
| Reflection | When waves bounce off of a surface at the same angle that they hit them. (Ex. a mirror) |
| Abrasion | The physical action of scraping,rubbing,grinding away rock surfaces by other pieces of rock carried by water,wind,or ice(Think:of when someone has an abrasion, they wear away part of their skin,resulting in a scrape bc they scraped it from falling, etc.) |
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