Geography words Chapter 3,4,5 Getis 2
Terms
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- The bowing of a large region of the earth's surface due to the movement of continents or the melting of continental glaciers.
- Warping
- Rock layers that have buckled under pressure by the movement of lithospheric plates.
- Folds
- Very large sea wave generated by an earthquake or a volcanic eruption.
- Tsunami
- Movement has been horizontal along the surface rather than upward or downward. Mountains have risen as the result of faulting.
- San Andreas fault system
- Whenever movement occures along a fault, or at another point of weakness, _____ results:
- An earthquake
-
According to the Richter Scale:
0-2:
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 -
Not felt
Felt by some
Windows rattle
Windows break
Poorly const build destroyed
Steel bends
Nearly total damage
Total destruction - The richter scale is ___, which each increment of a whole number signifies a tenfold increase in magnitude. (not graduated, its geometric)
- logarithmic
- are responsible for the reduction of land surfaces. The worn, scraped, or blown away material is deposited in new places and new landforms are created.
- Gradational processes
- Three kinds of gradational processes occure:
- weathering, mass movement, and erosion
- the breakdown and decomposition of rocks and minerals at or near the earth's surface in response to atmospheric factors is called:
- Weathering
- the physical disintegration of earth materials at or near the surface, larger rocks are broken into smaller pieces.
- Mechanical weathering
- The decomposition of earth materials because of chemical reactions that include oxidation, hydration, and carbonation.
- Chemical weathering
- The downslope movement of material due to gravity
- Mass movement (aka mass wasting)
- such as wind, water, and glaciers, carve already existing landforms into new shapes.
- Erosional agents
- sand and mud
- Alluvium
- A steep-sided, flat-bottomed gully, usually dry, carved out of desert land by rapidly flowing water.
- Arroyos
- A dry, braided channel in the desert that remains after the rush of rainfall runoff water.
- Wash
- A small, flat-topped, isolated hill with steep sides, common in dry climate regions.
- Butte
- An extensive, flat-topped elevated tableland with horizontal strata, a resistant cap rock, and one or more steep sides; a large butte.
- Mesa
- The upper limit of the saturated zone and therefore of groundwater; the top of the water within an aquifer.
- Water table
- Refers to a large limestone region marked by sinkholes, caverns, and underground streams.
- Karst topography
- a large body of ice moving slowly down a slope or spreading outward on a land surface.
- Glacier
- a permanently frozen layer of ground that can be as much as 300 meter deep.
- Permafrost
- The materials that constitute the earth's surface.
- Rocks
- amount of water vapor, degree of cloud cover, nature of the earth surface, elevation above sea level, degree & direction of air movement
- Determines the temp at any given location:
- a moment view of the lower atmosphere.
- Weather
- a description of typical weather conditions in an area or at a place over a period of time.
- Climate
- At any given place, the amount of incoming solar radiation
- Insolation
- The rate of temperature change with altitude in the troposphere
- Lapse rate
- Air at lower altitudes is cooler that air aloft
- Temperature inversion
- causes air to blow from an area of high pressure toward an area of low pressure
- Pressure gradient force
- The circulatory motion of descending cool air and ascending warm air.
- Convection System
- Airflow from the land toward the sea, resulting from a nighttime pressure gradient that moves winds from the cooler land surface to the warmer sea surface. (ex of convection system)
- Land breezes
- Airflow from the sea toward the land, resulting from a daytime pressure gradient that moves winds from the cooler sea surface onto the warmer land surface. (ex of convection system)
- Sea breezes
- The downward flow of heavy, cool air at night from mountainsides to lower valley locations.
- Mountain breezes
- The flow of air up mountain slopes during the day.
- Valley breezes
- wind veers toward the right of the direction of travel in the Northern Hemisphere and toward the left in the Southern Hemisphere.
- Coriolis effect
- Causes wind to follow an intermediate path.
- Frictional effect
- The strongest flows of upper air winds, 9-12 kilometers
- Jet streams
- A wind system that reverses direction seasonally, producing wet and dry seasons; especially in Asia.
- Monsoon
- The principle surface ocean currents of the world Map Page 99
- Ocean effects affect everything
- The most dramatic cloud formation, which is an anvil-head cloud that oftern accompanies heavy rain.
- Cumulonimbus clouds
- Low, gray clouds that appear more oftern in cooler seasons than in warmer months.
- Stratus clouds
- the very high, wispy clouds that appear in all seasons and are made entirely of ice crystals.
- Cirrus clouds
- is a percentage measure of the moisture content of the air, expressed as the amount of water vapor present relative to the maximum that can exist at the current temperature.
- Relative humidity
- When large masses of air rise, precipitation may take place in one of three types:
- convectional, orographic, or cyclonic
- Results from rising, heated, moisture-laden air.
- Convectional Precipitation
- occures as warm air is forced to rise because hills or mountains block moisture-laden winds.
- Orographic precipitation
- common to the midlatitudes where cool and warm air masses meet.
- Cyclonic (aka: frontal) precipitation
- large bodies of air with similar temperature and humidity characteristics throughout.
- Air masses
- include large areas of uniform surface and relatively consistent temperatures.
- source region
- a large system of air circulation centered on a region of low atmospheric pressure is called a midlatitude ___, which can develop into a storm.
- Cyclone
- an intense tropical cyclone, which begins in a low-pressure zone over warm waters.
- Hurricane
- The name given a hurricane in the western Pacific
- Typhoon
- Separates the cold, dry air from whatever other air is in its path.
- Front
- is the occurance of heavy snow and high winds.
- Blizzard
- the most violent and smallest of all storms characterized by a funnel-shaped cloud of whirling winds that can form beneth a cumulonimbus cloud in proxomity to a cold front and that moves at high speeds.
- Tornado
- Five major factors involved in soil formation:
- geologic, climatic, topographic, biological, and chronological.
- The El Nino condition is an example of the interaction of:
- Atmospheric pressure and ocean temperature
- moderately dry lands
- Steeps