Sphere Interactions
What are the four spheres?
Hydrosphere, Biosphere, Geosphere, and Atmosphere
What is a natural feature?
A part of Earth that is not made by people
What are tectonic plates?
Large masses of Earth's crust that are floating on top of the mantle
What is sediment?
What are the two types of weathering?
Mechanical and Chemical
What is one way the geosphere might interact with the hydrosphere?
Water can cause erosion and weathering of rocks. This can be caused by it flowing over rocks, or freezing in cracks.
What are the two categories we sort natural features into?
Where do most mountains, earthquakes, and volcanoes happen? Why?
Along the borders of tectonic plates because the plates are moving and causing changes to Earth's crust.
What is the definition of erosion?
What is mechanical weathering and what is an example?
Rocks breaking down by a physical action, such as water freezing and thawing in cracks, or plant roots breaking through.
What is one way the geosphere might interact with the atmosphere?
Wind can cause weathering and erosion, smoothing rocks over time.
What is a plateau?
A high, flat area of land
What is a divergent boundary?
A place where the plates move apart, usually on the ocean floor
What is the definition of weathering?
When rocks get broken down by water, wind, or other factors.
What is chemical weathering and what is an example?
Chemical weathering is when rocks are broken down by chemical changes, such as acid rain or rust.
Does the biosphere need the other spheres? Do the other spheres need the biosphere?
Yes and yes! Living things need air, water, and shelter. Living things also change the way the other spheres behave and interact, such as changing what amounts of different gases are in the air or the path water flows on.
What is a bay?
A body of water that is mostly surrounded by land but has an opening out to the ocean
What is a convergent boundary?
Where tectonic plates come together, often forming mountains.
What are the three kinds of rocks?
How does weathering cause landforms to change over time?
Why do we need to understand the different spheres?
So we understand the interactions that shape our world. When we understand how the world works, we can make better choices about how we care for and interact with the Earth.
Why is it important to understand Earth's natural features?
So we can understand how they form and change over time, and how they can be useful to us.
What is a transform boundary?
A place where tectonic plates slide past each other
What is the difference between weathering and erosion, and how do they work together?
Weathering breaks rocks down, and erosion moves them. Both things happen to rocks and often happen at the same time to change landforms.
Why do we need to understand how landforms change over time?
It helps us understand the changes Earth has previously gone through, and the changes we can expect to see in the future.