Environmental Systems
This law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed.
What is the first law?
This layer of Earth is composed of liquid rock, which moves in convection currents.
What is the mantle?
This gas makes up approximately 78% of Earth's atmosphere.
What is nitrogen?
This process describes the movement of water from Earth's surface to the atmosphere.
What is evaporation?
This describes how well water can move through a substance.
What is porosity?
A system in which inputs equal outputs over time is said to be in this condition.
What is steady state?
This area surrounding the pacific ocean is responsible for 75% of all volcanoes, and 90% of all earthquakes.
What is the ring of fire?
The layer of the atmosphere where weather occurs.
What is the troposphere?
Groundwater is stored in these underground layers of permeable rock.
What are aquifers?
This component of soil prevents the passage of water, but is also critical in the soils "cation exchange capacity."
What is clay?
These unpaired outer electrons make carbon a great building block for biological material.
What are valence electrons?
The theory that explains the movement of Earth's lithospheric plates.
What is plate tectonics?
What are deserts?
This property of earth is responsible for the changing of the seasons.
What is the tilt?
A term to describe soil which has the ideal combination of sand, silt, and clay.
What is loam?
Earth's matter cycles within the biosphere, making it this type of system.
What is a closed system?
This geological phenomenon caused the formation of the Hawaiian islands.
What is a hotspot?
This atmospheric molecule absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
What is ozone?
This term describes the area of land where all water drains to a common reservoir.
What is a watershed?
Irrigation can lead to this type of soil loss.
What is salinization?
Melting polar ice reduces albedo, causing more warming. This is an example of this kind of feedback.
What is positive feedback?
This type of boundary occurs when one plate slides under the other, causing volcanoes, mountains, and earthquakes.
What is a convergent boundary?
The Coriolis effect causes winds to deflect in this direction in the Northern Hemisphere. (From the perspective of the air molecule).
What is to the right?
This process occurs when water infiltrates the soil and replenishes aquifers.
What is groundwater recharge?
This critical component of creating soil is why soil is considered a non-renewable resource.
What is time?