The Earth System
A group of parts that work together as a whole.
What is a system?
The shape of the land.
What is a topography?
A system that uses satellite signals to determine location.
What is GPS?
When water molecules on a surface change from liquid to gas.
What is evaporation?
It comprises 97% of the water on Earth.
What is salt water?
The parts of Earth that contain all living things.
What is the biosphere?
A landform with both high elevation and high relief.
What is a mountain?
They show surface features as if being viewed from above.
What are topographic maps?
When water falls to Earth's surface.
What is precipitation?
The land area that supplies water to a river system.
What is a watershed?
The frozen part of the hydrosphere.
What is the cryosphere?
What is a plateau?
A computer system that makes interactive maps with layers of data.
What is GIS?
When water flows from the Earth's surface into lakes, rivers, or the ocean.
What is runoff?
Layers of underground rock that hold water.
What are aquifers?
It contains most of Earth's mass.
What is the geosphere?
They are forces that build up land, like making a new mountain range.
What are constructive forces?
On a map, they connect points of equal elevation.
What are contour lines?
When water goes directly from a plant back into the atmosphere.
What is transpiration?
Streams or rivers on each side of it flow in different directions.
What is a divide?
A thin layer of gases around the Earth.
What is the atmosphere?
A landform made when sediment builds up where a river meets the ocean.
What is a delta?
The process of using instruments and geometry to find distances and elevations.
What is surveying?
The process by which water vapor becomes liquid water.
What is condensation?
Long chains of mountains on the ocean floor.
What are mid-ocean ridges?