Water & Carbon Cycles
Weathering & Erosion
Topography
Natural Hazards & Resources
Vocabulary
100

Erosion and deposition are common in waterways. Streams with a higher gradient will experience more of one of these.

What is erosion? 

100
The process of breaking rocks into smaller pieces.

What is mechanical weathering?

100

The process of gathering data about the surface of Earth without physically going there.

What is remote sensing?

100

Shield volcanoes form from this type of lava.

What is low viscosity lava?

100

The surface features of a landscape. 

What is "Topography?"

200

This distinctly shaped valley is formed by glaciers carving through the mountains.

What is a U-shaped valley?

200

The process of dissolving rocks away.

What is chemical weathering?

200

This is what is represented by each contour line on a topographic map.

What is a certain elevation?

200
Earthquakes generally occur at these types of plate boundaries.

What are convergent and transform?

200

The breaking down or dissolving of rocks and minerals on the surface of the Earth.

What is "weathering?"

300

These are large rocks that are found in areas where they do not match any other surrounding rock types.

What are erratics?

300

Point bars and cut banks are formed by these opposing processes. 

What is cut banks are formed by erosion and point bars are formed by deposition?

300

We can say this about an area of land that has contour lines that are very close together on the map.

What is that it is very steep?

300

Large volcanoes can impact the global climate because of this byproduct of an eruption.

What are aerosols? 

300

The process in which Earth materials are transported away from their original location, usually by wind or water.

What is "erosion?"

400

Carbon is taken out of the atmosphere and stored at the bottom of the ocean via this process.

What is chemical weathering?

400

These land features are caused by the erosion of sediment by rivers. 

What are valleys/canyons?

400

If you were marking a new hiking trail, you would probably want to stick to areas on a topographic map where the contour lines look like this.

What is spread out?

400

This is the technique used to find the epicenter of an earthquake.

What is triangulation? (Using seismic data from 3+ stations to find where they overlap)

400

Preserved physical characteristics of the past that stand enable scientists to reconstruct the climatic conditions over Earth's history.

What are "climate proxies?"

500

Carbon is removed from the "slow" cycle and reintroduced to the atmosphere ("fast" cycle) via this mechanism.

What is the burning of fossil fuels? 

Also accepted: Volcanic eruptions

500

An area of sedimentary rock where the record of time is "missing" potentially because of excessive weathering and erosion.

What is an unconformity?

500

This remote sensing technique allows us to generate precise, three-dimensional information about the shape of the Earth and its surface characteristics.

What is LIDAR?

500

Cinder cones are made up of this type of rock.

What is scoria?

500

A large plume of hot mantle material rising from deep within the Earth, usually causing a line of volcanoes to develop as the crust moves over it.

What is a "hot spot?"

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