Key Terms
Gases that trap heat in Earth's atmosphere.
What are greenhouse gases?
These natural features make up Earth's surface and include mountains, plains, and valleys.
What are landforms?
This term describes the average weather of an area over a long period of time.
What is climate?
Plants that grow freely in an area without being planted or managed by people.
What is natural vegetation?
The saltiness of ocean water.
What is salinity?
The height of lang above sea level.
What is elevation?
San Andreas Fault; This type of plate boundary occurs when two plates grind past each other, creating friction and earthquakes.
What is a transform plate boundary?
Scientists agree this human-drive process is linked to rising amounts of greenhouse gases like CO2 in the atmosphere.
What is global warming?
What are forests, grasslands, and deserts?
These curved river features form on slow-moving rivers with gentle slopes, where erosion occurs on the outer bank and deposition on the inner bank.
What are meanders?
Water stored beneath Earth's surface.
What is groundwater?
These U-shaped valleys were carved when massive ice sheets scraped across Earth's surface during the ice ages.
What are glacial valleys?
This climate factor explains why places near oceans have milder winters, cooler summers, and more precipitation.
What are bodies of water?
Increasing as temperatures rise until they become too high; This process allows plants to convert sunlight into energy.
What is photosynthesis?
This major warm ocean current begins in Florida, moves along the east coast of North America, and influences climates as far away as Europe.
What is the Gulf Stream?
A landform created when a river deposits sediment at its mouth.
What is a delta?
What are fold mountain?
This natural cycle, lasting about 41,000 years, changes how much solar energy different parts of Earth receive.
What is the change in Earth's azial tilt?
What is desertification?
Canals, dams, and new channels; Expected to have affected 70% of usable rivers by 2025.
What is river diversion?
A partly enclosed area where fresh and salt water mix.
What is an estuary?
What is a seismograph?
These graphs, which combine temperature line plots and precipitation bar charts, help geographers identify long-term warming, cooling, and precipitation trends.
What are climate graphs?
Not natural to an environment; These species can take over ecosystems and cause harm when introduced.
What are invasive species?
Climate pattern occurring every two to seven years; when warm water shifts eastward across the Pacific, bringing warmer, wetter conditions to South America and warmer, drier conditions to North America
What is El Niño?