Earth's Four Spheres
The layer of gases surrounding the Earth, named from the word meaning "air".
What is the atmosphere?
The type of boundary where two tectonic plates move apart from one another, creating rift valleys.
What is a diverging boundary?
The breaking down of rock, minerals, and soil in place without moving them.
What is weathering?
The distinctive orange-and-black striped sandstone domes found in Western Australia's Purnululu National Park.
What are the bungle bungles?
In the essential mapping acronym BOLTSS, the first letter "B" stands for this frame
What is a border?
This sphere encompasses all living things on Earth, including plants, animals, and humans
What is the biosphere?
The type of boundary responsible for forming the Himalayas when the Indian and Eurasian plates collided
What is convergent boundary?
The natural process where water, wind, or ice wears away material and transports it elsewhere.
What is erosion?
An unstable landscape created when dissolvable bedrock is worn away by acidic underground water.
What is a Karst landscapes?
The map feature—also called a key—that explains symbols, patterns, and colors
What is the legend?
The Earth's rigid outer shell made up of the crust and upper mantle.
What is the lithosphere?
The plate boundary type where two plates slide horizontally past each other, generating major earthquakes
What is a transform boundary?
The laying down or dropping of eroded sediment when wind or water loses its energy
What is deposition?
A natural landscape defined by receiving less than 250mm of rainfall annually.
What is a desert landscape?
The line markings on topographic maps that join points of equal elevation above sea level.
What are contour lines?
Oceans, rivers, ice caps, glaciers, and water vapor all belong to this sphere.
What is the hydrosphere?
The geomorphic process occurring at convergent boundaries where one plate slides beneath another.
What is subduction?
Mountains formed when direct plate pressure causes rock layers to buckle upwards like a folded towel
What are fold mountains?
The term for a decline in land quality caused primarily by human activities like overgrazing and deforestation, affecting 33% of global land.
What is land degredation?
The terrain feature indicated on a topographic map when contour lines are drawn very close together
What is a steep slope?
A tree growing in soil, absorbing rain, and taking in carbon dioxide involves this total number of spheres interacting.
What are the four spheres?
The reason Australia experiences relatively mild earthquakes compared to places on plate boundaries like Japan.
What is sitting in the middle of the tectonic plate?
Mountains built layer-by-layer over millions of years as erupted magma cools on the Earth's surface.
What are volcanic mountains?
The three distinct categories geographers evaluate to explain the importance of the Bungle Bungles
What are geographical, cultural, and tourism (or economic) significance?
A 4-digit mapping notation used to identify an entire grid square on a topographic map.
What is area reference?