Weathering and Erosion
The movement of broken-down rock, dirt, and sand from one place to another by wind, water, or ice.
What is erosion?
The force pushing down on Earth's surface caused by the weight of the air above it.
What is atmospheric pressure?
A massive, 2,900-kilometer (1,800-mile) thick layer of hot, solid silicate rock situated between the crust and the outer core.
What is the Earth's mantle?
The invisible pulling force that keeps the Moon orbiting Earth and the planets orbiting the Sun.
What is gravity?
The scientific term for the measure of how much dissolved salt is in ocean water.
What is salinity?
This U.S. landmark in Arizona was carved over millions of years primarily by the erosion of the Colorado River.
What is the Grand Canyon?
This effect, caused by Earth's rotation, makes moving air and water curve right in the Northern Hemisphere and left in the Southern Hemisphere.
What is the Coriolis effect?
The tectonic process where one heavy oceanic plate sinks beneath a lighter continental plate into the mantle.
What is subduction?
The motion of Earth completing one full path around the Sun, taking approximately 365.25 days.
What is a revolution or orbit?
The regular, daily rise and fall of ocean water levels caused primarily by the gravitational pull of the Moon.
What are tides?
The type of physical weathering where water freezes and expands inside rock cracks, eventually splitting the rock apart.
What is ice wedging?
Narrow, fast-moving bands of wind high in the atmosphere that help steer global weather systems.
What is the jet stream?
The scale used by scientists to measure the magnitude, or energy released, during an earthquake.
What is the Richter scale (or Moment Magnitude scale)?
This event occurs when the Moon passes directly between the Earth and the Sun, casting a shadow on Earth.
What is a solar eclipse?
Continuous, directed rivers of water moving through the ocean, driven by wind, temperature, and density differences.
What are ocean currents?
The process where eroded sediment is dropped or settled in a new location, eventually forming features like river deltas.
What is deposition?
A boundary where two different air masses meet, often bringing storms or significant changes in weather.
What is a front? (cold front or warm front)
The type of boundary where two tectonic plates are pulling apart from each other, often forming mid-ocean ridges.
What is a divergent boundary?
A small body made of ice, dust, and rock traveling through space that develops a glowing "tail" when it gets close to the Sun.
What is a comet?
A powerful, warm ocean current that originates in the Gulf of Mexico and flows up the east coast of the United States.
A large, pyramidal sand mound characterized by three or more arms radiating from a central high point.
What is a star sand dune?
The lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere, extending up to about 10 kilometers, where almost all weather occurs.
What is the troposphere?
Because this specific type of seismic wave can only travel through solids and not liquids, scientists used them to prove that Earth's outer core is molten.
What are S-waves (or Secondary waves)?
(Bonus fact to share with the class: When an earthquake happens, S-waves create a "shadow zone" on the other side of the planet because they bounce off the liquid outer core instead of passing through it!)
This continuous process of hot, less dense rock rising and cooler, denser rock sinking in the asthenosphere acts like a giant conveyor belt to move the tectonic plates.
What are convection currents?
The top layer of the ocean where sunlight can penetrate, allowing marine plants and phytoplankton to perform photosynthesis.
What is the photic zone (or epipelagic zone)?