Storms 101
The ingredients that help make up the area known as _____________ Alley iclude: warm, moist air flowing into the plain from the Gulf of Mexico, a strong jet stream flowing from west to east, and cool, dry air flowing from over the Rocky Mountains in the West.
Tornado
An area of great stress in the Earth where broken rocks grind past each other, causing a giant crack in the Earth's surface is called a _____________
fault
If you are near a tornado while driving your car, you should find the _____________ area nearby available and lie down while covering your ___________ as well as possible.
lowest
head
A system of satellites that is used to monitor areas that are likely to experience a fire and detect fires when they occur is known as ______________
FUEGO (Fire Urgency Estimation From Geosynchronous Orbit)
Most tornadoes are actually relatively ___________
weak
Having cold air at/near the surface, lift of warm air rising above cold air and the presence of large amounts of moisture are all key ingredients for this type of storm______________
blizzard
An instrument used to record both the intensity (severity) and duration of an earthquake is known as a ___________________
seismograph
The essential ingredient need for a hurricane to both form and sustain itself is warm __________ water.
ocean
A type of fire that burns within the leaves and canopies (tops) of trees and tall shrubs is known as a ___________ fire.
crown
A violent rotating column of air that extends to the ground from an overhead thunderstorm is known as a _______________.
tornado
The perceived temperature you experience when combining the current air temperature with the current wind speeds in a given area is known as the wind ___________.
chill.
Associated with earthquakes, the theory of ___________ tectonics theorizes how the Earth's landforms arrived at their current shapes due to millions of years of continued earthquake activity.
plate
Air spirals in a clockwise direction during _______________ in the southern hemisphere due to the Earth's rotation.
hurricanes
When magma (within the Earth's upper mantle) makes its way to the surface of the Earth and leaves deposits behind over multiple eruptions, a _________________ is formed.
volcano
__________ is a light (in weight) porous rock that looks like a sponge......it forms as a result of massive, explosive eruptions of a volcano.
Pumice
Events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or massive landslides can all lead to this series of massive ocean waves known as a _________________.
tsunami
A sudden, rapid freezing of the ground and bedrock.
frost quake
Due to their immense size (often as much as 300-500 miles in width) and strength, hurricanes are one of the most _____________ storms on Earth.
destructive
The Ring of __________ includes 50% of the world's volcanoes (452 to be exact) and 81% of the world's most severe earthquakes also occur along it.
Fire
Liquid rock that sits inside a volcano is known as _____________.
magma
The country in the world with the most annual tornadoes is ____________________
The United States
A sure"fire" way to give yourself a chance to survive a wildfire is to move towards an area that is ___________ from the fire as quickly as possible.
downhill
Most of the hurricanes that strike the coastal regions of the United States actually originate in the tropics off the coast of ___________.
Africa
A fluidized mixture of hot solid to semi-solid rock fragments and hot, expanding poisonous gases that rapidly flow down the side of a volcano are known as pyroclastic _________.
flow
These are essential to the continued survival of some plant species.
Wildfires