Tectonic Plates
Soil
Earth's Atmosphere and Layers
Weather
Key Vocabulary
100

At a transform boundary, tectonic plates move ______ each other, causing frequent earthquakes.

What is past each other?

100

This is the topsoil layer, rich in organic material and critical for plant growth.

What is the A horizon?

100

This is the lowest layer of Earth's atmosphere, where weather occurs.

What is the troposphere?

100

The tilt of Earth's axis is responsible for this yearly phenomenon.

What are the seasons?

100

A region where an oceanic plate sinks beneath a continental plate into the mantle.

What is the subduction zone?

200

This Earth layer is responsible for the movement of tectonic plates

What is the Asthenosphere layer?

200

This horizon contains weathered parent material and very little organic matter.

What is the C horizon?

200

The auroras occur in this atmospheric layer.

What is the thermosphere?

200

This area of Earth receives the most direct solar radiation year-round.

What is the equator?

200

The amount of space between soil particles that can hold air or water.

What is Porosity?

300

This plate boundary is associated with shallow earthquakes and sea-floor spreading.

What is the divergent plate boundary?

300

The three major components of soil texture.

What are sand, silt, and clay?

300

In this layer, temperature increases with altitude due to ozone absorption of UV radiation.

What is the stratosphere?

300

These are the three major atmospheric circulation cells found in each hemisphere.

What are the Hadley, Ferrel, and Polar cells?

300

An area of land where all water drains to a common point (river, lake, ocean).

What is a Watershed?

400

This land formation is most likely to form at a convergent plate boundary between an oceanic and continental plate.

What are ocean trenches?

400

This is the ideal soil for agriculture, made of an even mix of sand, silt, and clay.

What is loam?

400

This is the coldest layer of the atmosphere, where meteors often burn up.

What is the mesosphere?

400

This effect, caused by Earth’s rotation, deflects winds to the right in the Northern Hemisphere.

What is the Coriolis effect?

400

A large-scale atmospheric convection cell in which air rises at the equator and sinks at 30° latitude.

What is a Hadley Cell?

500

The Himalayas are an example of mountains formed by this plate boundary.

What is a continental-continental convergent plate boundary?

500

The ability of soil to allow water to flow through it is called this.

What is permeability?

500

List the atmospheric layers in order from Earth's surface upward.

What are the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and exosphere layers?

500

This global climate event brings warm ocean water to the western coast of South America, disrupting weather worldwide.

What is El Niño?

500

A belt of rising air near the equator has high rainfall and thunderstorm activity.

What is the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)?