The Atmosphere
Making up 78% of the atmosphere, this is the most abundant gas in the air we breathe.
What is Nitrogen?
Water is often called the "Universal" one of these because it dissolves more substances than any other liquid.
What is a Solvent?
What is the main source of energy that powers the water cycle?
What is the sun?
Wind, water, ice, and gravity are the four main "Agents of ______," meaning they move sediment.
What is Erosion?
High-altitude clouds made of ice crystals, called Cirrus clouds, belong to this sphere (Atmosphere), but are made of material from this sphere.
What is the Hydrosphere?
This is the lowest layer of the atmosphere where all clouds, rain, and snow occur.
What is the Troposphere?
Because it takes a long time to heat up and a long time to cool down, water is said to have a high level of this.
What is Specific Heat?
When water vapor cools down high in the air and turns back into liquid droplets, it forms these.
What are clouds?
This type of weathering breaks rocks into smaller pieces without changing their chemical composition.
What is Mechanical Weathering?
The Biosphere interacts with the Hydrosphere when plant roots absorb water to perform this process (releasing it later as vapor).
What is Transpiration?
Found within the Stratosphere, this layer protects Earth from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays.
What is the Ozone Layer?
Caused by water molecules sticking together tightly (cohesion), this property creates a "skin" on top of a pond that allows insects like water striders to walk across it without sinking.
What is Surface Tension?
This is the specific term for water evaporating directly from the leaves of trees and plants.
What is transpiration?
In this process, rocks split apart because water expands when it freezes.
What is Frost Wedging?
Clouds play a dual role: they trap heat (warming Earth) but also do this to solar radiation (cooling Earth).
What is Reflect it?
As you travel higher up a mountain, this atmospheric property decreases, making it harder to breathe.
What is Air Pressure?
To match the terms: Adhesion is water sticking to other things, while Cohesion is water sticking to this.
What is itself?
This rare process occurs when ice turns directly into gas (water vapor) without melting into a liquid first; it often happens on mountain peaks.
What is sublimation?
Water contributes to chemical weathering of rocks primarily through the break down of ___________.
What are minerals?
This cloud type forms at the highest altitudes and is composed primarily of ice crystals.
What are Cirrus clouds?
Heat transfer in the atmosphere happens in three ways: Radiation (waves), Conduction (touch), and this method involving the movement of heated fluids or air.
What is Convection?
Ice floats because it is less dense than liquid water. This is because hydrogen bonds form this specific structure, holding molecules further apart.
What is a Crystal Lattice (or Hexagonal Lattice)?
Flooding is common in cities because concrete and asphalt are impermeable, meaning they prevent this part of the water cycle from happening.
What is Infiltration?
Chemical Weathering happens fastest in climates that are both ______ and ______.
What is Warm and Rainy?
Freshwater is a limited resource because most of Earth's freshwater is locked up in these two reservoirs.
What are Glaciers and Ice Caps?