Earth's Spheres
The sphere that is made mostly of invisible gases surrounding the Earth.
What is the atmosphere?
The process by which rock is broken down into smaller pieces by physical changes.
What is physical weathering?
A flat area where layers of sediment get deposited when a stream floods.
What is a floodplain?
An area of shoreline that is made up of material deposited by waves and currents.
What is a beach?
A large mass of moving ice.
What is a glacier?
The part of Earth that is liquid water.
What is the hydrosphere?
The breakdown of rocks by chemical reactions.
What is chemical weathering?
This hanging icicle shaped deposit is formed when water drips from a cave ceiling.
What is a stalactite?
This landform forms when waves erode and undercut rock to make steep slopes.
What is a sea cliff?
Loose rocks falling down a steep slope.
What is a rockfall?
The sphere that is made up of living things and the areas of Earth where they are found.
What is the biosphere?
The process of rocks being broken apart when water seeps into cracks and freezes.
What is ice or frost wedging?
This circular depression can be formed when the roof of a cave collapses.
What is a sinkhole?
This landform forms from the continued erosion of a sea cave.
What is a sea arch?
Fine grained sediment that can be carried long distances by the wind.
What is loess?
The mostly solid, rocky part of Earth.
What is the geosphere?
The breaking down and wearing away of rock material by the mechanical action of other rock.
What is abrasion?
A crescent shaped lake formed when a stream meander is cut off from the main channel.
What is an oxbow lake?
This landform is formed when the top of a sea arch collapses.
What is a sea stack?
The extremely slow movement of soil downslope.
What is creep?
All of the frozen water on Earth.
What is the cryosphere?
The process by which other chemicals combine with oxygen.
What is oxidation?
A fan-shaped deposit of sediment deposited by a steam that flows out of the mountains onto a flat land surface.
What is an alluvial fan?
The first part of the shoreline that waves meet.
What is a headland?
Large boulders that are transported and deposited by glaciers.
What are erratics?