Earth's Four Systems
This sphere includes all rocks, soil, mountains, and molten rock.
What is the geosphere?
This process occurs when liquid water turns into water vapor.
✔What is evaporation?
This term describes the short-term condition of the atmosphere.
What is weather?
What is weathering? What is erosion? What is deposition?
What are the three "R's?"
Provide an explanation and example of what each one is.
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
(Next answers may vary.)
Reducing is when humans reduce the amount of energy/resources that they use. For example, humans can reduce the amount of electricity that they use by turning off the lights when they leave the room.
Reusing is when you use the same thing more than once. For example, humans can use reusable bags instead of plastic bags.
Recycling is when you break down recyclable materials (such as plastic) and use the materials again for another product. For example, humans can recycle plastic water bottles so that the plastic can be used to make new ones.
This sphere contains all living things, including plants, animals, and bacteria.
What is the biosphere?
This process forms clouds when water vapor cools and changes back into liquid droplets.
✔️ What is condensation?
This term describes the long-term pattern of weather in a region.
What is climate?
These “rivers in the ocean” can be warm or cold and affect climate.
What are ocean currents?
Biking instead of driving helps reduce this problem in the atmosphere.
✔️ What is air pollution?
This sphere includes all of Earth’s water—97% salt and 3% fresh.
What is the hydrosphere?
Rain, snow, sleet, and hail are all examples of this stage of the water cycle.
What is precipitation?
This measures how much air pushes down on a surface.
What is air pressure?
This wind pattern in the U.S. generally moves from west to east.
What are prevailing winds?
These machines reduce air pollution.
What are scrubbers?
This sphere includes all air and gases surrounding Earth and helps keep Earth warm through the greenhouse effect.
What is the atmosphere?
This term describes water flowing over the land toward rivers, lakes, and oceans.
What is runoff?
A cold front usually brings this type of weather.
What is rain or storms?
This occurs when cooler air from over water replaces warmer air over land.
What is a sea breeze?
What is one way communities help the biosphere?
Answers may vary
Humans can plant trees to increase the amount of oxygen produced in the atmosphere and give more animals homes.
Humans can also pick up trash to reduce the amount of land pollution affecting the biosphere.
Give an example of humans interacting with one of the systems and explain how their actions can simultaneously affect multiple spheres
Answers will vary:
Humans may dig into the geosphere to collect fossil fuels. As a result, the gas produced by the construction machinery would pollute the atmosphere due to an increase in carbon dioxide. The increase in carbon dioxide heats up the atmosphere, which in turn heats up Earth's surface. As a result, this melts glaciers, which creates a rise in sea level (which affects the hydrosphere) and negatively affects the animals and plants living there (which affects the biosphere).
This refers to water soaking back into Earth’s surface or collecting underground.
What is groundwater?
Explain how weather maps can help us understand the various types of weather across the world.
Answers may vary:
Weather maps can help us recognize cold and warm fronts, which help us recognize the type of weather found in that region for a given day. Cold fronts are recognized as blue triangles, which tell us that cold and severe weather, such as storms/rain, can be found in that area. Warm front can be identified as red semicircles, which tell us that nice weather conditions, such as sunlight and warm weather, can be found in that area.
This fast-moving band of wind high in the atmosphere strongly influences weather.
What is the jet stream?
What can people do to help the geosphere and hydrosphere?
Answers may vary:
Humans can conserve energy, which means that they are using less fossil fuels and are helping the geosphere. Humans can also reduce the amount of waste that they produce to reduce the amount of water pollution in the hydrosphere.