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Neely Vocab 01
Word | Definition |
---|---|
Geography | The study of the earth in all its variety |
Landform | Individual features of the land |
Environment | Natural surroundings |
Region | Area that shares common characteristics |
Global Positioning System (GPS) | Group of satellites that travels around the earth, which can be used to locate exact places on the earth |
Global Information System (GIS) | Special software that helps geographers gather and use information about a place |
Solar System | Earth, other planets, and thousands of smaller bodies that all revolve around the sun |
Orbit | Path that a body in the solar system travels around the sun |
Atmosphere | Layer of air surrounding the earth |
Axis | Imaginary line that runs through the earth's center between the North and South poles; also the horizontal or vertical line of measurement on a graph |
Revolution | One complete orbit around the sun |
Leap Year | Year that has an extra day; occurs every fourth year |
Summer Solstice | Day with the most hours of sunlight and the fewest hours of darkness |
Winter Solstice | Day with the fewest hours of sunlight and the most hours of darkness |
Equinox | Day when day and night are of equal length in both hemispheres |
Core | Center of the earth, formed of hot iron mixed with other metals |
Mantle | Rock layer about 1,800 miles thick between the core and the crust |
Magma | Hot melted rock that sometimes flows to the earth's surface in a volcanic eruption |
Crust | Uppermost layer of the earth |
Continent | Massive land area |
Earthquake | Violent and sudden movement of the earth's crust |
Plate Tectonics | Theory that the earth's crust is not an unbroken shell but consists of plates, or huge slabs of rocks that move |
Tsunami | Huge sea wave caused by an earthquake on the ocean floor |
Fault | Crack in the earth's crust |
Weathering | Process that breaks surface rocks into boulders, gravel, sand, and soil |
Erosion | Process of moving weathered materials on the earth's surface |
Glacier | Giant slow-moving sheets of ice |
Elevation | Height above sea level |
Plain | Low-lying stretch of flat or gently rolling land |
Plateau | Flat land with higher elevation than a plain |
Isthmus | Narrow piece of land that connects two larger pieces of land |
Peninsula | Piece of land with water on three sides |
Island | Body of land smaller than a continent and surrounded by water |
Trench | Valley in the ocean floor |
Continental Shelf | Plateau off each coast of a continent that lies under the ocean and stretches for several miles |
Strait | Narrow body of water between two pieces of land |
Channel | Body of water wider than a strait between two pieces of land |
Delta | Area formed from soil deposited by a river at its mouth |