Vocabulary

Question 1

hydrosphere

Answer 1

all of the Earth’s water including surface water, ice, groundwater, and water vapor

Question 2

runoff

Answer 2

water running off the land surface

Question 3

evaporation

Answer 3

liquid water is heated and turns into water vapor

Question 4

transpiration

Answer 4

water created from plants and trees enters the atmosphere

Question 5

condensation

Answer 5

when water vapor cools, the particles slow down and get closer together turning it into a liquid

Question 6

precipitation

Answer 6

when a cloud becomes full of water and the water droplets get too heavy they fall to the ground (snow, rain)

Question 7

groundwater

Answer 7

water seeps into the ground and may become part of the water table

Question 8

water table

Answer 8

the top surface of ground water

Question 9

lithosphere

Answer 9

the crust and rigid mantle

Question 10

biosphere

Answer 10

all living organisms on earth (plants, trees, insects, people, animals, etc)

Question 11

barometer

Answer 11

measures air pressure (barometric pressure)

Question 12

wind vane

Answer 12

points to the wind direction

Question 13

one atmosphere

Answer 13

air pressure generally found at sea level (used as a unit of measurement for air pressure)

Question 14

fronts

Answer 14

boundary where different types of air masses meet

Question 15

cold front

Answer 15

cold air mass overpowers a warm air mass; can be violent

Question 16

warm front

Answer 16

a warm air mass overpowers a cold air mass (gentle/average rain)

Question 17

stationary front

Answer 17

neither front is winning; will result in rain for many days

Question 18

occluded front

Answer 18

a cold air mass catches up from behind to a warm air mass that is part of a warm front; this will “wedge” the warm air mass upwards between the two cold air masses and become a very violent storm

Question 18

freezing rain

Answer 18

precipitation that falls as rain and then freezes when it comes into contact with an object

Question 19

hail

Answer 19

when water droplets are supercooled due to an updraft in a storm (occluded or cold front) and forms balls of ice that will fall

Question 20

sleet

Answer 20

when rain falls but is then frozen in the cold air and falls as little pellets of ice

Question 21

sling psychrometer

Answer 21

measures humidity using a wet and dry bulb

Question 22

permeable

Answer 22

things are able to pass through

Question 23

air pressure

Answer 23

the amount of air particles in an area (high pressure=high density of particles)

Question 24

capillary

Answer 24

a liquid's ability to cling to sediment in order to creep upwards or outwards; the smaller the sediment, the more surface area for the liquid to cling to so this is a negative relationship (as the sediment size increase the capillarity decreases)

Question 25

porosity

Answer 25

the amount of space between sediments

Question 26

permeability

Answer 26

the ability to move through something

Question 27

infiltrate

Answer 27

to move into something

Question 28

anemometer

Answer 28

measures wind speed

Question 29

precipitation gauge

Answer 29

measures the amount of precipitation

Question 30

gradient

Answer 30

change in field value over a given distance (field value may be elevation, temperature, air pressure, etc); same as slope; this equation is on the first page of the ESRT

Question 31

isolines

Answer 31

a line showing that every value on that line is the same Ex: same elevation (contour lines), same air pressure (isobars), same temperatures (isotherms) etc.

Question 32

cyclic

Answer 32

events repeat in a cycle

Question 33

predictable

Answer 33

can determine when something is going to happen