Vocabulary Concept Review Flashcards
(37 cards)
Climate
Temperature change over longer longer extended periods of time
Major characteristics of weather and climate
Precipitation and temperature
Name a few factors that can affect temperature
Latitude, cloud cover, proximity to water, elevation
Describe the latitudinal belts and their temperatures.
Low: Warmest
High: Coldest
Middle: Most susceptible to change
Convection Air Warming
Air circulates and rises when heated
Frontal Lifting
Air currents will become warmer after being affected by a front. Cold fronts produce heavier weather, whereas it is the opposite for the warm
Orographic Warming
Air currents will collide with a topographic barrier, warming the air as it happens. Normally, the two sides of the barrier will be polar opposites in temperature
How old is Earth?
4.6 Billion years old
How long ago was the Permian continent?
225 Million years ago (Pangea)
How long ago was the Triassic period?
200 Million years ago (Laurasia and Gondwanaland)
How long ago was the Jurassic period?
135 million years ago
How many years ago was the Cretaceous era?
65 Million
Who founded the idea of tectonic plates?
Alfred Wegener in 1912
Describe the Mid-Atlantic Ridges
Undersea mountain ranges that help attribute to the sea floor spreading theory
Describe the Sea Floor Spreading Theory
Ocean floors are continuously moving apart from the center and sinking at the edges while new matter generates
How thick are tectonic plates?
Approximately 50 miles
How slow do tectonic plates move?
1-2 inches per year
What moves the tectonic plates?
Radioactivity and heat from the mantle of the earth
Describe divergent boundaries
Plates are being pulled apart, left and right in opposite directions
Convergent boundaries
Two plates push together. The weaker submissive rock goes underneath the dominant rock. Sometimes, the rock moves upwards, in the case of the Himalayas
Convergent boundaries
Two plates rub up against one another. An example would be the San Andreas fault
Describe the Ring of Fire
Travels around the tectonic plate boundaries. Volcanic activity is prominent here.
Define region
Regions are man made boundaries marked by providences.
Lines on a grid system:
Man made invention. Points are ordered in latitude then longitude.