text: Geography Glossary Based on: www.geographic.org Edited and expanded by: Joe Naumann UMSL Select a letter below • . A * B * C * D * E * F * G *H * I .J*K*L*M*N*O*P*Q*R .S*T*U*V*W*X*Y*Z To return to this page, click on the pointing finger. A • Abiotic: Non-living thing. Usually refers to the physical and chemical components of an organism's environment. Also called inorganic. • Ablation: Surface removal of ice or snow from a glacier or snowfield by melting, sublimation, and/or calving. • Ablation Zone: Region in a glacier where there is a surface net removal of snow and/or ice by melting, sublimation, and/or calving. • Abrasion: Physical wearing and grinding of a surface through friction and impact by material carried in air, water, or ice. • Absolute Humidity: The mass of water vapor in the atmosphere per unit of volume of space. • Absorption – (1) Process of taking in and being made part of an existing amount of matter. – (2) Interception of electromagnetic radiation or sound. • Absorption (Atmospheric): Atmospheric absorption is defined as a process in which solar radiation is retained by a substance and converted into heat energy. The creation of heat energy also causes the substance to emit its own radiation. In general, the absorption of solar radiation by substances in the Earth's atmosphere results in temperatures that get no higher than 1800° Celsius. According to Wien's Law, bodies with temperatures at this level or lower would emit their radiation in the longwave band. • Accessibility: A locational characteristic that permits a place to be reached by the efforts of those at other places. • Accessibility Resource: A naturally occurring landscape feature that facilitates interaction between places. • Acid Rain: Rain that's become more acidic than normal (a pH < 5.0) as certain oxides present as airborne pollutants are absorbed by the water droplets. It is often applied generically to all acidic precipitation. • Abyssal Fan: an shaped accumulation of sediment from rivers that is deposited at the base of a submarine canyon within a ocean basin. • Abyssal Plain: Another name for ocean floor. • Acclimation: Slow adjustment of an organism to new conditions in its environment. • Accretion: The growth of the continental masses over geologic time via the addition of marine sediments. These sediments are added on to the edges of the continents through tectonic collision with other oceanic or continental plates. • Accumulation: Surface addition of snow to a glacier or snowfield. • Accumulation Zone: – (1) Region in a glacier where there is a surface net addition of snow. – (2) Part of a hillslope that has a net gain of material leading to a progressive raising of the slope's surface. • Acid: – (1) Substance having a pH less than 7. – (2) Substance that releases hydrogen ions (H+). • Acid Deposition: Atmospheric deposition of acids in solid or liquid form on the Earth's surface. Also see acid precipitation • Acid Precipitation: Atmospheric precipitation with a pH less than 5.6. Normal pH of precipitation is 5.6. • Acid Shock: A sudden acidification of runoff waters from the spring melting of accumulated snow in the middle latitudes because of the winter deposition of acidic precipitation. • Active Layer: Upper zone of soil in higher latitude locations that experiences daily and seasonal freeze-thaw cycles. • Active Remote Sensing: Form of remote sensing where the sensor provides its own source of electromagnetic radiation to illuminate the object understudy. Radar is an example of an active remote sensing device. • Adaptation: – (1) Evolutionary adaptation - a genetically based characteristic expressed by a living organism. Particular adaptations found in populations become frequent and dominant if they enhance an individual's ability to survive in the environment. – (2) Physiological adaptation - change in an organism's physiology as a result of exposure to some environmental condition. – (3) Cultural adaptation – developing or adopting or adapting tools and/or practices which make it easier for humans to function in a less than ideal physical environment. • Adaptive Radiation: The evolution of a number of new species from one or a few ancestor species over many thousands or millions of years. Normally occurs after a mass extinction creates a number of vacant ecological niches or when a radical change in the environment produces new ecological niches. • Adiabatic: A process in which heat does not enter or leave a system. In the atmospheric sciences, adiabatic processes are often used to model internal energy changes in rising and descending parcels of air in the atmosphere. When a parcel of air rises in expands because of a reduction in pressure. If no other nonadiabatic processes occur (like condensation, evaporation and radiation), expansion causes the parcel of air to cool at a set rate of 0.98° Celsius per 100 meters. The opposite occurs when a parcel of air descends in the atmosphere. The air in a descending parcel becomes compressed. Compression causes the temperature within the parcel to increase at a rate of 0.98° Celsius per 100 meters. • Adiabatic Cooling: The cooling of a rising parcel of air due to adiabatic processes. • Aeolian: Geomorphic process involving wind. Alternative spelling eolian. • Aeolian Landform: Is a landform formed from the erosion or deposition of weathered surface materials by wind. This includes landforms with some of the following geomorphic features: sand dunes, deflation hollows, and desert pavement. Alternative spelling eolian landform. • Aftershock: Smaller earth tremors that occur seconds to weeks after a major earthquake event. • Aggradation: Readjustment of the stream profile where the stream channel is raised by the deposition of bed load. • Agronomy: Field of science that studies phenomena related to agriculture • A Horizon: Soil horizon normally found below the O horizon and above the B horizon. This layer is characterized by the following two features: – (1) A layer in which humus and other organic materials are mixed with mineral particles. – (2) A zone of translocation from which eluviation has removed finer particles and soluble substances. • Air Mass A very large body of atmosphere defined by essentially similar horizontal air temperatures. Moisture conditions are also usually similar throughout the mass. • Air Pollution: Toxification of the atmosphere through the addition of one or more harmful substances in the air. Substance must be in concentrations high enough to be hazardous to humans, other animals, vegetation, or materials. Also see primary pollutant and secondary pollutant. • Air Pressure: See atmospheric pressure. • Albedo: Is the reflectivity of a surface. • Aleutian Low: Subpolar low pressure system found near the Aleutian Islands. Most developed during the winter season. This large-scale pressure system spawns mid-latitude cyclones. • Algae: A simple photosynthetic plant that usually lives in moist or aquatic environments. The bodies of algae can be unicellular or multicellular is design. • Alien Species: Species that is not naturally found in a region • Alkaline: – (1) Having a pH greater than 7. – (2) Substance that releases hydroxyl ions (OH-). • Alluvia Clay, silt, gravel, or similar detrital material deposited by running water. (also called alluvium) • Alluvial Fan: Large fan shaped terrestrial deposit of alluvial sediment on which a braided stream flows over. Form as stream load is deposited because of a reduction in the velocity of stream flow. • Alluvial Soils: Soils deposited through the action of moving water. These soils lack horizons and are usually highly fertile. • Alluvial Terraces: Flat elevated benches composed of unconsolidated alluvium found either side of a stream channel. Formed when a stream down cuts into its floodplain. • Alpine Glacier: Small glacier that occupies a U-shaped valley on a mountain. Also called a mountain glacier. • Alpine Permafrost: Form of permafrost that exists at high altitudes in mountainous environments. • Altitude: Height of an object in the atmosphere above sea level. • Altocumulus Clouds: Middle altitude cloud that is colored from white to gray. This cloud is composed of a mixture of water droplets and ice crystals. It appears in the atmosphere as layers or patches that are well rounded and commonly wavelike. Found in an altitude range from 2,000 to 8,000 meters. • Altostratus Clouds: Gray-looking middle altitude cloud that is composed of water droplets and ice crystals. Appears in the atmosphere as dense sheet like layer. Can be recognized from stratus clouds by the fact that you can see the sun through it. Found in an altitude range from 2,000 to 8,000 meters. • Amphibian: Group of vertebrate animals that can inhabit both terrestrial and aquatic habitats. This group of animals consists of frogs, newts, and salamanders. These organisms live at the land/water interface and spend most of their life in water. Descended from fish and ancestors to reptiles. • Angle of Incidence: Angle at which the sun's rays or insolation strike the Earth's surface. If the sun is positioned directly over head or 90° from the horizon, the incoming insolation strikes the surface of the Earth at right angles and is most intense. • Angle of Repose: Measurement commonly used in civil engineering. It is the maximum angle at which a material can be inclined without failing. Geomorpologist use this measurement for determining the stability of slope to mass movements. • Annual Plant: Plant species that completes its life in one growing season. • Antarctic Circle: Latitude of 66.5° South. The northern limit of the area of the Earth that experiences 24 hours of darkness or 24 hours of day at least one day during the year. • Antarctic High: A region of high pressure that occupies central Antarctic throughout the year. This pressure system is responsible for very cold temperatures and extremely low humidity. • Antebellum: Before the war; in the United States, belonging to the period immediately prior to the Civil War (18611865). • Anthracite: A hard coal containing little volatile matter. • Anticline: A fold in rock layers that forms an arch. • Anticyclone: An atmospheric pressure system consisting of an area of high pressure and outward circular surface wind flow. In the Northern Hemisphere winds from an anticyclone blow clockwise, while Southern Hemisphere systems blow counterclockwise. • Aphelion: It is the point in the Earth's orbit when it is farthest from the sun (152.5 million kilometers). Aphelion occurs on the 3rd or 4th of July • Applied Physical Geography: The field of Applied Physical Geography uses theoretical information from the various fields of Physical Geography to manage and solve problems related to natural phenomena found in the real world. • Aquatic: With reference to water. • Aquiclude: Rock formations that are impermeable to groundwater water. • Aquifer: Rock formations that store groundwater water. • Aquifer Recharge Area: Surface area that provides water for an aquifer. • Archipelago: A group of islands that have an arc shaped distribution. These islands are usually of volcanic origin and are associated with subduction zones. • Area Studies Tradition: Academic tradition in modern Geography that investigates an area on the Earth from a geographic perspective at either the local, regional, or global scale. • Arete: A sharp, narrow mountain ridge. It often results from the erosive activity of alpine glaciers flowing in adjacent valleys. • Arroy (arroyo): A deep gully cut by a stream that flows only part of the year; a dry gulch. A term normally used only in desert areas. • Artesian Water: Groundwater that is confined by two impermeable layers beneath the Earth's surface. • Artesian Well: A well where the water rises and flows out to the surface because of hydrostatic pressure. • Arctic Circle: Latitude of 66.5° North. The southern limit of the area of the Earth that experiences 24 hours of darkness or 24 hours of day at least one day during the year. • Assimilation: A cultural process whereby a minority culture group (immigrants or descendants of immigrants) is absorbed into the mainstream culture. • Asthenosphere: Zone in the Earth's mantle that exhibits plastic properties. Located below the lithosphere at between 100 and 200 kilometers. • Atlas: A bound collection of maps. • Atmosphere: The atmosphere is the vast gaseous envelope of air that surrounds the Earth. Its boundaries are not easily defined. The atmosphere contains a complex system of gases and suspended particles that behave in many ways like fluids. Many of its constituents are derived from the Earth by way of chemical and biochemical reactions. • Atmospheric Pressure: Weight of the atmosphere on a surface. At sea-level, the average atmospheric pressure is 1013.25 millibars. Pressure is measured by a device called a barometer. • Atmospheric Stability: Relative stability of parcels of air relative to the atmosphere that surrounds them. Three conditions are generally described: stable, unstable, and neutral. • Atoll: A ring shaped reef composed largely of coral. These features are quite common in the tropical waters of the Pacific Ocean. • Aurora: Multicolored lights that appear in the upper atmosphere (ionosphere) over the polar regions and visible from locations in the middle and high latitudes. Caused by the interaction of solar wind with oxygen and nitrogen gas in the atmosphere. Aurora in the Northern Hemisphere are called aurora borelis and aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere. • Autumnal Equinox: One of the two periods when the declination of the sun is at the equator. The autumnal equinox occurs on September 22 or 23. A more appropriate name is the September Equinox. • Available Water: Portion of the capillary water that is available for plant root uptake. B • Backshore slope: Sloping bank landward of the shore. This coastal feature is composed of relatively non-mobile sediments. • Backswamp: Marshy low lying area in a stream's floodplain. Commonly found behind levees. • Backwash: The return water flow of swash. This sheet of water flows back to ocean because of gravity. • Badlands: Very irregular topography resulting from wind and water erosion of sedimentary rock. • Bajada: Consecutive series of alluvial fans forming along the edge of a linear mountain range. Surface of this feature undulates in a rolling fashion as one moves from the center of one alluvial fan to another. Normally occurs in arid climates. • Bank-Caving: Collapse of stream bank material into a stream channel. • Bar: – (1) Coarse grained deposit of sediment from a stream or ocean currents. – (2) A unit of measurement for quantifying force. Equivalent to 1,000,000 dynes per square centimeter. • Barchan Dune: Crescent shaped sand dune that has its long axis transverse to the wind and its crescent tips pointed downwind. • Barometer: Measures atmospheric pressure. • Barrier Beach: A long and narrow beach of sand and/or gravel that runs parallel to the coastline and is not submerged by the tide. • Barrier Beach: A long and narrow beach of sand and/or gravel that runs parallel to the coastline and is not submerged by the tide. • Barrier Island: Long, narrow islands of sand and/or gravel that are usually aligned parallel to the shore of some coasts. The tops of coral barrier reefs like those off the coast of Eastern Australia and of Belize – called "keys" or "cayes". • Basal Sliding: The sliding of a glacier over the surface it rests on. Caused by the gradient of the slope and the weight of the glacier's mass. • Basalt: A dark colored, dense, fine grained igneous rock formed from mafic magma. Much of the ocean floor is composed of basalt. • Basalt Plateau: Extensive continental deposits of basaltic volcanic rock. • Base (Basic): – (1) Substance having a pH greater than 7. – (2) Substance that releases hydroxide ions (OH-). • Base Level: The lowest level to which a stream can erode its bed. The ultimate base level of all streams is, of course, the sea. • Basement Rock: Very old granite and metamorphic rocks found in continental crust. These rocks make up the continental shield. • Basin: A topographic rock structure whose shape is concave downwards. • Batholith: A very large body of subsurface intrusive igneous rock, usually granite, that has been exposed by erosion of the overlying rock. • Bay: A body of sheltered water found in a crescent shaped coastal configuration of land. • Bayhead Beach: An extensive deposit of sand and/or gravel in the form of a beach at the back of a bay. • Bay-Mouth Bar: A narrow deposit of sand and/or gravel found across the mouth of a bay. • Beach: The terrestrial interface area in between land and a water body where there are accumulations of unconsolidated sediments like sand and gravel. These deposits are laid down by the action of breaking waves. • Beach Drift: The lateral movement of sediments on a beach when the angles of swash and backwash differ. • Bed: Sedimentary structure that usually represents a layer of deposited sediment. • Bedding Plane: A layer in a series of sedimentary beds that marks a change in the type of deposits. • Bed Load: Portion of the stream load that is carried along the stream bed without being permanently suspend in the flowing water. • Bedrock: The solid rock that underlies all soil or other loose material; the rock material that breaks down to eventually form soil. • Bergschrund: A deep crevasse commonly found at the head of an alpine glacier. Forms when the glacial ice pulls away from the mountain side. • Berm: Low hill of sand that forms along coastal beaches. • Bermuda High: High pressure system that develops over the western subtropical North Atlantic. Also called Azores High. • B Horizon: Soil horizon normally found below the A horizon and above the C horizon. This layer is characterized by the following features: – (1) Enrichment of clay because of illuviation from the A horizon. – (2) Enrichment of iron and aluminum oxides because of illuviation of these materials from the A horizon. In some cases the precipitation of iron can cause the development of a hardpan. – (3) Accumulation of calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, and other salts. – (4) Higher bulk density because of the illuvial deposition of clay particles. • Biennial Plant: Plant species that completes its life in two growing seasons. • Bilingual: The ability to use either one of two languages, especially when speaking. • Biodiversity: The diversity of different species (species diversity), genetic variability among individuals within each species (genetic diversity), and variety of ecosystems (ecosystem diversity). Abbreviation of biological diversity. • Biogeochemical Cycling: Cycling of a single element, compound or chemicals by various abiotic and biotic processes through the various stores found in the biosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. • Biogeography: Field of physical geography that studies the spatial pattern of living organisms. • Biological Amplification: Increase in concentration of toxic fat-soluble chemicals in organisms at successively higher trophic levels of a grazing food chain or food web because of the consumption of organisms at lower trophic levels. • Biological Weathering: The disintegration of rock and mineral due to the chemical and/or physical agents of an organism. • Biosphere: Part of the Earth where life is found. The biosphere consists of all living things, plant and animal. This sphere is characterized by life in profusion, diversity, and clever complexity. Cycling of matter in this biosphere involves not only metabolic reactions in organisms, but also many abiotic chemical reactions. Also called ecosphere. • Biota: The animal and plant life of a region considered as a total ecological entity. • Biotic – (1) Referring to life. – (2) Influences caused by living organisms. • Bituminous: A soft coal that, when heated, yields considerable volatile matter. • Blizzard: Winter severe weather condition characterized by strong wind, blowing snow, and cold temperatures. • Blowout Depression: Saucer shaped depressions created by wind erosion. At the leeward end of the feature there usually is a deposit of sand. Blowouts are found in coastal beach areas and in arid and semiarid regions of the world. These features are smaller than a deflation hollow. • Bog: A habitat that consists of waterlogged spongy ground. Common vegetation are sedges and sphagnum moss. Bogs are common in Canada, Russia, and Scandinavia. • Boll Weevil: A small, greyish beetle of the southeastern United States with destructive larvae that hatch in and damage cotton bolls. • Bolson: Is a closed desert basin with no drainage outlet, surrounded by mountains. • Boulder: Large fragment of rock that has a diameter greater than 256 millimeters (200 millimeters in the United Kingdom). • Boreal Forest: High to mid-latitude biome dominated by coniferous forest. Predominant vegetation of this biome is various species of spruce, fir, pine, and cedars. Also called Taiga. • Boundary: A line indicating the limit of a country, state, or other political jurisdiction. • Brackish: Environment that is influenced by seawater with a salinity less than 35 parts per thousand (usually caused by the presence of an inflow of fresh water). • Braided Stream: Shallow stream channel that is subdivided into a number of continually shifting smaller channels that are separated by bar deposits. • Break-in-Bulk Point: Commonly, a transfer point on a transport route where the mode of transport (or type of carrier) changes and where large-volume shipments are reduced in size. For example, goods may be unloaded from a ship and transferred to trucks at an ocean port. • Brine: Seawater with a salinity greater than 35 parts per thousand. Usually occurs in isolated bodies of seawater that have high amounts of water loss due to evaporation. • British Thermal Unit (Btu): Measurement unit for heat. It is the amount of energy required to raise the temp. of one pound of water one degree from 62 to 63° Fahrenheit. One Btu is equal to 252 calories and to 1055 joules. • Bromeliad: Plants of the bromeliad family (Bromeliaceae). These plants grow from the dry deserts of the subtropics to equatorial tropical rain forests. Many bromeliads grow high up on the branches and trunks of trees in the tropical rainforest. Based on growth habits and other characteristics, Bromeliaceae is divided into the subfamilies Pitcairnioideae, Tillandsioideae, and Bromelioideae. • Butte: An isolated hill or mountain with steep or precipitous sides, usually having a smaller summit area than a mesa. C • Calcification: A dry environment soil-forming process that results in the accumulation of calcium carbonate in surface soil layers. • Calcium Carbonate: Compound consisting of calcium and carbonate. Calcium carbonate has the following chemical structure CaCO3. • Caldera: A large circular depression in a volcano. • Caliche: An accumulation of calcium carbonate at or near the soil surface. • Calorie: Quantity of energy. Equals the amount of heat required to raise 1 gram of pure water from 14.5 to 15.5° Celsius at standard atmospheric pressure. • Calving: The loss of glacier mass when ice breaks off into a large water body like an ocean or a lake. • Canadian High: High pressure system that develops in winter over central North America. • Canadian Shield: Very old igneous and metamorphic shield rock that covers much of northern Canada. Created more than two to three billion years ago. • Canopy Drip: Redirection of a proportion of the rain or snow falling on a plant to the edge of its canopy. • Canyon: Steep-sided valley where depth is considerably greater than width. These features are the result of stream erosion • Capillary Action: Movement of water along microscopic channels. This movement is the result of two forces: the adhesion and absorption of water to the walls of the channels; and cohesion of water molecules to each other. • Capillary Water: Water that moves horizontally and vertically in soils by the process of capillary action. This water is available for plant use. • Caprock: A strata of erosion-resistant sedimentary rock (usually limestone) found in arid areas. Caprock forms the top layer of most mesas and buttes. • Carbonation: Is a form of chemical weathering where carbonate and bicarbonate ions react with minerals that contain calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium. • Carbon Cycle: Storage and cyclic movement of organic and inorganic forms of carbon between the biosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. • Carbon Dioxide: Common gas found in the atmosphere. Has the ability to selectively absorb radiation in the longwave band. This absorption causes the greenhouse effect. The concentration of this gas has been steadily increasing in the atmosphere over the last three centuries due to the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and land-use change. Some scientists believe higher concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will result in an enhancement of the greenhouse effect and global warming. The chemical formula for carbon dioxide is CO2. • Carbon Monoxide: A colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that is produced by the incomplete burning of fossil fuels. The chemical formula for carbon dioxide is CO. • Carrying Capacity: The number of people that an area can support given the quality of the natural environment and the level of technology of the population. • Cartographer: A person who draws or makes maps or charts. • Cartography: Field of knowledge that studies map construction. The act of creating a map. • Cave: A natural cavity or recess that is roughly positioned horizontally to the surface of the Earth. • Cavitation: Process of intense erosion due to the surface collapse of air bubbles found in constricted rapid flows of water. Causes the detachment of material from a surface. • CBD: The central business district of an urban area, typically containing an intense concentration of office and retail activities. • Centripetal Force – Physical: Force required to keep an object moving in a circular pattern around a center of rotation. This force is directed towards the center of rotation. Common in meteorological phenomena like tornadoes and hurricanes. – Cultural: Those forces which bind a people together and build a sense of nationalism such as common history, language, and religion. • C Horizon: Soil horizon normally found below the B horizon and above the R horizon. This layer is composed of weathered bedrock that has not been yet significantly affected by the pedogenic processes. • Chalk: Form of limestone. This sedimentary rock is composed of the shells and skeletons of marine microorganisms. • Chaparral: A type of plant community common to areas of the world that have a Mediterranean climate (for example, California and Italy). It is characterized by shrubs, shrubby thickets and small trees that are adapted to seasonal dry conditions. Also called Mediterranean Scrubland. • Chemical Weathering: Breakdown of rock and minerals into small sized particles through chemical decomposition. • Chernozem Soil: – (1) Soil order (type) of the Canadian System of Soil Classification. This soil is common on the Canadian Prairies. – (2) Type of soil commonly found in grassland environments. These soils are often black in color and have a well developed A horizon rich in humus. • Chinook: A warm, dry wind experienced along the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. Most common in winter and spring, it can result in a rise in temperature of 20C (35 to 40F) in a quarter of an hour. • Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs): Is an artificially created gas that has become concentrated in the Earth's atmosphere. This very strong greenhouse gas is released from aerosol sprays, refrigerants, and the production of foams. The basic chemical formula for chlorofluorocarbons is CFx Clx . • Cinder Cone Volcano: A small volcano, between 100 and 400 meters tall, made up of exploded rock blasted out of a central vent – at a high velocity. These volcanoes develop from magma of basaltic to intermediate composition. • Circle of Illumination: A line that bisects areas on the Earth receiving sunlight and those areas in darkness. Cuts the spherical Earth into lighted and dark halves. • Circum-Pacific Belt: A zone circling the edge of the Pacific Ocean basin where tectonic subduction causes the formation of volcanoes and trenches. Also called the ring of fire. • Cirque: Glacially eroded rock basin found on mountains. Most alpine glaciers originate from a cirque. • Cirque Glacier: Small glacier that just occupies a cirque. • Cirrocumulus Clouds: Patchy white high altitude cloud composed of ice crystals. Found in an altitude range from 5,000 to 18,000 meters. • Cirrostratus Clouds: High altitude sheet like clouds composed of ice crystals. These thin clouds often cover the entire sky. Found in an altitude range from 5,000 to 18,000 meters. • Cirrus Clouds: High altitude cloud made of ice crystals. They look like white feather like patches, filaments or thin bands. Found in an altitude range from 5,000 to 18,000 meters. • Clastic Sedimentary Rock: Sedimentary rocks formed by the lithification of weathered rock debris that has been physically transported and deposited. • Clay: Mineral particle with a size less than 0.004 millimeters in diameter. Also see silt and sand. • Cleavage: The tendency of some minerals or rocks to break along planes of weakness. This weakness occurs because of the nature of the bonds between mineral grains. • Cliff: A tall steep rock face. • Climate: General pattern of weather conditions for a region over a long period time (at least 30 years). • Climatology: Scientific study of the Earth's climate over long time spans (greater than several days). May also involve the investigation of climate's influence on the biotic and the abiotic environment. • Climax Vegetation: The vegetation that would exist in an area if growth had proceeded undisturbed for an extended period. This would be the "final" collection of plant types that presumably would remain forever, or until the stable conditions were somehow disturbed. • Climograph: Two dimensional graph that plots a location's air temperature and precipitation on times scales that range from a 24 hour period to a year. • Closed System: Is is a system that transfers energy, but not matter, across its boundary to the surrounding environment. Our planet is often viewed as a closed system. • Closed Talik: Is a form of localized unfrozen ground (talik) in an area of permafrost. It is completely enclosed by permafrost in all directions. • Cloud: A collection of tiny particles of liquid or solid water occurring above the Earth's surface. Clouds are classified accord to their height of occurrence and shape. The major types of clouds include: Cirrus, Cirrocumulus, Cirrostratus, Altocumulus, Altostratus, Nimbostratus, Stratocumulus, Stratus, Cumulus, and Cumulonimbus. • Coal: Sedimentary rock composed of the compacted, lithified and altered remains of plants. Coal is a solid, combustible mixture of organic compounds, hydrocarbons, with 30 % to 98 % carbon by weight, mixed with various amounts of water and small amounts of sulfur and nitrogen compounds. It is formed in several stages as the remains of plants are subjected to heat and pressure over millions of years. • Coalescence: Process where two or more falling raindrops join together into a single larger drop because of a midair collision. • Coastal Dune: Sand dune that forms in coastal areas. The sand for its formation is supplied from a beach. • Coastal Wetland: Wetland habitat found along a coastline and is covered with ocean salt water for all or part of the year. Examples of this type of habitat include tidal marshes, bays, lagoons, tidal flats, and mangrove swamps. • Coastal Zone: Relatively nutrient-rich, shallow part of the ocean that extends from the high-tide mark on land to the edge of the continental shelf. • Col: Saddle like depression found between two mountain peaks. Formed when two opposing cirque glaciers back erode an arête. • Cold Desert: Desert found in the high latitudes and at high altitudes where precipitation is low. Surface air temperatures are generally cold in these dry environments. • Cold Front: A transition zone in the atmosphere where an advancing cold air mass displaces a warm air mass. • Colonization: Movement of individuals or propagules of a species to a new territory. • Community: Refers to all the populations of interacting species found in a specific area or region at a certain time. • Community Boundary: Spatial edge of a unique community. • Compass: Navigation instrument that uses the Earth's magnetic field to determine direction. • Composite Volcano: Volcano created from alternate layers of flows and exploded rock. Their height ranges from 100 to 3,500 meters tall. The chemistry of the magma of these volcanoes is quite variable ranging from basalt to granite. • Condensation: The change in state of matter from vapor to liquid that occurs with cooling. Usually used in meteorology when discussing the formation of liquid water from vapor. This process releases latent heat energy to the environment. • Condensation Nuclei: Microscopic particle of dust, smoke or salt that allows for condensation of water vapor to water droplets in the atmosphere. Nucleus for the formation of a rain drop. Condensation normally occurs on these particles when relative humidity becomes 100 %. Some condensation nuclei, like salt, are hygroscopic and water can condense on them at relative humidities lower than 100 %. • Cone of Depression: Cone shaped depression occurring horizontally across a water table. Causes by excessive removal of groundwater by a surface well. • Confined Aquifer: Aquifer between two layers of relatively impermeable earth materials, such as clay or shale. • Confined Groundwater: Groundwater trapped between two impervious layers of rock. • Confluence: The place at which two streams flow together to form one larger stream. • Conglomerate: Coarse grained sedimentary rock composed of rounded rock fragments cemented in a mixture of clay and silt. • Coniferous Vegetation: Cone-bearing vegetation of middle and high latitudes that are mostly evergreen and that have needle-shaped or scale like leaves. Compare with deciduous vegetation. • Conservation Biology: Multidisciplinary science that deals with the conservation of genes, species, communities, and ecosystems that make up Earth's biodiversity. It generally investigates human effects on biodiversity and tries to develop practical approaches to preserving biodiversity and ecological integrity. • Contact Metamorphism: A small scale metamorphic alteration of rock due to localized heating. It is usually cause by an igneous intrusion like a sill or a dyke. • Continent: One of the large, continuous areas of the Earth into which the land surface is divided. • Continental Arctic Air Mass (A): Air mass that forms over extensive landmass areas of the high latitudes. In the Northern Hemisphere, these system form only in winter over Greenland, northern Canada, northern Siberia, and the Arctic Basin. Continental Arctic air masses are very cold, extremely, dry and very stable. • Continental Climate: The type of climate found in the interior of the major continents in the middle, or temperate, latitudes. The climate is characterized by a great seasonal variation in temperatures, four distinct seasons, and a relatively small annual precipitation. • Continental Crust: Granitic portion of the Earth's crust that makes up the continents. Thickness of the continental crust varies between 20 to 75 kilometers. See sial layer. • Continental Divide: The elevated area that occurs on a continent that divides continental scale drainage basins. • Continental Drift: Theory that suggests that the Earth's crust is composed of several continental plates that have the ability to move. First proposed by A. Snider in 1858 and developed by F.B. Taylor (1908) and Alfred Wegener (1915). • Continental Effect: The effect that continental surfaces have on the climate of locations or regions. This effect results in a greater range in surface air temperature at both daily and annual scales. Also see maritime effect and continentality. • Continental Glacier: Largest type of glacier with a surface coverage in the order of 5 million square kilometers. Also called a Continental Ice Sheet • Continental Margin: The area between a continent's shoreline and the beginning of the ocean floor. It includes the continental shelf, continental rise, and continental slope. • Continental Plate: A rigid, independent segment of the lithosphere composed of mainly granite that floats on the viscous plastic asthenosphere and moves over the surface of the Earth. The Earth's continental plates are an average 125 kilometers thick and were formed more than 3 billion years ago. Also see oceanic plate. • Continental Polar Air Mass (cP): Air mass that forms over extensive landmass areas of middle to high latitudes. In North America, these system form over northern Canada. Continental Polar air masses are cold and very dry in the winter and cool and dry in the summer. These air masses are also atmospherically stable in both seasons. • Continental Rise: Thick layers of sediment found between the continental slope the ocean floor. • Continental Shelf: Shallow submerged margin of the continents that lies between the edge of the shoreline and the continental slope. This nearly level area of the continental crust has surface layers composed of sediment or sedimentary rock. • Continental Shelf Break: Boundary zone between the continental shelf and slope. • Continental Shield: See shield. • Continental Slope: Steeply sloping portion of continental crust found between the continental shelf and continental rise. • Continental Tropical Air Mass (cT): Air mass that forms over extensive landmasses areas of the low latitudes. In North America, these system form over southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Continental Tropical air masses are warm and dry in the winter and hot and dry in the summer. These air masses are also generally unstable in the winter and stable in the summer. • Continentality (climate): The absence of oceanic influence results in seasonal temperature extremes in the interior of large land masses particularly in the high latitudes. • Contour (Line): Line on a topographic map that connects all points with the same elevation. • Contour Interval: Difference in elevation between two successive contour lines. The interval at which contours are drawn on a map depends on the amount of the relief depicted and the scale of the map. • Continuous Permafrost: Form of permafrost that exists across a landscape as an unbroken layer. • Conurbation: An extensive urban area formed when two or more cities, originally separate, coalesce to form a continuous metropolitan region. • Convection Current: The movement of a gas or a fluid in chaotic vertical mass motions because of heating. • Convectional Lifting: The vertical lifting of parcels of air through convective heating of the atmosphere. This process can initiate adiabatic processes inside the air parcel. • Convectional Precipitation: Is the formation of precipitation due to surface heating of the air at the ground surface. If enough heating occurs, the mass of air becomes warmer and lighter than the air in the surrounding environment, and just like a hot air balloon it begins to rise, expand and cool. When sufficient cooling has taken place saturation occurs forming precipitation. This process is active in the interior of continents and near the equator forming cumulus clouds and possible later thunderstorms. Rain is usually the precipitation type that is formed, and in most cases this moisture is delivered in large amounts over short periods of time in extremely localized areas. • Convergence: Horizontal inflow of wind into an area. Once at the area, the wind then travels vertically. • Convergence Precipitation: The formation of precipitation due to the convergence of two air masses. In most cases, the two air masses have different climatological characteristics. One is usually warm and moist, while the other is cold and dry. The leading edge of the latter air mass acts as an inclined wall or front causing the moist warm air to be lifted. Of course the lifting causes the warm moist air mass to cool due to expansion resulting in saturation. This precipitation type is common at the mid-latitudes where cyclones form along the polar front. Also called frontal precipitation. • Convergent Lifting: The vertical lifting of parcels of air through the convergence of opposing air masses in the atmosphere. This process can initiate adiabatic processes inside the air parcel. • Coral: Simple marine animals that live symbiotically with algae. In the symbiotic relationship, the algae provides the coral with nutrients, while the coral provide the algae with a structure to live in. Coral animals secrete calcium carbonate to produce a hard external skeleton. • Coral Bleaching: Situation where coral lose their colorful symbiotic algae. Thought to be caused by unusually warm water, changes in salinity of ocean seawater, or excessive exposure to ultraviolet radiation. • Coral Reef: Ridge of limestone found generally below the ocean surface. This marine feature is produced by numerous colonies of tiny coral animals, called polyps, that create calcium carbonate structures around themselves for protection. When the corals die, their vacant exterior skeletons form layers that cause the reef to grow. Coral reefs are found in the coastal zones of warm tropical and subtropical oceans. • Core: The core is a layer rich in iron and nickel found in the interior of the Earth. It is composed of two sub-layers: the inner core and outer core. The core is about 7,000 kilometers in diameter. • Core Area: The portion of a country that contains its economic, political, intellectual, and cultural focus. It is often the center of creativity and change (see Hearth). • Coriolis Force: An apparent force due to the Earth's rotation. Causes moving objects to be deflected to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern hemisphere. Coriolis force does not exist on the equator. This force is responsible for the direction of flow in meteorological phenomena like mid-latitude cyclones, hurricanes, and anticyclones. • Coulee: – (1) Steep-sided flow of volcanic lava that has solidified. – (2) Abandoned glacial meltwater channel. – (3) Term used in the United States to describe a steep-sided stream valley. • Creep – (1) Slow mass movement of soil downslope. Occurs where the stresses on the slope material are too small to create a rapid failure. See soil creep. – (2) Another term used to describe traction. • Crevasse: – (1) Opening on a levee that allows for the drainage of water from the floodplain to the stream channel. – (2) Fracture on the brittle surface of a glacier. • Critical Entrainment Velocity: Velocity required to entrain a particular sized particle into the moving medium of air or water. • Crop-lien System: A farm financing scheme whereby money is loaned at the beginning of a growing season to pay for farming operations, with the subsequent harvest used as collateral for the loan. • Crust: Earth's outer most layer of solid rock. Between 7 to 70 kilometers thick. Two types of crust exist: oceanic crust and continental crust. • Cryostatic Pressure: Pressure exerted on a substance by ice at rest. • Culture: The accumulated habits, attitudes, and beliefs of a group of people that define for them their general behavior and way of life; the total set of learned activities of a people. • Culture Hearth: The area from which the culture of a group diffused (see Hearth) • Cumulus Cloud: Puffy clouds with relatively flat bases. Cumulus clouds form when moist warm air bubbles vertically escape from the Earth's surface. Found in an altitude range from 300 to 2,000 meters. • Cumulonimbus Cloud: A well developed vertical cloud that often has top shaped like an anvil. These clouds are very dense with condensed and deposited water. Weather associated with this cloud includes: strong winds; hail; lightning; tornadoes; thunder; and heavy rain. When this weather occurs these clouds are then thunderstorms. Can extend in altitude from a few hundred meters above the surface to more than 12,000 meters. • Cuspate Foreland: Is a triangular accumulation of sand and/or gravel located along the coastline. This feature is formed by the joining of two spits. • Cut-and-Sew Industry: The manufacture of basic ready-to-wear clothing. Such facilities usually have a small fixed investment in the manufacturing facility. • Cyclogenesis: Process of cyclone formation, maturation, and death. • Cyclone: Area of low pressure in the atmosphere that displays circular inward movement of air. In the Northern Hemisphere circulation is counterclockwise, while Southern Hemisphere cyclones have clockwise wind patterns. D • Debris Flow: A type of mass movement where there is a downslope flow of a saturated mass of soil, sediment, and rock debris. • Declination: Location (latitude) on the Earth where the location of the sun on a particular day is directly overhead at solar noon. This location is somewhere between 23.5° North and 23.5° South depending on the time of the year. • Deciduous Forest: Forests in which the trees lose their leaves each year. • Decomposition: – (1) To chemically or physically breakdown a mass of matter into smaller parts or chemical elements. – (2) Breakdown of organic matter into smaller parts or inorganic constituents by decomposing organisms. • Decomposer: A type of detritivore. Decomposers play an important role in recycling organic matter back into inorganic nutrients in ecosystems. This recycling is done by decomposing complex organic matter and then coverting the less complex organic products into inorganic compounds and atoms. Much of the recycled inorganic nutrients are then consumed by producers. Bacteria and fungi are the most common decomposers found in most ecosystems. Also see detritus feeders. • De Facto Segregation: The spatial and social separation of populations that occurs without legal sanction. • Deflation: Process where wind erosion creates blowout depressions or deflation hollows by removing and transporting sediment and soil. • Deflation Hollow: A surface depression or hollow commonly found in arid and semiarid regions caused by wind erosion. Also see the related blowout depression. • Deforestation: Removal of trees from a habitat dominated by forest. • Degradation: Readjustment of the stream profile where the stream channel is lowered by the erosion of the stream bed. Usually associated with high discharges. • Degree: A unit of angular measure: A circle is divided into 360 degrees, represented by the symbol o . Degrees are used to divide the roughly spherical shape of the Earth for geographic and cartographic purposes. • De Jure Segregation: The spatial and social separation of populations that occurs as a consequence of legal measures. • Delta: Large deposit of alluvial sediment located at the mouth of a stream where it enters a body of standing water. • Demography: The systematic analysis of population. • Dendritic: Term used to describe the stream channel pattern that is completely random. Resembles the branching pattern of blood vessels or tree branches. • Denudation: – (1) The erosion or wearing down of a landmass. – (2) Removal of the vegetative cover from an area. • Deposition: – (1) The change in state of matter from gas to solid that occurs with cooling. Usually used in meteorology when discussing the formation of ice from water vapor. This process releases latent heat energy to the environment. – (2) Laying down sediment transported by wind, water, or ice. • Depositional Landform: Is a landform formed from the deposition of weathered and eroded surface materials. On occasion, these deposits can be compressed, altered by pressure, heat and chemical processes to become sedimentary rocks. This includes landforms with some of the following geomorphic features: beaches, deltas, floodplains, and glacial moraines. • Depression: – (1) Concave hollow found on the Earth's surface. – (2) Term used to describe a cyclone or an atmospheric low pressure system. • Deranged Drainage: Drainage pattern that is highly irregular. Areas that have experienced continental glaciation may have this type of drainage pattern. • Desert – (1) Biome that has plants and animals adapted to survive severe drought conditions. In this habitat, evaporation exceeds precipitation and the average amount of precipitation is less than 25 centimeters a year. – (2) Area that receives low precipitation. Also see cold desert and warm desert. • Desertification: Conversion of marginal rangeland or cropland to a more desert like land type. Desertification can be caused by overgrazing, soil erosion, prolonged drought, or climate change. • Desert Pavement: A veneer of coarse particles left on the ground after the erosion of finer particles by wind. • Detachment: One of three distinct processes involved in erosion. This process involves the disengagement of a particle from its surroundings. • Detrital Rock: Sedimentary rock that is composed of particles transported to their place of deposition by erosional processes. Examples of such rock include sandstone and shale. • Detritus: Shed tissues, dead body parts, and waste products of organisms. In most ecosystems, detritus accumulates at the soil surface and other types of surface sediments. • Detritus Feeder: A type of detritivore. Detritus feeders acquire the nutrients they need from partially decomposed organic matter found in shed animal tissues, plant litter, dead bodies of plants and animals, and animal waste products. Some examples of detritus feeders include various species of beetles, various species of ants, earthworms, and termites. Also see decomposer. • Detritus Food Chain: Model describing the conversion of organic energy in a community or ecosystem into inorganic elements and compounds through decomposition. The organisms involved in this conversion are called detritivores. • Detritivore: Heterotrophic organism that feeds on detritus. Examples of such organisms include earthworms, termites, slugs, snails, bacteria, and fungi. Two types of detritivores are generally recognized: decomposers and detritus feeders. • Dew: Condensation of water on the Earth's surface because of atmospheric cooling. • Dew Point: Dew point is the temperature at which water vapor saturates from an air mass into liquid or solid usually forming rain, snow, frost or dew. Dew point normally occurs when a mass of air has a relative humidity of 100 %. If the dew point is below freezing, it is referred to as the frost point. • Diffused Solar Radiation: Solar radiation received by the Earth's atmosphere or surface that's been modified by atmospheric scattering. • Diffusion: – (1) Molecular mixing of one substance into another substance. – (2) Redirection or refraction of solar insolation in many directions. Process cause the beam of traveling radiation to become less intense. – (3) The process of spreading of culture traits from their point of origin to other places. • Dip: One of the directional properties of a geologic structure such as a fold or a fault. Dip is the inclination angle of the formation as measured at right angles to strike. • Direct Solar Radiation: Solar radiation received by the Earth's atmosphere or surface which has not been modified by atmospheric scattering. • Discontinuous Permafrost: Form of permafrost that contains numerous scattered pockets of unfrozen ground. • Discriminatory Shipping Rates: A transportation charge levied in a manner that is inequitable to some shippers, primarily because of those shippers' location. • Dispersal: An organism leaving its place or birth or activity for another location. • Dissociation: Chemical process where a compound or molecule breaks up into simpler constituents. • Dissolution: The process of a substance dissolving and dispersing into a liquid. • Dissolved Load: Portion of the stream load that is in solution in the flowing water. • Distributary: A smaller branching stream channel that flows away from a main stream channel. Common on deltas. Opposite of tributary. • Distributional Limit: Spatial boundary that defines the edge of a species geographical range. • Divide: The topographic ridge that separates drainage basins. • Doldrums: Area of low atmospheric pressure and calm westerly winds located at the equator. Similar to Intertropical Convergence Zone. • Dome: An uplifted area of sedimentary rocks with a downward dip in all directions; often caused by molten rock material pushing upward from below. The sediments have often eroded away, exposing the rocks that resulted when the molten material cooled. • Downdraft: Downward movement of air in the atmosphere. • Downwelling Current: Ocean current that travels downward into the ocean because of the convergence of opposing horizontal currents or because of an accumulation of seawater. • Drainage Basin: Land surface region drained by a length of stream channel. • Drainage Network: System of interconnected stream channels found in a drainage basin. • Drainage Pattern: Geometric pattern that a stream's channels take in the landscape. These patterns are controlled by factors such as slope, climate, vegetation, and bedrock resistance to erosion. • Drift: Any material deposited by a glacier. • Drought: Climatic condition where water loss due to evapotranspiration is greater than water inputs through precipitation. • Drumlin: A hill shaped deposit of till. The shape of these features resembles an elongated teaspoon laying bowl down. The tapered end of the drumlin points to the direction of glacial retreat. Drumlins come in assorted sizes. Lengths can range from 100 to 5,000 meters and heights can be as great as 200 meters. • Dry Adiabatic Lapse Rate (DALR): The rate of decline in the temperature of a rising parcel of air before it has reached saturation. This rate of temperature decline is 9.8° Celsius per 1000 meters because of adiabatic cooling. • Dry Farming: A type of farming practiced in semi-arid or dry grassland areas without irrigation using such approaches as fallowing, maintaining a finely broken surface, and growing drought-tolerant crops. • Dune: – (1) Stream bed deposit found streams whose channel is composed mainly of sand and silt. Dunes are about 10 or more centimeters in height and are spaced a meter or more apart and are common in streams with high velocities. – (2) Terrestrial deposit of sand that resembles a mound or ridge that was formed from aeolian processes. Also see sand dune. • Dune Field: An extensive region covered by numerous sand dunes. • Dust Dome: Dome of air that surrounds a city created from the urban heat island effect that traps pollutants like particulate matter. • Dyke: Thin vertical veins of igneous rock that form when magma enters and cools in fractures found within the crust. Also see intrusive igneous rock. • Dynamic Metamorphism: Form of metamorphism that causes only the structural alteration of rock through pressure. The minerals in the altered rocks do not change chemically. The extreme pressures associated with mountain building can cause this type of metamorphism. E • Earth Albedo: Is the reflectivity of the Earth's atmosphere and surface combined. Measurements indicate that the average Earth albedo is approximately 30 %. • Earthflow: A rapid type of downslope mass movement that involves soil and other loose sediments. Usually triggered by water saturation from rainfall. • Earthquake: Is a sudden motion or trembling in the Earth. The motion is caused by the quick release of slowly accumulated energy in the form of seismic waves. Most earthquakes are produced along faults, tectonic plate boundaries, or along the mid-oceanic ridges. • Earthquake Focus: Point of stress release in an earthquake. • Earth Revolution: Refers to the orbit of the Earth around the sun. This celestial motion takes 365 1/4 days to complete one cycle. Further, the Earth's orbit around the sun is not circular, but elliptical. • Earth Rotation: Refers to the spinning of the Earth on its polar axis. • Ebb Tide: Time during the tidal period when the tide is falling. Compare with flood tide. • Ecological Niche: Is all of the physical, chemical and biological conditions required by a species for survival, growth and reproduction. Two further abstractions of this concept are the fundamental niche and the realized niche. • Ecology: Study of the factors that influence the distribution and abundance of species. • Economies of Agglomeration: The economic advantages that accrue to an activity by locating close to other activities; benefits that follow from complementarity or shared public services. • Economies of Scale: Savings achieved in the cost of production by larger enterprises because the cost of initial investment can be defrayed across a greater number of producing units. • Ecosystem: An ecosystem is a system where populations of species group together into communities and interact with each other and the abiotic environment. • Ecosystem Diversity: The variety of unique biological communities found on the Earth. A component of biodiversity. • Ecotone: Boundary zone between two unique community types. • Eddy: A localized chaotic movement of air or liquid in a generally uniform larger flow. • Eddy Diffusion: Mixing of the atmosphere by chaotic air currents. • Edge Wave: A wave of water that moves parallel to the shore. This wave is usually a secondary wave of complex formation. • Effusive Eruption: Volcanic eruption where low-viscosity basaltic magma is released. This type of eruption is not explosive and tends to form shield volcanoes. • Elastic Deformation: Change in the shape of a material as the result of the force of compression or expansion. Upon release of the force, the material returns to its original shape. Also called plastic deformation. • Elastic Limit: Maximum level of elastic deformation of a material without rupture. • Elastic Rebound Theory: Theory that describes how earthquakes arise from the horizontal movement of adjacent tectonic plates along a linear strike-slip fault. This theory suggests that the two plates moving in opposite directions become locked for some period of time because of friction. However, the accumulating stress overcomes the friction and causes the plate to suddenly move over a short time period which generates an earthquake. • Electromagnetic Energy: Energy stored in electromagnetic waves or radiation. Energy is released when the waves are absorbed by a surface. Any object with a temperature above absolute zero (-273° Celsius) emits this type of energy. The intensity of energy released is a function of the temperature of the radiating surface. The higher the temperature the greater the quantity of energy released. • Electromagnetic Radiation (Waves): Emission of energy in the form of electromagnetic waves. All objects above the temperature of absolute zero (273.15° Celsius) radiate energy to their surrounding environment. The amount of electromagnetic radiation emitted by a body is proportionally related to its temperature. • Elevation: The height of a point on the Earth's surface above sea level. • El Nino: Name given to the occasional development of warm ocean surface waters along the coast of Ecuador and Peru. When this warming occurs the tropical Pacific trade winds weaken and the usual upwelling of cold, nutrient rich deep ocean water off the coast of Ecuador and Peru is reduced. The El Nino normally occurs around Christmas and lasts usually for a few weeks to a few months. Sometimes an extremely warm event can develop that lasts for much longer time periods. • Eluviation: Movement of humus, chemical substances, and mineral particles from the upper layers of a soil to lower layers by the downward movement of water through the soil profile. Compare with illuviation. • Emergent Coastline: A shoreline resulting from a rise in land surface elevation relative to sea level. • Emigration: Migration of an organism out of an area for the purpose of changing its residence permanently. Compare with immigration. • Enclave: A tract or territory enclosed within another state or country. • Endangered Species: A species found in nature that has so few surviving individuals that it could soon become extinct in all or most of its natural range. Also see threatened species. • Endogenic: A system that's internal to the Earth • Entrainment: One of three distinct processes involved in erosion. More specifically, it is the process of particle lifting by an agent of erosion. • Environmental Lapse Rate (ELR): The rate of air temperature increase or decrease with altitude. The average ELR in the troposphere is an air temperature decrease of 6.5° Celsius per 1000 meters rise in elevation • Environmental System: A system where life interacts with the various abiotic components found in the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere. • Eolian: Geomorphic process involving wind. Alternative spelling aeolian. • Eolian Landform: Is a landform formed from the erosion or deposition of weathered surface materials by wind. This includes landforms with some of the following geomorphic features: sand dunes, deflation hollows, and desert pavement. Alternative spelling aeolian landform. • Epicenter: Surface location of an earthquake's focus. • Epiphyte: Type of vegetation that gets its physical support from the branches of other plants. Commonly found in the tropical forests. • Equator: Location on the Earth that has a latitude of 0°. • Equilibrium: Equilibrium describes the average condition of a system, as measured through one of its elements or attributes, over a specific period of time. • Equinox: Two periods when the declination of the sun is at the equator. The September equinox occurs on September 22 or 23. The March equinox occurs on March 21 or 22. • Erg Desert: A region in a desert where sand is very abundant. • Erosion: The removal of weathered sediment or rocks by the forces of wind, water, and ice. • Erosional Landform: Is a landform formed from the removal of weathered and eroded surface materials by wind, water, glaciers, and gravity. This includes landforms with some of the following geomorphic features: river valleys, glacial valleys, and coastal cliffs. • Erratic: A boulder that has been carried from its source by a glacier and deposited as the glacier melted. Thus, the boulder is often of a different rock type from surrounding types. • Esker: Long twisting ridges of sand and gravel found on the Earth's surface. Created when the deposits of subsurface glacial streams are placed on the ground after glacial melting. • Escarpment: A long cliff or steep slope separating two comparatively level or more gently sloping surfaces and resulting from erosion or faulting. • Estuary: The broad lower course of a river that is encroached on by the sea and affected by the tides. • Eutrophication: Physical, chemical and biological changes in a water body as a result of the input nitrogen and phosphorus. • Eutrophic Lake: Lake that has an excessive supply of nutrients, mostly in the form of nitrates and phosphates. Also see mesotrophic lake and oligotrophic lake. • Evaporation: Evaporation can be defined as the process by which liquid water is converted into a gaseous state. Evaporation can only occur when water is available. It also requires that the humidity of the atmosphere be less than the evaporating surface (at 100 % relative humidity there is no more evaporation). The evaporation process requires large amounts of energy. For example, the evaporation of one gram of water at a temperature of 100° Celsius requires 540 calories of heat energy (600 calories at 0° Celsius). • Evapotranspiration: The water lost from an area through the combined effects of evaporation from the ground surface and transpiration from the vegetation. • Evergreen Vegetation: Vegetation that keeps a majority of their leaves or needles throughout the year. Also see deciduous vegetation and succulent vegetation. • Exfoliation Dome: A physical weathering feature associated with granite that is the result of the erosion of overburden material and pressure-release. With the release of pressure, layers of rock break off in sheets or shells leaving a dome-like bedrock feature. • Exogenic: Refers to a system that is external to the Earth. • Exosphere: The outermost zone in the Earth's atmosphere. This layer has an altitude greater than 480 kilometers and is primarily composed of hydrogen and helium gas. • Exotic Stream: A stream that has a course that begins in a humid climate and end in an arid climate. Because of reductions in precipitation and and increases in evaporation, the discharge of these streams deceases downslope. Examples of such streams are the Nile and Colorado Rivers. • Explosive Eruption: Volcanic eruption where high-viscosity granite-rich magma causes an explosion of ash and pyroclastic material. This type of eruption is common to composite and caldera volcanoes. • Extended Family: A family that includes three or more generations. Normally, that would include grandparents, their sons or daughters, and their children, as opposed to a "nuclear family," which is only a married couple and their offspring. • Extinction: Disappearance of a species from all or part of their geographic range. Also see background extinction and mass extinction. • Extrusive Igneous Rock: Igneous rock that forms on the surface of the Earth. Also called volcanic igneous rock. • Exurb: A region or district that lies outside a city and usually beyond its suburbs. • Eye: Area in the center of a hurricane that is devoid of clouds. F • Fall Line: The physiographic border between the piedmont and coastal plain regions. The name derives from the river rapids and falls that occur as the water flows from hard rocks of the higher piedmont onto the softer rocks of the coastal plain. • Fallow: Agricultural land that is plowed or tilled but left unseeded during a growing season. Fallowing is usually done to conserve moisture. • Fault: A fracture in the Earth's crust accompanied by a displacement of one side of the fracture. • Fault Block Mountain: A mountain mass created either by the uplift of land between faults or the subsidence of land outside the faults. • Fault Plane: The plane that represents the fracture surface of a fault. • Fault Scarp: The section of the fault plane exposed in a fault. Also called an escarpment. • Fault Zone: A fracture in the Earth's crust along which movement has occurred. The movement may be in any direction and involve material on either or both sides of the fracture. A "fault zone" is an area of numerous fractures. • Federation: A form of government in which powers and functions are divided between a central government and a number of political subdivisions that have a significant degree of political autonomy. • Felsic Magma: Magma that is relatively rich in silica, sodium, aluminum, and potassium. This type of magma solidifies to form rocks relatively rich in silica, sodium, aluminum, and potassium. • Fen: A habitat composed of woodland and swamp. • Feral Animal: A wild or untamed animal, especially one having reverted to such a state from domestication. • Fetch: The distance of open water in one direction across a body of water over which wind can blow. • Firn: Névé on a glacier that survives the year's ablation season. With time much of the firn is transformed into glacial ice. • Firn Limit: The lower boundary of the zone of accumulation on a glacier where snow accumulates on an annual basis. Also called the Firn Line. • Fish Ladder: A series of shallow steps down which water is allowed to flow; designed to permit salmon to circumvent artificial barriers such as power dams as the salmon swim upstream to spawn. • Fission (Nuclear): Process where the mass of an atomic nucleus is made smaller by the removal of subatomic particles. This process releases atomic energy in the form of heat and electromagnetic radiation. • Fissure: Opening or crack in the Earth's crust. • Fjord: A glacial valley or glacial trough found along the coast that is now filled with a mixture of fresh water and seawater. • Flash Flood: A rapid and short-lived increase in the amount of runoff water entering a stream resulting in a flood. • Flocculation: Chemical processes where salt causes the aggregation of minute clay particles into larger masses that are too heavy to remain suspended water. • Flood: Inundation of a land surface that is not normally submerged by water from quick change in the level of a water body like a lake, stream, or ocean. • Floodplain: Relatively flat area found alongside the stream channel that is prone to flooding and receives alluvium deposits from these inundation events. • Flood Tide: Time during the tidal period when the tide is rising. Compare with ebb tide. • Fluid Drag: Reduction in the flow velocity of a fluid by the frictional effects of a surface. • Fluvial: Involving running water. Usually pertaining to stream processes. • Focality: The characteristic of a place that follows from its interconnections with more than one other place. When interaction within a region comes together at a place (i.e., when the movement focuses on that location), the place is said to possess "focality." • Föhn Wind: European equivalent of chinook wind. • Fog: Fog exists if the atmospheric visibility near the Earth's surface is reduced to 1 kilometer or less. Fog can be composed of water droplets, ice crystals or smoke particles. Fogs composed primarily of water droplets are classified according to the process that causes the air to cool to saturation. Common types of this type of fog include: radiation fog; upslope fog; advection fog; evaporation fog; ice fog; & frontal fog. • Fold: Wavelike layers in rock strata that are the result of compression. • Folding: The deformation of rock layers because of compressive forces to form folds. • Food Chain: Movement of energy through the trophic levels of organisms. In most ecosystems, this process begins with photosynthetic autotrophs (plants) and ends with carnivores and detritivores. • Food Web: A model describing the organisms found in a food chain. Food webs describe the complex patterns of energy flow in an ecosystem by modeling who consumes who. • Forest: Ecosystem dominated by trees. Major forest biomes include tropical evergreen forest, tropical savanna, deciduous forest, and boreal forest. • Foreshock: Small earth tremors that occur seconds to weeks before a significant earthquake event. • Fossil: Geologically preserved remains of an organism that lived in the past. • Fossil Fuel: Carbon based remains of organic matter that has been geologically transformed into coal, oil and natural gas. Combustion of these substances releases large amounts of energy. Currently, humans are using fossil fuels to supply much of their energy needs. • Front: Transition zone between air masses with different weather characteristics. • Frontal Fog: Is a type of fog that is associated with weather fronts, particularly warm fronts. This type of fog develops when frontal precipitation falling into the colder air ahead of the warm front causes the air to become saturated through evaporation. • Frontal Lifting: Lifting of a warmer or less dense air mass by a colder or more dense air mass at a frontal transitional zone. • Frontal Precipitation: See convergence precipitation. • Frost: Deposition of ice at the Earth's surface because of atmospheric cooling. • Frost Creep: Slow mass movement of soil downslope that is initiated by freeze-thaw action. Occurs where the stresses on the slope material are too small to create a rapid failure. • Frost Point: Is the temperature at which water vapor saturates from an air mass into solid usually forming snow or frost. Frost point normally occurs when a mass of air has a relative humidity of 100 % • Frost Wedging: A process of physical (mechanical) weathering in which water freezes in a crack and exerts force on the rock causing further rupture. • Functional Diversity: The characteristic of a place where a variety of different activities (economic, political, social) occur; most often associated with urban places. • Funnel Cloud: A tornado which is beginning its descent from the base of a cumulonimbus cloud. This severe weather event may or may not reach the ground surface. • Fusion (Nuclear): Process where the mass of an atomic nucleus is made larger by the addition of subatomic particles. This process releases atomic energy in the form of heat and electromagnetic radiation. G • Gaia Hypothesis: The Gaia hypothesis states that the temperature and composition of the Earth's surface are actively controlled by life on the planet. It suggests that if changes in the gas composition, temperature or oxidation state of the Earth are induced by astronomical, biological, lithological, or other perturbations, life responds to these changes by growth and metabolism. • Gall-Peters Projection: Map projection system that reduces the area distortion found in Mercator projections. • Gene Pool: Sum total of all the genes found in the individuals of the population of a particular species. • General Circulation Model (GCM): Computer-based climate model that produces future forecast of weather and climate conditions for regions of the Earth or the complete planet. Uses complex mathematical equations and physical relationships to determine a variety of climate variables in a three-dimensional grid. • Genetic Diversity: Genetic variability found in a population of a species or all of the populations of a species. Also see biodiversity, ecosystem diversity, and species diversity. • Geocoding: The conversion of features found on an analog map into a computer-digital form. In this process, the spatial location of the various features is referenced geographically to a coordinate system used in the computer's software system. • Geodesy: The science that measures the surface features of the Earth. • Geographical Coordinate System: System that uses the measures of latitude and longitude to locate points on the spherical surface of the Earth. • Geographic Cycle: Theory developed by William Morris Davis that models the formation of river-eroded landscapes. This theory suggests that landscapes go through three stages of development (youth, maturity, and old age) and argues that the rejuvenation of landscapes arises from tectonic uplift of the land. • Geographic Range: Spatial distribution of a species. The geographic ranges of species often fluctuate over time. • Geography: The study natural and human constructed phenomena relative to a spatial dimension. • Geoid: True shape of the Earth, which deviates from a perfect sphere due to a slight bulge at the equator. • Geologic Time Scale: – (1) Scale used to measure time relative to events of geological significance. – (2) Time scale that occurs over millions and billions of years. • Geology: The field of knowledge that studies the origin, structure, chemical composition, and history of the Earth and other planets. • Geomorphic Threshold: The amount of slow accumulated change a landform can take before it suddenly moves into an accelerated rate of change that takes it to a new system state. • Geomorphology: The study of the arrangement and form of the Earth's crust and of the relationship between these physical features and the geologic structures beneath. • Geostationary Orbit: Satellite that has an orbit that keeps it over the same point on the Earth at all times. This is accomplished by having the satellite travel in space at the same angular velocity as the Earth. • Geothermal Energy: Heat energy derived from the Earth's interior. • Ghetto: Originally, the section of a European city to which Jews were restricted. Today, commonly defined as a section of a city occupied by members of a minority group who live there because of social restrictions on their residential choice. • Glacial (glaciation): – (1) Period of time during an ice age when glaciers advance because of colder temperatures. – (2) Involving glaciers and moving ice. Usually pertaining to processes associated with glaciers. • Glacial Drift: A generic term applied to all glacial and glaciofluvial deposits. • Glacial Ice: A very dense form frozen water that is much harder than snow, névé, or firn. • Glacial Milk: Term used to describe glacial meltwater which has a light colored or cloudy appearance because of clay-sized sediment held in suspension. • Glacial Polish: The abrasion of bedrock surfaces by materials carried on the bottom of a glacier. This process leaves these surfaces smooth and shiny. • Glacial Retreat: The backwards movement of the snout of a glacier. • Glacial Surge: A rapid forward movement of the snout of a glacier. • Glacial Tilla: The mass of rocks and finely ground material carried by a glacier, then deposited when the ice melted. Creates an unstratified material of varying composition. • Glacial Trough: A deep U-shaped valley with steep valley walls that was formed from glacial erosion. At the base of many of these valleys are cirques. • Glacial Uplift: Upward movement of the Earth's crust following isostatic depression from the weight of the continental glaciers. • Glacial Valley: Valley that was influenced by the presence of glaciers. The cross-section of such valleys tends to be U-shaped because of glacial erosion. Similar to glacial trough. • Glaciation: Having been covered with a glacier or subject to glacial epochs. • Glacier: A large long lasting accumulation of snow and ice that develops on land. Most glaciers flow along topographic gradients because of their weight and gravity. • Glaciofluvial: Geomorphic feature whose origin is related to the processes associated with glacial meltwater. • Global Positioning System (GPS): System used to determine latitude, longitude, and elevation anywhere on or above the Earth's surface. This system involves the transmission of radio signals from a number of specialized satellites to a hand held receiving unit. The receiving unit uses triangulation to calculate altitude and spatial position on the Earth's surface. • Global Warming: Warming of the Earth's average global temperature because of an increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases. A greater concentration in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is believed to result in an enhancement of the greenhouse effect. • Globe: A true-to-scale map of the Earth that duplicates its round shape and correctly represents areas, relative size and shape of physical features, distances, and directions. • Graben Fault: This fault is produced when tensional stresses result in the subsidence of a block of rock. On a large scale these features are known as Rift Valleys. • Graded Stream: A stream that has a long profile that is in equilibrium with the general slope of the landscape. A graded profile is concave and smooth. Stream's maintain their grade through a balance between erosion, transportation, and deposition. Erosion removes material from bumps in the profile and deposition fills in dips. • Gradient: The steepness of a slope as measured in degrees, percentage, or as a distance ratio (rise/run). • Graphic Scale: Way of expressing the scale of a map with a graphic. • Grassland: Ecosystem whose dominant species are various types of grass. Found in regions where average precipitation is not great enough to support the growth of shrublands or forest. • Graupel: A type of precipitation that consists of a snow crystal and a raindrop frozen together. Also called snow pellets. • Gravel: A term used to describe unconsolidated sediments composed of rock fragments. These rock fragments have a size that is greater than 2 millimeters. • Gravitational Water: Water that moves through soil due to gravitational forces. Soil water in excess of hygroscopic water and capillary water. • Gravity: Is the process where any body of mass found in the universe attracts other bodies with a force proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the distance that separates them. First proposed by Sir Issac Newton in 1686. • Grazing Food Chain: Model describing the trophic flow of organic energy in a community or ecosystem. • Great Circle Route: The shortest distance between two places on the Earth's surface. The route follows a line described by the intersection of the surface with an imaginary plane passing through the Earth's center. • Greenhouse Effect: The greenhouse effect causes the atmosphere to trap more heat energy at the Earth's surface and within the atmosphere by absorbing and re-emitting longwave energy. Of the longwave energy emitted back to space, 90 % is intercepted and absorbed by greenhouse gases. Without the greenhouse effect the Earth's average global temperature would be -18° Celsius, rather than the present 15° Celsius. In the last few centuries, the activities of humans have directly or indirectly caused the concentration of the major greenhouse gases to increase. Scientists predict that this increase may enhance the greenhouse effect making the planet warmer. Some experts estimate that the Earth's average global temperature has already increased by 0.3 to 0.6° Celsius, since the beginning of this century, because of this enhancement. • Greenhouse Gases: Gases responsible for the greenhouse effect. These gases include: water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2); methane (CH4); nitrous oxide (N2O); tropospheric ozone (O3); and chlorofluorocarbons (CFxClx). • Greenwich Mean Time (GMT): Former standard world time as measured at Greenwich, England (location of the Prime Meridian). Replace in 1928 with Universal Time (UT). • Grid: A pattern of lines on a chart or map, such as those representing latitude and longitude, which helps determine absolute location. • Grid North: The direction north as measured on the Universal Transverse Mercator grid system. • Grid South: The direction south as measured on the Universal Transverse Mercator grid system. • Gross Primary Productivity: Total amount of chemical energy fixed by the processes of photosynthesis. • Gross Secondary Productivity: Total amount of chemical energy assimilated by consumer organisms. • Gross Sediment Transport: The total amount of sediment transported along a shoreline in a specific time period. • Ground Frost: Frost that penetrates the soil surface in response to freezing temperatures. • Ground Moraine: A thick layer of till deposited by a melting glacier. • Groundwater: Water that occupies the pore spaces found in some types of bedrock. • Groundwater Flow: Underground topographic flow of groundwater because of gravity. • Groundwater Recharge: The replenishment of groundwater with surface water. • Growing Season: The period from the average date of the last frost (in the United States, this occurs in the spring) to the first frost in the fall. • Gulf Stream: Warm ocean current that originates in and around the Caribbean and flows across the North Atlantic to northwest Europe. • Gust Front: A boundary found ahead of a thunderstorm that separates cold storm downdrafts from warm humid surface air. Winds in this phenomenon are strong and fast. • Gyre: Arrangement of surface ocean currents into a large macro-scale circular pattern of flow. h • Hail: Hail is a solid form of precipitation that has a diameter greater than 5 millimeters. Occassionally, hailstones can be the size of golf balls or larger. Hailstones of this size can be quite destructive. The intense updrafts in mature thunderstorm clouds are a necessary requirement for hail formation. • Hamada: A very flat desert area of exposed bedrock. • Hanging Valley: A secondary valley that enters a main valley at an elevation well above the main valley's floor. These features are result of past erosion caused by alpine glaciers. Hanging valleys are often the site of spectacular waterfalls. • Hardpan: Impervious layer found within the soil. It can result from the precipitation of iron, illuviation of clay or the cementing of sand and gravel by calcium carbonate precipitates. • Headlands: A strip of land that juts seaward from the coastline. This feature normally bordered by a cliff. • Headwaters: Upper portion of stream's drainage system. • Heat Island: The dome of relatively warm air which develops over the center of urbanized areas. • Heavy Industry: Manufacturing activities engaged in the conversion of large volumes of raw materials and partially processed materials into products of higher value; hallmarks of this form of industry are considerable capital investment in large machinery, heavy energy consumption, and final products of relatively low value per unit weight (see Light Industry). • Helical Flow: Movement of water within a stream that occurs as spiral flows. • Hemisphere: Half of the Earth, usually conceived as resulting from the division of the globe into two equal parts'north and south or east and west. • High Pressure: An area of atmospheric pressure within the Earth's atmosphere that is above average. If this system is on the Earth's surface and contains circular wind flow and enclosed isobars it is called an anticyclone. • Hinterland: The area tributary to a place and linked to that place through lines of exchange, or interaction. • Homeostatic (Homeostasis): A constant or nonchanging state of equilibrium in a system despite changes in external conditions. • Horizon: – (1) A surface separating two beds in sedimentary rock. – (2) A layer within a soil showing unique pedogenic characteristics. Four major horizons are normally found in a soil profile: A, B, C, and O. – (3) Point at which the visible edge of the Earth's surface meets the sky. • Horn: Pyramidal peak that forms when several cirques erode a mountain from three or more sides. • Horst Fault: A fault that is produced when two reverse faults cause a block of rock to be pushed up. • Hot Spot: Volcanic area on the surface of the Earth created by a rising plume of magma. • Host: Organism that develops disease from a pathogen or is being feed on by a parasite. • Human Geography: Field of knowledge that studies human-made features and phenomena on the Earth from a spatial perspective. Subdiscipline of Geography. • Human-Land Tradition: Academic tradition in modern Geography that investigates human interactions with the environment. • Humidity: A general term used to describe the amount of water vapor found in the atmosphere. • Humus: Dark colored semi-soluble organic substance formed from decomposition of soil organic matter. • Hurricane: An intense cyclonic storm consisting of an organized mass of thunderstorms that develops over the warm oceans of the tropics. To be classified as a hurricane, winds speeds in the storm must be greater than 118 kilometers per hour. • Hydration: A form of chemical weathering that involves the rigid attachment of H+ and OH- ions to the atoms and molecules of a mineral. • Hydraulic Gradient: The slope of the water table or aquifer. The hydraulic gradient influences the direction and rate of groundwater flow. • Hydrocarbon: Organic compound composed primarily of hydrogen and carbon atoms. An example of a hydrocarbon is methane (CH4). • Hydrograph: A graph describing stream discharge over time. • Hydrography: The study of the surface waters of the Earth. • Hydrologic Cycle: Model that describes the movement of water between the hydrosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. • Hydrology: Field of physical geography that studies the hydrosphere. • Hydrolysis: Chemical weathering process that involves the reaction between mineral ions and the ions of water (OH- and H+), and results in the decomposition of the rock surface by forming new compounds, and by increasing the pH of the solution involve through the release of the hydroxide ions. • Hydroponics: The growing of plants, especially vegetables, in water containing essential mineral nutrients rather than in soil. • Hydrosphere: The hydrosphere describes the waters of the Earth. Water exists on the Earth in various stores, including the: atmosphere, oceans, lakes, rivers, glaciers, snowfields and groundwater. Water moves from one store to another by way of: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, deposition, runoff, infiltration, sublimation, transpiration, and groundwater flow. • Hydrostatic Pressure: Force caused by water under pressure. • Hygrometer: An instrument for measuring atmospheric humidity. • Hygroscopic: Substances that have the ability to absorb water and therefore accelerate the condensation process. • Hygroscopic Water: Water held within 0.0002 millimeters of the surface of a soil particle. This water is essentially non-mobile and can only be removed from the soil through heating. I • Ice Age: A time of widespread glaciation (see Pleistocene). • Iceberg: A mass of ice found floating in the ocean or a lake. Often icebergs form when ice calves from land-based glaciers into the water body. Icebergs can be dangerous to shipping in high and mid-latitude regions of the ocean because 90 percent of their mass lies below the ocean surface. • Ice Cap: Large dome-shaped glacier found covering a large expanse of land. Smaller than an ice sheet. • Ice Fall: An area of crevassed ice on a glacier. Caused when the base of the glacier flows over steep topography. • Ice Field: Large level area of glacial ice found covering a large expanse of land. Similar in size to an ice cap but does not have a dome-shape. • Ice Fog: A fog that is composed of small suspended ice crystals. Common in Arctic locations when temperatures are below -30° Celsius and a abundant supply of water vapor exists. • Ice Jam: The accumulation of ice at a specific location along a stream channel. Can cause the reduction of stream flow down stream of the obstruction and flooding upstream. • Icelandic Low: Subpolar low pressure system found near Iceland. Most developed during the winter season. This large-scale pressure system spawns mid-latitude cyclones. • Ice Lense: Horizontal accumulation of permanently frozen ground ice. • Ice Pellets: A type of precipitation. Ice pellets or sleet are transparent or translucent spheres of frozen water that fall from clouds. Ice pellets have a diameter less than 5 millimeters. To form, this type of precipitation requires an environment where raindrops develop in an atmosphere where air temperature is above freezing. These raindrops then fall into a lower layer of air with freezing temperatures. In this lower layer of cold air, the raindrops freeze into small ice pellets. Like freezing rain, an air temperature inversion is required for development of ice pellets. • Ice Sheet: A dome-shaped glacier greater than 50,000 square kilometers. Greenland and Antarctica are considered ice sheets. During the glacial advances of the Pleistocene ice sheets covered large areas of North America, Europe, and Asia. (> an ice cap). • Ice Shelf: Large flat layer of ice that extends from the edge of the Antarctic ice cap into the Antarctic Ocean. Source of icebergs. • Ice Wedge: Wedge-shaped, ice body composed of vertically oriented ground ice that extends into the top of a permafrost layer. These features are approximately 2 to 3 meters wide at their top and extend into the soil about 8 to 10 meters. Form in cracks that develop in the soil during winter because of thermal contraction. In the spring, these cracks fill with liquid water from melting snow which subsequently re-freezes. The freezing process causes the water to expand in volume increasing the size and depth of the crack. The now large crack fills with more liquid water and again it freezes causing the crack to enlarge.This process continues for many cycles until the ice wedge reaches its maximum size. • Igneous Rock: Rocks formed by solidification of molten magma either beneath (intrusive igneous rock) or at (extrusive igneous rocks) the Earth's surface. • Illuviation: Deposition of humus, chemical substances, and fine mineral particles in the lower layers of a soil from upper layers because of the downward movement of water through the soil profile. Compare with eluviation. • Immigrant Species: Species that migrate into an ecosystem or that are deliberately or accidentally introduced into an ecosystem by humans. Some of these species are beneficial, whereas others can take over and eliminate many native species. Compare with indicator species, keystone species, and native species. • Immigration: Migration of an organism into an area for the purpose of changing its residence permanently. Compare with emigration. • Indentured Labor: Work performed according to a binding contract between two parties. During the early colonial period in America, this often involved long periods of time and a total work commitment. • Index Contour: Contour line that is accentuated in thickness and is often labeled with the appropriate measure of elevation. Index contours occur every four or fifth contour interval and help the map user read elevations on a map. • Indicator Species:Species that can be used as a early indicator of environmental degradation to a community or an ecosystem. Compare with immigrant species, keystone species, and native species. • Indigo: A plant that yields a blue vat dye. • Industrial Revolution: Major change in the economy and society of humans brought on by the use of machines and the efficient production of goods. This period in human history began in England in the late 18th century. • Industrial Smog: Form of air pollution that develops in urban areas. This type of air pollution consists of a combination of sulfur dioxide, suspended droplets of sulfuric acid, and a variety of suspended solid particles. Also see photochemical smog. • Inertia Costs of Location: Costs borne by an activity because it remains located at its original site, even though the distributions of supply and demand have changed. • Infrared Radiation: Form of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength between 0.7 and 100 micrometers (µm). Also called longwave radiation. • Infiltration: The absorption and downward movement of water into the soil layer. • Infiltration Capacity:The ability of a soil to absorb surface water. • Infiltration Rate: Rate of absorption and downward movement of water into the soil layer. • Inner Core: Inner region of the Earth's core. It is thought to be solid iron and nickel with a density of about 13 grams per cubic centimeter. It also has a diameter of about 1220 kilometers. • Inorganic: Non-living thing. Usually refers to the physical and chemical components of an organism's environment. Some times called abiotic. • Input: Addition of matter, energy, or information to a system. Also see output. • Inselberg: A German term used to describe a steep-sided hill composed of rock that rises from a pediplain. • Insolation: Direct or diffused shortwave solar radiation that is received in the Earth's atmosphere or at its surface. • Insolation Weathering: Form of physical weathering. Involves the physical breakdown of minerals and rock due to thermal expansion and contraction. • Instability: Atmospheric condition where a parcel of air is warmer that the surrounding air in the immediate environment. This condition causes the parcel to rise in the atmosphere. Also see unstable atmosphere. • Insular: Either of an island, or suggestive of the isolated condition of an island. • Interception: Is the capture of precipitation by the plant canopy and its subsequent return to the atmosphere through evaporation or sublimation. The amount of precipitation intercepted by plants varies with leaf type, canopy architecture, wind speed, available radiation, temperature, and the humidity of the atmosphere. • Interglacial: Period of time during an ice age when glaciers retreated because of milder temperatures. • Intermittent Stream: A stream that flows only for short periods over a year. Flow events are usually initiated by rainfall. • International Date Line: A line drawn almost parallel to the 180 degree longitude meridian that marks the location where each day officially begins. The location of the International Date Line was decided upon by international agreement. • Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ): Zone of low atmospheric pressure and ascending air located at or near the equator. Rising air currents are due to global wind convergence and convection from thermal heating. Location of the thermal equator. • Intervening Opportunity: The existence of a closer, less expensive opportunity for obtaining a good or service, or for a migration destination. Such opportunities lessen the attractiveness of more distant places. • Intracoastal Waterway System: A waterway channel, maintained through dredging and sheltered for the most part by a series of linear offshore islands, that extends from New York City to Florida's southern tip and from Brownsville, Texas, to the eastern end of Florida's panhandle. • Intrusive Igneous Rock: A mass of igneous rock that forms when magma from the mantle migrates upward and cools and crystallizes near, but not at, the Earth's surface. Also called plutonic igneous rock. Also see dyke, sill, and batholith. • Inversely Proportional: Cause and effect relationship between two variables where a positive or negative change in the quantity of one causes a predictable opposite change in quantity in the other. • Invertebrate: Animal that does not have a backbone. Also see vertebrate. • Ionosphere: A region in the atmosphere above 50 kilometers from the surface where relatively large concentrations of ions and free electrons exist. The ionosphere is important for human communications because it re-directs AM radio transmissions. This process extends the distance that radio transmissions can travel. • Island Arc: A line of volcanic islands found of the ocean that have been created by the convergence of two tectonic plates and the subsequent subduction of one of the plates beneath the other. Subduction cause magma plumes to rise to the Earth's surface creating the volcanic islands. • Isobar: Lines on a map joining points of equal atmospheric pressure. • Isohyet: A line on a map connecting points that receive equal precipitation. • Isoline: Lines on a map joining points of equal value. • Isostacy: The buoyant condition of the Earth's crust floating in the asthenosphere. The greater the weight of the crust the deeper it floats into the asthenosphere. When weight is remove the crust rises higher. • Isostatic Depression: Large scale sinking of the crust into the asthenosphere because of an increase in weight on the crustal surface. Common in areas of continental glaciation where the crust was depressed by the weight of the ice. • Isostatic Rebound: The upward movement of the Earth's crust following isostatic depression. • Isotherm: Lines on a map joining points of equal temperature. • Isotopic Dating: Dating technique used to determine the age of rock and mineral through the decay of radioactive elements. J • Jet Stream: Relatively fast uniform winds concentrated within the upper atmosphere in a narrow band. A number of jet streams have been identified in the atmosphere. The polar jet stream exists in the midlatitudes at an altitude of approximately 10 kilometers. This jet stream flows from west to east at average speeds, depending on the time of year, between 110 to 185 kilometers per hour. Another strong jet stream occurs above the sub-tropical highs at an altitude of 13 kilometers. This jet stream is commonly called the subtropical jet stream. The subtropical jet stream's winds are not as strong as the polar jet stream. • Joint: A fracture in a rock where no movement has taken place or where no movement has taken place perpendicular to the surface of the fracture. Important in rock weathering because it increases the exposed surface area. • Jurisdiction: The right and power to apply the law; the territorial range of legal authority or control. K • Kame: A steep conical hill composed of glaciofluvial materials. This feature forms when glacial crevasses are filled with deposits from sediment filled meltwater. • Kame Terrace: A long flat ridge composed of glaciofluvial sediment. This feature forms along the margin of a valley glacier where the glacial ice meets the valley's slope. Sediment is deposited by laterally flowing meltwater streams. • Karst: An area possessing surface topography resulting from the underground solution of subsurface limestone or dolomite. • Katabatic Wind: Any wind blowing down the slope of a mountain. • Kettle Hole: Depression found in glacial deposits. Created when a piece of ice from a retreating glacier becomes embedded in soft glacial till or glacial drift deposits. Many are filled with water to form a small lake or pond. • Kettle Moraine: An area of glaciofluvial influenced moraine deposits pitted with kames and kettle holes. • Keystone Species: Species that interacts with many other species in a community. Due to the interactions, the removal of this species can cause widespread changes to community structure. Compare with immigrant species, indicator species, and native species. • Köppen Climate Classification: Uses monthly precipitation and temperature data and total annual precipitation data to classify a location's climate into one of five main categories: Tropical Moist Climates; Dry Climates; Moist Mid-latitude Climates with Mild Winters; Moist Mid-Latitude Climates with Cold Winters; and Polar Climates. These are further divided into subcategories. First developed in 1918 by German biologist W. Köppen, this system has undergone a number of modifications. • Kudzu: A vine, native to China and Japan but imported into the United States; originally planted for decoration, for forage, or as a ground cover to control erosion. It now grows wild in many parts of the southeastern United States. L • Lacustrine Plain: A nearly level land area that was formed as a lake bed. • Lagoon: – (1) A body of seawater that is almost completely cut off from the ocean by a barrier beach. – (2) The body of seawater that is enclosed by an atoll. • Lahar: A very rapid type of downslope mass movement that involving mudflows from volcanic ash. • Lake: A body standing water found on the Earth's continental land masses. The water in a lake is normally fresh. Also see eutrophic lake, mesotrophic lake, and oligotrophic lake. • Land Breeze: Local thermal circulation pattern found at the interface between land and water. In this circulation system, surface winds blow from land to water during the night. • Landfall: The coastline location where a tropical storm or hurricane moves from ocean onto land. • Landsat: Series of satellites launched by NASA for the purpose of remotely monitoring resources on the Earth. The first Landsat satellite was launched by the United States in 1972. Landsat uses two types of sensors to monitor the Earth: Thematic Mapper and Multispectral Scanner. See the following website for more information - Landsat Program. • Landslide: Term used to describe the downslope movement of soil, rock, and other weathered materials because of gravity. • Landward: Positioned or located away from a water body but towards the land. • La Nina: Condition opposite of an El Nino. In a La Nina, the tropical Pacific trade winds become very strong and an abnormal accumulation of cold water occurs in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean. • Laminar Flow: Movement of water within a stream that occurs as uninterrupted parallel flows. Laminar flow generally occurs in areas where friction is low. • Latent Heat: Is the energy required to change a substance to a higher state of matter (solid > liquid > gas). This same energy is released from the substance when the change of state is reversed (gas > liquid > solid). • Lateral Moraine: Moraine that is found along the sides of a glacier. Commonly found on glaciers that occupy a valley. • Laterite: Hard subsurface deposit of oxides of aluminum and iron found in tropical soils where the water table fluctuates with seasonal changes in precipitation. • Laterization: Soil forming process that creates a laterite layer. • Latitude: Latitude is a north-south measurement of position on the Earth. It is defined by the angle measured from a horizontal plane located at the Earth's center that is perpendicular to the polar axis. A line connecting all places of the same latitude is termed a parallel. Latitude is measured in degrees, minutes, and seconds. Measurements of latitude range from equator (0°) to 90° North and South from this point. • Lava: Molten magma released from a volcanic vent or fissure. • Lava Flow: Stream of lava flowing from a volcanic vent. • Law of Conservation of Energy: This law states that energy can be transferred from one system to another in many forms, however, it can not be created nor destroyed. Thus, the total amount of energy available in the universe is constant. • Leachate: Solution containing material leached from a soil. • Leaching: Process in which water removes and transports soil humus and inorganic nutrients in solution. • Leaf Drip: The rain water that fall to the ground surface from plant leaves after it has been intercepted by these structures. • Lee: Side of a slope that is opposite to the direction of flow of ice, wind, or water. Opposite of stoss. • Leeward: Downwind side of an elevated area like a mountain. Opposite of windward. • Legend: Explains the symbols used on a map or globe. • Legume: Angiosperm plant species that is a member of the Fabaceae (Pea or Bean) family. These plants form symbiotic relationships with specific bacteria species for the purpose of acquiring nitrogen for growth. • Less Developed Country (LDC): Country characterized by minimal industrialization, low technological development, low per capita income, and high population growth rates. Many of these countries are found in Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. Also see more developed country. • Levee: Ridge of coarse deposits found alongside the stream channels and elevated above the floodplain. Forms from the deposition of sediment during floods. • Liana: Species of plant that uses the support of wood plants to elevate its leaves above the forest canopy. • Lichen: Organism that consists of a symbiotic joining of a species of fungi and a species of algae. Life Cycle Stage: A period of uneven length in which the relative dependence of an individual on others helps define a complex of basic social relations that remains relatively consistent throughout the period. • Lightning: Visible discharge of electricity created by thunderstorms. • Light Industry: Manufacturing activities that use moderate amounts of partially processed materials to produce items of relatively high value per unit weight (see Heavy Industry). • Lightning: Visible discharge of electricity created by thunderstorms. • Lignite: A low-grade brownish coal of relatively poor heat-generating capacity. • Limestone: Sedimentary rock composed of carbonate minerals, especially calcium carbonate. Limestone can be created by clastic and non-clastic processes. Clastic limestones are formed from the break up and deposition of shells, coral and other marine organisms by wave-action and ocean currents. Non-clastic limestones can be formed either as a precipitate or by the lithification of coral reefs, marine organism shells, or marine organism skeletons. • Liquefaction: Temporary transformation of a soil mass of soil or sediment into a fluid mass. Occurs when the cohesion of particles in the soil or sediment is lost. Often triggered by seismic waves from an earthquake. For this condition to take place the pore spaces between soil particles must be at or near saturation. • Lithification: Process by which sediments are consolidated into sedimentary rock. • Lithosphere: Is the solid inorganic portion of the Earth (composed of rocks, minerals, and elements). It can be regarded as the outer surface and interior of the solid Earth. • Litter: Accumulation of leaves, twigs and other forms of organic matter on the soil surface. In most soils, the surface layer of litter is at various stages of decomposition. • Litterfall: Movement of leaves, twigs and other forms of organic matter from the biosphere to the litter layer found in soil. • Little Climatic Optimum: Time period from 900 1200 AD. Warmest period since the Climatic Optimum. • Little Ice Age: Time period from 1550 to 1850 AD. During this period, global temperatures were at their coldest since the beginning of the Holocene. • Littoral Drift: The sediment that is transported by waves and currents through beach drift and longshore drift along coastal areas. • Littoral Transport: The process of sediment moving along a coastline. This process has two components: longshore transport and onshore-offshore transport. • Littoral Zone: The zone along a coastline that is between the high and low-water spring tide marks. • Loam: A soil that contains a roughly equal mixture of clay, sand, and silt. Good for growing most crops. • Lobe: A tongue-like extension of some material. For example, the ice lobe of an alpine glacier. • Location: A term used in geography that deals with the relative and absolution spatial position of natural and human-made phenomena. • Loess: Deposits of silt laid down by aeolian processes over extensive areas of the mid-latitudes during glacial and postglacial times. • Logarithmic Scale: Measurement scale based on logarithms. Values increase on this scale exponentially. • Longitude: Longitude is a west-east measurement of position on the Earth. It is defined by the angle measured from a vertical plane running through the polar axis and the prime meridian. A line connecting all places of the same longitude is termed a meridian. Longitude is measured in degrees, minutes, and seconds. Measurements of longitude range from prime meridian (0°) to 180° West and East from this point. • Longshore Current: A water current that moves parallel to the shoreline. • Longshore Drift: The movement and deposition of coastal sediments because of longshore currents. • Longshore Transport: The transport of sediment in water parallel to a shoreline. • Long Wave: A large wave in the polar jet stream and the westerlies that extends from the middle to the upper troposphere. Often associated with the formation of a mid-latitude cyclone at the ground surface. Contrasts with short waves. Also called Rossby waves. • Low Pressure: An area of atmospheric pressure within the Earth's atmosphere that is below average. If this system is on the Earth's surface and contains circular wind flow and enclosed isobars it is called a cyclone. • Lower Mantle: Layer of the Earth's interior extending from 670 to 2,900 kilometers below the surface crust. Composed of ultramafic rock. This layer is hot and plastic and part of the mantle layer. • Lysimeter: Meteorological instrument used to measure potential and actual evapotranspiration. M • Mafic Magma: Magma that is relative poor in silica but rich in calcium, magnesium, and iron content. This type of magma solidifies to form rocks relatively rich in calcium, magnesium, and iron but poor in silica. • Magma: Molten rock originating from the Earth's interior. • Magma Plume: A rising vertical mass of magma originating from the mantle. • Magnetic Declination: The horizontal angle between true north and magnetic north or true south and magnetic south. • Magnetic Field: The space influence by magnetic force. The Earth's magnetic field is believed to be generated by the planet's core. • Magnetic North: See North Magnetic Pole. • Magnetic Reversal: A change in the polarity of the Earth's magnetic field. In the past 4 million years there have been nine reversals. • Magnetosphere: Zone that surrounds the Earth that is influenced by the Earth's magnetic field. • Mammal: Group of warm blooded vertebrate animals. Common characteristics found in these organisms include: hair, milk secretion, diaphragm for respiration, lower jaw composed of a single pair of bones, middle ear containing three bones, and presence of only a left systemic arch. • Mangrove: Treed wetlands located on the coastlines in warm tropical climates. • Mantle: Layer of the Earth's interior composed of mostly solid rock that extends from the base of crust to a depth of about 2,900 kilometers. • Map: A two-dimensional representation of the three-dimensional earth, or portion of the earth, that is usually drawn to scale. It is used to depict, analyze, store, and communicate spatially organized information about physical and cultural phenomena. • Map Projection: Cartographic process used to represent the Earth's three-dimensional surface onto a two-dimension map. This process creates some type of distortion artifact on the map. • Map Scale: Ratio between the distance between two points found on a map compared to the actual distance between these points in the real world. Expressed as a fraction, ratio, or graphic or expressed in words. • Marble: Metamorphic rock created by the recrystallization of calcite and/or dolomite. • Marine: With reference to ocean environments and processes. • Maritime Climate: A climate strongly influenced by an oceanic environment, found on islands and the windward shores of continents. It is characterized by small daily and yearly temperature ranges and high relative humidity. • Maritime Effect: The effect that large ocean bodies have on the climate of locations or regions. This effect results in a lower range in surface air temperature at both daily and annual scales. Also see Continental Effect. • Maritime Polar Air Mass (mP): Air mass that forms over extensive ocean areas of the middle to high latitudes. Around North America, these system form over the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern tropical Pacific. Maritime Polar air masses are mild and humid in summer and cool and humid in winter. In the Northern Hemisphere, maritime polar air masses are normally unstable during the winter. In the summer, atmospheric stability depends on the position of the air mass relative to a continent. Around North America, Maritime Polar air masses found over the Atlantic are stable in summer, while Pacific systems tend to be unstable. • Maritime Tropical Air Mass (mT): Air mass that forms over extensive ocean areas of the low latitudes. Around North America, these system form over the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern tropical Pacific. Maritime Tropical air masses are warm and humid in both winter and summer. In the Northern Hemisphere, maritime tropical air masses can normally stable during the whole year if they have form just west of a continent. If they form just east of a continent, these air masses will be unstable in both winter and summer. • Mass Extinction: A catastrophic, widespread perturbation where major groups of species become extinct in a relatively short time compared to normal background extinctions. • Mass Movement: General term that describes the downslope movement of sediment, soil, and rock material. • Mass Wasting: General term that describes the downslope movement of sediment, soil, and rock material. • Matric Force: Force that holds soil water from 0.0002 to 0.06 millimeters from the surface of soil particles. This force is due to two processes: soil particle surface molecular attraction (adhesion and absorption) to water and the cohesion that water molecules have to each other. This force declines in strength with distance from the soil particle. The force becomes nonexistent past 0.06 millimeters. • Mean Sea-Level : The average height of the ocean surface as determined from the mean of all tidal levels recorded at hourly intervals. • Median: Statistical measure of central tendency in a set of data. The median is the value halfway through a data set where the values have been ordered from lowest to highest. In an even data set, the median is the average of the two halfway values. • Mediterranean Scrubland: See chaparral. • Mediterranean Climate: A climate characterized by moist, mild winters and hot, dry summers. • Meltwater: produced from the melting of snow and/or glacial ice. • Mercator Projection: Map projection system that presents true compass direction. Distortion is manifested in terms of area. Area distortion makes continents in the middle and high latitudes seem larger than they should be. designed for nautical navigation. • Mercury Barometer: Type of barometer that measures changes in atmospheric pressure by the height of a column of mercury in a U-shaped tube which has one end sealed and the other end immersed in an open container of mercury. The force of the pressure exerted by the atmosphere on the mercury in the open container pushes mercury up the other end of the tube. The height of this level is then used as a measure of atmospheric pressure relative to the surface level of the mercury in the container • Meridians: Imaginary lines that cross the surface of the Earth, running from the North Pole to the South, measuring how far east or west of the Prime Meridian a place is located. A meridian connects all places of the same longitude. Often incorrectly called lines of longitude. • Meridional Transport: Transport of atmospheric and oceanic energy from the equator to the poles. • Mesa: An isolated, relatively flat-topped natural elevation, usually more extensive than a butte and less extensive than a plateau. The top of this hill is usually capped by a rock formation that is more resistant to weathering and erosion. • Mesocyclone: A cylinder of cyclonically flowing air that form vertically in a severe thunderstorm. They measure about 3 to 10 kilometers across. About 50 % of them spawn tornadoes. • Mesoscale Convective Complex: A cluster of thunderstorms covering an area of 100,000 kilometers or more. Convective circulation within this system encourages the growth of new thunderstorms for up to 18 hours. • Mesotrophic Lake: Lake with a moderate nutrient supply. Also see eutrophic lake and oligotrophic lake. • Mesquite: A spiny deep-rooted leguminous tree or shrub that forms extensive thickets in the southwestern United States. • Metamorphic Rock: A rock that forms from the recrystallization of igneous, sedimentary or other metamorphic rocks through pressure increase, temperature rise, or chemical alteration. • Metamorphism: Process that creates metamorphic rocks. • Metasomatic Metamorphism: Form of metamorphism that causes the chemical replacement of elements in rock minerals when gases and liquids permeate into bedrock. • Meteor: A body of matter that enters the Earth's atmosphere from space. While traveling through the atmosphere, these objects begin to burn because of friction and are sometimes seen as luminous streaks in the sky by ground observers. Many of these objects burn up completely and never reach the Earth's surface. • Meteorology: The scientific study of the atmosphere and its associated phenomena • Metes and Bounds: A system of land survey that defines land parcels according to visible natural landscape features and distance. The resultant field pattern is usually very irregular in shape. • Methane: Methane is very strong greenhouse gas found in the atmosphere. Methane concentrations in the atmosphere have increased by more than 140 % since 1750. The primary sources for the additional methane added to the atmosphere (in order of importance) are: rice cultivation, domestic grazing animals, termites, landfills, coal mining, and oil and gas extraction. Chemical formula for methane is CH4. • Metropolitan Coalescence: The merging of the urbanized areas of separate metropolitan regions; Megalopolis is an example of this process at its greatest size. • Mid-Latitude Cyclone: Cyclonic storm that forms primarily in the middle latitudes. Its formation is triggered by the development of troughs in the polar jet stream. These storms also contain warm, cold and occluded fronts. Atmospheric pressure in their center can get as low as 970 millibars. Also called wave cyclones or frontal cyclones. • Mid-Oceanic Ridge: Chain of submarine mountains where oceanic crust is created from rising magma plumes and volcanic activity. Also associated with this feature is plate divergence which creates a rift zone. • Miller Cylindrical Projection: Map projection that mathematically projects the Earth's surface onto a cylinder that is tangent at the equator. Directions and distances are only true at the equator. Distance, area, and shape distortion increases as one moves towards the poles. Very popular projection used in world maps. • Mineral: Component of rocks. A naturally occurring inorganic solid with a crystalline structure and a specific chemical composition. Over 2,000 types of minerals have been classified. • Mineralization: Decomposition of organic matter into its inorganic elemental components. • Mistral: Term used to describe a katabatic wind in southern France. • Model: – (1) Generalization of reality. – (2) System describing how a phenomenon functions. – (3) Mathematical representation of a system from which predictions or inferences can be made. • Moho Discontinuity: The lower boundary of the crust. At this boundary seismic wave velocities show an increase in speed as they enter the upper mantle. • Mollweide Projection: Map projection system that tries to present more accurate representations of area. Distortion is mainly manifested in terms of map direction and distance. • Monadnock: An isolated hill or mountain of resistant rock rising above an eroded lowland. • Monocline: A fold in layered rock that creates a slight bend or warp. • Monsoon: A regional scale wind system that predictably change direction with the passing of the seasons. Monsoon winds blow from land to sea in the winter, and from sea to land in the summer. Summer monsoons are often accompanied with precipitation. • Montreal Protocol: Treaty signed in 1987 by 24 nations to cut the emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) into the atmosphere. Since 1987 the treaty has been amended to quicken the reduction in CFC production and use. • Moraine: The rocks and soil carried and deposited by a glacier. An "end moraine," either a ridge or low hill running perpendicular to the direction of ice movement, forms at the end of a glacier when the ice is melting. • More Developed Country (MDC): A highly industrialized country characterized by significant technological development, high per capita income, and low population growth rates. Examples of such countries include the United States, Canada, Japan, and many countries in Europe. Also see less developed country. • Mountain Breeze: Local thermal circulation pattern found in areas of topographic relief. In this circulation system, surface winds blow from areas of higher elevation to valley bottoms during the night. • Mouth: End of a stream. Point at which a stream enters a lake, sea, or ocean. • Movement: A term used in geography that deals with the migration, transport, communication, and interaction of natural and human-made phenomena across the spatial dimension. • Multilingual: The ability to use more than one language when speaking or writing (see Bilingual). This term often refers to the presence of more than two populations of significant size within a single political unit, each group speaking a different language as their primary language. (A multinational state.) • Municipal Waste: Unwanted by-products of modern life generated by people living in an urban area. N • Nation: A group of people who share a common identity, and usually a common origin, in the sense of ancestry, parentage or descent. A nation extends across generations, and includes the dead as full members. Past events are framed in this context • Nation State: A nation organized into a sovereign state or country. (see state) • Native Species: Normally exist and reproduces in a specific region of the Earth. Compare with immigrant species, indicator species, and keystone species. • Nationality: Refers to the culture in which individuals were socialized, and it is frequently referred to with the name of their language. Often referred to as ethnicity. • Natural Gas: Hydrocarbon based gas, mainly composed of methane, commonly found in the pores of sedimentary rocks of marine origin. • Natural Hazards: Natural phenomena that produce negative effects on life. • Natural Resource: Anything that is scarce, naturally occurring, and of use to humans. • Natural Selection – Environment's influence on the reproductive success of individuals in a population. It results in the exclusion of maladapted genetic traits found within individuals in a population. • Neap Tide – Tide that occurs every 14 to 15 days and coincides with the first and last quarter of the moon. This tide has a small tidal range because the gravitational forces of the moon and sun are perpendicular to each other. Contrasts with spring tide. • Needle Ice – A form of periglacial ground ice that consists of groups ice slivers at or immediately below the ground surface. Needle ice is about a few centimeters long. • Net Primary Productivity: Total amount of chemical energy fixed by the processes of photosynthesis minus the chemical energy lost through respiration. • Neutral: Any substance with a pH around 7. • Neutral Solution: Any water solution that is neutral (pH approximately 7) or has an equal quantity of hydrogen ions (H+) than hydroxide ions (OH-). Also see acidic solution and basic solution. • Névé: Partially melted and compacted snow that has a density of at least 500 kilograms per cubic meter. • Niche Specialization: Process where evolution, through natural selection, adapts a species to a particular set of abiotic and biotic characteristics within a habitat. • Nickpoint (Knickpoint - British spelling): Point on the long profile of a stream where the gradient is broken sudden drop in elevation. Nickpoints are the locations of rapids and waterfalls. • Nimbostratus Clouds: Dark, gray low altitude cloud that produces continuous precipitation in the form of rain or snow. Found in an altitude range from the surface to 3,000 meters. • Nitrification: The biochemical oxidation of ammonium to nitrite and nitrite to nitrate. This process is carried out by specialized bacteria. • Nitrite: Form of nitrogen commonly found in the soil. It is commonly produced by the chemical modification of ammonium by specialized bacteria. This form is toxic to plants and animals at high concentrations. Chemical formula for nitrite is NO2-. • Nitrogen Cycle: Model that describes the movement of nitrogen in its many forms between the hydrosphere, lithosphere, atmosphere and biosphere. • Nitrogen Dioxide: A gas produced by bacterial action in the soil and by high temperature combustion. Nitrogen dioxide is a component in the production of photochemical smog. This reddish brown gas has the chemical formula NO2. • Nitrogen Fixation: Biological or chemical process where gaseous nitrogen is converted into solid forms of nitrogen. Biological fixation of nitrogen is done by specialized organisms like microorganisms like bacteria, actinomycetes, and cyanobacteria. Chemical fixation occurs at high temperatures. One natural process that can produce enough heat to fix atmospheric nitrogen is lightning. • Nitrogen Oxides: Consists of two gases nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). These gases are produced by bacterial action in the soil and by the high temperature combustion. Both gases are components in the production of photochemical smog. • Nitrogen Saturation: Over abundance of nitrogen in natural ecosystems because of human induced inputs related to agriculture and fossil fuel combustion. • Nitrous Oxide: Gas found in the atmosphere that contributes to the greenhouse effect. Sources for nitrous oxide include: land-use conversion; fossil fuel combustion; biomass burning; and soil fertilization. Chemical formula for nitrous oxide is N2O. • Nodal Region: A region characterized by a set of places connected to another place by lines of communication or movement. • Non-Renewable Resource: Resource that is finite in quantity and is being used faster than its ability to regenerate itself such as a fossil fuel. • Normal Fault: Vertical fault where one slab of the rock is displaced up and the other slab down. It is created by tensional forces acting in opposite directions. • Normal Lapse Rate: Average rate of air temperature change with altitude in the troposphere. This value is approximately a decrease of 6.5° Celsius per 1000 meters rise in elevation. • North Magnetic Pole: Location in the Northern Hemisphere where the lines of force from Earth's magnetic field are vertical. This point on the Earth gradual changes its position with time. • North Pole: Surface location defined by the intersection of the polar axis with Earth's surface in the Northern Hemisphere. This location has a latitude of 90° North. • Nuclear Energy: Energy released when the nucleus of an atom experiences a nuclear reaction like the spontaneous emission of radioactivity, nuclear fission, or nuclear fusion. • Nuclear Family: A mother and father with their unmarried offspring. (See Extended Family.) • Nuee Ardente: A glowing cloud of dense hot volcanic gas and ash that moves downslope at high speeds, incinerating the landscape. • Nutrient: Any food, chemical element or compound an organism requires to live, grow, or reproduce. • Nutrient Cycle: The cycling of a single element by various abiotic and biotic processes through the various stores found in the biosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere. O • Oblique Aerial Photograph: Photograph taken from a non-perpendicular angle from a platform in the atmosphere. • Obliquity: Tilt of the Earth's polar axis as measured from the perpendicular to the plane of the Earth's orbit around the sun. The angle of this tilt varies from 22.5 to 24.5° over a 41,000 year period. Current obliquity is 23.5°. • Occluded Front: A transition zone in the atmosphere where an advancing cold air mass sandwiches a warm air mass between another cold air mass pushing the warm air into the upper atmosphere. • Ocean: The salt water surrounding the great land masses, and divided by the land masses into several distinct portions, each of which is called an ocean. • Ocean Basin: Part of the Earth's outer surface that is comprised of the ocean floor, midoceanic ridges, continental rise, and continental slope. The ocean basins are filled with saline water that makes up the oceans. • Ocean Current: Large scale horizontal flow of ocean water that is persistent and driven by atmospheric circulation. • Ocean Floor: Flat plain found at the bottom of the ocean. The ocean floor represents the surface of the oceanic crust. The ocean floor lies between the midoceanic ridges and the trenches, usually 5,000 to 7,000 meters below the ocean surface. Also called the abyssal plain. • Oceanic Crust: Basaltic portion of the Earth's crust that makes up the ocean basins. Approximately 5 to 10 kilometers thick. See sima layer. • Oceanic Plate: A rigid, independent segment of the lithosphere composed of mainly basalt that floats on the viscous plastic asthenosphere and moves over the surface of the Earth. The Earth's oceanic plates are an average 75 kilometers thick and were formed less than several hundred million years ago at one of the Earth's mid-oceanic ridges. Also see continental plate. • Oceanography: The scientific study of phenomena found in the world's oceans. • Ocean Trench: Deep depression found at the edge of the ocean floor. Represents area of tectonic plate subduction. • O Horizon: Topmost layer of most soils. It is composed mainly of plant litter and humus. • Oil: Hydrocarbon based liquid commonly found in the pores of sedimentary rocks of marine origin. • Old Growth Forest: Climax forests dominated by late successional species of trees that are hundreds to thousands of years old. Examples include virgin uncut forests of Douglas fir, western hemlock, giant sequoia, and coastal redwoods located in western North America. Also see second-growth forest. • Oligotrophic Lake: Lake with a low supply of nutrients in its waters. Also see eutrophic lake and mesotrophic lake. • Open Range: A cattle- or sheep-ranching area characterized by a general absence of fences. • Onshore-Offshore Transportf: The up and down movement of sediment roughly perpendicular to a shoreline because of wave action. • Open Sea: That part of the ocean that extends from the continental shelf. Compare with coastal zone. • Open System: Is a system that transfers both matter and energy can cross its boundary to the surrounding environment. Most ecosystems are an example of an open system. • Organic Matter: Mass of matter that contains living organisms or non-living material derived from organisms. Sometime refers to the organic constituents of soil. Also see soil organic matter. • Organic Soil: Soil order (type) of the Canadian System of Soil Classification. This soil type is common in fens and bogs. This soil is mainly composed of organic matter in various stages of decomposition. • Orogenesis: The process of mountain building through tectonic forces of compression and volcanism. • Orogenic Belt: A major range of mountains on the continents. • Orographic Uplift: Uplift of an air mass because of a topographic obstruction. Uplift also causes the cooling of the air mass. If enough cooling occurs condensation can occur and form into orographic precipitation. • Orographic Rainfall: Precipitation that results when moist air is lifted over a topographic barrier such as a mountain range. As the parcel rises it cools as a result of adiabatic expansion at a rate of approximately 10° Celsius per 1,000 meters until saturation. The large amounts of precipitation along the west coast of Canada are due mainly to this process. • Orthographic Projection: Map projection that presents the Earth's surface in two-dimensions as if it were being observed from a great distance in space. Distortion of areas and angles becomes greater as you move from the center of the projection to its edges. • Outcrop: Area of exposed bedrock at the Earth's surface with no overlying deposits of soil or regolith. • Outer Core: Outer region of the Earth's core. It is believed to be liquid nickel and iron and has a density of about 11 grams per cubic centimeter. It surrounds the inner core and has an average thickness of about 2,250 kilometers. • Outgassing: The release of gas from cooling molten rock or the interior of the Earth. Much of the atmosphere's gaseous constituents, like water vapor, nitrogen, and argon, came from outgassing. • Outwash: Rocky and sandy surface material deposited by meltwater that flowed from a glacier. • Outwash Plain: A flat or gentle sloping surface of glaciofluvial sediments deposited by meltwater streams at the edge of a glacier. Usually found in close spatial association with moraines. • Overbank Flow: Movement of flood waters outside a stream channel during period of high discharge. • Overburden: Material covering a mineral seam or bed that must be removed before the mineral can be removed in strip mining. • Overland Flow: The topographic movement of a thin film of water from precipitation to lower elevations. With time, this water will begin to organizing its flow into small channels called rills. The rills converge to form progressively larger channels until stream channels are formed. Occurs when the infiltration capacity of an area's soil has been exceeded. Also called sheet flow or runoff. • Overthrust Fault: Fault produced by the fracturing of rock in a fold because of intense compression. • Overturned Fold: A fold in rock layers where one limb is pushed past the perpendicular. This results in both limbs having dips in the same direction. • Oxbow Lake: Is portion of abandoned stream channel filled with stagnant water and cut off from the rest of the stream. Oxbow lakes are created when meanders are cut off from the rest of the channel because of lateral stream erosion. • Ozone Hole: Is a sharp seasonal decrease in stratospheric ozone concentration that occurs over Antarctica in the spring. First detected in the late 1970s, the ozone hole continues to appear as a result of complex chemical reaction in the atmosphere that involves CFCs. • Ozone Layer – Atmospheric concentration of ozone found at an altitude of 10 to 50 kilometers above the Earth's surface. This layer is important to life on the Earth because ozone absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation. P • Palsa: A mound of peat that develops as the result of the formation of a number ice lenses beneath the ground surface. Typical size is 1 to 7 meters high, 10 to 30 meters wide, and 15 to 150 meters long. Found in the high latitudes. Similar to a pingo. • Palisades: A line of bold cliffs. • Pan or PAN – (1) Collection of chemicals found in photochemical smog - See peroxyacyl nitrates (PAN). – (2) Compact soil horizon that has a high clay content. – (3) Large natural basin or depression found in desert climates. • Pangaea: Hypothetical super continent that existed in the geological past. Its break-up created the current configuration of landmasses found on the Earth. • Panhandle: A narrow projection of a larger territory (such as a state, province, or country). • Parallels: Imaginary lines that cross the surface of the Earth parallel to the Equator, measuring how far north or south of the Equator a place is located. • Parasite: Consumer organism that feeds on a host for an extended period of time. Feeding causes the host to be less fit and may eventually cause premature death. • Parasitism: Biological interaction between species where a parasite species feeds on a host species. • Parent Material: The mineral material from which a soil forms. • Particulate Matter: Particles of dust, soot, salt, sulfate compounds, pollen, or other particles suspended in the atmosphere. • Paternoster Lakes: A linear series of mountain valley lakes that are formed from glacial erosion. They form behind glacial moraines or in glacially carved out rock basins. The name of this feature is related to the series of lakes looking like a string of beads. • Pathogen: Microscopic parasite organism that causes disease in a host. Disease causes the host to be less fit and may eventually cause premature death. • Patterned Ground: Term used to describe a number of surface features found in periglacial environments. These features can resemble circles, polygons, nets, steps, and stripes. The development of some of these shapes is thought to be the result of freeze-thaw action. • Peak Annual Flow: The largest discharge produced by a stream during a one year period. • Peat: Partially decomposed remains of plants that once flourished in a waterlogged environment. • Pebbles: A rounded piece of rock that is larger than gravel. • Pediment: A gradually sloping bedrock surface located at the base of fluvial-eroded mountain range. Found in arid locations and normally covered by fluvial deposits. • Pediplain: An arid landscape of little relief that is occasionally interrupted by the presence of scattered inselbergs. Formed by the coalescence of several pediments. • Pedogenic Regime: The particular soil forming process that operates in a certain climate. Some of the main processes are: laterization, salinization, podzolization, calcification, and gleization. • Pedogenesis: Process of soil formation. • Pedology: The scientific study of soils. • Perched Water Table: Water table that is positioned above the normal water table for an area because of the presence of a impermeable rock layer. • Percolation: Vertical movement or infiltration of water from the Earth's surface to its subsurface. Movement usually stops when the flowing water reaches the water table. • Perennial Plant: Plant species that lives for more than two years. • Periglacial:Landforms created by processes associated with intense freeze-thaw action in an area high latitude areas or near an alpine or continental glacier. • Perihelion: It is the point in the Earth's orbit when it is closest to the sun (147.5 million km). Perihelion occurs on the 3rd or 4th of January. • Permafrost: A permanently frozen layer of soil and or subsoil usually in the high latitudes. In the warm months of the year, the surface few inches, and only the surface, may thaw. • Permeability: A measure of the ability of soil, sediments, and rock to transport water horizontally and vertically. Permeability is dependent on the porosity of the medium the water is flowing through. Some rocks like granite have very poor permeability, while rocks like shale are actually quite pervious. As for soils, sand is the most pervious, while clay has the lowest permeability. Silt usually is somewhere in the middle. • pH: Scale used to measure the alkalinity or acidity of a substance through the determination of the concentration of hydrogen ions in solution. A pH of 7.0 is neutral. Values below 7.0, to a minimum of 0.0, indicate increasing acidity. Values above 7.0, to a maximum of 14.0, indicate increasing alkalinity. • Phloem: Food conducting tissue in vascular plants. • Photochemical Smog: Photochemical smog is a condition that develops when primary pollutants (oxides of nitrogen and volatile organic compounds created from fossil fuel combustion) interact under the influence of sunlight to produce a mixture of hundreds of different and hazardous chemicals known as secondary pollutants. Also see industrial smog. • Photogrammetry: The science of using aerial photographs and other remote sensing imagery to obtain measurements of natural and humanmade features on the Earth. • Physiological Density: the number of persons in a country per square unit of land measurement (square mile or square kilometer) of arable land. • Physical Geography: Field of knowledge that studies natural features and phenomena on the Earth from a spatial perspective. Subdiscipline of Geography. • Physical Weathering: Breakdown of rock and minerals into small sized particles through mechanical stress. • Physiographic Region: A portion of the Earth's surface with a basically common topography and common morphology. • Piedmont: Lying or formed at the base of mountains; in the United States, an area in the southern states at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains. • Piedmont Glacier: A large glacier formed from the merger of several alpine glaciers. • Pingo: A large conical mound that contains an ice core. This feature can be up to 60 to 70 meters in height. Form in regions of permafrost. Common in the Mackenzie Delta region of Canada. Also see the related palsa. • Pitted Topography: Landscape characterized by numerous kettle holes on a glacial outwash plain. • Place: A term used in geography that describes the factors that make the location of natural and human-made phenomena unique. • Plane of the Ecliptic: Hypothetical twodimensional surface in which the Earth's orbit around the sun occurs. • Plankton: Minute plant (phytoplankton) and animal organisms (zooplankton) that are found in aquatic ecosystems. • Plastic Deformation: Irreversible change in the shape of a material without fracture as the result of the force of compression or expansion. • Plateau Basalt: An accumulation of horizontal flows of basaltic lava. Also called flood basalts. • Plate Tectonics: Theory suggesting that the Earth's surface is composed of a number of oceanic and continental plates. Driven by convection currents in the mantle, these plates have the ability to slowly move across the Earth's plastic asthenosphere. This theory is very important to geology and geomorphology because it helps to explain the occurrence and formation of mountains, folds, faults, volcanoes, earthquakes, ocean trenches, and the mid-oceanic ridges. • Platform: Horizontal sedimentary deposits found on top of continental shield deposits. • Platted Land: Land that has been divided into surveyed lots. • Playa: A dry lake bed found in a desert. • Pleistocene: Period in geologic history (basically the last one million years) when ice sheets covered large sections of the Earth's land surface not now covered by glaciers. • Plucking: Erosive process of particle detachment by moving glacial ice. In this process, basal ice freezes in rock surface cracks. As the main body of the glacial ice moves material around the ice in the cracks is pulled and plucked out. Also called quarrying • Plural Society: A situation in which two or more culture groups occupy the same territory but maintain their separate cultural identities. • Point Bar: Stream bar deposit that is normally located on the inside of a channel bend. • Polar Axis: Is a line drawn through the Earth around the planet rotates. The point at which the polar axis intercepts the Earth's surface in the Northern Hemisphere is called the North Pole. Likewise, the point at which the polar axis intercepts the Earth's surface in the Southern Hemisphere is called the South Pole. • Polar Cell: Three-dimensional atmospheric circulation cell located at roughly 60 to 90° North and South of the equator. Vertical air flow in the Polar cell consists of rising air at the polar font and descending air at the polar vortex. • Polar Easterlies: Winds that originate at the polar highs and blow to the subpolar lows in a east to west direction. • Polar Front: Weather front located typically in the mid-latitudes that separates arctic and polar air masses from tropical air masses. Along the polar front we get the development of the mid-latitude cyclone. Above the polar front exists the polar jet stream. • Polar High: Surface area of atmospheric high pressure located at about 90° North and South latitude. These high pressure systems produced by vertically descending air currents from the polar vortex. • Polar Jet Stream: Relatively fast uniform winds concentrated within the upper atmosphere in a narrow band. The polar jet stream exists in the mid-latitudes at an altitude of approximately 10 kilometers. This jet stream flows from west to east at speeds between 110 to 185 kilometers per hour. Also see jet stream and subtropical jet stream. • Polar Stratospheric Clouds: High altitude clouds found in the stratosphere where the temperature is less than -85° Celsius. Commonly found over Antarctica. Have a role in the creation of the ozone hole over Antarctica. • Polar Vortex: High pressure system located in the upper atmosphere at the polar regions. In this system, air in the upper troposphere moves into the vortex center and then descends to the Earth's surface to create the polar highs. • Pollutant: A substance that has a harmful effect on the health, survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms. • Pollution: Physical, chemical, or biological change in the characteristics of some component of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, or biosphere that adversely influences the health, survival, or activities of humans or other living organisms. • Polycyclic Landform: Landform that shows the repeated influence of one or more major geomorphic processes over geological time. Major geomorphic processes are: weathering, erosion, deposition, and massive Earth movements caused by plate tectonics. • Polygenetic Landform: Landform that shows the influence of two or more major geomorphic processes. Major geomorphic processes are: weathering, erosion, deposition, and massive earth movements caused by plate tectonics. • Polynodal: Many-centered. • Pool: Scoured depression found on the bed of streams. Associated with riffles. • Pore Ice: A form of periglacial ground ice that is found in the spaces that exist between particles of soil. • Porosity: The void spaces found in rock, sediment, or soil. Commonly measured as the percentage of void space in a volume of substance. • Post-industrial: An economy that gains its basic character from economic activities developed primarily after manufacturing grew to predominance. Most notable would be quaternary economic patterns. • Potential Evapotranspiration: Is a measure of the ability of the atmosphere to remove water from the surface through the processes of evaporation and transpiration assuming no limitation on water supply. • Precambrian Rock: The oldest rocks, generally more than 600 million years old. • Precession of the Equinox: Wobble in the Earth's polar axis. This motion influences the timing aphelion and perihelion over a cyclical period of 23,000 years. • Precipitable Water: Amount of water potentially available in the atmosphere for precipitation. Usually measured in a vertical column that extends from the Earth's surface to the upper edge of the troposphere. • Precipitate: Solidification of a previously dissolved substance from a solution. • Precipitation – (1) Is any aqueous deposit, in liquid or solid form, that develops in a saturated atmosphere (relative humidity equals 100 %) and falls to the ground generally from clouds. Most clouds, however, do not produce precipitation. In many clouds, water droplets and ice crystals are too small to overcome natural updrafts found in the atmosphere. As a result, the tiny water droplets and ice crystals remain suspended in the atmosphere as clouds. – (2) The state of being precipitated from a solution. • Predation: Biological interaction between species where a predator species consumes a prey species. • Predator: Consumer organism who feeds on prey. The process of consumption involves the killing of the prey. • Prediction: Forecast or extrapolation of the future state of a system from current or past states • Presidio: A military post (Spanish). • Pressure Melting Point – Temperature at which minerals deep within the Earth and ice below the surface of a glacier are caused to melt because of the introduction of pressure. • Prevailing Wind: Dominant direction that a wind blows from for a location or region. • Prey: Organism that is consumed by a predator • Primary Pollutant: Air pollutants that enter the atmosphere directly. Also see secondary pollutant. • Primary Product: A product that is important as a raw material in developed economies; a product consumed in its primary (i.e., unprocessed) state (see Staple Product). • prime meridian: An imaginary line running from north to south through Greenwich, England, used as the reference point for longitude. • Primary Sector: That portion of a region's economy devoted to the extraction of basic materials (e.g., mining, lumbering, agriculture). • Progradation: The natural extension of a shoreline seaward. • Progressive Succession: Succession where the developing plant community becomes complex and contains more species and biomass over time. • Pueblo: A type of Indian village constructed by some tribes in the southwestern United States. A large community dwelling, divided into many rooms, up to five stories high, and usually made of adobe. Also, a Spanish word for town or village. • Pyroclastic Material: Pieces of volcanic rock thrown out in a volcanic explosion. Q • Quaternary Sector: That portion of a region's economy devoted to informational and ideagenerating activities (e.g., basic research, universities and colleges, and news media). R • Rail Gauge: The distance between the two rails of a railroad. • Rain: A form of precipitation. It is any liquid deposit that falls from clouds in the atmosphere to the ground surface. Rain normally has a diameter between than 0.5 and 5.0 millimeters. • Raindrop Impact: Force exerted by a falling raindrop on a rock, sediment, or soil surface. • Rain Gauge: Instrument that measures the rain that falls at a location over a period of time. • Rainshadow Effect: Reduction of precipitation commonly found on the leeward side of a mountain. The reduction in precipitation is the result of compression warming of descending air. • Rainsplash: Soil erosion caused from the impact of raindrops. • Rainwash: The erosion of soil by overland flow. Normally occurs in concert with rainsplash. • Rangeland: Land-use type that supplies vegetation for consumption by grazing and browsing animals. This land-use type is normally not intensively managed. • Recessional Moraine: Moraine that is created during a pause in the retreat of a glacier. Also called a stadial moraine. • Recharge Area: The area on the Earth's surface that receives water for storage into a particular aquifer. • Rectangular Coordinate System – System that measures the location of points on the Earth on a two-dimensional coordinate plane. See the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Grid System. • Recumbent Fold: A fold in which the axial plane is almost horizontal. • Recurrence Interval: The average time period that separates natural events of a specific magnitude. For example, floods of a specific stream discharge level. • Reduction: – (1) Chemical process that involves the removal of oxygen from a compound. – (2) A form of chemical weathering. • Reef: A ridge of rocks found in the tidal zone along a coastline. One common type of reef is the coral reef. • Re-Entrants: A prominent indentation in an escarpment, ridge or shoreline. • Reference Map: Map that shows natural and humanmade objects from the geographical environment with an emphasis on location. Compare with thematic map. • Reflected Infrared Radiation: Form of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength between 0.7 to 3.0 micrometers (µm). • Reflected Wave: A water wave that reflects off the shore or another obstacle and is redirected towards the sea or lake. • Reflection (Atmospheric): Process where insolation is redirect by 180° after striking a particle. This redirection causes 100 % loss. Most of the reflection in the Earth's atmosphere occurs in clouds because of light's interception with particles of liquid and frozen water. The reflectivity of a cloud can range from 40-90 %. • Reg: A rocky desert landscape. See desert pavement. • Region: An area having some characteristic or characteristics that distinguish it from other areas. A territory of interest to people and for which one or more distinctive traits are used as the basis for its identity. • Regolith: Loose layer of rocky material overlying bedrock. • Relative Humidity: The ratio between the actual amount of water vapor held in the atmosphere compared to the amount required for saturation. Relative humidity is influenced by temperature and atmospheric pressure. • Relief: The range of topographic elevation within a specific area. • Remote Sensing: The gathering of information from an object or surface without direct contact. • Representative Fraction: The expression of map scale as a mathematical ratio. • Resource: Anything that is of use to humans. (see natural resource) • Reverse Fault: This vertical fault develops when compressional force causes the displacement of one block of rock over another. • R Horizon: Soil horizon found beneath the C horizon. Consists of consolidated rock showing little sign of weathering or pedogenesis. • Rhumb Line: A line of constant compass direction or bearing which crosses the meridians at the same angle. A part of a great circle. • Ria Coast: An extensively carved out coast with conspicuous headlands and deep reentrants. • Ribbon Falls: Spectacular narrow waterfalls that occur at the edge of a hanging valley. • Richter Scale: A logarithmic measurement scale of earthquake magnitude. This scale measures the energy released by the largest seismic wave associated with the earthquake. • Riffle: Bar deposit found on the bed of streams. Associated with these deposits are pools. • Rift: Zone between two diverging tectonic plates. The mid-oceanic ridge is an area where such plate divergence is occurring. • Rift Valley: Steep sided valley found on the Earth's surface created by tectonic rifting. • Rill: A very small steep sided channel carrying water. This landscape feature is intermittent and forms for only a short period of time after a rainfall. • Rime: Deposit of ice crystals that occurs when fog or super cooled water droplets comes in contact with an object with a temperature below freezing (0° Celsius). This deposit develops outward on the windward side of the object. • Ring of Fire: See Circum-Pacific Belt. • Rip Current: A strong relatively narrow current of water that flows seaward against breaking waves. • Riparian Rights: The rights of water use possessed by a person owning land containing or bordering a water course or lake. • Ripple: Stream bed deposit found streams. Ripples are only a few centimeters in height and spacing and are found in slow moving streams with fine textured beds. • River: A long narrow channel of water that flows as a function of gravity and elevation across the Earth's surface. Many rivers empty into lakes, seas, or oceans. • Riverine: Located on or inhabiting the banks or the area near a river or lake. • Robinson Projection: Map projection system that tries to present more accurate representations of area. Distortion is mainly manifested in terms of map direction and distance. • Roche Moutonnee: A feature of glacial erosion that resembles an asymmetrical rock mound. It is smooth and gently sloping on the side of ice advance. The lee-side of this feature is steep and jagged. • Rock Cycle: General model describing the geomorphic and geologic processes involved in the creation, modification and recycling of rocks. • Rockfall: Type of mass movement that involves the detachment and movement of a small block of rock from a cliff face to its base. Normally occurs when the rock has well defined bedding planes that are exaggerated by freeze-thaw action or thermal expansion and contraction. • Rock Slide: Large scale mass movement of rock materials downslope. • Roll Cloud: A dense, cigar shaped cloud found above the gust front of a thunderstorm. Air within the cloud rotates around the long axis. • Rotational Slip: Form of mass movement where material moves suddenly along a curvilinear plane. Also called a slump. • Runoff: The topographic flow of water from precipitation to stream channels located at lower elevations. Occurs when the infiltration capacity of an area's soil has been exceeded. It also refers to the water leaving an area of drainage. Also called overland flow. S • Salinity: Concentration of dissolved salts found in a sample of water. Measured as the total amount of dissolved salts in parts per thousand. Seawater has an average salinity of about 34 parts per thousand (ppt). • Salinization: Pedogenic process that concentrates salts at or near the soil surface because evapotranspiration greatly exceeds water inputs from precipitation. • Salt: – (1) The mineral sodium chloride. – (2) Compounds that are produced as the result of a metal atom replacing a hydrogen atom in an acid. • Saltation: Transport of sediment initiated by moving air or water where particles move from a resting surface to the transport medium in quick continuous repeated cycles. • Salt Marsh: Coastal wetland ecosystem that is inundated for some period of time by seawater. Plants that exist in this community have special adaptation to survive in the presence of high salinities in their immediate environment. Generally, found poleward of 30° North and South latitude. • Saltwater Intrusion: The invasion of saltwater into freshwater aquifers in coastal and inland areas. This condition can be cause when groundwater, which charges the aquifer, is withdrawn faster than it is recharged by precipitation. • Sand Dune: A hill or ridge of aeolian sand deposits with a minimum height of less than one meter and a maximum height of about 50 meters. Found in hot deserts and along sandy coastlines. • Sand Sea: A large region of sand and sand dunes in a desert. Common to erg deserts. • Sand Sheet: Deposit of sometimes stratified less well sorted sand that almost resemble dunes. Common in northern Europe. Believed to form when windblown materials settle on areas of patchy snow. • Sandstone: A type of sedimentary rock that contains a large quantity of weathered quartz grains. • Sand Ripples: Another term used for wind ripples. • Sand Wedge: A form of ice wedge that contains accumulations of wind blown sand in long vertical layers. A form of periglacial ground ice. • Santa Ana Wind: A warm, dry chinook like wind that occurs in southern California. Originates from the east off an elevated desert plateau. • Saturation: Atmospheric condition where water is changing its phase to liquid or solid. At saturation, relative humidity is 100 % unless there is a shortage of deposition nuclei or condensation nuclei. Generally, this process is caused by the cooling of the atmosphere. • Savanna: A tropical or sub-tropical plant community characterized by trees and shrubs scattered among a cover of grasses, herbs and forbs. The climate of a savanna is tropical with a dry season occurring in the low sun period of the year. • Scale: The proportional relationship between a linear measurement on a map and the distance it represents on the Earth's surface. • Scarification: Extensive movements of soil, sediment, and rock material caused by humans. • Scattering (Atmospheric): Is an atmospheric process where small particles and gas molecules diffuse part of the incoming solar radiation in random directions without any alteration to the wavelength of the electromagnetic energy. Scattering does, however, reduce the amount of incoming radiation reaching the Earth's surface. A significant proportion of scattered shortwave solar radiation is redirected back to space. The amount of scattering that takes place is dependent on two factors: wavelength of the incoming radiation and the size of the scattering particle or gas molecule. In the Earth's atmosphere, the presence of a large number of particles with a size of about 0.5 µm results in shorter wavelengths being preferentially scattered. This factor also causes our sky to look blue because this color corresponds to those wavelengths that are best diffused. • Scarp: Also "escarpment." A steep cliff or steep slope, formed either as a result of faulting or by the erosion of inclined rock strata. • Sclerophyllous Vegetation: Term used to describe drought resistant vegetation common in Mediterranean climates. Some common adaptations present in this type of vegetation include: deep roots, reduced leaf area exposed to the atmosphere, and waxy thick leaves with closing stomata which resist water loss. • Scour: – (1) Refers to the erosive power of water. – (2) Abrasive effects of rocks and sediments incorporated in the ice base of a glacier. • Scots-Irish: The North American descendants of Protestants from Scotland who migrated to northern Ireland in the 1600s. • Scree: An accumulation of weathered rock fragments at the base of a steep rock slope or cliff. • Sea: – (1) A body of saline water found on the Earth's continental surface. – (2) A portion of a ocean that is in close proximity to a continent. • Sea Arch: A coastal landform composed of rock that resembles an arch. These landforms are created when waves erode through a thin headland from both sides. • Sea Breeze: Local thermal circulation pattern found at the interface between land and water. In this circulation system, surface winds blow from water to land during the daytime. • Sea-Floor Spreading: The process of oceanic crust creation and sea-floor movement that occurs at the mid-oceanic ridge. • Sea-Level: The average surface elevation of the world's oceans. • Sea-Level Pressure: Average atmospheric pressure at sea-level. This value is 1013.2 millibars. • Seamount: A volcanic mountain found on an ocean basin that has an origin not related to a mid-oceanic ridge or a tectonic subduction zone. • Sea Stack: A steep pillar of rock located in the ocean a short distance from the coastline. These landforms are created when waves erode through a thin headland from both sides. • Seaward: Positioned or located away from land but towards an ocean or sea. • Seawater: The mixture of water and various dissolved salts found in the world's oceans and seas. • Secondary Pollutant: Atmospheric pollutants that are created chemically in the atmosphere when primary pollutants and other components of the air react. Also see primary pollutant. • Secondary Sector: That portion of a region's economy devoted to the processing of basic materials extracted by the primary sector. • Second-Growth Forest: Stand of forest that is the result of secondary succession. • Second Home: A seasonally occupied dwelling that is not the primary residence of the owner. Such residences are usually found in areas with substantial opportunities for recreation or tourist activity. • Sediment: Solid material that has been or is being eroded, transported, and deposited. Transport can be due to fluvial, marine, glacial or aeolian agents. • Sedimentary Rock: Rocks formed by the deposition, alteration and/or compression, and lithification of weathered rock debris, chemical precipitates, or organic sediments; most commonly sandstone, shale, and limestone. • Seepage: – (1) The gradual movement of water into the soil layer. – (2) Slow movement of sub-surface water to the surface. This flow is not great enough to call it a spring. • Seepage Lake: A lake that gets its water primarily from the seepage of groundwater. • Segregated Ice: A form of periglacial ground ice that consists of almost pure ice that often exists as an extensive horizontal layer. The ice layer grows because of the active migration of water from around the feature. These features are found just below the active layer. • Seif: – (1) A large sand dune that is elongated in the general direction of the dominant winds. – (2) A sand dune formed by winds from multiple directions. • Seismic: Shaking displacement usually caused by an earthquake. • Seismic Wave: Successive wave-type displacement of rock usually caused by an earthquake. • Seismograph: Instrument that measures the energy contained in seismic waves from an earthquake or other type of ground displacement. • Seismology: A branch of science focused on the study of earthquakes and seismic activity. • Sharecropping: A form of agricultural tenancy in which the tenant pays for use of the land with a predetermined share of his crop rather than with a cash rent. • Shear Stress: Stress caused by forces operating parallel to each other but in opposite directions. • Sheeting: A form of physical weathering of rock where surface sheets of material fracture and exfoliate because of pressure release. Also see exfoliation dome. • Sheetwash: The removal of loose surface materials by overland flow. Process of erosion. • Shield: A large stable area of exposed very old (more than 600 million years) igneous and metamorphic rock found on continents. This rock forms the nucleus of the continents. Usually characterized by thin, poor soils and low population densities. • Shield Volcano: Volcano created from alternate layers of lava flows. Shield volcanoes are slightly sloping having a gradient between 6 and 12°. Their height can be as high as 9000 meters. The chemistry of the magma of these volcanoes is basaltic. • Shore: The land area bordering a relatively large water body like a lake or ocean. • Shoreline: The line that separates a land surface from a water body. Also see coastline. • Shortwave Radiation: Electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength between 0.1 and 0.7 micrometers (µm). Commonly used to describe the radiation emitted from the sun. • Sial Layer: The part of the crust that forms the continents and is composed of relatively light, granitic rocks. • Siberian High: High pressure system that develops in winter over northern central Asia. • Silage: Fodder (livestock feed) prepared by storing and fermenting green forage plants in a silo. • Sill: Horizontal planes of igneous rock that run parallel to the grain of the original rock deposits.They form when magma enters and cools in bedding planes found within the crust. Also see intrusive igneous rock. • Silo: Usually a tall, cylindrical structure in which fodder (animal feed) is stored; may be a pit dug for the same purpose. • Silt: Mineral particle with a size between 0.004 and 0.06 millimeters in diameter. Also see clay and sand. • Sima Layer: The part of the crust that forms the ocean basins and lower layers in the crust and is composed of relatively heavy, basaltic rocks. • Sink: – (1) Site of the storage of some material. – (2) Another name for sinkhole. • Sinkhole: Crater formed when the roof of a cavern collapses; usually found in areas of limestone rock (see karst). • Sinusoidal Equal-Area Projection: Map projection that represents areas in their true form on a two-dimensional map. Distances are only correct along parallels and central meridian. Shapes become more distorted away from the central meridian and close to the poles. • Site: Features of a place related to the immediate environment on which the place is located (e.g., terrain, soil, subsurface, geology, ground water). • Slip-Face: The lee side of a dune where material accumulates and slides or rolls downslope. • Slope Failure: The downslope movement of soil and sediment by processes of mass movement. • Situation: Features of a place related to its location relative to other places (e.g., accessibility, hinterland quality). • Smog: Mixture of particulate matter and chemical pollutants in the lower atmosphere, usually over urban areas. • Snout: Front end of a glacier. Also called the terminus. • Snow: A type of solid precipitation that forms in clouds with an air temperature below freezing. Snow forms when water vapor deposits directly as a solid on a deposition nuclei. Snowflakes begin their life as very tiny crystals developing on a six-sided hexagonal deposition nuclei. The developing snowflak, then grows fastest at the six points of the nuclei as these surfaces are more exposed to atmosphere's water vapor. Snowfall is most common with the frontal lifting associated with mid-latitude cyclones during fall, winter, and spring months when air temperatures are below freezing. • Snowfield: An area of permanent snow accumulation. Usually at high altitudes or latitudes. • Snow Line: Altitudinal or latitudinal limit separating zones where snow does not melt during the summer season from areas in which it does. Similar to the concept of firm limit except that it is not limited to glaciers. • Snow Melt: Conversion of snow into runoff and groundwater flow with the onset of warmer temperatures. • Snow Pellets: A form of precipitation also known as graupel. Snow pellets are white, spherical bits of ice with a maximum diameter of 5 millimeters. Snow pellets develop when supercooled droplets freeze on snowflakes. Snow pellets often fall for a brief time period when precipitation transforms from ice pellets to snow. Snow pellets can be easily distinguished from packed snowflakes as they tend to bounce when they strike the ground. Packed snowflakes are not dense enough to cause them to bounce. • Soil: Layer of unconsolidated material found at the Earth's surface that has been influenced by the soil forming factors: climate, relief, parent material, time, and organisms. Soil normally consists of weathered mineral particles, dead and living organic matter, air space, and the soil solution. • Soil Colloids: Very small organic and inorganic particles found in a soil. Inorganic colloids are often clay particles. Soil colloids carry a negative electrical charge and are the primary sites for cation exchange. Soil colloids hold large quantities of elements and compounds which are used by plants for nutrition. • Soil Creep: Slow mass movement of soil downslope. Occurs where the stresses on the slope material are too small to create a rapid failure. • Soil Erosion – Transport of soil mineral particles and organic matter by wind, flowing water, or both. Human activities that disturb the soil surface or remove vegetation can enhance this natural process. • Soil Fertility: The ability of a soil to provide nutrients for plant growth. • Soil-Heat Flux: The rate of flow of heat energy into, from, or through the soil. • Soil Horizon: Layer within a soil profile that differs physically, biologically or chemically from layers above and/or below it. • Soil Moisture Recharge: The process of water filling the pore space found in a soil (storage). • Soil Organic Matter: Organic constituents of soil (see humus). • Soil Permeability: The rate at which water and air move vertically through a soil. • Soil Porosity: The volume of water that can be held in a soil. Also refers to the ratio of the volume of voids to the total volume of the soil. • Soil Profile: Vertical arrangement of layers or horizons in a soil. • Soil Structure: General term that describes how mineral and particles organic matter of are organized and clumped together in a soil. • Soil Texture: The relative quantities of the different types and sizes of mineral particles in a soil. • Soil Water: The water found occupying the pore spaces between soil particles. • Solar Altitude: Height of the sun above the horizon from either True North or True South. • Solar Constant: A term used to describe the average quantity of solar insolation received by a horizontal surface at the edge of the Earth's atmosphere. This value is approximately 1370 Watts per square meter. • Solifluction: Form of mass movement in environments that experience freeze-thaw action. It is characterized by the slow movement of soil material downslope and the formation of lobe-shaped features. Also see gelifluction. • Solstice: Dates when the declination of the sun is at 23.5° North or South of the equator. For the Northern Hemisphere this date falls on June 21 or 22 (June Solstice). In the Southern Hemisphere the date is December 21 or 22 (December Solstice). • Soluble: Capable of being dissolved; in this case, the characteristic of soil minerals that leads them to be carried away in solution by water (see Leaching). • Solution: – (1) Form of chemical weathering where rocks and minerals are dissolved by water. Materials entering the mixture can alter the chemical nature of the solution and can increase the strength of this weathering agent. For example, the mixing of carbon dioxide and water can form carbonic acid. – (2) The dissolving of a substance into a liquid. • Source Region: Area where air masses originate and come to possess their moisture and temperature characteristics. • Southern Oscillation: Reversal of atmospheric circulation in tropical Pacific Ocean that triggers the development of an El Nino. • South Magnetic Pole: Location in the Southern Hemisphere where the lines of force from Earth's magnetic field are vertical. This point on the Earth gradual changes its position with time. • South Pole: Surface location defined by the intersection of the polar axis with Earth's surface in the Southern Hemisphere. This location has a latitude of 90° South. • Space: – (1) A distance, area, or volume. – (2) An infinite three-dimensional area in which objects have relative coordinates to each other. – (3) The region beyond the outer limits of the Earth's atmosphere. • Space Economy: The locational pattern of economic activities and their interconnecting linkages. • Spatial Analysis: The examination of the spatial pattern of natural and human-made phenomena using numerical analysis and statistics. • Spatial Complementarity: The occurrence of location pairing such that items demanded by one place can be supplied by another. • Spatial Interaction: Movement between locationally separate places. • Spatial Tradition: Academic tradition in modern Geography that investigates geographic phenomena from a strictly spatial perspective. • Spheroidal Weathering: A type of below ground chemical weathering where the corners of jointed rocks become rounded over time. Rock changes from a rectangular to more round shape. • Spit: A long and narrow accumulation of sand and/or gravel that projects into a body of ocean water. These features form as the result of the deposition of sediments by longshore drift. • Sporadic Permafrost: Form of permafrost that exists as small islands of frozen ground in otherwise unfrozen soil and sediments. • Spring: A natural flow of water from the subsurface to the surface. Usually occurs when the water table intersects the Earth's surface. • Squall Line: A band of thunderstorm development found ahead of a cold front. • Stability: The capability of a system to tolerate or recover from disturbance or an environmental stress. • Stadial Moraine: See recessional moraine. • Stage: The elevation of the water surface in a stream channel. • Staple Product: A product that becomes a major component in trade because it is in steady demand; thus, a product that is basic to the economies of one or more major consuming populations (see Primary Product). • Stationary Front: A transition zone in the atmosphere where there is little movement of opposing air masses and winds blow towards the front from opposite directions. • Steady State Equilibrium: In this type of equilibrium the average condition of the system remains unchanged over time. • Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area SMSA: A statistical unit of one or more counties that focus on one or more central cities larger than a specified size, or with a total population larger than a specified size. A reflection of urbanization. • Steppe: Russian term for mid-latitude grasslands (semi-arid climate). • Stoma (pl. Stomata): Small opening on the surface of a plant that is used for gas exchange. • Storm Surge: Relatively rapid rise in the height of the ocean along a coastline. Often caused by the storm winds pushing water towards land. • Storm Track: The path taken by a storm (thunderstorm, mid-latitude cyclone or hurricane) or the average path taken by storms. • Stoss: Side of a slope that faces the direction of flow of ice, wind, or water. Opposite of lee. • Stratified Drift: A type of glacial drift that has been partially sorted by glaciofluvial meltwater. • Strata: The layers or beds found in sedimentary rock. • Stratigraphy: Subdiscipline of geology that studies sequence, spacing, composition, and spatial distribution of sedimentary deposits and rocks. • Stratocumulus Clouds: Low altitude gray colored cloud composed of water droplets that has a patchy appearance. Each cloud patch consists of a rounded mass. This cloud has a somewhat uniform base and normally covers the entire sky. Between the patches blue sky can be seen. Found in an altitude range from the surface to 3,000 meters. • Stratosphere: Atmospheric layer found at an average altitude of 11 to 50 kilometers above the Earth's surface. Within the stratosphere exists the ozone layer. Ozone's absorption of ultraviolet sunlight causes air temperature within the stratosphere to increase with altitude. • Stratovolcano: See composite volcano. • Stratus Clouds: Low altitude gray colored cloud composed of water droplets. This cloud has a uniform base and normally covers the entire sky. It is also quite thick and can obscure the sun. Light precipitation is often found falling from it. Found in an altitude range from the surface to 3,000 meters. • Stream: A long narrow channel of water that flows as a function of gravity and elevation across the Earth's surface. Many streams empty into lakes, seas or oceans. • Stream Bank: Sides of the stream channel. • Stream Bed: Bottom of the stream channel. • Stream Channel: Long trough-like depression that is normally occupied by the water in a stream. • Stream Discharge: A river or stream's rate of flow over a particular period of time. Usually measured by a current meter and expressed in cubic meters per second. Stream discharge depends on the volume and velocity of the flow. • Stream Flow: The flow of water in a river or stream channel. • Stream Gradient: The change in elevation from a stream's headwaters to its mouth expressed in degrees, percentage, or as a distance ratio (rise/run). • Stream Load: Refers to the material or sediment carried by a stream. In normally consists of three components: bed load (pebbles and sand which move along the stream bed without being permanently suspend in the flowing water), suspended load (silts and clays in suspension) and dissolved load (material in solution). • Stream Order: The relative position, or rank, of a stream channel segment in a drainage network. • Stream Long Profile: Vertical and horizontal profile of the stream. Most streams have a profile that is concave shaped. • Striations: Grooves of scratches found in surface rock that are the result of glacial abrasion. • Strike: One of the directional properties of a geologic structure such as a fold or a fault. Strike is the horizontal directional taken by an imaginary line drawn on the plane of the formation. Also see dip. • Strike-Slip Fault: Fault that primarily displays horizontal displacement. • Structural Landform: Is a landform created by massive Earth movements due to plate tectonics. This includes landforms with some of the following geomorphic features: fold mountains, rift valleys, and volcanoes. • Subduction (Tectonic): Process of plate tectonics where one lithospheric plate is pushed below another into the asthenosphere. • Subduction Zone: Linear area where tectonic subduction takes place. • Sublimation: Process where ice changes into water vapor without first becoming liquid. This process requires approximately 680 calories of heat energy for each gram of water converted. • Submarine Canyon: V-shaped canyons cut into the continental slope to a deep of up to 1200 meters. These features are normally associated with major rivers. • Subpolar Glacier: Glacier in which the ice found from the its surface to base has a temperature as cold as 30° Celsius throughout the year. This is well below the pressure melting point. However, melting does occur in the accumulation zone in the summer. One of the three types of glaciers: cold glacier; temperate glacier; and subpolar glacier. • Subsea Permafrost: Form of permafrost that exists beneath the sea in ocean sediments. • Subsidence: Lowering or sinking of the Earth's surface. • Subsolar Point: The location on the Earth where the sun is directly overhead. Also see declination. • Surface Creep: The sliding and rolling movement of soil particles on the Earth's surface because of wind. Eolian process of soil particle movement. • Surface Wave: Type of seismic wave that travels across the Earth's surface. These earthquake generated waves cause the Earth's surface to roll or sway like waves on the ocean. • Surge: A large, destructive ocean wave caused by very low atmospheric pressure and strong winds. Hurricanes often cause a surge of the ocean surface. • Suspended Load: Portion of the stream load that is carried almost permanently suspended in flowing water. • Suspension: Erosional movement of sediment continually held in the transport medium of air, water or ice. • Sustainable Development: Forms of economic growth and other human activities that meet the requirements of the present without jeopardizing the ability of future generations of individuals to meet their own needs. • Sustainable Yield: The amount of a naturally self-reproducing community, such as trees or fish, that can be harvested without diminishing the ability of the community to sustain itself. • Swash: A thin sheet of water that moves up the beach face after a wave of water breaks on the shore. • Swell: A relatively smooth ocean wave that travels some distance from the area of its generation. • Syncline: A fold in rock layers that forms a trough-like bend. T • Taiga: A moist subarctic coniferous forest that begins where the tundra ends and is dominated by spruces and firs. See Boreal Forest. • Taku: Name for a katabatic type of cold wind that occurs in Alaska. • Talik: An unfrozen section of ground found above, below, or within a layer of discontinuous permafrost. These layers can also be found beneath water bodies in a layer of continuous permafrost. A number of different types of talik have been distinguished: closed talik, open talik, and through talik. • Talus: An accumulation of angular rock debris from rockfalls. • Talus Slope: A slope that is composed of talus. • Tarn: A small mountain lake that occurs inside a cirque basin. • Temperate Deciduous Forest: Forested biome found in the mid-latitudes and dominated by deciduous vegetation. • Temperate Glacier: Glacier in which the ice found below 10 to 20 meters from its surface is at the pressure melting point. One of the three types of glaciers: cold glacier; temperate glacier; and subpolar glacier. • Temperate Rain Forest: An ecosystem that is dominated by large and very tall evergreen trees. This biome occurs along the Pacific Northwest coast of North America where annual precipitation is high and temperatures are mild. • Temperature Inversion: An increase in temperature with height above the Earth's surface, a reversal of the normal pattern. • Tephra: Fragmented rock material ejected by a volcanic explosion. Also called pyroclastic material. • Terminal Moraine: Moraine that marks the maximum advance of a glacier. • Terminus: End or snout of a glacier. • Terrace: An elevated surface above the existing level of a floodplain or shore that is created by stream or ocean wave erosion. • Territory: A specific area or portion of the Earth's surface; not to be confused with region. • Tertiary Sector: That portion of a region's economy devoted to service activities (e.g., transportation, retail and wholesale operations, insurance). • Texture: The relative quantities of the different types and sizes of mineral particles in a deposit of sediment. Also see the related soil texture • Thalweg: Line of deepest water in a stream channel as seen from above. Normally associated with the zone of greatest velocity in the stream. • Thematic Map: Map that displays the geographical distribution of one phenomenon or the spatial associations that occur between a few phenomena. Compare with reference map. • Thematic Mapper: Remote sensing device found on Landsat satellites that scans images in seven spectral bands from visible to thermal infrared. • Thermal Circulation: Atmospheric circulation caused by the heating and cooling of air. • Thermal Equator: Continuous area on the globe that has the highest surface temperatures because of the presence of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. • Thermal Metamorphism: Is the metamorphic alteration of rock because of intense heat released from processes related to plate tectonics. • Thermocline: Boundary in a body of water where the greatest vertical change in temperature occurs. This boundary is usually the transition zone between the layer of warm water near the surface that is mixed and the cold deep water layer. • Thermokarst: Landscape dominated by depressions, pits, and caves that is created by the thawing of ground ice in high latitude locations. Resembles karst landscape but is not created by chemical weathering. • Threatened Species: Species that is still plentiful in its natural range but is likely to become endangered because of declining population numbers. • Threshold: – The minimum-sized market for an economic activity. The activity won't be successful until it can reach a population larger than this threshold size. – The level of magnitude of a system process at which sudden or rapid change occurs. • Throughflow: The roughly horizontal flow of water through soil or regolith. • Through Talik: Is a form of localized unfrozen ground (talik) in an area of permafrost. It is open to the ground surface and to an area of unfrozen ground beneath it. Permafrost encases it along the sides. • Thrust Fault: A geologic fault where the hanging wall is forced over the foot wall. • Thunder: Sound created when lightning causes the rapid expansion of atmospheric gases along its strike path. • Thunderstorm: A storm several kilometers in diameter created by the rapid lifting of moist warm air which creates a cumulonimbus cloud. Thunderstorms can have the following severe weather associated with them: strong winds; hail; lightning; tornadoes; thunder; and heavy rain. • Tidal Current: Regional scale ocean current that is created the tidal rise and fall of the ocean surface. • Tidal Zone: Area along the coastline that is influence by the rise and fall of tides. • Tide: Cyclical rise and fall of the surface of the oceans. Caused by the gravitational attraction of the sun and moon on the Earth. • Till: Heterogeneous sediment deposited directly by a glacier. The particles within this deposit have not been size sorted by the action of wind or water. • Till Plain: Extensive flat plain of till that forms when a sheet of ice becomes detached from the main body of the glacier and melts in place depositing the sediments it carried. • Time-distance: A time measure of how far apart places are (how long does it take to travel from place A to place B?). This may be contrasted with other distance metrics such as geographic distance (how far is it?) and cost-distance (how much will it cost to get there?). • Tombolo: A coastal feature that forms when a belt sand and/or gravel is deposited between an island and the mainland. This feature is above sea-level for most of the time. • Topographic Map: Map that displays topography through the use of elevation contour lines. Base elevation on these maps is usually sea-level. • Topographic Profile: A two-dimensional diagram that describes the landscape in vertical cross-section. • Topography: The physical features of a place; or the study and depiction of physical features, including terrain relief. • Topset Bed: Horizontal deltaic deposit composed of coarse alluvial sediment. Represents current or past surface of the delta. • Tornado: A vortex of rapidly moving air associated with some severe thunderstorms. Winds within the tornado funnel may exceed 500 kilometers per hour. • Tornado Alley: Region in North America which receives a extraordinary high number of tornadoes. This region stretches from central Texas to Illinois and Indiana. • Tornado Warning: A warning issued to the public that a tornado has been observed by an individual in a specified region. This warning can also be issued if meteorological information indicates a high probability that a tornado will develop in a specified region. • Tornado Watch: A forecast issued to the public that a tornado may occur in a specified region. • Total Column Ozone: A measurement of ozone concentration in the atmosphere. • Township and Range: The rectangular system of land subdivision of much of the agriculturally settled United States west of the Appalachian Mountains; established by the Land Ordinance of 1785. • Traction: Erosional movement of particles by rolling, sliding and shuffling along the eroded surface. Occurs in all erosional mediums (air, water, and ice). • Trade Winds: Surface winds that generally dominate air flow in the tropics. These winds blow from about 30° North and South latitude (subtropical high pressure zone) to the equator (intertropical convergence zone). Trade winds in the Northern Hemisphere have northeast to southwest direction and are referred to as the Northeast Trades. Southern Hemisphere trade winds have southeast to northwest direction but are called the Southeast Trades. • Transferability: The extent to which a good or service can be moved from one location to another; the relative capacity for spatial interaction. • Transform Fault: Massive strike-slip fault continental in size. Examples of such faults occur along tectonic plate boundaries and at the mid-oceanic ridge. • Transhumance: The seasonal movement of people and animals in search of pasture. Commonly, winters are spent in snow-free lowlands and summers in the cooler uplands. • Transpiration: Transpiration is the process of water loss from plants through stomata. Stomata are small openings found on the underside of leaves that are connected to vascular plant tissues. Some dry environment plants do have the ability to open and close their stomata. Transpiration is a passive process largely controlled by the humidity of the atmospheric and the moisture content of the soil. Of the transpired water passing through a plant only 1 % is used in the growth process. Transpiration also transports nutrients from the soil into the roots and carries them to the various cells of the plant. • Transport: One of three distinct processes involved in erosion. It is the movement of eroded material in the medium of air, water or ice. • Tree Line: Either the latitudinal or elevational limit of normal tree growth. Beyond this limit, closer to the poles or at higher or lower elevations, climatic conditions are too severe for such growth. • Tributary: A smaller branching stream channel that flows into a main stream channel. Opposite of distributary. • Tropical Cyclone: Another name for hurricane. • Tropical Depression: An organized group of thunderstorms often found over a tropical ocean that generates a cyclonic flow of between 37 and 63 kilometers per hour. Can develop into a hurricane. • Tropical Disturbance: An organized group of thunderstorms often found over a tropical ocean that generates a slight cyclonic flow of less than 37 kilometers per hour. Can develop into a hurricane. • Tropical Storm: An organized group of thunderstorms often found over a tropical ocean that generates a cyclonic flow of between 64 and 118 kilometers per hour. Often develops into a hurricane. • Tropical Rainforest: Forested biome found near the equator and dominated by evergreen vegetation. • Tropic of Cancer: Latitude of 23.5° North. Northern limit of the sun's declination. • Tropic of Capricorn: Latitude of 23.5° South. Southern limit of the sun's declination. • Tropics: Technically, the area between the Tropic of Cancer (21-1/2 N latitude) and the Tropic of Capricorn (21-1/2 S latitude), characterized by the absence of a cold season. Often used to describe any area possessing what is considered to be a hot, humid climate. • Troposphere: Layer in the atmosphere found from the surface to a height of between 8 to 16 kilometers of altitude (average height 11 kilometers). The troposphere is thinnest at poles and gradually increases in thickness as one approaches the equator. This atmospheric layer contains about 80 % of the total mass of the atmosphere. It is also the layer where the majority of our planet's weather occurs. Maximum air temperature occurs near the Earth's surface in this layer. With increasing altitude air temperature drops uniformly with increasing height at an average rate of 6.5° Celsius per 1000 meters (commonly called the Environmental Lapse Rate), until an average temperature of -56.5° Celsius is reached at the top of the troposphere. • Trough: An elongated area of low pressure in the atmosphere. • True North: Direction of the North Pole from an observer on the Earth. • True South: Direction of the South Pole from an observer on the Earth. • Tsunami: Large ocean wave created from an earthquake or volcanic eruption. Open ocean wave height may be as high as 1 meter. When entering shallow coastal waters, land configuration can amplify waves to heights of over 15 meters. • Tundra: High latitude biome dominated by a few species of dwarf shrubs, a few grasses, sedges, lichens, and mosses. Productivity is low in this biome because of the extremes of climate. • Turbulent Flow: Movement of water within a stream that occurs as discrete eddies and vortices. Turbulent flow is caused by channel topography and friction. • Typhoon: Another name for hurricane. U • Unconfined Aquifer: Aquifer that is not restricted by impervious layers of rock. • Unconfined Groundwater" Groundwater that is not restricted by impervious layers of rock. • Unconformity: A break in the sequence of sedimentary strata. Often the unconformity surface is the result of erosion. • Undercut Bank: Steep bank found on the inside of stream meanders. Formed by the erosion that occurs when a stream channel moves horizontally. • Underemployment: A condition in a labor force such that a portion of the labor force could be eliminated without reducing the total output. Some individuals are working less than they are able or want to, or they are engaged in tasks that are not entirely productive. • Underpopulation: Economically, a situation in which an increase in the size of the labor force will result in an increase in per worker productivity. • Uniform Region: A territory with one or more features present throughout and absent or unimportant elsewhere. (also referred to as a formal region) • Unloading: The releasing of downward pressure on rocks because of removal of overlying material by erosion. Unloading can cause the development of horizontal bedding in once solid rock. • Unstable Atmosphere: Condition in the atmosphere where isolated air parcels have a tendency to rise. The parcels of air tend to be warmer than the air that surrounds them. • Updraft: Upward movement of air. • Upper Mantle: Layer of the Earth's interior extending from the base of the crust to 670 kilometers below the surface. Part of the Earth's mantle layer. The upper mantle is composed of peridotite, an ultramafic magma primarily made up of the minerals olivine and pyroxene. The top layer of the upper mantle, 100-350 km below surface, is called the asthenosphere. • Upslope Fog: Fog produced by air flowing over topographic barriers. As the air is forced to rise, it is cooled by adiabatic expansion. Upslope fog is most common on the windward slopes of hills or ountains. • Upwelling: The movement of nutrient-rich deep seawater to the ocean's surface. • Urban Area: Geographic area with a high density of people over a limited area. Homes and other types of buildings tend to be close together. Urban systems also tend to differentiate themselves spatially into particular types of human activities. • Urban Heat Island: Observed condition that urban areas tend to be warmer than surrounding rural areas. • Urbanization: Expansion of cities into rural regions because of population growth. In most cases, population growth is primarily due to the movement of rural based people to urban areas. This is especially true in Less Developed Countries. V • Valley: A linear depression in the landscape that slopes down to a stream, lake or the ocean. Formed by water and/or ice erosion. • Valley Breeze: Local thermal circulation pattern found in areas of topographic relief. In this circulation system, surface winds blow from the valley bottom to areas of higher elevation during the daytime. • Valley Fog: Fog formed by the movement of cooler, more dense air from higher elevations to the warm valley bottom. • Valley Train: A linear accumulation of glaciofluvial outwash sediments found in a once glaciated valley. • Valley Wall: The side slope of a stream or glacial valley. • Varve: A thin yearly deposit of sediment found on the bottom of a lake. Within each yearly varve, there are variations in the color and the texture of the material deposited. The thickness of the varve and its associated layers can be used to reconstruct past environmental conditions influencing the lake. • Ventifact: A loose piece of rock that has been polished smooth by wind transported particles. Common in arid environments. • Viscosity: The amount of the resistance to flow in a fluid due to intermolecular friction. • Volcanic Ash: Small sized particles ejected from explosive volcanoes. • Volcanic Pipe: A dyke reaches the surface of the Earth. Also called volcanic neck. • Volcanic Vent: An opening on a volcano through which lava is released and rock fragments and ash are ejected. • Volcano: An elevated area of land created from the release of lava and ejection of ash and rock fragments from and volcanic vent. W • Warm Desert: Desert found in the subtropics or interiors of continents at the middle latitudes where precipitation is low and surface air temperatures are high. • Warm Front: A transition zone in the atmosphere where an advancing warm air mass displaces a cold air mass. • Wash: – (1) Coarse alluvial sediments. – (2) The downslope movement of small particles of soil by overland flow. Also called sheetwash. – (3) A term used in the United States for a shallow intermittent stream channel found in arid and semi-arid regions. • Water Consumption: The complete removal of water from some type of source, like groundwater, for some use by humans. This water is not returned to the source. Compare with water withdrawal. • Water Table: The level below the land surface at which the subsurface material is fully saturated with water. The depth of the water table reflects the minimum level to which wells must be drilled for water extraction. • Waterfall: – (1) A location in the long profile of a stream where water flows vertically. A nickpoint. – (2) Verical drop in elevation that causes a stream's dischange to flow vertically. • Watershed: Catchment area of a drainage basin. • Waterspout: A vortex of rapidly moving air over water that is associated with some thunderstorms. • Water Withdrawal: The removal of water from some type of source, like groundwater, for some use by humans. The water is subsequently returned some period of time later after its is used. The quality of the returned water may not be the same as when it was originally removed. Compare with water consumption. • Wave-Cut Notch: A rock recess at the foot of a sea cliff where the energy of water waves is concentrated. • Wave-Cut Platform: A flat or slightly sloping bedrock surface that forms in the tidal zone. Caused by wave erosion. • Weather: The state of the atmosphere at a specific time and place. • Weathering: Physical, chemical or biological breakdown of rocks and minerals into smaller sized particles. • Weathering Landform: Is a landform created by the physical or chemical decomposition of rock through weathering. Weathering produces landforms where rocks and sediments are decomposed and disintegrated. This includes landforms with some of the following geomorphic features: karst, patterned ground, and soil profiles. • Weather Map: Map that displays the condition of the physical state of the atmosphere and its circulation at a specific time over a region of the Earth. • Westerlies: Dominant winds of the midlatitudes. These winds move from the subtropical highs to the subpolar lows from west to east. • Wetland: Natural land-use type that is covered by salt water or fresh water for some time period. This land type can be identified by the presence of particular plant species or characteristic conditions. • Wetting and Drying: Physical weathering process where rocks are mechanically disintegrated by the accumulation of successive layers of water molecules in between the mineral grains of a rock. Sometimes called slaking. • Wind: Air moving horizontally from a high pressure center to a low pressure center. • Windward: Upwind side or side directly influenced to the direction that the wind blows from. Opposite of leeward. X • Xerophyte: Plant that have adaptations to survive prolonged periods of soil drought. Y • Yardang: Rock that has developed a streamline form because of wind erosion. The long axis of these features is aligned with the dominant wind direction. • Yazoo Tributary: Small tributary channel that is prevented from joining the main stream channel by the presence of levees. Yazoo tributaries tend to flow on the floodplain parallel to the main stream channel. Z • Zonal: Movement of wind or ocean waters in a direction that is roughly parallel to the lines of latitude. • Zone of Ablation: Area of a glacier where losses of ice from melting, evaporation, and sublimation exceed additions of snow annually. • Zone of Accumulation: Area of a glacier where additions of snow exceed losses of ice from melting, evaporation, and sublimation. • Zone of Aeration: Horizontal zone that extends from the top of the water table to the ground surface. Soil and rock pore spaces in this zone may and may not have water. • Zone of Saturation: Groundwater zone within the Earth's bedrock where all available pores spaces are filled by water. Found beneath the water table. • Zoning: The public regulation of land and building use to control the character of a place. • Zooplankton: Small heterotrophic organisms found inhabiting aquatic ecosystems. Also see plankton and phytoplankton.