Download Unit 6 Earth Science Water Vocabulary

Unit 6 Earth Science Water Vocabulary (test on 2/8 in Sheridan’s Class)
1. Fresh water- water that is not salty and has little or no taste, color, or smell
2. Salt Water- water that contains dissolved salt and other minerals
3. Water cycle- the continuous movement of water through the environment of the
Earth
4. Evaporation- the process by which water changes from liquid to vapor
5. Condensation- the process in which water vapor in the atmosphere becomes liquid
6. Precipitation- water that falls from clouds
7. Transpiration- the evaporation of water from plants
8. Infiltration- the physical process involving movement of water through the
boundary area where the atmosphere interfaces with the soil
9. Percolation- the movement of water through the soil and its layers by gravity and
capillary forces
10. Runoff- flow from a drainage basin or watershed that appears in surface streams
11. Pond- body of water that is smaller and shallower than a lake, allowing sunlight
to reach the bottom all over, and contains many plants
12. Lake- body of water that is larger than a pond and the sunlight does not reach the
bottom all over
13. Iceberg- mass of ice floating in the ocean that began as part of a glacier
14. Groundwater- water underground
15. Permeable- liquids can flow through
16. Impermeable- liquids cannot flow through
17. Water Table- top of an area of the aquifer that is completely saturated, or filled,
with water
18. Aquifer- underground layer of permeable rock or sediment that contains water
19. Spring-flow of water from the ground at a place where the surface of the land dips
below the water table
20. Artesian Well- a natural well in which water flows to the surface naturally
because it is under pressure
21. Salinity- a measure of the amount of dissolved salt contained in water
22. Density- a measure of the amount of matter packed into a given volume
23. Continental Shelf- the flat or gradually sloping land that extends underwater from
the edge of the continent (shore) to the continental slope
24. Continental Slope- land that drops down steeply at the edge of a continental shelf
25. Ocean Trench- narrow, steep-sided clefts in the ocean floor
26. Abyssal Plain- a wide, flat area of the ocean floor that is covered with a thick
layer of sediment
27. Mid-ocean Ridge- a chain of mountains that runs through an ocean basin and
forms at a divergent plate boundary
28. Seamounts- underwater mountains
29. Guyots (Guy-yoo) seamounts that have been built above sea level
30. SONAR- a system that uses sound waves to measure distances and locate objects;
echolocation
31. Ocean Current- mass of moving water in an ocean
32. Surface Currents- caused by strong winds that blow across the Earth’s surface
33. Coriolis Effect- the effect of the Earth’s rotation that causes surface currents to
move in counter-clockwise direction in the northern hemisphere and a clockwise
direction in the southern hemisphere (like when your bathtub drains in a
counterclockwise direction)
34. Deep Currents- currents driven by differences in water density
35. Downwelling- movement of water from the surface to greater depths
36. Upwelling- movement of water up to the surface that bring nutrients up from the
deep ocean