Download vocabulary - Spring Branch ISD

Earth Sciences Vocabulary and Concepts:

Inner core

Outer core

Mantle

Asthenosphere

Plasticity

Mesosphere

Lithosphere

Crust

Basalt

Granite

Convection currents

Continental drift

Alfred Wegner

Pangaea

Sea floor spreading

Harry Hess

Plate tectonics

Lithospheric/tectonic plates

Plate boundaries

Oceanic divergent boundary

Mid-ocean ridge

Continental divergent boundary

Rift valley

Cinder cone

Pillow lava

Black smokers

Lava

Magma

Oceanic-oceanic plate convergent boundary

Subduction zone

Subduction trench

Island arc

Stratovolcano/Composite volcano

Oceanic-continental plate convergent boundary

Mountains

Continental-continental plate convergent boundary

Richter scale - earthquake magnitude

Transform boundary

Hot spot

Shield volcano

Heat transfer mechanisms (review)

Conduction

Convection

Radiation

Strike-slip or Transform or Transverse fault

Regional forces:
o -Shearing force
o -Compressional force
o -Tensional force

Normal fault

Reverse fault

Thrust fault

Folding

Depositional landforms (ex. Sand dune, flood plain, moraine …)

Erosional landforms (ex. U-shaped valley, mesa, cliff …)

Tectonic landforms (ex. Mid-ocean ridge, Subduction trench …)

Topographic map

Topography

Contour lines

Index contours

Rule of “V’s”

Close contours vs. widely spaced contours (steep vs. shallow)

Hatched contours

Closed depression

Sedimentary rock (ex. Sandstone, shale, limestone …)

Igneous rock (ex. Basalt, granite, obsidian …)

Metamorphic rock (ex. Schist, Gneiss, Marble …)

Metamorphism

Coarse vs. fine grained texture

Intrusive vs. Extrusive

Calcium carbonate CaCO3 (ex: Limestone, marble, shells …)

Rock cycle

Lithification

Compaction and cementation

Melting vs. cooling and crystallization

WED (weathering, erosion and deposition)

Chemical weathering (ex. Oxidation, lichens, carbonic acid, acid rain…)

Physical weathering (ex. Root and ice wedging, abrasion …)

Geosequencing or relative geologic dating

Unconformity

Original horizontality

Lateral continuity

Superposition

Inclusions

Cross-cutting relationships

Faunal succession

Water cycle

Precipitation

Condensation

Surface run-off

Ground water

Aquifer

Percolation

Evaporation

Transpiration

Surface ocean currents (ex. Gulf stream, California current …)

Warm vs. cold water currents

Thermohaline circulation (Ocean conveyor belt)

Coriolis effect

El Nino and La Nina (Southern oscillation)

Trade winds

Doldrums (ITCZ)

Equator

Polar easterlies

Westerlies

Windward and leeward (sides of a mountain range)

Sea and land breezes

Cold and warm fronts

Air mass

Humidity

Low and high pressure

Weather station symbol interpretation

Weather vs. climate

Green house effect

Green house gases (ex: Carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor …)

Carbon cycle

Global warming

Ocean acidification

Ozone layer