Download Earth Science Vocab

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System- an organized group of parts that work together to form a whole
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Atmosphere- the mixture of gases and particles that surrounds and protects the surface of the Earth
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Hydrosphere- is made up of all the water on Earth in oceans, lakes, glaciers, rivers, and streams, and
underground.
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Biosphere- includes all life on Earth, in the air, on the land, and in the waters.
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Geosphere- includes all the features on Earth’s surface- the continents, islands, and sea floor- and
everything below the surface
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Inner core- ball of hot, solid metals
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Outer core- layer of liquid metals that surrounds the inner core
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Mantle- Earth’s thickest layer; made of hot rock; less dense than the metallic core
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Crust- thin layer of cool rock; surrounds the Earth; like an eggshell
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Lithosphere- the layer of Earth made up of the crust and the rigid rock of the upper mantle
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Asthenosphere- the layer in Earth’s upper mantle and directly under the lithosphere in which rock is
soft and weak because it is close to melting
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Tectonic plate- one of the large, moving pieces into which Earth’s lithosphere is broken and which
commonly carries both oceanic and continental crust
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Continental drift- a hypothesis that Earth’s continents were once joined in a single landmass and
gradually moved, or drifted, apart
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Pangaea- a huge supercontinent that the continents had once been joined in
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Convection- energy transfer by the movement of a material
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Convection current- a circulation pattern in which material is heated and rises in one area, then
cools and sinks in another area, flowing in a continuous loop
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Divergent boundary- occurs where plates move apart
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Convergent boundary- occurs where plates push together
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Transform boundary- occurs where plates scrape past each other
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