NITROGEN CYCLE

• The movement of nitrogen from the nonliving environment into living things and back

WATER CYCLE

• The continuous movement of water through the atmosphere, the ground, bodies of water, and living things

CARBON CYCLE

• The movement of carbon from the nonliving environment into living things and back

POLLUTION

• The presence of harmful of unwanted levels of substances in the environment

ROCK CYCLE

• The continual process by which new rock is formed from old roc k material

LITHOSPHERE

• “Rock Sphere” – the cool, rigid, outermost layer of the Earth that is divided into pieces called tectonic plates

IGNEOUS

• Rock that forms when hot, liquid rock cools and hardens

SEDIMENTARY

• Rock that forms when pieces of rocks or minerals are “glued” together

METAMORPHIC

• Rock that forms when existing rock is heated and squeezed deep inside the Earth

UPLIFTING

• The rising of regions of Earth’s crust to higher elevations

WEATHERING

• The process by which water, ice, wind, and heat act to break down rocks

EROSION

• The process by which wind, water, ice, and gravity remove and transport material from one place to another

DEPOSITION

• Process by which sediments are deposited/dropped in a new location

LAVA

• Magma that reaches the Earth’s surface

MAGMA

• Hot, liquid rock material

THEORY OF CONTINENTAL DRIFT

• The theory that continents can drift apart from one another and have done so in the past

THEORY OF PLATE TECTONICS

• The theory that the lithosphere is divided into tectonic plates that move around on top of the asthenosphere

CONVERGENT BOUNDARY

• The boundary between two colliding tectonic plates

DIVERGENT BOUNDARY

• The boundary between two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other

TRANSFORM BOUNDARY

• The boundary between two tectonic plates that are sliding past each other

SUBDUCTION

• When oceanic lithosphere sinks down into the asthenosphere at a convergent boundary

TECTONIC PLATE

• Huge pieces of the lithosphere that move around on top of the asthenosphere.

CONVECTION CURRENTS

• The circular motion of liquids or gases caused by density differences that result from temperature differences

FAULT

• The type of strain that occurs when rocks break because of stress

FOLD

• They type of strain that occurs when rocks bend because of stress

NORMAL FAULT

• A fault in which the hanging wall moves down because of tension.

REVERSE FAULT

• A fault in which the hanging wall moves up because of compression.

STRIKE-SLIP FAULT

• A fault in which the plates move horizontally past each other because of shearing.

TENSION

• A force that causes rocks to be pulled apart

COMPRESSION

• The type of stress in which an object is squeezed, as when two plates collide

SHEARING

• A force that causes rocks to slide horizontally past each other

TEST YOURSELF!

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