APES Unit 3: "Earth's Systems and Resources" Concepts

Rift Valley

Forms at divergent boundaries.

Divergent plate boundary

Where two plates pull each other apart. Seafloor spreading and rift valleys occur at divergent boundaries.

Convergent plate boundary

Where two plates slide into each other. One subducts under the other, and convention currents drive the process. Island arcs and mountain building occurs at convergent boundaries.

Island Arc

Forms at convergent boundaries.

Tsunami

A natural disaster involving water being displaced. It is caused by sudden undersea shifting due to tectonic plates or eruptions.

Soil flashcards below this one

Parent Material

The rock from which soil is formed.

Environmental consequences of clear cutting or a lack of vegetation

A lack of vegetation increases the damage done by water runoff and erosion, because no vegetation exists to obstruct wind or water.

Study Earth’s Soil, Hadley Cells and Tectonic Plates

Air Density

How much matter air holds. Cool Dense air sinks, Warm less-dense air rises. This is key for hadley cells. Cool air can hold more matter and moisture than warm air.

Soil horizon with the most organic matter

The highest soil horizon.

Why do polar latitudes experience cold temperatures?

Because the curvature of the earth causes sun rays to hit the earth indirectly at these latitudes, making them weaker.

Coastal temperatures

Water heats and cools more slowly than land, so coastal areas stay cooler in summer and hotter in winter.

Conditions during La Nina

Stronger than normal trade winds, cool ocean surface temperatures, increased upwelling, and colder air temperatures.

Rain Shadow

A rain shadow is a dry area on the side of a mountain opposite to the wind.

Relationship between ocean temp and rainfall

Lower ocean temperatures cause less rainfall.

El Nino effects on the western pacific ocean (ie near indonesia)

Cool ocean temperatures, more drought.

Relationship between Solar radiation and Humidity

Areas that get less solar heat have less evaporation, so the air is drier in these areas.

The effect of earth’s rotation on its axis on the world

The earth’s daily revolution causes night and day cycles around the world. It has no effect on temperature changes throughout the year, as that depends on the earth’s position relative to the sun on its axis. The earth’s rotations also cause the coriolis effect. Maximum deflection happens at the earth’s north and south poles, and no deflection happens at the equator, because the earth’s rotation is fastest at the equator.

Coriolis effect

An effect caused by the earth’s rotation that involves trade winds blowing east to west to be deflected in other directions.

Fluids and objects deflect to the right in the northern hemisphere, and to the left in the southern hemisphere. They also rotate in a counterclockwise direction in the northern hemisphere, and in a clockwise direction in the southern hemisphere.

The ground at the equator moves from west to east much faster than the poles do (greater distance traveled in the same amount of time = higher velocity), which is why the coriolis effect is stronger at the poles than at the equator.