Earth Science: Natural Hazards, Earth Layers, and the Rock Cycle

Vocabulary flashcards covering natural hazards, Earth's internal layers, and rock cycle terms based on lecture notes.

Hydrometeorological hazard

Events which can cause harm to humans, property, livelihoods, resources, and the environment.

Geological hazard

An extreme condition arising from natural geological phenomena.

Hydrological Hazard

Extreme events associated with the occurrence, movement, and distribution of water, such as floods & droughts.

Meteorological Hazard

Natural disaster caused by changes to the earth's atmosphere, especially the weather.

Natural disaster

An environmental event that has a significant negative effect on people, such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunami, volcanic eruption, & wild fires.

Natural hazard

Natural events that threaten lives, property, & other assets.

Crust

The outermost rocky layer of a rocky planet or moon which is chemically distinct from an underlying mantle.

Crystallization

The process by which a substance's molecules or atoms align in a crystal structure.

Igneous rock

A type of rock that forms when molten rock cools & hardens.

Inner Core

The solid, innermost portion of Earth's Core, composed of an alloy of iron, nickel, and other heavy elements; exists within the liquid outer core.

Lithosphere

The part of Earth which is composed mostly of rocks; the crust & outer mantle.

Mantle

The layer of solid rock between Earth's Crust & Core.

Metamorphic rock

One of the major types of rock that is derived from previously existing rock by the action of intense heat & pressure.

Outer Core

The liquid outer portion of Earth's Core, composed primarily of iron and nickel.

Rock cycle

A model describing the transformations of rocks from one major rock type to another.

Sedimentary rock

A type of rock formed by gravity bonding fragments of other rocks and minerals together as they settle out from air or water / the ocean over a long period of time.