Geography - The Restless Earth Key Terms

Key terms of the topic The Restless Earth provided by my Geography teacher

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  • Created by: Aqua
  • Created on: 13-05-11 17:57

The Restless Earth 1

  • Crust - the outer layer of the earth
  • Plate - a section of the earth's crust
  • Plate margin - the boundary where 2 plates meet
  • Mantle - the dense, mostly solid layer between the outer core and the crust
  • Convection currents - the circular currents of heat in the mantle
  • Subduction - the sinking of oceanic crust at a destructive margin
  • Collision - the meeting of 2 plates of continental crust. They are both the same type so they meet 'head on' and buckle
  • Fold mountains - large mountain ranges where rock layers have been crumpled as they have been forced together
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The Restless Earth 2

  • Ocean trenches - deep sections of the ocean, usually where an oceanic plate is sinking below a continental plate
  • Composite volcano - a steep sided volcano that is made up of a variety of materials such as lava and ash
  • Shield volcano - a broad volcano that is mostly made up lava
  • Subsistence - farming to provide food and other resources for the farmer's own family
  • Terraces - steps cut into hillsides to create areas of flat land
  • Irrigation - artificial watering of the land
  • Hydroelectric power (HEP) - the use of flowing water to turn turbines to generate electricity
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The Restless Earth 3

  • Natural Hazard - an occurence over which people have little control, which poses a threat to people's lives and possessions. This is different from a natural event as volcanoes can erupt in unpopulated areas without being a hazard
  • Primary effects - the immediate effects of the eruption, caused directly by it
  • Secondary effects - the after effects that occur as an indirect effect of the eruption on a longer timescale
  • Aid - money, food, training and technology given by richer countries to poorer ones, either to help with an emergency or to encourage long term development
  • Earthquake - a sudden and often violent shift in the rocks forming the earth's crust, which is felt a the surface.
  • Immediate responses - how people react as the disaster happens and in the immediate aftermath
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The Restless Earth 4

  • Long term responses - later reactions that occur in the weeks, months and years after the event
  • Vent - the opening - usually central and single - in a volcano from which magma is emitted
  • Lahar - these secondary effects of a volcano are mudflows resulting from ash mixing with melting ice or water
  • Supervolcano - a mega colossal volcano that erupts at least 1000km³ of material 
  • Caldera - the depression of the supervolcano marking the collapsed magma chamber
  • Fissures - extended openings along a line of weakness that allows magma to escape
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The Restless Earth 5

  • Geothermal - water that is heated beneath the ground which comes to the surface in a variety of ways
  • Geyser - a geothermal feature in which water erupts into the air under pressure
  • Hot spot - a section of the earth's crust where plumes of magma rises, weakening the crust. These are away from plate boundaries
  • Focus - the point in the earth's crust where the earthquake originates
  • Richter scale - a logarithmic scale used for measuring earthquakes, based on scientific recordings of the amount of movement
  • Epicentre - the point at the earth's surface directly above the focus
  • Shock waves - seismic waves generated by an earthquake that pass through the earth's surface
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The Restless Earth 6

  • Mercalli scale - a means of measuring earthquakes by describing and comparing the damage done on a scale of I to XII
  • Debt - money owed to others, to a bank or to a global organization such as the World Bank
  • The 3 Ps - the collective term for prediction, protection and preparation
  • Prediction - attempts to forecast an event - where and when it will happen - based on current knowledge
  • Protection - constructing buildings so that they are safe to live in and will not collapse
  • Preparation - organizing activities and drills so that people know what to do in the event of an earthquake
  • Tsunami - a special type of wave where the entire depth of the sea or ocean is set in motion by an event, often an earthquake, which displaces the water above it and creates a huge wave
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Comments

Maddy

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Thanks Bryony:D Even though i don't do Geography this is really interesting:D X

samiyahjameel1

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Thank you, really helpful especially since they are from the aqa syllabus text book ( i couldn't be bothered copying them all out) :)

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