Coastal plain Low relief regions of land adjacent to the coast Continental shelf A broad shallowly submerged region of a continent along a passive margin Continental slope the slope at the edge of a continental shelf leading along a passive margin Continental rise The sloping sea floor that extends from the lower part of the continental slope to the abyssal plain Abyssal plain A broad relatively flat region of the ocean that lies at least 4 5 km below sea level Hypsometric curve A graph that plots surface elevation on the vertical axis and the percentage of the Earth s surface on the horizontal axis Ocean crust The crust beneath the oceans composed of gabbro and basalt overlain by sediment Basalt A fine grained mafic igneous rock Continental crust The crust beneath the continents Granite A coarse grained intrusive silicic igneous rock Earth Moon Sun Tides The daily rising or falling of sea level at a given point on the Earth Centrifugal force Spring tides An especially high tide that occurs when the Sun is on the same side of the Earth as the Moon Neap tides An especially low tide that occurs when the angle between the direction of the Moon and the direction of the Sun is 90 degrees Full new moon Quarter moon Shoreline shape The boundary between the water and land Bay of Fundy Waves Wave front The boundary between the region through which a wave has passed and the region through which it has not yet passed Wind Wavelength The horizontal difference between two adjacent wave troughs or two adjacent crests Wave height Crest Trough Wave base The depth approximately equal in distance to half a wavelength in a body of water beneath which there is no wave movement Fetch The distance across a body of water along which a wind blows to build waves Surf Surf Zone A region of the shore in which breakers crash onto the shore Breakers A water wave in which water at the top of the wave curves over the base of the wave Orbits Equilibrium Berm A horizontal or landward sloping terrace in the backshore zone of a beach that receives sediment during a storm Beach profile Wave refraction The bending of waves as they approach a shore so that their crests make no more than a 5 degree angle with the shoreline Headland A place where a hill or cliff protrudes into the sea Embayment A low area of coastal land Long shore current A current that flows parallel to the beach Sand Spit where the coastline indents landward beach drift stretches beaches out into open water Barrier islands An offshore sand bar that rises above the mean high water level forming an island Tidal delta Tidal inlet Dunes A pile of sand generally formed by deposition from the wind Over wash Seawalls A wall of riprap built on the landward side of a backshore zone in order to protect shore cliffs from erosion Riprap Loose boulders or concrete piled together along a beach to absorb wave energy before it strikes a cliff face Groins A concrete or stonewall built perpendicular to a shoreline in order to prevent beach drift from removing sand Jetties A manmade wall that protects the entrance to a harbor Beach Nourishment Rip current A strong localized seaward flow of water perpendicular to a beach Under toad Eustatic Eustatic sea level change A global rising or falling of the ocean surface Heat Thermal energy resulting from the movement of molecules Glaciers A river or sheet of ice that slowly flows across the land surface and lasts all year long Spreading Spreading rate the rate at which sea floor moves away from a mid ocean ridge axis as measured with respect to the sea floor on the opposite side of the axis Collision The process of two buoyant pieces of lithosphere converging and squashing together Subsidence The vertical sinking of the Earth s surface in a region relative to a reference plane Tectonism Isostasy Isostatic equilibrium the condition that exists when the buoyancy force pushing lithosphere up equals the gravitational force pulling lithosphere down Convection Heat transfer that results when warmer less dense material rises while cooler denser material sinks ITCZ Monsoon A seasonal reversal in wind direction that causes a shift from a very dry season to a very rainy season in some regions of the world Tropic Cancer Tropic Capricorn Equator Coriolis Coriolis effect the deflection of objects winds and currents on the surface of the Earth owing to the planet s rotation Equatorial Low the area of low pressure that develops over the equator because of the intertropical convergence zone Subtropical High Subtropical Divergence Zone a belt of high pressure in the atmosphere at 30 degree latitude formed where the Hadley cell converges with the Ferrel cell causing cool dense air to sink Polar High The zone of high pressure in Polar Regions created by the sinking of air in the polar cells Horse Latitudes The region of the subtropical high in which winds are weak Rain Shadow The inland side of a mountain range which is arid because the mountains block rain clouds from reaching the area Continental Interior Continental interior desert an inland desert that develops because by the time air masses reach the continental interior they have lost all of their moisture Polar Polar Glacier dry bottom glacier Polar Front the convergence zone in the atmosphere at latitude 60 degrees Cold Coast Aeolian Suspended load tiny solid grains carried along by a stream without settling to the floor of the channel Saltating Saltation the movement of a sediment in which grains bounce along their substrate knocking other grains into the water column or air in the process Surface load Desert pavement A mosaic like stone surface forming the ground in a desert Erosion The grinding away and removal of Earth s surface materials by moving water air or ice Deposition The process by which sediment settles out of a transporting medium Dunes A pile of sand generally formed by deposition from the wind Crossbeds Slipface The lee side of a dun which sand slides down White sands Gypsum Moisture Vegetation Loess Layers of fine grained sediments deposited from the wind large deposits of loess formed from fine grained glacial sediment blown off outwash plains Desertification The process of transforming non desert areas into desert Aral sea Snow Line The boundary above which snow remains all year Granular ice Firn Compacted granular ice derived from snow that forms where snow is deeply buried if buried more deeply Firn turns into glacial ice Glacial ice Greenland Antarctica
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