Chapter 13 Vocab

Front 1

Acid Rain

Back 1

Rain containing acids that form in the atmosphere when industrial gas emissions (especially sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides) combine with water

Front 2

Anthropocene

Back 2

Geological Epoch defined by atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen to acknowledge the central role of humans play in shaping the Earth's environment

Front 3

Aquifers

Back 3

Underground rock layers that store large amounts of water.

Front 4

Atmosphere

Back 4

A mixture of gases that surround a planet or moon.

Front 5

Biodiversity

Back 5

The diversity of plant and animal life in a particular habitat (or in the world as a whole)

Front 6

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

Back 6

Synthetic organic compounds first created in the 1950s and used primarily as refrigerants and as propellants. The role of CFCs in the destruction of the ozone layer led to the signing of an international agreement (Montreal Protocol)

Front 7

Deforestation

Back 7

The removal of tress faster than forests can replace themselves.

Front 8

Environmental Stress

Back 8

The threat to environmental security by human activity such as atmospheric and groundwater pollution, deforestation, oil spills, and ocean dumping.

Front 9

Glaciation

Back 9

A period of global cooling during which continental ice sheets and mountain glaciers expand.

Front 10

Greenhouse Effect

Back 10

Warming that results when solar radiation is trapped in the atmosphere

Front 11

Holocene

Back 11

The current inter glaciation period, extending 10,000 years ago to the present of the geologic time scale.

Front 12

Horologic Cycle

Back 12

The natural process by which water is purified and made fresh through evaporation and precipitation. The cycle provides all the freshwater available for biological life.

Front 13

Interglacitals

Back 13

Warm periods during an ice age.

Front 14

Little Ice Age

Back 14

Temporary but significant cooling period between the fourteenth and the nineteenth centuries; accompanied by wide temperature fluctuations, droughts, and storms, causing famines and dislocation.

Front 15

Mass Depletions

Back 15

Loss of diversity through a failure to produce new species.

Front 16

Mass Extinctions

Back 16

Mass destruction of most species

Front 17

Montreal Protocol

Back 17

An international agreement signed in 1987 by 105 countries and the European Community (now European Union.) The protocol called for a reduction in the production and consumption of CFCs of 50 percent by 2000. Subsequent meetings in London (1990) and Copenhagen (1992) accelerated the timing of CFC phaseout, and a worldwide complete ban has been effect since 1996.

Front 18

Nonrenewable Resource

Back 18

Resources such as fossil fuels, which can not be made again.

Front 19

Oxygen Cycle

Back 19

Cycle whereby natural processes and human activity consume atmospheric oxygen and produce carbon dioxide and the Earth's forests and other flora, through photosynthesis, consume carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.

Front 20

Ozone Layer

Back 20

Layer of the stratosphere with a high concentration of ozone; absorbs most of the Sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation.

Front 21

Pacific Ring of Fire

Back 21

Ocean-grinding zone of crustal instability volcanism, and earthquakes resulting from the tectonic activity along plate boundaries in the region.

Front 22

Pangea

Back 22

The primeval supercontinent, hypothesized by Alfred Wegner, that broke apart and formed the continents and oceans as we know them today; consisted of two parts- a northern Laurasia and a southern Gondwanaland.

Front 23

Photosynthesis

Back 23

The formation of carbohydrates in living plants from water and carbon dioxide, through the action of sunlight on chlorophyll in those planes, including algae.

Front 24

Pleistocene

Back 24

The most recent epoch of the late Cenozoic ice age, beginning about 1.8 million years ago and marked by as many as 20 glaciations and interglaciations of which the current warm phase, the Holocene epoch, has witnessed the rise of human civilization.

Front 25

Radioactive Waste

Back 25

Useless radioactive materials that are left after some laboratory or commercial process is completed.

Front 26

Rare Earth Elements

Back 26

The 'inner-most' part elements, which are usually placed at the bottom of the periodic table.

Front 27

Renewable Resources

Back 27

Resources that can regenerate as they are exploited

Front 28

Sanitary Landfills

Back 28

Disposal sites for non-hazardous solid waste that is spread in layers and compacted to the smallest practical volume. The sites are typically designed with floors made of materials to treat seeping liquids and are covered by soil as the wastes are compacted and deposited into the landfill.

Front 29

Soil Erosion

Back 29

Movement of soil components, especially topsoil, from one place to another, usually by wind, flowing water, or both. This natural process can be greatly accelerated by human activities that remove vegetation from soil

Front 30

Solid Waste

Back 30

Any unwanted or discarded material that is not a liquid or a gas

Front 31

Tectonic Plates

Back 31

Large pieces of rock that form portions of the Earth's mantle and crust and which are in motion.

Front 32

Toxic Waste

Back 32

Form of hazardous waste that causes death or serious injury (such as burns, respiratory diseases, cancers, or genetic mutations). See hazardous waste.

Front 33

Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer

Back 33

The first international convention aimed at addressing the issue of ozone depletion. Held in 1985, the Vienna Convention was the predecessor to the Montreal Protocol.

Front 34

Wisconsin Glaciation

Back 34

The most recent glacial period of Pleistocene, enduring about 180,000 years ago, to the current interglacial, Holocene