Geography vocabulary 2 (21-40) Alaska Studies Geography vocabulary 2 (21-40)

Elevation The height of a point on the Earth's surface with respect to sea level The elevation of Denali is 20,322' (6,194 m)

Environment The surroundings or conditions in which a person, animal, or plant lives or operates; the natural world, as a whole or in a particular geographical area, especially as affected by human activity

Fault A fracture in the Earth's crust accompanied by a displacement of one side of the fracture

Earthquake goes along with Fault A sudden and violent shaking of the ground, sometimes causing great destruction, as a result of movements within the earth's crust or volcanic action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvl-4IWjHXo

Tsunami also goes along with Fault and earthquake A long high sea wave caused by an earthquake, submarine landslide, or other disturbance http://www.history.com/videos/the-science-of-tsunamis#the-science-of-tsunamis

Fjord A long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by glacial erosion

Geography The nature and relative arrangement of places and physical features

glacier A thick mass of ice resulting from compacted snow that forms when more snow accumulates than melts annually

Glacial Till The mass of rocks and finely ground material carried by a glacier, then deposited when the ice melted. This creates an unstratified material of varying composition Glacial Moraine

Gulf A large area of water that lies within a curved coastline. a gulf usually is larger than a bay and smaller than a sea

Hydrosphere The water that covers 71 percent of the Earth's surface as oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams. The hydrosphere also includes ground water, water that circulates below the Earth's surface in the upper part of the lithosphere

Ice Age A time of widespread glaciation (see Pleistocene) The Pleistocene Epoch began about 1.8 million years ago and lasted until about 11700 years ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5jfHzKDDJ8

Island A piece of land surrounded by water Cape Promontory, Cape Lutkes on Unimak Island in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska Carlisle volcano on Carlisle Island in the central Aleutian Islands

Latitude Imaginary lines that cross the surface of the Earth parallel to the Equator, measuring how far north or south of the Equator a place is located; a measure of distance north or south of the equator. One degree of latitude equals approximately 110 kilometers (68 mi)

Longitude Imaginary lines that cross the surface of the Earth, running from north to south, measuring how far east or west of the prime meridian a place is located; A measure of distance east and west of a line drawn between the North and South Poles and passing through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England.

Lithosphere The Earth's hard, outermost shell. It comprises the crust and the upper part of the mantle. It is divided into a mosaic of 16 major slabs, or plates

Map A picture of a place that is usually drawn to scale on a flat surface

Maritime (Oceanic) Climate An oceanic climate (also known as marine, west coast and maritime) is the climate typical of the west coasts at the middle latitudes of most continents, and generally features warm (but not hot) summers and cool (but not cold) winters, with a relatively narrow annual temperature range

Moraine The rocks and soil carried and deposited by a glacier. An "end moraine," either a ridge or low hill running perpendicular to the direction of ice movement, forms at the end of a glacier when the ice is melting(See glacial till)

Ocean The salt water surrounding the great land masses, and divided by the land masses into several distinct portions, each of which is called an ocean

Peninsula A piece of land almost surrounded by water or projecting out into a body of water (3 sides) Alaska Peninsula Seward Peninsula Kenai Peninsula

Permafrost A thick subsurface layer of soil that remains frozen throughout the year, occurring chiefly in polar regions