1. NITROGEN CYCLE The movement of nitrogen from the nonliving environment into living things and back

2. WATER CYCLE The continuous movement of water through the atmosphere, the ground, bodies of water, and living things

3. CARBON CYCLE The movement of carbon from the nonliving environment into living things and back

4. POLLUTION The presence of harmful of unwanted levels of substances in the environment

5. ROCK CYCLE The continual process by which new rock is formed from old roc k material

6. LITHOSPHERE “Rock Sphere” – the cool, rigid, outermost layer of the Earth that is divided into pieces called tectonic plates

7. IGNEOUS Rock that forms when hot, liquid rock cools and hardens

8. SEDIMENTARY Rock that forms when pieces of rocks or minerals are “glued” together

9. METAMORPHIC Rock that forms when existing rock is heated and squeezed deep inside the Earth

10. UPLIFTING The rising of regions of Earth’s crust to higher elevations

11. WEATHERING The process by which water, ice, wind, and heat act to break down rocks

12. EROSION The process by which wind, water, ice, and gravity remove and transport material from one place to another

13. DEPOSITION Process by which sediments are deposited/dro pped in a new location

14. LAVA Magma that reaches the Earth’s surface

15. MAGMA Hot, liquid rock material

16. THEORY OF CONTINENTAL DRIFT The theory that continents can drift apart from one another and have done so in the past

17. THEORY OF PLATE TECTONICS The theory that the lithosphere is divided into tectonic plates that move around on top of the asthenosphere

18. CONVERGENT BOUNDARY The boundary between two colliding tectonic plates

19. DIVERGENT BOUNDARY The boundary between two tectonic plates that are moving away from each other

20. TRANSFORM BOUNDARY The boundary between two tectonic plates that are sliding past each other

21. SUBDUCTION When oceanic lithosphere sinks down into the asthenosphere at a convergent boundary

22. TECTONIC PLATE Huge pieces of the lithosphere that move around on top of the asthenosphere.

23. CONVECTION CURRENTS The circular motion of liquids or gases caused by density differences that result from temperature differences

24. FAULT The type of strain that occurs when rocks break because of stress

25. FOLD They type of strain that occurs when rocks bend because of stress

26. NORMAL FAULT A fault in which the hanging wall moves down because of tension.

27. REVERSE FAULT A fault in which the hanging wall moves up because of compression.

28. STRIKE-SLIP FAULT A fault in which the plates move horizontally past each other because of shearing.

29. TENSION A force that causes rocks to be pulled apart

30. COMPRESSION The type of stress in which an object is squeezed, as when two plates collide

31. SHEARING A force that causes rocks to slide horizontally past each other

32. TEST YOURSELF!

41. Howdy partners