Earth Science Terms
Terms
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- Abrasion
- the physical action of scraping, rubbing, grading, or wearing away of rock surfaces and sediments due to the movement of solid sediments in an erosional system such as a stream or wind
- Absolute Age
- the actual age, or date, in years when a geological event occured or a rock was formed
- Absolute humidity
- the amout (mass) of water vapor in a unit volume of air, such as in grams/cubic meter
- Absolute Zero
- theoretically, the lowest possible temperature; no heat energy can be extracted at this temperature
- Absorbed
- taken into a material
- Aerosol
- Small solid or liquid particles suspended in a gas; suspended solid or liquid water are the aerosols that compose fog and clouds
- Air mass
- a large body of air in the troposphere with similar characteristics of pressure, moisture, and temperature
- Altitude
- (1) the vertical distance (elevation) between a point and sea level or Earth's surface (2) the angle of a celestial object above the horizon; usually expressed in degrees
- Anemometer
- a weather instrument used to measure wind speed
- Angle of incidence
- the angle at which the sun's rays hit Earth's surface; also called the angle of insolation
- Anticyclone
- a high pressure mass of air within the trosophere in which air moves out from the center; rotating clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere; also called a high
- Aphelion
- the point in a planet's orbit when it is farthest from the sun
- Apparent Diameter
- the diameter a celestial object appears to have, depending on its distance from an observer, not the actual diameter
- Apparent motion
- a motion of an object that is not real but appears to be real, such as the daily motion of the stars in the sky caused by the real motion of Earth's rotation
- Apparent solar day
- a day of varying length determined by the time it takes for the sun to arrive at its highest point in the sky on two consecutive days at the same location, often measured by a sundial