Important geography terms

• Plucking


  Base of the glacier melts due to friction with the ground, at night the meltwater refreezes and stones, pebbles etc are frozen into the base of the glacier. As the glacier moves on they are plucked from the ground and carried away as part of the glacier's load. 
• Abrasion 


  the glacier uses its load (stones, pebbles etc frozen into its base and sides) to scratch and shape the ground it travels over leaving behind marks called striations. 
• Geo

  a long narrow sea inlet formed where the roof of a cave collapses
• Ria

  a V shaped valley that was flooded when sea levels rose
• Fjord

  a U shaped valley that was flooded when sea levels rose
• Endogenic Forces 


  internal forces that shape the earth e.g. subduction
• Exogenic Forces 


  external forces that shape the earth e.g. sea erosion
• Caldera 


  a large depression formed when a volcano erupts and the crater collapses.
• Moho 


  boundary between the crust and the mantle 
• Weathering 


  is the breaking down of rocks that lie exposed to the weather on the earths surface. Erosion is the breaking down and carrying away of rocks on the earths surface by agents such as rivers, glaciers and the sea. The difference between them is that erosion carries the broken down rocks to another location.
• The groundwater table 


  is the layer of rock that is saturated in water. When it rains water percolates down through the earth's crust and collects in a layer of rock. This is called the water table. In wet weather the level of the water table will rise, in dry weather it will fall.
• Peneplain

  is a flat plain, the lowest level land can be eroded to, they are very rare.
• Incised meanders 


  these meanders formed in the normal way. Once river rejuvenation happens the river will start to erode vertically (deepening its own bed). As a result, the meanders are cut into the landscape with steep slopes on either side. E.g. River Barrow
• Paired terraces

  when rejuvenation occurs the river will start eroding vertically deepening the river bed. Over time a new flood plain will form at this lower level. The old floodplain will be left at a higher level and  is referred to as Paired Terraces. If rejuvenation occurs more than once there can be more than one set of Paired Terraces. E.g. River Barrow
• Slugga

  another name for a swallow hole
• Point of Resurgence

  point where a river reappears on the surface, having travelled underground through a Karst area
• High Oblique Photo

  you can see horizon
• Low Oblique

  no horizon
• Kames

  mounds of boulder clay deposited by glacier
• Kettle holes

  blocks of ice break from glacier, covered in sediment, melt leaving behind a small depression
• Salt Crystallisation


  water drawn to surface and evaporates, salts left behind, build up in cracks in rocks, puts pressure on the rock, breaks up, a type of mechanical weathering.
• Point Bar

  deposition in a meander 
• Bluff

  edge of a floodplain
• Gorge

  narrow valley with steep sides between hills or mountains, often contains a river
• Turlough


  a disappearing lake in a limestone region, it fills with water in the winter following heavy rain but in the summer when it is dry the level of the water table drops and it disappears again. 
• River cliff


  steep edge at the outside of a meander where erosion is occurring
• River beach


  flat area on the inside of a meander where deposition is occurring
• Base level


  the lowest level a river can erode its channel to, it is the same as sea level.
• Scandinavia


  Norway, Sweden, Finland
• Bay of Biscay


  Bay bordering France and Spain, on western side
• Iberain Peninsula


  Spain and Portugal