Physical geography

• Hydrosphere

  water on the planet
• biosphere


  organic components which are living on earth
• lithosphere


  earths surface and processes on it
• cryosphere


  ice water in its solid form such as ice caps and ice sheets
• pedosphere


  soil based information system
• Feedback


  something in a system changes this will encourage a response in the other component
• Albedo


  the proportion of solar radiation that is reflected by a surface
• Glaciers


  long term changes as winter snowfall will keep building on it as its a huge body of ice it will take lots of energy to melt
• lakes


  if it is hotter the more evaporation, it changes as it depends on the climate
• groundwater deep


  long term changes as it goes further down into the ground so infiltrates further
• spatially


  place to place
• atmosphere


  the gaseous envelope of air that surrounds the earth
• ITCZ


  Intertropical Convergence Zone- trade winds meet to low pressure zone, intense heating of the ground, evaporation and transpiration, air cools and reaches dew point, condensation and cumuloisimbus clouds , heavy convectional rainfall
• discharge


  volume of water in the river (cumecs)
• carbon budget


  data to describe the amount of carbon that is stores and transferred within the carbon cycle.
• carbon sink


  anything that absorbs more carbon from the atmosphere than it releases
• carbon source


  anything that releases more carbon from the atmosphere than it absorbs.
• Combustion


  organic material burned with oxygen to give off carbon dioxide, water and energy
• Land use change


  land use change (deforestation) accounts of 30% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions
• volcanic activity


  can be countered acted by sulphur dioxide and does not contribute to global warming
• Hazard


  threat of substantial loss to life or impact upon life or property
• Disaster


  a disaster occurs as a result of a hazard
• Atmospheric


  driven by processes at work in the atmosphere
• Geophysical


  driven by earths own internal energy sources
• hydrological


  driven by water bodies mainly the ocean
• Primary impacts


  those which occur immediately as a result of the disaster itself
• Secondary impacts


  occur hours and days after the initial disaster eg. disease and tsunamis
• Deforestation


  mostly driven by agriculture and logging. Released an estimated 98.7 GtC of carbon dioxide emissions a year
• Urbanisation


  by 2030 60% of the population will live in big cities and urban areas and 1.3 million people move to cities to live there every week.
• Cement production


  carbon dioxide emitted in the cement required for all the buildings and infrastructure to increase and progress
• Hazard management cycle

  
• the theory of continental drift

  1. fossil correlation 2. the apparent fit of the continents 3. past climate data 4. paleo climate data
• Paleomagnetism


  magnetism in rocks that was induced by the earths magnetic field at the time of their formation
• Divergent plates


  ocean- sea floor spreading continental- rift valleys
• Convergent plates


  oceanic to oceanic, continental to continental, continental to oceanic
• Relic glacial environment


  glaciers were there in the past but not today
• active glacial zones

  areas today where glaciers and ice caps are present
• periglacial areas


  those next to glacial areas but they are not permanently ice covered
• permafrost


  ground that has been frozen for at least two consecuative years
• ice sheets


  larger then 50,000km