Key Terms in Geography: A Glossary
A.
- Abrasion: Erosion caused by the rubbing action of rock fragments carried by rivers, glaciers, etc.
- Arête: A narrow, knife-edged ridge caused by glacial erosion.
- Attrition: Material is moved along the bed of the river, collides with other material, and breaks up into smaller pieces.
B.
- Bar: A barrier of sand stretching across a sheltered bay.
- Backswash: When water returns down the beach to the sea.
C.
- Climate: The average weather conditions of a place over many years.
- Condensation: Gas changes back into water.
- Confluence: The place where a tributary joins the main river.
- Corrasion: Fine material rubs against the river bank.
- Corrie: A rounded hollow caused by glacial erosion.
- Corrosion: Some rocks forming the banks and bed of a river are dissolved by acid in the water.
D.
- Delta: An area of silt deposited by a river where it enters the sea or a lake.
- Depression: An area of low pressure.
- Destructive margin: A boundary between two plates.
- Drainage basin (river basin): The area of land drained by a river and its tributaries.
E.
- Embankment: A raised river bank built to prevent or reduce flooding.
- Erosion: The wearing away of the land.
- Evaporation: The transfer of water from the sea to the Earth as water vapor.
F.
- Flood: The flow of water over an area that is usually dry.
- Flood plain: The wide, flat area at the bottom of a valley which is often flooded.
- Freeze-thaw: Rock is broken up due to water in cracks freezing and thawing.
G.
- Glacial trough: A valley with steep sides, a flat floor, and a U-shaped cross-section carved by a glacier.
- Glacier: A slow-moving mass of ice flowing down a valley.
- Groundwater: Water stored underground in permeable rocks.
- Groyne: A barrier built out into the sea to slow the movement of material along the beach.
H.
- Hydraulic action: The sheer force of water hitting the banks of the river.
- Hydrological cycle: The continuous transfer of water from the oceans into the atmosphere.
I.
- Impermeable: A rock or soil that doesn’t let water pass.
L.
- Levée: An artificial embankment built to prevent flooding.
- Longshore drift: The movement of material along a coast by breaking waves.
M.
- Meander: The winding course of a river.
- Moraine: Material that is transported and later deposited by a glacier.
P.
- Plucking: When ice freezes and sticks to the rock.
- Precipitation: Water falls to Earth either as a liquid or as a solid.
R.
- Runoff: Most water returns to the sea in the form of rivers.
S.
- Saltation: Small particles bounced along the bed in a ‘leap-frog’ motion.
- Suspension: Fine material carried by the river that discolors the water.
- Swash: The movement of material up a beach after a wave breaks.
- Silt: Fine soil left behind after a river floods.
T.
- Terminal moraine: Marks the furthest or maximum point that a glacier reached.
- Traction: Large rocks and boulders are rolled along the bed of the river.
- Transpiration: The transfer of water from plants to the air as water vapor.
- Tributary: A small river that flows into a large river.
W.
- Water cycle: The continuous transfer of water from the oceans into the atmosphere, then onto the land, and finally back into the oceans.
- Watershed: The boundary separating two river basins.