Unit 1
Chapter One
The American Landscape
| coastal plain | a low land that lies along the ocean |
| peninsula | land almost entirely surrounded by water |
| plateau | high, mostly flat land |
| basin | low, bowl-shaped land with higher ground all around it |
|
canyon |
a deep and narrow valley |
| mountain range | a group of connected moutains |
| fertile | rich land |
| groundwater | the water beneath the Earth's surface |
| source | the place where a river begins |
| channel | the deepest part of a river or other body of water |
| mouth | the place where a river empties into some larger body of water |
| tributary | a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or river |
| river system | a river and its tributaries |
| drainage basin | land drained by a river system |
|
erosion |
the wearing away of the
Earth’s surface |
| floodplain | the low, flat land along a river |
|
delta |
the
triangle-shaped land at a river’s mouth; has rich soil |
levee
|
a
high wall made of earth |
|
dam |
a
wall built across a river to hold back water |
|
elevation |
the
height of the land |
| sea level |
land that is level with the surface of the ocean |
| relief | differences in elevation |
| downstream | toward the river’s mouth |
| upstream | toward the river’s source |
| precipitation |
water, as in rain, sleet,
or snow, that falls to the Earth’s surface |
| axis | an imaginary line that runs through the Earth from the North Pole to the South Pole |
| rotation |
a complete turn of the Earth on its
axis from west to east; it takes the Earth one day to make one rotation |
| revolution |
a
complete trip of the Earth around the sun; it takes the Earth one year to make
one revolution |
| humidity |
the amount of moisture in the air |
| product | something that people make or grow usually to sell |
| mineral | a natural substance found in rocks |
| fuel | a natural resource used to make heat or energy |
| human resources | workers and the ideas and skills that they bring to their jobs |
| manufacturing | the making of goods |
| service | an activity that people do for others for pay |
| economy | the way people in a state, region, or a country use resources to meet their needs |
| land use | how most of the land in a place is used |
| adapt | change |
| conservation | protecting our natural resources and using them wisely |
| scarce |
limited |
| pollution | anything that makes a natural resource dirty or unsafe to use |
| recycle |
to use again |