Glossary Unit 2 (Social Sciences)

The Earth's climate zones.
Temperature:The degree of hotness of a body,substance,or medium.
Oases:A fertile patch in a desert occurring where the water table appoaches o reaches the ground surface
Precipitation:Rain,snow,sleet,dew,etc,formed by condensation of water vapour in the atmosphere.
Settlement:The establishment of a new region;colonization.
Livestock:Cattle,horses,poultry, and similar animals kept for domestic use but not as pets.
Scrub:To rub (a surface) hard,with or as if with a brush,soap,and water, in order to clean it.
Holm Oak Tree:An evergreen Mediterranean oak tree.
Logging:The work of felling,trimming,and transporting timber.
Deforestation:To clear of trees.
Savannah:Open grasslands,usually with scattered bushes or trees,characteristic of much of tropical Africa.
Taiga:The coniferous forests extending across much of subartic North America and Eurasia.
Tundra: A vast treeless zone luing between the ice cap and the timberline of North America and Eurasia and having a permanently frozen subsoil.
Jungle:An equatorial forest area with luxuriant vegetation,often almost impenetrable.
Desert:A region that is devoid or almost devoid of vegetation,because of low rainfall.
Steppe: An expensive grassy plain usually without trees.
Deciduous forest: Shedding all leaves annually at the end of the growing season and then having a dormant period without leaves.
Evergreen forest:Bearing foliage throughout the year;continually shedding and replacing leaves.
Riparian forest: Denoting or relating to the legal rights of the owner of land on a river bank,such as fishing or irrigation.
Meadows: An area of grassland,often used for hay or for grazing of animals.
Grassland:Land,such as a prairie,on which grass predominates.

Natural disasters:

Climate change:Weather modification regarding climate record to a global or regional.
Greenhouse effect:Certain gases retain some of the energy emitted by the planetary surface being heated by solar radiation.
Atmosphere: The gaseous envelope surrounding the earth or any other celestial body.
Drought: A prolonged period of scanty rainfall.
Acid rain:Chemicals on earth falling as rain.
Hurricane: A severe,often destructive storm.
Tornado:Also called: cyclone,twister a violent storm with winds whirling around a small area of extremely low pressure,usually characterized by a dark funnel-shaped cloud causing damage along its path.
Tsunami: A large,often destructive,sea wave produced by a submarine earthquake,subsidence,or volcanic eruption.Sometimes incorrectly called a tidal wave.
Sea levels rising:Increase in temperature of the earth that makes the water of the oceans to expand.
Sandstorm:A strong wind that whips uo clouds of sand.

Flood: The inundation of land that is normally dry through the overflowing of a body of water.