Geography

An aquifer is a permeable body of rock or sediment that stores and transmits groundwater in usable quantities.

Earth’s atmosphere is the gravitationally retained envelope of gases that supports life, produces weather, and regulates exchanges of heat and moisture.

Climate is the long-term statistical character of weather and the interacting Earth systems that shape its patterns, variability, and change.

A climate model is a mathematical representation of the climate system used to investigate its behavior, explain observed changes, and project possible future conditions.

A continent is one of Earth's very large landmasses. Geography defines continents partly by convention, while geology defines them by continental crust.

The cryosphere comprises Earth’s snow, ice, and frozen ground, influencing climate, freshwater availability, sea level, and ecosystems.

A drainage basin is the land area that directs surface water toward a common outlet or an internally drained depression.

Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to support life. It is the densest planet in the Solar System and is mostly covered by liquid water.

Earth’s energy budget describes incoming solar energy, outgoing radiation, internal heat transfers, and energy storage within the climate system.

Erosion is the removal and movement of rock, soil, and sediment by water, wind, ice, and related surface processes.

A partially enclosed coastal water body where freshwater and seawater mix, supporting distinctive habitats and linking river basins with the ocean.

Evapotranspiration is the combined transfer of water to the atmosphere through evaporation from surfaces and transpiration by plants.

A floodplain is low-lying land beside a river, shaped by channel movement and sediment deposition and subject to periodic inundation.

A geographic information system stores, integrates, analyzes, and displays location-referenced data to investigate spatial patterns and relationships.

Geology studies Earth’s materials, structure, processes, and history through evidence preserved in rocks and other geological records.

A glacier is a persistent mass of land-based ice that forms from accumulated snow and flows under its own weight, shaping landscapes and storing freshwater.

Groundwater is water stored and moving within saturated rock and sediment beneath the land surface, supplying wells, sustaining ecosystems, and connecting with surface waters.

The hydrosphere comprises Earth’s water in liquid, solid, and gaseous forms, linking oceans, land, atmosphere, and living organisms.

An ice core is a cylindrical sample of glacier or ice-sheet ice that preserves evidence of past climate, atmospheric composition, and environmental conditions.

A map is a selective representation of spatial relationships, using symbols and geometric conventions to communicate locations, features, and geographic patterns.

A mountain is a landform rising conspicuously above its surroundings, shaped by geological processes and influencing climate, water supplies, ecosystems, and human activity.

The ocean is the continuous body of salt water covering about 71% of Earth's surface. It holds most of the planet's water and shapes its climate and life.

Paleoclimatology reconstructs past climates from natural archives and historical evidence to investigate climatic variability, mechanisms, and long-term change.

Plate tectonics explains how moving lithospheric plates reshape Earth through seafloor spreading, subduction, continental collision, and faulting.

A river is a natural flowing watercourse that drains a landscape, transports sediment, shapes landforms, and supports ecosystems and human activities.

River discharge is the volume of water passing through a river cross-section per unit time, varying with watershed conditions and human activities.

Sea level rise is the long-term increase in ocean surface height, driven chiefly by ocean warming and the loss of land ice.

Stockholm is Sweden’s capital and largest city, an island-spanning centre of government, commerce, research, and culture.

Surface runoff is water flowing over land toward channels or depressions, linking precipitation, drainage, erosion, and pollutant transport.

The water cycle is the continuous movement and storage of water within and between Earth’s atmosphere, surface, subsurface, and living organisms.

Weather is the state of the atmosphere at a particular place and time, described by temperature, wind, moisture, clouds, and precipitation.

The Yangtze is the longest river in China and Asia, flowing east from the Tibetan Plateau to the East China Sea and forming a major water system and economic corridor.

The Yellow River is China’s second-longest river, distinguished by its sediment-rich waters, shifting lower course, and importance to Chinese history and northern China’s water supply.