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Quiz Monkey |
Science |
Earth Sciences |
Numbers |
Types of Rock |
Layers of the Atmosphere |
Named Winds |
The Beaufort Scale |
Sea Areas |
Climate Treaties |
Other |
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This page covers everything about the earth and its history. It includes geology and meteorology (but see also Minerals).
Notice that the latitudes of the tropic and the polar circles (in each hemisphere) add up to 90°.
The following definitions are those used by the UK Meteorological Office, which describes the Beaufort scale as "an empirical measure for describing wind intensity based on observed sea conditions".
Rather oddly, given this information, the Met Office also gives a scale of "seastates", which does not exactly correspond to the wind forces.
The most important thing for quizzers is to be able to relate the wind force numbers to their descriptions. Other information in the table below may come up occasionally, but I include it here mainly as background information.
The wave heights are maximums (or maxima, if you prefer), in metres.
"The Shipping Forecast, issued by the Meteorological Office" is a familiar and much–loved friend to many listeners of the BBC's Radio 4 – of whom I am one.
Some aspects of the Shipping Forecast – essentially those that refer to the broadcast rather than the weather, including the full list of areas in the order that they're read out – are covered on my Radio page.
Areas around the British coast: Cromarty, Forth, Tyne, Humber, Thames, Dover, Wight, Portland, Plymouth, Lundy, Irish Sea, Malin, Hebrides, Fair Isle |
Similarly for Ireland: Lundy, Fastnet, Shannon, Rockall, Malin, Irish Sea |
There's more information, including an interactive map (check out the red areas for gale warnings) here on the Met Office's web site.
Shapes that indicate a warm front, on a weather map |
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Semi–circles |
Shapes that indicate a cold front, on a weather map |
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Triangles |
Caused by the reaction of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide with water molecules in the atmosphere |
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Acid rain | |
Area of high atmospheric pressure |
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Anticyclone | |
The Greenwich Meridian crosses the Equator in (i.e. 0° latitude & 0° longitude) |
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(South) Atlantic Ocean (south of Ghana) | |
Scientific name for the Northern Lights |
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Aurora borealis | |
Scientific name for the Southern Lights |
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Aurora australis | |
Libyan city, where the highest ever temperature in the shade – 134°C – was recorded in 1922 |
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El Aziza (Al Aziziyah) | |
Those parts of the Earth and its atmosphere that are able to support life |
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Biosphere | |
Enlarged shadow seen against cloud when the sun is low – named after the highest of the Harz Mountains in northern Germany where it is frequently seen |
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Brocken spectre (or bow) | |
Chalk and limestone consist essentially of (chemical compound) |
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Calcium carbonate | |
The highest type of cloud – name is from Latin for a lock of hair – colloquially known as "mare's tails" |
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Cirrus | |
Measured in oktas (an okta is one eighth of the sky) |
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Cloud cover | |
Lignite, bituminous and anthracite are the three types of |
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Coal | |
Rock fragment between 65mm and 256mm diameter (i.e. larger than a pebble but smaller than a boulder) |
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Cobble | |
The effect of the earth's rotation on winds, currents, and other objects on the surface; also a cause of the earth's magnetic field |
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Coriolis effect | |
Cloud type normally associated with thunderstorms |
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Cumulonimbus | |
An area of low atmospheric pressure; also the name used for a hurricane in the Indian and South Pacific oceans (cf. Typhoon) |
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Cyclone | |
Early June to mid–August: the period when Sirius rises with the Sun, characterised by hot, stifling weather; known since Roman times as the |
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Dog Days | |
Name given by sailors to the belt of low pressure around the Equator – characterised by light winds and calms, but occasional sudden storms – caused by the meeting of trade winds |
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The Doldrums | |
Tectonic plate (see Sets) on which Great Britain is situated |
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Eurasian | |
Calm centre of a hurricane |
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Eye | |
Group of minerals said to make up 60% of the Earth's crust |
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Feldspars | |
Theory that the earth adapts itself in order to survive, in the same was as a living organism – formulated in the 1960s by the English independent research scientist James Lovelock, and named after the Greek supreme goddess of Earth |
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Gaia Hypothesis | |
Mica, feldspar, quartz: varieties of |
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Granite | |
The best–known result of thermohaline circulation |
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Gulf Stream (or North Atlantic Drift) | |
Campbell–Stokes Recorder measures |
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Hours of sunshine | |
Cold Northerly current on the Pacific coast of Chile and Peru |
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Humboldt Current | |
Amount of water vapour in the atmosphere |
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Humidity | |
Oceans, lakes, atmospheric water vapour, etc.: generic name |
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Hydrosphere | |
Milankovitch Hypothesis is concerned with |
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Ice age(s?) | |
Jack o'Lantern, Will o'the Wisp (mysterious lights that appear at dusk or twilight, especially over marshy or boggy ground): scientific name |
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Ignis fatuus | |
The plasma in the earth's atmosphere (mesosphere and thermosphere) which affects radio propagation and thus reflects radio waves back to earth |
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Ionosphere | |
The most abundant element in the planet Earth (34% by weight); makes up 80% of the core |
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Iron | |
Lines of equal pressure |
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Isobars | |
Lines of equal depth (of water) |
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Isobaths | |
Lines of equal sunshine hours |
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Isohels | |
Lines of equal rainfall |
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Isohyets | |
Lines of equal depth of cloud cover |
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Isonephs | |
Lines of equal temperature |
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Isotherms | |
Coldest month of the year in Britain |
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January | |
Warmest month of the year in Britain |
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July | |
High–velocity winds at altitudes of 30,000 to 50,000 feet (6 to 10 miles) |
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Jetstream | |
Layer in the ionosphere, altitude about 56 to 90 miles, that deflect radio waves and thus makes round–the–world transmissions possible; named after the US and British physicists who independently predicted its existence in 1902; detected 1924 by Sir Edward Appleton; now called the E region |
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Kennelly–Heaviside layer | |
Ribbon, rocket, streak and sheet are types of |
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Lightning Lightning | |
A fulgurite is an irregular, branching, often foamy hollow tube of silica glass, formed by the melting of quartz sand at very high temperatures, as a result of | |||
Crust and solid outermost layer of mantle (down to approx 100km) |
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Lithosphere | |
The volume of space surrounding a planet, controlled by the planet's magnetic field |
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Magnetosphere | |
Semi–molten (plastic) layer between the outer core and the crust |
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Mantle | |
Boundary between the Mesosphere and the Thermosphere (altitude about 50 miles) |
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Mesopause | |
Tunguska, Siberia, 1908 |
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Meteorite | |
Ambitious American attempt (1961) to drill through the Earth's crust into the Mohorovičić discontinuity, providing an Earth Science complement to the Space Race – from Guadalupe Island, off Baja California (Mexico – note: not Guadaloupe) |
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Project Mohole | |
The boundary between the crust and the mantle, marked by a rapid increase in the speed of earthquake waves |
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Mohorovičić (Moho) Discontinuity | |
Magma |
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Molten rock | |
Average length of one minute of arc on a great circle |
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Nautical mile | |
Tides with the least variation (highest low waters, lowest high waters) – occurring when the influences of the sun and moon are in opposition to one another |
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Neap | |
Second most abundant element in the earth's core (80% of which is iron) |
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Nickel | |
Rain cloud (from the Latin for a cloud or rainstorm) |
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Nimbus | |
Popular name for the Southern Oscillation, a warm Pacific current periodically (average once every 5 years) causing unpredictable worldwide weather conditions |
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El Niño (La Niña) |
78% of the Earth's atmosphere is |
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Nitrogen | |
Amphidromic points (there are three in the North Sea) |
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No rise and fall in tides | |
Points on the Earth's surface where all lines of longitude meet |
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North and South Poles | |
Formed when a cold front overtakes a warm front; represented on a map by alternating semicircles (representing the warm front) and triangles (cold front) |
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Occluded front | |
Abyssal, Bathyl, Hadal: zones of |
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Ocean depth | |
21% of Earth's atmosphere (most of the 22% that isn't nitrogen) is |
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Oxygen | |
Second only to iron in the earth itself, by weight (28%) | |||
The part of the stratosphere that absorbs ultra–violet rays |
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Ozone layer | |
Soil that's been below 0°C for two years or more |
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Permafrost | |
Nival zone (on a mountain) |
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Permanent snow cover | |
Rain, snow, hail etc.: generic name, to meteorologists |
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Precipitation | |
Term used in cartography for an attempt to reproduce the three–dimensional surface of the earth in two dimensions |
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Projection | |
You would find (in ascending order) an understory layer, a canopy layer and an emergent layer in a |
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Rainforest | |
Second most abundant material in the Earth's crust, after feldspar |
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Quartz | |
Hyet– (e.g. isohyet, hyetograph) |
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Rainfall | |
'Haboob' is a name (originating in Sudan) for a |
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Sand storm (or dust storm) | |
The word 'eustatic' refers to worldwide changes in |
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Sea level | |
The main constituent of the rock that forms the earth's mantle and crust (various compounds, of silicon, oxygen, one or more metals, and sometimes hydrogen) |
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Silicates | |
The second most abundant element in the Earth's crust (27% – oxygen 49%) |
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Silicon | |
Prevailing wind direction in the British Isles |
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South–West | |
Luminous electrical discharge from lightning conductors, ships' masts etc. in a thunderstorm |
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St. Elmo's Fire | |
Tectonics: the movement of one plate sliding under another |
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Subduction | |
The ocean or sea that was formed when Pangaea split to form Laurasia and Gondwanaland – named after the wife of the sea god Oceanus, in Greek mythology |
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Tethys (Sea or Ocean) | |
Imaginary lines linking the furthest points from the Equator where the Sun can be directly overhead (at midday) |
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Tropics | |
An exceptionally large wave, typically following an earthquake or a volcanic eruption on or below the ocean bed (from a Japanese word meaning 'harbour wave') |
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Tsunami | |
Boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere – where temperature starts to increase with height, instead of decreasing |
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Tropopause | |
The name used for a hurricane in the North Pacific (cf. Cyclone) |
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Typhoon | |
Two belts of charged particles, held in place by the Earth's magnetic field, above the magnetosphere – confirmed in 1958 by the Explorer I and III space missions – named after the US space scientist who suggested that Geiger counters should be taken on those missions |
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Van Allen belts | |
Aphotic zone (lakes and oceans) |
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Very deep (no light) |
© Haydn Thompson 2018