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Acid rain, also called acid precipitation or acid deposition, precipitation possessing a pH of about 5.2 or below primarily produced from the emission of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and nitrogen oxides (NOx; the combination of NO and NO₂) from human activities, mostly the combustion of fossil fuels. In acid-sensitive landscapes, acid deposition can reduce the pH of surface waters and lower biodiversity. It weakens trees and increases their susceptibility to damage from other stressors, such as drought, extreme cold, and pests. In acid-sensitive areas, acid rain also depletes soil of important plant nutrients and buffers, such as calcium and magnesium, and can release aluminum, bound to soil particles and rock, in its toxic dissolved form. Acid rain contributes to the corrosion of surfaces exposed to air pollution and is responsible for the deterioration of limestone and marble buildings and monuments.

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Geophysical fluid dynamics, in its broadest meaning, refers to the fluid dynamics of naturally occurring flows, such as lava flows, oceans, and planetary atmospheres, on Earth and other planets. Two physical features that are common to many of the phenomena studied in geophysical fluid dynamics are rotation of the fluid due to the planetary rotation and stratification. The applications of geophysical fluid dynamics do not generally include the circulation of the mantle, which is the subject of geodynamics, or fluid phenomena in the magnetosphere. To describe the flow of geophysical fluids, equations are needed for conservation of momentum and conservation of energy. The former leads to the Navier–Stokes equations. Further approximations are generally made. First, the fluid is assumed to be incompressible. Remarkably, this works well even for a highly compressible fluid like air as long as sound and shock waves can be ignored.

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Marine biology is the scientific study of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather than on taxonomy. A large proportion of all life on Earth lives in the ocean. The exact size of this large proportion is unknown, since many ocean species are still to be discovered. The ocean is a complex three-dimensional world covering approximately 71% of the Earth’s surface. The habitats studied in marine biology include everything from the tiny layers of surface water in which organisms and abiotic items may be trapped in surface tension between the ocean and atmosphere, to the depths of the oceanic trenches, sometimes 10,000 meters or more beneath the surface of the ocean. Specific habitats include coral reefs, kelp forests, seagrass meadows, the surrounds of seamounts and thermal vents, tidepools, muddy, sandy and rocky bottoms, and the open ocean zone, where solid objects are rare and the surface of the water is the only visible boundary.

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Industrial ecology, Discipline that traces the flow of energy and materials from their natural resources through manufacture, the use of products, and their final recycling or disposal. Research in industrial ecology began in the early 1990s. Life-cycle analysis traces the flow of materials; design for the environment works to minimize energy use, pollution, and waste. Industrial ecologists aim to create industries in which every waste is a raw material for another product.

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Hydraulic mining, use of a powerful jet of water to dislodge minerals present in unconsolidated material, including mine tailings, placer deposits, alluvium, laterites, and saprolites. It has also been applied to consolidated materials from sandstones through coal to hard rock. Hydraulic mining encompasses hydraulicking, sluicing, and educing. Hydraulicking is the process of breaking up material and suspending it in a slurry. This is often done by using a large water cannon called a giant or monitor. The process of moving the slurry is called sluicing. Educing is the process of introducing the slurry into an enclosed circuit. In the hydraulic mining of gold the rebounding stream of water and mineral fragments is directed into sluices in which the gold settles behind baffles but the lighter waste matter is washed away. In hydraulic mining of coal the water simply breaks the coal from the seam and washes it to a collecting point.

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Metamorphic rock, any of a class of rocks that result from the alteration of pre-existing rocks in response to changing environmental conditions, such as variations in temperature, pressure, and mechanical stress, and the addition or subtraction of chemical components. The preexisting rocks may be igneous, sedimentary, or other metamorphic rocks. Metamorphism comprises changes both in mineralogy and in the fabric of the original rock. In general, these alterations are brought about either by the intrusion of hot magma into cooler surrounding rocks or by large-scale tectonic movements of Earth’s lithospheric plates that alter the pressure-temperature conditions of the rocks. Minerals within the original rock, or protolith, respond to the changing conditions by reacting with one another to produce a new mineral assemblage that is thermodynamically stable under the new pressure-temperature conditions. These reactions occur in the solid state but may be facilitated by the presence of a fluid phase lining the grain boundaries of the minerals. In contrast to the formation of igneous rocks, metamorphic rocks do not crystallize from a silicate melt, although high-temperature metamorphism can lead to partial melting of the host rock. Because metamorphism represents a response to changing physical conditions, those regions of Earth’s surface where dynamic processes are most active will also be regions where metamorphic processes are most intense and easily observed. The vast region of the Pacific margin, for example, with its seismic and volcanic activity, is also an area in which materials are being buried and metamorphosed intensely. In general, the margins of continents and regions of mountain building are the regions where metamorphic processes proceed with intensity. But in relatively quiet places, where sediments accumulate at slow rates, less spectacular changes also occur in response to changes in pressure and temperature conditions. Metamorphic rocks are therefore distributed throughout the geologic column.

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Lithosphere, Rigid, rocky outer layer of the Earth, consisting of the crust and the solid outermost layer of the upper mantle. It extends to a depth of about 60 mi. It is broken into about a dozen separate, rigid blocks, or plates. Slow convection currents deep within the mantle, generated by radioactive heating of the interior, are believed to cause the lateral movements of the plates and the continents that rest on top of them at a rate of several inches per year.

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Asthenosphere, zone of Earth’s mantle lying beneath the lithosphere and believed to be much hotter and more fluid than the lithosphere. The asthenosphere extends from about 100 km to about 700 km below Earth’s surface. Heat from deep within Earth is thought to keep the asthenosphere malleable, lubricating the undersides of Earth’s tectonic plates and allowing them to move. Convection currents generated within the asthenosphere push magma upward through volcanic vents and spreading centres to create new crust. Convection currents also stress the lithosphere above, and the cracking that often results manifests as earthquakes. According to the theory of plate tectonics, the asthenosphere is the repository for older and denser parts of the lithosphere that are dragged downward in subduction zones.

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Plate tectonics, theory dealing with the dynamics of Earth’s outer shell the lithosphere that revolutionized Earth sciences by providing a uniform context for understanding mountain-building processes, volcanoes, and earthquakes as well as the evolution of Earth’s surface and reconstructing its past continents and oceans. According to the theory, Earth has a rigid outer layer, known as the lithosphere, which is typically about 100 km thick and overlies a plastic layer called the asthenosphere. The lithosphere is broken up into seven very large continental- and ocean-sized plates, six or seven medium-sized regional plates, and several small ones. These plates move relative to each other, typically at rates of 5 to 10 cm per year, and interact along their boundaries, where they converge, diverge, or slip past one another. Such interactions are thought to be responsible for most of Earth’s seismic and volcanic activity, although earthquakes and volcanoes can occur in plate interiors. Plate motions cause mountains to raise where plates push together, or converge, and continents to fracture and oceans to form where plates pull apart, or diverge. The continents are embedded in the plates and drift passively with them, which over millions of years results in significant changes in Earth’s geography. The theory of plate tectonics is based on a broad synthesis of geologic and geophysical data. It is now almost universally accepted, and its adoption represents a true scientific revolution, analogous in its consequences to quantum mechanics in physics or the discovery of the genetic code in biology. Incorporating the much older idea of continental drift, as well as the concept of seafloor spreading, the theory of plate tectonics has provided an overarching framework in which to describe the past geography of continents and oceans, the processes controlling creation and destruction of landforms, and the evolution of Earth’s crust, atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and climates.

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Topography is the study of the shape and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area could refer to the surface shapes and features themselves, or a description. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary science and is concerned with local detail in general, including not only relief but also natural and artificial features, and even local history and culture. Where topographic maps with elevation contours have made topography synonymous with relief. Topography in a narrow sense involves the recording of relief or terrain, the three-dimensional quality of the surface, and the identification of specific landforms. This is also known as geomorphometry. In modern usage, this involves generation of elevation data in digital form. It is often considered to include the graphic representation of the landform on a map by a variety of techniques, including contour lines, hypsometric tints, and relief shading.

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