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absolute relief
The maximum elevation of a particular area above sea level. Contrast relative relief.
Alliance of Small Island States
(AOSIS)A coalition of small, low‐lying island countries formed during the Second World Climate Conference in 1990 that includes 35 states from the Atlantic, Caribbean, Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, ...
Antarctic Convergence
A line of convergence in the ocean surrounding Antarctica between latitudes 50° S and 60° S, where cold surface water from Antarctica (Antarctic Surface Water) sinks below warmer, less saline water ...
Antarctic Ice Sheet
The Antarctic ice sheet is the world's largest ice mass, with an area of 13.83 million square kilometers; it constitutes 90 percent of the total volume of ice and 70 ...
anthropogeomorphology
The study of those land-forms and processes that are a direct result of human activity, including accelerated erosion, channelized river channels (i.e. rivers made to flow along fixed, sometimes ...
atoll
Ring-shaped organic reef that encloses or almost encloses a lagoon, and which is surrounded by the open sea. The reef may be built of coral and/or calcareous algae. An atoll is built on an existing ...
base level
A theoretical plane surface underlying a land mass, denoting the depth below which erosion would be unable to occur. Sea level provides a base level on a regional scale. Local base levels may be ...
biosphere
The whole of the region of the earth's surface, the sea, and the air that is inhabited by living organisms.
climate change
The change in world climate patterns over time. Such change has always occurred, both on a large scale since the formation of the earth and on a smaller scale within the span of human history. For ...
Climate Impacts
The accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to fossil fuel combustion, land use change, and other anthropogenic activities may have begun to change the global climate system (Houghton ...
coastal Navigation
The difference between coastal navigation and pilotage is narrow, but a general definition of the former would be the safe conduct of a ship where the navigator has the land on one side of his course ...
Coastal Protection and Management
It has been claimed that 50 percent of the population in the industrialized world lives within 1 kilometer of the coast, and that roughly 75 percent of the world's population ...
coral reef
An offshore ridge, mainly of calcium carbonate, formed by the secretions of small marine animals. Corals flourish in shallow waters over 21 °C and need abundant sunlight, so the water must be mud ...
cryosphere
That part of the Earth where the surface is frozen, comprising the area covered by ice sheets and glaciers, permafrost regions, and sea areas covered by ice, at least in winter.
eddy
Motion of a fluid in directions differing from, and at some points contrary to, the direction of the larger-scale current. In air, eddies vary in size from small-scale turbulence (which can transport ...
environmental crisis
A term that is used to describe the sum of the environmental problems that we face today. Key contemporary environmental problems include the greenhouse effect and global warming, the hole in the ...
eustasy
The world-wide changing of sea level caused either by tectonic movements, or by the growth or decay of glaciers (glacio-eustasy, or glacio-eustastism).
