Year 9: Vocabulary List Unit 1 Australia - A Unique Continent

Geography Vocabulary: Australia - A Unique Continent

batholith - a large body of intrusive igneous rock believed to have crystallizedat a considerable depth below the earth's surface

Catchment - the act of catching water.

Dreamtime
epicormic - a shoot growing from an epicormic bud from underneath the bark of a stem or branch of a plant.

Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) - an area along a country's coastline to which acountry claims exclusive rights for economicactivities

geomorphologist - the study of the characteristics, origin, and development oflandforms.

hemisphere - half of the terrestrial globe orcelestial sphere

isobar - a line drawn on a weather map or chart thatconnects points at which the barometric pressure is thesame.

latitude - the angular distance between an imaginary line around a heavenly body parallel to its equator and the equator itself

lignotubers -  starchy swelling of the root crown possessed by some plants as a protection against destruction of the plant stem by fire.

longitude - angular distance east or west on the earth'ssurface, measured by the angle contained between themeridian of a particular place and some prime meridian

lunette - any of various objects or spaces of crescentlike orsemicircular outline or section.

mallee - any of various dwarf Australian eucalyptuses,that sometimes form large tracts of brushwood.

metamorphic - A rock that has been changed from its original form by subjection to heat and/or pressure

sclerophyll - a woody plant with small leathery evergreen leaves that is thedominant plant form in certain hot dry areas

sedimentary - A form of rock made by the deposition and compression of small particles

tectonic forces - Forces pertaining to, causing or resulting from structural deformation of the earth's crust.

watershed - the region or area drained by a river, stream, etc

xerophyte - a plant adapted for growth under dry conditions

1.2
population density - is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans.

1.4
continental drift - the gradual movement and formation of continents

convection currents - Heat deep inside the Earth that drives the movement of the Earth's plates nearer the surface

glaciation - the condition of being covered with glaciers or masses of ice

1.5
Central Lowlands - a geologically defined area of relatively low-lying land in southern Scotland

Eastern Highlands  - a mountain range running along the eastern coast of Australia

Western Plateau - is Australia's largest drainage division and is composed predominantly of the remains of the ancient rock shield of Gondwanaland

1.6
El Nino -  a warm ocean current that flows along the equator from the date line and south off the coast of Ecuador at Christmas time

La Nina - a climate pattern that occurs across the tropical Pacific Ocean on average every five years

euclypts - woody plants belonging to three closely related genera: Eucalyptus, Corymbia and Angophora

1.7
biodiversity - the diversity of plant and animal life in a particular habitat

fauna - all the animal life in a particular region or period

flora - all the plant life in a particular region or period
montoremes

1.8
cresent-shaped dunes - a dence where it is generally wider than longer

diprotodon -  largest known marsupial that ever lived

megafauna - The large animals of a given region or time, considered as a group

thylacine - rare doglike carnivorous marsupial of Tasmania having stripes on its back

1.9
epheremals - Plants that emerge and bloom during one season, then die back for the remainder of the year

epicormic - An epicormic shoot is a shoot growing from an epicormic bud from underneath the bark of a stem or branch of a plant. 

transpiration - the emission of water vapor from the leaves of plants

1.10
acidification - the process of becoming acid or being converted into an acid

aquaculture - rearing aquatic animals or cultivating aquatic plants for food

non-renewable -  a natural resource which cannot be produced, re-grown, regenerated, or reused on a scale which can sustain its consumption rate

salinity - The amount of dissolved salt in the water

silviculture - the branch of forestry dealing with the development and care of forests

sustainable - capacity to endure. In ecology the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time

World Heritage  -  the list that is maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee