Essential Glossary of Geographic and Atmospheric Terms
Temperature Range
The temperature range is the difference between the highest and the lowest temperatures in a place or area during a certain period.
Anticyclone
An anticyclone is a high-pressure air zone, where the atmospheric pressure (corrected to sea level) is higher than the surrounding air.
Aridity
Aridity is drought, a lack of moisture.
Bay
A bay is an entry in a sea, ocean, or lake, surrounded by land except for an opening, usually wider than the rest of the inland penetration.
Barlovento
Barlovento is a term indicating the ocean opposite direction to that followed by prevailing winds.
Storm
A storm is a region where the atmospheric pressure is lower than the surrounding air.
Littoral Breezes
Littoral breezes are pleasant cool winds that blow alternately from the coast during the day, and from the earth during the night.
Caudal
Caudal is how much water passing a given point is measured in liters/second.
Flow Environment
Flow environment is the average of the monthly mean flows.
Flooding
Flooding is an increased flow of a stream of water.
Sedimentary Basin
A sedimentary basin is a significant accumulation of sediment caused by erosion of the Earth’s surface.
Estiage
Estiage is the minimum flow level a river or lake reaches at certain times of year, mainly due to drought.
Equinox
An equinox is the time of year when the days have a duration equal to that of the nights in all locations on land, except at the poles.
Scale
Scale is the relationship between the linear graph distance between two points on the map and the linear distance between those points on the Earth’s surface.
Geological Fault
A geological fault is a discontinuity that is formed by fracture in the rock surface of the earth when forces exceed the strength of the rocks.
Polar Front
The polar front is the line of contact between the polar air mass and the tropical air mass.
Globalization
Globalization is a theory whose purpose is the interpretation of the events currently taking place in the fields of development, economy, social settings, and cultural and political influences.
Humidity
Humidity is the amount of existing water vapor in the air.
Isobar
An isobar is a line on a map connecting points in the atmosphere that have the same atmospheric pressure.
Isotherm
An isotherm is a curve joining the points on a plane map, which show the same temperature in the unit of time.
Isohyet
An isohyet is a line on a map connecting points having the same rainfall rate during a specified period.
Glacial Lake
A glacial lake is a lake occupying a depression as a result of erosion by a glacier.
Length
Length is the distance between two points.
Stochastic Morphology
Stochastic morphology, also called karst morphology, is a peculiar topography feature of areas with hard and rigid limestone rock that is fractured, forming cracks or joints, but is easily dissolved in rainwater enriched with CO2, particularly through their joints.
Precipitation
Precipitation is water from the atmosphere that is deposited on the Earth. It can occur in liquid or solid form (rain, hail, snow, or mist). It is measured in millimeters (mm) by a gauge.
Atmospheric Pressure
Atmospheric pressure is the force exerted by the weight of the air on the Earth’s surface.
Rainfall Regime
Rainfall regime refers to the rains that fall in a given area or country.
Thermal Regime
Thermal regime is the rate of temperature change over a period of time.
Hercynian Relief
Hercynian relief is a relief formed from the Hercynian orogeny. The Hercynian folding occurred in the late Paleozoic and folded the material deposited in the deep sea that covered much of the future Peninsula, forming the core of the plateau.
Estuary
An estuary is a geomorphological accident that designates one of the ways a river mouth can adopt when a coastal valley is submerged under sea level elevation.
North
North refers to everything about the geographic north.
Solstice
A solstice is the time of the year in which the Sun reaches its maximum southern or northern position, i.e., a high northern declination (+23° 27′) and maximum south declination (-23° 27′) with respect to land Ecuador.
Leeward
Leeward refers to a mountainous slope which, due to its orientation to prevailing wind, is exposed to a downward flow of wind. As the air descends, it heats and dries, so that no precipitation occurs, except in the vicinity of the summit. Regions lying under the shelter of the leeward sides have a dry climate, as is the case of the SE peninsula, sheltered by the leeward slopes of the Betic Cordilleras.
Hydrographic Network
A hydrographic network is a system of linear movement, hierarchical and structured, to ensure the drainage basin, specifically a watershed.
Flow Regime
Flow regime is the behavior of the average water flow in a river that leads each month throughout the year.
Meander
A meander is a curve traced by the course of a river whose sinuosity is pronounced.
Shipping
Shipping refers to hydraulic works whose purpose is to increase the availability of water in a nearby watershed.
Head of a River
The head of a river is the origin of a river.
Flow
Flow is the amount of water that carries a stream or flows from a spring or source.
Continentality
Continentality is a climate factor due to a greater or lesser distance from the sea and the influence of land masses. Remote regions of the sea have very marked temperature fluctuations because of the rapid heating and cooling of solid masses as opposed to liquid mass, where these processes are slower.
Mouth
The mouth is the place through which a stream flows into the sea in a channel in a river or lake.
Humidity
Humidity is the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere.
Insolation
Insolation is the amount of energy as solar radiation reaching the earth at a place on a particular day (sunshine day) or one year (annual insolation).
Trade Winds
Trade winds are regular winds that blow from the NE or SE, depending on the hemisphere, from the subtropical high pressure towards the low pressure of Ecuador.