Earth's Features

Video Transcription

Hi. I'm Jensen Morgan. We're going to talk about some great concepts in environmental science. Today's topic is Earth's features. So let's get started.

We're going to talk about how our Earth is comprised of three main parts, land, water, and atmosphere. We'll also talk about our key term for today, biome. Biomes are areas of the Earth with similar climatic conditions, plant life, and animal life.

Land is made up of seven major unbroken landmass surround by water called continents. They're named Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, North America, South America, and Antarctica. Across these seven main landmasses, there are different regions with various ranges of temperature and precipitation. These different regions have been categorized into eight major biomes, which are largely determined by those two factors. They include tundra, taiga, temperate forests, tropical rainforest, temperate grassland, savanna, steppes, and desert.

Oceans are the largest bodies of water in the world, holding 97% of it. All of it saltwater. There are four major oceans, the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean. The Earth's oceans regulate our atmosphere by absorbing and storing the sun's energy. The remaining 3% of water on Earth is freshwater, which is held in ice caps frozen at the arctic and antarctic poles, glaciers, which is snow that has been compressed into ice on mountains and ice caps, and in rivers, streams, and lakes on land, as well as groundwater that has collected on land under its surface.

Our atmosphere is made up of five layers, the troposphere, the stratosphere, the mesosphere, the thermosphere, and the exosphere. Each layer is made up of a different combination of gases. The lowest layer, the troposphere is the layer we breathe. The stratosphere contains our ozone layer, which protects the Earth from receiving too much UV radiation that would cause health problems and damage vegetation.

Weather includes precipitation or rain, snow, sleet, as well as wind and temperature. Climate is the weather that an area receives over many years. Climate is determined by many factors, one of which is the region's physical features.

An important factor to remember is that as elevation increases, temperatures drop. For example, you might travel to the rainforest near a mountain range. In the lowlands, temperatures will be high. But if you were to climb a nearby mountain that was tall enough, there would be snow and temperatures would drop.

Another factor to remember is that the farther one gets from the equator, the colder it generally is. Let's talk about a few examples in relation to Africa.

Northern Africa is right on the equator and experiences high temperatures in an extreme desert biome. As you move downward in latitude, it shifts to colder biomes and climates. The farther you are from significant body of water, such as the ocean, the drier it is. As you can see, the northern portion of Africa is driest in the middle, where there is an extreme desert, but has wetter biomes as you get closer to the oceans.

Now let's have a recap. We talked about land, water, our atmosphere, as well as our key term for today, biome. Biomes are areas of the earth with similar climatic conditions, plant life, and animal life.

Well, that's all for this tutorial. I look forward to next time. Bye.