EXPLAIN HOW THE EARTH 'S CRUST AND ITS SURROUNDING "OCEANS" OF WATER AND AIR ARE AFFECTED BY A DYNAMIC SERIES OF INTERRELATED NATURAL PROCESSES THAT CAUSE CHANGES TO BOTH PHYSICAL EARTH FEATURES AND LIVING THINGS.

A STUDENT SHOULD KNOW THAT:

A. NATURAL PROCESSES THAT CHANGE THE FEATURES ON THE EARTH'S CRUST INCLUDE
     EROSION, GLACIATION, WEATHERING, EARTHQUAKES, AND VOLCANOES.

1. Dynamic forces change the earth's surface by building up or wearing down.
2. New features on the earth's crust are formed as a result of dynamic forces.
3. The earth's surface can change abruptly as a result of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions or the earth's surface can change more slowly as a result of erosion, glaciation, and weathering.
4. Forces that uplift the earth's surface include volcanism which forms mountains and volcanoes.
5. Forces that wear the earth's surface down include weathering, glaciation and erosion. Features formed as a result of these forces include soil and valleys.
6. Each of these changes has an impact on people.
7. Fossils provide evidence that life and environmental conditions have changed.

B. THE MOVEMENT OF WATER THROUGH AN ECOSYSTEM IS CALLED THE HYDROLOGIC CYCLE.

1. Water goes through the process of evaporation, condensation, precipitation and runoff.
2. Water is a solvent. As it passes through the hydrologic cycle it dissolves minerals and gases and carries them to the oceans.
3. Living organisms remove, use, and return water to the atmosphere.
4. Fresh water, limited in supply, is essential for life and for most industrial processes. Rivers, lakes and groundwater can be depleted or polluted, becoming unavailable or unsuitable for life.

C. GLOBAL PATTERNS OF ATMOSPHERIC MOVEMENT AFFECT LOCAL WEATHER.

1. Uneven heating of the earth's surface produces weather systems.
2. Cycling of water in and out of the atmosphere plays an important role in determining weather and climatic patterns.
3. Ocean currents affect local and global weather conditions.
4. A weather map can be used to predict temperature and precipitation for several days for a given area.

TO UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPTS OUTLINED ABOVE, A STUDENT SHOULD BE ABLE TO:

• Explain why oceans are salty.
• Predict, using a map of ocean currents, the impact on the climate of an adjacent land mass.
• Locate a given kind of land form on a topographic map.
• Read a weather map to predict weather for an extended forecast.
• Describe a sequence of events that explains how the earth's surface has been changed over time.