Wind can be defined as air currents or moving mass of air from high-pressure areas to low-pressure areas. Typically, air under high pressure normally moves towards areas under low pressure. Thus, the greater the pressure difference, the faster the flow of air which creates moving air with a considerably strong force. The bulk movement of …
Clouds are composed of ice crystals or water drops suspended and drifting in the sky at considerably high altitudes. The water droplets are very minute with a diameter of roughly a hundredth of a millimeter. This means that each cubic meter of air is made up of about 100 million droplets. The composition of ice …
Biomes are a group of ecosystems sharing the same characteristics and are well adapted to the prevailing abiotic factors. Any earth surface that has got a very large ecological system characterized by dominant forms of plant and animal life forms adapted to the prevailing climate and other environmental factors is termed as a biome. Biomes …
The earth is technically the 3rd planet from the sun between Venus and Mars and has an equatorial diameter of 12,755 kilometers (7926 miles) and a polar diameter of 149.6 million kilometers (92.9 million miles). The earth is in a constant state of motion as it revolves round the sun, which takes a period of …
Water scarcity or water crisis or water shortage is the deficiency of adequate water resources that can meet the water demands for a particular region. Whenever there is a lack of access to potable and fresh water for drinking and sanitation, the situation means that the water is scarce. Water scarcity thus pertains to a …
Rocks, minerals, soils normally change their structure under the action or influence of certain environmental forces. Biological activity, extreme weather, and agents of erosion such as water, wind and ice are examples of environmental forces that influences the continuous breakdown, wearing away and loosening of rocks and soils. This is what is termed as weathering. …
Ecological footprint is a terminology that attempts to gauge the extent of human impact on the earth’s ecosystems. There are many ways humans deplete environment capital just from our basic lifestyles to resource exploitation, environmental degradation, and pollution. As our consumption increases due to overpopulation, it is important for us to measure nature’s capacity to …
Plate tectonics defines the movements and features of the Earth’s surface now and in the past. The theory of plate tectonics was advanced in the 1960s and 1970s to generate new information about the Earth’s ancient magnetism, the nature of the ocean floor, the flow of heat from the Earth’s interior, and earthquake and volcanic …
Metamorphic rocks are the rocks formed from other rocks. They are sedimentary or igneous rocks that have undergone changes as a result of extreme pressure and heat. The name defines their formation whereby ‘meta’ means change and ‘morph’ means ‘form.’ Hence, metamorphic rocks are those whose forms have been changed through a geological process such …
Sedimentary rocks are the most common rock types which are freely exposed on the earth’s surface. They are formed from other rock materials since they are made up of the buildup of weathered and eroded pre-existing rocks. The weathering, erosion and the eventual compaction of igneous, metamorphic or formerly structured sedimentary rocks among other biological …
Igneous rocks form from the cooling of magma – molten materials in the earth’s crust. The terminology Igneous means fire or heat. In this sense, igneous rocks are formed when molten rock (magma) solidifies either underneath the earth’s crust to form plutonic (intrusive) igneous rocks or on the surface of the earth to form volcanic …
In all ecological communities, living organisms feed to get the energy that sustains their growth, movement, and reproduction. Accordingly, communities of organisms have to feed on each other creating a system whereby each organism is eaten and, in turn, it is eaten by another organism. This system is what is widely known as food chain. …
Food chain and food web represent how living organisms feed to get the energy that sustains their growth, reproduction, and movement in their respective ecological systems. It is because the various communities of organisms in an ecosystem have to feed on each other to survive. This feeding relationship in the ecosystem is thus what brings …
Biodiversity is the variety within and between animal and plant life in a particular habitat or the entire planet. In any particular region on the planet, there are numerous different species. A small-scale example of biodiversity is the various life forms within the park in the neighborhood. Examples of diverse species locally include butterflies, trees, …
Ecology is an intricate biological subject that deals chiefly with the relations between organisms, including humans, and the environmental elements that affect them. For instance, ecology helps the world understand how microscopic bacteria grow in water, how animals and plants interact and survive in the seas, deserts, forests or land and the list goes on. …