Name: KEY
Date:
Earth’s Major Systems - part 1
Guided Notes
Guiding concepts
1. Earth’s four major systems are?
Hydrosphere, biosphere, geosphere, atmosphere
2. Use the characteristics of each item to classify them by the system they belong.
Water at the lake
Fish swimming at the lake
Carbon Dioxide absorbed by trees
Rocks on a beach
hydrosphere
geosphere
biosphere
atmosphere
Water at the lake
Rocks on a beach
Fish swimming at the
lake
Carbon dioxide
absorbed by trees
3. Prairie dogs build tunnels, which often results with mounds of dirt being built across the prairie.
Which systems are interacting when this happens?
Biosphere and geosphere
4. Name the events or processes that take place in the geosphere and change the physical
appearance of the land.
Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, erosion, deposition
5. Label the parts of the water cycle.
6. Explain how water is moved through the water cycle.
Water enters the atmosphere when it evaporates, condenses on dust to form clouds, returns to the
ground during precipitation, collects on the Earth’s surface (lakes, oceans…) and in groundwater.
7. Explain how wind affects landforms and give an example:
Wind can move sediments, forming landforms such as sand dunes. Erosion and deposition
8. What makes up the biosphere?
The biosphere is made up of all the organisms on Earth, including plants, animals, fungi, and
microbes.
9. How do land animals interact with the atmosphere?
Animals breathe in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide.
10. How do the elements of the biosphere and the hydrosphere interact?
All living things which are part of the biosphere need water which is part of the hydrosphere to live.
11. Describe how a monsoon affects the hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere.
The rainse increase the amount of water in streams and flood the land, this can help people grow rice
and other crops. The floods could also damage people’s homes and drown livestock.
12. What other interactions of the Earth’s systems affect the hydrosphere, geosphere, and
biosphere?
Hurricanes - flooding, erosion and deposition, living things may drown.
Tornadoes - erosion and deposition, crops may be destroyed by strong winds
Blizzards - erosion and deposition, floods in the spring, living things may be frozen or people may be
stranded.
Vocabulary
Use definitions from the glossary.
Monsoon
A seasonal weather
pattern of wet and dry
season.
Groundwater
Water held
underground in the
spaces within soil and
rock.
Evaporate
To change from a
liquid to a gas
Condense
To change from a gas
to a liquid
Hydrosphere
All of the water at or
near Earth’s surface,
including liquid bodies
of water, frozen water
as ice and snow, water
found underground,
and water vapor in the
atmosphere.
Geosphere
The solid outer part of
the Earth composed of
rock.
Atmosphere
The layer of air
surrounding the Earth.
Biosphere
Part of Earth where life
can exist