Why climate varies

The coldest temperature ever recorded at ground level on Earth— Also called Ancestral Puebloans. Also called a subarctic or tundra climate. Continental climates are only found in the Northern Hemisphere. Gas molecules are in constant, random motion. Also called a warm summer climate. Hurricanes are the same thing as typhoons, but usually located in the Atlantic Ocean region.

Also known as the Monsoon Zone. Monsoon usually refers to the winds of the Indian Ocean and South Asia, which often bring heavy rains. Regions are the basic units of geography. The current sea level rise is 1. Range also refers to the geographic distribution of a particular species. Also called a boreal or tundra climate. Also called lithospheric plate. Also called a rain forest climate. Typhoons are the same thing as hurricanes, but usually located in the Pacific or Indian Ocean region.

Also called a humid continental climate. The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited. Tyson Brown, National Geographic Society. National Geographic Society. For information on user permissions, please read our Terms of Service.

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Climate describes the average weather conditions of a particular place over a 30 year period. All places on earth have their own climates. Different from weather events, which are short-term and temporary phenomenon, climates are usually steady and predictable, and shape how organisms and human civilizations evolve and adapt in any given region. However, climates are not always permanent, and can change drastically due to human activity.

Explore the world's climates and how they affect local regions and the planet with this curated collection of resources. Weathering is the process of the weakening and breakdown of rocks, metals, and manmade objects. There are two main types of weathering: chemical and physical. An example of chemical weathering is acid rain. Caused mostly by the burning of fossil fuels, acid rain is a form of precipitation with high levels of sulfuric acid, which can cause erosion in the materials in which it comes in contact.

An example of physical weathering is wind blowing across the desert playas. This process causes rocks to form a specific pyramid-like shape and they are called ventifacts. Select from these resources to teach about the process of weathering in your classroom.

A biome is an area classified according to the species that live in that location. Temperature range, soil type, and the amount of light and water are unique to a particular place and form the niches for specific species allowing scientists to define the biome.

However, scientists disagree on how many biomes exist. Some count six forest, grassland, freshwater, marine, desert, and tundra , others eight separating two types of forests and adding tropical savannah , and still others are more specific and count as many as 11 biomes. Use these resources to teach middle school students about biomes around the world. An abiotic factor is a non-living part of an ecosystem that shapes its environment.

In a terrestrial ecosystem, examples might include temperature, light, and water. In a marine ecosystem, abiotic factors would include salinity and ocean currents.

Abiotic and biotic factors work together to create a unique ecosystem. Learn more about abiotic factors with this curated resource collection. Mesopotamia is thought to be one of the places where early civilization developed. It is a historic region of West Asia within the Tigris-Euphrates river system. In fact, the word Mesopotamia means "between rivers" in Greek. Home to the ancient civilizations of Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia these peoples are credited with influencing mathematics and astronomy.

Use these classroom resources to help your students develop a better understanding of the cradle of civilization. The weather you encounter day to day depends on where you live. Places around the Equator experience warm weather all year round, but experience alternate periods of rainy and dry seasons.

Places near lakes may experience more snow in the winter, whereas places on continental plains may be more prone to hail, thunderstorms, and tornados in the summer.

Learn more about regional climates with this curated resource collection. Climate change is a long-term shift in global or regional climate patterns. Often climate change refers specifically to the rise in global temperatures from the midth century to present. Often climate change refers specifically to the rise in global temperatures from the mid 20th century to present. Climate change is changing the way we interact with our environments.

With a changing climate come potential consequences for life on Earth. Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students.

Skip to content. Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google Classroom. Article Vocabulary. Climate influences the vegetation of a region. Photograph by Paul Nicklen, National Geographic. A climograph depicts the highs and lows of temperature and precipitation over a set period of time. Geographic Perspective. British geographer Andrew John Herbertson described climate like this: "Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get. Fossil fuels formed from the remains of ancient plants and animals.

Also known as an ice age. Great Lakes. Industrial Revolution. Little Ice Age. Mediterranean climate. Also called a temperate climate. Northwest Passage. Also called boreal forest. Media Credits The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.

Media If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. Text Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service.

Interactives Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. Related Resources. View Collection. Abiotic Factors. Regional Climate. Climate Change. View Article. Since warmer oceans dissolve less carbon dioxide, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose and fell in concert with these orbital wobbles, amplifying their effects.

Today Earth is approaching another minimum of northern sunlight, so without human carbon dioxide emissions we would be heading into another ice age within the next 1, years or so. Volcanoes, metamorphic rocks and the oxidization of carbon in eroded sediments all emit carbon dioxide into the sky, while chemical reactions with silicate minerals remove carbon dioxide and bury it as limestone.

The balance between these processes works as a thermostat, because when the climate warms, chemical reactions become more efficient at removing carbon dioxide, putting a brake on the warming.

When the climate cools, reactions become less efficient, easing the cooling. In particular, average carbon dioxide levels have declined steadily in response to solar brightening. However, the weathering thermostat takes hundreds of thousands of years to react to changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Each year, the burning of fossil fuels emits about times more carbon dioxide than volcanoes emit — too much too fast for oceans and weathering to neutralize it, which is why our climate is warming and our oceans are acidifying.

The planet has generally been cooling for the last 50 million years or so, as plate tectonic collisions thrust up chemically reactive rock like basalt and volcanic ash in the warm, wet tropics, increasing the rate of reactions that draw carbon dioxide from the sky.

Additionally, over the last 20 million years, the building of the Himalayas, Andes, Alps and other mountains has more than doubled erosion rates , boosting weathering.

Another contributor to the cooling trend was the drifting apart of South America and Tasmania from Antarctica Earlier, in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, dinosaurs roamed Antarctica because enhanced volcanic activity , in the absence of those mountain chains, sustained carbon dioxide levels around 1, parts per million , compared to ppm today. The average temperature of this ice-free world was 5 to 9 degrees Celsius warmer than now, and sea levels were around feet higher.

Magnitude : Approximately 20 degrees Celsius of cooling followed by 5 degrees Celsius of warming Chicxulub. The Earth Impact Database recognizes craters with confirmed impact on Earth so far. Computer modeling suggests that Chicxulub blasted enough dust and sulfur into the upper atmosphere to dim sunlight and cool Earth by more than 20 degrees Celsius , while also acidifying the oceans.

The planet took centuries to return to its pre-impact temperature, only to warm by a further 5 degrees Celsius, due to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from vaporized Mexican limestone. How or whether volcanic activity in India around the same time as the impact exacerbated the climate change and mass extinction remains controversial. Magnitude : Depends on event; about 5 degrees Celsius cooling in late Ordovician million years ago.

Photosynthetic cyanobacteria that arose some 3 billion years ago, for instance, began terraforming the planet by emitting oxygen. The climate where you live is called regional climate. It is the average weather in a place over more than thirty years. To describe the regional climate of a place, people often tell what the temperatures are like over the seasons, how windy it is, and how much rain or snow falls. The climate of a region depends on many factors including the amount of sunlight it receives, its height above sea level, the shape of the land, and how close it is to oceans.

Since the equator receives more sunlight than the poles, climate varies depending on its distance from the equator. However, we can also think about the climate of an entire planet.