IELTS Vocabulary ebook

Definition: A deposit of clay, silt, and sand left by flowing floodwater in a river valley or delta, typically producing fertile soil

Example sentences:

• In the east, which is lower and flatter, river gravels and alluvium from the North Sea have produced dark, rich soils. Above these sedimentary rocks is a sequence of interbedded alluvial floodplain deposits and palaeosols.

A body of permeable rock which can contain or transmit groundwater.

Definition: A large volcanic crater, typically one formed by a major eruption leading to the collapse of the mouth of the volcano.

Example senences:

• The sequential development of multiple summit calderas of shield volcanoes gives clues about how the spatial location of shallow magma chambers evolves with time and how the magma supply into these chambers evolves

Definition: The nature of something’s ingredients or constituents; the way in which a whole or mixture is made up

Example senences:

• The sensitive camera will be able to precisely measure the planet's temperature and chemical composition, which will allow for computer models of the atmosphere and climate to become much more exact.

Definition: A deep open crack, especially one in a glacier.

Example sentences:

• On good days they could travel no more than 15 miles, and they had to be ever vigilant of the deep crevasses opening up beneath their feet when the snow melted.

The Earth's crust is its outer layer. Example sentence:

• The continental crust is thought to have originated from the movement of magma when plate tectonics first formed billions of years ago.
• The Earth consists of three main layers: the core, or the inner layer; the mantle, in the middle; and the crust, which includes the continents and ocean floor. 

A crust is a hard layer of something, especially on top of a softeror wetter substance. Example sentence:

• As the water evaporates, a crust of salt is left on the surface of the soil. 

Definition: Having the structure and form of a crystal; composed of crystals

Example sentences:

• This crystalline structure is an orderly arrangement of ions known as a crystal lattice.

Definition: The process by which fertile land becomes desert, typically as a result of drought, deforestation, or inappropriate agriculture

Example senences:

• The problems are global - poverty, air and water pollution, deforestation, desertification, overfishing, climate change - no country can confront these challenges alone.

Definition: a mound of sand formed by the wind, usually along the beach or in a desert

Example sentences:

• Every dune has a windward side and a slip face.

If rock or soil erodes or we can say rock or soil is eroded by the weather, sea, or wind, the rock or soil cracks and breaks so that it is gradually destroyed. Here are example sentences:

• As rain falls through the atmosphere, it picks up CO2 which make rainwater become acidic. As it drains into fractures in the rock, the water begins to erode the rock creating a network of passages
• Once exposed, soil is quickly eroded by wind and rain.
• The shoreline has eroded badly.
• The shoreline was badly eroded by last winter's storms.

Definition: Be ejected from

Example senences:

• Possible evidence for this theory concerns the brown ridges that mark the moon's terrain, thought to be caused by instant freezing of liquid water erupting from beneath the ice crust.

Definition: A long, steep slope, especially one at the edge of a plateau or separating areas of land at different heights.

Example sentences:

• Perhaps the most striking feature is the steep escarpment that characterizes the northwest-facing edge of the Cotswold Hills

Definition: An extended break in a rock formation, marked by the relative displacement and discontinuity of strata on either side of a particular plane

Example sentences:

• Iranian leaders have promised to rebuild the town, which is on a major earthquake fault line. Most transform faults are found on the ocean floor.

Definition:

Example sentences:

• The inner ear's structure and contents is thought to permit the shark to determine and distinguish sounds and the geomagnetic fields of the earth's magma.

Definition: A hot spring in which water intermittently boils, sending a tall column of water and steam into the air.

Example senences:

• A geyser of lava spouted between them and Seth attacked, charging through the lava like it was water, an unstoppable locomotive of power.

Definition: A slowly moving mass or river of ice formed by the accumulation and compaction of snow on mountains or near the poles.

Example sentences:

• A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation (melting and sublimation) over many years, often centuries. Glaciers slowly deform and flow due to stresses induced by their weight, creating crevasses, seracs, and other distinguishing features. They also abrade rock and debris from their substrate to create landforms such as cirques and moraines. Glaciers form only on land and are distinct from the much thinner sea ice and lake ice that form on the surface of bodies of water.

Definition: Landscape underlain by limestone that has been eroded by dissolution, producing ridges, towers, fissures, sinkholes, and other characteristic landforms.

Example senences:

• The underlying limestone karst topography allows water to flow in abundant underground rivers, feeding the numerous springs, which flow into the many creeks and streams.

Definition: The sliding down of a mass of earth or rock from a mountain or cliff.

Example senences:

• Flooding caused bridges to collapse and landslides are blocking roads to devastated coastal villages.

Definition: Hot fluid or semi-fluid material below or within the earth’s crust from which lava and other igneous rock is formed on cooling

Example senences:

• What they do know is that a ‘slow rise’ of magma is driving lava to the surface, which has created a new lava dome in the mountain's crater.

Definition: An area of low-lying land that is flooded in wet seasons or at high tide, and typically remains waterlogged at all times.

Example senences:

• The Romans became practised at draining marshes to rid areas of malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

Definition: (Especially of materials with a high melting point, such as metal and glass) liquefied by heat.

Example senences:

• A spectacular form of heat advection occurs when molten rock, or magma, erupts from a volcano. Solidification of the molten material into rocks happened as the Earth cooled.

Definition: An area of relatively level high ground

Example senences:

• This soil region is in the foothills of the Appalachian plateau, and topography ranges from nearly level to extremely steep.

To recede means to pull back, retreat, or become faint or distant. Flood waters recede, as do glaciers.

Example sentences:

• Between ice ages there were warmer interglacial periods when glaciers receded. 

When something such as a quality, problem, or illness recedes, it becomes weaker, smaller, or less intense. For example:

• Just as I started to think that I was never going to get well, the illness began to recede.

Sediment is solid material that settles at the bottom of a liquid, especially earth and pieces of rock that have been carried along and then left somewhere by water, ice, or wind.

Definition: Inclined from a horizontal or vertical line

Example sentences:

• The new terminal has been designed on three levels, taking advantage of the sloping terrain.

If something submerges, it goes below the surface of some water or another liquid. For example:

• The intertidal zone in marine aquatic environments is the area of the foreshore and seabed that is exposed to the air at low tide and submerged at high tide.
• A convergent plate boundary is where one of the tectonic plates submerge under the other.​
• Hippos are unable to submerge in the few remaining water holes. 

Definition: (Especially of a layer of rock or soil) lie or be situated under (something):

Example senences:

• Steep slopes underlain by stony soils form appealing vineyard sites, but they can be susceptible to rapid soil erosion during storms. Limestone underlies much of the site.

Weathering is the breaking down or dissolving of rocks and minerals on Earth’s surface. Water, ice, acids, salt, and changes in temperature are all agents of weathering.