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ezscienceindex

Caldera: On some volcanoes, the magma chamber collapses after a violent eruption and a caldera forms, which is just a large, bowl-shaped crater. Explore Volcanoes. **includes animation's

Callisto: One of four Galilean moons of Jupiter.

Cells: (human); see also Embryonic stem cell

Celsius temperature scale

Cenozoic era: Extends back 65 million years and includes the rise of mammals. More.

Centrifugal force **includes animations

Chaos theory: States that small changes at the beginning of a complicated process can have large effects on the ultimate outcome. The classic example is a butterfly flapping its wings on one continent and affecting weather on another.

Climate: Average weather conditions over long periods of time, decades or more. Note that a climatologists studies long-term patterns, whereas a meteorologist is more focused on short-term forecasting.

Clouds: The air around us always contains water, but it’s usually in the form of vapor. When air is warmed on a sunny day or by the interaction of colliding air masses, it becomes lighter and begins to rise. As it rises, the air cools. Colder air has less ability to hold water vapor, so it condenses into water droplets on small particles, such as dust. The water droplets join together to form clouds.

Cold front: The boundary between a cold air mass that is advancing and a relatively warmer air mass. Generally characterized by steady precipitation followed by showery precipitation. Explore Weather Fronts.

Comets **includes animations

Condensation

Conjunction: The instant when two celestial bodies are closest to each other, a condition affected by their orbits.

Continental drift: A hypothesis that one large supercontinent, named Pangaea, broke apart to form today's seven continents. The idea, first proposed in 1858, led to today's theory of plate tectonics.

Convection: Transfer of energy by moving currents of fluid or gas.

Coriolis Effect: The apparent curving of wind or ocean currents caused by the rotation of the Earth under an air mass (or body of water). Imagine a spinning disk (like a CD or LP). If you scratched a line from the center to the edge while the disk was spinning, the resulting line would be curved. In case you were wondering, it is a myth that the Coriolis Effect impacts your bathtub drain; it is not strong enough to do that. Do a few tests and, unless your drain is possessed, you'll get roughly equal numbers of clockwise and counterclockwise rotations.

Corona: The Sun's outer atmosphere.

Coronal mass ejection: A bubble of gas and charged particles, similar to a solar flare, ejected from the sun over several hours. (More.)

Cumulonimbus: A vertically developed cloud, often capped by an anvil shaped cloud. Also called a thunderstorm cloud, it is frequently accompanied by heavy showers, lightning, thunder, and sometimes hail or gusty winds.

Cumulus: A cloud in the shape of individual detached domes, with a flat base and a bulging upper portion resembling cauliflower.

Cyclone: An area of low pressure around which winds blow counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere. Also the term used for a hurricane in the Indian Ocean and in the Western Pacific Ocean. In the Southern Hemisphere, cyclones rotate clockwise.