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Snow in Florida
Snow in Florida is a rare but recurring winter phenomenon, first documented in 1774, falling almost entirely in the Panhandle during Arctic air outbreaks.
Snow line
A snow line is the minimum elevation at which snow lies on the ground or a glacier; on glaciers, it separates bright snow from darker firn or ice.
Snow squall
A snow squall is an intense but brief period of heavy snow and gusty winds that can turn clear skies to whiteout in minutes and cause highway pileups.
Snow sublimation
Snow sublimation is the direct transfer of water from snow to the atmosphere as vapor, without melting; it can remove 10 to 90% of snowfall.
Snow water equivalent
Snow water equivalent (SWE) is the depth of liquid water that would result if a column of snowpack melted completely. It predicts spring runoff in the western United States.
Snow-to-liquid ratio
The snow-to-liquid ratio (SLR) compares the depth of fresh snow to the water it yields when melted, letting forecasters convert precipitation forecasts into snowfall totals.
Snowball Earth
Snowball Earth, also known as the Snowball Earth hypothesis, is the idea that Earth's surface was almost entirely frozen from poles to tropics several times in the distant past.
Snowflake
A snowflake is an ice crystal, or aggregate of crystals, that forms in clouds and grows while falling, with six arms shaped by temperature and humidity.
Snowmelt freshet
A snowmelt freshet is the pronounced rise in river flow, often the annual peak, caused when a basin's winter snowpack melts in spring or early summer.
Snowmelt runoff
Snowmelt runoff is the portion of melting snow that flows over the land surface into streams and rivers, supplying much of the springtime water in colder climates.
Snowmelt Runoff Model
The Snowmelt Runoff Model (SRM) is a degree-day-based, semi-distributed model that simulates and forecasts daily streamflow in mountain basins, developed by Jaroslav Martinec in 1975.
Soapstone
Soapstone, also called steatite, is a soft metamorphic rock composed primarily of talc, named for its soapy feel and used since ancient times for carvings, countertops, and wood stoves.
SOCCOM project
SOCCOM (Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modeling) is a National Science Foundation-funded US research program that has deployed biogeochemical profiling floats throughout the Southern Ocean since 2014.
Soche
Soche (Volcán el Soche) is a dacitic stratovolcano, 3,955 m, in northern Ecuador near Colombia; its early Holocene Plinian eruption (VEI 4–5) spread tephra northwest into Colombia.
Société Géologique de France
The Société Géologique de France (SGF, Geological Society of France) is a French learned society for the earth sciences, founded in Paris in 1830 and recognized as of public utility in 1832.
Society of Economic Geologists
The Society of Economic Geologists, founded in 1920, is a global nonprofit professional society advancing the geoscience of mineral resources, with over 6,000 members in more than 100 countries.
Socompa
Socompa (Volcán Socompa) is a 6,031-m dacitic stratovolcano on the Chile-Argentina border in the Central Andes, known for a ~7,200-year-old sector collapse that produced one of the world's largest debris-avalanche deposits (~37 km³, 40 km runout) and for 2019-onset uplift.
Sodalite
Sodalite is a sodium-rich, chlorine-bearing feldspathoid mineral, Na₈Al₆Si₆O₂₄Cl₂, best known for its blue color and use as an ornamental stone. Discovered in Greenland in 1806, it usually forms massive material despite its cubic structure.
Soil
Soil is the unconsolidated mineral and organic material on Earth's surface that serves as the natural medium for land plants, formed over hundreds to thousands of years.
Soil acidification
Soil acidification is the process by which soil pH declines over time, affecting roughly 30 to 40 percent of agricultural land globally, with liming as the main remedy.
Soil augering
Soil augering is a field method of obtaining soil samples from depth by rotating a boring tool into the ground without excavating a pit, used widely in soil mapping.
Soil catena
A soil catena is a sequence of related soils along a hillslope, from hilltop to valley floor, that share parent material and age but differ because of drainage.
Soil classification
Soil classification is the systematic grouping of soils into named categories based on measurable properties, dominated by USDA Soil Taxonomy with 12 orders and the international World Reference Base.
Soil contamination
Soil contamination, also known as soil pollution, is the presence of chemicals in soil above natural background levels, posing risks to human health, ecosystems, food, and water.
Soil erosion
Soil erosion is the removal of the nutrient-rich surface soil by water and wind; accelerated erosion from human activity degrades farmland and fills rivers and reservoirs with sediment.
Soil horizon
A soil horizon is a layer of soil roughly parallel to the surface that differs from adjacent layers in color, texture, and structure, forming the soil profile.
Soil incubation experiments
A soil incubation experiment is a laboratory method in which soil is held under controlled temperature and moisture while carbon or nitrogen mineralization is measured.
Soil moisture
Soil moisture, also called soil water content, is the amount of water held in the soil, a driver of soil processes and a key variable in agriculture, hydrology, and meteorology.
Soil pH
Soil pH, also known as soil acidity or soil reaction, measures how acid or alkaline a soil is and controls which nutrients plants can take up.
Soil salinity
Soil salinity, or the accumulation of salts in saline soils, impairs plant growth on over 1,381 million hectares worldwide; irrigation without leaching and drainage is a leading cause.