Glossary

Look for words having to do with the Great Salt Lake. They are in alphabetical order.

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A

  1. algae (al-jee)
    plant-like little creatures that live at the top of the Great Salt Lake (and other water areas) that breaks down dead things and is eaten by many small animals like brine shrimp
  2. Antelope Island (an-tu-lope i-land)
    the biggest island in the Great Salt Lake It is a state park and has lots of animals. People enjoy doing many things there.
  3. amphibian (am-fib-ee-an)
    an animal like a frog that lives on both water or land
  4. aviary (ay-vee-air-ee)
    a bird zoo, like where Floyd escaped from
  5. avocet (a-vo-set)
    a kind of shorebird at the Great Salt Lake
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B
  1. bacteria (bac-teer-ee-u)
    little creatures that break down dead things that come in many shapes (like rods or spirals) and sizes
  2. basins and ranges
    an area with mountain groups (ranges) and wide flat areas (basins). The area west of the Great Salt Lake and into Nevada is like this.
  3. brine flies
    the kind of insect that lives by the billions around the shores of the Great Salt Lake
  4. brine shrimp
    the tiny animals that live in the Great Salt Lake that look a little like little lobsters. They eat algae and are used as food for fish and sea animals raised by people.
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C
  1. calcium carbonate (cal-see-um car-bon-ate)
    a material kind of like chalk that goes on oolitic sand after being rolled around a lot, also found in caves a lot
  2. carnivores
    animals that eat other animals
  3. causeway (coz-way)
    a kind of road
  4. chukar
    a kind of bird like a quail that lives in grasslands, like on Antelope Island
  5. crustacean (croo-stay-shun)
    an animals like a lobster or crab that has a hard outer skeleton
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D
  1. deicing (dee-i-sing)
    when ice is melted using salt or other materials, such as on roads and sidewalks
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E
  1. evaporation (ee-vap-o-ray-shun)
    when water goes into the air
  2. evaporation pond
    ponds where water is evaporated and the leftover minerals are gathered
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F
  1. food chain
    a diagram or drawing that shows which animals eat each other in something like a chain (seeds get eaten by a bird which gets eaten by a hawk for example)
  2. food web
    a diagram or drawing that shows the different things that animals eat and how animals depend on one another. It has a web-like shape.
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G
  1. grassland
    a habitat with mostly grasses which contains animals like deer, mice, antelope, and other animals
  2. greasewood
    a plant which stores extra salt in its leaves, which fall off when they get too much salt
  3. great blue heron
    a tall bird that lives in the marshes and eats animals like frogs
  4. groundwater
    water that goes under the ground
  5. Gunnison Island
    a small island in the Great Salt Lake that is home to many seagulls and pelicans
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H
  1. habitat
    the kind of place an animal lives in like a desert, forest, wetland, and so on
  2. halophyte (hay-lo-fite)
    a plant that has developed ways so that it can grow around a lot of salt
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I

J

K

L
  1. Lake Bonneville (lake bon-u-vil)
    a huge lake that was in Utah, covering a lot of the western half of the state, which mostly evaporated away after a big flood around Idaho thousands of years ago
  2. lake effect (laik ee-fect)
    when extra snow falls because extra moisture from the Great Salt Lake
  3. larva (lar-vu)
    one of the stages of baby insects like the brine fly
  4. leopard frog
    the best known amphibian by the Great Salt Lake
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M
  1. marsh
    a kind of wetland with lots of cattails and other water plants. Birds like ducks and herons, and animals like frogs and mosquitoes often live there.
  2. migrate
    when animals move from one area to another like going south for the winter
  3. mud flats
    areas covered with mud left over when the Great Salt Lake changes water levels
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N
  1. naupli (now-oo-plee)
    one of the stages of baby brine shrimps
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O
  1. ooid
    a piece of oolitic sand
  2. oolitic sand
    sand made from brine shrimp doo-doo and calcium carbonate after it gets rolled around a lot by water, has a round shape
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P
  1. phalarope (fal-u-rope)
    the most common kind of shorebird at the Great Salt Lake (Wilson's and red-necked)
  2. pickleweed
    a plant that grows around salt that puts the salt back in its stems. It gets its name from its taste
  3. playa (pli-yu)
    a lake or pond formed often after a desert area after a sudden rainstorm which stays around for a little while
  4. potash
    a material used often in fertilizer
  5. pronghorn
    another name for antelope
  6. pupa case (pyoo-pu cays)
    a sack or bag-like material containing the last stage of a baby insect before it becomes adult. Brine fly pupa cases go to the top of the water in air bubbles.
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Q

R
  1. roundup
    when people gather up animals like cows from a scattered group to a smaller, more organized area
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S
  1. salt flats
    an area in the desert west of the Great Salt Lake that has wide, flat places of leftover salt
  2. Saltair
    the best known and most popular of the Great Salt Lake's historic lake resorts
  3. shadscale (shad-skel)
    a plant that grows around a lot of salt that has little hairs explode when they get too much salt in them
  4. shorebird
    a bird that is like a sea-living bird like a seagull, phalarope, or others
  5. species
    kinds of animals or plants
  6. stilt
    a long-legged kind of shorebird
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T
  1. terminal lake
    a lake like the Great Salt Lake that has no way for water to go out except evaporation
  2. Tooele Twister (too-il-lu twist-er)
    strong sudden winds that blow over the Great Salt Lake
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U
  1. unique (yoo-neek)
    something that only one group or individual (person, animal) has or does, and that nobody else has (or does)
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V

W
  1. water cycle (wo-ter si-kl)
    the cycle of how the earth reuses its water (rain or snow falls, goes to bodies of water, evaporates, and starts over)
  2. watershed
    the area where streams and rivers go toward and into a big body of water like a lake
  3. waterspout
    a tornado over water
  4. wetland
    a habitat where water touches land often containing many birds like ducks and other kinds of animals and plants (like cattails) that live a lot around water
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X

Y

Z

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