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40 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What geotectonic plates are involved in the formation of the regions of Latin America and Australia & Oceania?
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South American plate, north american plate, pacific plate.
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Where are the boundaries that influence hazards and landscape formation?
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tsunami hazards: from new guinea to hawaii, they are all vulnerable to destructive tsunamis.
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What is altitudinal zonation and how is it related to agricultural practices?
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Tropical highland area support a complex array of ecosystems. In the tierra fria zone (6,000 to 12,000 ft) for example, midlatitude crops such as wheat and barley can be grown.
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What are the most important environmental hazards in Mexico City?
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air quality, adequate water, and subsidence (soil sinkage) caused by overdrawing the valley's groundwater.
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What makes island environments especially vulnerable to the threat of introduced species?
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They often threaten the viability of indigenous life-forms. For example, nonnative rabbits successfully multiplied in an environment that lacked the diseases and predators that elsewhere kept their numbers in check.
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Describe how a Pacific high island is created and then transformed into a low island. How is a coral atoll formed? Where are examples of them found?
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Many pacific islands begin as rugged volcanoes with fringing coral reefs. However, as the extinct volcano subsides and erodes away, the coral reef expands, becoming a larger barrier reef. The world's largest atoll is the Island of Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands.
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Valley of Mexico
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at the southern end of the great Central Plateau of Mexico lies the Valley of Mexico. the cradle of Aztec civilization and the site of mexico city, a metropolitan area of approximately 18 million people. This high- altitude basin w/ mild temp., fertile soils and ample water surrounded by snow-capped volcanoes was an early center of Amerindian settlement and plant domestication, and the site of one of spain's most important colonial cities.
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Altiplano
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The largest intermontane plateau in the Andes, which straddles Peru and Bolivia and ranges in elevation from 10,000 to 13,000 ft
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shield
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Large upland areas of very old exposed rocks that range in elevation from 600 to 5,000 ft. The three major shields of South America are the Guiana, Brazilian, and Patagonian.
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deforestation
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areas in latin america where the forest has been cleared. Such as, the Atlantic coastal forests of Brazil and the Pacific forests of Central America, have nearly disappeared as a result of agriculture, settlement, and ranching.
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grassification
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The conversion of tropical forest into pasture for cattle ranching. Typically, this process involves introducing species of grasses and cattle, mostly from Africa.
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environmental lapse rate
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The decline in temperature as one ascends higher in the atmosphere. On average, the temperature declines 3.5F for every 1,000 ft ascended, or 6.5C for every 1,000 meters.
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“Outback”
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Australia's large, generally dry, and thinly settled interior.
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hot spot
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A supply of magma that produces a chain of mid-ocean volcanoes atop a zone of moving oceanic crust.
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What are the two largest cities in Latin America?
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Mexico city and Sao Paulo claim to be the biggest with 18-20 million people.
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exotic species
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The amazon holds at least 50 percent of the world's species. Many exotic animals have been extinct because of nonnative animals.
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What factors contributed to the rapid and early rate of urbanization in Latin America?
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1960s and 1970s population growth. In 1950 its population totaled 150 mil. ppl, which equaled the population of the US at that time. By 1995 the pop had tripled to 450 mil. and the US reached 300 mil. in 2006. Latin America oupaced the US because its birthrate remained consistently higher as infant mortality rates dropped and life expectancy soared.
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What is urban primacy?
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A state in which a disproportionately large city, such as London, New York, or Bangkok, dominates the urban system and is the center of economic, political, and cultural life.
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How and why have some governments tried to counter the trend toward
primacy? |
Primacy is often viewed as a liability, as too many national resources are concentrated into one urban center. In an effort to decentralize, some governments have intentionally built new cities far from existing primate cities.
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How does the urban form of Latin American cities differ from that of North American cities?
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Usually a clear central business district (CBD) exists in the old colonial core. Radiating out from the central business district is older middle-and lower-class housing found in the zones of maturity and in situaccreation. Residential quality declines as one travels to the outer skirts of the city.
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Besides Iberia, what are the source countries for Latin American immigrants?
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Italy, Portugal, spanish, germans, chinese, japanese.
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What impact have these
different groups had on the region? |
They have influenced population size and patterns of settlement. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, new immigrants from europe and asia added to the region's size and ethnic complexity.
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Where is population clustered in Australia and why?
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91 percent of Australia's residents live within either the sydney or melbourne metropolitan areas.
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To what part of Europe can most Australians trace their origins?
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United Kingdom.
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In the Pacific, how do high and low island environments produce distinctive settings for human settlement?
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Most highlands are ringed by coral reefs, which quickly establish themselves in the shallow waters near the shore. Highlands gradually diminish after a few thousand years and only a few low peaks may rise out of a shallow lagoon surrounded by coral reef. Low islands are formed as large waves periodically break off and pulverize large pieces of coral, which are then deposited on adjacent sections of the reef to form narrow, wave-washed, sandy islands.
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What city has the largest Polynesian population?
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honolulu
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latifundia
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the entrenched practice of maintaining large estates
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minifundia
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a small landholding farmed by peasants or tenants who produce food for subsistence and the market
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mestizo
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a person of mixed European and Indian ancestry.
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remittence
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money sent by immigrants to their country of origin to support family members left behind. For many countries, remittences are a principal source of foreign exchange.
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Today, where are the greatest concentrations of indigenous language speakers in Latin America?
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In the central andes of peru, Bolivia, and southern Ecuador, in southern mexico and guatemala.
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In what countries are the Amerindian languages of Aymara, Quechua, and Mayan spoken today?
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Aymara- Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. Quechua- Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Bolivia. Mayan- Mexico and Guatemala
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countries in Latin America where the colonial-origin languages of Spanish and Portuguese are spoken.
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Pretty much all countries speak spanish except Brazil where the official language is portuguese.
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What is the influence of precolonial civilizations—Maya, Aztec, Inca—found today?
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Mayan mexico and guatemala
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Columbian exchange
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an exchange of people, diseases, plants, and animals between the Americas (new world) and Europe/ Africa (Old World) initiated by the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492
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Quechua
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Language that 10 mil. people still speak in latin america
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Maori
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Indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand
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Who is Simon Bolivar and how did he change the political geography of South America
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He was a prominent revolutionary leader won in Venezuela, he advocated his vision for a new and independent state of Gran Colombia. For a short time his vision was realized as Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama were combined into one political unit. The union was broken up to make Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
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Where is coca grown? What is its cultural origin? What is its impact on the economies of the producer
countries? |
Colombia. The leaves used to be digested. Caused the government to spend more on drug control and also ruins environment.
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How have illegal drugs contributed to political insurgencies in Colombia and Peru?
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The drug trade in those areas have escalated to theft, kidnapping, and violence.
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