Geography Test 1

Front 1

Definition of Geography

Back 1

a science that deals with the description, distribution, and interaction of the diverse physical, biological, and cultural features of the earth's surface.

Front 2

Human Geography

Back 2

the study of the interaction between human beings and their environment in particular places and across spatial areas.

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Physical Geography

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the branch of geography concerned with natural features and phenomena of the earth's surface ex) landforms, climates, and vegetation etc.

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Contribution by China

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- maps depicted rivers and other natural features, military information and administrative districts.

- Grid system was employed but was not accurate

- In 128 BCE Chang Chi'en discovered for China the existence of India and the Mediterranean Region.

- Trade was established through what is known today as "The Silk Road" though no actual contact was made.

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Contribution by Greece

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- Herodotus documented the geography of areas in Western Europe and Africa

-Eratosthenes calculated the circumference of the earth and was the first to use the word geography

- Hipparchus applied a grid system to his maps

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Contribution by Rome

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- Ptolemy, contributed to mapping the world as it was then perceived

- Strabo (greek geographer employed by Rome) travelled and wrote extensively about the various regions that made up and that were known to Imperial Rome

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Contribution by Arab

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- Muhammed al- Idrisi, an Arab scholar who worked in Italy produced a map of the known world as well as text about certain known places

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Atlas grid code

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- arbitrary mathematical grid system

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Relative Location

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- refers to the place in relation to other places

- not accurate locational measure but is frequently used in business and communication

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Absolute Location

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- employs some type of universally accepted system of coordinates

- No two places can have the same absolute location.

- designed to give a precise pin pointed location that is associated with a place or a feature.

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Characteristics of the geographic grid system

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- designed to pinpoint any location on Earth by laying a vertical and horizontal grid over the Earth's layout.

- vertical lines = longitude

- horizontal lines = latitude

- intersection of two points determines any exact location

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Parallels of latitude

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- intersect the Earth's Axis at right angle

- parallels are equally spaced (111km)

- parallels get smaller farther from the equator

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Meridians of longitude

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- converge at the poles

- the Meridians are equally spaced but converge at the poles

- Meridians intersect the parallel angles

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Coordinates

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- the two lines of latitude and longitude whose intersection determines the geographical point of a place

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Time Zones

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- Any of the roughly longitudinal divisions of the earth's surface in which a standard time is kept, . - A typical time zone averages 15° of longitude in width and observes a clock time one hour earlier than the zone immediately to the east.

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Tilt of the Earth's Axis

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the tilt of the earths axis combined with the elliptical (egg shaped revolution around the sun) causes seasons

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Parallelism of the Earth's Axis

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- Parallelism means that the earth's axis remains parallel to its former position as it revolves around the Sun.

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Space

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a real extent

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Location

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the particular position within space

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Place

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a location and the values associated with that location

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Formal Regions

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defined formally by government or other structures, such as cities, states, and mountain ranges

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Distance

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the distance measured along the surface of the earth.

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Large Scale Maps

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- portray small areas in considerable detail

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Small Scale Maps

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- portray large areas with little detail

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Representative Fraction

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- the ratio of distance on the map to distance on the ground.

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Line (graphic) scale

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-a means of visually showing the scale of a map

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Map Projections

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- a method for representing part of the surface of the earth or a celestial sphere on a plane surface.

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Equal Area

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- a map projection in which regions on the earth's surface that are of equal area are represented as equal.

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Conformal

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- a map that preserves the size of local angles in the representation; also called biholomorphic map. On a conformal map, small areas retain their correct shapes.

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Eastings and Northings

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- The terms easting and northing are geographic Cartesian coordinates for a point.

- Easting refers to the eastward-measured distance (or the x-coordinate), while northing refers to the northward-measured distance (or the y-coordinate).

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Thematic maps

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- emphasizes a particular theme or special topic such as the average distribution of rainfall in an area.

- They are different from general reference maps because they do not just show natural features like rivers, cities, political subdivisions and highways.

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Topographic maps

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- a type of map characterized by large-scale detail and quantitative representation of relief, usually using contour lines, but historically using a variety of methods.

- Traditional definitions require a topographic map to show both natural and man-made features.

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Symbols on maps

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- Apart from showing just contour lines, topographic maps also use a lot of map symbols to represent its features.

- Features are represented by using point, line, and area symbols.

- Individual features, such as houses, are shown as point symbols like a small dot or square.

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Contours

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- contour line (often just called a "contour") joins points of equal elevation (height) above a given level, such as mean sea level.

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Compass

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- an instrument containing a magnetized pointer that shows the direction of magnetic north and bearings from it.

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GPS

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- uses a set of satellites (5 or 7) the signal is sent up to those satellites that have a position themselves as they go around the earth.

- They can triangulate and find the precise location of a person or vehicle that has a monitoring GPS on it.

- GPS must use a system of absolute location that is accepted worldwide.

Front 37

Surface area calculation on large scale maps using eastings and northings gride

Back 37

-

Front 38

Plate tectonics

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a theory explaining the structure of the earth's crust and many associated phenomena as resulting from the interaction of rigid lithospheric plates that move slowly over the underlying mantle.

Front 39

Divergence

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A tectonic boundary where two plates are moving away from each other and new crust is forming from magma that rises to the Earth's surface between the two plates.

Front 40

Plate ridges

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A mid-ocean ridge is an underwater mountain system formed by plate tectonics. It consists of various mountains linked in chains, typically having a valley known as a rift running along its spine.

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Rift valleys

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a large elongated depression with steep walls formed by the downward displacement of a block of the earth's surface between nearly parallel faults or fault systems.

Front 42

Convergence

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A tectonic boundary where two plates are moving toward each other. If the two plates are of equal density, they usually push up against each other, forming a mountain chain.

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Plate trenches

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At many convergent plate boundaries, dense lithosphere melts or slides beneath less-dense lithosphere in a process called subduction, creating a trench.

Front 44

Zones of subduction

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A subduction zone is a region of the Earth's crust where tectonic plates meet.

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Transform plate boundaries

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are locations where two plates slide past one another.

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Lithosphere

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the rigid outer part of the earth, consisting of the crust and upper mantle.

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Mantle

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- The mantle is made up of semi-molten rock called magma.

- In the upper parts of the mantle the rock is hard, but lower down the rock is soft and beginning to melt.

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Crust

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- The crust is the outer layer of the earth.

- It is a thin layer between 0-60 km thick.

- composed of a great variety of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks.

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Tsunami

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- a large wave on the ocean, usually caused by an undersea earthquake, a volcanic eruption, or coastal landslide.

- can travel hundreds of miles over the open sea and cause extensive damage when it encounters land.

- also called tidal waves.

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Earthquake intensity

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- the intensity is a number (written as a Roman numeral) describing the severity of an earthquake in terms of its effects on the earth's surface and on humans and their structures.

- several scales exist, but the ones most commonly used in the United States are the Modified Mercalli scale and the Rossi-Forel scale.

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Earthquake effect

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god only knows what this is supposed to be

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Reflection

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- Instead of being absorbed, some of the heat energy is bounced, or reflected off in the opposite direction.

- As this happens, the heat waves are unchanged, as is the object itself.

- Objects which are good at absorption are as a result poor reflectors and vice versa.

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Altitude change

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As a general definition, altitude is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object.

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Adiabatic cooling

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- As air is heated it expands becoming less dense, and as a result, lighter.

- This process is referred to as adiabatic cooling.

- As the air cools down, it again begins to fall towards the surface of the Earth.

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Adiabatic warming

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As air is heated it expands becoming less dense, and as a result, lighter. Because it is lighter, it rises upwards above the cooler air. ... As a result, their temperature rises, even though no heat has been added.

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Air pressure (high)

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- where the atmospheric pressure is greater than that of the surrounding area.

- In some places highs are referred to as anticyclones.

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Air pressure (low)

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- an area where the atmospheric pressure is lower than that of the area surrounding it.

- usually associated with high winds, warm air, and atmospheric lifting.

- Because of this, normally produce clouds, precipitation, and other bad weather such as tropical storms and cyclones.

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Land Mass

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A large area of land, such as a continent, that is wholly or mostly surrounded by water

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Ocean bodies

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- A body of water or waterbody (often spelled water body) is any significant accumulation of water, generally on a planet's surface.

- The term most often refers to oceans, seas, and lakes, but it includes smaller pools of water such as ponds, wetlands, or more rarely, puddles.

Front 60

Wind currents

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sometimes of considerable force, moving generally horizontally from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure

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intertropical convergence zone

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a narrow zone near the equator where northern and southern air masses converge, typically producing low atmospheric pressure.

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Doldrums

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refers to those parts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean affected by the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a low-pressure area around the equator where the prevailing winds are calm.

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Polar Easterlies

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The polar easterlies (also Polar Hadley cells) are the dry, cold prevailing winds that blow from the high-pressure areas of the polar highs at the North and South Poles towards low-pressure areas within the Westerlies at high latitudes.

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Midlatitude westerlies

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- are prevailing winds from the west toward the east in the middle latitudes between 30 and 60 degrees latitude.

- they originate from the high-pressure areas in the horse latitudes and tend towards the poles and steer extratropical cyclones in this general manner.

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Subtropical easterlies

Back 65

IDK

Front 66

Ocean current

Back 66

An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by forces acting upon this mean flow, such as breaking waves, wind, the Coriolis effect, cabbeling, temperature and salinity differences, while tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon.

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Cold ocean current

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along different continental coastlines, cold ocean currents move toward the equatorial zone, affecting the coastal environment with cool coastal temperatures and creating dry coastal conditions

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Warm ocean current

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move in a westward manner in equatorial waters and are deflected by the presence of landmasses to the mid-latitude where they then move in an eastward direction in the northern hemisphere.

Front 69

Orographic precipitation

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rain that is produced from the lifting of moist air over a mountain.

- moist air rises and cools, pproducing orographic clouds, which are the source of the rain.

- Most orographic rain falls upwind of the mountain range, with some also falling a short distance downwind.

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Windward and Leeward sides

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Windward is the direction upwind (toward where the wind is coming from) from the point of reference.

Leeward is the direction downwind (or downward) from the point of reference.