Geos 2003 Test 1

Front 1

Parallel of latitude

Back 1

The circle that joins the places of the same latitude is called a parallel of latitude. Latitude describes how far north or south of the equator a place exists.

Front 2

Meridians of longitude

Back 2

The prime meridian, zero degrees longitude, is an imaginary line that runs from the north pole to the south pole passing through the former Royal observatory at Greenwich, London, United Kingdom.

Front 3

Friction of distance

Back 3

As the cost and time to cover the distance between two places increases there is a decrease in interactions between those places. It can include factors such as natural obstacles, political factors, and cultural factors in addition to physical distance between the two places.

Front 4

Relief

Back 4

The difference in the height and shape of the land. This includes features such as mountains, valleys, and plains.

Front 5

Weathering

Back 5

Caused by atmospheric processes and the effects of water. This process forms the basis for soil.

Front 6

Biome

Back 6

The largest scaled type of ecosystem. There are forest, grassland, desert, polar, and ocean biomes.

Front 7

Kyoto Protocol

Back 7

A statement adopted by The United Nations Convention in 1997 on Climate Change that addressed targets for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

Front 8

Renewable resources

Back 8

The resources that are naturally replenished such as solar energy and water that is supplied and recycled by natural processes.

Front 9

Nonrenewable resources

Back 9

Resources that are used up after extraction. They include fuels and metallic minerals. Some can be recycled.

Front 10

World languages

Back 10

Languages that are commonly spoken around the world by people who do not otherwise speak the same language.

Front 11

ethocentrism

Back 11

When people within an ethnic group, people who share common characteristics such as perceived origin, religion, language, customs, or physical features, judge other ethnic groups harshly because of their differences.

Front 12

megacities

Back 12

A city with a population of over 10 million inhabitants. There were 2 in 1950 and 18 in 2007.

Front 13

Population doubling time

Back 13

The amount of time that it takes a country's population to double in size.

Front 14

Estuary

Back 14

A wide river mouth that experiences changes in tidal water level and quality.

Front 15

Fjord

Back 15

A formerly glaciated valley that was flooded with ocean water after the sea level rose in the post-glacial age.

Front 16

Loess

Back 16

Fine-grained and fertile soils developed from windblown deposits.

Front 17

Black Triangle

Back 17

A heavily polluted industrial area straddling the Polish, Czech, and German borders.

Front 18

Gentrification

Back 18

the movement of higher income groups to occupy and improve residences in older and poorer parts of the city.

Front 19

Global cities

Back 19

cities that have major impacts on the places surrounding them as well as on cross-border links to other cities. They are prime or control centers of accounting, advertising, banking, and law in the global economy.

Front 20

Nation-state

Back 20

The linking of a separate and distinct people (nation) and a politically organized territory with its own sovereign government (state).

Front 21

Irredentism

Back 21

The desire to gain control over lost territories or territories perceived to belong rightfully to a group; associated with nationalism.

Front 22

Democratic Centralism

Back 22

The practice of sole governance by the Communist Party, the political party of the working class, because it is believed that only the Communist Party is the true representative of the people.

Front 23

NATO

Back 23

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization - A military alliance of non-Communist European countries and the U.S., founded in 1949 to counter the military threat of the Soviet Union.

Front 24

Imperialism/Colonialism

Back 24

Imperialism is the practice of extending the rule of an empire over foreign lands. Colonialism is the system by which one country extends its political control to another territory to improve local conditions and/or economically exploit the human beings and natural resources of the subordinate territory.

Front 25

Agglomeration Economics

Back 25

The total economies achieved by a production unit because of a large number of related economic activities in the same area.

Front 26

Imagined Community

Back 26

The commonality that defines a nation such as shared language, religion, history, ideology, ethnicity, and race.

Front 27

First Nations

Back 27

Indigenous groups that remain in colonized countries as minority populations that have evolved their own cultural and political aspirations.

Front 28

IGO/NGO

Back 28

Intergovernmental Organization/Nongovernmental Organization - An entity other than a country government that seeks to regulate and to legislate activities and governing standards. They are increasingly challenging and eroding the sovereignty of countries.

Front 29

GDP/GNI

Back 29

Gross Domestic Product / Gross Domestic Income. GDP is the total value of goods and services produced within a country in a year. GNI is also known as gross nation product and adds the role of foreign transactions to GDP

Front 30

HDI/HPI

Back 30

Human Development Index/ Human Poverty Index - HDI is a broad estimate of human well-being, in which countries are tanked by incorporation statistics calculated from averages of a long and healthy life, education, and a decent standard of living. HPI, linked to HDI, is another composite index that measures deprivation in HDI criteria, and ranks countries by the proportions of populations affected by deprivation.

Front 31

OFC s

Back 31

Offshore Financial Centers are places that individuals and businesses move financial assets in order to save money. They have low tax rates, few regulations, and security.

Front 32

Deglobalization

Back 32

It is also known as localization and occurs when transportation costs, tariffs, and other costs erase the savings of low wages found far away. It increases the advantages of doing business at home.

Front 33

Sustainable Human Development

Back 33

This involves economic growth that does not deplete resources, linking both human and natural resources it draws together studies of human and physical geography.

Front 34

Growth Pole

Back 34

An urban center designated for scarce investment resources in order to influence the surrounding area.

Front 35

Emerging countries

Back 35

In the early 2000s, a group of developing countries with economic growth that is beginning to challenge wealthier countries.

Front 36

November 9, 1989

Back 36

The date of the fall of the Berlin wall, marking the end of Germany's Cold War division. Less than a year later the country became unified again for the first time since the end of WWII.

Front 37

Norden

Back 37

Northern Europe is sometimes referred to as Norden. It is a sparsely populated sub-region of cold climates that is rich in natural resources. The four largest countries in the region have the world's highest GDP per capita figures and standards of living with high levels of education and health care.

Front 38

Benelux

Back 38

An acronym for Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The term was coined in recognition of the close working relationship these countries have with one another. It eventually paved the way for the European Union.

Front 39

Single European Act

Back 39

Signed in 1986 when Spain and Portugal joined the EC, European Community. It set out the steps to complete a single market.

Front 40

ECSC

Back 40

The Benelux countries joined with France and West Germany to form the European Coal and Steel Community.

Front 41

EEC

Back 41

The European Economic Community formed in 1957 by the five ECSC countries plus Italy. It later evolved into the European Union.

Front 42

Supernationalism

Back 42

The idea that differing nations can cooperate so closely for their shared mutual benefit that they can share the same government, economy (including currency), social policies, and even military.

Front 43

Devolution

Back 43

The process by which local people desire less rule from their national governments and seek greater authority in governing themselves.

Front 44

Seperatism

Back 44

The desire for complete independence by and ethnic group

Front 45

Decolonization

Back 45

The process by which mainly European countries enabled their colonies to become independent countries.

Front 46

Gastarbeiter

Back 46

The German term for guest workers. Workers who have the right to work in a country without legal citizenship. It is founded under the principle that these workers would always be foreigners and would eventually go back to their respective homelands.

Front 47

CIS

Back 47

Common Wealth of Independent States- A political and economic organization created in 1991 by 11 republics of the Soviet Union to coordinate relations between member countries. Georgia joined in 1993 becoming the 12th member.

Front 48

Southern Mountain Wall

Back 48

The southern boundary of mountain ranges of the Russian region

Front 49

Continentality

Back 49

Especially cold winters and hot summers resulting from location on landmasses that are far from the moderating effects of large water bodies such as oceans.

Front 50

Black Earth Soils

Back 50

High fertility soil type in which organic matter accumulates near the surface, commonly beneath temperate grassland communities.

Front 51

Russification

Back 51

Policies directed at making non-Russians into Russians by encouraging or forcing non-Russians to adopt Russian cultural characteristics such as the Russian language.

Front 52

Czar

Back 52

Latin for Caesar, it is the title that Ivan II (the Great) chose as the emperor of Russia in 1453. The title lasted until the last czar was deposed in 1917.

Front 53

Glasnost

Back 53

The Soviet Union Policy of the late 1980s designed to create greater openness and exchange of information.

Front 54

Bolshevik

Back 54

A group of communists also known as the Reds that over threw the Russian provisional government after Czar Nicholas II was deposed. The y established the Union of the Soviet Republics (USSR and was led by Vladimir I. Lenin.

Front 55

Operation Barbarossa

Back 55

Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union which began on June 22, 1941. It was stopped in part by the harsh Russian winter.

Front 56

Five Year Plan

Back 56

Stalin's plan to transform the economy of the Soviet Union. It was comprehensive economic planning that began in 1928 and was followed until 1991.

Front 57

Peristoika

Back 57

The Soviet Union policy of the late 1980s designed to reconstruct the political and economic structure of the country so that it could compete in the capitalist world economic system.

Front 58

Virgin Lands Compaign

Back 58

A Soviet agricultural campaign began in the 1950s. It promoted farming in lands where it had never taken place before, primarily in lands that were very marginal because the soil was poor or not enough water or heat was present to grow plants.

Front 59

Xenophobia

Back 59

A fear of foreigners.

Front 60

Heartland/Hinterland

Back 60

Heartland - the areas of a country that contains a large percentage of the country's population, economic activity, and political influence. Hinterland - The areas outside the heartland that has a small percentage of a country's population, economic activity, and political influence compared to the heartland , though it many be well endowed with natural resources.

Front 61

Zoroastrianism

Back 61

Though it no longer exists, it is a religious forerunner to Christianity and Islam, tracing its origins back to Azerbaijan. They believe that the Earth would be consumed by fire following judgment day.

Front 62

Armenian Genocide

Back 62

The extermination of between 600,000 and 2 million Armenians out of a population of about 3 million in 1915.

Front 63

Gulag

Back 63

Short for the Russian name for the Main Directorate for Corrective Labor Camps, it is a collection of prison camps in the former Soviet Union where criminals and those who opposed the Communist government were sent t perform hard labor as punishment.