---

  Geographers study the location and distributions of features or phenomena on the Earth's surface. They may be the landmarks of human occupation or properties of the natural environment, or both. An interesting aspect of geography has to do with interrelationships of natural environments and human societies. Geographers approach to the human and the physical environment is determined by a spatial perspective.

  Geographers concentrate on space and place just as historians focus on time and chronology (also important to geography). Geography is full of spatial terms: area, distance, direction, clustering, proximity, isolation, accessibility and many others. The spatial structure of cities, the layout of farms and fields, the networks of transportation, systems of rivers patterns of climate-all are necessary to the examination of geographic realms-areas that have their own identity and distinctiveness.

  Geography is concerned not only with where something is, but why they are located where they are, how they are constituted and what their future may be in this changing world. Each geographic realm possess a special combination of cultural, organizational and environmental properties. These characteristic qualities are imprinted on the landscape, giving each realm its own traditional attributes and social settings.

 

  Geographers, like other scholars, seek to establish order from the countless pieces of information (data) with which they are confronted. Biologists have established a system of classification, or taxonomy to categorize millions of plants and animals into a hierarchical system consisting of king, phylum, (division for plants),class, order, family, genus, and species. Geologists classify the Earth's rocks into three major categories, fitting these into a complicated geologic time scale that spans hundreds of millions of years.

  Additional levels of spatial classification are needed for more detailed analyses. The region is an area within a geographic realm which requires more specific criteria - in order to determine the location of the Midwest within the North American realm criteria such a speech (dialects or different languages), cultural practices, agriculture, climate biotic provinces (locations of dominant plans and animals) and voting (political) patterns can be used, in order to determine a region. Regions do have several properties in common:

All regions have area. They exist in the real world and occupy space on the Earth's surface.

 Regions have boundaries. Usually those can be determined by natural boundaries such as mountain crests or forested margins.

All regions have location. Often those are found by using a grid system that uses latitude and longitude as a means of location (more on this later).

  However, many regions are often determined by subtle and/or gradual changes in the landscape. Determination of the Corn Belt of the agricultural heartland of America necessitates specific criteria, say more than 50 percent of the farmland in any unit area must be devoted to growing corn. Not all regional boundaries can be specifically determined and sometimes neighboring regions display transitional borderlands.

  Another locational device used by many is relative location, i.e. location with respect to other regions phenomena. Homogeneity or sameness may be used to determine a region's human (or cultural) properties or its physical (natural) characteristics or both. When regions display a certain degree of homogeneity, they are referred to as formal regions. Not all formal regions are visibly uniform. A region may be defined by a language spoken by over 90 percent of the population which may not be readily apparent on the landscape (i.e. architectural).

  Other regions are determined by how they integrate with other regions. Suburbs, urbanized areas, farms, large cities are all examples of spatial systems. These are formed by the areal extent of the activities that define the. These are also examples of function regions - activities which have a core and a periphery for example TV station regions, newspaper subscription etc.

 

  Before we go any farther, it is necessary to define some of the geographer's terms and methods used to study the discipline.  As previously discussed, geographers use a grid system in order to precisely locate phenomena on the Earth's surface.

  Latitude is an angular distance north or south of the equator, measured from the center of earth. On a map or globe, the lines designating these angles of latitude run east and west, parallel to the equator. Because earth's equator divides the distance between the North Pole and the South Pole exactly in half, it is assigned the value of 0^o latitude. The North Pole is 90^o north latitude, and the South Pole is 90^o south latitude.

  A line connecting all points along the same latitudinal angle is called a parallel.   Latitude is the name of the angle (say 49^o north latitude), parallel names the line (49th parallel) and both indicate distance north of the equator.

  Latitude is determined by using the sun or the stars as points of reference. During daylight hours the angle of the sun above the horizon indicates the observers latitude, if adjustment is made for the season and time of day. Because Polaris, the North Star, is almost directly overhead of the North Pole, people anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere can determine their latitude by sighting Polaris and measuring its angular distance above the local horizon. The angle of elevation of Polaris above the horizon equals the latitude of the observation point. (However, due to precession, the Earth's movement which results in the wobbling of the earth's axis, will result in a gradual shifting the North Pole from Polaris to Vega over a 13,000 year period). In the Southern Hemisphere, Polaris cannot be seen (it is below the horizon) so such measurements are accomplished by sighting on the Southern Cross Constellation.

  Latitudinal Geographic Zones-Natural environments differ in operation and appearance from the equator to the poles. These differences are due to variation in the amount of solar energy received, which varies by latitude and season of the year.  Geographers identify latitudinal geographic zones as regions with fairly consistent qualities. They are equatorial, tropical, subtropical, mid-latitude, sub-arctic or sub-Antarctic and arctic and Antarctic.  These generalized latitudinal zones are not rigid delineations of environmental regions but are useful for approximation. The Tropic of Cancer (23.5^o north) and the Tropic of Capricorn (23.5^o south) are the farthest north and south parallels that experience perpendicular (directly overhead) rays of the sun at local noon. The Arctic Circle (66.5^o south) are the parallels farthest from the poles that experience 24 uninterrupted hours of darkness during their respective winters.

  Longitude is angular distance east or west of a point on Earth’s surface, measured from the center of the Earth.  On a globe, the lines designating these angles of longitude run north and south at right angles (90 percent) to the equator and to all parallels.  Lines connecting all points along the same longitude are meridians.  Longitude is the name of the angle, meridian names the line and both indicate distance east and west of the Prime Meridian (or Greenwich Meridian because it runs north and south through Greenwich, England).

  Because meridians of longitude converge toward the poles, the actual distance on the ground spanned by a degree of longitude is greatest at the equator and diminishes to zero at the poles where they converge.

  Because Earth revolves 360^o every 24 hours, or 15^o per hour (360^o 24+15^o) a time zone of one hour is established for each 15^o of longitude.  Most nations in the early 1800’s used their own national prime meridians for land maps, creating confusion in global mapping of clock time.

  In 1884, the International Meridian Conference was held in Washington, D.C., attended by 27 nations.  Most participating nations chose the Royal Observatory at Greenwich as the prime meridian of 0^o longitude for the establishment of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).  Each time zone theoretically covers 7.5^o on either side of a controlling meridian and represents one hour.

  An important corollary of the prime meridian is the 180^o meridian on the opposite side of the planet, better known as the International Date Line, which marks the place where each day officially begins and sweeps westward across the Earth.  This movement of time is created by the planet’s turning eastward on its axis.  At the International Date Line, the west side of the line is always one day ahead of the east side.  No matter what time of day it is when the line is crossed, the calendar changes a day.  Locating the line in the sparsely inhabited Pacific Ocean minimizes most confusion.

  Great circles and small circles are important concepts that help summarize latitude and longitude.  A great circle is any circle of Earth’s circumference whose center coincides with the center of Earth.  Every meridian is one-half of a great circle that passes through the poles.  On flat maps, airlines and shipping routes appear to arc their way across oceans and landmasses.  These are great circle routes, the shortest distance between two points on Earth.  Only one parallel is a great circle – the equator.  All other parallels diminish in length toward the poles and along with any other non-great circle, constitute small circles – circles whose centers do not coincide with Earth’s center.

 

  A map is a generalized view of an area usually some portion of Earth’s surface, as seen from above and greatly reduced in size.  Cartography is the part of responsible for map making.  Maps supply critical information with which geography depict spatial information and analysis of spatial relationship.

  Map scale is similar to scale use by architects when they are designing a home or building to guide contractors, cartographers perform similar tasks in the preparation of maps.  The ratio of the image on a map to the real world in called scale;  ratio of map distance to ground distance.  A 1:24,000 scale represents one unit on the map to 24,000 identical units on the ground.

  Map scales can be represented in several ways:

A written scale i.e.;  “one centimeter to on kilometer” or “one inch to one mile”

A representative fraction (RF or fractional scale can be expressed as1:125,000 or 1/125,000.  No actual units of measurement are mentioned because any unit is applicable as long as both parts of the fraction are in the same unit.

A graphic scale (or bar scale) is expressed as a bar graph with units noted to allow measurement of distances on the map.  The advantages of a graph scale is that it changes to match the map during enlargement or reduction, while written and fraction scales become incorrect with enlargement or reduction.

  Consider in figure I-2 (page 8 of de Blij and Muller) each of the four maps has a scale designation which can be shown as a bar graph (in miles and kilometers) and as a fraction.  Scales are often called “small”, “medium” and “large” in relative terms, a scale of 1:24,000 is a large scale, while a scale of 1:50,000,000 is a small scale.  The greater the size of the denominator in a fractional scale (or the number on the right in a ratio scale), the smaller the scale and the more abstract the map must be in relation to what is being mapped.  Look at figure I-2.  Which is a large scale map and which is a small-scale map?

  Critical to the understanding of our planet are the physical or natural processes in action.  Despite technological advances, our physical environment still exerts a prominent impact on the human activity.

  The template upon which environmental change occurs is the unequal distribution of solar energy.  The development of Earth is closely related to the growth of the Sun, and the long-term future of Earth is likely tied to the Sun’s life cycle.  This is the dominant object in our region of space-it is the only object having the enormous mass needed to create the internal conditions of temperature and pressure required to produce significant energy the radiation released by the sun is in the form of electromagnetic energy.  Solar radiation occupies a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum of radiant energy.  This radiant energy travels at the speed of light, transmitting energy to Earth.  The total spectrum of this radiant energy is made up of wavelengths.  A wavelength is the distance between corresponding points on any two successive waves.  The number of waves passing a fixed point in a given time period is the frequency.  The sun emits radiant energy consisting of:

            8% Ultraviolet, Gamma Rays and X-Ray Wavelength

  47% Visible Light

  45% Infrared

  The hotter the body, the shorter the wavelengths. Solar radiation energy emitted occurs in shorter wavelengths (0.4-0.5 micrometers or microns), while the Earth emits radiation around 10 microns or in the infrared spectra.  Earth’s radiation occurs as long wave radiation because it is a cooler radiating body.

  While only a small percentage of radiation reaches the Earth, it is responsible for much of the energy input into Earth’s systems.  This intercepted solar radiation is called insolation, radiation that arrives at the Earth’s atmosphere and surface.  The amount of insolation received at the top of the Earth’s atmosphere (on an average) is termed the solar constant.  Though it varies of 0.5% to 1.0%, are enough to trigger dramatic climatic shifts, which can significantly alter life on Earth.  Climatologists are studying these shifts as possible links to ice ages and a possible cause of global warming.

  The curved surface of the Earth means that not all surfaces will receive equal amounts of insolation.  Regions in the tropics (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, 23.5^o North and 23.5^o South respectively) receive the greatest amount of direct solar radiation.  The significance of the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn is that they represent the poleward location that receives insolation perpendicular (directly over head) to the surface.  When the sun is over the Tropic of Cancer, this represents its northward most point in the Northern Hemisphere, and the commencement of summer (June 21st).  Likewise, when the sun is directly over the tropic of Capricorn (December 22nd) in the Southern Hemisphere, this marks the onset of summer in the Southern Hemisphere (of course, it is winter in the opposite hemisphere).  The vernal equinox (March 20 or 21) and the autumnal equinox to represent the time when the sun is directly over the equator so that its rays strike at a 90^o angle.  All locations on Earth experience a 12 hour day and a 12 hour night on these two days.

  Geographers are using more sophisticated analyses of physical and cultural data in order to determine spatial relationships.  Remote sensing senses the shape, size and color of objects from a distance using the visible wavelength part of the electromagnetic spectrum, similar to that of a camera.  It senses the wavelengths for which it was designed and is emitted from an object.  Many of these images are recorded by satellite in a digital form for a later use.  These images are transmitted to receivers on Earth similar to a television broadcast.  Each scene is converted into pixels (picture elements) identified by horizontal (line) row and vertical (samples) rows.  Pixel counts for most images run well into the millions.

  Remote Sensing Systems are either active, directing a beam of energy at a surface and analyzing the reflecting energy, or passive, recording radiant energy transmitted from a surface.  The landsat series of satellites and energy of the weather satellites providing visible and infrared images are examples of the last.

  Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer based data processing method for analysis and manipulation of spatial information GIS applications are too numerous to mention.  Common applications include the use of references system (i.e.;  latitudes and longitude) coordinates on a map.  These maps are converted into digital data of areas, points and lines.  Remote sensed data can be transferred to the reference map.

  GIS applications also include analyzing patterns and relationships within one data plane or an overlay analysis where two or more data planes interace.  GIS applications are useful in analysis of environmental problems such as ecosystem, land use patterns and agricultural landscapes.

 

  Despite our technological expertise and breakthroughs, the natural environment is still integral in human fortunes.  Environments have changed rapidly in the past, often with devastating results to existing civilizations.  Today, concern exists over future climate and possible anthropogenic  (human) impacts which may exacerbate environmental change.  This brings us to the study of physical geography-The spatial study of the Earth’s natural phenomena and their systems, processes and structures-this provides the necessary information to enable Earth’s scientists to discover many geologic, climatic and biogeographic variations that exists across the globe.

 

  Proposed by Alfred Wegener, the various landmasses had once been united and then migrated to their present day position.  Continental Drift, explained the great variety of natural landscapes on the continents.  South America drifted westward away from Africa and into the Pacific, its leading edge forming the Andes Mountains.  North America’s mountains also lie in the West, while those of Australia (which moved eastward into the Pacific) lie in the eastern margin of that land mass.  The huge mountain range of the Himalayas formed when India, which broke away from Africa, crashed into the Eurasian Plate.  Geologists of the day (around 1915) dismissed his theory because of failure to determine the mechanism of Continental Drift.

  After World War II, when geologists, geophysicists and oceanographers set out to map the features of the ocean’s floor, evidence was gathered that the Earth’s crust was indeed mobile.  Regions of undersea volcanoes (called mid-ocean ridges) were determined to be geologically younger than continental shelves of continents thousands of miles away.  These ridges are found in nearly all the Earth’s oceans and move slowly, about a centimeter or two per year.

  As these plates collide (called tectonic plates) the lighter plates rides up and over the top of the denser plate.  These plates are called Tectonic Plates and the modern theory is known as Plate Tectonics.  The plate collisions are accompanied by numerous earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.  If two lighter plates (continent-to-continent collisions) collide, great mountain ranges are created with earthquakes resulting in the lighter plate (continent) riding over the top of the denser (ocean plate) which is subducted downward into the molten interior of the Earth where it is destroyed (subduction zone).  Near these subduction zones, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common, especially near Japan,, the Philippines, Indonesia and western South America.  Africa, the center of Wegener’s supercontinent (Pangea= old land), does not have the lengthy mountain drain of other continents, and is thought to be the landmass that the other continents broke off.  As a result it has been called the plateau continent and is geologically one of the oldest landmasses on Earth.

  Even as continental land masses move, Earth is periodically subject to glaciation when ice sheets expand and cover portions of the Earth.  Glaciations are actually a series of global cooling phases resulting in changing environments and changes in plant and animal distributions.

  During a glacial period the temperatures swing back and forth from warmer to colder and back again and each time it gets colder, drastic changes occur, such as expansion of ice sheets, lowering sea levels, extinction of plants and animals and the shifting equatorward of life zones.  This cooling trend has been at work for the last 20 million years.  Some glacialogists and climatologists believe due to the extensive mountain building episodes that created the Himalayan and Rocky Mountain chains.  These upwarpings redirected air masses and created rainshadows (dry regions downwind of prevailing winds) changing the climate to a colder, drier regime.  During the past 5 to 6 million years the Earth has been in the midst of a glacial known as the late Cenozoic glaciation.  It is believed that the humans are the products of the glaciation .  Human being managed to adopt to changing environmental conditions and then expanded their numbers during interglaciations-a period of global warmth that occurs between two glaciations.

  Since the last glacial retreat 15,000 years ago the human population has rapidly expanded from caves to megacities, from foot travel to space travel.  The current interglacial is called the Holocene epoch and there is no evidence despite current concerns over human-influenced global warming, the future glaciations won’t occur.  Indeed, a sudden shift in the climate-and there is evidence that the shift is decadal rather than over a thousand year period-to ice age conditions with a global population of over 6 billion may result in greater environmental consequences than today’s concerns over global warming.  Geographers have noticed similarities in today’s wild weather fluctuations to events that presaged earlier glacial expansion (ice core data, geologic records).

 

  Ocean water is of little use to humanity:  it is made available via mechanisms that bring moisture from the oceans to land.  This mechanism is the hydrologic cycle which functions as a water distribution system.  Water evaporates into the air from the salt-water ocean surface, leaving the salt behind;  the moisture-laden air mass then drifts over land where by various atmospheric processes condensation occurs and fresh-water precipitation falls.

  The hydrologic cycle can be interrupted or enhanced dependent upon climatic events and or cycles;  such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) which occasionally redirects moisture-laden air masses across the globe due to anomalous warming of the Central and Eastern Pacific Ocean.

  The distribution of world precipitation (displayed in Figure I-6 of de Blij and Muller) results from the interaction of global atmospheric and oceanic circulation as well as heat and moisture transfer.  This distribution of precipitation is also determined by:

 Prevailing winds

 Topographic barriers

 Semi-permanent anticyclones (highs) and cyclones (lows)

  Typically equatorial regions experience the most precipitation of any location on Earth.  This is due in part due to convergence of humid low-level winds and the reception (on average) of the most solar energy.  This convergence results in rising air which brings in additional moisture laden air which rises, condenses and precipitates as rain.  The rising air spreads out at upper levels of the atmosphere and eventually sinks to the Earth’s surface between 15 and 30 degrees either side of the equator.  This air either returns to the equator or moves towards the poles.  In regions where the air is sinking (15^o - 30^o), generally the weather experienced is warm and dry and this is where the majority of the world’s subtropical deserts are found.  (fig I-6 de Blij and Muller).

  As air moves toward the poles it clashes with cold denser air moving towards the equator.  This sets up another zone of precipitation between 35^o and 60^o latitude.  These latitudinal zones are delineated by wind regions.  Winds result as a means of equaling differences between warm and cold air and high pressure and low pressure.  Wind speed and direction are determined by differences in pressure gradient, rotation of the Earth and frictional effects of the Earth’s surface.  Rotation of the Earth results in a deflection of the wind (or an object such as a missile) to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere.

  Revisiting our precipitation regimes, the equatorial region would be the trade wind zone with Northeast Trades north of the equator and Southeast Trades south of the equator.  (They are called tradewinds because winds were steady and reliable necessary when European trade ships were heading to the New World.)  The convergence between northeast and southeast trades is known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and  this boundary follows the sun as it migrates between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.  Air sinking and migrating towards the poles between 30^o and 60^o latitude are the prevailing westerly wind belt.  This zone carries much of the mid-latitude storms common to North America, Europe, Australia and South America.  The clash between the westerlies and cold air from the poles (polar easterlies) generates many of these storms.  The boundary between  the polar easterlies and the westerlies is called the polar front and is usually found around 60^o latitude, but its position varies widely, especially during the winter when it can be displaced equatorward to 30^o latitude.

  Ocean currents are also instrumental in determination of precipitation regimes.  Mirroring the circulation of subtropical high pressure cells, ocean currents warm or cool waters serve as source regions for moisture-laden air masses which often acts as fuel for developing storms and precipitation events.  Following the clockwise rotation of the Bermuda-Azores High in the Atlantic, warm humid air from the Equatorial Atlantic and Caribbean typically covers the Southeastern United States. (Remember highs rotate clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, counter clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere due to rotation of Earth.  Rotation of lows are opposite of highs).  As this air mass moves eastward on the northern part of the Bermuda-Azore High, cool humid air moves over Western Europe resulting in milder, wet weather than what would be expected at such a northerly latitude.  Ocean circulation is the same in the North Pacific.  Essentially, east coasts of continents experience hot humid summers and cold stormy winters while west coasts of continents experience sunny dry summer (punctuated by periods of fog from cool ocean waters) and mild stormy winters.  The reason for the differences between the two coasts, as air along the eastern margin of our subtropical high moves towards the equator, this cool air from polar regions chills the water resulting in stable air masses which provide dry sunny weather especially during the summer.  Although the circulation pattern is reversed in the Southern Hemisphere, the precipitation patterns are the same as they are in the Northern Hemisphere on east and west coasts of Southern Continents.

  These precipitation patterns enable us to determine climatic regions worldwide based on a history of meteorological (weather) events.  Determination of these regions is problematic due to:

Scarcity of inadequate climatic records around the world.

Short-term changeable patterns of climate and weather that do not follow long-term established patterns on a map.

Disagreement concerning criteria used and its importance.

Figure I-7 on pages 16 and 17 of de Blij displays a climatic scheme developed by Wladimir Köppen and modified by Rudolf Geiger.  Its comparative simplicity allows this scheme to be used world-wide by most scientists and is represented by letters.

 A-tropical climate

 B-dry climate

 C-temperate mesothermal

 D-humid continental or microthermal

 E-polar climates

 H-highland

These climates can be further subdivided as follows:

Af -Tropical Rainforest, no dry season (f) primarily found in equatorial regions.  Only regime where daily temperature range exceeds normal.

Am- Tropical Monsoon (m) This climate occurs in regions subject to monsoon climatology-a seasonal reversal of winds best developed in South Asia.  Typified by a short dry season and a long wet season.  Some of the largest annual precipitation totals (up to 1000 inches) in the world occur in this climate.

Aw- Tropical Savanna-has a wider daily and annual temperature range and a longer dry season.  Dominated by grass and subject to fire during the dry season.  This is the largest subdivision of A climates.  Some Aw climates are dominated by two rain maxima.

 

 Dry climates occur in lower as well as higher latitudes.  The division occurs between arid (desert) regions and semiarid (steppe) regions.

 Bsk-cold, mid latitude steppe

 Bwk-cold mid latitude desert

 Bsh-hot, subtropical steppe

 Bwh-hot, subtropical desert

  The climatic division between desert and steppe is the 10 inch precipitation isoyhet (lines of equal precipitation).  Regimes that receive between 10 and 25 inches are considered steppe, under 10 inches a year, a desert.

Humid Temperate (C) Climates

  Almost all of these climates are found just beyond the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn (23.5° North and South Latitude).  This is the prevailing climate in the southeastern United States, North America’s West coast, Western Europe and the Mediterranean, Eastern China and Southern Africa and Coastal Australia.  These regions account for over half (55 percent) of the world’s population and some of the world’s most productive farmlands.  These climates, while generally mild, have some of the most varied subdivisions of any major climate regime.  They include:

Cfa-Humid Subtropical-no dry season, hot humid summers, cold stormy winters (eastern U.S.A., eastern China, eastern Brazil, Argentina and Australia).

Cfb-Marine West Coast-no dry season, cool wet winters, mild summers (western Europe, coastal western Canada and the Pacific Northwest, southwestern coastal Chile).

Csa-Mediterranean-hot dry rainless summers, mild, wet winters (coastal Mediterranean, California, South Africa, Southwest Australia, west coast of central Chile).

Csb-coastal California, Chile and parts of southern Australia similar to Mediterranean but subject to frequent fogs and less temperate variability.

Cwa-Dry winter-similar to Savanna climate, but more temperature extremes, especially winters (Interior India, South Africa and North Central China-winters in China can be extremely cold in this regime.)

D-Humid Continental or Microthermal Climate

  This climate is a northern hemisphere phenomena, as no comparable land mass exists in the southern hemisphere.  Typified by long cold winters and short humid summers.

Dfa-cold winters and short hot summers-New York, Chicago and Boston lie in this climate

Other subdivisions of D climates are based on precipitation regimes.

Dwd, Dfd-extremely cold subarctic winters-some monthly averages-50°F-Siberia

 Ef-polarice climate (temperatures average below freezing all year)

H-Highland Climate

 Similar to E climates in a number of highland areas-even at low latitudes near the equator

 

Regions and Cultures

  While we have discussed variations in the natural environment, this course will focus on human-geographic imprints on the landscapes in different regions of the world.  In particular, geographers are interested in the imprints of culture and its associated patterns of behavior on the landscape.  Culture has been defined as the sum total of the knowledge, attitudes and habitual behavior patterns shared and transmitted by members of society.  Different regions of the world allow us to examine how people exploit their available resources, maximize their economic opportunities, adapt to their regions environment and organize their living space.

  Composite human imprints on the Earth’s surface is called the cultural landscape.  It is defined as the forms superimposed on the physical landscapes by human activities.  These forms result from the activities of cultural processes-forces that shape cultural patterns and unfold over a long period of time and involve the cumulative influences of successive occupants.  Cultural landscapes often consist of intangible qualities that are easy to perceive but difficult to define.  You know the smells of your favorite Mexican restaurant, but defining it may be difficult.  Expanding this theme, the sights, sounds and smells of an Arab bazaar may be easy to imagine, but difficult to adequately describe or understand to someone who has never witnessed such an experience.

Questions for Review

 

1.Differentiate between Realms and Regions and the criteria used to determine their spatial boundaries.

2.Explain the difference between latitude and longitude and how they are determined.  Define the following terms: Prime Meridian, Tropic of Cancer, Tropic of Capricorn, International Date Line, parallels, meridians, great circles and small circles.

3. Define scale and determine the difference between large scale and small scale maps.

4. Explain how the distribution of solar radiation on the surface of the Earth influences its climate. Differentiate between shortwave and longwave energy.  What is the Electromagnetic Spectrum and what portion of this spectrum consitutes visible light?

5.What is Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems? Click on the GIS link and list at least three applications of GIS in use.

6. Using your text and the introductory chapter and the highlighted link define Continental Drift and Plate Tectonics, and use these terms to explain the major physical features on the surface of the Earth (ie; Andes, Himalayas Mountain Ranges, Mid-Atlantic Ridge and East African Rift Valleys.

7. What is glaciation? What areas of the Earth have been glaciated and what are some physical features produced by glaciation? Why do deBlij and Muller believe that the return of an ice age pose more of a threat than global warming?

8. What is the Hydrologic Cycle? What variables determine the distribution of precipitation around the Earth?

9. Using Koeppen's Climatic Classification System, define the A,B,C,D,E and H climates. Now go back and define the subdivisions of these climates and their geographic disrtibution.  What are three reasons why an absolute definitive climate classification is difficult?