Download Regional Geography of North America

Regional Geography of
North America
Social Studies 9
Definition of Geography
 Geography comes from the Greek words Geo
(γη) or Gaea (γαια), both meaning "Earth", and
graphein (γραφειν) meaning "to describe" or "to
write“ or "to map"
 Science that deals with the earth’s surface and
its division into continents and countries, and the
climate … [kind of weather patterns that a place
has over a period of years] , animal and plant
life, peoples, resources, industries, and products
of these divisions
from Canadian Intermediate Dictionary
Branches of Geography
Science of geography can be divided into
two main parts:
• Human
• Physical
Human Geography
• Is the study of how humans interact with
different environments
• It focuses on the causes (reasons for) and
consequences (impacts) of where human
activity is distributed across the earth’s
surface
• Subfields include: cultural, economic,
social, urban, and political
Physical Geography
• Is the study of the
natural processes that
shape the surface of
the Earth and life on
it
Subfields of Physical Geography
• Geomorphology (surface of earth and processes which
shape it now and in the past)
• Hydrology (amount and quality of water moving and
accumulating on the land surface and in the soil and
rocks near the surface)
• Glaciology (glaciers and ice sheets)
• Biogeography (how different species are distributed
across the earth and reasons for these patterns)
Subfields continued
• Climatology (climate or weather conditions averaged
over a long period of time)
• Pedology (study of soils)
• Oceanography (study of earth’s oceans and seas)
• Environmental Geography (study of human interactions
with the natural world)
Our focus …
• In this part of the course, we will be
focusing on the physical branch of
geography – Science 8 connection.
• We will begin with a brief review of the
Earth’s components (parts) and the forces,
including tectonic forces and glaciation,
that shape the surface of the Earth
Physical Regions of North America
• Look at page 163 of your text
• Continent of North America can be divided into 8
different geographic regions:
• Appalachian Region
• Coastal Plains
• Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowland
• Interior Plains
• Canadian Shield
• Western Cordillera
• Intermountain Region
• Arctic Region
Geographic Regions
• These geographic divisions are based
mainly on topography or the shape of the
land
• As you will see, the types of climate
(patterns of weather) and vegetation
(plants that grow naturally in an area) vary
from one region to another