Download What is Geography?

Ch. 1
Geography
Notes
What is Geography?
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Geography is the study of Earth.
Geographers study how a place looks, what
weather patterns the place has, and how people
interact with the place
Types of landforms
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Hills
Mountains
plateaus
What is Geography?
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Earth’s surface is made up of many plates, and
huge slabs of land that float on liquid rock. It
creates land forms and shapes the earth’s
surface
This movement is called plate tectonics.
What is Geography?
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Climate
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Average weather a place has over many years
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Based on temperature and rainfall
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Determines the kind of vegetation an area has
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Plant life that grows in an area
What is Geography?
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People
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Physical traits of a place affect the people living in
it
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How they dress, what they eat…
Different Cultures
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Customs, ideas, beliefs, and skills
Why do geographers study
places?
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They want to learn what happened in
the past – to see how a place got to
be the way it is. They also hope to
see what might happen to a place in
the future.
Five Themes of Geography
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Location
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Where a place is
Absolute location
 Relative location
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Five Themes of Geography
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Place
 What a place is like
Physical characteristics
Human characteristics
Five Themes of Geography
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Interactions of humans and
environment
 How people and places affect each
other
Impact of environment on people
Impact of People on the
environment
Five Themes of Geography
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Movement
 Transfer of people or culture from
one place to another
Transportation
communication
Five Themes of Geography
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Region
 Different places with similar traits
Physical region
Cultural region
Tools of the Trade
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Globe
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Physical Map
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sphere with image of Earth printed on it
Show landforms and bodies of water
Political map
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Shows boundaries of countries or states and
location of cities
The Four Regions of Texas
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Texas is the second largest state in the U.S.
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Most of Texas has hot summers and mild
winters
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Texas sometimes has droughts.
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Long periods of no rain
The Four Regions of Texas
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The Coastal Plains
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Most highly populated area
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Some prairies and woodlands
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Ends where a steep cliff called an escarpment rises to
higher land
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Mostly low land
The Four Regions of Texas
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North Central Plains
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Drops in elevation from west to east
Buttes
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Mesas
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Steep-sided hills
Hills with flat tops
Ranching and farming
The Four Regions of Texas
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Great Plains
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High Plains
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Llano Estacado
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Flat and has little vegetation
Edwards Plateau
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Flat grassland
Rolling hills and some basins
Generally dry region.
Ranching and some farming
The Four Regions of Texas
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Mountains and Basins
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High mountain ranges
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Guadalupe Mountains
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Low desert basins between mountain ranges
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Deep canyons cuts by rivers
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Very dry
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Smallest region