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WORLD GEOGRAPHY:
BUILDING A GLOBAL
PERSPECTIVE
UNIT 1:
PHYSICAL AND HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
KEYS TO UNDERSTANDING
GEOGRAPHY
1. The World In Spatial Terms:
In geography we examine the relationships among people, places, and
environments by organizing information about them into a spatial contexts.
2. Places and Regions:
The identities and lives of individuals and peoples are rooted in particular
places and in those human constructs called regions.
3. Physical Systems:
Physical processes shape earth’s surface and interact with plant and
animal life to create, sustain, and modify ecosystems.
4. Human Systems:
People are central to geography in that human activities help shape earth’s
surface, human settlements and structures are part of earths surface, and
humans compete for control of earth’s surface.
5. Environment and Society:
The physical environment is modified by human activities, largely as a
consequence of the ways in which human societies value and use earth’s
natural resources. Human activities are also influenced by earth’s physical
features and processes.
6. The Uses of Geography:
Knowledge of geography enables people to develop an understanding of
the relationships among people, places, and environments over time—that
is, of earth as it was, is and might be.
CHAPTER 1
PHYSICAL AND
HUMAN
GEOGRAPHY
THE FIVE THEMES
OF GEOGRAPHY
• Location
• Place
• Human-environment
interaction
• Movement
• Regions
MAIN IDEAS
•Places may be described as
having absolute and relative
locations, and physical and
human characteristics.
•Interactions between people
and their environments have
both positive and negative
consequences.
THE STUDY OF GEOGRAPHY
• GEOGRAPHY –
• Comes from a Greek word meaning “writing about” or “describing.”
• It is the study of where people, places, and things are located and
of the ways in which things relate to each other.
• HOW
• Explores earth’s surface and how it is shaped.
•
•
Earthquakes
Hurricanes
• People of the world
•
•
Their cultures and economies
Complex relationships that develop
• Between them and their environment
How do our
perspectives
change?
THE FIVE THEMES
OF GEOGRAPHY
• What is the location of the
place?
• What is the character of a
place?
• How do people interact with the
natural environment of a place?
• How do people, goods, and
ideas move between places?
• How are places similar to and
different from other places?
The Themes
•Each of the five themes
allow geographers a way of
analyzing and organizing
the study of the world.
•As well as understanding
how they relate to each
other.
LOCATION
Starts with finding its location with regards to absolute or relative location.
• Absolute Location –
where is it on the globe?
• Longitude and Latitude
•
PP 16-17
•
35 deg. N 80 deg. W
•
30 deg. N 90 deg. W
LINES OF THE EARTH
• Equator – circles the globe halfway between the
north and south poles
• Hemisphere – division created by the equator
• Latitude – imaginary lines that run parallel to
the Equator.
• Longitude – imaginary lines that run
perpendicular to the Equator
• Also known as the Prime Meridian
LOCATION CONTINUED
Starts with finding its location with regards to absolute or relative
location.
• Relative Location – where is it with regards to other places.
• Knowing the location of one place allows us to determine or give directions to
another place.
• Los Angeles west of Pasadena
• Hattiesburg is north of Wiggins
PLACES
Are distinct from another place because of its
attributes.
• Physical Characteristics
• Human Characteristics
• Landforms
• Population
•
What are they
• Vegetation
•
What are they
• Climate
•
What are they
• Live, work and visit
• Languages, Customs, Beliefs
• How many types
• Economy
• How does it work
• Government Type
HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT
INTERACTION
Is determined by how people use their environment.
• How have we changed our environment
• Intentional
• Unintentional
• Favorable
• Unfavorable
• Growth
• Irrigation
• Technology
MOVEMENT
Is determined by how people use their environment.
•Different characteristics of a location allow for the
movement of people and goods from one location to another
and the trading of goods between locations.
• Major hubs (Transportation)
• Airports
• Train Stations
• Sea Ports
REGIONS
A group of places with at least one common characteristic.
world is divided into many diverse regions
• Formal Regions
• Area in which certain
characteristics are
found throughout the
region.
• Governments
• Culture
• Vegetation
• Functional Regions
• One central place with
surrounding areas
affected by it.
• Metropolitan areas
• Basin
• Can be found in
different areas.
CHAPTER 1 SECTION 2
CHANGES WITHIN
the EARTH
THE EARTH’S STRUCTURE
• GEOLOGY - the study of the earth’s physical structure and history.
• Research history of earth (dates back 4.6 billion years) to predict future.
❖ Inside the Earth - developed idea of what earth’s interior looks like (pg 41)
➢ Core - center of earth, very hot metal (iron) with nickel
■ inner core is dense and solid
■ outer core is molten liquid
➢ Mantle - surrounds the core and is a thick layer of rock
■ 1800 miles thick
■ solid but upper levels may be pliable
➢ Crust - rocky surface layer and thin
■ 5 miles thick below oceans
■ 22 miles thick below continents (uneven)
❖ Land and Water ➢ Watery planet 70% of the earth’s surface is covered by water
➢ Continents - large landmasses in the oceans
■ 7 continents in all
➢ Relief - the difference in elevation between the highest and lowest points
■ how landforms are classified
■ Major types
● Mountains
◆ high relief or elevation
● hills
◆ lower, rounded and less steep than mountains
● plateaus
◆ raised area but generally flat
● plains
◆ flat or gently rolling area with few changes in elevation
INTERNAL FORCES
• Through geography we may ask questions like, What forces shaped or
caused the mountains, plains and other landforms.
❖ Volcanoes - term originates from ancient Rome.
➢ god named vulcan
➢ Form when magma or molten rock inside the earth breaks through the
earth’s crust.
➢ Lava - molten rock on the earth’s surface.
❖ Changes in the Earth’s Crust - varied and complex due to movement
➢ Fold - bending and buckling of rock layers.
➢ Faults - breaks in the earth’s crust
■ is dependent on the hardness of the rock and strength of movement
■ creates earthquakes
GEOLOGICAL HISTORY
• Most changes are unnoticeable and take place slowly over time.
• Based on geologists reconstruction of information read in rocks scientists
believe that all land masses have been joined broke apart, joined and moved
to other parts of the globe. This gives the idea of:
PLATE TECTONICS
❖ Plate Tectonics - the earth’s outer shell is not one solid piece of rock
➢ Lithosphere (crust and brittle upper mantle) is broken into many moving
plates.
■ vary in size and thickness
■ oceans and continents sit atop the plates
● see diagram page 43
❖ Continental Drift - early scientists began to realize that continents fit together like a
jigsaw puzzle.
❖ Continental Drift Theory - was once a single
supercontinent
❖ 180 million years ago
➢ Alfred Wegener - found fossils and rocks to be
similar in South America, Africa, India, and
Australia (animals, plants)
❖ Seafloor Spreading ➢ Through studying the seafloor scientist began to realize that the ocean floor
was not flat and that it resembled landforms.
■ molten rock rises and breaks through an underwater ridge
● then breaks through a split - the split is called a rift valley.
● spreads like a conveyor belt
❖ Plate Movement ➢ Convection - process in which a circular movement caused when a material is
heated, expands and rises then cools and falls. (occurs in mantle)
❖ Meeting of Plates - causes the earth to change
➢ earthquakes / volcanoes
■ plates move away is called - spreading
■ plates meet is called - converging
● lighter plates will slide under a heavier plates
➢ oceanic plate and continental plate
◆ oceanic rock melts deep in the earth
◆ creates molten material and rises to the earth’s surface
➢ continental plate and continental plate
◆ create mountain ranges
➢ Faulting
■ plates slipping or grinding past of each other
❖ Explaining Volcanoes - plate tectonic theory attempts to answer this.
➢ most occur around plate boundaries
■ Ring of Fire - circle of volcanoes surrounding the Pacific Ocean.
CHAPTER 1 SECTION 3
CHANGES on the
EARTH’S SURFACE
WEATHERING
• Weathering - is the breakdown of rock at or near the earth’s surface into
smaller and smaller pieces.
• Two types of weathering
• Mechanical Weathering - occurs when rock is actually broken or
weakened physically
• Breaks large rocks into smaller pieces producing
• boulders, stones, pebbles, sand, and silt
• water freezes
• seeds in rocks
• tree roots
• Chemical Weathering - alters a rock’s chemical makeup by changing
the minerals that form the rock or combining them with new
chemical elements.
• Most important factors
• water and carbon dioxide
• as they mix they make a weak solution called carbonic acid
• can dissolve certain types of rock (limestone)
• Areas that are dry with little water not much chemical weathering
takes place
• Areas that are wet it can occur quickly and in widespread regions
• High temperature regions and cooler ones
• Acid Rain - chemicals in polluted air combine with water vapor and
fall back to earth as acid rain.
• Destroys forests
• Pollutes water
• Eats away or erodes buildings and natural rock formations
EROSION
• Erosion - is the movement of weathered materials such as gravel, soil and
sand.
• Three most common causes
• Water
• Wind
• Glaciers
• Important part of cycle that allows things to live
• mechanical weathering helped to create Niagara Falls and Grand Canyon
•
• Water • Has helped to create canyons and valleys
• Moving Water is the greatest cause of erosion
• Rivers
• Streams
• Oceans
• Falling Rain
• Sediment - small particles of soil, sand, and gravel
• Acts as sandpaper
• takes loosened rock to new locations
• creates new landforms
• El Nino• Cape Hatteras Lighthouse - 3000 feet from ocean now 200 feet
• Wind - second major cause of erosion
• extreme cause in areas with little to no water and few plants
• Picks up the upper layer of soil and moves it to another location
• removes any nutrients in the upper layer of soil
• Loess (luss) - is a mineral rich dust and silt
• has greatly benefited places like China and American midwest.
• Sandstorms are major causes of erosion
• acts as a sandblaster
• smooths rock formations and objects created by people.
• deposit once wind stops blowing
• can bury vegetation and human settlements
• Glaciers - huge, slow-moving sheets of ice.
• formed over many years of unmelted snow are pressed together
• carry dirt, rocks, and boulders
• helps wear away terrain
• covered a ⅓ of the earth’s surface
• melted away and then grew again
• extended periods are known as Ice Ages
• Glaciers are believed to be the cause of the Great Lakes
• very few left in the world that are continental glaciers or ice sheets
• cover about 80% of Greenland
• Valley or Alpine glaciers are found throughout the world in high
mountain valleys
• Moraines - ridgelike piles of rock and debris left behind from glaciers
• act like dams