Download continent: any of the seven large land masses on Earth

Geography Terminology
continent: any of the seven large land masses on Earth
North America
South America
Europe
Asia
Africa
Australia
Antarctica
**Eurasia (Europe and Asia are separated
by the Ural Mountains)
oceans: large bodies of salt water
Atlantic
Indian
*** Southern
Arctic
Pacific
Latitude and Longitude: Lines that appear together on a
map and allow you to pinpoint the absolute locations of
cities and other geographic features.
Latitude lines: (parallels) lines that run east to west
around the globe (“BELT”)
Equator divides the earth into the northern and southern
hemispheres.
The Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn are
lines of latitude that mark the boundaries of the tropical
zone, a region that stays warm all year.
Longitude lines: (meridians) imaginary lines that run
north and south. They show distances in degrees east or
west of the prime meridian. The prime meridian is a
longitude line that runs from the North Pole to the South
Pole. It marks 0 degrees longitude.
Hemispheres: a term for half of the globe
Equator: divides the earth into the northern and
southern hemispheres
Prime Meridian divides the earth into the eastern
and western hemispheres
Northwestern hemisphere
Southwestern hemisphere
Northeastern hemisphere
Southeastern Hemisphere
Physical map: shows landforms and bodies of water and
usually shows elevation
Political map: man-made boundaries; lines that show
states, cities, countries, etc.
Peninsula: land that extends out into water and is nearly
surrounded by water (Florida)
island: land that is completely surrounded by water
(Puerto Rico; Hawaii; Australia; Japan; Greenland, Haiti)
The Five Themes of Geography
1). Location: Answers the question: Where are we?
Absolute location: exact location on the surface of
the Earth where something can be found. It is like an
address; uses longitude and latitude lines to locate the
precise place that something is located
Relative location: describes where something or
someone is based on things that can be found nearby.
(Like I live at the end of the Mt. Tabor High School
football field.)
2). Place: This includes the physical and human features
of a location.
Every place on Earth has a distinct group of physical
features, such as climate, landforms and bodies of water,
and plant and animal life.
It also has human features, like buildings, clothing,
and foods that help to distinguish one place from
another.
3). Human-Environment Interaction: Answers three
main questions:
a). How do humans adapt to their environment?
(How do people change based on where they live?)
People wear clothing that is appropriate for the
weather in a particular environment; houses are built to
meet the needs people and with the available resources in
a certain area; people eat the kinds of food that are
available in a certain place.
b). How do humans affect or modify (change) their
environment?
(How is the environment changed by the people
who live there?)
People might use heat or air conditioning in
their homes for their comfort; farmers might build
dams to water their crops; pollution causes changes
to the environment
c). How do humans depend on their environment?
People depend on waterways for transportation
of both people and goods; people depend on the
rainy season to water their crops.
4). Region: This is an area that has many things in
common: such as government, language, religion,
landforms, history, traditions, cultures, climate
5). Movement: This explains how people, goods, and ideas
move from one place to another.
Today, we live in a global community where
information travels much more freely than in the past.
Television, email, twitter, skype, telephones, internet,
facebook, cars, trucks, boats, airplanes, etc all carry
people, ideas, and goods from one place to another.
Primarily, Climate varies because of latitude (distance
from the equator), which has to do with how much
sunlight a place gets; elevation or altitude (distance from
the ocean), which means that the higher the elevation,
the greater affect on the climate; type and location of
landforms, and distance of a region from oceans or large
lakes; and the prevailing winds in that area.
Polar Climate Zone: areas located near either the North
Pole or the South Pole. These areas receive no direct
sunlight and are therefore extreme climates in their cold
temperatures and frequent precipitation in the form of
ice or snow.
Temperate Climate Zone: areas located below the polar
climate zone, between the polar and tropical zones. There
is a greater variety of weather here, and all four seasons
are usually experienced. The summers are warm/hot and
the winters are cold/cool. This area receives more direct
sunlight.
Tropical Climate Zone: the area between the Tropic of
Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, a band around the
middle of the earth. This area receives the most direct
sunlight. It is usually warm/hot and very precipitation.