Geography Themes, Skills, Landforms,

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Geography Themes, Skills, Landforms, Earth's
Atmosphere

• Coach McFarland

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I. Themes of Geography

• Location
• Place
• Human-Environmental Interaction
• Movement
• Region

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Location

• Where is it?
• 2 Types of location
• Absolute Location a precise place.
• Relative Location relation to other places.

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Place

• Physical surroundings.

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Human-Environment Interaction

• How people and the environment interact with each
  other.

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Movement

• Transportaion of people, goods and ideas.

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Region

• An area with common characteristics.

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II. The Wide World of Geography

• Branches of Geography
• Geography as a Profession

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Branches of Geography

• Human Geography
• The study of how people and their activities vary
  from place to place.
• Includes political, economic, and cultural
  factors.
• Physical Geography
• The study of how the Earths natural features
  vary from place to place.
• The study of plains mountains, weather
  climates, plants, animals, humans.

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Geography as a Profession

• Cartography
• The study of maps and map making.
• Because of the movement of people, maps are
  constantly changing.
• For example, in the past 40 years, 41,000 miles
  of interstate highways have been constructed
  across the U.S. and therefore, have been added to
  various road maps.
• During WWI, photographs of battle fields were
  taken from airplanes. After the war,
  cartographers started using aerial photographs to
  make detailed maps of the Earths surface

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5 Features of Every Good Map

• Grid pattern of lines running horizontally
  (across) and vertically (up and down).
• Direction shows relative location.
• Scale How large the maps territory really is.
• Key Tells what the maps symbols mean.
• Title Names the map.

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Geography as a Profession

• Meteorology
• Specializes in weather and weather forecasting.

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Geography as a Profession

• Applied Geography
• Help to research, map, and analyze environmental
  data.
• Investigate land usage.

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Geography as a Profession

• Teaching Geography
• Necessary for good citizenship.
• Help to develop an informed public.

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III. Planet EarthThe only planet that supports
life as we know it.

• The Earth System
• 4 Physical Systems

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The Earth System

• The interaction of objects on and around the
  Earth.

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4 Physical Systems

• Atmosphere
• The layer of gas that surrounds the Earth.
• Lithosphere
• The rocky surface that forms the continents and
  the ocean floor.
• Hydrosphere
• All the planets water in the oceans, on the
  land, and in the atmosphere.
• Biosphere
• All of the planets plant and animal life.

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IV. Global Energy Systems

• Temperature
• Air Pressure
• Wind
• Global Wind Belts
• Ocean Circulation

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TemperatureThe measurement of heat in the
Earths atmosphere.

• The process by which heat energy is trapped by
  the atmosphere thus keeping Earth warm is called
  the Greenhouse Effect.
• Earth maintains its energy balance because most
  heat is lost to space at night and during the
  winter season.

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Air PressureThe force exerted by air creates
the winds and ocean currents.

• When air is warmed, it expands, becomes lighter,
  and rises, thus creating a low pressure area.
• Low-pressure areas tend to bring unstable weather
  conditions.
• Cold air is dense, heavy, and tends to sink
  causing high-pressure areas.
• High-pressure areas generally cause clear, calm
  weather.

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Wind

• The horizontal motion of air between areas of
  different pressure.

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Global Wind Belts

• Prevailing winds that usually blow from areas of
  high-pressure to areas of low pressure
• Fronts
• Jet Streams

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Global Wind Belts

• Fronts
• Occur when two air masses with very different
  temperatures and amounts of moisture meet.
• Fronts usually cause stormy weather.

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Global Wind Belts

• Jet Streams
• Prevailing winds that blow in the upper
  atmosphere.
• These winds are not directly felt on Earths
  surface.
• The Jet Stream moves energy, storms, and major
  weather patterns.

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Ocean Circulation

• Currents are set in motion by prevailing winds
  blowing across the surface of the ocean.

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V. Atmospheric Effects

• Water vapor
• Storms
• Elevation

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Water Vapor

• An important gas most is evaporated from the
  oceans.
• The remainder comes from lakes, plants, and the
  soil.
• Without water vapor, there would be no clouds,
  rain, or storms.

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Water Vapor

• Humidity
• The amount of water vapor in the air.
• Condensation
• The process by which water vapor changes from a
  gas into liquid droplets.
• Condensation can be seen in the formation of
  clouds, fog, and dew.
• If condensation droplets become large enough,
  they fall as precipitation

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Water Vapor

• 4 types of precipitation
• Rain
• Sleet
• Snow
• Hail

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Storms

• Occur when energy stored in the atmospheric water
  vapor is released

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Storms

• 3 Kinds of Storms
• Hurricanes
• Form over warm ocean waters and carry violent
  winds, torrential rain, and dangerously high
  seas.
• Tornadoes
• The smallest, but most violent of storms
  twisting spirals of air that can destroy anything
  in their path.
• Thunder Storms
• The most common type contains lightning and
  thunder.

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Elevation

• Affects temperature.
• An increase in elevation, or height above sea
  level, causes lowering of the temperature.
• Eventhough the equator passes through Kenya, the
  countrys tallest mountain, Mt. Kenya, is
  snowcapped year-round because it is over 17,000
  feet above sea level.

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VI. Global Climates

• Factors Affecting Climates
• Types of Climates

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Factors Affecting Climate

• Temperature and Precipitation Differences
• Continental or Maritime Location
• Elevation

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Types of Climates

• Humid-Tropical
• Located near the equator with ideal conditions
  for plant growth. (Heavy rain fall continuous
  warm temps.) (Low Latitude)
• Tropical-Savanna
• Located just to the N and S of the Humid-Tropical
  climate. Wet and dry climate with more of a
  season change. (Low Latitude)

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Types of Climates

• Arid Desert
• Located 30 degrees N and S of the equator with
  very little rain and few plants surviving. The
  largest desert is the Sahara.
• Semiarid Steppe
• Transition area between arid deserts and more
  humid climates an area of short-grass vegetation
  that generally support grasslands trees are rare
  except along riverbanks.

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Types of Climates

• Mediterranean
• Located between 30 and 40 degrees latitude
  confined to the coastal areas of southern Europe
  and the west coasts of continents with cool ocean
  currents. (Middle Latitude)
• Humid-Subtropical
• Found on the eastern side of continents with warm
  ocean currents hot, humid summers and mild
  winters. (Middle Latitude)

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Types of Climates

• Marine West-Coast
• Found on the west coast of continents in the
  upper-middle latitudes with mild temperatures all
  year. (Middle Latitude)
• Humid-Continental
• Found in latitudes subject to both warm and cold
  air changeable weather and four distinct seasons.
  (Middle Latitude)

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Types of Climates

• Subarctic
• Located in high latitudes with long, dark, and
  cold winters, with temperatures staying well
  below freezing for half of the year short
  summers that can have very warm temperatures has
  the greatest annual temperature ranges in the
  world and supports vast evergreen forests.

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Types of Climates

• Tundra
• Has long winters and temperatures above freezing
  only during short summers vegetation is made up
  of small plants, such as mosses, herbs, and
  shrubs water below the surface remains frozen
  all year., called permafrost.
• Polar Ice-Cap
• Has cold temperatures and snowfall year-round

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VII. The Geography of Water

• One of Our Most Important Resources
• Not Evenly Distributed on Earth
• Water Resources

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Water is one our most important resources for 3
reasons.

• Water is essential for agriculture.
• Water is necessary for industries to function.
• Water is a valuable power source.

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Water is not evenly distributed on Earth.

• The oceans contain 97 of Earths water.
• More the 2 of Earths water is frozen in the
  polar ice-caps.
• Less than 1 of Earths water is a available as a
  freshwater resource, found in lakes, rivers, and
  streams.

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Water Resources

• Headwaters
• The first and smallest streams to form from
  runoff.
• Tributaries
• Small streams or rivers that flow into larger
  streams or rivers
• Watershed
• An area of land that is drained by a river and
  its tributaries
• Rivers
• A valuable water resource, providing water for
  agriculture, electricity, transportation, and
  cities

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Water Resources

• Estuary
• Where rivers meet an arm of the sea.
• Lakes
• When water fills a depression on the land
  surface mostly freshwater different from seas
  in that they are totally surrounded by land, are
  usually not at sea level, and do not exchange
  water with oceans. The 5 Great Lakes are
  actually one body of water, making up the largest
  body of freshwater on the Earth.

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Water Resources

• Wetlands
• Become flooded for at least part of the year.
  Floridas Everglades is one of the best-known
  wetlands in the United States.
• Ground Water
• A large freshwater resource beneath the surface
  of the land with the major source being
  precipitation.

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Water Resources

• Oceans
• Cover about 71 of the Earths surface they are
  actually one continuous global body of water
  divided into 4 oceans
• Pacific the largest geographic feature on
  Earth.
• Atlantic
• Indian
• Arctic

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Water Resources

• Oceans (Cont.)
• There are smaller bodies of salt water.
• Seas
• Gulfs
• Bays
• The depth of the oceans vary greatly. The
  greatest ocean depth is in the Mariana Trench,
  located in the N Pacific Ocean. The shallowest
  part is the continental shelf, which slopes
  gently downward from the continents.