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Geography Test 1
Geography Test 1
114
Geography
Undergraduate 2
02/03/2015

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Term
Absolute location
Definition
Determined by the intersection of latitude and longitude lines, providing an exact point expressed in minutes degrees and seconds
Term
Age of Discovery
Definition
The 3-4 centuries of European exploration, colonization and global resource exploitation, led largely by merchants, started by Columbus and continued till 19th century
Term
Age Sex Diagram (Population Pyramid)
Definition
The graphic representation of a country's population by gender and 5 year age increments
Term
Agricultural revolution
Definition
The domestication of plants and animals that began about 10000 years ago
Term
Anthropocene epoch
Definition
A proposed new name for the present geological epoch, currently termed the holocene
Term
Aquaculture
Definition
The cultivation of aquatic organisms such as fish for food
Term
Atmosphere
Definition
The layer of gases surrounding earth
Term
Biodiversity
Definition
The number of plant and animal species and the variety of the genetic material these organisms contain
Term
Biodiversity hotspots
Definition
A ranked list of places scientists believe deserve immediate attention for flora and fauna study and conservation
Term
Biome
Definition
A terrestrial ecosystem type categorized by a dominant type of natural vegetation
Term
Biosphere
Definition
The global ecological system, including all the relationships played out among our hydrosphere, lithosphere, and atmosphere. Also called ecosphere
Term
Birth rate
Definition
The number of births per 1000 people in a population
Term
Carbon Sink
Definition
An area such as a forest, farmland, or ocean that sequesters a large amount of carbon dioxide
Term
Carrying Capacity
Definition
The size of a population of any organism that an ecosystem can support
Term
Cartography
Definition
The craft of designing and making maps
Term
Climate
Definition
The average weather conditions, including temperature, precipitation, and winds of an area over an extended period of time
Term
Climate Change
Definition
A change in climate and atmospheric conditions largely due to carbon dioxide
Term
Colonization
Definition
The European pattern of establishing dependencies abroad to enhance the economic development in the home country
Term
Consumption overpopulation
Definition
The concept that a few persons, each using a few resources from ecosystems across the world, add up to too many people for the environment to support
Term
Continental Drift
Definition
The steady but slow movements of the plates in earths mantle that formed continents mountains and oceans
Term
Coordinate Systems
Definition
A grid consisting of horizontal and vertical lines used to establish absolute location
Term
Cultural landscape
Definition
The landscape modified by human transformation, thereby reflecting the cultural patterns of the resident culture
Term
Culture
Definition
The values, beliefs, aspirations, modes of behavior, social inquisitions, knowledge and skills that are transmitted and learned within a group of peopl
Term
Culture hearth
Definition
An area where innovations develop, with subsequent diffusion to other areas
Term
Death Rate
Definition
The annual number of deaths per 1000 people in a population
Term
Demographic Transition
Definition
A model describing population change within a country, think of the natural evolution of a country
Term
Demography
Definition
The study of population
Term
Dependency Theory
Definition
A theory arguing that the worlds most developed countries continue to prosper by dominating their former colonies, the now independent less developed countries
Term
Development
Definition
A process of improvement in the material conditions of people often linked to the diffusion of knowledge and technology
Term
Domestication
Definition
The controlled breeding and cultivation of plants and animals
Term
Doubling Time
Definition
The number of years required for the human population of a given area to double
Term
Dry Farming
Definition
Planting and harvesting according to the seasonal rainfall cycle
Term
Ecological Bankruptcy
Definition
The exhaustion of the environmental capital, leading to potential political and social crisis
Term
Ecological Footprint
Definition
The amount of biologically productive land needed to sustain a persons consumption and absorb wastes
Term
Ecologically Dominant Species
Definition
A species that competes more successfully than other for nutrition and other essentials to life
Term
Environmental Lapse Rate
Definition
The decrease of an atmospheric variable with height, the variable being temperature unless otherwise specified
Term
Extensive land Use
Definition
A livelihood, such as hunting and gathering, that requires the use of large land areas
Term
External Cost (externalities)
Definition
Consequences of goods and services that are not priced into the initial cost of those goods and services
Term
Fault
Definition
A break in rock mass along which movement has occurred, rock being pulled apart = TENSIONAL, rock being pushed together = COMPRESSIONAL FAULT
Term
Fertility Rate
Definition
the average number of children that would be born to her over her lifetime
Term
Fish Farming
Definition
The cultivation of aquatic organisms such as fish for food
Term
Food Chain
Definition
The sequence through which energy, in the form of food, passes through an ecosystem
Term
Fuelwood Crisis
Definition
Deforestation in the less developed countries, caused by subsistence needs
Term
GDP
Definition
The value of goods and services produced in a country in a given year
Term
geography
Definition
The study of the spatial order and associations of things (enviroments, humans, land)
Term
GIS
Definition
Geographic Information Systems are a growing field of computer assisted geographic analysis and graphic representation of spatial data
Term
Global environmental change
Definition
The earth becoming warmer
Term
Globalization
Definition
The spread of free trade, free markets, investments, and ideas across border and the political and cultural adjustments that accompany this diffusion
Term
GNI
Definition
Gross national income, a measure of country's wealth counting GDP plus income from abroad such as rents, profit, labor
Term
GNP
Definition
Gross national product, the value of goods and services produced internally in a given country during a stated year plus the value resulting from transactions abroad
Term
GPS
Definition
Global position system
Term
Greenhouse effect
Definition
The observation that increased amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases in earths atmosphere cause a warmer atmosphere
Term
Greenhouse gases
Definition
Gases such as carbon dioxide and methane that trap heat from the sun in the atmosphere
Term
Hemispheres
Definition
Half of earths surface
Term
Human Devlopment Index
Definition
A UN developed system that ranks countries based on quality of life issues along with economic performance
Term
Hunter Gatherers
Definition
A mode of livelihood based on collecting wild plants and hunting wild animals, practiced by pre-agricultural peoples
Term
Hydrologic Cycle
Definition
The process by which the sun evaporates seawater into water vapor that is later released as freshwater precipitation
Term
Hydrosphere
Definition
All of the worlds water features
Term
Industrial Revolution
Definition
A period beginning in mid 18th century Britain that saw rapid advances in technology and the use of inanimate power
Term
International Data line
Definition
A line roughly concurrent with the 180 degree line of longitude where the beginning of one day and the end of another day meet
Term
Intergovernmental panel on climate change
Definition
A UN panel composed of 2500 atmospheric scientists from 130 countries that stated global warming was real
Term
Intensive Land use
Definition
A livelihood such as farming requiring the use of small land areas
Term
Irrigation
Definition
The artificial placement of water to produce crops, generally in arid locations
Term
Kyoto protocol
Definition
A treaty on climate change signed by 160 countries in Kyoto, Japan in 1997 and put into force in 2005, requires MDCs to reduce greenhouse emissions by more than 5 percent below their 1990 levels by 2012
Term
Latitude
Definition
The horizontal lines across earth that measure how far north or south a place is
Term
Less Developed Countries
Definition
The worlds poorer countries
Term
Lifeboat Ethics
Definition
Ecologist Garrett Hardin's argument that for ecological reasons, rich countries should not help poorer countries
Term
Lithosphere
Definition
The rocky portion of earths surface
Term
Longitude
Definition
The vertical lines across earth that measure how far east or west a person is
Term
Malthusian Scenario
Definition
The model forecasting that human population growth will outpace growth in food and other resources, with a resulting population die off
Term
map projection
Definition
A way to minimize distortion in one of more properties of a map (direction, distance, shape or area)
Term
Marginalization
Definition
A process by which poor subsistence farmers are pushed onto fragile, inferior, or marginal lands that cannot support crops for long and that are degraded by cultivation
Term
Meridian
Definition
Another term for lines of longitude
Term
Migration
Definition
A temporary, periodic, or permanent move to a new location
Term
Monoculture
Definition
The single-species cultivation of food or tree crops usually very economical and productive but threatening to natural diversity and change
Term
More Developed Countries
Definition
The worlds wealthier countries
Term
Natural Replacement Rate
Definition
The highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used without decreasing its potential for renewal, aka sustainable yield
Term
Natural Resource
Definition
A product of the natural environment that can be used to benefit people
Term
Newly Industrializing Countries
Definition
The more prosperous of the worlds less developed countries
Term
Oceans
Definition
a very large expanse of sea, in particular, each of the main areas into which the sea is divided geographically
Term
Parallel
Definition
A latitude line running parallel to the equator
Term
People overpopulation
Definition
The concept that many persons, each using a small quantity of natural resources to sustain life, add up to too many people for the environment to support
Term
Permafrost
Definition
Permanently frozen subsoil
Term
Plate Tectonics
Definition
The dominant forces in the creation of continents, mountains, and oceans
Term
Pleistocene overkill hypothesis
Definition
A hypothesis stating that hunters and gathers of the Pleistocene era hunted many species to extinction
Term
Population
Definition
all the inhabitants of a particular place
Term
Population change rate
Definition
The birth rate minus the death rate in a population
Term
Population explosion
Definition
The surge in earth's human population that has occurred since the beginning of the industrial revolution
Term
Population replacement level
Definition
The number of new births required to keep a population steady
Term
precipitation
Definition
Water falling from the sky to the surface in the form of rain, sleet, snow or hail
Term
Prime meridian
Definition
The line of zero degrees longitude in Greenwich, England, separates eastern hemisphere from western hemisphere
Term
Pull factors
Definition
Factors which pull people away from their home
Term
Purchasing Power Parity
Definition
A method of comparing the real value of output between different countries economics, considering factors such as differences in relative prices of goods and services
Term
Push factors
Definition
Factors that push people away from their homeland
Term
Refugees
Definition
Victims of sever push factors such as persecution, political violence, and war
Term
Regions
Definition
A human construct of an area that is often homogeneous and distinct from other regions
Term
Relative location
Definition
The location of a place defined by relationship to other places (A TOWN OR STATE)
Term
Renewable resource
Definition
A resource with a continual supply available
Term
Richter scale
Definition
A system for measuring the strength of earthquakes
Term
Scale
Definition
The size ration represented by a map (i.e. 1 inch equals 100 miles)
Term
Seismic Activity
Definition
Usually refers to tectonic forces that result in an earthquake
Term
Spatial
Definition
The distribution of various features across earths surface
Term
Subduction
Definition
The process of one tectonic plate descending below another
Term
Sustainable Development
Definition
Concepts and efforts to improve the quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems
Term
Sustainable Yield
Definition
The highest rate at which a renewable resource can be used without decreasing its potential for renewal
Term
Tectonic Plates
Definition
The plates on which continents sit that move around in earths mantle
Term
Tipping Point
Definition
The time beyond which some climate change effects are irreversible
Term
Tsunamis
Definition
Large waves in the ocean created by undersea earthquakes
Term
Urbanization
Definition
The population growth of cities, mostly from the movement of people from rural regions to built up areas
Term
Value Added Products
Definition
Finished products, worth much more than the raw materials they were created from
Term
Volcanism
Definition
Movement of molten material from the earths mantle, usually released through volcanoes
Term
Wealthy Vs. Poor Countries
Definition
Term
Weather
Definition
The atmospheric conditions prevailing at one time and place
Term
Zero population Growth
Definition
The condition of equal birth rates and death rates in a population
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