Physical Geography
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Created by:
walkerwill363 on January 6, 2012
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31 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Geography | the study of the earth's surface, climate, continents, countries, peoples, industries, and products. |
| Absolute Location | exact location of a place on the earth described by global coordinates |
| Relative Location | the regional position or situation of a place relative to the position of other places |
| Latitude | an imaginary line around the Earth parallel to the equator |
| Longitude | an imaginary great circle on the surface of the earth passing through the north and south poles at right angles to the equator |
| Hydrologic Cycle | the natural process by which water is purified and made fresh through evaporation and precipitation. The cycle provides all the fresh water available for biological life. |
| Ocean | a large body of water constituting a principal part of the hydrosphere |
| Lake | a body of (usually fresh) water surrounded by land |
| River | a large natural stream of water (larger than a creek) |
| Volcano | a fissure in the earth's crust (or in the surface of some other planet) through which molten lava and gases erupt |
| Strait | a narrow channel of the sea joining two larger bodies of water |
| Peninsula | a large mass of land projecting into a body of water |
| Gulf | an arm of a sea or ocean partly enclosed by land |
| Marsh | low-lying wet land with grassy vegetation |
| Delta | a low triangular area where a river divides before entering a larger body of water |
| Oasis | a fertile tract in a desert (where the water table approaches the surface) |
| Butte | a town in southwestern Montana |
| Swamp | low land that is seasonally flooded |
| Island | a land mass (smaller than a continent) that is surrounded by water |
| Prairie | a treeless grassy plain |
| Steppe | extensive plain without trees |
| Mountain | a land mass that projects well above its surroundings |
| Valley | a long depression in the surface of the land that usually contains a river |
| Mesa | flat tableland with steep edges |
| Plateau | a relatively flat highland |
| Canyon | a ravine formed by a river in an area with little rainfall |
| Weather | the meteorological conditions: temperature and wind and clouds and precipitation |
| Climate | the weather in some location averaged over some long period of time |
| Greenhouse Effect | warming that results when solar radiation is trapped by the atmosphere |
| Ecosystem | a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their physical environment |
| Biome | a major biotic community characterized by the dominant forms of plant life and the prevailing climate |
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