| Geography | The study of the earth and the ways people live and work on it |
| Absolute Location | Its precise location of a place on the globe "X marks the Spot" |
| Hemisphere | Half- divides the earth in halves |
| Latitude | Imaginary lines parallel to the Equator; measure the distance North or South of the Equator in Degrees |
| Equator | O degrees Latitude |
| North Pole | 90 Degrees North |
| South Pole | 90 Degrees South |
| Tropic of Cancer | 23 1/2 Degrees North |
| Tropic of Capricorn | 23 1/2 Degrees South |
| Atmosphere | The air that surrounds the earth |
| Hydrosphere | Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, and other bodies of water on the earth |
| Lithosphere | The earth's surface; land that's called the earth's crust |
| Biosphere | Part of the earth's surface where life is found |
| Fault | A break in the earth's crust |
| Fold | A bend in the earth's crust |
| Tsunami | Huge ocean waves created by an earthquake |
| Ring of Fire | Collection of volcanoes rimming the Pacific Ocean, really a ring of subduction zones |
| Weathering | The process that breaks down rocks |
| Erosion | The wearing away of the earth's surface by wind, flowing water, and glaciers |
| Glaciers | Large bodies of ice that move across the surface of the earth (PLURAL) |
| Isthumus | Narrow piece of land that connects 2 large landmasses and separates 2 bodies of water |
| Plateau | Area that's higher than surrounding land and usually has one steep side called a cliff |
| Archipelago | Group of closely scattered islands |
| Continental Shelf | Underwater extension of a continent |
| Ground Water | Fresh water that lies beneath the earth's surface that supplies springs and wells |
| Water Cycle | Regular movement of water from ocean to air to ground to ocean |
| Evaporation | Changing of liquid water into a vapor |
| Natural Resources | Elements from the earth that are not made by people, but can be used by them |
| Renewable Resources | Resources that can be replaced (Plants and animal life) |
| Non-Renewable Resources | Resources that can never be replaced (Fossil fuels, mineral) |
| Weather | Condition of the atmospere in one place during a short period of time |
| Exports | Goods taken out of a country |
| Imports | Goods taken into a country |
| Climate | Weather patterns that an area experiences during a long period of time |
| Temperature | Measure of how hot or cold something is |
| Rotation | The turn of the earth everyday |
| Revolution | The trip that Earth takes around the sun every 365 1/4 days |
| Equinox | The sun is directly over the Equator; day and night are equal |
| Solstice | the day on which the northernmost & southernmost point on the earth receive direct rays of the sun |
| Prevailing Winds | winds that blow in fairly constant patterns (PLURAL) |
| Doldrums | an area at the Equator where the wind doesn't blow |
| Precipitation | the falling of moisture to the earth |
| Oasis | an area of lush vegetation supported by underground springs in a desert area |
| Deciduous | trees that lose their leaves in autumn |
| Permafrost | permanently frozen soil |
| Taiga | the Russian word for forest - huge evergreen trees |
| Tundra | short mosses, bushes, & very short grasses, lichens |
| Timberline | the elevation above which it is too cold for trees to grow |
| Culture | the way of life of a group of people with common traditions, interests, & beliefs |
| Subsistence Farming | farmers who grow just enough food for themselves |
| Industry | the way or manner of which a group of people produce goods & services |
| Population Density | the average number of people per square mile |
| Tornado | a powerful, whirling windstorm up to 300 mph |
| Hurricane | a powerful, whirling storm that forms over oceans, larger than a tornado, brings winds and rains |
| Tsunami | huge ocean waves created by an earthquake |
| History | the written information about a people's past to learn what, how, & why things happened |
| Pre-History | the time in a people's past before written records were kept |
| Culture Hearths | places where civilizations began |
| Cultural Diffusion | the spread of people, ideas, practices, & goods from one culture to another |
| Immigrant | people who leave their home countries to settle permanently in other countries |
| Sunbelt | the southern United States that has a mild climate |
| Urbanization | the movement of people from rural areas into the cities |
| Suburbs | the outlying communities of a central city |
| Strait | a narror passageway connecting a large body of water |
| Republic | a form of government in which people elect their own officials |
| Industrialization | the setting up of manufacturing that uses machinery |
| Mobile | moving from place to place |
| Standard of Living | a level of material comfort in terms of goods and services available to someone |
| Literacy Rate | the number of people that can read & write |
| Free Enterprise | an economy which allows individuals to own, operate & profit from their own businesses |
| Economy | the movement of money within a country |
| Countour Plowing | plowing along the natural curves of the land |
| Crop Rotation | rotatation of the crops that a farmer is growing to preserve the soil's nutrients |
| Service Industries | provide services rather than produce goods or a product |
| Plateau | flat land mass higher than the surrounding land with at least 1 steep side called a cliff or escarpment |
| Escarpment | steep cliff or slope between a higher & lower land surface |
| Mesa | flat top elevated landform smaller than a plateau |
| Continental Divide | line that separates the rivers that flow from the opposite ends of the continent |
| Headwaters | the source of the water (i.e. where a river begins or orginates) |
| Tributary | a brook, river & stream that feed their waters into 1 river (SINGULAR) |
| Blizzard | snowstorms with winds in excess of 35 mph, temps below freezing & visibility of less than 500ft (SINGULAR) |
| Typhoon | Pacific hurricanes that threaten Hawaii & the Pacific islands |
| Chinook | warm wind that blows down from the Rockies in winter & early spring |
| llanos | large fertile plains in Venezuela |
| Pampas | grassy, treeless plains of Argentina & Uruguay |
| Hydroelectric Power | the energy of water to create electicity |
| Canopy | top layer of the rainforest where the treetops come together to form a covering |
| Gaucho | mestizo cowboys, made their living herding cattle on horseback |
| Estuary | where the mouth of the river meets the salt water |
| Mestizo | mixture between Indians & Europeans (SINGULAR) |
| Mulattoes | mixture between blacks & Europeans (PLURAL) |
| Haciendas | large estates that landless farmers work |
| Isthumus | narrow piece of land connecting 2 larger land masses |
| Fjords | a valley along the coastline cut by glaciers |
| Polders | areas in the Netherlands drained of sea water & now used for farmland |
| Avalanche | mass of ice, snow, or rock that slides down a mountain side |
| Peat | kind of vegetable matter usually composed of mosses; was traditionally burned as fuel in some western european homes |
| Refugee | people fleeing to a foreign country for safety |
| Feudalism | a system in which powerful lords gave land to nobles in return for pledgers of loyalty |
| Reformation | religious movement which lessened the power of the Roman Catholic Church & led to the beginning of Protestantism |
| Communism | an economic & political systems designed to establish classless societies in which workers would control industrial production |
| Holocaust | mass killing of more than 6 million European Jews & others by the Germans |
| Crusades | a series of religious wars to win Palestine from Muslim rule |
| Renaissance | the rebirth of learning |
| Consumer Goods | household goods, shoes & clothing that individual buy |
| Crust | huge plate-like section of rock that float on the mantle |
| fault | a break in the earth's crust |
| Glacier | large bodies of ice that move across the surface of the earth (SINGULAR) |
| Earthquake | It is caused by movement along faults |
| Temperate | Fairly hot to fairly cold climate |
| Elevation | For every 1000 ft of _____________ temperature drops 3.5 degrees |
| Low Latitudes (Tropics) | Between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer |
| MIddle Latitudes | Between 23 1/2 degrees latitude and 66 1/2 degrees latitude; temperate climate |
| Upper Latitudes | Between 66 1/2 degrees latitude and 90 degrees latitude |
| Axis | The 23 1/2 degree slanted imaginary line that the earth spins upon; points toward the North Star; Runs through the center of the earth betwen the North and South Pole |
| Prime Meridian | 0 degrees longitude and runs through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England |
| International Date Line | 180 degrees longitude |