Geography vocabulary

Geography Vocabulary

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• Click EXPAND to see list of important >>

Five Themes of Geography

• Location
  • Absolute Location
  • Relative Location
• Regions
• Place
• Movement
• Human-Environment Interaction (Relationships within Places)
  • Cultural Diffusion
• See [Social Studies Skills]

Map terminology

• Latitude
• Longitude
• Equator
• Prime Meridian
• International Dateline
• Meridians
• Parallels
• a.m. / p.m.
• equinox
• solstice
• Tropic of Cancer
• Tropic of Capricorn

Water bodies

canal

• man-made straits that connect two larger bodies of water
• canals provide important water passage to connect water bodies that would otherwise require long-distance water travel around land bodies or continents

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• Bahr Yussef
  • connects the Nile to the Faiyum Oasis and Lake Moeris, built 2300 BC
• Canal of the Pharaohs
  • connected the Nile to the Red Sea
  • built by Necho II, Assyrian ruler of Egypt in 7th century BC
  • Persian king Darius I bragged of building a canal linking the Nile to the Red Sea (6th century BC)
• Corinth Canal
• Grand Canal
  • connected the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers, built under the Sui dynasty (6th century AD)
• Suez Canal
• Panama Canal

• Click EXPAND to see list of important canals

channel

• synonymous with "strait" but usually referring to a smaller or less important strait
• see strait below

strait

• a narrow body of water that connects larger bodies of water, or, a narrow channel that separates land masses
• synonymous with channel, passage, or pass
  • implicit in the terminology is that the strait allows for navigation, or passage, from one larger body of water to another
• "strait comes from Old French "estreit" for "tight" or "narrow"

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• important straits and channels
• Bosporus Strait
  • connects Black Sea to Aegean/Mediterranean Seas
• Strait of Gibraltar
  • connects Mediterranean Sea to Atlantic Ocean
  • ancient Greeks called the promontories on either side of the Strait of Gibraltar the "Pillars of Hercules", which marked the passage from the Mediterranean Sea into the Atlantic Ocean
• Strait of Magellan
  • connects Atlantic and Pacific Oceans
  • the passageway near the southern tip of South America that was navigated by the explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who led the first expedition to circumnavigated the globe
  • the Strait of Magellan is not "straight" -- is actually a U-shaped pathway formed by the Tierra del Fuego archipelago (chain of islands)
• Beagle Channel
  • a second, less navigable passageway near the southern tip of South America that was navigated by Charles Darwin on the HMS Beagle
  • NOTE: the open-ocean passageway, around the very tip of South America is called "Drake's Passage", named for English explorer Francis Drake who circumnavigated the globe
• Strait of Hormuz
• Bering Strait
• Strait of Messina
• Bab-el Mendeb Strait
• Strait of Malacca
• Strait of Dover
  • See:
    • [Strait (wiki)]
    • [Top 10 Straits and Channels (morethanshipping.com)]

• Click EXPAND to see list of important straits

Land forms

Cape

• a "headland", "promontory" or large body of land that extends into a larger water body, usually an ocean or a sea
  • "headland" is a "coastal landform," usually with a high point and cliffs
  • "promontory" is a raised land body that extends into lower land or water
    • promontories are often used a defensive positions for forts, castles and defensive positions
    • a promontory in water is a peninsula

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• Cape Canaveral - Florida
• Cape Cod - Massachusetts
• Cape Discord - Greenland
• Cape of Good Hope - South Africa
• Cape Horn - Chile
  • southernmost headland, or tip of land, on Hornos Island, one of the Hermite Islands, the southernmost of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago at the southern tip of South America
  • northern boundary of the Drake Passage
• Cape Kidnappers - New Zealand
• Cape Three Forks - Morocco
• Cape Vert - Senegal; the westernmost point of Africa

Click EXPAND for a list of important capes

• See [List of Well Known Capes (wiki)]

archipelago

• a series of geographically proximate or geologically similarly island, usually formed in a chain or a cluster

Major world regions per continent

Americas

• North America
• Central America
• South America
• Caribbean

Asia

• West Asia
• East Asia
• South Asia
• Southeastern Asia

Africa

• East Africa
• North Africa
• West Africa
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• South Africa

Europe

• Eastern Europe
• Western Europe
• Scandinavia

Other major regions terminology

• Eurasia
• Mediterranean

World oceanic regions

• Mediterranean
• Arabian Sea
• Indian Ocean
• Atlantic Ocean
• Pacific Ocean
• Gulf of Mexico
• Caribbean Sea
• China Sea
• North Sea
• Macaronesia (Atlantic)

Oceania

Oceania UN Geoscheme Regions

• Oceania
  • Pacific region in general, divided into
• Australasia
• Melanesia
• Micronesia
• Polynesia
• List of independent nations of Oceania:

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• Australia
• East Timor
• Federated States of Micronesia
• Fiji
• Indonesia
  • Only Papua, or Indonesian New Guinea is part of Oceania, whereas the rest of Indonesia is located in Southeast Asia
• Kiribati
• Marshall Islands
• Nauru
• New Zealand
• Palau
• Papua New Guinea
• Samoa
• Solomon Islands
• Tonga
• Tuvalu
• Vanuatu
• Also:
  • Cook Islands and Niue are "associated states" with New Zealand

• Click EXPAND to see list of independent nations of Oceana
• See [List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Oceania (wiki)]

Macaronesia

• island region in Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Portugal and West Africa
  • volcanic islands
• Macaronesia consists of:
• Azores islands
  • Portuguese territories
• Canary Islands
  • Portuguese territories
• Madeira islands
  • Spanish territories
• Cape Verde
  • officially "Republic of Cabo Verde"
    • it won independence from Portugal in 1975
    • a democratic republic
  • named for Cape Vert in Senegal, which is directly east of Cape Verde
  • consists of 10 volcanic islands

Fun Facts

• Pitcaren Islands in Polynesia, are the least populated political entity in the world (67 residents)
  • Vatican City, for example, has 825 residents