Geography vocabulary

Geography Vocabulary

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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

Physical Geography

the study of the elements that constitute the earth's surface and how they interact
- includes meteorology, which is the study of weather and weather prediction
[Physical geography(wiki)]

Water bodies

bay

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
- usually canals are built across isthmuses

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

delta

gulf

lake

ocean

sea

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"

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

river

rivers flow downhill, usually but not always into an ocean
- upstream v. downstream
tributary
estuary

Gulf of Ob
- world's longest estuary
- fed by the Ob River and feeding into the Kara Sea (part of the Arctic Ocean)
delta
silt
flow & discharge
- measurement of the amount of water a river carries
Ten longest rivers in the world
- note: there is always a dispute over these lists as to the exact measurement
- this list is derived from ** See [of rivers by length (wiki)]
  - which measures total length of river systems (i.e., includes tributaries)

1. Nile (Africa; flows into Mediterranean Sea)
2. Amazon (South America; flows into Atlantic Ocean)
3. Yangtze (China; flows into East China Sea
4. Mississippi (North America; flows into Gulf of Mexico)
5. Yenisei (Mongolia-Russia; flows into Kara Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean)
6. Yellow or Huang He (China; flows into Bohai Sea, part of the Yellow Sea)
7. Ob (northern-central Asia; flows into the Gulf of Ob, feeding into the Kara Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean)
8. Rio de la Plata-Parana (South America; flows into the Rio de la Plata estuary, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean)
9. Congo (Central Africa; flows into the Atlantic Ocean
10. Amur (northern-central Asia, flows into the Sea of Okhost, part of the Pacific Ocean)
See also [Top 10 Largest Rivers in the world]

Click EXPAND to see list of the ten longest rivers

stream

oasis

See Ancient Egypt outline

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

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)]

continent

island

archipelago

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

isthmus

land-bridge

peninsula

Major world regions

12 major regions

[of Physiographic Regions per continent (wiki)]

however, below for typical 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

Australia

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

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

Climate

Climate Zones

Geography Fun Facts

Pitcaren Islands in Polynesia, are the least populated political entity in the world (67 residents)
- Vatican City, for example, has 825 residents
Rio de la Plata is the widest river in the world (max width: 140 mi)
- the Rio de la Plata is considered a river, estuary, gulf or "marginal sea"
- it is fed by the Uruguay and Parana rivers at Punta Gorda ("fat point"

Geography Oddities

Thor's Well: a sinkhole on the coast of Cape Perpetua, Oregon, that drains at high tides