Geography vocabulary

Geography Vocabulary

Five Themes of Geography

• Location
  • Absolute Location
  • Relative Location
• Regions
• Place
• Movement
• Human-Environment Interaction (Relationships within Places)

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

code:

text

• Click EXPAND to see list of important >>

canal

• man-made straits

• 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

strait & channel

a narrow body of water that connects larger bodies of water, or, a narrow channel that separates land masses

• 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 it the "Pillars of Hercules"
• 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
• 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
  • See:
    • [Strait (wiki)]
    • [Top 10 Straits and Channels (morethanshipping.com)]

• Click EXPAND to see list of important straits

Land forms

• continent
• island
  • archipelago
• peninsula
• isthmus
• land-bridge

World Oceanic Regions

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

Oceania

Oceania UN Geoscheme Regions

• Oceania
  • Pacific region in general, divided into
• Australasia
• Melanesia
• Micronesia
• Polynesia