Geography Terms

1. Geography Terms US History Recap

2. US Geography • Geography – the study of the earth and all its variety • 4th largest country in the world • (Russia, Canada, China, US, Brasil) • Population: more than 281 million people

3. Types of Maps • Physical Maps • Physical features • Political Maps • Divisions based on country/state/etc. • Thematic (Special-Purpose) Maps • Battle routes, demographics, etc.

4. Reading a Map • Latitude – east to west • 0 at Equator; Measured North and South • Longitude – north to south • 0 at Prime Meridian; Measured East and West • Map Key – explains the particulars of map • Scale Bar – distance indicator • Compass Rose – orient the map

5. Vocabulary • Absolute location – global coordinates of location • Basin – land drained by river and branches surrounded by higher elevations • Bay – water body extending to shore line • Canyon – deep, narrow valley • Cape – land extended into a water body • Channel – wide waterway between two land masses • Cliff – steep wall of rock, ice, or earth • Continent – one of the seven large earth masses

6. Vocabulary • Cultural Feature – humans impact on a space • Delta – land built by soil carried by a river • Divide – high land that separates river systems • Downstream – direction in which a river flows • Elevation – height of land above sea level • Equator – imaginary line halfway between North and South Poles • Glacier – large, thick, slow-moving ice • Gulf – large body of water extending to a shoreline

7. Vocabulary • Harbor – sheltered place on shoreline for ships to dock • Highland – elevated land area • Hill – elevated land with sloping sides • Island – land area surrounded by water • Isthmus – stretch of land connecting two land masses • Lake – sizeable body of water • Lowland – land at low elevation • Map – drawing of the earth

8. Vocabulary • Meridian – lines running from North Pole to South Pole • Mesa – broad, flat-topped landform with steep sides • Mountain – land with steep sides raising sharply from surrounding land • Mountain Peak – pointed top of a mountain • Mountain Range – series of mountains • Mouth – place where river flows into water body • Ocean – one of four major bodies of salt water • Ocean Current – stream of water moving in a direction

9. Vocabulary • Parallel – lines that circle the globe to give latitude • Peninsula – land body jutting into the ocean surrounded on three sides by water • Physical feature – naturally occurring characteristic of a place • Plain – area of level land • Plateau – high elevation flat or rolling land • Prime Meridian – Line through Greenwich, England running from North to South Poles • Relief – Changes in elevation over a given area • River – large natural stream running through land

10. Vocabulary • Sea – large body of water completely or partially surrounded by land • Seacoast – land lying next to sea or ocean • Sea Level – position on land level to the surface of never by ocean • Sound – Water body in between coastline and one or more islands • Source – place where a river begins • Strait – water joining two larger water bodies • Tributary – a brand of a river • Upstream – direction opposite to the flow of a river

11. Vocabulary • Valley – area of low land between mountains or hills • Volcano – mountain created as liquid rock or ash erupts from inside the earth