Fall 2013 Final Exam Review Each of these terms is part of the final exam.

These terms are typically in questions that expect you to apply the term to a geographic concept, situation, place, or physical system. It is suggested you understand the geographic nature of the term and be able to apply it in one of the regions or concepts that we have covered since August. There are 75 multiple choice questions covering the required state objectives for this course. TERMS Agriculture: The science or practice of farming and cultivating crops Altitude: The height of an object in relation to sea level Altitudinal Zones: The different ranges of altitude that entail different temperatures and climates
Elevation Types of crops Natural vegetation Swamps, dry forests Examples of locations Northeastern Brazil

Tierra caliente

0-3000 feet

Bananas,cocao, sugarcane, pineapples Corn, beans, squash, wheat, coffee Wheat, fruit trees, potatoes, cabbage, broccoli None

Tierra templada

3000-6500 feet

Wet forests

Serra de Espinhaco

Tierra fria

6500-12000 feet

Wet forests, cloud forests

Cordillera Oriental

Tierra helada

12000+ feet

Elfin forests, grass

Andes Mountains

Aquifer: A subsurface rock or sediment unit that is porous and permeable. To be an aquifer it must have these traits to a high enough degree that it stores and transmits useful quantities of water Atmosphere: Envelope of gases surrounding the Earth, or any planet Atolls: A ring-shaped group of coral islands that are surrounded by deep ocean water and that enclose a shallow lagoon Aztecs: Civilization of American-Indian people dominant in Mexico before the Spanish arrived in the 16th century

Biosphere: The regions of the surface, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the earth occupied by living organisms Colonialism: The policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically Colonies: A country or area under the full or partial political control of another country, typically a distant one, and occupied by settlers from that country Consumers/Consumption: A person who purchases goods and services for personal use Continentality: The degree to which the climate of a region typifies that of the interior of a large landmass Convectional warming: Warming through the circular distribution of heat (convection). Core areas: In a nation, a centre of power where innovation, technology, and employment are at a
high level.

Coriolis Effect: The spinning of the Earth that affects wind direction. Corn Belt: region in the midwestern United States (includes Illinois, Indiana and Iowa) which is ideal
for raising corn and livestock which is fed on corn

Cultural diversity: the quality of diverse or different cultures Culture Hearth: A culture hearth is a region where the culture of a group of people originated from and spread to other areas. Depletion of resources: When resources have been all used up. Desalinization: process of desalting, removal of salt (usually from sea water) Desert: A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less
than enough to support growth of most plants.

Earthquakes: The result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic
waves.

Erosion: The wearing away of bedrock or sediment by mechanical and chemical actions of all moving
agents such as rivers, wind and glaciers at the surface or in caves.

Ethnocentrism: Ethnocentrism is judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one's
own culture.

Evapotranspiraton: The water lost from an area through the combined effects of evaporation from the
ground surface and transpiration from the vegetation.

Favelas/Barrios: A favela is the generally used term for a shanty town in Brazil. A barrio is a poor
district of a city in a Spanish-speaking country

Flooding: an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. Formal regions: Formal regions are those that are designated by official boundaries, such as cities,
states, counties, and countries. For the most part, they are clearly indicated and publicly known.

Functional regions: Functional regions are defined by their connections. For example, the circulation
area for a major city area is the functional region of that paper.

General Water/Air Flow: Water and air flow due to unequal heating of the Earths surface. Geothermal energy: A culture hearth is a region where the culture of a group of people originated from and spread to other areas. Glaciation: process of becoming covered in glaciers Great Plains: vast region located east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada Greenhouse effect: retention of the sun's radiation resulting in an increase of the earth's temperature High standard of living: A standard of living that is maintained through a huge consumption of resources. Human Environment Interaction: How humans adapt to and modify their environment. Humus: Partially decomposed organic soil material. Hydrologic cycle: The water cycle Hydrosphere: the combined mass of water found on, under, and over the surface of a planet. Industrialization: the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an
agrarian society into an industrial one.

Irrigation: act or process of artificially supplying an area land with water Latin America: countries in the Western Hemisphere south of the United States were Romance
languages are spoken

Latitude: a geographic coordinate that specifies the north-south position of a point on the Earth's
surface.

Lava: molten rock expelled from a volcano Lithosphere: earth's crust and upper mantle Map distortions: When maps are distorted due to latitudal and longitudal line positioning.

Map scale: The ratio of the map distance to the distance in real life. Mayans: a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of
the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems.

Megalopolis: a very large, heavily populated city or urban complex. Mestizo: a mixed race person, usually European and Amerindian. Mexican Revolution: a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco
I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Daz, and lasted for the better part of a decade until around 1920.

Midwest Region: Monsoons: a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation Moraine: The accumulation of rocks and soil carried and deposited by a glacier Movement theme: A map that shows the movement of people, or things. NAFTA: North American Free Trade Agreement, allowing free trade between Canada, the U.S., and Mexico. Non-renewable resource: Resources that are not naturally restored through natural processes, except after incredibly long periods of time. North America population distributions: The population is mostly along the coast, with a huge population density up in the northeast region. Ocean currents: a continuous, directed movement of ocean water generated by the forces acting
upon this mean flow, such as breaking waves, wind, Coriolis effect, cabbeling, temperature and salinity differences and tides caused by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun.

Orographic effect: Rainfall that results from or is enhanced by mechanical lifting of an air mass
over mountains.

Perceptual regions: constructs that reflect human feelings and attitudes about areas Physical regions: A physical region is a basic geographic unit that has basic, geological
characteristics.

Plate tectonics: a theory explaining the structure of the earth's crust and many associated
phenomena as resulting from the interaction of rigid lithospheric plates that move slowly over the underlying mantle.

Plateau: an area of relatively level high ground.

Population density: The number of people living in an area in relation to the space. Precipitation: Either rain, snow, sleet, or hail Quebec: One of Canadas largest provinces. Rain forests: a luxuriant, dense forest rich in biodiversity, found typically in tropical areas with
consistently heavy rainfall.

Regions: An area with similar characteristics. Relative location: The location of something in relation to another. Renewable resource: Resources that are replenished over time. Rust belt: parts of the northeastern and midwestern US that are characterized by declining
industry, aging factories, and a falling population.

Sediment: the accumulation of sand and dirt that settles in the bottom of lakes Silt: fine sand, clay, or other material carried by running water and deposited as a sediment Sun belt: a strip of territory receiving a high amount of sunshine, esp the southern US from
California to Texas

Sustainable development: Improvement of standards of living in ways that will not jeopardize those of future generations. Tropical cyclones: a localized, very intense low-pressure wind system, forming over tropical
oceans and with winds of hurricane force. Hurricane:Ameirca::Cyclone:Japan::Typhoon:India

Tsunami: a long high sea wave caused by an earthquake, submarine landslide, or other
disturbance.

Tundra: a vast, flat, treeless Arctic region of Europe, Asia, and North America in which the
subsoil is permanently frozen.

Valleys: The dip between two mountains. Vegetation: The plants that live in an area Volcanoes: a mountain or hill, typically conical, having a crater or vent through which lava, rock
fragments, hot vapor, and gas are being or have been erupted from the earth's crust.

Wheat Belt: a region where wheat is the chief agricultural product.

LANDFORMS: (30) The geographic words that you were asked to make sure you could define. This is a matching section of the definition only. There is no place or illustration expected. Aquifer: A subsurface rock or sediment unit that is porous and permeable. To be an aquifer it must have these traits to a high enough degree that it stores and transmits useful quantities of water Archipelago: sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster or collection of islands. Atoll: A ring-shaped group of coral islands that are surrounded by deep ocean water and that enclose a shallow lagoon Bay: A bay is a large body of water connected to an ocean or sea formed by an inlet of land due to the surrounding land blocking some waves and often reducing winds Beach: A beach is a landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake, or river. It usually consists of loose particles, which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, or cobblestones. Buttes: A conspicuous hill with steep sides and a flat top. The top is usually a cap-rock of resistant material. This structure is frequently an erosional remnant in an area of flat-lying sedimentary rocks Canyon: a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river Most canyons were formed by a process of long-time erosion from a plateau level. Cape: a point or extension of land jutting out into water as a peninsula or as a projecting point. Smaller than a peninsula Delta: A deposit of sediment that forms where a stream enters a standing body of water such as a lake or ocean. The name is derived from the Greek letter "delta" because these deposits typically have a triangular shape in map view Ergs: a broad, flat area of desert covered with wind-swept sand with little or no vegetative cover. Estuary: An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea Fault: a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement along the fractures as a result of earth movement. fjord: a narrow inlet of the sea between cliffs or steep slopes

glaciers: A glacier or is a persistent body of dense ice exceeding a surface area of 0.1 km constantly moving under its own gravity; it forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. Gorge: a narrow valley between hills or mountains, typically with steep rocky walls and a stream running through it Gulf: a large bay that is an arm of an ocean or sea Hills: A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain iceberg: An iceberg is a large piece of freshwater ice that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open water. Island: An island is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Isthmus: An isthmus is a narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas, usually with water on either side. Lagoon: A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by barrier islands or reefs Lake: A lake is a body of relatively still water of considerable size, localized in a basin, that is surrounded by land apart from a river, stream, or other form of moving water that serves to feed or drain the lake Levee: A levee is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels. Mesa: A mesa isis the American English term for tableland, an elevated area of land with a flat top and sides that are usually steep cliffs Mountain: A mountain is a large landform that stretches above the surrounding land in a limited area, usually in the form of a peak Peninsula: A large mass of land projecting into a body of water Piedmont: A broad plateau that leads to the foot of a mountain range Plains: an extensive area of level and rolling, treeless country, often covered by rich, fertile soil River: a large natural stream of water (larger than a creek) Sea: A large body of salt water nearly or partly surrounded by land. A sea is much smaller than an ocean Strait: A narrow passage of water connecting two large bodies of water

Valley: area of low land between hills or mountains Volcano: A weak spot in the crust where magma has come to the surface