Key Terms General Flashcards
Physical Geography
Physical geography is the study of the Earth’s natural features. It is about the land, sea, and environment around us. Landforms are natural features formed by rivers, sea, ice, volcanoes e.t.c.
Human geography
Human geography is the study of where and how people live. It is also about people and places and how they affect each other.
Birth rate
The number of people/babies born per 1,000 people.
Death rate
The number of people who die per 1,000 people.
Population growth rate
The speed of which the population increases.
Natural increase
The difference between the number of live births and the number of deaths during the year. The natural increase (or natural decrease) is negative when the number of deaths exceeds the number of births.
Cartogram
Where territories are re-sized on a map following their subject.
Population
The number of people in a particular place.
Population density
The number of people per km square.
Population distribution
How a population is spread out over an area.
Projected
Predicted or estimated based on what is already known.
Ageing population
The growth in the population of older people (usually 65 years and over) in the population.
Population structure
How many males and females of different ages are in a population.
Life expectancy
How long a person can be expected to live.
Migration
Movement from one place to another.
Immigrants
Move into another country.
Emigrants
Move out of a country into another.
Net migration
The difference between both immigration and emigration in one country (maybe a positive or a negative number).
Descendants
Relatives born after someone, such as children and grandchildren.
Diverse
Having lots of variety.
Persecution
Treating people badly because of their beliefs or race.
Ethnic group
A group of people that share the same culture, language, religion or traditions.
Sector
A type of job or part of the economy.
Push factor
Reasons that cause people to leave a place.
Pull factor
Reasons that cause people to move to somewhere.
Landscape
The visible features of an area of land.
Uplands
Land that is hilly or mountainous.
Foreground
The part of a view that is at the front.
Land use
What land is used for, e.g. farming or industry.
Physical (base layer)
Where rock type (geology) and landscape processes have sculpted a physical landscape.
Biological (middle layer)
Including the soil, plants and trees.
Human (top layer)
Including settlements, communications and farming.
Mechanical weathering
The process of breaking big rocks into little ones.
Weathering
The process that takes place as rocks, and other parts of the geosphere, are broken down into smaller pieces.
Chemical weathering
Involves changes that some substances can cause in the surface of a rock that make it change shape or colour.
Rock cycle
Describes how rocks constantly change from one to another.
Erosion
The movement of weathered rocks by natural forces.
Limestone pavement
A bare, rocky limestone surface with blocks of limestone separated by deep cracks.
Gryke
A deep crack in the surface of limestone.
Clints
Limestone blocks separated by deep cracks (grykes).
Vegetation
Plants.
Glacier
River of ice.
Freeze-thaw weathering
Where water continually freezes in the cracks of rock, making them bigger, and eventually breaks the rock/s apart.
Corrie
A round hollow made in the side of a mountain by a glacier.
Scree
Small loose stones created by freeze-thaw weathering.
Tarn
A small mountain lake.
Ice sheet
Kilometers thick sheet of ice.
Contour
A line on a map that connects points or land surface of same height.
Continental crust
Crust which carries land.
Oceanic crust
Crust which carries water.
Constructive plate boundary
Where plates move apart. Lava pours out and creates a new crust.
Destructive-oceanic/continental plate boundary
When a weaker plate slides under another, forcing up magma - through volcanoes.
Destructive collision plate boundary
There are no volcanoes and the land is pushed up - hence a fold mountain.
Conservative plate boundary
Two places slide and pressure build up, causes mass destruction.
Volcano
Typically, a cone-shaped landform with a broad base and narrow top, where lava erupts at the Earth’s surface.
Crater
The bowl-shaped top of a volcano.
Magma
Melted rocks below Earth’s surface.
Lava
Magma that erupts above ground.
Vent
A channel through which magma travels to reach Earth’s surface.
Hot spot
Small areas where Earth’s crust is so thin that hot magma melts and breaks through the rock about it, often building up over time to form an island.
