M

Question 0

Magma plume

Answer 0

A rising body of magma within the mantle.

Question 1

Magma

Answer 1

Molten rock below the surface, either held within the crust or in the mantle.

Question 2

Malaria

Answer 2

A fever caused by a single-cell parasite.
It is borne by certain species of mosquito and transferred to humans by mosquito bite.
In many warm, tropical areas of the world it is endemic.
Although its range has diminished, global warming threatens to expand it once again.
Once caught, it cannot yet be fully eradicated but can be controlled if treated early.
In strong adults it will likely recur throughout the lifetime but it will kill weaker individuals.
Hundreds of millions are infected each year and it is responsible for 1 million deaths per year worldwide, 90% in Africa.

Question 3

Malnutrition

Answer 3

The body’s response to a lack of food in terms of the calorific energy intake or a lack of the right food in terms of the proportions of energy, minerals, protein, and vitamins.
Can expose people to disease by weakening resistance, or kill people through organ failure.

Question 4

Malthus, Thomas Robert

Answer 4

In geography, renowned for his theory of population as it relates to resources.
Based on the principles that food production increases at an arithmetic rate, whereas population increases at an exponential rate, Malthus stated that population had to outstrip resources over time.
He suggested that this would trigger both preventative checks, such as postponement of marriage or reduction of family size, and positive checks, such as famine or war, to reduce population.
Unforeseen changes in technology and agricultural organization discredited his theory as massive food production increases through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries negated his ideas.
However, his theory has found new favour in the late twentieth century as neo-Malthusianism.

Question 5

Mangrove swamp

Answer 5

A type of wetland forest made up of salt-adapted trees found in the inter-tidal zone of tropical coast areas.
Provides a rich habitat for strong bio-diversity and help protect coasts from erosion.

Question 6

Mann, P.

Answer 6

Proposed, in 1965, a model of urban land-use which integrated the ideas of Burgess and Hoyt into a single model for British cities.
The model was made up of concentric circles divided into wedge-shaped sectors which allowed for the more segmented nature of development and redevelopment in urban environments in the real world.

Question 7

Manning’s N (after Robert Manning)

Answer 7

A formula of river velocity:

v = R⁰⁻⁶⁷ x S⁰⁻⁵ / n

where R is hydraulic radius, S is channel slope and n is Manning roughness coefficient.

Question 8

Manning’s roughness coefficient

Answer 8

A measure of channel resistance which is used as part of a formula to calculate velocity (Manning’s N).
The values vary between 0.02 for smooth channels and 0.10 for very rough channels.

Question 9

Mantle

Answer 9

The layer of the earth between the crust and the core.
The upper part is the lithosphere (which includes the crust above).
The majority of the mantle is the asthenosphere which extends to a depth of 2900km.
Mostly made of silicates, iron and magnesium.

Question 10

Manufacturing industry

Answer 10

Businesses that convert raw materials into finished products or component products, and those that convert or assemble component products into finished products.

Question 11

Map projection

Answer 11

The system of representing the three-dimensional surface of the world into the two-dimensional surface of a piece of paper.

Question 12

Maquis

Answer 12

Scrub vegetation made up of plants such as heathers which can grow up to 3 metres in height. It is found on areas of impermeable rock in Mediterranean regions where the original forests have been cleared by humans.

Question 13

Mariculture

Answer 13

A branch of aquaculture specializing in the cultivation of marine organisms in salt water usually by enclosing a cubic volume of a natural waterway.
May be for food e.g. fish, shellfish & seaweed or non-food e.g. cosmetics & jewellery.

Question 14

Marina

Answer 14

A man-made dock or mooring area, protected from the sea, particularly for the mooring of pleasure craft.

Question 15

Maritime

Answer 15

Literally of the sea.

Question 16

Maritime climate

Answer 16

The climate of land areas in coastal regions where the characteristics of the climate are clearly affected by the proximity to the water mass.
For example, the UK has a very different climate to continental areas at the same latitude.

Question 17

Market

Answer 17

Can be seen in two ways:

1. A place where goods and / or services are offered for sale.
2. The demand for a good or service in an area from local to global scale.

Question 18

Market economy

Answer 18

One run on laissez-faire principles.

Question 19

Market gardening

Answer 19

Highly intensive (in capital terms) farming of flowers, fruit and very perishable vegetables on a commercial basis.
Usually located close to urban areas as an immediate market, but large enterprises may also distribute at national and regional scale.

Question 20

Market town

Answer 20

A town whose main function is to act as a market place for the surrounding area.

Question 21

Marram grass

Answer 21

A species of grass that is tolerant of dry, sand dune environments. Important as a stabilizing factor in the development of a psammosere.

Question 22

Marxism

Answer 22

A political theory and / or practice where the emancipation of the working classes through class struggle is seen both as the driving force of history and the goal of modern society.
Developed by Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels, and most famously presented in their Communist Manifesto of 1848.
For in depth analysis see http://www.marxists.org/subject/students/index.htm

Question 23

Mass production

Answer 23

The production of finished goods on a very large scale i.e. large numbers of units coming from a single production facility or factory.

Question 24

Mass movement

Answer 24

The downslope movement en masse of rock, earth or water. For an excellent overview see www.fiu.edu/~longoria/natural/mass/mmain.htm

Question 25

Material index (after Weber)

Answer 25

MI = weight of raw materials needed to produce a unit of finished product / the weight of a unit of finished product

Question 26

Mean Annual Flood

Answer 26

Over a series of years, the mean average of the maximum flood discharges experienced in a particular river.
Recurrence interval should be once every 2.33 years.

Question 27

Meander

Answer 27

An exaggerated, looping, bend in a river.
Once formed, meanders grow in such a way that they will eventually cut themselves off from the river and cease to exist.
Flow around the outer bend is faster than on the inner meaning erosion occurs there to undercut the outer bank and material is moved across the meander and deposited on the slower inner bend.
The meander can therefore migrate across the land on which it flows -usually a lower course floodplain.
Thus, over time, the ‘neck’ of the loop closes until it joins and the river takes the shortest route, cutting off the meander and forming an ox-bow lake.

Question 28

Mechanical weathering

Answer 28

See physical weathering.

Question 29

Mechanisation

Answer 29

The replacement of human and / or animal labour with machines.

Question 30

Mediterranean climate

Answer 30

Climatic characteristics first identified around the Mediterranean region but since discovered to exist in the Cape region of South Africa, central California, central Chile, and the parts of southern Australia having a west facing coastline.
Annual temperature range is approximately 15˚C, with summers being very hot and winters mild.
Annual precipitation is 400-700mm, most of which falls during winter months.
This is the result of the ITCZ coming closer in summer and squeezing the sub-tropical high pressure zone of descending air into these areas. In winter, the movement of the ITCZ away pulls the Ferrel / Polar convergence into these zones bringing westerly winds and weather associated with depressions.

Question 31

Megalopolis

Answer 31

Vast expanse of essentially continuous built-up area created by merging urban centres.
Coined particularly in the U.S.A. where urban sprawl has blurred the distinctions between certain cities, e.g. BosWash: the extensive built-up area from Boston, through Massachusetts to Washington D.C.

Question 32

Meltwater

Answer 32

Liquid water that has come from melting snow or ice.

Question 33

Meridian

Answer 33

A line tracing a circle that passes through both poles.

Question 34

Mesa

Answer 34

A flat-topped hill standing up from a plain.

Question 35

Mesosphere

Answer 35

The layer of the atmosphere above the stratosphere.

Air temperature once again declines with altitude.

Question 36

Mesozoic

Answer 36

An era of geologic time lasting from 245m to 65m years ago.

Question 37

Metamorphic rock

Answer 37

Rocks created by the chemical alteration of existing rocks under the influence of temperature, pressure, or both.

Question 38

Meteorology

Answer 38

The study of the atmosphere.

Question 39

Methane (CH4)

Answer 39

A naturally occurring gas which is associated with decomposition and with oil deposits.
It is a greenhouse gas and burning it, or releasing it to the atmosphere will lead to the creation of carbon dioxide and water vapour, both themselves greenhouse gases.
It is therefore of great importance in climate change.

Question 40

Microclimate

Answer 40

The local climate conditions that show variations to the general climate conditions of the wider environment.

Question 41

Mid-oceanic ridge

Answer 41

An elongated range of undersea mountains formed by the extrusion of lava, combined with the upward pressure of a convection plume, at a divergent plate margin.

Question 42

Milankovitch, Milutin

Answer 42

Proposed climate variations are due to variations in the amount of insolation caused by variations in the earth’s orbit and positioning in space.
See http://www.homepage.montana.edu/~geol445/hyperglac/time1/milankov.htm

Question 43

Mining

Answer 43

Extraction of minerals from the crust for industrial use.

Question 44

Mist

Answer 44

A light fog.

Visibility usually remains beyond 1 kilometre.

Question 45

Mistral

Answer 45

The French term for a katabatic wind.

Question 46

Mixed economy

Answer 46

The most common form of national economic organization, somewhere between a command economy and a market economy.
The degree of government intervention is the basis of most political division in countries using this system.

Question 47

Moho

Answer 47

See Mohorovicic discontinuity.

Question 48

Mohorovicic discontinuity (Moho)

Answer 48

After Mohorovicic, the junction between the crust and the mantle.

Question 49

Monoculture

Answer 49

An agricultural system in which the cultivation of a single crop is the norm.

Question 50

Monopoly

Answer 50

Control of supply of a product or service to a particular market. In its pure form this would mean a single supplier, but his rarely occurs.
Highly dominant suppliers can however exert monopolistic controls in certain circumstances.

Question 51

Monsoon

Answer 51

A seasonal prevailing wind.
Two types:
1. Summer monsoon: intense heating of a continental mass in summer months due to the arrival of the heat equator causes convectional uplift over the continent and hence low pressure. This draws warm moist air from relatively higher pressure maritime areas bringing high levels of rainfall and humidity.
2. Winter monsoon: reverse of the summer system. The heat equator is now over the maritime area and draws cool, dry air from the continental mass which means cool, dry winter months for the monsoon region.

Question 52

Moor

Answer 52

Open, often hilly, expanse of land characterized by wet, spongy, peaty soils and vegetation such as moss, coarse grass and heather.

Question 53

Mor

Answer 53

A humus layer with high levels of acidity.

Dark, even black in colour, not fully decomposed and lacking in nutrients.

Question 54

Moraine

Answer 54

Debris deposited by a glacier.
Three main types:
1. Terminal moraine - marks the furthest point the glacier reached as it ‘bulldozed’ material ahead of the ice mass.
2. Lateral moraine - deposits of load carried at the edges of the glacier.
3. Medial moraine - deposits of the load carried in the middle of the glacier where two lateral moraines came together from tributary glacier.

Question 55

Morphology

Answer 55

Literally form, shape or structure.

Can be applied in physical geography e.g. the morphology of a hill, or human geography e.g. the morphology of a village.

Question 56

Mouth

Answer 56

Where a river meets a body of water.

Question 57

Mudflow

Answer 57

A fairly rapid mass movement usually occurring after heavy rainfall.

Question 58

Mull

Answer 58

A dark, crumbly, nutrient rich humus layer.