Useful Geography Key Words 1

Question 1

Aeroponics

Answer 1

Growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil

Question 2

Appropriate (or intermediate) technology

Answer 2

Technology suited to the needs, skills, knowledge and wealth of local people and their environment

Question 3

Arch

Answer 3

A wave-eroded passage through a small headland. This begins as a cave which is gradually widened and deepened until it cuts through.

Question 4

Bar

Answer 4

When a spit grows across a bay, a bay bar can eventually enclose the bay tho create a lagoon

Question 5

Beach nourishment

Answer 5

Adding new material to a beach artificially, through the dumping of large amounts of sand or shingle

Question 6

Beach re-profiling

Answer 6

Changing the profile or shape of the beach

Question 7

Biodiversity

Answer 7

The variety of life in the world or a particular ecosystem

Question 8

Brownfield site

Answer 8

Land that has been used, abandoned and now awaits reuse; often found in urban areas

Question 9

Business park

Answer 9

An area of land occupied by a number of businesses

Question 10

Carbon footprint

Answer 10

Measurement of the greenhouse gases individuals produce, through burning fossil fuels

Question 11

Cave

Answer 11

A large hole in a cliff caused by waves forcing their way into cracks in the cliff face

Question 12

Channel straightening

Answer 12

Removing meanders from a river to make it straighter

Question 13

Chemical weathering

Answer 13

The decomposition (rotting) of rock caused by a chemical change within that rock

Question 14

Conservation

Answer 14

Managing the environment in order to preserve, protect or restore it

Question 15

Conservative plate margin

Answer 15

Two plates sliding along each other, in the same or different directions

Question 16

Constructive plate margin

Answer 16

Tectonic plate margin where rising magma adds new material to plates that are diverging or moving apart

Question 17

Consumer

Answer 17

Organism that eats herbivores and/or plant matter

Question 18

Cross profile

Answer 18

The side-by-side cross section of a river channel and/or valley

Question 19

Dept relief

Answer 19

Cancellation if debts to a country by a global organisation such as the World Bank

Question 20

Decomposer

Answer 20

Organisms such as bacteria of fungi that break down plant and animal material

Question 21

De-industrialisation

Answer 21

The decline of a country’s traditional manufacturing industry due to exhaust of raw materials, loss of markets and overseas competition

Question 22

Deposition

Answer 22

Occurs when material being transported by the sea is dropped due to the sea losing energy

Question 23

Desertification

Answer 23

The process by which land becomes drier and degraded as a result of climate change or human activities, or both

Question 24

Destructive plate margin

Answer 24

Tectonic plate margin where two plates are converging and oceanic plate is subducted- there could be violent earthquakes and explosive volcanoes