Geography and World History Review Flashcards

Comprehensive practice flashcards based on geography review material covering key terms, mapping principles, climate patterns, physical systems, and historical human geography.

What is acid rain, and which major pollutants act as its precursors?

Acid rain is acidic deposition that can travel across political boundaries; its major precursors are sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides from fossil-fuel combustion.

What is the primary role of a cartographer?

A cartographer is a mapmaker who selects map scale, symbols, and projections to communicate spatial information.

What were caudillos in Latin American history?

Caudillos were powerful political leaders, often military strongmen, who dominated national politics through personal power networks.

What event occurred at Chernobyl in 1986, and what was its geographic significance?

A nuclear reactor disaster occurred in what is now Ukraine, releasing radioactive contamination that spread across political borders.

What are chinampas?

Chinampas are productive raised agricultural plots constructed in shallow lake or wetland areas of central Mexico, associated especially with the Aztecs.

What is the Chunnel?

The Channel Tunnel rail link passing beneath the English Channel that connects Great Britain and France.

What purpose does a compass rose serve on a map?

It is a map symbol that indicates cardinal and intermediate directions.

How do weathering and erosion differ?

Weathering breaks down rock or soil in place, whereas erosion is the removal and transport of loosened rock or soil.

What are fjords and how are they formed?

Fjords are long, narrow, steep-sided coastal inlets formed when the sea floods glacially carved valleys.

What is a foehn wind?

A warm, dry downslope wind particularly associated with the Alps, created when descending air warms by compression on the leeward side of mountains.

What is a glyph?

A written, carved, or drawn graphic symbol representing meaning, commonly studied in Mesoamerican writing.

What does latitude measure?

Latitude measures angular distance north or south of the equator in degrees.

What does the term minifundia refer to in Latin America?

Small agricultural landholdings, often associated with limited-resource or subsistence farming.

What were Inca quipu used for?

Quipu were knotted-cord devices used by Andean cultures for recordkeeping, particularly numerical records.

What defines service industries?

Activities that provide services rather than extracting raw resources or manufacturing goods, such as retail, transport, lodging, and health care.

What environmental conditions characterize the tundra biome?

Cold temperatures, treeless low vegetation, a short growing season, and ground that often overlies permafrost.

If a map scale is 1 cm = 50 km and two cities are 3.6 cm apart, what is their ground distance?

The ground distance is $180\,\text{km}$ ($3.6 \times 50 = 180\,\text{km}$).

What are the six essential elements of geography?

The world in spatial terms; places and regions; physical systems; human systems; environment and society; and uses of geography.

What directly causes the daily cycle of daylight and darkness on Earth?

Earth rotating on its axis.

Why does the Northern Hemisphere receive more solar energy per day in June than in December?

Earth's axial tilt causes the Northern Hemisphere to experience longer daylight hours and a higher solar angle in June.

Why is a high-elevation city generally cooler than a nearby lowland city at the same latitude?

Temperature generally decreases with altitude in the troposphere.

How does a mountain range produce a rain shadow?

Moist air rises on the windward slope, expands, cools, and drops precipitation; as it descends the leeward slope, it compresses, warms, and holds relative dryness.

What defines a functional region?

A region organized around a central node and linked by functional interactions, such as a newspaper delivery route or transit system.

Which social indicators reflect a higher average standard of living?

High literacy, high life expectancy, and low infant mortality.

How are the four main sectors of economic activity categorized?

Primary (resource extraction/farming), Secondary (manufacturing/processing), Tertiary (services), and Quaternary (knowledge/information).

What physical process formed and shaped the Great Lakes basins?

Continental glaciation excavated and enlarged the basins, which were then filled by melting ice.

Which waterway system connects the Great Lakes through Canada to the Atlantic Ocean?

The St. Lawrence River and Seaway.

Which route connects Lake Erie to the Atlantic through New York?

The Erie Canal connects Lake Erie to the Hudson River, which drains into New York Harbor.

What vegetation type best characterizes a prairie?

Grasses with relatively few trees.

Which types of trees are characteristic of the wet coastal Pacific Northwest?

Conifers such as Douglas-fir, spruce, and cedar.

Which is the largest country in South America by area, and what is its dominant language?

Brazil is the largest country by area, and its dominant language is Portuguese.

In which geographic region is Mexico City located?

The central highlands.

What is an example of crop transfer during the Columbian Exchange?

Maize moving from the Americas to Europe.

What weather pattern defines a Mediterranean climate?

Dry summers and generally mild, wetter winters.

To which language family do English, German, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian belong?

The Germanic language family.

To which language family does Finnish belong?

The Uralic language family.

In what year did East and West Germany formally reunify?

1990 (following the opening of the Berlin Wall in 1989).

What were the core issues in the historical Troubles in Northern Ireland?

It was a political and national-identity conflict between largely Protestant unionists (who favored remaining in the UK) and largely Catholic nationalists (who favored a united Ireland).

What themes are central to Romantic art?

Human emotion, imagination, and the dramatic power or sublime force of nature.

Who led the Bolsheviks when they took power in Russia in 1917?

Vladimir Lenin.

Which Soviet leader introduced reforms in the 1980s and oversaw elections to the USSR Congress of People's Deputies in 1989?

Mikhail Gorbachev.

What is the contour interval on a map with elevation lines labeled 20, 40, and 60 meters?

The contour interval is $20\,\text{meters}$.

On a map with a scale of 1:200,000, what ground distance in kilometers is represented by 4 cm?

The ground distance is $8\,\text{km}$ ($4 \times 200,000 = 800,000\,\text{cm} = 8\,\text{km}$).

What is the average population density of a city with 240,000 residents living across 120 square kilometers?

The average density is $2,000\,\text{people per square kilometer}$ ($\frac{240,000}{120} = 2,000$).

What defines a formal region?

A formal region is an area defined by official administrative boundaries or uniform shared physical or cultural characteristics.