geography lecture midterm

greeks and geography

* first civilization to practice 1st form of physical geography
* interested in earth’s size, shape, and geography
* first to give it a name and declare it a science

geography

* devoted to studying lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomenon of earth
* Eratosthenes
* how things differ/interconnected from place to place

human geography

study of communities, cultures, economies, interactions by studying their relations with space and place

physical geography

natural environment

spatial science

physical and social science

four spheres of earth

atmosphere, geographic/lithosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere

atmosphere

gassesge

geographic/lithosphere

land

biosphere

life

hydrosphere

water

cyrosphere

ice

global environmental change

natural and man made changesg

globalization

interconnected world

pattison

stated that modern geography is defined by four academic traditions

four academic traditions

* spatial tradition
* area studies/regional
* man-land tradition
* earth science tradition

spatial tradition

studying geographic phenomena in terms of spatial perspective

area studies/regional

gleam a place in order to describe, differentiate, and define from other areas

man land tradition

studying relationship between humans and the land

earth science tradition

focus on how the planet’s location in the solar system impacts seasons and how spheres impact human lives on earth

holistic nature of geography

* integrates a variety of subject matter
* integration makes geography holistic
* can be a strength and weakness

j lewis robinson

stated that Pattinson’s model lacked a unifying focus

five themes of geography

location, place, region, movement, human environment interaction

absolute location

exact location

relative location

next door, nearby, etc

place

characterized by everything in it (physical or human characteristics)

region

characterized by certain similar characteristics (political borders, physical characteristics)

movement

how people, products, information, and ideas and spread from place to place

human environment interaction

relationship between humans and the environment

formal regions

government designated boundaries or defined by similar characteristics (chinatown, the corn belt, etc)

functional regions

regions based on their functions (newspaper delivery area)

vernacular regions

based on people’s perceptions (the south, the Middle East, etc)

systems theory

study of collections of interacting objects as it applies in natural and cultural application

relating to our environment

adapt, depend, and modify

adapt

alter our needs to accommodate to the land

depend

we use the land

modify

we change the land

importance of geography

* fundamental skill
* ties together diverse sciences
* understand conflict in world

first geographers

* 4,000 years ago


* main purpose → to map landscape and human settlements

aristotle

showed that the earth was a sphere using lunar eclipses

lunar eclipse

earth’s shadow covers the moon

eratosthenes

measured the circumference of earth

earth’s circumference

40,233 km (25,000 miles)

scientific method

a cylindrical model/process

steps of the scientific method

* observe phenomena
* hypothesis
* create experiment
* make predictions
* conduct experiment
* conclusions

geography and science

* data collection and eliminating explanations
* theories developed through method, review, uncertainty

scientific method importance

* develop ideas
* natural world is predictable and constant
* data can prove/disprove hypothesis/multihypotheses
* new information expands ideas

things to remember about scientific method

* science doesn’t prove anything
* a theory isn’t a guess or a hunch
* there will always be research that needs to be done
* scientific acceptance is based on evidence
* there will always be controvery

truth and reality

* scientific method
* agreed upon definitions in science

belief

idea that is not confirmed by science

principle

* ideas based on scientific rules and laws
* fundamental truths, foundation for other studies
* scientists use these when making predictions

fact

confirmed many times, but it could still be wrong

law

description of how something is happening, but doesn’t explain whyt

theory

explanation of some aspect of the natural world through well-substantiated facts, tested hypotheses, and laws

theories of universe’s demise

the Big Crunch, the big freeze, the big rip, the big suck, the big bouncet

the Big Crunch

universe stops expanding, gravity takes dark matter and space gets smaller

the big rip

the universe keeps expanding until everything binding the universe rips and we all float away

the big freeze

everything floats away until earth is alone and the earth freezes

the big suck

a giant black hole sucks the earth, alternate universe inside

the big bounce

the world ends when it crunches, but everything restarts

formation of universe

1. solar nebula contracts
2. as solar nebula shrinks, motion causes it to flatten
3. nebula is disk of matter w/ concentration near center
4. formation of profusion, solid particles condense as nebula cools, increase to planetesimals

planetesimals

building blocks of planets

solar system

* sun isn’t the exact, mathematical center
* 8 plants
* 4 jovian 4 terrestial
* open system
* earth is 3rd from the sun

solar system origins

* 4.5-5 billion years ago (4.72 billion)
* started as nebula, contracted into protostar, then turned into our sun

earth systems

interactions between environmental sphereso

closed system

isolated from outside influence

open system

energy and matter and exchanged across systems

interconnected systems

systems influence other systems (glacier systems)e

equilibrium

inputs and outputs in balance

feedback loops

outputs feedbacks as inputs reinforcing change

positive feedback loop

change within system that continues in one direction

negative feedback loop

inhibits system from changing

theories of universe origins

* big bang
* creation
* intelligent design (a religious)
* steady state
* black hole
* multiverse

geologic time scale

* vast periods of time over which geological processes occur
* life represents a tenth of a second of an entire year

primary

volcanic

secondary

hardened sedimentary

territory and quaternary

surface soils

units of time

eons, eras, periods, epochs

eons

* longest unit
* Phanerozoic and precambrian

phanerozoic

* time of visible life
* 541 million years ago

precambrian

* 88% of earth’s history
* cenozoic, mesozoic, Paleozoic

three major eras

cenozoic, mesozoic, paleozoicc

cenozoic

age of recent life

mesozoic

age of middle life

paleozoic

age of ancient life

units

eons, eras, periods, epochs

radiometric dating

measuring decay of radioactive elements in some rocks

absolute age

exact number of years since layers formed or geologic event took placere

native age

relative dating doesn’t equal absolute agepr

principle of original horizontality

sediments accumulate in flat, horizontal layer

principle of superposition

oldest is the bottom layer and vice versa

principle of cross cutting relationships

if fault or igneous intrusion cuts through, cross cutting occurred after layer formed

unconformities

interruption in rock record

anthropocene

current epoch of geologic time

crust

outermost shell of earth

oceanic crust

ocean, denser rocks

continental crust

* significantly thicker
* large land masses
* preserved longer
* low density
* oldest crust doesn’t equal earth’s age

mohorovic discontinuity

narrow zone of change in mineral composition in crust

mantle

composed of high density rock, largest layer

upper mantle

* thin, rigid
* lithosphere
* asthenosphere

lithosphere

uppermost, combo of crust and upper rigid mantle