Geography 210 - South Asia

Continental Plates

 

  • Earth's crust

  • Continental plates

    • Floats on magma

    • They collide and separate

 

  • Indian plate and Eurasian Plate

    • They collide and are pushed upward, creating the Himalayas

 

Physical Geography

 

  • World's highest mountains

    • Himalayas

      • Mt Everest 29,035 ft

    • Hindu Kush mountains

      • Almost as tall

  • Huge barrier

    • Climate

    • Culture can go thorugh the mountain passes, but slowly

 

  • Mountain ranges have deep valleys carved by:

    • Glaciers

    • Rivers

    • The ice sheets move slowly and erodes into the mountain. A river flows through from it, and does a lot of erosion.

 

  • Routes through mts.

    • Into Afganistan

    • Central Asia

 

  • A famous pass is the Khyber Pass - between Northeast Afganistan and Pakistan

 

  • Peninsular India

    • Tilted continental plate fragment - higher in the west, lower in the east. Water flows from west to east.

 

  • Ancient rocks - older the rocks, more likely there are mineral resources

 

  • Western Ghats

    • Some over 8,000 ft.

      • 2,400 meters

 

  • Eastern Ghats

    • Up to 5,000 ft.

 

  • The coastal plains go around the peninsula

    • The width of it varies tremendously.

 

  • Deccan Plateau - higher in the west, lower in the east

    • Slopes toward Bay of Bengal

    • Covered by ancient lava flows

 

  • Major River Basins

    • Indus River, coming of the Tibetan plateau, through Kashmir

    • Ganges River, comes through the Himalayan mountains and Ganges plain

    • Brahmaputra River, starts on the Tibetan plateau, flows eastward cutting through the mountains.

    • All these rivers have their headwaters (start of their river) in the Himalayan mountains.

 

  • The rivers are fed by

    • Mountain snows

    • Monsoon rains

 

  • Mouth of Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers

    • Forms a huge delta at the conjunction of both the rivers, near Bangladesh

    • Water slows down when it hits the plains

    • Fertile soil

    • Low-lying - even land, with not much elevation

    • Prone to flooding

    • Covers most of Bangladesh

    • Dense population

    • Intensive farming

 

  • Natural Resources

 

  • Ancient Rocks

    • Precious stones

    • Iron

    • Uranium

    • Huge coal deposits

    • Petroleum

    • Natural gas

 

  • Most critical natural resource in South Asia

    • Water

    • Irrigation and water storage back to ancient times

 

  • Indus River Valley

    • One of world's oldest civilizations

    • FLOWS THROUGH PAKISTAN, NOT INDIA

 

Environmental Hazards

 

  • Occur naturally

  • Exacerbated by humans

 

  • Earthquakes

    • Clash of continental plates, pressure builds, and then it slips - one goes down, up.

 

  • Frequent at base of Himalayan mountains

  • Poorly constructed homes big problem - some homes are built to withstand earthquakes

  • Flooding

    • Natural

      • From monsoon Rains

      • Monsoons: Seasonal continental wind systems

 

  • Deforestation

    • Increases flood hazard

  • Bangladesh

    • As much as 3/4 underwater

    • Half the population of the US.

 

  • Drought

    • Water shortages in much of South Asia, can last months to years

 

  • Deep wells, good water

    • Available to wealthy

    • Also water shortage

 

  • Poor people

    • Get access to dirty water that is less available

 

 

Cultural Geography

 

  • LONG HISTORY of interaction with

    • SE Asia

    • Central Asia

    • Middle East

    • China

    • Later, Europe

 

  • Diverse cultures

 

  • Hinduism

    • Mutliple theories of its origin: Aryan Invasion Theory

    • 1500 BC: Aryan invaders from NE

      • Into Ganges and Indus R. Valleys

      • Aryans: Light-skinned and tall, and more civilized

      • Their religion merged to form Hinduism

    • Dravidian peoples

      • Darker, shorter

      • Less "civilized"

    • Mixing of religions "created" Hinduism  

 

  • Majority of religious scholars reject Aryan Invasion Theory

 

  • Emerging Theory - theory that's emerging to replace the Aryan theory

 

  • Indus River Valley Civilization, 3500 - 1800 BC

  • Religious practices of Hinduism

    • Developed over nearly 2,000 years

 

  • Aryan peoples migrated to South Asia AFTER civilizations and Hinduism were created

    • Some of their religious practices did impact Hinduism

 

  • Hinduism began in the Indus River Valley

    • Indus River in Pakistan! - TEST QUESTION

 

  • Ethnic religion - Hinduism