exam 1 lecture 1

What is geography?

• To write about earth 

Tobler's first law 

• “Everything is related to everything else. But near things are more related than distant things.”

Geography looks at the interactions between different aspects of the world 

• Natural world: atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere

• Geographic area (place)

• Human cultures

• Space (spatial) 

• If we eliminated the human and spatial factors, we would be studying geology 

What is the unifying method of geography?

• We take into account “space” in our studies- location and time 
  

What guides geographers in their investigations?

1. Location: location on the earth 

           Relative location- location based on its proximity to other features around it

Absolute location - an exact point on earth (GPS coordinates, longitude/latitude)

2. Place: description of the location 

              -physical and natural characteristics

              -includes man made features and/or political boundaries 

3. Human-earth relationship: humans interactions with the environment

-how we live in the environment  

4. Movement:  motions that occurs within the environment

• Oceanic and atmospheric circulations

5. Regions: areas that are conformable 

What are the subfields of geography?

• Human geography- study of how groups of people relate to each other, their environment, and their places across time, space/location 

• Physical geography- the study of natural environments systems, processes and components in a spatial context- emphasis on humans interrelationship with the environment  

What is the difference between physical geography and physical geology?

• Physical geology- concerned about how and why the earth does what it does, why it looks the way it does, the insides and outsides, and the processes that change it

• Physical geography- concerned with earths surficial features, what shaped these features, and how humans related to these processes and characteristics 

Earthquakes 

• Physical geology- mechanisms that cause earthquakes, how seismic waves travel through different types of materials 

• Physical geography- looks at the human impact on earthquakes (fracking) or the impact of quakes on humans (disasters) 

What concepts do geographers use in their investigations?

   Process: the mechanisms that cause, act on, or govern the spheres on the earth 

   scale : the size or extent of a characteristic 

• Temporal; length of time of a characteristics emergence, existence, and expiration

• The size of the area being studied 

• Cartographic (map): the measure of distance and the relationship between a map unit of measure and its representation of group measurements 

Systems 

• The study of earth as an interaction between component systems such as the physical, biological, chemical 

What is the scientific method?

• It is the organized process by which we investigate questions and come to conclusions based on evidence and date

• Steps- make an observation, form a hypothesis, experiment and collect date, report results    not necessary- peer review, develop a scientific theory

What is a system?

• System: a set of components that have a particular order or relationship to each other that have a way to transfer energy and matter through the components 

System components

1. Storage of matter and/or energy

2. How energy flows through the system

3. Processes to transfer or transform energy and matter

Earth system: 

• the interaction of the four main natural “spheres”, which are the different   phenomena that are related and place to a category of spheres

Two kinds of systems:

• Open system: a system that receives energy or input from outside the system

• Closed system: a system that does not receive energy or matter from outside or release energy to the systems 

Can a system's outputs change how the system operates?

Change can come in the form of:

• Acceleration: increasing change to the point of instability

• Suppression: decreasing change, which encourages stability 

Feedback loops: 

• where the output of the first operation/process/system become the new input of the second operation/process/system, changing the next output

Positive: one part of the system increases, and the next output will increases

• Snowballing or runaway

• Sweating and heat exhaustion 

negative : the output suppresses the process and causes a decrease in the next output

• The stabilizing force in the system 

• Plants and the CO2

                                                                            *insert diagram

What happens to a system over time?

In the short term, there may be fluctuations in the output, but not enough to change the output long term

• Steady state equilibrium: in the long-term the system doesn't change the outputs. Considered stable

However…

• Dynamic equilibrium: system starts to deviate from the stable outputs 

• Thresholds (tipping points): a permanent change in the system and cannot go back 

What are the four open systems on earth?

Atmosphere:

• Gasses held by gravity

• Transmits solar energy

• Supports life in the lower layers

• Formed from the lithosphere and solar energy 

Lithosphere:

• Crust and uppermost mantle of the earth 

• Soils could be considered a subsphere called edaphosphere 

Biosphere:

• Ecosphere

• All living organisms up to 8 km in the atmosphere

Hydrosphere 

• All water, water vapor, and ice

• Includes permafrost

• The ice portion can be considered its own sphere called the cry-sphere