PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY REVIEW FOR EXAM PART II

Transcription

1 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY REVIEW FOR EXAM PART II

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3 THE GEOSPHERES The atmosphere extends for hundreds of kilometers above the surface of the Earth. It is the area containing the planet s air: the mixture of gases that is held close to Earth by the Earth s gravity. The atmosphere contains many gasses, the most plentiful being nitrogen and oxygen. The atmosphere ends where density of the gasses equals that in outer space. The lithosphere is the outer, rocky layer of Earth. It includes the crust and the outer part of the Earth s mantle, and extends about 100km into the Earth. The hydrosphere is the area below, on and above the surface of the Earth where water can be found, whether as ice, liquid water or gaseous vapour. The biosphere is the very narrow area where life exists on Earth. It begins below the surface and extends as high as birds and insects fly.

4 CORIOLIS EFFECT Responsible for large scale weather patterns and legendary cause of the direction the water swirls down the sink

5 The Coriolis effect is the deflection (curving) of moving objects caused by the Earth's rotation. The Coriolis effect plays a major role in the movement of air and ocean currents. Objects are deflected to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere. Pilots must take the Coriolis effect into consideration when plotting a flight path, to account for the deflection of their planes.

6 Facts About Coastlines: Waves break down rocks into finer sediment. Ocean waves move across the surface, without actually moving the water itself. Mudflats represent an important ecosystem. A tombolo is a deposition landform in which an island is attached to the mainland by a narrow piece of land such as a spit or bar. Once attached, the island is then known as a tied island.

7 GEOGRAPHY Geographers are generally concerned with location, place, spatial patterns, spatial interactions. Geography is the science of space and time. Physical geography focuses on the study of features of the natural environment. Geography is a study of spatial relations. Geography is a study of the arrangement and interaction of phenomena over the surface of the Earth Geography is not considered a pure science. Human geography explores the relationship of people and their activity to the physical world.

8 WEATHERING AND EROSION Weathering is the process where rocks are worn away or broken down into smaller pieces by wind,water or plants etc. There are mechanical, chemical and organic weathering processes. Once the rock has been weakened and broken up by weathering it is ready for erosion. Erosion happens when rocks and sediments are picked up and moved to another place by ice, water, wind or gravity.

9 PHENOMENA RELATED TO THE MOVEMENT OF THE EARTH: the repeating phases of the Moon the cycle of the years The cycle of the seasons The cycle of the ocean tides The cycle of day and night Our planet s weather patterns

10 TIME ZONES Noon simply indicates when the Sun is most directly overhead a specific spot. When you fly from east to west over the International Date Line, you add a day. Although theoretically 15 degrees wide, the shape of time zones varies depending on internal and international borders.

11 GLACIERS A glacier might look like a solid block of ice, but it is actually moving very slowly. The glacier moves because pressure from the weight of the overlying ice causes it to deform and flow. Meltwater at the bottom of the glacier helps it to glide over the landscape.

12 GLACIERS Glacier caves can change seasonally. All glaciers have a similar structure and similar ways of moving over the land. As new layers of snow are added to a forming glacier, compression forces the icy snow to re-crystallize, forming grains that grow larger.

13 Karst topography is a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves.

14 KARST TOPOGRAPHY Karst topography is a landscape created by groundwater dissolving sedimentary rock. There is karst topography in Canada. Karst features include fluted and pitted rock surfaces, tunnels, caves, sinkholes, vertical shafts, springs and disappearing (or losing) streams. Groundwater flows through karst land forms, making the area even more vulnerable to erosion and pollution

15 Scale helps measure distances. N, S, E, W are intercardinal directions. Symbols identify a wide variety of natural and constructed features SYMBOLS:

16 COMPASS TYPES: Compass Rose Intercardinal Directions Compass Rose with more precise directions

17 COMPASS ROSE The Compass Rose is a design on a map which indicates the cardinal directions, North, South, East and West. Other than the four above, there are the Intercardinal Directions. They are named by combining the cardinal directions on either side of the point in question, and include NE, SE, SW, and NW. You can also be more precise using the Precise Directions compass, which are NNW, NNE, ENE, ESE, SSE, SSW, WSW, WNW.

18 BEARINGS When greater precision is required, bearings are often used instead of compass rose directions. Bearings substitute the degrees of a circle for the named directions, as illustrated here (remember that there are 360 degrees in a circle). Every point on the compass has a separate numerical identifier when bearings are used. NNE is 22.5, for example. What do you think is the bearing for NNW? Bearings are always measured clockwise (moving right and then around) from north, whose bearing is 0. In this way, east is 90, south is 180 and west is 270.

19 LOCATION GRID SYSTEMS Most maps allow us to specify the location of points on the Earth's surface using a coordinate system. For a two-dimensional map, this coordinate system can use simple geometric relationships between the perpendicular axes on a grid system to define spatial location. Includes tools such as latitude and longitude to help pinpoint surface features The figure below illustrates how the location of a point can be defined on a coordinate system.

20 MAPS Thematic maps show the spatial distribution of a wide variety of information such as, for example, the location of different types of precipitation or the location of populated places classified as either city, town or village. Base maps show basic information about the Earth's surface such as landforms and drainage and they symbolize landmark features like roads, railways, populated places and buildings. Every point on the compass has a separate numerical identifier when bearings are used. When the movement of particles is down a slope due to gravity (e.g., rock slides and debris flows), it is often called mass wasting.

21 -Cirrostratus are sheet-like, high-level clouds composed of ice crystals. Though cirrostratus can cover the entire sky and be up to several thousand feet thick, they are relatively transparent, as the sun or the moon can easily be seen through them. These high-level clouds typically form when a broad layer of air is lifted by large-scale convergence. -Nimbostratus are dark, low-level clouds accompanied by light to moderately falling precipitation. Low clouds are primarily composed of water droplets since their bases generally lie below 6,500 feet (2,000 meters). However, when temperatures are cold enough, these clouds may also contain ice particles and snow. -Altocumulus clouds are composed primarily of water droplets and are located between 6,500 and 20,000 feet (2,000 to 6,000 meters) above the ground. -Cumulonimbus clouds (Cb) are much larger and more vertically developed than fair weather cumulus. They can exist as individual towers or form a line of towers called a squall line. Fueled by vigorous convective updrafts (sometimes in excess 50 knots), the tops of cumulonimbus clouds can easily reach 39,000 feet (12,000 meters) or higher. -Stratocumulus clouds generally appear as a low, lumpy layer of clouds that is sometimes accompanied by weak intensity precipitation. Stratocumulus vary in color from dark gray to light gray and may appear as rounded masses, rolls, etc., with breaks of clear sky in between.

22 WHICH FACTORS MOST SIGNIFICANTLY INFLUENCE THE GEOGRAPHY OF CANADA? Size northern location isolation maple trees Population Wildlife mountains Snow Ice polar wind

23 TRUE OR FALSE? All planets in our solar system orbit the Sun in a clockwise direction. F The Moon orbits the Earth in a counterclockwise direction. T The Earth spins on its own axis in a counterclockwise direction. T The Earth circles the Sun in a slightly elliptical orbit. T

24 AIR MASS: A BODY OF AIR WITH HORIZONTALLY UNIFORM TEMPERATURE, HUMIDITY, AND PRESSURE. Continental arctic Continental polar Maritime polar Maritime tropical Continental tropical Colder air masses are termed polar or arctic, while warmer air masses are deemed tropical. Continental and superior air masses are dry while maritime and monsoon air masses are moist. Continental POLAR is the air mass that often dominates the weather picture across Canada and the USA during winter.

25 MICROCLIMATES Microclimates are the climate of a very small or restricted area, especially when this differs from the climate of the surrounding area. The creation of microclimates is associated with: Large bodies of water Buildings and pavement Forested areas Regional topography

26 GLOBAL WIND PATTERNS The land near the Equator moves faster than the land at the poles. Flows of air are caused by deflection of the wind away from the Equator. Global wind patterns influence global ocean currents.

27 THE EARTH S ATMOSPHERE Location of the ozone layer: in the stratosphere significance of the layers: THERMOSPHERE MESOSPHERE STRATOSPHERE TROPOSPHERE (on the exam diagram, you will not be asked to indicate EXOSPHERE)

28 The troposphere is the first layer above the surface and contains half of the Earth's atmosphere. Weather occurs in this layer. Many jet aircrafts fly in the stratosphere because it is very stable. Also, the ozone layer absorbs harmful rays from the Sun. Meteors or rock fragments burn up in the mesosphere. The thermosphere is a layer with auroras. It is also where the space shuttle orbits. The atmosphere merges into space in the extremely thin exosphere. This is the upper limit of our atmosphere.

29 ANY QUESTIONS?