101 SUMMARY NOTES      CHAPTERS 1-3

 

Test #1: Wednesday 15 October

 

I will not test on sections that I have not covered.  The test will be on chapters 1 and 2. 

 

NOTES

 

1)      You can bring a 3x5 card of handwritten notes (both sides) to the test.  If your card is any bigger you will have 10 points taken off your test score and will not be able to use all of the card.

2)      Please check all the way to the end of this page because there is a section on country locations knowledge

3)      Material in purple/italics has not been covered and will not be on test #1 (I will update this to reflect what we cover)

4)      Field trip knowledge (see section after chapter 2 notes) will be on the test.

 

 

STUDY BUDDIES ARE REALLY USEFUL.  LEARNING IS MUCH EASIER WHEN YOU ARE PART OF A GROUP.  I AM AVAILABLE TO STUDY GROUPS … IF YOU GATHER UP YOUR QUESTIONS I WILL COME AND WORK THROUGH THEM WITH YOU

 

 

 

Ch 1 Introduction, Earth Basics

 

The field of Geography:

  • Geography as ‘earth-writing’, or ‘The study of the interaction of all physical and human phenomena at individual places and of how interactions among places form patterns.’  Study of where things are and why, also how and why changes occur
  • Physical geography and human geography, jobs in geography
  • Geography: both a collection of methods and body of knowledge
  • Important basic knowledge about the world, especially important with decisions that need to be made in today’s world (Katrina, what you decide to eat/drink/wear, where you decide to live).

 

History of geography:

  • Maps by travelers, Ptolemy and his map of the world
  • Special geography and general geography (or regional geography)  (Bernhart Varen)
  • Humboldt (detailed descriptions of his travels, change in plants with altitude) and Marsh (man can affect nature)

 

Geographical Approaches:

  • Area analysis – looks at sites, situation, regions.  Also looks at globalization
  • Site (lat, long, characteristics)
  • Situation or relative location (relative location eg Timbuktoo, Cape Town), these can and do change with time
  • Globalization and regionalization or place identity, Champagne, lavender
  • Regions: Formal, functional, vernacular
  • Spatial analysis (distribution and movement) Distribution: density, concentration and pattern
  • Distance and movement: miles, time and perception. Distance decay
  • Diffusion ie how things spread: Relocation diffusion (eg nomads, me, possibly you) Contiguous diffusion (dispersion, like oil spreading on water, ideas, diseases, Hierarchical diffusion (from regional centers also diseases in a world with air travel)
  • Cultural studies: based on humanities, social theories and psychology
  • Physical systems: study of atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, lithosphere 

 

Earth basics:

  •  Size: (aprox. 4,000 radius;  8,000 diameter;  25,000 miles circumference). Oblate Spheroid or Oblate Ellipsoid (diameter 7900 at poles, 7926 miles at equator).Axial Tilt (Angle of Inclination) 23.5 deg. from the Plane of Ecliptic

·        Earth’s grid: Latitude & Longitude: (definition, key lines, maximum measures, parallels, meridians, N/S/E/W designations, distance per degree).

·        One degree latitude = aprox. 69 miles, 60 nautical miles, 111km.

·        John Harrison and measurement of longitude, concept that with accurate timekeeping latitude at a given place can be determined.

·        GMT (UTC, or Universal Time Coordinated), Date line

·        Earth rotates 360˚ in 24 hrs, rotates from west to east

·        Time zones: 1 hr for 15˚longitude

·        Global Positioning System (GPS)

 

Maps, scales and Projections:

·        Cartography

·        Scale: fraction, ratio, bar, written: use of each.

·        Small scale cities appear small, large scale they appear large with street details.

·         ‘Truth’ in mapping, types of maps

·        Projections: Cylindrical – Mercator = ‘true’ shape, distorted size, known as conformal (the shapes conform to ‘real life’ shapes.

·        Mercator maps

·        Conic = distorted shape, ‘true’ size,

·        Planar for a specific region, often polar.

·        Many types of projections, none perfect.

·        Information on maps

·        Topographic maps

·        Contour lines

·        Maps as showing a selection of information

 

Geographic Information Systems/Science (GIS)

·        GIS as software  or technique

·        Software like ARCINFO used for getting, storing, alteration, combination, analysis and map presentations. 

·        Many different sorts of data, remote sensing, maps, point measurements gathered to solve a problem.

·        Point measurements located precisely within GIS using GPS (Global Positioning System)

·        GIS Used in many fields, great job skill. 

 

Remote sensing:

·        Definition

·        Platform and sensor

·        Platform: balloons, aircraft, satellites

·        Concept of Wavelengths, visible and near-infrared, radar,

·        Landsat, GOES which is a geostationary satellite

·        Applications of visible light and radar data.

·        Active and passive instruments

 

 

101 Chapter 2 Weather and Climate

           

Climate vs. Weather: What is the difference?

Sun/Earth relations

·         Sun as main source of energy for life, energy in atmosphere and hydrosphere.

·         Day/Night: we have talked about.  Rotation about earth’s own axis.

·         Seasons: Revolution about the sun - 1 Earth Year, tilt relative to the plane of ecliptic causes seasons in spite of perihelion (Jan.3) when earth is closer to the sun, aphelion (July 4).  Basis for seasons and years.

·         Geometry of the earth relative to the sun at the equinoxes and solstices

·         Uneven distribution of insolation (incoming solar radiation) about the earth (angle of sun – intensity, and hours of illumination/day)  fig 2-5 and 2-6a,b.

·         Solstices (June/Dec. 21/22 = summer/winter), equinoxes (March, September 21/22= vernal or spring/autumnal or fall). 

·         Significant parallels: equator, Tropic of Cancer 23.5˚N, Tropic of Capricorn 23.5˚S, Arctic circle 66.5˚N, Antarctic circle 66.5˚S.

Heat movement

·         Shortwave (light) and Longwave (heat)

·         Green house effect

·         Phases of water. Latent heat, evaporation, condensation, melting, sublimation,

·         Water and air, particularly humid air that holds more latent heat redistributes heat about the earth

·         Advection and convection

Precipitation

·         Precipitation caused by cooling of moist air: convection, orographic, frontal between air masses often as part of a low pressure system.

·         Relative humidity, saturation point

·         Jet stream and air masses, jet stream and storm systems

·         Global circulation: polar easterlies, midlatitude low, westerlies, Inter tropical convergence zone, Mid-latitude cyclones

·         Bremerton as being on a boundary between air masses and ‘under’ the jet stream for much of the winter, unlike LA

·         Tornados: characteristics, location, formation

·         Hurricanes: characteristics, location, formation

Ocean circulation

·         Heat exchange performed by ocean currents

  • El Nino/La Nina: Known as ENSO, El Nino-Southern Oscillation,  4-10 year cycle originating in the tropical Pacific Ocean
    • El Nino Stage = weakened trade winds, eastward flow of warm equatorial Pacific waters to the west coast of the Americas, increased moisture, less cold water  upwelling, etc... w/ Australia & Indonesia experiencing droughts.
    • La Nina Stage = strengthened trade winds, westward flow of warm tropical Pacific waters towards the western Pacific, where Australia & Indonesia experience excessive rains, and the West of the Americas (especially equatorial) experience drier conditions.

Climate

Key variables: temperature, precipitation

  • How these are measured
  • Temperature: controls include latitude, altitude, continentality
  • Precipitation: controls include global wind circulation, topography, latitude.

 

  • Koppen system based on climographs (temperature and precipitation
  • Spatial classification
  • A Tropical climates
  • B Dry climates: potential evaporation >precipitation
  • C (lower mid-latitude) climates
    • Mediterranean
    • Humid subtropical
    • Marine west coast
  • D Cold mid-latitude climates
  • E Polar climates
  •  

Climate change (please read the book section)

  • Humans as modifying landscape, also climate
  • Source of knowledge of previous climates
  • Climate fluctuations before humans: earths orbit around sun, solar activity, volcanic activity, continental drift (very long time scale)
  • Historical correspondence of warming with carbon dioxide.
  • Industrial revolution and carbon dioxide
  • Complex issue: prediction of carbon dioxide increase
  • Consequences of global warming: hard to predict beyond sea level rise, but will include global climate changes, biosphere changes, rates of change unknown.  Scaremongering of the Mars scenario.
  • Kyoto protocol, US non-participation, but individual cities eg Seattle are participants!
  • Sustainability.

 

Illahee State Park – Local geographies – there is only one question from here.

(These are fuller notes because this material is not covered as a chapter in the book)

 

Lithosphere:

  • Collision of North American Plate and Pacific Plate as the cause of the Cascade and Olympic mountains
  • Glaciation as having altered the shape of the land, by depositing materials (gravel, sand, silt, clay) scraped off land further north.  At the end of glacial periods large amounts of meltwater washed away some of these materials.  These processes shaped the Hood Canal and Puget Sound.
  • Currently water is eroding hills and transporting the soil (sand, silt and clay) from within drainage basins out to the sea.  Some of the heavier materials are left in alluvial fans, other materials are carried further out to sea.  Waves and tides act to carry sand, silt and clay away from locations where rivers meet the sea.  We saw this with the creek that we walked up and, on a much smaller scale, on the beach.
  • Some of the sand transported from the land by rivers gets washed up as a beach.  If sand is prevented from being washed downstream to the sea, as happens if you build a dam, beaches get narrower (smaller).  This is happening in California.
  • Sand, silt and clay are all inorganic materials; sand refers to large particles, silt consists of medium sized particles and clay are very small plate shaped particles.  Water travels easily in the spaces between sand, but travels very slowly through the very small spaces between clay particles
  • Along the shore at Illahee landslides have occurred on steep slopes where sandy soils lie on top of clay soils.  Rain falling travels rapidly through the sandy soil until it reaches the clay soils, here water builds up and slippage of the overlying land and vegetation occurs.  As a result, trees are lying on the beach.  Don’t go here in wet weather or for a month after heavy rains!
  • Erosion is occurring along the shores of Illahee.  This is a natural process.  Global temperatures are rising; there is debate as to how much of this is natural and how much is caused by human activities.  With global warming ice sheets are melting and ocean levels are slowly rising by about 2-3mm a year.  Hence the erosional force of waves is affecting more land.  How will this affect us: consider low-lying areas such as the highway around Gorst and Gorst itself.
  • Soils are composed of both inorganic materials (sand, silt and clay) but also organic materials (things that have been part of an organism) such as bird feathers, animal droppings, dead leaves.  Organic materials are broken down by bacteria, beetles and worms.  Soils contain inorganic materials, organic materials, air and water.  Soil mixing occurs with rainfall, worms, beetles, tree roots etc.

 

Atmosphere:

  • Our weather is moderated by the Puget Sound and our proximity to the Pacific Ocean.  Temperatures are warmer and winter and cooler in summer compared to Spokane or Ellensburg.
  • Measurables: Main two are temperature and precipitation.  Also wind speed, pressure cloud cover and types, humidity, solar radiation.
  • Wind is caused by a difference is atmospheric pressure; air blows from high to low pressure.
  • Our climate is a Marine West Coast climate which is a mid-latitude climate (high latitudes are from about 60-90°Nor S, mid-latitudes are about 25 - 60°Nor S and low latitudes are from the equator to about 25°Nand S.)
  • We get a lot of rain (about 50 inches) as moisture laden air from the Pacific Ocean is forced up over mountains.  As it rises it cools and the air can hold less moisture at cool temperatures so clouds form, tiny droplets form and eventually we have rain. 

 

Biosphere:

  • The Marine West Coast climate supports a lot of biosphere (large biomass).  Plants occur at every level from the ground to high in the trees. 
  • Ivy is an invasive species that the park is trying to eradicate.  It was brought in as a garden plant and it has spread from gardens to wood were it covers shrubs and trees, limiting their survival by cutting out sunlight.

 

Hydrosphere:

  • We have covered much of this is talking about the atmosphere and lithosphere.
  • Humidity in the atmosphere is high because of the biosphere (plants release water through tiny holes in leaves called stoma) and the nearby Puget Sound.
  • Water is moved about the Sound by winds and tidal currents.  Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon.  We get a large tidal range (high highs and low lows) if the sun and moon are positioned such that the gravitational pull is from the same direction, it the sun and the moon are orthogonal to each other the tidal range is small.
  • A drainage basin is a region of land where all water that falls within an area drains downhill into a lake or the sea through one stream or river.

 

Human impact:

  • Bulwark that is limiting erosion, creation of the parking lot in an area that was once part of the alluvial fan of the creek (the one we walked up)
  • Sea level as currently rising at 2-3mm/year although if global warming increases (as climatologists models predict) this rate will be higher.  What will be the impact?

 

 

World Locations knowledge

 

Country list #1

 

North America, South America, Australia and Oceania

 

 

Know the locations of the following countries such that you can mark them on a map.

 

North America: Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Untied States of America.

 

South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela

 

Australia and Oceania: Oceania is a geopolitical region, rather than a continent, consisting of many countries in the Pacific Ocean, including the continent of Australia and the Pacific Islands. However, some islands located within the boundaries of the Pacific Ocean are not considered parts of Oceania (e.g., Japan). There are many islands that I have not listed here.

 

Australia , Tasmania, Nauru,  New Zealand, Solomon Islands.

 

 

 

101 Chapter 3 LANDFORMS

 

·        Landforms as a balance between land formation and land removal

·        Geomorphology: study of landforms and landforming processes

·        Endogenic and exogenic processes

 

Endogenic processes: Land formation or ‘land growth’

·        Plate tectonics: Pangea, continental drift (Alfred Wegener in 1920s)

·        Evidence: shape, fossil, isostacy, relative location of landforms, current movement!

·        Mechanism: convection currents within the ‘plastic’ magma of the mantle carry ‘plates’

·        Convergent, divergent and transform boundaries

·        Resultant landforms along plate boundaries: midocean ridges, ocean trenches, volcanoes (shield and composite), faults and earthquakes, rift valleys.

·        Experiencing movement here: earthquakes and tsunamies

·        Earthquake preparedness,

·        Characteristics of earthquakes, epicenter, shock waves decay with distance

·        Faults and Folding

·        Rocks: Composed of collection of minerals in crystal form: eg silicon, magnesium, iron, aluminuim

·        Rock types: igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic

 Exogenic processes:

·        Weathering of rock: Chemical and mechanical

·        Erosion as moving weathered material (gravity, water, wind, ice, humans)

·        Deposition is when eroded material is left behind

·        Gravity and soil creep, landslides, rockfalls,

·        Streams and rivers, gentle and steep gradients, deposition and erosion

·        Humans erosion and deposition: agriculture, construction and forestry- can increase erosion by wind and water.

·        Glaciers: act to rearrange loose material on earth and also carve anything from scratches to deep U-shaped channels hundreds of feet deep.  Not something that we think about much but they have formed some of America’s iconic landscapes: Yosemite, as well as the aquifer for New York City, transportation routes across North America, and the Puget Sound and Hood Canal environments, Illahee.

·        Wind: erosion and deposition (dunes), dust bowl of the 1930s

·        Coastal erosion: wind waves and  tsunamis, currents, alongshore transport, sea level rise as affecting coastal erosion.

·        Erosion produces cliffs, deposition produces beaches

·        Human impact on coastal processes, new patterns of erosion and deposition.

·        Speed of these endogenic and exogenic processes varies, hence the degree of hazard varies

·        Relationship between wealth and experience of hazards

·        Bremerton and Seattle hazards,

·        Hazard perception.