Geography Basics & Tools
This tool shows the whole Earth with the least distortion.
What is a globe?
This Earth system holds all of Earth’s water.
What is the hydrosphere?
The long-term pattern of weather in a place.
What is climate?
People moving from farms and rural areas into cities.
What is urbanization?
This U.S. region is a formal region called the Corn Belt because it produces this.
What is the Corn?
This line on a map compares map distance to real distance on Earth.
What is a map scale?
Large pieces of Earth’s crust that slowly move and can cause earthquakes.
What are tectonic plates?
As this increases, air usually gets colder in the mountains.
What is elevation?
The study of people, cultures, cities, and how humans live on Earth.
What is human geography?
This line separates rivers that flow to different oceans in North America.
What is the Continental Divide?
This is a way to show Earth’s round surface on a flat map.
What is a map projection?
This region around the Pacific Ocean has many earthquakes and volcanoes.
What is the Ring of Fire?
Earth’s seasons are caused by Earth’s movement around the sun and this ____.
What is Earth’s tilt (on its axis)
A group’s language, religion, food, music, and daily life.
What is culture?
This Mexican landform has good soils and higher, cooler land for growing crops.
What is the Mexican Plateau?
This branch of geography studies Earth’s land, water, plants, and animals.
What is physical geography?
This cycle moves water between oceans, air, and land.
What is the water cycle?
Lakes and rivers gaining too many nutrients, causing plant growth and low oxygen.
What is eutrophication?
An economy with both private businesses and some government control.
What is a mixed economy?
Factories near the U.S.–Mexico border that provide jobs but can also create pollution.
What are maquiladoras?
In this economic system, people and companies can own businesses and try to make a profit.
What is capitalism?
This process wears away and moves rock and soil, sometimes making farming more difficult.
What is erosion?
These can harm an area’s economy because factories and farms cannot work well without enough water due to long periods of little or no rain.
What is a drought?
Using natural resources carefully so people today and in the future can use them.
What is sustainable development?
This group of people are most affected from dams and mines built in Canada.
Who are the Indigenous people of Canada?