Geography Basics
This field of study focuses on Earth’s physical features and how humans interact with them
What is geography?
All map projections share this major limitation.
What is distortion of size, shape, distance, or direction?
This theory explains how mountains and earthquakes form.
What is plate tectonic theory?
This treaty divided newly claimed lands between Spain and Portugal.
What is the Treaty of Tordesillas?
This term measures the total economic production of a country.
What is GDP?
These imaginary lines run east–west and help explain climate patterns.
What are lines of latitude?
This projection preserves direction, making it useful for navigation.
What is the Mercator projection?
A desert with low rainfall and specialized plant life is an example of this.
What is a biome?
This land purchase doubled the size of the United States.
What is the Louisiana Purchase?
Why is the Amazon rainforest globally important?
What is that it absorbs carbon and helps regulate climate?
This factor most directly influences global climate zones.
What is latitude?
Countries near the poles appear larger on Mercator maps because of this.
What is stretching land farther from the Equator?
This North American region became a major agricultural center due to flat land and fertile soil.
What are the Great Plains?
This leader helped liberate multiple regions of South America from Spanish rule.
Who is Simón Bolívar?
The Inca thrived in the Andes primarily because they did this.
What is adapting to the environment using terracing and road systems?
Population density measures this.
What is the number of people living in a given area?
This projection emphasizes equal land area rather than direction.
What is the Gall-Peters projection?
This process in the Amazon releases water vapor that supports rainfall.
What is transpiration?
Give one cause of European colonization in the Americas.
What is the desire for resources, land, or power?
Hugo Chávez’s policies show that natural resources can do what AND cause what?
What is fund social programs but create economic vulnerability?
Explain one reason rivers often became centers of early settlement.
What is that rivers provide water, transportation, and fertile land?
Why might a geographer choose a thematic map instead of a political map?
What is to show data like leads such as population density or climate patterns?
What is one global consequence of large-scale Amazon deforestation?
What is climate instability or reduced rainfall / increased carbon in the atmosphere?
Explain one way colonization contributed to later independence movements.
What is that colonial control led to resentment, inequality, and the desire for self-rule?
How can dependence on one natural resource harm an economy?
What is that price changes can cause instability, inflation, and shortages?