Physical Systems
The process of tectonic plates colliding to form mountain ranges like the Himalayas.
What is convergent boundary / subduction
The geographic modification made to landscapes like hillsides to grow crops in mountainous regions (e.g., Peru or Southeast Asia).
What is terrace farming?
Factors like war, famine, or persecution that force people to leave their home country.
What are push factors?
An economic system where production, investment, prices, and incomes are determined centrally by a government.
What is a command economy (or communism)?
The four main physical geographic regions of Texas (e.g., Coastal Plains, Great Plains, North Central Plains, and...).
What are the Mountains and Basins?
The two primary factors that determine a region's climate zone.
What are temperature and precipitation?
The process where fertile land becomes desert, often due to overgrazing, drought, or deforestation in places like the African Sahel.
What is desertification?
A demographic chart shaped like a wide pyramid at the base indicates this type of population growth rate.
What is rapid population growth (high birth rate / developing nation)?
A political system where power is held by a king or queen whose authority is limited by a set of laws or parliament.
What is a constitutional monarchy?
A type of region defined by popular feelings, attitudes, or informal perceptions rather than strict official boundaries (e.g., 'The American South').
What is a perceptual (or vernacular) region?
This periodic ocean climate pattern in the Pacific causes unusual weather patterns globally, like increased rainfall in Texas.
What is El Niño?
A major engineering project built in Egypt to control the Nile River's flooding and generate hydroelectric power.
What is the Aswan High Dam?
The trend of increasing numbers of people moving from rural, agricultural areas into towns and cities.
What is urbanization?
Primary economic activities involve harvesting raw materials, whereas these activities involve manufacturing goods.
What are secondary economic activities?
The widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture, human populations, and technology between the Americas, West Africa, and the Old World following 1492.
What is the Columbian Exchange?
The physical process responsible for breaking down rocks and moving sediment across Earth's surface.
What are weathering and erosion?
The main cause of acid rain in industrial regions like Eastern Europe and Northeastern North America.
What is burning fossil fuels / industrial pollution?
The spread of cultural traits, ideas, or disease from one group or place to another over time.
What is spatial / cultural diffusion?
The international trade agreement connecting Mexico, the United States, and Canada.
What is the USMCA (or NAFTA)?
A country surrounded entirely by land with no direct access to an ocean or sea (e.g., Bolivia or Paraguay).
What is a landlocked state/country?
These five factors "L.A.C.E.M.O.P. (Latitude, Air Masses, Continentality, Elevation, Mountain Barriers, Ocean Currents, Pressure)” determine this global pattern.
What are Climate Controls / Climate Zones?
The massive underground aquifer supplying water to Texas and seven other Great Plains states that is rapidly being depleted.
What is the Ogallala Aquifer?
The statistical model that shows a country transitioning from high birth/death rates to low birth/death rates as it industrializes.
What is the Demographic Transition Model (DTM)?
A state or nation governed by religious leaders according to religious laws (e.g., Iran or Vatican City).
What is a theocracy?
A region dominated by a central node and connected by transportation or communication networks (e.g., a metropolitan subway route).
What is a functional region?