Definitions
What are these: North (N), east (E), south (S), west (W), at 90° angles on the compass rose.
Cardinal Directions
A list of symbols that appear on the map to represent something else.
Key (Legend)
A large body of water surrounded by land.
Lake
Low area that’s between a hill and mountain.
Valley
A large body of salt water, smaller than an ocean.
What is a sea?
An imaginary line around the middle of a planet or other celestial body.
Equator
The study of the physical features of the earth and its atmosphere, and of human activity as it affects and is affected by these, including the distribution of populations and resources, land use, and industries.
Geography
A body of land surrounded by water.
Island
An artificial waterway designed for navigation that people could cross the water with boats or ships.
Canal
A portion of the ocean that penetrates land.
Gulf
A symbol on a map that shows the cardinal directions.
Compass Rose
A broad inlet of the sea where the land curves inward.
What is a Bay?
An area of land known by the types of animals, vegetation, soil, and climate located there.
Biome
A group of islands.
What is Archipelago?
Refers to the relationship (or ratio) between distance on a map and the corresponding distance on the ground- map scale.
Scale (on a map)
What are these: Northeast (NE), southeast (SE), southwest (SW) and northwest (NW).
The four inter-cardinal (or ordinal) directions
Imaginary lines that divide the Earth. They run east to west, but measure your distance north or south.
Lines of Latitude
Imaginary lines that divide the Earth. They run north to south from pole to pole, but they measure the distance east or west.
What are Lines of Longitude?
A rising landform that grows higher than the area around it on one side.
Plateau
A length of water wider than a strait.
Channel
A geographical reference line that passes through the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in London, England.
Prime Meridian
The misrepresentation of shape, area, distance, or direction of or between geographic features when compared to their true measurements on the curved surface of the earth.
Distortion (on a map)
A narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated.
What is Isthmus?
A fjord is a long, deep, narrow body of water that reaches far inland.
Fjord
A unit of latitude or longitude used to define points on the earth's surface or on the celestial sphere.
Degrees (as in location)