1. Unit 1: Physical Geography

2. Five Themes of Geography
Tools geographer’s use to study features on earth.
Location
Place
Movement
Region
Human Environment Interaction

3. Location Describes where places are at on earth. Types of Location:
ABSOLUTE: exact location on earth (fixed)
Doesn’t change
Latitude/Longitude
Hemispheres
Grid System
Address
RELATIVE: compared to other places (variable)
Changes dependent upon where you’re comparing it to.
Miles
Distance
Direction

4. Absolute Location Examples: Rome is located at 41 N, 12 E
Argentina is located in the southern hemisphere
Ecuador is located in Tropic of Cancer.
LNE is located in Lincoln, NE.

5. Relative Location Examples:
Rome is located near the Mediterranean Sea.
Argentina is near Brazil.
Ecuador is south of Mexico.
Lincoln is 50 miles from Omaha.

6. Place A place is defined by it’s unique characteristics.
Physical characteristics
Cultural characteristics

7. Physical Characteristics
Specific to THAT place, not generic.
The way a place looks.
Created by nature.
Mountains
Rivers, Lakes, Seas
Climate
Vegetation
Examples:
Andes Mountains are in South America.
Amazon River flows through Brazil.
Pampas are located in Argentina.
The isthmus of Panama connects Central & South America.

8. Cultural Characteristics
Specific to THAT place, not generic.
Peoples activities change the way a place looks or is represented.
Man-made or invented.
Language
Unique buildings
Religious Practices
Celebrations/traditions/holidays
Examples:
Portuguese is the official language of Brazil.
Many Mexicans are Catholic.
Mayan ruins are located in Mexico.
Cinco de Mayo is a national holiday in Mexico.

9. Movement Places do not exist in isolation. Examples
Interconnectedness of the world changes the way places“look”.
Today: “globalization”
People, goods & ideas move from place to place.
Examples
Immigration from Latin America to US.
War in Iraq (troops, supplies, ideas, people)
UNL (people, ideas)
Myspace, Facebook (ideas)

10. Region
The world is divided into different regions based upon similarities & differences.
Climate
Location
Beliefs
Languages
Ethnicity/Race
Types:
Formal
Functional
Perceptual

11. Formal Region
Regions designated by OFFICAL boundaries such as cities, states, counties and countries. They are clearly indicated and publically known.

12. Functional Region
A region whose territory is organized around something central, such as a newspaper.
The distribution of a given local newspaper is limited to a certain area, which is its fucntional region.

13. Perceptual Region
An area defined by subjective perceptions that reflect the feelings & images about key place characteristics.

14. HEI The environment & people are interconnected.
Consequences to those actions depend upon how people choose to interact with the world and use their resources.
Positive/Negative
Intentional/Accidental
Favorable/Destructive

15. HEI Current Enviromental Issues: Climate Change (global warming)
Energy Resources
Water Conservation
Deforestation

16. Warm Up

17. Who is this man and why is he famous?
Why should we care about this and what theme does this movie touch on?

18. Maps

19. Features of Maps Title: What the map is about.
Orientation/Compass Rose: Which direction north is?
Date: When the map was made.
Author: Who made the map?

20. Features of Maps
Legend/Key: List of symbols to help “read”/understand the map.
Index: List of places on the map.
Scale: The distance measured on the ground.

21. 3 types of maps
Physical
Political
Special purpose/Thematic

22. The World Political
Political maps show how people have divided places on the Earth into countries, states, cities and other units for the purpose of governing them.

23. Political Maps
Political maps show how humans have impacted the landscape. For example, city names, roads, country borders, etc. are all part of political maps.
A political map often uses colors to show the boundaries between states or countries.

24. Political Maps
Lets look at some examples of political maps.

25. Political Maps

26. The World Physical
Physical maps show what the surface of the Earth looks like.
A physical map highlights Earth’s natural features, such as mountains and forests.

27. Special Purpose Maps: Global Climates
This map shows the general climate regions of the world.

28. SP: World Religions
Religious beliefs help define a people’s culture, so to understand a people, it is important to consider what religions influence that group.

29. Oceans of the World The world has five major oceans. Atlantic Pacific
Arctic
Indian
Southern
Pacific
ocean
Southern
Arctic
Indian
Atlantic
ocean

30. Latitude and Longitude
The earth is divided into lots of lines called latitude and longitude.

31. Lines
Longitude lines run north and south. (the LONG sides of the ladder)
Latitude lines run east and west. (the steps of the ladder)
The lines measure distances in degrees.
Longitude
Latitude

32. Where is 0 degree? Equator The Equator is 0 degree latitude.
It is an imaginary “belt,” or line, that runs halfway between the North Pole and the South Pole.
Equator

33. Where is 0 degree?
The prime meridian is 0 degrees longitude. This imaginary line runs through England, France, Spain, western Africa, and Antarctica. P R I M E

34. Hemispheres
By using the Equator and Prime Meridian, we can divide the world into four hemispheres:
The Northern Hemisphere
The Southern Hemisphere
The Eastern Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere

36. Mapping Challenges

37. Topography The lay of the land. Shows relief using contour lines.
Relief- highs and lows of Earth’s surface.
Relief can be calculated
Take the difference between the highest point and the lowest.
Ex: Mountain peak 20 m. lake 10m
20m- 10m= 10m
The relief of this area is 10m

38. Reading a topographic map- Contour Lines
Lines on topographic maps.
Elevation- the distance something is above sea level. Sea level= 0m or 0ft.

39. Contiguous sharing a common border; touching.
Ex: "the 48 contiguous states” of the US

40. The Problem of Cartography
Cartographers (Mapmakers)
Gathering Information
Problem of Distortion
Round world…flat paper
Distortion of…
Area
Shape
Distance
Direction
Map Properties
Map Projections

41. Gathering Information
Surveying
Aerial Photography (Air Planes)
Remote Sensing (Satellites)

42. GIS! Satellite Images—pictures from above the earth
GIS (Geographic Information Systems)—draw computer-generated maps from data

43. Early Maps-No GIS
Columbus’s Time—no Americas, continents poorly shaped
Today—satellite images aid in correcting shape, size, etc.

44. Problem of Distortion
Features are stretched to put Earth’s information onto a map.

45. Map Properties No map can have all of the properties at once
Equal areas
Conformality
Consistent Scale
True-Compass Directions

46. Points to Remember
The projection one chooses to use depends on the information one wants.
All Maps are projections – they transfer Earth’s features from the globe to a flat surface (map).
When large areas of Earth are mapped, distortion is more serious.
When mapping small areas like cities, distortion is not usually evident.