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Social Science-Vocab
Vocabulary
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| absolute location | the locationo f a place as pinpointed interms of the global geographic grid |
| accent | a dialect difference that involoves pronunciation only |
| acculturation | the process of adopting some aspect of another culture |
| aciherding or domestication of aquatic animals and farming of aquatic plantd deposition | the depostiion of acidic substances on the ground, primarily as a result of sulfu and nitrogen oxide pollution of the atmosphere |
| actual evapotranspiration (ACTET) | the amount of water evaporated and/or transpired in a given environment |
| adiabatic cooling | the cooling of air as a result of expansion of rising air, adiabatic meas "without heat being involved" |
| advection | the horizontal movements of air or substances by wind or ocean currents |
| Afican diaspora | The migration of black peoples out of Africa |
| agglomeration | the bringing of people and activities together in one place for greater convenience |
| agricultural inputs | all the inputs (materials, labor, capital) that go into growing and harvesting a crop |
| agricultural revolution | the application of science and technology to agriculture, resulting in greatly increased yieldes and releasing workers for other occupations |
| alluvial fan | a fan-shaped depoit of sediment formed where stream emerges from a narrow canyon onto a wider valley floor |
| alpine glacier | a glacier occupying a valley in a mountainous area. The movement of an alpine glacier is primarily governed by the underlying topography |
| angle of incidence | the angel at which solar radiation strikes a particular place at a point in time |
| apartheid | a policy of racial segregation enforced in South Afica 1948-1993 |
| aquaculture | herding or domestication of aquatic animals and farming of aquatic plants |
| arithmetic density | the number of people per unit of area |
| artifact | a material object of culture; literally, "a thing made by skill" |
| asylum | safety that a country grants to refugees |
| atmosphere | a thin layer of gases surrounding Earth to an altitude of less than 480 kilometers (300 miles) |
| autocratic | a form of government that is run according to the interests of the ruler or ruling elite rather than the people |
| autumnal (fall) equinox | September 22 or 23 in the Northern Hemisphere, or March 20 or 21 in the Southern Hemisphere, when at noon the perpendicular rays of the Sun strike the equator (meaning that the Sun is directly overhead along the equator) |
| basic secotr | the part of a city's economy that is producing exports |
| beach | a deposit of wave-carried sediment along a shoreline, on which waves break |
| behavioral geography | the study of how people perceive their environment and of how their thoughts and perception influence their behavior |
| bilateral agreement | a formal agreement made between two countries |
| biodiversity | the amount of variety of living things in a given environment |
| biogeochemical cycle | the environmental recycling process that passes essential substances such as carbon, nitrogen, and toher nutrients among the biosphere, atmosphere, gydorsphere, and/or lithosphere |
| biogeochemical oxygen demand | the amount of dissolved oxygen in a water body that is consumed by decay of organic pollutants added to the water |
| biomagnification | the tendency for substances that accumlate in body tissues to increase in concentration as they are passed to higher levels in a food chain |
| biomass | the dry mass of living or formerly living matter in a given environment |
| biome | a large grouping of ecosystems characterized by particular plant and animal types |
| biosphere | all living organisms on Earth |
| biotechnology | new techniques for modifying biological oranisms and their physiological processes for applied purposes |
| blog | a web log, an online diary or newsletter on the internet |
| boreal forest | an evergreen needleleaf forest characteristic of cold continental climates |
| brain drain | the emigration of a country's best-educated people and most skilled workers |
| broadleaf deciduous forest | a forest with broadleaved trees that lose their leaves in teh winter; characteristic of humid midlatitude environments |
| brownfields | abandoned polluted industrial sites in central cities, many of which are today being cleaned and redeveloped |
| capital-intensive activity | an activity in which a large amount of capital is invested per worker |
| capitalist economic system | an economic system in which the state defers to private enterprise and a stock market raises and allocates capital |
| carbon cycle | the movement of carbon among the atmosphere, hydrosphere, bioshpyere, and lithosphere as a result of processes such as photosynthesis and respiration, sedimentation, weathering, and fossil-fuel combustion |
| carbon dioxide | a trace gas formula CO2; a major contributor to the greenhouse effect |
| carbon monoxide | a pollutant with chemical formaula CO formed by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels |
| carnivore | an animal whose primary food supply is other animals |
| carrying capacity | the population that can be supported by a given resource, as in the number of people that can be supported by agricultural land. |
| cartel | an organization formed to control the market for a particular commodity, usually by restricting supply |
| cartogram | a maplike image designed to convey the magnitude of something rather than exact spatial locations |
| cartography | map making |
| caste | a group in the rigid social hieracrchy of Hinduism |
| central business district (CBD) | the traditional core of a city, where office buildings and retail shops tend to be concentrated |
| central place theory | a model of the distribution of cities across an isotropic plain |
| centrifugal forces | forces that tend to pull states apart |
| centripetal forces | forces that bind a state together |
| chain migration | a migration pattern resulting when migrates follow the paths of previous migrants from the same area of origin to the same destination |
| chemical weathering | the breakdown of rocks or minerals through chemical reactions of Earth's surface |
| city | a concentrated nonagricultural human settlement |
| civil society | networks of individuals who are not controlled by states or businesses |
| climate | the totality of weather conditions over a period of several decodes or more |
| climax community | the end point of community succession |
| cloning | the production of identical organisms by asexual reproduction from a single cell of a preexisting organism |
| cognate | a word that clearly looks or sounds like one in another language to which it is related historically |
| cognitive behavioralism | the theory that people react to their environment as they perceive it |
| cold front | the boundary formed when a cold air mass advances againsta awarmer one |
| Cold War | The competition between the United STates and the Soviet Union for global influence during the peirod between World War 2 and the collapse of the Soviet Union |
| collapsed state | a state that has proven incapable of providing its citizens with either economic development or even peace and security |
| commerical agriculture | the raising of food to sell |
| commerical revolution | the tremendous expansion of global trade between about 1650 and 1750 |
| commodification | the marketing of cultural practices and material artifacts for sale to outsiders |
| common market | a customs union within which common laws create similar conditions of production |
| community succession or succession | a process of ecosystem change in which organisms modify their immediate enviroments in ways that allow other species to establish themselves and dominate |
| composite cone volcano | a volcano formed by a mixture of lava eruptions and more explosive ash eruptions |
| concentration | the distribution of a phenomenon within a given area |
| condensation | water changing from a gas state (vapor) to a liquid or solid state |
| conformal map | a map that distorts size but preserves shapes |
| congregation | residential clustering by choice |
| consolidated metropolitan statistical area (CMSA) | two or more contiguous MSAs |
| contiguous diffusion or contagious diffusion | diffusion that occurs from one place directly to a neighboring place |
| continental glacier | a thick glacier hundreds to thousands of kilmeters across, large enough to be only partly guided by underlying topography |
| continental shelf | an area of relatively shallow water that surrounds most continents between the shore and the point where the continental slope drops more sharply to the deep sea floor |
| convection | circulation in a fluid caused by temperture-induced density differences, such as the rising of warm air in the atmosphere |
| convergent plate boundary | a boundary between tectonic plates in which the two plates move toward one another, destorying or thickening the crust |
| core area | the historic homeland of a nation or area of greatest settlement |
| coriolis effect | the tendency of an object moving across Earth's surface to be deflected from it's apprent path as a result of Earth's rotation |
| Council of Europe | a multilateral treaty organization of European countries formed in 1949 to promote cooperation on democratic principles, human rights, and the rule law |
| creole | a pidgin language that has become a mother tongue |
| crude birth rate | the annual number of live births per thousand people |
| crude death rate | the annual number of deaths per thousand people |
| cultural boundaries | political boundaries drawn with respect to existing patterns of human activity |
| cultural diffusion | the spreading of sultural attributes |
| cultural ecology | the study of the ways societies adapt to environments |
| cultural geography | the study of the geography of human cultures |
| cultural imperialism | the subsitution of one set of cultural tradtions for another, either by force or by degrading those who fail to acculturate and rewarding those who do |
| cultural landscape | a landscape that reveals the many ways people madify their local environment |
| cultural mosaic | a phrase describing Canada and suggeting that various cultural groups retain individuality there |
| cultural preservation | the effort to document, popularize, and rejuvenate traditional cultures |
| cultural realm | the region throughout which a culture prevails |
| culture | a bundle of attributes of shared bevior a belief, including virtually |
| culture area or region | the entire region in which a cultural trait occurs |
| culture core area | the region in which a cultural trait is predominant |
| culture domain | the area in which a cultural trait is common but not predominant |
| culture realm | the area in which a cultural trait occurs but may be common than other comparable trits |
| customs union | a free-trade area that enforces a common external tariff |
| cyberspace | the extension of reality through global electronic means of communication |
| cyclone | large low-pressure area in which winds converge in a counter-clockwise swirl in the Northern Hemisphere (or clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere) |
| delta | a deposit of sediment formed where a river enters a lake or an ocean |
| demographic equation or blancing equation | a population's rate of natural increase (or decrease) plus the net migration rate (which may be negative) |
| demographic transition model | a model that describes that historical experience of population growth in the countries that are today rich |
| demography | the analysis of a population in terms of specific characteristics, such as age or income levels |
| density | the frequency of occurrence of a phonomenon in relation to its geographic area |
| dependency ratio | the ratio of the combined population less than 15 years old and adult population over 65 years old to the population of those between 15 and 64 years of age |
| desert | a vegetation type with sparsely distributed plants, specifically adapted for moisture gathering and moisture retention |
| desert climate | a climate with low precipitation and temperatures war enough to cause potential evapotranspiration to be substantially higher than percipitation for most or all of the year |
| desert pavement | the stony surface of a desert soil formed by selective removal of fine particles by surface erosion |
| desertification | the process of a region's soil and vegetation cover becoming more desertlike as a result of human land use, usually by overgrazing or cultivation |
| dialect | a variation within a language |
| diffusion | the process of anitem or a feture spreading through time |
| diffusionism | the theory that aspects of civilization were developed in very few places and then diffused from those places to the rest of the world |
| digital divide | the gap between regions with high and low levels of digital technology use, especially electronic communications |
| diminishing returns | a condition that exist when, upon adding equal amounts of one factor of production, such as fertilizer or labor, each successive application yields a smaller increase in production than the application just preceding |
| discharge | the quantity of water flowing past a point on a stream per unit time |
| dissoved oxygen | oxygen found in dissoved form in water, it is essential for aquatic animals, and depleted by pollution |
| distance | the extent of space between two objects or places, it can be measured absolutely, in terms of miles or kilometers, or in terms of other units, such as time or cost to cross |
| distance decay | the dimiution of the presence or impact of any cultural attribute away from its hearth area |
| distribution | the position, placement, or arrangement of a phenomena |
| divergent plate boundary | a boundary between tectonic plates in which the two plates move away from each other, and new crust is created between them |
| domestication | the process of adapting plants and animals to obtain their intimate association with humankind, to the advantage of humankind |
| double cropping | harvesting two crops from each field per year |
| doubling time | the number of years it would take any country's population to double at the present rate of increase |
| downstream activites | economic activites that are second, third, or even fourth steps in the transformation of a raw material into goods for ulimate consumers |
| drainage basin | the geographic area that contributes runoff to a particular stream, defined with respect tto a specific location along that stream |
| drainage density | the total length of streams in a drainage basin divided by the drainage area |
| drift | changes and errors in how a language is used that accumlate over time |
| dune | an accumlation of windblown sand, shaped by the wind |
| earthquake | a sudden release of energy within Earth, producing a shaking of the crust |
| ecology | the scientific study of ecosystems |
| economic development | the process of progressively increasing the value of goods and services that place is able to produce in order to enjoy or export |
| economic geography | the study of how various people make their living and what they trade |
| economies of scale | economices of scale |
| economies of scale | economic factors which determine that as the number of units of a good produced increases, the prodcution cost per unit generally falls |
| ecosystem | an interrelated collection of plants and animals and the physical environment with wich they interact |
| ecotourism | travel to see distinctive examples of scenery, unusaul natural environments, or wildlife |
| edge cities | new larger urban areas located outside old central cities |
| ejido | a mexican form of land tenure in which a peasant community collectively owns a piece of land along with the natural resources and houses on it |
| El Nino | a circulation change in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, from westward flow to easward flow, that occurs every few years |
| electoral geography | the study of voting districts and voting patterns |
| electronic networks | interconnected communication systems that allow users to exchange information |
| emigration | movement away from a place |
| enculturation or socialization | teaching younsters a society's values and traditions, its political and social culture |
| endogenic processes | forces within Earth that affect its surface, such as plate tectonics, volcanic eruptions, and earthquakes |
| energy intensity | the amount of energy required to produce a unit of economic output |
| environmental determinism | the simplistic belief that human events can be explained entirely as the result of the effects of the physical environment |
| epicenter | the location on Earth's surface immediately avoe the focus of an earthquake |
| epidemiological transition | the shift within a country of the principal causes of death from infectious to degenerative diseases |
| epidemiology | the study of the incidence, distribution, and control of disease |
| equal-area map | a map projection that preserves size but distorts shape |
| equator | Earth's imaginary midline perpendicular to the axis and midway between the poles |
| ethnic cleansing | the forcible and violent expulsion from political territory of persons of a particular culture |
| ethnic enclave | an area that contains a high concentration of one cultural group in contrast to the surrounding area |
| ethnic group | a dubious term suggesting that a particular cultural group is in the minority or "not normal" for a particular place and time |
| ethnocentrism | a tendency to judge foreign cultures by the standards and practices of one's own; and usually to judge them unfavorably |
| ethnontionalism | the claim that a particular culture group has special political rights over other groups in a given area |
| etymology | the study of the origin and history of words |
| European Union (EU) | a bloc of European countries enjoying free trade and committed to some degree of political union |
| eutrophication | an increase in growth of aquatic plants such as algae and assciated increase in nutrient levels in a water body |
| evapotranspiration | the sum of water converting from liquid to vapor state via evaporation or transpiration |
| evolutionism | the theory that a culture's sources of change were embedded in the culture from the beginning, so the course of development was internally determined |
| exclusive economic zone (EEZ) | a 200-nautical-mile zone within which a coastal state controls both mining and fishing rights from its shores |
| exogenic processes | Forces origination in the atmosphere that, aided by gravity, shape Earth's surface; erosion by running water, glaciers, wind, and waves are examples |
| export-orientation or export-oriented growth | a nation econmic policy of welcoming foreign investment to build factories that will manufacture goods for international markets |
| external economies | the range of goods and service that takes place without agreement of the parties in a market; pollution is generally considered an externality |
| exurbs | the settlements that make up the outermost ring of expanding metropolitan areas |
| failed state | a state that has proven incapable of providing its citizens with either economic development or even peace and security |
| famine | food shortages that lead to extensive starvation |
| fault | a fracture in Earth's crust along which displacement of rocks has occurred |
| federal government | a form of government in which a central government shares power with sub units |
| fertility transition | a historical decrease in births in which populations move from high to low birth rates |
| fishery | a concentration of aquatic species suitable for commercial harvesting |
| floodplain | a low-lying surface adjacent to a stream channel and formed by materials deposited by the stream |
| focus (of an earthquake) | the location in Earth where motion originates in a earthquake |
| folk culture | a culture that is handed down and preserves traditions |
| food chain | the sequential consumption of food in an ecosystem, beginning with green plants, followed by herbivores and carnivores, and ending with decomposers |
| food security | having access to sufficient and appropriate food to be healthy |
| foreign direct investment (FDI) | Investment by foreigners in wholly owned enterprises that are operated by the foreigner |
| formal region | a region defined by essential uniformity in one or more physical or cultural features |
| fossil fuel | a source of chemical energy stored in formely living plant and animal tissue. Coal, oil, and natural gas are fossil fuels |
| free-trade area | an international territory having no internal tariffs, but that give its member the freedom to set their own tariffs on trade with the rest of the world |
| friction of distance | the effort, time, or cost necessary to move or transport items |
| front | a boundary between warm air and cold air |
| functional region | a region defined by interaction among places, such as trad and communication |
| fundamentalism | the strictest adherence to traditional religious beliefs |
| Gala hypothesis | a holistic view that likens EArth to a living organism with the ability to regulate critical functions, such as climate, through interactions between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and lithosphere |
| gateway city | an urban area that emerges at the intersection of two different physical or cultural areas |
| gender roles | the culturally defined duties and behaviors associated with being a man or a woman |
| gene splicing or recombinant DNA | the joining of the genes of two or more organisms to produce recombinant (recombined) genetic material |
| genetic engineering | the minpulation of species' genetic material through selective breeding or recombinant DNA |
| genocide | the practice of intentionally trying to eliminate a nation, ethnic, racial, or religious group |
| gentrification | the occupation and restoration of select urban residential neighborhoods by wealthy urban white-collar workers |
| geographic information system (GIS) | a computer system used to organize, store, analyze, and display geographic information |
| geography | the study of the interaction of all physical and human phenomena at the individual places and of how interactions among places form patterns and organize space |
| geometric boundaries | political boundaries drawn with respect ot lines of latitude, longitude or specific coordinates |
| geomorphyology | the study of the shape of EArth's surface and the processes that madify it |
| geopolitics | the influence of physical or human geography on international affairs |
| gerrymandering | the drawing of voting distric lines in ways that include or exclude specific groups of voters, sot that one group gains an unfair advantage |
| glacier | a large mass of lowing, perennial ice |
| global civil society | international networks of actvists organized around specific issues |
| global positioning system (GPS) | a navigational tool consisting of a fleet of satellites orbiting Earth, broadcasting digital codes, and a portable reciever that can receive those codes and determine its location |
| global security | the reduction of risks that present common threats to all states |
| global warming | a general increase in temperatures over a period of at least several decades believed to be caused primarily by increased levels of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere |
| globalization | the organization of any activity treating the entire glove as one place |
| grade | a condition in which a stream's ability to transport sediment is blanced by the amount of sediment delivered to it |
| green revolution | an intensive effor, starting about 1950, to develop new grain varieties and associated agronic systems and to establish them in developing countries. It focused on certain crops and certain techniques, and was driven largely by private foundations |
| greenhouse effect | atmospheric warming that results from the passage of incoming shortwave energy and the capture of outgoing longwave energy |
| greenhouse gases | trace substances in the atmosphere that contribute to the greehouse effect; water vapor, cargon dioxide, ozone, methan, and chlorofuorocarbons are important examples |
| Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) | The time at the prime meridian or 0 degree longitude at Greenwich, England |
| gross domestic product (GDP) | the total value of all goods and services produced within a country |
| gross national income (GNI) | a country's GDP plus any income that residents receive from foreign investments, minus any money paid out of the country to foreign investors |
| groundwater | the water beneath Earth's surface at a depth where rocks and/or soils are saturated with water |
| growth rate | the value of a population's annual demographic equation divided by the population size at the beginning of that year |
| gyre | a circular ocean current beneath a subropical high-pressure cell |
| hearth | the place where a distinctive culture origninated |
| hervivore | an animal whose primary food supply is plants |
| heritage site | a place where a dead or dying folk culture is preserved or commenorated |
| hierarchical diffusion | diffusion that occurs downward or upward through a organizational hierarchy; when mapped, it shows up as a network of spots |
| hinterland | the region to which any city provides services and updon which it draws for its needs |
| historical consciousness | a peoples conciousness of pst events insofar as that consciousness influences their present behavior |
| historical geography | the study of the geography of the past and how geographic distributions have changed |
| historical materialism | the belief that technology has historically increased humankind's control over the environment and imporved material welfare, and that this imporvement prompts other historical events and movements |
| horizon | a layer in the soil with distinctive characteristics drived from soil-forming processes |
| Human Development Index (HDI) | An index that combines statistics of life expectancy, school enrollment, literacy, and income to comparie the quality of life around the world |
| human geography | the study of the geography of human groups and activities |
| human rights | the set of rights, such as the freedom of speech and the right ot own property, that are thought by some to apply to all people |
| humid continental climate | a climate characterized by cold winters and warm summers, with moderate levels of precipitation |
| humid subtropical climate | a climate with cool winters, hot summers, and moderately high levels of precipitation |
| humid tropical climate | a climate with high temperatures and high rainfall amounts all the year |
| hunger | the deficiency of a person' or population's diet in calories, protein, vitamins, or micronutrients |
| hunter-gather | a person who live on what he or she can hunt or harvest from Earth |
| hurricane | an intense tropical cyclone that develops over warm ocean areas in the tropics and subtropics, primarily during the warm season. Hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean are called typhoons; in the Indian Ocean they are called cyclones |
| hybridity | the idea that two different cultures can be combined |
| hydrocarbon | a chemical substance composed of carbon and hydron; hydrocarbons in the atmosphere contribute to the formation of photochemical smog |
| hydroelectic power | electricity generated by water passing through turbines at a dam |
| hydrologic cycle | the movement of water from the atmosphere to Earth's surface, across that surface, and back to the atmosphere |
| hydrosphere | the water realm of EArth's surface, including the oceans, surface waters on land (lakes, streams, rivers), groundwater in soil and rock, water vapor in the atmosphere, and ice in glaciers |
| ice-cap climate | a climate with very cold temperatures all year, including summer temperatures that are rarely above freezing |
| iconography | a state's set of symbols, including a flag and anthem |
| identity | the characteristics that are used to descrive the unique qualities of an individual or that are thought to be shared by a group of people |
| igneous rock | rock formed by crystallization of magma |
| immigration | movement into a place |
| import-substitution | a national economic policy of protecting domestic infant industries |
| incorporation | the process of defining a city territory and establishing a government |
| indigenous peoples | as defined by the United Nations, "descendants of the original inhabitants of a land who were subjugated by another people coming after them" |
| indirect rule | the imperialist use of native rulers as intermediaries between the imperialists and the people |
| Industrial Revolution | the evolution, which first occurred in Europe between about 1750 and 1850, from agricultural and commercial society to industrial society relying on inanimate power and complex machinery |
| industrial society | a society with a significant share of its output from the secondary sector |
| industrialized economy | a country has achieved a high level of income from manufacturing |
| inertia | the force that keeps things stable or fixed in place |
| infant industry | a newly developing industry that probably cannot compete with imports |
| infant mortality rate | the number of infants per thousand who die before reaching 1 year of age |
| infiltration capacity | the maximum amount of water that can soak into a soil per unit time |
| informal sector or underground sector | economic activities that do not appear in official accounts |
| infrastructure | fixed assets in place, such as buildings, dams, and roads |
| innocent passage | the internationally guaranteed right of the ships of one state to pass through the territorial waters of another on their way to a third |
| insolation | the amount of solar energy intercepted by a particular area of Earth |
| intergovernmentalism | the creation of organizations through the cooperation of many individual states |
| internal economics | goods and services that a large company can provide for itself |
| internal frontier | a sparsely populated and underdeveloped region within a country that may have potential for settlement development |
| internally displaced person (IDP) | a person who has been forced to flee his or her home but has not left his or her country or origin |
| International Date Line | An imaginary line on Earth's surface where, by international agreement, travelers traveling eastward subtract one calendar day and travelers traveling westward add one calendar day. The line generally follows the 180 degree meridian, but it deviates for |
| intertertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) | a low-pressure zone between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn where surface winds converge |
| irredenta | territory that one state claims from another |
| isogloss | a line around places where speakers use a linguistic feature in the same way |
| isolate | a language unrealted to its neighbors |
| isostatic adjustment | a vertical movement of Earth's crust, caused by the loading or unloading of the buoyant crust |
| isotropic plain | a theoretical perfectly flat surface with absolutely no variations across it |
| karst | an assemblage of landforms found in areas of intense subsurface chemical weathering that often include features such as caves and underground drainage |
| kleptocracy | government by thieves or theft |
| labor-intensive activity | an activity that employs a high ratio of workers to invested captial |
| laissez-faire capitalism | a capitalist system that minimizes the government's role in the economy |
| land reform | the redistribution of large land holdings such as plantations to poor would-be farmers |
| landform | a characteristic shape of the land surface, such as a hill, valley, or flood plain |
| language | a set of words, plus their pronunciation and methods of combining them, that is used and understood as communication within a group of people |
| language family | languages that are related by descent from a common protolanguage |
| large-scale map | a map that shows a given area in a large space |
| latent heat exchange | the exchange of energy necessary to change water from one of its states to another-solid, liquid, or gaseous |
| latitude | the location of a place measured as angular distance north and south of the euator |
| lava | magma that reaches Earth's surace and erupts |
| liberation theology | the belief in putting the problems of overcoming poverty at the heart of Christian theology |
| life expectancy | the average number of years that a newborn baby within a given population can expect to live |
| lingua franca | a second language held in common for international discourse |
| liquidity | the quality of being readily convertible into cash |
| lithosphere | the solid Earth, composed of rocks and sediments overlying them |
| Little Ice Age | The period between about 1500 and 1750, when climates on Earth were especially cool |
| local content requirement | a definition of the percentage of the totatl value of a good entering one country that must have been added in the second country for that product to qualify as a product of the second country |
| location | the place where a thing is; it can befined absolutely or relatively |
| loess | accumulation of windblown silt |
| longitude | the location of a place measured as angular distance east and west from the prime meridian |
| longshore current | a current in the surf zone along a shoreline, parellel to the shore |
| longshore transport | sediment trasport by a longshore current |
| lonwave energy | energy radiated by Earth in wavelenghts of about 5.0 to 30.0 microns |
| magma | molten rock beneath Earth's surface |
| malnourished | a person's having not enough nutrients |
| Malthusian theory | the pessimistic argument that population increases will always outpace increases in food prodction, causing cycles of war, famine, and disease, articulated by Thomas Malthus |
| mantle | the portion of Earth above the core and below the crust |
| map | a two-dimensional (flat) representation of some portion of Earth's surface |
| maquiladora | A factory in Mexico specializing in assembling items for export to the US market |
| marine terrace | a nearly level surface along a shoreline, elevated above present sea level, formed by coastal erosion at a time when sea level at the location was higher than a present |
| marine west coast climate | a climate with moderately cool winters, moderately warm summers, and moderate to high rainfall all year |
| market-oriented manufacturing | manufacturing that locates close to the market either because the processing increases the perishablility of the product or because the processing adds bulk or weight to the product |
| Marshall Plan | a plan of financial aid for the economic rehabilitation of Europe after World War 2; named for US Secretary of State George C Marshall |
| mass movement | downslope movement of rock and soil at Earth's surface, driven mainly by the force of gravity acting on thos materials |
| material-oriented manufacturing | manufacturing that locates close to the source of the raw material either because the raw material is heavy or bulky or because it is perishable |
| meandering | the tendency of flowing water to follow a sinuous course with alternating right and left hand bends |
| mechanical wethering | the breakdown of rocks into smaller particles caused by application of physical or mechanical forces |
| Mediterranean climate | a climate with warm, dry summers and cool, moist winters |
| megacity | an urban area with 10 million or more inhabitants |
| melting pot | name given to the United States in a 1914 novel of that title, suggesting that ethnic and racial differences among immigrants melt together to form one culture |
| meltwater channel | a river channel carved by water from a melting glacier |
| mental map | the ideas that people have about places, regardless of whether those ideas are true or false |
| meridians | imginary lines extending from pole to pole and crossing all parellels at right angles |
| meritocracy | a society in which the most capable people can rise to the top based on merit alone |
| metamorphic rock | rock formed by modification of other rock types, usually by heat and/or pressure |
| methane | a trace gas found in the atmosphere with chemical formula CH4, a major contributor to the greehouse effect |
| metropolitan statistical area (MSA) | according to the US Census Bureau, "an integrated economic and social unit with a recongnized large popluation nucleus" |
| microclimate | an area with local climate conditions, as in a city, that differ from those of surrounding areas |
| midlatitude cyclone | a storm characterized by a center of low pressure in the midlatitudes usually associated with a warm front and a cold front |
| midlatitude low-pressure zones | regions of low pressure with air converging from the subtropical and polar high-pressure zones |
| migration chain | a network of social and communication linkages that attracts migrants to follow others who have previously migrated |
| model | an idealized, simplified representation of reality |
| monoculture | the specialized production of one crop |
| monotheism | belief in the existenc of only one god |
| monsoon circulation | seasonal reversal of pressure and wind in Asia, in which winter winds from the ASian interior produce dry winters, and summer winds blowing inland from the Indian and Pacific oceans produce wet summers |
| moraine | an accumlation of rock and sediment deposited by a glacier, usually in or near the melting area |
| multilateral agreement | a formal agreement made between more than two states |
| multinational corporation | an enterprise that produces and markets goods in several countries |
| multiplier effect | the fact that jobs in a city's basic sector multiply jobs in the nonbasic sector |
| nation | a group of people who want to have their own government and rule themselves |
| national security | a government's assessment of the risks that threaten its rule |
| national self-determination | the idea of the nation-state as defended by US President Woodrow Wilson after World War I |
| nation-state | a state ruling over a territory containing all the people of a nation and no others |
| natural landscape | a landscape without evidence of human activity |
| natural population increase or decrease | the difference between the number of births and the number of deaths |
| natural resource | something that is useful and that exists independent of human activity |
| net migration rate | the number of emigrants subtracted from the number of immigrants for an area |
| network hypothesis | the theory that central city unemployment is caused by a lack of social networks |
| nitrogen oxide | a compound of nitrogen and oxygen with chemical formula NOx; a component of air pollution |
| nonbasic sector | the part of a city's economy serving the needs of the city itself |
| nongovermental organization (NGO) | a group of private individuals committed to promoting particular issues or providing material assistance, often across international boundaries |
| nonrenewable resource | a resource that is either not being produced by nature or is produced much more slowly than it used by humans |
| North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) | an agreement between the United STates, CAnada, and Mexico to reduce barriers to trade and investment between their countries |
| North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) | amilitary bloc founded in 1949. Its membership and activities have expanded significantly, bringing its very purpose into question |
| offical language | the language in which legal documents are kept in a country |
| offshore outsourcing | a company's relocation of some economic activites to another country where costs are lower |
| omnivore | an animal that feeds on both plants and other animals |
| opportunity cost | a capital return sacrificed by leaving capital invested in one form or activity rather than another |
| Organization for Security and cooperation in Europe | an intergovernmental organization focused on conflict resolution, election reform, and arms reduction |
| orthography | the study of writing, or a system of writing |
| outsourcing | a company's decision to hire another company borders by bonds of family, clan, common home provinceto do part of its activities |
| outwash plain | an accumulation of sand and gravel carried by meltwater streams from a glacier, usually deposited immediately beyond the terminal moraine from the glacier |
| overland flow | water flowing across the soil surface on a hillslope, usually resulting from precipitation falling faster than the ground can absorb it |
| Overseas Chinese | Chinese migrants who often remain linked across international |
| ozone | a gas composed of molecules with three oxygen atoms; it is a highly corrosive gas at ground level, but in the upper atmosphere essential to protecting life on Earth by absorbing ultraviolet radiation |
| parallels | lines connecting all points of the same latitude |
| parent material | mineral matter such as rocks or transported sediments from which soil is formed |
| particulate | a small solid particle in the air, a componenet of air pollution |
| partition | a boundary drawn to creat new states from the territory of an existing state |
| pastoral nomadism | a group's style of life that does not have fixed residences; the group drives flocks from place to place to find grazing lands and water |
| pathogen | a disease-causing organism |
| pattern | the arrangement of objects within an area |
| permafrost | soil or rock with a temperture below 0 degrees c (32 degrees F) all year |
| permanent mission | one country's diplomatic officers and staff who reside and work in another country |
| photochemical smog | a mixture of air pollutants including oxidants such as ozone, formed by interaction of sunlight and pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons |
| photosynthesis | a chemical reaction that occurs in green plants in which carbon dioxide and water converted to carbohydrates and oxygen |
| photovoltaic cell | a device that converts light to electricity |
| physical boundaries | political boundaries drawn with respect to features of the physical environment |
| physical geography | the study of the characteristics of the physical environment |
| physiological density | the density of population per unit of arable land |
| plate tectonics theory | a theory describing and explaining the movement of large, continent-sized slabs of Earth's crust relative to one another |
| Pleistocene Epoch | a period of geologic time consisting of the first part of the Quaternary Period beginning about 3 million years ago and ending about 12,000 years ago |
| polar front | a boundary between cold polar air and warm subtropical air that circles the globe in the midlatitudes |
| polar high-pressure zones | regions of high pressure and descending air near the North and South Poles |
| political community | governments that join together to form a government to solve common problems |
| political culture | a set of unwritten ways in which written rules are interpreted and actually enforced |
| political economy | the study of individual countries organization and regulation of their economies |
| political geography | the study of the interaction between political processes and the distributions of all other activites and transformations of the landscape |
| pollution | a human-caused increase in the amount of a substance in the environment |
| pollution prevention | a strategy for reducing pollution that focuses on reducing the amount of pollutants created rather than on removing them from waste streams |
| polyculture | the raising of a variety of crops |
| polyglot state | a country that grants legal equality to two or more languages |
| polytheism | the worship of many gods |
| popluar culture | the culture of people who embrace innovation and conform to changing norms |
| population geography | the study of the distribution of human-kind across Earth |
| population momentum | the lag between falling birth rates and continued population growth that persists until the larger cohots complete their reproductive years |
| population projection | a forecast of the future population, assuming that current trends remain the same or else change in defined ways |
| population pyramid | a graphic device that shows the shares of a ntion's population by age groups |
| possiblilism | the theory that the physical environment itself will neither suggest nor determine what people will attempt, but it may limit what people can profitably achieve |
| postindustrial society | a society with the bulk of its economic activity in the tertiary sector |
| potential evapotranspiration (POTET) | the maximum amount of water that caould be evaported from a moist surface and /or transpired by plants if it wer available |
| potential resource | something that is not useful today but may become so in the foreseeable future |
| prairie | a vegetation type characterized by dense grass up to 2 meters high, found in midlatitude semiarid climates |
| preindustrial society | a society with the bulk of its economic activity in the primary sector |
| primary sector | the part of the economy that extracts resources directly from Earth, including agriculture, fishing , forestry, and mining |
| primate city | a large city concentrating a national population or national political, intellectual, or economic life |
| prime meridian | the meridian passing through the royal observatory in Greenwich, England, from which longitude is measured |
| privatize or privatization | to give or sell government assets to private individuals or investors |
| projection | a method of portraying Earth or any portion of it on a flat map |
| proselytize | to try to convert others to your religious believs |
| protolanguage | see root language |
| proxemic | the study of how people perceive and use space |
| psychological value added | an increase in the cost of an item due not to an increase in its actual functionality or usefulness, but in its design, packaging, or "status" advertising |
| pull factors | considerstions that attract people to new destinations |
| push factors | considerations that make a person want to leave a place and seek a better life elsewhere |
| Quaternary Period | the period of geologic time encompassing approximately the pst 3 million years |
| race | a group of people variously defined by relatively minor bilogical differences within the human species |
| racism | the fasle belief in the inherent superiority of one race over another and the linking of human ability, potential, and behavior to racial inheritance |
| radiation | energy in the form of electromagnetic waves that radiate in all directions |
| recognition | the formal acknowldgement by one state of anotehr state's existence |
| recominant DNA | see gene splicing |
| refugee | as defined by the 1951 geneva convention, someone outside his or her country with a "a well-founded fear of being persecuted in his country of origin for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion" |
| region | a territory that exhibits a certain uniformity |
| regional geography | an inventory analysis of all characteristics of any individual place |
| regionalism | political identities based on areas within a state that are culturally or economically different from the rest of the state |
| relative humidity | the actual water content of the air, expressed as a percentage of how much water the air could hold a t a given temperture |
| relative location | the location of a place relative to other places |
| relocation diffusion | diffusion from one widely separated point to another |
| remote sensing | the acquistion of data about Earth's surface from a satellite orbiting the planet or from high-flying aircraft |
| renenwable resource | something that is produced by nature at rates similar to those at which it is consumed by humans |
| replacement rate | a total fertity rate of about 2.1, which stabilizes a popultaion |
| respiration | a chemical reaction that occurs in plants and animals in which carbohydrates and oxygen are combined, releasing water, carbon dioxide, and heat |
| return migration | the return of migrants to their homes or areas of origin |
| root language or protolanguage | the common ancestor language to any group of several of today's languages |
| runoff | flow of water from the land, either on the soil surface or in streams |
| sanitary landfill | a site at which solid waste is deposited and covered with layers of earth |
| saturation vapor pressure | the maximum amount of water vapor that air can hold expressed as a pressure |
| savanna | a vegetation type characterized by grasses and scattered trees, characteristic of seasonally dry tropical climates |
| scale | a quantitative statement of the relative sizes of an object on a map and in reality |
| scientific revolution in agriculture | the continuing application of science to agriculture |
| sea level | the general elevation of the sea surface, averaging out variations caused by waves, storms, and tides |
| seafloor spreading | the creation of new oceanic crust where two tectonic plates are diverging on the seafloor |
| seasonally humid tropical climate | a climate with warm temperatures all the year, a season with high rainfall, and a pronounced dry season |
| secondary sector | the part of the economy that transforms raw materials into manufactured goods |
| sectoral evolution | a shift in the concentration of activity from the economy's primary sector to its secondary and tertiary sectors |
| secularism | a lifestyle or policy that deliberately ignores or excludes religious considerations |
| sediment transport | the movement of rock particles by surface erosion |
| sedimentary rock | rock formed through accummulation of many small rock fragments at Earth's surface |
| segregation | residential clustering as a result of discrimination |
| seismic waves | vibrations or shock wave soriginating at the cocus of an earthquake and transmitted through Earth |
| seismograph | a device for recording movements of Earth's crust, such as earthquakes |
| semiarid climate | a climate with precipitation less than potential evapotranspiration for much of the year, but not as dry as a desert. |
| sensible heat | heat detectable by sense of touch, or with thermometer |
| separatism | a subnational group;s seeking to establish its own state on territory taken from an existing state |
| service sector | that part of the economy that services the primary and secondary sectors |
| sexuality | a person's secual orientation and behavior |
| shamanism | a belief in the power of mediums (shamans) who characteristically go into autohypnotic trances, during which they are thought to be in communion with the spirit world |
| Sharia | Islamic teachings that are often incorporated into civil law in Islamic countries |
| shield | the ancient core of a continent |
| shield volcano | a volcano with relatively gentle slopes formed by eruption of relatively fluid lavas |
| shorwave energy | radiant energy emitted by the Sun in wavelenghts of about 0.2 to 5.0 microns |
| SIAL | crust formed of relatively less ense minerals, dominated by silicon and aluminum (an acronym for silicon-aluminum) |
| SIMA | a crust formed of relatively dense minerals dominated by silicon magnesium (an acroyn for silicon-magnesium) |
| site | the characteristics of the absolute location of a place |
| situation | the characteristic of the relative location of a place |
| small-scale map | a map that shows the land in a very small space |
| social Darwinism | The theory of British sociologist Herbert Spencer that "Nature's law" calls for "the survival of the fittest, " even among cultures and entire peoples |
| socialization | see enculturation |
| soil | a dynamic, porous layer of mineral and organic matter at Earth's surface |
| soil creep | the slow downslope movement of soil caused by many individual, near-random particle movements such as those caused by burrowing animals or freeze and thaw |
| soil fertility | the ability of a soil to support plant growth through the storing and supplying water, air, and nutrients |
| soil order | a major category in the US soil classification system |
| sojourner | a migrant who intends to stay in a new location only long enough to save capital to return home to a higher standard of living |
| solar energy | radiant energy from the Sun |
| sovereignty | the exclusive right to rule over a demarcated space and all the people and resources within it |
| spatial identity | the attachment of a certain identity to a particular place or region |
| spatial mismatch hypothesis | the hypothesis that central city unemployment is caused by the removal of job opportunity to the suburbs and the concentration of the poor in the central city |
| speech community | a group of people who speak together |
| state | an independent political unit that claims exclusive jurisdiction over a defined territory and over all the people and activities within it |
| steppe | a vegetation type characterized by relatively short, sparse grasses, found in midlatitude semiarid climates |
| storm surge | an area of elevated sea level in the center of a hurricane that may be several meters high; storm surge does much of the damage when a hurricane comes ashore |
| stratus clouds | flat layers of clouds formed along a warm front |
| structural landform | a landform whose major characteristics are derived from endogenic processes or by erosional exposure of rock structures |
| subarctic climate | a high-latitude climate characterized by brief, cool summers and long, cold winters |
| subculture | a group that shares a smaller bundle of attributes with a larger, more diverse society |
| subnationalism | regional and other alliances within a state that rival the state's dominant nationalism |
| subsistence agriculture | the raising of food only for oneself, not to sell |
| substitutability | the degree to which one commodity can be substituted for another in various uses |
| subtropical high-pressure (STH) zones | regions of high pressure and descending air at about 25 degrees north and south latitudes |
| succesion | see community succession |
| sulfur oxide | an air pollutant consisting of compounds of sulfur and oxygen, derived mainly from combustion of coal and oil |
| summer solstice | for places in the Northern Hemisphere, June 20 and 21, when at noon the Sun is directly overhead along the parallel of 23.5 degrees north latitude; for places in the souther Hemisphere, dec 21 or 22, when at noon the sun is directly overhead at places alo |
| superimposed boundaries | boundaries drawn over existing territorial demarcations |
| supply and demand | the interplay of buyers and sellers of a commodity in the market place |
| supranational organization | an organization that exercises power over countries |
| surface erosion | the downslope movement of rock and soil and Earth's surface, driven mainly by air, water, or ice moving across the surface |
| sustainability | Human use of Earth's limited resources in ways that do not constrain future resource use |
| sustainable agriculture | food production that can be continued indefinitely and that limits or even reverses environmental degradation |
| sustainable development | economic development that can be continued indefinitely and that limits or even reverses environmental degradation |
| sustained yield | a way of managing a renewable natural resource such that harvest can continue indefinitely |
| swidden | slash-and-burn clearing and cultivation |
| syncretic religion | a religion that combines two or more traditional religious practices |
| system | an interdependent group of items that interact in a regular way to form a unified whole |
| systematic geography | the study of universal laws or principles that apply to all places; topics may be as diverse as the geography of soils (pedology), of life forms (biogeography), of politics (political geography), of economic activities (economic geography), and of cities |
| tectonic plate | a large, continent-sized piece of Earth's crust that moves in relation to other pieces |
| telecommuting | working at home at a computer terminal connected to an office |
| temperature inversion | a layer in the atmosphere in which relatively warm air lies above cooler air |
| terminal moraine | an accumulation of rock and sediment at the toe of a glacier |
| territoriality | organizing social and material practices by controlling a space |
| terrorism | violent acts intended to frighten and to intimidate for political ends a civilian population byond the immediate victims |
| tertiary sector | the part of the economy that offer services, such as retail, consulting, and education |
| thematic map | a map designed to show a particular aspect of the rgion portrayed |
| theocracy | a form of government where a church rules directly |
| threshold | the minimum number of potential customers that is needed for a product or service to be offered |
| topical geography | see systematic geography |
| topographic map | a map that shows variation in elevation |
| topography | the shape of earth's surface; surface relief |
| toponymy | the study of place names |
| tornado | a rapidly rotating column of air ususally associated with a thunderstorm, often having winds in excess of 300 kilometers per hour (185 miles per hour) |
| total fertility rate | the average number of children that would be born to each woman in a given society if, during her childbearing years (15-49), she bore children at the current year's rate for women of that age |
| toxic substance | a pollutant that can be harmful even at very low concentrations |
| trade wind | the prevailing wind in subtropical and tropical latitudes that blows toward the intertropical convergence zone, typically from the northern hemisphere and from the southeast in the southern hemisphere |
| transform plate boundary | a boundary between tectonic plates in which the two plates pass on another in a direction parallel to the plate boundary |
| transnational corporation | an enterprise that produces and markets goods in several countries |
| transpiration | the use of water by plants, normally drawing it from the soil via their roots, evaporating it in their leaves and releasing it to the atmosphere |
| trophic level | a position in the food chain relative to other organisms, such as producer, herbivore, or carnivore |
| Tropic of Cancer | the parallel of 23.5 degrees north latitude |
| Tropic of Capricorn | the parallel of 23.5 degrees south latitude |
| tropical rain forest | broadleaf evergreen vegetation characteristic of humid tropical environments |
| tsunami | an extremely long sea wave created by an underwater earthquake; the wave may travel hundreds of kilometers per hour |
| tundra | a low, slow-growing vegetation type found in high-latitude and high-altitude conditions in which snow covers the ground most of the year |
| tundra climate | a climate characterized by long, very cold wingers and short, cool summers |
| typhoon | a hurricane in the Pacific Ocean |
| underground sector | see informal sector |
| undernourished | having one's bodily functions physically degraded by hunger |
| undocumented immigrant | a person who crosses a border without completing legal papers to do so |
| unification | the erasure or movement of boundaries to unite cross-border groups |
| unitary government | a form of government in which the balance of power lies with the central government |
| untouchable | one of a group of people considered so low that their status is below the formal structure of the Hindu caste system |
| urban enterprise zones | areas within which governments creat generous conditions for enterprises to encourage the creation of jobs |
| urban form | the distribution patter of land use and activities within cities |
| urban geography | the geographic study of cities |
| urban heat island | warmer temperatures ina city compared to the surrounding rural area created by urban activities and conditions |
| urbanization | the process of concentrating people in cities |
| value added by manufacturing | the difference between the value of a raw material and the value of a product manufactured from that raw material |
| vernacular region | a region defined by widespread popular conception of its existence |
| vernal (spring)equinox | March 20 or 21, in the Northern Hemisphere, or Sept 22 or 23 in the Southern Hemisphere, when at noon the perpendicular rays of the Sun strike the equator |
| virtual reality | a "place" created by intense involvement either with interactive electronic devices or else with distant people through electronic devices |
| volcano | a vent in Earth's surface where lava emerges |
| warm front | a boundary formed when a warm air mass advances against a cooler one |
| water budget | an accounting of the amounts of precipitation, evapotranspiration, soil moisture storage and runoff at a given place |
| wavelength | the distance between successive waves of radiant energy or of successive waves on a water body |
| weather | patters of atmospheric circulation, temperature, and precipitation over short time periods such as hours to days |
| weathering | the chemical and/or mechanical breakdown of rocks into smaller particles at Earth's surface |
| web log | see blog |
| winter solstice | for places in the southern Hemisphere when at noon the sun is directly overhead at places along the parallel of 23.5 degrees north Norther Hemispher when at noon the sun is directly over head the places along the parallel of 23.5 degrees south latitude |
| workers' remittances | money that migrant workers send home for elsewhere |
| xerophyte | a plant adapted to living in arid conditions |
| zero population growth | a stabilized world population |
| zionism | the belief that the jews should have a homeland of their own |
| zoning | restricting or prescribing the use to which parcels of land may be put |
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