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World Geography
Ch. 14-17
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Cultural Diffusion | The process by which people adopt the practices of their neighbors. |
| Renaissance | The revival of art, literature, and learning that took place in Europe during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. |
| Industrial Revolution | The shift from human power to machine power. |
| Summit | The highest point of a mountain or similar elevation. |
| Prevailing Westerlilies | The constant flow of air from west to east in the temperate zones of the earth. |
| Euro | The common currency used by member nations of the European Union. |
| Compulsory | Required. |
| Fertile | Able to produce abundantly. |
| Ore | Rocky material containing a valuable mineral. |
| Tertiary Economic Activity | An economic activity in which people do not directly gather or process raw materials but pursue activities that serve others; service industry. |
| Moor | Broad, treeless, rolling land, often poorly drained and having patches of marsh and peat bog. |
| Bog | An area of wet, spongy ground. |
| Glen | A narrow valley. |
| Peat | Spongy material containing waterlogged and decaying mosses and plants, sometimes dried and used as fuel. |
| Cultural Divergence | The restriction of a culture from outside influences. |
| Blight | A plant disease. |
| Fjord | A narrow valley or inlet from the sea, originally carved out by an advancing glacier and filled by melting glacial ice. |
| Geothermal Energy | Energy produced from the earth's intense interior heat. |
| Mixed Economy | A system combining different degrees of government regulation. |
| Dialect | A variation of a spoken language that is unique to a region or community. |
| Impressionism | A style of art where painters try to catch visual impressions made by color light and shadows. |
| Nationalize | To bring a business under state control. |
| Recession | An extended decline in business activity. |
| Confederation | A system of government in which individual political units keep their sovereignty but give limited power to a central government. |
| Reparation | Money paid for war damages. |
| Inflation | A sharp, widespread rise in prices. |
| Lignite | A soft, brownish-black coal. |
| Dike | An embankment of earth and rock built to hold back water. |
| Polder | An area of low-lying land that has been reclaimed from the sea. |
| Decentralize | To transfer government power to smaller regions. |
| Canton | A political division or state; one of the states in Switzerland. |
| Neutral | Not taking sides in a war. |
| Perishable Good | A product that does not stay fresh for long. |
| Strip Mining | The process whereby miners strip away the surface of the earth to lay bare the mineral deposits. |
| Navigable | Deep or wide enough to allow the passage of ships. |
| Dry Farming | A farming technique that leaves land unplanted every one or two years in order to gather moisture. |
| Sirocco | A hot, dry wind from northern Africa. |
| Hub | A central point of concentrated activity and influence |
| Seismic Activity | Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. |
| Subsidence | A geological phenomenon in which the ground in an area sinks. |
| Graben | A long, narrow area that has dropped between two faults. |
| Inhabitable | Able to support permanent residents. |
| Tsunami | A huge wave caused primarily by a disturbance beneath the ocean, such as an earthquake or a volcanic eruption. |