click below
click below
Normal Size Small Size show me how
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. |