Geography Basics

Ray Sumner,
Editor

SALEM PRESS
Geography Basics
This page intentionally left blank
 MAGILL’S C H O I C E

Geography
Basics
Volume 1

Edited by
Ray Sumner
Long Beach City College

Salem Press
Pasadena, California Hackensack, New Jersey
 Copyright © 2004, by Salem Press, Inc.
All rights in this book are reserved. No part of this work may be used
or reproduced in any manner whatsoever or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, re-
cording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without
written permission from the copyright owner except in the case of
brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For infor-
mation address the publisher, Salem Press, Inc., P.O. Box 50062, Pas-
adena, California 91115.

The essays, glossary definitions, and appendices in this publication

first appeared in World Geography (2001), copyrighted by Salem Press.
New material has been added.

∞ The paper used in these volumes conforms to the American Na-

tional Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Mate-
rials, Z39.48-1992 (R1997).

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Geography basics / editor, Ray Sumner.
p. cm. — (Magill’s choice)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-58765-177-7 (set: alk. paper) — ISBN 1-58765-178-5 (vol.
1: alk. paper) — ISBN 1-58765-179-3 (vol. 2: alk. paper)
1. Geography. I. Sumner, Ray. II. Series.
G116 .G475 2004
910—dc22
2003018130

First Printing

printed in the united states of america

 Contents
The Nature of Geography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
The History of Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Mapmaking in History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Mapmaking and New Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Themes and Standards in Geography Education . . . . . . . . 19
Physical Geography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The Earth in Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
The Solar System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Earth’s Moon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
The Sun and the Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
The Seasons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Earth’s Interior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Earth’s Internal Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Plate Tectonics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Volcanoes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Geologic Time Scale. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Earth’s Surface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Internal Geological Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
External Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Fluvial and Karst Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Glaciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Desert Landforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Ocean Margins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Earth’s Climates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
The Atmosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Global Climates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Cloud Formation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Storms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Biogeography and Natural Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Earth’s Biological Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Biomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Forests. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Grasslands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Deserts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
Tundra and High Altitude Biomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
National Park Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Natural Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Soils . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
Renewable Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Nonrenewable Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174

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 Geography Basics

Human Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Human Society and the Earth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
The Human Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Population Growth and Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Global Urbanization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Global Time and Time Zones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Climate and Human Societies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Climate and Human Settlement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
Flood Control. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Atmospheric Pollution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Disease and Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Exploration and Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Exploration and Historical Trade Routes . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Road Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Railroads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Air Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Economic Geography. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Traditional Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Commercial Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Modern Agricultural Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
World Food Supplies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Energy and Engineering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Energy Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Alternative Energies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
Engineering Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Industry and Trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Minerals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Manufacturing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Globalization of Manufacturing and Trade . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Modern World Trade Patterns. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Political Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Forms of Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Political Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Geopolitics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
International Boundaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

vi
 Publisher’s Note
Geography Basics covers the most fundamental concepts of both physical
and social geography that are taught in beginning high school courses on
geography. However, the set is also accessible to both middle school and
undergraduate college students. In order to further the geographic liter-
acy of contemporary students, the articles in Geography Basics take an inte-
grated approach to the field, emphasizing interconnections of every kind.
North Americans have long thought of the field of geography as little
more than the study of the names and locations of places. This notion is
not without a basis in fact: Through much of the twentieth century, geog-
raphy courses emphasized memorization of names of states, capitals,
rivers, seas, mountains, and countries. Both students and educators even-
tually rebelled against that approach, geography courses gradually fell
out of favor, and the future of geography as a discipline looked doubtful.
Happily, however, the field underwent a remarkable transformation dur-
ing the 1990’s, as Dr. Ray Sumner explains in her introduction to this set,
and geography now has a bright future at all levels of education.
While learning the locations of places remains an important part of
geography studies, educators recognize that place-name recognition is
merely the beginning of geographic understanding. Geography now
places much greater emphasis on understanding the characteristics of,
and interconnections among, places. Modern students address such
questions as how the weather in a remote part of the world can affect the
price of a commodity in the United States, how global warming threatens
small island nations, how preserving endangered animal species can con-
flict with the economic development of poor nations, and why other parts
of the world can never be the same as North America.
The first volume of Geography Basics introduces the field of geography
and examines basic concepts and issues. Its 59 essays are arranged under
six broad headings:
• The Nature of Geography: 4 essays on “The History of Geography,”
“Mapmaking in History,” “ Mapmaking and New Technologies,” and
“Themes and Standards in Geography Education”
• Physical Geography: 18 essays arranged under four headings: “The
Earth in Space,” “Earth’s Interior,” “Earth’s Surface,” and “Earth’s Cli-
mates”
• Biogeography and Natural Resources: 10 essays arranged under two
headings: “Earth’s Biological Systems” and “Natural Resources”
• Human Geography: 12 essays under three headings: “Human Society
and the Earth,” “Climate and Human Societies,” and “Exploration and
Transportation”

vii
 Geography Basics

• Economic Geography: 11 essays under three headings: “Agriculture,”

“Energy and Engineering,” and “Industry and Trade”
• Political Geography: 4 essays on “Forms of Government,” “Political Ge-
ography,” “Geopolitics,” and “International Boundaries”
The bulk of the second volume of Geography Basics is devoted to a glos-
sary of basic geographical terminology containing 1,600 definitions, plus
cross-reference entries. Volume 2 also contains a comprehensive anno-
tated bibliography and a selection of appendices summarizing global
geographical data. The appendices include rankings of the world’s rivers,
lakes, oceans, deserts, landmasses, islands, and countries by size, as well as
lists of the world’s most populous cities and countries and most and least
densely populated countries.
Geography Basics contains more than 30 maps and more than 250 pho-
tographs, as well as other graphical elements. In addition, the essays are
punctuated with textual sidebars and tables, which amplify the informa-
tion in the essays and call attention to especially important or interesting
points. Every essay contains a list of recommended sources for further
study, and many articles contain sidebars on relevant Web sites.
Both English and metric measures are used in this set. In most in-
stances, English measures are given first, followed by their metric equiva-
lents in parentheses. It should be noted that in cases of measures that are
only estimates, such as areas of deserts or average heights of mountain
ranges, the metric figures are often rounded off to estimates that may not
be exact equivalents of the English-measure estimates. In order to en-
hance clarity, units of measure are not abbreviated in the text, with these
exceptions: Kilometers are rendered as km. and square kilometers as sq. km.
These exceptions have been made because of the frequency with which
these measures appear.
Most of the material in Geography Basics originally appeared in Salem
Press’s eight-volume World Geography (2001). However, texts, bibliograph-
ical citations, and statistical data have all been updated. All essays were
prepared by qualified academicians and experts, without whose invalu-
able contributions these volumes would not be possible. Their names and
affiliations follow. We are especially pleased to express our thanks to Dr.
Ray Sumner, of California’s Long Beach City College, for the expertise
and insights that she has brought to both this project and World Geography
as Editor.

viii
 Introduction
When Henry Morton Stanley of the New York Herald shook David
Livingstone’s hand on the shore of Central Africa’s Lake Tanganyika in
1871, the moment represented the high point of geography to many peo-
ple throughout the world. A Scottish missionary and explorer, Living-
stone had been out of contact with the outside world for nearly two years,
and European and American newspapers had buzzed with speculation
about his disappearance. At that time, so little was known about the geog-
raphy of the interior of Africa that Stanley’s finding Livingstone was ac-
claimed as a brilliant triumph of exploration.
The field of geography in Stanley and Livingstone’s time was—and to
a large extent still is—synonymous with exploration. Stories of epic jour-
neys, both historic and contemporary, continue to exert a powerful at-
traction on readers. Mountains, deserts, forests, caves, and glaciers still
draw intrepid explorers, while even more armchair travelers are thrilled
by accounts and pictures of these exploits and discoveries. We all love to
travel—to the beach, into the mountains, to our great national parks, and
to foreign countries. In the need and desire to explore our surroundings,
we are all geographers.
Numerous geographical societies welcome both professional geogra-
phers and the general public into their membership, as they promote a
greater knowledge and understanding of the earth. The National Geo-
graphic Society, founded in 1888 “for the increase and diffusion of geo-
graphical knowledge,” has funded more than 6,500 field expeditions and
now has seven million dues-paying members. Each year the society invests
more than five million dollars in expeditions and scientific field research
related to environmental concerns and global geographic issues. The
findings are recorded in the pages of the familiar yellow-bordered Na-
tional Geographic magazine, which circles the globe with ten million copies
in fifteen different languages, bringing readers up-to-date scientific in-
formation and memorable images of both familiar and exotic people and
places. The National Geographic International television network
reaches out to more than eighty million subscribers in 111 countries,
broadcasting in sixteen languages.
An even older geographical association is Great Britain’s Royal Geo-
graphical Society, which grew out of the Geographical Society of London,
founded in 1830 with the “sole object” of promoting “that most impor-
tant and entertaining branch of knowledge—geography.” Over the cen-
tury that followed, the Royal Geographical Society focused on explora-
tion of the continents of Africa and Antarctica. In the society’s London
headquarters adjacent to the Albert Hall, visitors can still view such his-
toric artifacts as David Livingstone’s cap and chair, as well as diaries,
sketches, and maps covering the great period of the British Empire and

ix
 Geography Basics

beyond. Today the society assists more than five hundred field expedi-
tions every year.
With the aid of satellites and remote-sensing instruments we can now
obtain images and data from almost anywhere on Earth. However, re-
mote and inaccessible places still invite the intrepid to visit and explore
them in person. Although the outlines of the continents have now been
completed, and their interiors filled in with details of mountains, rivers,
and cities, remote places still exert a fascination on modern urbanites.
The enchantment of tales about strange sights and courageous jour-
neys has been with us since the ancient voyages of Homer’s Ulysses,
Marco Polo’s travels to China, and the nautical expeditions of Christo-
pher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, and James Cook. While those great
travelers are from the remote past, the age of exploration is far from
over—a fact repeatedly demonstrated by the modern Norwegian naviga-
tor Thor Heyerdahl. Moreover, new journeys of discovery are still taking
place. In 1993, after dragging a sled wearily across the frigid wastes of Ant-
arctica for more than three months, Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-
Fiennes announced that the age of exploration is not dead. Six years
later, in 1999, the long-missing body of British mountain climber George
Mallory was found on the slopes of Mount Everest, near whose top he had
mysteriously vanished in 1924. That discovery sparked a new wave of ad-
miration and respect for explorers of such courage and endurance.
Antarctica has long been a region of geographic challenges. How
many people have been enthralled by the bravery of explorer Robert Fal-
con Scott and the noble sacrifice his injured colleague Lawrence Oates
made in 1912, when he gave up his life in order not to slow down the rest
of the expedition? The epic of Ernest Shackleton’s unlucky expedition is
regularly recounted to enthralled audiences. There can be no doubt that
the thrills and the dangers of exploring find resonance among many
modern readers.
The struggle to survive in environments hostile to human beings re-
minds us of the power of our planet Earth. Recent best-selling books on
this theme have included Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air (1998), an account
of a disastrous expedition climbing Mount Everest, and Sebastian
Junger’s The Perfect Storm (1997), the story of the worst gale of the twenti-
eth century and its effect on a fishing fleet off the East Coast of North
America. Endurance (1998), the epic of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s survival
and leadership for two years on the frozen Arctic, attracts the same peo-
ple who avidly read Undaunted Courage (1996), the story of Meriwether
Lewis and William Clark’s epic exploration of the Louisiana Purchase ter-
ritories in the early nineteenth century. In 1997 Seven Years in Tibet pre-
miered, a popular film about the Austrian Heinrich Harrer, who lived in
Tibet in the mid-twentieth century. The more urban people become, the
greater their desire for adventurous, remote places, at least vicariously, to
raise the human spirit.

x
 Introduction

There are, of course, also scientific achievements associated with mod-

ern exploration. In November, 1999, the elevation of Mount Everest, the
world’s tallest peak, was raised by 7 feet (2.1 meters) to a new height of
29,035 feet (8,850 meters) above sea level; the previously accepted height
had been based on surveys made during the 1950’s. This new value was
the result of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology enabling a
more accurate measurement than had been possible with land-based
earthbound surveying equipment. A team of climbers supported by the
National Geographic Society and the Boston Museum of Science, was
equipped with GPS equipment which enabled a fifty-minute recording
of data based on satellite signals. At the same time, the expedition was
able to ascertain that Mount Everest is moving northeast, atop the Indo-
Australian Plate, at a rate of approximately 2.4 inches (10 centimeters)
per year.
In 2000, the International Hydrographic Organization named a “new”
ocean, the Southern Ocean, which encompasses all the water surround-
ing Antarctica up to 60 degrees south latitude. With an area of approxi-
mately 7.8 million square miles (20.3 million square kilometers), the
Southern Ocean is about twice the size of the entire United States and
ranks as the world’s fourth largest ocean, after the Pacific, Atlantic, and
Indian Oceans, but just ahead of the Arctic Ocean.
Despite the humanistic and scientific advantages of geographic knowl-
edge, to many people today geography is a subject where one merely
memorizes long lists of facts dealing with “where” questions (Where is
Andorra? Where is Prince Edward Island? Where is Kalamazoo?) or
“what” questions ( What is the highest mountain in South America? What
is the capital of Costa Rica?) This approach to the study of geography has
been perpetuated by the annual National Geographic Bee, conducted in
the United States each year for students in grades four through eight.
Participants in the competition display an astonishing recall of facts but
do not have the opportunity of showing any real geographic thought. To
a geographer, such factual knowledge is simply a foundation for investi-
gating and explaining the much more important questions dealing with
“why”—"Why is the Sahara a desert?"
Geographers aim to understand why environments and societies occur
where and as they do, and how they change. Geography must be seen as
an integrative science; the collection of factual data and evidence, as in
exploration, is the empirical foundation for deductive reasoning. This
leads to the creation of a range of geographical methods, models, theo-
ries, and analytical approaches that serve to unify a very broad area of
knowledge—the interaction between natural and human environments.
Although geography as an academic discipline became established in
nineteenth century Germany, there have always been geographers, in the
sense of people curious about their world. Humans have always wanted to
know about day and night, the shape of the earth, the nature of climates,

xi
 Geography Basics

differences in plants and animals, as well as what lies beyond the horizon.
Today, as we hear about and actually experience the sweeping effects of
globalization, we need more than ever to develop our geographical skills.
Not only are we connected by economic ties to the countries of the world,
but we must also appreciate the consequences of North America’s high
standard of living.
Political boundaries are artificial human inventions, but the natural
world is one biosphere. As concern over global warming escalates, na-
tional leaders meet to seek a solution to emission of greenhouse gases.
Are we connected to our environment? At a time when the rate of species
extinction is a hundred times above normal, and the human population
is crowding in increasing numbers into huge urban centers, we have, nev-
ertheless, taken time each year in April to celebrate Earth Day since 1970.
We need now to realize that every day is Earth Day.
Geography languished in the United States in the 1960’s, as social
studies was taught with a history emphasis in schools. American students
became alarmingly disadvantaged in geographic knowledge, compared
with most other countries. Fortunately members of the profession acted
to restore geography to the curriculum. In 1984 the National Geographic
Society undertook the challenge of restoring geography in the United
States. The society turned to two organizations active in geographic edu-
cation: the Association of American Geographers, the professional geog-
raphers’ group with more than 6,500 members, mostly in higher educa-
tion in the United States; and the National Council for Geographic
Education, with some one thousand members. The council administers
the Geographic Alliances, found in every state of the United States, with a
national membership of about 120,000 schoolteachers. Together they
produced the “Guidelines in Geographic Education,” which introduced
the Five Themes of Geography, to enhance the teaching of geography in
schools. Using the themes of Location, Place, Human/Environment In-
teraction, Movement and Regions, teachers were able to plan and con-
duct lessons in which students encountered interesting real-world exam-
ples of the relevance and importance of geography. Continued research
into geographic education led to the inclusion of geography in 1990 as
one of the core subjects of the National Education Goals, or “Goals 2000,”
along with English, mathematics, science, and history.
Another milestone was the publication in 1994 of “Geography for
Life,” the national Geography Standards. The earlier Five Themes are
subsumed under the new Six Essential Elements: The World in Spatial
Terms, Places and Regions, Physical Systems, Human Systems, Environ-
ment and Society, and The Uses of Geography. Eighteen Geography Stan-
dards are included, describing what a geographically informed person
knows and understands. States, schools, and individual teachers have wel-
comed the new prominence of geography, and enthusiastically adopted
new approaches to introduce the geography standards to new learners.

xii
 Introduction

The rapid spread of computer technology, especially in the field of Geo-

graphical Information Science, has also meant a new importance for spa-
tial analysis, a traditional area of geographical expertise. No longer is ge-
ography seen as an outdated mass of useless or arcane facts; instead
geography is now seen, again, to be an innovative and integrative science,
which can in the twenty-first century contribute to solving complex prob-
lems associated with the reciprocal human-environmental relationship.
Geographers may no longer travel across uncharted realms, but there
is still much we long to explore, to learn, and seek to understand, even if
it is only as “armchair” geographers. This reference work, Geography Ba-
sics, will help carry readers on their own journeys of exploration.
Ray Sumner

xiii
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 Contributors
Emily Alward Thomas E. Hemmerly
Henderson, Nevada Public Library Middle Tennessee State University

Charles F. Bahmueller Carl W. Hoagstrom

Center for Civic Education Ohio Northern University

Alvin K. Benson Robert M. Hordon

Brigham Young University Rutgers University

Margaret F. Boorstein Paul F. Hudson

C.W. Post College of Long Island University of Texas at Austin
University
Ron Janke
Joseph P. Byrne Valparaiso University
Belmont University
Albert C. Jensen
Gary A. Campbell Central Florida Community College
Michigan Technological University
Bruce E. Johansen
Steven D. Carey University of Nebraska at Omaha
University of Mobile
Denise Knotwell
Roger V. Carlson Wayne, Nebraska
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
James Knotwell
H. G. Churnet Wayne State College
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Alvin S. Konigsberg
William A. Dando State University of New York at New
Indiana State University Paltz

Larry E. Davis Dana P. McDermott

College of St. Benedict Chicago, Illinois

Ronald W. Davis Nancy Farm Männikkö

Western Michigan University L’Anse, Michigan

Stephen B. Dobrow Rubén A. Mazariegos-Alfaro

Fairleigh Dickinson University University of Texas/Pan American

Sherry L. Eaton Randall L. Milstein

San Diego City College Oregon State University

Eric J. Fournier Karen A. Mulcahy

Samford University East Carolina University

Jay D. Gatrell Richard L. Orndorff

Indiana State University University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Noreen A. Grice John R. Phillips

Boston Museum of Science Purdue University, Calumet

xv
 Geography Basics

Timothy C. Pitts Robert J. Stewart

Morehead State University California Maritime Academy

Robert M. Rauber Ray Sumner

University of Illinois at Urbana- Long Beach City College
Champaign
Paul C. Sutton
Ronald J. Raven University of Denver
State University of New York at Buffalo
John M. Theilmann
Neil Reid Converse College
University of Toledo
Norman J. W. Thrower
Nathaniel Richmond University of California, Los Angeles
Utica College
Paul B. Trescott
Kathleen V. Schreiber Southern Illinois University
Millersville University of Pennsylvania
Robert D. Ubriaco, Jr.
Ralph C. Scott Illinois Wesleyan University
Towson University
Mark M. Van Steeter
Wendy Shaw Western Oregon University
Southern Illinois University,
Edwardsville Johan C. Varekamp
Wesleyan University
R. Baird Shuman
University of Illinois at Urbana- Thomas A. Wikle
Champaign Oklahoma State University

Sherman E. Silverman Kay R. S. Williams

Prince George’s Community College Shippensburg University

Roger Smith Lisa A. Wroble

Portland, Oregon Redford Township District Library

xvi
Geography Basics
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The Nature of
Geography
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 3

The History of
Geography
T he moment that early humans first looked around their world with in-
quiring minds was the moment that geography was born. The history
of geography is the history of human effort to understand the nature of
the world. Through the centuries, people have asked of geography three
basic questions: What is the earth like? Where are things located? How
can one explain these observations?
Geography in the Ancient World. In the Western world, the Greeks and
the Romans were among the first to write about and study geography.
Eratosthenes, a Greek scholar who lived in the third century b.c.e., is of-
ten called the “father of geography” and is credited with first using the
word geography (from the Greek words ge, which means “earth,” and
graphe, which means “to describe”). The ancient Greeks had contact with
many older civilizations and began to gather together information about
the known world. Some, such as Hecataeus, described the multitude of
places and peoples with which the Greeks had contact and wrote of the
adventures of mythical characters in strange and exotic lands. However,
the ancient Greek scholars went beyond just describing the world. They
used their knowledge of mathematics to measure and locate. The Greek
scholars also used their philosophical nature to theorize about Earth’s
place in the universe.
One Greek scholar who used mathematics in the study of geography
was Anaximander, who lived from 610 to 547 b.c.e. Anaximander is cred-
ited with being the first person to draw a map of the world to scale, and he
also invented a sundial that could be used to calculate time and direction,
and to distinguish the seasons. Eratosthenes (276-196 b.c.e.) is also fa-
mous for his mathematical calculations, in particular of the circumfer-

Curiosity: The Root of Geography

The earliest human beings, as they hunted and gathered food and used
primitive tools in order to survive, must have had detailed knowledge of the
geography of their part of the world. The environment could be a hostile
place, and knowledge of the world meant the difference between life and
death. Human curiosity took them one step further. As they lived in an an-
cient world of ice and fire, human beings looked to the horizon for new
worlds, crossing continents and spreading out to all areas of the globe.
They learned not only to live as a part of their environment, but also to un-
derstand it, predict it, and change it to their needs.
4 / The History of Geography

ence of the earth, using observations of the Sun. Hipparchus, who lived
around 140 b.c.e., used his mathematical skills to solve geographic prob-
lems and was the first person to introduce the idea of a latitude and longi-
tude grid system to locate places.
Such early Greek philosophers as Plato and Aristotle were also con-
cerned with geography. They discussed such issues as whether the earth
was flat or spherical and if it was the center of the universe, and debated
the nature of the earth as the home of humankind.
Whereas the Greeks were great thinkers and introduced many new
ideas into geography, the Roman contribution was to compile and gather
available knowledge. Although this did not add much that was new to ge-
ography, it meant that the knowledge of the ancient world was available
as a base to work from and was passed down across the centuries. Geogra-
phy in the ancient world is often said to have ended with the great work of
Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaus), who lived from 90 to 168 c.e. Ptolemy is
best known for his eight-volume Guide to Geography, which included a gaz-
etteer of places located by latitude and longitude, and his world map.
The study of geography also was important in ancient China. Chinese
scholars described their resources, climate, transportation routes, and
travels, and were mapping their known world at the same time as were the
great Western civilizations.
Geography in the Middle Ages. With the collapse of the Roman Em-
pire in the fifth century c.e., Europe descended into what is commonly
known as the Dark or Middle Ages. During this time, which lasted until
the fifteenth century, the geographic knowledge of the ancient world was
either lost or challenged as being counter to Christian teachings. For ex-
ample, the early Greeks had theorized that the earth was a sphere, but
this was rejected during the Middle Ages. Scholars of the Middle Ages be-
lieved that the world was said to be a flat disk, with the holy city of Jerusa-
lem at its center.
The knowledge and ideas of the ancient world might have been lost if
they had not been preserved by Muslim scholars. In the Islamic countries
of North Africa and the Middle East, some of the scholarship of the an-
cient world was sheltered in libraries and universities. This knowledge
was extensively added to as Muslims traveled and traded across the known
world, gathering their own information.
Among the most famous Muslim geographers were Ibn Battutah, al-
Idrisi, and Ibn Khaldun. Ibn Battutah traveled east to India and China in
the fourteenth century. Al-Idrisi (1100-1165), at the command of King
Roger II of Sicily, wrote Roger’s Book, which systematically described the
world. Information from Roger’s Book was engraved on a huge planisphere
(disk), crafted in silver; this once was considered a wonder of the world,
but it is thought to have been destroyed. Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) is best
known for his written world history, but he also was a pioneer in focusing
on the relationship of human beings to their environment.
 The History of Geography / 5

The Age of European Exploration. Beginning in the fifteenth century,

the isolation of Europe came to an end, and Europeans turned their at-
tention to exploration. The two major goals of this sudden surge in explo-
ration were to spread the Christian faith and to obtain needed resources.
In 1418 Prince Henry the Navigator established a school for navigators
and began to gather the tools and knowledge needed for exploration. He
was the first of many Europeans who broke out of the darkness of the
Middle Ages, traveling beyond the limits of the known world, mapping,
describing, and cataloging all that they saw.
The great wave of European exploration brought new interest in geog-
raphy, and the monumental works of the Greeks and Romans—so care-
fully preserved by Muslim scholars—were rediscovered and translated
into Latin. The maps produced in the Middle Ages were of little use to
the explorers who were traveling to, and beyond, the limits of the known
world. Christopher Columbus, for example, relied on Ptolemy’s work
during his voyages to the Americas, but soon newer, more accurate maps
were drawn and, for the first time, globes were made. A particularly fa-
mous map, which is still used as a base map, is the Mercator projection.
On the world map produced by Gerardus Mercator (Gerhard Kremer) in
1569, compass directions appear as straight lines, which was a great bene-
fit on navigational charts.
When the age of European exploration began, the best world maps
crudely depicted a few limited areas of the world. Explorers quickly be-
gan to gather huge quantities of information, making detailed charts of
coastlines, discovering new continents, and eventually filling in the maps
of those continents with information about both the natural and human
features they encountered. This age of exploration is often said to have
ended when Roald Amundsen planted the Norwegian flag at the South
Pole in 1911. At that time, the world map became complete, and human
beings had mapped and explored every corner of the globe. However,
the beginning of modern geography is usually associated with the work of
two nineteenth century German geographers: Alexander von Humboldt
and Carl Ritter.
The Beginning of Modern Geography. The writings of Alexander von
Humboldt and Karl Ritter mark a leap into modern geography, because
these writers took an important step beyond the work of previous schol-
ars. The explorers of the previous centuries had focused on gathering
information, describing the world, and filling in the world map with as
much detail as possible. Humboldt and Ritter took a more scientific and
systematic approach to geography. They began not only to compile de-
scriptive information, but also to ask why: Humboldt spent his lifetime
looking for relationships among such things as climate and topography
(landscape), while Ritter was intrigued by the multitude of connections
and relationships he observed within human geographic patterns. Both
Humboldt and Ritter died in 1859, ending a period when information-
6 / The History of Geography

gathering had been paramount. They brought geography into a new age
in which synthesis, analysis, and theory-building became central.
European Geography. After the work of Humboldt and Ritter, geogra-
phy became an accepted academic discipline in Europe, particularly in
Germany, France, and Great Britain. Each of these countries emphasized
different aspects of geographic study. German geographers continued
the tradition of the scientific view, using observable data to answer geo-
graphic questions. They also introduced the concept that geography
could take a chorological view, studying all aspects, physical and human,
of a region and of the interrelationships involved.
The chorological view came to dominate French geography. Paul Vidal
de la Blache (1845-1918) was the most prominent French geographer. He
advocated the study of small, distinct areas, and French geographers set
about identifying the many regions of France. They described and ana-
lyzed the unique physical and human geographic complex that was to be
found in each region. An important concept that emerged from French
geography was “possibilism.” German geographers had introduced the
notion of environmental determinism—that human beings were largely
shaped and controlled by their environments. Possibilism rejected the con-
cept of environmental determinism, asserting that the relationship between
human beings and the environment works in two directions: The environ-
ment creates both limits and opportunities for people, but people can react
in different ways to a given environment, so they are not controlled by it.
British geographers, influenced by the French approach, conducted
regional surveys. British regional studies were unique in their emphasis
on planning and geography as an applied science. From this work came
the concept of a functional region—an area that works together as a unit
based on interaction and interdependence.
American Geography. Prior to World War II, only a small group of peo-
ple in the United States called themselves geographers. They were mostly
influenced by German ideas, but the nature of geography was hotly de-
bated. Two schools of geographers were philosophical adversaries. The
Midwestern School, led by Richard Hartshorne, believed that description
of unique regions was the central task of geography.
The Western (or Berkeley) School of geography, led by Carl Sauer,
agreed that regional study was important, but believed it was crucial to go
beyond description. Sauer and his followers included genesis and process
as important elements in any study. To understand a region and to know
where it is going, they argued, one must look at its past and how it got to
its present state.
In the 1930’s, environmental determinism was introduced to U.S. ge-
ography but ultimately was rejected. Although geography in both Europe
and the United States was essentially an all-male discipline, the United
States produced the first famous woman geographer, Ellen Churchill
Semple (1863-1932).
 The History of Geography / 7

The National Geographic Society and

Geographic Research
In 1888 the National Geographic Society was founded to support the “in-
crease and diffusion of geographic knowledge” of the world. In its first 110
years, the society funded more than five thousand expeditions and re-
search projects with more than sixty-five hundred grants. By the 1990’s it
was the largest such foundation in the world, and the results of its funded
projects are found on television programs, video discs, video cassettes, and
books, as well as in the National Geographic magazine, established in 1888.
Its productions are cutting-edge resources for information about archaeol-
ogy, ethnology, biology, and both cultural and physical geography.

World War II illustrated the importance of geographic knowledge,

and after the war came to an end in 1945, geographers began to blossom
in the United States. From the end of World War II to the early 1960’s,
U.S. geographers produced many descriptive regional studies.
In the early 1960’s, what is often called the quantitative revolution oc-
curred. The development of computers allowed complex mathematical
analysis to be performed on all kinds of geographic data, and geographers
began to analyze a wide range of problems using statistics. There was great
enthusiasm for this new approach to geography at first, but beginning in
the 1970’s, many people considered a purely mathematical approach to be
somewhat sterile and thought it left out a valuable human element.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s, many new ways to look at geographic issues
and problems were developed, including humanism, behaviorism, Marx-
ism, feminism, realism, structuration, phenomenology, and postmodern-
ism, all of which bring human beings back into focus within geographical
studies.
Geography for a New Millennium. Geography increasingly uses tech-
nology to analyze global space and answer a wide range of questions. The
Geographic Information System (GIS), in particular, provides a powerful
way for people trained in geography to understand geographic issues,
solve geographic problems, and display geographic information. Geogra-
phers continue to adopt a wide variety of philosophies, approaches, and
methods in their quest to answer questions concerning all things spatial.
Wendy Shaw

For Further Study

Abler, Ronald F., Melvin G. Marcus, and Judy M. Olson, eds. Geography’s
Inner Worlds. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1992.
Agnew, John, David N. Livingstone, and Alisdair Rogers, eds. Human Ge-
ography: An Essential Anthology. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1996.
8 / Mapmaking in History

Information on the World Wide Web

A good starting point for Internet research on the history of geography is
the About.com geography site, which contains links to pages on physical,
regional, and human geography.
(geography.about.com/education/geography/).
The Web site of the Environmental Systems Research Institute, an early
leader in mapping products using GIS technology, allows viewers to create
maps using GIS data and download ArcExplorer, a free GIS data viewer
(www.esri.com/software/arcexplorer/index.html).

Flowers, Sarah. The Age of Exploration. San Diego, Calif.: Lucent Books,
1999.
Gould, Peter. Becoming a Geographer (Space, Place, and Society). Syracuse,
N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1999.
Holt-Jensen, Arild. Geography: History and Concepts. A Student Guide. 3d ed.
Walnut Creek, Calif.: AltaMira Press, 1999.
Martin, Geoffrey J., and Preston E. James. All Possible Worlds. A History of
Geographical Ideas. 3d ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1993.

Mapmaking in History
C artography is the science or art of making maps. Although workers in
many fields have a concern with cartography and its history, it is most
often associated with geography.
Maps of Preliterate Peoples. The history of cartography predates the
written record, and most cultures show evidence of mapping skills. The
earliest surviving maps are those carved in stone or painted on the walls
of caves, but modern preliterate peoples still use a variety of materials to
express themselves cartographically. For example, the Marshall Islanders
use palm fronds, fiber from coconut husks (coir), and shells to make sea
charts for their inter-island navigation. The Inuit use animal skins and
driftwood, sometimes painted, in mapping. There is a growing interest in
the cartography of early and preliterate peoples, but some of their maps
do not fit readily into a more traditional concept of cartography.
Mapping in Antiquity. Early literate peoples, such as those of Egypt and
Mesopotamia, displayed considerable variety in their maps and charts, as
shown by the few maps from these civilizations that still exist. The early
Egyptians painted maps on wooden coffin bases to assist the departed in
finding their way in the afterlife; they also made practical route maps for
their mining operations. It is thought that geometry developed from the
This map of the world was published in 1607, when European geographers had only the vaguest ideas of what lay west of
the Americas, and the great southern continent, “Terra Australis,” existed only in theory. (Corbis)
10 / Mapmaking in History

Egyptians’ riverine surveys. The Babylonians made maps of different

scales, using clay tablets with cuneiform characters and stylized symbols,
to create city plans, regional maps, and “world” maps. They also divided
the circle in the sexigesimal system, an idea they may have obtained from
India and that is commonly used in cartography to this day.
The Greeks inherited ideas from both the Egyptians and the Mesopo-
tamians and made signal contributions to cartography themselves. No di-
rect evidence of early Greek maps exists, but indirect evidence in texts
provides information about their cosmological ideas, culminating in the
concept of a perfectly spherical earth. This they attempted to measure
and divide mathematically. The idea of climatic zones was proposed and
possibly mapped, and the large known landmasses were divided into first
two continents, then three.
Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of the early Greeks was the re-
markably accurate measurement of the circumference of the earth by
Eratosthenes. Serious study of map projections began at about this time.
The gnomonic, orthographic, and stereographic projections were in-
vented before the Christian era, but their use was confined to astronomy
in this period. With the possible single exception of Aristarchus of Samos,
the Greeks believed in a geocentric universe. They made globes (now lost)
and regional maps on metal; a few map coins from this era have survived.
Later Greeks carried on these traditions and expanded upon them.
Claudius Ptolemy invented two projections for his world maps in the sec-
ond century c.e. These were enormously important in the European Re-
naissance as they were modified in the light of new overseas discoveries.
Ptolemy’s work is known mainly through later translations and recon-
structions, but he compiled maps from Greek and Phoenician travel ac-
counts and proposed sectional maps of different scales in his Geographia.
Ptolemy’s prime meridian (0 degrees longitude) in the Canary Islands
was generally accepted for a millennium and a half after his death.
Roman cartography was greatly influenced by later Greeks such as
Ptolemy, but the Romans themselves improved upon route mapping and
surveying. Much of the Roman Empire was subdivided by instruments
into hundredths, of which there is a cartographic record in the form of
marble tablets. In Rome, a small-scale map of the world known to the Ro-
mans was made on metal by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, the son-in-law of
Augustus Caesar, and displayed publicly. This map no longer exists, how-
ever.
Cartography in Early East Asia. As these developments were taking
place in the West, a rich cartographic tradition developed in Asia, partic-
ularly China. The earliest survey of China (Yu Kung) is approximately
contemporaneous with the oldest reported mapmaking activity of the
Greeks. Later, maps, charts, and plans accompanied Chinese texts on var-
ious geographical themes. Early rulers of China had a high regard for car-
tography—the science of princes. A rectangular grid was introduced by
 Mapmaking in History / 11

Chang Heng, a contemporary of Ptolemy, and the south-pointing needle

was used for mapmaking in China from an early date.
These traditions culminated in Chinese cartographic primacy in sev-
eral areas: the earliest printed maps (about 1155 c.e.), early printed at-
lases, and terrestrial globes (now lost). Chinese cartography greatly influ-
enced that in other parts of Asia, particularly Korea and Japan, which
fostered innovations of their own. It was only after the introduction of
ideas from the West, in the Renaissance and later, that Asian cartographic
advances were superseded.
Islamic Cartography. A link between China and the West was provided
by the Arabs, particularly after the establishment of Islam. It was probably
the Arabs who brought the magnetized needle to the Mediterranean,
where it was developed into the magnetic compass.
Some scholars have argued that the Arabs were better astronomers
than cartographers, but did make several clear advances in mapmaking.
Both fields of study were important in Muslim science, and the astrolabe,
invented by the Greeks in antiquity but developed by the Arabs, was used
in both their astronomical and terrestrial surveys. They made and used
many maps, as indicated by the output of their most famous cartographer,
al-Idrisi (who lived about 1100-1165). Some of his work still exists, includ-
ing a zonal world map and detailed charts of the Mediterranean islands.
At about the same time, the magnetic compass was invented in the
coastal cities of Italy, which gave rise to advanced navigational charts, in-
cluding information on ports. These remarkably accurate charts were
used for navigating in the Mediterranean Sea. They were superior to the
European maps of the Middle Ages, which often were concerned with re-
ligious iconography, pilgrimage, and crusade. The scene was now set for
the great overseas discoveries of the Europeans, which were initiated in
Portugal and Spain in the fifteenth century.
In the next four centuries, most of the coasts of the world were visited
and mapped. The early, projectionless navigational charts were no longer
adequate, so new projections were invented to map the enlarged world as
revealed by the European overseas explorations. The culmination of this
activity was the development of the projection, in 1569, of Gerardus
Mercator, which bears his name and is of special value in navigation.
Early Modern Mapmaking. Europeans began mapping their own
countries with greater accuracy. New surveying instruments were in-
vented for this purpose, and a great land-mapping activity was under-
taken to match the worldwide coastal surveys. For about a century, the
Low Countries of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands domi-
nated the map and chart trades, producing beautiful hand-colored en-
graved sheet wall maps and atlases.
France and England established new national observatories, and by
the middle of the seventeenth century, the Low Countries had been
eclipsed by France in surveying and making maps and charts. The French
12 / Mapmaking in History

adopted the method of triangulation of Mercator’s teacher, Gemma

Friisius. Under four generations of the Cassini family, a topographic sur-
vey of France more comprehensive than any previous survey was com-
pleted. Rigorous coastal surveys were undertaken, as well as the precise
measurement of latitude (parallels).
The invention of the marine chronometer by John Harrison made it
possible for ships at sea to determine longitude. This led to the produc-
tion of charts of all the oceans, with England’s Greenwich eventually be-
ing adopted as the international prime meridian.
Quantitative, thematic mapping was advanced by astronomer Ed-
mond Halley (1656-1742) who produced a map of the trade winds; the
first published magnetic variation chart, using isolines; tidal charts; and
the earliest map of an eclipse. The Venetian Vincenzo Coronelli made
globes of greater beauty and accuracy than any previous ones. In the Ger-
man lands, the study of map projections was vigorously pursued. Johann
H. Lambert and others invented a number of equal-area projections that
were still in use in the twentieth century.
Ideas developed in Europe were transmitted to colonial areas, and to
countries such as China and Russia, where they were grafted onto exist-
ing cartographic traditions and methods. The oceanographic explora-
tions of the British and the French built on the earlier charting of the Pa-
cific Ocean and its islands by native navigators and the Iberians.
Nineteenth Century Cartography. Cartography was greatly diversified
and developed in the nineteenth century. Quantitative, thematic map-
ping was expanded to include the social as well as the physical sciences.
Alexander von Humboldt used isolines to show mean air temperature, a
method that later was applied to other phenomena. Contour lines gradu-
ally replaced less quantitative methods of representing terrain on topo-
graphic maps. Such maps were made of many areas, for example India,
which previously had been poorly mapped.
Extraterrestrial (especially lunar) mapping, had begun seriously in
the preceding two centuries with the invention of the telescope. It was ex-
panded in the nineteenth century. In the same period, regular national
censuses provided a large body of data that could be mapped. Ingenious
methods were created to express the distribution of population, diseases,
social problems, and other data quantitatively, using uniform symbols.
Geological mapping began in the nineteenth century with the work of
William Smith in England, but soon was adopted worldwide and system-
atized, notably in the United States. The same is true of transportation
maps, as the steamship and the railroad increased mobility for many peo-
ple. Faster land travel in an east-west direction, as in the United States, led
to the official adoption of Greenwich as the international prime merid-
ian at a conference held in Washington, D.C., in 1884. Time zone maps
were soon published and became a feature of the many world atlases then
being published for use in schools, offices, and homes.
 Mapmaking in History / 13

A remarkable development in cartography in the nineteenth century

was the surveying of areas newly occupied by Europeans. This occurred
in such places as the South American republics, Australia, and Canada,
but was most evident in the United States. The U.S. Public Land Survey
covered all areas not previously subdivided for settlement. Property maps
arising from surveys were widely available, and in many cases, the infor-
mation was contained in county and township atlases and maps.
Modern Mapping and Imaging. Cartography was revolutionized in the
twentieth century by aerial photography, sonic sounding, satellite imag-
ing, and the computer. Before those developments, however, Albrecht
Penck proposed an ambitious undertaking—an International Map of the
World (IMW). Cartography historically had been a nationalistic enter-
prise, but Penck suggested a map of the world in multiple sheets pro-
duced cooperatively by all nations at the scale of 1:1,000,000 with uni-
form symbols. This was started in the first half of the twentieth century
but was not completed, and was superseded by the World Aeronautical
Chart (WAC) project, at the same scale, during and after World War II.
The WAC project owed its existence to flight information made avail-
able following the invention of the airplane. Both photography and bal-
loons were developed before the twentieth century, but the new, heavier-
than-air craft permitted overlapping aerial photographs to be taken,
which greatly facilitated the mapping process. Aerial photography revo-
lutionized land surveys—maps could be made at less cost, in less time,
and with greater accuracy than by previous methods. Similarly, marine
surveying was revolutionized by the advent of sonic sounding in the sec-
ond half of the twentieth century. This enabled mapping of the floor of
the oceans, essentially unknown before this time.
Satellite imaging, especially continuous surveillance by Landsat since
1972, allows temporal monitoring of the earth. The computer, through
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and other technologies, has
greatly simplified and speeded up the mapping process. During the twen-
tieth century, the most widely available cartographic product was the
road map for travel by automobile.
Spatial information now comes through television and computer
screens as well as by more traditional cartographic means. The new me-
dia also facilitate animated presentations of geographical and extrater-
restrial distributions. Cartographers in the twentieth century generally
have been responsive to the opportunities provided by new technologies,
materials, and ideas.
Norman J. W. Thrower

For Further Study

Brown, Lloyd A. The Story of Maps. New York: Little, Brown, 1947.
Crone, Gerald R. Maps and Their Makers. Hamden, Conn.: Anchor Books,
1978.
14 / Mapmaking and New Technologies

Harley, J. B., and David Woodward, eds. The History of Cartography. Chi-
cago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.
Skelton, R. A. History of Cartography. Cambridge. Mass: Harvard University
Press, 1964.
Thrower, Norman J. W. Maps and Civilization. Chicago: University of Chi-
cago Press, 1999.

Mapmaking and New

Technologies
T he field of geography is concerned primarily with the study of the
curved surface of the earth. The earth is huge, however, with an equa-
torial radius of 3,963 miles (6,378 km.). How can one examine anything
more than the small patch of earth that can be experienced at one time?
Geographers do what scientists do all of the time: create models. The
most common model of the earth is a globe—a spherical map that is usu-
ally about the size of a basketball.
A globe can show physical features such as rivers, oceans, the conti-
nents, and even the ocean floor. Political globes show the division of the
earth into countries and states. Globes can even present views of the dis-
tant past of the earth, when the continents and oceans were very different
than they are today. Globes are excellent for learning about the distribu-
tions, shapes, sizes, and relationships of features of the earth. However,
there are limits to the use of globes.
How can the distribution of people over the entire world be described
at one glance? On a globe, the human eye can see only half of the earth at
one time. What if a city planner needs to map every street, building, fire
hydrant, and streetlight in a town? To fit this much detail on a globe, the
globe might have to be bigger than the town being mapped. Globes like
these would be impossible to create and to carry around. Instead of hav-
ing to hire a fleet of flatbed trucks to haul oversized globes, the curved
surface of the globe can be transformed to a flat plane.
The method used to change from a curved globe surface to a flat map
surface is called a map projection. There are hundreds of projections,
from simple to extremely complex and dating from about two thousand
years ago to projections being invented today. One of the oldest is the
gnomonic projection. Imagine a clear globe with a light inside. Now
imagine holding a piece of paper against the surface of the globe. The
coastlines and parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude would
show through the globe and be visible on the paper. Computers can do
the same thing because there are mathematical formulas for nearly all
map projections.
 Mapmaking and New Technologies / 15

Geometric Models for Map Projections. One way to organize map pro-
jections is to imagine what kind of geometric shape might be used to cre-
ate a map. Like the paper (a plane surface) against the globe described
above, other useful geometric shapes include a cone and a cylinder.
When the rounded surface of any object, including the earth, is flattened
there must be some stretching, or tearing. Map projections help to con-
trol the amount and kinds of distortion in maps. There are always a few
exceptions that cannot be described in this way, but using geometric
shapes helps to classify projections into groups and to organize the hun-
dreds of projections.
Another way to describe a map projection is to consider what it might
be good for. Some map projections show all of the continents and oceans
at their proper sizes relative to one another. Another type of projection
can show correct distances between certain points.
Map Projection Properties. When areas are retained in the proper size
relationships to one another, the map is called an equal-area map, and
the map projection is called an equal-area projection. Equal-area (also
called equivalent or homolographic) maps are used to measure areas or
view densities such as a population density.
If true angles are retained, the shapes of islands, continents, and
oceans look more correct. Maps made in this way are called conformal
maps or conformal map projections. They are used for navigation, topo-
graphic mapping, or in other cases when it is important to view features
with a good representation of shape. It is impossible for a map to be both
equal-area and conformal at the same time. One or the other must be se-
lected based on the needs of the map user or map maker.
One special property—distance—can only be true on a few parts of a
map at one time. To see how far it is between places hundreds or thou-
sands of miles apart, an equidistant projection should be used. There will
be several lines along which distance is true. The azimuthal equidistant
projection shows true distances from the center of the map outward.
Some map projections do not retain any of these properties but are use-
ful for showing compromise views of the world.
Modern Mapmaking. Modern mapmaking is assisted from beginning
to end by digital technologies. In the past, the paper map was both the
primary means for communicating information about the world and the
database used to store information. At the start of the twenty-first century,
the database is a digital database stored in computers, and cartographic
visualizations have taken the place of the paper map. Visualizations may
still take the form of paper maps, but they also can appear as flashes on
computer screens, animations on local television news programs, and
even on screens within vehicles to help drivers navigate. Communication
of information is one of the primary purposes of making maps. Mapping
helps people to explore and analyze the world.
Making maps has become much easier and the capability available to
 16 / Mapmaking and New Technologies

many people. Desktop mapping software and Internet mapping sites can
make anyone with a computer an instant cartographer. The maps, or car-
tographic visualizations, might be quite basic but they are easy to make.
The procedures that trained cartographers use to make map products
vary in the choice of data, software, and hardware, but several basic de-
sign steps should always take place.
First, the purpose and audience for whom the map is being made must
be clear. Is this to be a general reference map or a thematic map? What
image should be created in the mind of the map reader? Who will use the
map? Will it be used to teach young children the shapes of the continents
and oceans, or to show scientists the results of advanced research? What
form will the cartographic visualization take? Will it be a paper map, a
graphic file posted to the Internet, or a video?
The answers to these questions will guide the cartographer in the de-
sign process. The design process can be broken down into stages. In the
first stage of map design, imagination rules. What map type, size and
shape, basic layout, and data will be used? The second stage is more prac-
tical and consists of making a specific plan. Based on the decisions made
in the first stage, the symbols, line weights, colors, and text for the map
are chosen. By the end of this stage, there should be a fairly clear plan for
the map. During the third stage, details and specifications are finalized to
account for the production method to be used. The actual software,
hardware, and methods to be used must all be taken into consideration.
What makes a good map? Working in the modern digital environ-
ment, the mapmaker can change and test various designs easily. The map
is a good one when it communicates the intended information, is pleas-
ing to look at, and encourages map readers to ask thoughtful questions.
New Technologies. Mapping technology has gone from manual to
magnetic, then to mechanical, optical, photochemical, and electronic

Sliding Rocks Get Digital Treatment

Dr. Paula Messina studied the trails of rocks that slide across the surface of a flat playa in
Death Valley, California. The sliding rocks have been studied in the past, but no one had
been able to say for certain how or when the rocks moved. It was unclear whether the rocks
were caught in ice floats during the winter, were blown by strong winds coming through the
nearby mountains, or were moved by some other method.
Messina gave the mystery a totally digital treatment. She mapped the locations of the
rocks and the rock trails using the global positioning system (GPS) and entered her rock
trail data into a geographic information system (GIS) for analysis. She was able to deter-
mine that ice was not the moving agent by studying the pattern of the trails. She also used
digital elevation models (DEM) and remotely sensed imagery to model the environment of
the playa. She reported her results in the form of maps using GIS’s cartographic output ca-
pabilities. While she did not solve completely the mystery of the sliding rocks, she was able
to disprove that winter ice caused the rocks to slide along together in rafts and that there
are wind gusts strong enough to move the biggest rock on the playa.
 Mapmaking and New Technologies / 17

Features in this infrared satellite image of San Francisco Bay make the photograph almost as
easy to read as a map. San Francisco (at the top) is linked to Marin County (right) by Golden
Gate Bridge. The picture was taken from the space shuttle Discovery in 1991. (PhotoDisc)

methods. All of these methods have overlapped one another and each
may still be used in some map-making processes. There have been recent
advances in magnetic, optical, and most of all, electronic technologies.
All components of mapping systems—data collection, hardware, soft-
ware, data storage, analysis, and graphical output tools—have been chang-
ing rapidly. Collecting location data, like mapping in general, has been
more accessible to more people. The development of the Global Posi-
tioning System (GPS), an array of satellites orbiting the earth, gives any-
one with a GPS receiver access to location information, day or night, any-
where in the world. GPS receivers are also found in planes, passenger
cars, and even in the backpacks of hikers.
Satellites also have helped people to collect data about the world from
space. Orbiting satellites collect images using visible light, infrared en-
ergy, and other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Active sensing sys-
tems send out radar signals and create images based on the return of the
signal. The entire world can be seen easily with weather satellites, and
other specialized satellite imagery can be used to count the trees in a
yard.
These great resources of data are all stored and maintained as binary,
computer-readable information. Developments in laser technology pro-
18 / Mapmaking and New Technologies

vide large amounts of storage space on media such as optical disks and
compact disks. Advances in magnetic technology also provide massive
storage capability in the form of tape storage, hard drives, and floppy
drives. This is especially important for saving the large databases used for
mapping.
Computer hardware and software continue to become more powerful
and less expensive. At home or school, personal computers in the year
2000 were more powerful than the mainframe computers at research uni-
versities had been ten years earlier. Software continues to be developed to
serve the specialized needs that mapping requires. Just as word process-
ing software can format a paper, check spelling and grammar, draw pic-
tures and shapes, import tables and graphics, and perform dozens of
other functions, specialized software executes maps. The most common
software used for mapping is called Geographic Information System soft-
ware. These systems provide tools for data input and for analysis and
modeling of real-world spatial data, and provide cartographic tools for
designing and producing maps.
Karen A. Mulcahy

For Further Study

Campbell, John. Map Use and Analysis. 3d ed. Boston: WCB, McGraw-Hill,
1998.
Clarke, Keith C. Getting Started with Geographic Information Systems. Upper
Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1997.
Messina, Paula, Phil Stoffer, and Keith C. Clarke. “From the XY Files:
Mapping Death Valley’s Wandering Rocks.” GPS World 8, no. 4 (April,
1997): 34-44.
Robinson, Arthur H., et al. Elements of Cartography. 6th ed. New York: John
Wiley & Sons, 1995.
Snyder, John P., and Philip M. Voxland. An Album of Map Projections. U.S.

Information on the World Wide Web

In addition to using map projections to make whole maps, one can also di-
vide up, or tessellate, the surface of the earth into various geometric
shapes. The Web site of the National Geographic Data Center at the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) displays a
Surface of the Earth Icosahedron Globe.
(www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/announcements/announce_icosahedron.html)
The Modified Collignon is also called Clarke’s Butterfly because of its
shape when flattened. The completed form is an octahedron composed of
eight triangular sides. A version of this projection can be downloaded for
free from geography.hunter.cuny.edu/mp/gif/Butterfly.gif.
 Themes and Standards in Geography Education / 19

Geological Survey Professional Paper 1395. Washington, D.C.: U.S.

Government Printing Office, 1989.
Van Burgh, Dana. How to Teach with Topographical Maps. Washington, D.C.:
International Science Teachers Association, 1994.

Themes and Standards in

Geography Education
M any people believe that the study of geography consists of little
more than knowing the locations of places. Indeed, in the past,
whole generations of students grew up memorizing states, capitals, rivers,
seas, mountains, and countries. Most students found that approach bor-
ing and irrelevant. During the 1990’s, however, geography education in
the United States underwent a remarkable transformation.
While it remains important to know the locations of places, geography
educators know that place name recognition is just the beginning of geo-
graphic understanding. Geography classes now place greater emphasis
on understanding the characteristics of and the connections between
places. Three things have led to the renewal of geography education: the
five themes of geography, the national geography standards, and the es-
tablishment of a network of geographic alliances.
The Five Themes of Geography. One of the first efforts to move geog-
raphy education beyond simple memorization was the National Geo-
graphic Society’s publication of five themes of geography in 1984: loca-
tion, place, human-environment interactions, movement, and regions.
Not intended to be a checklist or recipe for understanding the world,
these themes merely provided a framework for teachers—many of whom
did not have a background in the subject—to incorporate geography
throughout a social studies curriculum. The five themes were promoted
widely by the National Geographic Society and are still used by some
teachers to organize their classes.
Location is about knowing where things are. Both the absolute loca-
tion (where a place is on earth’s surface) and relative location (the con-
nections between places) are important. The concept of place involves
the physical and human characteristics that distinguish one place from
another. The theme of human/environment interaction recognizes that
people have relationships within defined places and are influenced by
their surroundings. For example, many different types of housing have
been created as adaptations to the world’s diverse climates. The theme of
movement involves the flow of people, goods, and ideas around the
world. Finally, regions are human creations to help organize and under-
stand the earth, and geography studies how they form and change.
 20 / Themes and Standards in Geography Education

Geography Standards
The geographically informed person knows and understands the following:
• how to use maps and other geographic representations, tools, and technologies to ac-
quire, process, and report information from a spatial perspective;
• how to use mental maps to organize information about people, places, and environ-
ments in a spatial context;
• how to analyze the spatial organization of people, places, and environments on Earth’s
surface;
• the physical and human characteristics of places;
• that people create regions to interpret Earth’s complexity;
• how culture and experience influence people’s perceptions of places and regions;
• the physical processes that shape the patterns of Earth’s surface;
• the characteristics and spatial distribution of ecosystems on Earth’s surface;
• the characteristics, distribution, and migration of human populations on Earth’s sur-
face;
• the characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth’s cultural mosaics;
• the patterns and networks of economic interdependence on Earth’s surface;
• the processes, patterns, and functions of human settlement;
• how the forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and
control of Earth’s surface;
• how human actions modify the physical environment;
• how physical systems affect human systems;
• the changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources;
• how to apply geography to interpret the past;
• how to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future.

The National Geography Standards. Geography was one of six subjects

identified by President George H. W. Bush and the governors of the U.S.
states when they formulated the National Education Goals in 1989. While
the goals themselves foundered amid the political debate that followed
their adoption, one tangible result of the initiative was the creation of Ge-
ography for Life: The National Geography Standards. More than one
thousand teachers, professors, business people, and government officials
 Themes and Standards in Geography Education / 21

were involved in the writing of Geography for Life. The project was sup-
ported by four geography organizations: the American Geographical So-
ciety, the Association of American Geographers, the National Council for
Geographic Education, and the National Geographic Society. The result-
ing book defines what every U.S. student should know and be able to ac-
complish in geography.
Each of the eighteen standards is designed to develop students’ geo-
graphic skills, including asking geographic questions; acquiring, organiz-
ing, and analyzing geographic information; and answering the questions.
Each standard features explanations, examples, and specific require-
ments for students in grades four, eight, and twelve.
Geography Alliances and the Future of Geography Education. To pub-
licize efforts in geography education, a network of geography alliances
was established between 1986 and 1993. Each U.S. state has a geography
alliance that links university professors, practicing teachers, and organi-
zations such as the National Geographic Society and the National Coun-
cil for Geographic Education. The alliances sponsor summer workshops,
teacher training sessions, field experiences, and other ways of sharing the
best in geographic teaching and learning.
In 2000 the future of geography education in the United States ap-
peared to be bright. The geography alliances created a network of moti-
vated teachers eager to share their excitement about the world. Enroll-
ment in geography classes had risen at all levels, an advanced placement
course in geography had been approved, and new learning materials
guided by the national standards were being developed for students at all
levels.
Eric J. Fournier

For Further Study

Bednarz, Robert S., and James F. Peterson, eds. A Decade of Reform in Geo-
graphic Education: Inventory and Prospect. Indiana, Pa.: National Council
for Geographic Education, 1994.
Geography Education Standards Project. Geography for Life: National Geog-
raphy Standards. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1994.

Information on the World Wide Web

National Council for Geographic Education maintains a Web site that of-
fers publications and activities for teachers and students. (www.ncge.org)
The National Geographic Society’s Education site features sections on
on-line adventures, maps and geography, lesson plans, and teacher sup-
port. (www.nationalgeographic.com/education/)
22 / Themes and Standards in Geography Education

Hill, A. David. “Geography and Education: North America.” Progress in

Human Geography 16, no. 2 (May, 1994): 232-242.
Maps, the Landscape, and Fundamental Themes in Geography. Washington,
D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1986.
NAEP Geography Consensus Project. Geography Framework for the 1994 As-
sessment of Educational Progress. Washington, D.C.: National Assessment
Governing Board, 1992.
Vining, James W. The National Council for Geographic Education: The First
Seventy-five Years and Beyond. Indiana, Pa.: The National Council for
Geographic Education, 1990.
Physical Geography
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 25

The Earth in Space

The Solar System
E arth’s solar system comprises the Sun and its planets, as well as all the
natural satellites, asteroids, meteors, and comets that are captive
around it. The solar system formed from an interstellar cloud of dust and
gas, or nebula, about 4.6 billion years ago. Gravity drew most of the dust
and gas together to make the Sun, a medium-size star with an estimated
life span of ten billion years. Its system is located in the Orion arm of the
Milky Way galaxy, about two-thirds of the way out from the center.
During the Sun’s first 100 million years, the remaining rock and ice
smashed together into increasingly larger chunks, or planetesimals, until
the planets, moons, asteroids, and comets reached their present state.
The resulting disk-shaped solar system can be divided into four regions—
terrestrial planets, giant planets, the Kuiper Belt, and the Oort Cloud—
each containing its own types of bodies.
Terrestrial Planets. In the first region are the terrestrial (Earth-like)
planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Mercury, the nearest to the Sun,

Artist’s rendition of the formation of the solar system. Scientists theorize that the system began
as a nebula, a spinning cloud of gas and dust that collapsed under its own weight, forming the
Sun at the center. The planets are believed to have formed from dustballs that were then melted
into rocky spheres by bolts of lightning. (Painting by Don Dixon, NASA)
 26 / The Solar System

Relative Sizes of the Planets

Sun
Pluto Mars Venus
Neptune Earth Mercury
Uranus Saturn Jupiter

Note: The size of the Sun and distances between planets are not to scale.

orbits at an average distance of 36 million miles (58 million km.) and Mars,
the farthest, at 142 million miles (228 million km.). Astronomers call the
distance from the Sun to Earth (93 million miles/150 million km.) an as-
tronomical unit (AU) and use it to measure planetary distances.
Terrestrial planets are rocky and warm and have cores of dense metal.
All four planets have volcanoes, which long ago spewed out gases that cre-

Composite picture
(not to scale) with
photographs of the
Solar System’s
planets, showing
their relative
positions, from
closest to most
distant from the Sun.
Earth (with its Moon
to the right) is the
third from the top.
(PhotoDisc)
 The Solar System / 27

Distances of Planets from the Sun in

Millions of Kilometers (Miles)

Neptune
4,494 (2,786)

Mars
228 (141)

Pluto
Mercury
5,899 (3,657)
58 (36)
Earth
Venus
150 (93)
108 (67)

Jupiter
779 (483)

Uranus Saturn
2,869 (1,779) 1,426 (884)

Source: Data are from Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. The Deep Space
Network. Pasadena, Calif.: JPL, 1988, p. 17.

ated atmospheres on all but Mercury, which is too close to the Sun to
hold onto an atmosphere. Mercury is heavily cratered, like the earth’s
moon. Venus has a permanent thick cloud cover and a surface tempera-
ture hot enough to melt lead. The air on Mars is very thin and usually
cold, made mostly of carbon dioxide. Its dry, rock-strewn surface has
many craters. It also has the largest known volcano in the solar system,
Olympus Mons, which is 16 miles (25 km.) high.
Average temperatures and air pressures on Earth allow liquid water to
28 / The Solar System

Among the Solar System’s other planets, Mars is the one that most resembles
Earth. (PhotoDisc)

collect on the surface, a unique feature among planets within the solar
system. Meanwhile, Earth’s atmosphere—mostly nitrogen and oxygen—
and a strong magnetic field protect the surface from harmful solar radia-
tion. These are the conditions that nurture life, according to scientists.
Mars also might have had such conditions long ago. Space probes have
photographed features there that look like river channels and lake beds,
and scientists think the Martian atmosphere was much thicker at one
time. Like Earth, Mars has polar ice caps, although those on Mars are
made up mostly of carbon dioxide ice (dry ice), while those on Earth are
made up of water ice.
A single natural satellite, the Moon, orbits Earth, probably created by a
collision with a huge planetesimal more than four billion years ago. Mars
has two tiny moons that may have drifted to it from the asteroid belt. A
broad ring from 2 to 3.3 AU from the Sun, this belt is composed of space
rocks as small as dust grains and as large as 600 miles (1,000 km.) in diam-
 The Solar System / 29

Other Earths
By the end of the twentieth century, astronomers had detected twenty-eight
planets circling stars in the Sun’s neighborhood of the galaxy. Planets, they
think, are common. Those found were all gas giants the size of Saturn or
larger. Earth-size planets are much too small to spot at such great distances.
Where there are gas giants, there also may be terrestrial dwarfs, as in
Earth’s solar system. Where there are terrestrial planets, there may be liq-
uid water and, possibly, life.

eter. Asteroids are made of mineral compounds, especially those contain-

ing iron, carbon, and silicon. Although the asteroid belt contains enough
material for a planet, one did not form there because Jupiter’s gravity
prevented the asteroids from crashing together. The belt separates the
first region of the solar system from the second.
The Giant Planets. The second region belongs to the gas giants Jupi-
ter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The closest, Jupiter, is 5.2 AU from the
Sun, and the most distant, Neptune, is 30.11 AU. Jupiter is the largest
planet in the solar system, its diameter 109 times larger than Earth’s. The
giant planets have solid cores, but most of their immense size is taken up
by hydrogen, helium, and methane gases that grow thicker and thicker
until they are like sludge near the core. On Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus,
the gases form wide bands over the surface. The bands sometimes have
immense circular storms like hurricanes, but hundreds of times larger.
The Great Red Spot of Jupiter is an example. It has winds of up to 250
miles (400 km.) per hour, and is at least a century old.

A gas giant, Jupiter is the largest

planet in the solar system. Although it
has a solid core, most of its immense
size is taken up by hydrogen, helium,
and methane gases that grow thicker
and thicker until they are like sludge
near the core. Jupiter’s famous Great
Red Spot is actually an immense,
centuries-old circular storm in a band
of surface gases, with winds of up to
250 miles (400 km) per hour.
(PhotoDisc)
30 / The Solar System

These planets have such strong gravity that each has attracted many
moons to orbit it. In fact, they are like miniature solar systems. Jupiter has
the most moons—eighteen—and Neptune has the fewest—eight—but
Neptune’s moon Triton is the largest of all. Most moons are balls of ice
and rock, but Jupiter’s Europa and Saturn’s Titan may have liquid water
below ice-bound surfaces. Several moons appear to have volcanoes, and a
wispy atmosphere covers Titan. Additionally, the giant planets have rings
of broken rock and ice around them, no more than 330 feet (100 meters)
thick. Saturn’s hundreds of rings are the brightest and most famous.
The Kuiper Belt. The third region of the solar system, the Kuiper Belt,
contains the ninth planet from the Sun, Pluto. Pluto has a single moon,
Charon. It does not orbit on the same plane, called the ecliptic, as the rest
of the planets do. Instead, its orbit diverges more than seventeen degrees
above and below the ecliptic. Its orbit’s oval shape brings Pluto within the
orbit of Neptune for a large percentage of its long year, which is equal to
248 Earth years. Two-thirds the size of the earth’s moon, Pluto has a thin,
frigid methane atmosphere. Charon is half Pluto’s size and orbits less
than 32,000 miles (20,000 km.) from Pluto’s surface. Because of the
closeness in the sizes of Pluto and Charon, some astronomers consider
them to be a double planet.
Many astronomers have not regarded Pluto as a true planet at all. They

The Hubble Telescope, which was placed in orbit in 1990, has made possible
revolutionary advances in telescopic space exploration. (PhotoDisc)
 The Solar System / 31

instead have thought of it as merely the largest of several dozen icy bodies
discovered in the Kuiper Belt. The Kuiper Belt holds asteroids and the
“short-period” comets that pass by Earth in orbits of twenty to two hun-
dred years. These bodies are the remains of planet formation and did not
collect into planets because distances between them are too great for
many collisions to occur. Most of them are loosely compacted bodies of
ice and mineral—“dirty snowballs,” in the words of a famous astronomer.
An estimated 200 million Kuiper Belt objects orbit within a band of space
from 30 to 50 AU from the Sun.
The Oort Cloud. In contrast to the other regions of the solar system,
the Oort Cloud is a spherical shell surrounding the entire solar system. It
is also a collection of comets—as many as two trillion, scientists calculate.
The inner edge of the cloud forms at a distance of about 20,000 AU from
the Sun and extends as far out as 100,000 AU. The Oort Cloud thus gives
the solar system a theoretical diameter of 200,000 AU—a distance so vast
that light needs more than three years to cross it. No astronomer has yet
detected an Oort Cloud object, because the cloud is so far away. Occa-
sionally, however, gravity from a nearby star dislodges an object in the
cloud, causing it to fall toward the Sun. When observers on Earth see
such an object sweep by in a long, cigar-shaped orbit, they call it a long-
period comet. The outer edge of the Oort Cloud marks the farthest reach
of the Sun’s gravitational power to bind bodies to it. In one respect, the
Oort Cloud is part of interstellar space.
In addition to light, the Sun sends out a constant stream of charged
particles—atoms and subatomic particles—called the solar wind. The so-
lar wind shields the solar system from the interstellar medium, but it only
does so out to about 100 AU, a boundary called the heliopause. That is a
small fraction of the distance to the Oort Cloud.
Roger Smith

Information on the World Wide Web

The Web site of the Lunar and Planetary Institute, a NASA-funded institute
in Houston, Texas, devoted to the study of the solar system, has current
data and photos, many from space probes. (www.lpi.usra.edu)
The Planetary Society, a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization
founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman, en-
courages the exploration of the solar system and the search for extraterres-
trial life. The society’s Web site features recent planetary news stories, an
interactive learning center, and links to other space exploration sites.
(planetary.org)
Views of the Solar System is an educational, interactive Web site spon-
sored by the Hawaiian Astronomical Society. (www.solarviews.com/ss.html).
 32 / Earth’s Moon

For Further Study

Beatty, J. Kelly, Carolyn Collins Petersen, and Andrew Chaikin, eds. The
New Solar System. 4th ed. Cambridge, Mass.: Sky, 1999.
Booth, Nicholas. Exploring the Solar System. New York: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1995.
Gribbin, John, and Simon Goodwin. Empire of the Sun: Planets and Moons of
the Solar System. New York: New York University Press, 1998.
Hartmann, William K. Moons and Planets. 4th ed. Belmont, Calif.: Wads-
worth, 1999.
Taylor, Stuart Ross. Destiny or Chance: Our Solar System and Its Place in the
Cosmos. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Earth’s Moon
T he fourth largest natural satellite in the solar system, Earth’s moon
has a diameter of 2,160 miles (3,476 km.)—less than one-quarter the
diameter of Earth. The Moon’s mass is less than one-eightieth that of
Earth.
The Moon orbits Earth in an elliptical path. When it is at perigee
(when it is closest to Earth), it is 221,473 miles (356,410 km.) distant.
When it is at apogee (farthest from Earth), it is 252,722 miles (406,697
km.) distant.

The Moon, viewed over the shoulder of Washington’s Mount Rainier in the Cascade Range.
(PhotoDisc)
 Earth’s Moon / 33

Cross Section of the Moon

Mare Crater Rim

Anorthosite

Impact
Fractures Basalt

Ultrabasic Rocks

The Moon completes one orbit around Earth every 27.3 Earth days.
Because it rotates at about the same rate that it orbits the earth, observers
on Earth only see one side of the Moon. The changing angles between
Earth, the Sun, and the Moon determine how much of the Moon’s illumi-
nated surface can be seen
from Earth and cause the
Moon’s changing phases.
Volcanism. Naked-eye ob-
The Phases of the Moon
servations of the Moon from
Earth reveal dark areas called
maria, the plural form of the
Latin word mare for sea. The
maria are the remains of an-
cient lava flows from inside
gigantic impact craters; the
last eruptions were more New Moon Waxing Quarter
than three billion years ago.
The lava consists of basalt,
similar in composition to
Earth’s oceanic crust and
many volcanoes. The maria
have names such as Mare
Serenitatis (15 to 40 de-
grees north latitude, longi-
tude 5 to 20 degrees east) Full Moon Waning Quarter
34 / Earth’s Moon

and Mare Tranquillitatis (0 to 20 degrees north latitude, longitude 15

to 45 degrees east). Some of the smaller dark areas on the Moon also
have names that are water-related: lacus (lake), sinus (bay), and palus
(marsh).
Impact Craters. Observing the Moon with an optical aid, such as a tele-
scope or a pair of binoculars, provides a closer view of impact craters. Im-
pact craters of various sizes cover 83 percent of the Moon’s surface. More
than 33,000 craters have been counted on the Moon.
One of the easiest craters to observe from the Earth is Tycho. Located
at 43.3 degrees south latitude, longitude 11.2 degrees west, it is about 50
miles (85 km.) wide. Surrounding Tycho are rays of dusty material,
known as ejecta, that appear to radiate from the crater. When an object
from space, such as a meteoroid, slams into the Moon’s surface, it is va-
porized upon impact. The dust and debris from the interior of the crater
fall back onto the lunar surface in a pattern of rays. Because the ejecta is
disrupted by subsequent impacts, only the youngest craters still have rays.

Earth’s Moon, showing impact craters. (PhotoDisc)

 Earthrise, as seen from the surface of the Moon. (PhotoDisc)

Eclipses
The Sun’s diameter is four hundred times larger than the Moon’s; however,
the Moon is four hundred times closer to Earth than the Sun, making the
two objects appear nearly the same size in the sky to observers on Earth. As
the Moon orbits Earth, it crosses the plane of the Earth-Sun orbit twice
each month. If one of the orbit-crossing points (called nodes) occurs dur-
ing a new or full moon phase, a solar or lunar eclipse can occur.
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon and the Sun appear to be in the
exact same place in the sky during a new moon phase. When that happens,
the Moon blocks the light of the Sun for up to seven minutes. Because solar
eclipses can be seen only from certain places on Earth, some people travel
around the world—sometimes to remote places—to view them.
A lunar eclipse occurs when Earth is positioned between the Sun and
the Moon and casts its shadow on the Moon. In contrast to solar eclipses, lu-
nar eclipses are visible from every place on Earth from which the Moon can
be seen.
 36 / Earth’s Moon

Apollo 17 astronaut collecting soil samples on the moon in December, 1972. (Corbis)

Sometimes, pieces of the ejecta fall back and create smaller craters called
secondary craters. The ejecta rays of Tycho extend to almost 1,865 miles
(3,000 km.) beyond the crater’s edge.
Other Lunar Features. Near the crater called Archimedes is the Apen-
nines mountain range, which has peaks nearly 20,000 feet (60,000 me-
ters) high—altitudes comparable to South America’s Andes.
The Moon also has valleys. Two of the most well known are the Alpine
Valley, which is about 115 miles (185 km.) long; and the Rheita Valley, lo-
cated about 155 miles (250 km.) from the Stevinus crater, which is 238
miles (383 km.) long, 15.5 miles (25 km.) wide, and 2,000 feet (609 me-
ters) deep.
Smaller than valleys and resembling cracks in the lunar surface are fea-
tures called rilles, which are thought to be places of ancient lava flow.
Many rilles can be seen near the Aristarchus crater. Rilles are often up to
3 miles (5 km.) wide and can stretch for more than 104 miles (167 km.).
A wrinkle in the lunar surface is called a ridge. Many ridges are found
around the boundaries of the maria. The Serpentine Ridge cuts through
Mare Serenitatis.
Exploration of the Moon. Robotic spacecraft were the first visitors to
explore the Moon. The Russian spacecraft Luna 1 made the first flyby of
the Moon in January, 1959. Eight months later, Luna 2 made the first im-
 The Sun and the Earth / 37

pact on the Moon’s surface. In October, 1959, Luna 3 was the first space-
craft to photograph the side of the Moon not visible from Earth. In 1994
the United States’ Clementine spacecraft was the first probe to map the
Moon’s composition and topography globally.
The first humans to land on the Moon were the U.S. astronauts Neil
Armstrong and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin. On July 20, 1969, they landed in the
Eagle lunar module, during the Apollo 11 mission. Armstrong’s famous
statement, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,”
was heard around the world by millions of people who watched the first
humans set foot on the lunar surface, at the Sea of Tranquillity. The last
twentieth century human mission to reach the lunar surface, Apollo 17,
landed there in December, 1972. Astronauts Gene Cernan and geologist
Jack Schmitt landed in the Taurus-Littrow Valley (20 degrees north lati-
tude, longitude 31 degrees east).
Noreen A. Grice

For Further Study

Alter, Dinsmore. Pictorial Guide to the Moon. New York: Thomas Crowell,
1967.
Cherrington, Ernest H. Exploring the Moon Through Binoculars. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1969.
Fraknoi, Andrew, David Morrison, and Sidney Wolff. Voyages Through the
Universe. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1997.
_______. Voyages to the Planets. 2d ed. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 2000.
Spudis, Paul D. The Once and Future Moon. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Institution Press, 1996.

Information on the World Wide Web

NASA’s Spacelink education Web site, featuring educational services, in-
structional materials, and news about NASA projects, is a good starting
place from which to find information about the Moon.
(spacelink.nasa.gov/.index.html)

The Sun and the Earth

O f all the astronomical phenomena that one can consider, few are
more important to the survival of life on Earth than the relationship
between Earth and the Sun. With the exception of small amounts of re-
sidual (endogenic) energy that have remained inside the earth from the
time of its formation some 4.5 billion years ago and which sustain some
specialized forms of life along some oceanic rift systems, almost all other
38 / The Sun and the Earth

forms of life, including human, depend on the exogenic light and energy
that the earth receives directly from the Sun.
The various ecosystems on Earth are highly dependent on the angles
at which the Sun’s rays strike Earth’s spherical surface. These angles,
which vary greatly with latitude and time of year, determine many com-
monly observed phenomena, such as the height of the Sun above the ho-
rizon, the changing lengths of day and night throughout the year, and
the rhythm of the seasons. Daily and seasonal changes have profound ef-
fects on the many climatic regions and life cycles found on earth.
The Sun. The center of Earth’s solar system, the Sun is but one ordi-
nary star among some 100 billion stars in an ordinary cluster of stars
called the Milky Way galaxy. There are at least ten billion galaxies in the
universe, each with billions of stars. Statistically, the chances are good
that many of these stars have their own solar systems. Late twentieth cen-
tury astronomical observations discovered the presence of what appear
to be planets, large ones similar in size to Jupiter, orbiting other stars.
Earth’s Sun is an average star in terms of its physical characteristics. It
is a large sphere of incandescent gas that has a diameter more than 100
times that of Earth, a mass more than 300,000 times that of Earth, and a
volume 1.3 million times that of Earth. The Sun’s surface gravity is thirty-
four times that of Earth.
The conversion of hydrogen into helium in the Sun’s interior, a pro-
cess known as nuclear fusion, is the source of the Sun’s energy. The
amount of mass that is lost in the fusion process is miniscule, as evidenced
by the fact that it will take perhaps 15 million years for the Sun to lose
one-millionth of its total mass. The Sun is expected to continue shining
through another several billion years.
Earth Revolution. The earth moves about the Sun in a slightly ellipti-
cal orbit called a revolution. It takes one year for the earth to make one
revolution at an average orbital velocity of about 18.5 miles per second
(29.6 kilometers per second). Earth-sun relationships are described by a
tropical year, which is defined as the period of time (365.25 average solar
days) from one vernal equinox to another. To balance the tropical year
with the calendar year, a whole day (February 29) is added every fourth
year (leap year). Other minor adjustments are necessary so as to balance
the system.
Perihelion and Aphelion. The average distance between Earth and the
Sun is approximately 93 million miles (150 million km.). At that distance,
sunlight, which travels at the speed of light (186,000 miles/300,000 kilo-
meters per second), takes about 8.3 minutes to reach the earth. Since the
earth’s orbit is an ellipse rather than a circle, the earth is closest to the
Sun on about January 3—a distance of 91.5 million miles (147 million
km.). This position in space is called perihelion, which comes from the
Greek peri, meaning “around” or “near,” and helios, meaning the Sun.
Earth is farthest from the Sun on about July 4 at aphelion (Greek ap,
 The Sun and the Earth / 39

Earth’s Orbit Around the Sun

Vernal (Spring) Equinox Winter Solstice

N ~
~March 21 ~
Sun ~December 21

Summer Solstice
~
~June 21

Autumnal (Fall) Equinox

(not to scale) ~
~September 21

“away from,” and helios), with a distance of 94.5 million miles (152 million
kilometers).
Axial Inclination. Astronomers call the imaginary surface on which
Earth orbits around the Sun the plane of the ecliptic. The earth’s axis is
inclined 66.5 degrees to the plane of the ecliptic (or 23.5 degrees from
the perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic), and it maintains this ori-
entation with respect to the stars. Thus, the North Pole points in the same
direction to Polaris, the North Star, as it revolves about the Sun. Conse-
quently, the Northern Hemisphere tilts away from the Sun during one-
half of Earth’s orbit and toward the Sun through the other half.
Winter solstice occurs on about December 22, when the tilt of the
Northern Hemisphere away from the Sun is at its maximum. The oppo-
site condition occurs during summer solstice on about June 21, when the
Northern Hemisphere reaches its maximum tilt toward the Sun. The
equinoxes occur midway between the solstices when neither the South-
ern nor the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun. The vernal
and autumnal equinoxes occur on about March 21 and September 23, re-
spectively.
The axial inclination of 66.6 degrees (or 23.5 degrees from the per-
pendicular) explains the significance of certain parallels on the earth.
The noon sun shines directly overhead on the earth at varying latitudes
on different days—between 23.5 degrees south latitude and 23.5 degrees
north latitude. The parallels at 23.5 degrees south latitude and 23.5 de-
grees north latitude are called the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer, re-
spectively.
During the winter and summer solstices, the area on the earth be-
tween the Arctic Circle (at 66.5 degrees north latitude) and the North
40 / The Sun and the Earth

Pole has twenty-four hours of darkness and daylight, respectively. The

same phenomena occurs for the area between the Antarctic Circle (at
66.5 degrees south latitude) and the South Pole, except that the seasons
are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere. At the poles, the Sun is below
the horizon for six months of the year.
For those living outside the Tropics (poleward of 23.5 degrees north
and south latitude), the noon sun will never shine directly overhead.
Hours of daylight will also vary greatly during the year. For example, day-
light will range from approximately nine hours during the winter solstice
to fifteen hours during the summer solstice for persons living near 40 de-
grees north latitude, such as in Philadelphia, Denver, Madrid, and Bei-
jing.
Solar Radiation. Given the size of the earth and its distance from the
Sun, it is estimated that this planet receives only about one two-billionth
part of the total energy released by the Sun. However, this seemingly
small amount is enough to drive the massive oceanic and atmospheric cir-
culation systems and to support all life processes on Earth.
Solar energy is not evenly distributed on Earth. The higher the angle
of the Sun in the sky, the greater the duration and intensity of the insola-
tion. To illustrate this, note how easy it is look at the Sun when it is very
low on the horizon—near dawn and sunset. At those times, the Sun’s rays
have to penetrate much more of the atmosphere, so more of the sunlight
is absorbed. When the Sun’s rays are coming in at a low angle, the same
solar energy is spread over a larger area, thereby leading to less insolation
per unit of area. Thus, the equatorial region receives much more solar
energy than the polar region. This radiation imbalance would make the
earth decidedly less habitable were it not for the atmospheric and oce-
anic circulation systems (such as the warm Gulf Stream) that move the ex-
cess heat from the Tropics to the middle and high latitudes.
Robert M. Hordon

For Further Study

Henbest, Nigel. The New Astronomy. 2d ed. New York: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1996.
Jones, A. W. Innovations in Astronomy. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO In-
formation Services, 1999.
McKnight, Tom L. Physical Geography. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.:
Prentice Hall, 1999.
North, Gerald. Astronomy Explained. New York: Springer, 1997.
Pasachoff, Jay M. Astronomy. 4th ed. Fort Worth, Tex.: Saunders, 1995.
Strahler, Alan, and Arthur Strahler. Physical Geography. New York: John
Wiley & Sons, 1997.
 The Seasons / 41

The Seasons
E arth’s 365-day year is divided into seasons. In most parts of the world,
there are four seasons—winter, spring, summer, and fall (also called
autumn). In some tropical regions—those close to the equator—there
are only two seasons. In areas close to the equator, temperatures change
little throughout the year; however, amounts of rainfall vary greatly, re-
sulting in distinct wet and dry seasons. The polar regions of the Arctic
and Antarctic also have little variation in temperature, remaining cold
throughout the year. Their seasons are light and dark, because the Sun
shines almost constantly in the summer and hardly at all in the winter.
The four seasons that occur throughout the northern and southern
temperate zones—between the Tropics and the polar regions—are clima-
tic seasons, based on temperature and weather changes. Winter is the cold-
est season; it is the time when days are short and few crops can be grown.
It is followed by spring, when the days lengthen and the earth warms; this
is the time when planting typically begins, and animals that hibernate
(from the French word for winter) during the winter leave their dens.
Summer is the hottest time of the year. In many areas, summer is
marked by drought, but other regions experience frequent thunder-
storms and humid air. In the fall, the days again become shorter and
cooler. This is the time when many crops are harvested. In ancient cul-
tures, the turning of the seasons was marked by festivals, acknowledging
the importance of seasonal changes to the community’s survival.
Each season is defined as lasting three months. Winter begins at the
winter solstice, which is the time when the Sun is farthest from the equa-
tor. In the Northern Hemisphere, this occurs on about December 21,
when the Sun is directly over the tropic of Capricorn. Summer begins at
the other solstice, on about June 21 in the Northern Hemisphere, when
the Sun is directly over the tropic of Cancer. The winter solstice is the
shortest day of the year; the summer solstice is the longest.
Spring and fall begin on the two equinoxes. At an equinox, the Sun is
directly above the earth’s equator and the lengths of day and night are ap-
proximately equal everywhere on Earth. In the Northern Hemisphere,
the vernal (spring) equinox occurs on about March 21, and the autum-
nal equinox occurs on about September 23.
Seasons and the Hemispheres. The relationship of the seasons to the
calendar is opposite in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. On the
day that a summer solstice occurs in the Northern Hemisphere, the win-
ter solstice occurs in the Southern Hemisphere. Thus, when it is summer
in the Southern Hemisphere, it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere,
and vice versa.
The Sun and the Seasons. The reason why summers and winters differ
in the temperate zones is often misunderstood. Many people think that
winter happens when the Sun is more distant from the earth than it is in
42 / The Seasons

summer. What causes Earth’s seasons is not the changing distances be-
tween the earth and the Sun, but the tilt of the earth’s axis. A line drawn
from the North Pole to the South Pole through the center of the earth
(the earth’s axis) is not perpendicular to the plane of the earth’s orbit
(the ecliptic). The earth’s axis and the perpendicular to the ecliptic make
an angle of 23.5 degrees. This tilts the Northern Hemisphere toward the
Sun when the earth is on one side of its orbit around the Sun, and tilts the
Southern Hemisphere toward the Sun when the earth moves around to
the Sun’s opposite side. When the Sun appears to be at its highest in the
sky, and its rays are most direct, summer occurs. When the Sun appears to
be at its lowest, and its rays are indirect, there is winter.
Local Phenomena. Local conditions can have important effects on sea-
sonal weather. At locations near oceans, sea breezes develop during the
day, and evenings are characterized by land breezes. Sea breezes bring
cooler ocean air in toward land. This results in temperatures at the shore
often being 5 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit (3 to 6 degrees Celsius) lower
than temperatures a few miles inland.
At night, when land temperatures are lower than ocean temperatures,
land breezes move air from the land toward the water. As a result, coastal
regions have less seasonal temperature variations than inland areas do.
For example, coastal areas seldom become cold enough to have snow in
the winter, even though inland areas at the same latitude do.
Hailstorms. Hail usually occurs during the summer, and is associated
with towering thunderstorm clouds, called cumulonimbus. Hail is occa-
sionally confused with sleet. Sleet is a wintertime event, and occurs when
warmer layers of air sit above freezing layers near the ground. Rain that
forms in the warmer, upper layer solidifies into tiny ice pellets in the
lower, subfreezing layer before hitting the ground.
Hail is an entirely different phenomenon. When cold air plows into
warmer, moist air—called a cold front boundary—powerful updrafts of
rising air can be created. The warm, moist air propelled upward by the
heavier cold air can reach velocities approaching 100 miles (160 kilome-
ters) per hour. Ice crystals form above the freezing level in the cumulo-
nimbus clouds and fall into lower, warmer parts of the clouds, where they
become coated with water. Picked up by an updraft, the coated ice crys-
tals are carried back to a higher, colder levels where their water coatings
freeze. This cycle can repeat many times, producing hailstones that have
multiple, concentric layers of ice.
Hailstorms can be very damaging. Hail can ruin crops, dent car bod-
ies, crack windshields, and injure people. The Midwest region of the
United States is particularly susceptible to hailstorms. There, warm,
moist air from the Gulf of Mexico often meets much colder, drier air orig-
inating in Canada. This combination produces the extreme atmospheric
instability necessary for that kind of weather.
Alvin S. Konigsberg
 Earth’s Internal Structure / 43

For Further Study

Barry, Roger Graham. Mountain Weather and Climate. London: Methuen
Publishers, 1981.
Gokhale, Narayan R. Hailstorms and Hailstone Growth. Albany: State Uni-
versity of New York Press, 1975.
Lockwood, John G. Causes of Climate. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1979.
Simpson, John E. Sea Breeze and Local Winds. Cambridge, England: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1994.
Stover, Dawn. “Heat Islands.” Popular Science 255, no. 6 (December, 1999).

Earth’s Interior
Earth’s Internal Structure
E arth is one of the nine known planets in the Sun’s solar system that
formed from a giant cloud of cosmic dust called a nebula. This event
is thought to have happened between 4.44 billion years ago (based on the
age of the oldest-known Moon rock) and 4.56 billion years ago (the age of
meteorite bombardment). After Earth’s formation, heat released by col-
liding particles combined with the heat energy released by the decay of
radioactive elements to cause some or all of Earth’s interior to melt. This
melting began the process of differentiation, which allowed the heavier
elements, mainly iron and nickel, to sink toward Earth’s center while the
lighter, rocky components moved upward, as a result of the contrast in
density of the earth’s forming elements.
This process of differentiation was probably the most important event
of Earth’s early history. It changed the planet from a homogeneous mix-
ture with neither continents nor oceans to a planet with three layers: a
dense core beginning at 1,800 miles (2,900 km.) deep and ending at
Earth’s center, 3,977 miles (6,400 km.) below the surface; a mantle begin-
ning between 3 and 44 miles (5-70 km.) deep and ending at Earth’s core;
and a crust going from Earth’s surface to about 3-6 miles (5-10 km.) deep
for oceanic crust and 22-44 miles (35-70 km.) deep for continental crust.
Layering of the Earth. Earth’s layers can be classified either by their
composition (the traditional method) or by their mechanical behavior
(strength). Compositional classification identifies several distinct con-
centric layers, each with its own properties. The outermost layer of Earth
is the crust or skin. This is divided into continental and oceanic crusts.
The continental crust varies in thickness between 22 and 25 miles (35
and 40 km.) under flat continental regions and up to 44 miles (70 km.)
under high mountains. The oceanic crust is made up of igneous rocks
rich in iron and magnesium, such as basalt and peridotite. The upper
44 / Earth’s Internal Structure

Earth’s Interior

Lithosphere 100 km
(including crust 5-40 km)
Asthenosphere
700 km

Inner core
1216 km

Outer
Mantle
core
2885 km
2270 km

continental crust is composed mainly of alumino-silicates. The oldest

continental crustal rock exceeds 3.8 billion years, while oceanic crustal
rocks are not older than 180 million years. The oceanic crust is heavier
than the continental crust.
Earth’s next layer is the mantle, which is made up primarily of ferro-
magnesium silicates. It is about 1,800 miles (2,900 km.) thick and is sepa-
rated into the upper and lower mantle. Most of Earth’s internal heat is
contained within the mantle. Large convective cells in the mantle circu-
late heat and may drive plate-tectonic processes.
The last layer is the core, which is separated into the liquid outer core
and the solid inner core. The outer core is 1,429 miles (2,300 km.) thick,
twice as thick as the inner core. The outer core is mainly composed of a
nickel-iron alloy, while the inner core is almost entirely composed of iron.
Earth’s magnetic field is believed to be controlled by the liquid outer core.
In the mechanical layering classification of the earth’s interior, the lay-
ers are separated based on mechanical properties or strength (resistance
to flowing or deformation) in addition to composition. The uppermost
layer is the lithosphere (sphere of rock), which comprises the crust and a
solid portion of the upper mantle. The lithosphere is divided into many
 Earth’s Internal Structure / 45

plates that move in relation to each other due to tectonic forces. The
solid lithosphere floats atop a semiliquid layer known as the astheno-
sphere (weak sphere), which enables the lithosphere to move around.
Exploring Earth’s Interior. Volcanic activity provides natural samples
of the outer 124 miles (200 km.) of Earth’s interior. Meteorites—samples
of the solar system that have collided with Earth—also provide clues
about Earth’s composition and early history. The most ambitious human
effort to penetrate Earth’s interior was made by the former Soviet Union,
which drilled a super-deep research well, named the Kola Well, near
Murmansk, Russia. This was an attempt to penetrate the crust and reach
the upper mantle. The reported depth of the Kola Well is a little more
than 7.5 miles (12 km.). Although impressive, the drilled depth repre-
sents less than 0.2 percent of the distance from the earth’s surface to its
center.
A great deal of knowledge about Earth’s composition and structure
has been obtained through computer modeling, high-pressure labora-
tory experiments, and meteorites, but most of what is known about
Earth’s interior has been acquired by studying seismic waves generated by
earthquakes and nuclear explosions. As seismic waves are transmitted, re-
flected, and refracted through the earth, they carry information to the
surface about the materials through which they have traveled. Seismic
waves are recorded at receiver stations (seismographic stations) and pro-
cessed to provide a picturelike image of Earth’s interior.
Changes in P- and S-wave velocities within Earth reveal the sequence of
layers that make up Earth’s interior. P-wave velocity depends on the elas-
ticity, rigidity, and density of the material. By contrast, S-wave velocity de-
pends only on the rigidity and density of the material. There are sharp
variations in velocity at different depths, which correspond to boundaries
between the different layers of Earth. P-wave velocity within crustal rocks
ranges from 3.6-4.2 miles (6-7 km.) per second.
The boundary between the crust and the mantle is called the Moho-
rovi#i$ discontinuity or Moho. At Moho, P-wave velocity increases from
4.2-4.8 miles (7-8 km.) per second. Beyond the crust-mantle boundary,
P-wave velocity increases gradually up to about 8.1 miles (13.5 km.) per
second at the core-mantle boundary. At this depth, S-waves are not trans-
mitted and P-wave velocity, decreases from 8.1 to 4.8 miles (13.5 to 8 km.)
per second, which strongly supports the concept that the outer core is liq-
uid, since S-waves cannot travel through liquids. As P-waves enter the in-
ner core, their velocity again increases, to about 6.8 miles (11.3 km.) per
second.
Earth’s interior seems to be characterized by a gradual increase with
depth in temperature, pressure, and density. Extensive experimental and
modeling work indicates that the temperature at 62 miles (100 km.) is be-
tween 2,192 to 2,552 degrees Fahrenheit (1,200 and 1,400 degrees Cel-
sius). The temperature at the core-mantle boundary—about 1,802 miles
 46 / Earth’s Internal Structure

(2,900 km.) deep—is calculated to be about 8,130 degrees Fahrenheit

(4,500 degrees Celsius). At Earth’s center the temperature may exceed
12,092 degrees Fahrenheit (6,700 degrees Celsius). Although at Earth’s
surface, heat energy is slowly but continuously lost as a result of out-
gassing, such as from volcanic eruptions, its interior remains hot.

Properties of Seismic Waves

Seismologists use two types of body waves—primary (P-waves) and secondary (S-waves)
waves—to estimate seismic velocities of the different layers within the earth. In most rock
types P-waves travel between 1.7 and 1.8 times more quickly than S-waves; therefore, P-waves
always arrive first at seismographic stations. P-waves travel by a series of compressions and
expansions of the material through which they travel. P-waves can travel through solids, liq-
uids, or gases. When P-waves travel in air, they are called sound waves.
The slower S-waves, also called shear waves, move like a wave in a rope. This movement
makes the S-wave more destructive to structures like buildings and highway overpasses dur-
ing earthquakes. Because S-waves can travel only through solids and cannot travel through
Earth’s outer core, seismologists concluded that Earth’s outer core must be liquid or at
least must have the properties of a fluid.

Movement of Seismic Waves

P Waves

S Waves
 Plate Tectonics / 47

Seismic Tomography and Future Exploration. Seismic tomography is

one of the newest tools that earth scientists are using to develop three-
dimensional velocity images of Earth’s interior. In seismic tomography,
several crossing seismic waves from different sources (earthquakes and nu-
clear explosions) are analyzed in much the same way that computerized
axial tomography (CAT) scanners are used in medicine to obtain images
of human organs. Seismic tomography is providing two- and three-
dimensional images from the crust to the core-mantle boundary. Fast P-
wave velocities have been correlated to cool material—for example, a
piece of sinking lithosphere (cool rigid layer) such as in regions under-
neath the Andes Mountains (subduction zone); slow P-wave velocities
have been correlated with hot materials—for example, rising mantle
plumes of hot spots such as the one responsible for volcanic activity in the
Hawaiian Islands.
Rubén A. Mazariegos-Alfaro

For Further Study

Bolt, Bruce A. Earthquakes. Rev. ed. New York: W. H. Freeman, 1993.
Brown, G. C. The Inaccessible Earth. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1981.
Brumbaugh, David S. Earthquakes: Science and Society. Upper Saddle River,
N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1999.
Fowler, C. M. R. The Solid Earth. Cambridge, England: Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 1990.
Levy, Matthys, and Mario Salvadori. Why the Earth Quakes: The Story of
Earthquakes and Volcanoes. New York: W. W. Norton, 1995.
McKenzie, D. P. “The Earth’s Mantle.” Scientific American 249, no. 3
(1983): 66-78.
Officer, C., and J. Page. Tales of the Earth. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1993.
Siever, R. “The Dynamic Earth.” Scientific American 249, no. 3 (1983): 46-
55.
Strahler, Alan, and Arthur Strahler. Physical Geography. 2d ed. New York:
Wiley, 2001.
Yeats, Robert S., Kerry Sieh, and Clarence R. Allen. The Geology of Earth-
quakes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Plate Tectonics
T he theory of plate tectonics provides an explanation for the present-
day structure of the large landforms that constitute the outer part of
the earth. The theory accounts for the global distribution of continents,
mountains, hills, valleys, plains, earthquake activity, and volcanism, as
well as various associations of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary
rocks, the formation and location of mineral resources, and the geology
Major Tectonic Plates and Mid-Ocean Ridges

Eurasian
Eurasian Plate
North Plate
American
Plate

African Plate
Pacific Plate

▲
▲
South

▲
▲
American

▲
Plate

▲
Indo-Australian

▲
Plate

▲
▲
▲
Antarctic Plate

Types of Boundaries: Divergent Convergent Transform

 Plate Tectonics / 49

of ocean basins. Everything about the earth is related either directly or in-
directly to plate tectonics.
Basic Theory. Plate-tectonic theory is based on an Earth model in which
a rigid, outer shell—the lithosphere—lies above a hotter, weaker, partially
molten part of the mantle called the asthenosphere. The lithosphere var-
ies in thickness between 6 and 90 miles (10 and 150 km.), and comprises
the crust and the underlying, upper mantle. The asthenosphere extends
from the base of the lithosphere to a depth of about 420 miles (700 km.).
The brittle lithosphere is broken into a pattern of internally rigid plates
that move horizontally relative to each other across the earth’s surface.
More than a dozen plates have been distinguished, some extending
more than 2,500 miles (4,000 km.) across. Exhibiting independent mo-

The Supercontinents
The theory of plate tectonics
explains the present-day distri-
bution of major landforms, seis-
Pangaea
mic and volcanic activity, and N
physiographic features of ocean
basins. Many scientists also use
the theory to explain the his-
PAN

tory of Earth’s surface. Evidence

indicates that the modern con- Tethys Sea
G
A

tinents once formed a single E

A
landmass called Pangaea, mean-
ing “all lands.” According to the
theory of plate tectonics, ap- S
proximately 200 million years

ago Pangaea began to split into

Laurasia and Gondwanaland two supercontinents, Laurasia
and Gondwanaland. Eventually,
as a result of tectonic forces,
Laurasia split into North Amer-
LAURASIA
ica, Europe, and most of Asia.
Gondwanaland broke up into
India, South America, Africa,
Australia, and Antarctica.

GONDWANALAND
50 / Plate Tectonics

tion, the plates grind and scrape against each other, similar to chunks of
ice in water, or like giant rafts cruising slowly on the asthenosphere. Most
of the earth’s dynamic activity, including earthquakes and volcanism, oc-
curs along plate boundaries. The global distribution of these tectonic
phenomena delineates the boundaries of the plates.
Geological observations, geophysical data, and theoretical models
support the existence of three types of plate boundaries. Divergent
boundaries occur where adjacent plates move away from each other. Con-
vergent boundaries occur where adjacent plates move toward each other.
Transform boundaries occur where plates slip past one another in direc-
tions parallel to their common boundaries.
The continents were formed by the movement at plate boundaries,
and continental landforms were generated by volcanic eruptions and
continental plates colliding with each other. The velocity of plate move-
ment varies from plate to plate and even within portions of the same
plate, ranging from 0.8 to 8 inches (2 to 20 centimeters) per year. The
rates are calculated from the distance to the midoceanic ridge crests, along
with the age of the seafloor as determined by radioactive dating methods.
Convection currents that are driven by heat from radioactive decay in
the mantle are important mechanisms involved in moving the huge
plates. Convection currents in the earth’s mantle carry magma (molten
rock) up from the asthenosphere. Some of this magma escapes to form
new lithosphere, but the rest spreads out sideways beneath the litho-
sphere, slowly cooling in the process. Assisted by gravity, the magma flows
outward, dragging the overlying lithosphere with it, thus continuing to
open the ridges. When the flowing hot rock cools, it becomes dense
enough to sink back into the mantle at convergent boundaries.
A second plate-driving mechanism is the pull of dense, cold, down-
flowing lithosphere in a subduction zone on the rest of the trailing plate,
further opening up the spreading centers so magma can move upward.
Divergent Plate Boundaries. During the 1950’s and 1960’s, oceano-
graphic studies revealed that Earth’s seafloors were marked by a nearly
continuous system of submarine ridges, more than 40,000 miles (64,000
km.) in length. Detailed investigations revealed that the midoceanic
ridge system has a central rift valley that runs along its length and that the
ridge system is associated with volcanic and earthquake activity. The
earthquakes are frequent, shallow, and mild.
Magnetic studies of the seafloor indicate that the oceanic lithosphere
has been segmented into a series of long magnetic strips that run parallel
to the axis of the midoceanic ridges. On either side of the ridge, the
ocean floor consists of alternating bands of rock, magnetized either par-
allel to or exactly opposite of the present-day direction of the earth’s mag-
netic field.
Midoceanic ridges, or divergent plate boundaries, are tensional fea-
tures representing zones of weakness within the earth’s crust, where new
 Plate Boundaries

Plate Plate

Asthenosphere

Divergent Boundary

Plate Plate

Asthenosphere

Convergent Boundary

Plate

Plate Asthenosphere

Transform Fault Boundary

 52 / Plate Tectonics

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Mid-Atlantic
Ridge
North American Rift European
Continent Continent

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a major site of seafloor spreading, where the North American and
European plates pull apart.

seafloor is created by the welling up of mantle material from the astheno-

sphere into cracks along the ridges. As rifting proceeds, magma ascends
to fill in the fissures, creating new oceanic crust. Iron minerals within the
magma become aligned to the existing Earth polarity as the rock cools
and crystallizes. The oceanic floor slowly moves away from the oceanic
ridge toward deep ocean trenches, where it descends into the mantle to
be melted and recycled to the earth’s surface to generate new rocks and
landforms.
As the seafloor spreads outward from the rift center, about half of the
material is carried to either side of the rift, which is later filled by another
influx of molten basalt. When the polarity of the earth changes, the sub-
sequent molten basalt is magnetized in the opposite polarity. The contin-
uation of this process over geologic time leads to the young geologic age
of the seafloor and the magnetic symmetry around the midoceanic ridges.
Not all spreading centers are underneath the oceans. An example of
continental rifting in its embryonic stage can be observed in the Red Sea,
where the Arabian plate has separated from the African plate, creating a
new oceanic ridge. Another modern-day example of continental diver-
gent activity is East Africa’s Great Rift Valley system. If this rifting contin-
ues, it will eventually fragment Africa, producing an ocean that will sepa-
rate the resulting pieces. Through divergence, large plates are made into
smaller ones.
Convergent Plate Boundaries. Because Earth’s volume is not chang-
ing, the increase in lithosphere created along divergent boundaries must
be compensated for by the destruction of lithosphere elsewhere. Other-
 Plate Tectonics / 53

wise, the radius of Earth would change. The compensation occurs at con-
vergent plate boundaries, where plates are moving together. Three sce-
narios are possible along convergent boundaries, depending on whether
the crust involved is oceanic or continental.
If both converging plates are made of oceanic crust, one will inevitably
be older, cooler, and denser than the other. The denser plate eventually
subducts beneath the less-dense plate and descends into the astheno-
sphere. The boundary along the two interacting plates, called a subduc-
tion zone, forms a trench. Some trenches are more than 620 miles (1,000
km.) long, 62 miles (100 km.) wide, and 6.8 miles (11 km.) deep. Heated
by the hot asthenosphere beneath, the subducted plate becomes hot
enough to melt.
Because of buoyancy, some of the melted material rises through fis-
sures and cracks to generate volcanoes along the overlying plate. Over
time, other parts of the melted material eventually migrate to a divergent
boundary and rise again in cyclic fashion to generate new seafloor. The
volcanoes generated along the overriding plate often form a string of is-
lands called island arcs. Japan, the Philippines, the Aleutians, and the
Mariannas are good examples of island arcs resulting from subduction of
two plates consisting of oceanic lithosphere. Intense earthquakes often
occur along subduction zones.
If the leading edge of one of the two convergent plates is oceanic crust
and the other is continental crust, the oceanic plate is always the one
subducted, because it is always denser. A classic example of this case is the
western boundary of South America. On the oceanic side of the bound-
ary, a trench was formed where the oceanic plate plunged underneath
the continental plate. On the continental side, a fold mountain belt—the
Andes—was formed as the oceanic lithosphere pushed against the conti-
nental lithosphere.
When the oceanic plate descends into the mantle, some of the mate-
rial melts and works its way up through the mountain belt to produce
rather violent volcanoes. The boundary between the plates is a region of
earthquake activity. The earthquakes range from shallow to relatively
deep, and some are quite severe.
The last type of convergent plate boundary involves the collision of
two continental masses of lithosphere, which can result in folding, fault-
ing, metamorphism, and volcanic activity. When the plates collide, nei-
ther is dense enough to be forced into the asthenosphere. The collision
compresses and thickens the continental edges, twisting and deforming
the rocks and uplifting the land to form unusually high fold mountain
belts. The prototype example is the collision of India with Asia, resulting
in the formation of the Himalayas. In this case, the earthquakes are typi-
cally shallow, but frequent and severe.
Transform Plate Boundaries. The actual structure of a seafloor
spreading ridge is more complex than a single, straight crack. Instead,
 54 / Plate Tectonics

ridges comprise many short segments slightly offset from one another.
The offsets are a special kind of fault, or break in the lithosphere, known
as a transform fault, and their function is to connect segments of a
spreading ridge. The opposite sides of a transform fault belong to two dif-
ferent plates that are grinding against each other in opposite directions.
Transform faults form the boundaries that allow the plates to move rel-
ative to each another. The classic case of a transform boundary is the San
Andreas Fault. It slices off a small piece of western California, which rides
on the Pacific plate, from the rest of the state, which resides on the North
American plate. As the two plates scrape past each other, stress builds up,
eventually being released in earthquakes that can be quite violent.
Mantle Plumes and Hot Spots. Most plate tectonic features are near
plate boundaries, but the Hawaiian Islands are not. In the late twentieth
century, the only active volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands were on the is-
land of Hawaii, at the southeast end of the chain. Radiometric dating and
examination of states of erosion show that, when proceeding along the
chain to the northwest, successive islands are progressively older.
Evidently, the same heat source produced all the volcanoes in the Ha-
waiian chain. Known as a mantle plume, it has remained stationary while
the Pacific plate rides over it, producing a volcanic trail from which abso-
lute motion of the plate can be determined. Since mantle plumes do not
move with the plates, the plumes must originate beneath the lithosphere,

Yellowstone is one of at least one hundred of Earth’s hot spots where the heat source, known as
a mantle plume, has remained stationary while the tectonic plate rode over it, producing volca-
noes, geysers, and hot springs. (Digital Stock)
 Volcanoes / 55

probably far below it. Resulting volcanoes are called hot spots to distin-
guish them from subduction-zone volcanoes. Iceland is a good example
of a hot spot, as is Yellowstone National Park in the United States. At least
one hundred hot spots are distributed around Earth.
Alvin K. Benson

For Further Study

Brown, Geoff, and Alan Mussett. The Inaccessible Earth. 2d ed. London, En-
gland: Chapman and Hall, 1993.
Cox, Allan, and Robert Brian Hart. Plate Tectonics: How It Works. London,
England: Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1986.
Fowler, C. M. R. The Solid Earth: An Introduction to Global Geophysics. Cam-
bridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Hamblin, W. Kenneth, and Eric H. Christiansen. Earth’s Dynamic Systems.
8th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1998.
Keller, Edward A., and Nicholas Pinter. Active Tectonics. Upper Saddle
River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1996.
Lillie, Robert J. Whole Earth Geophysics. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice
Hall, 1999.
Montgomery, Carla W. Fundamentals of Geology. 3d ed. Dubuque, Iowa:
William C. Brown, 1997.
Sager, Robert J., David M. Helgren, and Saul Israel. World Geography Today.
7th ed. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1989.
Strahler, Arthur N. Plate Tectonics. Cambridge, Mass.: GeoBooks, 1998.
Strahler, Alan, and Arthur Strahler. Physical Geography. 2d ed. New York:
Wiley, 2001.

Volcanoes
V olcanoes form mountains both on land and in the sea and either do
it on a grand scale or merely create minute bumps on the seafloor.
Volcanoes do not occur in a random pattern, but are found in distinct
zones that are related to plate dynamics. Each of the three types of volca-
nism on Earth is characterized by specific types of eruptions and magma
compositions. Molten magma is the rock material below the earth’s crust
that forms igneous rock as it cools.
Types of Volcanoes. Abundant mid-ocean ridge basalt (MORB) volca-
nism occurs at divergent plate margins, where new ocean floor is created.
The mid-Atlantic ridge is a submarine chain of such volcanoes, which
emerges above the sea surface in Iceland.
The second type is the hot-spot or plume volcano, which is associated
with mantle upwellings from great depth. When the plumes appear be-
low an oceanic plate, large basaltic volcanoes (shield volcanoes) form,
such as those on Hawaii and the Galapagos Islands. When the plume oc-
 56 / Volcanoes

Some Volcanic Hot Spots Around the World

curs below a continent, wholesale melting of the crust may take place,
creating a large volcanic area such as Yellowstone National Park in the
United States.
Arc volcanoes are found near subduction zones, in which oceanic
plates are subducted below other oceanic plates (for example, the Aleu-
tian Arc) or beneath continents, such as the Andes volcanoes. Some of
the world’s classical examples of cone-shaped stratovolcanoes, such as
Mount Fuji in Japan, Mayon in the Philippines, and several Cascade
Range volcanoes in Oregon and Washington, are arc volcanoes. Some of
the highest volcanoes on Earth are of the arc type, notably Nevado Ojos
del Salado (22,600 feet/6,885 meters) in the Chilean Andes.
A cross-section of the earth shows a subduction zone with associated
arc volcanism and illustrates the trench and the volcanic arc. MORB vol-
canoes are shown where two plates are drifting apart, and plume volca-
noes form tracks where the plume “burned through” the overriding
plate.
Volcanic Composition. Volcanoes in the midocean ridges and plume
environments draw most of their magmas from the earth’s mantle and
produce mainly dark, magnesium-rich basaltic magmas. When basaltic
magmas accumulate in the continental crust (for example, at Yellow-
stone), the large-scale crustal melting leads to rhyolitic volcanism, the vol-
canic equivalent of granites. Arc magmas cover a wider range of mag-
 Volcanoes / 57

matic compositions, ranging from arc basalt to light-colored, silica-rich

rhyolites; the latter are commonly erupted in the form of the silica-rich
volcanic rock known as pumice, or the black volcanic glass known as ob-
sidian. Andesites, named after the Andes Mountains, are a common vol-
canic rock in arc volcanoes, intermediate in composition between basalt
and rhyolite.
Magmas form from several processes that lead to partial melting of a
solid rock. The simplest is adding heat—for example, plumes carrying
heat from deep levels in the mantle to shallower levels, where melting oc-
curs. Decompressional (lowering the pressure) melting of the mantle oc-
curs where the ocean floor is thinned or carried away by seafloor spread-
ing in midocean ridge environments.
Genesis of Magma. Adding a “flux” to a solid mineral mixture may
lower the substance’s melting point. The most common theory about arc
magma genesis invokes the addition of a low-melting-point substance to
the arc mantle, a layer of mantle material at about 60 to 90 miles (100 to
150 km.) below the volcanic arc. The relatively dry arc mantle would usu-
ally start to melt at about 2,100 to 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit (1,200 to
1,300 degrees Celsius). However, the addition of water and other gases

The fact that Earth is not the only body in Earth’s solar system with active volca-
noes is proven in this photograph of an volcanic eruption on Jupiter’s moon Io.
(PhotoDisc)
 58 / Volcanoes

can lower the melting point of the mixture. The water and its dissolved
chemicals are supposedly derived from the subducted slab, the former
ocean floor that is pushed back into the earth.
The sequence of events is as follows: New basaltic ocean floor forms at
midocean ridge volcanoes. The new hot magma interacts with seawater,
leading to vents at the seafloor with their mineralized deposits. The
seafloor becomes hydrated, and sulfur and chlorine from seawater are
locked up in newly formed minerals. During subduction, this altered
seafloor with slivers of sediment, including limestone, is gradually
warmed up and starts to decompose, adding a flux to the surrounding
mantle rocks. The mantle rocks then start to melt, and these magmas
with minor inherited oceanic materials start to rise and pond at the bot-
tom of the crust. There the magmas sit and wait for an opportunity to
erupt, while cooling and crystallizing. Thus, arc magmas bear a chemical
signature of subducted oceanic components while their chemical com-
positions range from basalt to rhyolite.
Volcanic Eruptions. Volcanic eruptions occur as a result of the rise of
magma into the volcano (from depths as great as several miles) and then
into the throat of the volcano. In basaltic volcanoes, the magmas have rel-
atively little gas, and the magma simply overflows and forms large lava
flows, sometimes associated with fire fountains. Arc volcanoes can erupt
regularly with small explosions or catastrophically after long periods of

Destruction caused by the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. The eruption knocked down
thousands of acres of trees and spewed more than three cubic miles of material into the atmo-
sphere. (Corbis)
 Volcanoes / 59

Forest flattened by a volcanic eruption. (PhotoDisc)

dormancy. Mount Stromboli, a volcano in Italy, erupts every twenty min-

utes, with an explosion that creates a column 650 to 980 feet (200 to 300
meters) high. Mount St. Helens in the U.S. state of Washington had a cat-
astrophic eruption in 1980 after about two hundred years of dormancy. It
emitted an ash plume that reached more than 12 miles (20 km.) into the
atmosphere.
After long magma storage periods in the crust, crystallization and
melting of crustal material can lead to silica-rich magmas. These are vis-
cous and can have high dissolved water contents—up to 4 to 6 percent by
weight. When these magmas break out, the eruption can be violent and
form an eruption column 12 to 35 miles (20 to 55 km.) high. Many cubic
 60 / Volcanoes

Volcanic Eruption and Caldera Formation

Beginning of eruption
at summit

Lava flow and deposition;

eruption at lower elevations

Subsidence or collapse
of summit

Cooling; cessation of
activity

miles of magma can be ejected. This leads to so-called plinian ash falls,
with showers of pumice and ash over thousands of square miles, with the
ash commonly carried around the globe by the high-level winds known as
jet streams.
If the volume of ejected magma is large, the volcano empties itself and
collapses into the hole, leading to a caldera—a volcanic collapse struc-
ture. The caldera at Crater Lake in Oregon is related to a large pumice
eruption about 76,000 years ago. Basaltic volcanoes can also form col-
lapse calderas when large volumes of lava have been extruded in a short
time. Examples of famous basaltic calderas can be found in Hawaii’s
Mount Kilauea and the Galapagos Islands.
 Volcanoes / 61

The caldera of Oregon’s Crater Lake owes its origins to a large pumice eruption that occurred
about 76,000 years ago, when the large volume of ejected matter caused the volcano to empty
itself and collapse into the hole. (PhotoDisc)

Volcanic Plumes. The dynamics of volcanic plumes have been studied

from eruption photographs, experiments, and theoretical work. The rap-
idly expanding hot gases force the viscous magma out of the throat of the
volcano, where it freezes into pumice. The kinetic energy of the ejected
mass carries it 2 to 2.5 miles (3-4 km.) above the volcano. During this
phase, air is entrained in the column, diluting the concentration of ash
and pumice particles. The hot particles heat the entrained air, the mix-
ture of hot air and solids becomes less dense than the surrounding atmo-
sphere, and a buoyant column rises high into the sky.
The height of an eruption column is not directly proportional to the
force of the eruption but is strongly dependent on the rate of heat release
of the volcano. If little of the entrained air is heated up, the column will
collapse back to the ground and an ash flow forms, which may deposit ash
around the volcano. These types of eruptions are among the most devas-
tating, creating glowing ash clouds traveling at speeds up to 60 miles (100
km.) per hour, burning everything in their path. The 1902 eruption of
Mount Pelée on Martinique in the Caribbean was such an eruption and
killed nearly thirty thousand people in a few minutes.
Many volcanoes that are high in elevation are glaciated, and their
eruptions lead to large-scale ice melting and possible mixing of water,
62 / Volcanoes

magma, and volcanic debris. Massive hot mudflows can race down from
the volcano, following river valleys and filling up low areas. The 1980
Mount St. Helens eruption created many mudflows, some of which
reached the Pacific Ocean, ninety miles to the west. A catastrophic mud-
flow event occurred in 1984 at Nevado del Ruiz, a volcano in Colombia,
where twenty thousand people were buried in mud and perished. When
magma intrudes under the ice, meltwater can accumulate and then es-
cape catastrophically, but such meltwater bursts are rare outside Iceland.
Minerals and Gases in Eruptions. The gas-rich character of arc mag-
mas leads to fluid escape at various levels in the volcanoes, and these flu-
ids tend to be rich in chlorine. They can transport metals such as copper,
lead, zinc, and gold at high concentrations, and lead to the enrichment
of these metals in the fractured volcanic rocks. Many of the world’s larg-
est copper ore deposits are associated with older arc volcanism, where
erosion has removed most of the volcanic structure and laid the volcano
innards bare. Many active volcanoes have modern hydrothermal (hot-
water) systems, leading to acid hot springs and crater lakes and the poten-

Eruption of Alaska’s
Crater Peak volcano
in 1992.
 Geologic Time Scale / 63

tial to harness geothermal energy. Some areas in Japan, New Zealand,

and Central America have an abundance of geothermal energy re-
sources, which are gradually being developed.
Apart from the dangers of eruptions, continuous emissions of large
amounts of sulfur dioxide, hydrochloric acid, and hydrofluoric acid pres-
ent a danger of air pollution and acid rain. Incidences of emphysema and
other irritations of the respiratory system are common in people living
on the slopes of active volcanoes. The large lava emissions in Iceland in
the eighteenth century led to acid fogs all over Europe. Many cattle died
in Iceland during this period from the hydrofluoric acid vapors. High lev-
els of fluorine in drinking water can lead to fluorosis, a disease that at-
tacks the bone structure. The discharge of highly acidic fluids from hot
springs and crater lakes can cause widespread environmental contamina-
tion, which can present a danger for crops gathered from fields irrigated
with these waters and for local ecosystems in general.
Johan C. Varekamp

Further Reading
Bardintzeff, J. M., and A. R. McBirney. Volcanology. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones
and Bartlett, 2000.
Cook, Diane. Hot Spots: America’s Volcanic Landscapes. Boston: Little,
Brown, 1996.
Decker, Robert W., and Barbara B. Decker. Mountains of Fire. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1991.
_______. Volcanoes. 3d ed. New York: Freeman, 1998.
Erickson, Jon. Volcanoes and Earthquakes. Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: TAB
Books, 1987.
Francis, P. Volcanoes: A Planetary Perspective. Oxford, England: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1995.
Harris, Stephen L. Agents of Chaos: Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Other Natu-
ral Disasters. Missoula, Mont.: Mountain Press, 1990.
MacDonald, G. A. Volcanoes. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1971.
Sigurdsson, Haraldur. Encyclopedia of Volcanoes. San Diego, Calif.: Aca-
demic Press, 2000.

Geologic Time Scale

A major difference between the geosciences (earth sciences) and
other sciences is the great enormity of their time scale. One might
compare the magnitude of geologic time for geoscientists to the vastness
of space for astronomers. Every geological process, such as the move-
ment of crustal plates (plate tectonics), the formation of mountains, and
the advance and retreat of glaciers, must be considered within the con-
text of time.
Earth’s History Compressed into One
Calendar Year
One way to visualize events in Earth’s history is to compress geologic events
into a single calendar year. Earth’s birth, 4.6 billion years ago, would occur
during the first minute of January 1. The first three-quarters of Earth’s his-
tory is obscure and would take place from January to mid-October. During
this time, Earth gained an oxygenated atmosphere, and the earliest life-
forms evolved. The first organisms with hard parts preserved in the fossil
record (approximately 570 million years ago) would appear around No-
vember 15. The extinction of the dinosaurs (65 million years ago) would
occur on Christmas Day. Homo sapiens would first appear at approximately
11 p.m. on December 31, and all of recorded human history would occur in
the last few seconds of New Year’s Eve.

Jan. 1

Earth gains oxygenated atmosphere;

earliest life-forms evolve

Oct. 15

Nov. 15 First organisms with hard parts

Dec. 25 Extinction of dinosaurs

Dec. 31 11:00 p.m. Homo sapiens evolves;
11:59 p.m. Recorded human history
 Geologic Time Scale / 65

Although certain geologic events, such as floods and earthquakes, seem

to occur over short periods of time, the vast majority of observed geologi-
cal features formed over a great span of time. Consequently, modern geo-
scientists consider Earth to be exceedingly old. Using radiometric age-
dating techniques, they calculate the age of Earth as 4.6 billion years old.
Early miners were probably the first to recognize the need for a scale by
which rock and mineral units could be compared over large geographic
areas. However, before a time scale—and even geology as a science—
could develop, certain principles had to be established. This did not oc-
cur until the late eighteenth century when James Hutton, a Scottish natu-
ralist, began his extensive examinations of rock relationships and natural
processes at work on the earth. His work was amplified by Charles Lyell in
his textbook Principles of Geology (1830-1833). After careful observation,
Hutton concluded that the natural processes and functions he observed
had operated in the same basic manner in the past, and that, in general,
natural laws were invariable. That idea became known as the principle of
uniformitarianism.
The Birth of Stratigraphy. In 1669 Nicholas Steno, a Danish physician
working in Italy, recognized that horizontal rock layers contained a chro-
nological record of Earth history and formulated three important princi-
ples for interpreting that history. The principle of superposition states
that in a succession of undeformed strata, the oldest stratum lies at the
bottom, with successively younger ones above. The principle of original
horizontality states that because sedimentary particles settle from fluids
under graviational influence, sedimentary rock layers must be horizon-
tal; if not, they have suffered from subsequent disturbance. The principle
of original lateral continuity states that strata originally extended in all di-
rections until they thinned to zero or terminated against the edges of the
original area of deposition.
In the late eighteenth century, the English surveyor William Smith
recognized the wide geographic uniformity of rock layers and discovered
the utility of fossils in correlating these layers. By 1815, Smith had com-

The stratigraphic layers of sandstone, mudstone, coal and shale found in the Drumheller Bad-
lands of Alberta, Canada, are a rich source of dinosaur fossils and skeletons, and they help sci-
entists attach dates to geologic events. (Digital Stock)
 66 / Geologic Time Scale

Zion National Park. The walls of Zion Canyon, cut by the Virgin River, reveal fossils and other
traces of the geologic past, going back as early as the Mesozoic Era. (PhotoDisc)

pleted a geologic map of England and was able to correlate English rock
layers with layers exposed across the English Channel in France.
From the need to classify and organize rock layers into an orderly form
arose a subdiscipline of modern geology—stratigraphy, the study of rock
layers and their age relationships. In 1835 two British geologists, Adam
Sedgwick and Roderick Murchison, began organizing rock units into a
formal stratigraphic classification. Large divisions, called eras, were based
upon well-known and characteristic fossils, and included a number of
smaller subdivisions, called periods.
The periods are often subdivided into smaller units called epochs.
Each period is defined by a representative sequence of rock strata and
fossils. For instance, the Devonian period is named for exposures of rock
in Devonshire in southern England, while the Jurassic period is defined
by strata exposed in the Jura Mountains in northern Switzerland.
Approximately 80 percent of Earth’s history is included in the Crypto-
zoic era (meaning obscure life). Fossils from the Cryptozoic era are rare,
and the rock record is very incomplete. After the Cryptozoic era came
the Paleozoic (ancient life), Mesozoic (middle life), and Cenozoic (re-
cent life) eras. Most of the life forms that evolved during the Paleozoic
and Mesozoic eras are now extinct, whereas 90 percent of the life forms
that evolved up to the middle Cenozoic era still exist.
 Geologic Time Scale / 67

The Geologic Time Scale. The geologic time scale is continually in re-
vision as new rock formations are discovered and dated. The ages shown
in the table below are in millions of years ago (MYA) before the present
and represent the beginning of that particular period. It would be impos-
sible to list all the significant events in Earth’s history, but one or two are
provided for each period. Note that in the United States, the Carbonifer-
ous period has been subdivided into the Mississippian period (older) and
the Pennsylvanian period (younger).
The Fossil Record. The word “fossil” comes from the Latin fossilium,
meaning “dug from beneath the surface of the ground.” Fossils are de-
fined as any physical evidence of past life. Fossils can include not only
shells, bones, and teeth, but also tracks, trails, and burrows. The latter
group are referred to as trace fossils. Fossils demonstrate two important
truths about life on Earth: First, thousands of species of plants and ani-
mals have existed and later became extinct. Second, plants and animals
have evolved through time, and the communities of life that have existed
on Earth have changed.
Some organisms are slow to evolve and may exist in several geologic
time periods, while others evolve quickly and are restricted to small inter-
vals of time within a particular period. The latter, referred to as index fos-
sils, are the most useful to geoscientists for correlating rock layers over
wide geographic areas and for recognizing geologic time.
The fossil record is incomplete, because the process of preservation fa-
vors organisms with hard parts that are rapidly buried by sediments soon

Fossil leaves from sandstone of the Gerome Andesite, Northwest Uranium

Mine, Stevens County, Washington. (U.S. Geological Survey)
68 / Geologic Time Scale

after death. For this reason, the vast majority of fossils are represented by
marine invertebrates with exoskeletons, such as clams and snails. Under
special circumstances, soft-bodied organisms can be preserved, for in-
stance the preservation of insects in amber, made famous by the feature
film Jurassic Park (1993).
The Rock Cycle. A rock is a naturally formed aggregate of one or more
minerals. Three types of rocks exist in the earth’s crust, each reflecting a
different origin. Igneous rocks have cooled and solidified from molten
material either at or beneath Earth’s surface. Sedimentary rocks form
when preexisting rocks are weathered and broken down into fragments
that accumulate and become compacted or cemented together. Fossils
are most commonly found in sedimentary rocks. Metamorphic rocks
form when heat, pressure, or chemical reactions in Earth’s interior
change the mineral or chemical composition and structure of any type of
preexisting rock.

The Rock Cycle

Igneous We
g/ at he
o lin ation rocks
r in
o i fi c g
so C

d o n)
ati
li

lliz
ta
s
ry
(c

ng

lti
Me ti o n
Magma de posi Sediment
(melted rock) n/
t io
rta
s po n
tio
an

i
tr

os
ortation/ ng/
g/

dep

(d i ifi cation
in

esis)
i
er

Weather
ath

agen
Melt

We

h
Lit
in g

an s p
tr

Metamorphic Sedimentary
rocks rocks
Heat/pressure

(metamorphism)
 Geologic Time Scale / 69

Over the huge span of geologic time, rocks of any one of these basic
types can change into either of the other types or into a different form of
the same type. For this reason, older rocks become increasingly more
rare. The processes by which the various rock types change over time are
illustrated in the rock cycle.
Larry E. Davis

For Further Study

Ausich, William I., and N. Gary Lane. Life of the Past. Upper Saddle River,
N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1999.
Berry, William B. N. Growth of a Prehistoric Time Scale. Palo Alto, Calif.:
Blackwell, 1987.
Cooper, John D., Richard H. Miller, and Jacqueline Patterson. A Trip
Through Time: Principles of Historical Geology. Columbus, Ohio: Merrill,
1986.
Dott, Robert H., and Donald R. Prothero. Evolution of the Earth. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1994
Eicher, Don L. Geologic Time. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1976.
Hallam, A. Great Geological Controversies. Oxford, England: Oxford Press,
1992.
McPhee, John. Basin and Range. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1981.
Stanley, Steven M. “Extinctions—Or, Which Way Did They Go?” Earth
(January, 1991): 18-27.
Wicander, Reed, and James S. Monroe. Historical Geology: Evolution of
Earth and Life Through Time. 3d ed. Pacific Grove, Calif.: Brooks/Cole,
2000.

Information on the World Wide Web

Geologic Time: Online Edition, a Web site maintained by the U.S. Geologi-
cal Survey, contains links to a wide range of topics, including the geologic
time scale, index fossils, and radiometric dating.
(pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/)
The Web site of the Geological Society of America, headquartered in
Boulder, Colorado, features information about current issues, publica-
tions, and careers in Earth science. (www.geosociety.org)
The Museum of Paleontology of the University of California at Berkeley,
maintains a Web site with on-line exhibits on the history of life, geologic
time periods, and fossils. (www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/index.html)
70 / Internal Geological Processes

Earth’s Surface
Internal Geological Processes
T he earth is layered into a core, a mantle, and a crust. The topmost
mantle and the crust make up the lithosphere. Beneath this is a layer
called the asthenosphere, which is composed of moldable and partly liq-
uid materials. Heat transference within the asthenosphere sets up con-
vection cells that diverge from hot regions and converge to cold regions.
Consequently, the overlying lithosphere is segmented into ridged plates
that are moved by the convection process. The hot asthenosphere does
not rise along a line. This causes the development of a structure called a
transform plate boundary, which is perpendicular to and offsetting the
divergent boundary.
The topographic features at Earth’s surface, such as mountains, rift
valleys, oceans, islands, and ocean trenches, are produced by extension
or compression forces that act along divergent, convergent, or transform
plate boundaries. The extension and compression forces at Earth’s sur-
face are powered by convection within the asthenosphere.
Mountains and Depressions in Zones of Compression. Compression
along convergent plate boundaries yields three types of mountain: island
arcs that are partly under water; mountains along a continental edge,
such as the Andes; and mountains at continental interiors, such as the
Alps. At convergent plate boundaries, the denser of the two colliding
plates slides down into the asthenosphere and causes volcanic activity to
form on the leading edge of the upper plate. Island arcs such as the Aleu-
tians and the Caribbean are formed when an oceanic plate descends be-
neath another oceanic plate.
Volcanic mountain chains such as the Andes of South America are
formed when an oceanic plate descends beneath a continental plate. In
both the island arc type and Andean type collisions, a deep depression in
the oceans, called a trench, marks the place where neighboring plates
are colliding and where the denser plates are pulled downward into the
asthenosphere. If the colliding plates are of similar density, neither plate
will go into the asthenosphere. Instead, the edges of the neighboring
plates will be folded and faulted and excess material will be pushed up-
ward to form a block mountain, such as the mountain chain that stretches
from the Alps through to the Himalayas. This type of mountain chain is
not associated with a trench.
The Appalachians of the eastern United States are an example of the
alpine type of mountain belt. When the Appalachians were forming 300
million years ago, rock layers were deformed. The deformation included
folding to form ridges and valleys; fracturing along joint sets, with one
 Internal Geological Processes / 71

joint set being parallel to ridges, while the other set is perpendicular; and
thrust faulting, in which rock blocks were detached and shoved upward
and northwestward.
Millions of years of erosion have reduced the height of the mountains
and have produced topographic inversion in the foothills. Topographic
inversion occurs because joints create wider fractures at upfolded ridges
and narrower fractures at downfolded valleys. Erosion is then accelerated
at upfolded ridges, converting ancient ridges into valleys, while ancient
valleys stand as ridges. The Valley and Ridge Province of the Appala-
chians is noted for such topographic inversion.
West of the Valley and Ridge Province of the Appalachians is the Alle-
gheny Plateau, which is bounded by a cliff on its eastern side. In general,
plateaus are flat topped because the rock layer that covers the surface is
resistant to weathering. The cliff side is formed by erosion along joint or
fault surfaces.
The Sierra Nevada range, which formed seventy million years ago, is
an example of an Andean type of mountain belt. Millions of years of ero-
sion there has exposed igneous rocks that formed at depth. Over the
years, the force of compression that formed the Sierras has evolved to
form a zone of extension between the Sierras and the Colorado Plateau.
Mountains and Depressions in Zones of Extension. Extension is a
strain that involves an increase in length and causes crustal thinning and
faulting. Extension is associated with convergent boundaries, divergent
boundaries, and transform boundaries.
Extension Associated with a Convergent Boundary. During the forma-
tion of the Sierra Nevada, an oceanic plate that was subducted beneath
California declined at a shallow angle eastward toward the Colorado Pla-
teau. Later, the subducted plate peeled off and molten asthenosphere
took its place. From the asthenosphere, lava ascended through fractures
to form volcanic mountains in Arizona and Utah, and lava flowed and vol-
canic ash fell as far west as California. The lithosphere has been heated
up and has become buoyant, so the Colorado Plateau rises to higher ele-
vations, and rock layers slide westward from it in a zone of extension that
characterizes the Basin and Range Province.
In the extension zone, the top rock layers move westward on curved
displacement planes that are steep at the surface and nearly horizontal at
depth. When rock layers move westward over a curved detachment sur-
face, the trailing edges of the rock layers roll over and are tilted toward
the east so they do not leave space in buried rocks. On the other hand, a
west-facing slope is left behind on a mountain from which the rock layers
were detached. Therefore, movement along one curved detachment sur-
face creates a valley, and movement along several such detachment sur-
faces forms a series of valleys separated by ridges, as in the Basin and
Range Province. The amount of the displacement along the curved sur-
faces is not uniform. For example, more displacement has created wide
72 / Internal Geological Processes

zones of valleys such as the Las Vegas valley in Nevada, and Death Valley in
California.
Extension Associated with a Divergent Boundary. The longest moun-
tain chain on Earth lies under the Pacific Ocean. It is about 37,500 miles
(60,000 km.) long, 31.3 miles (50 km.) wide, and 2 miles (3 km.) high.
The central part of this midoceanic ridge is marked by a depression,
about 3,000 feet (1,000 meters) deep, and is called a rift valley. A part of
the submarine ridge, called the East Pacific Rise, forms the seafloor sec-
tor in the Gulf of California and reappears off the coast of northern Cali-
fornia, Oregon, and Washington as the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Another part
forms the seafloor sector in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea seafloor, part
of which is exposed in the Afar of Ethiopia. From the Afar southward to
the southern part of Mozambique is the longest exposed rift valley on
land, the East African Great Rift Valley.
A rift valley is the place where old rocks are pushed aside and new
rocks are created. Blocks of rock that are detached from the rift walls slide
down by a series of normal fault displacements. The ridge adjacent to the
central rift is present because
hot rocks are less dense and
buoyant. If the process of di- California’s San Andreas Fault
vergences continues from
the rifting stage to a drifting
stage, as the rocks move far-
ther away from the central
rift, the rocks become older,
colder, and denser, and push Juan Subduction
de Fuca zone
on the underlying astheno- ridge
sphere to create basins.
These basins will be flooded
by oceanic water as neighbor-
ing continents drift away.
However, not all processes of
divergence advance from the
rifting to the drifting stage.
Extension Associated with
San Francisco
Sa

Transform Boundary. The

n
An

best-known example of a
dr

transform boundary is the

ea

s fa
ul t
San Andreas Fault that off-
sets the East Pacific Rise from Los
Relative motion of Angeles
the Juan de Fuca Ridge, and Pacific plate
is exposed on land from the
Gulf of California to San
Francisco. Along transform
boundaries, there are pull- Pacific Ocean
 External Processes / 73

apart basins that may be filled to form lakes, such as the Salton Sea in
Southern California. Another example is the Aqaba transform of the
Middle East, along which the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are located.
H. G. Churnet

For Further Study

Bolt, B. A. Inside the Earth: Evidence from Earthquakes. San Francisco: W. H.
Freeman, 1982.
Burns, George. Exploring the World of Geology. New York: Franklin Watts,
1995.
Christian, Spencer, and Antonia Felix. Shake, Rattle, and Roll: The World’s
Most Amazing Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Other Forces. New York: John
Wiley & Sons, 1997.
Erickson, Jon. Rock Formations and Unusual Geologic Structures. New York:
Facts On File, 1993.
Hubler, Clark. America’s Mountains: An Exploration of Their Origins and In-
fluences from the Alaskan Range to the Appalachians. New York: Facts on
File, 1995.
Montgomery, Carla W. Fundamentals of Geology. 3d ed. Dubuque, Iowa:
William C. Brown, 1997.
Olsen, Kenneth H., ed. Continental Rifts: Evolution, Structure, Tectonics. Am-
sterdam: Elsevier, 1995.
Strahler, Alan, and Arthur Strahler. Physical Geography. 2d ed. New York:
Wiley, 2001.

External Processes
C ontinuous processes are at work shaping the earth’s surface. These
include breaking down rocks, moving the pieces, and depositing the
pieces in new locations. Weathering is the breaking down of rocks
through atmospheric agents. The process of moving weathered pieces of
rock by wind, water, ice, or gravity is called erosion. The materials that are
deposited by erosion are called sediment.
Mechanical weathering occurs when a rock is broken into smaller
pieces but its chemical makeup is not changed. If the rock is broken
down by a change in its chemical composition, the process is called chem-
ical weathering.
Mechanical Weathering. Different types of mechanical weathering oc-
cur, depending on climatic conditions. In areas with moist climates and
fluctuating temperatures, rocks can be broken apart by frost wedging.
Water fills in cracks in rocks, then freezes during cold nights. As the ice
expands and pushes out on the crack walls, the crack enlarges. During
the warm days, the water thaws and flows deeper into the enlarged crack.
74 / External Processes

In climates with
fluctuating
temperatures,
unusual rock
formations such as
these granite piles in
Zimbabwe’s Matopo
Hills, are typically
the products of
mechanical
weathering.
(R. Kent
Rasmussen)

Over time, the crack grows until the rock is broken apart. This process is
active in mountains, producing a pile of rock pieces at the mountain base
called talus.
Salt weathering occurs in areas where much salt is available or there is
a high evaporation rate, such as along the seashore. Salt crystals form
when salty moisture enters rock cracks. Growing crystals settle in the bot-
tom of the crack and apply pressure on the crack walls, enlarging the
crack.
Thermal expansion and contraction occur in climates with fluctuating
temperatures, such as deserts. All minerals expand during hot days and
contract during cold nights, and some minerals expand and contract
more than others. This process continues until the rock loosens up and
breaks into pieces.
Mechanical exfoliation can happen to a rock body overlain by a thick
rock or sediment layer. If the heavy overlying layer over a portion of the
rock body is removed, pressure is relieved and the exposed rock surface
will expand in response. This expanding surface will break off into sheets
 External Processes / 75

parallel to the surface, but the remaining rock body remains under pres-
sure and unchanged.
When plant roots grow into cracks in rocks, they enlarge the cracks
and break up the rocks. Finally, abrasion can occur to rock fragments dur-
ing transport. Either the fragments collide, breaking apart, or fragments
are scraped against rocks, breaking off pieces.
Chemical Weathering. Water and oxygen create two common causes of
chemical weathering. For example, dissolution occurs when water or an-
other solution dissolves minerals within a rock and carries them away. Hy-
drolysis can occur when water flows through earth materials. The hydro-
gen ions or the hydroxide ions of the water may react with minerals in the
rocks. When this occurs, the chemical composition of the mineral is
changed, and a new mineral is formed. Hydrolysis often produces clay
minerals.
Some elements in minerals combine with oxygen from the atmo-
sphere, creating a new mineral. This process is called oxidation. Some of
these oxidation minerals are commonly referred to as rust.
Mass Movement. Weathered rock pieces (sediments) are transported
(eroded) by one or more of four transport processes: water (streams and
oceans), wind, ice (glaciers), or gravity. Mass movement transports earth

Depositional Landforms Left by a Glacier

Retreating glacier

Esker

End moraine

Kettle lake

Drumlin field
Outwash plain

Kame
76 / External Processes

materials down slopes by the pull of gravity. Gravity, constantly working to

pull surface materials down, parallel to the slope, is the most important
factor affecting mass movement. There is also a force involved perpendic-
ular to the slope that contributes to the effects of friction.
Friction, the second factor, is determined by the earth material type in-
volved. For example, weathering may create cracks in rocks, which form
planes of weakness on which the mass movement can occur. Loose sedi-
ments always tend to roll downhill.
The third factor is the slope angle. Each earth material has its own an-
gle of repose, which is the steepest slope angle on which the materials re-
main stable. Beyond this slope angle, earth materials will move down-
slope.
Water, the fourth factor, affects the stability of the earth material in the
slope. Friction is weakened by water between the mineral grains in the
rock. For example, water can make clay quite slippery, causing the mass
movement.
The rooting system of vegetation, the fifth factor, helps make the
surficial materials of the slope stable by binding the loose materials to-
gether.
Mass movements can be classified by their speed of movement. Creep
and solifluction are the two types of slow mass movement, which are mea-
sured in fractions of inches per year. Creep is the slowest mass movement
process, where unconsolidated materials at the surface of a slope move
slowly downslope. The materials move slightly faster at the surface than
below, so evidence of creep commonly can be seen by slanted telephone
poles. During solifluction, the warm sun of the brief summer season in
cold regions thaws the upper few feet of the earth. This waterlogged soil
flows downslope over the underlying permafrost.
Rapid mass movement processes occur at feet per second or miles per
hour. Falls occur when loose rock or sediment is dislodged and drops
from a steep slope, such as along sea cliffs where waves erode the cliff
base. Topples occur when there is an overturning movement of the mass.
A topple can turn into a fall or a slide. A slide is a mass of rock or sediment
that becomes dislodged and moves along a plane of weakness, such as a
fracture. A slump is a slide that separates along a concave surface. Lateral
spreads occur when a fractured earth mass spreads out at the sides.
A flow occurs when a mass of wet or dry rock fragments or sediment
moves downslope as a highly viscous fluid. There are several different
flow types. A debris flow is a mass of relatively dry, broken pieces of earth
material that suddenly has water added. The debris flow occurs on
steeper slopes and moves at speeds of 1-25 miles (2-40 km.) per hour. A
debris avalanche occurs when an entire area of soil and underlying
weathered bedrock becomes detached from the underlying bedrock and
moves quickly down the slope. This flow type is often triggered by heavy
rains in areas where vegetation has been removed. An earthflow is a dry
 Fluvial and Karst Processes / 77

mass of clayey or silty material that moves relatively slowly down the slope.
A mudflow is a mass of earth material mixed with water that moves
quickly down the slope.
A quick clay can occur when partially saturated, solid, clayey sediments
are subjected to an earthquake, explosion, or loud noise and become liq-
uid instantly.
Sherry L. Eaton

For Further Study

Burns, George. Exploring the World of Geology. New York: Franklin Watts,
1995.
Christian, Spencer, and Antonia Felix. Shake, Rattle, and Roll: The World’s
Most Amazing Volcanoes, Earthquakes, and Other Forces. Spencer Chris-
tian’s World of Wonder Series. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997.
Goodwin, Peter H. Landslides, Slumps, and Creeps. New York: Franklin
Watts, 1998.
Redfern, Martin. The Kingfisher Young People’s Book of Planet Earth. New
York: Kingfisher Books, 1999.
Sharpe, C. F. Stewart. Landslides and Related Phenomena, A Study of Mass
Movements of Soil and Rock. New York: Columbia University Press, 1938.
Stotsky, Sandra. Geology: The Active Earth (Ranger Rick’s Naturescope). New
York: Chelsea House, 1998.
Strahler, Alan, and Arthur Strahler. Physical Geography. 2d ed. New York:
Wiley, 2001.

Information on the World Wide Web

Information on North American geology can be found through the Ameri-
can Geological Institute. (www.agiweb.org)

Fluvial and Karst Processes

E arth’s landscape has been sculptured into an almost infinite variety of
forms. The earth’s surface has been modified by various processes for
thousands, even hundreds of millions, of years to arrive at the modern
configuration of landscapes.
Each process that transforms the surface is classified as either endo-
genic or exogenic. Endogenic processes are driven by the earth’s internal
heat and energy and are responsible for major crustal deformation.
Endogenic processes are considered constructional, because they build
up the earth’s surface and create new landforms, such as mountain sys-
tems. Conversely, exogenic processes are considered destructional be-
78 / Fluvial and Karst Processes

How Hydrology Shapes Geography

Water and ice sculpt the landscape over time. Fast-flowing rivers erode the
soil and rock through which they flow. When rivers slow down in flatter ar-
eas, they deposit eroded sediments, creating areas of rich soils and deltas at
the mouths of the rivers. Over time this process wears down mountain
ranges. The Appalachian Mountain range on the eastern side of the North
American continent is hundreds of millions of years older than the Rocky
Mountain range on the continent’s western side. Although the Appala-
chians once rivaled the Rockies in size, they have been made smaller by
time and erosion.
Canyons are carved by rivers, as the Grand Canyon was carved by the
Colorado River, which exposed rocks billions of years old. Ice also changes
the landscape. Large ice sheets from past ice ages could have been well over
a mile (1,600 meters) thick, and they scoured enormous amounts of soil
and rock as they slowly moved over the land surface. Terminal moraines are
the enormous mounds of soil pushed directly in front of the ice sheets.
Long Island, New York, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, are two examples of
enormous terminal moraines that were left behind when the ice sheets re-
treated.

cause they result in the wearing away of landforms created by endogenic

processes. Exogenic processes are driven by solar energy putting into mo-
tion the earth’s atmosphere and water, resulting in the lowering of fea-
tures originally created by endogenic processes.
The most effective exogenic processes for wearing away the landscape
are those that involve the action of flowing water, commonly referred to
as fluvial processes. Water flows over the surface as runoff, after it evapo-
rates into the atmosphere and infiltrates into the soil. The water that is
left over flows down under the influence of gravity and has tremendous
energy for sculpturing the earth’s surface. Although flowing water is the
most effective agent for modifying the landscape, it represents less than
0.01 percent of all the water on Earth’s surface. The oceans contain more
than 97 percent of the earth’s total volume of water.
Drainage Basins. Fluvial processes can be considered from a variety of
spatial scales. The largest scale is the drainage basin. A drainage basin is
the area defined by topographic divides that diverts all water and material
within the basin to a single outlet. Every stream of any size has its own
drainage basin, and every portion of the earth’s land surfaces are located
within a drainage basin. Drainage basins vary tremendously in size, de-
pending on the size of the river considered. For example, the largest
drainage basin on earth is the Amazon, which drains about 2.25 million
square miles (5.83 million sq. km.) of South America.
The Amazon Basin is so large that it could contain nearly the entire
 Fluvial and Karst Processes / 79

continent of Australia. By comparison, the Mississippi River drainage ba-

sin, the largest in North America, drains an area of about 1,235,000
square miles (3,200,000 sq. km.). Smaller rivers have much smaller bas-
ins, with many draining only an area roughly the size of a football field.
While basins vary tremendously in size, they are spatially organized, with
larger basins receiving the drainage from smaller basins, and eventually
draining into the ocean. Because drainage basins receive water and mate-
rial from the landscape within the basin, they are sensitive to environ-
mental change that occurs within the basin. For example, during the
twentieth century, the Mississippi River was influenced by many human-
imposed changes that occurred either within the basin or directly within
the channel, such as agriculture, dams and reservoirs, and levees.
Drainage Networks and Surface Erosion. Drainage basins can be sub-
divided into drainage networks by the arrangement of their valleys and
interfluves. Interfluves are the ridges of higher elevation that separate ad-
jacent valleys. Where an interfluve represents a natural boundary be-
tween two or more basins, it is referred to as a drainage divide. Valleys
contain the larger rivers and are easily distinguished from interfluves by
their relatively low, flat surfaces. Interfluves have relatively steep slopes
and, for this reason, are eroded by runoff. The term erosion refers to the
transport of material, in this case sediment that is dislodged from the sur-
face.
Runoff starts as a broad sheet of slow-moving water that is not very ero-
sive. As it continues to flow downslope, it speeds up and concentrates into
rills, which are narrow, fast-moving lines of water. Because the runoff is
concentrated within rills, the water travels faster and has more energy
for erosion. Thus, rills are responsible for transporting sediment from
higher points of elevation within the basin to the valleys, which are at a
lower elevation. Rills can become powerful enough to scour deeply into
the surface, developing into permanent channels called gullies.
The presence of many gullies indicates significant erosion on the land-
scape and represents an expensive and long-lasting problem if it is not
remedied after initial development. The formations of gullies is often as-
sociated with human manipulation of the earth. For example, gullies can
develop after improper land management, particularly intensive agricul-
tural and grazing practices. A change in land use from natural vegetation,
such as forests or prairie, can result in a type of land cover that is not
suited for preventing erosion. Such land surfaces become susceptible to
the formation of gullies during heavy, prolonged rains.
At a smaller scale, fluvial processes can be considered from the per-
spective of the river channel. River channels are located within the valleys
of basins, offering a permanent conduit for drainage. Higher in the ba-
sin, river channels and valleys are relatively narrow, but grow larger to-
ward the mouth of the basin as they receive drainage from smaller rivers
within the basin. River channels may be categorized by their planform
 80 / Fluvial and Karst Processes

pattern, which refers to their overhead appearance, such as would be

viewed from the window of an airplane.
The two major types of rivers are meandering and braided. Mean-
dering rivers have a single channel that is sinuous and winding. These
rivers are characterized as having orderly and symmetrical bends, causing
the river to alternate directions as it flows across its valley. In contrast,
braided rivers contain numerous channels divided by small islands,
which results in a disorganized pattern. The islands within a braided river
channel are not permanent. Instead, they erode and form over the
course of a few years, or even during large flood events. Meandering
channels usually have narrow and deep channels, but braided river chan-
nels are shallow and wide.
Sediment and Floodplains. Another distinction between braided and
meandering river channels is the types of sediment they transport.
Braided rivers transport a great amount of sediment that is deposited
into midchannel islands within the river. Also, because braided rivers are
frequently located higher in the drainage basin, they may have larger sed-
iments from the erosion of adjacent slopes. In contrast, meandering river
channels are located closer to the mouth of the basin and transport fine-
grained sediment that is easily stored within point bars, which results in
symmetrical bends within the river.
The sediments of both meandering and braided rivers are deposited
within the valleys onto floodplains. Floodplains are wide, flat surfaces

Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park was established in 1928 to preserve its oddly shaped and
multicolored limestone cliffs and towers, which were created by karst processes. (Corbis)
 Fluvial and Karst Processes / 81

Bryce Canyon in winter. (PhotoDisc)

formed from the accumulation of alluvium, which is a term for sediment

that is deposited by water. Floodplain sediments are deposited with sea-
sonal flooding. When a river floods, it transports a large amount of sedi-
ment from the channel to the adjacent floodplain. After the water escapes
the channel, it loses energy and can no longer transport the sediment. As
a result, the sediment falls out of suspension and is deposited onto the
floodplain. Because flooding occurs seasonally, floodplain deposits are lay-
ered and may accumulate into very thick alluvial deposits over thousands
of years.
Karst Processes and Landforms. A specialized type of exogenic pro-
cess that is also related to the presence of water is karst. Karst processes
and topography are characterized by the solution of limestone by acidic
groundwater into a number of distinctive landforms. While fluvial pro-
cesses lower the landscape from the surface, karst processes lower the
landscape from beneath the surface. Because limestone is a very perme-
able sedimentary rock, it allows for a large amount of groundwater flow.
The primary areas for solution of the limestone occur along bedding
planes and joints. This creates a positive feedback by increasing the
amount of water flowing through the rock, thereby further increasing so-
lution of the limestone. The result is a complex maze of underground
conduits and caverns, and a surface with few rivers because of the high
degree of infiltration.
The surface topography of karst regions often is characterized as un-
dulating. A closer inspection reveals numerous depressions that lack sur-
face outlets. Where this is best developed, it is referred to as cockpit karst.
82 / Fluvial and Karst Processes

It occurs in areas underlain by extensive limestone and receiving high

amounts of precipitation, for example, southern Illinois and Indiana in
the midwestern United States, and in Puerto Rico and Jamaica.
Sinkholes are also common to karstic regions. Sinkholes are circular
depressions having steep-sided vertical walls. Sinkholes can form either
from the sudden collapse of the ceiling of an underground cavern or as a
result of the gradual solution and lowering of the surface. Sinkholes can
fill with sediments washed in from surface runoff. This reduces infiltra-
tion and results in the development of small circular lakes, particularly
common in central Florida. Over time, erosion causes the vertical walls to
retreat, resulting in uvalas, which are much larger flat-floored depressions.
Where there are numerous adjacent sinkholes, the retreat and expan-
sion of the depressions causes them to coalesce, resulting in the forma-
tion of poljes. Unlike uvalas, poljes have an irregular shape, and the floor
of the basin is not flat because of differences between the coalescing sink-
holes.
Caves are among the most characteristic features of karst regions, but
can only be seen beneath the surface. Caves can traverse the subsurface
for miles, developing into a complex network of interconnected pas-
sages. Some caves develop spectacular formations as a result of the high
amount of dissolved limestone transported by the groundwater. The
evaporation of water results in the accumulation of carbonate deposits,
which may grow for thousands of years. Some of the most common de-
posits are stalactites, which grow downward from the ceiling of the cave,
and stalagmites, which grow upward and occasionally connect with stalac-
tites to form large vertical columns.
Paul F. Hudson

For Further Study

Barry, John M. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It
Changed America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
Davies, W. E., and I. M. Morgan. Geology of Caves. U.S. Geological Survey,
1991.
Erickson, Jon. Craters, Caverns, and Canyons: Delving Beneath the Earth’s Sur-
face. Chicago: Facts On File, 1993.
Exley, Sheck. Caverns Measureless to Man. St. Louis, Mo.: Cave Books, 1994.
Fincham, Alan G. Jamaica Underground: The Caves, Sinkholes and Under-
ground Rivers of the Island. Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West In-
dies Press, 1998.
Karr, James R., and Ellen W. Chu. Restoring Life in Running Waters: Better Bi-
ological Monitoring. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1999.
Knighton, Andrew. D. Fluvial Forms and Processes. New York: John Wiley &
Sons 1998.
Middleton, John, and Anthony C. Waltham. The Underground Atlas: A Gaz-
etteer of the World’s Cave Regions. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987.
 Glaciation / 83

Mount, Jeffrey F., and Janice C. Fong. California Rivers and Streams. Berke-
ley: University of California Press, 1995.
Rapp, Valerie. What the River Reveals: Understanding and Restoring Healthy
Watersheds. Seattle, Wash.: Mountaineers Books, 1997.

Glaciation
I n areas where more snow accumulates each winter than can thaw in
summer, glaciers form. Glacier ice, called firn, looks like rock but is not
as strong as most rocks and is subject to intermittent thawing and freez-
ing. Glacier ice can be brittle and fracture readily into crevasses, while
other ice behaves as a plastic substance. A glacier is thickest in the area re-
ceiving the most snow, called the zone of accumulation. As the thickness
piles up, it settles down and squeezes the limit of the ice outward in all di-
rections. Eventually, the ice reaches a climate where the ice begins to melt
and evaporate. This is called the zone of ablation.
Alpine Glaciation. Varied topographic evidence throughout the al-
pine environment attests to the sculpturing ability of glacial ice. The
world’s most spectacular mountain scenery has been produced by alpine
glaciation, including the Matterhorn, Yosemite Valley, Glacier National
Park, Mount Blanc, the Tetons, and Rocky Mountain National Park, all of

Nineteenth century engraving of Mont Blanc’s Mer de Glace (Sea of Ice), a ma-
jor tourist attraction in France both because it is the second-longest glacier in
the Alps and because it seems alive, moving down the north slope of Mont
Blanc at a rate of about 425 feet (130 meters) a year. (Mark Twain, A Tramp
Abroad, 1880)
 84 / Glaciation

Alpine Glacier and Its Features Horn

Arete
Lateral moraine Cirque

Medial moraine

which are visited by large numbers of people annually. Although alpine

glaciation is still an active process of land sculpture in the high mountain
ranges of the world, it is much less active than it was in the Ice Age of the
Pleistocene epoch.
The prerequisites for alpine, or mountain, glaciation to become active
are a mountainous terrain with Arctic climatic conditions in the higher
elevations, and sufficient moisture to help snow and ice develop into gla-
cial ice. As glaciers move out from their points of origin, they erode into
the sides of mountains and increase the local relief in the higher eleva-
tions. The erosional features produced by alpine glaciation dominate
mountain topography and usually are the most visible features on topo-
graphic maps. The eroded material is transported downvalley and depos-
ited in a variety of landforms.
One kind of an erosional feature is a cirque, a hollow bowl-shaped de-
pression. The bowl of the cirque commonly contains a small round lake
or tarn. A steep-walled mountain ridge called an arête forms between two
cirques. A high pyramidal peak, called a horn, is formed by the intersect-
ing walls of three or more cirques.
Erosion is particularly rapid at the head of a glacier. In valleys, moving
glaciers press rock fragments against the sides, widening and deepening
 Land Forms Left by an Alpine Glacier
Arete

Pater noster lakes Truncated Tarn

spurs Cirque

Hanging
valleys

U-shaped valley

Alaska’s Kennicott Glacier shows many landforms associated with glaciers,

such as cirques, arêtes, and moraines. (PhotoDisc)
86 / Glaciation

them by abrasion and forming broad U-shaped valleys. When glaciers re-
cede, tributary streams become higher than the floor of the U-shaped val-
ley and waterfalls occur over these hanging valleys. As the ice continues to
melt, residual sediments called moraines may be deposited. Moraines are
made up of glacier till, a collection of sediment of all sizes. Bands of sedi-
ment along the side of a valley glacier are lateral moraines; those crossing
the valley are end or recessional moraines; where two glaciers join, a me-
dial moraine is formed. Meltwater may also sort out the finer materials,
transport them downvalley, and deposit them in beds as outwash.

Kinnerly
Peak, in
Montana’s
Glacier
National
Park, is an
example of a
horn—a high
pyramidal
peak formed
by the
intersection
of several
cirques. (U.S.
Geological
Survey)
 Glaciation / 87

Glacier
National
Park has
many
examples
of valleys
carved
by the
movement
of glaciers.
(PhotoDisc)

Continental Glaciation. In the modern world, continental glaciation

operates on a large scale only in Greenland and Antarctica. However, its
existence in previous geologic ages is evidenced by strata of tillite (a com-
pacted rock formed of glacial deposits) or, more frequently, by surficial
deposits of glacial materials.
Much of the geomorphology of the northeastern quadrant of North
America and the northwestern portion of Europe was formed during the
Ice Age. During that time, great masses of ice accumulated on the conti-
nents and moved out from centers near the Hudson Bay and the Fenno-
Scandian Shield, extending over the continents in great advancing and
 88 / Glaciation

Features of a Continental Glacier

Continental glacier
Terminal moraine
Areas of blocked
drainage

Terminal moraine

Coastal plain

Meltwater lake

Ocean:
Invasion of the sea
into the depression
Landmass

retreating lobes. In North America, the four major stages of lobe advance
were the Wisconsin (the most recent), the Illinoian, the Kansan, and the
Nebraskan (the oldest). Between each of these major advances were plu-
vial periods in which the ice melted and great quantities of water rushed
over or stood on the continents, creating distinctive features which can
still be detected today.
The two major functions of gradation are accomplished by the pro-
cesses of scour (degradation) in the areas close to the centers and deposi-

A Future Ice Age

If past geological history is an indicator, some time in the future conditions
again will become favorable for the growth of glaciers. As recently as 1300
to 1600 c.e., a cold period known at the Little Ice Age settled over Northern
Europe and Eastern North America. Viking colonies perished as agricul-
ture became unfeasible, and previously ice-free rivers in Europe froze over.
Another ice age would probably develop rapidly and be impossible to
stop. Active mountain glaciers would bury living forests. Great ice caps
would again cover Europe and North America, moving at a rate of 100 feet
(30 meters) per day. Major cities and populations would shift to the sub-
tropics and the topics.
 Glaciation / 89

tion (aggradation) adjacent to the terminal or peripheral areas of the

lobes. Thus, the overall effect of continental glaciation is to reduce re-
lief—to scour high areas and fill in lower regions—unlike the changes
caused by alpine glaciation.
Although continental glaciation usually does not result in the spectac-
ular scenery of alpine glaciation, it was responsible for creating most of
the Great Lakes and the lakes of Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Fin-
land, and Canada; for gravel deposits; and for the rich agricultural lands
of the Midwest, to mention just a few of its effects.
While glaciers were leveling hilly sections of North America and Eu-
rope by scraping them bare of soil and cutting into the ice itself, they ac-
quired a tremendous load of material. As a glacier warms and melts, there
is a tremendous outflow of water, and the streams thus formed carry with
them the debris of the glacier. The material deposited by glaciers is called
drift or outwash. Glaciofluvial drift can be recognized by its separation
into layers of finer sands and coarser gravels.
Kettles and kames are the most common features of the end moraines
found at the outermost edges of a glacier. A kettle is a depression left
when a block of ice, partially or completely buried in deposits of drift,
melts away. Most of the lakes in the upper Great Lakes of the United
States are kettle lakes. A kame is a round, cone-shaped hill. Kames are
produced by deposition from glacial meltwater. Sometimes, the outwash
material poured into a long and deep crevasse, rather than a hole. These
tunnels have had their courses choked by debris, revealed today by long,
narrow ridges, generally referred to as eskers.
Ron Janke

For Further Study

Benn, Douglas I., and David J. A. Evans. Glaciers and Glaciation. New York:
John Wiley & Sons, 1998.
Bennett, Matthew R., and Neil F. Glasser. Glacial Geology: Ice Sheets and
Landforms. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1996.
Ferguson, Sue A. Glaciers of North America: A Field Guide. Golden, Colo.:
Fulcrum Publications, 1992.
Guyton, Bill. Glaciers of California. Berkeley: California University Press,
1998.
Hambrey, Michael, and Jurg Alean. Glaciers. New York: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 1992.
Nesje, Atle, and Svein Olaf Dahl. Glaciers and Environmental Change. Lon-
don: Edward Arnold, 2000.
Owen, Lewis A., ed. Mountain Glaciation. New York: John Wiley & Sons,
1998.
Post, Austin, and Edward R. Lachapelle. Glacier Ice. Rev. ed. Seattle: Uni-
versity of Washington Press, 2000.
Pyne, Stephen. The Ice. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1998.
 90 / Desert Landforms

Moonrise over California’s Mojave Desert. (PhotoDisc)

Desert Landforms
D eserts are often striking in color, form, or both. The underlying lack
of water in deserts produces unique desert features not found in hu-
mid regions. Arid lands cover approximately 30 percent of the earth’s
land surface, an area of about 15.4 million square miles (40 million sq.
km.). Arid lands include deserts and surrounding steppes, semiarid re-
gions that act as transition zones between arid and humid lands.
Many of the world’s largest and driest deserts are found between 20
and 40 degrees north and south
latitude. These include the
Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of
Death Valley Playa the United States, the Sahara in
California’s Death Valley is the driest northern Africa, and the Great
desert in the United States, with an aver- Sandy Desert in Australia. In
age rainfall of only 1.5 inches (38 milli- these deserts, the subtropical
meters) per year at the town of Furnace high prevents cloud formation
Creek. It is also consistently one of the and precipitation while increas-
hottest places on Earth, with a record
ing rates of surface evaporation.
high of 134 degrees Fahrenheit (57 de-
Some arid lands, like China’s
grees Celsius). In the distant past, how-
ever, Death Valley held lakes that formed Gobi Desert, form because they
in response to global cooling. Over are far from oceans, which are
120,000 years ago, Death Valley hosted a the dominant source for atmo-
295-foot-deep (90-meter) body of water spheric water vapor and precipi-
called Lake Manley. Evidence of this lake tation. Others, like California’s
remains in evaporite deposits that make Death Valley, are arid because
up the playa in the valley’s center, in mountain ranges block mois-
wave-cut shorelines, and in beach bars.
 Desert Landforms / 91

ture coming from the sea. The combination of mountain barriers and
very low elevations makes Death Valley the hottest, driest desert in North
America.
Sand Dunes. Many people envision deserts as vast expanses of blowing
sand. Although wind plays a more important role in deserts than it does
elsewhere, only about 25 percent of arid lands are covered by sand. Broad
regions that are covered entirely in sand (such as portions of northwest-
ern Africa, Arabia, and Australia) are referred to as sand seas. Why is wind
more effective here than elsewhere?
The lack of soil water and vegetation, both of which act to bind grains
together, allows enhanced eolian (wind) erosion. Very small particles are
picked up and suspended within the moving air mass, while sand grains
bounce along the surface. Removal of material often leaves behind depres-
sions called blowouts or deflation hollows. Moving grains abrade cobbles
and boulders at the surface, creating uniquely sculpted and smoothed
rocks known as ventifacts. Bedrock outcrops can be streamlined as they
are blasted by wind-borne grains to form features called yardangs. As
these rocks are ground away, they contribute additional sediment to the
wind.
Desert sand dunes are not stationary features—instead, they represent
accumulations of moving sand. Wind blows sand along the desert floor.
Where it collects, it forms dunes. Typically, dunes have relatively shallow
windward faces and steeper slip faces. Sand grains bounce up the wind-

Sand dunes such as these conform to popular images of desert landforms; however, only
about 25 percent of arid lands are covered by sand. (PhotoDisc)
92 / Desert Landforms

ward face then eventually cascade down the slip face, the movement of
individual grains driving movement of the entire dune in a downwind
direction.
Four major dune types are found within arid regions. Barchan dunes
are crescent-shaped features, with arms that point downwind. They may
occur as isolated structures or within fields. They form where winds blow
in a single direction and where the supply of sand is limited. With a larger
supply of sand, barchan dunes can join with one another to form a trans-
verse dune field.
There, ridges are perpendicular to the predominant wind direction.
With quartering winds (that is, winds that vary in direction throughout a
range of about 45 degrees) dune ridges form that are parallel to the aver-
age wind direction. These so-called longitudinal dunes have no clearly
defined windward and slip faces. Where winds blow sand from all direc-
tions, star dunes form. Sand collects in the middle of the feature to form
a peaked center with arms that spiral outward.
Badlands, Mesas, and Buttes. As scarce as it may be, water is still the
dominant force in shaping desert landscapes. Annual precipitation may
be low, but the amount of precipitation in a single storm may be a large
fraction of the yearly total. An arid landscape that is underlain by poorly
cemented rock or sediment, such as that found in western South Dakota,
may form badlands as a result of the erosive ability of storm-water runoff.
Overall aridity prevents vegetation from establishing the interconnected
root system that holds soil particles together in more humid regions.

Transverse dune field in the Moroccan Sahara. (Corbis)

 Desert Landforms / 93

Badlands National Park in South Dakota is a good example of desert badlands that are largely
devoid of vegetation and erode rapidly during storms. (PhotoDisc)

Cloudbursts cause rapid erosion that forms numerous gullies, deeply

incised washes, and hoodoos. The latter structures are created when rock
or sediment that is more resistant protects underlying material from ero-
sion. Over time, protected sections stand as prominent spires while sur-
rounding material is removed. Landscapes like those found in Badlands
National Park in South Dakota are devoid of vegetation and erode rapidly
during storms.
Arid regions that are underlain by flat-lying rock units can form mesas
and buttes. Water follows fractures and other lines of weakness, forming
ever-widening canyons. Over time, these grow into broad valleys. In
northern Arizona’s Monument Valley, remnants of original bedrock
stand as isolated, flat-topped structures. Broad mesas are marked by their
flat tops (made of a resistant rock like sandstone or basalt) and steep
sides. Buttes are much narrower, with a small resistant cap, but are often
as tall and steep as neighboring mesas.
Desert Pavement and Desert Varnish. Much of the desert floor is cov-
ered by desert pavement, an accumulation of gravel and cobbles that
forms a surface fabric that can interconnect tightly. Fine material has
been removed by wind and water, leaving behind larger fragments that
inhibit further erosion. In many areas, desert pavements have been stable
for long periods of time, as evidenced by their surface patina of desert
94 / Desert Landforms

The isolated, flat-topped pillars

in Arizona’s Monument Valley
are actually remnants of
original bedrock, standing
in broad valleys formed over
time by water that followed
fractures and other lines of
weakness and formed ever-
widening canyons. (PhotoDisc)

varnish. Desert varnish is a thin outer coating of wind-deposited clay

mixed with iron and manganese oxides. Varying in color from light
brown to black, these coatings are thought to adhere to rocks by the ac-
tion of single-celled microorganisms. Under a microscope, desert varnish
can be seen to be made up of very fine layers. A thick, dark patina means
that a rock has been exposed for a long time.
Playas. Where neither dunes nor rocky pavements cover the desert
floor, one may find an accumulation of saline minerals. A playa is a flat
surface that is often blindingly white in color. Playas are usually found in
the centers of desert valleys and contain material that mineralized during
the evaporation of a lake. Dry lake beds are a common feature of the Great
Basin in the western United States. During glacial stages, the last of which
occurred about twenty thousand years ago, lakes grew in what are now arid,
closed valleys. As the climate warmed, these lakes shrank, and many dried
completely. As a lake evaporates, minerals that were held in solution crys-
tallize, forming salts, including halite (table salt). These salt deposits fre-
quently are mined for useful household and industrial chemicals.
Richard L. Orndorff
 Ocean Margins / 95

For Further Study

Allaby, Michael. Deserts. New York: Facts on File, 2001.
Durham, M. S. The Desert States. New York: Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1990.
Hartman, W. K. The American Desert. New York: Crescent Books, 1991.
Lancaster, N. Geomorphology of Desert Dunes. London: Routledge, 1995.
Larson, Peggy. A Sierra Club Naturalist’s Guide to the Deserts of the Southwest:
The Deserts of the Southwest. Vol. 1. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books,
1982.
Mabbutt, J. A. Desert Landforms. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1977.
Mainguet, Monique. Aridity: Droughts and Human Development. New York:
Springer, 1999.
Mares, M. A., ed. Encyclopedia of Deserts. Norman: University of Oklahoma
Press, 1999.
Mortimore, Michael. Roots in the African Dust: Sustaining the Sub-Saharan
Drylands. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Sullivan, C., and S. Weiley, eds. Travels in the American West. Washington,
D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992.

Ocean Margins
O cean margins are the areas where land borders the sea. Although of-
ten referred to as coastlines or beaches, ocean margins cover far
greater territory than beaches. An ocean margin extends from the coastal
plain—the fertile farming belt of land along the seacoast—to the edge of
the gently sloping land submerged in water, called the continental shelf.
Ocean margin constitutes 8 percent of the world’s surface. It is rich in
minerals, both above and below water, and is home to 25 percent of
Earth’s people, along with 90 percent of the marine life. This fringe of
land at the border of the ocean is ever changing. Tides wash sediment in
and leave it behind, just below sea level. This process, called deposition,
builds up land in some areas of the coastline. At the same time, ocean
waves, winds, and storms wear away or erode parts of the shoreline. As
land is worn away or built up, the amount of land above sea level changes.
Factors such as climate, erosion, deposition, changes in sea level, and the
effects of human activity constantly change the shape of the ocean mar-
gin on Earth.
Beach Dynamics. The two types of coasts or land formations at the
ocean margin are primary coasts and secondary coasts. Primary coasts
are formed by systems on land, such as the melting of glaciers, wind or
water erosion, and sediment deposited by rivers. Deltas and fjords are ex-
amples of primary coasts. Secondary coasts are formed by ocean pat-
terns, such as erosion by waves or currents, sediment deposition by waves
or currents, or changes by marine plants or animals. Beaches, coral reefs,
salt marshes, and mangrove swamps are examples of secondary coasts.
Oceans and Continents
ARCTIC OCEAN

EUROPE
NORTH ASIA
AMERICA

AT LANTIC PACIFIC
OCEAN
OC EAN
AFRICA
PACIFIC
OCEAN
SOUTH INDIAN OCEAN
AMERICA

AUSTRALIA

SOUTHERN OCEAN

ANTARCTICA
 Ocean Margins / 97

Sediment carried by rivers to the sea is deposited to form deltas at the

mouths of the rivers. Some of the sediment can wash out to sea, causing
formations to build up at a distance from the shore. These formations
eventually become barrier islands, which are often little more than 10
feet (3 km.) above sea level. As a consequence, heavy storms, such as hur-
ricanes, can cause great damage to barrier islands. Barrier islands natu-
rally protect the coastline from erosion, however, especially during heavy
coastal storms.
Sea level changes also affect the shape of the coastline. As oceans slowly
rise, land is slowly consumed by the ocean. Barrier islands, having low sea
levels, may slowly be covered with water. The melting of continental gla-
ciers increased the sea level 0.06 inch (0.15 centimeter) per year during
the twentieth century. As ocean waters warm, they expand, eating away at
sea levels. Global warming caused by carbon dioxide levels in the atmo-
sphere could cause sea levels to rise as much as 0.24 inch (0.6 centimeter)
per year as a result of the warming of the water and glacial melting.
Human Influence. The shape of the ocean margin also changes radi-
cally as a result of human influence. According to the United States Geo-

Ships discharging wastes or spilling oil can cause catastrophic damage to ecosystems along
ocean margins. (PhotoDisc)
98 / Ocean Margins

logical Survey, half of the people living in the United States live within
fifty miles (80.5 km.) of the coasts. Pollution from toxins, dredging, recre-
ational boating, and waste disposal kills plants and animals along the
ocean margin. This changes the coastal shape, as mangrove forests, coral
reefs, and other coastal lifeforms die.
A greater concern along the coastal fringe, however, is human devel-
opment. Not only are people drawn to the fertile soil along the coastal
zone of the continent, but they also develop islands and coves into resort
communities. To protect homes and hotels along the coastal zone from
coastal erosion, people build breakwalls, jetties, and sand and stone bars
called groins.
These human-made barriers disrupt the natural method by which the
ocean carries material along the coast. Longshore drift, a zigzag move-
ment, deposits sediment from one area of the beach farther along the
shoreline. Breakwalls, jetties, and groins disrupt this flow. As the ocean
smashes against a breakwall, the property behind it may be safe for the
present, but the coastline neighboring the breakwall takes a greater beat-
ing. The silt and sediment from upshore, which would replace that car-
ried downshore, never arrives. Eventually, the breakwall will break down

Pollution from toxins, dredging, recreational boating, and careless waste dis-
posal kills plants and animals along the ocean margin, making the water un-
healthful even to humans. (PhotoDisc)
 Ocean Margins / 99

A groin built to protect the coastline of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, traps sand that normally
moves along the shoreline. (U.S. Geological Survey)

under the impact of the ocean force. Areas with breakwalls and jetties of-
ten suffer greater damage in coastal storms than areas that remain natu-
rally open to the changing forces of the ocean.
To compensate for the destructive nature of artificial barriers, many
recreational beaches replace lost sand with dredgings or deposit truck-
loads of sand from inland sources. For example, Virginia Beach in the
United States spends $800,000 annually to restore beaches for the tourist
season in this way.
Despite the changes in the shape of the ocean margin, it continues to
provide a stable supply of resources—fish, seafood, minerals, sponges,
and other marine plants and animals. Offshore drilling of oil and natural
gas often takes place within 200 miles (322 km.) of shorelines.
Lisa A. Wroble

For Further Study

Ackerman, Jennifer. “Islands at the Edge.” National Geographic (August,
1997): 4-31.
Buchanan, Noel, ed. Discovering the Wonders of Our World. New York:
Reader’s Digest, 1993.
Erickson, Jon. Marine Geology: Undersea Landforms and Life Forms. New
York: Facts on File, 1996.
100 / The Atmosphere

Kemper, Steve. “This Beach Boy Sings a Song Developers Don’t Want to
Hear.” Smithsonian 23, no. 7 (October, 1992): 72-86.
Lye, Keith. Our World: Coasts. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Silver Burdett Press,
1988.
Miller, Christina, and Louise A. Berry. Coastal Rescue: Preserving Our Sea-
shores. New York: Atheneum, 1989.
Prager, Ellen J., with Cynthia A. Earle. The Oceans. New York: McGraw-
Hill, 2000.
Wroble, Lisa A. Endangered Animals and Habitats: The Oceans. San Diego,
Calif.: Lucent Books, 1998.

Information on the World Wide Web

Ocean Planet, part of a traveling exhibit prepared by the Smithsonian Insti-
tution, features interesting facts on oceans and ocean margins. (seawifs
.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/oceanography_geography.html)
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) home
page provides maps, photos, and links to general information about NOAA
programs involving the ocean, coastlines, and weather relationships.
(www.noaa.gov/)
The Globe Program is a worldwide program in which schools help scien-
tists with data collection as students learn about science in their own re-
gions of the world. Student findings are posted to the Globe Web site and
are accessible to computer users. (www.globe.gov/)

Earth’s Climates
The Atmosphere
T he thin layer of gases that envelops the earth is the atmosphere. This
layer is so thin that if the earth were the size of a desktop globe, more
than 99 percent of its atmosphere would be contained within the thickness
of an ordinary sheet of paper. Despite its thinness, the atmosphere sustains
life on Earth, protecting it from the Sun’s searing radiation and regulat-
ing the earth’s temperature. Storms of the atmosphere carry water to the
continents, and weathering by its wind and rain helps shape their form.
Composition of the Atmosphere. The earth’s atmosphere consists of
gases, microscopic particles called aerosol, and clouds consisting of water
droplets and ice particles. Its two principal gases are nitrogen and oxygen.
In dry air, nitrogen occupies 78 percent, and oxygen 21 percent, of the at-
 The Atmosphere / 101

mosphere’s volume. Argon, neon, xenon, helium, hydrogen, and other

trace gases together equal less than 1 percent of the remaining volume.
These gases are distributed homogeneously in a layer called the homo-
sphere, which occurs between the earth’s surface and about 50 miles
(80 km.) altitude. Above 50 miles altitude, in the heterosphere, the con-
centration of heavier gases decreases more rapidly than lighter gases.
The atmosphere has no firm top. It simply thins out until the concen-
tration of its gas molecules approaches that of the gases in outer space.
The concentration of nitrogen and oxygen remains essentially constant
in the atmosphere because a balance exists between the production and
removal of these gases at the earth’s surface. Decaying organic matter
adds nitrogen to the atmosphere, while soil bacteria remove nitrogen.
Oxygen enters the atmosphere primarily through photosynthesis and is
removed through animal respiration, combustion, and decay of organic
material, and by chemical reactions involving the creation of oxides.
The atmosphere contains many gases that are present in small, variable
concentrations. Three gases—water vapor, carbon dioxide and ozone—
are vital to life on Earth. Water vapor enters the atmosphere through
evaporation, primarily from the oceans, and through transpiration by
plants. It condenses to form clouds, which provide the rain and snow that
sustain life outside the oceans. The concentration of water vapor varies
from about 4 percent by volume in tropical humid climates to a small
fraction of a percent in polar dry climates. Water vapor plays an impor-
tant role in regulating the temperature of the earth’s surface and the at-
mosphere. Clouds reflect some of the incoming solar radiation, while
water vapor and clouds both absorb earth’s infrared radiation.
Carbon dioxide also absorbs the earth’s infrared radiation. The con-
centration of carbon dioxide, about 0.037 percent by volume at the turn
of the millennium, has increased about 25 percent since the early nine-
teenth century. Carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere as the result of
decay of organic material, through respiration, during volcanic erup-
tions, and from the burning of fossil fuels. It is removed during photosyn-
thesis and by dissolving in ocean water, where it is used by organisms and
converted to carbonates. The increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide as-
sociated with the burning of fossil fuels has raised concerns that the
earth’s atmosphere may be warming through enhancement of the green-
house effect.
Ozone, a gas consisting of molecules containing three oxygen atoms,
forms in the upper atmosphere when oxygen atoms and oxygen mole-
cules combine. Most ozone exists in the upper atmosphere between 15
and 20 miles (25-35 km.) in altitude, in concentrations of no more than
0.002 percent by volume. This small amount of ozone sustains life outside
the oceans by absorbing most of the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation, thereby
shielding the earth’s surface from the radiation’s harmful effects on liv-
ing organisms. Paradoxically, ozone is an irritant near the earth’s surface
102 / The Atmosphere

The Ozone Hole

Since the 1970’s, balloon-borne and satellite measurements of strato-
spheric ozone have shown rapidly declining stratospheric ozone concen-
trations over the continent of Antarctica, termed the “ozone hole.” The
lowest concentrations occur during the Antarctic spring, in September and
October. The decrease in ozone has been associated with an increase in the
concentration of chlorine, a gas introduced into the stratosphere through
chemical reactions involving sunlight and chlorofluorocarbons, synthetic
chemicals used primarily as refrigerants. The ozone hole over Antarctica
has raised concern about possible worldwide reduction in the concentra-
tion of upper atmospheric ozone.

and is the major component of photochemical smog. Other gases that

contribute to pollution include methane, nitrous oxide, hydrocarbons,
and chlorofluorocarbons.
Aerosols represent another component of atmospheric pollution.
Aerosols form in the atmosphere during chemical reactions between
gases, through mechanical or chemical interactions between the earth,
ocean surface and atmosphere, and during evaporation of droplets con-
taining dissolved or solid material. These microscopic particles are always
present in air, with concentrations of about a few hundred per cubic cen-
timeter in clean air to as many as a million per cubic centimeter in pol-
luted air. Aerosols are essential to the formation of rain and snow, because
they serve as centers upon which cloud droplets and ice particles form.
Energy Exchange in the Atmosphere. The Sun is the ultimate source of
the energy in Earth’s atmosphere. Its radiation, called electromagnetic
radiation because it propagates as waves with electric and magnetic prop-
erties, travels to the surface of the earth’s atmosphere at the speed of
light. This energy spans many wavelengths, some of which the human eye
perceives as colors. Visible wavelengths make up about 44 percent of the
Sun’s energy. The remainder of the Sun’s radiant energy cannot be seen
by human eyes. About 7 percent arrives as ultraviolet radiation, and most
of the remaining energy is infrared radiation.
The Sun is not the only source of radiation. All objects emit and absorb
radiation to some degree. Cooler objects such as the earth emit nearly all
their energy at infrared wavelengths. Objects heat when they absorb radi-
ation and cool when they emit radiation. The radiation emitted by the
earth and atmosphere is called terrestrial radiation.
The balance between absorption of solar radiation and emission of ter-
restrial radiation ultimately determines the average temperature of the
earth-atmosphere system. The vertical temperature distribution within
the atmosphere also depends on the absorption and emission of radia-
tion within the atmosphere, and the transfer of energy by the processes of
 The Atmosphere / 103

conduction, convection, and latent heat exchange. Conduction is the di-

rect transfer of heat from molecule to molecule. This process is most im-
portant in transferring heat from the earth’s surface to the first few centi-
meters of the atmosphere. Convection, the transfer of heat by rising or
sinking air, transports heat energy vertically through the atmosphere.
Latent heat is the energy required to change the state of a substance,
for example, from a liquid to a gas. Energy is transferred from the earth’s
surface to the atmosphere through latent heat exchange when water
evaporates from the oceans and condenses to form rain in the atmo-
sphere.
Only 51 percent of the solar energy reaching the top of the earth’s at-
mosphere is absorbed by the earth’s surface. The atmosphere absorbs an-
other 19 percent. The remaining 30 percent is scattered back to space by
atmospheric gases, clouds and the earth’s surface. To understand the im-
portance of terrestrial radiation and the greenhouse effect in the atmo-
sphere’s energy balance, consider the solar radiation arriving at the top
of the earth to be 100 energy units, with 51 energy units absorbed by the
earth’s surface and 19 units by the atmosphere.
The earth’s surface actually emits 117 units of energy upward as terres-
trial radiation, more than twice as much energy as it receives from the
Sun. Only 6 of these units are radiated to space—the atmosphere absorbs
the remaining energy. Latent heat exchange, conduction, and convec-
tion account for another 30 units of energy transferred from the surface
to the atmosphere. The atmosphere, in turn, radiates 96 units of energy
back to the earth’s surface (the greenhouse effect), and 64 units to space.
The earth’s and atmosphere’s energy budget remains in balance, the at-
mosphere gaining and losing 160 units of energy, and the earth gaining
and losing 147 units of energy.

The Greenhouse Effect

Clouds and atmospheric gases such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, meth-
ane, and nitrous oxide absorb part of the infrared radiation emitted by the
earth’s surface and reradiate part of it back to the earth. This process effec-
tively reduces the amount of energy escaping to space and is popularly
called the “greenhouse effect” because of its role in warming the lower at-
mosphere. The greenhouse effect has drawn worldwide attention because
increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fu-
els may result in a global warming of the atmosphere.
Scientists know that the greenhouse analogy is incorrect. A greenhouse
traps warm air within a glass building where it cannot mix with cooler air
outside. In a real greenhouse, the trapping of air is more important in
maintaining the temperature than is the trapping of infrared energy. In the
atmosphere, air is free to mix and move about.
104 / The Atmosphere

Vertical Structure of the Atmosphere. Temperature decreases rap-

idly upward away from the earth’s surface, to about –58 degrees Fahren-
heit (–50 degrees Celsius) at an altitude of about 7.5 miles (12 km.).
Above this altitude, temperature increases with height to about 32 de-
grees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius) at an altitude of 31 miles (50 km.).
The layer of air in the lower atmosphere where temperature decreases
with height is called the troposphere. It contains about 75 percent of the
atmosphere’s mass. The layer of air above the troposphere, where tem-
perature increases with height, is called the stratosphere. All but 0.1 per-
cent of the remaining mass of the atmosphere resides in the stratosphere.
The stratosphere exists because ozone in the stratosphere absorbs ul-
traviolet light and converts it to heat. The boundary between the tropo-
sphere and stratosphere is called the tropopause. The tropopause is ex-
tremely important because it acts as a lid on the earth’s weather. Storms

Layers of the Earth’s Atmosphere

Exosphere
300 mi

200 mi
Thermosphere

100 mi
90 mi
Ionosphere
Mesosphere
40 mi
Stratosphere Ozone layer
20 mi
Troposphere

Earth’s Surface
 The Atmosphere / 105

can grow vertically in the troposphere, but cannot rise far, if at all, beyond
the tropopause. In the polar regions, the tropopause can be as low as 5
miles (8 km.) above the surface, while in the Tropics, the tropopause can
be as high as 11 miles (18 km.). For this reason, tropical storms can ex-
tend to much higher altitudes than storms in cold regions.
The mesosphere extends from the top of the stratosphere, the strato-
pause, to an altitude of about 56 miles (90 km.). Temperature decreases
with height within the mesosphere. The lowest average temperatures in
the atmosphere occur at the mesopause, the top of the mesosphere,
where the temperature is about –130 degrees Fahrenheit (–90 degrees
Celsius). Only 0.0005 percent of the atmosphere’s mass remains above
the mesopause. In this uppermost layer, the thermosphere, there are few
atoms and molecules. Oxygen molecules in the thermosphere absorb
high-energy solar radiation. In this near vacuum, absorption of even
small amounts of energy causes a large increase in temperature. As a re-
sult, temperature increases rapidly with height in the lower thermo-
sphere, reaching about 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit (700 degrees Celsius)
above 155 miles (250 km.) altitude.
The upper mesosphere and thermosphere also contain ions, electri-
cally charged atoms or molecules. Ions are created in the atmosphere
when air molecules collide with high-energy particles arriving from space
or absorb high-energy solar radiation. Ions cannot exist very long in the
lower atmosphere, because collisions between newly formed ions quickly
restore ions to their uncharged state. However, above about 37 miles (60
km.) collisions are less frequent and ions can exist for longer times. This
region of the atmosphere, called the ionosphere, is particularly impor-
tant for amplitude-modulated (AM) radio communication because it re-
flects standard AM radio waves. At night, the lower ionosphere disap-
pears as ions recombine, allowing AM radio waves to travel longer
distances when reflected. For this reason, AM radio station signals can
sometimes travel great distances at night.
The top of the atmosphere occurs at about 310 miles (500 km.). At this
altitude, the distance between individual molecules is so great that ener-
getic molecules can move into free space without colliding with neighbor
molecules. In this uppermost layer, called the exosphere, the earth’s at-
mosphere merges into space.
Robert M. Rauber

For Further Study

Ahrens, C. Donald. Meteorology Today: An Introduction to Weather, Climate,
and the Environment. 6th ed. Pacific Grove, Calif.: Brooks/Cole, 2000.
Barry, Roger G., and Richard J. Chorley. Atmosphere, Weather, and Climate.
7th ed. New York: Routledge, 1998.
Graedel, Thomas E., and Paul J. Crutzen. Atmosphere, Climate, and Change.
New York: W. H. Freeman, 1995.
106 / Global Climates

Information on the World Wide Web

The Weather World 2010 Web site, maintained by the Department of Atmo-
spheric Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, fea-
tures information on many aspects of the atmosphere, including clouds,
precipitation, storms, and forecasting. (ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu)
The Sierra Club’s Web site features a Global Warming home page, with
links to current news and publications. (www.sierraclub.org/globalwarming)

Lutgens, Frederick K., and Edward J. Tarbuck. The Atmosphere. 8th ed. Up-
per Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2001.
Moran, Joseph M., and Michael D. Morgan: Meteorology: The Atmosphere
and Science of Weather. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1996.
Schaefer, Vincent, and John A. Day. The Atmosphere. Peterson Field Guide
Series. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999

Global Climates
A region’s climate is the sum of its long-term weather conditions. Most
descriptions of climate emphasize temperature and precipitation
characteristics, because these two climatic elements usually exert more
impact on environmental conditions and human activities than do other
elements, such as wind, humidity, and cloud cover. Climatic descriptions
of a region generally cover both mean conditions and extremes. Climatic
means are important because they represent average conditions that are
frequently experienced; extreme conditions, such as severe storms, ex-
cessive heat and cold, and droughts, are important because of their ad-
verse impact.
Important Climate Controls. A region’s climate is largely determined
by the interaction of six important natural controls: sun angle, elevation,
ocean currents, land and water heating and cooling characteristics, air
pressure and wind belts, and orographic influence.
Sun angle—the height of the Sun in degrees above the nearest hori-
zon—largely controls the amount of solar heating that a site on Earth re-
ceives. It strongly influences the mean temperatures of most of the
earth’s surface, because the Sun is the ultimate energy source for nearly
all the atmosphere’s heat. The higher the angle of the Sun in the sky, the
greater the concentration of energy, per unit area, on the earth’s surface
(assuming clear skies). From a global perspective, the Sun’s mean angle
is highest, on average, at the equator, and becomes progressively lower
poleward. This causes a gradual decrease in mean temperatures with in-
creasing latitude.
 Global Climates / 107

Sun angles also vary seasonally and daily. Each hemisphere is inclined
toward the Sun during spring and summer, and away from the Sun dur-
ing fall and winter. This changing inclination causes mean sun angles to
be higher, and the length of daylight longer, during the spring and sum-
mer. Therefore, most locations, especially those outside the Tropics, have
warmer temperatures during these two seasons. The earth’s rotation
causes sun angles to be higher during midday than in the early morning
and late afternoon, resulting in warmer temperatures at midday. Heating
and cooling lags cause both seasonal and daily maximum and minimum
temperatures typically to occur somewhat after the periods of maximum
and minimum solar energy receipt.
Variations in elevation—the distance above sea level—can cause loca-
tions at similar latitudes to vary greatly in temperature. Temperatures de-
crease an average of about 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit per thousand feet (6.4
degrees Celsius per thousand meters). Therefore, high mountain and
plateau stations are much colder than low-elevation stations at the same
latitude.
Surface ocean currents can transport masses of warm or cold water
great distances from their source regions, affecting both temperature and
moisture conditions. Warm currents facilitate the evaporation of copious
amounts of water into the atmosphere and add buoyancy to the air by
heating it from below. This results in a general increase in precipitation
totals. Cold currents evaporate water relatively slowly and chill the overly-
ing air, thus stabilizing it and reducing its potential for precipitation.
The influence of ocean currents on land areas is greatest in coastal re-
gions and decreases inland. The west coasts of continents (except for Eu-
rope) generally are paralleled by relatively cold currents, and the east
coasts by relatively warm currents. For example, the warm Gulf Stream
flows northward off the eastern United States, while the West Coast is
cooled by the southward-flowing California Current.
Land can change temperature much more readily than water. As a re-
sult, the air over continents typically experiences larger annual tempera-
ture ranges (that is, larger temperature differences between summer and
winter) and shorter heating and cooling lags than does the air over oceans.
This same effect causes continental interiors and the leeward (downwind)
coasts of continents typically to have larger temperature ranges than do
windward (upwind) coasts. Climates that are dominated by air from land-
masses are often described as continental climates. Conversely, climates
dominated by air from oceans are described as maritime climates.
The seasonal heating and cooling of continents can also produce a
monsoon influence, which has to do with annual shifts of wind patterns.
Areas influenced by a monsoon, such as Southeast Asia, tend to have a
predominantly onshore flow of moist maritime air during the summer.
This often produces heavy rains. An offshore flow of dry air predomi-
nates in winter, producing fair weather.
108 / Global Climates

Earth’s atmosphere displays a banded, or beltlike, pattern of air pres-

sure and wind systems. High pressure is associated with descending air
and dry weather; low pressure is associated with rising air, which produces
cloudiness and often precipitation. Wind is produced by differences in
air pressure. The air blows outward from high-pressure systems and into
low-pressure systems in a constant attempt to equalize air pressures.
The direction and speed of movement of weather systems, such as
weather fronts and storms, are controlled by wind patterns, especially
those several kilometers above the surface. The seasonal shift of global
temperatures caused by the movement of the Sun’s vertical rays between
the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn produces a latitudinal migration of
both air pressure and wind belts. This shift affects the annual tempera-
ture and precipitation patterns of many regions.
Four air-pressure belts exist in each hemisphere. The intertropical
convergence zone (ITCZ) is a broad belt of low pressure centered within
a few degrees of latitude of the equator. The subtropical highs are high-
pressure belts centered near 30 degrees north and south latitude, which
are responsible for many of the world’s deserts. The subpolar lows are
low-pressure belts centered about 60 or 65 degrees north and south lati-
tude. Finally, the polar highs are high-pressure centers located near the
North and South Poles.
The air pressure gradient between these belts produces the earth’s ma-
jor wind belts. The regions between the ITCZ and the subtropical highs
are dominated by the trade winds, a broad belt in each hemisphere of
easterly (that is, moving east to west) winds. The middle latitudes are
mostly situated between the subtropical highs and the subpolar lows and
are within the westerly wind belt. This wind belt causes winds, and
weather systems, to travel generally from west to east in the United States
and Canada. Finally, the high-latitude zones between the subpolar lows
and polar highs are situated within the polar easterlies.
The final factor affecting climate—orographic influence—is the lift-
ing effect of mountain peaks or ranges on winds that pass over them. As
air approaches a mountain barrier, it rises, typically producing clouds
and precipitation on the windward (upwind) side of the mountains. Af-
ter it crosses the crest, it descends the leeward (downwind) side of
the mountains, generally producing dry weather. Most of the world’s
wettest locations are found on the windward sides of high mountain
ranges; some deserts, such as those of the western interior United States,
owe their aridity to their location on the leeward sides of orographic
barriers.
World Climate Types. The global distribution of the world climate
controls is responsible for the development of fourteen widely recog-
nized climate types. In this section, the major characteristics of each of
these climates will be briefly described. The climates are discussed in a
rough poleward sequence.
World Climate Regions

Polar Subarctic Cool Warm Dry Tropical Highland

Temperate Temperate
110 / Global Climates

Tropical Wet Climate. Sometimes called the tropical rain forest cli-
mate, the tropical wet climate exists chiefly in areas lying within 10 de-
grees of the equator. It is an almost seasonless climate, characterized by
year-round warm, humid, rainy conditions that allow land areas to sup-
port a dense broadleaf forest cover. The warm temperatures, which for
most locations average near 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius)
throughout the year, result from the constantly high midday sun angles
experienced at this low latitude. The heavy precipitation totals result
from the heating and subsequent rising of the warm moist air to form fre-
quent showers and thunderstorms, especially during the afternoon
hours. The dominance of the ITCZ enhances precipitation totals, help-
ing make this climate type one of the world’s rainiest.
Tropical Monsoonal Climate. The tropical monsoonal climate occurs
in low-latitude areas, such as Southeast Asia, that have a warm, rainy cli-
mate with a short dry season. Temperatures are similar to those of the
tropical wet climate, with the warmest weather often occurring during
the drier period, when sunshine is more abundant. The heavy rainfalls re-
sult from the nearness of the ITCZ for much of the year, as well as the
dominance of warm, moist air masses derived from tropical oceans. Dur-
ing the brief dry season, however, the ITCZ has usually shifted into the
opposite hemisphere, and windflow patterns often have changed so as to
bring in somewhat drier air derived from continental sources.
Tropical Savanna Climate. The tropical savanna climate, also referred
to as the tropical wet and dry climate, occupies a large portion of the
Tropics between 5 and 20 degrees latitude in both hemispheres. It experi-
ences a distinctive alternation of wet and dry seasons, caused chiefly by
the seasonal shift in latitude of the subtropical highs and ITCZ. Summer
is typically the rainy season because of the domination of the ITCZ. In
many areas, an onshore windflow associated with the summer monsoon
increases rainfalls at this time. In winter, however, the ITCZ shifts into the
opposite hemisphere and is replaced by drier and more stable air associ-
ated with the subtropical high. In addition, the winter monsoon ten-
dency often produces an outflow of continental air. The long dry season
inhibits forest growth, so vegetation usually consists of a cover of drought-
resistant shrubs or the tall savanna grasses after which the climate is
named.
Subtropical Desert Climate. The subtropical desert climate has hot,
arid conditions as a result of the year-round dominance of the subtropical
highs. Summertime temperatures in this climate soar to the highest read-
ings found anywhere on earth. The world’s record high temperature was
136.4 degrees Fahrenheit (58 degrees Celsius), recorded in El Azizia,
Libya, in the northern Sahara Desert. Rainfall totals in this type of climate
are generally less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) per year. What rainfall
does occur often arrives as brief, sometimes violent, afternoon thunder-
storms. Although summer temperatures are extremely hot, the dry air
 Global Climates / 111

enables rapid cooling during the winter, so that temperatures are cool to
mild at this time of year.
Subtropical Steppe Climate. The subtropical steppe climate is a semi-
arid climate, found mostly on the margins of the subtropical deserts. Pre-
cipitation usually ranges from 10 to 30 inches (25 to 75 centimeters), suf-
ficient for a ground cover of shrubs or short steppe grasses. Areas on the
equatorward margins of subtropical deserts typically receive their precip-
itation during a brief showery period in midsummer, associated with the
poleward shift of the ITCZ. Areas on the poleward margins of the sub-
tropical highs receive most of their rainfall during the winter, due to the
penetration of cyclonic storms associated with the equatorward shift of
the westerly wind belt.
Mediterranean Climate. The Mediterranean climate, also sometimes
referred to as the dry summer subtropics, has a distinctive pattern of dry
summers and more humid, moderately wet winters. This pattern is
caused by the seasonal shift in latitude of the subtropical high and the
westerlies. During the summer, the subtropical high shifts poleward into
the Mediterranean climate regions, blanketing them with dry, warm, sta-
ble air. As winter approaches, this pressure center retreats equatorward,
allowing the westerlies, with their eastward-traveling weather fronts and
cyclonic storms, to overspread this region. The Mediterranean climate is
found on the windward sides of continents, particularly the area sur-
rounding the Mediterranean Sea and much of California. This results in
the predominance of maritime air and relatively mild temperatures
throughout the year.
Humid Subtropical Climate. The humid subtropical climate is found
on the eastern, or leeward, sides of continents in the lower middle lati-
tudes. The most extensive land area with this climate is the southeastern
United States, but it is also seen in large areas in South America, Asia, and
Australia. Temperature ranges are moderately large, with warm to hot
summers and cool to mild winters. Mean temperatures for a given loca-
tion are dictated largely by latitude, elevation, and proximity to the coast.
Precipitation is moderate. Winter precipitation is usually associated with
weather fronts and cyclonic storms that travel eastward within the west-
erly wind belt. During summer, most precipitation is in the form of brief,
heavy afternoon and evening thunderstorms. Some coastal areas are sub-
ject to destructive hurricanes during the late summer and autumn.
Midlatitude Desert Climate. This type of climate consists of areas
within the western United States, southern South America, and Central
Asia that have arid conditions resulting from the moisture-blocking influ-
ence of mountain barriers. This climate is highly continental, with warm
summers and cold winters. When precipitations occurs, it frequently
comes in the form of winter snowfalls associated with weather fronts and
cyclonic storms. Rainfall in summer typically occurs as afternoon thun-
derstorms.
112 / Global Climates

Satellite image of storm

patterns over the surface
of the earth. (PhotoDisc)

Midlatitude Steppe. The midlatitude steppe climate is located in inte-

rior portions of continents in the middle latitudes, particularly in Asia
and North America. This climate has semiarid conditions caused by a
combination of continentality resulting from the large distance from oce-
anic moisture sources and the presence of mountain barriers. Like the
midlatitude desert climate, this climate has large annual temperature
ranges, with cold winters and warm summers. It also receives winter rains
and snows chiefly from weather fronts and cyclonic storms; summer rains
occur largely from afternoon convectional storms. In the Great Plains of
the United States, spring can bring very turbulent conditions, with bliz-
zards in early spring and hailstorms and tornadoes in mid to late spring.
Marine West Coast. This type of climate is typically located on the west
coasts of continents just poleward of the Mediterranean climate. Its loca-
tion in the heart of the westerly wind belt on the windward sides of conti-
nents produces highly maritime conditions. As a result, cloudy and hu-
mid weather is common, along with frequent periods of rainfall from
passing weather fronts and cyclonic storms. These storms are often well
developed in winter, resulting in extended periods of wet and windy
weather. Precipitation amounts are largely controlled by the presence
and strength of the orographic effect; mountainous coasts like the north-
western United States and the west coast of Canada are much wetter than
are flatter areas like northern Europe. Temperatures are held at moder-
ate levels by the onshore flow of maritime air. As a consequence, winters
are relatively mild and summers relatively cool for the latitude.
Humid Continental Climate. The humid continental climate is found
in the northern interiors of Eurasia (Europe and Asia) and North Amer-
ica. It does not occur in the Southern Hemisphere because of the ab-
 Global Climates / 113

sence of large land masses in the upper midlatitudes of that hemisphere.

This climate type is characterized by low to moderate precipitation that is
largely frontal and cyclonic in nature. Most precipitation occurs in sum-
mer, but cold winter temperatures typically cause the surface to be frozen
and snow-covered for much of the late fall, winter, and early spring. Tem-
perature ranges in this climate are the largest in the world. In Siberia, for
example, mean temperatures in July can average more than 108 degrees
Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius) warmer than in January. Winter temper-
atures in parts of both North America and Siberia can fall well below –58
degrees Fahrenheit (–50 degrees Celsius), making these the coldest per-
manently settled sites in the world.
Tundra Climate. The tundra climate is a severely cold climate that ex-
ists mostly on the coastal margins of the Arctic Ocean in extreme north-
ern North America and Eurasia, and along the coast of Greenland. The
high-latitude location and proximity to icy water cause every month to
have average temperatures below 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Cel-
sius), although a few months in summer have means above freezing. As a
result of the cold temperatures, tundra areas are not forested, but instead
typically have a sparse ground cover of grasses, sedges, flowers, and li-
chens. Even this vegetation is buried by a layer of snow during most of the
year. Cold temperatures lower the water vapor holding capacity of the air,
causing precipitation totals to be generally light. Most precipitation is as-
sociated with weather fronts and cyclonic storms and occurs during the
summer half of the year.
Ice Cap Climate. The most poleward and coldest of the world’s cli-
mates is called the ice cap climate. It is found on the continent of Antarc-
tica, interior Greenland, and some high mountain peaks and plateaus.
Because monthly mean temperatures are subfreezing throughout the
year, areas with this climate are glaciated and have no permanent human
inhabitants.
The coldest temperatures of all occur in interior Antarctica, where a
Russian research station named Vostok recorded the world’s coldest tem-
perature of –128.6 degrees Fahrenheit (–89.2 degrees Celsius) on July 21,
1983. This climate receives little precipitation because the atmosphere
can hold very little water vapor. A major moisture surplus exists, however,
because of the lack of snowmelt and evaporation. This causes the build
up of a surface snow cover that eventually compacts to form the icecaps
that bury the surface. Snowstorms are often accompanied by high winds,
producing blizzard conditions.
Global Warming. Global temperatures increased significantly during
the twentieth century. Recordings taken from both ships and land sta-
tions indicate that the global average temperature rose by about 0.5 to 1.1
degrees Fahrenheit (0.3 to 0.6 degrees Celsius) during this period, and
much of this increase occurred during the 1990’s. It is strongly suspected
that human activities that increase the abundance of greenhouse gases
114 / Global Climates

(heat-trapping gases) in the atmosphere may play a key role in the tem-
perature rise.
Emissions of carbon dioxide, a gas responsible for nearly two-thirds of
the global-warming potential of all human-released gases, rose about 400
percent between 1950 and 2000. Carbon dioxide is released chiefly by the
burning of fossil fuels. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations are
also increased by deforestation, which is occurring at a rapid rate in sev-
eral tropical countries. Deforestation causes carbon dioxide levels to rise
because trees remove large quantities of this gas from the atmosphere
during the process of photosynthesis.
Research indicates that if atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse
gases continue to increase at the 1990’s pace, global temperatures could
rise an additional 1.8 to 6.3 degrees Fahrenheit (1 to 3.5 degrees Celsius)
during the twenty-first century. That level of temperature increase would
produce major changes in global climates and plant and animal habitats
and would cause sea levels to rise substantially.
Ralph C. Scott

For Further Study

Aguado, Edward, and James E. Best. Understanding Weather and Climate.
Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1999.
Ahrens, C. Donald. Meteorology Today: An Introduction to Weather, Climate,
and the Environment. 6th ed. Pacific Grove, Calif.: Brooks/Cole, 2000.
Barry, Roger G., and Richard J. Chorley. Atmosphere, Weather, and Climate.
7th ed. New York: Routledge, 1998.
Gabler, Robert E., Robert J. Sager, and Daniel L. Wise. Essentials of Physical
Geography. 5th ed. New York: Saunders College Publishing, 1997.
Hidore, John J., and John E. Oliver. Climatology: An Atmospheric Science. En-
glewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1993.
McKnight, Tom L., and Darrel Hess. Physical Geography: A Landscape Ap-
preciation. 6th ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2000.
Rosenzweig, Cynthia. Climate Change and the Global Harvest: Potential Im-
pacts of the Greenhouse Effect on Agriculture. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1998.

Information on the World Wide Web

The World Climate Web site contains temperature and precipitation statis-
tics in both metric and imperial (standard American) units for thousands
of worldwide climate-reporting stations, all of which are identified by lati-
tude, longitude, and elevation. Various maps, with enlargement and reduc-
tion capabilities, are provided to show the locations of the stations.
(www.worldclimate.com/climate/)
 Cloud Formation / 115

Suplee, Curt. “El Niño/La Niña.” National Geographic (March, 1999): 72-
95.
_______. “Unlocking the Climate Puzzle.” National Geographic (May,
1998): 38-71.

Cloud Formation
C louds are visible manifestations of water in the air. Cloud patterns
can provide even a casual observer with much information about air
movements and the processes occurring in the atmosphere. The shapes
and heights of the clouds and the directions from which they have come
are valuable clues in understanding weather.
Importance of Cooling. Clouds are formed when water vapor in the
air is transformed into either water droplets or ice crystals. Sometimes
large amounts of moisture are added to the air, producing clouds, but
clouds generally are formed when a large amount of air is cooled. The
amount of water vapor that air can hold varies with temperature: Cold air
can hold less water vapor than warmer air. If air is cooled to the point at

The extent of Earth’s cloud cover can be seen in this composite satellite photo-
graph of the planet, on which a portion of northern Mexico and the central
United States is the only visible landmass. (PhotoDisc)
 116 / Cloud Formation

which it can hold no more water vapor, the water vapor will condense into
water droplets. The temperature at which condensation begins is called
the dew point. At below freezing temperatures, the water vapor will turn
or deposit into ice crystals.
Cloud droplets do not necessarily form even if the air is fully saturated,
that is, holding as much water vapor as possible at a given temperature.
Once formed, cloud droplets can evaporate again very easily. Two factors
hasten the production and growth of cloud droplets. One is the presence
of particles in the atmosphere that attract water. These are called hygro-
scopic particles or condensation nuclei. They include salt, dust, and pol-
len. Once water vapor condenses on these particles, more condensation
can occur. Then the droplets can grow larger and bump into other drop-
lets, growing even larger through this process, called coalescence.
Condensation and cloud droplet growth also is hastened when the air
is very cold, at about –40 degrees Fahrenheit (which is also –40 degrees
Celsius). At this temperature ice crystals form, but some water droplets
can exist as liquid water. These water droplets are said to be supercooled.
The water vapor is more likely to deposit on the ice crystals than on the

Cloud Formation
The hydrologic cycle is the continuous circulation of the earth’s waters through evapora-
tion, condensation, and precipitation. The cycle also moves water through runoff, infiltra-
tion, and transpiration.

Condensation Sun
Rain clouds

Precipitation o n
ati
v a po r Cloud formation
E

Evapotranspiration

Evaporation
Infiltration
Surface runoff

Water
table Infiltration
Soil
Percolation
Zone of
saturation Groundwater
Ocean
 Cloud Formation / 117

Clouds forming over low-lying mountains. (PhotoDisc)

supercooled water. Thus the ice crystals grow larger and the supercooled
water droplets evaporate, resulting in more water vapor to deposit on ice
crystals. Whether the cloud droplets start as hygroscopic particles or ice
crystals, they eventually can grow in size to become a raindrop; around
one million cloud droplets make one raindrop.
How and Why Rising Air Cools. In order for air to be cooled, it must
rise or be lifted. When a volume of air, or an air parcel, is forced to rise
through the surrounding air, the parcel expands in size as the pressure of
the air around it declines with altitude. Close to the surface, the atmo-
spheric pressure is relatively high because the density of the atmosphere
is high. As altitude increases, the atmosphere declines in density, and the
still air exerts less pressure. Thus, as an air parcel rises through the atmo-
sphere, the pressure of the surrounding air declines, and the parcel takes
up more space as it expands. Since work is done by the parcel as it ex-
pands, the parcel cools and its temperature declines.
An alternative explanation of the cooling is that the number of mole-
cules in the air parcel remains the same, but when the volume is larger,
the molecules produce less frictional heat because they do not bang into
each other as much. The temperature of the air parcel declines, but no
heat leaves the parcel—the change in temperature results from internal
processes. The process of an air parcel rising, expanding, and cooling is
called adiabatic cooling. Adiabatic means that no heat leaves the parcel.
If the parcel rises far enough, it will cool sufficiently to reach its dewpoint
 118 / Cloud Formation

Cumulonimbus clouds are huge, dense formations that rise as high as the
stratosphere. Cumulonimbus clouds produce lightning and thunderstorms.
(Weather Stock)

temperature. With continued cooling, condensation will result—a cloud

will be formed. At this height, which is called the lifting condensation
level, an invisible parcel of air will turn into a cloud.
Uplift Mechanisms. An initial force is necessary to cause the air parcel
to rise and then cool adiabatically. The three major processes are convec-
tion, orographic, and frontal or cyclonic.
With certain conditions, convection or vertical movement can cause
clouds to form. On a sunny day, usually in the summer, the ground is
heated unevenly. Some areas of the ground become warmer and heat
the air above, making it
warmer and less dense.
A stream of air, called a
Types of Clouds thermal, may rise. As it
Name Altitude (km) Altitude (miles) rises, it cools adiabati-
cally through expansion
Altocumulus 2-7 6,500-23,000 and may reach its dew-
Altostratus 2-7 6,500-23,000 point temperature. With
Cirrocumulus 5-13.75 16,500-45,000 continued cooling and
Cirrostratus 5-13.75 16,500-45,000 rising, condensation will
Cirrus 5-13.75 16,500-45,000 occur, forming a cloud.
Cumulonimbus to 2 to 6,500 Since the cloud is formed
Cumulus to 2 to 6,500 by predominantly verti-
cal motions, the cloud
Nimbostratus 2-7 6,500-23,000
will be cumulus. With
Stratocumulus to 2 to 6,500
continued warming of
Stratus to 2 to 6,500
the surface, the thermals

Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

 Cloud Formation / 119

may rise even higher, perhaps producing thunderstorm, or cumulonim-

bus, clouds. Thus, a sunny summer day can start off without a cloud in the
sky, but can be stormy with many thunderstorms by afternoon.
Clouds also can form when air is forced to rise when it meets a moun-
tain or other large vertical barrier. This type of lifting—orographic—is es-
pecially prevalent where air moves over the ocean and then is forced to
rise up a mountain, as occurs on the west coast of North and South Amer-
ica. As the air rises, it cools adiabatically and eventually becomes so cool
that it cannot hold the water vapor. Condensation occurs and clouds
form. The air continues to move up the mountain, producing clouds and
precipitation on the side of the mountain from which the wind came, the
windward side. However, the air eventually must fall down the other side
of the mountain, the leeward side. That air is warmed and moisture evap-
orates, resulting in no clouds.
A third lifting mechanism is frontal, or cyclonic, action. This occurs
when a large mass of cold air and a large mass of warm air—often hun-
dreds of miles in area—meet. The warm air mass and the cold air mass
will not mix freely, resulting in a border or front between the two air

The cloud formations seen where tornadoes are developing are known as
mammatocumulus. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
120 / Cloud Formation

masses. The warm, less dense, air will always rise above the cold, denser,
air mass. As the warm air rises, it cools, and when it reaches its dew point,
clouds will form. If the warm air displaces the cold air, or a warm front oc-
curs, the warm air will rise gradually, resulting in layered or stratiform
clouds. The cloud types will change on an upward diagonal path, with the
lowest being stratus, and nimbostratus if rain occurs, followed by alto-
stratus, then cirrostratus, and cirrus.
On the other hand, if the cold air displaces the warm air, the warm air
will be forced to rise much more quickly. The clouds formed will be puffy
or cumuliform—cumulus at the lowest levels, altocumulus and cirrocu-
mulus at the highest altitudes. Sometimes cumulonimbus clouds will also
form.
Sometimes when a cold front meets a warm front, the whole warm air
mass is forced off the ground. This forms a cyclone—an area of low pres-
sure—as the warm air rises. As this air rises, it cools. If it reaches its dew
point, condensation and clouds will result. In oceanic tropical areas, a cy-
clone can form within warm, moist air. This air also will cool and, if it
reaches its dew point, will condense and form clouds. Sometimes, these
tropical cyclones are the precursors of hurricanes. The clouds associated
with cyclones are usually cumulus, including cumulonimbus, as they are
formed by rapidly rising air.
Margaret F. Boorstein

For Further Study

Hamblyn, Richard. The Invention of Clouds: How an Amateur Meterologist
Forged the Language of the Skies. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Girous,
2001.
Lehr, Paul E., Will Burnett, and Herbert Spencer Zim. Weather: Air Masses,
Clouds, Rainfall, Storms, Weather Maps, Climate. Rev. ed. New York:
Golden Press, 1987.

Information on the World Wide Web

The National Weather Service is the primary U.S. source of weather data,
forecasts, and warnings for television weathercasters and private meteo-
rology companies. The service’s Web site provides weather reports and
forecasts for the nation and the world and educational resources on meteo-
rology, hydrology, and climatology. (www.nws.noaa.gov/)
The Weather World 2010 Web site, maintained by the Department of At-
mospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, fea-
tures specialized information on cloud development and classification and
different types of precipitation.
(ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/cld/home.rxml)
 Storms / 121

Ludlum, David, Ronald L. Holle, and Richard A. Keen. National Audu-

bon Society Pocket Guides. Clouds and Storms. New York: Knopf, 1995.
Rubin, Louis D., Sr., Jim Duncan, Louis D. Rubin, Jr., and Hiram J. Her-
bert. The Weather Wizard’s Cloud Book: How You Can Forecast the Weather
Accurately and Easily by Reading the Clouds. Chapel Hill, N. C.: Algonquin
Books, 1989.
Lutgens, Frederick K., and Edward J. Tarbuck. The Atmosphere. 8th ed. Up-
per Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2001.
Schaefer, Vincent J., and John A. Day. Peterson Field Guide Series. A Field
Guide to the Atmosphere. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981.
Williams, Jack. The USA Today Weather Book. 2d and rev. ed. New York: Vin-
tage Books, 1997.

Storms
A storm is an atmospheric disturbance that produces wind, is accom-
panied by some form of precipitation, and sometimes involves thun-
der and lightning. Storms that meet certain criteria are given specific
names, such as hurricanes, blizzards, and tornadoes.
Stormy weather is associated with low atmospheric pressure, while

Satellite view
of a hurricane.
(PhotoDisc)
122 / Storms

clear, calm, dry weather is associated with high atmospheric pressure. Be-
cause of the way atmospheric pressure and wind direction are related,
low-pressure areas are characterized by winds moving cyclonically (in a
counterclockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere; clockwise in
the Southern Hemisphere) around the center of the low pressure.
Storms of all kinds are associated with cyclones, but two classes of cy-
clones—tropical and extratropical—produce most storms.
Tropical Cyclones. These storms develop during the summer and au-
tumn in every tropical ocean except the South Atlantic and eastern
South Pacific Oceans. Tropical cyclones that occur in the North Atlantic
and eastern North Pacific Oceans are known as hurricanes; in the west-
ern North Pacific Ocean, as typhoons; and in the Indian and South Pa-
cific Oceans, as cyclones.
All tropical cyclones develop in three stages. Arising from the forma-
tion of the initial atmospheric disturbance that is characterized by a clus-
ter of thunderstorms, the first stage—tropical depression—occurs when
the maximum sustained surface wind speeds (the average speed over one
minute) range from 23-39 miles (37-61 km.) per hour. The second
stage—tropical storm—occurs when sustained winds range from 40-73
miles (62-119 km.) per hour. At this stage, the storm is given a name.

Anatomy of a Hurricane

Cool, dry air

falls downward

Feeder bands

Eye wall
Warm moist
Eye air rises
tunnel

Spin direction

Spin

Sea surface
 Storms / 123

The eye of this hurricane is clearly visible at the stor m’s center. (PhotoDisc)

From eighty to one hundred tropical storms develop each year across the
world, with about half continuing to the final stage—hurricane—at
which sustained wind speeds are 74 miles (120 km.) per hour or greater.
Moving over land or into colder oceans initiates the end of the hurricane
after a week or so by eliminating the hurricane’s fuel—warm water.
A mature hurricane is a symmetrical storm, with the “eye” at the cen-
ter; the eye develops as winds increase and become circular around the
central core of low pressure. Within the eye, it is relatively warm, and
there are light winds, no precipitation, and few clouds. This is caused by
air descending in the center of the storm. Surrounding the eye is the “eye
wall,” a ring of intense thunderstorms that can extend high into the at-
mosphere. Within the eye wall, the strongest winds and heaviest rainfall
are found; this is also where warm, moist air, the hurricane’s “fuel,” flows
into the storm. Spiraling bands of clouds, called “rain bands,” surround
the eye wall. Precipitation and wind speeds decrease from the eye wall out
toward the edge of the rain bands, while atmospheric pressure is lowest in
the eye and increases outward.
 124 / Storms

The immense strength of hurricane winds makes hurricanes the most damaging type of storm
system. (PhotoDisc)

Hurricanes can be the most damaging storms because of their inten-

sity and size. Damage is caused by high winds and the flying debris they
carry, flooding from the tremendous amounts of rain a hurricane can
produce, and storm surge. A storm surge, which accounts for most of the
coastal property loss and 90 percent of hurricane deaths, is a dome of
water that is pushed forward as the storm moves. This wall of water is
lifted up onto the coast as the
eye wall comes in contact with
land. For example, a 25-foot (8-
Naming Hurricanes meter) storm surge created by
Hurricanes once were identified by their Hurricane Camille in 1969 de-
latitudes and longitudes, but this method stroyed the Richelieu Apart-
of naming became confusing when more ments next to the ocean in Pass
than one hurricane developed at the Christian, Mississippi. Ignoring
same time in the same ocean. During advice to evacuate, twenty-five
World War II hurricanes were identified
people had gathered there for
by radio code letters, such as “Able” and
a hurricane party; all but one
“Baker.” In 1953 the National Weather
Service began using English female was killed.
names in an alphabetical list. Male names To help predict the damage
and French and Spanish names were that an approaching hurricane
added in 1978. By 2000 six lists of names can cause, the Saffir-Simpson
were used on a rotating basis. When a par- Scale was developed. A hurri-
ticular hurricane causes much death or cane is rated from 1 (weak) to 5
destruction, as Hurricane Andrew did in (devastating), according to its
August of 1992—its name is retired for at central pressure, sustained wind
least ten years.
 Storms / 125

speed, and storm surge height. Camille (1969) was a Category 5 and An-
drew (1992) was a Category 4.
Extratropical Cyclones. Also known as midlatitude cyclones, these
storms are traveling low-pressure systems that are seen on newspaper and
television daily weather maps. They are created when a mass of moist,
warm air from the south contacts a mass of drier, cool air from the north,
causing a front to develop. At the front, the warmer air rides up over the
colder air. This causes water vapor to condense and produces clouds and
rain during most of the year, and snow in the winter.
Thunderstorms. Thunderstorms also develop in stages. During the cu-
mulus stage, strong updrafts of warm air build the storm clouds. The
storm moves into the mature stage when updrafts continue to feed the
storm, but cool downdrafts are also occurring in a portion of the cloud
where precipitation is falling. When the warm updrafts disappear, the
storm’s fuel is gone and the dissipating stage begins. Eventually, the
cloud rains itself out and evaporates.
Thunderstorms can also form away from a frontal system, usually dur-
ing summer. This formation is related to a relatively small area of warm,
moist air rising and creating a thunderstorm that is usually localized and
short lived.

The immense size that a hurricane can reach is dramatically evident in this satellite image of a
hurricane off the coasts of Florida and Cuba. (PhotoDisc)
 126 / Storms

Lightning storm over Seattle, Washington. Lightning is the product of positive and negative
electrical charges in storm clouds creating giant sparks while attempting to balance out. Light-
ning that finds its way to the surface heats the air around it to such high temperatures that the
air expands explosively, creating the shock waves called thunder. (PhotoDisc)

Wind, lightning, hail, and flooding from heavy rain are the main de-
structive forces of a thunderstorm. Lightning occurs in all mature thun-
derstorms as the positive and negative electrical charges in a cloud at-
tempt to equal out, creating a giant spark. Most lightning stays within the
clouds, but some finds its way to the surface. The lightning heats the air
around it to incredible temperatures (54,000 degrees Fahrenheit/30,000
degrees Celsius), which causes the air to expand explosively, creating the
shock wave called thunder. Since lightning travels at the speed of light
and thunder at the speed of sound, one can estimate how many miles
away the lightning is by counting the seconds between the lightning and
thunder and dividing by five. People have been killed by lightning while
boating, swimming, biking, golfing, standing under a tree, talking on the
telephone, and riding on a lawnmower.
Hail is formed in towering cumulonimbus clouds with strong updrafts.
It begins as small ice pellets that grow by collecting water droplets that
freeze on contact as the pellets fall through the cloud. The strong up-
drafts push the pellets back into the cloud, where they continue collect-
ing water droplets until they are too heavy to stay aloft and fall as hail-
stones. The more an ice pellet is pushed back into the cloud, the larger
 Storms / 127

the hailstone becomes. The largest authenticated hailstone in the United

States fell on Coffeyville, Kansas, in September, 1970. It weighed 1.67
pounds (757 grams) and was 5.5 inches (14 centimeters) in diameter.
Tornadoes. For reasons not well understood, less than 1 percent of all
thunderstorms spawn tornadoes. Called funnel clouds until they touch
earth, tornadoes contain the highest wind speeds known.
Although tornadoes can occur anywhere in the world, the United
States has the most, with an average of eight hundred per year. Tornadoes
have occurred in every state, but the greatest number hit a portion of the
Great Plains from central Texas to Nebraska, known as “Tornado Alley.”
There cold, Canadian air and warm, Gulf Coast air often collide over the
flat land, creating the wall cloud from which most tornadoes are
spawned. May is the peak month for tornado activity, but they have been
spotted in every month.
Because tornado winds cannot be measured directly, the tornado is
ranked according to its damage, using the Fujita Intensity Scale. The
scale ranges from an F0, with wind speeds less than 72 miles (116 km.)
per hour, causing light damage, to an F5, with winds greater than 260
miles (419 km.) per hour, causing incredible damage. Most tornadoes
are small, but the larger ones cause much damage and death.
Kay R. S. Williams

For Further Study

Arnold, Caroline. El Niño: Stormy Weather for People and Wildlife. New York:
Clarion Books, 1998.

Information on the World Wide Web

The Weather page at USA Today‘s Web site features up-to-date national and
world weather information, maps, and forecasts, as well as articles on
weather-related topics, an interactive question-and-answer feature, and
current information on hurricanes and tornadoes.
(www.usatoday.com/weather/)
The Weather Channel’s Web site, Weather.Com, features up-to-date na-
tional and world weather information, maps, and forecasts. The “Learn
More” link directs viewers to the Weather Classroom, an educational series
exploring weather science, with teacher and student resources, backyard
projects, and severe weather safety information. (www.weather.com)
How the Weatherworks is a company dedicated to providing educa-
tional weather services to teachers and students from pre-school through
adulthood. The company’s Web site provides information about its services
and products as well as experiments and activities and answers to fre-
quently asked questions about the weather. (www.weatherworks.com)
128 / Storms

Barry, Roger G., and Richard J. Chorley. Atmosphere, Weather, and Climate.
7th ed. New York: Routledge, 1998.
Freedman, D. H. “Bolts from the Blue.” Discover 11, issue 12 (December,
1990): 50-56.
Laskin, David. Braving the Elements: The Stormy History of American Weather.
New York: Doubleday, 1996.
Lauber, Patricia. Hurricanes: Earth’s Mightiest Storms. New York: Scholastic
Press, 1996.
“Living with Natural Hazards.” National Geographic (July, 1998): 2-39.
Lyons, Walter A. The Handy Weather Answer Book. Detroit, Mich.: Visible
Ink Press, 1997.
Pearce, E. A. The Times Books World Weather Guide. New York: Times
Books/Random House, 1999.
“Unraveling the Mysteries of Twisters.” Time 147, issue 21 (May 20, 1996):
58-64.
Watts, Alan. The Weather Handbook. Dobbs Ferry, New York: Sheridan
House, 1994.
Biogeography and
Natural Resources
This page intentionally left blank
 131

Earth’s Biological
Systems
Biomes
T he major recognizable life zones of the continents, biomes are char-
acterized by their plant communities. Temperature, precipitation,
soil, and length of day affect the survival and distribution of biome spe-
cies. Species diversity within a biome may increase its stability and capabil-
ity to deliver natural services, including enhancing the quality of the
atmosphere, forming and protecting the soil, controlling pests, and pro-
viding clean water, fuel, food, and drugs. Land biomes are the temperate,
tropical, and boreal forests; tundra; desert; grasslands; and chaparral.
Temperate Forest. The temperate forest biome occupies the so-called
temperate zones in the midlatitudes (from about 30 to 60 degrees north
and south of the equator). Temperate forests are found mainly in Eu-
rope, eastern North America, and eastern China, and in narrow zones on
the coasts of Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, and the Pacific coasts of
North and South America. Their climates are characterized by high rain-
fall and temperatures that vary from cold to mild.
Temperate forests contain primarily deciduous trees—including ma-
ple, oak, hickory, and beechwood—and, secondarily, evergreen trees—
including pine, spruce, fir, and hemlock. Evergreen forests in some parts
of the Southern Hemisphere contain eucalyptus trees.
The root systems of forest trees help keep the soil rich. The soil quality
and color is due to the action of earthworms. Where these forests are fre-
quently cut, soil runoff pollutes streams, which reduces fisheries because
of the loss of spawning habitat. Racoons, opposums, bats, and squirrels
are found in the trees. Deer and black bear roam forest floors. During
winter, small animals such as groundhogs and squirrels burrow in the
ground.
Tropical Forest. Tropical forests are in frost-free areas between the
Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. Temperatures range from
warm to hot year-round, because the Sun’s rays shine nearly straight
down around midday. These forests are found in northern Australia, the
East Indies, southeastern Asia, equatorial Africa, and parts of Central
America and northern South America.
Tropical forests have high biological diversity and contain about 15
percent of the world’s plant species. Animal life lives at different layers of
tropical forests. Nuts and fruits on the trees provide food for birds, mon-
keys, squirrels, and bats. Monkeys and sloths feed on tree leaves. Roots,
seeds, leaves, and fruit on the forest floor feed deer, hogs, tapirs, ante-
Biomes of the World

Tr o p i c o f C a n c e r

Tr o p i c o f C a p r i c o r n

Desert Tropical Rain Forest Temperate Grassland Taiga

Monsoon Savanna Temperate Forest Tundra

Mediterranean Mountain Polar

 Biomes / 133

The aspen is a deciduous tree that is well adapted to cold winters in boreal forests. (PhotoDisc)

lopes, and rodents. The tropical forests produce rubber trees, mahogany,
and rosewood. Large animals in these forests include the Asian tiger, the
African bongo, the South American tapir, the Central and South Ameri-
can jaguar, the Asian and African leopard, and the Asian axis deer. Defor-
estation for agriculture and pastures has caused reduction in plant and
animal diversity.
Boreal Forest. The boreal forest is a circumpolar Northern Hemi-
sphere biome spread across Russia, Scandinavia, Canada, and Alaska.
The region is very cold. Evergreen trees such as white spruce and black
spruce dominate this zone, which also contains larch, balsam, pine, and
fir, and some deciduous hardwoods such as birch and aspen. The acidic
needles from the evergreens make the leaf litter that is changed into soil
humus. The acidic soil limits the plants that develop.
Animals in boreal forests include deer, caribou, bear, and wolves. Birds
in this zone include goshawks, red-tailed hawks, sapsuckers, grouse, and
nuthatches. Relatively few animals emigrate from this habitat during win-
ter. Conifer seeds are the basic winter food. The disappearing aspen habi-
 134 / Biomes

Wetlands, places where the ground is saturated with water, constitute transition zones between
aquatic ecosystems and terrestrial ecosystems. (PhotoDisc)

tat of the beaver has decreased their numbers and has reduced the size of
wetlands.
Tundra. About 5 percent of the earth’s surface is covered with Arctic
tundra, and 3 percent with alpine tundra. The Arctic tundra is the area of
Europe, Asia, and North America north of the boreal coniferous forest
zone, where the soils remain frozen most of the year. Arctic tundra has a
permanent frozen subsoil, called permafrost. Deep snow and low temper-
atures slow the soil-forming process. The area is bounded by a 50 degrees
Fahrenheit circumpolar isotherm, known as the summer isotherm. The
cold temperature north of this line prevents normal tree growth.
The tundra landscape is covered by mosses, lichens, and low shrubs,
which are eaten by caribou, reindeer, and musk oxen. Wolves eat these
herbivores. Bear, fox, and lemming also live here. The larger mammals,
including marine mammals and the overwintering birds, have large fat
layers beneath the skin and long dense fur or dense feathers that provide
protection. The small mammals burrow beneath the ground to avoid the
harsh winter climate. The most common Arctic bird is the old squaw
duck. Ptarmigans and eider ducks are also very common. Geese, falcons,
and loons are some of the nesting birds of the area.
The alpine tundra, which exists at high altitude in all latitudes, is acted
 Biomes / 135

upon by winds, cold temperatures, and snow. The plant growth is mostly
cushion and mat-forming plants.
Desert. The desert biome covers about one-seventh of the earth’s sur-
face. Deserts typically receive no more than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of
rainfall a year, but evaporation generally exceeds rainfall. Deserts are
found around the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. As the
warm air rises over the equator, it cools and loses its water content. This
dry air descends in the two subtropical zones on each side of the equator;
as it warms, it picks up moisture, resulting in drying the land.
Rainfall is a key agent in shaping the desert. The lack of sufficient
plant cover removes the natural protection that prevents soil erosion dur-
ing storms. High winds also cut away the ground.
Some desert plants obtain water from deep below the surface, for exam-
ple, the mesquite tree, which has roots that are 40 feet (13 meters) deep.
Other plants, such as the barrel cactus, store large amounts of water in
their leaves, roots, or stems. Other plants slow the loss of water by having
tiny leaves or shedding their leaves. Desert plants have very short growth
periods, because they cannot grow during the long drought periods.
Desert animals protect themselves from the Sun’s heat by eating at
night, staying in the shade during the day, and digging burrows in the
ground. Among the world’s large desert animals are the camel, coyote,
mule deer, Australian dingo, and Asian saiga. The digestive process of
some desert animals produces
water. A method used by some
animals to conserve water is the
reabsorption of water from
their feces and urine.
Grassland. Grasslands cover
about a quarter of the earth’s
surface, and can be found be-
tween forests and deserts. Tree-
less grasslands grow in parts of
central North America, Central
America, and eastern South
America that have between 10
and 40 inches (250-1,000 milli-
meters) of erratic rainfall. The
climate has a high rate of evap-
oration and periodic major
droughts. The biome is also
subject to fire.
Some grassland plants sur-
vive droughts by growing deep
roots, while others survive by
being dormant. Grass seeds

Barrel cactus. (Digital Stock)

136 / Biomes

feed the lizards and rodents that become the food for hawks and eagles.
Large animals include bison, coyotes, mule deer, and wolves. The grass-
lands produce more food than any other biome. Poor grazing and agri-
cultural practices and mining destroy the natural stability and fertility of
these lands. The reduced carrying capacity of these lands causes an in-
crease in water pollution and erosion of the soil. Diverse natural grass-
lands appear to be more capable of surviving drought than are simplified
manipulated grass systems. This may be due to slower soil mineralization
and nitrogen turnover of plant residues in the simplified system.
Savannas are open grasslands containing deciduous trees and shrubs.
They are near the equator and are associated with deserts. Grasses grow
in clumps and do not form a continuous layer. The northern savanna
bushlands are inhabited by oryx and gazelles. The southern savanna sup-
ports springbuck and eland. Elephants, antelope, giraffe, zebras, and
black rhinoceros are found on the savannas. Lions, leopards, cheetah,
and hunting dogs are the primary predators here. Kangaroos are found
in the savannas of Australia. Savannas cover South America north and
south of the Amazon rain forest, where jaguar and deer can be found.
Mediterranean. The Mediterranean biome is found in the Mediterra-
nean Basin, California, southern Australia, middle Chile, and Cape Prov-
ince of South Africa. In California it is known as chaparral. This region
has a climate of wet winters and summer drought. The plants have tough
leathery leaves and may contain thorns. Regional fires clear the area of
dense and dead vegetation. Fire, heat, and drought shape the region. The
vegetation dwarfing is due to the severe drought and extreme climate
changes. The seeds from some plants, such as the California manzanita
and South African fire lily, are protected by the soil during a fire and later
germinate and rapidly grow to form new plants.
Ocean. The ocean biome covers more than 70 percent of the earth’s
surface and includes 90 percent of its volume. The ocean has four zones.
The intertidal zone is shallow and lies at the land’s edge. The continental
shelf, which begins where the intertidal zone ends, is a plain that slopes
gently seaward. The neritic zone (continental slope) begins at a depth of
about 600 feet (180 meters), where the gradual slant of the continental
shelf becomes a sharp tilt toward the ocean floor, plunging about 12,000
feet (3,660 meters) to the ocean bottom, which is known as the abyss. The
abyssal zone is so deep that it does not have light.
Plankton are animals that float in the ocean. They include algae and
copepods, which are microscopic crustaceans. Jellyfish and animal larva
are also considered plankton. The nekton are animals that move freely
through the water by means of their muscles. These include fish, whales,
and squid. The benthos are animals that are attached to or crawl along
the ocean’s floor. Clams are examples of benthos. Bacteria decompose
the dead organic materials on the ocean floor.
The circulation of materials from the ocean’s floor to the surface is
 Biomes / 137

Beaver dams are becoming less common as the wetlands they inhabit are giving way to hu-
man settlements. (PhotoDisc)

caused by winds and water temperature. Runoff from the land contains
polluting chemicals such as pesticides, nitrogen fertilizers, and animal
wastes. Rivers carry loose soil to the ocean, where it builds up the bottom
areas. Overfishing has caused fisheries to collapse in every world sector.
In some parts of the northwestern Altantic Ocean, there has been a shift
from bony fish to cartilaginous fish dominating the fisheries.
Human Impact on Biomes. Human interaction with biomes has in-
creased biotic invasions, reduced the numbers of species, changed the
quality of land and water resources, and caused the proliferation of toxic
compounds. Managed care of biomes may not be capable of undoing
these problems.
Ronald J. Raven

For Further Study

Aber, J. D., and J. M. Melillo. Terrestrial Ecosystems. 2d ed. San Diego, Calif.:
Harcourt Academic Press, 2001.
Collinson, Alan. Grasslands. New York: Dillon Press, 1992.
Hiscock, Bruce. Tundra: The Arctic Land. New York: Atheneum, 1986.
Kaplan, Elizabeth. Temperate Forest. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1996.
Linsenmair, K. E., ed. Tropical Forest Canopies: Ecology and Management.
London: Kluwer Academic, 2001.
 138 / Forests

Moore, Randy, and Darrel Vodopich. The Living Desert. Hillside, N.J.:
Enslow, 1991.
Prager, Ellen J., with Cynthia A. Earle. The Oceans. New York: McGraw-
Hill, 2000.
Warburton, Lois. Rainforests. San Diego, Calif.: Lucent Books, 1991.
Williams, Lawrence. Oceans. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 1990.

Forests
E xtending over 25 percent of the earth’s land surface, forests are the
world’s most complex, productive, and diverse terrestrial communi-
ties. The most conspicuous plants of these ecosystems are trees. Trees are
tall, woody plants that have one main stem (trunk) and a well-developed
crown consisting of branches and leaves. Coniferous trees have narrow
needle- or scale-like evergreen leaves and bear their seeds in cones.
Flowering angiosperm trees produce seeds in a fruit, nut, or pod. They

Forest Areas by Main Regions in 1995

temperate/boreal
North America, 13.2%
(457 million hectares;
1,129 million acres)
Latin America and
Europe, 4.2% the Caribbean, 27.5%
(146 million hectares; (950 million hectares;
361 million acres) 2,347 million acres)

former USSR, 23.6% Africa, 15.1%

(816 million hectares; (520 million hectares;
2,016 million acres) 1,284 million acres)

Asia/Oceania, 16.4%
(565 million hectares;
1,396 million acres)
1995: total area = 3,454 million hectares; 8,531 million acres

Source: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAOSTAT Database, 2000).
 Forests / 139

Evergreen
forest in
Glacier
National Park.
(PhotoDisc)

are of both evergreen broadleaf and deciduous broadleaf form. Ever-

green broadleafs predominate where warm, moist conditions persist
throughout the year. Deciduous trees drop their leaves in fall where ade-
quate soil moisture is seasonally unavailable.
Numerous plants and animals coexist with trees in one or more of the
canopy, shrub, herbaceous, or ground layers. The great degree of layer-
ing, or stratification, in forests produces a great variety of environmental
conditions and habitat types, which promote a high diversity of animal
species. The presence of photosynthesizing plants across many layers also
assures high production of food for wildlife.
Forests are the natural vegetation of humid climates whose tempera-
tures remain above 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) for at
least one month of each year. Forest communities are classified based on
 140 / Forests

Washington’s Olympic National Park contains a well-known example of a temperate-zone rain

forest. (Digital Stock)

their adaptation to particular climates and soils. Temperate-zone rain for-

ests, composed of large coniferous trees, occur in cool climates that re-
main above freezing and receive abundant rainfall. Tropical deciduous
forests are found just outside the equatorial region, where a pronounced
dry season prompts leaf fall. Global forest zones may begin shifting to-
ward the poles in this century in response to climate warming.
Tropical Rain Forests. Covering about 7 percent of the world’s land
area, tropical rain forests are home to more than half the world’s species.
These communities are found at low elevations in the Amazon Basin of
South America, the Congo Basin of Africa, and in Southeast Asia. Mois-
ture and energy are abundant, but competition for light produces a well-
developed layering of forest plants. Broadleaf evergreens dominate in
the three canopy layers. Well-spaced, umbrella-shaped emergents soar
high above the forest floor. Beneath, the main canopy contains a tremen-
dous variety of closely spaced trees.
 Forests / 141

Although about 80 percent of the Sun’s energy is absorbed in the up-

per layer of the rain forest, a subcanopy of slender trees and saplings sur-
vives in the shade below. Woody vines, or lianas, climb trees, competing
for light in the canopy. The strangler fig emerges from a seed in the can-
opy and sends down roots to the ground. The roots thicken and engulf
the host tree, which eventually is cut off from light and dies. After it de-
cays, a hollow is left where the tree once stood. Epiphytic plants attach to
canopy branches and obtain nutrients from the air or dead plant material
fallen on them. Epiphytic bromeliads store up to two gallons of rainwater
in their cup-like arrangement of leaves, providing rearing grounds for
tadpoles of the poison arrow frog.
Having the most available foliage, the canopy is the most populated
area of the forest. Arboreal mammals, reptiles, birds, amphibians, and in-
sects are highly adapted to living in the canopy. Parrots use their beaks
and claws to move from branch to branch. Fruit bats fly easily through the
canopy. The long, grasping hands and feet of many primates help loco-
motion through trees. Many New World monkeys have evolved prehen-
sile tails that serve as a fifth grasping limb and help them maintain balance.
Little light penetrates to the forest floor. Herbaceous plants possess
large leaves to maximize energy reception, but are sparse. Many leaves
have pointed tips to drain water and prevent fungal attack. Jaguars, bush
dogs, ocelots, tapirs, ants, termites, coral snakes, and pit vipers are found
on the floor of the Brazilian rain forest. Tree bases have protruding edges
for support of the tall trees, and roots lie close to the soil surface to absorb
nutrients from decaying vegetation. This is important since the old,
weathered soils are nutrient poor.

Tropical Plants: Going, Going . . . Gone?

Tropical plants are of great importance to economies worldwide. Teak, ma-
hogany, ebony, and rosewood are used to make furniture. Brazil nuts, man-
gos, bananas, and breadfruit are important foods for both tropical and
nontropical peoples. The rosy periwinkle of Madagascar is used to treat a
rare form of leukemia. Thousands of other plants have been identified as
containing possible cancer-fighting chemicals. Perhaps most importantly,
tropical plants contribute to the earth’s life support systems by providing
clean air, preventing climate change, storing water, and preserving biodi-
versity.
Despite these valuable contributions, 56,000 square miles (145,000 sq.
km.) of tropical forest—an area the size of Iowa—is cut down annually, and
even more is fragmented or degraded. Commercial logging, plantation
and small farm agriculture, cattle ranching, and mining are the main
agents of destruction to tropical forests, a large amount of which will be lost
within decades at the current rate of development.
Percentage of Annual Deforestation by Country, 1990-1995

1 percent From 0 to From –1 to Less than

or more 1 percent 0 percent –1 percent No data

Source: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

 Forests / 143

Tree farming
has become an
important method
of replenishing the
world’s diminishing
forest resources.
(PhotoDisc)

Midlatitude Broadleaf Deciduous and Boreal Coniferous Forests. Mid-

latitude forests are found between about 30 and 60 degrees north and
south of the equator, and face many climate perils. Broadleaf deciduous
forests receive ample precipitation throughout the year, but must survive
winter freezes when soil moisture becomes unavailable. The predomi-
nant trees, such as oak, maple, and cherry, shed their leaves in autumn to
prevent dehydration. Beautiful displays of colors occur when green chlo-
rophyll production stops before the leaves fall. The remaining pigments
(anthocyanins, carotinoids), which were always present in the leaf, then
become visible.
In contrast, subarctic boreal forests consist of needle-leaf conifers, in-
cluding spruces, firs, and pines. The conical-shaped trees easily shed
snow, and the small surface area of the needles reduces moisture loss.
Few deciduous trees grow here, since the short growing season provides
insufficient energy for both growth and regeneration of leaves. Ever-
greens begin growing early in spring, giving them an advantage over de-
ciduous trees.
144 / Forests

Compared to tropical forests, midlatitude forests show less species di-

versity and reduced layering of vegetation. Boreal forests have only one
main canopy, and a single moss, lichen, and grass layer. Rain forests have
hundreds of tree species in a small area, while boreal forests are domi-
nated by large numbers of few species.
Similar types of animal life are found in both of these forests. In North
America, grizzly and black bears, bobcats, lynxes, cougars, wolves, and
foxes exist where humans have not driven them out. Deer, raccoons,
squirrels, rabbits, and skunks are common. Migratory birds, retreating in
winter to warmer areas with more food, are attracted back by the numer-
ous insects and fruit which reappear seasonally. Numerous adaptations,
such as hibernation, food switching, and thick, wind-resistant fur aid sur-
vival during long, cold winters.
Kathleen V. Schreiber

For Further Study

Acharya, Anjali. “Plundering the Boreal Forests.” World Watch 8, no. 3
(May/June, 1995): 21-29.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. State of the
World’s Forests, 2001. Rome: Author, 2001.

Information on the World Wide Web

The U.S. Forest Service Web site discusses forest resource management
programs for U.S. national forests. The site features current Forest Service
news and issues and a library of departmental publications.
(www.fs.fed.us)
The Environmental Literacy Council is a nonprofit organization of sci-
entists, economists, educators, and other experts informing environmental
studies. The council’s Web site provides links to a wide range of forest top-
ics. (www.enviroliteracy.org/subcategory.php/20.html)
National Geographic magazine’s on-line article “Congo Trek: A Journey
Through the Heart of Central Africa” documents biologists’ 1,200-mile
hike through tropical African forest with photos and field notes.
(www.nationalgeographic.com/congotrek)
Educational Web Adventures’ “Amazon Interactive” site explores the
geography of the Amazonian rain forest through games and activities.
(www.eduweb.com/amazon.html)
Resources for the Future, a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization
based in Washington, D.C., conducts independent research on environ-
mental and natural resource issues. A section of the organization’s on-line
Natural Resources Library focuses on the impacts of climate change on for-
ests. (www.rff.org/nat_resources/forests.htm)
 Grasslands / 145

Gawthorp, Daniel, and David Suzuki. Vanishing Halo: Saving the Boreal For-
est. Seattle: Mountaineers, 1999.
Goodman, Billy. The Rainforest. New York: Tern Enterprise, 1991.
Greenaway, Theresa, and Geoff Dann. Jungle: Eyewitness Books. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1994.
Hirschi, Ron. Save Our Forests. New York: Delacorte Press, 1993.
Linsenmair, K. E., ed. Tropical Forest Canopies: Ecology and Management.
London: Kluwer Academic, 2001.
Mitchell, John G. “Our National Forests.” National Geographic (March,
1997): 58-87.
Nardi, James B. Once upon a Tree: Life from Treetop to Root Tips. Ames: Iowa
State University Press, 1993.
Page, Jake, and the Editors of Time-Life Books. Planet Earth: Forest. Alex-
andria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1983.
Pandell, Karen, Art Wolfe, and Denise Takahashi. Journey through the North-
ern Rainforest. New York: Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers,
1999.
Schoonmaker, Peter K. The Living Forest. Hillside, N.J.: Enslow, 1990.
Wilson, Edward O. “Rain Forest Canopy: The High Frontier.” National
Geographic (December, 1991): 78-107.

Grasslands
G rasslands cover about a quarter of the world’s land surface. Since
they grow on the world’s richest soils, they are so intensely farmed
and grazed that only small patches of natural grassland remain.
Climate and Geographic Location. Annual precipitation between 10
and 32 inches (25-80 centimeters), often with a dry period late in the
growing season, supports grassland. Grassland temperature patterns vary.
Fire and grazing favor grasses and often combine with climate to main-
tain grasslands.
Extensive grasslands generally are found in continental interiors. In
North America, grasslands occur from the eastern foothills of the Rocky
Mountains to the Mississippi River, from south central Canada to north-
eastern Mexico, in eastern Washington and Oregon, and in California’s
Central Valley. Grasslands on other continents include the steppes of Eu-
rope and Asia, areas fringing the major deserts of Africa and Australia,
and the Pampas of South America.
Types of Grasslands. Extensive grasslands are often divided into tall-
grass, mixed-grass, and short-grass regions. In pre-human-settlement
North American grasslands, the tall-grass prairie occurred in the moist
eastern zone. Big bluestem, Indian grass, and switch grass grew 6-10 feet
(2-3 meters) tall in this region. The short-grass prairie or plains occupied
the drier western extreme. Here, blue grama and buffalo grass seldom
 146 / Grasslands

grew taller than 8 inches (20 centimeters). Mixed-grass prairie grew in be-
tween, with a mixture of tall, short, and middle-height grasses. Bound-
aries between regions were broad zones of gradual change.
Grasses and Grasslands. Grasses are well adapted to occupy regions
with intermediate annual precipitation, fires, and grazing animals.
Grasses have their main center of growth at or below the ground. Their
slender, widespread roots compete intensely for nutrients and moisture,
especially near the surface. The above-ground parts of the plants grow
densely, and the entire above-ground plant dies every year, covering the
ground with a dense mulch. This combination presents difficulties for
plants invading grasslands, as the grass roots usurp moisture and nutri-
ents and the leaves and mulch intercept sunlight.
Under very dry conditions, when grasses cannot grow densely, shrubs
and succulents (such as cacti) dominate and deserts occur. With heavy
rainfall and infrequent dry periods, trees compete well with grasses, and
forests dominate the landscape. Grasslands are often bordered by forests
at their moist edges and deserts at their dry boundaries. Under interme-
diate rainfall conditions, however, grasses are favored over all competi-
tors.
Fire and grazing by animals tip the balance further in favor of the
grasses. The late-season dry period typical of grasslands and the mulch

The great herds of buffalo that once roamed North America’s plains played an important role in
maintaining the native grasslands. (PhotoDisc)
 Grasslands / 147

North American Grassland Grazers

Bison numbered in the millions in presettlement North American grass-
lands and were the center of the economies of the Plains Indians. Prong-
horns may have been even more numerous than bison. Both wandered
widely over the prairies and plains and undoubtedly had a great impact on
plant life.
Prairie dogs are smaller and less mobile but within their “towns” they
may have had an even greater impact. Many plants, especially forbs, grew
primarily on soil disturbed by the burrowing of prairie dogs. Prairie dog
burrowing also aerated the soil and enhanced the penetration of water.
The feeding and burrowing activities of smaller mammals, such as mice
and voles, also had a significant impact.
However, insects were the most influential above-ground grazers in na-
tive grasslands, and roundworms had the greatest impact underground.
These invertebrates accounted for more consumption of plant material
than all the mammals combined. The grazers, sustained by the grassland,
were instrumental in molding its character.

built up after a year or more of growth are ideal conditions for the spread
of fires. Whether started by lightning or by humans, fires spread quickly
through the dried mulch. The tops of plants burn to the ground, but of-
ten little damage occurs underground. Because the primary growth cen-
ter of most nongrass plants is above ground and that of grasses is below
ground, fire is more harmful to woody plants and nonwoody, nongrass
plants (forbs).
Because grazing removes the tops of plants, it does more damage to
forbs and woody plants than to grasses. Many grasses actually increase
growth after light grazing. Most extensive grasslands are occupied by
large grazing animals, such as the bison and pronghorn of North Ameri-
can grasslands. These and other grazers played important roles in the
maintenance of the native grasslands and in the lives of the people who
lived there.
Grassland Soils. The presence of grasslands is determined by climate,
fire, and grazing, but the grasses impact their environment as well. In ad-
dition to their competitive role in excluding trees, shrubs, and forbs,
grasses contribute to soil formation. All the above-ground parts of grass
plants die each year, become mulch, and slowly decompose into the soil.
Rainfall is generally insufficient to wash nutrients out of the reach of the
grass roots, so the soil accumulates both nutrients and decaying plant ma-
terial. The world’s richest soils develop under these conditions.
Human Impact on Grasslands. Because of their soils, grasslands be-
came agricultural centers. Domestic grasses became the predominant
crops—corn in the tall-grass country and wheat in the mixed-grass re-
148 / Deserts

gion. The short-grass plains were too dry to support grain crops, but be-
came an important region for grazing domestic animals.
In the process of learning what activities the grasslands could and
could not support, Americans changed the grasslands of the continent
forever. Farming reduced native tall-grass prairie to one of the world’s
rarest habitats. Although grazing had less impact on the short-grass
plains, vast areas have been overgrazed severely. Grasslands in other parts
of the world have been similarly abused. Given the importance of grass-
lands to humanity, serious conservation measures must be taken to re-
store their productivity.
Carl W. Hoagstrom

For Further Study

Brown, Lauren. The Audubon Society Nature Guides: Grasslands. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1985.
Collinson, Alan. Ecology Watch: Grasslands. New York: Dillon Press, 1992.
Joern, Anthony, and Kathleen H. Keeler, eds. The Changing Prairie. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Sampson, Fred B., and Fritz L. Knopf, eds. Prairie Conservation. Washing-
ton, D.C.: Island Press, 1996.
Steele, Philip. Geography Detective: Grasslands. Minneapolis, Minn.: Carol-
rhoda Books, 1996.

Information on the World Wide Web

The Web site of the U.S. Forest Service features information on the twenty
publicly owned National Grasslands administered by the U.S. Forest Ser-
vice. (www.fs.fed.us/grasslands)

Deserts
T he word “desert” evokes images of searing heat and barren, wind-
swept sand dunes. Although some deserts fit this stereotype, deserts
are more than hot, dry places. Each desert is unique, but all share one im-
portant characteristic—lack of moisture. Deserts are exceptionally dry
environments. The degree of their dryness is influenced by total annual
rainfall, the frequency and intensity of rains, temperature, rate of evapo-
ration, soil characteristics, and other factors.
No specific amount of rainfall serves as a criterion for deserts; how-
ever, a region is usually classified as a desert if it receives less than about
10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain per year and the rate of evaporation
exceeds total annual precipitation. Each of the world’s deserts is a unique
 Deserts / 149

environment with its own set of climatic conditions, geological character-

istics, and plant and animal communities.
Most deserts experience wide shifts in daily temperature. Lack of
cloud cover and low humidity allow as much as 90 percent of the Sun’s
heat energy striking the earth to reach the desert surface, causing day-
time temperatures to climb rapidly and produce air temperatures ap-
proaching 131 degrees Fahrenheit (55 degrees Celsius) in the hottest
deserts. At night, the accumulated day’s heat is quickly lost to the atmo-
sphere, and the temperature may drop to near freezing.
Types of Deserts. Deserts are found in cold as well as hot regions. Low-
latitude, or subtropical, deserts occur near the latitudes of 30 degrees
north and south—the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere
and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere. The forma-
tion of low-latitude deserts is related to air circulation patterns and the
physical properties of air. Warm, moist air rises at the equator, cools, and
loses much of its moisture as rainfall. The cooler, drier air sinks and flows
north or south toward 30 degrees north and south latitude. As the air
sinks, it is compressed by the weight of the air above and warms. The re-
sulting warm, dry air removes moisture from the land, giving rise to arid
conditions and deserts. Examples of low-latitude deserts include the Sa-
hara Desert of North Africa, the Kalahari Desert of Southern Africa, the
Atacama Desert of South America, and the Victoria Desert of Australia.
Most deserts, but not all, are low-latitude regions. Rain-shadow deserts
form downwind of mountain ranges. As warm, moist air is forced up and
over a mountain range, it cools and loses its moisture as rain or snow. The

Typical arid desert landscape. (Digital Stock)

 150 / Deserts

cool, dry air descending down the opposite side of the range compresses
and warms. As a result, little or no precipitation falls in the rain-shadow
zone created leeward of the mountains. The lack of rainfall and low hu-
midity within the rain-shadow zone create desert conditions. The deserts
of the American southwest, leeward of the Sierra Nevada range, are rain-
shadow deserts.
Some deserts form in the interiors of continents, principally because
of their great distance from the ocean—the main source of moisture
needed for precipitation. The Gobi Desert of Mongolia and northeastern
China is an example of this kind of desert. Another kind of desert devel-
ops along warm tropical and subtropical coasts adjacent to cold ocean
currents. The air above the ocean currents is cooled and contains little
moisture. As this cool, dry air moves inland, it warms, causing high evapo-
ration and producing little precipitation. Deserts of this kind include the
Atacama Desert of northern Chile and southern Peru, and the Namib
and Kalahari Deserts along Africa’s southwest coast.
Perhaps the most unusual deserts are rarely thought of as deserts.
These are the polar deserts that occur in high-latitude regions, including
all of Antarctica, most of Greenland, and the northernmost parts of
Alaska, Canada, and Siberia. Polar deserts are bitterly cold and dry be-

Skeleton Coast of northern Namibia in Africa. Namibia’s coastal Namib Desert—after which the
country is named—is an example of a desert that has develop along a warm tropical coast ad-
jacent to a cold ocean current. The air above the ocean currents is cooled and condenses to
form fog. As the air moves inland, it warms, causing high evaporation and producing little pre-
cipitation. (Corbis)
 Deserts / 151

Desert vegetation adapts to arid conditions temperature extremes. Many

desert plants are short-lived annuals whose life cycles are keyed to rainfall.
(PhotoDisc)

cause of frigid air masses descending at the North and South Poles. Tem-
peratures remain below freezing year-round.
Desert Lifeforms. Despite their stark appearance, deserts are second
only to tropical rain forests in the variety of animals and plants living
there. The Sonoran Desert of the southwestern United States and north-
ern Mexico is home to nearly twenty-five hundred species of plants and
numerous animal species, thanks in part to biannual rainy seasons. In
contrast, the driest portions of Africa’s Sahara Desert and South Amer-
ica’s Atacama Desert are practically devoid of life.
Desert plants and animals are adapted to arid conditions and extremes
in temperature. Many plants are short-lived annuals whose life cycles are
keyed to rainfall. They survive drought conditions as seeds that quickly
germinate after exposure to water. For a few short days, the desert is
ablaze with color, but soon the next generation of seeds is set and the
blooms wither and die. Succulents, such as cacti and agave, store water in
modified roots and stems or in fleshy leaves. Woody shrubs have small
leaves that reduce water loss through transpiration and develop extensive
root systems to take up whatever available water is in the soil. During
drought conditions, some desert shrubs shed their leaves to conserve
water. Spines and thorns are a common means of defense against water-
seeking animals.
Some animals avoid the heat of the day by being active at night when
the desert is cooler and the humidity is higher. Others spend the day in
152 / Deserts

Wildflowers in Arizona’s Grand Canyon, a desert biome. (PhotoDisc)

the shade or reside in burrows. Many desert animals are efficient at con-
serving and recycling water. Some obtain all of the water they need from
the foods they eat. During dry periods, some animals enter a period of
dormancy known as estivation. Because food and shelter are scarce, most
desert mammals are small. Common animals include insects, arachnids,
reptiles, and birds. Amphibians are rare as a result of the lack of perma-
nent bodies of water.
Human beings also live in deserts. Lack of water causes many desert
peoples to adopt a nomadic lifestyle. Desert soils are remarkably fertile,
and irrigated crops do well if water is available. Unfortunately, human ac-
tivities can negatively affect deserts and semiarid lands. The demand for
water to irrigate crops or support heavily populated desert communities
can severely strain limited water resources. Farming and overgrazing on
semiarid lands bordering desert regions has resulted in the encroach-
ment of deserts on productive land—a process known as desertification.
Steven D. Carey

For Further Study

Allaby, Michael. Deserts. New York: Facts on File, 2001.
Larson, Peggy. A Sierra Club Naturalist’s Guide to the Deserts of the Southwest:
The Deserts of the Southwest. Vol. 1. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books,
1982.
 Tundra and High Altitude Biomes / 153

MacMahon, James. Deserts. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985.

Mainguet, Monique. Aridity: Droughts and Human Development. New York:
Springer, 1999.
Mares, Michael A., ed. Encyclopedia of Deserts. Norman: University of Okla-
homa Press, 1999.
Pavitt, Irene, ed. The Sierra Club Guides to the National Parks: Desert South-
west. New York: Random House, 1995.
Phillips, Steven J., ed. A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert. Tucson: Ari-
zona-Sonoran Desert Museum Press, 1999.
Wallace, Marianne D. America’s Deserts: Guide to Plants and Animals.
Golden, Colo.: Fulcrum, 1996
Zwinger, Ann Haymond. The Mysterious Lands: A Naturalist Explores the
Four Great Deserts of the Southwest. Tucson: University of Arizona Press,
1996.

Information on the World Wide Web

DesertUSA, an on-line travel and adventure guide, provides a wealth of in-
teresting information about the deserts of the United States. Sections cover
desert life, minerals and geology, and peoples and cultures. QuickTime
movies show panoramic views of selected desert locations.
(www.desertusa.com)

Tundra and High Altitude Biomes

T undra landscapes appear where long, cold winters, a permanently
frozen subsoil, and strong winds combine to prevent the development
of trees. The resulting landscapes tend to be vast plains with low-growing
forbs and stunted shrubs. Vast areas of this biome encircle the northern-
most portions of North America and Eurasia, constituting the Arctic tun-
dra. Climatic conditions atop high mountains at all latitudes are similar;
these smaller, more isolated areas are called the alpine tundra.
Permafrost. The low temperatures of the tundra cause the formation
of a permanently frozen layer of soil known as permafrost. Characteristic
of Arctic tundra, permafrost, which varies in depth according to latitude,
thaws at the surface during the brief summers. As the permafrost below is
impenetrable by both water and plant roots, it is a major factor in deter-
mining the basic nature of tundra.
The alternate freezing and thawing of soil above the permafrost cre-
ates a symmetrical patterning of the land surface characteristic of Arctic
tundra. Perhaps best known are stone polygons that result when frost
pushes larger rocks toward the periphery with smaller ones occupying
154 / Tundra and High Altitude Biomes

the center of each unit. This alteration of the tundra landscape, called
cryoplanation, is the major force in molding Arctic tundra landscapes.
In contrast, alpine tundra generally has little or no permafrost. Even
though alpine precipitation is almost always higher than for Arctic tun-
dra, steep grades result in a rapid runoff of water. Alpine soils are, there-
fore, much drier, except in the flat alpine meadows and bogs, where con-
ditions are more like those of Arctic areas.
Vegetation. Both Arctic and alpine tundra regions are composed of
plants that have adapted to the same generally stressful conditions. Biodi-
versity—the total number of species present—is low compared to most
other ecosystems. Plant growth is slow because of the short growing sea-
sons and the influence of permafrost. Most tundra plants are low-growing
perennials that reproduce vegetatively rather than by seed. Often, they
grow in the crevices of rocks that both shelter them in the winter and re-
flect heat onto them in summer.
Common plants of the low-lying Arctic tundra sites include various
sedges, especially cottongrass, and sphagnum moss. On better-drained
sites, biodiversity is higher, and various mosses, lichens, sedge, rush spe-
cies, and herbs grow between dwarfed heath shrubs and willow. The ar-
rangement of plants within a small area reflects the numerous microcli-
mates resulting from the peculiar surface features.
Alpine plants possess many of the features of Arctic plants. However,
because strong winds are such a prominent feature of the alpine environ-
ment, most of the plants grow flat on the ground, forming mats or cush-
ions.
Below alpine tundra and south of Arctic tundra, there is the boreal or
coniferous forest biome. Between the forest and tundra lies a transitional
zone or ecotone. The ecotone is characterized by trees existing at their
northern (or upper) limit. Especially in alpine regions, stunted, gnarled
trees occupy an area called Krummholz. In North America, the Krumm-
holz is much more prominent in the Appalachians of New England than
in the western mountains.
Animal Life. Biodiversity of animals, like that of plants, is relatively low
in the tundra. In Arctic regions, many animal species are circumboreal;
that is, they have ranges that extend around the major continents of the
north. Examples are arctic hares, reindeer, muskox, and many migratory
birds such as plovers, sandpipers, and waterfowl. Few insect species oc-
cupy the Arctic tundra, but some, such as flies and mosquitoes, can be lo-
cally abundant in midsummer. Except for insects, few invertebrates can
endure the harsh Arctic environment. Amphibians and reptiles are al-
most nonexistent.
Animals of the alpine tundra are generally more like those of adjacent
lowlands than those of Arctic regions. Furthermore, they differ from
mountain area to mountain area. Many bird species and some mammal
species, such as sheep and elk, regularly migrate from upper mountain
 Tundra and High Altitude Biomes / 155

meadows where they spend summers to lower slopes or lowlands during

winters. A few hibernate in winter, finding protection under the snow. In-
sects of many kinds, including grasshoppers, butterflies, beetles, and
springtails, are often present.
Conservation. Like all world biomes, tundra regions are subject to
degradation and destruction, especially as a result of human activities.
Because of low human population density and their unsuitability for agri-
culture, tundras generally are less impacted by humans than are grass-
lands and forests. However, tundra ecosystems, when disturbed, recover
slowly, if at all. As most tundra plants lack the ability to invade and colo-
nize bare ground, the process of ecological succession that follows distur-
bances may take centuries. Even tire tracks left by vehicles may endure for
decades. The melting of permafrost also has long-lasting effects.
The discovery of oil and gas in tundra regions, such as those of Alaska
and Siberia, has greatly increased the potential for disturbances. Heavy
equipment used to prospect for fossil fuels and to build roads and pipe-
lines has caused great destruction of tundra ecosystems. As the grasses
and mosses are removed, the permafrost beneath melts, resulting in soil
erosion. The disposal of sewage, solid wastes, and toxic chemicals poses
special problems, as such pollutants tend to persist in the tundra environ-
ment longer than in warmer areas.
Animals of the Arctic tundra, such as caribou, have been hunted by
the native Inuit using traditional methods for centuries without an im-
pact on populations. The introduction of such modern inventions as
snowmobiles and rifles has caused a sharp decline in caribou numbers in
some areas.
Although efforts at restoring other ecosystems, especially grasslands,
have been quite successful, tundra restoration poses difficult problems.
Seeding of disturbed Arctic tundra sites with native grasses is only mar-
ginally successful, even with the use of fertilizers. In alpine tundra, resto-
ration efforts have been somewhat more successful, but involve trans-
planting as well as seeding and fertilizing. A recognition of natural
successional patterns and long-term monitoring is a necessity in such ef-
forts.
Thomas E. Hemmerly

For Further Study

Bliss, L. C., O. H. Neal, and J. J. Moore, eds. Tundra Ecosystems. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1981.
Bush, M. B. Ecology of a Changing Planet. 2d ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall, 2000.
Cox, G. W. Conservation Biology, Concepts, and Applications. Dubuque, Iowa:
William C. Brown, 1997.
Hemmerly, T. E. Appalachian Wildflowers. Athens: University of Georgia
Press, 2000.
156 / National Park Systems

Smith, R. L., and T. M. Smith. Elements of Ecology. 4th ed. San Francisco:
Benjamin/Cummings, 1998.
Steele, F. L. At Timberline: A Nature Guide to the Mountains of the Northeast.
Boston: Appalachian Mountain Club, 1982.

National Park Systems

T he world’s first national parks were established as a response to the
exploitation of natural resources, disappearance of wildlife, and de-
struction of natural landscapes that took place during the late nineteenth
century. Government efforts to preserve natural areas as parks began
with the establishment of Yellowstone National Park in the United States
in 1872 and were soon adopted in other countries, including Australia,
Canada, and New Zealand.
While the preservation of nature continues to be an important benefit
provided by national parks, worldwide increases in population and the

Creation of
Yellowstone National
Park in 1872
inaugurated the
practice of
governments
providing
permanent
protection to unique
and scenically
spectacular regions.
(Corbis)
 National Park Systems / 157

pressures of urban living have raised public interest in setting aside places
that provide opportunities for solitude and interaction with nature.
Because national parks have been established by nations with diverse
cultural values, land resources, and management philosophies, there is
no single definition of what constitutes a national park. In some coun-
tries, areas used principally for recreational purposes are designated as
national parks; other countries emphasize preservation of outstanding
scenic, geologic, or biological resources. The terminology used for na-
tional parks also varies among countries. For example, protected areas
that are similar to national parks may be called reserves, preserves, or
sanctuaries.
Diverse landscapes are protected within national parks, including
swamps, river deltas, dune areas, mountains, prairies, tropical rain for-
ests, temperate forests, arid lands, and marine environments. Individual
parks within nations form networks that vary with respect to size, accessi-
bility, function, and the type of natural landscapes preserved. Some na-
tional park areas are isolated and sparsely populated, such as Greenland
National Park; others, such as Peak District National Park in Great Brit-
ain, contain numerous small towns and are easily accessible to urban pop-
ulations.
The functions of national parks include the preservation of scenic
landscapes, geological features, wilderness, and plants and animals
within their natural habitats. National parks also serve as outdoor labora-
tories for education and scientific research and as reservoirs for genetic
information. Many are components of the United Nations International
Biosphere Reserve Program.
National parks also play important roles in preserving cultures, by pro-
tecting archaeological, cultural, and historical sites. The United Nations
recognizes several national parks that possess important cultural attrib-
utes as World Heritage Sites. Tourism to national parks has become im-
portant to the economies of many developing nations, especially in East-
ern and Southern Africa, India, Nepal, Ecuador, and Indonesia. Parks are
sources of local employment and can stimulate improvements to trans-
portation and other types of infrastructure while encouraging productive
use of lands that are of marginal agricultural use.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature has developed a
system for classifying the world’s protected areas, with Category II areas
designated as national parks. Using this definition, there are 3,384 na-
tional parks in the world, with a mean average size of 457 square miles
(1,183 sq. km.) each. Together, they cover an area of about 1.5 million
square miles (4 million sq. km.), accounting for about 2.7 percent of the
total land area on Earth.
North America. In 1916 management of U.S. national parks and mon-
uments was shifted from the U.S. Army to the newly established National
Park Service (NPS). The system has since grown in size to protect fifty-five
158 / National Park Systems

Stephen T. Mather and the U.S. National

Park Service
In 1914 businessman and conservationist Stephen T. Mather wrote to Sec-
retary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane about the poor condition of Califor-
nia’s Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. Lane wrote back, “if you don’t
like the way the national parks are being run, come on down to Washington
and run them yourself.” Mather accepted the challenge and became an as-
sistant to Lane and later the first director of the U.S. National Park Service,
from 1917 to 1929.

national parks, as well as other natural areas including national monu-

ments, seashores, and preserves.
North America’s second largest system of national parks is Parks Can-
ada, created in 1930. Among the best-known Canadian parks is Banff, es-
tablished in southern Alberta in 1885. Preserved within this area are gla-
cially carved valleys, evergreen forests, and turquoise lakes. Parks Canada
has the goal of protecting representative examples of each of Canada’s
vegetation and physiographic regions.
Mexico began providing protection for natural areas in the late nine-
teenth century. Among its system of forty-four national parks is Dzibil-
chaltún, an important Mayan archaeological site on the Yucatán Penin-
sula. With fewer resources available for park management, the emphasis
in Mexico remains the preservation of scenic beauty for public use.
South America. Two of South America’s best-known national parks are
located within Argentina’s park system. Nahuel Huapi National Park pre-
serves two rare deer species of the Andes, while Iguazú National Park, lo-
cated on the border with Brazil, is home to tapir, ocelot, and jaguar.
Located on a plateau of the western slope of the Andes Mountains in
Chile, Lauca National Park is one of the world’s highest parks, with an
average elevation of more than 14,000 feet (4,267 meters)—an altitude
nearly as high as the tallest mountains in the continental United States.
Huascarán, another mountain park located in western Peru, boasts
twenty peaks that exceed 19,000 feet (5,791 meters) in elevation. The vol-
canic islands of Galapagos Islands National Park, managed by Ecuador,
have been of interest to biologists since British naturalist Charles Darwin
studied variation and adaptation in animal species there in 1835.
Australia and New Zealand. Established in 1886, Royal was Australia’s
first national park. Perhaps better known to tourists, Uluru National Park
in Australia’s Northern Territory protects two rock domes, Ayer’s Rock
and Mount Olga, that rise above the plains 15 miles (40 km.) apart.
Along with Australia and other former colonies of Great Britain, New
Zealand was a leader in establishing early national parks. The first of
 National Park Systems / 159

these was Tongagiro, created in 1887 to protect sacred lands of the Maori
people on the North Island. New Zealand’s South Island features several
national parks including Fiordland, created in 1904 to preserve high
mountains, forests, rivers, waterfalls, and other spectacular features of
glacial origin.
Africa. Game poaching continues to be a severe problem in Africa,
where animals are slaughtered for ivory, meat, and hides. Many African
national parks were established to protect large game. South Africa’s na-
tional park system began in 1926, when the Sabie Game Preserve of the
eastern Transvaal region became Kruger National Park. Among South
Africa’s greatest attractions to foreign visitors, Kruger is famous for its
population of lions and elephants.
East Africa is also known for outstanding game sanctuaries, such as
Serengeti National Park, created prior to Tanzania’s independence from
Great Britain. Another national park in Tanzania, Kilimanjaro, protects
Africa’s highest and best-known mountain. Other African countries with
well-developed park systems include Kenya, Congo-Kinshasa (formerly
Zaire), and Zambia. Although there is now a network of national parks in
Africa that protects a wide range of habitats in various regions, there re-
mains a need to protect additional areas in the arid northern part of the
continent that includes the Sahara Desert.
Europe. In comparison with the United States, the national park con-
cept spread more slowly within Europe. In 1910 Germany set aside
Luneburger Heide National Park near the Elbe River, and in 1913, Swe-
den established Sarek, Stora Sjöfallet, Peljekasje, and Abisko National
Parks. Swiss National Park was founded in Switzerland in 1914, in the
Lower Engadine region. Great Britain has several national parks, includ-
ing Lake District, home to early nineteenth century English poet William
Wordsworth. Spain’s Doñana National Park, located on its southwestern
coast, preserves the largest dune area on the European continent.
Asia. The system of land tenure and rural economy in many Asian
countries has made it difficult for national governments to set aside large
areas free from human exploitation. Many national parks established by
colonial powers prior to World War II were maintained or expanded by
countries following independence. For example, Kaziranga National
Park is a refuge for the largest heard of rhinocerous in India. Established
in 1962, Thailand’s Khao Yai National Park protects a sample of the coun-
try’s wildlife, while Indonesia’s Komodo Island National Park preserves
the habitat for the large lizards known as Komodo dragons.
In Japan, high population density has made it difficult to limit human
activities within large areas. Some Japanese national parks are principally
recreation areas rather than wildlife sanctuaries and may contain cultural
features such as Shinto shrines. One of the best known national parks in
Japan is Fuji-Hakone-Izu, which contains world-famous Mount Fuji, a vol-
cano with a nearly symmetrical shape.
160 / Soils

The Future. National parks serve as relatively undisturbed enclaves that

protect examples of the world’s most outstanding natural and cultural re-
sources. The movement to establish these areas is a relatively recent at-
tempt to achieve an improved balance between human activities and the
earth. In recent years, rising incomes and lower costs for international
travel have improved the accessibility of national parks to a larger number
of persons, meaning that park visitation is likely to continue to rise.
Thomas A. Wikle

For Further Study

Allin, Craig W. International Handbook of National Parks and Nature Reserves.
Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1990.
Dickinson, Mary, ed. National Parks of North America. Washington, D.C.:
National Geographic Society, 1995.
Grazzini, Giuseppe. National Parks of the World. New York: Crescent Books,
1991.
McQueen, Jane B. The Complete Guide to America’s National Parks. Washing-
ton, D.C.: National Park Foundation, 1994.

Information on the World Wide Web

The World Conservation Monitoring Centre, an organization dedicated
to providing information about conservation and sustainable use of the
world’s living resources, maintains a Web site with a searchable database of
national parks and protected areas world wide.
(www.wcmc.org.uk/data/database/un_combo.html)

Natural Resources
Soils
S oils are the loose masses of broken and chemically weathered rock
mixed with organic matter that cover much of the world’s land sur-
face, except in polar regions and most deserts. The two major solid com-
ponents of soil—minerals and organic matter—occupy about half the
volume of a soil. Pore spaces filled with air and water account for the
other half. A soil’s organic material comes from the remains of dead
plants and animals, its minerals from weathered fragments of bedrock.
Soil is also an active, dynamic, ever-changing environment. Tiny pores in
 Soils / 161

soil fill with air, water, bacteria, algae, and fungi working to alter the soil’s
chemistry and speed up the decay of organic material, making the soil a
better living environment for larger plants and animals.
Soil Formation. The natural process of forming new soil is slow. Ex-
actly how long it takes depends on how fast the bedrock below is weath-
ered. This weathering process is a direct result of a region’s climate and
topography, because these factors influence the rate at which exposed
bedrock erodes and vegetation is distributed. Global variations in these
factors account for the worldwide differences in soil types.
Climate is the principal factor in determining the type and rate of soil
formation. Temperature and precipitation are the two main climatic fac-
tors that influence soil formation, and they vary with elevation and lati-
tude. Water is the main agent of weathering, and the amount of water avail-
able depends on how much falls and how much runs off. The amount of
precipitation and its distribution during the year influence the kind of
soil formed and the rate at which it is formed. Increased precipitation
usually results in increased rates of soil formation and deep soils. Tem-
perature and precipitation also determine the kind and amount of vege-
tation in a region, which determines the amount of available organics.
Topography is a characteristic of the landscape involving slope angle
and slope length. Topographic relief governs the amount of water that
runs off or enters a soil. On flat or gently sloping land, soil tends to stay in
place and may become thick, but as the slope increases so does the poten-
tial for erosion. On steep slopes, soil cover may be very thin, possibly only
a few inches, because precipitation washes it downhill; on level plains, soil
profiles may be several feet thick.
Types of Soil. Typically, bedrock first weathers to form regolith, a
protosoil devoid of organic material. Rain, wind, snow, roots growing into
cracks, freezing and thawing, uneven heating, abrasion, and shrinking
and swelling break large rock particles into smaller ones. Weathered rock
particles may range in size from clay to silt, sand, and gravel, with the tex-
ture and particle size depending largely on the type of bedrock. For ex-
ample, shale yields finer-textured soils than sandstone. Soils formed from
eroded limestone are rich in base minerals; others tend to be acidic. Gen-
erally, rates of soil formation are largely determined by the rates at which
silicate minerals in the bedrock weather: the more silicates, the longer
the formation time.
In regions where organic materials, such as plant and animal remains,
may be deposited on top of regolith, rudimentary soils can begin to form.
When waste material is excreted, or a plant or animal dies, the material
usually ends up on the earth’s surface. Organisms that cause decomposi-
tion, such as bacteria and fungi, begin breaking down the remains into a
beneficial substance known as humus. Humus restores minerals and nu-
trients to the soil. It also improves the soil’s structure, helping it to retain
water. Over time, a skeletal soil of coarse, sandy material with trace
 162 / Soils

amounts of organics gradually forms. Even in a region with good weath-

ering rates and adequate organic material, it can take as long as fifty years
to form 12 inches (30 centimeters) of soil. When new soil is formed from
weathering bedrock, it can take from one hundred to one thousand years
for less than an inch of soil to accumulate.

Soil Horizons

O = organic debris
A = topsoil
(minerals)

B = subsoil
(clay, iron oxide,
carbonate calcium)

C = regolith

D = bedrock
 Soils / 163

Water moves continually through most soils, transporting minerals and

organics downward by a process called leaching. As these materials travel
downward, they are filtered and deposited to form distinct soil horizons.
Each soil horizon has its own color, texture, and mineral and humus con-
tent. The O-horizon is a thin layer of rotting organics covering the soil. The
A-horizon, commonly called topsoil, is rich in humus and minerals. The
B-horizon is a subsoil rich in minerals but poor in humus. The C-horizon
consists of weathered bedrock; the D-horizon is the bedrock itself.
Because Earth’s surface is made of many different rock types exposed
at differing amounts and weathering at different rates at different loca-
tions, and because the availability of organic matter varies greatly about
the planet due to climatic and seasonal conditions, soil is very diverse and
fertile soil is unevenly distributed. Structure and composition are key fac-
tors in determining soil fertility. In a fertile soil, plant roots are able to
penetrate easily to obtain water and dissolved nutrients. A loam is a natu-
rally fertile soil, consisting of masses of particles from clays (less than
0.002 mm across), through silts (ten times larger) to sands (one hundred
times larger), interspersed with pores, cracks, and crevices.
The Roles of Soil. In any ecosystem, soils play six key roles. First, soil
serves as a medium for plant growth by mechanically supporting plant

Soil Limits to Agriculture, by Percentage of

Total World Land Area

Chemical Soil too

problems shallow
23% 22%

Soil too wet

10%
Soil
too dry
28%
Permafrost 6%

Soil that can be farmed without

being irrigated, drained, or
otherwise improved 11%

Source: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAOSTAT Database, 2000).
 164 / Soils

roots and supplying the eighteen nutrients essential for plants to survive.
Different types of soil contain differing amounts of these eighteen nutri-
ents; their combination often determines the types of vegetation present
in a region, and as a result, influences the number and types of animals
the vegetation can support, including humans. Humans rely on soil for
crops necessary for food and fiber.
Second, the property of a particular soil is the controlling factor in
how the hydrologic system in a region retains and transports water, how
contaminants are stored or flushed, and at what rate water is naturally
purified. Water enters the soil in the form of precipitation, irrigation,
or snowmelt that falls or runs off soil. When it reaches the soil, it will ei-
ther be surface water, which evaporates or runs into streams, or subsur-
face water, which soaks into the soil where it is either taken up by plant
roots or percolates downward to enter the groundwater system. Passing
through soil, organic and inorganic pollutants are filtered out, produc-
ing pure groundwater.
Soil also functions as an air-storage facility. Air is pushed into and
drawn out of the soil by changes in barometric pressure, high winds, per-
colating water, and diffusion. Pore spaces within soil provide access to
oxygen to organisms living underground as well as to plant roots. Soil

For thousands of years the people of the American Southwest have used the red clay soil to
make adobe bricks—a building material with excellent insulating properties that is ideal for the
region. (PhotoDisc)
 Soils / 165

Buildings and walls made almost entirely from mud bricks in the South Ameri-
can Andes. (Clyde L. Rasmussen)

pore spaces also contain carbon dioxide, which many bacteria use as a
source of carbon.
Soil is nature’s recycling system, through which organic waste prod-
ucts and decaying plants and animals are assimilated and their elements
made available for reuse. The production and assimilation of humus
within soil converts mineral nutrients into forms that can be used by
plants and animals, who return carbon to the atmosphere as carbon diox-
ide. While dead organic matter amounts to only about 1 percent of the
soil by weight, it is a vital component as a source of minerals.
Soil provides a habitat for many living things, from insects to burrow-
ing animals, from single microscopic organisms to massive colonies of
subterranean fungi. Soils contain much of the earth’s genetic diversity,
and a handful of soil may contain billions of organisms, belonging to
thousands of species. Although living organisms only account for about
0.1 percent of soil by weight, 2.5 acres (one hectare) of good-quality soil
can contain at least 300 million small invertebrates—mites, millipedes,
insects, and worms. Just 1 ounce (30 grams) of fertile soil can contain one
million bacteria of a single type, one hundred million yeast cells, and fifty
thousand fungus mycelium. Without these, soil could not convert nitro-
gen, phosphorus, and sulphur to forms available to plants.
Finally, soil is an important factor in human culture and civilization.
Soil is a building material used to make bricks, adobe, plaster, and pot-
tery, and often provides the foundation for roads and buildings. Most im-
portant, soil resources are the basis for agriculture, providing people with
their dietary needs.
166 / Soils

Toxic waste dump. (PhotoDisc)

Because the human use of soils has been haphazard and unchecked
for millennia, soil resources in many parts of the world have been
harmed severely. Human activities, such as overcultivation, inexpert irri-
gation, overgrazing of livestock, elimination of tree cover, and cultivating
steep slopes, have caused natural erosion rates to increase many times
over. As a result of mismanaged farm and forest lands, escalated erosional
processes wash off or blow away an estimated seventy-five billion tons of
soil annually, eroding away one of civilization’s crucial resources.
Randall L. Milstein

For Further Study

Brady, Nyle C. Elements of Nature and Properties of Soils. Upper Saddle River,
N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2000.
FitzPatrick, E. A. An Introduction to Soil Science. Essex, England: Longman
Scientific and Technical, 1986.
Harpstead, Milo I., et al. Soils Science Simplified. Ames: Iowa State Univer-
sity Press, 1997.
Havlin, John L., ed. Soil Fertility and Fertilizers: An Introduction to Nutrient
Management. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1999.
Richter, Daniel D., and Daniel Markowitz. Understanding Soil Change: Soil
Sustainability over Millennia, Centuries, and Decades. New York: Cam-
bridge University Press, 2001.
 Water / 167

Water
L ife on earth requires water—without it, life on earth would cease. As
human populations grow, the freshwater resources of the world be-
come scarcer and more polluted, while the need for clean water in-
creases. Although nearly three-quarters of the earth’s surface is covered
with water, only about 0.3 percent of that water is freshwater suitable for
consumption and irrigation. This is because more than 97 percent of the
earth’s water is ocean salt water, and most of the remaining freshwater is
frozen in the Antarctic ice cap. Only the small amounts that remain in
lakes, rivers, and groundwater is available for human use.
All of earth’s water cycles between the ocean, land, atmosphere,
plants, and animals over and over. On average, a molecule of surface
water cycles from the ocean, to the atmosphere, to the land and back
again in less than two weeks. Water consumed by plants or animals takes
longer to return to the oceans, but eventually the cycle is completed.
Water’s Uses. Water supports all living creatures. People use it not only
for drinking, cooking, and bathing, but also travel on it, make electricity
with it, fish in it, irrigate crops with it, and use it for recreation. Globally,
more than 3,240 million acre-feet of water is used, most of it for agricul-
ture. Of the freshwater used, agriculture accounts for 69 percent, indus-
try uses 23 percent, and domestic and municipal activities use 9 percent.
Among agricultural uses, it takes 11 gallons of water to grow 1 serving of
broccoli, 56 gallons to produce a serving of cheese, and 2,510 gallons for
a pound of beef. In industry, 151 gallons of water are needed to make one
Sunday newspaper and 65,257 gallons are used in the manufacture of the
average car.
An average Westerner living in an urban setting uses approximately
159 gallons per day for personal and domestic uses, such as washing,
cooking, and watering the lawn. As the world’s population grows, the de-
mand for freshwater will also increase. A study by the World Bank con-
cluded that approximately 80 percent of human illness results from insuf-
ficient water supplies and poor water quality caused by lack of sanitation,
so careful management of water resources is essential for improving the
health of people in the twenty-first century.
Groundwater Supply and Quality. The amount of groundwater in the
earth is seventy times greater than all of the freshwater lakes combined.
Groundwater is held within the rocks below the ground surface and is the
primary source of water in many parts of the world. In the United States,
approximately 50 percent of the population uses some groundwater.
However, problems with both supplies and quality threaten future use of
groundwater.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that 45 per-
cent of the large public water systems in the United States that use
groundwater were contaminated with synthetic organic chemicals that
 168 / Water

posed potential health threats. Another major problem occurs when

groundwater is used faster than it is replaced by precipitation infiltrating
through the ground surface. Many of the arid regions of earth are already
suffering from this problem. For example, one-third of the wells in
Beijing, China, have gone dry due to overuse. In the United States, the
Ogallala Aquifer of the Great Plains, the largest in North America, is be-
ing severely overused. This aquifer irrigates 20 percent of U.S. farmland,
and one-fourth of this groundwater resource is expected to be gone by
2020.
Surface Water Supply and Quality. Surface water is used for transpor-
tation, recreation, electrical generation, and consumption. Ships use
rivers and lakes as transport routes, people fish and boat on rivers and
lakes, and dams on rivers often are used to generate electricity. The larg-
est river on earth is the Amazon in South America, which has an average
flow of 212,500 cubic meters per second, more than twelve times greater
than North America’s Mississippi River. Earth’s largest lake—Lake Baikal
in Russia—has a volume of approximately 5,280 cubic miles (22,000 cu-
bic km.), equal to the volume of all five of North America’s Great Lakes
combined.
Although surface water has more uses, it is more prone to pollution
than groundwater. Almost every human activity affects surface water
quality. For example, water is used to create paper for books, and some of
the chemicals used in the paper process are discharged into surface water
sources. Most foods are grown with agricultural chemicals, which can
contaminate water sources. In 1994 the EPA reported that approximately
44 percent of U.S. lakes and 37 percent of U.S. rivers are unsafe for fish-
ing and swimming.
Earth’s Future Water Supply. Inadequate water supplies and water
quality problems threaten the lives of more than one billion people
worldwide. The World Health Organization estimates that polluted water
causes the death of fifteen million children under five years of age each

The World and North America’s

Greatest Rivers and Lakes
World North America

Longest river Nile (North Africa) Missouri-Mississippi (United States)

4,130 miles (6,600 km.) 3,740 miles (6,000 km.)
Largest river Amazon (South America) Missouri-Mississippi (United States)
by average discharge 6,181,000 cubic feet/second 600,440 cubic feet/second
(175,000 cubic meters/second) (17,000 cubic meters/second)
Largest freshwater lake Lake Baikal (Russia) Lake Superior
by volume 5,280 cubic miles 3,000 cubic miles
(22,000 cubic km.) (12,500 cubic km.)
 Water / 169

The water consumed in most urban centers passes through treatment plants that remove im-
purities and chemically treat the water to kill potentially harmful organisms. (PhotoDisc)

year and affects the health of 20 percent of the earth’s population. As the
world’s population grows, these problems are likely to worsen.
The United Nations estimates that if current consumption patterns
continue, two-thirds of the world’s people will live in water-stressed condi-
tions by 2025. Since access to clean freshwater is essential to health and a
decent standard of living, efforts must be made to clean up and conserve
the planet’s freshwater, or billions of people in the twenty-first century
will be negatively affected.
Mark M. Van Steeter

For Further Study

Berner, E. K., and R. A. Berner. The Global Water Cycle. Englewood Cliffs,
N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1987.
Bowen, Robert. Groundwater. 2d ed. New York: Elsevier, 1986.
Clarke, Robin. Water: The International Crisis. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT
Press, 1993.
Gardner, Gary. “From Oasis to Mirage: The Aquifers That Won’t Replen-
ish.” World Watch (May/June, 1995): 30-36, 40-41.
Gleick, Peter H. Water in Crisis: A Guide to the World’s Fresh Water Resources.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Huang, P. M., and Iskandar Karam, eds. Soils and Groundwater Pollution and
Remediation: Asia, Africa, and Oceania. Boca Raton, Fla.: Lewis, 2000.
170 / Renewable Resources

Kovar, Karel, et al., eds. Hydrology, Water Resources, and Ecology in Head-
waters. Wallingford, England: IAHS, 1998.
Leeden, F. V. D., F. L. Troise, and D. K. Todd, eds. The Water Encyclopedia.
2d ed. Chelsea, Mich.: Lewis, 1990.
Leopold, Luna B. Water, Rivers, and Creeks. Sausalito, Calif.: University Sci-
ence Books, 1997.
McClure, Susan. Water. New York: Workman, 2000.
Opie, John. Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land. Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press, 1993.
Perry, J., and E. Vanderklein. Water Quality: Management of a Natural Re-
source. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1996.
Petersonn, Margaret. River Engineering. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-
Hall, 1986.
Pielou, E. C. Fresh Water. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.
Thompson, Stephen A. Water Use, Management, and Planning in the United
States. San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press, 1999.
Troeh, Frederick R., et al. Soil and Water Conservation: Productivity and En-
vironmental Protection. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentic Hall, 1998.

Renewable Resources
M ost renewable resources are living resources, such as plants, ani-
mals, and their products. With careful management, human societ-
ies can harvest such resources for their own use without imperiling future
supplies. However, many historical instances of resource mismanagement
have led to the virtual destruction of valuable resources.
Forests. Forests are large tracts of land supporting growths of trees
and perhaps some underbrush or shrubs. Trees constitute probably the
earth’s most valuable, versatile, and easily grown renewable resource.
When they are harvested intelligently, their natural environments con-
tinue to replace them. However, if a harvest is beyond the environment’s
ability to restore the resource that had been present, new and different
plants and animals will take over the area. This phenomenon has been
demonstrated many times in overused forests and grasslands that re-
verted to scrubby brushlands. In the worst cases, the abused lands degen-
erated into barren deserts.
The forest resources of the earth range from the tropical rain forests
with their huge trees and broad diversity of species to the dry savannas
featuring scattered trees separated by broad grasslands. Cold, subarctic
lands support dense growths of spruces and firs, while moderate tem-
perature regimes produce a variety of pines and hardwoods such as oak
and ash. The forests of the world cover about 29 percent of the land sur-
face, as compared with the oceans, which cover about 71 percent of the
global surface.
 Renewable Resources / 171

Harvested wood, cut in the forest and hauled away to be processed, is

termed roundwood. Globally, the cut of roundwood for all uses amounts
to about 122.2 billion cubic feet (3.5 billion cubic meters). Slightly more
than half of the harvested wood is used for fuel, including charcoal.
Roundwood that is not used for fuel is described as industrial wood and
used to produce lumber, veneer for fine furniture, and pulp for paper
products. Some industrial wood is chipped to produce such products as
subflooring and sheathing board for home and other building construc-
tion. Most roundwood harvested in Africa, South America, and Asia is used
for fuel. In contrast, roundwood harvested in North America, Europe,
and the former Soviet Union generally is produced for industrial use.
It is easy to consider forests only in the sense of the useful wood they
produce. However, many forests also yield valuable resources such as rub-
ber, edible nuts, and what the U.S. Forest Service calls special forest prod-
ucts. These include ferns, mosses, and lichens for the florist trade, wild
edible mushrooms such as morels and matsutakes for domestic markets
and for export, and mistletoe and pine cones for Christmas decorations.
There is growing interest among the industrialized nations of the
world in a unique group of forest products for use in the treatment of hu-
man disease. Most of them grow in the tropical rain forests. These medici-
nal plants have long been known and used by shamans (traditional medi-
cine men). Hundreds of pharmaceutical drugs, first used by shamans,
have been derived from plants, many gathered in tropical rain forests.
The drugs include quinine, from the bark of the cinchona tree, long used
to combat malaria, and the alkaloid drug reserpine. Reserpine, derived
from the roots of a group of tropical trees and shrubs, is used to treat high
blood pressure (hypertension) and as a mild tranquilizer. It has been esti-
mated that 25 percent of all prescriptions dispensed in the United States
contain ingredients derived from tropical rain forest plants. The value of
the finished pharmaceuticals is estimated at $6.25 billion per year.
Scientists screening tropical rain forest plants for additional useful
medical compounds have drawn on the knowledge and experience of the
shamans. In this way, the scientists seek to reduce the search time and
costs involved in screening potentially useful plants. Researchers hope
that somewhere in the dense tropical foliage are plant products that
could treat, or perhaps cure, diseases such as cancer or AIDS.
Many as-yet-undiscovered medicinal plants may be lost forever as a
consequence of deforestation of large tracts of equatorial land. The trees
are cut down or burned in place and the forest converted to grassland for
raising cattle. The tropical soils cannot support grasses without the input
of large amounts of fertilizer. The destruction of the forests also causes
flooding, leaving standing pools of water and breeding areas for mosqui-
toes, which can spread malaria and yellow fever.
Marine Resources. When renewable marine resources such as fish and
shellfish are harvested or used, they continue to reproduce in their envi-
 172 / Renewable Resources

Indiscriminate use of huge fishing nets threatens the survival of other animal species, including
dolphins. (PhotoDisc)

ronment, as happens in forests and with other living natural resources.

However, like overharvested forests, if the marine resource is overfished—
that is, harvested beyond its ability to reproduce—new, perhaps undesir-
able, kinds of marine organisms will occupy the area. This has happened
to a number of marine fishes, particularly the Atlantic cod.
When the first Europeans reached the shores of what is now New En-
gland in the early seventeenth century, they encountered vast schools of
cod in the local ocean waters. The cod were so plentiful they could be
caught in baskets lowered into the water from a boat.
At the height of the New England cod fishery, in the 1970’s, efficient,
motor-driven trawlers were able to catch about 32,000 tons. The catch be-
gan to decline mostly as a result of the impact of fifteen different nations
fishing on the cod stocks. As a result of overfishing, rough species such as
dogfish and skates constitute 70 percent of the fish in the local waters. Ex-
perts on fisheries management decided that fishing for cod had to be
stopped.
The decline of the cod was attributed to two causes: a worldwide de-
mand for more fish as food and great changes in the technology of fish-
ing. The technique of fishing progressed from a lone fisher with a baited
hook and line, to small steam-powered boats towing large nets, to huge
diesel-powered trawlers towing monster nets that could cover a football
 Renewable Resources / 173

field. Some of the largest trawlers were floating factories. The cod could
be skinned, the edible parts cut and quick-frozen for market ashore, and
the skin, scales, and bones cooked and ground for animal feed and oil. A
lone fisher was lucky to be able to catch 1,000 pounds (455 kilograms) in
one day. In contrast, the largest trawlers were capable of catching and
processing 200 tons per day.
The world ocean population of swordfish has also declined dramati-
cally. With a worldwide distribution, these large members of the billfish
family have been eagerly sought after as a food fish. Because swordfish
have a habit of basking at the surface, fishermen learned to sneak up on
the swordfish and harpoon them. Advances in technology led to the
doom of the swordfish. Fishermen began to catch swordfish with fishing
lines 25 to 40 miles (40 to 65 kilometers) long. Baited hooks hung at in-
tervals on the main line successfully caught many swordfish, as well as
tuna and large sharks. Whereas the harpoon fisher took only the largest
(thus most valuable) swordfish, the longline gear was indiscriminate,
catching and killing many swordfish too small for the market, as well as
sea turtles and dolphins
As a result of the catching and killing of both sexually mature and im-
mature swordfish, the reproductive capacity of the species was greatly re-
duced. Harpoons killed mostly the large, mature adults that had spawned
several times. Longlines took all sizes of swordfish, including the small
ones that had not yet reached sexual maturity and spawned. The decline
of the swordfish population was quickly obvious in the reduced landings.
In one seven-year period, swordfish landings off the east coast of the
United States dropped by almost 60 percent. At the same time, the num-
ber of longline hooks set in the same area increased by 70 percent.
As a gesture of support for restoring swordfish stocks in the world’s
oceans, many restaurants in the United States voluntarily removed sword-
fish from their menus. It is hoped this action will encourage the United
States government, and perhaps other nations, to develop an effective re-
covery plan for the swordfish.
Albert C. Jensen

For Further Study

Kunzig, Robert. “Twilight of the Cod.” Discover 16, no. 4 (April, 1995): 44-
60.
Kurlansky, Mark. Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World. New
York: Walker, 1997.
McKibben, Bill. “What Good Is a Forest?” Audubon 98, no. 3 (May-June,
1996): 53-63.
Mark, Wesley. The Oceans: Our Last Resource. San Francisco: Sierra Club,
1981.
Nollman, Jim. The Charged Border: Where Whales and Humans Meet. New
York: Henry Holt, 1998.
174 / Nonrenewable Resources

Safina, Carl. Song for the Blue Ocean: Encounters with the World’s Coasts and
Beneath the Seas. New York: Henry Holt, 1997.
United Nations, Food and Agriculture Organization. State of the World’s
Forests, 2001.

Nonrenewable Resources
N onrenewable resources are useful raw materials that exist in fixed
quantities in nature and cannot be replaced. They differ from re-
newable resources, such as trees and fish, which can be replaced if man-
aged correctly. Most nonrenewable resources are minerals—inorganic
and organic substances that exhibit consistent chemical composition and
properties. Minerals are found naturally in the earth’s crust or dissolved
in seawater. Of roughly two thousand different minerals, about one hun-
dred are sources of raw materials that are needed for human activities.
Where useful minerals are found in sufficiently high concentrations—
that is, as ores—they can be mined as profitable commercial products.
Economic nonrenewable resources can be divided into four general
categories: metallic (hardrock) minerals, which are the source of metals
such as iron, gold, and copper; fuel minerals, which include petroleum
(oil), natural gas, coal, and uranium; industrial (soft rock) minerals,
which provide materials like sulfur, talc, and potassium; and construction
materials, such as sand and gravel.

Gold in its native state. (U.S. Geological Survey)

 Nonrenewable Resources / 175

Nonrenewable resources are required as direct or indirect parts of all

the products that humans use. For example, metals are necessary in in-
dustrial sectors such as construction, transportation equipment, electri-
cal equipment and electronics, and durable goods—long-lasting prod-
ucts such as refrigerators and stoves. Fuel minerals provide energy for
transportation, heating, and electrical power. Industrial minerals provide
ingredients needed in products ranging from baby powder to fertilizer to
the space shuttle. Construction materials are used in roads and buildings.
Location. When minerals have naturally combined together (aggre-
gated) they are called rocks. The three general rock categories are igne-
ous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. Igneous rocks are created by the
cooling of molten material (magma). Sedimentary rocks are caused when
weathering, erosion, transportation, and compaction or cementation act
on existing rocks.
Metamorphic rocks are created when the other two types of rock are
changed by heat and pressure. The availability of nonrenewable re-
sources from these rocks varies greatly, because it depends not only on
the natural distribution of the rocks but also on people’s ability to dis-
cover and process them. It is difficult to find rock formations that are cov-
ered by the ocean, material left by glaciers, or a rain forest. As a result,
nonrenewable resources are distributed unevenly throughout the world.
Some nonrenewable resources, such as construction materials, are
found easily around the world and are available almost everywhere.
Other nonrenewable resources can only be exploited profitably when the
useful minerals have an unusually high concentration compared with
their average concentration in the earth’s crust. These high concentra-
tions are caused by rare geological events and are difficult to find. For ex-
ample, an exceptionally rare nonrenewable resource like platinum is pro-
duced in only a few limited areas.
No one country or region is self-sufficient in providing all the nonre-
newable resources it needs, but some regions have many more nonrenew-
able resources than others. Minerals can be found in all types of rocks,
but some types of rocks are more likely to have economic concentrations
than others. Metallic minerals often are associated with shields (blocks)
of old igneous (Precambrian) rocks. Important shield areas near the
earth’s surface are found in Canada, Siberia, Scandinavia, and Eastern
Europe. Another important shield was split by the movement of the con-
tinents, and pieces of it can be found in Brazil, Africa, and Australia.
Similar rock types are in the mountain formations in Western Europe,
Central Asia, the Pacific coast of the Americas, and Southeast Asia. Min-
erals for construction and industry are found in all three types of rocks
and are widely and randomly distributed among the regions of the world.
The fuel minerals—petroleum and natural gas—are unique in that
they occur in liquid and gaseous states in the rocks. These resources must
be captured and collected within a rock site. Such a site needs source
 Production of World Petroleum by Region, 1998

Western
Europe Central and South
9% America 10%
Middle
East
31%
Eastern Europe and
Former Soviet Union 11%

North Asia and

America Oceania
17% Africa 11%
11%

Source: International Energy Annual, Energy Information Administration,

U.S. Department of Energy, 1998.

Consumption of World Petroleum by Region, 1998

Africa 3%
Middle East 6%

Central and South America 7%

North Eastern Europe and

America Former Soviet Union 7%
31%

Western
Europe
Asia and 20%
Oceania
26%

Source: International Energy Annual, Energy Information Administration,

U.S. Department of Energy, 1998.
 Nonrenewable Resources / 177

rock to provide the resource, a rock type that allows the resource to col-
lect, and another surrounding rock type that traps the resource. Sedi-
mentary rock basins are particularly good sites for fuel collection. Impor-
tant fuel-producing regions are the Middle East, the Americas, and Asia.
Impact on Human Settlement. Nonrenewable resources have always
provided raw materials for human economic development, from the flint
used in early stone tools to the silicon used in the sophisticated chips in
personal computers. Whole eras of human history and development
have been linked with the nonrenewable resources that were key to the
period and its events. For example, early human culture eras were called
the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages.
Political conflicts and wars have occurred over who owns and controls
nonrenewable resources and their trade. One recent example is the Per-
sian Gulf War of 1991. Many nations, including the United States, fought
against Iraq over control of petroleum production and reserves in the
Middle East.
Since the actual production sites often are not attractive places for hu-
man settlement and the output is transportable, these sites are seldom
important population centers. There are some exceptions, such as Johan-
nesburg, South Africa, which grew up almost solely because of the gold
found there. However, because it is necessary to protect and work the
production sites, towns always spring up near the sites. Examples of such
towns can be found near the quarries used to provide the material for the
great monuments of ancient Egypt and in the Rocky Mountains of North
America near gold and silver mines. These towns existed because of the
nonrenewable resources nearby and the needs of the people exploiting
them; once the resource was gone, the towns often were abandoned, cre-
ating “ghost towns,” or had to find new purposes, such as tourism.
More important to human settlement is the control of the trade routes
for nonrenewable resources. Such controlling sites often became regions
of great wealth and political power as the residents taxed the products

One of the most famous ghost towns from California’s pioneer gold mining days is Bodie, in the
eastern Sierra Nevadas. (Corbis)
178 / Nonrenewable Resources

that passed through their community and provided the necessary services
and protection for the traveling traders. Just one example of this type of
development is the great cities of wealth and culture that arose along
the trade routes of the Sahara Desert and West Africa like Timbuktu (in
present-day Mali) and Kumasi (in present-day Ghana) based on the trade
of resources like gold and salt.
Even with modern transportation systems, ownership of nonrenew-
able resources and control of their trade is still an important factor in
generating national wealth and economic development. Modern exam-
ples include Saudi Arabia’s oil resources, Egypt’s control of the Suez Ca-
nal, South Africa’s gold, Chile’s copper, Turkey’s control over the Bos-
porus Strait, and Indonesia’s metals and oil.
Gary A. Campbell

For Further Study

Bailey, Ronald, ed. The True State of the Planet. New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1995.
Brower, John. Sustainability and Environmental Economics. Redwood City,
Calif.: Benjamin/Cummings, 1998.
Chiras, Daniel. Environmental Science: Action for a Sustainable Future. 4th ed.
Redwood City, Calif.: Benjamin/Cummings, 1994.
Coyne, Mark, and Craig Allin, eds. Natural Resources. Pasadena, Calif.: Sa-
lem Press, 1998.
Craig, J. R., D. J. Vaughan, and B. J. Skinner. Resources of the Earth. Engle-
wood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1988.
Crowson, Phillip. Inside Mining: The Economics of the Supply and Demand of
Minerals and Metals. London: Mining Journal Books, 1998.
Kesler, Stephen E. Mineral Resources, Economics, and the Environment. New
York: Maxwell Macmillan International, 1994.
Skinner, Brian J., et al. Resources of the Earth. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall, 1988.
Strauss, Simon. Trouble in the Third Kingdom. London: Mining Journal
Books, 1986.

Information on the World Wide Web

A good general source of information on nonrenewable resources is the
U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) Web site for Commodity Statistics and In-
formation, which provides articles on the worldwide supply, demand, and
use of minerals and other materials. (minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/
commodity/)
Human Geography
This page intentionally left blank
 181

Human Societyand
the Earth
The Human Environment
N o person lives in a vacuum. Every human being and community is
surrounded by a world of external influences with which it interacts
and by which it is affected. In turn, humans influence and change their
environments: sometimes intentionally, sometimes not, and sometimes
with effects that are harmful to these environments, and, in turn, to hu-
mans themselves. As the only tool-creating animal, humans have always
shaped the world in which they live, but developments over the past few
centuries have greatly enhanced this capacity.
During the last decades of the twentieth century, people became
alarmed over the effects of modern technology and accelerating human
population growth in the world. Travel and transportation among the
world’s regions have been made surer, safer, and faster, and global com-
munication is virtually instantaneous. The human environment is no lon-
ger a matter of local physical, biological, or social conditions, or even of
merely national or regional concerns—the postmodern world has be-
come a true global community.
Students of human geography divide the human environment into
three broad areas: the physical, biological, and social environments. The
study of ecology describes and analyzes the interactions of biological
forms (mainly plants and animals) and seeks to uncover the optimal
means of species cooperation, or symbiosis. Everything that humans do
affects life and the physical world around them, and this world provides
potentials for and constraints on how humans can live.
As people gained and communicated ever-greater knowledge about
the world, their abilities to alter and shape it increased. Even ten thou-
sand years ago, people cut down trees, scratched the earth’s surface with
simple plows, and replaced diverse plant forms with single crops. From
this basic agricultural technology grew more complex human communi-
ties, and people were freed from the need to hunt and gather. The alter-
ation of the local ecosystems could have deleterious effects, however, as
gardens turned eventually to deserts in places like North Africa and what
later became Iraq. Those who kept herds of animals grazed them in areas
rich in grasses, and animal fertilizer helped keep them rich. Still, the
herders moved on when their animals overgrazed, leaving erosion and
even desertification in their wake. Modern people have a far greater abil-
ity to alter their environments than did Neolithic people, and ecologists
are concerned about the negative effects of modern alterations.
182 / The Human Environment

The Environmental Debate

Scientists, politicians, and businessmen have long debated the nature, ex-
tent, and future of environmental degradation. Most alarming was the
1972 report by the Club of Rome entitled Limits to Growth. Computer pro-
jections of population growth and the overuse of natural resources painted
a bleak picture of overcrowding and ecological disaster. Two decades later,
the group published Beyond the Limits, which modified the earlier projec-
tions but retained its pessimism in the absence of major changes in human
behavior. U.S. vice president Al Gore, in his book Earth in the Balance (1992),
also painted a grim picture, which he believed could be averted only by
large-scale changes in the industrialized world’s consumption habits.
Optimists, led by economists and social scientists and bolstered by scien-
tific advances and forecasting, refuted or minimized the dire warnings of
pessimistic ecologists. Their works emphasize the resilience of the natural
and biological environments rather than their susceptibility to human in-
terference. Julian L. Simon and Herman Kahn’s book The Resourceful Earth
(1984) emphasizes human progress in alleviating pollution, increasing
food supplies, and reducing birthrates worldwide.

The Physical Environment. The earth’s biosphere is made up of the at-

mosphere—the mass of air surrounding the earth; the hydrosphere—
bodies of water; and the lithosphere—the outer portion of the earth’s
crust. Each of these, alone and working together, affects human life and
human communities.
Climate and weather at their most extreme can make human habitation
impossible, or at least extremely uncomfortable. Desert and polar climates
do not have the liquid water, vegetation, and animal life necessary to sus-
tain human existence. Elsewhere, people must adjust to even mild varia-
tions in temperature and precipitation, and do so with clothing and shel-
ter. Excess rain can be drained off, and arid areas irrigated. Heating and,
more recently, air conditioning can create healthy microclimates, what-
ever the external conditions. Most people live in temperate zones where
weather extremes are rare or dealt with by technological adaptation. Food
can be grown locally, and transportation is effective throughout the year.
Local droughts, tornadoes, hurricanes, heavy winds, lightning, and hail
can have devastating effects even in the most comfortable of climates.
The hydrosphere affects the atmosphere in countless ways, and pro-
vides the water so necessary for human and other life. Bodies of water
provide plants and animals for food, transportation routes, and aesthetic
pleasure to people, and often serve to flush away waste products. People
locate near water sources for all of these reasons, but sometimes suffer
from sudden shifts in the water level, as in tidal waves (tsunamis) or flood-
ing. Encroachment of salt water into freshwater bodies (salination) is a
 The Human Environment / 183

problem that can have natural or human causes.

The lithosphere provides the solid, generally dry surface on which
people usually live. It has been shaped by the atmosphere (especially
wind and rain that erode rocks into soil) and the hydrosphere (for exam-
ple, alluvial deposits and beach erosion). It serves as the base for much
plant life and for most agriculture. People have tapped its mineral depos-
its and reshaped it in many places; it also reshapes itself through, for ex-
ample, earthquakes and volcanic eruption. Its great variations, including
vegetation, draw or repel people, who exploit or enjoy them for reasons
as varied as recreation, military defense, or farming.
The Biological Environment. Humans share the earth with something
between five and thirty million different species of plants, animals, and
microorganisms—about about two million of which have been identified
and named. As part of the natural food chain, people rely upon other life
forms for nourishment. Through perhaps the first 99 percent of human
history, people harvested the bounty of nature in its native setting, by
hunting and gathering.
Domestication of plants and animals, beginning about ten thousand
years ago, provided humans a more stable and reliable food supply, revo-
lutionizing human communities. Being omnivores, people can use a wide
variety of plants and animals for food, and they have come to control or
manage most important food sources through herding, agriculture, or
mechanized harvesting. Which plants and animals are chosen as food,
and thus which are cultivated, bred, or exploited, are matters of human
culture, not, at least in the modern world, of necessity.
Huge increases in human population worldwide have, however, put
tremendous strains on provision of adequate nourishment. Areas poorly
endowed with foodstuffs or that suffer disastrous droughts or blights may
benefit from the importation of food in the short run, but cannot sustain
high populations fostered by medical advances and cultural consider-
ations.
Human beings themselves are also hosts to myriad organisms, such as
fungi, viruses, bacteria, mites, worms, and lice. While people usually can
coexist with these, at times they are destructive and even fatal to the hu-
man organism. Public health and medical efforts have eradicated some
of humankind’s biological enemies, but others remain and baffle mod-
ern science.
The presence of these enemies to health once played a major role in
locating human habitations to avoid so-called “bad air” (mal-aria) and the
breeding grounds of tsetse flies or other pests. The use of pesticides and
draining of marshy grounds have alleviated a good deal of human suffer-
ing. Human efforts can also control or eliminate biological threats to the
plants and animals used for food, clothing, and other purposes.
Social Environments. Human reproduction and the nurturing of
young require cooperation among people. Over time, people gathered
184 / The Human Environment

in groups that were diverse in age if not in other qualities, and the devel-
opment of towns and cities eventually created an environment in which
otherwise unrelated people interacted on intimate and constructive lev-
els. Specialization, or division of labor, created a higher level of material
wealth and culture and ensured interpersonal reliance.
The pooling of labor—both voluntary and forced—allowed for the
creation of artificial living environments that defied the elements and
met human needs for sustenance. Some seemingly basic human drives of
exclusivity and territoriality may be responsible for interpersonal fric-
tion, violence and, at the extreme, war. Physical differences, such as size,
skin, or hair color, and cultural differences, including language, religion,
and customs, have often divided humans or communities. Even within
close quarters such as cities, people often separate themselves along lines
of perceived differences. Human social identity comes from shared char-
acteristics, but which things are seen as shared, and which as differentiat-
ing, is arbitrary.
People can affect their social environment for good and ill through
trade and war, cooperation and bigotry, altruism and greed. While peo-
ple still are somewhat at the mercy of the biological and physical environ-
ments, technological developments have balanced the human relation-
ship with these. Negative effects of human interaction, however, often off-
set the positive gains. People can seed clouds for rain, but also pollute the
atmosphere around large cities, create acid rain, and perhaps contribute
to global warming and depletion of the ozone layer around the earth.
Human actions can direct water to where it is needed, but people also
drain freshwater bodies and increase salination, pollute streams, lakes, and
oceans, and encourage flooding by modifying river beds. People have ter-
raced mountainsides and irrigated them to create gardens in mountains
and deserts, but also lose about 75 billion metric tons of soil to erosion and
15 million acres (6 million hectares) of grazing land to desertification each
year. These negative effects not only jeopardize other species of terres-
trial life, but also humans’ ability to live comfortably, or perhaps at all.
Globalization. Humankind’s ability to affect its natural environments
has increased enormously in the wake of the Industrial Revolution. The
harnessing of steam, chemical, electrical, and atomic energy has enabled
people to transform life on a global scale. Economically, the Western world
has come to dominate global markets, and computer and satellite technol-
ogy have made even remote parts of the globe reliant on Western informa-
tion and products. Efficient transportation of goods and people over huge
distances has eliminated physical barriers to travel and commerce. The
power and influence of multinational corporations, and of national cor-
porations in international markets, has become great. With the Internet,
a mastery of basic English is almost essential, and global news networks
based in the United States further connect the peoples of the earth.
Human environmental problems also have a global scope: Ozone de-
 The Human Environment / 185

In many mountainous
parts of the world,
people try to maximize
the output of their land
by terracing slopes to
utilize every possible
fragment of space.
(PhotoDisc)

pletion, changes in ocean temperatures, global warming, and the spread

of disease by travelers have become planetary concerns. International
agencies seek to deal with such matters, and also social and political con-
cerns once left to nations or colonial powers, such as population growth,
the provision of justice, or environmental destruction within a country.
Pessimists warn of horrendous trends in population and ecological dam-
age, and further deterioration of human life and its environments. Opti-
mists dismiss negative reports as exaggerated and alarmist, or expect fur-
ther technological advances to mitigate the negative effects of human
action.
Joseph P. Byrne

For Further Study

Bush, M. B. Ecology of a Changing Planet. 2d ed. Upper Saddle River, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall, 2000.
Cartledge, Bryan. Population and the Environment. New York: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 1995.
186 / Population Growth and Distribution

Davis, Lawrence S. Forest Management: To Sustain Ecological, Economic, and

Social Values. 4th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2001.
Goodall, Brian. Dictionary of Human Geography. New York: Facts on File,
1987.
Gotelli, Nicholas J. A Primer of Ecology. Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer Associ-
ates, 1995.
Mainguet, Monique. Aridity: Droughts and Human Development. New York:
Springer, 1999.
Miller, G. Tyler. Living in the Environment. 11th ed. Pacific Grove, Calif.:
Brooks/Cole, 1992.
Southwick, Charles H. Global Ecology in Human Perspective. New York: Ox-
ford University Press, 1996.

Population Growth and Distribution

O n October 13, 1999 the United Nations (U.N.) officially announced
that the total population of the earth had reached 6 billion people.
Both that number and that date were estimates, as no one could be sure
exactly how many were alive on the earth that day. Indeed, the U.S. Cen-
sus Bureau estimated that the world’s population reached the figure of 6
billion four months earlier than the date of the U.N. estimate.
The population of the world has been growing steadily for thousands
of years and has grown more in some places than in others. The popula-
tion of the United States on October 13, 1999 was approximately 270 mil-
lion. That meant that about 1 in 22 people on the planet lived in the
United States. The populations of Canada, California, and the metropoli-
tan area of Mexico City were each about 30 million people on that day,
meaning that 1 in 200 people on the earth lived in Canada, 1 in 200 lived
in California, and 1 in 200 lived in Mexico City. However, Canada is a
much larger area than California, and California is much larger than
Mexico City.
India’s population on October 13, 1999, was just about 1 billion—1 in
6 people on the planet. China’s population was about 1.25 billion—about
1 in 5 people on the planet. Although China was the most populous na-
tion in the world in 1999, it was expected that in the twenty-first century
India’s population would surpass that of China.
How Populations Are Counted. The U.S. Constitution requires that a
census, or enumeration, of the population of the United States be con-
ducted every ten years. The U.S. Census Bureau mails out millions of cen-
sus forms and pays thousands of people (enumerators) to count people
that did not fill out their census forms. This task cost about 4.5 billion dol-
lars in the year 2000. Despite this great effort, millions of people are prob-
ably not counted in every U.S. census. Moreover, many countries have
much less money to spend on censuses and more people to count. There-
 Population Growth and Distribution / 187

fore, information about the population of many poor or less-developed

countries is even less accurate than that for the population of the United
States. It is for these reasons that it is impossible to say that the population
of the world reached exactly 6 billion people on exactly October 13, 1999.
Counting how many people were alive a hundred, a thousand, or hun-
dreds of thousands of years ago is even more difficult. Estimates are made
from archaeological findings, which include human skeletons, ruins of
ancient buildings, and evidence of ancient agricultural practices. Histori-
cal records of births, deaths, taxes paid, and other information are also
used. Although it is not possible to estimate the global population one
thousand years ago with great accuracey, it is a fascinating topic, and
many people have participated in estimating the total population of the
planet through the ages.
History of Human Population Growth. Ancient ancestors of humans,
known as hominids, were alive in Africa and Europe around one million
years ago. It is believed that modern humans (homo sapiens sapiens) coex-
isted with the Neanderthals (homo sapiens neandertalensis) about 100,000
years ago. By 8000 b.c.e. (10,000 years ago) fully modern humans num-
bered around 8 million. If the presence of archaic homo sapiens is ac-
cepted as the beginning of the human population one million years ago,
then the first 990,000 years of human existence are characterized by a
very low population growth rate (15 persons per million per year).
Around 10,000 years ago, humans began a practice that dramatically
changed their growth rate: planting food crops. This shift in human his-
tory, called the Agricultural Revolution, paved the way for the develop-
ment of cities, government, and civilizations. Before the Agricultural Rev-
olution, there were no governments to count people. The earliest censuses
were conducted less than 10,000 years ago in the ancient civilizations of
Egypt, Babylon, China, Palestine, and Rome. For this reason, historical esti-
mates of the earth’s total population are difficult to make. However, there
is no argument that human numbers have increased dramatically in the
past 10,000 years. The dramatic changes in the growth rates of the human
population are typically attributed to three significant epochs of human
cultural evolution: the Agricultural, Industrial, and Green Revolutions.
Before the Agricultural Revolution, the size of the human population
was probably less than 10 million people, who survived primarily by hunt-
ing and gathering. After plant and animal species were domesticated, the
human population increased its growth rate. By about 5000 b.c.e., gains
in food production caused by the Agricultural Revolution meant that the
planet could support about 50 million people. For the next several thou-
sand years, the human population continued to grow at a rate of about
0.03 percent per year. By the first year of the common era, the planet’s
population numbered about 300 million.
At the end of the Middle Ages, the human population numbered
about 400 million. As people lived in densely populated cities, the effects
188 / Population Growth and Distribution

of disease increased. Starting in 1348 and continuing to 1650, the human

population was subjected to massive declines caused by the bubonic
plague—the Black Death. At its peak in about 1400, the Black Death may
have killed 25 percent of Europe’s population in just over fifty years. By
the end of the last great plague in 1650, the human population num-
bered 600 million.
The Industrial Revolution began between 1650 and 1750. Since then,
the growth of the human population has increased greatly. In just under
three hundred years, the earth’s population went from 0.5 billion to 6 bil-
lion people, and the annual rate of increase went from 0.1 percent to 1.8
percent. This population growth was not because people were having
more babies, but because more babies lived to become adults and the av-
erage adult lived a longer life.
The Green Revolution occurred in the 1960’s. The development of
various vaccines and antibiotics in the twentieth century and the spread
of their use to most of the world after World War II caused big drops in
the death rate, increasing population growth rates. Feeding this growing
population has presented a challenge. This third revolution is called the
Green Revolution because of the technology used to increase the amount
of food produced by farms. However, the Green Revolution was really a
combination of improvements in health care, medicine, and sanitation,
in addition to an increase in food production.
Geography of Human Population Growth. The present-day human
race traces its lineage to Africa. Humans migrated from Africa to the Mid-
dle East, Europe, Asia, and eventually to Australia, North and South
America, and the Pacific Islands. It is believed that during the last Ice
Age, the world’s sea levels were lower because much of the world’s water
was trapped in ice sheets. This lower sea level created land bridges that fa-
cilitated many of the major human migrations across the world.
Patterns of human settlement are not random. People generally avoid
living in deserts because they lack water. Few humans are found above the
Arctic Circle because of that region’s severely cold climate. Environmen-
tal factors, such as the availability of water and food and the livability of
climate, influence where humans choose to live. How much these factors
influence the evolution and development of human societies is a subject
of debate.
The domestication of plants and animals that resulted from the Agri-
cultural Revolution did not take place everywhere on the earth. In many
parts of the world, humans remained as hunter-gatherers while agricul-
ture developed in other parts of the world. Eventually, the agriculturalists
outbred the hunter-gatherers, and few hunter-gatherers remain in the
twenty-first century. Early agricultural sites have been found in many
places, including Central and South America, Southeast Asia and China,
and along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now Iraq. The prac-
tice of agriculture spread from these areas throughout most of the world.
 Population Growth and Distribution / 189

By the time Christopher Columbus reached the Americas in the late

fifteenth century, there were millions of Native Americans living in towns
and villages and practicing agriculture. Most of them died from diseases
that were brought by European colonists. Colonization, disease, and war
are major mechanisms that have changed the composition and distribu-
tion of the world’s population in the last three hundred years.
The last few centuries also produced another change in the geography
of the human population. During this period, the concentration of in-
dustry in urban areas and the efficiency gains of modern agricultural ma-
chinery caused large numbers of people to move from rural areas to cit-
ies to find jobs. From 1900 to 2000 the percentage of people living in
cities went from 14 percent to just about 50 percent. Demographers esti-
mate that by the year 2025, more than 60 percent of the earth’s popula-
tion will live in cities. Scientists estimate that the human population will
continue to increase until the year 2050, at which time it will level out at
between eight and fifteen billion.
Earth’s Carrying Capacity. Many people are concerned that the earth
cannot grow enough food or provide enough other resources to support
fifteen billion people. There is great debate about the concept of the
earth’s carrying capacity—the maximum human population that the
earth can support indefinitely. Answers to questions about the earth’s
carrying capacity must account for variations in human behavior. For ex-
ample, the earth could support more bicycle-riding vegetarians than car-
driving carnivores. Questions about carrying capacity and the environ-

In countries with large populations and limited space and resources, bicycles
are a sensible alternative to automobiles for transportation. (PhotoDisc)
190 / Global Urbanization

mental impacts of the human race on the planet are fundamental to the
United Nations’ goals of sustainable development. Dealing with these
questions will be one of the major challenges of the twenty-first century.
Paul C. Sutton

For Further Study

Cohen, Joel. How Many People Can the Earth Support? London: W. W.
Norton, 1996.
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies. Lon-
don: W. W. Norton, 1998.
Population (Special Millenium Series Issue). National Geographic (Octo-
ber, 1998).
Weeks, John. Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues. Belmont,
Calif.: Wadworth, 1994.

Global Urbanization
U rbanization is the process of building and living in cities. Although
the human impulse to live in groups sharing a “home base” probably
dates back to cave-dweller times or before, the creation of towns and cit-
ies with a few hundred to many thousands to millions of inhabitants, re-
quired several other developments.
Foremost of these was the invention of agriculture. Tilling crops re-
quires a permanent living place near the cultivated land. The first agricul-
tural villages were small. Jarmo, a village site from c. 7000 b.c.e., located
in the Zagros Mountains of present-day Iran, appears to have had only
twenty to twenty-five houses. Still, farmers’ crops and livestock provided a
food surplus that could be stored in the village or traded for other goods.
Surplus food also meant surplus time, enabling some people to specialize
in producing other useful items, or to engage in less tangible things like
religious rituals or recordkeeping.
Given these conditions, it took people with foresight and political tal-
ents to lead the process of city formation. Once in cities, however, the in-
habitants found many benefits. Walls and guards provided more security
than the open country. Cities had regular markets where local craftsmen
and traveling merchants displayed a variety of goods. City governments
often provided amenities like primitive street lighting and sanitary facili-
ties. The faster pace of life, and the exchange of ideas from diverse peo-
ple interacting, made city life more interesting and speeded up the pro-
cesses of social change and invention. Writing, law, and money all evolved
in the earliest cities.
Ancient and Medieval Cities. Cities seem to have appeared almost si-
multaneously, around 3500 b.c.e., in three separate regions. In the Fer-
tile Crescent, a wide curve of land stretching from the Persian gulf to the
 Global Urbanization / 191

northwest Mediterranean Sea, the cities of Ur, Akkad, and Babylon rose,
flourished, and succeeded one another. In Egypt, a connected chain of
cities grew, soon unified by a ruler using Memphis, just south of the Nile
River’s delta, as his strategic and ceremonial base. On the Indian subcon-
tinent, Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa oversaw about a hundred smaller
towns in the Indus River valley. Similar developments took place about a
thousand years later in northern China.
These first city sites were in the valleys of great river systems, where rich
alluvial soil boosted large-scale food production. The rivers served as a
“water highway” for ships carrying commodities and luxury items to and
from the cities. They also furnished water for drinking, irrigation, and
waste disposal. Even the rivers’ rampages promoted civilization, as mak-
ing flood control and irrigation systems required practical engineering,
an organized workforce, and ongoing political authority to direct them.
Eurasia was still full of peoples who were not urbanized, however, and
who lived by herding, pirating, or raiding. Early cities declined or disap-
peared, in some cases destroyed by invasions from such forces around
1200 b.c.e. Afterward, the cities of Greece became newly important.
Their surrounding land was poor, but their access to the sea was an advan-
tage. Greek cities prospered from fishing and trade. They also developed
a new idea, the city-state, run by and for its citizens.
Rome, the Greek cities’ successor to power, reached a new level of ur-
banization. Its rise owed more to historical accident and its citizens’ polit-
ical and military talents than to location, but some geographical features
are salient. In some ways, the fertile coastal plain of Latium was an ideal
site for a great city, central to both the Italian peninsula and the Mediter-
ranean Sea. There, the Tiber River becomes navigible and crossable.
In other ways, Rome’s site was far from ideal. Its lower areas were
swampy and mosquito-ridden. The seven hills, with their sacred sites later
filled with public buildings and luxury houses, imposed a crazy-quilt pat-
tern on the city’s growth. Romans built cities with a simple rectangular
plan all over Europe and the Middle East, but their home city grew in a
less rational way.
At its peak, Rome had a million residents, a size no other city reached
before nineteenth century London. It provided facilities found in mod-
ern cities: a piped water supply, a sewage disposal system, a police force,
public buildings, entertainment districts, shops, inns, restaurants, and
taverns. The streets were crowded and noisy; to control traffic, wheeled
wagons could make deliveries only at night. Fire and building collapse
were constant risks in the cheaply built apartment structures that housed
the city’s poorer residents. Still, few wanted to live anywhere but in Rome,
their world’s preeminent city.
In the Dark Ages after the western Roman Empire collapsed, feudal-
ism, based on land holdings, eclipsed urban life. Cities never disap-
peared, but their populations and services declined drastically. Urban life
192 / Global Urbanization

still flourished for another millenium in the eastern capital of Constanti-

nople. When Islam spread across the Middle East, it caused the growth of
new cities, centered around a mosque and a marketplace.
In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, life revived in Western Europe.
As in the Islamic cities, the driving forces were religious—the building of
cathedrals—and commercial—merchants and artisans expanding the
reach of their activities. Medieval cities were usually walled, with narrow
twisting streets and a lack of basic sanitary measures, but they drew ambi-
tious people and innovative forces together. Italy’s cities revived the con-
cept of the city-state with its outward reach. Venice sent its merchant fleet
all over the known world. Farther north, Paris and Bologna hosted the
first universities. As the feudal system slowly gave way to nation-states
ruled by one king, the cities generally supported the latter.
Modern Cities. Modern cities differ from earlier ones because of
changes wrought by technology, but most of today’s cities arose before
the Industrial Revolution. Until the early nineteenth century, travel
within a city was by foot or on horse, which limited street widths and city
sizes. The first effect of railroads was to shorten travel time between cities.
This helped country residents moving to the cities, and speeded raw ma-
terials going into and manufactured goods coming out of the factories
that increasingly dotted urban areas. Rail transit soon caused the growth
of a suburban ring. Prosperous city workers could live in more spacious
homes outside the city, riding rail lines to work every day. This pattern
was common in London and New York City.
Factories, the lifeblood of the Industrial Revolution, were built in
pockets of existing cities. Smaller cities like Glasgow, Scotland, and Pitts-
burgh, Pennsylvania, grew as ironworking industries, using nearby or eas-
ily transported coal and ore resources, built large foundries there. Nei-
ther industrialists nor city authorities worried about where the people
working there would live. Workers took whatever housing they could find
in tenements or subdivided old mansions.
Beginning in the 1880’s, metal-framed construction made taller build-
ings possible. These skyscrapers towered over stately three- to eight-story
structures of an earlier period. Because this technology enabled expen-
sive central-city ground space to house many profitable office suites, up
through the 1930’s, city cores became quite compacted. Many people be-
lieved such skyward growth was the wave of the future and warned that
city streets were becoming sunless, dangerous canyons.
Automobiles kept these predictions from fully coming true. As car
ownership became widespread, more roads were built or widened to
carry the traffic. Urban areas began to decentralize. The car, like rail
transit before it, allowed people to flee the urban core for suburban liv-
ing. Because roads could be built almost anywhere, built-up areas around
cities came to resemble large patches filling a circle, rather than the
spokes-of-a-wheel pattern introduced by rail lines. Cities born during the
 Global Urbanization / 193

Urbanization and Developing Nations

The urban population, or number of people living in cities, in North Amer-
ica accounts for about 75 percent of its total population. In Europe, about
90 percent of the population lives in cities. In developing countries, the ur-
ban population is often less than 30 percent. The term “urbanization” re-
fers to the rate of population growth of cities. Urbanization mainly results
from people moving to cities from elsewhere. In developing countries, the
urbanization rate is very high compared to those of North America or Eu-
rope. The high rate of urbanization of these countries makes it difficult for
their governments to provide housing, water, sewers, jobs, schools, and
other services for their fast-growing urban populations.

automotive age tend to have an indistinct city center, surrounded by large

areas of diffuse urban development. The prime example is Los Angeles,
California: It has a small downtown area, but a consolidated metropolitan
area of about 34,000 square miles (88,000 sq. km.).
Almost everywhere, urban sprawl has created satellite cities with major
manufacturing, office, and shopping nodes. These cause an increasing
portion of daily travel within metropolitan areas to be between one edge
city and another, rather than to and from downtown. Since these jour-
neys have an almost limitless variety of start points and destinations
within the urban region, mass transit is only a partial solution to highway
crowding and air pollution problems.
The above trends typify the so-called developed world, especially the
United States. Many cities in poor nations have grown even more rapidly
but with a different mix of patterns and problems. However, the basic pat-
tern can be detected around the globe, as urban dwellers seek to better
their own circumstances.
Megacities and the Future. In the year 2000 the world had twenty-one
megacities, defined as urban areas with a population of 10 million or
more. The largest was Tokyo, with an estimated 27 million people in
1995, predicted to grow to around 29 million in 2015. Second largest was
Mexico City, with more than 16 million in 1995 and annual growth at 1.81
percent. New York at 16 million and Los Angeles at 12 million are North
America’s other megacities. In the first half of the 1990’s, Los Angeles
grew 1.6 per cent annually, much of it from international migration to
the region.
Megacities profoundly affect the air, weather, and terrain of their sur-
rounding territory. Smog is a feature of urban life almost everywhere, but
is worse where the exhaust from millions of cars mixes with industrial pol-
lution. Some megacities have slowed the problem by regulating combus-
tion technology; none has solved it. Huge expanses of soil preempted by
194 / Global Urbanization

Urban Heat Islands

Large cities have distinctly different climates from the rural areas that sur-
round them. The most important climatic characteristic of a city is the urban
heat island, a concentration of relatively warmer temperatures, especially at
nighttime. Large cities are frequently at least 11 degrees Fahrenheit (6 de-
grees Celsius) warmer than the surrounding countryside.
The urban heat island results from several factors. Primary among these
are human activities, such as heating homes and operating factories and ve-
hicles, that produce and release large quantities of energy to the atmo-
sphere. Most of these activities involve the burning of fossil fuels such as oil,
gas, and coal. A second factor is the abundance of heat-absorbing urban
materials, such as brick, concrete, and asphalt. A third factor is the surface
dryness of a city. Urban surface materials normally absorb little water and
therefore quickly dry out after a storm. In contrast, the evaporation of
moisture from wet soil and vegetation in rural areas uses a large quantity of
solar energy—often more than is converted directly to heat—resulting in
cooler air temperatures and higher relative humidities.

buildings and pavements can turn heavy rains into floods almost in-
stantly, and the ambient heat in large cities stays several degrees higher
than in comparable rural areas. Recent engineering studies suggest that
megacities create instability in the ground beneath, compressing and un-
dermining it.
How will cities evolve? Barring an unforeseen technological or social
breakthrough—which could happen in the twenty-first century—the cur-
rent growth and problems will probably continue. The process of megap-
olis—metropolitan areas blending together along the corridors between
them—is well underway in many areas. Predictions that the computer
will so change the nature of work as to cause massive population shifts
away from cities have proven premature. Despite its drawbacks, increas-
ing numbers of people are drawn to urban life, seeking the economic op-
portunities and wider social world that cities offer.
Emily Alward

For Further Study

Hall, Peter. Cities in Civilization. New York: Pantheon Books, 1998.
Lo, Fu-Chen, and Yue-Man Yeung. Globalization and the World of Large
Cities. New York: United Nations University Press, 1998.
Mumford, Lewis. The City in History. New York: Harvest/HBJ Books, 1961.
Scott, Allen J. City: Los Angeles and Urban Theory at the End of the Twentieth
Century. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
The Rise of Cities. Alexandria, Va.: Time-Life Books, 1991.
 Global Time and Time Zones / 195

Global Time and Time Zones

B efore the nineteenth century, people kept time by local reckoning of
the position of the Sun; consequently, thousands of local times ex-
isted. In medieval Europe, “hours” varied in length, depending upon the
seasons: Each hour was determined by the Roman Catholic Church. In
the sixteenth century, Holy Roman emperor Charles V was the first secu-
lar ruler to decree hours to be of equal length. As the industrial and sci-
entific revolutions swept Europe, North America, and other areas, some
form of time standardization became necessary as communities and re-
gions increasingly interacted. In 1780 Geneva, Switzerland, was the first
locality known to employ a standard time, set by the town-hall clock-
keeper, throughout the town and its immediate vicinity.
The growth and expansion of railroads, providing the first relatively
fast movement of people and goods from city to city, underscored the
need for a standard system in Great Britain. As early as 1828, Sir John
Herschel, Astronomer Royal, called for a national standard time system
based on instruments at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. That prac-
tice began in 1852, when the British telegraph system had developed suf-
ficiently for the Greenwich time signals to be sent instantly to any point in
the country.
As railroads expanded through North America, they exposed a prob-
lem of local time variation similar to that in Great Britain but on a far larger
scale, since the distances between the East and West Coasts were much
greater than in Great Britain. In order for long-distance train schedules
to work, different parts of the country had to coordinate their clocks. The
first to suggest a standard time framework for the United States was
Charles F. Dowd, president of Temple Grove Seminary for Women in
Saratoga Springs, New York. Initially, Dowd proposed putting all U.S. rail-
roads on a single standard time, based on the time in Washington, D.C.
When he realized that the time in California would be behind such a stan-
dard by almost four hours, he produced a revised system, establishing
four time zones in the United States. Dowd’s plan, published in 1870, in-
cluded the first known map of a time zone system for the country.
Not everyone was happy with the designation of Washington, D.C., as
the administrative center of time in the United States. Northeastern rail-
road executives urged that New York, the commercial capital of the na-
tion, be used instead: Many cities and towns in the region already had
standardized to New York time out of practical necessity. Dowd proposed
a compromise: to set the entire national time zone system in the United
States using the Greenwich prime meridian, already in use in many parts
of the world for maritime and scientific purposes. In 1873 the American
Association of Railways (AAR) flatly rejected the proposal.
In the end, Dowd proved to be a visionary. In 1878 Sandford Fleming,
chief engineer of the government of Canada, proposed a worldwide sys-
196 / Global Time and Time Zones

tem of twenty-four time zones, each fifteen degrees of longitude in width,

and each bisected by a meridian, beginning with the prime meridian of
Greenwich. William F. Allen, general secretary of the AAR and armed
with a deep knowledge of railroad practices and politics, took up the cru-
sade and persuaded the railroads to agree to a system. At noon on
Sunday, November 18, 1883, most of the more than six hundred U.S. rail-
road lines dropped the fifty-three arbitrary times they had been using
and adopted Greenwich-indexed meridians that defined the times in
each of four times zones: eastern, central, mountain, and Pacific. Most
major cities in the United States and Canada followed suit.
Time System for the World. Almost at the same time that American
railroads adopted a standard time zone system, the State Department,
authorized by the United States Congress, invited governments from
around the world to assemble delegates in Washington, D.C., to adopt a
global system. The International Meridian Conference assembled in the
autumn of 1884, attended by representatives of twenty-five countries. Led
by Great Britain and the United States, most favored adoption of Green-
wich as the official prime meridian and Greenwich mean time as univer-
sal time.
There were other contenders: The French wanted the prime meridian
to be set in Paris, and the Germans wanted it in Berlin; others proposed a
mountaintop in the Azores or the tip of the Great Pyramid in Egypt.
Greenwich won handily. The conference also agreed officially to start the
universal day at midnight, rather than at noon or at sunrise, as practiced
in many parts of the world. Each time zone in the world eventually came
to have a local name, although technically, each goes by a letter in the al-
phabet in order eastward from Greenwich.
Once a global system was in place, there was a new issue: Many jurisdic-
tions wanted to adjust their clocks for part of the year to account for dif-
ferences in the number of hours of daylight between summer and winter
months. In 1918 Congress decreed a system of daylight saving time for
the United States but almost immediately abolished it, leaving state gov-
ernments and communities to their local options. Daylight saving time,
or a form of it, returned in the United States and many Allied nations
during World War II. In the Uniform Time Act of 1966, Congress finally
established a national system of daylight saving time, although with an
option for states to abstain.
To the extent that it indicates how human communities want to ma-
nipulate time for social, political, or economic reasons, the issue of day-
light saving time, rather than the establishment of a system of world time
zones, is a better clue to the geographical issues involved in time adminis-
tration. Both the history and the present format of the world time zone
system show that the mathematically precise arrangement envisioned by
many of the pioneers of time zones is not as important as things on the
ground.
 Global Time and Time Zones / 197

In the United States, the railroad time system adopted in 1883 drew
the boundary between eastern time and central time more or less be-
tween the thirteen original states and the trans-Appalachian West: The
entire Midwest, including Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan, fell in the cen-
tral time zone. As the center of population migrated westward, train
speeds increased, highways developed, and New York emerged as the
center of mass media in the United States, the boundary between the
eastern and central time zones marched steadily westward. In 1918 it ran
down the middle of Ohio; by the 1960’s, it was at the outskirts of Chicago.
One of the principal reasons for the popularity of Greenwich as the
site of the prime meridian (zero degrees longitude), is that it places the
international date line (180 degrees longitude)—where, in effect, time
has to move forward to the next day rather than the next hour—far out in
the Pacific Ocean where few people are affected by what otherwise would
be an awkward arrangement. However, even this line is somewhat irregu-
lar, to avoid placing a small section of eastern Russia and some of the
Aleutian Islands of the United States in different days.
By 1950 most nations had adopted the universal time zone system, al-
though a few followed later: Saudi Arabia in 1962, Liberia in 1972. De-
spite adhering to the system in principle, many nations take considerable
liberties with the zones, especially if their territory spans several time
zones. All of Western Europe, despite covering an area equivalent to two
zones, remains on a single standard. The People’s Republic of China,
which stretches across five different time zones, arbitrarily sets the entire
country officially on Beijing time, eight hours behind Greenwich. Iran,
Afghanistan, India, and Myanmar, each of which straddle time zone
boundaries, operate on half-hour compromise systems as their time stan-
dards (as does Newfoundland). As late as 1978, Guyana’s standard time
was three hours, forty-five minutes in advance of Greenwich.
It can be argued that adoption of a worldwide system of time zones in
the late nineteenth century was one of the earliest manifestations of the
emergence of a global economy and society, and has been a crucial factor
in the unfolding of this process throughout the twentieth century and be-
yond.
Ronald W. Davis

For Further Study

Bartky, Ian R. “The Invention of Railroad Time.” Railroad History, no. 148
(Spring, 1983): 13-22.
Bartky, Ian R., and Elizabeth Harrison. “Standard and Daylight-Saving
Time.” Scientific American 240, no. 5 (May, 1979): 46-53.
Davies, Alun C. “Greenwich and Standard Time.” History Today 27 (1978):
194-199.
Doane, Doris Chase. Time Changes in the U.S.A. Tempe, Ariz.: National
Federation of Astrologers, 1980.
198 / Climate and Human Settlement

Information on the World Wide Web

The Time Service Department of the United States Naval Observatory in
Washington, D.C., maintains a Web site on time zones in the United States
and around the world. Visitors can access a map of current world time
zones, review the U.S. law on standard time zones, and inquire about local
standard time for any country or region in the world.
(tycho.usno.navy.mil/tzones.html)

Howse, Derek. Greenwich Time and the Longitude. Greenwich, England: Na-
tional Maritime Museum, 1997.
Movahedi, Siamak. “Cultural Preconceptions of Time: Can We Use Oper-
ational Time to Meddle in God’s Time?” Comparative Studies in Society
and History 27 (1985): 385-400.
Zerubavel, Eviatar. “The Standardization of Time: A Sociohistorical Per-
spective.”American Journal of Sociology (1982): 1-23.

Climate and Human

Societies
Climate and Human Settlement
A ccording to an old saying, “Everyone talks about the weather, but no-
body does anything about it.” If everyone talks about the weather, it
is because it is important to them—to how they feel and to how their bod-
ies and minds function. There is plenty they can do about it, from going
to a different location to creating an artificial indoor environment.
Climate. The term “climate” refers to average weather conditions over
a long period of time and to the variations around that average from day
to day or month to month. Temperature, air pressure, humidity, wind
conditions, sunshine, and rainfall—all are important elements of climate
and differ systematically with location. Temperatures tend to be higher
near the equator and are so low in the polar regions that very few people
live there. In any given region, temperatures are lower at higher altitudes.
Areas close to large bodies of water have more stable temperatures. Rain-
fall depends on topography: The Pacific Coast of the United States re-
ceives a great deal of rain, but the nearby mountains prevent it from mov-
ing very far inland. Seasonal variations in temperature are larger in
temperate zones.
 Climate and Human Settlement / 199

Throughout human history, climate has affected where and how peo-
ple live. People in technologically primitive cultures, lacking much pro-
tective clothing or housing, needed to live in mild climates, in environ-
ments favorable to hunting and gathering. As agricultural cultivation
developed, populations located where soil fertility, topography, and cli-
mate were favorable to growing crops and raising livestock. Areas in the
Middle East and near the Mediterranean Sea flourished before 1000
b.c.e. Many equatorial areas were too hot and humid for human and ani-
mal health and comfort, and too infested with insect pests and diseases.
Improvements in technology allowed settlement to range more widely
north and south. Sturdy houses and stables, internal heating, and warm
clothing enabled people to survive and be active in long cold winters.
Some peoples developed nomadic patterns, moving with herds of ani-
mals to adapt to seasonal variations.
A major challenge in the evolution of settled agriculture was to adapt
production to climate and soil conditions. In North America, such crops
as cotton, tobacco, rice, and sugarcane have relatively restricted areas of
cultivation. Wheat, corn, and soybeans are more widely grown, but usu-
ally further north. Winter wheat is an ingenious adaptation to climate. It
is sown and germinates in autumn, then matures and is harvested the fol-
lowing spring. Rice, which generally grows in standing water, requires
special environmental conditions.
Tropical Problems. Some scholars argue that tropical climates encour-
age life to flourish but do not promote quality of life. In hot climates, peo-

Ireland’s Potato Famine and European

Emigration
Mass migration from Europe to North America began in the 1840’s after a
serious blight destroyed a large part of the potato crop in Ireland and other
parts of Northern Europe. The weather played a part in the famine; during
the autumns of 1845 and 1846 climatic conditions were ideal for spreading
the potato blight. The major cause of the famine, however, was the blight it-
self, and the impact was severe on low-income farmers for whom the potato
was the major food.
The famine and related political disturbances led to mass emigration
from Ireland and from Germany. By 1850 there were nearly a million Irish
and more than half a million Germans in the United States. Combined,
these two groups made up more than two-thirds of the foreign-born U.S.
population of 1850. The settlement patterns of each group were very dif-
ferent. Most Irish were so poor they had to work for wages in cities or in
construction of canals and railroads. Many Germans took up farming in ar-
eas similar in climate and soil conditions to their homelands, moving to
Wisconsin, Minnesota, and the Dakotas.
200 / Climate and Human Settlement

ple do not need much caloric intake to maintain body heat. Clothing and
housing do not need to protect people from the cold. Where tempera-
tures never fall below freezing, crops can be grown all year round. Large
numbers of people can survive even where productivity is not high. How-
ever, hot humid conditions are not favorable to human exertion. Some
tropical areas, such as South India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Central
Africa, have developed large populations living at relatively low levels of
income.
Slavery. Efforts to develop tropical regions played an important part in
the rise of the slave trade after 1500 c.e. Black Africans were kidnapped
and forceably transported to work in hot, humid regions. The West In-
dian islands became an important location for slave labor, particularly in
sugar production. On the North American continent, slave labor was im-
portant for producing rice, indigo, and tobacco in colonial times. All
these were eclipsed by the enormous growth of cotton production in the
early years of U.S. independence. It has been estimated that the forced
migration of Africans to the Americas involved about 1,800 Africans per
year from 1450 to 1600, 13,400 per year in the seventeenth century, and
55,000 per year from 1701 to 1810. Estimates vary wildly, but at least 7.7
million Africans were forced to migrate in this process.
European Migration. Migration of European peoples also accelerated
after the discovery of the New World. They settled mainly in temperate-
zone regions, particularly North America. Although Great Britain gained
colonial dominion over India, the Netherlands over present-day Indone-
sia, and Belgium over a vast part of central Africa, few Europeans went to
those places to live. However, many Chinese migrated throughout the
Nanyang (South Sea) region, becoming commercial leaders in present-
day Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines, despite the heat
and humidity. British emigrants settled in Australia and New Zealand,
Spanish and Italians in Argentina, Dutch (Boers) in South Africa—all
temperate regions.
Climate and Economics. Most of the economic progress of the world
between 1492 and 2000 occurred in the temperate zones, primarily in Eu-
rope and North America. Climatic conditions favored agricultural pro-
ductivity. Some scholars believe that these areas had climatic conditions
that were stimulating to intellectual and technological development.
They argue that people are invigorated by seasonal variation in tempera-
ture, sunshine, rain, and snow. Storms—particularly thunderstorms—
can be especially stimulating, as many parents of young children have ob-
served for themselves.
Climate has contributed to the great economic productivity of the
United States. This productivity has attracted a flow of immigrants, which
averaged about one million a year from 1905 to 1914. Immigration ap-
proached that level again in the 1990’s, as large numbers of Mexicans
crossed the southern border of the United States, often coming for jobs
 Climate and Human Settlement / 201

Orchard heaters are an example

of human adaptation to climate.
Designed to keep valuable fruits
from being spoiled during cold
snaps, they make it possible to
grow plants in regions where
climatic conditions are generally
good, but where a single period of
freezing temperatures can destroy
an entire season’s crop.
(PhotoDisc)

as agricultural laborers in the hot conditions of the Southwest—a climate

that made such work unattractive to many others.
Unpredictable climate variability was important in the peopling of
North America. During the 1870’s and 1880’s, unusually favorable weather
encouraged a large flow of migration into the grain-producing areas just
west of the one-hundredth meridian. Then came severe drought and
much agrarian distress. Between 1880 and 1890, the combined popula-
tion of Kansas and Nebraska increased by about a million, an increase of
72 percent. During the 1890’s, however, their combined population was
virtually constant, indicating that a large out-migration was offsetting the
natural increase. Much of the area reverted to pasture, as climate and soil
conditions could not sustain the grain production that had attracted so
many earlier settlers.
Climate variability can be a serious hazard. Freezing temperatures for
more than a few hours during spring can seriously damage fruits and veg-
etables. A few days of heavy rain can produce serious flooding.
202 / Climate and Human Settlement

Recreation and Retirement. Whenever people have been able to sepa-

rate decisions about where to live from decisions about where to work,
they have gravitated toward pleasant climatic conditions. Vacationers
head for Caribbean islands, Hawaii, the Crimea, the Mediterranean
Coast, even the Baltic coast. “The mountains” and “the seashore” are at-
tractive the world over. Paradoxically, some of these areas (the Carib-
bean, for instance) have monotonous weather year-round and thus have
not attracted large inflows of permanent residents. Winter sports have
created popular resorts such as Vail and Aspen in Colorado, and numer-
ous older counterparts in New England. Large numbers of Americans
have retired to the warm climates in Florida, California, and Arizona.
These areas then attract working-age adults who earn a living serving va-
cationers and retirees. Since these locations are uncomfortably hot in
summer, their attractiveness for residence had to await the coming of air
conditioning in the latter part of the twentieth century.
Human Impact on Climate. Climate interacts with pollution. Bad-
smelling factories and refineries have long relied on the wind to disperse
atmospheric pollutants. The city of Los Angeles, California, is uniquely
vulnerable to atmospheric pollution because of its topography and wind
currents. Government regulations of automobile emissions have had to
be much more stringent there than in other areas to keep pollution un-
der control.
Human activities have sometimes altered the climate. Development of
a large city substitutes buildings and pavements for grass and trees, rais-
ing summer temperatures and changing patterns of water evaporation.
Atmospheric pollutants have contributed to acid rain, which damages
vegetation and pollutes water resources. Many observers have also
blamed human activities for a trend toward global warming. Much of this
has been blamed on carbon dioxide generated by combustion, particu-
larly of fossil fuels. A widespread rise in temperatures could be expected
to raise water levels in the oceans as polar icecaps melt and change the
relative attractiveness of many locations.
Paul B. Trescott

For Further Study

Barry, Roger G., and Richard J. Chorley. Atmosphere, Weather, and Climate.
7th ed. New York: Routledge, 1998.
Burroughs, William James. Does the Weather Really Matter?: The Social Impli-
cations of Climate Change. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University
Press, 1997.
Huntington, Ellsworth. Mainsprings of Civilization. New York: John Wiley,
1945.
Lamb, H. H. Climate, History, and the Modern World. 2d ed. New York: Rout-
ledge, 1995.
McNeill, William H., and Ruth S. Adams, eds. Human Migration: Patterns
 Flood Control / 203

and Policies. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978.

Rosenzweig, Cynthia. Climate Change and the Global Harvest: Potential Im-
pacts of the Greenhouse Effect on Agriculture. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1998.
Schneider, Stephen H., and Randi Londer. The Coevolution of Climate and
Life. San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1984.

Flood Control
F lood control presents one of the most daunting challenges humanity
faces. The regions that human communities have generally found
most desirable, for both agriculture and industry, have also been the
lands at greatest risk of experiencing devastating floods. Early civilization
developed along river valleys and in coastal floodplains because those
lands contained the most fertile, most easily irrigated soils for agricul-
ture, combined with the convenience of water transportation.
The Nile River in North Africa, the Ganges River on the Indian sub-
continent, and the Yangtze River in China all witnessed the emergence of
civilizations that relied on those rivers for their growth. People learned
quickly that living in such areas meant living with the regular occurrence
of life-threatening floods.
Knowledge that floods would come did not lead immediately to at-
tempts to prevent them. For thousands of years, attempts at flood control
were rare. The people living along river valleys and in floodplains often
developed elaborate systems of irrigation canals to take advantage of the
available water for agriculture and became adept at using rivers for trans-
portation, but they did not try to control the river itself. For millennia,
people viewed periodic flooding as inevitable, a force of nature over
which they had no control. In Egypt, for example, early people learned
how far out over the riverbanks the annual flooding of the Nile River
would spread and accommodated their society to the river’s seasonal pat-
terns. Villagers built their homes on the edge of the desert, beyond the
reach of the flood waters, while the land between the towns and the river
became the area where farmers planted crops or grazed livestock.
In other regions of the world, buildings were placed on high founda-
tions or built with two stories on the assumption that the local rivers
would regularly overflow their banks. In Southeast Asian countries such
as Thailand and Vietnam, it is common to see houses constructed on
high wooden posts above the rivers’ edge. The inhabitants have learned
to allow for the water levels’ seasonal changes.
Flood Control Structures. Eventually, societies began to try to control
floods rather than merely survive them. Levees and dikes—earthen em-
bankments constructed to prevent water from flowing into low-lying ar-
eas—were built to force river waters to remain within their channels
 204 / Flood Control

rather than spill out over a

floodplain. Flood channels or
canals that fill with water only
during times of flooding, di-
verting water away from pop-
ulated areas, are also a com-
mon component of flood
control systems. Areas that
are particularly susceptible to
flash floods have constructed
numerous flood channels to
prevent flooding in the city.
For example, for much of the
year, Southern California’s
Los Angeles River is a small
stream flowing down the mid-
dle of an enormous, 20- to 30-
foot-deep (6- to 9-meter) con-
crete-lined channel, but win-
ter rains can fill its bed from
bank to bank. Flood channels
prevent the river from wash-
ing out neighborhoods and
Marker showing flood levels previously reached freeways.
in an urban area. (PhotoDisc) Engineers designed dams
with reservoirs to prevent an-
nual rains or snowmelt enter-
ing the river upstream from running into populated areas. By the end of
the twentieth century, extremely complex flood control systems of dams,
dikes, levees, and flood channels were common. Patterns of flooding that
had existed for thousands of years ended as civil engineers attempted to
dominate natural forces.
The annual inundation of the Egyptian delta by the flood waters of the
Nile River ceased in 1968 following construction of the 365-foot-high
(111 meters) Aswan High Dam. The reservoir behind the 3,280-foot-long
(1,000-meter) dam forms a lake almost ten miles (16 km.) wide and al-
most three hundred miles (480 km.) long. Flood waters are now trapped
behind the dam and released gradually over a year’s time.
Environmental Concerns. Such high dams are increasingly being
questioned as a viable solution for flood control. The Three Gorges Dam
being constructed in China at the end of the twentieth century may be
the last high dam constructed for the purpose of flood control. As human
understanding of both hydrology and ecology have improved, the disrup-
tive effects of flood control projects such as high dams, levees, and other
engineering projects are being examined more closely.
 Flood Control / 205

Hydrologists and other scientists who study the behavior of water in

rivers and soils have long known that vegetation and soil types in water-
sheds can have a profound effect on downstream flooding. The removal
of forest cover through logging or clearing for agriculture can lead to se-
vere flooding in the future. Often that flooding will occur many miles
downstream from the logging activity. Devastating floods in the South
Asian country of Bangladesh, for example, have been blamed in part
on clear-cutting of forested hillsides in the Himalaya Mountains in India
and Nepal. Monsoon rains that once were absorbed or slowed by forests
now run quickly off mountainsides, causing rivers to reach unprece-
dented flood levels. Concerns about cause-and-effect relationships be-
tween logging and flood control in the mountains of the United States
were one reason for the creation of the U.S. Forest Service in the nine-
teenth century.
In populated areas, even seemingly trivial events such as the construc-
tion of a shopping center parking lot can affect flood runoff. When thou-
sands of square feet of land are paved, all the water from rain runs into
storm drains rather than being absorbed slowly into the soil and then fil-
tered through the watertable. Engineers have learned to include catch
basins, either hidden underground or openly visible but disguised as land-
scaping features such as ponds, when planning a large paving project.
Wetlands and Flooding. Less well known than the influence of water-
sheds on flooding is the impact of wetlands along rivers. Many river sys-

In populated areas, where many square miles of land are paved, rainwater
flows into storm drains rather than being absorbed into the soil. When the storm
drains reach capacity, flooding occurs. (PhotoDisc)
206 / Flood Control

Urban flooding. (PhotoDisc)

tems are bordered by long stretches of marsh and bog. In the past, flood
control agencies often allowed farmers to drain these areas for use in ag-
riculture and then built levees and dikes to hold the river within a narrow
channel. Scientists now know that these wetlands actually serve as giant
sponges in the flood cycle. Flood waters coming down a river would
spread out into wetlands and be held there, much like water is trapped in
a sponge.
Draining wetlands not only removes these natural flood control areas
but worsens flooding problems by allowing floodwater to precede down-
stream faster. Even if life-threatening or property-damaging floods do not
occur, faster-flowing water significantly changes the ecology of the river
system. Waterborne silt and debris will be carried farther. Trying to con-
trol floods on the Mississippi River has had the unintended consequence
of causing waterborne silt to be carried farther out into the Gulf of Mex-
ico by the river, rather than be deposited in the delta region. This, in
turn, has led to the loss of shore land as ocean wave actions wash soil away,
but no new alluvial deposits arrive to replace it.
In any river system, some species of aquatic life will disappear and oth-
ers replace them as the speed of flow of the water affects water tempera-
ture and the amount of dissolved oxygen available for fish. Warm-water
fish such as bass will be replaced by cold-water fish such as trout, or vice
 Atmospheric Pollution / 207

versa. Biologists estimate that more than twenty species of freshwater

mussels have vanished from the Tennessee River since construction of a
series of flood control and hydroelectric power generation dams have
turned a fast-moving river into a series of slow-moving reservoirs.
Future of Flood Control. By the end of the twentieth century, engi-
neers increasingly recognized the limitations of human interventions in
flood control. Following devastating floods in the early 1990’s in the Mis-
sissippi River drainage, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommended
that many towns that had stood right at the river’s edge be moved to
higher ground. That is, rather than trying to prevent a future flood, the
Corps advised citizens to recognize that one would inevitably occur, and
that they should remove themselves from its path. In the United States
and a number of other countries, land that has been zoned as floodplains
can no longer be developed for residential use. While there are many
things humanity can do to help prevent floods, such as maintaining well-
forested watersheds and preserving wetlands, true flood control is proba-
bly impossible. Dams, levees, and dikes can slow the water down, but
eventually, the water always wins.
Nancy Farm Männikkö

For Further Study

Barry, John M. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It
Changed America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
Frank, Arthur D. Development of the Federal Program of Flood Control on the
Mississippi River. New York: AMS Press, 1999.
Kelley, Robert Lloyd. Battling the Inland Sea: Floods, Public Policy, and the
Sacramento Valley. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
Peterson, Elmer T. Big Dam Foolishness: The Problems of Modern Flood Control
and Water Storage. New York: Basic Books, 1990.
Saul, A. J., ed. Floods and Flood Management. Dordrecht, Netherlands:
Kluwer, 1992.

Atmospheric Pollution
P ollution of the earth’s atmosphere comes from many sources. Some
forces are natural, such as volcanoes and lightning-caused forest fires,
but most sources of pollution are byproducts of industrial society. Atmo-
spheric pollution cannot be confined by national boundaries; pollution
generated in one country often spills over into another country, as is the
case for acid deposition, or acid rain, generated in the midwestern states
of the United States that affects lakes in Canada.
Major Air Pollutants. Each of eight major forms of air pollution has an
impact on the atmosphere. Often two or more forms of pollution have a
combined impact that exceeds the impact of the two acting separately.
208 / Atmospheric Pollution

These eight forms are:

1. Suspended particulate matter: This is a mixture of solid particles
and aerosols suspended in the air. These particles can have a harmful im-
pact on human respiratory functions.
2. Carbon monoxide (CO): An invisible, colorless gas that is highly
poisonous to air-breathing animals.
3. Nitrogen oxides: These include several forms of nitrogen-oxygen
compounds that are converted to nitric acid in the atmosphere and are a
major source of acid deposition.
4. Sulfur oxides, mainly sulfur dioxide: This sulfur-oxygen compound
is converted to sulfuric acid in the atmosphere and is another source of
acid deposition.
5. Volatile organic compounds: These include such materials as gaso-
line and organic cleaning solvents, which evaporate and enter the air in a
vapor state. VOCs are a major source of ozone formation in the lower at-
mosphere.
6. Ozone and other petrochemical oxidants: Ground-level ozone is
highly toxic to animals and plants. Ozone in the upper atmosphere, how-
ever, helps to shield living creatures from ultraviolet radiation.
7. Lead and other heavy metals: Generated by various industrial pro-
cesses, lead is harmful to human health even at very low concentrations.
8. Air toxics and radon: Examples include cancer-causing agents, ra-
dioactive materials, or asbestos. Radon is a radioactive gas produced by
natural processes in the earth.
All eight forms of pollution can have adverse effects on human, ani-
mal, and plant life. Some, such as lead, can have a very harmful effect
over a small range. Others, such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides, can cross
national boundaries as they enter the atmosphere and are carried many
miles by prevailing wind currents. For example, the radioactive discharge
from the explosion of the Chernobyl nuclear plant in the former Soviet
Union in 1986 had harmful impacts in many countries. Atmospheric ra-
diation generated by the explosion rapidly spread over much of the
Northern Hemisphere, especially the countries of northern Europe.
Impacts of Atmospheric Pollution. Atmospheric pollution not only
has a direct impact on the health of humans, animals, and plants but also
affects life in more subtle, often long-term, ways. It also affects the eco-
nomic well-being of people and nations and complicates political life.
Atmospheric pollution can kill quickly, as was the case with the killer
smog, brought about by a temperature inversion, that struck London in
1952 and led to more than four thousand pollution-related deaths. In the
late 1990’s, the atmosphere of Mexico City was so polluted from automo-
bile exhausts and industrial pollution that sidewalk stands selling pure
oxygen to people with breathing problems became thriving businesses.
Many of the heavy metals and organic constituents of air pollution can
cause cancer when people are exposed to large doses or for long periods
 Atmospheric Pollution / 209

Emissions from motor vehicles are the leading contributors to atmospheric pollution in most ur-
ban centers. (PhotoDisc)

of time. Exposure to radioactivity in the atmosphere can also increase the

likelihood of cancer.
In some parts of Germany and Scandinavia in the 1990’s, as well as
places in southern Canada and the southern Appalachians in the United
States, certain types of trees began dying. There are several possible rea-
sons for this die-off of forests, but one potential culprit is acid deposition.
As noted above, one byproduct of burning fossil fuels (for example, in
coal-fired electric power plants) is the sulfur and nitrous oxides emitted
from the smokestacks. Once in the atmosphere, these gases can be car-
ried for many miles and produce sulfuric and nitric acids.
These acids combine with rain and snow to produce acidic precipita-
tion. Acid deposition harms crops and forests and can make a lake so
acidic that aquatic life cannot exist in it. Forests stressed by contact with
acid deposition can become more susceptible to damage by insects and
other pathogens. Ozone generated from automobile emissions also kills
many plants and causes human respiratory problems in urban areas.
Air pollution also has an impact on the quality of life. Acid pollutants
have damaged many monuments and building facades in urban areas in
Europe and the United States. By the late 1990’s, the distance that people
could see in some regions, such as the Appalachians, was reduced drasti-
cally because of air pollution.
210 / Atmospheric Pollution

Global Warming
An aspect of atmospheric pollution is the potential impact that several pol-
lutants have on the world’s climate. Carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor,
and other trace gases are labeled “greenhouse gases” because they act like
glass in a greenhouse, blanketing and insulating the earth and slowing
radiational cooling. Atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased, largely be-
cause of the burning of fossil fuels, which also contributes to other forms of
atmospheric pollution.
Trace gases of particular importance are synthetic chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs), by-products of aerosols and some forms of refrigerants used for air
conditioning. CFCs deplete ozone in the stratosphere, allowing increased
ultraviolet radiation to reach the earth. The amount of CFCs in the atmo-
sphere has been declining since the industrial nations signed the Montreal
Accord of 1987, calling for a dramatic reduction in their use. However,
CFCs still pose a problem because they remain in the stratosphere for many
years. Presently, there are holes in the ozone layer of the stratosphere over
both the Arctic and the Antarctic.

The economic impact of air pollution may not be as readily apparent

as dying trees or someone with a respiratory ailment, but it is just as real.
Crop damage reduces agricultural yield and helps to drive up the cost of
food. The costs of repairing buildings or monuments damaged by acid
rain are substantial. Increased health-care claims resulting from expo-
sure to air pollution are hard to measure but are a cost to society never-
theless.
It is impossible to predict the potential for harm from rapid global
warming arising from greenhouse gases and the destruction of the ozone
layer by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), but it could be catastrophic. Rapid
global warming would cause the sea level to rise because of the melting of
the polar ice caps. Low-lying coastal areas would be flooded, or, in the
case of Bangladesh, much of the country. Global warming would also
change crop patterns for much of the world.
Solutions for Atmospheric Pollution. Although there is still some de-
bate, especially among political leaders, most scientists recognize that air
pollution is a problem that affects both the industrialized and developing
world. In their rush to industrialize, many nations begin generating sub-
stantial amounts of air pollution; China’s extensive use of coal-fired
power plants is just one example.
The major industrial nations are the primary contributors to atmo-
spheric pollution. North America, Europe, and East Asia produce 60 per-
cent of the world’s air pollution and 60 percent of its food supply. Be-
cause of their role in supplying food for many other nations, anything
that damages their ability to grow crops hurts the rest of the world.
 Atmospheric Pollution / 211

Many industrialized nations are making efforts to control air pollu-

tion, for example, the Clean Air Act of 1970 in the United States or the in-
ternational Montreal Accord to curtail CFC production. Progress is slow
and the costs of reducing air pollution are often high. In the year 2000
the record of the nations of the world in dealing with air pollution was a
mixed one. There were some signs of progress, such as reduced automo-
bile emissions and sulfur and nitrous oxides in industrialized nations, but
acid deposition remains a problem in some areas. CFC production has
been halted, but the impact of CFCs on the ozone layer will continue for
many years. However, more nations are becoming aware of the health
and economic impact of air pollution and are working to keep the prob-
lem from getting worse.
John M. Theilmann

For Further Study

Agrawal, Shashi B., and Madhoolika Agrawal. Environmental Pollution and
Plant Responses. New York: Lewis, 1999.
Graedal, Thomas E., and Paul J. Crutzen. Atmosphere, Climate, and Change.
New York: Scientific American Library, 1995.
McDonald, Alan. “Combating Acid Deposition and Climate Change: Pri-
orities for Asia.” Environment 41, no. 3 (April, 1999): 4-11, 34-41.

Modern chemical plant. In their rush to industrialize, many developing nations have begun
generating substantial amounts of air pollution. However, the major industrial nations are the
primary contributors to atmospheric pollution. North America, Europe, and East Asia produce
60 percent of the world’s air pollution. (PhotoDisc)
212 / Disease and Climate

Munton, Don. “Dispelling the Myths of the Acid Rain Story.” Environment
40, no. 6 (July/August, 1998): 4-7, 27-34.
Somerville, Richard C. J. The Forgiving Air. Berkeley: University of Califor-
nia Press, 1996.
Soroos, Marvin S. “The Thin Blue Line: Preserving the Atmosphere as a
Global Commons.” Environment 40, no. 2 (March, 1998): 6-13, 32-35.

Disease and Climate

C limate influences the spread and persistence of many diseases, such
as tuberculosis and influenza, which thrive in cold climates, and ma-
laria and encephalitis, which are limited by the warmth and humidity that
sustains the mosquitoes carrying them. Because the earth is warming as a
result of the generation of carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse gases”
from the burning of fossil fuels, there is intensified scientific concern
that warm-weather diseases will reemerge as a major health threat in the
near future.
Scientific Findings. The question of whether the earth is warming as a
result of human activity was settled in scientific circles in 1995, when the
Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, a worldwide group of about twenty-five hundred experts, was is-
sued. The panel concluded that the earth’s temperature had increased
between 0.5 to 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit (0.3 to 0.6 degrees Celsius) since
reliable worldwide records first became available in the late nineteenth
century. Furthermore, the intensity of warming had increased over time.
By the 1990’s, the temperature was rising at the most rapid rate in at least
ten thousand years.
The Intergovernmental Panel concluded that human activity—the in-
creased generation of carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse gases”—is
responsible for the accelerating rise in global temperatures. The amount
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen nearly every year because
of increased use of fossil fuels by ever-larger human populations experi-
encing higher living standards.
In 1998, Paul Epstein of the Harvard School of Public Health de-
scribed the spread of malaria and dengue fever to higher altitudes in
tropical areas of the earth as a result of warmer temperatures. Rising win-
ter temperatures have allowed disease-bearing insects to survive in areas
that could not support them previously. According to Epstein, frequent
flooding, which is associated with warmer temperatures, also promotes
the growth of fungus and provides excellent breeding grounds for large
numbers of mosquitoes. Some experts cite the flooding caused by Hurri-
cane Floyd and other storms in North Carolina during 1999 as an exam-
ple of how global warming promotes conditions ideal for the spread of
diseases imported from the Tropics.
 Disease and Climate / 213

Heat, Humidity, and Disease. During the middle 1990’s, an explosion

of termites, mosquitoes, and cockroaches hit New Orleans, following
anunprecedented five years without frost. At the same time, dengue fever
spread from Mexico across the border into Texas for the first time since
records have been kept. Dengue fever, like malaria, is carried by a mos-
quito that is limited by temperature and humidity. Colombia was experi-
encing plagues of mosquitoes and outbreaks of the diseases they carry, in-
cluding dengue fever and encephalitis, triggered by a record heat wave
followed by heavy rains. In 1997 Italy also had an outbreak of malaria.
The global temperature is undeniably rising. According to the Na-
tional Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, July, 1998, was the hot-
test month since reliable worldwide records have been kept, or about 150
years. The previous record had been set in July, 1995.
The rising incidence of some respiratory diseases may be related to a
warmer, more humid environment. The American Lung Association re-
ported that more than fifty-six hundred people died of asthma in the
United States during 1995, a 45.3 percent increase in mortality over ten
years, and a 75 percent increase since 1980. Roughly a third of those cases
occurred in children under the age of eighteen. Asthma is now one of the
leading diseases among the young. Since 1980, there has been a 160 per-
cent increase in asthma in children under the age of five.
Heat Waves and Health. A study by the Sierra Club found that air pol-
lution, which will be enhanced by global warming, could be responsible
for many human health problems, including respiratory diseases such as
asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia.
According to Joel Schwartz, an epidemiologist at Harvard University,
air pollution concentrations in the late 1990’s were responsible for
70,000 early deaths per year and more than 100,000 excess hospitaliza-
tions for heart and lung disease in the United States. Global warming
could cause these numbers to increase 10 to 20 percent in the United
States, with significantly greater increases in countries that are more pol-
luted to begin with, according to Schwartz.
Studies indicate that global warming will directly kill hundreds of
Americans from exposure to extreme heat during summer months. The
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found that ex-
treme heat is responsible for an average of at least 240 deaths a year in the
United States. Heat waves can double or triple the overall death rates in
large cities. The death toll in the United States from a heat wave during
July, 1999, surpassed two hundred people. As many as six hundred people
died in Chicago alone during the 1990’s due to heat waves. The elderly
and very young have been most at risk.
Respiratory illness is only part of the picture. The Sierra Club study
indicated that rising heat and humidity would broaden the range of
tropical diseases, resulting in increasing illness and death from diseases
such as malaria, cholera, and dengue fever, whose range will spread as
214 / Exploration and Historical Trade Routes

mosquitoes and other disease vectors migrate.

The effects of El Niño in the 1990’s indicate how sensitive diseases can
be to changes in climate. A study conducted by Harvard University
showed that warming waters in the Pacific Ocean likely contributed to
the severe outbreak of cholera that led to thousands of deaths in Latin
American countries. Since 1981, the number of cases of dengue fever has
risen significantly in South America and has begun to spread into the
United States. According to health experts cited by the Sierra Club study,
the outbreak of dengue near Texas shows the risks that a warming climate
might pose. Epstein and the Sierra Club study concur that if tropical
weather expands, tropical diseases will expand.
In many regions of the world, malaria is already resistant to the least
expensive, most widely distributed drugs. Worldwide, malaria already
causes two million deaths a year, as well as 350 million new infections. The
increased incidence of diseases will add to society’s expenditures for hos-
pitalization and other health care, the cost of lost productivity, and the
trauma of illness and death.
Bruce E. Johansen

For Further Study

Abrahamson, Dean Edwin. The Challenge of Global Warming. Washington,
D.C.: Island Press, 1989.
Christianson, Gale E. Greenhouse: The 200-Year Story of Global Warming. New
York: Walker, 1999.
Cline, William R. The Economics of Global Warming. Washington, D.C.: Insti-
tute for International Economics, 1992.
Lyman, Francesca. The Greenhouse Trap: What We Are Doing to the Atmosphere
and How We Can Slow Global Warming. Boston: Beacon Press, 1990.
Nance, John J. What Goes Up: The Global Assault on Our Atmosphere. New
York: William Morrow, 1991.

Exploration and
Transportation
Exploration and Historical
Trade Routes
T he world’s exploration was shaped and influenced substantially by
economic needs. Lacking certain resources and outlets for trade,
many societies built ships, organized caravans, and conducted military
 Exploration and Historical Trade Routes / 215

expeditions to protect their frontiers and obtain new markets.

Over the last five thousand years, the world evolved from a cluster of
isolated communities into a firmly integrated global community and cap-
italist world system. By the beginning of the twentieth century, explorers
had successfully navigated the oceans, seas, and landmasses and gathered
many regional economies into the beginnings of a global economy.
Early Trade Systems. Trade and exploration accompanied the rise of
civilization in the Middle East. Egyptian pharaohs, looking for timber for
shipbuilding, established trade relations with Mediterranean merchants.
Phoenicians probed for new markets off the coast of North Africa and
built a permanent settlement at Carthage. By 513 b.c.e., the Persian Em-
pire stretched from the Indus River in India to the Libyan coast, and it
controlled the pivotal trade routes in Iran and Anatolia. A regional econ-
omy was taking shape, linking Africa, Asia, and Europe into a blended
economic system.
Alexander the Great’s victory against the Persian Empire in 330 b.c.e.
thrust Greece into a dominant position in the Middle Eastern economy.
Trade between the Mediterranean and the Middle East increased, new
roads and harbors were constructed, and merchants expanded into sub-
Saharan Africa, Arabia, and India. The Romans later benefited from the
Greek foundation. Through military and political conquest, Rome con-
solidated its control over such diverse areas as Arabia and Britain and
built a system of roads and highways that facilitated the growth of an ex-
panding world economy. At the apex of Roman power in 200 c.e., trade
routes provided the empire with Greek marble, Egyptian cloth, seafood
from Black Sea fisheries, African slaves, and Chinese silk.
The emergence of a profitable Eurasian trade route linked people,
customs, and economies from the South China Sea to the Roman Em-
pire. Although some limited activity occurred during the Hellenistic pe-
riod, East-West trade flourished following the rise of the Han Dynasty in
China. With the opening of the Great Silk Road from 139 b.c.e. to 200
c.e., goods and services were exchanged between people from three dif-
ferent continents.
The Great Silk Road was an intricate network of middlemen stretching
from China to the Mediterranean Sea. Eastern merchants sold their
products at markets in Afghanistan, Iran, and even Syria, and exchanged
a variety of commodities through the use of camel caravans. Chinese
spices, perfumes, metals, and especially silk were in high demand. The
Parthians from central Asia added their own sprinkling of merchandise,
introducing both the East and the West to various exotic fruits, rare birds,
and ostrich eggs.
Romans peddled glassware, statuettes, and acrobatic performing
slaves. Since communication lines were virtually nonexistent during this
period, trade routes were the only means by which ideas regarding art, re-
ligion, and culture could mix. The contacts and exchanges enacted along
 216 / Exploration and Historical Trade Routes

the Great Silk Road initiated a process of cultural diffusion among a di-
versity of cultures and increased each culture’s knowledge of the vast
frontiers of world geography.
The Atlantic Slave Trade. Beginning in the fifteenth century, Euro-
pean navigators explored the West African coastline seeking gold. Sup-
plies were difficult to procure, because most of the gold mines were lo-
cated in the interior along the Senegal River and in the Ashanti forests.
Because mining required costly investments in time, labor, and security,
the Europeans quickly shifted their focus toward the slave trade. Al-
though slavery had existed since antiquity, the Atlantic slave trade gener-
ated one of the most significant movements of people in world history. It
led to the forced migration of more than ten million Africans to South
America, the Caribbean islands, and North America. It ensured the suc-
cess of several imperial conquests, and it transformed the demographic,
cultural, and political landscape on four continents.
Originally driven by their quest to circumnavigate Africa and open a
lucrative trade route with India, the Portuguese initiated a systematic ex-
ploration of the West African coastline. The architect of this system,
Henry the Navigator, pioneered the use of military force and naval supe-
riority to annex African islands and open up new trade routes, and he in-
creased Portugal’s southern frontier with every acquisition. In 1415 his
ships captured Ceuta, a prosperous trade center located on the Mediter-

In 1589—nearly a century after Christopher Columbus opened the New World to exploration—
the accuracy of details on maps diminished with their distance from Western Europe. (Corbis)
 Exploration and Historical Trade Routes / 217

ranean coast overlooking North African trade routes. Over the next four
decades, Henry laid claim to the Madeira Islands, the Canary Islands, the
Azores, and Cape Verde. After his death, other Portuguese explorers con-
tinued his pursuit of circumnavigation of Africa.
Diego Cão reached the Congo River in 1483 and sent several excur-
sions up the river before returning to Lisbon. Two explorers completed
the Portuguese mission at the end of the fifteenth century. Vasco da Gama,
sailing from 1497 to 1499, and Bartholomeu Dias, from 1498 to 1499,
who sailed past the southern tip of Africa and eventually reached India.
Since Muslims had already created a number of trade links between East
Africa, Arabia, and India, Portuguese exploration furthered the integra-
tion of various regions into an emerging capitalist world system.
When the Portuguese shifted their trading from gold to slaves, the
other European powers followed suit. The Netherlands, Spain, France,
and England used their expanding naval technology to explore the At-
lantic Ocean and ship millions of slaves across the ocean. A highly effi-
cient and organized trade route quickly materialized. Since the Europe-
ans were unwilling to venture beyond the walls of their coastal fortresses,
merchants relied on African sources for slaves, supplying local kings and
chiefs with the means to conduct profitable slave-raiding parties in the in-
terior. In both the Congo and the Gold Coast region, many Africans be-
came quite wealthy trading slaves. In 1750 merchants paid the king of
Dahomey 250,000 pounds for nine thousand slaves, and his income ex-
ceeded the earnings of many in England’s merchant and landowning
class.
After purchasing slaves, dealers sold them in the Americas to work in
the mines or on plantations. Commodities such as coffee and sugar were
exported back to Europe for home consumption. Merchants then sold al-
cohol, tobacco, textiles, and firearms to Africans in exchange for more
slaves. This practice was abolished by the end of the nineteenth century,
but not before more than ten million Africans had been violently re-
moved from their homeland. The Atlantic slave trade, however, joined
port cities from the Gold Coast and Guinea in Africa with Rio de Janeiro,
Hispaniola, Havana, Virginia, Charleston, and Liverpool, and consti-
tuted a pivotal step toward the rise of a unified global economy.
Magellan and Zheng He. The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magel-
lan generated considerable interest in the Asian markets when he led an
expedition that sailed around the world from 1519 to 1522. Looking for a
quick route to Asia and the Spice Islands, he secured financial backing
from the king of Spain. Magellan sailed from Spain in 1519, canvassed
the eastern coastline of South America, and visited Argentina. He ulti-
mately traversed the narrow straits along the southern tip of the conti-
nent and ventured into the uncharted waters of the Pacific Ocean.
Magellan explored the islands of Guam and the Philippines but was
killed in a skirmish on Mactan in 1521. Some of his crew managed to re-
218 / Exploration and Historical Trade Routes

Ferdinand Magellan.
(Library of Congress)

turn to Spain in 1522, and one member subsequently published a journal

of the expedition that drastically enhanced the world’s understanding of
the major sea lanes that connected the continents.
China also opened up new avenues of trade and exploration in South-
east Asia during the fifteenth century. Under the direction of Chinese
emperor Yongle, explorer Zheng He organized seven overseas trips from
1405 to 1433 and investigated economic opportunities in Korea, Viet-
nam, the Indian Ocean, and Egypt. His first voyage consisted of more
than twenty-eight thousand men and four hundred ships and repre-
sented the largest naval force assembled prior to World War I.
Zheng’s armada carried porcelains, silks, lacquerware, and artifacts to
Malacca, the vital port city in Indonesia. He purchased an Arab medical
text on drug therapy and had it translated into Chinese. He introduced
giraffes and mahogany wood into the mainland’s economy, and his ef-
forts helped spread Chinese ideas, customs, diet, calendars, scales and
measures, and music throughout the global economy. Zheng He’s discov-
eries, coupled with all the material gathered by the European explorers,
provided cartographers and geographers with a credible store of knowl-
edge concerning world geography.
 Exploration and Historical Trade Routes / 219

Emerging Global Trade Networks. From 1400 to 1900, several regional

economic systems facilitated the exchange of goods and services
throughout a growing world system. Building on the triangular relation-
ships produced by the slave trade, the Atlantic region helped spread new
foodstuffs around the globe. Plants and plantation crops provided societ-
ies with a plentiful supply of sweet potatoes, squash, beans, and maize.
This system, often referred to as the Columbian exchange, also assisted
development in other regions by supplying the global economy with an
ample money supply in gold and silver. Europeans sent textiles and other
manufactures to the Americas. In return, they received minerals from
Mexico; sugar and molasses from the Caribbean; money, rum, and to-
bacco from North America; and foodstuffs from South America. Trade
routes also closed the distance between the Pacific coastline in the Ameri-
cas and the Pacific Rim.
Additional thriving trade routes existed in the African-West Asian re-
gion. Linking Europe and Africa with Arabia and India, this area experi-
enced a considerable amount of trade over land and through the sea
lanes in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. Europeans received grains, timber,
furs, iron, and hemp from Russia in exchange for wool textiles and silver.
Central Asians secured stores of cotton textiles, silk, wheat, rice, and to-
bacco from India and sold silver, horses, camel, and sheep to the Indians.
Ivory, blankets, paper, saltpeter, fruits, dates, incense, coffee, and wine
were regularly exchanged among merchants situated along the trade
route connecting India, Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and Europe.
Finally, a Russian-Asian-Chinese market provided Russia’s ruling czars
with arms, sugar, tobacco, and grain, and a sufficient supply of drugs,
medicines, livestock, paper money, and silver moved eastward. Overall,
this system linked the economies of three continents and guaranteed that
a nation could acquire essential foodstuffs, resources, and money from a
variety of sources.
Several profitable trade routes existed in the Indian Ocean sector. Af-
ter Malacca emerged as a key trading port in the sixteenth century, this
territory served as an international clearinghouse for the global econ-
omy. Indians sent tin, elephants, and wood into Burma and Siam. Rice,
silk, and sugar were sold to Bengal. Pepper and other spices were shipped
westward across the Arabian Sea, while Ceylon furnished India with vital
quantities of jewels, cinnamon, pearls, and elephants. The booming in-
terregional trade routes positioned along the Indian coastline ensured
that many of the vast commodities produced in the world system could be
obtained in India.
The final region of crucial trade routes was between Southeast Asia
and China. While the extent of Asian overseas trade prior to the twentieth
century is usually downplayed, an abundance of products flowed across
the Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea. Japan procured silver, cop-
per, iron, swords, and sulphur from Cantonese merchants, and Japanese-
220 / Road Transportation

finished textiles, dyes, tea, lead, and manufactures were in high demand
on the mainland. The Chinese also purchased silk and ceramics from the
Philippines in exchange for silver. Burma and Siam traded pepper,
sappan wood, tin, lead, and saltpeter to China for satin, velvet, thread,
and labor. As goods increasingly moved from the Malabar coast in India
to the northern boundaries of Korea and Japan, the Pacific Rim played a
prominent role in the global economy.
Robert D. Ubriaco, Jr.

For Further Study

Blaut, J. M. The Colonizer’s Model of the World. New York: Guilford Press,
1993.
Frank, Andre Gunder. ReOrient: Global Economy in the Asian Age. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1998.
Frank, Andre Gunder, and Barry K. Bills, eds. The World System: Five Hun-
dred or Five Thousand? Reprint. New York: Routledge, 1996.
Smith, Alan K. Creating a World Economy: Merchant Capital, Colonialism, and
World Trade, 1400-1825. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1991.
Thomas, Hugh. The Slave Trade. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
Wallerstein, Immanuel. The Capitalist World-Economy. Reprint. New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Wolf, Eric R. Europe and the People Without History. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1982.

Road Transportation
R oads—the most common surfaces on which people and vehicles
move—are a key part of human and economic geography. Transpor-
tation activities form part of a nation’s economic product: They strengthen
regional economy, influence land and natural resource use, facilitate
communication and commerce, expand choices, support industry, aid
agriculture, and increase human mobility. The need for roads closely cor-
relates with the relative location of centers of population, commerce, in-
dustry, and other transportation.
History of Road Making. The great highway systems of modern civili-
zation have their origin in the remote past. The earliest travel was by foot
on paths and trails. Later, pack animals and crude sleds were used. The
development of the wheel opened new options. As various ancient civili-
zations reached a higher level, many of them realized the importance of
improved roads.
The most advanced highway system of the ancient world was that of
the Romans. When Roman civilization was at its peak, a great system of
military roads reached to the limits of the empire. The typical Roman
road was bold in conception and construction, built in a straight line
 Road Transportation / 221

Modern British road

built on the bed of
an ancient Roman
road, whose original
siding is still visible.
(PhotoDisc)

when possible, with a deep multilayer foundation, perfect for wheeled ve-
hicles.
After the decline of the Roman Empire, rural road building in Europe
practically ceased, and roads fell into centuries of disrepair. Commerce
traveled by water or on pack trains that could negotiate the badly main-
tained roads. Eventually, a commercial revival set in, and roads and
wheeled vehicles increased.
Interest in the art of road building was revived in Europe in the late
eighteenth century. P. Trésaguet, a noted French engineer, developed a
new method of lightweight road building. The regime of French dictator
Napoleon Bonaparte (1800-1814) encouraged road construction, chiefly
for military purposes. At about the same time, two Scottish engineers,
Thomas Telford and John McAdam, also developed road-building tech-
niques.
Roads in the United States. Toward the end of the eighteenth century,
public demand in the United States led to the improvement of some
roads by private enterprise. These improvements generally took the form
of toll roads, called “turnpikes” because a pike was rotated in each road to
allow entry after the fee was paid, and generally were located in areas ad-
 222 / Road Transportation

Modern freeway interchange.

Passage of the Federal-Aid
Highway Act in 1956 was a turning
point in the history of highway
transportation in the United States.
It marked the beginning of the
largest peacetime public works
program in the history of the world,
creating a 41,000-mile National
System of Interstate and Defense
Highways. (PhotoDisc)

jacent to larger cities. In the early nineteenth century, the federal govern-
ment paid for an 800-mile-long macadam road from Cumberland, Mary-
land, to Vandalia, Illinois.
With the development of railroads, interest in road building began to
wane. By 1900, however, demand for better roads came from farmers,
who wanted to move their agricultural products to market more easily.
The bicycle craze of the 1890’s and the advent of motorized vehicles also
added to the demand for more and better roads. Asphalt and concrete
technology was well developed by then; now, the problem was financing.
Roads had been primarily a local issue, but the growing demand led to
greater state and federal involvement in funding.
The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 was a milestone in the develop-
ment of highway transportation in the United States; it marked the begin-
ning of the largest peacetime public works program in the history of the
world, creating a 41,000-mile National System of Interstate and Defense
Highways, built to high standards. Later legislation expanded funding,
 Road Transportation / 223

improved planning, addressed environmental concerns, and provided

for more balanced transportation. Other developed countries also devel-
oped highway programs but were more restrained in construction.
Roads and Development. Transportation presents a severe challenge
for sustainable development. The number of motor vehicles at the begin-
ning of the twenty-first century—estimated at more than 600 million
worldwide—is growing almost everywhere at higher rates than either
population or the gross domestic product. Overall road traffic grows even
more quickly. Americans own the most cars—one for every 1.7 resi-
dents—but even in crowded Japan there is one car for every 2.1 people.
In Great Britain, there is one car for every 5.3 people.
Highways around the world have been built to help strengthen na-
tional unity. The Trans-Canada Highway, the world’s longest national
road, for example, extends east-west across the breadth of the country.
Completed in the 1960’s, it had the same goal as the Canadian Pacific
Railroad a century before, to improve east-west commerce within Canada.
Sometimes, existing highways need to be upgraded; in less-developed
countries, this can simply mean paving a road for all-weather operation.
An example of a late-1990’s project of this nature was the Brazil-Venezuela
Highway project, which had this description: Improve the Brazil-Venezuela
highway link by completion of paving along the BR-174, which runs
northward from Manaus in the Amazon, through Boa Vista and up to the
frontier, so opening a route to the Caribbean. Besides the investment op-
portunities in building the road itself, the highway would result in invest-
ment opportunities in mining, tourism, telecommunications, soy and

Highway Classification
Modern roads can be classified by roadway design or traffic function. The
basic type of roadway is the conventional, undivided two-way road. Divided
highways have median strips or other physical barriers separating the lanes
going in opposite directions.
Another quality of a roadway is its right-of-way control. The least expen-
sive type of system controls most side access and some minor at-grade inter-
sections; the more expensive type has side access fully controlled and no at-
grade intersections. The amount of traffic determines the number of lanes.
Two or three lanes in each direction is typical, but some roads in Los An-
geles have five lanes, while some sections of the Trans-Canada Highway
have only one lane. Some highways are paid for entirely from public funds;
if users pay directly when they use the road, the roads are called tollways or
turnpikes.
Roads are classified as expressway, arterial, collector, and local in ur-
ban areas, with a similar hierarchy in rural areas. The highest level—
expressway—is intended for long-distance travel.
224 / Road Transportation

rice production, trade with Venezuela, manufacturing in the Manaus

Free Trade Zone, ecotourism in the Amazon, and energy integration.
Growing road traffic has required increasingly significant national
contributions to road construction. Beginning in the 1960’s, the World
Bank began to finance road construction in several countries. It required
that projects be organized to the highest technical and economic stan-
dards, with private contracting and international competitive bidding
rather than government workers. Still, there were questions as to whether
these economic assessments had a road-sector bias and properly incorpo-
rated environmental costs. Sustainability was also a question—could the
facilities be maintained once they were built?
In the 1990’s, the World Bank financed a program to build an asphalt
road network in Mozambique. Asphalt makes very smooth roads but is
very maintenance-intensive, requiring expensive imported equipment
and raw materials. By the end of the decade, the roads required resurfac-
ing but the debt was still outstanding. Alternative materials would have
given a rougher road, but it could have been built with local materials
and labor.
The European Investment Bank has become a major player in the con-
struction of highways linking Eastern and Western Europe to further Eu-
ropean integration. Some of the fastest growth in the world in ownership
of autos has been in Eastern Europe. There is a two-way feedback effect
between highway construction and auto ownership.
Environment Consequences. Highways and highway vehicles have so-
cial, economic, and environmental consequences. Compromise is often
necessary to balance transportation needs against these constraints. For
example, in Israel, there has been a debate over construction of the Trans-
Israel highway, a $1.2 billon, six-lane highway stretching 180 miles (300
km.) from Galilee to the Negev.
Demand on resources for worldwide road infrastructure far exceeds
available funds; governments increasingly are looking to external sources
such as tolls. Private toll roads, common in the nineteenth century, are
making a comeback. This has spread from the United States to Europe,
where private and government-owned highway operators have begun to
sell shares on the stock market. Private companies are not only operating
and financing roads in Europe, they are also designing and building
them. In Eastern Europe, where road construction languished under
communism, private financing and toll collecting are seen as the means
of supporting badly needed construction.
Industrial development in poor countries is adversely affected by lim-
ited transportation. Costs are high—unreliable delivery schedules make
it necessary to maintain excessive inventories of raw materials and fin-
ished goods. Poor transport limits the radius of trade and makes it diffi-
cult for manufacturers to realize the economies of large-scale operations
to compete internationally.
 Railroads / 225

In more difficult terrain, roads become more expensive because of a

need for cuts and fills, bridges, and tunnels. To save money, such roads of-
ten have steeper grades, sharper curves, and reduced width than might
be desired. Severe weather changes also damage roads, further increas-
ing maintenance costs.
Stephen B. Dobrow

For Further Study

Edwards, John D., Jr, ed. Transportation Planning Handbook. 2d ed. Wash-
ington, D.C.: Institute of Traffic Engineers, 1999.
Hawkes, Nigel. Structures. New York: Macmillan, 1990.
Lay, M. G. Ways of the World. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press,
1992.
Owen, Wilfred. Transportation and World Development. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins University Press, 1987.
Wright, Paul. Highway Engineering. New York: Wiley, 1995.

Information on the World Wide Web

Information on road transportation can be found at the Web sites of pro-
fessional organizations involved in highways, such as the Institute of Trans-
portation Engineers (www.ite.org)and the American Association of State
Highway and Transportation Officials (www.aashto.org).
The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy is an organiza-
tion concerned with worldwide sustainable transportation; its Web site fea-
tures information on programs and publications and links to relevant sites.
(www.itdp.org)

Railroads
R ailroads were the first successful attempts by early industrial societies
to develop integrated communication systems. At the start of the
twenty-first century, global societies are linked by Internet systems depen-
dent upon communication satellites orbiting around Earth. The speed
by which information and ideas can reach remote places breaks down iso-
lation and aids in the developing of a world community. In the nineteenth
century, railroads had a similar impact. Railroads were critical for the cre-
ation of an urban-industrial society: They linked regions and remote
places together, were important contributors in developing nation-states,
and revolutionized the way business was conducted through the creation
of corporations. Although alternative forms of transportation exist at the
beginning of the twenty-first century, railroads remain important.
226 / Railroads

The Industrial Revolution and the Railroad. Development of the

steam engine gave birth to the railroad. Late in the eighteenth century,
James Watt perfected his steam engine in England. Water was super-
heated by a boiler and vaporized into steam, which was confined to a cyl-
inder behind a piston. Pressure from expanding steam pushes the cylin-
der forward, causing it to do work if it is attached to wheels. Watt’s engine
was used in the manufacturing of textiles, thus beginning the Industrial
Revolution whereby machine technology mass produced goods for mass
consumption. Robert Fulton was the first innovator to commercially ap-
ply the steam engine to water transportation. His steamboat Clermont
made its maiden voyage up the Hudson River in 1807.
Not until the 1820’s was a steam engine used for land transportation.
Rivers and lakes were natural features where no road needed to be built.
Applying steam to land movement required some type of roadbed. In En-
gland, George Stephenson ran a locomotive over iron strips attached to
wooden rails. Within a short time, England’s forges were able to roll rails
made completely of iron shaped like an inverted “U.”
How much profit a manufacturer could make was determined par-
tially by the cost of transportation. The lower the cost of moving cargo
and people, the higher the profitability. Several alternatives existed be-
fore the emergence of railroads. Toll roads were too slow. A loaded

Washington, D.C., one of the

last major world capitals to
build a subway system, finally
opened its own subway in
1976. Drawing on lessons
learned in other systems, it
built one of the most attractive
and efficient systems in the
world. (PhotoDisc)
 Railroads / 227

wagon pulled by four horses could average 15 miles (25 km.) a day.
Canals were more efficient than early railroads, because barges pulled
by mules moved faster over waterways. However, canals could not be built
everywhere, especially over mountains. The application of railroad tech-
nology, using steam as a power source, made it possible to overcome ob-
stacles in moving goods and people over considerable distances and at
profitable costs. Railroads transformed the way goods were purchased by
reducing the costs for consumers, thus raising the living standards in in-
dustrial societies. Railroads transformed the human landscape by
strengthening the link between farm and city, changed commercial cities
into industrial centers, and started early forms of suburban growth well
before automobiles arrived.
Financing Railroads. Constructing railroads was costly. Tunnels had to
be blasted through mountains, and rivers had to be crossed by bridges.
Early in the building of U.S. railroads, the nation’s iron foundries could
not meet the demands for rolled rails. Rails had to be imported from En-
gland until local forges developed more efficient technologies. Once a
railroad was completed, there was a constant need to maintain the right-
of-way so that traffic flow would not be disrupted. Accidents were fre-
quent, and it was an early practice to burn damaged cars because salvag-
ing them was too expensive.
In some countries, railroads were built and operated by national gov-
ernments. In the United States, railroads were privately owned; however,
it was impossible for any single individual to finance and operate a rail sys-
tem with miles of track. Businessmen raised money by selling stocks and
bonds. Just as investors buy stocks in modern high-technology compa-
nies, investors purchased stocks and bonds in railroads.
Investing in railroads was good as long as they earned profits and re-
turned money to their investors, but not all railroads made sufficient
profits to reward their investors. Competition among railroads was heavy
in the United States, and some railroads charged artificially low fares to
attract as much business as they could. When ambitious investment
schemes collapsed, railroads went bankrupt and were taken over by fi-
nanciers.
Selling shares of common stock and bonds was made possible by creat-
ing corporations. Railroads were granted permission from state govern-
ments to organize a corporation. Every investor owned a portion of the
railroad. Stockholders’ interests were served by boards of directors, and
all business transactions were opened for public inspection. One impor-
tant factor of the corporation was that it relieved individuals of the re-
sponsibilities associated with accidents. The railroad, as a corporation,
was held accountable, and any compensation for claims made against the
company came out of corporate funds, not from individual pockets. This
had an impact on the law profession, as law schools began specializing in
legal matters relevant to railroads and interstate commerce.
 228 / Railroads

Contemporary map of the United States showing three different proposed routes for the first
transcontinental railroad. (Corbis)

The Success of Railroads. Railroads usually began by radiating out-

ward from port cities where merchants engaged in transoceanic trade. A
classic example, in the United States, is the country’s first regional rail-
road-–the Baltimore and Ohio. Construction commenced from Balti-
more in 1828; by 1850, the railroad had crossed the Appalachian Moun-
tains and was on the Ohio River at Wheeling, Virginia.
Once trunk lines were established, rail networks became more inten-
sive as branch lines were built to link smaller cities and towns. Countries
with extremely large continental dimensions developed interior articu-
lating cities where railroads from all directions converged. Chicago and
Atlanta are two such cities in the United States. Chicago was surrounded
by three circular railroads (belts) whose only function was to interchange
cars. Railroads from the Pacific Coast converged with lines from the At-
lantic Coast as well as routes moving north from the Gulf Coast.
Mechanized farms and heavy industries developed within the network.
Railroads made possible the extraction of fossil fuels and metallic ores,
the necessary ingredients for industrial growth. Extension of railroads
deep into Eastern Europe helped to generate massive waves of immigra-
tion into both North and South America, creating multicultural societies.
Building railroads in Africa and South Asia made it possible for Eu-
 Railroads / 229

rope to increase its political control over native populations. The ulti-
mate aim of the colonial railroad was to develop a colony’s economy ac-
cording to the needs of the mother country. Railroads were usually
single-line routes transhipping commodities from interior centers to
coastal ports for exportation. Nairobi, Kenya, began as a rail hub linking
British interests in Uganda with Kenya’s port city of Mombasa. Similar ex-
amples existed in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Railroads generated conflicts among colonial powers as nations at-
tempted to acquire strategic resources. In 1904-1905 Russia and Japan
fought a war in the Chinese province of Manchuria over railroad rights;
Imperial Germany attempted to get around British interests in the Mid-
dle East by building a railroad linking Berlin with Baghdad to give Ger-
many access to lucrative oil fields. India was a region of loosely connected
provinces until British railroads helped establish unification. The result-
ing sense of national unity led to the termination of British rule in 1947
and independence for India and Pakistan.
In the United States, private railroads discontinued passenger service
among cities early in the 1970’s and the responsibility was assumed by the
federal government (Amtrak). Most Americans riding trains do so as
commuters traveling from the suburbs to jobs in the city. High-speed
train service is planned along the rail corridor between Washington and
New York, Amtrak’s most popular route. Passenger service remains popu-
lar in Japan and Europe. France, Germany, and Japan operate high-speed
luxury trains with speeds averaging above 100 miles (160 km.) per hour.

Japanese bullet trains, which move commuters in and out of major cities at speeds well in ex-
cess of one hundred miles per hour. (Corbis)
230 / Air Transportation

Railroads are no longer the exclusive means of mechanized land trans-

portation as they were early in the twentieth century. Although competi-
tion from motor vehicles and air freight provide alternate choices, rail-
roads have remained important. France and England have direct rail
linkage beneath the English Channel. In the United States, great railroad
mergers and the application of computer technology have reduced oper-
ating costs while increasing profits. Transoceanic container traffic has
been aided by railroads hauling trailers on flatcars. Railroads began the
process of bringing regions within a nation together in the nineteenth
century just as the computer and the World Wide Web began uniting na-
tions throughout the world at the end of the twentieth century.
Sherman E. Silverman

For Further Study

Banister, David, et al. European Transport and Communication Networks. New
York: Wiley, 1995.
Daniels, Rudolph. Trains Across the Continent: North American Railroad
History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000.
Dilts, James D. The Great Road. The Building of the Baltimore & Ohio,
the Nation’s First Railroad, 1828-1855. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford Univer-
sity Press, 1993.
Jensen, Oliver. The American Heritage History of Railroads in America.
New York: American Heritage, 1975.
Martin, Albro. Railroads Triumphant. New York: Oxford University Press,
1992.
Pindell, Terry. Making Tracks: An American Rail Odyssey. New York:
Grove Weidenfeld, 1990.
Vance, James E., Jr. The North American Railroad. Baltimore: Johns Hop-
kins University Press, 1995.

Information on the World Wide Web

The World Rail and Transit site lists different types of worldwide railroad
transit systems by both country and city, with definitions and source materi-
als. (home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~wyatt/rail-transit-list.html)

Air Transportation
T he movement of goods and people among places is an important
field of geographic study. Transportation routes form part of an intri-
cate global network through which commodities flow. Speed and cost de-
termine the nature and volume of the materials transported, so air trans-
 Air Transportation / 231

A national
memorial to the
Wright brothers
on Maryland’s
Outer Banks
commemorates
the site of their first
heavier-than-air
flight. (PhotoDisc)

portation has both advantages and disadvantages when compared with

road, rail, or water transport.
Early Flying Machines. The transport of people and freight by air is less
than a century old. Although hot-air balloons were used in the late eigh-
teenth century for military purposes, aerial mapping, and even early pho-
tography, they were never commercially important as a means of trans-
portation. In the late nineteenth century, the German count Ferdinand
von Zeppelin began experimenting with dirigibles, which added self-
propulsion to lighter-than-air craft. These aircraft were used for military
purposes, such as the bombing of Paris in World War I. However, by the
1920’s zeppelins had become a successful means of passenger transporta-
tion. They carried thousands of passengers on trips in Europe or across
the Atlantic Ocean and also were used for exploration. Nevertheless, they
had major problems and were soon superseded by flying machines
heavier than air. The early term for such a machine was “aeroplane,”
which is still the word used for airplane in Great Britain.
Following pioneering advances with the internal combustion engine
and in aerodynamic theory using gliders, the development of powered
flight in a heavier-than-air machine was achieved by Wilbur and Orville
Wright in December, 1903. From that time, the United States moved to
the forefront of aviation, with Great Britain and Germany also making
significant contributions to air transport. World War I saw the further de-
232 / Air Transportation

velopment of aviation for military purposes, evidenced by the infamous

bombing of Guernica.
Early Commercial Service. Two decades after the Wright brothers’
brief flight, the world’s first commercial air service began, covering the
short distance from Tampa to St. Petersburg in Florida. The introduction
of airmail service by the U.S. Post Office provided a new, regular source
of income for commercial airlines in the United States, and from these
beginnings arose the modern Boeing Company, United Airlines, and
American Airlines. Europe, however, was the home of the world’s first
commercial airlines. These include the Deutsche Luftreederie in Ger-
many, which connected Berlin, Leipzig, and Weimar in 1919; Farman in
France, which flew from Paris to London; and KLM in the Netherlands
(Amsterdam to London), followed by Qantas—the Queensland and
Northern Territory Aerial Services, Limited—in Australia. The last two
are the world’s oldest still operating airlines.
Aircraft played a vital role in World War II, as a means of attacking en-
emy territory, defending territory, and transporting people and equip-
ment. A humanitarian use of air power was the Berlin Air Lift of 1948,
when Western nations used airplanes to deliver food and medical sup-
plies to the people of West Berlin, which the Soviet Union briefly block-
aded on the ground.
Cargo and Passenger Service. The jet engine was developed and used
for fighter aircraft during World War II by the Germans, the British, and
the United States. Further research led to civil jet transport, and by the
1970’s, jet planes accounted for most of the world’s air transportation.
Air travel in the early days was extremely expensive, but technological ad-
vances enabled longer flights with heavier loads, so commercial air travel
became both faster and more economical.
Although people in the United States still use personal vehicles for
most of their travel, they prefer air travel for longer trips. Almost three-
quarters of trips in excess of 1,000 miles (1,600 km.) that Americans un-
dertook during the 1990’s were made by airplane. Most air travel is made
for business purposes. The United States had more than 1,500 airports in
the year 2000, but more than half of these were short, privately owned,
unpaved airstrips. There are 180 commercial or military airports with
runways more than 9,800 feet (3,000 meters) long.
Between 1960 and 2000 the number of passengers carried by air grew
at an annual rate of 9 percent. Air travel is also extremely safe. In 1999
there were 674 airline fatalities, which is only 0.36 percent of the number
of passengers. At the same time, the volume of freight increased by 7 per-
cent and the volume of mail by 11 percent. Some 30 percent of the
world’s trade, by value, is carried by air. In 1999 more than 1,337 million
passengers were carried on scheduled domestic or international flights.
More than seven thousand airplanes fly for airlines around the world
on any given day, logging almost 5 billion miles (8 billion km.) each year.
 Air Transportation / 233

North Americans dominate the world in use of commercial flights, ac-

counting for almost 40 percent of all passenger miles flown. In the year
2000 almost half of all air passengers boarded flights in America. In 1999
Delta Airlines carried the greatest number of passengers in the world—
105.5 million passengers on its domestic and international routes. British
Airways and Lufthansa were the major international carriers, with 30.3
and 27.3 million international passengers respectively. Seven of the top
ten of the world’s major domestic airlines were U.S. carriers, with the
other three being Japanese.
The biggest air cargo carriers in 1999 were Federal Express, which car-
ried more than 5 million tons of cargo, and United Parcel Service (3 mil-
lion tons). For international air freight, the leaders in 1999 were Federal
Express (1.25 million tons), Lufthansa (1.1 million tons), and Korean Air
(0.9 tons). Federal Express and UPS also led in domestic air freight trans-
port.
The first commercial supersonic airliner, the British-French Con-
corde, which could fly at more than twice the speed of sound, began regu-
lar service in early 1976. However, the fleet was grounded after a Con-
corde crash in France in mid-2000. The first space shuttle flew in 1981,
and the hundredth space shuttle launch took place in October, 2000.
The shuttles have transported 600 people and 3 million pounds (1.36
million kilograms) of cargo into space.

Jet planes only slowly entered the commercial airline business after the mid-
1950’s, but by the 1970’s jets accounted for the majority of passenger miles in
the air. (PhotoDisc)
234 / Air Transportation

Health Problems Transported by Air. The high speed of interconti-

nental air travel and the increasing numbers of air travelers have in-
creased the risk of exotic diseases being carried into destination coun-
tries, thereby globalizing diseases previously restricted to certain parts of
the world. Passengers traveling by air might be unaware that they are car-
rying infections or viruses. The worldwide spread of HIV/AIDS after the
1980’s was accelerated by international air travel.
Disease vectors such as flies or mosquitoes can also make air journeys
unnoticed inside airplanes. At some airports, both airplane interiors and
passengers are subjected to spraying with insecticide upon arrival and be-
fore deplaning. The West Nile virus (West Nile encephalitis) was previ-
ously found only in Africa, Eastern Europe, and West Asia, but in the
1990’s it appeared in the northeastern United States, transported there
by birds, mosquitos, or people.
It was feared in the mid-1990’s that the highly infectious and deadly
Ebola virus, which originated in tropical Africa, might spread to Europe
and the United States, by air passengers or through the importing of
monkeys. The devastation of native bird communities on the island of
Guam has been traced to the emergence there of a large population of
brown tree snakes, whose ancestors are thought to have arrived as acci-
dental stowaways on a military airplane in the late 1940’s.
In 2003, a previously unknown virus called severe acute respiratory
syndrome, or SARS, emerged and caused an international alarm in the
air transportation industry because it was believed to be carried by air
passengers. The virus first appeared in southern China and spread rap-
idly to other Asian countries, then to Canada and other Western Coun-
tries.
Ray Sumner

For Further Study

Bilstein, Roger E. Flight in America: 1900-1983, from the Wrights to the Astro-
nauts. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984.
Christy, Joe, with Alexander Wells. American Aviation: An Illustrated History.
Blue Ridge Summit, Pa.: TAB Books, 1987.
Davies, Ronald E. G. A History of the World’s Airlines. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1983.
Graham, Brian. Geography and Air Transport. New York: John Wiley &
Sons, 1995.
Kane, Robert M. Air Transportation. 13th ed. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/
Hunt, 1999.
Morrison, Steven A., and Clifford Winston. The Evolution of the Airline In-
dustry. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution, 1995.
Richter, William L. The ABC-Clio Companion to Transportation in America.
Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-Clio, 1995.
 Economic
Geography
This page intentionally left blank
 237

Agriculture
Traditional Agriculture
T wo agricultural practices that are widespread among the world’s tra-
ditional cultures, slash-and-burn and nomadism, share several com-
mon features. Both are ancient forms of agriculture, both involve farmers
not remaining in a fixed location, and both can pose serious environmen-
tal threats if practiced in a nonsustainable fashion. The most significant
difference between the two forms is that slash-and-burn generally is asso-
ciated with raising field crops, while nomadism as a rule involves herding
livestock.
Slash-and-Burn Agriculture. Farmers have practiced slash-and-burn
agriculture, which is also referrred to as shifting cultivation or swidden
agriculture, in almost every region of the world where the climate makes
farming possible. Although at the end of the twentieth century slash-and-
burn agriculture was most commonly found in tropical areas such as the
Amazon River basin in South America, swidden agriculture also once
dominated agriculture in more temperate regions, such as northern Eu-
rope. Swidden agriculture was, in fact, common in Finland and northern
Russia well into the early decades of the twentieth century.
Slash-and-burn acquired its name from the practice of farmers who
cleared land for planting crops by cutting down the trees or brush on the
land and then burning the fallen timber on the site. The farmers literally
slash and burn. The ashes of the burnt wood add minerals to the soil,
which temporarily improves its fertility. Crops the first year following
clearing and burning are generally the best crops the site will provide.
Each year after that, the yield diminishes slightly as the fertility of the soil
is depleted.
Farmers who practice swidden cultivation do not attempt to improve
fertility by adding fertilizers such as animal manures but instead rely on
the soil to replenish itself over time. When the yield from one site drops
below acceptable levels, the farmers then clear another piece of land,
burn the brush and other vegetation, and cultivate that site while leaving
their previous field to lie fallow and its natural vegetation to return. This
cycle will be repeated over and over, with some sites being allowed to lie
fallow indefinitely while others may be revisited and farmed again in five,
ten, or twenty years.
Farmers who practice shifting cultivation do not necessarily move
their dwelling places as they change the fields they cultivate. In some geo-
graphic regions, farmers live in a central village and farm cooperatively,
with the fields being alternately allowed to remain fallow, and the fields
being farmed making a gradual circuit around the central village. In
 238 / Traditional Agriculture

Slash-and-burn agriculture takes its name from the practice of clearing land for planting by cut-
ting down the trees and brush and burning the fallen materials to fertilize the soil with the ashes
of the burned materials.

other cases, the village itself may move as new fields are cultivated. An-
thropologists studying indigenous peoples in Amazonia, for example,
discovered that village garden sites were on a hundred-year cycle. Vil-
lagers farmed cooperatively, with the entire village working together to
clear a garden site. That garden would be used for about five years, then a
new site was cleared. When the garden moved an inconvenient distance
from the village, about once every twenty years, the entire village would
move to be closer to the new garden. Over a period of approximately one
hundred years, a village would make a circle through the forest, eventu-
ally ending up close to where it had been located long before any of the
present villagers had been born.
In more temperate climates, individual farmers often owned and lived
on the land on which they practiced swidden agriculture. Farmers in Fin-
land, for example, would clear a portion of their land, burn the brush
and other covering vegetation, grow grains for several years, and then al-
low that land to remain fallow for from five to twenty years. The individ-
ual farmer rotated cultivation around the land in a fashion similar to that
practiced by whole villages in other areas, but did so as an individual
rather than as part of a communal society.
 Traditional Agriculture / 239

Although slash-and-burn is frequently denounced as a cause of envi-

ronmental degradation in tropical areas, the problem with shifting culti-
vation is not the practice itself but the length of the cycle. If the cycle of
shifting cultivation is long enough, forests will grow back, the soil will re-
gain its fertility, and minimal adverse effects will occur. In some regions, a
piece of land may require as little as five years to regain its maximum fer-
tility; in others, it may take one hundred years. Problems arise when grow-
ing populations put pressure on traditional farmers to return to fallow
land too soon. Crops are smaller than needed, leading to a vicious cycle
in which the next strip of land is also farmed too soon, and each site yields
less and less. As a result, more and more land must be cleared.
Nomadism. Nomadic peoples have no permanent homes. They earn
their livings by raising herd animals, such as sheep, cattle, or horses, and
they spend their lives following their herds from pasture to pasture with
the seasons. Most nomadic animals tend to be hardy breeds of goats,
sheep, or cattle that can withstand hardship and live on marginal lands.
Traditional nomads rely on natural pasturage to support their herds and
grow no grains or hay for themselves. If a drought occurs or a traditional
pasturing site is unavailable, they can lose most of their herds to starvation.
In many nomadic societies, the herd animal is almost the entire basis
for sustaining the people. The animals are slaughtered for food, clothing
is woven from the fibers of their hair, and cheese and yogurt may be made
from milk. The animals may also be used for sustenance without being
slaughtered. Nomads in Mongolia, for example, occasionally drink horses’
blood, removing only a cup or two at a time from the animal. Nomads go
where there is sufficient vegetation to feed their animals.
In mountainous regions, nomads often spend the summers high up
on mountain meadows, returning to lower altitudes in the autumn when
snow begins to fall. In desert regions, they move from oasis to oasis, going
to the places where sufficient natural water exists to allow brush and grass
to grow, allowing their animals to graze for a few days, weeks, or months,
then moving on. In some cases, the pressure to move on comes not from
the depletion of food for the animals but from the depletion of a water
source, such as a spring or well. At many natural desert oases, a natural
water seep or spring provides only enough water to support a nomadic
group for a few days at a time.
In addition to true nomads—people who never live in one place per-
manently—a number of cultures have practiced seminomadic farming:
The temperate months of the year, spring through fall, are spent follow-
ing the herds on a long loop, sometimes hundreds of miles long, through
traditional grazing areas, then the winter is spent in a permanent village.
Nomadism has been practiced for millennia, but there is strong pres-
sure from several sources to eliminate it. Pressures generated by indus-
trialized society are increasingly threatening the traditional cultures of
nomadic societies, such as the Bedouin of the Arabian Peninsula. Tradi-
240 / Commercial Agriculture

tional grazing areas are being fenced off or developed for other pur-
poses. Environmentalists are also concerned about the ecological dam-
age caused by nomadism.
Nomads generally measure their wealth by the number of animals they
own and so will try to develop their herds to be as large as possible, well
beyond the numbers required for simple sustainability. The herd animals
eat increasingly large amounts of vegetation, which then has no opportu-
nity to regenerate, and desertification may occur. Nomadism based on
herding goats and sheep, for example, has been blamed for the expan-
sion of the Sahara Desert in Africa. For this reason, many environmental
policymakers have been attempting to persuade nomads to give up their
roaming lifestyle and become sedentary farmers.
Nancy Farm Männikkö

For Further Study

Colfer, Carol J., with Nancy Peluso and Chin See Chung. Beyond Slash and
Burn: Building on Indigenous Management of Borneo’s Tropical Rain Forest.
New York: New York Botanical Garden, 1994.
Goldstein, Melvyn C. The Changing World of Mongolia’s Nomads. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1994.
Keohane, Allen. Bedouin: Nomads of the Desert. London: Trafalgar Square,
1995.
Mortimore, Michael. Roots in the African Dust: Sustaining the Sub-Saharan
Drylands. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Posey, D. A., and W. Balee, eds. Resource Management in Amazonia: Indige-
nous and Folk Strategies. New York: New York Botanical Garden, 1989.
Van Offelen, Marion, and Carol Beckwith. Nomads of Niger. New York: Aca-
demic Press, 1987.
Zohary, Daniel, and Maria Hopf. Domestication of Plants in the Old World:
The Origin and Spread of Cultivated Plants in West Asia, Europe, and the Nile
Valley. 3d ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Commercial Agriculture
C ommercial farmers are those who sell substantial portions of their
output of crops, livestock, and dairy products for cash. In some re-
gions, commercial agriculture is as old as recorded history, but only in
the twentieth century did the majority of farmers come to participate in
it. For individual farmers, this has offered the prospect of larger income
and the opportunity to buy a wider range of products. For society, com-
mercial agriculture has been associated with specialization and increased
productivity. Commercial agriculture has enabled world food production
to increase more rapidly than world population, improving nutrition lev-
els for millions of people.
 Commercial Agriculture / 241

Tokyo market (Corbis)

Steps in Commercial Agriculture. In order for commercial agriculture

to exist, products must move from farmer to ultimate consumer, usually
through six stages:
1. Processing, packaging, and preserving to protect the products and
reduce their bulk to facilitate shipping.
2. Transport to specialized processing facilities and to final consumers.
3. Networks of merchant middlemen who buy products in bulk from
farmers and processors and sell them to final consumers.
4. Specialized suppliers of inputs to farmers, such as seed, livestock
feed, chemical inputs (fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides, soil condition-
ers), and equipment.
5. A market for land, so that farmers can buy or lease the land they
need.
6. Specialized financial services, especially loans to enable farmers to
buy land and other inputs before they receive sales revenues.
Improvements in agricultural science and technology have resulted
from extensive research programs by government, business firms, and
universities.
International Trade. Products such as grain, olive oil, and wine moved
by ship across the Mediterranean Sea in ancient times. Trade in spices,
tea, coffee, and cocoa provided powerful stimulus for exploration and
colonization around 1500 c.e. The coming of steam locomotives and
 242 / Commercial Agriculture

The romance of cowboys riding the range and driving cattle to market has become largely a
thing of the past, as modern methods of livestock management have evolved. (PhotoDisc)

steamships in the nineteenth century greatly aided in the shipment of

farm products and spurred the spread of population into potentially pro-
ductive farmland all over the world. Beginning with Great Britain in the
1840’s, countries were willing to relinquish agricultural self-sufficiency to
obtain cheap imported food, paid for by exporting manufactured goods.
Most of the leaders in agricultural trade were highly developed coun-
tries, which typically had large amounts of both imports and exports.
These countries are highly productive both in agriculture and in other
commercial activities. Much of their trade is in high-value packaged and
processed goods. Although the vast majority of China’s labor force works
in agriculture, their average productivity is low and the country showed
an import surplus in agricultural products. The same was true for Russia.
India, similar to China in size, development, and population, had rela-
tively little agricultural trade. Australia and Argentina are examples of
countries with large export surpluses, while Japan and South Korea had
large import surpluses. Judged by volume, trade is dominated by grains,
sugar, and soybeans. In contrast, meat, tobacco, cotton, and coffee reflect
much higher values per unit of weight.
The United States. Blessed with advantageous soil, topography, and
climate, the United States has become one of the most productive agri-
cultural countries in the world. Technological advances have enabled the
 Commercial Agriculture / 243

United States to feed its own residents and export substantial quantities
with only 2 percent of its labor force engaged directly in farming. In the
1990’s there were about two million farms cultivating about one billion
acres. They produced about $200 billion worth of products. After ex-
penses, this yielded about $50 billion of net farm income—an average of
only about $25,000 per farm. However, most farm families derive substan-
tial income from nonfarm employment.
There is a great deal of agricultural specialization by region. Corn, soy-
beans, and wheat are grown in many parts of the United States (outside
New England). Some other crops have much more limited growing areas.
Cotton, rice, and sugarcane require warmer temperatures. Significant
production of cotton occurred in seventeen states, rice in six, and sugar-
cane in four. Twelve states were leaders in agriculture in 1998: Iowa in
corn, soybeans, and hogs; Illinois in corn and soybeans; Texas and Ne-
braska in cattle; California in fruits, vegetables, and dairy products;
Florida in fruits and vegetables; Wisconsin in dairy products; Georgia
and Arkansas in broiler chickens; North Carolina in hogs; and North
Dakota and Kansas in wheat. Typically the top two states in a category
account for about 30 percent of sales. Fruits and vegetables are the main
exception; the great size, diversity, and mild climate of California gives it
a dominant 45 percent.

Farmland in Iowa, which like other regions has its own specializations. (PhotoDisc)
 244 / Commercial Agriculture

Socialist Experiments. Under the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, the

communist government of the Soviet Union established a program of
compulsory collectivized agriculture in 1929. Private ownership of land,
buildings, and other assets was abolished. There were some state farms,
“factories in the fields,” operated on a large scale with many hired work-
ers. Most, however, were collective farms, theoretically run as cooperative
ventures of all residents of a village, but in practice directed by govern-
ment functionaries. The arrangements had disastrous effects on produc-
tivity and kept the rural residents in poverty. Nevertheless, similar ar-
rangements were established in China in 1950 under the rule of Mao
Zedong. A restoration of commercial agriculture after Mao’s death in
1976 enabled China to achieve greater farm output and farm incomes.
Most Western countries, including the United States, subsidize agri-
culture and restrict imports of competing farm products. Objectives are
to support farm incomes, reduce rural discontent, and slow the down-
ward trend in the number of farmers. In 1998 the European Union spent
nearly $150 billion in farm support, and Japan spent $50 billion. Re-
stricting imports kept prices high for consumers. Such policies led to bit-
ter disputes with the United States, which wanted to open world markets
for U.S. farm exports.
Problems for Farmers. Farmers in a system of commercial agriculture
are vulnerable to changes in market prices as well as the universal prob-
lems of fluctuating weather. Congress tried to reduce farm subsidies
through the Freedom to Farm Act of 1996, but serious price declines in
1997-1999 led to backtracking. Efforts to increase productivity by genetic
alterations, radiation, and feeding synthetic hormones to livestock have
drawn critical responses from some consumer groups. Environmentalists
have been concerned about soil depletion and water pollution resulting
from chemical inputs.

The Heritage Seed Movement

Modern hybrid seeds have increased yields and enabled the tremendous productivity of
the modern mechanized farm. However, the widespread use of a few hybrid varieties has
meant that almost all plants of a given species in a wide area are almost identical geneti-
cally. This loss of biodiversity, or the range of genetic difference in a given species, means
that a blight could wipe out an entire season’s crop. Historical examples of blight include
the nineteenth century Great Potato Famine of Ireland and the 1971 corn blight in the
United States.
In response to the concern for biodiversity, there has been a movement in North Amer-
ica to preserve older forms of crops with different genes that would otherwise be lost to the
gene pool. Nostalgia also motivates many people to keep alive the varieties of fruits and
vegetables that their grandparents raised. Many older recipes do not taste the same with
modern varieties of vegetables that have been optimized for commercial considerations
such as transportability. Thus, raising heritage varieties also can be a way of continuing to
enjoy the foods one’s ancestors ate.
 Modern Agricultural Problems / 245

Productivity and World Hunger. Despite advances in agricultural pro-

duction, the problem of world hunger persists. Even in countries that
store surpluses of farm commodities, there are still people who go hun-
gry. In less-developed countries, the prices of imported food from the
West are too low for local producers to compete and too high for the poor
to buy them.
Paul B. Trescott

For Further Study

Acquaah, George. Principles of Crop Production: Theory, Techniques, and Tech-
nology. Englewood, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2001.
Alston, Julian M., Philip G. Pardey, and Michael J. Taylor, eds. Agricultural
Science Policy: Changing Global Agendas. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity Press, 2001.
Bonanno Alessandro, and Lawrence Busch. From Columbus to Conagra: The
Globalization of Agriculture and Food. Lawrence: University Press of Kan-
sas, 1994.
Gliessman, Stephen R. Agroecology: Ecological Processes in Sustainable Agricul-
ture. Boca Raton, Fla.: Lewis, 2000.
Ilbery, Brian, Quentin Chiotti, and Timothy Rickard. Agricultural Restruc-
turing and Sustainability: A Geographic Perspective. New York: CAB Inter-
national, 1997.
Kahn, E. J., Jr., Supermarketer to the World. New York: Warner Books, 1991.
Levins, Estelle, and Karen McMahon. Plants and Society. 2d ed. Boston:
WCB/McGraw-Hill, 1999.
Norton, George W., and Jeffrey Alwang. Introduction to Economics of Agri-
cultural Development. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993.
Paarlberg, Don, and Phillip Paarlberg. The Agricultural Revolution of the
Twentieth Century. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 2001.
Rapp, David. How the U.S. Got into Agriculture and Why It Can’t Get Out.
Washington: Congressional Quarterly, 1988.
Sparks, Donald, ed. Advances in Agronomy. San Diego: Academic Press,
2001.
Strange, Marty. Family Farming: A New Economic Vision. Lincoln: University
of Nebraska Press, 1988.

Modern Agricultural Problems

E ver since human societies started to grow their own food, there have
been problems to solve. Much of the work of nature was disrupted by
the work of agriculture as many as ten thousand years ago. Nature took
care of the land and made it productive in its own intricate way, through
its own web of interdependent systems. Agriculture disrupts those sys-
tems with the hope of making the land even more productive, growing
246 / Modern Agricultural Problems

even more food to feed even more people. Since the first spade of soil was
turned over and the first plants domesticated, farmers have been trying
to discover how to care for the land as well as nature did before.
Many modern problems in agriculture are not really modern at all.
Erosion and pollution, for example, have been around as long as agricul-
ture. However, agriculture has changed drastically within those ten thou-
sand years, especially since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution in the
seventeenth century. Erosion and pollution are now bigger problems
than before and have been joined by a host of others that are equally criti-
cal—not all related to physical deterioration. Modern farmers use many
more machines than did farmers of old, and modern machines require
advanced sources of energy to unleash their power. The machines do
more work than could be accomplished before, so fewer farmers are
needed, which causes economic problems.
Cities continue to grow bigger as land—usually the best farmland
around—is converted to homes and parking lots for shopping centers.
The farmers that remain on the land, needing to grow ever more food,
turn to the research and engineering industries to improve their seeds.
These industries have responded with recombinant technologies that
move genes from one species to another; for example, genes cut from
peanuts may be spliced into chickens. This creates another set of cultural
problems, which are even more difficult to solve because most are still
“potential”—their impact is not yet known.
Erosion. Soil loss from erosion continues to be a huge problem all over
the world. As agriculture struggles to feed more millions of people, more
land is plowed. The newly plowed lands usually are considered more mar-
ginal, meaning they are either too steep, too thin, or too sandy; are sub-
ject to too much rain; or suffer some other deficiency. Natural vegetative
cover blankets these soils and protects them from whatever erosive agents
are active in their regions: water, wind, ice, or gravity. Plant cover also in-
creases the amount of rain that seeps downward into the soil rather than
running off into rivers. The more marginal land that is turned over for
crops, the faster the erosive agents will act and the more erosion will occur.
Expansion of land under cultivation is not the only factor contributing
to erosion. Fragile grasslands in dry areas also are being used more inten-
sively. Grazing more livestock than these pastures can handle decreases
the amount of grass in the pasture and exposes more of the soil to wind—
the primary erosive agent in dry regions.
Overgrazing can affect pastureland in tropical regions too. Thousands
of acres of tropical forest have been cleared to establish cattle-grazing
ranges in Latin America. Tropical soils, although thick, are not very fer-
tile. Fertility comes from organic waste in the surface layers of the soil.
Tropical soils form under constantly high temperatures and receive
much more rain than soils in moderate, midlatitude climates; thus, tropi-
cal organic waste materials rot so fast they are not worked into the soil at
 Modern Agricultural Problems / 247

all. After one or two growing seasons, crops grown in these soils will yield
substantially less than before.
Tropical fields require fallow periods of about ten years to restore
themselves after they are depleted. That is why tropical cultures using
slash-and-burn methods of agriculture move to new fields every other
year in a cycle that returns them to the same place about every ten years,
or however long it takes those particular lands to regenerate. The heavy
forest cover protects these soils from exposure to the massive amounts of
rainfall and provides enough organic material for crops—as long as the
forest remains in place. When the forest is cleared, however, the resulting
grassland cannot provide the adequate protection, and erosion acceler-
ates. Grasslands that are heavily grazed provide even less protection from
heavy rains, and erosion accelerates even more.
The use of machines also promotes erosion, and modern agriculture
relies on machinery: tractors, harvesters, trucks, balers, ditchers, and so
on. In the United States, Canada, Europe, Russia, Brazil, South Africa,
and other industrialized areas, machinery use is intense. Machinery use
is also on the rise in countries such as India, China, Mexico, and Indone-
sia, where traditional nonmechanized methods are practiced widely.
Farming machines, in gaining traction, loosen the topsoil and inhibit
vegetative cover growth, especially when they pull behind them any of the
various farm implements designed to rid the soil of weeds, that is, all vege-
tation except the desired crop. This leaves the soil more exposed to ero-
sive weather, so more soil is carried away in the runoff of water to streams.
Eco-fallow farming has become more popular in the United States and
Europe as a solution to reducing erosion. This method of agriculture,
which leaves the crop residue in place over the fallow (nongrowing) sea-

Desertification
Desertification is the extension of desert conditions into new areas. Typi-
cally, this term refers to the expansion of deserts into adjacent nondesert
areas, but it can also refer to the creation of a new desert. Land that is sus-
ceptible to prolonged drought is always in danger of losing its vegetative
ground cover, thereby exposing its soil to wind. The wind carries away the
smaller silt particles and leaves behind the larger sand particles, stripping
the land of its fertility. This naturally occurring process is assisted in many
areas by overgrazing.
In the African Sahel, south of the Sahara, the impact of desertification is
acute. Recurring drought has reduced the vegetation available for cattle,
but the need for cattle remains high to feed populations that continue to
grow. The cattle eat the grass, the soil is exposed, and the area becomes less
fertile and less able to support the population. The desert slowly en-
croaches, and the people must either move or die.
248 / Modern Agricultural Problems

son, does not root the soil in place, however. Dead plants do not “grab”
the soil like live plants that need to extract from it the nutrients they need
to live. So erosion continues, even though it is at a slower rate. Eco-fallow
methods also require heavier use of chemicals, such as herbicides, to
“burn down” weed growth at the start of the growing season, which con-
tributes to accelerated erosion and increases pollution.
Pollution. Pollution, besides being a problem in general, continues to
grow as an agricultural problem. With the onset of the Green Revolution,
the use of herbicides, insecticides, and pesticides has increased dramati-
cally all over the world. These chemicals are not used completely in the
growth of the crop, so the leftovers (residue) wash into, and contaminate,
surface and groundwater supplies. These supplies then must be treated
to become useful for other purposes, a job nature used to do on its own.
Agricultural chemicals reduce nature’s ability to act as a filter by inhibit-
ing the growth of the kinds of plant life that perform that function in
aquatic environments. The chemical residues that are not washed into
surface supplies contaminate wells.
As chemical use increases, contamination accumulates in the soil and
fertility decreases. The microorganisms and animal life in the soil, which
had facilitated the breakdown of soil minerals into usable plant products,
are no longer nourished because the crop residue on which they feed
is depleted, or they are killed by the active ingredients in the chemical.
As a result, soil fertility must be restored to maintain yield. Chemical re-
placement is usually the method of choice, and increased applications
of chemical fertilizers intensify the toxicity of this cyclical chemical de-
pendency.
Chemicals, although problematic, are not as difficult to contend with
as the increasingly heavy silt load choking the life out of streams and
rivers. Accelerated erosion from water runoff carries silt particles into
streams, where they remain suspended and inhibit the growth of many
beneficial forms of plant and animal life. The silt load in U.S. streams has
become so heavy that the Mississippi River delta is growing faster than it
used to. The heavy silt load, combined with the increased load of chemi-
cal residues, is seriously taxing the capabilities of the ecosystems around
the delta that filter out sediments, absorb nutrients, and stabilize salinity
levels for ocean life, creating an expanding dead zone.
This general phenomenon is not limited to the Mississippi delta—it is
widespread. Its impact on people is high, because most of the world’s
population lives in coastal zones and comes in direct contact with the sea.
Additionally, eighty percent of the world’s fish catch comes from the
coastal waters over continental shelves that are most susceptible to this
form of pollution.
Monoculture. Modern agriculture emphasizes crop specialization.
Farmers, especially in industrialized regions, often grow a single crop on
most of their land, perhaps rotating it with a second crop in successive
 Modern Agricultural Problems / 249

years: corn one year, for example, then soybeans, then back to corn. Such
a strategy allows the farmer to reduce costs, but it also makes the crop,
and, thus, the farmer and community, susceptible to widespread crop
failure. When the crop is infested by any of an ever-changing number and
variety of pests—worms, molds, bacteria, fungi, insects, or other diseases—
the whole crop is likely to die quickly, unless an appropriate antidote is
immediately applied. Chemical antidotes can do the job but increase pol-
lution. Maintaining species diversity—growing several different crops in-
stead of one or two—allows for crop failures without jeopardizing the
entire income for a farm or region that specializes in a particular mono-
culture, such as tobacco, coffee, or bananas.
Chemicals are not the only methods of preventing crop loss. Ge-
netically engineered seeds are one attempt at replacing post-infestation
chemical treatments. For example, splicing genes into varieties of rice or
potatoes from wholly unrelated species—say, hypothetically, grasshop-
pers—to prevent common forms of blight is occurring more often. Even
if the new genes make the crop more resistant, however, they could trig-
ger unknown side effects that have more serious long-term environmen-
tal and economic consequences than the problem they were used to
solve. Genetically altered crops are essentially new life-forms being intro-
duced into nature with no observable precedents to watch beforehand
for clues as to what might happen.
Urban Sprawl. As more farms become mechanized, the need for farm-
ers is being drastically reduced. There were more farmers in the United
States in 1860 than there were in the year 2000. From a peak in 1935 of
about 6.8 million farmers farming 1.1 billion acres, the United States at
the end of the twentieth century counted fewer than 2 million farmers
farming 950 million acres. As fewer people care for land, the potential for
erosion and pollution to accelerate is likely to increase, causing land
quality to decline.
As farmers are displaced and move into towns, the cities take up more
space. The resulting urban sprawl converts a tremendous amount of
cropland into parking lots, malls, industrial parks, or suburban neighbor-
hoods. If cities were located in marginal areas, then the concern over the
loss of farmland to commercial development would be nominal. How-
ever, the cities attracting the greatest numbers of people have too often
replaced the best cropland. Taking the best cropland out of primary pro-
duction imposes a severe economic penalty.
James Knotwell and Denise Knotwell

For Further Study

Baskin, Yvonne. The Work of Nature: How the Diversity of Life Sustains Us.
Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1997.
Hoag, Dana. Agricultural Crisis in America: A Reference Handbook. Santa
Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLO, 1999.
250 / World Food Supplies

Information on the World Wide Web

The Web site of the Consortium for Sustainable Agriculture Research and
Education contains information about programs and publications focused
on sustainable agriculture and food systems research. (www.csare.org)
Physicians and Scientists for Responsible Application of Science and
Technology maintains a Web site devoted to the discussion of safety prob-
lems of genetically engineered food. (www.psrast.org/ctglobal.htm)

Jackson, Wes. New Roots for Agriculture. Lincoln: University of Nebraska

Press, 1980.
Lægreid, M., O. Kaarstad, and O. C. Bøckman. Agriculture, Fertilizers, and
the Environment. New York: Cabi, 1999.
Paarlberg, Don, and Phillip Paarlberg. The Agricultural Revolution of the
Twentieth Century. Ames: Iowa State University Press, 2001.
Reid, T. R. “Feeding the Planet.” National Geographic (October, 1998): 56-
75.
Rissler, Jane, and Margaret Mellon. The Ecological Risks of Engineered Crops.
Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1996.
Rosenzweig, Cynthia. Climate Change and the Global Harvest: Potential Im-
pacts of the Greenhouse Effect on Agriculture. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1998.
Shreeve, James. “Secrets of the Gene.” National Geographic (October,
1999): 42-75.
Union of International Associations, ed. Encyclopedia of World Problems and
Human Potential. 2d ed. New York: K. G. Saur, 1986.
Yergin, Daniel. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power. New York:
Simon & Schuster, 1991.

World Food Supplies

A ll living things need food to begin the life process and to live, grow,
work, and survive. Almost all foods that humans consume come
from plants and animals. Not all of Earth’s people eat the same foods,
however, nor do they require the same caloric intakes. The types, combi-
nations, and amounts of food consumed by different peoples depend
upon historic, socioeconomic, and environmental factors.
The History of Food Consumption. Early in human history, people ate
what they could gather or scavenge. Later, people ate what they could
plant and harvest and what animals they could domesticate and raise.
Modern people eat what they can grow, raise, or purchase. Their diets or
food composition are determined by income, local customs, religion or
 World Food Supplies / 251

food biases, and advertising. There is a global food market, and many
people can select what they want to eat and when they eat it according to
the prices they can pay and what is available.
Historically, in places where food was plentiful, accessible, and inex-
pensive, humans devoted less time to basic survival needs and more time
to activities that led to human progress and enjoyment of leisure. Despite
a modern global food system, instant telecommunications, the United
Nations, and food surpluses at places, however, the problem of providing
food for everyone on Earth has not been solved.
In 1996 leaders from 186 countries gathered in Rome, Italy, and
agreed to reduce by half the number of hungry people in the world by
the year 2015. United Nations data for 1998 revealed that more than 790
million people in the developing parts of the world did not have enough
food to eat. This is more people than the total population of North Amer-
ica and Europe at that time. The number of undernourished people has
been decreasing since 1990. At the current pace of hunger reduction in
the world, 600 million will suffer from “acute food insecurity” and go to
sleep hungry in 2015. Despite efforts being made to feed the world, out-
breaks of food deficiencies, mass starvation, and famine are a certainty in
the twenty-first century.
World Food Source Regions. Agriculture and related primary food
production activities, such as fishing, hunting, and gathering, continue
to employ more than one-third of the world’s labor force. Agriculture’s
relative importance in the world economic system has declined with ur-
banization and industrialization, but it still plays a vital role in human sur-
vival and general economic growth. Agriculture in the third millennium
must supply food to an increasing world population of nonfood produc-
ers. It must also produce food and nonfood crude materials for industry,
accumulate capital needed for further economic growth, and allow work-
ers from rural areas to enter industrial, construction, and expanding
intraurban service functions.
Soil types, topography, weather, climate, socioeconomic history, loca-
tion, population pressures, dietary preferences, stages in modern agricul-
tural development, and governmental policies combine to give a distinc-
tive personality to regional agricultural characteristics. Two of the most
productive food-producing regions of the world are North America and
Europe. Countries in these regions export large amounts of food to other
parts of the world.
North America is one of the primary food-producing and food-export-
ing continents. After 1940 food output generally increased as cultivated
acreage declined. Progress in improving the quantity and quality of food
production is related to mechanization, chemicalization, improved breed-
ing, and hybridization. Food output is limited more by market demands
than by production obstacles.
Western Europe, although a basic food-deficit area, is a major producer
 Percentages of World Production
of Rice, Wheat, and Meat, by Country

Other
16% Philippines 2%
China Brazil 2%
34%
Japan 2%
Burma 4%
Thailand 4%
India
Bangladesh 5%
22% Indonesia
9%
Rice
China
19%
Other Wheat
34%
India
12%

United
States
11% Pakistan 3%
Australia 3%
Germany 3%
Turkey 3%
Russia 6%
France 6%
India 2%
Russia 3%
Germany 3%
France 3%
Brazil 5%

China
27%

Other
United 41%
States
16%
Meat

Source: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAOSTAT Database, 2000).
 World Food Supplies / 253

and exporter of high-quality foodstuffs. After 1946 its agriculture became

more profit-driven. Europe’s agricultural labor force grew smaller, its agri-
culture became more mechanized, its farm sizes increased, and capital in-
vestment per acre increased.
Foods from Plants. Most basic staple foods come from a small number
of plants and animals. Ranked by tonnage produced, the most important
food plants throughout the world are wheats, corn (maize), rice, pota-
toes, cassava (manioc), barley, soybeans, sorghums and millets, beans,
peas and chickpeas, and peanuts (groundnuts).
Wheat and rice are the most important plant foods. More than one-
third of the world’s cultivated land is planted with these two crops. Wheat
is the dominant food staple in North America, Western and Eastern Eu-
rope, northern China, and the Middle East and North Africa. Rice is the
dominant food staple in southern and eastern Asia. Corn, used primarily
as animal food in developed nations, is a staple food in Latin America and
Southeast Africa. Potatoes are a basic food in the highlands of South
America and in Central and Eastern Europe. Cassava (manioc) is a tropi-
cal starch-producing root crop of special dietary importance in portions
of lowland South America, the west coast countries of Africa, and sections
of South Asia. Barley is an important component of diets in North Afri-
can, Middle Eastern, and Eastern European countries. Soybeans are an
integral part of the diets of those who live in eastern, southeastern, and
southern Asia. Sorghums and millets are staple subsistence foods in the
savanna regions of Africa and south Asia, while peanuts are a facet of di-
etary mixes in tropical Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America.
Food from Animals. Animals have been used as food by humans from
the time the earliest people learned to hunt, trap, and fish. However, hu-
mans have domesticated only a few varieties of animals. Ranked by ton-
nage of meat produced, the most commonly eaten animals are cattle,
pigs, chickens and turkeys, sheep, goats, water buffalo, camels, rabbits
and guinea pigs, yaks, and llamas and alpacas.
Cattle, which produce milk and meat, are important food sources
in North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Australia and New
Zealand, Argentina, and Uruguay. Pigs are bred and reared for food on
a massive scale in southern and eastern Asia, North America, Western
Europe, and Eastern Europe. Chickens are the most important domesti-
cated fowl used as a human food source and are a part of the diets of most
of the world’s people. Sheep and goats, as a source of meat and milk, are
especially important to the diets of those who live in the Middle East and
North Africa, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Australia and New
Zealand.
Water buffalo, camels, rabbits, guinea pigs, yaks, llamas, and alpacas
are food sources in regions of the world where there is low consumption
of meat for religious, cultural, or socioeconomic reasons. Fish is an inex-
pensive and wholesome source of food. Seafood is an important compo-
254 / World Food Supplies

A distant relative of the camel, the South American llama was one of the few
draft animals used in the pre-Columbian Americas and was also an important
source of protein before Europeans brought cattle, sheep, and other animals.
(Clyde L. Rasmussen)

nent to the diets of those who live in southern and eastern Asia, Western
Europe, and North America.
The World’s Growing Population. The problem of feeding the world is
compounded by the fact that population was increasing at a rate of nearly
80 million persons per year at the end of the twentieth century. That rate
of increase is roughly equivalent to adding a country the size of Germany
to the world every single year.
Also compounding the problem of feeding the world are population
redistribution patterns and changing food consumption standards. In
the year 2000 the world population was projected to reach approximately
ten billion people in 2050—four billion people more than were on the
earth in 2000. Most of the increase in world population was expected to
occur within the developing nations.
Urbanization. Along with an increase in population in developing na-
tions is massive urbanization. City dwellers are food consumers, not food
producers. The exodus of young men and women from rural areas has
given rise to a new series of megacities, most of which are in developing
countries. By the year 2015, twenty-six cities in the world are expected to
have populations of ten million people or more.
When rural dwellers move to cities, they tend to change their dietary
composition and food-consumption patterns. Qualitative changes in di-
etary consumption standards are positive, for the most part, and are a re-
 World Food Supplies / 255

sult of copying the diets of what is considered a more prestigious group or

positive educational activities of modern nutritional scientists working in
developing countries. During the last four decades of the twentieth cen-
tury, a tremendous shift took place in overall dietary habits. Dietary
changes and consumption trends have contributed to a decrease in child
mortality, an increase in longevity, and a greater resistance to disease.
This globalization of people’s diets has resulted in increased demands for
higher quality, greater quantity, and more nutritious basic foods.
Strategies for Increasing Food Production. To meet the food demands
and the food distribution needs of the world’s people in the future, a
grand strategy has been proposed. Its first step calls for the intensification
of agriculture—improving biological, mechanical, and chemical technol-
ogy and applying proven agricultural innovations to regions of the world
where the physical and cultural environments are most suitable for rapid
food production increases.
The second step in the strategy is to expand the areas where food is
produced so that areas that are empty or underused will be made produc-
tive. Reclaiming areas damaged by human mismanagement, expanding
irrigation in carefully selected areas, and introducing extensive agro-
techniques to areas not under cultivation could increase the production
of inexpensive grains and meats.
Finally, interregional, international, and global commerce should be
expanded, in most instances, increasing regional specializations and pro-
duction of high-quality, high-demand agricultural products for export

Number of Persons Chronically

Undernourished in Developing Countries, by Region
500
471

1969-71 1990-92
400
1979-81 2010 (projected)
375
270
269

300
256
304
Millions

238
220

211

200
150

129
100

100
65
52
50
47

42
40

32
27

0
North Africa Sub-Saharan East South Latin America
and Near East Africa Asia Asia and Caribbean

Source: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAOSTAT Database, 2000).
256 / World Food Supplies

and importing low-cost basic foods. A disequilibrium of supply and de-

mand for certain commodities will persist, but food producers, regional
and national agricultural planners, and those who strive for regional eco-
nomic integration must take advantage of local conditions and location
or create the new products needed by the food-consuming public in a
one-world economy.
Perspectives. Humanity is entering a time of volatility in food produc-
tion and distribution. The world will produce enough food to meet the
demands of those who can afford to buy food. In many developing coun-
tries, however, food production is unlikely to keep pace with increases in
the demand for food by growing populations. The food gap—the differ-
ence between production and demand—could more than double in the
first three decades of the twenty-first century. Such a development would
increase the dependence of developing countries on food imports. About
90 percent of the rate of increase in aggregate food demand in the early
twenty-first century is expected to be the result of population increases.
Factors that could lead to larger fluctuations in food availability in-
clude weather variations such as those induced by El Niño and climatic
change, the growing scarcity of water, civil strife and political instability,
and declining food aid. In developing countries, decision makers need to
ensure that policies promote broad-based economic growth—and in par-
ticular agricultural growth—so that their countries can produce enough
food to feed themselves or enough income to buy the necessary food on
the world market.
William A. Dando

For Further Study

Castro, José de. The Geopolitics of Hunger. New York: Monthly Review Press,
1977.
Conway, Gordon, and Vernon W. Ruttan. The Doubly Green Revolution: Food
for All in the Twenty-First Century. Ithaca, N.Y.: Comstock, 1998.
Dando, William A. The Geography of Famine. New York: John Wiley & Sons,
1980.
_______, and Caroline Z. Dando. Food and Famine: A Reference. Hillside,
N.J.: Enslow, 1991.
DeRose, Laurie Fields, Ellen Messer, and Sara Millman. Who’s Hungry?
and How Do We Know? Food Shortage, Poverty, and Deprivation. New York:
United Nations University, 1998.
Johnson, David Gale. World Food Problems and Prospects. Washington, D.C.:
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1975.
Moore Lappe, Frances, Joseph Collins, and Peter Rosset. World Hunger:
Twelve Myths. 2d ed. Grove Press, 1998.
Norse, David. “A New Strategy for Feeding a Crowded Planet.” In Global
Issues 93/94, edited by Robert M. Jackson. 9th ed. Guilford, Conn.:
Dushkin, 1993.
 Energy Sources / 257

Rau, Bill. From Feast to Famine: Official Cures and Grassroots Remedies to Af-
rica’s Food Crisis. London: Zed Books, 1991.
“Seeds of Change: Genetically Altered Foods.” Consumer Reports (Septem-
ber, 1999): 41-46.
Shiva, Vandana. Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply. Cam-
bridge, Mass.: South End Press, 2000.
Stevens, Charles J. Confronting the World Food Crisis. Muscatine, Iowa: Stan-
ley Foundation, 1981.

Energy and Engineering

Energy Sources
E nergy is essential for powering the processes of modern industrial so-
ciety: refining ores, manufacturing products, moving vehicles, heat-
ing buildings, and powering appliances. In 1999 energy costs were half a
trillion dollars in the United States alone. All technological progress has
been based on harnessing more energy and using it more effectively. En-
ergy use has been shaped by geography and also has shaped economic
and political geography.
Ancient to Modern Energy. Energy use in traditional tribal societies il-
lustrates all aspects of energy use that apply in modern human societies.
Early Stone Age peoples had only their own muscle power, fueled by meat
and raw vegetable matter. Warmth for living came from tropical or sub-
tropical climates. Then a new energy source, fire, came into use. It made
cold climates livable. It enabled the cooking of roots, grains, and heavy
animal bones, vastly increasing the edible food supply. Its heat also hard-
ened wood tools, cured pottery, and eventually allowed metalworking.
Nearly as important as fire was the domestication of animals, which
multiplied available muscle energy. Domestic animals carried and pulled
heavy loads. Domesticated horses could move as fast as the game to be
hunted or large animals to be herded.
Increased energy efficiency was as important as new energy sources in
making tribal societies more successful. Cured animal hides and woven
cloth were additional factors enabling people to move to cooler climates.
Cooking fires also allowed drying meat into jerky to preserve it against
times of limited supply. Fire-cured pottery helped protect food against
pests and kept water close by. However, energy benefits had costs. Fire
drives for hunting may have caused major animal extinctions. Periodic
burning of areas for primitive agriculture caused erosion. Trees became
scarce near the best campsites because they had been used for camp
fires—the first fuel shortage.
 258 / Energy Sources

Estimated Power Consumption

in Various Parts of the World
9
8.30
8

7
Power (kilowatts) per Person

4
3.31
3 2.77

2
1.46

1 0.90
0.48 0.50
0.27 0.30
0
Africa Far East Western South Caribbean Europe Oceania North World
Asia America America average

Geographical Area

Energy Fundamentals. Human use of energy revolves about four inter-

related factors: energy sources, methods of harnessing the sources, means
of transporting or storing energy, and methods of using energy. The po-
tential energies and energy flows that might be harnessed are many times
greater than present use.
The Sun is the primary source of most energy on Earth. Sunlight
warms the planet. Plants use photosynthesis to transform water and car-
bon dioxide into the sugars that power their growth and indirectly power
plant-eating and meat-eating animals. Many other energies come indi-
rectly from the Sun. Remains of plants and animals become fossil fuels.
Solar heat evaporates water, which then falls as rain, causing water flow in
rivers. Regional differences in the amount of sunlight received and re-
flected cause temperature differences that generate winds, ocean cur-
 Energy Sources / 259

rents, and temperature differences between different ocean layers. Food

for muscle power of humans and animals is the most basic energy system.
Energy Sources. Biomass—wood or other vegetable matter that can be
burned—is still the most important energy source in much of the world.
Its basic use is to provide heat for cooking and warmth. Biomass fuels are
often agricultural or forestry wastes. The advantage of biomass is that it is
grown, so it can be replaced. However, it has several limitations. Its low
energy content per unit volume and unit mass makes it unprofitable to
ship, so its use is limited to the amount nearby. Collecting and processing
biomass fuels costs energy, so the net energy is less. Biomass energy pro-
duction may compete with food production, since both come from the
soil. Finally, other fuels can be cheaper.
Greater concentration of biomass energy or more efficient use would
enable it to better compete against other energy sources. For example,
fermenting sugars into fuel alcohol is one means of concentrating en-
ergy, but energy losses in processing make it expensive.
Fossil fuels have more concentrated chemical energy than biomass.
Underground heat and pressure compacts trees and swampy brush into
the progressively more energy-concentrated peat, lignite coal, bitumi-
nous coal, and anthracite or black coal, which is mostly carbon. Industri-
alizing regions turned to coal when they had exhausted their firewood.
Like wood, coal could be stored and shoveled into the fire box as needed.
Large deposits of coal are still available, but growth in the use of coal
slowed by the mid-twentieth century because of two competing fossil fu-
els, petroleum and natural gas.

Firewood is the oldest and most widespread fuel and remains an important
source of heat in most parts of the world. (Digital Stock)
260 / Energy Sources

Petroleum includes gasoline, diesel fuel, and fuel oil. It forms from re-
mains of one-celled plants and animals in the ocean that decompose
from sugars into simpler hydrogen and carbon compounds (hydrocar-
bons). Petroleum yields more energy per unit than coal, and it is pumped
rather than shoveled. These advantages mean that an oil-fired vehicle can
be cheaper and have greater range than a coal-fired vehicle.
There are also hydrocarbon gases associated with petroleum and coal.
The most common is the natural gas methane. Methane does not have
the energy density of hydrocarbon liquids, but it burns cleanly and is a
fuel of choice for end uses such as heating homes and businesses.
Petroleum and natural gas deposits are widely scattered throughout
the world, but the greatest known deposits are in an area extending from
Saudi Arabia north through the Caucasus Mountains. Deposits extend

Offshore oil rig. Continental margins are the principal areas in which offshore
drilling is conducted; they constitute approximately 21 percent of the surface
area of the oceans and may contain a majority of the world’s future reserves of
oil and gas. (PhotoDisc)
 Energy Sources / 261

After underground oil resources are found by drilling, their contents are pumped
to the surface. (PhotoDisc)

out to sea in areas such as the Persian Gulf, the North Sea, and the Gulf of
Mexico. More exotic sources, such as oil tar sands and shale oil, could be
tapped when conventional supplies run low.
Heat engines transform the potential of chemical energies. James
Watt’s steam engine (1782) takes heat from burning wood or coal (exter-
nal combustion), boils water to steam, and expands it through pistons to
make mechanical motion. In the twentieth century, propeller-like steam
turbines were developed to increase efficiency and decrease complexity.
Auto and diesel engines burn fuel inside the engine (internal combus-
tion), and the hot gases expand through pistons to make mechanical mo-
tion. Expanding them through a gas turbine is a jet engine. Heat engines
can create energy from other sources, such as concentrated sunlight, nu-
clear fission, or nuclear fusion. The electrical generator transforms me-
chanical motion into electricity that can move by wire to uses far away.
Such transportation (or wheeling) of electricity means that one power
plant can serve many customers in different locations.
Flowing water and wind are two of the oldest sources of industrial
power. The Industrial Revolution began with water power and wind
power, but they could only be used in certain locations, and they were not
as dependable as steam engines. In the early twentieth century, electricity
made river power practical again. Large dams along river valleys with ade-
quate water and steep enough slopes enabled areas like the Tennessee
Valley to be industrial centers. In the 1970’s wind power began to be used
again, this time for generating electricity.
 262 / Energy Sources

The Soviet Union so

revered nuclear fission
that its government
erected a monument
to the splitting the
atom. (PhotoDisc)

Solar energy can be tapped directly for heat or to make electricity. Al-
though sunlight is free, it is not concentrated energy, so getting usable
energy requires more equipment cost. Consequently, fossil-fueled heat is
cheaper than solar heat, and power from the conventional utility grid has
been much less expensive than solar-generated electricity. However, prices
of solar equipment are dropping as technologies improve, and prices of
other energy sources may rise.
Future Energy Sources. Possible future energy sources are nuclear fis-
sion, nuclear fusion, geothermal heat, and tides. Fission reactors contain
a critical mass of radioactive heavy elements that sustains a chain reaction
of atoms splitting (fissioning) into lighter elements—releasing heat to
run a steam turbine. Tremendous amounts of fission energy are avail-
able, but reactor costs and safety issues have kept nuclear prices higher
than that of coal.
 Energy Sources / 263

Nuclear fusion involves the same reaction that powers the Sun: four
hydrogen atoms fusing into one helium atom. However, duplicating the
Sun’s heat in a small area without damaging the surrounding reactor may
be too expensive to allow profitable fusion reactors.
Geothermal power plants, tapping heat energy from within the earth,
have operated since 1904, but widespread use depends on cheaper drill-
ing to make them practical in more than highly volcanic areas. Tidal
power is limited to the few bays that concentrate tidal energy.
Energy and Warfare. Much of ancient energy use revolved about herd-
ing animals and conducting warfare. Horse riders moved faster and hit
harder than warriors on foot. The bow and arrow did not change appre-
ciably for thousands of years. Herders on the plains rode horses and used
the bow and arrow as part of tending their flocks, and the small amounts
of metal needed for weapons was easily acquired. Consequently, the herd-
ers could invade and plunder much more advanced peoples. From Scyth-
ians to Parthians to Mongols, these people consistently destroyed the
more advanced civilizations.
The geographical effect was that ancient civilizations generally devel-
oped only if they had physical barriers separating them from the flat
plains of herding peoples. Egypt had deserts and seas. The Greeks and
Romans lived on mountainous peninsulas, safe from easy attack. The Chi-
nese built the Great Wall along their northern frontier to block invasions.
Barbarian riders dominated until the advent of an energy system of
gunpowder and steel barrels began delivering lead bullets. With them,
the Russians broke the power of the Tartars in Eurasia in the late fifteenth
century, and various peoples from Europe conquered most of the world.
Energy and industrial might became progressively more important in war
with automatic weapons, high explosives, aircraft, rockets, and nuclear
weapons.
By World War II, oil had become a reason for war and a crucial input
for war. The Germans attempted to seize petroleum fields around Baku
on the Caspian. Later in the war, major Allied attacks targeted oil fields in
Romania and plants in Germany synthesizing liquid fuels. During the
Arab-Israeli War of 1973, Arabs countered Western support of Israel with
an oil boycott that rocked Western economies. In 1990 Iraq attempted to
solve a border dispute with its oil-rich neighbor, Kuwait, by seizing all of
Kuwait. An alliance, led by the United States, ejected the Iraqis.
Other wars occur over petroleum deposits that extend out to sea. Eu-
ropean nations bordering on the North Sea negotiated a complete de-
marcation of economic rights throughout that body. There has been no
similar negotiation regarding the South China Sea, which may have de-
posits comparable to those in the Saudi Peninsula. The area is claimed
by China, Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Turkey and Greece
have not resolved ownership division of Aegean waters that might have
oil deposits.
264 / Energy Sources

Energy, Development, and Energy Efficiency. Ancient civilizations

tended to grow and use locally available food and firewood. Soils and
wood supplies often were depleted at the same time, which often coin-
cided with declines in those civilizations. The Industrial Revolution
caused development to concentrate in new wooded areas where rivers
suitable for power, iron ore, and coal were close together, for example,
England, Silesia, and the Pittsburgh area. The iron ore of Alsace in
France combined with nearby coal from the Ruhr in Germany fueled tre-
mendous growth, not always peacefully.
By the late nineteenth century, the development of Birmingham, Ala-
bama, demonstrated that railroads enabled a wider spread between coal
deposits, iron ore deposits, and existing population centers. By the
1920’s, the Soviet Union developed entirely new cities to connect with re-
sources. By the 1970’s, unit trains and ore-carrying ships transported coal
from the thick coal beds in Montana and Wyoming to the United States’
East Coast and to countries in Asia.
The mechanized transport of electrical distribution and distribution
of natural gas in pipelines also changed settlement patterns. Trains and
subway trains allowed cities to spread along rail corridors in the late nine-
teenth century and early twentieth century. By the 1940’s, cars and trucks
enabled cities such as Los Angeles and Phoenix to spread into suburbs.
The trend continues with independent solar power that allows houses to
be sited anywhere.
Advances in technology have allowed people to get more while using
less energy. For example, early peoples stampeded herds of animals over
cliffs for food, which was mostly wasted. Horseback hunting was vastly
more efficient. Likewise, fireplaces in colonial North America were inef-
ficient, sending most of their heat up the chimney. In the late eighteenth
century, inventor and statesman Benjamin Franklin developed a metallic
cylinder radiating heat in all directions, which saved firewood.
The ancient Greeks and others pioneered the use of passive solar en-
ergy and efficiency after they exhausted available firewood. They sited
buildings to absorb as much low winter sun as possible and constructed
overhanging roofs to shade buildings from the high summer sun. That
siting was augmented by heavy masonry building materials that buffered
the buildings from extremes of heat and cold. Later, metal pipes and
glass meant that solar energy could be used for water and space heating.
The first seven decades of the twentieth century saw major declines in
energy prices, and cars and appliances became less efficient. That changed
abruptly with the energy crises and high prices of the 1970’s. Since then,
countries such as Japan, with few local energy resources, have worked to
increase efficiency so they will be less sensitive to energy shocks and be
able to thrive with minimal energy inputs. This trend could lead eventu-
ally to economies functioning on only solar and biomass inputs.
Solid-state electronics, use of fluorescent lights rather than incandes-
 Energy Sources / 265

cent, and fuel cells, which convert fuel directly into electricity more effi-
ciently than combustion engines, all could lead to less energy use. The
speed of their adoption depends on the price of competing energies. Pre-
dictions that petroleum resources will be exhausted started in 1866; how-
ever, this is unlikely to happen before the middle of the twenty-first cen-
tury. First, drilling will likely go to more exotic locations, and eventually
to oil tars, such as those of Venezuela, oil shales in western Canada, and
methane hydrates, which are deposits of methane frozen together with
water ice on the ocean floors.
Energy and Environment. Energy affects the environment in three ma-
jor ways. First, firewood gathering in underdeveloped countries contrib-
utes to deforestation and resulting erosion. Although more efficient
stoves and small solar cookers have been designed, efficiency increases
are competing against population increases.
Energy production also frequently causes toxic pollutant by-products.
Sulfur dioxide (from sulfur impurities in coal and oil) and nitrogen ox-
ides (from nitrogen being formed during combustion) damage lungs
and corrode the surfaces of buildings. Lead additives in gasoline make in-
ternal combustion engines run more efficiently, but they cause low-grade
lead poisoning. Spent radioactive fuel from nuclear fission reactors is so
poisonous that it must be guarded for centuries.
Finally, carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels may be acceler-
ating the greenhouse effect, whereby atmospheric carbon dioxide slows
the planetary loss of heat. If the effect is as strong as some research sug-
gests, global temperatures may increase several degrees on average in the
twenty-first century, with unknown effects on climate and sea level.
Roger V. Carlson

For Further Study

Ballanoff, Paul. Energy: Ending the Never-Ending Crisis. Washington, D.C.:
Cato Institute, 1997.
Berger, John B. Charging Ahead: The Business of Renewable Energy and What
It Means for America. New York: Henry Holt, 1997.
“Energy for Planet Earth.” Scientific American 263, no. 3 (September, 1995).
Lee, Thomas H., Ben C. Ball, Jr., and Richard D. Tabors. Energy Aftermath.
Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1990.

Information on the World Wide Web

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is an energy forum of twenty-three
industrialized countries committed to sharing information and taking
joint measures to meet oil supply emergencies. The IEA’s Web site provides
information about the agency’s activities and research. (www.iea.org)
266 / Alternative Energies

Alternative Energies
T he energy that lights homes and powers industry is indispensable in
modern societies. This energy usually comes from mechanical energy
that is converted into electrical energy by means of generators—complex
machines that harness basic energy captured when such sources as coal,
oil, or wood are burned under controlled conditions. This energy, in
turn, provides the thermal energy used for heating, cooling, and lighting
and for powering automobiles, locomotives, steamships, and airplanes.
Because such natural resources as coal, oil, and wood are being used up,
it is vital that these nonrenewable sources of energy be replaced by
sources that are renewable and abundant. It is also desirable that alterna-
tive sources of energy be developed in order to cut down on the pollution
that results from the combustion of the hydrocarbons that make the non-
renewable fuels burn.
The Sun as an Energy Source. Energy is heat. The Sun provides the
heat that makes Earth habitable. As today’s commonly used fuel re-
sources are used less, solar energy will be used increasingly to provide the
power that societies need in order to function and flourish.
There are two forms of solar energy: passive and active. Humankind
has long employed passive solar energy, which requires no special equip-
ment. Ancient cave dwellers soon realized that if they inhabited caves that
faced the Sun, those caves would be warmer than those that faced away
from the Sun. They also observed that dark surfaces retained heat and
that dark rocks heated by the Sun would radiate the heat they contained
after the Sun had set. Modern builders often capitalize on this same
knowledge by constructing structures that face south in the Northern
Hemisphere and north in the Southern Hemisphere. The windows that
face the Sun are often large and unobstructed by draperies and curtains.
Sunlight beats through the glass and, in passive solar houses, usually
heats a dark stone or brick floor that will emit heat during the hours when
there is no sunlight. Just as an automobile parked in the sunlight will be-
come hot and retain its heat, so do passive solar buildings become hot
and retain their heat.
Active solar energy is derived by placing specially designed panels so
that they face the Sun. These panels, called flat plate collectors, have a
flat glass top beneath which is a panel, often made of copper with a black
overlay of paint, that retains heat. These panels are constructed so that
heat cannot escape from them easily. When water circulated through
pipes in the panels becomes hot, it is either pumped into tanks where it
can be stored or circulated through a central heating system.
Some active solar devices are quite complex and best suited to indus-
trial use. Among these is the focusing collector, a saucer-shaped mirror
that centers the Sun’s rays on a small area that becomes extremely hot. A
power plant at Odeillo in the French Pyrenees Mountains uses such a sys-
 Alternative Energies / 267

Solar panels used to collect sunlight for solar energy. (PhotoDisc)

tem to concentrate the Sun’s rays on a concave mirror. The mirror directs
its incredible heat to an enormous, confined body of water that the heat
turns to steam, which is then used to generate electricity.
Another active solar device is the solar or photovoltaic cell, which gath-
ers heat from the Sun and turns it into energy directly. Such cells help to
power spacecraft that cannot carry enough conventional fuel to sustain
them through long missions in outer space.
Geothermal Heating. The earth’s core is incredibly hot. Its heat ex-
tends far into the lower surfaces of the planet, at times causing eruptions
in the form of geysers or volcanoes. Many places on Earth have springs
that are warmed by heat from the earth’s core.
In some countries, such as Iceland, warm springs are so abundant that
people throughout the country bathe in them through the coldest of win-
ters. In Iceland, geothermal energy is used to heat and light homes, mak-
ing the use of fossil fuels unnecessary.
Hot areas exist beneath every acre of land on Earth. When such areas
are near the surface, it is easy to use them to produce the energy that hu-
mans require. As dependence on fossil fuels decreases, means will in-
creasingly be found of drawing on Earth’s subterranean heat as a major
source of energy.
Wind Power. Anyone who has watched a sailboat move effortlessly
through the water has observed how the wind can be used as a source of
268 / Alternative Energies

Spanish windmills.
The simple windmill
is one of the oldest
and most efficient
machines for
harnessing
alternative energy.
(PhotoDisc)

kinetic energy—the kind of energy that involves motion—whose move-

ment is transferred to objects that it touches. Wind power has been used
throughout human history. In its more refined aspects, it has been em-
ployed to power windmills that cause turbines to rotate, providing gener-
ators with the power they require to produce electricity.
Windmills typically have from two to twenty blades made of wood or of
heavy cloth such as canvas. Windmills are most effective when they are lo-
cated in places where the wind regularly blows with considerable velocity.
As their blades turn, they cause the shafts of turbines to rotate, thus pow-
ering generators. The electricity created is usually transmitted over metal
cables for immediate use or for storage.
Modern vertical-axis wind turbines have two or three strips of curved
metal that are attached at both ends to a vertical pole. They can operate
efficiently even if they are not turned toward the wind. These windmills
are a great improvement over the old horizontal axis windmills that have
been in use for many years. Although older wind machines did not pro-
duce sufficient power for whole communities, the Department of Energy
is experimenting with vertical-axis machines that it estimates could some
day meet 20 percent of the energy needs of the United States, cheaply
and without pollution.
 Alternative Energies / 269

Ocean Energy
The oceans have tremendous untapped energy flows in currents and tre-
mendous potential energy in the temperature differences between warmer
tropical surface waters and colder deep waters, known as ocean thermal en-
ergy conversion. In both cases, the insurmountable cost has been in trans-
porting energy to users on shore.

Oceans as Energy Sources. Seventy percent of the earth’s surface is

covered by oceans. Their tides, which rise and fall with predictable regu-
larity twice a day, would offer a ready source of energy once it becomes
economically feasible to harness them and store the electrical energy
they can provide. The most promising spots to build facilities to create
electrical energy from the tides are places where the tides are regularly
quite dramatic, such as Nova Scotia’s Bay of Fundy, where the difference
between high and low tides averages about 55 feet (17 meters).
Some tidal power stations that currently exist were created by building
dams across estuaries. The sluices of these dams are opened when the
tide comes in and closed after the resulting reservoir fills. The water cap-
tured in the reservoir is held for several hours until the tide is low enough
to create a considerable difference between the level of the water in the
reservoir and that outside it. Then the sluice gates are opened and, as the
water rushes out at a high rate of speed, it turns turbines that generate
electricity.
Future of Renewable Energy. As pollution becomes a huge problem
throughout the world, the race to find nonpolluting sources of energy is
accelerating rapidly. New technologies are making renewable energy
sources economically practical. As supplies of fossil fuels have dimin-
ished, pressure to become less dependent on them has grown worldwide.
Alternative energy sources are the wave of the future.
R. Baird Shuman

For Further Study

Berger, John B. Charging Ahead: The Business of Renewable Energy and What
It Means for America. New York: Henry Holt, 1997.
Borowitz, Sidney. Farewell Fossil Fuels: Reviewing America’s Energy Policy. New
York: Plenum Trade, 1999.
Chandler, Gary, and Kevin Graham. Alternative Energy Sources. New York:
Twenty-First Century Books, 1996.
Cole, Nancy, and P. J. Skerrett. Renewables Are Ready. White River Junction,
Vt.: Chelsea Green, 1995.
Dunn, P. D. Renewable Energies: Sources, Conversion, and Application. Lon-
don: Peter Peregrinus, 1986.
270 / Engineering Projects

Gipe, Paul. Wind Power for Home and Business: Renewable Energy for the
1990’s and Beyond. White River Junction, Vt.: Chelsea Green, 1993.
Wrixon, G. T., A.-M. E. Rooney, and W. Palz. Renewable Energy—2000.
Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1993.

Engineering Projects
H uman beings attempt to overcome the physical landscape by build-
ing forms and structures on the earth. Most structures are small-
scale, like houses, telephone poles, and schools. Other structures are
great engineering works, such as hydroelectric projects, dams, canals,
tunnels, bridges, and buildings.
Hydroelectric Projects. The potential for hydroelectricity generation
is greatest in rapidly flowing rivers in mountainous or hilly terrain. The
moving water turns turbines that, in turn, generate electricity. Hydroelec-
tric power projects also can be built on escarpments and fall lines, where
there is tremendous untapped energy in the falling water.
Most of the potential for hydroelectricity remains untapped. Only
about one-sixth of the suitable rivers and falls are used for hydroelectric
power. Certain areas of the world have used more of their potential than
others. The United States, most of Western Europe, Japan, South Korea,
and Australia have all tapped about three-fourths of their potential for
water power. Brazil, Paraguay, Mexico, and Canada also use significant
portions of their hydroelectric potential. Russia, the former Soviet Re-
publics, China, Pakistan, and India have tremendous potential that is not
yet fully tapped, but they still produce a significant proportion of the
world’s hydroelectric power.
Most of the remaining areas of the world have not yet taken advantage
of hydroelectric power. In South America, there is great potential for ex-
ploiting water power in most areas, especially Colombia, Ecuador, Peru,
and Argentina. In Africa, only Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Ghana produce
significant hydroelectricity. In the late 1990’s, the Democratic Republic
of the Congo (formerly Zaire) showed the greatest promise for the fu-
ture, but it had not yet tapped this resource.
In Southeast Asia, only Thailand and Vietnam have used much of their
potential, and even that is not a great amount. The greatest potential in
that region lies in Indonesia, New Guinea, and Myanmar (Burma).
Dams. Dams serve several purposes. One purpose is the generation of
hydroelectric power, as discussed above. Dams also provide flood control
and irrigation. Rivers in their natural state tend to rise and fall with the
seasons. This can cause serious problems for people living in downstream
valleys. Flood-control dams also can be used to regulate the flow of water
used for irrigation and other projects. A final reason to build dams is to
reduce swampland, in order to control insects and the diseases they carry.
 Engineering Projects / 271

Famous dams are found in all regions of the world. In North America,
two of the most notable dams are Hoover Dam, completed in 1936, on
the Colorado River between Arizona and Nevada; and the Grand Coulee
Dam, completed in 1942, on the Columbia River in Washington State.
In South America, the most famous dam is the Itaipu Dam, completed
in 1983, on the Paraná River between Brazil and Paraguay. In Africa, the
Aswan High Dam was completed in 1970, on the Nile River in Egypt, and
the Kariba Dam was completed in 1958, on the Zambezi River between
Zambia and Zimbabwe. In Asia, the Three Gorges Dam was under con-
struction on the Chiang Jiang (Yangtze River) in China during the late
1990’s, with completion scheduled for 2009.
Bridges. Bridges are built to span low-lying land between two high
places. Most commonly, there is a river or other body of water in the way,
but other features that might be spanned include ravines, deep valleys
and trenches, and swamps. A related engineering project is the causeway,
in which land in a low-lying area is built up and a road is then constructed
on it.
The longest bridge in the world is the Akashi Kaikyo in Japan near
Osaka. It was built in 1998 and spans 6,529 feet (1,990 meters), connect-
ing the island of Honshw to the small island of Awaji. The Storebælt
Bridge in Denmark, also completed in 1998, spans 5,328 feet (1,624 me-
ters), connecting the island of Sjaelland, on which Copenhagen is situ-
ated, with the rest of Denmark. Another bridge spanning more than
5,300 feet is the Izmit Bay Bridge in Turkey, which was being built near Is-
tanbul in the late 1990’s.

Tenpozan Watasi bridge in Osaka, Japan. (PhotoDisc)

 272 / Engineering Projects

Other long bridges can be found across the Humber River in Hull, En-
gland; across the Chiang Jiang (Yangtze River) in China; in Hong Kong,
Norway, Sweden, and Turkey and elsewhere in Japan.
The longest bridge in the United States, which was once the longest in
the world, is the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City between
Staten Island and Brooklyn. Completed in 1964, it spans 4,260 feet (1,298
meters). Only slightly shorter—at 4,200 feet—is the San Francisco Bay
Bridge, which was completed in 1937.
Canals. Moving goods and people by water is generally cheaper and
easier, if a bit slower, than moving them by land. Before the twentieth cen-
tury, that cost savings overwhelmed the advantages of land travel—speed
and versatility. Therefore, human beings have wanted to move things by
water whenever possible. To do so, they had two choices: locate factories
and people near water, such as rivers, lakes, and oceans, or bring water to
where the factories and people are, by digging canals.
One of the most famous canals in the world is the Erie Canal, which
runs from Albany to Buffalo in New York State. Built in 1825 and running
a length of 363 miles (584 km.), the Erie Canal opened up the Great
Lakes region of North America to development and led to the rise of New
York City as one of the world’s dominant cities.
Two other important canals in world history are the Panama Canal
and the Suez Canal. The Panama Canal connects the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans over a length of 50.7 miles (81.6 km.) on the isthmus of Panama
in Central America. Completed in 1914, the Panama Canal eliminated
the long and dangerous sea journey around the tip of South America.
The Suez Canal in Egypt, which runs for 100 miles (162 km.) and was

Canal in the Netherlands. Canal construction is an ancient engineering technology that was
perfected in the mid-eighteenth century. Before modern engines, canals were simple water-
beds of uniform width and depth bordered by towpaths on which animals or men towed barges
on the water. (PhotoDisc)
 Engineering Projects / 273

Engineering Works and Environmental Problems

Although engineering allows humans to overcome natural obstacles, works of engineering
often have unintended consequences. Many engineering projects have caused unantici-
pated environmental problems.
Dams, for instance, create large lakes behind them by trapping water that is released
slowly. This water typically contains silt and other material that eventually would have
formed soil downstream had the water been allowed to flow naturally. Instead, the silt
builds up behind the dam, eventually diminishing the lake’s usefulness. As an additional
consequence, there is less silt available for soil-building downstream.
Canals also can cause environmental harm by diverting water from its natural course.
The river from which water is diverted may dry up, negatively affecting fish, animals, and
the people who live downstream.
The benefits of engineering works must be weighed against the damage they do to the
environment. They may be worthwhile, but they are neither all good nor all bad: There are
benefits and drawbacks in building any engineering project.

completed in 1856, eliminates a similar journey around the Cape of

Good Hope in South Africa.
The longest canal in the world is the Grand Canal in China, which was
built in the seventh century and stretches a length of 1,085 miles (2,904
km.). It connects Tianjin, near Beijing in the north of China, with
Nanjing on the Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) in Central China. This canal
may eventually be surpassed in length by the Karakum Canal, which runs
across the Central Asian desert in Turkmenistan from the Amu Darya
River westward to Ashkhabad. That canal was begun in the 1950’s and was
intended to irrigate the dry lands of Turkmenistan and eventually to
reach the Caspian Sea. The project has stalled at a length of 700 miles
(1,100 km.) and it is not known if it will ever be completed.
Many canals are found in Europe, particularly in England, France, Bel-
gium, the Netherlands, and Germany, and in the United States and Can-
ada, especially connecting the Great Lakes to each other and to the Ohio
and Mississippi Rivers.
Tunnels. Tunnels connect two places separated by physical features
that would make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for them to be
connected without cutting directly through them. Tunnels can be used in
place of bridges over water bodies so that water traffic is not impeded by a
bridge span. Tunnels of this type are often found in port cities, and cities
with them include Montreal, Quebec; New York City; Hampton Roads,
Virginia; Liverpool, England; or Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Tunnels are often used to go through mountains that might be too tall
to climb over. Trains especially are sensitive to changes in slope, and train
tunnels are found all over the world. Less common are automobile and
truck tunnels, although these are also found in many places. Train and
 274 / Engineering Projects

automotive tunnels through mountains are common in the Appalachian

Mountains in Pennsylvania, the Rockies in the United States and Canada,
Japan, and the Alps in Italy, France, Switzerland, and Austria.
The Chunnel. Arguably the most famous—and one of the most ambi-
tious—tunnels in the world goes by the name Chunnel. Completed in
1994, it connects Dover, England, to Calais, France, and runs 31 miles (50
km.). “Chunnel” is short for the Channel Tunnel, named for the English
Channel, the body of water that it goes under. It was built as a train tun-
nel, but cars and trucks can be carried through it on trains. In the year
2000 plans were underway to cut a second tunnel, to carry automobiles
and trucks, that would run parallel to the first Chunnel.
Among undersea tunnels, the Chunnel is exceeded in length only by
the Seikan Tunnel in Japan, which connects the large island of Honshw
with the northern island of Hokkaido. The Seikan Tunnel is nearly 2.4
miles (4 km.) longer than Europe’s Chunnel.
Buildings. Historically, North America has been home to the tallest
buildings in the world. Chicago has been called the birthplace of the sky-

New York
City’s World
Trade Center
towers.
(PhotoDisc)
 Engineering Projects / 275

scraper and was at one time home to the world’s tallest building. In 1998,
however, the two Petronas Towers (each 1,483 feet/452 meters tall) were
completed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, surpassing the height of the
world’s tallest building, Chicago’s Sears Tower (1,450 feet/442 meters),
which had been completed in 1974. Not to be outdone, plans were made
in Chicago in the late 1990’s to build a new skyscraper, called the 7 South
Dearborn Building, which would be 1,550 feet (472 meters) in height
when it was completed in 2003.
Other famous tall buildings are found primarily in cities of North
America and East and Southeast Asia. The Jin Mao Building in Shanghai,
China, was completed in 1999, at a height of 1,380 feet (421 meters). New
York City has long been home to some of the world’s tallest buildings. Un-
til they collapsed when hijacked airliners struck them in September,
2001, the tallest of the city’s buildings were the twin towers of the World
Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. The towers were completed in 1972
and 1973 and reached heights of 1,368 feet (417 meters) and 1,362 feet
(415 meters). Also in New York are the Empire State Building at a height
of 1,250 feet (381 meters) and the Chrysler Building at 1,046 feet (319
meters). These both were finished in the 1930’s and were the two tallest
buildings in the world until the John Hancock Center was finished in Chi-
cago in 1969, at 1,127 feet (344 meters).
Hong Kong and the Pearl River region of China boast several tall
buildings. Citic Plaza in Guangzhou, China, was completed in 1997 at a
height of 1,283 feet (391 meters). Shun Hing Square in Shenzhen,
China, was completed a year earlier and stands 1,260 feet (384 meters).
The tallest building in Europe is Commerzbank Tower in Frankfurt,
Germany, completed in 1997 at 981 feet (299 meters). In Australia, Rialto
Tower in Melbourne was built in 1985 and stands 813 feet (248 meters).
There are no buildings over 750 feet (228 meters) in South America or
Africa.
Timothy C. Pitts

For Further Study

Fales, James F. Construction Technology: Today and Tomorrow. New York:
Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 1991.
Franck, Irene M., and David M. Brownstone. Builders. New York: Facts on
File, 1985.
Kingston, Jeremy. How Bridges Are Made. New York: Facts on File, 1985.
Toberman, Scott. “The Sky’s the Limit.” Popular Mechanics (March, 2000):
56-59.
Zich, Arthur. “China’s Three Gorges.” National Geographic (September,
1997): 2-33.
276 / Minerals

Industry and Trade

Minerals
M ineral resources make up all the nonliving matter found in the
earth, its atmosphere, and its waters that are useful to humankind.
The great ages of history are classified by the resources that were ex-
ploited. First came the Stone Age, when flint was used to make tools and
weapons. The Bronze Age followed; it was a time when metals such as
copper and tin began to be extracted and used. Finally came the Iron
Age, the time of steel and other ferrous alloys that required higher tem-
peratures and more sophisticated metallurgy.
Metals, however, are not the whole story—economic progress also re-
quires fossil fuels such as coal, oil, natural gas, tar sands, or oil shale as en-
ergy sources. Beyond metals and fuels, there are a host of mineral re-
sources that make modern life possible: building stone, salt, atmospheric
gases (oxygen, nitrogen), fertilizer minerals (phosphates, nitrates, and
potash), sulfur, quartz, clay, asbestos, and diamonds are some examples.
Mining and Prospecting. Exploitation of mineral resources begins
with the discovery and recognition of the value of the deposits. To be eco-
nomically viable, the mineral must be salable at a price greater than the

A worker in Thailand prepares piles of salt for marketing. Sodium chloride—

which we know as ordinary table salt—is an important mineral resource
throughout the world. (Clyde L. Rasmussen)
 Minerals / 277

Large-scale strip mine. Strip mining is simpler and cheaper to undertake than underground
mining, but it does heavy—and often irreparable—damage to the environment. (PhotoDisc)

cost of its extraction, and great care is taken to determine the probable
size of a deposit and the labor involved in isolating it before operations
begin. Iron, aluminum, copper, lead, and zinc occur as mineral ores that
are mined, then subjected to chemical processes to separate the metal
from the other elements (usually oxygen or sulfur) that are bonded to
the metal in the ore.
Some deposits of gold or platinum are found in elemental (native)
form as nuggets or powder and may be isolated by alluvial mining—using
running water to wash away low-density impurities, leaving the dense
metal behind. Most metal ores, however, are obtained only after exten-
sive digging and blasting and the use of large-scale earthmoving equip-
ment. Surface mining or strip mining is far simpler and safer than under-
ground mining.
Safety and Environmental Considerations. Underground mines can
extend as far as a mile into the earth and are subject to cave-ins, water
leakage, and dangerous gases that can explode or suffocate miners.
Safety is an overriding issue in deep mines, and there is legislation in
many countries designed to regulate mine safety and to enforce practices
that reduce hazards to the miners from breathing dust or gases.
In the past, mining often was conducted without regard to the effects
on the environment. In economically advanced countries such as the
278 / Minerals

Contaminated water caused by mining in Idaho Springs, Colorado, in the early

1980’s. (U.S. Geological Survey)

United States, this is now seen as unacceptable. Mines are expected to be

filled in, not just abandoned after they are worked out, and care must be
taken that rivers and streams are not contaminated with mine wastes.
Iron, Steel, and Coal. Iron ore and coal are essential for the manufac-
ture of steel, the most important structural metal. Both raw materials oc-
cur in many geographic regions. Before the mid-nineteenth century, iron
was smelted in the eastern United States—New Jersey, New York, and
Massachusetts—but then huge hematite deposits were discovered near
Duluth, Minnesota, on Lake Superior. The ore traveled by ship to steel
mills in northwest Indiana and northeast Illinois, and coal came from Illi-
nois or Ohio. Steel also was made in Pittsburgh and Bethlehem in Penn-
sylvania, and in Birmingham, Alabama.
After World War II, the U.S. steel industry was slow to modernize its fa-
cilities, and after 1970 it had great difficulty producing steel at a price
that could compete with imports from countries such as Japan, Korea,
and Brazil. In Europe, the German steel industry centered in the Ruhr
River valley in cities such as Essen and Düsseldorf. In Russia, iron ore is
mined in the Urals, in the Crimea, and at Krivoi Rog in Ukraine. Else-
where in Europe, the French “minette” ores of Alsace-Lorraine, the
Swedish magnetite deposits near Kiruna, and the British hematite depos-
its in Lancashire are all significant. Hematite is also found in Labrador,
Canada, near the Quebec border.
Coal is widely distributed on earth. In the United States, Kentucky,
West Virginia, and Pennsylvania are known for their coal mines, but coal
 Minerals / 279

is also found in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Montana, and other states. Much
of the anthracite (hard coal) is taken from underground mines, where
networks of tunnels are dug through the coal seam, and the coal is loos-
ened by blasting, use of digging machines, or human labor. A huge de-
posit of brown coal is mined at the Yallourn open pit mine west of Mel-
bourne, Australia. In Germany, the mines are near Garsdorf in Nord-
Rhein/Westfalen, and in the United Kingdom, coal is mined in Wales.
South Africa has coal and is a leader in manufacture of liquid fuels from
coal. There is coal in Antarctica, but it cannot yet be mined profitably.
China and Japan both have coal mines, as does Russia.
Aluminum. Aluminum is the most important structural metal after
iron. It is extremely abundant in the earth’s crust, but the only readily
extractable ore is bauxite, a hydrated oxide usually contaminated with
iron and silica. Bauxite was originally found in France but also exists in
many other places in Europe, as well as in Australia, India, China, the for-
mer Soviet Union, Indonesia, Malaysia, Suriname, and Jamaica.
Much of the bauxite in the United States comes from Arkansas. After
purification, the bauxite is combined with the mineral cryolite at high
temperature and subjected to electrolysis between carbon electrodes
(the Hall-Héroult process), yielding pure aluminum. Because of the
enormous electrical energy requirements of the Hall-Héroult method,
aluminum can be made economically only where cheap power (prefera-
bly hydroelectric) is available. This means that the bauxite often must be
shipped long distances—Jamaican bauxite comes to the United States for
electrolysis, for example.
Copper, Silver, and Gold. These coinage metals have been known and
used since antiquity. Copper came from Cyprus and takes its name from
the name of the island. Copper ores include oxides or sulfides (cuprite,
bornite, covellite, and others). Not enough native copper occurs to be
commercially significant. Mines in Bingham, Utah, and Ely, Nevada, are
major sources in the United States. The El Teniente mine in Chile is
the world’s largest copper mine, and major amounts of copper also
come from Canada, the former Soviet Union, and the Katanga region
mines in Congo-Kinshasa
and Zambia.
Silver often occurs na-
tive, as well as in combina-
tion with other metals, in-
cluding lead, copper, and
gold. Famous silver mines
in the United States in-
clude those near Virginia
City (the Comstock lode)
and Tonopah, Nevada,
and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Silver ore in its native state. (U.S. Geological Survey)

280 / Minerals

Silver has been mined in the past in Bolivia (Potosi mines), Peru (Cerro
de Pasco mines), Mexico, and Ontario and British Columbia in Canada.
Gold occurs native as gold dust or nuggets, sometimes with silver as a
natural alloy called electrum. Other gold minerals include selenides and
tellurides. Small amounts of gold are present in sea water, but attempts to
isolate gold economically from this source have so far failed. Famous gold
rushes occurred in California and Colorado in the United States, Can-
ada’s Yukon, and Alaska’s Klondike region. Major gold-producing coun-
tries include South Africa, Siberia, Ghana (once called the Gold Coast),
the Philippines, Australia, and Canada.
Petroleum and Natural Gas. Petroleum has been found on every conti-
nent except Antarctica, with 600,000 producing wells in one hundred dif-
ferent countries. In the United States, petroleum was originally discov-
ered in Pennsylvania, with more important discoveries being made later
in west Texas, Oklahoma, California, and Alaska. New wells are often
drilled offshore, for example in the Gulf of Mexico or the North Sea. The
United States depends heavily on oil imported from Mexico, South
America, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states, and Canada.
Over the years, the price of oil has varied dramatically, particularly due
to the attempts of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC) to limit production and drive up prices. In Europe, oil is pro-
duced in Azerbaijan near the Caspian Sea, where a pipeline is planned to
carry the crude to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, in Turkey. In Af-
rica, there are oil wells in Gabon, Libya, and Nigeria; in the Persian Gulf
region, oil is found in Kuwait, Qatar, Iran, and Iraq. Much crude oil trav-
els in huge tankers to Europe, Japan, and the United States, but some
supplies refineries in Saudi Arabia at Abadan. Tankers must exit the Per-
sian Gulf through the narrow Gulf of Hormuz, which thus assumes great
strategic importance.
After oil was discovered on the shores of the Beaufort Sea in northern

The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

On March 24, 1989, the tanker Exxon Valdez, with a cargo of fifty-three mil-
lion gallons of crude oil, ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William
Sound, Alaska. Approximately eleven million gallons of oil were released
into the water, in one of the worst environmental disasters of this type re-
corded to date. Despite immediate and lengthy efforts to contain and clean
up the spill, there was extensive damage to wildlife, including aquatic birds,
seals, and fish. Lawsuits and calls for new regulatory legislation on tankers
continued a decade later. Such regrettable incidents as these are the almost
inevitable result of attempting to transport the huge oil supplies demanded
in the industrialized world.
 Minerals / 281

A section of the
Alaska Pipeline,
which carries crude
oil from the state’s
northern slopes to
Valdez on Alaska’s
southern coast.
(PhotoDisc)

Alaska (the so-called North Slope) in the 1960’s, a pipeline was built
across Alaska, ending at the port of Valdez. The pipeline is heated to keep
the oil liquid in cold weather and elevated to prevent its melting through
the permanently frozen ground (permafrost) that supports it. From
Valdez, tankers reach Japan or California.
Drilling activities occasionally result in discovery of natural gas, which
is valued as a low-pollution fuel. Vast fields of gas exist in Siberia, and gas
is piped to Western Europe through a pipeline. Algerian gas is shipped in
the liquid state in ships equipped with refrigeration equipment to main-
tain the low temperatures needed. Late 1990’s gas finds in Alberta, Can-
ada, were expected to help supply the energy needs of the central United
States when a pipeline is built. Britain and Northern Europe also benefit
from gas produced in the North Sea, between Norway and Scotland.
Shale oil, a plentiful but difficult-to- exploit fossil fuel, exists in enor-
mous amounts near Rifle, Colorado. A form of oil-bearing rock, the shale
must be crushed and heated to recover the oil, a more expensive proposi-
282 / Manufacturing

tion than drilling conventional oil wells. In spite of ingenious schemes

such as burning the shale oil in place, this resource is likely to remain
largely unused until conventional petroleum is used up. A similar re-
source exists in Alberta, Canada, where the Athabasca tar sands are ex-
ploited for heavy oils.
John R. Phillips

For Further Study

Alexander, William O., and Arthur C. Street. Metals in the Service of Man.
Baltimore: Penguin, 1964.
Jones, W. R. Minerals in Industry. Baltimore: Penguin, 1963.
Pearl, Richard M. Gems, Minerals, Crystals and Ores. New York: Odyssey,
1964.
Robinson, G. W., and T. A. Scovil. Minerals. New York: Simon & Schuster,
1994.
Scalisi, P., and D. Cook. Classic Mineral Localities of the World: Asia and Aus-
tralia. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1983.
Strahler, Alan H. Introducing Physical Geography. New York: Wiley, 2000.

Manufacturing
M anufacturing is the process by which value is added to materials by
changing their physical form—shape, function, or composition.
For example, an automobile is manufactured by piecing together thou-
sands of different component parts, such as seats, bumpers, and tires. The
component parts in unassembled form have little or no utility, but pieced
together to produce a fully functional automobile, the resulting product
has significant utility. The more utility something has, the greater its
value. In other words, the value of the component parts increases when
they are combined with the other parts to produce a useful product.
Employment in Manufacturing. On a global scale, only 20 percent of
the world’s working population had jobs in the manufacturing sector at
the end of the twentieth century. The rest worked in agriculture and min-
ing (49 percent) and services (31 percent). The importance of each of
these sectors varies from country to country and from time period to time
period. High-income countries have a higher percentage of their labor
force employed in manufacturing than low-income countries do. For ex-
ample, in the United States 18 percent of the labor force worked in man-
ufacturing in the late 1990’s, whereas the African country of Tanzania
had only 5 percent of its labor force employed in the manufacturing sec-
tor at that time.
At the end of the twentieth century, the vast majority of the U.S. labor
force (81 percent) worked in services, a sector that includes jobs such as
computer programmers, lawyers, and teachers. Only 1 percent worked in
 Manufacturing / 283

agriculture and mining. This employment structure is typical for a high-

income country. In low-income countries, in contrast, the majority of the
labor force have agricultural jobs. In Tanzania, for example, 84 percent
of the labor force worked in agriculture, while services accounted for 11
percent of the jobs.
The importance of manufacturing changes over time. In 1950 manu-
facturing accounted for 38 percent of all jobs in the United States. The
percentage of jobs accounted for by the manufacturing sector in high-
income countries has decreased in the post-World War II period. The de-
creasing share of manufacturing jobs in high-income countries is partly
attributable to the fact that many manufacturing companies have re-
placed people with machines on assembly lines. Because one machine
can do the work of many people, manufacturing has become less labor-
intensive (uses fewer people to perform a particular task) and more capi-
tal-intensive (uses machines to perform tasks formerly done by people).
In the future, manufacturing in high-income countries is expected to be-
come increasingly capital-intensive. It is not inconceivable that manufac-
turing’s share of the U.S. labor force could fall below 10 percent in the
twenty-first century.
Although the importance of manufacturing as an employer is decreas-
ing, it should be noted that manufacturing jobs tend to pay higher wages
than jobs in many other sectors. For example, the average manufacturing
job in the United States paid more than $35,000 per year, while the aver-
age construction job paid just over $31,000 and the average retail job just
over $20,000.
Geography of Manufacturing. Every country produces manufactured
goods, but the vast bulk of manufacturing activity is concentrated geo-
graphically in three major manufacturing regions—eastern North Amer-
ica, Europe, and eastern Asia. Together, these three regions produce
more than 85 percent of the world’s manufacturing output. In fact, three
countries—the United States, Japan, and Germany—produce almost 60
percent of the world’s manufactured goods. The concentration of manu-
facturing activity in a small number of regions means that there are other
regions where very little manufacturing occurs. Africa is a prime example
of a region with little manufacturing.
Different countries tend to specialize in the production of different
products. For example, 50 percent of the automobiles that were pro-
duced in that late 1990’s were produced in three countries—Germany,
Japan, and the United States. In the production of television sets, the top
three countries were China, Japan, and South Korea, which together pro-
duced 48 percent of the world’s television sets. It is important to note that
these patterns change over time. For example, in 1960 the top three auto-
mobile-producing countries were Germany, the United Kingdom, and
the United States, which together produced 76 percent of the world’s au-
tomobiles.
284 / Manufacturing

Multinational Corporations. A multinational corporation is a corpora-

tion that is headquartered in one country but owns business facilities, for
example, manufacturing plants, in other countries. Some examples of
multinational corporations from the manufacturing sector include the
automobile maker Ford, whose headquarters are the in the United
States, the pharmaceutical company Bayer, whose headquarters are in
Germany, and the candy manufacturer Nestle, whose headquarters are in
Switzerland. Since the end of World War II, multinational corporations
have become increasingly important in the world economy. Most multi-
national corporations have headquarters in high-income countries.
Companies open manufacturing plants in other countries for a variety
of reasons. One of the most common reasons is that it allows them to cir-
cumvent barriers to trade that are imposed by foreign governments, es-
pecially tariffs and quotas. A tariff is an import tax that is imposed upon
foreign-manufactured goods as they enter a country. A quota is a limita-
tion imposed on the volume of a particular good that a particular country
can export to another country. The net effect of tariffs and quotas is to in-
crease the cost of imported goods for consumers.
Governments impose tariffs and quotas partly to raise revenue and
partly to encourage consumers to purchase goods manufactured in their
own country. Foreign manufacturers faced with tariffs and quotas often
begin manufacturing their product in the country imposing the tariffs
and quotas. As tariffs and quotas apply to imported goods only, produc-
ing in the country imposing the quotas or tariffs effectively makes these
trade barriers obsolete.
Companies also open manufacturing plants in other countries because
of differences in labor costs among countries. While most manufacturing
takes place in high-income countries, some low-income countries have be-
come increasingly attractive as production locations because their work-
ers can be hired much more cheaply than in high-income countries. For
example, in the late 1990’s, the average manufacturing job in the United
States paid more than $17 per hour. By comparison, manufacturing em-
ployees in the Asian country of Sri Lanka earned less than $1 per hour.
This dramatic differences in labor costs have prompted some compa-
nies to close down their manufacturing plants in high-income countries
and open up new plants in low-income countries. This has resulted in high-
income countries purchasing more manufactured goods from low-income
countries. In 1988, for example, 28 percent of the clothing purchased by
U.S. consumers was imported from other countries, while in 1998, 48 per-
cent of the clothing purchased in the United States was imported.
More than half the clothing imported into the United States came
from Asian countries, for example, China, Taiwan, and South Korea,
where labor costs were much lower than in the United States. Much of
this clothing was made in factories where workers were paid by compa-
nies headquartered in the United States. For example, most of the Nike
 Manufacturing / 285

sports shoes that were sold in the United States were made in China, In-
donesia, Vietnam, and Pakistan.
Transportation and Communications Technology. The ability of com-
panies to have manufacturing plants in other countries stems from the
fact that the world has a sophisticated and efficient transportation and
communications system. An advanced transportation and communica-
tions system makes it relatively easy and relatively cheap to transfer infor-
mation and goods between geographically distant locations. Thus, Nike
can manufacture soccer balls in Pakistan and transport them quickly and
cheaply to customers in the United States.
The extent to which transportation and communications systems have
improved during the last two centuries can be illustrated by a few simple
examples. In 1800, when the stagecoach was the primary method of over-
land transportation, it took twenty hours to travel the ninety miles from
Lansing, Michigan, to Detroit, Michigan. Today, with the automobile, the
same journey takes approximately ninety minutes. In 1800 sailing ships
traveling at an average speed of ten miles per hour were used to transport
people and goods between geographically distant countries. In the year
2000 jet-engine aircraft could traverse the globe at speeds in excess of six
hundred miles per hour.
Communications technology has also improved over time. In 1930 a
three-minute telephone call between New York and London, England,
cost more than $250 in 1998 dollars. In the year 2000 the same telephone
call could be made for less than a dollar. In addition to modern tele-
phones, there are fax machines, e-mail, video conferencing capabilities,
and a host of other technologies that make communication with other
parts of the world both inexpensive and swift
Future Prospects. The global economy of the twenty-first century pres-
ents a wide variety of opportunities and challenges. Sophisticated com-
munications and transportation networks provide increasing numbers of
manufacturing companies with more choices as to where to locate their
factories. However, high-income countries like the United States are in-
creasingly in competition with other countries (both high- and low-
income) to maintain existing manufacturing investments and attract new
ones. Persuading existing companies to keep their U.S. factories open
and not move overseas has been a major challenge. Likewise, making the
United States an attractive place for foreign companies to locate their
manufacturing plants is an equally challenging task.
Neil Reid

For Further Study

Dicken, Peter. Global Shift: Transforming the World Economy. 3d ed. New
York: Guilford Press, 1998.
Ferdows, Kasra. “Making the Most of Foreign Factories.” Harvard Business
Review (March-April, 1997): 73-88.
286 / Globalization of Manufacturing and Trade

Hounshell, David A. From the American System to Mass Production, 1800-

1932. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1984.
Marcus, Alan I., and Howard P. Segal. Technology in America: A Brief History.
New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989.
Noble, David F. Forces of Production: A Social History of Automation. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Piore, Michael. The Second Industrial Divide. New York: Basic Books, 1984.
Wheeler, James O., Peter O. Mueller, Grant I. Thrall, and Timothy J. Fik.
Economic Geography. 3d ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1998.

Globalization of
Manufacturing and Trade
W hy are most of the patents issued worldwide assigned to U.S. corpo-
rations? How did a Taiwanese earthquake prevent millions of
Americans from purchasing memory upgrades for their computers? Why
have personal incomes in Beijing nearly doubled in less than a decade?
Answers to these questions can be found in the geography of globaliza-
tion. Globalization is an economic, political, and social process character-
ized by the integration of the world’s many systems of manufacturing and
trade into a single and increasingly seamless marketplace. The result: a
new world geography.
This new geography is associated with the expansion of manufactur-
ing and trade as capitalist principles replace old ideologies and state-
controlled economies. With expanded free markets, the process of man-
ufacturing and trading is constantly changing. Globalization delivers
economic growth through improved manufacturing processes, newly de-
veloped goods, foreign investment in overseas manufacturing, and ex-
panded employment.
The economies of developing countries are slowly transitioning from
agricultural to industrial activities. Nevertheless, more than 70 percent of
workers in these countries continue to work in agriculture. Meanwhile,
developed countries, such as Australia and Germany, are experiencing
high-technology service sector growth and reduced manufacturing em-
ployment. In the United States, nearly 50 percent of all workers were em-
ployed in manufacturing during the 1950’s, but by the late 1990’s, less
than 20 percent were.
In between these extremes, former state-controlled economies, like
Romania, are adopting more efficient economic development strategies.
Other nations and economic models, such as Indonesia and China, are
pulled into the global marketplace by the growth and expansion of mar-
ket economies. Despite the different economic paths of developing, tran-
 Globalization of Manufacturing and Trade / 287

sitioning, and developed nations, manufacturing and trade link all na-
tions together and represent an economic convergence with important
implications for political, business, and labor leaders—as well as all the
world’s citizens.
The geographies of manufacturing and trade can be examined as the
distribution and location of economic activities in response to technolog-
ical change and political and economic change.
Distribution and Location. Questions about where people live, work,
and spend their money can be answered by reading product labels in any
shopping mall, supermarket, or automobile dealership. They reveal the
fact that manufacturing is a multistage process of component fabrication
and final product assembly that can occur continents apart. For example,
a shirt may be designed in New Jersey, assembled in Costa Rica from
North Carolina fabric, and sold in British Columbia. To understand how
goods produced in far-away locations are sold at neighborhood stores, ge-
ographers investigate the spatial, or geographic, distribution of natural
resources, manufacturing plants, trading patterns, and consumption.
Historically, the geography of manufacturing and trade has been
closely linked to the distribution of raw materials, workers, and buyers. In
earlier times, this meant that manufacturing and trade were highly local-
ized functions. In the eighteenth century, every North American town
had cobblers or blacksmiths who produced goods from local resources
for sale in local markets. By the start of the Industrial Revolution, im-
proved transportation and manufacturing techniques had significantly
enlarged the geography of manufacturing and trade. As distances in-
creased, new manufacturing and trading centers developed. The loca-
tion of these centers was contingent upon site and situation. Site and situ-
ation refer to a physical location, or site, relative to needed materials,
transportation networks, and markets. For example, Pittsburgh, Pennsyl-
vania, became the site of a major steel industry because it was near coal
and iron resources. Pittsburgh also benefited from its historical role as a
port town on a major river system that provided access to both western
and eastern markets.
While relative location and transportation costs continue to be impor-
tant factors, the geographic distribution of production and movement of
goods across space is more complex than the simple calculus of site and
situation. New global and local geographies of manufacturing and trade
have been fueled by two major factors: technology and political change.
Technological Change. The old saying that time is money partially ex-
plains where goods are manufactured and traded. By compressing time
and space, technology has enabled people, goods, and information to go
farther more quickly. In the process, technology has reduced interaction
costs, such as telecommunications. Just as steel enabled railroads to push
farther westward, new technologies reduce the distance between places
and people.
288 / Globalization of Manufacturing and Trade

By increasing physical and virtual access to people, places, and things,

technology has eliminated many barriers to global trade. However, im-
proved telecommunications and transportation are only part of technol-
ogy’s contribution to globalization. If time is money, new efficient manu-
facturing processes also have reduced costs and facilitated globalization.
Armed with more efficient production processes, reliable telecommu-
nications infrastructures, and transportation improvements, businesses
can increase profits and remain competitive by seeking out lower-cost la-
bor markets thousands of miles from consumers. As trade and manufac-
turing are increasingly spatially separate activities, the geographic distribu-
tion of manufacturing promotes an uneven distribution of income. The
global distribution of manufacturing plants is closely related to industry-
specific skill and wage requirements. For example, low-wage and low-skill
jobs tend to concentrate in the developing regions of Asia, South Amer-
ica, and Africa. Alternately, high-technology and high-wage manufactur-
ing activities concentrate in more developed regions.
In some cases, high wages and global competition force corporations
to move their manufacturing plants to save costs and remain competitive.
During the early 1990’s, this byproduct of globalization was a major issue
during the U.S. and Canadian debates to ratify the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Focusing on primarily U.S. and Canadian
companies that moved jobs to Mexico, the debate contributed to growing
anxiety over job security as plants relocate to low-cost labor markets in
South America and around the world.
As global competition increases, the geography of manufacturing and
trade is increasingly global and rapidly changing. One company that has
adapted to the shifting nature of global trade and manufacturing is Nike.
Based in Beaverton, Oregon, Nike designs and develops new products at
its Oregon world headquarters. However, Nike has internationalized

The World Trade Organization and

Global Trading
In 1998 domestic political pressures and an expected domestic surplus of
rice prompted the Japanese government to unilaterally implement a 355
percent tariff on foreign rice, violating the United Nations’ General Agree-
ment on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). On April 1, 1999, Japan agreed to re-
turn to GATT import levels and imposed new over-quota tariffs. While
domestic Japanese politics could have prompted a trade war with rice-
exporting countries, the crisis demonstrates how multilateral trading initia-
tives promote stability. Without an agreement, rice exporters might not
have gained access to Japanese markets. By returning to GATT minimum
quotas and implementing over-quota taxes, the compromise addressed the
interests of both domestic and foreign rice growers.
 Globalization of Manufacturing and Trade / 289

much of its manufacturing capacity to compete in an aggressive athletic

apparel industry. Over the last twenty-five years, Nike’s strategy has meant
shifts in production from high-wage U.S. locations to numerous low-wage
labor markets around Pacific Rim.
Political and Economic Change: A New World Order. In order for
companies such as Nike to successfully adapt to changing global dynam-
ics, a stable international, or multilateral, trading system must be in
place. In 1948 the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was
the first major step toward developing this stable global trading infra-
structure. During that same period, the World Bank and International
Monetary Fund were created to stabilize and standardize financial mar-
kets and practices. However, Cold War politics postponed complete eco-
nomic integration for nearly half a century. Since the collapse of commu-
nism, globalization has accelerated as economies coalesce around the
principles of free markets and capitalism. These important changes have
become institutionalized through multilateral trade agreements and in-
ternational trading organizations.
International trading organizations try to minimize or eliminate barri-
ers to free and fair trade between nations. Trade barriers include tariffs
(taxes levied on imported goods), product quotas, government subsidies
to domestic industry, domestic content rules, and other regulations. Bar-
riers prevent competitive access to domestic markets by artificially raising
the prices of imported goods too high or preventing foreign firms from
achieving economies of scale. In some cases, tariffs can also be used to
promote fair trade by effectively leveling the playing field.
Because tariffs can be used both to promote fair trade and to unfairly
protect markets, trading organizations are responsible for distinguishing
between the two. For example, the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) forum has established guidelines to promote fair trade and
attract foreign investment. APEC initiatives include a public Web-based
database of member state tariff schedules and related links. Through pro-
grams such as the APEC information-sharing project, trading organiza-
tions are streamlining the international business process and promoting
the overall stability of international markets.
The Future. As the globalization of manufacturing and trade contin-
ues, a new world geography is emerging. Unlike the Cold War’s east-west
geography and politics of ideology, an economic politics divides the de-
veloped and developing world along a north-south axis. While the types
of conflicts associated with these new politics and the rules of engage-
ment are unclear, it is evident that a new hierarchy of nations is emerging.
Globalization will raise the economic standard of living in most na-
tions, but it has also widened the gap between richer and poorer coun-
tries. A small group of nations generates and controls most of the world’s
wealth. Conversely, the poorest countries account for roughly two-thirds
of the world’s population and less than 10 percent of its wealth.
290 / Globalization of Manufacturing and Trade

This fundamental question of economic justice was a motive behind

globalization’s first major political clash. During the 1999 World Trade
Organization (WTO) meetings in Seattle, Washington, approximately
fifty thousand environmentalists, labor unionists, and human and animal
rights activists protested against numerous issues, including cultural in-
tolerance, economic injustice, environmental degradation, political re-
pression, and unfair labor practices they attribute to free trade. While the
protesters managed to cancel the opening ceremonies, the United Na-
tions secretary-general, Kofi Annan, expressed the general sentiment of
most WTO member states. Agreeing that the protesters’ concerns were
important, Annan also asserted that the globalization of manufacturing
and trade should not be used as a scapegoat for domestic failures to pro-
tect individual rights. More important, the secretary-general feared that
those issues could be little more than a pretext for a return to unilateral
trade policies, or protectionism.
Like the Seattle protesters, supporters of multilateral trade advocate
political and economic reforms. Proponents emphasize that open mar-
kets promote open societies. Free traders earnestly believe economic en-
gagement encourages rogue nations to improve poor human rights, envi-
ronmental, and labor records. It is argued that economic engagement
raises the expectations of citizens, thereby promoting change. This phe-
nomenon has been partially credited with the fall of the Berlin Wall. It re-
mains to be seen if free trade equals freedom in all places and under all
circumstances, and globalization continues to be controversial.
Conclusion. Technological and political change have made global la-
bor and consumer markets more accessible and established an economic
world hierarchy. At the top, one-fifth of the world’s population consumes
the vast majority of produced goods and controls more than 80 percent
of the wealth. At the bottom of this hierarchy, poor nations are industrial-
izing but possess less than 10 percent of the world’s wealth. In political,
social, and cultural terms, this global economic reality defines the con-
tours and cleavages of a changing world geography. Whether geogra-
phers calculate the economic and political costs of a widening gap be-
tween rich and poor or chart the flow of funds from Tokyo to Toronto,
the globalization of manufacturing and trade will remain central to the
study of geography well into the twenty-first century.
Jay D. Gatrell

Information on the World Wide Web

The Web site of the World Trade Organization (WTO) details the history of
the organization and free trade as well as the implications of global trading.
(www.wto.org)
 Modern World Trade Patterns / 291

For Further Study

Carrel, T. “Beijing.” National Geographic (March, 2000): 117-137.
Freidman, T. The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization. New
York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999.
“Rosey Prospects, Forgotten Dangers: A Testing Time for the World
Economy.” The Economist (April 15, 2000): 15-16.
Samuelson, R. “Judgment Calls: Economic Statecraft.” Newsweek (Novem-
ber 29, 1999): 58.
“Special Report. Trade Wars: The Meeting.” Time 154, no. 22 (November,
29, 1999): 40-44.
Vulliamy, E. “A New Day for Romania.” National Geographic 3 (September,
1998): 34-59.

Modern World Trade Patterns

T rade, its routes, and its patterns are an integral part of modern soci-
ety. Trade is primarily based on need. People trade the goods that
they have, including money, to obtain the goods that they don’t have.
Some nations are very rich in agriculture or natural resources, while oth-
ers are centers of industrial or technical activity. Because nations’ needs
change only slowly, trade routes and trading patterns develop that last for
long periods of time.
Types of Trade. The movement of goods can occur among neighbor-
ing countries, such as the United States and Mexico, or across the globe,
as between Japan and Italy. Some trade routes are well established with
regularly scheduled service connecting points. Such service is called
liner service. Liners may also serve intermediate points along a trade
route to increase their revenue.
Some trade occurs only seasonally, such as the movement of fresh fruits
from Chile to California. Some trade occurs only when certain goods are
demanded, such as special orders of industrial goods. This type of service
is provided by operators called tramps. They go where the business of
trade takes them, rather than along fixed liner schedules and routes.
Many people think of international trade as being carried on great
ships plying the oceans of the world. Such trade is important; however, a
considerable amount of trade is carried by other modes of transporta-
tion. Ships and airplanes carry large volumes of freight over large dis-
tances, while trucks, trains, barges, and even animal transport are used to
move goods over trade routes among neighboring or landlocked coun-
tries.
Trade Routes. Through much of human history, trade routes were lim-
ited. Shipping trade carried on sailing vessels, for example, was limited by
the prevailing winds that powered the ships. Land routes were limited by
the location of water, mountain ranges, and the slow development of
292 / Modern World Trade Patterns

roads through thick forests and difficult terrain. The mechanization of

transportation eventually freed ships and other forms of transport to fol-
low more direct trade routes. Also, the development of canals and trans-
continental highway systems allowed trade routes to develop based solely
upon economic requirements.
Other changes in trade routes have occurred with industrialization of
transport systems. The world began to have a great need for coal. Trade
routes ran to the countries in which coal was mined. Ships and trains de-
livered coal to the power industry worldwide. Later, trade shifted to loca-
tions where oil (petroleum) was drilled. Now, oil is delivered to those
same powerplants and industrial sites around the world.
Noneconomic Factors. Some trade is not purely economic in nature.
Political relationships among countries can play an important part in
their trade relations. For example, many national governments try to
protect their countries’ automobile and electronics industries from out-
side competition by not allowing foreign goods to be imported easily.
Governments control imports by assessing duties, or tariffs, on selected
imports.
Some national governments use the concept of cabotage to protect
their home transportation industries by requiring that certain percent-
ages of imported and exported trade goods be carried by their own carri-
ers. For example, the U.S. government might require that 50 percent of
its trade use American ships, planes or trucks. The government might
also require that all American carriers employ only American citizens.
Nations also can exert pressure on their trading partners by limiting
access to port or airport facilities. Stronger nations may force weaker na-
tions into accepting unequal trade agreements. For example, the United
States once had an agreement with Germany concerning air passenger
service between the two countries. The agreement allowed United States
carriers to carry 80 percent of the passengers, while German carriers
were permitted to carry only 20 percent of the passengers.
Multilateral Trade. In situations in which pairs of trading nations do
not have direct diplomatic contact with each other, they make their trade
arrangements through other nations. Such trade is referred to as multi-
lateral. Certain carriers cater to this type of trade. They operate their
ships or planes in around-the-world service. They literally travel around
the globe picking up and depositing cargo along the way for a variety of
nations.
Trade Patterns. For many years, world populations were coast cen-
tered. This means that most of the people in the country lived close to the
coast. This was due primarily to the availability of water transportation sys-
tems to move both goods and people. At this time, major railroad, high-
way and airline systems did not exist. As railroad and highway systems
pushed into the interiors of nations, the population followed, and goods
were needed as well as produced in these areas. Thus, over the years many
 Modern World Trade Patterns / 293

inland population centers have developed that require transportation

systems to move goods into and away from this area.
In these cases, international trade to these inland centers required the
use of a number of different modes of transportation. Each of the differ-
ent modes required additional paperwork and time for repackaging and
securing of the cargo. For example, cargo coming off ships from overseas
was unloaded and placed in warehouse storage. At some later time, it was
loaded onto trucks that carried it to railyards. There it would be un-
loaded, stored, and then loaded onto railcars. At the destination, the
cargo would once again be shifted to trucks for the final delivery. During
the course of the trip, the cargo would have been handled a number of
times, with the possibility of damage or loss occurring each time.
Containerization. As more goods began to move in international
trade, the systems for packaging and securing of cargo became more
standardized. In the 1960’s, shipments began to move in containers.
These are highway truck trailers which have been removed from the chas-
sis leaving only the box. Container packaging has become the standard
for most cargos moving today in both domestic and international trade.
With the advent of containerization of cargo in international trade, cargo
movements could quickly move intermodally. Intermodal shipping in-
volves the movement of cargo by using more than a single mode of trans-
portation.
Land, water, and air carriers have attempted to make the intermodal
movement of cargo in international trade as seamless as possible. They

Crane lifting cargo containers at an Asian shipyard. (PhotoDisc)

294 / Modern World Trade Patterns

have not only standardized the box for carrying cargo, but they have also
standardized the handling equipment, so that containers move quickly
from one mode to another. Advances in communications and electronic
banking allow the paperwork and payments also to be completed and
transferred rapidly.
As the demands for products have grown and as the size of industrial
plants has grown, the size of movements of raw materials and container-
ized cargo has also grown. Thus, the sizes of the ships and trains required
to move these large volumes of cargo have also increased.
The development of VLCC’s (very large crude carriers) has allowed
shippers to move large volumes of oil products. The development of
large bulk carriers has allowed for the carriage of large volumes of dry
raw materials such as grains or iron ore. These large vessels take advan-
tage of what is known as economies of scale. Goods can moved more
cheaply when large volumes of them are moved at the same time. This is
because the doubling of the volume of cargo moved does not double the
cost to build or operate the vessels in which it is carried. This savings re-
duces the cost to move large volumes of cargo.
Intermodal Transportation. Intermodal transportation has allowed
cargo to move seamlessly across both international boundaries and
through different modes of transportation. This seamless movement has
changed ocean trade routes over recent years.
The development of the Pacific Rim nations created a demand for
trade between East Asia and both the United States and Europe. This
trade has usually taken the all-water routes between Asia and Europe.
Ships moving from East Asia across the Pacific Ocean pass through the
Panama Canal and cross the Atlantic Ocean to reach Western Europe.
This journey is in excess of 10,000 miles (16,000 km.) and usually takes
about thirty days for most ships to complete. The all-water route from
Asia to New York is similar. The distance is almost as great as that to Eu-
rope and requires about twenty-one to twenty-four days to complete.
Intermodal transportation has given shippers alternatives to all-water
routes. A great volume of Asian goods is now shipped to such western
U.S. ports as Seattle, Oakland, and Los Angeles, from which these goods
are carried by trains across the United States to New York. The overall
lengths of these routes to New York are only about 7,400 miles (12,000
km.) and take between fifteen and nineteen days to complete. Cargos
continuing to Europe are put back on ships in New York and complete
their journeys in an additional seven to ten days. Such intermodal ship-
ping can save as much as a week in delivery time.
Airfreight. Another changing trend in trade patterns is the develop-
ment of airfreight as an international competitor. Modern aircraft have
improved dramatically both in their ability to lift large weights of cargo as
well as their ability to carry cargos over long distances. Because of the
speed at which aircraft travel in comparison to other modes of transpor-
 Modern World Trade Patterns / 295

tation, goods can be moved quickly over large distances. Thus, high-value
cargos or very fragile cargos can move very quickly by aircraft.
The drawback to airfreight movement of cargo is that it is more expen-
sive than other modes of travel. However, for businesses that need to
move perishable commodities, such as flowers of the Netherlands, or ex-
pensive commodities, such as Paris fashions or Singapore-made com-
puter chips, airfreight has become both economic and essential.
Robert J. Stewart

For Further Study

Grimwade, N. New Patterns of International Trade. Beckenham, England:
Croom Helm, 1988.
Hardin, Garrett. Living Within Limits: Ecology, Economics and Population Ta-
boos. New York: Oxford University Press. 1993.
Kennedy, Malcolm J., and Michael J. O’Connor. Safely by Sea. Landham,
Md.: University Press of America, 1990.
Rosenthal, Paul. Where on Earth? A Geografunny Guide to the Globe. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1992.
Zimolzak, Chester E., and Charles Stansfield. The Human Landscape: Geog-
raphy and Culture. 2d ed. Columbus, Ohio: Merrill, 1983

Information on the World Wide Web

The International Trade Administration (ITA) of the U.S. Department of
Commerce encourages the export of U.S. goods into foreign markets. The
ITA’s Web site contains analyses and reports, searchable by region and
country, as well as links to other sites. (www.ita.doc.gov)
This page intentionally left blank
 Political
Geography
This page intentionally left blank
 299

Forms of Government
P hilosophers and political scientists have studied forms of government
for many centuries. Ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato and Ar-
istotle wrote about what they believed to be good and bad forms of gov-
ernment. According to Plato’s famous work, The Republic, the best form of
government was one ruled by philosopher-kings. Aristotle wrote that
good governments, whether headed by one person (a kingship), a few
people (an aristocracy), or many people (a polity), were those that ruled
for the benefit of all. Those that were based on narrow, selfish interests
were considered bad forms of government, whether ruled by an individual
(a tyranny), a few people (an oligarchy), or many people (a democracy).
Thus, democracy was not always considered a good form of government.
Constitutions and Political Institutions. All governments have certain
things in common: institutions that carry out legislative, executive, and
judicial functions. How these institutions are supposed to function is usu-
ally spelled out in a country’s constitution, which is a guide to organizing
a country’s political system. Most, but not all, countries have written con-
stitutions. Great Britain, for example, has an unwritten constitution
based on documents such as the Magna Carta, the English Bill of Rights,
and the Treaty of Rome and on unwritten codes of behavior expected of
politicians and members of the royal family.
The world’s oldest written constitution still in use is that of the United
States. All countries have written or unwritten constitutions, and most fol-
low them most of the time. Some countries do not follow their constitu-

Greek philosopher Aristotle, who lived in

the fourth century B.C.E., laid down some
of the earliest recorded principles of
government. (Library of Congress)
300 / Forms of Government

tions—for example, the Soviet Union did not; other countries, for exam-
ple France, change their constitutions frequently.
Constitutions usually first specify if the country is to be a monarchy or
a republic. Few countries still have monarchies, and those that do usually
grant the monarch only ceremonial powers and duties. Countries with
monarchies at the beginning of the twenty-first century included Spain,
Great Britain, Lesotho, Swaziland, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan.
Most countries that do not have monarchies are republics.
Constitutions also specify if power is to be concentrated in the hands
of a strong national government, which is a unitary system; if it is to be di-
vided between a national and various subnational governments such as
states, provinces, or territories, which is a federal system; or if it is to be
spread among various subnational governments that might delegate some
power to a weak national government, which is a confederate system.
Examples of countries with unitary systems include Great Britain,
France, and China; federal systems include the United States, Germany,
Russia, Canada, India, and Brazil. There were no confederate systems in
the late 1990’s, although there are examples from history. The United
States under its eighteenth-century Articles of Confederation and the
nineteenth-century Confederate States of America, made up of the rebel-
ling Southern states, were confederate systems. Switzerland was a confed-
eration for much of the nineteenth century. The concept of dividing
power between the national and subnational governments is called the
vertical axis of power.
Whether governments share power with subnational governments or
not, there must be institutions to make laws, enforce laws, and interpret
laws: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. How
these branches interact is what determines whether governments are
parliamentary, presidential, or mixed parliamentary-presidential. In a
presidential system, such as in the United States, the three branches—
legislative, executive, and judicial—are separate, independent, and de-
signed to check and balance each other according to a constitution. In a
parliamentary system, the three branches are not entirely separate, and
the legislative branch is much more powerful than the executive and judi-
cial branches.
Great Britain is a good example of a parliamentary system. Some coun-
tries, such as France and Russia, have created a mixed parliamentary-
presidential system, wherein the three branches are separate but are not
designed to check and balance each other. In a mixed parliamentary-
presidential system, the executive (led by a president) is the most power-
ful branch of government.
Looking at political systems in this way—how the legislative, executive,
and judicial branches of government interact—is to examine the horizontal
axis of power. All governments are unitary, federal, or confederate, and all
are parliamentary, presidential, or mixed parliamentary-presidential. One
 Forms of Government / 301

Monarchies of the World

Country Monarch Type of monarchy

Australia Queen Elizabeth II Constitutional

Bahrain Sheikh Hamad ibn ‘Isa Al Khalifah Traditional
Belgium King Albert II Constitutional
Bhutan King Jigme Singye Wangchuk Constitutional
Brunei Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Constitutional
Cambodia King Norodom Sihanouk Constitutional
Canada Queen Elizabeth II Constitutional
Denmark Queen Margrethe II Constitutional
Japan Emperor Akihito Constitutional
Jordan King Abdullah II Constitutional
Kuwait Sheik Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah Constitutional
Lesotho King Letsie III Constitutional
Liechtenstein Prince Hans Adam II Constitutional
Luxembourg Grand Duke Henri Constitutional
Malaysia Syed Sirajuddin Constitutional
Monaco Prince Rainier III Constitutional principality
Morocco King Muhammad VI Constitutional
Nepal King Gyanendra Constitutional
Netherlands Queen Beatrix Constitutional
New Zealand Queen Elizabeth II Constitutional
Norway King Harald V Constitutional
Oman Sultan Qabus ibn Sa’id Absolute
Qatar Emir Sheikh Hamad ibn Khalifah Al Thani Traditional
Saudi Arabia King Fahd bin ‘Abdulaziz Absolute
Spain King Juan Carlos I Parliamentary
Swaziland King Mswati III Near-absolute
Sweden King Carl XVI Gustaf Constitutional
Thailand King Phumiphon Adunyadet Constitutional
Tonga King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV Constitutional
United Kingdom Elizabeth II Constitutional

can find examples of different combinations. Great Britain is unitary and

parliamentary. Germany is federal and parliamentary. The United States
is federal and presidential. France is unitary and mixed parliamentary-
presidential. Russia is federal and mixed parliamentary-presidential. Fur-
thermore, virtually all countries are either republics or monarchies.
Types of Government. Constitutions describe how the country’s polit-
ical institutions are supposed to interact and provide a guide to the rela-
tionship between the government and its citizens. Thus, while govern-
302 / Forms of Government

ments may have similar political institutions—for example, Germany and

India are both federal, parliamentary republics—how the leaders treat
their citizens can vary widely. However, governments may have political
systems that function similarly although they have different forms of con-
stitutions and institutions. For example, Great Britain, a unitary, parlia-
mentary monarchy with an unwritten constitution, treats its citizens very
similarly to the United States, which is a federal, presidential republic
with a written constitution.
The three most common terms used to describe the relationships be-
tween those who govern and those who are governed are democratic, au-
thoritarian, and totalitarian. Characteristics of democracies are free, fair,
and meaningfully contested elections; majority rule and respect for mi-
nority rights and opinions; a willingness to hand power to the opposition
after an election; the rule of law; and civil rights and liberties, including
freedom of speech and press, freedom of association, and freedom to
travel. The United States, Canada, Japan, and most European countries
are democratic.
An authoritarian system is one that curtails some or all of the charac-
teristics of a democratic regime. For example, authoritarian regimes
might permit token electoral opposition by allowing other political par-
ties to run in elections, but they do not allow the opposition to win those
elections. If the opposition did win, the authoritarian regime would not
hand over power. Authoritarian regimes do not respect the rule of law,
the rights of minorities to dissent, or freedom of the press, speech, or as-
sociation. Authoritarian governments use the police, courts, prisons, and
the military to intimidate and threaten their citizens, thus preventing
people from uniting to challenge the existing political rulers. Cuba, Mex-
ico, Peru, Libya, Serbia, Belarus, and China are examples of countries
with authoritarian regimes.
Totalitarian regimes are similar to authoritarian regimes but are even
more extreme. Under a totalitarian regime, there is no legal opposition,
no freedom of speech, and no rule of law whatsoever. Totalitarian re-
gimes attempt to control totally all members of the society to the point
where everyone always must actively demonstrate their loyalty to and sup-
port for the regime. Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler’s rule (1933-1945)
and the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin’s rule (1928-1953) are exam-
ples of totalitarian regimes.
Forms of Government: Putting it All Together. In The Republic, Plato as-
serts that people have varied dispositions, and, therefore, there are vari-
ous types of governments. In recent years, regimes have been created that
some call mafiacracies (rule by criminal mafias), narcocracies (rule by
narcotics gangs), gerontocracies (rule by very old people), theocracies
(rule by religious leaders), and so forth. Such variations show the ingenu-
ity of the human mind in devising forms of government.
Whatever labels that are given to a political system, there are several
 Political Geography / 303

basic questions to be asked about that regime: Is it a monarchy or a repub-

lic? Is all power concentrated in the hands of a national government, or is
power shared between a national government and the states or prov-
inces? Are its institutions those of a parliamentary, presidential, or mixed
parliamentary-presidential system? Is it democratic, authoritarian, or to-
talitarian? Finally, does it live up to its constitution, both in terms of how
power is supposed to be distributed among institutions and in its relation-
ship between the government and the people? To paraphrase Aristotle,
how many rulers are there, and in whose interests do they rule?
Nathaniel Richmond

For Further Study

Aristotle. The Politics. Translated with an introduction by T. A. Sinclair.
New York: Penguin Classics, 1962.
Baradat, Leon P. Political Ideologies: Their Origin and Impact. 7th ed. Engle-
wood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1999.
Cohen, Carl, ed. Communism, Fascism and Democracy: The Theoretical Foun-
dations. 3d. ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997.
Love, Nancy S., ed. Dogmas and Dreams: A Reader in Modern Political Ideol-
ogies. 2d. ed. Chatham, N.J.: Chatham House, 1998.
Mahler, Gregory S. Comparative Politics: An Institutional and Cross-National
Approach. 3d ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 2000.
Plato. The Republic. Translated and edited by Raymond Larson. Arlington
Heights, Ill.: AHM, 1979.

Political Geography
S tudents of politics have been aware that there is a significant relation-
ship between physical and political geography since the time of an-
cient Greece. The ancient Greek philosopher Plato argued that a polis
(politically organized society) must be of limited geographical size and
limited population or it would lack cohesion. The ideal polis would be
only as geographically large as required to feed about five thousand peo-
ple, its maximum population.
Plato’s illustrious pupil, Aristotle, agreed that stable states must be
small. “One can build a wall around the Hellespont,” the main territory
of ancient Greece, he wrote in his treatise Politics, “but that will not make
it a polis.” Today human ideas differ about the maximum area of a suc-
cessful state or nation-state, but the close influence of physical geography
on political geography and their profound mutual effects on politics it-
self are not in question.
Geographical Influences on Politics. The physical shape and contours
of states may be called their physical geography; the political shape and
contours of states, starting with their basic structure as unified state, fed-
304 / Political Geography

eration, or confederation, are primary features of their political geogra-

phy. The idea of “political geography” also can refer to variations in a
population’s political attitudes and behavior that are influenced by geo-
graphical features. Thus, the combination of plentiful land and sparse
population tend toward an independent spirit, especially where the econ-
omy is agriculturally based. This has historically been the case in the west-
ern United States; in the Pampas region of Argentina, where cattle are
raised by independent-mined gauchos (cowboys); and on the Brazilian
frontier, where government regulation is routinely resisted.
Likewise, where physical geography presents significant difficulties for
inhabitants in earning a living or associating, as where there is rough ter-
rain and poor soil or inhospitable climate, the populace is likely to ex-
hibit a hardy, self-reliant character that strongly influences political pref-
erences. Thus, physical geography helps to shape national character,
including aspects of a nation’s politics.
Furthermore, it is well known that where physical geography isolates
one part of a country’s population from the rest, political radicalism may
take root. This tendency is found in coastal cities and remote regions,
where labor union radicalism has often been pronounced. Populations
in coastal locations with access to foreign trade often show a more liberal,
tolerant, and outgoing spirit, as reflected in their political opinions. In
ancient Greece, the coastal access enjoyed by Athens through a nearby
port in the fifth century b.c.e. had a strong influence on its liberal and
democratic political order. In modern times, China’s coastal cities, such
as Tientsin, and North American cities such as San Francisco, show simi-
lar influences.
The Geographical Imperative. In many instances, political geography
is shaped by what may be called the “geographical imperative.” Physical
geography in these instances demands, or at least strongly suggests, that
political geography follow its course. The numerous valleys of mountain-
ous Greece strongly influenced the emergence of the small, often fiercely
independent, polis of ancient times. The formation and borders of Asian
states such as Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet have been strongly influenced by
the Himalaya Mountains, and the Alps shape Switzerland.
As another example, physical geography demands that the land be-
tween the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains along the western
edge of South America be organized as a separate country—Chile. Island
geography often plays a decisive role in its political geography. The quali-
fied political unity of Great Britain can be directly traced to its insular sta-
tus. Small islands often find themselves combined into larger units, such
as the Hawaiian Islands.
The absence of the geographical imperative, however, leaves political
geography an open question. For example, Indonesia comprises some
thirteen hundred islands stretching three thousand miles in bodies of
water such as the Indian Ocean and the Celebes Sea. With so many is-
 Political Geography / 305

lands, Indonesia lacks a geographical imperative to be a unified state. It

also lacks the imperative of ethnic and cultural homogeneity and cohe-
sion, a circumstance mirrored in its political life, since it has remained
unified only through military force. As control by the military waned af-
ter the fall of the authoritarian General Suharto in 1998, conflicts among
the nation’s diverse peoples have threatened its breakup. No such threat,
however, confronts Australia, an immense island continent where a Euro-
pean majority dominates a fragmented aboriginal minority. In Australia,
the geographical imperative suggests a unity supported by the cultural
unity of the majority.
As many examples show, the geographical imperative is not absolute.
For example, mountainous Greece is politically united in the twentieth
century. Although long shielded geographically, Tibet lost its political in-
dependence after it was successfully invaded by China. The formerly in-
dependent Himalayan state Sikkim was taken over by India. Thus, politi-
cal will trumps physical geography.
The frequency of exceptions to the geographical imperative illustrates
that human freedom, while not unlimited, often plays a key role in shap-
ing political geography. As one example, the Baltic Republics of Lithua-
nia, Latvia, and Estonia historically have been dominated, or largely swal-
lowed up, by neighboring Russia. At the start of the twenty-first century,
however, they had regained their independence through the political will
to self-rule and the drive for cultural survival.
Strategically Significant Locations. Locations of great economic or
military significance become focal points of political attention and, po-
tentially, of military conflict. There are innumerable such places in the

Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama, is the secular

and ecclesiastical ruler of Tibet. In 1950 he
went into exile to protest China’s violent
occupation of Tibet. (©The Nobel Foundation)
306 / Geopolitics

world, but several stand out as models of how important physical geogra-
phy can be for political geography in the context of international politics.
One significant example is the Panama Canal, without which ships
must sail around South America. The Suez Canal, which connects Euro-
pean and Asian shipping, is a similar waterway, saving passage around
Africa. The canal’s significance was reduced after 1956, however, when
its blockage after the Arab-Israeli war of that year led to the building
of supertankers too large to traverse it. Another example is Gibraltar,
whose fortifications command the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea
from the Atlantic Ocean. A final example is the Bosporus, the tiny en-
trance from the Black Sea to waters leading to the Mediterranean Sea. It
is the only warm-water route to and from Eastern Russia and therefore
is of great military and economic importance for regional and world
power politics.
Charles F. Bahmueller

For Further Study

Donnan, Hastings, and Thomas M. Wilson. Borders: Frontiers of Identity, Na-
tion and State. Oxford, England: Berg Publishers, 2000.
A Gazetteer of the World: Physical, Political, Statistical, Historical, and Ethnologi-
cal Geography. Columbia, Mo.: South Asia Books, 1988.
Glassner, Martin Ira. Political Geography. New York: John Wiley & Sons,
1995.
McKnight, Tom. Physical Geography: A Landscape Appreciation. Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1998.
Taylor, Peter J., and Colin Flint. Political Geography: World-Economy, Nation-
State, and Locality. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1999.

Geopolitics
G eopolitics is a concept pertaining to the role of purely geographical
features in the relations among states in international politics. Geo-
politics is especially concerned with the geographical locations of the
states in relationship to one another. Geopolitical relationships incorpo-
rate social, economic, political, and historical features of the states that
interact with purely geographical elements to influence the strategic
thinking and behavior of nations in the international sphere.
Coined in 1899 by the Swedish theorist Rudolf Kjellen, the term “geo-
politics” combines the logic of the search for security and competition for
dominance among states with geographical methodology. Geopolitics must
not, however, be confused with political geography, which focuses on indi-
vidual states’ territorial sizes, boundaries, resources, internal political re-
lations, and relations with other states.
Geopolitical is a term frequently used by military and political strate-
 Geopolitics / 307

gists, politicians and diplomats, political scientists, journalists, statesmen,

and a variety of other government officials, such as policy planners and
intelligence analysts.
Power Struggles Among States. The idea of geopolitics arises in the
course of what might be considered the universal struggle for power
among the world’s most powerful nations, which compete for political
and military leadership. How one state can threaten another, for exam-
ple, is often influenced by geographical factors in combination with tech-
nological, social, economic and other factors. The extent to which indi-
vidual states can threaten each other depends in no small measure on
purely geographical considerations.
By the close of twentieth century the Cold War that had dominated
world security concerns was over. Nevertheless, the United States still
worried about the danger of being attacked by nuclear missiles fired, not
by the former Soviet Union, but by irresponsible, fanatical, or suicidal
states. American political leaders and military planners were concerned
with the geographical position of so-called “rogue states.” or “states of
concern.” In the year 2000 the two most prominently mentioned states
that were potentially of this kind were Iran and North Korea. However,
others could emerge.
Geographical factors play prominent roles in assessments of the differ-
ent threats that those states presented to American interests. How far
those states are located from American territory determines whether
their missiles might pose a serious threat. A missile may be able to reach
only the periphery of U.S. soil, or it might be able to carry only a small
payload. Similar considerations determine the threat such states pose for
U.S. forces stationed abroad, as well as for such important U.S. allies as Ja-
pan, Western Europe, or Israel. Such questions are thus said to constitute
geopolitical, or geostrategic, considerations.
There are many examples of the influence of geopolitical factors on
international relations among nations in the past. For example, the
Bosporus, the narrow sea lane linking the Black Sea and the Mediterra-
nean where Istanbul is situated, has long been considered of great strate-
gic importance. In the nineteenth century, the Bosporus was the only di-
rect route through which the Russian navy could reach southern Europe
and the Mediterranean Sea.
Because of Russia’s nineteenth century history of expansionism and
its integration into the pre-World War I European state system, with its
networks of competing military alliances, the Bosporus took on added
geopolitical meaning. It was the congested (and therefore vulnerable)
space through which Russian naval power had to pass to reach the Medi-
terranean.
Historical Origins of Geopolitics. Although political geography was a
well-established field by the late nineteenth century, geopolitics was just
beginning to emerge as a field of study and political analysis at the end of
308 / Geopolitics

the century. In 1896 the German theorist Friedrich Ratzel published his
Political Geography, which put forward the idea of the state as territory oc-
cupied by a people bound together by an idea of the state. Ratzel’s theory
embraced Social Darwinist notions that justified the current boundaries
of nations. Ratzel viewed the state as a biological organism in competition
for land with other states. The ethical implication of his theory seemed to
be that “might makes right.”
That theme set the stage for later German geopolitical thought, espe-
cially the notion of the need for Lebensraum (living room)—space into
which the people of a nation could expand. German dictator Adolf Hitler
justified his attack on Russia during World War II partly upon his claim
that the German people needed more Lebensraum to the east. To some
modern geographers, the use of geopolitical theories to serve German
fascism and to justify other instances of military aggression tarnished geo-
politics itself as a field of study.
Historical Development of Geopolitics. Modern geopolitics has fur-
ther origins in the work of the Scottish geographer Sir Halford John
Mackinder. In 1904 he published a seminal article, “The Geographical
Pivot of History,” in which he argued that the world is made up of a Eur-
asian “heartland” and a secondary hinterland (the remainder of the
world), which he called the “marginal crescent.” According to his theory,
international politics is the struggle to gain control of the heartland. Any
state that managed that feat would dominate the world.
A major proposition of Mackinder’s theory was that geographical fac-
tors are not merely causative factors, but coercive. He tried to describe the
physical features of the world that he believed directed human actions. In
his view, “Man and not nature initiates, but nature in large measure con-
trols.” Geopolitical factors were therefore to a great extent determinants
of the behavior of states. If this were true, geopolitics as a science could
have deep relevance and corresponding influence among governments.
After Mackinder’s time, the concept of geopolitics had a double signif-
icance. On the one hand it was a purely descriptive theory of geographic
causation in history. On the other hand, its purveyors also believed, as
Mackinder argued in 1904, that geopolitics has “a practical value as set-
ting into perspective some of the competing forces in current interna-
tional politics.” Mackinder sought to promote this field of study as a com-
panion to British statecraft, a tool to further Britain’s national interest. By
extension, geopolitical theory could assist any government in forming its
political/military strategy.
As applied to the early twentieth-century world of international poli-
tics, however, Mackinder’s theory had major weaknesses. Among his most
glaring oversights were his failure to appreciate the rise of the United
States, which attained considerable naval power after the turn of the cen-
tury. Also, he failed to foresee the crucial strategic role that air power
would play in warfare—and with it the immense change that air power
 Geopolitics / 309

could make in geopolitical considerations. Air power moves continents

closer together, revolutionizing their geopolitical relationships.
One of Mackinder’s chief critics was Nicolas John Spykman. Spykman
argued that Mackinder had overvalued the potential economic, and
therefore political, power of the Eurasian heartland, which could never
reach its full potential because it could not overcome the obstacles to in-
ternal transportation. Moreover, the weaknesses of the remainder of the
world—in effect, northern, western and southern Europe—could be
overcome through forging alliances.
The dark side of geopolitical thought as handmaiden to political and
military strategy became apparent in the Germany of the 1920’s. At that
time German theorists sought the resurrection of a German state broken
by failure in World War I, the harsh terms of the Versailles Treaty that
ended the war, and the hyperinflation that followed, wiping out the Ger-
man middle class. In his 1925 article “Why Geopolitik?” Karl Haushofer
urged the practical applications of Geopolitik. He urged that this form of
analysis had not only “come to stay” but could also form important ser-
vices for German political leaders, who should use all available tools “to
carry on the fight for Germany’s existence.”
Haushofer ominously suggested that the “struggle” for German exis-
tence was becoming increasingly difficult because of the growth of the
country’s population. A people, he wrote, should study the living spaces
of other nations so it could be prepared to “seize any possibility to recover
lost ground.” This discussion clearly implied that, from geopolitical ne-
cessity, Germany should seek additional territory to feed itself—a view
carried into effect by Hitler in his quest for Lebensraum in attacking the
Soviet Union, including its wheat-producing breadbasket, the Ukraine.
After World War II, a chastened Haushofer sought to soft-pedal both
the direction and influence of his prewar writings. However, Hitler’s mor-
ally heinous use of Geopolitik left geopolitical theorizing permanently
tainted, in some eyes. Nevertheless, there is no necessary connection be-
tween geopolitics as a purely analytic description and geopolitics as the
basis for a selfish search for power and advantage.
Geopolitics in the Twenty-first Century. Geopolitical considerations
were unquestionably of profound relevance to the principal states of the
post-World War II Cold War period. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in
1989, however, some theorists thought that the age of geopolitics had
passed. In 1990 American strategic theorist Edward N. Luttwak, for exam-
ple, argued that the importance of military power in international affairs
had declined precipitously with the winding down of the Cold War. Mili-
tary power had been overtaken in significance by economic prowess.
Consequently, geopolitics had been eclipsed by what Luttwak called
“geoeconomics,” the waging of geopolitical struggle by economic means.
The view of Luttwak and various geographers of the declining signifi-
cance of military power and geopolitical analysis, however, was soon
310 / Geopolitics

proved to be overdrawn by events. As early as the first months of 1991, be-

fore the Soviet Union was officially dismantled, military power asserted it-
self as a key determinant on the international scene. Led by the United
States, a far-flung alliance of nations participated in a war to remove Iraqi
dictator Saddam Hussein’s forces from neighboring Kuwait, which Iraq
had illegally occupied. The decisive and successful use of military power
in that war dramatically disproved assertions of its growing irrelevance.
Similarly, at the outset of the twenty-first century, military power re-
tained its preeminence in the dynamics of international politics, even as
economic forces were seen to gather momentum. To states throughout
Asia and the West (especially Western Europe and the United States), the
relative military capability of potential adversaries, and therefore geopol-
itics, remained a vital feature of the international order. Central to this
view of the world scene is the growing military rivalry of the United States
and China in East Asia. As China modernizes and expands its nuclear and
conventional forces, it may feel itself capable of challenging America’s
predominant military power and prestige in East Asia. This possibility
heightens the use of geopolitical thinking, giving it currency in analyzing
this emerging situation.
Geopolitics as Civilizational Clash. A recent and sometimes controver-
sial expression of geopolitical analysis has been offered by Samuel Hun-
tington of Harvard University. In his The Clash of Civilizations and the Re-
making of World Order (1996) Huntington constructs a theory to explain
certain tendencies of international behavior. He divides the world into a
number of cultural groupings, or “civilizations,” and argues that the char-
acter of various international conflicts can best be explained as conflicts
or clashes of civilizations. In his view, Western civilization differs from the
civilization of Orthodox Christianity, with a variety of conflicts erupting
between the two. An example is the attack by the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO), the bastion of the West, on Serbia, which is part of
the Orthodox East.
Huntington’s other civilizations include Islamic, Jewish, Eastern Ca-
ribbean, Hindu, Sinic (Chinese), and Japanese. The clash between Israel
and its neighbors, the struggle between Pakistan and India over Kashmir,
the rivalries between the United States and China and between China
and India, for example, can be viewed as civilizational conflicts. Hunting-
ton has stated, however, that his theory is not intended to explain all of
the historical past, and he does not expect it to remain valid long into the
future. Instead, he believes it may remain a relevant tool of analysis only
until around 2015, after which it will have become dated.
Charles F. Bahmueller

For Further Study

Huntington, Samuel. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Or-
der. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
 International Boundaries / 311

Luttwak, Edward N. “From Geopolitics to Geo-Economics: Logic of Con-

flict, Grammar of Commerce.” The National Interest, 1990.
O’Tuathail, Gearoid, Simon Dalby, and Paul Routledge, eds. The Geopoli-
tics Reader. New York: Routledge, 1998.

International Boundaries
I nternational boundaries are the marked or imaginary lines traversing
natural terrain of land or water that mark off the territory of one politi-
cally organized society—a state or nation-state—from other states. In ad-
dition, states claim “air boundaries.” While satellites circumnavigate the
earth without nations’ permission, airplanes and other air vessels that fly
much lower must gain the permission of states over whose territory they
travel.
The existence of international boundaries is a consequence of the
“territoriality” that is a feature of modern human societies. All politically
organized societies, except for nomadic tribes, claim to rule some exactly
defined geographical territory. International boundaries provide the
limits that define this territory.
The subject of international boundaries is so complex that an encyclo-
pedia on the subject exists and an academic unit of Durham University in
Great Britain is devoted to the subject. Many highly trained individuals
devote their professional lives to the subject in universities, government
agencies, and other settings.
International boundaries have ancient origins. For example, the old-
est sections of the Great Wall of China date back to the Ch’in Dynasty of
the second century b.c.e. The Roman Empire also maintained bound-
aries to its territories, such as Hadrian’s Wall in the north of England,
built by the Romans in 122 c.e. as a defensive barrier against marauders.
In these and other ancient instances, however, there was little thought
that borders must be exact.
The existence of precisely drawn boundaries among states is relatively
recent. The modern state has existed for no more than a few hundred
years. In addition, means to determine many boundaries have come into
existence only in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, with the inven-
tion of scientific methods and instruments, along with accompanying vo-
cabulary, for determining exact boundaries. The most basic terms of this
vocabulary begin with “latitude” and “longitude” and their subdivisions
into the “minutes” and “seconds” used in determining boundaries. In
modern times, a new attitude toward states’ territory was born, especially
with the nineteenth century forms of nationalism, which tend to regard
every acre of territory as sacred.
Types of Boundaries. There are several types of international bound-
aries. Some are geographical features, including rivers, lakes, oceans, and
312 / International Boundaries

seas. Thus boundaries of the United States include the Great Lakes,
which border Canada to the north; the Rio Grande, a river that forms
part of the U.S. boundary with Mexico to the south; the Atlantic and Pa-
cific Oceans, to the east and west, respectively; and the Gulf of Mexico, to
the south. In Africa, Lake Victoria bounds parts of Tanzania, Uganda,
and Kenya; and rivers, such as sections of the Congo and the Zambezi,
form natural boundaries among many of the continent’s states.
Other geographical features, such as mountains, often form interna-
tional boundaries. The Pyrenes, for example, separate France and Spain
and cradle the tiny state of Andorra. In South America, the Andes fre-
quently serve as a boundary, such as between Argentina and Chile. The
Himalayas in South Central Asia create a number of borders, such as be-
tween India, China, and Tibet and between Nepal, Butan, and their
neighbors. When there are no clear geographical barriers between states,
boundaries must be decided by mutual consent or the threat of force.
Creation and Change of International Boundaries. War and conquest
often have been used to determine borders. Such wars, however, histori-
cally have created hostility among losers. Political pressures to recover
lost lands build up among aggrieved losers, and such irredentist claims
provide fuel for future wars. A classic example is the fate of the regions of
Alsace and Lorraine between France and Germany. Although natural re-
sources in the form of coal played a substantial role in the dispute over
this area, national pride was also a potent element.
Whether boundaries are fixed through compelling geographical im-
peratives or in their absence, states typically sign treaties agreeing to their
location. These may be treaties that conclude wars, or boundary commis-
sions set up by those involved may draw up borders to which states give
formal agreement. In 1846, for example, negotiators for Great Britain
and the United States settled on the forty-ninth parallel as the boundary
between the western United States and Canada, although in the United
States, “Fifty-four [degrees latitude] Forty [minutes] or Fight” had been a
popular motto in the presidential election campaign of 1844.
Sometimes no accepted borders exist because of chronic hostility be-
tween states. Thus, maps of the Kashmir region between India and Paki-
stan, claimed by both countries, show only a “line of control” or cease-fire
line to divide the two warring states. Similarly, only a cease-fire line,
drawn at the armistice of the Korean War of 1950-1953, divides North and
South Korea; a mutually agreed-upon border remains unfixed.
In rare instances, no true boundary exists to mark where a state’s terri-
tory begins and ends. Classic cases are found on the Arabian Peninsula,
where the land borders of principalities, known as the Gulf Sheikdoms,
are vague lines in the sand. Such circumstances usually create no difficul-
ties where nothing is at stake, but when oil is discovered, states must come
to agreement or risk coming to blows.
In other instances, negotiations and international arbitration have
 International Boundaries / 313

been effective for determining borders. Perhaps the most important

principle for determining the borders of newly created states is found in
the Latin phrase, Uti possidetis iurus. This principle is used when states be-
come independent after having been colonies or constituent parts of a
larger state that has broken up. The principle holds that states shall re-
spect the borders in place when they were colonies. Uti possidetis was first
extensively used in South America in the nineteenth century, when Euro-
pean colonial powers withdrew, leaving several newly born states to deter-
mine their own boundaries. It was also used when African colonies be-
came independent in the late twentieth century.
Besides war and negotiation, purchase has sometimes been a means of
creating international boundaries. For example, in 1853 the United
States purchased territory from Mexico in the southwest; in 1867, it pur-
chased Alaska from Russia.
In rare cases, natural boundaries may change naturally or be changed
deliberately by one side, incurring resentment among victims. An exam-
ple occurred in 1997, when Vietnam complained that China had built an
embankment on a border river that caused the river to change its course;
China countered that Vietnam had built a dam altering the river’s course.
Other border difficulties among states include conflicts over water
that flows from one country to another. In the 1990’s, for example, Mex-
ico complained of excessive U.S. use of Colorado River waters and de-
manded adjustment.
Border Disputes. Border disputes among states in the past two centu-
ries have been numerous and lethal. In the twentieth century, numerous
such controversies degenerated into violence. In Asia, India and Pakistan
fought over Kashmir, beginning in 1947-1949 and recurring in 1965 and
1999. China has been involved in violent border disputes with India, es-
pecially in 1962; Vietnam in 1979; and Russia in 1969. In South America,
border wars between Ecuador and Peru broke out in 1941, 1981, and
1995. This dispute was settled by negotiation in 1998. In Africa, among
numerous recent armed conflicts, the bloody border conflict between
Eritrea and Ethiopia in the 1990’s was notable.
Other recent disputes have ended peacefully. Eritrea avoided violence
with Yemen over several Red Sea islands by accepting arbitration by an in-
ternational tribunal. In 1995 Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
negotiated a peaceful agreement to their border dispute involving oil
rights.
Many unresolved boundary disputes might yet lead to conflicts. Among
the most complex is the multinational dispute over the six hundred tiny
Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. Uninhabited but potentially valu-
able because of oil, the Spratlys are claimed by China, Brunei, Malaysia,
Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
Border Policies. Problems with international borders are not limited
to territorial disputes. Policies regarding how borders should be oper-
314 / International Boundaries

A Peacefully Resolved Border Dispute

The peaceful resolution of the border dispute between the Southern Afri-
can states of Botswana and Namibia was hailed by observers of African poli-
tics. Instead of resorting to the armed warfare that so often has marked
similar disputes on the continent, the two states chose a different course in
1996, when they found negotiations stalemated. They submitted their
claims to the International Court of Justice in The Hague and agreed to ac-
cept the court’s ruling. Late in 1999, by an eleven-to-four vote, the court
ruled for Botswana, and Namibia kept its word to embrace the decision. At
issue was a tiny island in the Chobe River on Botswana’s northern border.
An 1890 treaty between colonial rulers Great Britain and Germany had de-
scribed the border at the disputed point vaguely, as the river’s “main chan-
nel.” The court took the course of the deepest channel to mark the agreed
boundary, giving Botswana title to the 1.4-square-mile (3.5-sq.-km.) territory.

ated—including the key questions of who and what should be allowed en-
trance and exit under what conditions—can be expected to continue as
long as independent states exist. While the members of the European
Union have agreed to allow free passage of people and goods among
themselves, this policy does not extent to nonmembers.
The most important purpose of states is to protect the lives and prop-
erty of their citizens. One of the principal purposes of international
boundaries is to further this purpose. Most states insist on controlling
their borders, although borders seem increasingly porous. Given the im-
peratives of control and the increasing difficulties of maintaining it, is-
sues surrounding international borders are expected to continue indefi-
nitely in the twenty-first century.
Charles F. Bahmueller

For Further Study

Biger, Gideon. The Encyclopedia of International Boundaries. New York: Facts
On File, 1995.
Donnan, Hastings, and Thomas M. Wilson. Borders: Frontiers of Identity, Na-
tion, and State. Oxford, England: Berg Publishers, 2000.
Khan, L. Ali. The Extinction of Nation-States: A World Without Borders. New
York: Kluwer Law International, 1996.
Lee, Boon Thong, ed. Vanishing Borders: The New International Order of the
21st Century. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, 1998.
Sohn, Louis B. The Movement of Persons Across Borders. Studies in Transna-
tional Legal Policy 23. Washington, D.C.: American Society of Interna-
tional Law, 1992.
 MAGILL’S C H O I C E

Geography
Basics
Volume 2
Glossary
Appendices

Edited by
Ray Sumner
Long Beach City College

Salem Press
Pasadena, California Hackensack, New Jersey
 Copyright © 2004, by Salem Press, Inc.
All rights in this book are reserved. No part of this work may be used
or reproduced in any manner whatsoever or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, re-
cording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without
written permission from the copyright owner except in the case of
brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For infor-
mation address the publisher, Salem Press, Inc., P.O. Box 50062, Pas-
adena, California 91115.

The essays, glossary definitions, and appendices in this publication

first appeared in World Geography (2001), copyrighted by Salem Press.
New material has been added.

∞ The paper used in these volumes conforms to the American Na-

tional Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Mate-
rials, Z39.48-1992 (R1997).

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Geography basics / editor, Ray Sumner.
p. cm. — (Magill’s choice)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-58765-177-7 (set: alk. paper) — ISBN 1-58765-178-5 (vol.
1: alk. paper) — ISBN 1-58765-179-3 (vol. 2: alk. paper)
1. Geography. I. Sumner, Ray. II. Series.
G116 .G475 2004
910—dc22
2003018130

First Printing

printed in the united states of america

 Contents
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549
Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
Regions of the World. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571
North America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 572
Central America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573
Caribbean. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573
South America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 574
Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575
Western Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 576
Scandinavia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577
Mediterranean Europe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577
Balkan Nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578
Central Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579
Former Soviet European Nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 580
Middle East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
Caucasus and Former Soviet Republics of Central Asia . . . . 582
South Asia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583
Mongolia and Asian Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584
East Asia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 586
Southeast Asia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587
South Pacific and Australasia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587
The World’s Oceans and Seas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
Major Land Areas of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 588
Major Islands of the World. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589
Countries of the World. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 590
The World’s Largest Countries by Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
The World’s Smallest Countries by Area . . . . . . . . . . . . 598
The World’s Largest Countries by Population . . . . . . . . . 599
The World’s Smallest Countries by Population . . . . . . . . . 600
The World’s Most Densely Populated Countries . . . . . . . . 601
The World’s Least Densely Populated Countries . . . . . . . . 601
The World’s Most Populous Cities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 602
Major Lakes of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603
Major Rivers of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 604
The Highest Peaks in Each Continent . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606
Major Deserts of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606
Highest Waterfalls of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 609

xxi
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Glossary
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 Glossary / 317

This glossary defines terms and concepts mentioned in the main text. Words
printed in small capital letters have entries of their own here.

Aa. Hawaiian term (pronounced “ah-ah”) that has been adopted for lava
flows with rough, clinkery surfaces.

Geologist examining a large solidified flow of aa lava from Mauna Ulu on the is-
land of Hawaii. (U.S. Geological Survey)

Ablation. Loss of ice volume or mass by a glacier. Ablation includes

melting of ice, sublimation, deflation (removal by wind), evapo-
ration, and calving. Ablation occurs in the lower portions of gla-
ciers.
Ablation, zone of. In a glacier, at the snout of the glacier where ice is
lost through melting and sublimation.
Abrasion. Wearing away of rocks in streams by grinding, especially
when rocks and sediment are carried along by stream water. The
streambed and valley are carved out and eroded, and the rocks be-
come rounded and smoothed by abrasion.
Absolute age. Numerical timing (in years or millions of years) of a geo-
logic event, as contrasted with relative (stratigraphic) timing; a date
that gives an actual age, though it may be approximate, of an artifact.
Absolute humidity. Mass of water vapor contained in a unit volume of
moist air. Absolute humidity is usually measured as grams of water va-
por per cubic meter of air. More important to geographers is the rela-
tive humidity.
318 / Glossary

Absolute location. Position of any place on the earth’s surface. The abso-
lute location can be given precisely in terms of degrees, minutes, and
seconds of latitude (0 to 90 degrees north or south) and of longi-
tude (0 to 180 degrees east or west). The equator is 0 degrees lati-
tude; the prime meridian, which runs through Greenwich in En-
gland, is 0 degrees longitude.
Abyss. Deepest part of the ocean. Modern technology—especially so-
nar—has enabled accurate mapping of the ocean floors, showing that
there are mountain chains, or ridges, in all the oceans, as well as
deep canyons or trenches closer to the edges of the oceans.
Abyssal. Referring to the deep-ocean floor. The part of the continent
under shallow water is the continental shelf. At the outer edge of
the continental shelf is a steep fall or cliff, called the continental
slope. Beyond this is the abyssal plain.
Abyssal plain. Broad flat areas beneath the ocean at the base of the conti-
nental rise, at depths ranging from 1,200 to 3,500 feet (2,000-6,000
meters). Individual mountain peaks can occur on abyssal plains.
Close to 40 percent of the oceans are abyssal plain.
Abyssal seafloor. Abyssal plains of the oceans lie beyond the continen-
tal margins at depths greater than 6,000 feet (2,000 meters). They
are thought to be the flattest areas on the earth and are carpeted with
thick layers of sediment. Their greatest economic value lies in the me-
tallic minerals that form part of these sediments.
Acclimatization. Gradual adjustment of living organisms, especially hu-
mans, to climatic conditions other than those to which they are accus-
tomed.
Acculturation. Modification of a culture when its people come into con-
tact with another culture. Generally, acculturation occurs when indig-
enous peoples come into contact with a technically superior culture,
as during the period of colonial empires. The globalization of enter-
tainment (movies and television) has acculturated many societies to
American culture. Compare with transculturation.
Accumulation, zone of. In a glacier, the part where ice accumulates as
new snow falls each year.
Acid deposition. See Acid rain.
Acid rain. Precipitation containing high levels of nitric or sulfuric acid;
a major environmental problem in parts of North America, Europe,
and Asia. Natural precipitation is slightly acidic (about 5.6 on the pH
scale), because carbon dioxide—which occurs naturally in the at-
mosphere—is dissolved to form a weak carbonic acid. In areas where
heavy industry is located, oxides of sulphur and/or nitrogen combine
with atmospheric moisture to produce sulfuric acid or nitric acid, re-
spectively. In the worst-affected parts of North America and Europe,
pH as low as 2.0 has been recorded, which is more acidic than lemon
juice or vinegar. As a result, thousands of lakes and streams in North
 Glossary / 319

America and Europe can no longer support fish; forests in Switzer-

land, Germany, and Poland have been damaged extensively. Buildings
also are eroded by acid deposition, so that cathedrals and monuments
are being destroyed. Often called acid rain; however, snow, sleet, and
hail can also be acid.
Acoustic echo sounding. Also known as sonar, method of determining
the depth of the ocean floor that measures the time of a reflected
sound wave and relates that to distance.
Adiabatic. Change of temperature within the atmosphere that is caused
by compression or expansion without addition or loss of heat.
Advection. Horizontal movement of air from one place to another in
the atmosphere, associated with winds. See also Convection.
Advection fog. Fog that forms when a moist air mass moves over a colder
surface. Commonly, warm moist air moves over a cool ocean cur-
rent, so the air cools to saturation point and fog forms. This phe-
nomenon, known as sea fog, occurs along subtropical west coasts.
Advection fogs are common in San Francisco, especially in summer.
Aeolian. See Eolian.
Aerate. To supply with or expose to a gas.
Aeration, zone of. Area directly below the ground surface that contains
some water as soil moisture, but much of the pore space is filled with
air in the spaces between the soil particles. At the bottom of the zone
of aeration is the water table.
Aerosol. Substances held in suspension in the atmosphere, as solid par-
ticles or liquid droplets.
Aftershock. Earthquake that follows a larger earthquake and originates
at or near the focus of the latter; many aftershocks may follow a major
earthquake, decreasing in frequency and magnitude with time.
Agglomerate. Type of rock composed of volcanic fragments, usually of
different sizes and rough or angular.
Agglomeration effect. Certain industries can obtain cost advantages by
locating production among functionally related industries or activi-
ties. This occurs chiefly because transport costs are reduced. During
the Industrial Revolution, manufacturing became concentrated
near coalfields for this reason.
Aggradation. Accumulation of sediment in a streambed. Aggradation
often results from reduced flow in the channel during dry periods. It
also occurs when the stream’s load (bedload and suspended load)
is greater than the stream capacity. A braided stream pattern often
results.
Agribusiness. Modern type of commercial agricultural production in
which a company owns large areas of farmland and is concerned with
not only the production of agricultural commodities, but also their
transport, storage, processing, and distribution. The word is a combi-
nation of “agriculture” and “business.” In the United States, agribusi-
320 / Glossary

ness accounts for about one-fifth of the gross domestic product.

Agricultural Revolution. Also known as the Agrarian Revolution, histori-
cal change from a nomadic lifestyle of hunting and gathering or
nomadic herding to a sedentary one based on the growing of crops.
Scholars believe that this change first occurred in the area of the Mid-
dle East known as Mesopotamia at least eleven thousand years ago.
Grain, varieties of either wheat or barley, was harvested for human
consumption and for feeding domesticated animals, such as cattle or
sheep. On other continents, agriculture was practiced with different
crops: squash and corn in the Valley of Mexico, legumes in Southeast
Asia. These changes made possible the growth of cities and civiliza-
tions. Over the centuries, agricultural production has been increased
by irrigation, new varieties of crops and animals, use of agricultural
implements and machinery, crop rotation, selective breeding, and
genetic engineering.
Agriculture. Growing of crops and raising of livestock. Agriculture pro-
vides food for human consumption and such products as wool, cotton,
and lumber. See also Aquaculture.
Air. Colorless, odorless, tasteless, formless mixture of gases that make up
the earth’s atmosphere. Comprises almost 78 percent nitrogen and
almost 21 percent oxygen, together with small amounts of water vapor,
argon, carbon dioxide, neon, helium, methane, krypton, hydrogen,
and other gases, together with minute particles. Air is a synonym for at-
mosphere; some writers describe the earth’s atmosphere as an ocean
of air.
Air current. Air currents are caused by differential heating of the earth’s
surface, which causes heated air to rise. This causes winds at the sur-
face as well as higher in the earth’s atmosphere.
Air drainage. Flow of cold, dense air down slopes in response to gravity.
Air mass. Large body of air with distinctive homogeneous characteristics
of temperature, humidity, and stability. It forms when air remains
stationary over a source region for a period of time, taking on the
conditions of that region. An air mass can extend over a million square
miles with a depth of more than a mile. Air masses are classified ac-
cording to moisture content (m for maritime or c for continental) and
temperature (A for arctic, P for polar, T for tropical, or E for equato-
rial). The air masses affecting North America are mP, cP, and mT. The
interaction of air masses produces weather. The line along which air
masses meet is a front.
Air pollution. Airborne pollution generated from both natural and man-
made sources. Natural sources include pollen from plants, gases and
particulate matter from volcanoes, and windblown dust. Artifi-
cial sources include industrial and automobile emissions and airborne
particles associated with human-induced abrasion.
Air pressure. See Atmospheric pressure.
 Glossary / 321

Albedo. Measure of the reflective properties of a surface; the ratio of re-

flected energy (insolation) to the total incoming energy, expressed
as a percentage. The albedo of Earth is 33 percent.
Alberta Clipper. Cold storm that forms as a low to the east of the Rockies,
over Alberta, Canada, and moves rapidly southeast. It brings cold tem-
peratures, precipitation, and occasionally heavy snow to the north-
east United States.
Alienation (land). Land alienation is the appropriation of land from its
original owners by a more powerful force. In preindustrial societies,
the ownership of agricultural land is of prime importance to subsis-
tence farmers. Colonial governments claimed ownership of the re-
gions they colonized, even though native peoples had lived there for
thousands of years. Land in Mexico was alienated by Spain; in Indone-
sia by the Dutch; and in Australia by the British. The government of
the United States alienated most of the lands formerly occupied by
Native Americans, leaving them only small “reserves.” Some coun-
tries have passed laws that attempt to prevent land alienation by for-
eigners. In Fiji, for example, only Fijians can own or purchase land; the
large Indian population can only lease farmland from Fijian owners.
Alkali flat. Dry lakebed in an arid region, covered with a layer of salts.
A well-known example is the Alkali Flat area of White Sands National
Monument in New Mexico; it is the bed of a large lake that formed
when the glaciers were melting. It is covered with a form of gypsum
crystals called selenite. This material is blown off the surface into large
sand dunes. Also called a salina. See also Bitter lake.

New Mexico’s White Sands National

Monument is a well-known example of an
alkali flat. (PhotoDisc)
 322 / Glossary

Allogenic sediment. Sediment that originates outside the place where it

is finally deposited; sand, silt, and clay carried by a stream into a
lake are examples.
Alluvial fan. Common landform at the mouth of a canyon in arid re-
gions. Water flowing in a narrow canyon immediately slows as it leaves
the canyon for the wider valley floor, depositing the sediments it was
transporting. These spread out into a fan shape, usually with a braided
stream pattern on its surface. When several alluvial fans grow side by
side, they can merge into one continuous sloping surface between the
hills and the valley. This is known by the Spanish word bajada, which
means “slope.”
Alluvial plain. See Floodplain.
Alluvial system. Any of various depositional systems, excluding deltas,
that form from the activity of rivers and streams. Much alluvial sedi-
ment is deposited when rivers top their banks and flood the sur-
rounding countryside. Buried alluvial sediments may be important
water-bearing reservoirs or may contain petroleum.
Alluvium. Material deposited by running water. This includes not only
fertile soils, but also clay, silt, or sand deposits resulting from flu-
vial processes. Floodplains are covered in a thick layer of alluvium.
Alpine. Related to high mountains. The alpine orogeny refers to an epi-
sode of mountain formation between 20 and 120 million years ago,
which produced the European Alps.
Alpine glacier. Mass of ice and snow that moves slowly down from the
peaks to produce the spectacular landforms associated with high

Alpine glaciers
are characterized
by their formation
on spectacularly
steep mountain
slopes.
(PhotoDisc)
 Glossary / 323

mountain scenery. Active glaciers may threaten lives and property

through catastrophic forward surges and floodwater, or they may be
essential sources of meltwater in dry areas.
Alternative energy. Renewable forms of energy such as solar, hydro-
electric, wind, and tidal power; sometimes called sustainable energy.
Compare with nonrenewable energy from coal, oil, natural gas.
Altimeter. Instrument for measuring altitude, or height above the
earth’s surface, commonly used in airplanes. An altimeter is a type of
aneroid barometer.
Altiplanos. South American term for high plains.
Altitude. Height above the earth’s surface, measured from mean sea
level. Pressure decreases regularly with increased altitude, but tem-
perature rises or falls depending on the layer of the atmosphere at
which it is measured. The fall of temperature throughout the tropo-
sphere (the lowest layer of the atmosphere) leads to altitudinal
zonation.
Altitudinal zonation. Existence of different ecosystems at various eleva-
tions above sea level, due to temperature and moisture differ-
ences. This is especially pronounced in Central America and South
America. The hot and humid coastal plains, where bananas and
sugarcane thrive, is the tierra caliente. From about 2,500 to 6,000 feet
(750 to 1,800 meters) is the tierra templada; crops grown here include
coffee, wheat, and corn, and major cities are situated in this zone.
From about 6,000 to 12,000 feet (1,800 to 3,600 meters) is the tierra
fria; here only hardy crops such as potatoes and barley are grown, and
large numbers of animals are kept. From about 12,000 to 15,000 feet
(3,600 to 4,500 meters) lies the tierra helada, where hardy animals such
as sheep and alpaca graze. Above 15,000 feet (4,500 meters) is the
frozen tierra nevada; no permanent life is possible in the permanent
snow and ice fields there.
Altocumulus. Puffy cloud masses at a middle altitude, between 20,000
and 43,000 feet (6,000 to 13,000 meters) above the earth’s surface.
Sizes and shapes of these clouds vary; their colors are grey and white.
Altostratus. Layers of cloud covering a large part of the sky at a middle
altitude, between 20,000 and 43,000 feet (2,000 to 6,000 meters)
above the earth’s surface. Altostratus clouds may produce continuous
rain. Usually a uniform grey or blue grey in color. The Sun may shine
weakly through altostratus clouds.
Amerindians. Contraction of “American Indians”; widely accepted term
for the native peoples of the Caribbean, Central America, and North
America. See also Native Americans.
Anabatic wind. Upslope wind, blowing up a hill or mountain as the re-
sult of strong surface heating of the slopes. Similar to a valley breeze.
Andesite. Volcanic igneous rock type intermediate in composition and
density between granite and basalt.
324 / Glossary

Anemometer. Instrument for measuring wind speed or wind velocity,

consisting of a set of cups or cones that rotate as the wind blows into
them. See also Altimeter; Barometer.
Aneroid barometer. Sealed, partially evacuated box connected to a nee-
dle and dial, used to measure changes in atmospheric pressure. See
also Anemometer; Barometer.
Angle of repose. Maximum angle of steepness that a pile of loose materi-
als such as sand or rock can assume and remain stable; the angle var-
ies with the size, shape, moisture, and angularity of the material.
Animism. Belief that natural features, such as landforms, plants, and an-
imals, possess a spirit. This spirit can intervene in the real world to
bring good or bad fortune to a person. In religious terms, gods dwell
in certain sacred places, or take the shape of a certain animal. Alter-
natively, a person’s soul or spirit may pass into a certain animal or
landform after death. An animistic view of nature is still found in many
African cultures. The Australian Aborigines have an animist view of
the land and its inhabitants. Although animism is sometimes charac-
terized as primitive, it is thought that all religions began as animist
beliefs and customs. Animism is regarded favorably by conservation-
ists as an environmentally responsible philosophy.
Anorthosite. Igneous rock, solidified from the molten state, consisting
mostly of feldspar. Coarse-grained, intrusive igneous rocks com-
posed principally of plagioclase feldspar, anorthosites are useful for
what they reveal about the early crustal evolution of the earth, and
they are the source of several economic commodities.
Antarctic. Relating to the region south of the Antarctic Circle, extending
from 66.5 degrees south to the South Pole at 90 degrees south. The
continent of Antarctica is located there. The international Antarctic
Treaty allows for scientific research in Antarctica by several nations,
but prohibits military use.
Antecedent river. Stream that was flowing before the land was uplifted
and was able to erode at the pace of uplift, thus creating a deep can-
yon. Most deep canyons are attributed to antecedent rivers. In the
Davisian cycle of erosion, this process was called rejuvenation.
Anthropocentric. Regarding humanity as the center or most important
consideration. An anthropocentric view of nature holds that all plants
and animals exist primarily for human use and benefit.
Anthropogeography. Branch of geography founded in the late nine-
teenth century by German geographer Friedrich Ratzel. The field is
closely related to human ecology—the study of humans, their dis-
tribution over the earth, and their interaction with their physical en-
vironment.
Anticline. Area where land has been upfolded symmetrically. Its center
contains stratigraphically older rocks. See also Syncline.
Anticyclone. High-pressure system of rotating winds, descending and di-
 Glossary / 325

Anticline on the banks of the Potomac River. (U.S. Geological Survey)

verging, shown on a weather chart by a series of closed isobars, with

a high in the center. In the Northern Hemisphere, the rotation is
clockwise; in the Southern Hemisphere, the rotation is counter-
clockwise. An anticyclone brings warm weather. See also Cyclone.
Antidune. Undulatory upstream-moving bed form produced in free-
surface flow of water over a sand bed in a certain range of high flow
speeds and shallow flow depths.
Antipodes. Temperate zone of the Southern Hemisphere. The term is
now usually applied to the countries of Australia and New Zealand.
The ancient Greeks believed that if humans existed there, they must
walk upside down. This idea was supported by the Christian Church in
the Middle Ages.
Antitrade winds. Winds in the upper atmosphere, or geostrophic
winds, that blow in the opposite direction to the trade winds. Anti-
trade winds blow toward the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere
and toward the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere.
Aperiodic. Irregularly occurring interval, such as found in most weather
cycles, rendering them virtually unpredictable.
Aphelion. Point in the earth’s 365-day revolution when it is at its
greatest distance from the Sun. This is caused by Earth’s elliptical
326 / Glossary

orbit around the Sun. The distance at aphelion is 94,555,000 miles

(152,171,500 km.) and usually falls on July 4. The opposite of perihe-
lion.
Aplite. Light-colored, sugary-textured granitic rock generally found as
small, late-stage veins in granites of normal texture; in pegmatites,
aplites usually form thin marginal selvages against the country rock
but may also occur as major lenses in the pegmatite interior.
Apogee. Point in the Moon’s orbit when it is most distant from the cen-
ter of the earth.
Aposelene. Earth’s farthest point from the Moon.
Apparent solar time. Time shown on a sundial; also known as apparent
time. Because the elliptical path of the earth around the Sun causes
the apparent solar day to vary, there can be a difference of almost four
minutes in the length of a day. When accurate clocks and watches
were developed in the seventeenth century, mean solar time was
adopted instead of apparent solar time.
Aquaculture. Commercial raising and harvesting of food such as fish,
shellfish, or seaweed in artificial ponds or in selected portions of
rivers or coastal waters.
Aqueduct. Artificial conduit for carrying water. See also Canal.

Ruins of Roman aqueduct at Carthage in what is now Tunis. (Arkent Archive)

 Glossary / 327

Aquifer. Underground body of porous rock that contains water and al-
lows water percolation through it. The largest aquifer in the United
States is the Ogallala Aquifer, which extends south from South Dakota
to Texas.
Arable land. Land that is suitable for farming. A measure of the produc-
tivity of arable land is the physiologic density.
Archaeology. Science that investigates the human past through its mate-
rial remains, such as pots, tools, buildings, and human remains.
Archipelago. Group of islands located close together; an island chain.
Indonesia, comprising thirteen thousand islands, is the world’s largest
archipelago.
Arctic. Relating to the region north of the Arctic Circle, extending from
66.5 degrees north to the North Pole at 90 degrees north. Comes
from the Greek word meaning bear, because the Arctic region is lo-
cated under the constellation Ursa Major or Big Bear.
Arête. Serrated or saw-toothed ridge, produced in glaciated mountain
areas by cirques eroding on either side of a ridge or mountain
range. From the French word for knife-edge.

Arête and talus slopes in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains. (U.S. Geological
Survey)

Aridity. Lack of precipitation. No trees or woody plants can grow in arid

regions, and vegetation is small and sparse.
Arroyo. Spanish word for a dry streambed in an arid area. Called a wadi
in Arabic and a wash in English.
328 / Glossary

Artesian well. Well from which groundwater flows without mechanical

pumping, because the water comes from a confined aquifer, and is
therefore under pressure. The Great Artesian Basin of Australia has
hundreds of artesian wells, called bores, that provide drinking water
for sheep and cattle. The name comes from the Artois region of
France, where the phenomenon is common. A subartesian well is sunk
into an unconfined aquifer and requires a pump to raise water to the
surface.
Aseismic. Lacking earthquake activity.
Ash. Fine-grained pyroclastic material less than 2 millimeters in diameter,
ejected from an erupting volcano. See also Volcanic ash.

Volcano spewing ash into the atmosphere. (PhotoDisc)

Ash flow. Density current composed of a highly heated mixture of volca-

nic gases and ash, which travels down the flanks of a volcano or along
the ground surface.
Assimilation. Absorption of one cultural group into a larger or dominant
cultural group through the former group’s adoption of cultural traits
such as language, clothing, and customs from the latter group. Immi-
grants to the United States in the nineteenth century were assimilated
as part of the “melting pot”; in the late twentieth century, in contrast,
retaining the original culture was encouraged, as part of multicul-
turalism.
 Glossary / 329

Asteroid. Small planet or celestial body made of rock that moves

around the Sun, usually in an orbit between Mars and Jupiter, where
there are approximately forty-five thousand asteroids.
Asteroid belt. Region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter contain-
ing the majority of asteroids.
Asthenosphere. Part of the earth’s upper mantle, beneath the litho-
sphere, in which plate movement takes place. Also known as the low-
velocity zone.
Astrobleme. Remnant of a large impact crater on Earth.
Astrolabe. Medieval instrument used to measure the altitude of celes-
tial bodies, especially the Sun.
Astronomical unit (AU). Unit of measure used by astronomers that is
equivalent to the average distance from the Sun to Earth (93 million
miles/150 million km.).
Atlas. Book of maps, often accompanied by charts, tables, and illustra-
tions. Named after the figure in Greek mythology who was con-
demned by Zeus to carry the heavens on his shoulders.
Atmosphere. Mixture of gases surrounding the earth. The atmosphere is
thinner at the poles than at the equator and varies with the season,
but averages 300 miles (480 km.) above the earth’s surface. Beyond
the atmosphere is the exosphere. The modern atmosphere differs
from that of four billion years ago in that it contains oxygen. The mod-
ern atmosphere is 78 percent nitrogen by volume and almost 21 per-
cent oxygen. Other atmospheric gases include argon, carbon diox-
ide, neon, helium, methane, and krypton. Small amounts of ozone,
nitrous oxide, hydrogen, and xenon also occur, as do variable amounts
of water vapor and particulate matter. Some scientists believe that
human activities are changing the atmosphere so rapidly that one can
speak of an anthropogenic atmosphere. Global warming is thought
by many to be a result of anthropogenic change, especially the in-
crease in carbon dioxide.
Atmospheric pressure. Weight of the earth’s atmosphere, equally dis-
tributed over earth’s surface and pressing down as a result of gravity.
On average, the atmosphere has a force of 14.7 pounds per square
inch (1 kilogram per centimeter) squared at sea level, also expressed
as 1013.2 millibars. Variations in atmospheric pressure, high or low,
cause winds and weather changes that affect climate. Pressure de-
creases rapidly with altitude or distance from the surface: Half of the
total atmosphere is found below 18,000 feet (5,500 meters); more than
99 percent of the atmosphere is within 30 miles (50 km.) of the sur-
face. Atmospheric pressure is measured with a barometer.
Atoll. Ring-shaped growth of coral reef, with a lagoon in the middle.
Charles Darwin, who observed many Pacific atolls during his voyage
on the Beagle in the nineteenth century, suggested that they were cre-
ated from fringing reefs around volcanic islands. As such islands
330 / Glossary

sank beneath the water (or as sea levels rose), the coral continued
growing upward. Sand resting atop an atoll enables plants to grow, and
small human societies have arisen on some atolls. The world’s largest
atoll, Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands, measures about 40 by 18 miles
(65 by 30 km.), but perhaps the most famous atoll is Bikini Atoll—the
site of nuclear-bomb testing during the 1950’s.
Atomic clock. Extremely precise timekeeper that uses the vibration or
natural frequency of cesium atoms to measure time. The first atomic
clock was built in the United States in 1949; the first using cesium in
1952. High-accuracy timekeeping became increasingly important with
the advent of telecommunications, especially for the Global Posi-
tioning System. World time, also called UTC or coordinated uni-
versal time, is now measured using standard clocks, which are all
atomic clocks. The world’s most accurate clock, the Cesium Fountain
Clock NST F-1, went into operation at Boulder, Colorado, in late 1999.
Its accuracy is such that it should not gain or lose a second if it were
keep running for twenty million years.
Aurora. Glowing and shimmering displays of colored lights in the upper
atmosphere, caused by interaction of the solar wind and the charged
particles of the ionosphere. Auroras occur at high latitudes. Near
the North Pole they are called aurora borealis or northern lights; near
the South Pole, aurora australis or southern lights.

Aurora borealis and bright moon, viewed from earth orbit. (Corbis)
 Glossary / 331

Austral. Referring to an object or occurrence that is located in the

Southern Hemisphere or related to Australia. Compare with boreal.
Australopithecines. Erect-walking early human ancestors with a cranial
capacity and body size within the range of modern apes rather than of
humans.
Autumnal equinox. See Equinox.
Avalanche. Mass of snow and ice falling suddenly down a mountain
slope, often taking with it earth, rocks, and trees.
Axis of the earth. Imaginary line passing through the center of the earth
from the North Pole to the South Pole. The earth rotates on its axis
once in every twenty-four hours, in a counterclockwise direction if
viewed from above the North Pole, or in a west-to-east direction if
viewed from above the equator. As a result, the Sun appears to rise in
the east and set in the west.
Azimuth. Degrees of arc measured clockwise from the north.
Azimuthal projection. Projection that can be visualized by imagining a
sheet of paper resting at a point on the surface of a center-lit globe, so
that the outlines of continents are projected onto the paper. Usually
this projection is used for maps of the Arctic or Antarctic regions.
There is no distortion at the point of tangency or contact, but in-
creased distortion of both shape and area with distance away from the
center of the map. Also called a plane projection.

B horizon. Soil layer just beneath the topsoil.

Backswamp. See Bayou.
Bajada. See Alluvial fan.
Bank. Elevated area of land beneath the surface of the ocean. The term
is also used for elevated ground lining a body of water.
Bar (climate). Measure of atmospheric pressure per unit surface area
of one million dynes per square centimeter. Millibars (thousandths of
a bar) are the measurement used in the United States. Other coun-
tries use kilopascals (kPa); one kilopascal is ten millibars.
Bar (land). Ridge or long deposit of sand or gravel formed by deposi-
tion in a river or at the coast. Offshore bars and baymouth bars are
common coastal features.
Barogram. Chart or record made by a barograph.
Barograph. Barometer that is equipped with a device to provide a con-
tinuous record of atmospheric pressure.
Barometer. Instrument used for measuring atmospheric pressure. In
the seventeenth century, Evangelista Torricelli devised the first barom-
eter—a glass tube sealed at one end, filled with mercury, and upended
into a bowl of mercury. He noticed how the height of the mercury col-
umn changed and realized this was a result of the pressure of air on the
mercury in the bowl. Early measurements of atmospheric pressure
were, therefore, expressed as centimeters of mercury, with average
 332 / Glossary

pressure at sea level being 29.92 inches (760 millimeters). This cum-
bersome barometer was replaced with the aneroid barometer—a
sealed and partially evacuated box connected to a needle and dial,
which shows changes in atmospheric pressure. See also Altimeter.
Barrier island. Long chain of sand islands that forms offshore, close to
the coast. Lagoons or shallower marshes separate the barrier is-
lands from the mainland. Such locations are hazardous for settle-
ments because they are easily swept away in storms and hurricanes.
In the United States, barrier islands extend from the Texas coast to the
Outer Banks of North Carolina and on to Long Island. Cape Hatteras
is part of the barrier islands, being composed of sand and not part of
the mainland.
Barysphere. Dense, heavy core of the earth.
Basalt. Igneous extrusive rock formed when lava cools; often black in
color. Sometimes basalt occurs in tall hexagonal columns, such as the
Giant’s Causeway in Ireland, or the Devils Postpile at Mammoth, Cali-
fornia.

Basalt cliffs in Yellowstone National Park. An igneous extrusive rock formed when lava cools,
basalt is typically black in color. (Corbis)

Base flow. Natural flow of groundwater into a river, which commonly

maintains the flow of perennial streams during dry seasons.
Base level. Level below which a stream cannot erode its bed or valley.
For most rivers, the ultimate base level is mean sea level. For
rivers that flow into a lake, there is a local base level, which is the level
of the lake. A section of resistant rock might provide a local base level,
but this would change through erosion over time. The base-level con-
cept was developed by John Wesley Powell in the nineteenth century
after exploring the Colorado River and Grand Canyon.
 Glossary / 333

Basement. Crystalline, usually Precambrian, igneous and metamorphic

rocks that occur beneath the sedimentary rock on the continents.
Basin. Region drained by a river system, including all of its tributaries.
See also Drainage basin.
Basin order. Approximate measure of the size of a stream basin, based
on a numbering scheme applied to river channels as they join to-
gether in their progress downstream.
Batholith. Large landform produced by igneous intrusion, composed
of crystalline rock, such as granite; a large pluton with a surface
area greater than 40 square miles (100 sq. km.). Most mountain
ranges have a batholith underneath.

Fry Creek Batholith in British

Columbia. (Geological
Survey of Canada)

Bathymetric contour. Line on a map of the ocean floor that connects

points of equal depth.
Bauxite. Principal ore from which aluminum is obtained. Usually found
in the wet Tropics, although the name comes from a region of
France.
 334 / Glossary

One of the largest and finest natural harbors in the world is San Francisco Bay,
an immense inlet protected from the Pacific Ocean by the San Francisco and
Marin peninsulas. (PhotoDisc)

Bay. Part of a sea or ocean partially enclosed by land, such as the Bay of
Biscay. “Bay” is not a precise term, but it is usually applied to ocean in-
lets smaller than a gulf.
Bayou. Low-lying, swampy area near a river. After a river on a flood-
plain overflows, some water remains, creating a marshy area on either
side of the stream beyond the natural levees. “Bayou” is a Cajun
word. Also called a backswamp.
Beach. Part of a coast where sediment has accumulated and is moved by

Honolulu’s
Waikiki Beach
on the
Hawaiian
island of Oahu
is one of the
most popular
sandy beaches
in the world.
(PhotoDisc)
 Glossary / 335

waves and currents. The beach zone extends from above the high-
tide level to below the low-tide level. Most beaches are covered in
sand; when rounded rocks, pebbles, or cobbles cover a beach, it is
called a shingle beach.
Beaufort scale. Scale that measures wind force, expressed in numbers
from 0 to 12. The original Beaufort scale was based on descriptions of
the state of the sea. It was adapted to land conditions, using descrip-
tions of chimney smoke, leaves of trees, and similar factors. The scale
was devised in the early nineteenth century by Sir Francis Beaufort, a
British naval officer.
Bedrock. Solid rock covered by soil, which is part of the earth’s crust.
When the covering material is removed and the rock exposed at the
surface, it is called an outcrop.
Belt. Geographical region that is distinctive in some way.
Bergeron process. Precipitation formation in cold clouds whereby
ice crystals grow at the expense of supercooled water droplets.
Bight. Wide or open bay formed by a curve in the coastline, such as the
Great Australian Bight.
Billabong. Australian term for a waterhole.

Typical Australian billabong—the kind of waterhole at which the Swagman

camped in Australia’s unofficial national anthem, “Waltzing Mathilda.” (Ray
Sumner)

Biodiversity. Measure of the variety of life occupying a particular eco-

system.
Biogenic sediment. Sediment particles formed from skeletons or shells
of microscopic plants and animals living in seawater.
336 / Glossary

Biogeography. Study of the worldwide distribution of ecosystems (plants

and animals); also the study of changes in these distributions over time.
Biome. Large ecosystem on a continental scale; a terrestrial ecosystem.
Specific combinations of plants and animals, known as communities,
live in each biome.
Biosphere. Parts of Earth in which life exists; includes the lower part of
the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, and the upper lithosphere
(Earth’s crust). The term is also applied to the complex totality of
plant and animal life on Earth.
Biostratigraphy. Identification and organization of strata based on
their fossil content and the use of fossils in stratigraphic correlation.
Biotechnology. Range of scientific techniques using living tissue, seeds,
or organisms to make improved varieties of crops or animals, thereby
increasing food production. Biotechnology has led to high-yield, pest-
resistant, and drought-tolerant crops. However, many of the innova-
tions of biotechnology, such as cloning, are controversial. Another is-
sue is that biotechnological research is carried out by multinational
corporations, whose products are not readily available to the poor
rural communities whose need for food is greatest. Another fear as-
sociated with biotechnology is the security of the world food supply as
private firms gain increased control over food production, rather than
governments of individual countries.
Birth rate. Annual number of births per one thousand people, in any
given population under study. The birth rate for the United States
was fifteen (per thousand per year) at the end of the twentieth cen-
tury. “Birth rate” is a shortened term for crude birth rate.
Bitter lake. Saline or brackish lake in an arid area, which may dry up in
the summer or in periods of drought. The water is not suitable for
drinking. An example is the Bitter Lake Wildlife Refuge in New Mex-
ico, which provides a resting place for huge numbers of migratory
birds each year, including Canadian snow geese. Another name for
this feature is “salina.” See also Alkali flat.
Blizzard. Intense cold storm in which winds reach speeds of at least 35
miles (56 km.) per hour, temperatures drop below 20 degrees Fahr-
enheit (−7 degrees Celsius), visibility falls below 820 feet (250 meters),
and all these conditions last a minimum of three hours. Snowfall often
accompanies a blizzard, but this is not a necessary condition; much of
the snow is simply driven by the strong winds.
Block lava. Lava flows whose surfaces are composed of large, angular
blocks; these blocks are generally larger than those of aa flows and
have smooth, not jagged, faces.
Block mountain. Mountain or mountain range with one side having a
gentle slope to the crest, while the other slope, which is the exposed
fault scarp, is quite steep. It is formed when a large block of the
earth’s crust is thrust upward on one side only, while the opposite
 Glossary / 337

side remains in place. The Sierra Nevada in California are a good ex-
ample of block mountains. Also known as fault-block mountain.
Blowhole. Sea cave or tunnel formed on some rocky, rugged coast-
lines. The pressure of the seawater rushing into the opening can
force a jet of seawater to rise or spout through an opening in the roof
of the cave. Blowholes are found in Scotland, Tasmania, and Mexico,
and on the Hawaiian islands of Kauai and Maui.
Bluff. Steep slope that marks the farthest edge of a floodplain.
Body wave. Seismic wave that propagates interior to a body; there are
two kinds, P waves and S waves, that travel through the earth, reflect-
ing and refracting off the several layered boundaries within the earth.
Bog. Damp, spongy ground surface covered with decayed or decaying
vegetation. Bogs usually are formed in cool climates through the
in-filling, or silting up, of a lake. Moss and other plants grow outward
toward the edge of the lake, which gradually becomes shallower, until
the surface is completely covered. Bogs also can form on cold, damp
mountain surfaces. Many bogs are filled with peat.
Bora. Strong, cold, squally downslope wind on the Dalmatian coast of
Yugoslavia in winter. A katabatic wind.
Border. Technically, the area on either side of a boundary. The term
commonly is used instead of “boundary” to mean the imaginary line
separating one country from another. The boundary between the
United States and Canada, along the forty-ninth parallel north, is
the world’s longest undefended border.
Bore. Standing wave, or wall, of water created in a narrow estuary when
the strong incoming, or flood, tide meets the river water flowing
outward; it moves upstream with the advancing tide, and downstream
with the ebb tide. South America’s Amazon River and Asia’s Mekong
River have large bores. In North America, the bore in the Bay of Fundy
is visited by many tourists each year. Its St. Andrew’s wharf is designed
to handle changes in water level of as much as 53 feet (15 meters) in
one day.
Boreal. Alluding to an item or event that is in the Northern Hemi-
sphere. Compare with austral.
Boreal forest. Forests found at latitudes above 50 degrees north in
North America, Europe, and Asia. Because of the intense cold, the
trees are needleleaf species, such as spruce and fir. Unlike temperate
or tropical forests, boreal forests have little undergrowth; instead, the
forest floor is covered with mosses and lichen, which also grow on the
tree trunks. Many animals live in the boreal forest, surviving the cold
either through migration or hibernation.
Bottom current. Deep-sea current that flows parallel to bathymetric
contours.
Bottom-water mass. Body of water at the deepest part of the ocean identi-
fied by similar patterns of salinity and temperature.
338 / Glossary

Boundary. Imaginary line that separates political units from one another.
A boundary can be a straight line or a geometric boundary, such as the
forty-ninth parallel separating Canada and the United States; other
boundaries follow rivers, mountain ranges, or other natural fea-
tures. People sometimes use the term “border” when speaking about
a boundary.
Bourne. English term for a small stream or brook. Similar to the Scot-
tish word “burn.”
Brackish water. Water with salt content between that of salt water and
fresh water; it is common in arid areas on the surface, in coastal
marshes, and in salt-contaminated groundwater.
Brae. Scottish word for the hillside or banks of a river.
Braided stream. Stream having a channel consisting of a maze of inter-
connected small channels within a broader streambed. Braiding oc-
curs when the stream’s load exceeds its capacity, usually because of re-
duced flow.
Breaker. Wave that becomes oversteepened as it approaches the shore,
reaching a point at which it cannot maintain its vertical shape. It then
breaks, and the water washes toward the shore.

A breaker is a wave that becomes oversteepened as it approaches the shore,

reaching a point at which it cannot maintain its vertical shape. It then breaks,
and the water washes toward the shore. (PhotoDisc)

Breakwater. Large structure, usually of rock, built offshore and parallel

to the coast, to absorb wave energy and thus protect the shore. Be-
tween the breakwater and the shore is an area of calm water, often
used as a boat anchorage or harbor. A similar but smaller structure is
a seawall.
Breccia. See Conglomerate.
Breeze. Gentle wind with a speed of 4 to 31 miles (6 to 50 km.) per hour.
 Glossary / 339

On the Beaufort scale, the numbers 2 through 6 represent breezes

of increasing strength.
Bridge. Physical structure spanning a river, roadway, or other gap or ob-
stacle. Artificially created bridges are usually used to provide passage-
ways.
Brine. Usually warm, highly saline seawater containing calcium, sodium,
potassium, chlorine, and other small amounts of free ions.
Brook. Natural stream of water, smaller than a river, issuing from a
spring.
Bush. Relatively small plant with leafy foliage on several stems that
branch close to the ground. The word “shrub” is also used. In Austra-
lia, “bush” is a term for any unspecified nonurban area.
Butte. Flat-topped hill, smaller than a mesa, found in arid regions.

Caldera. Large circular depression with steep sides, formed when a vol-
cano explodes, blowing away its top. The eruption of Mount St. Hel-
ens produced a caldera. Crater Lake in Oregon is a caldera that has
filled with water. From the Spanish word for kettle.

Caldera. (PhotoDisc)

Calendar. System of dividing time into years, months, and days, based on
observations of the Sun, Moon, and stars. The basic unit is the day,
which now is measured from one midnight to the next, but often was
measured from one dawn to the next in ancient times. The seven-day
week is based on the approximate length of each of the four phases of
the Moon. The Julian calendar, with a year length of 365 and one-
 340 / Glossary

quarter days, was introduced to the Western world by Julius Caesar in

46 b.c. (The month July commemorates Caesar.) The Julian calendar
year was too long by about eleven minutes, so by the sixteenth century
the calendar had become out of phase with the seasons and religious
holidays were falling inappropriately. Pope Gregory XIII, advised by
astronomers, determined to omit ten days from the calendar to cor-
rect the errors. The Gregorian calendar developed as a result gradu-
ally was adopted in other European countries. One of the last coun-
tries to adopt it was Russia, in 1918. Ancient peoples had different
calendars, and religions other than Christianity use different calen-
dars—for example, the year 2000 is 5760 in the Jewish calendar and
1378 in the Muslim calendar.
Calms of Cancer. Subtropical belt of high pressure and light winds, lo-
cated over the ocean near 25 degrees north latitude. Also known as
the horse latitudes.
Calms of Capricorn. Subtropical belt of high pressure and light winds,
located over the ocean near 25 degrees south latitude.
Calving. Loss of glacial mass when glaciers reach the sea and large
blocks of ice break off, forming icebergs.
Cambrian period. Period from about 570 to 505 million years ago,
marked by the appearance of hard-shelled organisms.
Canal. Artificial waterway constructed to shorten the route between two
places. Often a canal is cut through an isthmus, as with the Suez Ca-
nal and the Panama Canal. Canals also are built to connect two rivers,
such as the Grand Canal of China, or to bring irrigation water to an
arid region.
Cancer, tropic of. Parallel of latitude at 23.5 degrees north; this line
is the latitude farthest north on the earth where the noon Sun is ever
directly overhead. The region between it and the tropic of Capri-
corn is known as the Tropics.
Canyon. Steep-sided stream valley or gorge in an arid region. The

A canyon is steep-sided stream

valley or gorge. (PhotoDisc)
 Glossary / 341

most famous North American canyon is the Grand Canyon in the

southwestern United States.
Cape. Point of land that protrudes beyond the nearby coast into the sea
or a lake. See also Headland.
Capillary water. Water held in the upper part of the soil by surface ten-
sion of water around the soil particles. See also Soil moisture.
Capital. City that is the seat of a regional or national government.
Capitol. Building that houses a government legislature.
Capricorn, tropic of. Line of latitude at 23.5 degrees south; this line is
the latitude farthest south on the earth where the noon Sun is ever di-
rectly overhead. The region between it and the tropic of Cancer is
known as the Tropics.
Carbon cycle. Changes that carbon undergoes in the biosphere, starting
with the conversion by photosynthesis of atmospheric carbon di-
oxide into biomass and its return to a gaseous form during respira-
tion and decay processes.
Carbon dating. Method employed by physicists to determine the age of
organic matter—such as a piece of wood or animal tissue—to deter-
mine the age of an archaeological or paleontological site. The method
works on the principle that the amount of radioactive carbon in living
matter diminishes at a steady and measurable rate after the matter
dies. Technique is also known as carbon-14 dating, after the radioac-
tive carbon-14 isotope it uses. Also known as radiocarbon dating.
Carbon dioxide. Gas that occurs naturally in the earth’s modern atmo-
sphere, contributing 0.036 percent by volume at the end of the twenti-
eth century. It is produced naturally through respiration of living or-
ganisms and is part of the carbon cycle. The amount of carbon
dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere has increased over the last two cen-
turies, from 0.028 percent in 1774. This is largely as a result of burning
fossil fuels for energy, which began on a large scale with the Indus-
trial Revolution. Deforestation also has contributed to the in-
creased level of carbon dioxide. Because carbon dioxide reflects earth
radiation back to the surface, it is believed to play a large role in
global warming. The United States is the world’s largest user of en-
ergy and, therefore, the largest producer of carbon dioxide.
Carbonates. Large group of minerals consisting of a carbonate anion
(three oxygen atoms bonded to one carbon atom, with a residual
charge of two) and a variety of cations, including calcium, magnesium,
and iron.
Carboniferous period. Fifth of the six periods in the Paleozoic era; it
preceded the Permian period and spanned a period of 320 to 286 mil-
lion years ago.
Cardinal points. Four main points of the compass: north, south, east, and
west.
Carnivore. Animal that eats mainly flesh. See also Food chain.
342 / Glossary

Carrying capacity. Number of animals that a given area of land can sup-
port, without additional feed being necessary. Lush grassland may
have a carrying capacity of twenty sheep per acre, while more arid,
semidesert land may support only two sheep per acre. The term
sometimes is used to refer to the number of humans who can be sup-
ported in a given area.
Cartography. Specialized science of producing maps or charts, which
draws on mathematics and art as well as geography. Computer-based
cartography developed rapidly at the end of the twentieth century.
Cascade. Series of small waterfalls in a rocky part of a streambed.

A cascade is a
series of small
waterfalls in a
rocky part of a
stream bed.
(PhotoDisc)

Cataract. Large waterfall. The Nile River in Africa was impassable to

shipping for centuries because of several cataracts.
Catastrophism. Theory, popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centu-
ries, that explained the shape of landforms and continents and the
extinction of species as the results of intense or catastrophic events.
 Glossary / 343

The biblical flood of Noah was one such event, which supposedly ex-
plained many extinctions. Catastrophism is linked closely to the belief
that the earth is only about six thousand years old, and therefore tre-
mendous forces must have acted swiftly to create present landscapes.
An alternative or contrasting theory is uniformitarianism.
Catchment basin. Area of land receiving the precipitation that flows
into a stream. Also called catchment or catchment area.
Causeway. Elevated path or road above water or marshy ground.
Cave. Natural underground opening. Caves commonly form in areas of
limestone rock, through solution of the rock by water. The world’s
largest system of interconnected caves is in Mammoth Cave National
Park in Kentucky. The world’s largest single cave is in Sarawak, on the
island of Borneo; the deepest cave is in France. People who explore
caves are called speleologists. See also Karst.
Cay. Small islands or islets of sand above coral reefs. The term “cay”
is used in countries such as Australia; in the United States, they are
called keys, for example, the Florida Keys.
Celsius scale. Temperature scale devised by Anders Celsius, in which
the melting point of ice at sea level is zero degrees and the boiling
point of water at sea level is one hundred degrees. Most countries ex-
cept the United States use the Celsius scale for temperature measure-
ment. The Celsius scale formerly was called the centigrade scale. See
also Fahrenheit scale.
Cenozoic era. Period of geologic time from about 65 million years ago
to the present. The youngest of the three Phanerozoic eons, it en-
compasses two geologic periods, the Tertiary (older) and the Qua-
ternary. Through study of the geologic record from this era, scien-
tists are able to distinguish between environmental changes caused by
a normal progression of geologic phenomena and those changes that
are related to human activity.
Census. Official counting of the population of a country to obtain de-
mographic data. The United States takes census every ten years.
Centigrade scale. See Celsius scale.
Central place theory. Theory that explains why some settlements re-
main small while others grow to be middle-sized towns, and a few be-
come large cities or metropolises. The explanation is based on the
provision of goods and services and how far people will travel to ac-
quire these. The German geographer Walter Christaller developed
this theory in the 1930’s.
Central places. Settlements where goods and services are available to
consumers from the surrounding area or region. If a place offers few
services, the population will be correspondingly small. From another
point of view, small places offer certain essential services, such as a gas
station, a convenience store, restaurants, and an elementary school. A
larger place offers the previous services, plus perhaps a supermarket,
344 / Glossary

cinema, high school, and post office. Central places are organized hi-
erarchically. There are large numbers of small settlements, relatively
closely spaced; there are fewer large cities, located farther apart.
Centrality. Measure of the number of functions, or services, offered by
any city in a hierarchy of cities within a country or a region. See also
Central place theory.
Centrifugal forces. Forces that divide a country. Cultural differences,
such as two different languages or two different religions, are im-
portant centrifugal forces. The independence movement in Quebec is
a good example of the operation of centrifugal forces. When centrifu-
gal forces outweigh centripetal forces, a country can break up into
smaller units. This process is called devolution.
Centripetal forces. Forces that unite a country. Cultural characteristics,
such as a common language or a single religion, are important cen-
tripetal forces. New countries create symbols of unity, such as a na-
tional flag and national anthem. A powerful leader can be a strong
centripetal force, as can war against a common enemy.
CFC. See Chlorofluorocarbons.
Chain, island. See Archipelago.
Chain, mountain. Another term for mountain range.
Chalk. Naturally occurring sedimentary deposit of soft calcium carbon-
ate. The White Cliffs of Dover are a well-known chalk landform; ero-
sion is occurring quickly along that part of the English coast.
Channel. Stream channels carry water that falls as precipitation, or
comes from melted snow, from one place to another, with the water
moving downchannel as a result of gravity. A stream channel changes
in width and depth because the volume and speed of the water varies.
Channels are usually sinuous, rather than straight. On floodplains,
the channel becomes a series of meanders. Braided stream patterns
occur with low flow and high sediment transport. In arid areas, dry
streambeds (wadis) are common.
Chaparral. Distinctive shrubland vegetation that grows around the
shores of the Mediterranean Sea (where it is called maquis), and in ar-
eas of Mediterranean climate in California, at the southern tip of
South Africa, in central Chile, and in two small regions of western
and southern Australia. To adapt to the extreme conditions of a long
dry summer and wet winter, plants in this biome have small leaves,
sometimes with a wax-like coating, and usually have deep root systems.
Chaparral regenerates quickly after fire, which is frequent in the sum-
mer in the Mediterranean climate.
Chart. Map indicating dangerous areas, used for navigation by air and
sea. An aeronautical chart shows mountains, towers, and airstrips; a
nautical chart shows lighthouses, reefs, and water depths.
Chemical farming. Application of artificial fertilizers to the soil and
the use of chemical products such as insecticides, fungicides, and her-
 Glossary / 345

The invention of heavier-than-air flight in the early twentieth century made possible efficient
large-scale application of chemical fertilizers with the use of airplanes, popularly known as
“crop dusters.” (PhotoDisc)

bicides to ensure crop success. Chemical farming is practiced mainly

in high-income countries, because the cost of the chemical products is
high. Farmers in low-income economies rely more on natural organic
fertilizers such as animal waste.
Chemical weathering. Chemical decomposition of solid rock by pro-
cesses involving water that change its original materials into new
chemical combinations.
Chinook. Warm wind that melts snows on the Canadian prairies, en-
abling farmers to plow and plant their spring wheat. A Chinook origi-
nates as air descends on the eastern or leeward side of the Rocky
346 / Glossary

Mountains. Having lost all its moisture on the windward side, this is a
dry wind that warms adiabatically as it descends. The wind is wel-
comed by farmers and is sometimes called the “snow-eater.” In Eu-
rope, similar winds are called föhn.
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Manufactured compounds, not occurring
in nature, consisting of chlorine, fluorine, and carbon. CFCs are stable
and have heat-absorbing properties, so they have been used exten-
sively for cooling in refrigeration and air-conditioning units. Previ-
ously, they were used as propellants for aerosol products. CFCs rise
into the stratosphere where ultraviolet radiation causes them
to react with ozone, changing it to oxygen and exposing the earth to
higher levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Therefore, the manufac-
ture and use of CFCs was banned in many countries. The commercial
name for CFCs is Freon.
Chorology. Description or mapping of a region. Also known as chorog-
raphy.
Chronometer. Highly accurate clock or timekeeping device. The first
accurate and effective chronometers were constructed in the mid-
eighteenth century by John Harrison, who realized that accurate time-
keeping was the secret to navigation at sea.
Chubasco. Type of severe storm that occasionally occurs in the Gulf of
California and along the west coast of Mexico.
Cinder cone. Small conical hill produced by pyroclastic materials
from a volcano. The material of the cone is loose scoria.

Volcanic cinder cones on the island of Hawaii. (Corbis)

Circle of illumination. Line separating the sunlit part of the earth from
the part in darkness. The circle of illumination moves around the
earth once in every approximately 24 hours. At the vernal and au-
tumnal equinoxes, the circle of illumination passes through the
poles.
 Glossary / 347

Washington State’s Wenatchee Mountains contain remnants of old alpine gla-

ciers, which surround Mount Stuart; these include U-shaped valleys and four
small cirque glaciers in the shadows. (U.S. Geological Survey)

Cirque. Circular basin at the head of an alpine glacier, shaped like an

armchair. Many cirques can be seen in mountain areas where glaciers
have completely melted since the last ice age.
Cirro. Prefix meaning high clouds, from the Latin word cirrus, meaning
a lock of hair.
Cirrocumulus. High, thin, puffy white clouds of ice crystals that look
like ripples. They appear between 20,000 and 40,000 feet (6,000-
12,000 meters) above the earth’s surface. One type of cirrocumulus
cloud is called a “mackerel sky,” because the clouds resemble large fish
scales, especially when they are colored pink at sunset.
Cirrostratus. Semitransparent sheets of cloud, comprising layers of thin
ice crystals. They appear between 20,000 and 40,000 feet (6,000-
12,000 meters) above the earth’s surface. A halo around the Moon can
be caused by cirrostratus clouds.
Cirrus. High, wispy tufts of clouds, white but almost transparent because
they are composed mostly of ice crystals. Formed at a height of 20,000
to 30,000 feet (6,000-9,000 meters). Cirrus clouds can indicate an ap-
proaching cold front. Sometimes called “mares’ tails.” The prefix
cirro is added to shape words to define two other kinds of high
clouds—cirrocumulus and cirrostratus.
348 / Glossary

City Beautiful movement. Planning and architectural movement that was

at its height from around 1890 to the 1920’s in the United States. It was
believed that classical architecture, wide and carefully laid-out streets,
parks, and urban monuments would reflect the higher values of the so-
ciety and be a civilizing, even uplifting, experience for the citizens of
such cities. Civic pride was fostered through remodeling or moderniz-
ing older urban areas. Chicago, Illinois, and Pasadena, California,
are cities where the planners of the City Beautiful movement left their
imprint.
City. Generally large human settlements in which nonagricultural oc-
cupations dominate. In the United States, a city is technically defined
as an incorporated municipality with definite boundaries and legal
powers set forth in a charter granted by the state. Since 1910 the U.S.
Census Bureau has recognized any place with more than twenty-five
hundred inhabitants as urban. In the United Kingdom, cities were his-
torically defined not by their population sizes, but on the basis of
their religious status: whether they had cathedrals with bishops.
Civilization. Type of culture or society comprising urban populations,
religion, architecture, and formalized methods of passing on learn-
ing. The Agricultural Revolution, when human societies began
growing crops instead of relying on hunting and gathering, en-
abled the earliest civilizations to emerge more than six thousand years
ago, in Mesopotamia.
Clastic. Rock or sedimentary matter formed from fragments of older
rocks.
Clay. Finely grained soil. Soils that are largely clay are generally unsuit-
able for agriculture because they are impermeable to plant roots.
Soils known as cracking clays, or vertisols, can absorb large amounts of
water, which causes them to swell as they expand, but cracks as large as
three feet (1 meter) deep open as the soil dries out. These clays are
found in Texas and over large regions in eastern Australia, India, and
tropical East Africa.
Clearing. Open part of a forest where trees and other vegetation have
been removed, often for farming.
Cliff. Hillslope that is nearly vertical.
Climagraph. See Climograph.
Climate. Long-term conditions of temperature and precipitation for
a place over a period of not less than thirty years. Climate takes ac-
count of variability and extremes to give a composite picture of a cli-
mate type or a climate region. Climate is not exactly the same as
weather, which is the situation of the atmosphere at any moment,
and thus changes constantly.
Climatology. Study of Earth climates by analysis of long-term weather
patterns over a minimum of thirty years of statistical records. Climatol-
ogists—scientists who study climate—seek similarities to enable group-
 Glossary / 349

ing into climatic regions. Climate patterns are closely related to natu-
ral vegetation. Computer technology has enabled investigation of
phenomena such as the El Niño effect and global climate change.
The Koeppen climate classification system is the most commonly
used scheme for climate classification.
Climograph. Graph that plots temperature and precipitation for a se-
lected location. The most commonly used climographs plot monthly
temperatures and monthly precipitation, as used in the Koeppen cli-
mate classification. Also spelled “climagraph.” The term clima-
gram is rarely used.
Clinometer. Instrument used by surveyors to measure the elevation of
land or the inclination (slope) of the land surface.
Clock. Machine that measures time and displays the result continuously.
An especially accurate clock or timekeeper is called a chronometer.
Clockwise. Rotating direction matching that of the hands on a clock dial
when viewed from the same perspective. This term and its opposite,
counterclockwise, are often used to describe the movements of
weather phenomena and the rotations of celestial objects.
Cloud. Atmospheric occurrence of moisture droplets and ice crystals sus-
pended in air. Particles such as dust or smoke may also be present.
Clouds are classified according to their shapes and heights. The classi-
fication, and the words used, were proposed by English scientist Luke
Howard in the early nineteenth century. See Altocumulus; Alto-
stratus; Cirrocumulus; Cirrostratus; Cirrus; Cumulonimbus;
Cumulus.
Cloud cover. Amount of the sky that is covered with cloud, shown on a
weather map by shading parts of a circle. If the sky is half-covered, the
right half of the circle is shaded.

Cloud cover is the amount of sky covered with clouds. On weather maps, it is shown by shad-
ing parts of a circle. When the sky is half-covered, the right half of the circle is shaded.
(PhotoDisc)
350 / Glossary

Cloud-free. Having less than 30 percent cloud cover, allowing clear im-
aging of a surface area.
Cloud seeding. Injection of cloud-nucleating particles into likely clouds
to enhance precipitation.
Cloudburst. Heavy rain that falls suddenly.
Coal. One of the fossil fuels. Coal was formed from fossilized plant ma-
terial, which was originally forest. It was then buried and compacted,
which led to chemical changes. Most coal was formed during the Car-
boniferous period (286 million to 360 million years ago) when the
earth’s climate was wetter and warmer than at present.
Coast. Land above the high-tide level where land meets the ocean. The
coast is a place of constant change, due to natural changes, such as vary-
ing sea level or tectonic movements, as well as human activities, such
as constructing port facilities, marinas, and housing developments.
Coastal plain. Large area of flat land near the ocean. Coastal plains can
form in various ways, but fluvial deposition is an important process.
In the United States, the coastal plain extends from Texas to North
Carolina.
Coastal wetlands. Shallow, wet, or flooded shelves that extend back from
the freshwater-saltwater interface and may consist of marshes, bays,
lagoons, tidal flats, or mangrove swamps.
Coastline. Specific line of contact between land and sea. The coastline
changes constantly because of tides, storms, and sea-level changes.
Also called shoreline.
Cognitive map. Mental image that each person has of the world, which in-
cludes locations and connections. These maps expand as children
mature, from plans of their rooms, to their houses, to their neighbor-
hoods. Adults know certain parts of the city and the streets connect-
ing them. See also Mental map.
Coke. Type of fuel produced by heating coal.
Col. Lower section of a ridge, usually formed by the headward erosion
of two cirque glaciers at an arête. Sometimes called a saddle.
Cold cloud. Visible suspension of tiny ice crystals, supercooled water
droplets, or both at sub-freezing temperatures.
Cold front. Front or leading edge of an advancing cold air mass that dis-
places warmer air as it moves. On a weather map, a cold front is
shown by a line of triangular “shark teeth” pointing in the direction of
advance. A cold front is accompanied by storms and rain.
Cold War. Period that lasted from the end of World War II, in 1945, until
the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1991, during which the communist
nations of the East and the noncommunist nations of the West com-
peted for world supremacy and engaged in military buildups in antici-
pation of a new global war.
Cold wave. Sudden onset of extremely cold weather, with temperature
below freezing, the change taking less than twenty-four hours.
 Glossary / 351

Colonial cities. Cities established and developed by colonial govern-

ments to serve as administrative or commercial centers. Some colonial
cities were newly created in a location where there was previously no
urban settlement. The colonial power laid out a new planned city
with ceremonial buildings and places, offices, administrative head-
quarters, commercial facilities, and military barracks. Local people
came to the new colonial city to serve in low-paid service jobs such as
clerks and servants. Colonial cities of this kind include Calcutta, Nai-
robi, Hong Kong, and Jakarta. A different type of colonial city arose
through the addition of colonial functions to an already established
settlement. There, source of labor and considerable site advantages
already existed. Mexico City, Delhi, and Shanghai are examples of this
kind of colonial city. Most colonial cities were located on the coast, for
ease of access to shipping goods back to the European colonial power.
Colonialism. Control of one country over another state and its people.
Many European countries have created colonial empires, including
Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Russia.
Colony. Country that is a political dependency of another nation. Dur-
ing the early twentieth century, most of the countries of Africa, the Pa-
cific, and the Caribbean, as well as many in Asia, were colonies of Euro-
pean powers. By the beginning of the twenty-first century, however,
few colonies remained in the world.
Columbian exchange. Interaction that occurred between the Americas
and Europe after the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Food crops
from the New World transformed the diet of many European countries.
Combe. Welsh word for the uppermost part of a valley, above the spring-
line. Also called coombe.
Comet. Small body in the solar system, consisting of a solid head with a
long gaseous tail. The elliptical orbit of a comet causes it to range

The most famous of the many

comets that pass through the
Solar System is Halley’s,
which made its last transit
near Earth in 1986.
(PhotoDisc)
352 / Glossary

from very close to the Sun to very far away. In ancient times, the ap-
pearance of a comet in the sky was thought to be an omen of great
events or changes, such as war or the death of a king.
Comfort index. Number that expresses the combined effects of temper-
ature and humidity on human bodily comfort. The index number is
obtained by measuring ambient conditions and comparing these to a
chart.
Commodity chain. Network linking labor, production, delivery, and sale
for any product. The chain begins with the production of the raw ma-
terial, such as the extraction of minerals by miners, and extends to
the acquisition of the finished product by a consumer.
Communications. Systems used to transmit messages or information
from one place to another; now systems such as the Internet, tele-
phones, television, and mail.
Communities, animal or plant. See Biome.
Compass, magnetic. Instrument that determines direction, used for nav-
igation. A magnetic needle is mounted so that it can rotate and align
its ends with the earth’s magnetic field. A naturally occurring ore of
iron called lodestone aligns in a north-south direction; a piece of iron,
placed in contact with the lodestone, becomes magnetized and also
aligns itself this way. The magnetic compass has been used since the
twelfth century, both in Europe and in China. The earliest compasses
consisted of a magnetized needle that floated in a bowl of water. Soon
a card with the points of the compass was added to the compass, so that
readings could be made quickly and simply. When ships were built of
iron in the nineteenth century, many adaptations had to be made to
maintain the accuracy of the magnetic compass.
Complex crater. Impact crater of large diameter and low depth-to-
diameter ratio caused by the presence of a central uplift or ring struc-
ture.
Composite cone. Cone or volcano formed by volcanic explosions in
which the lava is of different composition, sometimes fluid, some-
times pyroclasts such as cinders. The alternation of layers allows a
concave shape for the cone. These are generally regarded as the
world’s most beautiful volcanoes. Composite volcanoes are sometimes
called stratovolcanoes.
Condensation. Process in which water changes from a vapor state to a liq-
uid state, releasing heat into the surrounding air; this process is the
opposite of evaporation, which requires the input of heat. Water va-
por condenses into dew, fog, or cloud droplets.
Condensation nuclei. Microscopic particles that may have originated as
dust, soot, ash from fires or volcanoes, or even sea salt; an essen-
tial part of cloud formation. When air rises and cools to the dew
point (saturation), the moisture droplets condense around the nu-
clei, leading to the creation of raindrops or snowflakes. A typical air
 Glossary / 353

mass might contain ten billion condensation nuclei in a single cubic

yard (1 cubic meter) of air.
Cone, volcanic. See Cinder cone; Composite cone.
Cone of depression. Cone-shaped depression produced in the water ta-
ble by pumping from a well.
Confined aquifer. Aquifer that is completely filled with water and whose
upper boundary is a confining bed; it is also called an artesian aquifer.
Confining bed. Impermeable layer in the earth that inhibits vertical
water movement.
Confluence. Place where two streams or rivers flow together and join.
The smaller of the two streams is called a tributary.
Conglomerate. Type of sedimentary rock consisting of smaller rounded
fragments naturally cemented together by another mineral. If the ce-
mented fragments are jagged or angular, the rock is called breccia.
Conglomerate corporation. Large, transnational corporation whose oper-
ations cover a diverse range of economic activities. Generally created by
mergers and acquisitions; one of the effects of globalization of industry
and trade. United States’ names dominate the conglomerates: Phillip
Morris expanded from tobacco into foods, beer, real estate, and pub-
lishing. Nestlé, based in Switzerland, sells many food products, pet
food, wine, and cosmetics, and also has interests in the hotel business.
Conical projection. Map projection that can be imagined as a cone of
paper resting like a witch’s hat on a globe with a light source at its cen-
ter; the images of the continents would be projected onto the paper.
In reality, maps are constructed mathematically. A conic projection
can show only part of one hemisphere. This projection is suitable for
constructing a map of the United States, as a good equal-area repre-
sentation can be achieved. Also called conic projection.
Coniferous forest. Forest type found naturally growing in cool cli-
mates with sufficient precipitation, throughout most of Canada and

Coniferous
forests are
found naturally
growing in cool
climates with at
least moderate
precipitation.
(PhotoDisc)
354 / Glossary

extensive areas of Russia, where it is called taiga. The trees are

needleleaf species of pine, fir, spruce, and larch. Boreal forest is an-
other name for this biome. The trees are valuable sources of lumber
for construction or pulpwood for newspaper production. Needleleaf
forests also occur in mountainous regions, as in parts of the Rocky
Mountains, Sierra Nevada, European Alps, and Himalayas.
Consequent river. River that flows across a landscape because of grav-
ity. Its direction is determined by the original slope of the land. Trib-
utary streams, which develop later as erosion proceeds, are called
subsequent streams.
Conservationism. Practice of protecting natural things from loss or dam-
age—from a stand of trees to the earth’s environment as a whole.
Soil conservation deals with preventing the loss of valuable topsoil
through poor agricultural practices. Open space conservation leads to
the creation of parkland reserves around and sometimes within cities.
Many international and other organizations are involved in conserva-
tion of resources such as rain forests, plant and animal species, and
natural areas.
Contaminant. Any ion or chemical that is introduced into the environ-
ment, especially in concentrations greater than those normally present.
Continent. Principal landmasses of the earth, comprising Eurasia, Af-
rica, North America, South America, Antarctica, and Australia. The
continents cover approximately one-quarter of the earth’s surface at
present sea-level conditions, accounting for an area of almost 60 mil-
lion square miles (150 million sq. km.). The continental shelves, which
are now under water, are geologically part of the continents; if this to-
tal area were measured, the continents would account for about one-
third of the earth’s surface. These continents are based on a physical
definition, but many people use a cultural distinction, and thus divide
Eurasia into two continents—Asia and Europe—because there are
marked cultural differences between peoples of the two parts of this
single landmass. Throughout geologic time, the continents have been
joined and separated many times. See also Plate tectonics.
Continental climate. Climate experienced over the central regions of
large landmasses; drier and subject to greater seasonal extremes of
temperature than at the continental margins.
Continental crust. Earth’s crust consists of two different types of rocks:
continental crust and oceanic crust. Continental crust is crystalline,
and lighter in weight than the denser oceanic crust. Granite is the
most abundant rock of the continental crust. An older term for conti-
nental crust was “sial.”
Continental divide. High region that separates drainage on a continen-
tal scale. In North America, the Continental Divide separates rivers
flowing west to the Pacific Ocean from those flowing south and east to
the Atlantic Ocean or north to the Arctic Ocean.
 Glossary / 355

Continental drift. Theory, proposed in 1912 by German scientist Alfred

Wegener, holding that the continents of the earth have changed po-
sition continuously over the past 225 million years. Wegener hypothe-
sized the existence of an ancient supercontinent, which he named
Pangaea, that slowly broke apart as its component continents drifted
into their present positions. Although the theory was not initially ac-
cepted in English-speaking countries, it became the influential theory
of plate tectonics.
Continental glaciers. Continental glaciers once covered much of north-
ern North America and Europe, but now only Greenland and Antarc-
tica have such huge masses of permanent ice and snow. Because conti-
nental glaciers are so large, they affect the climate of large regions
outside their boundaries by lowering air and water temperatures.
Continental glaciers of past ice ages have produced a wide variety of
erosional and depositional features in northern latitudes.
Continental island. Island that is part of the continental shelf, rising
above sea level. Such islands are actually part of their adjacent con-
tinents, with the same compositions as their nearby continents. They
have become separated from the continents as a result of tectonic
movement over thousands of years. Their rock types are consistent
with the mainland. Most of the world’s large islands are continental is-
lands. For example, Greenland is a continental island of North Amer-
ica, New Guinea is a continental island of Australia, and Madagascar is
a continental island of Africa. In contrast, oceanic islands, such as
Hawaii, rise from the ocean floor. Some continental islands are lo-
cated close to the coast and have become separated only since sea
level rose over the last several thousand years. Tasmania is an example
of this kind of continental island. These continental islands are called
high islands.
Continental margin. Coastline and beaches, plus the continental
shelf and continental rise. Continental margins make up about 20
percent of the ocean but are the most valuable part because of land
values onshore and fishing in the shallow waters just offshore. Accord-
ing to the theory of plate tectonics, continental margins can be pas-
sive, when there is no obvious movement of the margin, although it is
being moved with the plate; at an active continental margin, in con-
trast, motion is obvious. The continental margin of California, Oregon,
and Washington is an active continental margin, where transform
motion is occurring with subduction occurring to the north of this.
Continental rift zones. Continental rift zones are places where the con-
tinental crust is stretched and thinned. Distinctive features include
active volcanoes and long, straight valley systems formed by normal
faults. Continental rifting in some cases has evolved into the break-
ing apart of a continent by seafloor spreading to form a new ocean.
Continental shelf. Shallow, gently sloping part of the seafloor adjacent to
356 / Glossary

the mainland. The continental shelf is geologically part of the conti-

nent and is made of continental crust, whereas the ocean floor is
oceanic crust. Although continental shelves vary greatly in width, on
average they are about 45 miles (75 km.) wide and have slopes of 7
minutes (about one-tenth of a degree). The average depth of a conti-
nental shelf is about 200 feet (60 meters). The outer edge of the conti-
nental shelf is marked by a sharp change in angle where the conti-
nental slope begins. Most continental shelves were exposed above
current sea level during the Pleistocene epoch and have been sub-
merged by rising sea levels over the past eighteen thousand years.
Continental shield. Area of a continent that contains the oldest rocks
on Earth, called cratons. These are areas of granitic rocks, part of the
continental crust, where there are ancient mountains. The Cana-
dian Shield in North America is an example.
Continental slope. Part of the ocean floor between the outer edge of the
continental shelf and the deep seafloor of the ocean basins. Al-
though there is great variation, the continental slope on average is
about 12 miles (20 km.) in width and has an average slope of 4 de-
grees; it extends from a water depth of about 425 feet (130 meters)
below sea level to somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 feet (1,400-
3,000 meters) deep.
Contour lines. Lines on a topographic map that join places of equal el-
evation. A series of contour lines reveals the overall shape and eleva-
tion of terrain.
Convection. Transfer of heat from a source area to a point farther away
through vertical motion and subsequent spreading, as in the vertical
air circulation in which warm air rises and cool air sinks.
Convectional rain. Type of precipitation caused when air over a warm
surface is warmed and rises, leading to adiabatic cooling, condensa-
tion, and, if the air is moist enough, rain.
Convective overturn. Renewal of the bottom waters caused by the sinking
of surface waters that have become denser, usually because of de-
creased temperature.
Convergence (climate). air flowing in toward a central point.
Convergence (physiography). Process that occurs during the second half
of a supercontinent cycle, whereby crustal plates collide and in-
tervening oceans disappear as a result of plate subduction.
Convergent plate boundary. Compressional plate boundary at which
an oceanic plate is subducted or two continental plates collide.
Convergent plate margin. Area where the earth’s lithosphere is re-
turned to the mantle at a subduction zone, forming volcanic “is-
land arcs” and associated hydrothermal activity.
Conveyor belt current. Large cycle of water movement that carries warm
water from the north Pacific westward across the Indian Ocean, around
Southern Africa, and into the Atlantic, where it warms the atmo-
 Glossary / 357

sphere, then returns at a deeper ocean level to rise and begin the pro-
cess again.
Coombe. See Combe.
Coordinated universal time (UTC). International basis of time, intro-
duced to the world in 1964. The basis for UTC is a small number of
atomic clocks. Leap seconds are occasionally added to UTC to keep
it synchronized with universal time.
Copse. English term for a small area where the vegetation consists of
small trees and thick shrubs or bushes. An older word is “coppice.”
Coral reef. Limestone structure found in shallow tropical seas, consist-
ing of a living biological community atop the calcium carbonate re-
mains of many generations of dead coral. Individual coral polyps are
tiny, but their accreted skeletons can form huge ridges or reefs. De-
pending on location, reefs are classified into four types—fringing
reefs, barrier reefs, atolls, and patch reefs. The world’s largest coral
reef is the Great Barrier Reef, off the east coast of northern Australia.
Reefs also are found in Florida and around many islands of the Pa-
cific and Indian Oceans.

The Florida Keys comprise small sandy islands built up by wave action on coral
reefs. (Visit Florida)

Cordillera. Large mountain chain such as the Rocky Mountains in North

America or the Andes Mountains in South America. “Cordilleran sys-
tem” denotes this group of relatively young mountains, extending
from Alaska in the north to Tierra del Fuego in the south.
358 / Glossary

Core. Innermost part of the earth, believed to comprise two distinct

zones. The outer core is dense, molten, and mostly iron, and is re-
sponsible for the earth’s magnetic field; the inner core is thought
to be solid and mostly iron.
Core-mantle boundary. Seismic discontinuity 1,790 miles (2,890 km.) be-
low the earth’s surface that separates the mantle from the outer
core.
Core region. Area, generally around a country’s capital city, that has
a large, dense population and is the center of trade, financial ser-
vices, and production. The rest of the country is referred to as the pe-
riphery. On a larger scale, the continent of Europe has a core re-
gion, which includes London, Paris, and Berlin; Iceland, Portugal,
and Greece are peripheral locations.
Coriolis effect. Apparent deflection of moving objects above the earth
because of the earth’s rotation. The deflection is to the right in the
Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemi-
sphere. The deflection is inversely proportional to the speed of the
earth’s rotation, being negligible at the equator but at its maximum
near the poles. The Coriolis effect is a major influence on the direc-
tion of surface winds. Sometimes called Coriolis force.
Corn Belt. Part of the United States covering Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana,
and parts of Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, and
Ohio. A region of mixed crop-and-livestock agriculture, where
corn growing and hog farming are combined on farms. Corn is also
used at feedlots to fatten cattle from areas farther west. The main agri-
cultural product of the Corn Belt, therefore, is meat.
Corrasion. Erosion and lowering of a streambed by fluvial action, es-
pecially by abrasion of the bedload (material transported by the
stream) but also including solution by the water.
Cosmogony. Study of the origin and nature of the solar system.
Cosmopolitanism. Intellectual openness to a variety of cultures, experi-
ences, and products from other regions or countries. Previously, peo-
ple gained a cosmopolitan perspective mainly through travel to for-
eign countries, but now television, motion pictures, and the Internet
can bring aspects of foreign contemporary cultures directly to con-
sumers in their own homes.
Cotton Belt. Part of the United States extending from South Carolina
through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkan-
sas, Texas, and Oklahoma, where cotton was grown on plantations
using slave labor before the Civil War. After that war, the South stag-
nated for almost a century. Racial segregation contributed to cul-
tural isolation from the rest of the United States. Cotton is still pro-
duced in this region, but California has overtaken the Southern
states as a cotton producer, and other agricultural products, such as
soybeans and poultry, have become dominant crops in the old Cotton
 Glossary / 359

Belt. In-migration, due to the Sun Belt attraction, has led to rapid ur-
ban growth in the old Cotton Belt..
Counterclockwise. Rotating direction opposite to that of the hands on a
clock dial when viewed from the same perspective. This term and its
opposite, clockwise, are often used to describe the movements of
weather phenomena and the rotations of celestial objects. For ex-
ample, low-pressure areas are characterized by winds moving in a
counterclockwise direction in the Northern Hemisphere.
Counterurbanization. Out-migration of people from urban areas to
smaller towns or rural areas. As large modern cities are perceived to
be overcrowded, stressful, polluted, and dangerous, many of their resi-
dents move to areas they regard as more favorable. Such moves are of-
ten related to individuals’ retirements; however, younger workers and
families are also part of counterurbanization.
Country. Commonly used to mean an independent and sovereign state,
such as the United States, Canada, or Germany; a nation-state. Also
used to mean rural, as compared with a town or city, as in “country
roads” or “country cousins.”
County. Unit into which some countries are subdivided for local adminis-
tration. In the United States, the level below the state government
(called parishes in Louisiana). In the United Kingdom, the level of ma-
jor division for administration, similar to the states of the United States.
County seat. City or town containing the administrative headquarters
of the surrounding county.
Cove. Small opening in the coastline of any larger body of water. A cove
can be a small bay, usually well protected by headlands.
Crag. Scottish and Welsh word for a steep, rocky cliff in the mountains
or on coastal headlands and islands.
Crater. Circular depression at the top of a volcano, from which molten ma-
terial emerges. Craters also are found on the flanks of larger volcanoes.

Wizard Island in Oregon’s Crater Lake. The lake fills the caldera of a volcano that erupted about
76,000 years ago. After the volcano emptied itself, it collapsed into its own hole to create the
caldera. (Corbis)
360 / Glossary

Crater morphology. Structure or form of craters and the related pro-

cesses that developed them.
Craton. Large, geologically old, relatively stable core of a continental
lithospheric plate, sometimes termed a continental shield.
Creep. Slow, gradual downslope movement of soil materials under gravi-
tational stress. Creep tests are experiments conducted to assess the ef-
fects of time on rock properties, in which environmental conditions
(surrounding pressure, temperature) and the deforming stress are
held constant.
Crestal plane. Plane or surface that goes through the highest points of all
beds in a fold; it is coincident with the axial plane when the axial plane
is vertical.
Cretaceous era. Third, last, and longest geologic period of the Mesozoic
era, 144 million to 65 million years ago. During the era seas covered
much of North America and the Rocky Mountains were formed. The
end of the era was marked by the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Inside a crevasse in Blue

Ice Valley on the Greenland
ice sheet, sixty-five feet
below the surface. (U.S.
Geological Survey)

Crevasse. Deep vertical crack that forms in a glacier as a result of

stresses. Fresh snowfall can cover a crevasse, making glacier explora-
tion hazardous.
Crop rotation. Agricultural practice of growing alternating crops on the
same field. Generally a legume, such as alfalfa or clover, is grown as a
 Glossary / 361

fodder crop after a grain crop has been grown for one or two years.
The legume helps restore soil fertility by adding nitrogen. Crop rota-
tion was developed in the late seventeenth century in Europe, as one
of a series of advances known as the Agricultural Revolution.
Cross-bedding. Layers of rock or sand that lie at an angle to horizontal
bedding or to the ground.
Crown land. Land belonging to a nation’s monarchy. Some parts of
crown land are used as public parks; others are leased and used for pri-
vate agriculture or other commercial purposes.
Crude birth rate. Ratio of the number of live births in a country in a sin-
gle year for every thousand people of the total population. In high-
income economies, the crude birth rate is less than twenty. In the
United States in 2000, it was fifteen per thousand. In some African
countries, such as Somalia, it was fifty per thousand.
Crude death rate. Ratio of the number of deaths in a country in a single
year for every thousand people of the total population. When the
crude birth rate is higher than the crude death rate, the population
of a country is increasing assuming that there is no net migration
loss. In the United States in 2000, the crude death rate was nine per
thousand. The difference between the crude birth rate and the crude
death rate is the rate of natural increase, which is expressed as a per-
centage. For the United States in 2000, the rate of natural increase was
0.6 percent (six per thousand).
Crude oil. Unrefined oil, as it occurs naturally. Also called petroleum.
Crust. Outer layer of the earth, made of crystalline rocks and varying in
thickness from 3 miles (5 km.) beneath the oceans to 38 miles (60
km.) under the continental mountain ranges. It consists of rocky ma-
terial which is less dense than the mantle.
Crustal movements. Plate tectonics theorizes that Earth’s crust is not
a single rigid shell, but comprises a number of large pieces that are in
motion, separating or colliding. There are two types of crust—the
older continental and the much younger oceanic crust. When
plates diverge, at seafloor spreading zones, new (oceanic) crust is
created from the magma that flows out at the mid-ocean ridges.
When plates converge and collide, denser oceanic crust is subducted
under the lighter continental crust. The boundaries at the areas
where plates slide laterally, neither diverging nor converging, are
called transform faults. The San Andreas Fault represents the
world’s best-known transform boundary. As a result of crustal move-
ments, the earth can be deformed in several ways. Where plate
boundaries converge, compression can occur, leading to folding
and the creation of synclines and anticlines. Other stresses of the
crust can lead to fracture, or faulting, and accompanying earth-
quakes. Landforms created in this way include horsts, graben, and
block mountains.
362 / Glossary

Cuesta. Spanish term used to describe an escarpment and its associated

gentle dip slope, formed in sedimentary rocks.
Cultural ecology. Study of the interaction between humans and their en-
vironment; for example, the study of how human societies have
adapted to certain physical conditions, such as prolonged cold in
northern Canada or arid conditions in northern Mexico. Cultural
ecology is related to cultural anthropology. In highly urbanized societ-
ies, cultural ecologists study how people shape their urban environ-
ments and how those environments affect human lifestyle and behavior.
Cultural geography. Study of how landscapes, space, and place shape
various cultures, while at the same time different cultures shape and
influence the landscapes, spaces, and places.
Cultural landscape. Evidence of the effect of human activities on the nat-
ural landscape.
Cultural nationalism. Movement that has grown rapidly in the face of
globalization. Modern media have a homogenizing effect on national
and regional cultures. Governments, and some smaller groups, have
attempted to protect and preserve their culture from globalization,
which has often meant Americanization. Some measures adopted
have included negative acts such as restricting the broadcast of Ameri-
can programs on television and banning certain recordings of video-
cassettes; positive measures include promotion of literature in the na-
tional language or regional dialect, investment in local cultural and
artistic productions, and the creation of archives, oral histories, and
museums.
Culture. In anthropology, the learned parts of human behavior that are
transmitted through generations. Culture includes language, reli-
gion, foods and their preparation, clothing, ceremonies, housing,
and the other factors that are shared by a cultural group. Geographers
are concerned with how any particular culture, or way of life, is related
to the physical landscape. They also study how cultures vary from one
place to another and how cultures change over time.
Culture hearth. Location in which a culture has developed; a core re-
gion from which the culture later spread or diffused outward through
a larger region. Mesopotamia, the Nile Valley, and the Peruvian Alti-
plano are examples of culture hearths.
Cumulonimbus. Huge, dense clouds that can rise up into the strato-
sphere. Cumulonimbus clouds produce lightning and thunder-
storms, so the base of a cumulonimbus cloud can be dark while the
top is gleaming white. The flat or anvil-shaped top of the cloud is
sometimes called a thunderhead. See also Clouds.
Cumulus. Puffy clouds ranging from small to extremely large. Cumulus
clouds occur below 6,500 feet (2,000 meters). These clouds are some-
times compared to cotton balls or cauliflower. Coastal regions see cu-
mulus clouds every day.
 Glossary / 363

Curie point. Temperature at which a magnetic mineral locks in its mag-

netization. Also known as Curie temperature.
Cycle. Sequence of naturally recurring events and processes. Most cycles
consume energy to move a substance through the environment.
Cycle of erosion. Influential model of landscape change proposed by
William Morris Davis near the end of the nineteenth century. The up-
lift of a relatively flat surface, or plain, in an area of moderate rain-
fall and temperature, led to gradual erosion of the initial surface
in a sequence Davis categorized as Youth, Maturity, and Old Age. The
final landscape was called peneplain. Davis also recognized the stage
of Rejuvenation, when a new uplift could give new energy to the cy-
cle, leading to further downcutting and erosion. The model also was
used to explain the sequence of landforms developed in regions of
alpine glaciers. The model has been criticized as misleading, since
crustal movement is continuous and more frequent than Davis per-
haps envisaged, but it remained useful as a description of topogra-
phy. Also known as the Davisian cycle or geomorphic cycle.
Cyclone. Low-pressure system of rotating winds, converging and ascend-
ing. In the Northern Hemisphere, the rotation is counterclock-
wise; in the Southern Hemisphere, the rotation is clockwise. See
also Anticyclone; Hurricane; Tropical cyclone; Typhoon.
Cyclonic rain. In the Northern Hemisphere winter, two low-pressure
systems or cyclones—the Aleutian Low and the Icelandic Low—
develop over the ocean near 60 degrees north latitude. The polar
front forms where the cold and relatively dry Arctic air meets the
warmer, moist air carried by westerly winds. The warm air is forced up-
ward, cools, and condenses. These cyclonic storms often move south,
bringing winter precipitation to North America, especially to the
states of Washington and Oregon.
Cylindrical projection. Map projection that represents the earth’s sur-
face as a rectangle. It can be imagined as a cylinder of paper wrapped
around a globe with a light source at its center; the images of the con-
tinents would be projected onto the paper. In reality, maps are con-
structed mathematically. It is impossible to show the North Pole or
South Pole on a cylindrical projection. Although the map is conformal,
distortion of area is extreme beyond 50 degrees north and south lat-
itudes. The Mercator projection, developed in the sixteenth century
by the Flemish cartographer Gerhardus Mercator, is the best-known
cylindrical projection. It has been popular with seamen because the
shortest route between two ports (the great circle route) can be
plotted as straight lines that show the compass direction that should
be followed. Use of this projection for other purposes, however, can
lead to misunderstandings about size; for example, compare Green-
land on a globe and on a Mercator map. See also Maps.
364 / Glossary

Dale. English word for a valley.

Dam. Structure built across a river to control the flow of water. It is
thought that the earliest dams were constructed to store water for irri-
gation during the dry part of the year. Modern dams store water for
cities and industry and also produce hydroelectricity. The lake that
forms artificially behind a dam is called a reservoir. Every dam must
have a spillway so excess water is released when the level in the reser-
voir becomes too high. As engineering technology led to the con-
struction of huge dams in the twentieth century, many critics voiced
opposition. The waters of the reservoir often inundated areas of great
scenic beauty, valuable agricultural land, and historic structures. Large
dams also displaced many people.

Dams are structures built across streams to control the flow of water. Lakes that
form artificially behind dams are called reservoirs. (PhotoDisc)

Date line. See International date line.

Datum level. Baseline or level from which other heights are measured,
above or below. Mean sea level is the datum commonly used in sur-
veying and in the construction of topographic maps.
Davisian cycle. See Cycle of erosion.
Dawn. Period of time from the first appearance of sunlight in the morn-
ing to when the Sun is fully above the horizon. The length of time var-
ies with latitude, being shortest at the equator. At the poles, dawn
lasts for about seven weeks during the summer months.
Day. Interval of time between successive passages of the Sun or star over a
meridian of the earth.
Daylight saving time. System of seasonal adjustments in clock settings
designed to increase hours of evening sunlight during summer months.
 Glossary / 365

In the spring, clocks are set ahead one hour; in the fall, they are put
back to standard time. In North America, these changes are made on
the first Sunday in April and the last Sunday in October. The U.S. Con-
gress standardized daylight saving time in 1966; however, parts of Ari-
zona, Indiana, and Hawaii do not follow the system.
Death rate. Annual number of deaths per one thousand individuals of a
given population. For the United States, the death rate was nine per-
sons (per thousand per year) at the end of the twentieth century.
Shortened form of “crude death rate.”
Débâcle. In a scientific context, this French word means the sudden
breaking up of ice in a river in the spring, which can lead to serious,
sudden flooding.
Debris avalanche. Large mass of soil and rock that falls and then slides
on a cushion of air downhill rapidly as a unit.
Debris flow. Flowing mass consisting of water and a high concentration of
sediment with a wide range of size, from fine muds to coarse gravels.
Deciduous forest. Mixed, broadleaf forest that was once common in
moist, temperate climates in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

Birch trees can be found in boreal forests throughout the world. (PhotoDisc)
366 / Glossary

Common trees were oak, ash, elm, walnut, maple, and birch. The
leaves of the trees turn red or yellow as the weather becomes cool,
and the branches are bare throughout the winter when tempera-
tures fall below freezing. Centuries of clearing have destroyed signifi-
cant portions of deciduous forests.
Declination, magnetic. Measure of the difference, in degrees, between
the earth’s north magnetic pole and the North Pole on a map; this
difference changes slightly each year. The needle of a magnetic com-
pass points to the earth’s geomagnetic pole, which is not exactly the
same as the North Pole of the geographic grid or the set of lines of
latitude and longitude. The geomagnetic poles, north and south,
mark the ends of the axis of the earth’s magnetic field, but this field
is not stationary. In fact, the geomagnetic poles have completely re-
versed hundreds of times throughout earth history. Lines of equal
magnetic declination are called isogonic lines.
Declination of the Sun. Latitude of the subsolar point, the place on
the earth’s surface where the Sun is directly overhead. In the course of a
year, the declination of the Sun migrates from 23.5 degrees north lati-
tude, at the (northern) summer solstice, to 23.5 degrees south lati-
tude, at the (northern) winter solstice. Hawaii is the only part of the
United States that experiences the Sun directly overhead twice a year.
Deep. Relatively deep part of an ocean, part of the abyssal plain.
Deep ecology. View or philosophy of nature that has two major aspects.
Self-realization is the view that humans are merely one part of a com-
plex world system with many different parts. Egalitarianism, or bio-
spherical egalitarianism, places the whole earth at the center of life
and holds that every species has the same rights; humans are not supe-
rior to, or more important than, any other species, or even rocks.
Deep ecologists argue that humans should respect the nonhuman
world and not regard it as merely a means to sustain human life.
Deep-focus earthquakes. Earthquakes occurring at depths ranging
from 40 to 400 miles (65 to 650 km.) below the earth’s surface. This
range of depths represents the zone from the base of the earth’s
crust to approximately one-quarter of the distance into Earth’s man-
tle. Deep-focus earthquakes provide scientists information about the
planet’s interior structure, its composition, and seismicity. Observa-
tion of deep-focus earthquakes has played a fundamental role in the
discovery and understanding of plate tectonics.
Deep-ocean currents. Deep-ocean currents involve significant vertical
and horizontal movements of seawater. They distribute oxygen- and
nutrient-rich waters throughout the world’s oceans, thereby enhanc-
ing biological productivity.
Deep-sea plain. See Abyssal plain.
Defile. Narrow mountain pass or gorge through which troops could
march only in single file.
 Glossary / 367

Example of
deflation—a block of
granite hollowed out
by windblown sand
in Chile’s Atacama
Province. (U.S.
Geological Survey)

Deflation. Erosion by wind, resulting in the removal of fine particles.

The landform that typically results is a deflation hollow.
Deforestation. Removal or destruction of forests. In the late twentieth
century, there was widespread concern about tropical deforestation—
destruction of the tropical rain forest—especially that of Brazil. For-
est clearing in the Tropics is uneconomic because of low soil fertility.

Clear-cutting of forests for commercial timber is one of the major contributors to deforestation.
(PhotoDisc)
 368 / Glossary

Deforestation causes severe erosion and environmental damage; it

also destroys habitat, which leads to the extinction of both plant and
animal species.
Degradation. Process of crater erosion from all processes, including
wind and other meteorological mechanisms. See also Denudation.
Degree (geography). Unit of latitude or longitude in the geographic
grid, used to determine absolute location. One degree of latitude
is about 69 miles (111 km.) on the earth’s surface. It is not exactly the
same everywhere, because the earth is not a perfect sphere. One de-
gree of longitude varies greatly in length, because the meridians con-
verge at the poles. At the equator, it is 69 miles (111 km.), but at the
North or South Pole it is zero.
Degree (temperature). Unit of measurement of temperature, based on
the Celsius scale, except in the United States, which uses the Fahr-
enheit scale. On the Celsius scale, one degree is one-hundredth of
the difference between the freezing point of water and the boiling
point of water.
Dehydration. Release of water from pore spaces or from hydrous miner-
als as a result of increasing temperature.
Delta. Area of deposition of alluvium where a river enters the sea or a
lake. The Greek letter “delta” was used to describe the mouth of the
Nile River; not all river deltas have this shape. Some are elongated
along distributaries and are called bird’s-foot deltas, for example
the Mississippi River. The largest delta in the world is the combined
delta of the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers in Bangladesh.

The combined delta of the

Ganges and Brahmaputra
Rivers in Bangladesh is the
world’s largest. (PhotoDisc)
 Glossary / 369

Demographic measure. Statistical data relating to population.

Demographic transition. Model of population change that fits the ex-
perience of many European countries, showing changes in birth and
death rates. In the first stage, in preindustrial countries, population
size was stable because both birth rates and death rates were high.
Agricultural reforms, together with the Industrial Revolution and
subsequent medical advances, led to a rapid fall in the death rate, so
that the second and third stages of the model were periods of rapid
population growth, often called the population explosion. In the
fourth stage of the model, birth rates fall markedly, leading again to
stable population size.
Demography. Study of population, especially of changes measured by
such statistics as birth rates, death rates, and migration.
Dendritic drainage. Most common pattern of streams and their tribu-
taries, occurring in areas of uniform rock type and regular slope. A
map, or aerial photograph, shows a pattern like the veins on a leaf—
smaller streams join the main stream at an acute angle.
Denudation. General word for all landform processes that lead to a low-
ering of the landscape, including weathering, mass movement,
erosion, and transport.
Dependency. Territory, such as a colony or protectorate, ruled by a
nation of which it is not an integral part.
Deposition. Laying down of sediments that have been transported by
water, wind, or ice.
Depression. Term used in European countries for a midlatitude cyclone
or low-pressure system. Precipitation usually results as these systems
move from west to east across Europe or North America.
Deranged drainage. Landscape whose integrated drainage network has
been destroyed by irregular glacial deposition, yielding numerous
shallow lake basins.
Derivative maps. Maps that are prepared or derived by combining infor-
mation from several other maps.
Desalinization. Process of removing salt and minerals from seawater or
from saline water occurring in aquifers beneath the land surface to
render it fit for agriculture or other human use.
Desert. Large region of dry climate, which consequently has a sparse
human population. The desert biome occupies about one-quarter of
the earth’s lands and comprises a distinctive assemblage of flora and
fauna with specific adaptations to this physical environment. Desert
plants are mostly small and sparse and have xerophytic characteris-
tics. Animals are small and often nocturnal. The hot deserts of the world
are located in northern Africa through southwest Asia, and in Australia,
the southwest United States, Chile, and southwest Africa. There also
are cool or temperate deserts, located in the northern United States
and extensively in central Asia, where elevation is part of the reason
370 / Glossary

The spectacular sand dunes of Asia’s Gobi Desert display the constantly
changing ridges and shapes caused by wind. (Digital Stock)

for this difference. Desert landforms are quite distinctive. Although

sand dunes are popularly associated with deserts, they cover only 10
percent of the world’s deserts. Stony, mountainous desert landscapes
are much more common, especially in United States deserts.
Desert climate. Low precipitation, low humidity, high daytime tem-
peratures, and abundant sunlight are characteristics of desert cli-
mates. The hot deserts of the world generally are located on the west-
ern sides of continents, at latitudes from fifteen to thirty degrees
north or south of the equator. One definition, based on precipita-
tion, defines deserts as areas that receive between 0 and 9 inches (0 to
250 millimeters) of precipitation per year. Regions receiving more
precipitation are considered to have a semidesert climate, in which
some agriculture is possible.
Desert pavement. Surface covered with smoothed pebbles and gravels,
found in arid areas where deflation (wind erosion) has removed
smaller particles. Called a “gibber plain” in Australia and a reg in Arabic-
speaking countries. See also Erg.
Desertification. Increase in desert areas worldwide, largely as a result of
overgrazing or poor agricultural practices in semiarid and marginal
climates. Deforestation, drought, and population increase also
contribute to desertification. The region of Africa just south of the Sa-
hara Desert, known as the Sahel, is the largest and most dramatic
demonstration of desertification.
Detrital minerals. See Detritus.
Detrital rock. Sedimentary rock composed mainly of grains of silicate
minerals as opposed to grains of calcite or clays.
 Glossary / 371

Detritus. Minerals which have been eroded, transported, and deposited

as sediments. Also called detrital minerals.
Development. Level of industrialization and standard of living in a
country. Economic geographers study various measures of develop-
ment. The countries of the world can be divided into four levels of
economic development: high-income, upper-middle-income, lower-
middle-income, and low-income. The low-income countries are con-
centrated in Africa and Asia. In the past, terms such as “undeveloped,”
“less developed,” and “underdeveloped” were used for the various low-
income to lower-middle-income economies, as was the now-outdated
term Third World.
Devolution. Breaking up of a large country into smaller independent
political units is the final and most extreme form of devolution. The
Soviet Union devolved from one single country into fifteen separate
countries in 1991. At an intermediate level, devolution refers to the
granting of political autonomy or self-government to a region, with-
out a complete split. The reopening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999
and the Northern Ireland parliament in 2000 are examples of devolu-
tion; the Parliament of the United Kingdom had previously met only
in London and made laws there for all parts of the country. Canada ex-
perienced devolution with the creation of the new territory of Nunavut,
whose residents elect the members of their own legislative assembly.
Dew. Deposit of water droplets on objects whose surface has sufficiently
cooled, generally by loss of heat through nighttime radiation, to a
temperature sufficiently low to condense water vapor from the sur-
rounding air. See also Hoar frost.

Dew on a spider web. (PhotoDisc)

372 / Glossary

Dew point. Temperature at which an air mass becomes saturated and

can hold no more moisture. Further cooling leads to condensation.
At ground level, this produces dew.
Diagenesis. Conversion of unconsolidated sediment into consolidated
rock after burial by the processes of compaction, cementation, re-
crystallization, and replacement.
Dialect. Regional variation of a standard language. It can consist of dif-
ferent pronunciations and different word usage. Speakers of the lan-
guage can understand the dialect, even if they do not speak it. Within
the United States, there are several regional dialects; for example, peo-
ple in Texas speak a different dialect from people in Boston.
Diaspora. Dispersion of a group of people from one culture to a variety
of other regions or to other lands. A Greek word, used originally to re-
fer to the Jewish diaspora. Jewish people now live in many countries, al-
though they have Israel as a homeland. Similar to this are the diaspo-
ras of the Irish and the Chinese.
Diastrophism. Deformation of the earth’s crust by faulting or folding.
Diatom ooze. Deposit of soft mud on the ocean floor consisting of the
shells of diatoms, which are microscopic single-celled creatures with
silica-rich shells. Diatom ooze deposits are located in the southern
Pacific around Antarctica and in the northern Pacific. Other pelagic,
or deep-ocean, sediments include clays and calcareous ooze.
Differential weathering. Physical and chemical weathering that occurs
at irregular or different rates, caused by variations in composition and
resistance of a rock or by differences in intensity of weathering, and
usually resulting in an uneven surface where more resistant material
stands higher or protrudes above less resistant parts.
Differentiation. Layering within rock that results from differences in
density; the lighter material rises to the surface while the heaviest ma-
terial sinks to the bottom of a mixture of substances.
Diffusion. Process of growth and spread outward from a center or core
area over time. It is applied to many phenomena in cultural geog-
raphy, such as the spread of disease, or the growth of a city, lan-
guage, and ideas. Modern telecommunications make possible almost
instantaneous diffusion of ideas, images, and sounds throughout the
developed world.
Dike (geology). Landform created by igneous intrusion when magma
or molten material within the earth forces its way in a narrow band
through overlying rock. The dike can be exposed at the surface
through erosion.
Dike (water). Earth wall or dam built to prevent flooding; an embank-
ment or artificial levee. Sometimes specifically associated with struc-
tures built in the Netherlands to prevent the entry of seawater. The
land behind the dikes was reclaimed for agriculture; these new
fields are called polders.
 Glossary / 373

Dingle. Old English word for a small, secluded valley with trees.
Distance-decay function. Rate at which an activity diminishes with in-
creasing distance. The effect that distance has as a deterrent on hu-
man activity is sometimes described as the friction of distance. It
occurs because of the time and cost of overcoming distances between
people and their desired activity. An example of the distance-decay
function is the rate of visitors to a football stadium. The farther people
have to travel, the less likely they are to make this journey.
Distributary. Stream that takes waters away from the main channel of a
river. A delta usually comprises many distributaries. Also called
distributary channel.
Distribution. Way in which some feature, or group of features, under ex-
amination is spread out over a region. Geographers look for patterns
of distribution and seek explanations for the patterns.
Diurnal range. Difference between the highest and lowest tempera-
tures registered in one twenty-four-hour period.
Diurnal tide. Having only one high tide and one low tide each lunar day;
tides on some parts of the Gulf of Mexico are diurnal.
Divergence. Process of fracturing and dissecting a supercontinent,
thereby creating new oceanic rock; divergence represents the initial
half of the supercontinent cycle.
Divergent boundary. Boundary that results where two tectonic plates
are moving apart from each other, as is the case along mid-oceanic
ridges.
Divergent margin. Area where the earth’s crust and lithosphere form
by seafloor spreading.
Divergent plates. Tectonic plate boundary where two plates are mov-
ing apart.
Diversity. Variety of life, usually described in terms of the number of spe-
cies present.
Divide. Ridge that separates one drainage basin from the adjoining ba-
sin. The continental divides of the United States separate those
streams that flow to the Pacific Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlan-
tic Ocean, Hudson Bay, and the Arctic Ocean. Also known as drainage
divide.
Doctor. Winds or breezes that bring relief from unpleasant or oppressive
weather conditions. In Western Australia, the cool sea breeze that
comes in the afternoon is called the Fremantle Doctor. A similar phe-
nomenon in South Africa is called the Cape Doctor. The names come
from an earlier time, but these winds have become important in reduc-
ing air pollution in the cities of Perth and Cape Town, respectively.
Doldrums. Narrow belt of oceans on both sides of the thermal equa-
tor (Intertropical Convergence Zone) which is a zone of calms or
light variable winds. In the days of travel by sailing ship, sailors feared
becoming trapped in this part of the world. The epic poem The Rime of
374 / Glossary

the Ancient Mariner (1857) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge describes the

imaginary plight of a vessel caught in the doldrums. Now, the term “in
the doldrums” has come to mean a feeling of downheartedness.
Doline. Large sinkhole or circular depression formed in limestone ar-
eas through the chemical weathering process of carbonation.
Dolomite. Mineral consisting of calcium and magnesium carbonate
compounds that often forms from precipitation from seawater; it is
abundant in ancient rocks.
Dome. Small circular structure formed by folding or warping of the
earth’s crust, such as are found among the Ozark Mountains and the
Black Hills of South Dakota.
Domestication. Change from wild to tame or suitable for human agricul-
tural use. The domestication of animals and plants, which began sev-
eral thousand years ago, led to the farming of crops and the grazing of
animals, making civilization possible.
Donga. South African word for a dry streambed in an arid area. See also
Arroyo, Wadi, and Wash.
Double cropping. In warm moist climates, farmers can produce two
crops from the same field in a single year. This is the case with rice
growing in southeast Asian countries and in southern China. Fertile
soils are an advantage in these regions as well.
Downburst. Downward outflowing of air and the associated wind shear
from a thunderstorm that is especially hazardous to aircraft.
Downland. Flat to rolling upland area or plateau, covered with grass
and used mainly for grazing sheep. Often known as downs.
Downwelling. Sinking of ocean water.
Drainage. Collection and removal of water from precipitation by stream
channels. The geology of an area influences the drainage pattern.
Typically, a dendritic pattern forms in an area of uniform slope and
rocktype. A centripetal drainage pattern indicates a graben. On a
dome or volcano, a radial pattern forms. In areas of alternating hard
and soft rocks, usually areas of folding, a trellis pattern is seen. See
also Internal drainage.
Drainage basin. Area of the earth’s surface that is drained by a stream.
Drainage basins vary greatly in size, but each is separated from the
next by ridges, or drainage divides. The catchment of the drainage
basin is the watershed.
Drainage density. Total length of all streams in a drainage basin di-
vided by the area of that basin. A humid climate has a high drainage
density, while deserts have a low drainage density.
Drainage divide. See Divide.
Drift ice. Arctic or Antarctic ice floating in the open sea.
Drizzle. Very fine rain, comprising small raindrops.
Drought. Prolonged period with no precipitation; abnormally dry
weather sufficiently prolonged for the lack of precipitation to cause a
 Glossary / 375

serious hydrological imbalance. Drought is a relative rather than an

absolute condition, but the end result is a water shortage for an activity
such as plant growth or for some group of people such as farmers.
Drowned valley. Feature occurring where a shoreline has been sub-
merged, usually through rising sea level. Where a series of long head-
lands and alternating estuaries occur, this is called a ria coast. The
northeastern coast of the United States has many long narrow inlets
that were river valleys when sea level was lower.
Drumlin. Low hill, shaped like half an egg, formed by deposition by
continental glaciers. A drumlin is composed of till, or mixed-size
materials. The wider end faces upstream of the glacier’s movement;
the tapered end points in the direction of the ice movement. Drumlins
usually occur in groups or swarms.
Dune. Deposits of sand of various shapes—crescents, ridges, and heaps.
Sand dunes are moved by winds.
Duricrust. See Laterite.
Dust. Particles smaller than 62 micrometers in size. Dust particles are
moved great distances by winds, from one continent to another.
Dust particles may come from soil erosion, as was the case in the fa-
mous Dust Bowl of the 1930’s.
Dust Bowl. Part of the southwestern Great Plains of the United States, in
Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Colorado. In the 1920’s,
grassland that formerly had been used for cattle grazing was plowed
up for grain growing. This fragile environment then suffered from poor
agricultural practices, combined with a long drought in the 1930’s. The
topsoil was carried away as dust by strong winds. Daylight was ob-
scured by clouds of dust so thick that streetlights burned throughout
the day in cities such as Kansas City and St. Louis. During the Great
Depression, thousands of people from the Dust Bowl abandoned their
farms, many moving to California in hopes of a better life there. The
federal government acted to stabilize the region in the 1940’s.
Dust devil. Whirling cloud of dust and small debris, formed when a small
patch of the earth’s surface becomes heated, causing hot air to rise;

Dust devils. (PhotoDisc)

376 / Glossary

cooler air then flows in and begins to spin. The resulting dust devil can
grow to heights of 150 feet (50 meters) and reach speeds of 35 miles
(60 km.) per hour. See Willy Willy.
Dust dome. Dome of air pollution, composed of industrial gases and
particles, covering every large city in the world. The pollution some-
times is carried downwind to outlying areas.
Dust storm. Particles such as dust transported long distances by winds.
The size of the particles influences the distance traveled. Storms from
the Sahara Desert can carry dust even north of the Alps in Europe. Re-
moval of particles by the wind is called deflation.

Early Paleozoic. That part of geologic history that is somewhat younger

than about 550 million years before the present.
Earth pillar. Formation produced when a boulder or caprock prevents
erosion of the material directly beneath it, usually clay. The clay is
easily eroded away by water during rainfall, except where the overly-
ing rock protects it. The result is a tall, slender column, as high as 20
feet (6.5 meters) in exceptional cases.
Earth radiation. Portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, from about 4 to
80 microns, in which the earth emits about 99 percent of its radiation.
Earth tide. Slight deformation of Earth resulting from the same forces
that cause ocean tides, those that are exerted by the Moon and the
Sun.
Earthflow. Term applied to both the process and the landform charac-
terized by fluid downslope movement of soil and rock over a discrete
plane of failure; the landform has a hummocky surface and usually
terminates in discrete lobes.
Earthquake. Movement of the earth’s crust when there is a sudden re-
lease of built-up energy along a fault. Waves travel through the
crust, as well as through the underlying mantle. Earthquake intensity
is measured using the moment magnitude scale. Before 1993, the
Richter scale was commonly used. An early descriptive scale of
earthquake intensity is the Mercalli scale.
Earthquake focus. Area below the surface of the earth where active move-
ment occurs to produce an earthquake.
Earthquake swarm. Number of earthquakes that occur close together
and closely spaced in time.
Earthquake waves. Vibrations that emanate from an earthquake; earth-
quake waves can be measured with a seismograph.
Earth’s core. See Core.
Earth’s heat budget. Balance between the incoming solar radiation
and the outgoing terrestrial reradiation.
Eastern Hemisphere. The half of the earth containing Europe, Asia, and
Africa; generally understood to fall between longitudes 20 degrees
west and 160 degrees east.
 Glossary / 377

Ebb tide. Outgoing or falling tide that, in most parts of the world, occurs
twice in a 24-hour period. See also Flood tide.
Eclipse. Event where all or part of the light emitted, or reflected, by an as-
tronomical object is obscured by another astronomical object.
Eclipse, lunar. Obscuring of all or part of the light of the Moon by the
shadow of the earth. A lunar eclipse occurs at the full moon up to
three times a year. The surface of the Moon changes from gray to a red-
dish color, then back to gray. The sequence may last several hours.
Eclipse, solar. At least twice a year, the Sun, Moon, and Earth are aligned
in one straight line. At that time, the Moon obscures all the light of the
Sun along a narrow band of the earth’s surface, causing a total eclipse;
in regions of Earth adjoining that area, there is a partial eclipse. A co-
rona (halo of light) can be seen around the Sun at the total eclipse.
Viewing a solar eclipse with naked eyes is extremely dangerous and can
cause blindness.

Solar eclipse
observed from
North Dakota on
February 26, 1979.
(PhotoDisc)

Ecliptic. Intersection of the plane of the earth’s orbit with the celestial
sphere; with the exception of Pluto, the orbital planes of the other
planets lie within 7 degrees of the ecliptic.
Ecliptic, plane of. Imaginary plane that would touch all points in the
earth’s orbit as it moves around the Sun. The angle between the
plane of the ecliptic and the earth’s axis is 66.5 degrees.
Ecological imperialism. Introduction of foreign and exotic species of
plants and animals into ecosystems. The interchange between the
Old World and the New World was often deliberate and beneficial (see
Columbian exchange), but there were also unintentional introduc-
tions. These often had severely detrimental effects on native species
and led to problems with feral animals and similar pests like starlings
and pigeons, or to noxious weeds such as thistles and dandelions.
Ecology. Science that studies the relationship between living organisms
(plants and animals) and their environment. Ecologists also study in-
dividual ecosystems in detail.
378 / Glossary

Economy. System of production, distribution, and consumption of goods

and services, usually within a single country. Measures of the strength
of a country’s economy include the gross domestic product per ca-
pita or the gross national product per capita. The growth of transna-
tional enterprises and international trade has led to a global economy.
Ecosystem. Association of living and nonliving parts of a group of plants
and animals and their physical environment.
Edaphic. Related to the soil. Edaphic factors that influence plants in-
clude humus content, which is related to fertility; soil texture; soil
structure; and the presence of various soil organisms such as bacteria
and earthworms.
Eddy. Mass of water that is spun off an ocean current by the current’s
meandering motion.
Edge cities. Forms of suburban downtown in which there are nodal con-
centrations of office space and shopping facilities. Edge cities are lo-
cated close to major freeways or highway intersections, on the outer
edges of metropolitan areas.
Effective temperature. Temperature of a planet based solely on the
amount of solar radiation that the planet’s surface receives; the ef-
fective temperature of a planet does not include the greenhouse tem-
perature enhancement effect.
Ejecta. Material ejected from the crater made by a meteoric impact.
Ekman layer. Region of the sea, from the surface to about 100 meters
down, in which the wind directly affects water movement.
Ekman spiral. Water movement in lower depths of an ocean that occurs at a
slower rate and in a different direction from surface water movement.
El Niño. Conditions—also known as El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
events—that occur every two to ten years and affect weather and
ocean temperatures, particularly off the coast of Ecuador and
Peru. Most of the time, the Peru, or Humboldt, Current causes cold,
nutrient-rich water to well up off the coast of Ecuador and Peru. Dur-
ing ENSO years, the cold upwelling is replaced by warmer surface
water that does not support plankton and fish. Fisheries decline and
seabirds starve. Climatic changes of El Niño can bring floods to nor-
mally dry areas and drought to wet areas. Effects can extend across
North and South America, and to the western Pacific Ocean. During
the 1990’s, the ENSO event fluctuated but did not vanish completely,
which caused tremendous damage to fisheries and agriculture,
storms and droughts in North America, and numerous hurricanes.
Elevation. Vertical distance of a point on the earth’s surface above or be-
low mean sea level.
Ellipse. Shape of Earth’s orbit; rather than a circle with one center, the
ellipse has two foci with the Sun located at one of the foci.
Eluviation. Removal of materials from the upper layers of a soil by water.
Fine material may be removed by suspension in the water; other mate-
 Glossary / 379

rial is removed by solution. The removal by solution is called leach-

ing. Eluviation from an upper layer leads to illuviation in a lower layer.
Embankment. Artificial earthen mound built to support a road or to con-
trol the movement of water.
Emigration. Leaving one’s country of birth to settle permanently in an-
other country. See also Immigration.
Emirate. Islamic nation ruled by a monarch whose title is emir.
Enclave. Piece of territory completely surrounded by another country.
Two examples are Lesotho, which is surrounded by the Republic of
South Africa, and the Nagorno-Karabakh region, populated by Arme-
nians but surrounded by Azerbaijan. The term is also used for smaller
regions, such as ethnic neighborhoods within larger cities. See also
Exclave.
Endemic. Found in a particular place and no other.
Endemic species. Species confined to a restricted area in a restricted en-
vironment.
Endogenic sediment. Sediment produced within the water column of
the body in which it is deposited; for example, calcite precipitated in a
lake in summer.
Energy. Scientifically, the capacity to do work. Geographers study sources
of energy such as fossil fuels, which are a nonrenewable resource;
alternative (renewable) energy forms, such as solar energy, hy-
droelectric power, tidal energy, wind power, and geothermal
energy; and nuclear energy, which is an abundant resource but
presents serious problems with the disposal of radioactive waste.
ENSO. Acronym for El Niño-Southern Oscillation, used to denote the
complete linked atmospheric/ocean phenomenon.
Environment. Surroundings of an organism, or a group of organisms,
which enable it to survive. Several physical factors are involved in the
creation of a suitable natural environment, including temperature,
moisture, food supply, and waste removal or recycling. The natural en-
vironment is sometimes modified extensively by humans, through
cooling and heating of buildings, for example. Humans are also con-
cerned with the social environment and the cultural environment.
Environmental degradation. Situation that occurs in slum areas and
squatter settlements because of poverty and inadequate infra-
structure. Too-rapid human population growth can lead to the ac-
cumulation of human waste and garbage, the pollution of ground-
water, and denudation of nearby forests. As a result, life
expectancy in such degraded areas is lower than in the rural com-
munities from which many of the settlers came. Infant mortality is
particularly high. When people leave an area because of such environ-
mental degradation, that is referred to as ecomigration.
Environmental determinism. Theory that the major influence on human
behavior is the physical environment. Some evidence suggests that
380 / Glossary

temperature, precipitation, sunlight, and topography influence

human activities. Originally espoused by early German geographers,
this theory has led to some extreme stances, however, by authors who
have sought to explain the dominance of Europeans as a result of a
cool temperate climate.
Environmental ethics. Philosophy or view of nature that believes humans
should always apply moral principles to their treatment of nature and
natural phenomena. In other words, the moral values and judgments
that are applied to relations between humans should enable people to
decide what is right and good with respect to nature. In its extreme
form, environmental ethics could hold that rocks are of equal value
to humans, or that insects such as mosquitoes should have the same
rights as humans to a safe and happy life. See also Deep ecology.
Environmental justice. Belief that it is unfair to locate many factories,
dumps, and hazardous waste facilities in low-socioeconomic areas of
cities, or on a global scale, in countries with low-income economies.
Advocates of environmental justice emphasize that economic inequal-
ity is inevitable in capitalist society, but that it is immoral and even ille-
gal to pollute neighborhoods on the basis of low economic status.
Eocene epoch. Part of the Cenozoic era, dating to about 37 million years
ago.
Eolian (aeolian). Relating to, or caused by, wind. In Greek mythology,
Aeolus was the ruler of the winds. Erosion, transport, and deposi-
tion are common eolian processes that produce landforms in desert
regions.
Eolian deposits. Material transported by the wind and later deposited.
Eolian erosion. Mechanism of erosion or crater degradation caused by
wind.
Eon. Largest subdivision of geologic time; the two main eons are the Pre-
cambrian (c. 4.6 billion years ago to 544 million years ago) and the
Phanerozoic (c. 544 million years ago to the present).
Epeiric sea. Shallow sea that temporarily (in geologic terms) covers a
portion of a craton; also termed an epicontinental sea.
Ephemeral stream. Watercourse that has water for only a day or so.
Epicenter. Spot on the earth’s surface directly above the focus of an
earthquake. Shock waves produced by the earthquake radiate out-
ward from the focus, allowing seismologists to locate the epicenter
quickly. The Richter scale, which was used to calculate earthquake
magnitude until the 1990’s, measured the amplitude of seismic waves
recorded at least 60 miles (100 km.) from the epicenter. Sometimes a
previously unknown fault is revealed, a blind fault that does not ap-
pear as a surface break. The Northridge earthquake in California in
1994 revealed the location of a blind thrust fault, where move-
ment had occurred along the fault line directly beneath the epicen-
ter at Northridge.
 Glossary / 381

Epicontinental sea. Shallow seas that are located on the continental

shelf, such as the North Sea or Hudson Bay. Also called an epeiric sea.
Epifauna. Organisms that live on the seafloor.
Epilimnion. Warmer surface layer of water that occurs in a lake during
summer stratification; during spring, warmer water rises from great
depths, and it heats up through the summer season.
Epoch. Unit of geologic time; a subdivision of a period.
Equal-area projection. Map projection that maintains the correct area
of surfaces on a map, although shape distortion occurs. The property
of such a map is called equivalence. See also Maps.
Equator. Imaginary line of latitude around the earth’s circumference
at its widest part, lying equidistant from the poles and perpendicular
to the earth’s axis. The equator is a great circle that divides the earth
into two equal halves, the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Equinox. Period of equal day and night, twelve hours of each, everywhere
on Earth, occurring when the circle of illumination passes through
both the poles. The vernal (spring) equinox falls on March 21 and
the autumnal (fall) equinox on September 22 in the Northern Hemi-
sphere; the seasons are reversed in the Southern Hemisphere.
Era. One of the major divisions of geologic time, including one or more
periods.
Erg. Sandy desert, sometimes called a sea of sand. Erg deserts account
for less than 30 percent of the world’s deserts. “Erg” is an Arabic word.
Erosion. Wearing down and car-
rying away of earth surface
materials by water, wind, ice,
or waves. See also Cycle of
erosion.
Erratic. See Glacial erratic.
Eruption, volcanic. Emergence
of magma (molten material)
at the earth’s surface as lava.
There are various types of vol-
canic eruptions, depending
on the chemistry of the
magma and its viscosity. Sci-
entists refer to effusive and
explosive eruptions. Low-vis-
cosity magma generally pro-
duces effusive eruptions,
where the lava emerges
gently, as in Hawaii and Ice-
land, although explosive
events can occur at those
sites as well. Gently sloping
The spectacular cliffs of Parador, Spain, are
the product of eons of erosion. (PhotoDisc)
382 / Glossary

shield volcanoes are formed by effusive eruptions; floods, such as

the Columbian Plateau, can also result. Explosive eruptions are gener-
ally associated with subduction. Much gas, including steam, is associ-
ated with magma formed from oceanic crust, and the compressed
gas helps propel the explosion. Composite cones, such as Mount
Saint Helens, are created by explosive eruptions.
Escarpment. Steep slope, often almost vertical, formed by faulting. Some-
times called a fault scarp.
Esker. Deposit of coarse gravels that has a sinuous, winding shape. An
esker is formed by a stream of meltwater that flowed through a tun-
nel it formed under a continental glacier. Now that the continen-
tal glaciers have melted, eskers can be found exposed at the surface in
many places in North America.
Estuarine zone. Area near the coastline that consists of estuaries and
coastal saltwater wetlands.
Estuary. Place where the mouth of a river enters the sea, causing
fresh water and salt water to mix. Tidal ebb and flow occur in an
estuary. Estuaries are wetlands that are productive ecosystems.
Etesian winds. Winds that blow from the north over the Mediterranean
during July and August.
Ethnic group. Group of people with a distinctive culture, usually includ-
ing religion, language, traditions, and customs, and sometimes ra-
cial ancestry.
Ethnic religion. Religion associated with a particular ethnic group that
does not actively seek to convert others to the same religious beliefs.
Judaism and Hinduism are good examples of ethnic religions. Reli-
gions that actively seek converts are called proselytic religions; Chris-
tianity and Islam are examples.
Ethnocentrism. Belief that one’s own ethnic group and its culture are
superior to any other group.
Ethnography. Study of different cultures and human societies.
Eustacy. Any change in global sea level resulting from a change in the
absolute volume of available sea water. Also known as eustatic sea-level
change.
Eustatic movement. Changes in sea level.
Evaporation. Change from liquid water to water vapor as water molecules
enter the atmosphere. The process is the opposite of condensation.
Evapotranspiration. Combined word for evaporation and transpira-
tion. Both processes transfer moisture from the earth’s surface to the
atmosphere in the form of water vapor: evaporation from water in the
oceans and other water bodies; transpiration from vegetation.
Exclave. Territory that is part of one country but separated from the
main part of that country by another country. Alaska is an exclave of
the United States; Kaliningrad is an exclave of Russia. See also En-
clave.
 Glossary / 383

Yosemite National Park’s Half Dome is perhaps the world’s most famous example of an exfolia-
tion dome. (PhotoDisc)

Exfoliation. When granite rocks cooled and solidified, removal of the

overlying rock that was present reduced the pressure on the granite
mass, allowing it to expand and causing sheets or layers of rock to
break off. An exfoliation dome, such as Half Dome in Yosemite Na-
tional Park, is the resultant landform.
Exosphere. Region beyond the earth’s atmosphere, 300 miles (500
km.) above the earth’s surface. Only a few atoms of hydrogen and he-
lium are thought to exist in the exosphere.
Exotic stream. River that has its source in an area of high rainfall and
then flows through an arid region or desert. The Nile River is the
most famous exotic stream. In the United States, the Colorado River
is a good example of an exotic stream.
Expansion-contraction cycles. Processes of wetting-drying, heating-cool-
ing, or freezing-thawing, which affect soil particles differently accord-
ing to their size.
Expansive soils. Expansive soils, soils that expand and contract with the
gain and loss of water, cause billions of dollars in damage to houses,
other lightweight structures, and pavements, exceeding the costs in-
curred by earthquakes and flooding.
External economies. Cost savings that firms can enjoy by choosing a lo-
cation close to functionally related or similar activities. For example,
a soft-drink plant would be better off to locate close to a glass-making
factory that would supply bottles with a low cost of transport.
384 / Glossary

Extinction. Disappearance of a species or large group of animals or plants.

Extrusive rock. Fine-grained, or glassy, rock which was formed from a
magma that cooled on the surface of the earth.
Eye. Calm central region of a hurricane, composed of a tunnel with
strong sides.

The eye of Hurricane Elena can be easily seen in this September, 1985, photog-
raphy taken from the space shuttle Discovery. (Corbis)

Fahrenheit scale. Temperature scale with the freezing point of water at 32

degrees (0 degrees Celsius) and its boiling point at 212 degrees (100
degrees Celsius). In the year 2000, the United States was the only ma-
jor country using the Fahrenheit scale instead of the Celsius scale.
Fall line. Edge of an area of uplifted land, marked by waterfalls where
streams flow over the edge.
Famine. Severe shortage of food, often caused by drought.
Fata morgana. Large mirage. Originally, the name given to a multiple mi-
rage phenomenon often observed over the Straits of Messina and sup-
posed to be the work of the fairy (“fata”) Morgana. Another famous
fata morgana may be seen in Antarctica.
 Glossary / 385

Fathom. Measurement of water depth used by mariners. A fathom is 6

feet (1.83 meters).
Fathometer. Instrument that uses sound waves or sonar to determine the
depth of water or the depth of an object below the water.
Fault. Fracture of the earth’s crust, usually as a result of an earthquake.
Fault-block mountain. See Block mountain.
Fault drag. Bending of rocks adjacent to a fault.
Fault line. Line of breakage on the earth’s surface. Faults may be quite
short, but many are extremely long, even hundreds of miles. The ori-
gin of the faulting may lie at a considerable depth below the surface.
Movement along the fault line generates earthquakes.

Fault line in a plowed field.

Fault plane. Angle of a fault. When fault blocks move on either side of a
fault or fracture, the movement can be vertical, steeply inclined, or
sometimes horizontal. In a normal fault, the fault plane is steep to
almost vertical. In a reverse fault, one block rides over the other,
forming an overhanging fault scarp. The angle of inclination of the
fault plane from the horizontal is called the dip. The inclination of a
fault plane is generally constant throughout the length of the fault,
but there can be local variations in slope. In a strike-slip fault the
movement is horizontal, so no fault scarp is produced, although the
fault line may be seen on the surface.
 386 / Glossary

Fault scarp near

Red Canyon Creek,
Montana. (U.S.
Geological Survey)

Fault scarp. Faults are produced through breaking or fracture of the

surface rocks of the earth’s crust as a result of stresses arising from
tectonic movement. A normal fault, one in which the earth move-
ment is predominantly vertical, produces a steep fault scarp. A strike-
slip fault does not produce a fault scarp.
Fauna. Total animal population of a country or region, from the larg-
est creatures to the smallest. From the Latin word for “animals.” See
also Flora.
Feldspar. Family name for a group of common minerals found in such
rocks as granite and composed of silicates of aluminum together
with potassium, sodium, and calcium. Feldspars are the most abun-
dant group of minerals within the earth’s crust. There are many vari-
eties of feldspar, distinguished by variations in chemistry and crystal
structure. Although feldspars have some economic uses, their princi-
pal importance lies in their role as rock-forming minerals.
Fell. English word for an open grassy highland, such as a moor.
Felsic rocks. Igneous rocks rich in potassium, sodium, aluminum, and
silica, including granites and related rocks.
Fen. Low-lying wetland; a bog or marsh.
Feng shui. Ancient Chinese philosophic system that ascribes good and
bad qualities to the physical environment and seeks to determine
which locations to choose, which to avoid, or how they might be
modified to create a favorable set of conditions for human occupancy.
Fertility rate. Demographic measure of the average number of children
per adult female in any given population. Religious beliefs, educa-
tion, and other cultural considerations influence fertility rates. See
also Birth rate.
Fertilizer. Substance added to the soil to improve agricultural produc-
tion. Plants need nitrogen for their growth, and this can be provided
 Glossary / 387

by organic fertilizers such as manure and compost. In high-income

economies that practice commercial agriculture, farmers often use
synthetic or manufactured inorganic fertilizers, which are produced
in chemical plants and factories. Overapplication of inorganic fertil-
izer to cropland results in runoff that produces excess nitrogen in
streams, lakes, and, eventually, oceans.
Fetch. Distance along a large water surface over which a wind of almost
uniform direction and speed blows.
Feudalism. Social and economic system that prevailed in Europe before
the Industrial Revolution. The land was owned and controlled by a
minority comprising noblemen or lords; all other people were peas-
ants or serfs, who worked as agricultural laborers on the lords’ land.
The peasants were not free to leave, or to do anything without their
lord’s permission. Other regions such as China and Japan also had a
feudal system in the past.
Fiord. See Fjord.
Firn. Intermediate stage between snow and glacial ice. Firn has a granu-
lar texture, due to compaction. Also called névé.
Firth. Scottish word for a narrow estuary. The Firth of Forth near Edin-
burgh is spanned by a famous steel railway bridge constructed in
1890, which has been called Scotland’s Eiffel Tower because of its engi-
neering.
Fission, nuclear. Splitting of an atomic nucleus into two lighter nuclei, re-
sulting in the release of neutrons and some of the binding energy that
held the nucleus together.
Fissure. Fracture or crack in rock along which there is a distinct separa-
tion.
Fjord. Valley produced at the coast by a glacier that flowed to the sea.
The rising sea level floods the glacial trough, producing a fjord.

Kenai Fjords
National Park
was established
on Alaska’s
Kenai Peninsula—
due south of
Anchorage—in
1980 to protect the
peninsula’s many
scenic fjords.
(PhotoDisc)
 388 / Glossary

The deep water enables ships to sail into fjords, and tourists enjoy the
spectacular scenery. Fjord coasts include those of Norway, Alaska, the
west coast of the South Island of New Zealand, and less-visited Chile
and Antarctica. Also spelled “fiord.”
Flash flood. Sudden rush of water down a stream channel, usually in
the desert after a short but intense storm. Other causes, such as a
dam failure, could lead to a flash flood.
Flood. Water overflowing a levee and running out over the floodplain
when the volume of water in a stream becomes greater than the
stream channel can contain.
Flood control. Attempts by humans to prevent flooding of streams. Hu-
mans have consistently settled on floodplains and deltas because of
the fertile soil for agriculture, and attempts at flood control date
back thousands of years. In strictly agricultural societies such as an-
cient Egypt, people built villages above the flood levels, but trans-
port and industry made riverside locations desirable and engineers
devised technological means to try to prevent flood damage. Artificial
levees, reservoirs, and dams of ever-increasing size were built on
rivers, as well as bypass channels leading to artificial floodplains. In
many modern dam construction projects, the production of hydro-
electric power was more important than flood control. Despite mod-
ern technology, floods cause the largest loss of human life of all nat-
ural disasters, especially in low-income countries such as Bangladesh.
Flood tide. Rising or incoming tide. Most parts of the world experience
two flood tides in each 24-hour period. See also Ebb tide.
Floodplain. Flat, low-lying land on either side of a stream, created by the
deposition of alluvium from floods. Also called alluvial plain.

Salt crust that has accumulated on a

Southern California playa or lake bed
as the result of evaporation. (U.S.
Geological Survey)
 Glossary / 389

Flora. All the plants of a country or region, from the largest trees to the
smallest mosses. From the Latin word for “flower.” See also Fauna.
Fluvial. Pertaining to running water; for example, fluvial processes are
those in which running water is the dominant agent.

Mexican Hat, a gooseneck bend in the San Juan River in Utah’s Goosenecks
State Park is a spectacular example of fluvial erosion. (Corbis)

Fog. Cloud in contact with the ground. Fog is generally a stratiform or

layer cloud. Visibility is reduced to less than a half mile, making travel-
ing hazardous.

Fog. (PhotoDisc)
390 / Glossary

Fog deserts. Coastal deserts where fog is an important source of mois-

ture for plants, animals, and humans. The fog forms because of a cold
ocean current close to the shore. The Namib Desert of southwest-
ern Africa, the west coast of California, and the Atacama Desert of
Peru are coastal deserts.
Föhn wind. Wind warmed and dried by descent, usually on the lee side of
a mountain. In North America, these winds are called the Chinook.
Fold mountains. Rocks in the earth’s crust can be bent by compression,
producing folds. The Swiss Alps are an example of complex folding,
accompanied by faulting. Simple upward folds are anticlines, down-
ward folds are synclines; but subsequent erosion can produce land-
scapes with synclinal mountains.
Folding. Bending of rocks in the earth’s crust, caused by compression.
The rocks are deformed, sometimes pushed up to form mountain
ranges. See also Isoclinal folding.
Foliation. Texture or structure in which mineral grains are arranged in
parallel planes.
Food chain. Pattern found in nature by which organisms at one level pro-
vide food for those at the next level. The food chain represents the
flow of energy. At the bottom of the food chain are the producers—
plants; all other levels are consumers. At the top of many food chains is
the top carnivore. An example of a simple food chain is: wolf eats
rabbit, rabbit eats grass.
Food web. Complex network of food chains. Food chains are intercon-
nected, because many organisms feed on a variety of others, and in
turn may be eaten by any of a number of predators.
Forced migration. Migration that occurs when people are moved against
their will. The Atlantic slave trade is an example of forced migration.
People were shipped from Africa to countries in Europe, Asia, and the
New World as forced immigrants. Within the United States, some Na-
tive Americans were forced by the federal government to migrate to
new reservations.
Ford. Short shallow section of a river, where a person can cross easily, usu-
ally by walking or riding a horse. To cross a stream in such a manner.
Forest. Trees growing so closely together that their canopies meet or
overlap. The existence of forest means abundant precipitation. In
the Tropics, tropical rain forest is found; in cooler midlatitude ar-
eas, deciduous forests grow; in the cold northern regions, boreal
(coniferous) forests are evident. Where there is insufficient precipi-
tation, woodland or scrub is the dominant vegetation type. For cen-
turies, forests have been removed for construction timbers, firewood,
or farmland. Such deforestation can cause regional mudslides and
floods and, on a global scale, global warming.
Formal region. Cultural region in which one trait, or group of traits, is
uniform. Language might be the basis of delineation of a formal cul-
 Glossary / 391

Mormon temple in
Salt Lake City, Utah,
the center of world
Mormonism and an
example of a formal
region. (Corbis)

tural region. For example, the Francophone region of Canada consti-

tutes a formal region based on one single trait. One might also identify
a formal Mormon region centered on the state of Utah, combining
religion and landscape as defining traits. Cultural geographers gen-
erally identify formal regions using a combination of traits.
Fossil. Remains of ancient plants or animals preserved in layers of sedi-
mentary rock. Most fossils belong to species that are now extinct.

Fossil beds. (PhotoDisc)

392 / Glossary

The study of fossils led to the development of the geologic time scale
and the realization that the earth was billions of years old. Fossils now
are dated by scientific methods such as carbon dating.
Fossil fuel. Deposit rich in hydrocarbons, formed from organic materials
compressed in rock layers—coal, oil, and natural gas.
Fossil record. Fossil record provides evidence that addresses fundamen-
tal questions about the origin and history of life on the earth: When
life evolved; how new groups of organisms originated; how major
groups of organisms are related. This record is neither complete nor
without biases, but as scientists’ understanding of the limits and poten-
tial of the fossil record grows, the interpretations drawn from it are
strengthened.
Fossilization. Processes by which the remains of an organism become
preserved in the rock record.
Foucault’s pendulum. Nineteenth century French physicist Jean-Bernard-
Léon Foucault used a giant pendulum to demonstrate the rotation
of the earth on its axis. While the pendulum swings to and fro in one
plane, the earth rotates beneath it so the relative position changes. In
the Northern Hemisphere, a pendulum rotates clockwise because
of the Coriolis effect. Foucault also invented the gyroscope.
Fracture zones. Large, linear zones of the seafloor characterized by steep
cliffs, irregular topography, and faults; such zones commonly
cross and displace oceanic ridges by faulting.
Free association. Relationship between sovereign nations in which one
nation—invariably the larger—has responsibility for the other na-
tion’s defense. The Cook Islands in the South Pacific have such a rela-
tionship with New Zealand.
Fresh water. Water with less than 0.2 percent dissolved salts, such as is
found in most streams, rivers, and lakes.
Friction of distance. Distance is of prime importance in social, political,
economic, and other relationships. Large distance has a negative ef-
fect on human activity. The time and cost of overcoming distance can
be a deterrent to various activities. This has been called the friction of
distance.
Frigid zone. Coldest of the three climate zones proposed by the ancient
Greeks on the basis of their theories about the earth. There were two
frigid zones, one around each pole. The Greeks believed that human
life was possible only in the temperate zone.
Fringing reef. Type of coral reef formed at the shoreline, extending
out from the land in shallow water. The top of the coral may be ex-
posed at low tide.
Front. Boundary between two air masses with different temperature
and moisture characteristics. When warm air moves in, a warm front is
produced; when cold air moves in, a cold front is produced. Rain
and changes in temperature and wind direction accompany the pas-
 Glossary / 393

sage of a front. A typical midlatitude cyclone, as it moves across North

America from west to east, comprises a warm front followed by a cold
front. Fronts can be stationary, when no movement is taking place, or
occluded, when a cold front overtakes a warm front.
Frontier. Remote, sparsely populated region, which may hold potential
for development, such as mineral deposits. Alaska might be re-
garded as the “last frontier” of the United States.
Frontier Thesis. Thesis first advanced by the American historian Freder-
ick Jackson Turner, who declared that American history and the Amer-
ican character were shaped by the existence of empty, frontier lands
that led to exploration and westward expansion and development.
The closing of the frontier occurred when transcontinental railroads
linked the East and West Coasts and settlements spread across the
United States. This thesis was used by later historians to explain the
history of South Africa, Canada, and Australia. Critics of the Frontier
Thesis point out that minorities and women were excluded from this
view of history.
Frost. Thin white covering of ice crystals formed on the surface of objects
and plants by the freezing of water vapor when the temperature falls
below 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius).
Frost wedging. Powerful form of physical weathering of rock, in
which the expansion of water as it freezes in joints or cracks shatters
the rock into smaller pieces. Also known as frost shattering.
Fumarole. Crack in the earth’s surface from which steam and other gases
emerge. Fumaroles are found in volcanic areas and areas of geother-
mal activity, such as Yellowstone National Park.
Functional region. Part of the earth’s surface that is integrated or con-
nected in a functional sense. A political unit such as a county, a metro-
politan statistical area, or an incorporated city is a functional region.
Funnel cloud. Narrow base of a tornado, between the bottom of a cu-
mulonimbus cloud and the ground, caused by the reduction of pres-
sure at the center of the tornado. Devastation occurs as the funnel
cloud moves rapidly along the ground. The cloud is dark because de-
bris of all kinds has been sucked into the tornado. Most damage is
caused by the strong swirling winds, but the low pressure at the center
can cause buildings to explode. A waterspout also has a funnel
cloud.
Fusion, nuclear. Collision and combining of two nuclei to form a single
nucleus with less mass than the original nuclei, with a release of en-
ergy equivalent to the mass reduction.
Fusion energy. Heat derived from the natural or human-induced union
of atomic nuclei; in effect, the opposite of fission energy.

Gale. Strong wind. On the Beaufort wind scale, gale force ranges
from 30 miles (50 km.) per hour (moderate) through fresh gale and
 394 / Glossary

strong gale, to a whole gale or storm, when windspeeds are 48 to 55

knots (88 to 101 km.) per hour. At sea, the progression is from blown
sea spray to a foam-covered sea with very high waves. On land, a mod-
erate gale means entire trees move; in a whole gale, trees are uprooted
and considerable structural damage occurs.
Gall’s projection. Map projection constructed by projecting the earth
onto a cylinder that intersects the sphere at 45 degrees north and 45
degrees south latitude. The resulting map has less distortion of area
than the more familiar cylindrical projection of Mercator. See also
Map.
Gangue. Apparently worthless rock or earth in which valuable gems or
minerals are found.
Gap. Steep valley or gorge cut by a stream as it flows through an area
of hard rock. In some cases, the stream stops flowing or disappears,
usually because of stream capture. The landform feature is then
called a wind gap.
Garigue. Vegetation cover of small shrubs found in Mediterranean ar-
eas. Similar to the larger maquis.
Gas giant. Large planetary body that is primarily composed of hydrogen

Best known for

its spectacular
rings, Saturn
is one of four
gas giant
planets in the
Solar System.
(PhotoDisc)
 Glossary / 395

and helium, with minor amounts of other components; Jupiter, Sat-

urn, Uranus, and Neptune are gas giants.
Gateway city. City whose physical location makes it a link between one
country and others, or between one region and others. A gateway
city exercises control over a large area, because it commands the entry
and exit rights and powers for a particular country or region. Most
gateway cities are ports, many of which were formerly administrative
centers for a colonial government. New York began as a small fur-
trading outpost, but in the nineteenth century, it became a gateway for
millions of immigrants from Europe to America. In colonial Brazil,
Salvador was the gateway city through which more than three million
slaves were brought from Africa to work on Portuguese-owned plan-
tations.
Gemstone. Any rock, mineral, or natural material that has the potential
for use as personal adornment or ornament. Examples include dia-
monds, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires.
Gentrification. Phenomenon that occurs when the older housing stock
of inner-city, working-class neighborhoods is purchased and reno-
vated as a residential area for higher-income households. The new
purchasers are attracted by the convenience of an inner-city location
and lower prices, but gentrification displaces many of the older, origi-
nal inhabitants.
Genus (plural, genera). Group of closely related species; for example,
Homo is the genus of humans, and it includes the species Homo sapiens
(modern humans) and Homo erectus (Peking Man, Java Man).
Geochronology. Study of the time scale of the earth; it attempts to de-
velop methods that allow the scientist to reconstruct the past by dating
events such as the formation of rocks.
Geodesy. Branch of applied mathematics that determines the exact posi-
tions of points on the earth’s surface, the size and shape of the earth,
and the variations of terrestrial gravity and magnetism.
Geoid. Figure of the earth considered as a mean sea level surface ex-
tended continuously through the continents.
Geologic map. Map illustrating the age, structure, and distribution of
rock units.
Geologic record. History of the earth and its life as recorded in successive
layers of sediment and the fossil specimens they contain.
Geologic terrane. Crustal block with a distinct group of rocks and struc-
tures resulting from a particular geologic history; assemblages of ter-
ranes form the continents.
Geological column. Order of rock layers formed during the course of
the earth’s history.
Geomagnetic elements. Measurements that describe the direction and
intensity of the earth’s magnetic field.
Geomagnetic poles. See Magnetic poles.
 396 / Glossary

Geomagnetism. External magnetic field generated by forces within the

earth; this force attracts materials having similar properties, inducing
them to line up (point) along field lines of force.
Geomorphic cycle. See Cycle of erosion.
Geomorphology. Study of the origins of landforms and the processes of
landform development.
Geophysics. Quantitative evaluation of rocks and surface features of the
earth by electrical, gravitational, magnetic, radioactive, and elastic
wave transmission and heat-flow techniques.
Geostationary orbit. Orbit in which a satellite appears to hover over
one spot on the planet’s equator; this procedure requires that the
orbit be high enough that its period matches the planet’s rotational
period, and have no inclination relative to the equator; for Earth, the
altitude is 22,260 miles (35,903 km.).
Geostrophic. Force that causes directional change because of the earth’s
rotation.
Geotherm. Curve on a temperature-depth graph that describes how
temperature changes in the subsurface.
Geothermal. Pertaining to the heat of the interior of a planet.
Geothermal power. Power having its source in the earth’s internal heat.
Geyser. Type of hot spring that periodically erupts steam and hot water.
Geysers are surface expressions of vast underground circulation sys-

One of the most famous geysers in the world is Yellowstone National Park’s Old Faithful, which
owes its nickname to the clocklike regularity with which it erupts. (Digital Stock)
 Glossary / 397

tems, where constituents from underground rocks are dissolved in

the hot fluids, carried to the surface, and deposited. The world’s active
thermal areas are natural laboratories where ore-forming processes
can be observed at first hand.

Glacial erratic. (U.S. Geological Survey)

Glacial erratic. Rock that has been moved from its original position and
transported by becoming incorporated in the ice of a glacier. De-
posited in a new location, the rock is noteworthy because its geology
is completely different from that of the surrounding rocks. Glacial er-
ratics provide information about the direction of glacial movement
and strength of the flow. They can be as small as pebbles, but the most
interesting erratics are large boulders. Erratics become smoothed and
rounded by the transport and erosion.
Glaciation. This term is used in two senses: first, in reference to the cyclic
widespread growth and advance of ice sheets over the polar and high-
to mid-latitude regions of the continents; second, in reference to
the effect of a glacier on the terrain it transverses as it advances and
recedes.
 398 / Glossary

Mount Shuksan, in northern Washington’s North Cascades National Park, has

nine major glaciers, which have sculpted it to resemble peaks in the Swiss Alps.
(Corbis)

Glacier. Tightly packed snowmass that grows larger as it receives more

precipitation and moves forward—often with enough power to re-
shape land formations.
Glaciology. Scientific study of glaciers and ice.
Global Positioning System (GPS). Group of satellites that orbit Earth
every twenty-four hours, sending out signals that can be used to locate
places on Earth and in near-Earth orbits.
Global warming. Trend of Earth climates to grow increasingly warm as a
result of the greenhouse effect. One of the most dramatic effects of
global warming is the melting of the polar ice caps and a consequent
rise in the level of the world’s oceans.
Gondwanaland. Hypothesized ancient continent in the Southern
Hemisphere that geologists theorize broke into at least two large seg-
ments; one segment became India and pushed northward to collide
with the Eurasian landmass, while the other, Africa, moved westward.
Australia and Antarctica were also part of Gondwanaland.
Gorge. Steeply walled canyon or section of a canyon.

The Columbia River Gorge is a

break in the Cascade Range
through which the Columbia River
passes. The Lewis and Clark
Expedition reached the gorge in
1806. (PhotoDisc)
 Glossary / 399

Graben. Roughly symmetrical crustal depression formed by the lowering

of a crustal block between two normal faults that slope toward each
other.
Granite. Coarse-grained, commonly light-colored plutonic igneous
rock composed primarily of two feldspars (plagioclase and ortho-
clase) and quartz, with variable amounts of dark minerals.

Stone Mountain in northwestern Georgia, has a monumental relief carved into

its granite northern face. (PhotoDisc)

Granules. Small grains or pellets.

Grassland. Two of Earth’s major biomes, grasslands cover about a quar-
ter of the world’s land surface. Because the temperate grassland re-
gions constitute the planet’s richest soils, they are intensely farmed
and grazed, and only small patches of natural grassland remain. Tropi-
cal grasslands are usually known as savanna.
Gravimeter. Device that measures the attraction of gravity.
Gravitational differentiation. Separation of minerals, elements, or both
as a result of the influence of a gravitational field wherein heavy phases
sink or light phases rise through a melt.
Gravity. Natural attractive force exerted by Earth on objects on or near its
surface.
Great circle. Largest circle that goes around a sphere. On the earth, all
lines of longitude are parts of great circles; however, the equator is
the only line of latitude that is a great circle.
Green mud. Soils that develop under conditions of excess water, or wa-
terlogged soils, can display colors of gray to blue to green, largely be-
cause of chemical reactions involving iron. Fine clay soils and muds in
 400 / Glossary

areas such as bogs or estuaries can be called green mud. This soil-
forming process is called gleization.
Greenhouse effect. Trapping of the Sun’s rays within the earth’s atmo-
sphere, with a consequence rise in temperatures that leads to
global warming.

Greenhouse effect gets its

name because clouds and
gases of the lower
atmosphere trap surface
radiation in a manner
similar to that of buildings
called greenhouses, such
as this greenhouse for tree
seedlings. (PhotoDisc)

Greenhouse gas. Atmospheric gas capable of absorbing electromagnetic

radiation in the infrared part of the spectrum.
Greenwich mean time. Also known as universal time, the solar mean time
on the meridian running through Greenwich, England—which is
used as the basis for calculating time throughout most of the world.
Grid. Pattern of horizontal and vertical lines forming squares of uniform
size.
Gross domestic product. Value representing the total value of all goods,
food, minerals, and services produced in a particular country in
one year. This total value usually is divided by the total population of
the country, so that the figure given is the gross domestic product
(GDP) per capita. The GDP is often used to compare the standard of
living in different countries. For high-income economies, some econ-
omists and other researchers prefer to use the gross national product
per capita.
Gross migration. Total number of migrants moving into and out of a re-
gion. The balance between these two migration streams is called net
migration.
Groundwater. Water that occurs beneath the surface of the earth, as op-
posed to surface water that occurs in rivers and lakes. Most ground-
water comes from precipitation, when water percolates through soil
or rock until it is stopped by an impervious rock layer called an
 Glossary / 401

aquiclude. The rocks that store groundwater in this way are called
aquifers. Wells are drilled to pump groundwater to the surface for
irrigation and for human consumption. Groundwater accounts for
about 0.6 percent of the earth’s total hydrosphere.
Groundwater movement. Flow of water through the subsurface, known as
groundwater movement, obeys set principles that allow hydrologists to
predict flow directions and rates.
Groundwater recharge. Water that infiltrates from the surface of the
earth downward through soil and rock pores to the water table,
causing its level to rise.
Growth pole. Location where high-growth economic activity is deliber-
ately encouraged and promoted. Governments often establish growth
poles by creating industrial parks, open cities, special economic zones,
new towns, and other incentives. The plan is that the new industries
will further stimulate economic growth in a cumulative trend. Auto-
mobile plants are a traditional form of growth industry but have been
overtaken by high-tech industries and biotechnology. In France, the
term “technopole” is used for a high-tech growth pole. A related con-
cept is spread effects.
Guano. Fossilized bird excrement, found in abundance on some coasts
or islands, notably Nauru in the Pacific.
Guest workers. People who migrate temporarily to another country for
jobs. Much of the money they earn is sent back to families in the home-
land. Guest workers are a form of economic migrants, but the empha-
sis is on the temporary nature of their residence in the new country.
After World War II, a shortage of industrial and factory workers led
Germany to invite guest workers from Greece, Italy, Yugoslavia, and
Turkey to provide labor in the newly rebuilt factories, or to fill low-paid
positions. France has many guest workers from northern African
countries. Guest workers pose social problems in the new country.
Their presence is sometimes resented by nationals. Most guest workers
are young men, which can lead to social problems with prostitution,
for example. Guest workers tend to form residential enclaves in low-
rent areas of a city, creating a kind of ghetto.
Gulf. Large ocean inlet. “Gulf” is not a precise term but it is usually ap-
plied to inlets larger than bays.
Guyot. Drowned volcanic island with a flat top caused by wave erosion
or coral growth. A type of seamount.
Gyre. Large semiclosed circulation patterns of ocean currents in each
of the major ocean basins that move in opposite directions in the
Northern and Southern hemispheres. There are five gyres in the
world’s oceans.

Haff. Term used for various wetlands or lagoons located around the
southern end of the Baltic Sea, from Latvia to Germany. Offshore bars
402 / Glossary

of sand and shingle separate the haffs from the open sea. One of the
largest is the Stettiner Haff, which covers the border region between
Germany and Poland and is separated from the Baltic by the low-lying
island of Usedom. The Kurisches Haff (in English, the Courtland La-
goon) is located on the Lithuanian border.
Hamlet. Loose term for a human settlement that would be considered
smaller than a village.
Harbor. Inlet, or protected body of water, that serves as an anchorage
for shipping or small boats.
Harmonic tremor. Type of earthquake activity in which the ground un-
dergoes continuous shaking in response to subsurface movement of
magma.
Headland. Elevated land projecting into a body of water.
Headwaters. Source of a river. Also called headstream.
Heat index. Measure combining temperature and relative humidity
to indicate an apparent or sensible temperature, which is a guide to
the danger of overexertion in certain weather conditions.
Heat sink. Term applied to Antarctica, whose cold climate causes warm
air masses flowing over it to chill quickly and lose altitude, affecting
the entire world’s weather.
Hemisphere. Geometrical term for half of a sphere. All spherical celestial
objects, such as planets and stars, have northern and southern
hemispheres divided by the bodies’ equators. Hemisphere defined
by meridians are more arbitrary. The earth is generally regarded as
being divided into Eastern and Western Hemispheres, but their re-
gions are not precisely defined.
Heterosphere. Major realm of the atmosphere in which the gases hydro-
gen and helium become predominant.
High-frequency seismic waves. Earthquake waves that shake the rock
through which they travel most rapidly.
High island. See Continental island.
Hill. Term loosely applied to an elevated mass of land that would be con-
sidered smaller than a mountain. In contrast to a peak, a hill usually
has a smooth summit.
Hillock. Small natural hill. A similar but smaller feature is a hummock.
There is no standard definition for these terms.
Hinterland. Area that surrounds a city and relies on the city for goods
and services. The city, in turn, may draw resources from its hinter-
land. From the German word for “country behind.”
Histogram. Bar graph in which vertical bars represent frequency and the
horizontal axis represents categories. A population pyramid, or age-
sex pyramid, is a histogram, as is a climograph.
Historical inertia. Term used by economic geographers when heavy in-
dustries, such as steelmaking and large manufacture, that require
huge capital investments in land and plant continue in operation for
 Glossary / 403

long periods, even after they become out of date, uncompetitive, or

obsolete.
Hoar frost. Similar to dew, except that moisture is deposited as ice crystals,
not liquid dew, on surfaces such as grass or plant leaves. When moist air
cools to saturation level at temperatures below the freezing point,
condensation occurs directly as ice. Technically, hoar frost is not the
same as frozen dew, but it is difficult to distinguish between the two.
Hogback. Steeply sloping homoclinal ridge, with a slope of 45 degrees
or more. The angle of the slope is the same as the dip of the rock
strata. These landforms develop in regions where the underlying
rocks, usually sedimentary, have been folded into anticlinal ridges
and synclinal valleys. Differential erosion causes softer rock layers
to wear away more rapidly than the harder layers of rock that form the
hogback ridge. A similar feature with a gentler slope is called a
cuesta.
Holocene. Name for the current, or modern, geological epoch. It began
around ten thousand years ago, after the Pleistocene.
Homeland. Culture region to which a group of humans have an emo-
tional attachment. Ethnic groups are usually identified with a home-
land, which comprises a physical landscape and the historical events
that occurred there.
Homosphere. Lower part of the earth’s atmosphere. In this area, 60
miles (100 km.) thick, the component gases are uniformly mixed to-
gether, largely through winds and turbulent air currents. Above the
homosphere is the region of the atmosphere called the hetero-
sphere. There, the individual gases separate out into layers on the ba-
sis of their molecular weight. The lighter gases, hydrogen and helium,
are at the top of the heterosphere.
Hook. A long, narrow deposit of sand and silt that grows outward into
the ocean from the land is called a spit or sandspit. A hook forms

Cape Cod, Massachusetts,

is the most famous spit and
hook in the United States.
(PhotoDisc)
404 / Glossary

when currents or waves cause the deposited material to curve back to-
ward the land. Cape Cod is the most famous spit and hook in the
United States.
Horizon, true. Great circle of the celestial sphere. It is formed by the
intersection of the celestial sphere and a plane through the center of
the earth, and is perpendicular to the zenith-nadir line. The true hori-
zon is not the same as the visible horizon, which is the line where earth
and sky appear to a viewer to meet. Also known as rational horizon.
Horizon, visible. Line where the sky seems to meet the sea or land. The
altitude of the observer affects the distance between that person and
the visible horizon: A person standing on a mountain perceives the
horizon as being a much greater distance away than a person at sea
level. Also called sensible or rational horizon.
Horse latitudes. Parts of the oceans from about 30 to 35 degrees north
or south of the equator. In these latitudes, air movement is usually
light winds, or even complete calm, because there are semiperma-
nent high-pressure cells called anticyclones, which are marked by
dry subsiding air and fine clear weather. The atmospheric circula-
tion of an anticyclone is divergent and clockwise in the Northern
Hemisphere, so to the north of the horse latitudes are the westerly
winds and to the south are the northeast trade winds. In the South-
ern Hemisphere, the circulation is reversed, producing the easterly
winds and the southeast trade winds. It is believed that the name origi-
nated because when ships bringing immigrants to the Americas were
becalmed for any length of time, horses were thrown overboard be-
cause they required too much fresh water. Also called the calms of
Cancer.
Horst. Fault block or piece of land that stands above the surrounding
land. A horst usually has been uplifted by tectonic forces, but also
could have originated by downward movement or lowering of the adja-
cent lands. Movement occurs along the parallel faults on either side of
a horst. If the land is downthrown instead of uplifted, a valley known
as a graben is formed. “Horst” comes from the German word for
horse, because the flat-topped feature resembles a vaulting horse used
in gymnastics.
Horticulture. Cultivation of plants in gardens or orchards to produce
food for one’s own consumption or for sale. Horticulture is a form of
commercial agriculture and is usually found near large cities, where
there is a ready market for fresh produce. “Market gardening” is a simi-
lar term.
Hot spot. Place on the earth’s surface where heat and magma rise from
deep in the interior, perhaps from the lower mantle. Erupting volca-
noes may be present, as in the formation of the Hawaiian Islands.
More commonly, the heat from the rising magma causes ground-
water to form hot springs, geysers, and other thermal and hydro-
 Glossary / 405

Landsat image of the big

island of Hawaii, which rests
on a plate that is moving
across a hot spot. (U.S.
Geological Survey)

thermal features. Yellowstone National Park is located on a hot spot.

Also known as a mantle plume.
Hot spring. Spring where hot water emerges at the earth’s surface. The
usual cause is that the groundwater is heated by magma. A geyser is
a special type of hot spring at which the water heats under pressure

Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park comprises about seventy separate
springs, which maintain water temperatures between 60 and 175 degrees Fahrenheit (15 to 80
degrees Celsius). (Digital Stock)
406 / Glossary

and that periodically spouts hot water and steam. Old Faithful is the
best known of many geysers in Yellowstone National Park. In some
countries, geothermal energy from hot springs is used to generate
electricity. Also called thermal spring.
Huerta. Irrigated orchard or agricultural parcel of land in southern
Spain. The Mediterranean climate, irrigation, and intensive la-
bor make the Spanish huertas productive. Typical crops include grains
such as corn and wheat, citrus, peaches, nuts, grapes, and dates; beef
cattle are raised also. If the irrigated land is used mainly for the pro-
duction of fodder crops, it may be called a vega.
Humid-midlatitude. Land area with average temperature of the coldest
month less than 64 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius) but at
least eight months with average monthly temperatures greater than 50
degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius); this area has no dry season.
Humidity. Water vapor in the earth’s atmosphere. Concentrated in the
lower 1 mile (1.6 km.) of the troposphere. It may be measured as ab-
solute humidity (in grams per cubic meter), as specific humidity (in
grams per kilogram of air), or, most commonly, as relative humid-
ity—a percentage that represents the amount of water vapor in the air
at a given temperature, compared with the amount the air could con-
tain if it were saturated. High humidity causes discomfort because
evaporative cooling is hampered.
Hummock. See Hillock.
Hummocky. Topography characterized by a slope composed of many ir-
regular mounds (hummocks) that are produced during sliding or
flowage movements of earth and rock.
Humus. Uppermost layer of a soil, containing decaying and decompos-
ing organic matter such as leaves. This produces nutrients, leading to a
fertile soil. Tropical soils are low in humus, because the rate of decay is
so rapid. Soils of grasslands and deciduous forest develop thick
layers of humus. In a soil profile, the layer containing humus is the
O Horizon.
Hunting and gathering. Preagricultural economy based on finding and
harvesting edible forms of wildlife and plants.
Hurricane. North American term for a tropical rotating storm with low
pressure in the center and wind speeds in excess of 74 miles (64
knots/119 km.) per hour. Elsewhere called a tropical cyclone or
typhoon. Hurricanes develop near the equator over tropical oceans,
usually in the summer when the water is warmest. In general, the path
in the Northern Hemisphere is to the northwest, and in the South-
ern Hemisphere to the southwest. The diameter of a hurricane can
vary from 50 to 500 miles (80-800 km.), with wind speed increasing to-
ward the center. At the center is the quiet eye, a zone 10 to 25 miles
(16-40 km.) in diameter, where there is no wind, pressure is extremely
low, and the sky is clear. Surrounding the eye is the eye wall, where tall
 Glossary / 407

Hurricane winds can reach strengths that not only bend trees but pull them out of the ground by
their roots. (PhotoDisc)

cumulonimbus clouds swirl upward, rain falls heavily, and wind

speeds are greatest. A hurricane has a life of about one week, although
it loses energy as soon as it crosses from ocean to land. Wind damage
to property is considerable in a hurricane, but the greatest loss of life is
caused by the resulting flooding. Torrential rain leads to swollen
rivers; another factor is the storm surge that originates when winds
raise the ocean level to as much as 22 feet (7 meters) above the normal
high-tide level. Parts of low-lying Bangladesh and India have suffered
huge losses of life from these storms, which are called cyclones there.
Hurricanes begin as tropical depressions, which have a wind speed
of up to 37 miles (61 km.) per hour. When wind speeds reach 38 to 70
miles (63 to 117 km.) per hour, the storm is classified as a tropical
storm and a name is assigned. Tropical storms are watched carefully
because they can develop into full hurricanes. It is thought that
global warming will lead to more frequent hurricanes, occurring in
a wider area.
Hydroelectric power. Electricity generated when falling water turns the
blades of a turbine that converts the water’s potential energy to me-
chanical energy. Natural waterfalls can be used, but most hydroelec-
tric power is generated by water from dams, because the flow of water
from a dam can be controlled. Hydroelectric generation is a renew-
able, clean, cheap way to produce power, but dam construction inun-
408 / Glossary

dates land, often displacing people, who lose their homes, villages,
and farmland. Aquatic life is altered and disrupted also; for example,
Pacific salmon cannot return upstream on the Columbia River to their
spawning region. In a few coastal places, tidal energy is used to
generate hydroelectricity; La Rance in France is the oldest successful
tidal power plant.
Hydrography. Surveying of underwater features or those parts of the
earth that are covered by water, especially ocean depths and ocean
currents. Hydrographers make maps and charts of the ocean floor
and coastlines, which are used by mariners for navigation. For cen-
turies, mariners used a leadline, a long rope with a lead weight at the
bottom. The line was thrown overboard and the depth of water mea-
sured. The unit of measurement was fathoms (6 feet/1.8 meters),
which is one-thousandth of a nautical mile. The invention of sonar
(underwater echo sounding) has enabled mapping of large areas, and
hydrographers currently use both television cameras and satellite
data.
Hydrologic cycle. Continuous circulation of the earth’s hydrosphere, or
waters, through evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.
Other parts of the hydrologic cycle include runoff, infiltration,
and transpiration.
Hydrology. Scientific study of all aspects of water, especially the operation
of the various parts of the hydrologic cycle. Hydrologists are con-
cerned with water at or near the earth’s surface; oceanographers study
the waters of the ocean. To study the relationship between water and
the living environment, a hydrologist needs to know botany, geol-
ogy, chemistry, soil science, and computer modeling. Hydrologists
carry out research related to dam construction; flood control; agri-
cultural developments, including irrigated farming; hydroelectric
power generation; acid rain and its impacts; disposal of solid and liq-
uid wastes; and recreational facilities. Satellite imagery is used widely
in modern hydrology.
Hydrosphere. All the waters of the earth, which comprise more than 300
million cubic miles (approximately 1.3 billion cubic km.). More than
97 percent of the hydrosphere is contained in the oceans; ice sheets
and glaciers make up more than 2 percent of the total. Freshwater
lakes and rivers account for only 0.0091 percent of the earth’s hy-
drosphere.
Hydrostatic pressure. Pressure imposed by the weight of an overlying col-
umn of water.
Hydrothermal. Characterizing any process involving hot groundwater
or minerals formed by such processes.
Hydrothermal vents. Areas on the ocean floor, typically along fault
lines or in the vicinity of undersea volcanoes, where water that has
percolated into the rock reemerges much hotter than the surround-
 Glossary / 409

Hydrothermal vent with “black smokers,” where plumes of superheated water

meet colder water and dark minerals begin to precipitate out and form “chim-
neys.” (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)

ing water; such heated water carries various dissolved minerals, in-
cluding metals and sulfides.
Hyetograph. Chart showing the distribution of rainfall over time.
Typically, a hyetograph is constructed for a single storm, showing the
amount of total precipitation accumulating throughout the period.
A hyetograph shows how rainfall intensity varies throughout the dura-
tion of a storm.
Hygrogram. Record made by a hygrograph. Under natural conditions,
a hygrogram shows the increase of humidity in the early morning and
the decrease each day as the temperature rises. If a constant humid-
ity needs to be maintained, a hygrograph is a way to monitor this factor.
Hygrograph. Hygrometer that produces a record of relative humid-
ity in the form of a graph or chart. A pen moves over a graph paper
that is attached to a rotating cylinder. The cylinder can rotate once in
24 hours or once a week. The recording of humidity is based on the
property of human hair to increase in length as humidity rises (known
in daily life as a “bad hair day”). As the hair in the hygrograph absorbs
moisture or dries out, it causes the pen to change position on the
graph paper. Museums, especially art museums, often have a hygro-
graph to check on conditions for the delicate objects they display.
When there are two pens, the second recording temperature, the in-
strument is called a thermohygrograph.
410 / Glossary

Hygrometer. Instrument for measuring the relative humidity of air,

or the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere at any time.
Hygrophyte. Plant that is adapted to living in wet conditions, usually with
its roots permanently wet. Hygrophytic trees, such as the swamp cy-
press, have trunks that flare out into buttresses at the base to stabilize
the tall tree. Other plants, like reeds and water lilies, have soft stems
that can sway with the water movement.
Hypocenter. Central underground location of an earth tremor; also
called the focus.
Hypsometer. Instrument used for measuring altitude (height above
sea level), using boiling water that circulates around a thermome-
ter. Since atmospheric pressure falls with increased altitude, the
boiling point of water is lower. The hypsometer relies on this differ-
ence in boiling point to calculate elevation. A more common instru-
ment for measuring altitude is the altimeter.

Ice age. Period of geologic time when large parts of the earth’s land sur-
face were covered with ice and glaciers, because of a lowering of at-
mospheric temperature. There have been several ice ages through-
out Earth’s history. The most recent began around two million years
ago. See Pleistocene.
Ice blink. Bright, usually yellowish-white glare or reflection on the under-
side of a cloud layer, produced by light reflected from an ice-covered
surface such as pack ice. A similar phenomenon of reflection from a
snow-covered surface is called snow blink.
Ice-cap climate. Earth’s most severe climate, where the mean monthly
temperature is never above 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Cel-
sius). This climate is found in Greenland and Antarctica, which are
high plateaus, where katabatic winds blow strongly and frequently.
At these high latitudes, insolation (solar energy) is received for
a short period in the summer months, but the high reflectivity of the
ice and snow means that much is reflected back instead of being ab-
sorbed by the surface. No vegetation can grow, because the land-
scape is permanently covered in ice and snow. Because air tempera-
tures are so cold, precipitation is usually less than 5 inches (13
centimeters) annually. The poles are regions of stable, high-pressure
air, where dry conditions prevail, but strong winds that blow the snow
around are common. In the Koeppen climate classification, the
ice-cap climate is signified by the letters EF.
Ice caps. Small ice sheets circular in shape covering areas of less than
19,300 square miles (50,000 sq. km.). See also Polar ice cap.
Ice field. Similar to an ice cap, but elongated instead of forming a dome
shape. Isolated peaks or ridges can protrude above the ice field. The
best and largest example is the ice field in Patagonia in the Andes
mountains of Argentina and Chile.
 Glossary / 411

Ice sheet. Huge continental glacier. The only ice sheets remaining
cover most of Antarctica and Greenland. At the peak of the last ice
age, around eighteen thousand years ago, ice covered as much as one-
third of the earth’s land surfaces. In the Northern Hemisphere,
there were two great ice sheets—the Laurentide ice sheet, covering
North America, and the Scandinavian ice sheet, covering northwest-
ern Europe and Scandinavia.
Ice shelf. Portion of an ice sheet extending into the ocean.
Ice storm. Storm characterized by a fall of freezing rain, with the forma-
tion of glaze on Earth objects.
Iceberg. Large mass of freshwater ice floating in the ocean, having bro-
ken off (calved) from the snout of a glacier or the edge of an ice
sheet. Calving produces tens of thousands of icebergs each year
around the margins of Greenland and Antarctica during the warmest
summer months. Icebergs vary in height from a few feet to the height
of a ten-story building and can persist for years. Depending on the
shape of the iceberg, 80 to 90 percent of its total mass is submerged.
Icebergs are moved by waves, winds, and ocean currents. They can
be eroded by waves; more
commonly, they melt as
they move into warmer wa-
ters. Icebergs from Green-
land were observed as far
south as Bermuda early in
the twentieth century. In
the North Atlantic Ocean,
icebergs from western
Greenland are moved south
by the Labrador Current
and enter shipping lanes,
where they pose a severe
danger to vessels on the
busy route between North
America and Europe.
When the steamship Ti-
tanic, a supposedly unsink-
able vessel, collided with
an iceberg in 1912, it sank
so quickly that fifteen hun-
dred passengers and crew
members were drowned
or perished in the icy wa-
ters. Today, radar and so-
nar can give early warning
of iceberg danger to ships.

Giant iceberg. (PhotoDisc)

 412 / Glossary

Oceanographers, the U.S. Coast Guard, and mariners monitor and

track icebergs that approach shipping lanes.
Icefoot. Long, tapering extension of a glacier floating above the seawa-
ter where it enters the ocean. Eventually, it breaks away and forms an
iceberg.
Igneous. From the Latin ignis (fire), a term referring to rocks formed
from the molten state or to processes that form such rocks.
Igneous rock. Rocks formed when molten material or magma cools and
crystallizes into solid rock. The type of rock varies with the composi-
tion of the magma and, more important, with the rate of cooling.
Rocks that cool slowly, far beneath the earth’s surface, are igneous in-
trusive rocks. These have large crystals and coarse grains. Granite
is the most typical igneous intrusive rock. When cooling is more rapid,
usually closer to or at the surface, finer-grained igneous extrusive
rocks such as rhyolite are formed. If the magma flows out to the sur-
face as lava, it may cool quickly, forming a glassy rock called obsidian.
If there is gas in the lava, rocks full of holes from bubbles of escaping
gases form; pumice and basalt are common igneous extrusive rocks.
Immigration. Moving of new residents into an area on a permanent basis.
The United States was the destination of many twentieth century im-
migrants. See also Emigration.
Impact crater. Generally circular depression formed on the surface of a

The Barringer Meteor Crater in northern Arizona was the first meteor-impact site identified on
Earth. Estimated to be more than twenty-five thousand years old, the crater is about six hun-
dred feet (180 meters) deep and about 3,800 feet (1.2 km.) in diameter. (PhotoDisc)
 Glossary / 413

planet by the impact of a high-velocity projectile such as a meteorite,

asteroid, or comet.
Impact volcanism. Process in which major impact events produce huge
craters along with magma reservoirs that subsequently produce
volcanic activity. Such cratering is clearly visible on the Moon, Mars,
Mercury, and probably Venus. It is assumed that Earth had similar crat-
ers, but erosion has erased most of the evidence.
Imperialism. Acquisition and retention of a colonial empire. Ancient em-
pires included the Greek and Roman empires. More recently, empires
in Europe, the Americas, and Africa were controlled by such European
powers as Spain, Great Britain, France, and Russia.
Impervious rock. Also known as impermeable rock, materials through
which water cannot pass. Rocks through which water can pass are
called pervious. Solid or massive granite, for example, is impervious.
Nevertheless, a granite outcrop may be pervious because of the pres-
ence of small cracks called joints, or because of fissures in the rock.
Water could pass through the outcrop along these openings. Most
clays are impervious.
Import substitution. Economic process in which domestic producers
manufacture or supply goods or services that were previously im-
ported or purchased from overseas and foreign producers.
Index fossil. Remains of an ancient organism that are useful in establish-
ing the age of rocks; index fossils are abundant and have a wide geo-
graphic distribution, a narrow stratigraphic range, and a distinctive
form.
Indian summer. Short period, usually not more than a week, of unusually
warm weather in late October or early November in the Northern
Hemisphere. Before the Indian summer, temperatures are cooler
and there can be occurrences of frost. Indian summer days are
marked by clear to hazy skies and calm to light winds, but nights are
cool. The weather pattern is a high-pressure cell or ridge located for a
few days over the East Coast of North America. The name originated in
New England, referring to the practice of Native Americans gather-
ing foods for winter storage over this brief spell. Similar weather in En-
gland is called an Old Wives’ summer.
Indigenous people. Native inhabitants of a region; the aboriginal peo-
ples.
Industrial Revolution. Change of a society from a rural and agricultural
lifestyle to one in which most people earn their living in the industrial
or secondary sector of the economy. Migration from rural villages
to urban settlements accompanies this change. The first Industrial
Revolution began in England in the early eighteenth century. Techno-
logical advances in iron smelting, and later steel production, were ac-
companied by the invention of the steam engine. This provided a
source of power for many new types of machinery in spinning and
414 / Glossary

weaving and the locomotive and related industries. The Industrial

Revolution spread from Great Britain to the continent of Europe
and, in the late nineteenth century, to the United States.
Industrialization. Change from an agricultural society or agricultural
economy to one that derives most of its income from industrial pro-
duction. The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain in the
eighteenth century and spread to many other countries. Urban set-
tlements grew dramatically in size as a result of the demand for labor
in industrial establishments.
Infant mortality. Demographic measure calculated as the number of
deaths in a year of infants, or children under one year of age, com-
pared with the total number of live births in a country for the same
year. Low-income countries have high infant mortality rates, more
than one hundred infant deaths per thousand.
Infauna. Organisms that live in the seafloor.
Infiltration. Movement of water into and through the soil.
Informal economy. Form of employment whereby a person sells goods
or services without a government license, often on the streets. This is
especially common in low-income economies and in urban areas
where unemployment is high. Recent immigrants often resort to this
means of livelihood.
Informal sector. Economic activities conducted without official regula-
tion or control. Street vendors who operate without a permit are part
of the informal sector, as are street performers and beggars. See also
Informal economy.
Informal settlements. See Squatter settlements.
Infrastructure. Man-made bases of a society, such as road networks, power
lines, airports, schools, hospitals, railroads, and police services.
Initial advantage. In terms of economic development, not all locations
are suited for profitable investment. Some locations offer initial advan-
tages, including an existing skilled labor pool, existing consumer mar-
kets, existing plants, and situational advantages. These advantages can
also lead to clustering of a number of industries at a particular location
and to further economic growth, which will provide the preconditions
of initial advantage for further economic development.
Inlet. Any recess along a shoreline of a larger body of water. Specific ter-
minology is not precise, but a bay is generally larger than a cove, and a
gulf is larger than both.
Inlier. Region of old rocks that is completely surrounded by younger
rocks. These are often places where ores or minerals are found in
commercial quantities.
Inner core. The innermost layer of the earth; the inner core is a solid ball
with a radius of about 900 miles.
Inselberg. Exposed rocky hill in a desert area, made of resistant rocks,
rising steeply from the flat surrounding countryside. There are many
 Glossary / 415

Uluru, or Ayers Rock, in Australia is perhaps the world’s best-known example of an inselberg.
(Digital Stock)

inselbergs in Africa, but Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Australia is possibly the

most famous inselberg. The word is German for “island mountain.”
Insolation. Energy received by the earth from the Sun, which heats the
earth’s surface. The average insolation received at the top of the
earth’s atmosphere at an average distance from the Sun is called the
solar constant. Insolation is predominantly shortwave radiation,
with wavelengths in the range of 0.39 to 0.76 micrometers, which cor-
responds to the visible spectrum. Less than half of the incoming solar
energy reaches the earth’s surface—insolation is reflected back into
space by clouds; smaller amounts are reflected back by surfaces, ab-
sorbed, or scattered by the atmosphere. Insolation is not distributed
evenly over the earth, because of Earth’s curved surface. Where the
rays are perpendicular, at the subsolar point, insolation is at the
maximum. The word is a shortened form of incoming (or inter-
cepted) solar radiation.
Insular climate. Island climates are influenced by the fact that no place is
far from the sea. Therefore, both the diurnal (daily) temperature
range and the annual temperature range are small.
Insurgent state. State that arises when an uprising or guerrilla move-
ment gains control of part of the territory of a country, then estab-
lishes its own form of control or government. In effect, the insurgents
create a state within a state. In Colombia, for example, the govern-
ment and armed forces have been unable to control several regions
where insurgents have created their own domains. This is generally re-
lated to coca growing and the production of cocaine. Civilian farmers
are unable to resist the drug-financed “armies.”
Intensive subsistence agriculture. Practice whereby a small area of agri-
cultural land produces an abundant crop, usually as a result of inten-
sive human labor and the application of fertilizer. Countries of Asia
where wet rice is grown practice intensive subsistence agriculture. The
population pressure on the land is high, but the combination of high
416 / Glossary

temperature, abundant rainfall, rich soils, and the productivity of

rice as a crop enable large numbers of people to exist in this way. Ter-
racing of hillsides to increase the available farming land is typical in
these areas.
Intercropping. Growing of more than one crop in the same agricultural
plot or field. Intercropping is commonly practiced by shifting cultiva-
tors. Sustainable agriculture uses intercropping as an alternative
to pesticides.
Interfluve. Higher area between two streams; the surface over which
water flows into the stream. These surfaces are subject to runoff and
erosion by rill action and gullying. Over time, interfluves are low-
ered.
Interglacial. Period between two major advances of glacial ice. There
were as many as eighteen expansions of glacial ice during the Pleisto-
cene ice age epoch. Scientists usually identify four major glaciations,
with intervening interglacials. The names for the glacial stages are
slightly different in Europe from those used in North America.
Interlocking spur. Stream in a hilly or mountainous region that winds its
way in a sinuous valley between the different ridges, slowly eroding
the ends of the spurs and straightening its course. The view of inter-
locking spurs looking upstream is a favorite of artists, as colors change
with the receding distance of each interlocking spur.
Intermediate rock. Igneous rock that is transitional between a basic and
a silicic rock, having a silica content between 54 and 64 percent.
Intermittent lake. Lake that is sometimes dry. See also Perennial lake.
Intermittent stream. River that has periods when its flow stops. See also
Perennial stream.
Internal drainage. Flow of a river into an internal lake or swamp, rather
than out to the sea. If the lake has no outlet, salts accumulate over
time, making the lake saline. This feature is called a salina. The Great
Salt Lake is an example of this type of an internal drainage basin. If
evaporation is high, a dry salt lakebed is eventually produced.
Desert drainage is usually internal, with ephemeral streams and
runoff draining downward to the lowest part of a depression. Also
known as interior drainage.
Internal migration. Movement of people within a country, from one re-
gion to another. Internal migration in high-income economies is of-
ten urban-to-rural, such as the migration to the Sun Belt in the
United States. In low-income economies, rural-to-urban migration is
more common.
International date line. Line in the Pacific Ocean where each new day be-
gins as the earth rotates. Most of the line is on the meridian at 180 de-
grees west (also east) longitude, but some irregularities occur to ac-
commodate the wishes of individual islands.
International migration. Movement of people across an international
 Glossary / 417

boundary, usually on a permanent basis. The source regions for in-

ternational migration to the United States changed from Northern
Europe to Southern and Central Europe in the nineteenth and early
twentieth century, and to Latin America, with an increasing compo-
nent from Asian countries, in the late twentieth century. In 1998, the
United Nations estimated that more than 100 million people lived out-
side their country of origin. Although many were refugees or politi-
cal migrants seeking asylum, most were economic migrants seeking a
better life and higher standard of living.
Intertillage. Mixed planting of different seeds and seedling crops within
the same swidden or cleared patch of agricultural land. Potatoes, yams,
corn, rice, and bananas might all be planted. The planting times are
staggered throughout the year to increase the variety of crops or nutri-
tional balance available to the subsistence farmer and his or her family.
Intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). Line at which winds converge
near the equator, because constant high insolation and twelve
hours of daylight cause air in this region to heat and rise. The rising
air expands and cools, producing a band of clouds and frequent pre-
cipitation, often in the form of thunderstorms. The ITCZ corre-
sponds to the thermal equator.
Intrusive rock. Igneous rock which was formed from a magma that
cooled below the surface of the earth; it is commonly coarse-grained.
Inversion. See Temperature inversion.
Ionosphere. Layer of the earth’s atmosphere in which there are a large
number of ions, or electrically charged particles, chiefly nitrogen and
oxygen. The ionosphere begins at a height of about 30 miles (50 km.)
above the earth’s surface and extends up to about 240 miles (400 km.),
but it is most distinct at altitudes above about 50 miles (80 km.). The
ionosphere contains three distinct layers—the D layer, E layer, and F
layer. These layers are important to radio broadcasts, because they re-

Interaction between
solar wind and the
earth’s ionosphere
produces glowing light
effects known as the
Aurora borealis in the
Northern Hemisphere
and Aurora australis in
the Southern
Hemisphere.
(PhotoDisc)
 418 / Glossary

flect short-wave and AM radio transmission waves, especially at night;

during the day, insolation interferes with transmission. Ham radio
operators use the bands of the ionosphere to communicate from their
home base to distant parts of the earth. Television and FM signals are
not affected by the ionosphere. The interaction of the solar wind
with the earth’s ionosphere produces glowing light effects known as
the aurora borealis and aurora australis.
Irredentism. Expansion of one country into the territory of a nearby
country, based on the residence of nationals in the neighboring coun-
try. Hitler used irredentist claims to invade Czechoslovakia, because
small groups of German-speakers lived there in the Sudetenland. The
term comes from Italian, referring to Italy’s claims before World War I
that all Italian-speaking territory should become part of Italy.
Irrigation. Bringing of water into drier regions in order to use it for ag-
riculture. Regions that have low rainfall or a long dry season use
irrigation to ensure crop success. Modern technology has enabled
the construction of huge dams that produce hydroelectric power
and also deliver water for irrigation by pipelines or canals. Surface ir-
rigation includes flooding entire fields and furrow irrigation—running
water between individual rows of plants. Alternatives are sprinkler irri-
gation systems—either an automatic traveling sprinkler system, in
which a trailer moves a long arm of sprinklers slowly across a whole
field, or a center-point pivot sprinkler that sprays a huge circular
area—and drip irrigation, which delivers small amounts of water to
each plant, using less water than other forms of irrigation. Water losses

Modern technology has made possible more efficient systems of irrigation, such as sprinklers,
and with them, greater agricultural productivity. (PhotoDisc)
 Glossary / 419

Furrow irrigation runs water between rows of plants. (PhotoDisc)

through evaporation are a major concern with irrigation. The use of

groundwater for irrigation has led to serious depletion of aquifers
worldwide. The Ogallala Aquifer in the United States lost more than
60 percent of its volume in the last third of the twentieth century and is
not being replenished. Another major problem associated with irri-
gated agriculture is salinization.
Isallobar. Imaginary line on a map or meteorological chart joining places
with an equal change in atmospheric pressure over a certain time,
often three hours. Isallobars indicate a pressure tendency and are used
in weather forecasting.
Islam. Religious faith with the second-largest number of adherents in the
world, after Christianity. Its members are called Muslims. The word “Is-
lam” means submission, obedience to the will of God. Islam recognizes
the Old Testament prophets of the Bible but also believes that Muham-
mad (Mohammed) was the last of the prophets who brought God’s
words to earth. Muhammad was born in Medina, in what is now Saudi
Arabia, in the seventh century. The holy book of Islam is the Qur’an
(Koran). The two major branches of the Islamic faith are Sunni and
Shia (Shiite).
420 / Glossary

Island. Piece of land, smaller than a continent, that is surrounded en-

tirely by water. The world’s largest island is Greenland. Islands are di-
vided into four major types, depending on their formation: continental,
oceanic, coral, and barrier. The isolation of islands has led to many in-
teresting adaptations, and the study of island ecosystems has been an
exciting area of geography and biology. Charles Darwin’s study of varia-
tions in finches on the Galapagos Islands was the foundation of his the-
ories on evolution and natural selection. See also Archipelago.
Island arc. Chain of volcanoes next to an oceanic trench in the ocean
basins; an oceanic plate descends, or subducts, below another oce-
anic plate at island arcs.
Islet. Small island.
Isobar. Imaginary line joining places of equal atmospheric pressure.
Weather maps show isobars encircling areas of high or low pressure.
The spacing between isobars is related to the pressure gradient.
Isobath. Line on a map or chart joining all places where the water
depth is the same; a kind of underwater contour line. This kind of
map is a bathymetric contour.
Isoclinal folding. When the earth’s crust is folded, the size and shape of
the folds vary according to the force of compression and nature of the
rocks. When the surface is compressed evenly so that the two sides of
the fold are parallel, isoclinal folding results. When the sides or slopes
of the fold are unequal or dissimilar in shape and angle, this can be an
asymmetrical or overturned fold. See also Anticline; Syncline.
Isogonic line. Imaginary line drawn on a map connecting places that
have the same deviation from true north when a magnetic needle or
compass is used. This is necessary because the earth’s north mag-
netic pole does not correspond with the North Pole of 90 degrees
north that represents true north or grid north. Since the earth’s mag-
netic north is not in a fixed position, isogonic lines vary over time. Air-
craft pilots make use of isogonic lines.
Isohaline. Imaginary line on a chart connecting points of equal salinity.
Isohel. Imaginary line drawn on a map connecting places that receive an
equal amount of sunshine.
Isohyet. Imaginary line drawn on a map connecting places with the same
amount of precipitation over a given time. Average annual rainfall
is shown with isohyets. Seasonal precipitation maps are commonly
constructed using isohyets. As a general guide, the isohyet marking 10
inches (250 millimeters) of annual precipitation is the lower limit be-
yond which crops cannot be grown without irrigation.
Isoline. Imaginary line drawn on a map along which there is a constant
value of the factor under study. Isolines commonly used by geogra-
phers include isotherms, isobars, isohyets, and contour lines.
Isomagnetic charts. Maps on which are traced curves, all the points of
which have the same value in some magnetic element.
 Glossary / 421

Isopleth. Imaginary line drawn on a map connecting points of equal

value, based on calculations of various climatic variables such as aver-
age daily temperature, average monthly precipitation, or number
of frost days. An important isopleth to foresters is the timberline,
which marks an elevation above which it becomes too cold for trees to
grow. In the Koeppen climate classification, this is the boreal
forest-tundra boundary, which is calculated as places where at
least one month a year has an average temperature of at least 50 de-
grees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius).
Isoseismal line. Line constructed after an earthquake, showing areas of
equal intensity of the earthquake. The intensity is calculated using seis-
mographic records, along with study of the effects on buildings and
surfaces. Intensity is a measurement that combines data regarding
ground shaking, features of the seismic waves, geology, and other fac-
tors. If the earth’s crust were completely uniform, the isoseismal
curves would be concentric circles surrounding the epicenter of the
earthquake, with the highest intensity at the center. Other factors,
such as rock properties and positions of faults, can cause an asym-
metric pattern of isoseismal lines; at times, the epicenter is not located
in the area of highest intensity. A modified Mercalli scale is used in
the United States to record earthquake intensity. It uses the numbers
I (not felt) through XII (nearly total damage) to describe increasing
intensity. Intensity is not the same as magnitude, which is commonly
used to describe the size of an earthquake numerically.
Isostasy. Theory that the earth’s crust maintains equilibrium because it
is supported on a denser layer, at a depth of about 60 miles (100 km.).
When landforms are weathered and eroded, material is removed from
one place, such as a mountain range, and deposited in another, such
as a floodplain. On a large scale, material is eroded from continents
and deposited on ocean floors. Because of isostasy, however, the conti-
nents do not completely wear down. In response to the decrease in
weight, the earth’s crust rises. This process is called isostatic readjust-
ment. It is similar to the fact that unloading a ship causes it to rise higher
in the water. The removal of the great weight of glacial ice over the con-
tinents during the last ice age led to isostatic uplift, which is especially
marked in Scandinavia. There, the rate of uplift is calculated at approxi-
mately 0.4 inch (1 centimeter) per year over the last few centuries.
Isotherm. Line joining places of equal temperature. A world map with
isotherms of average monthly temperature shows that over the oceans,
temperature decreases uniformly from the equator to the poles, and
higher temperatures occur over the continents in summer and lower
temperatures in winter because of the unequal heating properties of
land and water.
Isotropic. Having properties the same in all directions; if elastic waves
propagate at the same velocity in all directions, they are isotropic.
 422 / Glossary

Isotropic surface. Hypothetical flat surface or plain, with no variation in

any physical attribute. An isotropic surface has uniform elevation,
soil type, climate, and vegetation. Economic geographic models
study behavior on an isotropic surface before applying the results to
the real world. For example, in an isotropic model, land value is high-
est at the city center and falls regularly with increasing distance from
there. In the real world, land values are affected by elevation, water fea-
tures, urban regulations, and other factors. The von Thuenen model
of the Isolated State is based on a uniform plain or isotropic surface.
Isthmian links. Chains of islands between substantial landmasses.
Isthmus. Narrow strip of land connecting two larger bodies of land. The
Isthmus of Panama connects North and South America; the Isthmus
of Suez connects Africa and Asia. Both of these have been cut by ca-
nals to shorten shipping routes.
ITCZ. See Intertropical convergence zone.

Jebel. Arabic word for mountain.

Jet stream. Winds that move from west to east in the upper atmosphere,
23,000 to 33,000 feet (7,000-10,000 meters) above the earth, at about
200 miles (300 km.) per hour. They are narrow bands, elliptical in
cross section, traveling in irregular paths. Four jet streams of interest
to earth scientists and meteorologists are the polar jet stream and the
subtropical jet stream in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
The polar jet stream is located at the tropopause, the boundary be-

Jet stream passing over

northern Egypt and the
Red Sea at a speed of
about one hundred miles
per hour. The Nile River
can be seen on the left
and the southern tip of the
Sinai Peninsula at the
upper right. (Corbis)
 Glossary / 423

tween the troposphere and the stratosphere, along the polar

front. There is a complex interaction between surface winds and jet
streams. In winter the Northern Hemisphere polar front can move
as far south as Texas, bringing blizzards and extreme weather con-
ditions. In summer, the polar jet stream is located over Canada. The
subtropical jet stream is located at the tropopause around 30 degrees
north or south latitude, but it also migrates north or south, depend-
ing on the season. At times, the polar and subtropical jet streams
merge for a few days. Aircraft take advantage of the jet stream, or
avoid it, depending on the direction of their flight. Upper atmosphere
winds are also known as geostrophic winds.
Jetty. Structure built to protect a harbor entrance from wave erosion or
to prevent deposition.
Joint. Naturally occurring fine crack in a rock, formed by cooling or by
other stresses. Sedimentary rocks can split along bedding planes;
other joints form at right angles to the strata, running vertically
through the rocks. In igneous rocks such as granite, the stresses of
cooling and contraction cause three sets of joints, two vertical and one
parallel to the surface, which leads to the formation of distinctive
landforms such as tors. Basalt often demonstrates columnar joint-
ing, producing tall columns that are mostly hexagonal in section. The
presence of joints in bedrock hastens weathering, because water
can penetrate into the joints. This is particularly obvious in lime-
stone, where joints are rapidly enlarged by solution. Frost wedg-
ing is a type of physical weathering that can split large boulders
through the expansion when water in a joint freezes to form ice. Com-
pare with faults, which occur through tectonic activity.

Frost-split granite boulder. (U.S. Geological Survey)

 424 / Glossary

Jungle. Degenerate form of tropical rain forest that grows where the
upper, closed-tree canopy is absent, allowing smaller trees and shrubs
to flourish. In this dense, leafy vegetation, a machete is needed to
hack a path through the luxuriant plant growth. In a true tropical rain
forest, the upper closed canopy of leaves prevents sunlight from reach-
ing the forest floor, so there is little undergrowth, and a person can
walk through easily. Jungle occurs naturally along the banks of rivers
or when a storm fells trees of the forest. When an area of rain forest is
cleared for subsistence farming and later abandoned, jungle is an in-
termediate stage in the return to true rain forest. However, popula-
tion pressure in many countries means that increasing areas of tropi-
cal rain forest cannot regenerate.
Jurassic. Second of the three periods that make up the Mesozoic era. It
occurred around 208 to 144 million years ago and lasted for around 64
million years. Dinosaurs lived on Earth during the Jurassic, including
the giant vegetarians and the smaller carnivores. Birds and small
mammals appeared during this time; ammonites, sharks, plesiosaurs,
and bony fish lived in the seas. The dominant plants were cycads, to-
gether with coniferous forests. The name comes from the Jura
Mountains of France and Switzerland.

Kame. Small hill of gravel or mixed-size deposits, sand, and gravel.

Kames are found in areas previously covered by continental gla-
ciers or ice sheets, near what was the outer edge of the ice. They may
have formed by materials dropping out of the melting ice, or in a
deltalike deposit by a stream of meltwater. These deposits of which
kames are made are called drift. Small lakes called kettles are often
found nearby. A closely spaced group of kames is called a kame field.

Kames in Happy Valley in

Greenland’s Nunatarssuaq
region. (U.S. Geological
Survey)
 Glossary / 425

Unusual karst formations in Utah’s Goblin Valley. (Corbis)

Karst. Landscape of sinkholes, underground streams and caverns,

and associated features created by chemical weathering, especially
solution, in regions where the bedrock is limestone. The name
comes from a region in the southwest of what is now Slovenia, the Krs
(Kras) Plateau, but the karst region extends south through the Dinaric
Alps bordering the Adriatic Sea, into Bosnia-Herzegovina and Monte-
negro. Where limestone is well jointed, rainfall penetrates the joints
and enters the groundwater, carrying the minerals, especially cal-
cium, away in solution. Most of the famous caves and caverns of the
world are found in karst areas. The Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico
are a good example. Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida also have well-
known areas of karst. In some tropical countries, a form called tower
karst is found. Tall conical or steep-sided hills of limestone rise above
the flat surrounding landscape. Around 15 percent of the earth’s land
surface is karst topography.
Katabatic wind. Gravity drainage winds similar to mountain breezes
but stronger in force and over a larger area than a single valley. Cold
air collects over an elevated region, and the dense cold air flows
strongly downslope. The icesheets of Antarctica and Greenland pro-
duce fierce katabatic winds, but they can occur in smaller regions. The
bora is a strong, cold, squally downslope wind on the Dalmatian
coast of Yugoslavia in winter.
426 / Glossary

Kettle near Tuolumne Meadows in California’s Yosemite National Park. (U.S.

Geological Survey)

Kettle. Small depression, often a small lake, produced as a result of conti-

nental glaciation. It is formed by an isolated block of ice remaining
in the ground moraine after a glacier has retreated. Deposited mate-
rial accumulates around the ice, and when it finally melts, a steep hole
remains, which often fills with water. Walden Pond, made famous by
writer Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), is a glacial kettle.
Key. Small coral island; a sandy island built up by wave action on a
coral reef. The Florida Keys are a good example from the United
States. Called cays in other countries.
Khamsin. Hot, dry, dust-laden wind that blows in the eastern Sahara, in
Egypt, and in Saudi Arabia, bringing high temperatures for three or
four days. Winds can reach gale force in intensity. The word Khamsin
is Arabic for “fifty” and refers to the period between March and June
when the khamsin can occur.
Knickpoint. Abrupt change in gradient of the bed of a river or stream;
sometimes spelled nickpoint. It is marked by a waterfall, which over
time is eroded by fluvial action, restoring the smooth profile of the
riverbed. The knickpoint acts as a temporary base level for the up-
per part of the stream. Knickpoints can occur where a hard layer of
rock is slower to erode than the rocks downstream, for example at Ni-
agara Falls. Other knickpoints and waterfalls can develop as a result of
tectonic forces. Uplift leads to new erosion by a stream, creating a
knickpoint that gradually moves upstream. The bed of a tributary gla-
cier is often considerably higher than the valley of the main glacier,
 Glossary / 427

Yosemite Falls, the

highest waterfall in
Yosemite National
Park, is fed by
melting glacial ice at
a higher altitude.
(PhotoDisc)

so that after the glaciers have melted, a waterfall emerges over this
knickpoint from the smaller hanging valley to join the main stream.
Yosemite National Park has several such waterfalls.
Koeppen climate classification. Commonly used scheme of climate clas-
sification that uses statistics of average monthly temperature, average
monthly precipitation, and total annual precipitation. The system
was devised by Wladimir Koeppen early in the twentieth century.
Kopje. South African word for a small flat-topped landform; called a
butte in the United States.

La Niña. Weather phenomenon that is the opposite part of El Niño.

When the surface water in the eastern Pacific Ocean is cooler than
average, the southeast trade winds blow strongly, bringing heavy
rains to countries of the western Pacific. Scientists refer to the whole
range of temperature, pressure, wind, and sea level changes as the
Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The term “El Niño” gained wide
currency in the American media after a strong ENSO warm event in
1997-1998. A weak ENSO cold event, or La Niña, followed it in 1998.
Means “the little girl” in Spanish. Alternative terms are “El Viejo” and
“anti-El Niño.”
428 / Glossary

Laccolith. Landform of intrusive volcanism formed when viscous

magma is forced between overlying sedimentary strata, causing the
surface to bulge upward in a domelike shape.
Lagoon. Area of shallow, quiet water, separated from the ocean by a natu-
ral barrier. There are two types of lagoons—coastal and coral. Coastal
lagoons are long and narrow, separated from the sea by a sandbar,
with a narrow outlet to the sea. The water height in the lagoon changes
with the tide. Over time the continued supply of sediment by streams
may lead to the infilling of a coastal lagoon, so that it becomes a wet-
land or salt marsh. A coral lagoon is found where a barrier reef sep-
arates the land from the ocean. In the case of an atoll, there is no
land, only the ring of coral surrounding the lagoon.

Lagoon in Kauai
in the Hawaiian
Islands. (PhotoDisc)

Lahar. Type of mass movement in which a mudflow occurs because of a

volcanic explosion or eruption. The usual cause is that the heat from
the lava or other pyroclastic material melts ice and snow at the vol-
cano’s summit, causing a hot mudflow that can move downslope with
great speed. The eruption of Mount Saint Helens in 1985 was accom-
panied by a lahar.
 Glossary / 429

One of the largest artificial

lakes in the world, Lake
Mead (pictured in 1985)
was created by the
construction of Hoover
Dam, which traps the
Colorado River, as it enters
from the east (to the right),
and other tributaries.
Creation of the lake along
the Nevada-Arizona border
has helped make possible
the growth of nearby Las
Vegas (left) and the
national recreation area
that surrounds the
irregularly shaped lake.
(Corbis)

Lake. Large body of water enclosed in a basin. Streams enter and leave
it, so there is a slow movement of water through the lake. If a lake has
no outlet, its water becomes saline. There is considerable confusion
over terminology because the world’s largest lake is saline and is called
the Caspian Sea; however, it is not a true sea, nor is its neighbor, the
Aral Sea. The world’s largest freshwater lake in terms of surface area is
North America’s Lake Superior. The lake with the greatest volume of
fresh water is Lake Baikal in Siberia. There also are artificial lakes
created by human activities such as dam construction. Lake Powell on
the Colorado River is a controversial example.
Lake basin. Enclosed depression on the surface of the land in which sur-
face waters collect; basins are created primarily by glacial activity
and tectonic movement.
Lakebed. Floor of a lake.
Land breeze. Local wind that is the opposite of a sea breeze. During the
evening, when the land near the coast cools more rapidly than the
adjacent ocean, air rises above the warmer water, forming a low-
pressure region. A breeze develops as air from over the land moves
toward this lower pressure.
Land bridge. Piece of land connecting two continents, which permits
the migration of humans, animals, or plants from one area to an-
other. Many former land bridges are now under water, because of the
rise in sea level after the last ice age. The Bering Strait connecting
Asia and North America was an important land bridge for the latter
continent.
430 / Glossary

Land hemisphere. Because the distribution of land and water surfaces

on Earth is quite asymmetrical on either side of the equator, the
Northern Hemisphere might well be called the land hemisphere.
For many centuries, Europeans refused to believe that there was not
an equal area of land in the Southern Hemisphere. Explorers such as
James Cook were dispatched to seek such a “Great South Land.”
Land use. Predominant activity over an area. Common land uses include
agriculture, forestry, national parks, and reserves. In modern
times, more land is being used for urban residential and industrial
purposes and for roads and other infrastructure. Often, the best
agricultural land is thereby taken out of production.
Landform. Conspicuous feature on the surface or crust of the earth, in-
cluding underwater. Landforms are also studied on other planets, us-
ing vehicles such as the Mars Explorer. Common landforms include
mountains of various kinds, plateaus, and valleys. Landforms can
be understood through a study of the processes that led to their forma-
tion. Tectonic landforms are produced through crustal movement.
Volcanic landforms result from cooling of magma. Structural land-
forms are produced by erosion or deposition by the forces of
streams, glaciers, waves, and winds. Biogenic landforms are pro-
duced by organisms such as coral or termites, or, more extensively, by
humans. Geomorphology is the study of the origin and development
of landforms.
Landlocked country. Nation that is surrounded by other countries and
does not have an ocean coast. This is an economic disadvantage in
terms of port facilities and international trade, since exports and im-
ports must pass through a neighboring country. A landlocked coun-
try also has no control of the fishing and oil resources of the conti-
nental shelf or an exclusive economic zone, both of which are
enjoyed by countries with a coastline. Bolivia and Paraguay are land-
locked countries in South America. Many countries in Asia, Europe,
and Africa are landlocked.
Landmass. Large area of land—an island or a continent.
Landsat. Space-exploration project begun in 1972 to map the earth con-
tinuously with satellite imaging. The satellites have collected data
about the earth: its agriculture, forests, flat lands, minerals, wa-
ters, and environment. These were the first satellites to aid in Earth
sciences, helping to produce the best maps available and assisting
farmers around the world to improve their crop yields.
Landscape. Natural landscape is made up of landforms that reflect the
processes operating in the area for greater or shorter periods of time.
A karst landscape, for example, consists of distinctive landforms such
as sinkholes, uvala, dolines, and caverns. A glacial landscape shows
the results of erosion or deposition by ice. Most landscapes are
shaped by fluvial processes, or streams and running water.
 Glossary / 431

Landslide. Sudden, rapid downslope movement of earth or rock, al-

though the latter is also called a rockslide; one of the forms of mass
movement. In a landslide, a section of the hillside moves as a cohesive
mass along a plane parallel to the slope angle. Landslides can be
caused by undercutting at the base, for example in road construction
or in excavation to create a building site. A landslide that has a rota-
tional component to its movement is called a slump. The explosion of
Mount Saint Helens involved a huge landslide triggered by an earth-
quake prior to the explosion.
Language. Means of human communication. It is estimated that there
are more than six thousand languages in use in the world today. Some
exist only as spoken languages, but most have a written form, using
symbols to record the language. There are also extinct languages that
exist only as written records, such as Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics,
although some extinct languages are used for religious purposes, such
as Sanskrit in Buddhism. Linguists place English in the Indo-European
language family.
Language branch. Collection of related languages that have developed
from a common ancestor but have experienced changes over time,
leading to variations in language. English belongs to the Germanic
language branch of the Indo-European language family. Other lan-
guages in the Germanic language branch include Dutch, Swedish,
Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic. Another language branch of the
Indo-European family is the Romance branch, which includes the
French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian languages.
Language family. Group of related languages believed to have origi-
nated from a common prehistoric language. English belongs in the
Indo-European language family, which includes the languages spoken
by half of the world’s peoples.
Lapilli. Small rock fragments that are ejected during volcanic erup-
tions. A lapillus ranges from about the size of a pea to not larger than
a walnut. Some lapilli form by accretion of volcanic ash around
moisture droplets, in a manner similar to hailstone formation. Lapilli
sometimes form into a textured rock called lapillistone.
Late Precambrian era. That part of geologic time from about 550 million
years to 1 billion years before the present.
Laterite. Bright red clay soil, rich in iron oxide, that forms in tropical
climates, where both temperature and precipitation are high
year-round, as rocks weather. It can be used in brick making and is a
source of iron. When the soil is rich in aluminum, it is called bauxite.
When laterite or bauxite forms a hard layer at the surface, it is called
duricrust. Australia and sub-Saharan Africa have large areas of duri-
crust, some of which is thought to have formed under previous condi-
tions during the Triassic period.
Latin America. Western Hemisphere region generally regarded as in-
432 / Glossary

cluding Mexico, Central America, most of the islands of the Carib-

bean, and the entire continent of South America. After the voyages of
Christopher Columbus, the peoples of Latin America were conquered
and colonized by the Spaniards and Portuguese, starting in the late fif-
teenth century.
Latitude. Measure of distance north or south on the earth’s surface.
Lines of latitude (also called parallels) are imaginary lines running
east-west around the globe. They are numbered from zero degrees at
the equator to ninety degrees north or south at the North or South
Pole, respectively. Each degree of latitude, measured along a merid-
ian, is about 69 miles (111 km.) in length. The distance varies slightly
because of the flattening of the earth towards the poles. Lines of lati-
tude decrease in length from 24,902 miles (40,075 km.) at the equator
to a single point at the poles. The most important lines of latitude are
the equator, at 0 degrees; tropic of Cancer, 23.5 degrees north; Arctic
Circle, 66.5 degrees north; North Pole, 90 degrees north; tropic of
Capricorn, 23.5 degrees south, Antarctic Circle, 66.5 degrees south;
and South Pole, 90 degrees south. The equator is the only line of lati-
tude that is a great circle.
Laurasia. Hypothetical supercontinent made up of approximately the
present continents of the Northern Hemisphere.
Lava. Magma, or molten material from within the earth, that emerges at

Lava flow in Hawaii. (PhotoDisc)

 Glossary / 433

the surface. It forms extrusive igneous rocks such as basalt and

obsidian. The Hawaiians distinguish between two types of lava: Pahoe-
hoe is smooth, fluid, flowing lava that hardens into ripples and folds;
aa is rough, broken, jagged pieces of rock.
Lava tube. Cavern structure formed by the draining out of liquid lava in
a pahoehoe flow.
Layered plains. Smooth, flat regions believed to be composed of materi-
als other than sulfur compounds.
Leaching. Removal of nutrients from the upper horizon or layer of a soil,
especially in the humid Tropics, because of heavy rainfall. The re-
maining soil is often bright red in color because iron is left behind. De-
spite their bright color, tropical soils are infertile.
Leeward. Rear or protected side of a mountain or range is the leeward
side. Compare to windward.
Legend. Explanation of the different colors and symbols used on a map.
For example, a map of the world might use different colors for high-
income, middle-income, and low-income economies. A historical map
might use different colors for countries that were once colonies of
Britain, France, or Spain.
Legumes. Type of plant in which the fruit is released by the splitting open
of the fruit along two sides or seams. Legumes important to humans
include peas, clover, alfalfa, beans of many kinds, and peanuts. High in
protein, legumes are an important part of the human food supply.
Bacteria that live in the roots of most legume crops fix nitrogen in the
soil, so legumes are grown as part of crop rotation, in order to re-
store soil fertility naturally, without the addition of fertilizers.
Levee. Natural levees are long, low ridges of alluvium formed at the
river bank of streams flowing on floodplains. After the stream
overflows onto the floodplain annually, the water velocity decreases
sharply; material deposited there forms the levee. Behind levees are
low-lying areas called backswamps. Humans have built artificial levees
of earth, rock, or concrete to try to prevent water spreading onto the
floodplain. The Mississippi River has the world’s largest system of arti-
ficial levees. Rivers that transport large amounts of sediment gener-
ally deposit some of it in their bed during low flow, so over time the
bed of the stream becomes higher than the surrounding floodplain.
This leads to catastrophic flooding when a levee is breached. Both the
Mississippi and the Huang He (Yellow), in China, are good examples
of this happening.
Life expectancy. Average number of years that a newly born human can
expect to live in any given society or country. In the 1990’s, life expec-
tancy in high-income economies was more than seventy years, but in
many low-income economies, especially in Africa, it was less than fifty
years. Women had a life expectancy a few years higher than men in all
countries.
434 / Glossary

Light year. Distance traveled by light in one year; widely used for measur-
ing stellar distances, it is equal to roughly 6 trillion miles (9.5 million
km.).
Lightning. Visible discharge of electric energy in the earth’s atmo-
sphere; a giant electric arc passing from the cloud to the ground.
Usually part of the activity associated with the growth of a cumulonim-
bus cloud or thunderhead. A positive charge builds in the upper part
of the cloud and a negative charge in the lower part. A flash of cloud-
to-ground lightning involves a smaller leader stroke, followed by a bril-
liant return stroke. Eight million lightning strikes can occur each day
on Earth. A lightning flash involves hundreds of millions of volts, and
associated temperatures are as high as 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit
(30,000 degrees Celsius). The heated air moving at supersonic speed
causes the thunder that accompanies lightning. Metallic lightning
rods attached to buildings attract lightning strikes and conduct the
charge harmlessly to the ground.

Lightning storm. (PhotoDisc)

Lignite. Low-grade coal, often called brown coal. It is mined and used
extensively in eastern Germany, Slovakia, and the Moscow Basin.
Limestone. Sedimentary rock comprising mainly calcium carbonate.
Limestone is rich in fossil remains, and their study has contributed
 Glossary / 435

Some of the most

unusual limestone
formations in the
world are found in
Western Australia’s
Pinnacles Desert,
in Nambung
National Park. The
limestone in these
pillars—some of
which are as much
as ten feet tall—
originated in
ancient marine sea
shell material
brought ashore by
waves and carried
inland by wind.
(Corbis)

greatly to our knowledge of Earth history. Distinctive landforms

known as karst are produced in areas of limestone.
Lingua franca. Latin for “language of the Franks,” a mixed language
used in the Roman Empire for trade. In modern usage, a widely un-
derstood and commonly spoken second language for many people.
Globalization is leading to English becoming a lingua franca almost
everywhere.
Liquefaction. Loss in cohesiveness of water-saturated soil as a result of
ground shaking caused by an earthquake.
Literacy rate. Demographic measure of what percentage of the adult
population of a country or region can read and write. Low-income
countries have low literacy rates; less than 40 percent of adults are liter-
ate in countries such as Pakistan and Ethiopia, for example. Addi-
436 / Glossary

tionally, in such countries the literacy rate for women is considerably

lower, as men are given access to education in greater numbers. In
high-income countries, the literacy rate approaches 100 percent.
Lithic. Having to do with rock.
Lithification. Process whereby loose material is transformed into solid
rock by compaction or cementation.
Lithology. Description of rocks, such as rock type, mineral makeup, and
fluid in rock pores.
Lithosphere. Solid outermost layer of the earth. It varies in thickness
from a few miles to more than 120 miles (200 km.). It is broken into
pieces known as tectonic plates, some of which are extremely large,
while others are quite small. The upper layer of the lithosphere is the
crust, which may be continental crust or oceanic crust. Below
the crust is a layer called the asthenosphere, which is weaker and
plastic, enabling the motion of tectonic plates.
Lithospheric crust. Relatively thin outer portion of Earth’s “onion” struc-
ture, composed of solid rock.
Lithospheric plate. One of a number of crustal plates of various sizes
that compose the earth’s outer crust; their borders are outlined by
major zones of earthquake activity.
Littoral. Adjacent to or related to a sea.
Littoral current. See Longshore current.
Livestock. Domesticated animals raised on farms or in agricultural com-
munities for food. The term is usually applied to mammals such as
sheep, pigs, cattle, and horses.
Llanos. Grassy region in the Orinoco Basin of Venezuela and part of Co-
lombia. Savanna vegetation gradually gives way to scrub at the outer
edges of the llanos. The area is relatively undeveloped.
Loam. Soil texture classification, indicating a soil that is approximately
equal parts of sand, silt, and clay. Farmers generally consider a
sandy loam to be the best soil texture because of its water-retaining
qualities and the ease with which it can be cultivated.
Local sea-level change. Change in sea level only in one area of the
world, usually by land rising or sinking in that specific area.
Local winds. Winds that, over a small area, differ from the general pres-
sure pattern owing to local thermal or orographic effects.
Location. Geographers identify two kinds of location—absolute and rela-
tive. Absolute location is a position given with coordinates of the
geographic grid, such as 33 degrees north and 118 degrees west.
There is one precise spot on Earth corresponding to that absolute lo-
cation. Relative location is a verbal description of a place with ref-
erence to some other place, for example, the “Middle East,” the “Mid-
west,” “Dixie.”
Loch. Scottish term for a lake. Many lochs are products of erosion by
continental glaciation, and have narrow, elongated shapes. Scottish
 Glossary / 437

lochs are located in the Great Glen, which extends across the country
for almost 60 miles (100 km.), from Moray Firth to Loch Linnhe. The
lakes are connected by the Caledonian Canal, built in the early nine-
teenth century by Thomas Telford. Loch Ness, in northern Scotland,
is the largest freshwater lake in Great Britain. Loch Lomond, another
large Scottish lake, located near Glasgow, is the subject of a well-known
Scottish song.
Lode deposit. Primary deposit, generally a vein, formed by the filling of a
fissure with minerals precipitated from a hydrothermal solution.
Loess. Eolian, or wind-blown, deposit of fine, silt-sized, light-colored ma-
terial. Loess covers about 10 percent of the earth’s land surface. The
loess plateau of China is good agricultural land, although susceptible
to erosion. Loess has the property of being able to form vertical
cliffs or bluffs, and many people have built dwellings in the steep
cliffs above the Huang He (Yellow) River. In the United States, loess
deposits are found in the valleys of the Platte, Missouri, Mississippi,
and Ohio Rivers, and on the Columbian Plateau. A German word,
meaning loose or unconsolidated, which comes from loess deposits
along the Rhine River.
Longitude. Measure of angular distance on the earth’s surface, east or
west of the prime meridian. Lines of longitude (called meridians) are
imaginary lines, numbered from 0 degrees at the prime meridian
through 180 degrees, either east or west. They converge at the North
and South Poles. One degree of longitude is 69 miles (111 km.) at the
equator, but less than half of that distance at 60 degrees north or
south latitude, reducing to zero at the poles. Each meridian is half
of a great circle.
Longitudinal bar. Midchannel accumulation of sand and gravel with its
long end oriented roughly parallel to the river flow.
Longitudinal dune. Elongate sand dune parallel to the prevailing wind.
Longshore current. Current in the ocean close to the shore, in the surf
zone, produced by waves approaching the coast at an angle. Also
called a littoral current. The longshore current combined with
wave action can move large amounts of sand and other beach materi-
als down the coast, a process called longshore drift.
Longshore drift. The movement of sediment parallel to the beach by a
longshore current.
Low island. Island made of coral and coral sand, especially common in
the Pacific Ocean. Because these islands have low elevation, they re-
ceive no orographic precipitation and agriculture is not possi-
ble. Therefore, low islands can support only small populations. They
are in danger of inundation as global warming leads to a rise in sea
level.
Low velocity zone. See Asthenosphere.
Lunar eclipse. See Eclipse, lunar.
438 / Glossary

Maar. Explosion vent at the earth’s surface where a volcanic cone has not
formed. A small ring of pyroclastic materials surrounds the maar. Of-
ten a lake occupies the small crater of a maar. A larger form is called
a tuff ring.
Macroburst. Updrafts and downdrafts within a cumulonimbus cloud or
thunderstorm can cause severe turbulence. A downburst within a
thunderstorm when windspeeds are greater than 130 miles (210 km.)
per hour and over areas of 2.5 square miles (5 sq. km.) or more is
called a macroburst. See also Microburst.
Macrofossil. Fossil large enough to study with the unaided eye, as op-
posed to a microfossil, which requires a microscope for examination.
Magma. Body of molten rock, including any dissolved gases and sus-
pended crystals.
Magnetic declination. See Declination, magnetic.
Magnetic field. Magnetic lines of force that are projected from the
earth’s interior and out into space.
Magnetic poles. Locations on the earth’s surface where the earth’s mag-
netic field is perpendicular to the surface. The magnetic poles do not
correspond exactly to the geographic North Pole and South Pole, or
earth’s axis; the difference is called magnetic variation or declination.
Magnetic reversal. Change in the earth’s magnetic field from the North
Pole to the South magnetic pole.
Magnetic storm. Rapid changes in the earth’s magnetic field as a result
of the bombardment of the earth by electrically charged particles
from the Sun.
Magnetic survey. Measurements of the magnetic elements at many
points, on or above the earth’s surface, carried out by field teams, air-
borne magnetometers, ships at sea, or satellites.
Magnetism. The magnetic field of Earth is like a bar magnet, with one
end being the North Pole and the opposite end the South Pole. The
magnetosphere extends on average more than one hundred miles
above the earth’s surface. The principal source of the magnetism is the
movement of the liquid outer core, which is heated by radioactive
decay of the inner core. The use of a magnet compass for naviga-
tion was known in ancient times. Earth’s magnetic field has reversed
its polarity many times; studies of paleomagnetism at the mid-
Atlantic Ridge were an important contribution to the development of
the modern theory of plate tectonics. Magnetic currents extend
into the atmosphere, protecting the earth from the solar wind, and
also causing effects known as auroras.
Magnetosphere. Region surrounding a planet where the planet’s own
magnetic field predominates over magnetic influences from the Sun
or other planets.
Mandate. Term applied by the League of Nations to the German colonies
it assigned to the administration of Great Britain, France, and South
 Glossary / 439

Africa after World War I. After the United Nations succeeded the
League of Nations in the 1940’s, the mandate territories were officially
redesignated trust territories.
Mangrove swamp. Wetland, similar to a midlatitude swamp. Along low-
lying coasts in the Tropics, and in some subtropical areas, coasts are
forested in low halophytic trees called mangroves. These mangroves,
and some associated plants, grow in tidal lagoons and estuaries in
muddy, anaerobic conditions. Despite their impenetrable nature and
their odiferous qualities, mangrove swamps form a highly productive
ecosystem.
Mantle. Part of the earth below the crust, surrounding the core. The
separation between the crust and the mantle is called the Mohorovi#i$
discontinuity, shortened often to the “Moho.” The mantle is approxi-
mately 1,800 miles (2,900 km.) thick, comprising more than 80 per-
cent of Earth’s volume but only two-thirds of its weight, since the core
is much denser. Geophysicists differentiate between the upper man-
tle (about 600 miles/1,000 km. thick) and the lower mantle. The up-
permost part of the mantle is the asthenosphere.
Mantle convection. Thermally driven flow in the earth’s mantle thought
to be the driving force of plate tectonics.
Mantle plume. Rising jet of hot mantle material that produces tremen-
dous volumes of basaltic lava. See also Hot spot.
Map. Representation of all or part of the earth’s surface at a smaller size.
A globe is the only accurate map of Earth, since transformation of a
three-dimensional body to a two-dimensional surface such as a sheet of
paper involves distortions of shape, size, and direction. A map used for
navigation is referred to as a chart. A map used for determining
and recording property boundaries is a plat. The art and science of
map-making is cartography. See also Azimuthal projection; Con-
ical projection; Cylindrical projection.
Map projection. Mathematical formula used to transform the curved sur-
face of the earth onto a flat plane or sheet of paper. Projections are di-
vided into three classes: cylindrical, conical, and azimuthal.
Maquiladora. Term for modern factories and industrial establishments
in Mexico, where foreign components are assembled into products
for export, especially to the United States. Maquiladoras are usually
owned by American or Japanese transnational companies and are usu-
ally located near the U.S. border. Mexico benefits through increased
employment and worker training; the creation of the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) meant a reduction of import duties,
making the goods cheaper to American purchasers. Cities on the U.S.-
Mexico border are economically favorable locations for maquiladoras,
and Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez are the two largest.
Marble. Limestone that has been crystallized by heat and pressure. The
process of recrystallization destroys fossils as they change into calcite.
 440 / Glossary

The Renaissance artist

Michelangelo carved his famous
statue David from white marble in
the early sixteenth century. The
statue now stands in Florence,
Italy. (PhotoDisc)

Marble comes in many colors, but sculptors such as Michelangelo his-

torically preferred the pure white marble found at Cararra in Italy.
Marchland. Frontier area where boundaries are poorly defined or ab-
sent. The marches themselves were a type of boundary region. March-
lands have changed hands frequently throughout history. The name is
related to the fact that armies marched across them.
Marine. Pertaining to a seawater, ocean environment.
Market town. Small town or village that holds regular public markets.
Historically, market towns were gathering points in larger areas.
Marl. Type of clastic rock that is a naturally occurring mixture of clay
and limestone. The fine-grained calcareous material can originate
under freshwater conditions, in lakes, or under marine conditions.
Used in the manufacture of cement and in brickmaking.
Marsh. Wetland whose dominant vegetation is grass. Marshes gener-
ally occur in the middle latitudes at the mouths of rivers, in estuar-
ies and lagoons, and especially if there is a delta. Saltwater marshes
 Glossary / 441

Typical marshland. (PhotoDisc)

are covered in a thick mat of sedges and similar plants and periodically
are flooded by tides. Low elevation and poor drainage provide
marsh conditions where highly productive ecosystems develop. Simi-
lar wetlands with tree vegetation are called swamps. The Florida
Everglades are a combination of marsh and swamp. Other small fresh-
water marsh areas are found in regions previously covered by conti-
nental glaciers. On tropical coasts, the wetlands are mangrove
swamps.
Mass balance. Summation of the net gain and loss of ice and snow mass
on a glacier in a year.
Mass extinction. Die-off of a large percentage of species in a short time.
Mass wasting. Downslope movement of Earth materials under the direct
influence of gravity.
Massif. French term used in geology to describe very large, usually igne-
ous intrusive bodies.
Material culture. Visible and tangible products or objects made and used
by a particular group; includes clothing, weapons, household items,
tools, and buildings.
Mean sea level. Average height of the sea surface over a multiyear time
span, taking into account storms, tides, and seasons.
442 / Glossary

Meander. U-shaped bend in a river. Meandering rivers generally flow

across a floodplain that has been built up of alluvium deposited by
the stream. An extremely tight meander is called a gooseneck; it is
likely to become a cutoff, or oxbow lake, after a flood. Tectonic up-
lift can cause a river to continue downcutting along its meandering
course, producing incised or entrenched meanders. The word comes
from the winding, meandering river in Turkey that the Romans called
Menderes.
Meandering river. River confined essentially to a single channel that
transports much of its sediment load as fine-grained material in sus-
pension.

A meandering river. (PhotoDisc)

Measurement, systems of. The imperial system of measurement used in

the United States was brought by the British in the seventeenth cen-
tury. Distances are measured in miles, feet, or inches; weights in tons,
pounds, and ounces; volume in gallons, quarts, and pints. In most
countries of the world, measurements are made in the International
System of Units, or metric system. This system, which uses decimal
fractions or units of ten, developed after the French Revolution. The
unit of distance, the meter, was defined as one-ten-millionth of the
length of the meridian passing through Paris. The unit of weight, the
gram, was defined as the weight of one cubic centimeter of water at 39
degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius). A liter was defined as the vol-
ume of a cube with a side of 10 centimeters. The standards were re-
 Glossary / 443

vised and expanded, starting

in 1960, so that 1 meter is now
defined, in the International
System, as the distance trav-
eled by light in a vacuum in
1/299,792,458 second.
Mechanical weathering. Another
name for physical weather-
ing, or the breaking down of
rock into smaller pieces.
Mechanization. Replacement of
human labor with machines.
Mechanization occurred in ag-
riculture as tractors, reapers,
picking machinery, and simi-
lar technological inventions
took the place of human farm
labor. Mechanization in indus-
try was part of the Industrial
Revolution, as spinning and
weaving machines were intro-
duced into the textile industry.
Medical geography. Branch of Example of mechanical weathering and rock
geography specializing in the uplifted by tree roots. (U.S. Geological Sur-
study of health and disease, vey)
with a particular emphasis on
the areal spread or diffusion
of disease. The spatial perspective of geography can lead to new medi-
cal insights. Geographers working with medical researchers in Africa
have made great contributions to understanding the role of disease on
that continent. John Snow’s studies of the origin and spread of chol-
era in London in 1854 mark the beginnings of medical geography.
Mediterranean climate. Midlatitude climate characterized by wet win-
ters and long dry summers. The climate predominates around the
Mediterranean Sea, as well as in small parts of other continents, in-
cluding California, central Chile, the southernmost part of South Af-
rica, and the southwest corner of Australia. These are all west coasts
of continents.
Megacity. Term for the world’s largest urban areas, generally a conurba-
tion with a population of more than five million. Metropolis is an al-
ternative term.
Megalopolis. Conurbation formed when large cities coalesce physically
into one huge built-up area. Originally coined by the French geogra-
pher Jean Gottman in the early 1960’s for the northeastern part of the
United States, from Boston to Washington, D.C.
444 / Glossary

Meltwater. Water derived from the melting of glacier ice.

Mental map. Each person’s conception of the world. Persons organize
space according to their mental maps. They know how to get to school
or work, or a movie theater, for example, without having to look at a
map. They may be able to cross a city using a mental map of major
streets or highways, without actually knowing the details of the spaces
traversed.
Mercalli scale. Qualitative scale used to describe earthquake intensity
before the creation of the Richter scale. The violence of seismic
shaking is given a number based on a description of the effects. The
Mercalli scale uses Roman numerals I through XII for earthquakes
ranging from “detected only by seismographs” to “catastrophic.”
Mercator projection. See Cylindrical projection.
Meridian. Line of longitude.

Mesas in the Grand Canyon. (PhotoDisc)

Mesa. Flat-topped hill with steep sides. Erosion removes the surround-
ing materials, while the mesa is protected by a cap of harder, more re-
sistant rock. Usually found in arid regions. A larger landform of this
type is a plateau; a smaller feature is a butte. The Colorado Plateau
and Grand Canyon in particular are rich in these landforms. From the
Spanish word for table.
Mesosphere. Atmospheric layer above the stratosphere where temper-
ature drops rapidly.
 Glossary / 445

Mesozoic era. Middle of the three eras that constitute the Phanerozoic
eon (the last 544 million years), which encompasses three geologic pe-
riods—the Triassic, the Jurassic, and the Cretaceous—and repre-
sents Earth history between about 250 and 65 million years ago.
Mestizo. Person of mixed European and Amerindian ancestry, especially
in countries of Latin America.
Metamorphic rock. Any rock whose mineralogy, mineral chemistry, or
texture has been altered by heat, pressure, or changes in composi-
tion; metamorphic rocks may have igneous, sedimentary, or other,
older metamorphic rocks as their precursors.
Metamorphic zone. Areas of rock affected by the same limited range of
temperature and pressure conditions, commonly identified by the
presence of a key individual mineral or group of minerals.
Metamorphism. Alteration of the mineralogy and texture of rocks be-
cause of changes in pressure and temperature conditions or chemi-
cally active fluids.
Meteor. Meteoroid that enters the atmosphere of a planet and is de-
stroyed through frictional heating as it comes in contact with the vari-
ous gases present in the atmosphere.
Meteor shower. Annual passage of Earth through a cometary wake or de-
bris field, causing a meteor display as comet dust particles burn up in
the upper atmosphere.
Meteoric water. Water that originally came from the atmosphere, per-
haps in the form of rain or snow, as contrasted with water that has es-
caped from magma.
Meteorite. Fragment of an asteroid that survives passage through the
atmosphere and strikes the surface of the earth.
Meteoroid. Small planetary body that enters Earth’s atmosphere be-
cause its path intersects the earth’s orbit. Friction caused by the
earth’s atmosphere on the meteoroid creates a glowing meteor, or
“shooting star.” This is a common phenomenon, and most meteors
burn away completely. Those that are large enough to reach the
ground are called meteorites.
Meteorology. Study of short-term variations in the earth’s atmosphere,
particularly in the troposphere. Day-to-day changes in tempera-
ture, humidity, precipitation, and pressure form the basis for me-
teorology. Weather forecasters use meteorological techniques. In
contrast, climatology is the description and analysis of climate,
based on the study of long-term behavior of atmospheric variables.
Metropolis. Large city with its suburbs. From the Greek word for “mother
city.”
Metropolitan area. In general terms, a central city and the contiguous
built-up area, together with the surrounding nonurban area that is
economically tied to the central city. For statistical and census pur-
poses, there exist formal definitions of a metropolitan area, which
446 / Glossary

have been changed over time. In the year 2000, the U.S. Office of Man-
agement and Budget defined a metropolitan area (MA) as a core re-
gion containing a large population nucleus, together with adjacent
communities having a high degree of economic and social integration
with that core. MAs include metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), con-
solidated metropolitan statistical areas (CMSAs), and primary metro-
politan statistical areas (PMSAs). An MSA was defined as one city with
50,000 or more inhabitants, or a Census Bureau-defined urbanized
area (of at least 50,000 inhabitants) and a total metropolitan popula-
tion of at least 100,000 (75,000 in New England). An area that meets
these requirements for recognition as an MSA and also has a popula-
tion of one million or more may be recognized as a CMSA if separate
component areas can be identified within the entire area by meeting
statistical criteria specified in the standards, and local opinion indi-
cates there is support for the component areas. If recognized, the com-
ponent areas are designated PMSAs, and the entire area becomes a
CMSA. PMSAs, like the CMSAs that contain them, are composed of en-
tire counties, except in New England, where they are composed of cit-
ies and towns. If no PMSAs are recognized, the entire area is desig-
nated as an MSA. In June, 1999, there were 258 MSAs, and 18 CMSAs
comprising 73 PMSAs in the United States. In addition, there were 3
MSAs, 1 CMSA, and 3 PMSAs in Puerto Rico.
Microburst. Brief but intense downward wind, lasting not more than fif-
teen minutes over an area of 0.6 to 0.9 square mile (1.5-8 sq. km.).
Usually associated with thunderstorms, but are quite unpredictable.
The sudden change in wind direction associated with a microburst can
create wind shear that causes airplanes to crash, especially if it occurs
during takeoff or landing. See also Macroburst.
Microclimate. Climate of a small area, at or within a few yards of the
earth’s surface. In this region, variations of temperature, precipita-
tion, and moisture can have a pronounced effect on the bioclimate,
influencing the growth or well-being of plants and animals, including
humans. Dew or frost, rain shadow effects, wind-tunneling be-
tween tall buildings, and similar phenomena are studied by micro-
climatologists. Horticulturists know the variations in aspect that affect
insolation and temperature, so that certain plants grow best on
south-facing walls, for example. The growing of grapes for wine pro-
duction is a major industry where microclimatology is essential. The
study of microclimatology was pioneered by the German meteorolo-
gist Rudolf Geiger.
Microcontinent. Independent lithospheric plate that is smaller than a
continent but possesses continental-type crust. Examples include
Cuba and Japan.
Microstates. Tiny countries. In 2000, seventeen independent countries
each had an area of less than 200 square miles (520 sq. km.). The
 Glossary / 447

A true microstate, Vatican City is an

independent country that occupies
less than a fifth of a square mile
within the Italian city of Rome.
(PhotoDisc)

smallest microstate is Vatican City, with an area of 0.2 square miles (0.5
sq. km.). The tiny principality of Monaco has an area of 1.0 square
miles (1.95 sq. km.). Other European microstates include San Marino,
Liechtenstein, and Andorra. Most of the world’s microstates are island
nations, including Nauru, Tuvalu, Marshall Islands, Saint Kitts and
Nevis, Seychelles, Maldives, Malta, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, and Palau.
Middle atmosphere. General term encompassing the stratosphere and
the mesosphere.
Mid-ocean ridge. Continuous mountain range of underwater volca-
noes located along the center of most ocean basins; volcanic erup-
tions along these ridges drive seafloor spreading.
Migration. Change in place of residence. Human migration used to be
regarded as implying the intention of permanent residence at the des-
tination, but this idea is breaking down as a result of modern trans-
port. Migration is usually voluntary, and most twentieth century im-
migrants moved from low-income countries to high-income countries
as economic immigrants. Migration can be forced, as in the case of
political refugees fleeing repressive governments. These are examples
of international migration. Demographers also study internal
448 / Glossary

migration, within a single country, such as the Sun Belt migration

in the United States.
Mineral. Substance that occurs naturally and has a unique chemical com-
position and a distinct crystal structure. Most minerals occur in com-
pounds, but some metallic minerals occur as elements, such as copper
and gold. Rocks are composed of combinations of various minerals.
The most common minerals on Earth are silicates.

Copper ore in its native

state. (U.S. Geological
Survey)

Mineral species. Mineralogic division in which all the varieties in any one
species have the same basic physical and chemical properties.
Mineral variety. Division of a mineral species based upon color, type of
optical phenomenon, or other distinguishing characteristics of ap-
pearance.
Miocene epoch. Geological epoch of the Tertiary period in the Ceno-
zoic era, beginning about 26 million years ago.
Mist. Tiny water droplets—having a diameter of less than two hundred
microns—held suspended in air. Visibility is impaired by the thin gray
mist but remains above 0.6 mile (1 km.). When visibility is less than 0.6
mile, the condition is called fog. A cold dense combination of fog and
 Glossary / 449

Sunset mist in Florida. (Visit Florida)

rain drizzle, often encountered in Scotland and similar cold climate

regions, is called scotch mist.
Model. Scientific term for a hypothetical description of an idea or phe-
nomenon that explains its characteristics in a way that makes the
model useful for further study of its characteristics. Examples in this
glossary include cycle of erosion and demographic transition.
Monadnock. Isolated hill far from a stream, composed of resistant bed-
rock. Monadnocks are found in humid temperate regions. A similar
landform in an arid region is an inselberg.
Monarchy. System or rule by a single person or sovereign ruler. The posi-
tion is hereditary, as opposed to republics, where the head of state is
elected. Monarchs used to claim that they were appointed by God; this
is referred to as the Divine Right of Kings. The Japanese held the con-
cept of imperial divinity until 1945. As nation-states evolved in Eu-
rope, some new monarchs were absolute rulers. In contrast, the power
of the monarch in England was limited by the Parliament. Many mod-
ern monarchs have largely ceremonial roles.
Monogenetic. Pertaining to a volcanic eruption in which a single vent is
used only once.
Monsoon. Seasonal reversal of wind. The largest monsoonal phenome-
non is the Asian monsoon. In the summer wet season, warm moist
 450 / Glossary

air from over the Indian Ocean and South China Sea is drawn into
the Asian continent, bring heavy rains, thunderstorms, and even
tropical cyclones. The wet monsoon ensures sufficient water for
crops but can cause great loss of life through flooding and storm
surges. The dry or winter monsoon is marked by an outward flow of
wind from Asia, bringing dry cooler conditions. Northern Africa and
Northern Australia also experience monsoon conditions. From an
Arabic word for season.
Moon. Any natural satellite orbiting a planet. Earth has only one such
satellite, which is called the Moon. Mercury and Venus have no moons,
Mars has two small moons, Jupiter has sixteen known moons, Saturn
has eighteen, Uranus has fifteen, Neptune has eight, and Pluto has
one. Earth’s Moon is 238,866 miles (384,400 km.) from Earth on aver-
age. The Moon is about one-third the size of the earth, with an equato-
rial diameter of 2,160 miles (3,476 km.). However, it is considerably
lighter because its composition is less dense. The Moon revolves
around the earth in an elliptical orbit every twenty-nine and a half
days. This corresponds to the time of one rotation of the Moon on
its axis, so that only one side, or face, of the Moon can be seen from
Earth. The Moon shines because of its albedo, or reflected sunlight.
Moraine. Materials transported by a glacier, and often later deposited
as a ridge of unsorted rocks and smaller material. Lateral moraine is
found at the side of the glacier; medial moraine occurs when two gla-

Lateral and medial moraine in the French Alps. (Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, 1880)
 Glossary / 451

ciers join. Other types of moraine include ablation moraine, ground

moraine, and push, recessional, and terminal moraine.
Morphology. This word means structure or form. Geographers study
the morphology of a country, which explains many facts about its
economy, culture, historical geography, and politics. Generally, five
morphologies are recognized: compact, elongated, fragmented, per-
forated, and protruded (sometimes called prorupt).
Mountain. Tall landform, rising steeply above the surrounding coun-
try, and with a comparatively narrow summit, or top. Most mountains
occur in elongated groups, as mountain chains or mountain ranges.
Mountains are produced by volcanic activity or by folding or faulting
of the earth’s crust. A geologic term for a period of mountain-build-
ing is an orogeny. In some countries, “mountains” are rigidly defined
by their altitudes. Great Britain, for example, historically required
landforms to be 1,000 feet (305 meters) high to be classified as moun-
tains and classified lower-elevation features as hills.

Mountains are high, massive landforms that rise steeply above the surrounding
country and have comparatively narrow summits, or tops. Most mountains oc-
cur in elongated groups, as mountain chains or mountain ranges. (PhotoDisc)

Mountain belts. Products of plate tectonics, produced by the conver-

gence of crustal plates. Topographic mountains are only the surficial
expression of processes that profoundly deform and modify the crust.
Long after the mountains themselves have been worn away, their for-
mer existence is recognizable from the structures that mountain
building forms within the rocks of the crust.
452 / Glossary

Mountain glacier. Glacier in a sloping valley.

Mountain material. High-standing blocks of rugged relief.
Mountain pass. See Pass.
Mouth of river. The place where a river enters a large body of standing
water, such as the ocean or a lake. There much of the river’s sus-
pended load is deposited, often forming a delta. Many rivers enter
the sea in an estuary, a long, narrow inlet where river water mixes
with tidal waters.
Mudflow. General term for a flowing mass of predominantly fine-grained
earth material that possesses a high degree of fluidity during move-
ment.
Mulatto. Person of mixed African and European ancestry.
Multiculturalism. Government policy that enables and encourages eth-
nic groups to retain their distinctive culture and identity, instead of
being assimilated into the larger dominant culture of the society.
Multinational corporation. Organization that engages in economic activi-
ties such as mining, agriculture, manufacturing, and marketing in
more than one country, affecting the economies of those countries.
Municipality. Any urban political unit, such as a town or city.

Nappe. Huge sheet of rock that was the upper part of an overthrust fold,
and which has broken and traveled far from its original position due to
the tremendous forces. The Swiss Alps have nappes in many locations.
Narrows. Strait joining two bodies of water.
Nation. Term originally meaning all the citizens of a region, sharing cul-
tural traits such as a common language, religion, and ethnicity. In
the times of empires in Europe, the nation had no political meaning,
since political allegiance was to the monarch or emperor, and religious
allegiance was to the pope. One empire would include dozens of dif-
ferent cultural groups, or nations. The concept of nationalism arose
in the nineteenth century, when various nations wanted to occupy and
control their own states, leading to the creation of modern nation-
states. The establishment of the League of Nations and the United
Nations reflects the growth of nationalism in the twentieth century.
The term nation now commonly is used to mean the state, or political
entity. Modern countries are seldom nations in the older sense, since
they rarely have a homogeneous population composition, owing to
immigration or boundary changes. The word still is used in the origi-
nal sense to refer to groups such as the Navaho Nation.
Nation-state. Political entity comprising a country whose people are a
national group occupying the area. The concept originated in eigh-
teenth century France; in practice, such cultural homogeneity is rare
today, even in France.
National park. Designation given to land set aside by a national govern-
ment for special protection. National parks tend to have unique quali-
 Glossary / 453

ties, such as spectacular scenery, unusual land formations, or endan-

gered species of plants or animals in need of protection.
Nationalism. Feeling of belonging to a nation, or a group of people with
a common heritage and culture. The rise of nationalism led to sepa-
ratist movements and uprisings and the formation of new states in
Europe throughout the nineteenth century, and in Africa in the twen-
tieth century.
Native Americans. Widely accepted term for the native peoples of North
America, especially those of the United States. Incorporates peoples
also known as American (“Red”) Indians and Inuit (Eskimos). Peoples
of Canada are often known as Native Canadians. See also Amer-
indians.
Natural bridge. Bridge over an abandoned or active watercourse; in karst
topography, it may be a short cave or a remnant of an old, long cave.

Utah’s Arches National Park is named after its many natural red sandstone
bridges, carved by millions of years of erosion. (Corbis)

Natural gas. Flammable vapor found in sedimentary rocks, commonly,

but not always, associated with crude oil; it is also known simply as gas
or methane.
Natural hazard. Natural event that causes loss of human life and prop-
erty and environmental destruction. Natural hazards include floods,
hurricanes and tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and
tsunami. Flooding is the natural hazard that causes the greatest loss
of life.
Natural increase, rate of. Demographic measure of population growth:
the difference between births and deaths per year, expressed as a per-
454 / Glossary

centage of the population. The rate of natural increase for the

United States in 2000 was 0.6 percent. In countries where the popula-
tion is decreasing, the death rate is greater than the birth rate.
Natural levee. Low ridge deposited on the flanks of a river during a
flood stage.
Natural resource. See Resource.
Natural selection. Main process of biological evolution; the production
of the largest number of offspring by individuals with traits that are
best adapted to their environments.
Nautical mile. Standard measurement at sea, equalling 6,076.12 feet
(1.85 km.). The mile used for land measurements is called a statute
mile and measures 5,280 feet (1.6 km.).
Navigation. Originally, the science and art of finding a safe, short path
across water, requiring determination of distance, speed, course, and
position. The positions of the Sun, Moon, and stars guided early navi-
gators. Instruments developed to aid navigators include the magnetic
compass and sextant. Charts, maps, and guidebooks were also valu-
able aids to navigation. The invention of the marine chronometer
enabled precision in longitude. Radio position-finding and Global
Positioning System satellites are modern aids to navigation. Scien-
tists also study the secrets of animal navigation. Migratory birds can
navigate thousands of miles, even from one hemisphere to another in
the course of a year.
Neap tide. Tide with the minimum range, or when the level of the high
tide is at its lowest.
Near-polar orbit. Earth orbit that lies in a plane that passes close to both
the north and south poles.
Nekton. Pelagic organisms that can swim freely, without having to rely
on ocean currents or winds. Nekton includes shrimp; crabs; oysters;
marine reptiles such as turtles, crocodiles, and snakes; and even
sharks; porpoises; and whales.
Net migration. Net balance of a country or region’s immigration and
emigration.
Névé. French term for closely packed snow, deep in snowfields, from
which the air has largely been expelled through compression due to
the weight of overlying snow. Névé is an intermediate form between
snow and glacial ice. It is like a series of clear bluish bands, represent-
ing the different years of snow accumulation. Firn is the German term
for this material.
Niche. In an ecological environment, a position particularly suited for
its inhabitant.
Nickpoint. See Knickpoint.
NIMBY. Acronym for “not in my back yard,” in reference to movements
opposing certain developments, especially in suburban areas. NIMBY-
ism is generally a neighborhood action by residents who want to prevent
 Glossary / 455

unwanted land uses, protect open space, and maintain low-density

housing, and block the nearby location of low-income housing or
waste treatment plants, or facilities such as prisons or rehabilitation
projects.
Niña, La. See La Niña.
Niño, El. See El Niño.
Nomadism. Lifestyle in which pastoral people move with grazing animals
along a defined route, ensuring adequate pasturage and water for
their flocks or herds. This lifestyle has decreased greatly as countries
discourage international migration. A more restricted form of
nomadism is transhumance.
Nomenclature. Names and terms used in a classification system.
Nonrenewable resource. Resource that is exhausted after use. Includes
fossil fuels, such as oil and coal, because the time for their forma-
tion is so long, although they are part of a biogeochemical cycle. See
also Renewable resources.
Normal fault. Fault in which the rock block on top of an inclined frac-
ture surface, also known as a fault plane, slides downward.

Normal fault in sandy shale in Tennessee’s Chilhowee Mountains. (U.S. Geolog-

ical Survey)

North geographic pole. Northernmost region of the earth, located at

the northern point of the planet’s axis of rotation.
North magnetic pole. Small, nonstationary area in the Arctic Circle to-
ward which a compass needle points from any location on the earth.
456 / Glossary

North/south divide. Term deriving from previous centuries, when Euro-

pean powers controlled large colonial empires. Many of the colonies
were located in the Southern Hemisphere, including South Africa,
Australia, New Zealand, and South America. Now, the term is some-
times used to refer economically to the contrast between high-income
and low-income economies. Geographically, it makes little sense to use
the term north/south divide in this way, because Australia and New
Zealand are in the Southern Hemisphere, but are similar economi-
cally to wealthy Northern Hemisphere countries.
Northern Hemisphere. The half of the earth above the equator.
Notch. Erosional feature found at the base of a sea cliff as a result of un-
dercutting by wave erosion, bioabrasion from marine organisms,
and dissolution of rock by groundwater seepage. Also known as a
nip.
Nuclear energy. Energy produced from a naturally occurring isotope of
uranium. In the process of nuclear fission, the unstable uranium iso-
tope absorbs a neutron and splits to form tin and molybdenum. This
releases more neurons, so a chain reaction proceeds, releasing vast
amounts of heat energy. Nuclear energy was seen in the 1950’s as the
energy of the future, but safety fears and the problem of disposal of ra-
dioactive nuclear waste have led to public condemnation of nuclear
power plants. Nevertheless, France generates more than half its power
from nuclear energy. The alternative method of nuclear energy pro-

Nuclear power plant cooling tower. (PhotoDisc)

 Glossary / 457

duction is nuclear fusion, the energy released when two smaller

atomic nuclei fuse into one larger nucleus. Isotopes of hydrogen are
the fuel. Fusion occurs naturally in the Sun, but humans have not har-
nessed nuclear fusion, except to create the hydrogen bomb.
Nuée ardente. Hot cloud of rock fragments, ash, and gases that sud-
denly and explosively erupt from some volcanoes and flow rapidly
down their slopes.
Numerical weather prediction. System whereby mathematical equations
are used, with the aid of computers, to describe and predict atmo-
spheric processes.
Nunatak. Isolated mountain peak or ridge that projects through a conti-
nental ice sheet. Found in Greenland and Antarctica.

Nunatak surrounded by a moraine in the Alaska Gulf region. Jefferies Glacier is

to the left. (U.S. Geological Survey)

Oasis. Area surrounded by desert, where a permanent water supply, usu-

ally from an aquifer, permits agriculture.
Obduction. Tectonic collisional process, opposite in effect to subduc-
tion, in which heavier oceanic crust is thrust up over lighter conti-
nental crust.
Oblate sphere. Flattened shape of the earth that is the result of rotation.
Occidental. Word meaning western. It is the opposite of oriental.
Occultation. Eclipse of any astronomical object other than the Sun or
the Moon caused by the Moon or any planet, satellite, or asteroid.
Ocean. Large body of water contained in an ocean basin. Oceans cover
just over 70 percent of the earth’s surface. The presence of so much
458 / Glossary

liquid water serves to maintain moderate temperatures. The largest

ocean, the Pacific, covers almost one-third of the earth. Other oceans
are the Atlantic, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic or Southern Ocean. The
edge of an ocean basin is marked by the continental shelf. A small,
partially enclosed area of an ocean is a sea.
Ocean basins. Large worldwide depressions that form the ultimate res-
ervoir for the earth’s water supply.
Ocean circulation. Worldwide movement of water in the sea.
Ocean current. Predictable circulation of water in the ocean, caused by a
combination of wind friction, Earth’s rotation, and differences in
temperature and density of the waters. The five great oceanic circula-
tions, known as gyres, are in the North Pacific, North Atlantic, South
Pacific, South Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. Because of the Coriolis
effect, the direction of circulation is clockwise in the Northern
Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere,
except in the Indian Ocean, where the direction changes annually
with the pattern of winds associated with the Asian monsoon. Cur-
rents flowing toward the equator are cold currents; those flowing
away from the equator are warm currents. An important current is the
warm Gulf Stream, which flows north from the Gulf of Mexico along
the East Coast of the United States; it crosses the North Atlantic, where
it is called the North Atlantic Drift, and brings warmer conditions to
the western parts of Europe. The West Coast of the United States is af-
fected by the cool, south-flowing California Current. The cool Hum-
boldt, or Peru, Current, which flows north along the South American
coast, is an important indicator of whether there will be an El Niño
event. Deep currents, below 300 feet (100 meters), are extremely com-
plicated and difficult to study.
Oceanic crust. Portion of the earth’s crust under its ocean basins.
Oceanic island. Islands arising from seafloor volcanic eruptions, rather
than from continental shelves. The Hawaiian Islands are the best-
known examples of oceanic islands.
Oceanography. The science of Earth’s oceans and seas. Physical ocean-
ography deals with the study of seawater—temperature, density,
waves, and currents. Chemical oceanography deals with the chemis-
try of biogeochemical cycles of the oceans. Marine geology is the
study of the features of the ocean basins. Biological oceanography is
the study of marine ecology, or plants and animals of the oceans.
Off-planet. Pertaining to regions off the earth in orbital or planetary
space.
Offshore financial centers. The global financial network is concentrated
in metropolitan centers, but some investors and institutions place a
high value on secrecy of accounts or on sheltering resources from
taxation. To meet these needs, some small countries or microstates
have developed as offshore financial centers. These include the Baha-
 Glossary / 459

mas, Vanuatu, Cayman Islands, and Bahrain, as well as the mainland

countries of Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and Belize.
Oil. Greasy substance that remains liquid at room temperature and is
insoluble in water. Oils can be obtained from plants and seeds or from
the bodies of animals, but the most economically important oil today is
mineral oil or petroleum, sometimes called crude oil. This is a prod-
uct created millions of years ago from the bodies of marine organisms
that were incorporated into layers of sedimentary rocks. The petro-
leum migrated through permeable rocks to form series of reservoirs
that constitute an oil field. Oil is the most important of the fossil fuels.
Oligocene epoch. Geological period about 38 million years ago in the
Tertiary period of the Cenozoic era.
Oort Cloud. Reservoir of long-period comets that exist in a spherical
distribution far beyond the outer planetary orbit of the solar sys-
tem. The study of this vast region gives scientists a better understand-
ing of the origin of the Sun and the planets.
Orbit. The path followed by an astronomical body as it moves around an
attracting body. In our solar system, planets move in orbits around
the Sun. Smaller bodies, or satellites, move in orbits around the
planets. The Moon orbits the earth. The shape of an orbit is elliptical,
giving rise to the earth’s perihelion and aphelion.
Order. Group of closely related genera; in mammals, orders include the
rodents, bats, and whales.
Ordovician epoch. Time period covering the interval from 505 to 438
million years ago; follows the Cambrian, which covers the interval
from 570 to 505 million years ago.
Ore. Type of rock containing minerals in such a concentration that
mining is economically feasible. Hematite is a common ore from
which iron is extracted. Galena is the principal ore for zinc. The ore is
always mixed with large amounts of worthless materials known as
gangue, so that separation is necessary to recover the mineral.
Ore deposit. Natural accumulation of mineral matter from which the
owner expects to extract a metal at a profit.
Orient. Old European term meaning “east,” for Asia.
Orogenesis. Process of mountain-range formation.
Orogenic belt. Mountain belt composed of a core of metamorphic
and plutonic rocks and an adjacent thrust belt.
Orogeny. Mountain-building episode, or event, that extends over a pe-
riod usually measured in tens of millions of years; also termed a revolu-
tion.
Orographic precipitation. Phenomenon caused when an air mass meets
a topographic barrier, such as a mountain range, and is forced to rise;
the air cools to saturation, and orographic precipitation falls on the
windward side as rain or snow. The lee side is a rain shadow. This ef-
fect is noticeable on the West Coast of the United States, which has
460 / Glossary

rain forest on the windward side of the mountains and deserts on

the lee.
Orography. Study of mountains that incorporates assessment of how
they influence and are affected by weather and other variables.
Oscillatory flow. Flow of fluid with a regular back-and-forth pattern of
motion.
Outback. Name by which Australians refer to any place away from their
cities. More specifically, the semiarid region west of the Great Di-
viding Range (Eastern Highlands), which covers about 80 percent of
the continent, including most of Queensland, all of the Northern
Territory, and all of Western Australia except the southwest corner.
Outer core. Zone in the body of the earth, located at depths of approxi-
mately 1,600 to 3,200 miles (2,900-5,100 km.), that is in a liquid state
and consists of iron sulfides and iron oxides.
Overland flow. Flow of water over the land surface caused by direct pre-
cipitation.
Overurbanization. Growth of cities at such a rapid rate that they cannot
sustain job creation and housing construction. Rapid in-migration
from rural areas in low-income countries is the major cause of
overurbanization. High homelessness and high unemployment result
from overurbanization. Urban population growth of this kind leads
to many slums, shanties, and squatter settlements that are illegally
occupied and have few services.
Oxbow lake. Lake created when floodwaters make a new, shorter chan-
nel and abandon the loop of a meander. Over time, water in the ox-
bow lake evaporates, leaving a dry, curving, low-lying area known as a
meander scar. Oxbow lakes are common on floodplains. Another
name for this feature is a cut-off.
Oxidation. Common chemical reaction in which elements are combined
with oxygen—for example, the burning of petroleum, wood, and
coal; the rusting of metallic iron; and the metabolic respiration of
organisms.
Ozone. Gas containing three atoms of oxygen; it is highly concentrated
in a zone of the stratosphere.
Ozone hole. Decrease in the abundance of Antarctic ozone as sunlight
returns to the pole in early springtime
Ozone layer. Narrow band of the stratosphere situated near 18 miles
(30 km.) above the earth’s surface, where molecules of ozone are con-
centrated. The average concentration is only one in four million, but
this thin layer protects the earth by absorbing much of the ultraviolet
light from the Sun and reradiating it as longer-wavelength radiation.
Scientists were disturbed to discover that the ozonosphere was being
destroyed by photochemical reaction with chlorofluorocarbons
(CFCs). The ozone holes over the South and North Poles negatively
affect several animal species, including humans; skin cancer risk is in-
 Glossary / 461

creasing rapidly as a consequence of depletion of the ozone layer.

Stratospheric ozone should not be confused with ozone at lower levels,
which is a result of photochemical smog. Also called the ozonosphere.

P wave. Fastest elastic wave generated by an earthquake or artificial en-

ergy source; basically an acoustic or shock wave that compresses and
stretches solid material in its path.
Pacific Rim. Group of countries with coastlines on the Pacific Ocean.
In seeking to strengthen economic ties, these countries emphasize
trade across the Pacific, instead of older trade links with Western Eu-
rope. Countries include the United States, Canada, Japan, Korea,
China, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, and Chile. The organiza-
tion APEC was formed to exploit the growing economic strength of
some Asian economies in Pacific Rim countries.
Pacific Ring of Fire. See Ring of Fire.
Paddies. Rice fields, especially in Asian countries. The fields are small;
the land must be level, with an impermeable subsoil. Paddies are en-
closed by low earth walls, so that they can retain the water required for
flooding throughout the growing season. This type of rice growing is
wet-rice cultivation. Many hillsides in Asian countries have been labori-
ously terraced to create small paddies on steep slopes.
Pahoehoe. See Ropy lava.
Paleobiogeography. Study of the geographic distribution of past life-
forms.
Paleobiology. Study of the most ancient life-forms, typically through the
examination of microscopic fossils.
Paleoceanography. Study of the history of the oceans of the earth, an-
cient sediment deposition patterns, and ocean current positions
compared to ancient climates.
Paleodepth. Estimate of the water depth at which ancient seafloor sedi-
ments were originally deposited.
Paleomagnetism. Study of magnetism preserved in rocks, which pro-
vides evidence of the history of Earth’s magnetic field and the move-
ments of continents.
Paleontology. Study of ancient life; invertebrate paleontologists study
fossil invertebrate animals, vertebrate paleontologists study fossil ver-
tebrates, and micropaleontologists study microfossils.
Paleozoic era. Era that began about 543 million years ago and ended
245 million years ago; it includes six periods: the Cambrian, the Or-
dovician, the Silurian, the Devonian, the Carboniferous, and the
Permian.
Pandemic. Epidemic that spreads through a large area, sometimes even
of worldwide proportions, leading to the deaths of millions of hu-
mans. The Black Death, or plague, that affected Europe in the four-
teenth century was a pandemic in which it is estimated that twenty-five
462 / Glossary

million people died. The Spanish Influenza Epidemic, which spread

around the world during 1918 and 1919, was a pandemic, causing
more than thirty million deaths. The current spread of AIDS/HIV
might be described as a pandemic.
Pangaea. Name used by Alfred Wegener for the supercontinent that
broke apart to create the present continents.
Paradigm. Pattern of scientific research and investigation that prevails in
any discipline over time. A new way of conducting research or a new
philosophical approach leads to a paradigm shift.
Parallel. Line of latitude. One of a series of imaginary lines that extend
around the earth parallel to the equator. Parallels are numbered
from zero to ninety degrees north or south. The forty-ninth parallel
forms part of the border between Canada and the United States.
Parasitic cone. Small volcanic cone that appears on the flank of a larger
volcano, or perhaps inside a caldera.
Parish. Administrative subdivision of a British county or a division of the
U.S. state of Louisiana that corresponds to the counties of other states.
Particulate matter. Mixture of small particles that adversely affect human
health. The particles may come from smoke and dust and are in their
highest concentrations in large urban areas, where they contribute
to the “dust dome.” Increased occurrences of illnesses such as asthma
and bronchitis, especially in children, are related to high concentra-
tions of particulate matter.
Pass. Lower section between mountains that enables people to travel
across the mountain range. It may be a saddle or, more commonly, a
gorge. The most famous is the Khyber Pass, on the border between
Afghanistan and Pakistan, which has been the entryway for numerous
invasions of the Indian subcontinent. The Simplon Pass allowed tra-
verse of the Swiss Alps between northern and southern Europe, but it
has been superseded by the Simplon Tunnel. The Donner Pass in the
Sierra Nevada is named after the expedition leaders, George and Ja-
cob Donner, whose party of immigrants was snowbound there in the
winter of 1846-1847, leading some members to survive on the dead
bodies of their companions. Also called a mountain pass.
Pastoralism. Type of agriculture involving the raising of grazing ani-
mals, such as cattle, goats, and sheep. Pastoral nomads migrate with
their domesticated animals in order to ensure sufficient grass and
water for the animals.
Paternoster lakes. Small circular lakes joined by a stream. These lakes
are the result of glacial erosion. The name comes from the resem-
blance to rosary beads and the accompanying prayer (the Our Father).
Patriarchy. Society in which men dominate all aspects of life, which can
mean the oppression and exploitation of women. Fathers dominate
the household and family group, and adult men have absolute author-
ity over the larger social group. The early studies of patriarchy used an-
 Glossary / 463

cient Greece and Rome as models. In practice, however, women had

considerable power in those societies. Ethnographers and anthropolo-
gists have shown that there are many types of social arrangements that
are complex and cooperative, rather than dominated entirely by one
sex. Most feminists are opposed to patriarchal arrangements.
Patterned ground. Networks of rocks brought to the surface in polygon
patterns by freeze-thaw cycles in arctic environments. See also Peri-
glacial; Permafrost.
Peak. Mountain, or part of a mountain, that has a sharply defined sum-
mit. Some mountains, such as Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro, have more
than a single peak.

A peak is mountain, or part of a mountain, that has a sharply defined summit, in

contrast to hills and mountains with smooth domes. (PhotoDisc)

Peat. Organic material formed in cool humid climates, where vegeta-

tion has accumulated and partially decomposed under boggy or wa-
terlogged conditions. It is an early stage in the formation of coal. Peat
is found extensively on all northern continents and can be used as a
fuel if it is dried before burning. Peat has been an important source of
energy in Ireland.
Pebble. On the scale developed by C. K. Wentworth, a pebble is a parti-
cle or piece of rock with a diameter between .16 and 2.5 inches (4 and
64 millimeters). Coarser material is cobbles; finer material is gran-
ules. Pebbles are an important product of fluvial erosion. They are
part of the formation of potholes.
Pedestal rock. Rock that has assumed the shape of a pedestal as a result of
unique shaping processes caused by wind.
464 / Glossary

Pediment. In desert regions, there is often a gently sloping bedrock

surface extending along the base of a mountain range, sometimes
covered with a thin layer of alluvium. This erosion surface is a spe-
cial case of a piedmont, which was given the name pediment. An ex-
tensive pediment has been called a pediplain.
Pediplain. See Pediment.
Pedology. Scientific study of soils.
Pelagic. Relating to life-forms that live on or in open seas, rather than wa-
ters close to land.
Pele. The Hawaiian goddess of fire, attributed with the creation of the is-
lands of Hawaii. When strong winds blow pieces of lava from a lava
fountain, drawing them out into long thin threads, the delicate volca-
nic forms are called Pele’s hair.
Peneplain. In the geomorphic cycle, or cycle of landform develop-
ment, described by W. M. Davis, the final stage of erosion led to the
creation of an extensive land surface with low relief. Davis named this
a peneplain, meaning “almost a plain.” It is now known that tectonic
forces are so frequent that there would be insufficient time for such a
cycle to complete all stages required to complete this landform.
Peninsula. Narrow strip of land extending from the mainland into the
sea or ocean. From the Latin word meaning “almost an island.”
Percolation. Downward movement of part of the water that falls on the
surface of the earth, through the upper layers of permeable soil and
rocks under the influence of gravity. Eventually, it accumulates in
the zone of saturation as groundwater.
Perennial lake. Lake that contains water year-round. See also Intermit-
tent lake.
Perennial stream. River that has water flowing in it throughout the year.
See also Intermittent stream.
Perforated state. State whose territory completely surrounds another
state. The classic example of a perforated state is South Africa, within
which lies the country of Lesotho. Technically, Italy is perforated by
the microstates of San Marino and Vatican City.
Periglacial. Landforms and processes found over one fifth the surface of
the earth, along the margins of past and present glaciers. See also
Permafrost; Patterned ground
Perihelion. Point in Earth’s revolution when it is closest to the Sun
(usually on January 3). At perihelion, the distance between the earth
and the Sun is 91,500,000 miles (147,255,000 km.). The opposite of
aphelion.
Period. Unit of geologic time comprising part of an era and subdivided,
in decreasing order, into epochs, ages, and chrons.
Periodicity. The recurrence of related phenomena at regular intervals.
Periphery. Geographic study of a country or region can identify a core
area or focus of human activity, where there is a concentration of pop-
 Glossary / 465

ulation, wealth, production, and consumption. A country’s core re-

gion is usually its capital city and nearby region. Other parts of the
country are the periphery and have the disadvantage of lower levels of
development and investment. The concept can be applied to the
whole world: There is a small core of countries with high national in-
comes and advanced living standards (Japan, the United States, Can-
ada, and countries in Western Europe), and a large peripheral area of
the rest of the world, where underdevelopment, hunger, poverty, and
lack of education prevail. Countries in the periphery have no control
of the global economic system and rely on the export of raw materials
and cash crops to the core, or on the exploitation of their workers in
low-wage labor.
Permafrost. Permanently frozen subsoil. The condition occurs in pe-
rennially cold areas such as the Arctic. No trees can grow because
their roots cannot penetrate the permafrost. The upper portion of the
frozen soil can thaw briefly in the summer, allowing many smaller
plants to thrive in the long daylight. Permafrost occurs in about 25 per-
cent of the earth’s land surface, and the condition even hampers con-
struction in regions such as Siberia and Arctic Canada. See also Pat-
terned ground; Periglacial.

Exposed permafrost in Labrador’s Katherine River Valley of the Torngat Mountains. (Geological
Survey of Canada)
466 / Glossary

Permeable. Materials that can be

penetrated by liquids or gases,
such as porous rocks, are called
permeable.
Permian period. Most recent pe-
riod of the Paleozoic era, last-
ing from approximately 280 to
225 million years ago.
Perturb. To change the path of an
orbiting body by a gravitational
force.
Petrified wood. Form of fossil
wood in which all the original
tissue and structure of the tree
has been replaced by silica or
calcite. It is produced when wa-
terlogged tree trunks are bur-
ied in sand, or also if trees are
covered by volcanic ash. The
Petrified Forest of Arizona is
a famous region of the United Petrified tree trunk, photographed around
States preserved as a national 1890, on Specimen Ridge, Yellowstone Na-
park. Here the tree tissue has tional Park. (U.S. Geological Survey)
been replaced by chalcedony, a
form of quartz.
Petrochemical. Chemical substance obtained from natural gas or pe-
troleum.
Petrography. Description and systematic classification of rocks.
Petroleum. Commonly used alternative term for crude oil; technically,
the word refers to the mixture of complex hydrocarbons that can exist
as gas (natural gas), liquid (oil), and solid (bitumen). In the twenti-
eth century, oil and natural gas were the most important fossil fuels.
Petroleum formed from the altered remains of single-celled plank-
tonic organisms accumulated deep in sedimentary rocks such as
shale and clay, before migrating to porous reservoir rocks. Most
of the more than fifty thousand oilfields in the world are small. Al-
though the United States is a major oil producer, it is also the world’s
largest consumer, so it is heavily reliant on imported oil. From a Greek
word for rock oil.
Phanerozoic eon. Period of geologic time with an abundant fossil re-
cord, extending from about 544 million years ago to the present.
Photochemical smog. Mixture of gases produced by the interaction of
sunlight on the gases emanating from automobile exhausts. The gases
include ozone, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and peroxyacetyl
nitrates. Many large cities suffer from poor air quality because of pho-
 Glossary / 467

tochemical smog. Severe health problems arise from continued expo-

sure to photochemical smog.
Photometry. Technique of measuring the brightness of astronomical ob-
jects, usually with a photoelectric cell.
Photosynthesis. Process by which green plants capture light energy—
generally insolation—and convert it into chemical compounds
known as sugars (starches, hydrocarbons) that provide energy for the
plants to grow. Hydrogen from water and carbon from the atmo-
sphere combine with oxygen in these energy-rich compounds. Water
and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are essential for photosyn-
thesis. Oxygen is the other product of photosynthesis. Without photo-
synthesis, life on Earth would be impossible. Plants, which rely on
photosynthesis for growth, form the basis of any food chain, so organ-
isms, including humans, would not survive without it. The opposite of
photosynthesis is respiration.
Phylogeny. Study of the evolutionary relationships among organisms.
Phylum. Major grouping of organisms, distinguished on the basis of basic
body plan, grade of anatomical complexity, and pattern of growth or
development.
Physical geography. The study of the natural world, including geomor-
phology, climatology, biogeography, soils, and aspects of ma-
rine studies and environmental science. Physical geographers are
especially interested in the relationship between humans and the nat-
ural world.
Physical weathering. The breaking down or disintegrating of rock into
smaller pieces. In cold climates, or in high-altitude regions where
temperatures fall below zero at night, frost wedging is an impor-
tant form of physical weathering, which causes rocks to shatter as water
freezes into ice in joints in rocks. Exfoliation or the peeling off of
sheets of rock through pressure release is another form of physical
weathering.
Physiography. The physical geography of a place—the landforms,
water features, climate, soils, and vegetation.
Physiologic density. Measure of agricultural productivity—the number of
people of a country who are fed per unit area of arable, or agricul-
tural, land. Several countries have a much higher physiological density
than the United States, but they also have either higher populations,
less arable land, or both.
Piedmont. Landform at the foot of a mountain. In arid regions, it is
easy to observe the piedmont angle—the sharp change in angle of
slope between the flat desert plain and the adjacent mountains.
Piedmont can be an erosional surface, cut into a bedrock surface
called a pediment, or a depositional surface, formed as streams
emerge from the mountains and deposit their load as alluvial fans.
A series of coalescing alluvial fans form a sloping piedmont called a
468 / Glossary

bajada. The name “piedmont” comes from the Piedmont of northern

Italy, which comprises the Po River Valley. In the United States, the
long region of dissected plateau lying just east of the Appalachian
Mountains, from New Jersey to Alabama, is called the Piedmont; it
contains some of the richest farmland of that country.
Piedmont glacier. Glacier formed when several alpine glaciers join to-
gether into a spreading glacier at the base of a mountain or range. The
Malaspina glacier in Alaska is a good example of a piedmont glacier.

Alaska’s Malaspina Glacier, with the Mount St. Elias range in the background.
(U.S. Geological Survey)

Piedmont lake. Lake formed when glacial moraine, or deposited mate-

rial, dams up a stream flowing in a former glacial trough. Several
lakes forming the Lake District of England are piedmont lakes.
Pilgrimage. Journey to a sacred site or to a place of religious impor-
tance, such as a shrine, undertaken by believers of that faith. The hajj,
or pilgrimage to Mecca, is especially important for the religion of Is-
lam. Christian pilgrimages to Jerusalem have been made for almost
two millennia. The most important site for Buddhist pilgrims is Bodh
Gaya in India, where Prince Siddhartha attained enlightenment.
 Glossary / 469

Pillow lava rocks from off the shore of the island of Hawaii. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration)

Pillow lava. Substance formed when a volcano emits fluid ropy lava,
also known as pahoehoe, into the sea, where the rapid cooling forms a
skin, producing small rounded shapes like pillows, one after another,
in a budding process.
Place. In geographic terms, space that is endowed with physical and hu-
man meaning. Geographers study the relationship between people,
places, and environments. The five themes that geographers use to
examine the world are location, place, human/environment inter-
action, movement, and regions.
Placer. Accumulation of valuable minerals formed when grains of the
minerals are physically deposited along with other, nonvaluable min-
eral grains.
Plain. Area of land that has low relief or is almost flat. Difference in ele-
vation on a plain is less than 325 feet (100 meters) and the slope an-
gle is less than five degrees. Most plains were formed by deposition,
especially by rivers during flood. Floodplains became favored lo-
cations early in human history because the flat land was suitable for
agriculture, building construction, and ease of transport. Almost
one-third of the earth’s land surface is plains. The Great Plains of
North America extend from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson Bay. Plains
 470 / Glossary

cover Europe from Poland to the Ural Mountains in Russia. South

America has extensive plains, especially in Brazil and Argentina.
Plane of the ecliptic. See Ecliptic, plane of.
Planet. Celestial body that revolves in an orbit around a star. This defini-
tion excludes moons, meteoroids, and comets. Our solar system
has nine planets, of which Earth is the third-closest to the Sun. The
other planets (in order from the Sun) are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupi-
ter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. The inner four planets are
called terrestrial planets because they are made of solid rocks;
the next four are the Jovian, or giant, planets made of gas.
Planetary wind system. Global atmospheric circulation pattern, as in the
belt of prevailing westerly winds.
Plankton. Organisms living in fresh water or oceans that are too tiny to
swim against currents or wind and so can only float. Plankton can be
subdivided based on life-forms into phytoplankton, or plantlike plank-
ton, and zooplankton, or animal-like plankton. The crustacean zoo-
plankton known as krill are the most important part of the marine
plankton, because they are the food source for the great whales. Plank-
ton also can be classified based on size. Macroplankton are greater
than 0.4 inch (1 centimeter) in length, microplankton can be as small
as a twentieth of that size, and nannoplankton are ten times smaller
still. Organisms that can swim are called nekton.

Plankton are marine

organisms so small they
cannot swim against
currents or wind and
must therefore merely
float where the water
takes them. Under
certain conditions, the
numbers of organisms
can explode, creating
what is called a
plankton bloom that is
visible from space, as is
this example off the
coast of Namibia in the
South Atlantic Ocean in
April, 1985. (Corbis)
 Glossary / 471

Plant communities. See Biome.

Plantation. Form of agriculture in which a large area of agricultural
land is devoted to the production of a single cash crop, for export.
Many plantation crops are tropical, such as bananas, sugarcane, and
rubber. Coffee and tea plantations require cooler climates. Formerly,
slave labor was used on most plantations, and the owners were usually
Europeans.
Plat. General term for any small piece of land. Also used for a map show-
ing features within a municipality.
Plate. Relatively thin slab of crustal rock, either continental or oceanic,
that moves over the face of the globe, driven by currents of circulating
molten rock in the underlying mantle. See also Tectonic plate.
Plate boundary. Region in which the earth’s crustal plates meet, as a
converging (subduction zone), diverging (mid-ocean ridge), trans-
form fault, or collisional interaction.
Plate tectonics. Theory proposed by German scientist Alfred Wegener in
1910. Based on extensive study of ancient geology, stratigraphy, and
climate, Wegener concluded that the continents were formerly one
single enormous landmass, which he named Pangaea. Over the past
250 million years, Pangaea broke apart, first into Laurasia and Gond-
wanaland, and subsequently into the present continents. Earth scien-
tists now believe that the earth’s crust is composed of a series of thin,
rigid plates that are in motion, sometimes diverging, sometimes col-
liding.
Plateau. Large area of flat land at high elevation and surrounded by es-
carpments. Plateaus and enclosed basins cover about 45 percent of
the earth’s land surface. The flat top often results from a hard layer of
rock at the surface. The Colorado River has eroded the Grand Can-
yon into the Kaibab Plateau. A similar but smaller feature is a table-
land. The highest plateau is in Tibet (Xizang), where the elevation is
around 14,500 feet (4,500 meters). A plateau can be formed by ther-
mal expansion or uplift by underlying hot magma. The large plateaus
of East Africa were formed in this way. Plateaus can also be formed by
volcanic eruption of huge amounts of lava, known as flood basalt.
The Deccan Plateau of India and the Columbian Plateau of the United
States are good example of this type of plateau. Some plateaus are part
of a mountain range, for example, the Altiplano in South America’s
Andes.
Playa. Shallow but broad saline lake, perhaps only a few centimeters
deep, found in drainage basins in arid and semiarid regions. A
playa may dry up to form a salina, or salt flat. Playas in the Western
United States are sometimes called alkali flats.
Pleistocene. Epoch of geological time extending from about 1.6 million
years ago to about 10,000 years ago. Broadly speaking, the Pleistocene
corresponded to the great ice ages of the earth, although it is now
 472 / Glossary

thought that the cooling began earlier. During the Pleistocene, almost
one-third of the earth’s land surface was covered by glacial ice. Now
only about 10 percent is covered, mainly in Antarctica and Greenland.
After the Pleistocene comes the Holocene Epoch; preceding the Pleis-
tocene was the Pliocene.
Plinian eruption. Rapid ejection of large volumes of volcanic ash that is
often accompanied by the collapse of the upper part of the volcano.
Named either for Pliny the Elder, a Roman naturalist who died while
observing the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 c.e., or for Pliny the
Younger, his nephew, who chronicled the eruption.
Pliocene epoch. Geological epoch in Tertiary period of the Cenozoic
era that began about 12 million years ago.
Plucking. Term used to describe the way glacial ice can erode large pieces
of rock as it makes its way downslope. The ice penetrates joints,
other openings on the floor, or perhaps the side wall, and freezes
around the block of stone, tearing it away and carrying it along, as part
of the glacial moraine. The rocks contribute greatly to glacial abra-
sion, causing deep grooves or striations in some places. The jagged
torn surface left behind is subject to further plucking. Alpine gla-
ciers can erode steep valleys called glacial troughs.
Plume. Expanded and cooled material pushed upward in the form of a
fireball from the force of an eruption or impact.

The plume of an erupting volcano

is similar in appearance to that of
an atomic bomb explosion.
(PhotoDisc)
 Glossary / 473

Plural society. Society in which more than one ethnic group lives, with
distinct separation of the different cultures. The United States and
Canada are plural societies.
Pluton. Generic term for an igneous body that solidifies well below the
earth’s surface; plutonic rocks are coarse-grained because they cool
slowly.
Plutonic. Igneous rocks made of mineral grains visible to the naked
eye. These igneous rocks have cooled relatively slowly. Granite is a
good example of a plutonic rock.
Pluvial period. Episode of time during which rains were abundant, espe-
cially during the last ice age, from a few million to about ten thousand
years ago.
Polar ice cap. Large sheet of ice, often more than a hundred square miles
in size, that covers the polar portions of the Arctic Ocean and does not
melt seasonally.
Polar stratospheric clouds. Clouds of ice crystals formed at extremely
low temperatures in the polar stratosphere.
Polar vortex. Closed atmospheric circulation pattern around the South
Pole that exists during the winter and early spring; atmospheric mix-
ing between the polar vortex and regions outside the vortex is slow.
The low-pressure system has swirling winds at its boundaries.
Polarity. Orientation of the earth’s magnetic field relative to the earth.
Polder. Lands reclaimed from the sea by constructing dikes to hold back
the sea and then pumping out the water retained between the dikes
and the land. Before agriculture is possible, the soil must be spe-
cially treated to remove the salt. Some polders are used for recre-
ational land; cities also have been built on polders. The largest polders
are in the Netherlands, where the northern part, known as the Low
Netherlands, covers almost half of the total area of this country.
Pole. The ends of the earth’s axis of rotation are termed the North and
South Pole, respectively. The geographic pole does not correspond ex-
actly with the magnetic pole, because the earth’s magnetic field is
in constant change. Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen was the
first to reach the South Pole, in 1911. American explorer Robert E.
Peary claimed to have reached the North Pole in 1909. Richard E.
Byrd flew over the North Pole in 1926.
Political geography. Study of spatial aspects of political processes, mainly
at the international scale. It includes the spatial analysis of various po-
litical ideologies, boundary changes, forms of government, selection
of capital cities, and relations between states.
Pollution. Environmental pollution is the introduction of unwanted and
usually unhealthful materials into the environment—the atmo-
sphere, soil, or water. Some pollutants occur naturally: Volcanoes
and naturally occurring forest fires emit dust and vapors into the at-
mosphere. Of greater concern is anthropogenic pollution, or human
474 / Glossary

pollution of the environment. When the human population was

small, this was not a problem, but six billion humans now produce vast
amounts of human waste (sewage) and garbage. air pollution is es-
pecially bad in many cities, such as Mexico City and Bangkok, where
noxious gases are produced by vehicles and energy sources. Human
activities such as farming can increase dust particles, and human-
caused forest fires are a major source of air pollution. Industrial prod-
ucts such as pesticides or CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) spread far
from their source areas. Water pollution comes from sewage disposal
and runoff from cities, industries, and agricultural lands; thermal
pollution occurs from nuclear power plants. Land pollution gener-
ally involves solid waste, such as nonbiodegradable trash, but also in-
cludes chemicals such as DDT or PCBs.
Polygenetic. Pertaining to volcanism from several physically distinct vents
or repeated eruptions from a single vent punctuated by long periods
of quiescence.
Polygonal ground. Distinctive geological formation caused by the repeti-
tive freezing and thawing of permafrost.
Pool. Small but comparatively deep body of water, or a slow-moving part
of a stream.
Popular culture. Term for the products and landscapes created, used,
and enjoyed by people in their everyday lives. Popular culture is simi-
lar to folk culture and is the opposite of high culture.
Population. Human population refers to the number of people inhabiting
an area, such as a country. The population of the United States in May,
2000, was estimated to be 274,863,982. The population of the earth
then was estimated at 6,072,255,639. In biology, population refers to
the number of individuals of one species in a given area, for example
the wolf population of Yellowstone National Park. Population size is
limited by availability of food and water, disease, and other factors.
Population density. Demographic measure calculated as the total popu-
lation of a country or other territory divided by it total area. The re-
sultant figure gives the number of residents per square mile or square
kilometer. The United States had a population density of about 75 per-
sons per square mile in the year 2000. Population density figures can
be misleading, especially for large countries, since people are not dis-
tributed evenly throughout any country. In the United States, there
are large clusters of dense population, such as the Los Angeles conur-
bation, where the population density is much higher then the average
for the country; there also are huge regions with almost no residents,
such as in the states of Utah, Nevada, and Montana, where the popu-
lation density is very low.
Population explosion. Great increase in the number of people in a short
period, due to a large number of births with a high survival rate. The
first human population explosion occurred about three thousand
 Glossary / 475

years ago, as a result of the Agricultural Revolution. When many

humans changed their lifestyle from hunting and gathering to rais-
ing crops and domesticated animals, the increased food supply made
this population explosion possible. The next great population explo-
sion occurred in the eighteenth century, as a result of the Industrial
Revolution in Europe. This explosion has continued. In the year
2000, there were more than six billion people on Earth, and this num-
ber was predicted to double in fifty years.
Population pyramid. Type of bar graph that displays the age and sex
structure of a given population. A pyramid shape means that the
sexes are evenly distributed; the greater numbers of the population
are children, with correspondingly smaller numbers for each older
age group; and there is continued population growth. Some rapidly
growing countries have oversteepened population pyramids. Pyramids
for countries with slow or no population growth have a smaller base
than the middle sections that represent the adult population.
Porosity. The space in a rock or soil that is filled with air. This pore space
occurs between the grains or crystals that make up the rock. Porosity is
related to grain size, smoothness, and compaction of materials.
Port. Place on a coast where ships can be securely anchored or tied up,
safe from storms, while they load or unload cargo or passengers. As
ships have become larger, many older ports have lost their economic
function and large artificial harbors have been constructed in their
place. The historic English Cinque Ports were Dover, Hastings, Hythe,
New Romney, and Sandwich; only Dover remained important at the
end of the twentieth century.
Possibilism. Concept that arose among French geographers who rejected
the concept of environmental determinism, instead asserting that
the relationship between human beings and the environment is in-
teractive.
Postindustrial economy. Concept introduced by American sociologist
Daniel Bell, referring to the fact that the majority of the workforce in
highly developed, high-income countries is employed in service indus-
tries. This is the result of increased disposable income and increased
leisure time. Rapid growth of knowledge-based industries and infor-
mation technology has increased the importance of tertiary in-
dustry and the quaternary sector, while the proportion of the
workforce in secondary industry continues to decline. In such soci-
eties, education, health services, and the welfare state assume new
dominance, while science and knowledge-based enterprises flourish.
Potable water. Fresh water that is being used for domestic consump-
tion.
Potholes. Circular depressions formed in the bed of a river when the
stream flows over bedrock. The scouring of pebbles as a result of
water turbulence wears away the sides of the depression, deepening
476 / Glossary

it vertically and producing a smooth, rounded pothole. (In modern

parlance, the term is also applied to holes in public roads.)
Prairie. Flat plains covered with grasses, found in North America. The
annual rainfall decreases from east to west, and the vegetation
changes correspondingly from tall-grass prairie through mixed prairie
to short-grass prairie. The tall-grass prairie is an area of extremely rich
soils, and the original vegetation has largely been cleared for grain
farming of wheat or corn, or for urban purposes; the short-grass prai-
rie is largely used for pastoral agriculture, especially raising cattle
for beef. Prairie animals include the bison, wolf, prairie chicken, prai-
rie dog, coyote, jackrabbit, and many birds. The Canadian provinces
of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan are called the Prairie Prov-
inces. The prairie biome is part of the middle latitude grassland
biome, which includes the Pampas of Uruguay and the grasslands of
the Ukraine.

Prairie is the term applied to flat plains covered with grasses—a terrain that pre-
dominates throughout North America’s Great Plains. (PhotoDisc)

Precambrian period. The oldest and longest time in Earth’s geologic his-
tory. It began around 3.9 billion years ago—the age of the oldest
known rocks on Earth—and continued to the beginning of the Pa-
leozoic era, 543 million years ago. The name was given after the earli-
est fossils were found in rocks in Wales (Cambria). It was assumed
that life on Earth began in the Cambrian period. Study in the twenti-
eth century revealed that life has existed on Earth for perhaps 3.5 bil-
lion years. Because of greater knowledge, the Precambrian is now di-
vided into the Archean and Proterozoic eons. The Precambrian
period accounts for almost 80 percent of Earth’s geologic history.
 Glossary / 477

Precipitation. All water that falls from clouds to the ground, whether in
liquid or solid form. Water in the atmosphere collects around parti-
cles called condensation nuclei, forming cloud droplets that grow
in size through collision and coalescence. The precipitation particles
eventually become so large and heavy that they fall to the ground.
Types of precipitation include snow, rain, sleet, and hail. Snow is a
solid, crystalline form of water. Rain is liquid water drops with diame-
ters greater than 0.02 inch (0.5 millimeter). When the drops are
smaller, the precipitation is usually called drizzle. Sleet is frozen rain-
drops or partially melted snowflakes. Hail is balls or pieces of ice with a
diameter of larger than 0.2 inch (5 millimeters). Small hail is some-
times called ice pellets.
Primary economic activity. Economic activities that derive their materials
directly from the environment. These include hunting, fishing, for-
estry, farming, mining, and quarrying. In low-income economies, the
majority of the population is engaged in primary industry. In the
poorest countries, this is usually subsistence agriculture. Also
called primary industries.
Primary minerals. Minerals formed when magma crystallizes.
Primary wave. Compressional type of earthquake wave, which can travel
in any medium and is the fastest wave.
Primate city. City that is at least twice as large as the next-largest city in
that country. The “law of the primate city” was developed by Ameri-
can geographer Mark Jefferson, to analyze the phenomenon of coun-
tries where one huge city dominates the political, economic, and cul-
tural life of that country. The concept is easily understood when one
thinks of Paris, a classic example of a primate city; London is another
great primate city. The size and dominance of a primate city is a pull
factor and ensures its continuing dominance. Not all countries have
a primate city. The United States does not, because there are similar-
sized agglomerations on the East Coast (New York) and the West Coast
(Los Angeles), neither of which is the national capital city. It is not
necessary for a primate city to be a national capital, but in practice this
is the case. Australia is another country with no primate city. Instead, it
has two large cities, Sydney and Melbourne, neither of which is the
capital city.
Prime meridian. Line of longitude used as a reference for the geo-
graphic grid. It is numbered zero and separates the Eastern and
Western Hemispheres. Other meridians are numbered from 1 to
180 degrees, east and west, of the prime meridian. The prime merid-
ian line is also called the Greenwich meridian because it runs through
the former Royal Observatory at Greenwich, near London, England,
connecting the North and South Poles. Although other cities, such as
Paris and Washington, D.C., vied to be the location of the prime me-
ridian, the decision was made in 1884 at the International Meridian
478 / Glossary

Conference in Washington, D.C. Great Britain then had the world’s

largest empire and the largest navy.
Principal parallels. The most important lines of latitude. Parallels are
imaginary lines, parallel to the equator. The principal parallels are
the equator at zero degrees, the tropic of Cancer at 23.5 degrees
North, the tropic of Capricorn at 23.5 degrees south, the Arctic Circle
at 66.5 degrees north, and the Antarctic Circle at 66.5 degrees south.
Principality. Literally, the territory governed by a prince; any monarch’s
realm.
Prorupt. See Protruded.
Protectorate. Country that is a political dependency of another na-
tion; similar to a colony, but usually having a less restrictive relation-
ship with its overseeing power.
Proterozoic eon. Interval between 2.5 billion and 544 million years ago.
During this period in the geologic record, processes presently ac-
tive on Earth first appeared, notably the first clear evidence for plate
tectonics. Rocks of the Proterozoic eon also document changes in
conditions on Earth, particularly an apparent increase in atmospheric
oxygen.
Protruded. The morphology of a country can be described as pro-
truded when the main body of the country has a long thin extension
stretching away from it. Thailand is a protruded country. The state of
Oklahoma can be described as protruded. An alternative term is
prorupt.
Province. Term used in some countries for internal administrative subdi-
visions. Canada, for example, has ten provinces. When South Africa
was reorganized in 1994, it changed from four to nine provinces.
Psychrometer. Device used to measure and calculate the relative hu-
midity of air. The sling psychrometer consists of two thermometers,
one of which has its bulb wrapped in moistened cloth. The psychrom-
eter is swung in the air, and the difference in temperature of the two
bulbs is calculated. This is compared with the psychrometric table,
which gives the relative humidity value corresponding to those condi-
tions.
Pull factors. Forces that attract immigrants to a new country or loca-
tion as permanent settlers. They include economic opportunities, ed-
ucational facilities, land ownership, gold rushes, climate conditions,
democracy, and similar factors of attraction.
Pumice. Light, porous rock of igneous origin. It is formed when ejected
lava cools rapidly without crystallization. In this respect, pumice is
similar to obsidian, or volcanic glass. Heating obsidian can produce
pumice. The expulsion of gases in the lava causes the rock to swell, or
froth, as it cools. Visually, pumice resembles some sea sponges. It is
pale gray to whitish in color and is so light that it floats in water. Coun-
tries around the Mediterranean Sea mine pumice commercially. Pum-
 Glossary / 479

ice from Peru is widely used in the fashion industry to create the
“stone-washed” look of clothing items.
Push factors. Forces that encourage people to migrate permanently from
their homelands to settle in a new destination. They include war, per-
secution for religious or political reasons, hunger, and similar negative
factors.
Pyroclasts. Materials that are ejected from a volcano into the air.
Pyroclastic materials return to Earth at greater or lesser distances, de-
pending on their size and the height to which they are thrown by the
explosion of the volcano. The largest pyroclasts are volcanic bombs.
Smaller pieces are volcanic blocks and scoria. These generally fall back
onto the volcano and roll down the sides. Even smaller pyroclasts are
lapilli, cinders, and volcanic ash. The finest pyroclastic materials
may be carried by winds for great distances, even completely around
the earth, as was the case with dust from the Krakatoa explosion in
1883 and the early 1990’s explosions of Mount Pinatubo in the Philip-
pines.

Pyroclastic flow deposit. (U.S. Geological Survey)

Qanat. Method used in arid regions to bring groundwater from moun-

tainous regions to lower and flatter agricultural land. A qanat is a long
tunnel or series of tunnels, perhaps more than a mile long. The word
qanat is Arabic, but the first qanats are thought to have been con-
structed in Farsi-speaking Persia more than two thousand years ago.
Qanats are still used there, as well as in Afghanistan and Morocco.
 480 / Glossary

The simple oxide quartz (the lighter buckled veins in this rock sample) is the most common of
the silicate minerals, which constitute 95 percent of Earth’s crust. (Geological Survey of Can-
ada)

Quartz. One of the most common minerals on the earth’s surface; it oc-
curs in many different forms, including agate, jasper, and chert.
Quaternary period. The shortest and youngest of the eleven periods into
which geologic time is divided. The Quaternary began around 1.6 mil-
lion years ago and continues at the present. It comes after the Ter-
tiary period, which extended from 66.4 million years ago to 1.6 mil-
lion years ago. The Quaternary is subdivided into the Pleistocene
and Holocene Epochs. We are living in the Holocene Epoch.
Quaternary sector. Economic activity that involves the collection and
processing of information. The rapid spread of computers and the In-
ternet caused a major increase in the importance of employment in
the quaternary sector. See also Postindustrial economy.

Radar imaging. Technique of transmitting radar toward an object and

then receiving the reflected radiation so that time-of-flight measure-
ments provide information about surface topography of the object
under study.
Radial drainage. The pattern of stream courses often reveals the under-
lying geology or structure of a region. In a radial drainage pattern,
streams radiate outward from a center, like spokes on a wheel, because
they flow down the slopes of a volcano.
Radiation. Transfer of energy through a transparent medium, as occurs
when the Sun warms the earth.
Radioactive minerals. Minerals combining uranium, thorium, and ra-
dium with other elements. Useful for nuclear technology, these min-
 Glossary / 481

erals furnish the basic isotopes necessary not only for nuclear reactors
but also for advanced medical treatments, metallurgical analysis, and
chemicophysical research.
Radioactivity. Energy emitted spontaneously from certain types of rocks,
through the decay of an unstable nucleus. The unstable materials that
occur naturally on Earth include uranium-238, uranium-235, and tho-
rium-232. Radioactivity has been harnessed to produce nuclear weap-
ons and for nuclear power generation.
Radiocarbon dating. See Carbon dating.
Radon gas. Radioactive gas and the heaviest of the noble gases. It is pro-
duced by the radioactive decay of radium, which is a natural decay
product of the uranium found in various types of rocks. Trace amounts
of radon seep from rocks and soil into the atmosphere and can be-
come a health hazard in sufficient concentrations.
Rain forest. Dense evergreen forest with high annual rainfall. Most
rain forests are in the Tropics. A special rain forest is the temperate
rain forest of the West Coast of the United States, where the redwoods
and giant sequoias occur in small patches, now mostly protected. The
tallest living trees in the world are located in this biome.

Most rain forests are in the Tropics; however, a special rain forest is the temperate redwood rain
forest of the West Coast of the United States, where the redwoods and giant sequoias occur in
small patches. (Digital Stock)
 482 / Glossary

Rain forests are characterized by canopies of trees so dense that sunlight rarely reaches the
ground. (PhotoDisc)

Rain forest, tropical. Rain forest with monthly temperatures averag-

ing greater than 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 degrees Celsius) and
monthly precipitation averaging more than 70 inches (1,800 milli-
meters) annually. The result is the most biologically diverse biome on
Earth. The world’s greatest expanse of tropical rain forest is in South
America’s Amazon Basin. Rain forests are also found in Africa, Central
and South America, Asia, northern Australia, and Hawaii. Tropical
rain forest covers about 7 percent of Earth’s land surface, but it is be-
ing cleared at an alarming rate, especially in Brazil. This deforesta-
tion has been monitored by flights of the space shuttle and by satel-
lites. Degenerate rain forest is jungle, although the two terms are
often confused.
Rain gauge. Instrument for measuring rainfall, usually consisting of a
cylindrical container open to the sky.
Rain shadow. Area of low precipitation located on the leeward side of
a topographic barrier such as a mountain range. Moisture-laden
winds are forced to rise, so they cool adiabatically, leading to con-
densation and precipitation on the windward side of the barrier.
When the air descends on the other side of the mountain, it is dry
and relatively warm. The area to the east of the Rocky Mountains is in a
rain shadow.
Rainfall. The amount of water a place receives from the atmosphere
over a given period. Meteorologists describe light rainfall as 0.1 inch
 Glossary / 483

(2.5 millimeters) in one hour; moderate rainfall as 0.1 to 0.3 inch (2.5-
7.6 millimeters) in one hour; and heavy rainfall as more than 0.3 inch
(7.6 millimeters) in one hour. Climatologists are concerned with the
average annual rainfall, the average over more than twenty years of
rainfall records. The place with the highest annual average rainfall is
Mount Waialeale, on the island of Hawaii, which receives on average
460 inches (11,700 millimeters) per year. The record for the highest
rainfall in a single year belongs to Cherrapunji, in the foothills of the
Himalayas, which received 1,042 inches (26,467 millimeters) in the
year 1860-1861. Rainfall is measured using a rain gauge. Rainfall
should not be confused with precipitation, which includes snow,
sleet, and hail.
Range. Difference between the highest and lowest values in a record. The
temperature range can be measured daily as the difference between
the maximum and minimum temperatures, or calculated as a monthly
or annual value. The tidal range is the difference in height between
the height of water at the extremes of high and low tides. This can be
measured daily, or calculated for monthly or annual figures.
Range, mountain. Linear series of mountains close together, formed in
an orogeny, or mountain-building episode. Tall mountain ranges
such as the Rocky Mountains are geologically much younger than
older mountain ranges such as the Appalachians.

Mountain ranges are series of mountains close together, formed in an orogeny, or mountain-
building episode. (PhotoDisc)
484 / Glossary

Rank-size rule. Relationship between the population size of a city and

its place in a hierarchy of cities within a country. The rule is ex-
pressed mathematically—the nth largest city in a region is 1/n times
the size of the largest city in the region. In other words, if the largest
city has a population of 1 million, the fifth-largest city would have a
population of one-fifth of that, or 200,000 people. The urban popula-
tion of the United States fits the rank-size rule. The rank-size distri-
bution is distorted by the presence in a country of a primate city,
one that is disproportionally large. Mexico City, for example, is about
ten times larger than Mexico’s next-largest city, Guadalajara.
Rapids. Stretches of rivers where the water flow is swift and turbulent be-
cause of a steep and rocky channel. The turbulent conditions are
called white water. If the change in elevation is greater, as for small
waterfalls, they are called cataracts.

Rapids are stretches of rivers in which water flow is swift and turbulent through
steep and rocky channels. (PhotoDisc)

Rational horizon. See Horizon, true.

Realm. In its older and narrowest sense, a realm is a kingdom. In its
broader geographical sense, it is any political territory.
Recessional moraine. Type of terminal moraine that marks a position
of shrinkage or wasting or a glacier. Continued forward flow of ice is
maintained so that the debris that forms the moraine continues to ac-
cumulate. Recessional moraines occur behind the terminal moraine.
Recumbent fold. Overturned fold in which the upper part of the fold is
almost horizontal, lying on top of the nearest adjacent surface.
 Glossary / 485

Reef (geology). Vein of ore, for example, a reef of gold.

Reef (marine). Underwater ridge made up of sand, rocks, or coral that
rises near to the water’s surface. See also Coral reef.
Refraction of waves. Bending of waves, which can occur in all kinds of
waves. When ocean waves approach a coast, they start to break as
they approach the shore because the depth decreases. The wave
speed is retarded and the wave crest seems to bend as the wavelength
decreases. If waves are approaching a coast at an oblique angle, the
crest line bends near the shore until it is almost parallel. If waves are
approaching a bay, the crests are refracted to fit the curve of the bay.
Region. Area of the earth that is homogeneous in respect to certain cho-
sen characteristics. Geographers tend to use multiple features or crite-
ria to identify regions. Climate, topography, and landforms might
be used to differentiate physical regions. Language, ethnicity, and
culture can be used to distinguish human regions. Industrial regions
are based on their production, for example, the Cotton Belt. Re-
gional geographers divide the world into formal regions, those with
a measurable and usually visible homogeneity. Other regions might be
defined as functional regions, having a definite core or node, such
as a city and its hinterland.
Regionalism. Feeling of collective identity by the people of a region,
based on their personal identification with that region. Texans, for ex-
ample, often display regionalism. Regionalism can influence ethnic
groups, whose aims may include increased political power or auton-
omy. The Basque people of the region on the west border of France
and Spain have created a strong regional movement, whose adherents
use violent methods in their struggle for a Basque homeland. The re-
gion where these feelings are expressed is a vernacular region.
Regolith. Layer of broken rock at the earth’s surface, lying over bed-
rock. Over time, regoliths can weather further and break down into
soil. Regolith comprises the C horizon of a soil profile. Slopes be-
low cliffs carry a layer of regolith.
Regression. Retreat of the sea from the land; it allows land erosion to oc-
cur on material formerly below the sea surface.
Rejuvenation. Stream or landscape is rejuvenated when there is an in-
crease in relief, generally because of tectonic uplift of the surface.
This puts new kinetic energy into the system, creating a new, lower
base level. Erosion occurs more rapidly. Landforms such as knick-
points and incised meanders are evidence of rejuvenation.
Relative humidity. Measure of the humidity, or amount of moisture, in
the atmosphere at any time and place compared with the total
amount of moisture that same air could theoretically hold at that
temperature. Relative humidity is a ratio that is expressed as a per-
centage. When the air is saturated, the relative humidity reaches 100
percent and rain occurs. When there is little moisture in the air, the
486 / Glossary

relative humidity is low, perhaps 20 percent. Relative humidity varies

inversely with temperature, because warm air can hold more moisture
than cooler air. Therefore, when temperatures fall overnight, the air
often becomes saturated and dew appears on grass and other surfaces.
The human comfort index is related to the relative humidity. Hot
temperatures are more bearable when relative humidity is low. Media
announcers frequently use the term “humidity” when they mean rela-
tive humidity.
Relative location. The location of one place in relation to another place,
for example, “west of the Mississippi.”
Relief. In a landscape, the difference in elevation between the highest
and lowest points. Mountains cut by streams are areas of high relief;
plains are areas of low relief, although they may be at quite high eleva-
tion. A plateau is a feature of high elevation but low relief.
Religion. System of belief in gods, spirits, or sacred objects. The major re-
ligions of the world are Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and
Judaism, but there are hundreds of others, as well as many branches
and denominations within the major religions. Religions combine a
belief system and worship with moral behavior, as well as ceremonies
and institutions. Religion is an important aspect of culture.
Remote sensing. Gathering information about the earth from some dis-
tance. Aerial photography and satellite imagery are widely used
forms of remote sensing, allowing scientists to learn much about
places without having to visit them in person.
Renewable resource. Renewable resources are generally living resources
that can be grown and replaced; however, insolation, or sunlight, is
also considered an important renewable resource.
Replacement rate. The rate at which females must reproduce to maintain
the size of the population. It corresponds to a fertility rate of 2.1.
Republic. System of government in which supreme power is held by rep-
resentatives elected by members of the public. A republic cannot be a
monarchy.
Reservoir. Artificial lake in which water is stored, for example, for irri-
gation or for watering animals.
Reservoir rock. Geologic rock layer in which oil and gas often accumu-
late; often sandstone or limestone.
Resource. Something useful, for example, materials, services, or infor-
mation. Earth scientists are often concerned with natural resources, or
goods and services supplied by the natural environment, as opposed
to human resources, such as experience, wisdom, skill, or labor. Natu-
ral resources are generally classified as renewable and nonrenew-
able resources. Renewable or living resources include forests,
plants such as grains and fruits, animals, and fish. Nonrenewable or
nonliving resources include minerals and fuels. Humans also appre-
ciate intangible resources, such as open space, personal satisfaction,
 Glossary / 487

beauty, and other abstractions. These nonmaterial resources can be

economically important. Resources that are held in common, such as
the oceans or the atmosphere, are the hardest to protect, because
each individual believes his or her actions have little impact.
Respiration. Metabolic process found in animals and microbes whereby
complex organic molecules (food) are oxidized to carbon dioxide,
thus releasing energy for work.
Retrograde orbit. Orbit of a satellite around a planet that is in the
opposite sense (direction) in which the planet rotates.
Retrograde rotation. Rotation of a planet in a direction opposite to
that of its revolution.
Reverse fault. Feature produced by compression of the earth’s crust,
leading to crustal shortening. The upthrown block overhangs the
downthrown block, producing a fault scarp where the overhang is
prone to landslides. When the movement is mostly horizontal, along
a low angle fault, an overthrust fault is formed. This is commonly as-
sociated with extreme folding.

High-angle reverse
fault in Woburn,
Quebec.
(Geological Survey
of Canada)
488 / Glossary

Reverse polarity. Orientation of the earth’s magnetic field so that a

compass needle points to the Southern Hemisphere.
Revolution. The annual movement of the earth around the Sun in an el-
liptical orbit that takes 365.2422 days.
Ria coast. Ria is a long narrow estuary or river mouth. Coasts where
there are many rias show the effects of submergence of the land, with
the sea now occupying former river valleys. Generally, there are
mountains running at an angle to the coast, with river valleys between
each range, so that the ria coast is a succession of estuaries and prom-
ontories. The submergence can result from a rising sea level, which
is common since the melting of the Pleistocene glaciers, or it can
be the result of subsidence of the land. There is often a great tidal
range in rias, and in some, a tidal bore occurs with each tide. The
eastern coast of the United States, from New York to South Carolina, is
a ria coast. The southwest coast of Ireland is another. The name comes
from Spain, where rias occur in the south.
Richter scale. Scale used to measure the magnitude of earthquakes;
named after American physicist Charles Richter, who, together with
Beno Gutenberg, developed the scale in 1935. The scale is a quantita-
tive measure that replaced the older Mercalli scale, which was a de-
scriptive scale. Numbers range from zero to nine, although there is no
upper limit. Each whole number increase represents an order of mag-
nitude, or an increase by a factor of ten. The actual measurement was
logarithm to base 10 of the maximum seismic wave amplitude (in
thousandths of a millimeter) recorded on a standard seismograph at
a distance of 60 miles (100 km.) from the earthquake epicenter.
Ridge. Long narrow landform of high elevation. The top or crest of a
ridge is the ridgeline, but this is often referred to simply as a ridge. In
forested regions, logging roads are often constructed along ridge-
lines.
Rift. Portion of the earth’s crust where tension has caused faulting,
producing an elongate basin; rifts fill with sediments and, sometimes,
volcanic rocks.
Rift propagation. Lateral movement of a rifting process that leads to the
prying open of a section of the lithosphere, accompanied by the for-
mation of igneous rocks.
Rift valley. Long, low region of the earth’s surface; a valley or trough
with faults on either side. Unlike valleys produced by erosion, rift
valleys are produced by tectonic forces that have caused the faults or
fractures to develop in the rocks of Earth’s crust. Tension can lead
to the block of land between two faults dropping in elevation com-
pared to the surrounding blocks, thus forming the rift valley. A small
landform produced in this way is called a graben. A rift valley is a
much larger feature. In Africa, the Great Rift Valley is partially occu-
pied by Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika, as well as by the Red Sea.
 Glossary / 489

Rills. Small trickles of water in a catchment area or watershed. They

form and enlarge through erosion, eventually joining to form gullies.
Ring dike. Volcanic landform created when magma is intruded into a se-
ries of concentric faults. Later erosion of the surrounding material
may reveal the ring dike as a vertical feature of thick basalt rising
above the surroundings.
Ring of Fire. Zone of volcanic activity and associated earthquakes that
marks the edges of various tectonic plates around the Pacific
Ocean, especially those where subduction is occurring.
Riparian. Term meaning related to the banks of a stream or river. Ri-
parian vegetation is generally trees, because of the availability of
moisture.
Riparian rights. Legal regulations that allow the use of water in a stream
by anyone who owns land through which the stream flows, provided
that they do not prevent the water from continuing its downstream
flow. In the United States, laws regarding riparian rights are controver-
sial and vary from state to state.
River. Naturally occurring stream of water flowing in a natural channel.
Many earth scientists, including geographers, prefer the term stream.
Rivers that always contain flowing water are perennial streams.
Those that flow only for part of the year are intermittent streams. A
watercourse that has water for only a day or so is called an ephemeral
stream. An exotic stream, or river, is one that flows through a
desert, receiving its waters from some distant region.

Both “river” and “stream” are used to apply to a body of water that flows in a natural channel.
(PhotoDisc)
490 / Glossary

River, mouth of. See Mouth of river.

River terraces. Landforms created when a river first produces a flood-
plain, by deposition of alluvium over a wide area, and then begins
downcutting into that alluvium toward a lower base level. The re-
newed erosion is generally because of a fall in sea level, but can result
from tectonic uplift or a change in climate pattern due to increased
precipitation. On either side of the river, there is a step up from the
new valley to the former alluvium-covered floodplain surface, which
is now one of a pair of river terraces. This process may occur more than
once, creating as many as three sets of terraces. These are called
depositional terraces, because the terrace is cut into river deposits. Ero-
sional terraces, in contrast, are formed by lateral migration of a river,
from one part of the valley to another, as the river creates a floodplain.
These terraces are cut into bedrock, with only a thin layer of alluvium
from the point bar deposits, and they do not occur in matching pairs.
River valleys. Valleys in which streams flow are produced by those
streams through long-term erosion and deposition. The landforms
produced by fluvial action are quite diverse, ranging from spectacu-
lar canyons to wide, gently sloping valleys. The patterns formed by
stream networks are complex and generally reflect the bedrock geol-
ogy and terrain characteristics.
Roadstead. Coastal anchorage for ships lacking the protection of a har-
bor.

Nineteenth century roadstead harbor of Corinto, on Nicaragua’s Pacific coast.

(Arkent Archive)

Roches moutonnées. Erosional feature formed usually by continental

glaciation. As an ice sheet advanced over a piece of resistant bed-
rock, it polished and smoothed the front side, while on the lee side
plucking removed sections, leading to a jagged profile. The name
“rock sheep” is thought to indicate a resemblance to a sheep lying
 Glossary / 491

down; another explanation is that men in the nineteenth century

wore wigs made of sheepskin, with the wool attached. These rocks
look like wigs lying on a flat surface; the front is smooth, but the back is
rough and curly. In English, the term “sheep rock” is sometimes used.
Rock. Naturally occurring combination of minerals, which make up the
earth. Rocks are divided into three classes. Igneous rocks are formed
when magma, or molten material, cools and solidifies. Sedimentary
rocks are formed when fragments of other rocks are cemented to-
gether. Metamorphic rocks are those that have been changed by heat
and pressure; they originally may have been igneous or sedimentary.
Rock avalanche. Extreme case of a rockfall. It occurs when a large mass of
rock moves rapidly down a steeply sloping surface, taking everything
that lies in its path. It can be started by an earthquake, rock-blasting
operations, or vibrations from thunder or artillery fire.
Rock cycle. Cycle by which rocks are formed and reformed, changing
from one type to another over long periods of geologic time. Igneous
rocks are formed by cooling from molten magma. Once exposed at
the surface, they are subject to weathering and erosion. The prod-
ucts of erosion are compacted and cemented to form sedimentary
rocks. The heat and pressure accompanying a volcanic intrusion
causes adjacent rocks to be altered into metamorphic rocks.
Rock fall. Rapid fall of blocks of rock. It is often the result of frost
wedging of rocks in an exposed cliff in a mountainous region.
Earthquakes can also cause rock falls.
Rock flour. Fine, powderlike material at the base of a glacier, produced
by the constant abrasion as the glacier and its moraine grind along.
Rock glacier. Form of mass movement in high mountains that produces
a lobe or tongue of broken rocks that moves slowly down a valley.
The rock is scree produced by frost wedging. Precipitation, or
meltwater, forms an adjacent glacier and penetrates between the de-
bris, freezing into an ice mass in the central portion. The whole mass
then moves slowly downhill like a glacier. Also called a stone river.
Rock salt. Sodium chloride in crystalline form. It is formed by the evapo-
ration of seawater and can be found in underground layers or beds of
great thickness. Such deposits indicate the gradual evaporation of an
enclosed sea. In arid regions, rock salt is obtained at the surface,
through evaporation in shallow saline lakes. Rock salt is mined for
both domestic use and industrial purposes. In previous centuries, the
need to obtain salt by mining made it an expensive commodity in Eu-
rope. Salt domes are an important source of rock salt. Called halite by
mineralogists.
Rock slide. Event that occurs when water lubricates an unconsolidated
mass of weathered rock on a steep slope, causing rapid downslope
movement. In a river valley where there are steep scree slopes be-
ing constantly carried away by a swiftly flowing stream, the undercut-
492 / Glossary

ting at the base can lead to constant rockslides of the surface layer of
rock. A large rockslide is a rock avalanche.
Ropy lava. Extremely viscous lava; a hot basaltic flow that cools and hard-
ens into smooth to ropy surfaces, displaying clearly the flow lines. In
Hawaii, called pahoehoe.

Lava is the magma, or molten

material from within the earth,
that emerges at the surface.
(PhotoDisc)

Rotation. Turning of the earth on its axis, in an eastward, or counter-

clockwise, direction, once every 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 sec-
onds. Rotation affects the winds, ocean currents, tides, and length
of day. Because of the rotation, the Sun appears to travel from east to
west each day, although its position in our solar system is fixed. The
rotational velocity of any point on Earth varies with its latitude; a
point at the equator travels at more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km.) an
hour while the velocity at the poles is zero.
Runoff. Water that becomes part of a stream. Water generally comes to
the stream through precipitation moving as sheetflow over the land
surface, or in channels such as rills and gullies. Also can include
groundwater that flows into the stream. Total runoff is less than total
precipitation for any watershed, because some water is lost through
evaporation and some water enters the groundwater storage.
Rural. Society or settlement in which there are a small number of in-
habitants in a large area of land. Agriculture is the typical economic
sector. Governments classify their populations into urban or rural,
but the precise definition varies greatly from one country to another.
In the United States, a place with more than twenty-five hundred resi-
dents is considered urban; in Japan, the urban category starts at thirty
thousand.
 Glossary / 493

S waves. Type of seismic disturbance of the earth when an earthquake

occurs. In an S wave, particles move about at right angles to the direc-
tion in which the wave is traveling. S waves cannot pass through the
earth’s core, which is why scientists believe the inner core is liquid.
Also called transverse wave, shear wave, or secondary wave.
Sacred space. Site or area recognized by certain religious groups as de-
serving special attention because of its connection with religious fig-
ures or religious events. Sacred sites or spaces are maintained by be-
lievers over many centuries. Pilgrims make journeys to sacred sites or
spaces. The hajj is the pilgrimage to the sacred place of Mecca that all
Muslims must try to make once in their lifetime. Lourdes in France is a
sacred space visited by hundreds of thousands of Roman Catholic pil-
grims each year.
Saddle. See Col.
Sahel. Southern edge of the Sahara Desert; a great stretch of semiarid
land extending from the Atlantic Ocean in Senegal and Mauritania
through Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Sudan. North-
ern Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia usually are included also.
This transition zone between the hot desert and the tropical savanna
has low summer rainfall of less than 8 inches (200 millimeters) and a
natural vegetation of low grasses with some small shrubs. The re-
gion traditionally has been used for pastoralism, raising goats, cam-
els, and occasionally sheep. Since a prolonged drought in the 1970’s,
desertification, soil erosion, and famine have plagued the Sahel.
The narrow band between the northern Sahara and the Mediterra-
nean North African coast is also called Sahel. “Sahel” is the Arabic
word for edge.
Salina. See Alkali flat.
Saline lake. Lake with elevated levels of dissolved solids, primarily result-
ing from evaporative concentration of salts; saline lakes lack an out-

California’s Mono Lake is an interesting

example of a naturally saline lake
whose chemical salt concentrations
have risen even higher because of
human intervention. (PhotoDisc)
494 / Glossary

let to the sea. Well-known examples include Utah’s Great Salt Lake,
California’s Mono Lake and Salton Sea, and the Dead Sea in the Mid-
dle East.
Salinity. Measure of the concentration of dissolved salts in seawater. Sa-
linity is the amount of salt in grams dissolved in one kilogram of seawa-
ter. The value is written in parts per thousand. Average salinity of the
oceans is 35 parts per thousand.
Salinization. Accumulation of salt in soil. When irrigation is used to
grow crops in semiarid to arid regions, salinization is frequently a
problem. Because evaporation is high, water is drawn upward through
the soil, depositing dissolved salts at or near the surface. Over years, sa-
linization can build up until the soil is no longer suitable for agricul-
ture. The solution is to maintain a plentiful flow of water while ensur-
ing that the water flows through the soil and is drained away.
Salt. In chemistry, a substance formed when an acid reacts with a base. In
everyday terms, salt refers to sodium chloride or table salt, which is the
most common form of salt.
Salt domes. Formations created when deeply buried salt layers are forced
upwards. Salt under pressure is a plastic material, one that can flow or
move slowly upward, because it is lighter than surrounding sedimen-
tary rocks. The salt forms into a plug more than a half mile (1 km.)
wide and as much as 5 miles (8 km.) deep, which passes through over-
lying sedimentary rock layers, pushing them up into a dome shape as it
passes. Some salt domes emerge at the earth’s surface; others are close
to the surface and are easy to mine for rock salt. Oil and natural
gas often accumulate against the walls of a salt dome. Salt domes are
numerous around the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, in the North Sea
region, and in Iran and Iraq, all of which are major oil-producing re-
gions.
Salt water. Water with a salt content of 3.5 percent, such as is found in
normal ocean water.
Saltation. Process whereby a particle is moved forward by water or wind,
being lifted, carried, and then dropped, over and over. It comes from
the Latin word for “jump” and has nothing to do with table salt.
Saltwater intrusion. Aquifer contamination by salty waters that have mi-
grated from deeper aquifers or from the sea.
Saltwater lake. See Saline lake.
Saltwater wedge. Wedge-shaped intrusion of seawater from the ocean
into the bottom of a river; the thin end points upstream.
Sand. Grain or particle size with a diameter ranging between 0.0008 inch
(0.02 millimeter) for fine sand to 0.08 inch (2 millimeters) for coarse
sand. Sand can be many colors. Most sand is composed mostly of
quartz and is formed by erosion of granitic rocks. The resulting
quartz sand is yellowish. Basalt weathers into black sand. Coral forms
white or occasionally pink sand.
 Glossary / 495

Sand dunes. Accumulations of sand in the shape of mounds or ridges.

They occur on some coasts and in arid regions. Coastal dunes are
formed when the prevailing winds blow strongly onshore, piling up
sand into dunes, which may become stabilized when grasses grow on
them. Desert sand dunes are a product of deflation, or wind ero-
sion removing fine materials to leave a desert pavement in one re-
gion and sand deposits in another. Sand dunes are classified by their
shape into barchans, or crescent-shaped dunes; seifs or longitudinal
dunes; transverse dunes; star dunes; and sand drifts or sand sheets.
Sand spit. See Spit.
Sandbar. When beach sand is moved by waves and longshore cur-
rents, it can form long narrow deposits called bars. They are named
according to their position. An offshore bar is parallel to the coast. A
baymouth bar encloses a bay, running from one headland to the
other. A bar extending outward from the land at one end is a spit; a
connecting bar is known as a tombolo. Bars are unstable and tempo-
rary landscape features. Along the southern and eastern coasts of the
United States are huge sandbars called barrier islands.

Red sandstone formation near Arbroath, Scotland. Historically, this sandstone

was used both for building and for ballast in ships. (Ray Sumner)

Sandstone. Common sedimentary rock produced through the lithifi-

cation of sand-sized grains. The pore spaces between the grains may
be empty, filled with air, or filled with a cementing material such as
calcium carbonate.
Sapping. Natural process of erosion at the bases of hill slopes or cliffs
whereby support is removed by undercutting, thereby allowing overly-
ing layers to collapse; spring sapping is the facilitation of this process
by concentrated groundwater flow, generally at the heads of valleys.
496 / Glossary

Satellite. Small object that revolves around a larger object. The Moon is a
natural satellite of Earth. In this solar system, only Mercury and Ve-
nus have no satellites. Humans have also created many artificial satel-
lites, the first of these being Sputnik 1, launched on October 4, 1957,
by the Soviet Union. Hundreds of satellites now orbit Earth. Satellites
are used for communications, military purposes, and scientific re-
search, such as weather forecasting and studying vegetation,
oceans, and atmospheric changes. The Global Positioning System
(GPS) uses signals from satellites to accurately obtain absolute loca-
tions on Earth. This military application was developed by the United
States in the late 1970’s and made available to the public in the 1990’s.
Geographers make wide use of imagery from the series of satellites
named Landsat (also Earth Resources Technology Satellite) and a se-
ries of satellites named GOES (Geostationary Operational Environ-
mental Satellite). This type of research is called remote sensing.
Satellite meteorology. Study of atmospheric phenomena using satellite
data; an indispensable tool for forecasting weather and studying cli-
mate on a global scale.
Saturation, zone of. Underground region below the zone of aeration,
where all pore space is filled with water. This water is called ground-
water; the upper surface of the zone of saturation is the water table.
Savanna. Vegetation that consists of tall grass with occasional trees and
shrubs interspersed. Savanna occurs in the Tropics, between the trop-
ical rain forest and the semiarid regions that fringe true deserts.
The climate is tropical with rain concentrated in the summer months,
followed by a long dry season. In some countries, people divide the cli-
mate of these areas into two seasons—wet and dry—because in the
Tropics, temperatures are high all year. Because the rain falls in sum-
mer, much moisture is lost through evaporation, so moisture condi-
tions are insufficient for forest growth. Trees are scarce and small to
medium in height, with small leaves, spreading crowns, and an exten-
sive root system. Soils of the savanna are more fertile than those of the
tropical rain forest, and some farming is undertaken in these areas, es-
pecially if water for irrigation is available. Savannas cover about 40
percent of the earth’s lands. They are thought to have been extended
through the human practice of setting fire to the dry grasses at the end
of the dry season in order to ensure fresh new growth when the rains
came; therefore, many plants of the savanna are fire tolerant. The sa-
vanna biome is particularly extensive in Africa. In South America, the
savanna of Venezuela is called llanos; it is called Campo Cerrado or
Pantanal in different parts of Brazil. Savanna also occurs in India,
Madagascar, and Thailand. The name is sometimes spelled savannah.
See also Grassland.
Scale. Relationship between a distance on a map or diagram and the same
distance on the earth. Scale can be represented in three ways. A linear,
 Glossary / 497

or graphic, scale uses a straight line, marked off in equally spaced in-
tervals, to show how much of the map represents a mile or a kilometer.
A representative fraction (RF) gives this scale as a ratio. A verbal scale
uses words to explain the relationship between map size and actual
size. For example, the RF 1:63,360 is the same as saying “one inch to
the mile.”
Scarp. Short version of the word “escarpment,” a short steep slope, as at
the edge of a plateau. Earthquakes lead to the formation of fault
scarps.
Schist. Metamorphic rock that can be split easily into layers. Schist is
commonly produced from the action of heat and pressure on shale or
slate. The rock looks flaky in appearance. Mica-schists are shiny be-
cause of the development of visible mica. Other schists include talc-
schist, which contains a large amount of talc, and hornblende-schist,
which develops from basaltic rocks.
Scree. Broken, loose rock material at the base of a slope or cliff. It is of-
ten the result of frost wedging of bedrock cliffs, causing rockfall.
Another name for scree is talus.
Sea. Part of an ocean that is partially enclosed by land. Seas occur at the
margins of oceans. Well-known seas include the Caribbean, Mediterra-
nean, Red, Black, and North. There is no clear distinction in naming
water features, however. For example, the Bay of Bengal might be
termed a sea. On the other hand, some saltwater lakes are misnamed
seas. Examples are the Caspian Sea, Aral Sea, and Dead Sea. These are
all lakes, because they are totally landlocked and are not part of a
larger ocean.
Sea fog. See Advection fog.
Sea level. Standard reference height, which is used as a basis for all eleva-
tions above or below for terrestrial or submarine elevations, respec-
tively. The height of the sea-land interface is constantly changing,
mainly because of the ebb and flow of tides. Currents, winds, pres-
sure conditions, and other factors also have an effect. When an eleva-
tion is given as a height above sea level, this refers to a height above
mean sea level. Mean sea level (MSL) is calculated from average
hourly tidal records over many years. For the United States, records
are assembled for more than forty tidal gauges, together with data
from the TOPEX Poseidon satellite. The MSL of the Gulf of Mexico
is higher than the MSL of the Atlantic coast. Florida has the lowest
MSL in the United States; Oregon has the highest. Sea levels have
changed throughout the earth’s history. Since the last ice age, around
fifteen thousand years ago, sea level has risen because of the melting
ice. On average, the increase in sea level is about 400 feet (130 me-
ters). The prediction that global warming will cause a rise in sea
level in the near future is a cause of concern, because so many people
throughout the world live close to the coast. A rise of only 1 foot (0.3
498 / Glossary

meter) would destroy billions of dollars worth of valuable real estate,

inundate rich farmlands, and completely cover the homelands of
some island nations in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Sea lane. See Seaway.
Seafloor spreading. Term often used to refer to the separation of the
ocean floor at a spreading center located along a mid-ocean ridge.
The theory was advanced in the 1960’s, and new evidence over the fol-
lowing decades confirmed the hypothesis. Seafloor spreading occurs
where tectonic plates are diverging, or moving apart, and new
crust is being created. Volcanic eruptions, fractures, and earth-
quakes accompany seafloor spreading. The spreading is balanced by
subduction, when plates converge and crust is destroyed.
Seamount. Large volcano rising more than 3,000 feet (1,000 km.) from
the ocean floor to near the surface. Lava erupts from a fracture or
rift on the ocean floor. Oceanographic research has shown that there
are twenty thousand seamounts in the world oceans. A seamount with
a flat top is called a guyot; these features are important to the expla-
nation of coral reefs and atolls throughout the Pacific Ocean.
Seasons. An Earth year is conventionally divided into four seasons—
spring, summer, autumn or fall, and winter. The division into seasons
is based on temperature changes, which are related to changes in the
length of day. This is caused by the tilt of the earth’s axis at 23.5 de-
grees from vertical, which means that the circle of illumination
changes in the course of a year as the earth revolves around the Sun. In
North America, the seasons are said to start at the summer solstice,
the autumnal equinox, the winter solstice, and the vernal or
spring equinox. In the Southern Hemisphere, the pattern of seasons
is reversed, so that summer in the Northern Hemisphere corre-
sponds to winter in the Southern Hemisphere. In polar regions, sea-
sons are extreme, with darkness throughout the winter and daylight
throughout the summer. At the equator, the opposite holds; there is
no variation in daylength throughout the year. Countries that experi-
ence the monsoon, especially India and Southeast Asia, experience
only three seasons—hot-wet, cool-dry, and hot-dry.
Seaway. Route traveled by ships on the open seas. Often the word is used
to refer to the actual passage by the ship. In large seas, a ship makes a
heavy seaway. A seaway is also a large canal constructed to provide in-
terior access for large oceangoing ships, such as the Saint Lawrence
Seaway, which connects North America’s Great Lakes to the Atlantic
Ocean by way of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Also called a sea lane.
Secondary industry. That part of the economy that takes the raw materi-
als produced by the primary sector of the economy and processes
them into salable products. At a simple level, this might be the milling
of grain into flour, or the sawing of logs into lumber. Secondary indus-
try also involves heavy and technically sophisticated industries such as
 Glossary / 499

steel production, shipbuilding, and automobile manufacture. Some

economists distinguish between light industry and heavy industry.
Secondary waves. See S waves.
Sectionalism. Form of extreme devotion to local interests and customs.
Sediment. Solid earth material that has been weathered and is deposited
after being transported by water, ice, or wind, or moved downward by
gravity. Sedimentation refers to the laying down of deposits that, af-
ter consolidation or cementation, become sedimentary rocks.

Light-colored sediment from the Mississippi River flowing into the Gulf of Mex-
ico. (U.S. Geological Survey)

Sedimentary rocks. Rocks formed from sediments that are compressed

and cemented together in a process called lithification. Sedimen-
tary rocks cover two-thirds of the earth’s land surface but are only a
small proportion of the earth’s crust. Sandstone is a common sedi-
mentary rock. Sedimentary rocks form strata, or layers, and some-
times contain fossils.
Segregation. Spatial separation of a subgroup of a population, often be-
cause of discrimination. Ethnic enclaves are a largely voluntary form
of segregation, because the residents have a close sense of community
and internal cohesion. An extreme example of such segregation is
called a ghetto. Apartheid was a form of segregation in South Africa
500 / Glossary

based on racial discrimination, the separation of white and non-

white—largely black—populations.
Seif dunes. Long, narrow ridges of sand, built up by winds blowing at
different times of year from two different directions. Seif dunes occur
in parallel lines of sand over large areas, running for hundreds of
miles in the Sahara, Iran, and central Australia. Another name for seif
dunes is longitudinal dunes. The Arabic word means sword.
Seismic. Pertaining to earthquakes.
Seismic activity. Movements within the earth’s crust that often cause var-
ious other geological phenomena to occur; the activity is measured by
seismographs.
Seismic belt. Region of relatively high seismicity, globally distributed;
seismic belts mark regions of plate interactions.
Seismic gap. Fault region known to have had previous earthquakes
but not within the area’s most recent recurrence period.
Seismic wave. Tsunami or an ocean wave caused by a seismic event un-
der the ocean.
Seismicity. Occurrence of earthquakes, which is expressed as a function
of location and time.
Seismogram. Image of earthquake wave vibrations recorded on paper,
photographic film, or a video screen.
Seismograph. Instrument used to record the ground shaking that occurs
with an earthquake. In a simple seismograph, a paper is attached to a

Smoke-drum seismographic record. (U.S. Geological Survey)

 Glossary / 501

rotating drum, and a pen is attached to an arm that is firmly embed-

ded in the ground, so that it vibrates when the earth moves. Seismo-
graphs also record earth movements caused by atomic explosions.
Seismology. The scientific study of earthquakes. It is a branch of geo-
physics. The study of seismic waves has provided a great deal of
knowledge about the composition of the earth’s interior.
Seismometer. Instrument that measures the motion of the ground, used
to record seismic energy; also known as a geophone or a seismic de-
tector.
Self-determination. Right of a group of people who occupy a distinct ter-
ritory to control that territory and determine their own future devel-
opment or destiny. The Palestinians have fought both physically and
politically for the right to control their own territory, or state, and
thus to enjoy the benefits of self-determination.
Semidesert. Region with desert characteristics but with greater precipi-
tation than a true desert.
Service sector. See Tertiary industry.
Settlement. Small community of people and their residences. A settle-
ment is smaller than a town, so settlements are generally found in ru-
ral areas. Cultural geographers study settlement patterns. Clustered
settlements, where the houses are relatively close together, are com-
mon in Europe and Asia; dispersed settlements are more common in
rural parts of North America, in Australia, and in Africa.
Shadow zone. When an earthquake occurs at one location, its waves
travel through the earth and are detected by seismographs around
the world. Every earthquake has a shadow zone, a band where neither
P nor S waves from the earthquake will be detected. This shadow zone
leads scientists to draw conclusions about the size, density, and compo-
sition of the earth’s core.
Shale. Sedimentary rock consisting of layers of fine-grained materials
of clay or silt size. Shale is the most abundant of the sedimentary
rocks. It is a raw material for brick making and ceramics.
Shale oil. Sedimentary rock containing sufficient amounts of hydrocar-
bons that can be extracted by slow distillation to yield oil.
Shallow-focus earthquakes. Earthquakes having a focus less than 35
miles (60 km.) below the surface.
Shantytown. Urban squatter settlement, usually housing poor new-
comers.
Shear waves. See S waves.
Sheet erosion. See Sheet wash.
Sheet wash. When water flows as a thin sheet across a slope, it can erode
loose materials such as soil particles that previously were dislodged by
splash erosion. This generally occurs after a sudden and intense pe-
riod of precipitation. It can lead to considerable loss of topsoil on
an unplanted field. Sheet wash can also occur on bedrock surfaces. In
502 / Glossary

nature, sheet wash is less common than channeled flow, where the
rainwater gathers into rills; in urban areas, however, sheet wash can
be seen on streets during a rainstorm as water flows toward storm
drains. Also called sheet erosion.
Sheikdom. Islamic country whose ruler bears the title of sheik.
Shelter belt. Another word for a windbreak.
Shield. Large part of the earth’s continental crust, comprising very
old rocks that have been eroded to regions of low relief. Each con-
tinent has a shield area. In North America, the Canadian Shield ex-
tends from north of the Great Lakes to the Arctic Ocean. Sometimes
known as a continental shield.
Shield volcano. Volcano created when the lava is quite viscous or fluid
and highly basaltic. Such lava spreads out in a thin sheet of great radius

The Hawaiian Islands contain some of the greatest shield volcanoes on earth.
Several of those volcanoes can be seen in this 1988 satellite photograph of
Maui (left) and Hawaii (right). (Corbis)
 Glossary / 503

but comparatively low height. As flows continue to build up the vol-

cano, a low dome shape is created. The greatest shield volcanoes on
Earth are the islands of Hawaii, which rise to a height of almost
30,000 feet (10,000 meters) above sea level.
Shire. English county.
Shoal. Underwater ridge or sandbed that reduces the water’s depth to a
point that might be unsafe for vessels.
Shock city. City that typifies disturbing changes in social and cultural
conditions or in economic conditions. In the nineteenth century, the
shock city of the United States was Chicago.
Shore. The zone where land and sea meet. It extends from the water’s
edge at the lowest tide to the farthest point inland where sand has
been deposited by the largest storm waves.
Shoreline. The specific place where the land meets the sea. Since waves
and tides change constantly, the shoreline is not a fixed location.
The position of mean sea level is based on calculations of records of
shoreline height.
Sial. Acronym for silica and alumina. Those are the two principal constit-
uents of light and crystalline rocks, such as granite, that make up the
greater part of the earth’s continental crust. Heavier, basaltic rocks
are referred to as sima.
Sierra. Spanish word for a mountain range with a serrated crest. In Cali-
fornia, the Sierra Nevada is an important range, containing Mount
Whitney, the highest peak in the continental United States.
Silica. Oxide of silicon, with the chemical formula SiO2. Silica occurs as
quartz or as part of many other rocks, including granite. Silica is
the most abundant oxide on Earth, and quartz is the second-most
abundant mineral, after feldspar.
Sill. Feature formed by intrusive volcanic activity. When lava is forced
between two layers of rock, it can form a narrow horizontal layer of
basalt, parallel with the adjacent beds. Although it resembles a
windowsill in its flatness, a sill may be hundreds of miles long and can
range in thickness from a few centimeters to considerable thickness.
Silt. Intermediate texture size, for soil particles or for sediment, be-
tween sand and clay. Silt particles have a diameter of 0.00016 to
0.0024 inch (0.004-0.06 millimeter). Silt is carried in suspension by
rivers, giving them an opaque appearance, with color ranging from
reddish to yellowish to brown-gray, depending on the mineral con-
tent of the silt. Silt can also be blown by winds. When it is deposited in
thick layers, it is called loess.
Siltation. Build-up of silt and sand in creeks and waterways as a result of
soil erosion, clogging water courses and creating deltas at river
mouths. Siltation often results from deforestation or removal of
tree cover. Such environmental degradation causes loss of agricul-
tural productivity, worsening of water supply, and other problems.
504 / Glossary

Sima. Acronym for silica and magnesium. These are the two principal
constituents of heavy rocks such as basalt, which forms much of the
ocean floor. Lighter, more abundant rock is sial.
Simple crater. Small impact crater with a simple bowl shape.
Sinkhole. Circular depression in the ground surface, caused by weath-
ering of limestone, mainly through the effects of solution on
joints in the rock. If a stream flows above ground and then disap-
pears down a sinkhole, the feature is called a swallow hole. In everyday
language, many events that cause the surface to collapse are called
sinkholes, even though they are rarely in limestone and rarely caused
by weathering.

This sinkhole, which appeared in central Alabama in 1972, was 350 feet (105
meters) wide and 150 feet (45 meters) deep. (U.S. Geological Survey)

Sinking stream. Stream or river that loses part or all of its water to path-
ways dissolved underground in the bedrock.
Site. Locational attributes of a town or city, its physical setting as well as
its layout. In earlier times, a site was often chosen for its defensive prop-
erty, so hilltops, or islands in rivers, became the sites of settlements.
Situation. Relationship between a place, such as a town or city, and its
relative location within a region. A situation on the coast is desir-
able in terms of overseas trade.
 Glossary / 505

Slate is a metamorphic rock that can be split into thin sheets. (PhotoDisc)

Slate. Metamorphic rock that has a unique ability to be split into thin
sheets; some slates are resistant to weathering and are thus good for
exterior use.
Sleet. Transparent drops of ice, caused by the freezing of raindrops. A
temperature inversion with below-freezing temperatures near the
earth surface is a common cause of sleet. Sometimes, a mixture of
snow and rain is incorrectly referred to as sleet.
Slip-face. Leeward side of a sand dune. As the wind piles up sand on the
windward side, it then slips down the rear or slip-face. The angle of
the slip-face is gentler than the angle of the windward slope.
Slough. Depression of the earth’s surface containing a small amount of
water and mud; a kind of marsh or bog.
Slump. Type of landslide in which the material moves downslope with a
rotational motion, along a curved slip surface.
Smog. Composite word formed from smoke and fog. It was originally
coined to describe the foul combination in London in the nineteenth
century, when coal fires were heavily used to heat homes and power
factories. Sulfur dioxide, produced by burning coal, emitted sulfuric
acid into the moist atmosphere. This true fog is also called industrial
smog, to distinguish it from photochemical smog, which is a misno-
mer, because it involves no smoke.
Snout. Terminal end of a glacier.
 506 / Glossary

Snow is frozen water in a crystalline form. More than one-fifth of the earth’s land surface is cov-
ered in snow or ice. (PhotoDisc)

Snow. Frozen water in a crystalline form. Snowflakes have a hexagonal

shape and form at high altitudes around tiny nuclei such as dust
particles. More than one-fifth of the earth’s land surface is covered in
snow or ice.
Snow line. The height or elevation at which snow remains throughout
the year, without melting away. Near the equator, the snow line is
more than 15,000 feet (almost 5,000 meters); at higher latitudes, the
snow line is correspondingly lower, reaching sea level at the poles.
The actual snow line varies with the time of year, retreating in summer
and coming lower in winter.
Social Darwinism. Application of the ideas of Charles Darwin to human
societies. Darwin thought that animal organisms or species evolved as
the result of the struggle to survive in their physical environment; so-
cial Darwinists believe that human groups also struggle to survive in
particular environments. Cultural groups thus evolved through their
ability to adjust and adapt to their physical environment. These ideas
are closely related to the theory of environmental determinism.
Soil. The fine, natural material covering most of the earth’s land surface,
in which plants grow. Soil is formed by the physical and chemical
weathering of rock. Organisms ranging from bacteria and algae to
worms, insects, and rodents make their home in soil. Soil is a mixture of
minerals and organic matter, containing both water and air. As the
 Glossary / 507

basis of plant life, soil supports all terrestrial life on Earth. Soils take
thousands of years to form but can be degraded or eroded rapidly, so
soil conservation is a major area of concern throughout the world.
Soil horizon. Soil consists of a series of layers called horizons. The upper-
most layer, the O horizon, contains organic materials such as decayed
leaves that have been changed into humus. Beneath this is the A hori-
zon, the topsoil, where farmers plow and plant seeds. The B horizon
often contains minerals that have been washed downwards from the
A horizon, such as calcium, iron, and aluminum. The A and B hori-
zons together comprise a solum, or true soil. The C horizon is weath-
ered bedrock, which contains pieces of the original rock from which
the soil formed. Another name for the C horizon is regolith. Be-
neath this is the R horizon, or bedrock.
Soil moisture. Water contained in the unsaturated zone above the water
table.
Soil profile. Vertical section of a soil, extending through its horizon into
the unweathered parent material.
Soil stabilization. Engineering measures designed to minimize the op-
portunity and/or ability of expansive soils to shrink and swell.
Solar constant. Average value for the insolation received at the ther-
mopause, or outer limit of the earth’s atmosphere. The solar constant
is 1,372 watts per square meter (2 calories per square centimeter per
minute, or 2 langleys per minute).
Solar eclipse. See Eclipse, solar.
Solar energy. One of the forms of alternative or renewable energy. In
the late 1990’s, the world’s largest solar power generating plant was lo-
cated at Kramer Junction, California. There, solar energy heats huge
oil-filled containers with a parabolic shape, which produces steam to
drive generating turbines. An alternative is the production of energy
through photovoltaic cells, a technology that was first developed for
space exploration. Many individual homes, especially in isolated areas,
use this technology.
Solar nebula. Disk-shaped cloud of hot dust and gas from which the so-
lar system formed.
Solar radiation. Transfer of heat from the Sun to the earth’s surface,
where it is absorbed and stored. See also Insolation.
Solar system. Sun and all the bodies that orbit it, including the planets
and their satellites, plus numerous comets, asteroids, and mete-
oroids.
Solar wind. Gases from the Sun’s atmosphere, expanding at high speeds
as streams of charged particles.
Solifluction. Word meaning flowing soil. In some regions of perma-
frost, where the ground is permanently frozen, the uppermost layer
thaws during the summer, creating a saturated layer of soil and rego-
lith above the hard layer of frozen ground. On slopes, the material
508 / Glossary

Solifluction lobes on the side of a kame in the Nunatarssuaq region of Green-

land. (U.S. Geological Survey)

can flow slowly downhill, creating a wavy appearance along the hill-
slope.
Solstices. Dates on which the Sun’s rays at noon are vertically above the
tropics, which are at their subsolar points. The winter solstice in
the Northern Hemisphere occurs on December 21 or 22; this is the
shortest day of the year in that hemisphere. The summer solstice in
the Northern Hemisphere occurs on June 20 or 21. The subsolar point
then is the tropic of Cancer, and this is the longest day of the year for
the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, the sol-
stices occur on the same day, but the seasons are reversed: winter be-
gins on the June solstice and summer begins on the December solstice.
Solution. Form of chemical weathering in which minerals in a rock
are dissolved in water. Most substances are soluble, but the combina-
tion of water with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere means that
rainfall is slightly acidic, so that the chemical reaction is often a com-
bination of solution and carbonation.
Sound. Long expanse of the sea, close to the coast, such as a large estu-
ary. It can also be the expanse of sea between the mainland and an is-
land.
Source rock. Rock unit or bed that contains sufficient organic carbon
and has the proper thermal history to generate oil or gas.
Southern Hemisphere. The half of the earth below the equator.
Southern Oscillation. Atmospheric “seesaw” that tilts between atmo-
spheric pressure extremes at Tahiti and Darwin, Australia.
 Glossary / 509

Sovereignty. Exercise of government and state power over people and

the territory they occupy. Sovereignty is recognized by other sovereign
states and is upheld by international law. The individual states of the
United States, the provinces of Canada, and the counties of the
United Kingdom are administrative subdivisions of these independent
countries. These smaller entities do not have sovereignty.
Spa. Place with natural mineral springs.
Spatial diffusion. Notion that things spread through space and over time.
An understanding of geographic change depends on this concept.
Spatial diffusion can occur in various ways. Geographers distinguish
between expansion diffusion, relocation diffusion, and hierarchical
diffusion.
Spheroidal weathering. Form of rock weathering in which layers of rock
break off parallel to the surface, producing a rounded shape. It results
from a combination of physical and chemical weathering. Spheroi-
dal weathering is especially common in granite, leading to the cre-
ation of tors and similar rounded features. Onion-skin weathering is
a term sometimes used, especially when this is seen on small rocks.
Spillway. Generally, a broad reinforced channel near the top of the dam,
designed to allow rising waters to escape the reservoir without over-
topping the dam.
Spit. Long, narrow sandbar extending outward from the coast. A sand
spit is attached to the coast at one end. Cape Cod is a famous spit. See
also Hook.

Barrier sand spit along the South Carolina coast. (U.S. Geological Survey)
510 / Glossary

Splash erosion. Erosion that occurs when raindrops hit the ground, dis-
lodging particles of soil or weathered material and causing them to
move downslope. Splash erosion can lead to overland flow, which
can cause considerable erosion of newly plowed ground.
Spread effects. Positive impacts on economic growth throughout a re-
gion. Economic growth in a center or region is usually accompanied
by spread effects. For example, the effect of providing work and in-
come leads to an increased demand for housing, food, entertainment,
and other consumer goods, thereby creating further employment and
growth.
Spring. Place where water flows naturally from the ground, found wher-
ever the water table intersects the earth’s surface; in karst topog-
raphy, a spring represents the discharge point of a cave.
Spring sapping. Process in which water flows out of subsurface springs to
surface level, forming a streambed as it flows downslope.
Spring tide. Tide of maximum range, occurring when lunar and solar
tides reinforce each other, a few days after the full and new moons.
Squall line. Line of vigorous thunderstorms created by a cold down-
draft that spreads out ahead of a fast-moving cold front.
Squatter settlements. Urban residential slums built by recent urban im-
migrants on land that they do not own or rent. Shacks in the squatter
settlements are built of found materials, including cardboard, mud,
grass, and plastic sheeting. These squatter settlements are known by
different names in different countries: “favelas” in Brazil, “callampas”
in Chile, “villas miserias” in Argentina, “bustees” in India, and “gour-
bevilles” or “bidonvilles” in parts of Africa. Governments often supply
water and power to squatter settlements, and residents may form com-
munities to improve the structures and services. Also called informal
settlements.
Stacks. Pieces of rock surrounded by sea water, which were once part of
the mainland. Wave erosion has caused them to be isolated. Also
called sea stacks.

Sea stacks. (Corbis)

 Glossary / 511

Stalactites
(above) and
stalagmites
(below) that
have grown
together in
Kentucky’s
Mammoth Cave
National Park.
(U.S.
Geological
Survey)

Stalactite. Long, tapering piece of calcium carbonate hanging from the

roof of a limestone cave or cavern. Stalactites are formed as water
containing the mineral in solution drips downward. The water evapo-
rates, depositing the dissolved minerals. See also Stalagmite.
Stalagmite. Column of calcium carbonate growing upward from the floor
of a limestone cave or cavern. See also Stalactite.
State. Territory and its political organization, with administration regu-
lated by a government with sovereign powers, and that is recognized as
legitimate by other states that are members of the international commu-
nity of legitimate states. The international borders of the state must be
agreed upon by adjacent states and by other states. A state has a citizen
population resident within its territory and an organized and func-
tioning economy. In the United States, “state” is also the term used for
a subdivision of the whole; in other countries, such an internal admin-
istrative region is called a province, department, or other name.
Steppe. Huge region of grasslands in the midlatitudes of Eurasia, ex-
tending from central Europe to northeast China. The region is not
uniform in elevation; most of it is rolling plains, but some mountain
ranges also occur. These have not been a barrier to the migratory life-
style of the herders who have occupied the steppe for many centuries.
The Asian steppe is colder than the European steppe, because of
greater elevation and greater continentality. The best-known rulers
from the steppe were the Mongols, whose empire flourished in the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Geographers speak of a steppe
512 / Glossary

climate, a semiarid climate where the evaporation rate is double

that of precipitation. South of the steppe are great deserts; to the
north are midlatitude mixed forests. In terms of climate and vege-
tation, the steppe is like the short-grass prairie vegetation west of the
Mississippi River. Also called steppes.
Stock. Feature formed by intrusive volcanic activity. Lava rises toward
the surface and forms a mass or pool that slowly cools into a granitic
rock landform, often circular in shape. Removal of the overlying ma-
terials can subsequently expose the stock as a hill. A much larger fea-
ture formed in the same manner is a batholith.
Stone river. See Rock glacier.
Storm. Atmospheric disturbance with rotating winds of considerable
speed, associated with lower-than-usual pressure. Clouds, precipita-
tion, and often thunder and lightning accompany the passage of a
storm. Storms can be classified as hurricanes, tornadoes, or low-
pressure systems.

Storm clouds forming over the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. (PhotoDisc)

Storm surge. General rise above normal water level, resulting from a
hurricane or other severe coastal storm.
Strait. Relatively narrow body of water, part of an ocean or sea, separat-
ing two pieces of land. The world’s busiest seaway is the Johore Strait
between the Malay Peninsula and the island of Sumatra.
Strata. Layers of sediment deposited at different times, and therefore of
different composition and texture. When the sediments are laid
down, strata are horizontal, but subsequent tectonic processes can
 Glossary / 513

Folds in strata at the southern end of Montana’s Scapegoat Mountain. (U.S.

Geological Survey)

lead to tilting, folding, or faulting. Not all sedimentary rocks are

stratified. Singular form of the word is stratum.
Strategic resources. Resources considered essential for a nation’s ma-
jor industries, military defense, and energy programs. For the United
States, these resources include manganese, chromium, cobalt, nickel,
platinum, titanium, aluminum, and oil.
Stratified drift. Material deposited by glacial meltwaters; the water sep-
arates the material according to size, creating layers.
Stratigraphic time scale. History of the evolution of life on the earth bro-
ken down into time periods based on changes in fossil life in the se-
quence of rock layers; the time periods were named for the localities
in which they were studied or from their characteristics.
Stratigraphic unit. Any rock layer that can be easily recognized because
of specific characteristics, such as color, composition, or grain size.
Stratigraphy. Study of sedimentary strata, which includes the concept
of time, possible correlation of the rock units, and characteristics of
the rocks themselves.
Stratosphere. Layer of the atmosphere distinguished by a rise in tem-
perature from bottom to top. This warming mainly results from ab-
sorption of solar radiation by ozone molecules found in the strato-
sphere. The stratosphere extends from about 11 miles (17 km.) above
the earth’s surface to about 30 miles (50 km.) in altitude. Below the
stratosphere is the troposphere; above it is the mesosphere.
 514 / Glossary

Mount Rainier, an ancient stratovolcano, one whose eruptions are of different types and pro-
duce different lavas. (Corbis)

Stratovolcano. Type of volcano in which the eruptions are of different

types and produce different lavas. Sometimes an eruption ejects cin-
der and ash; at other times, viscous lava flows down the sides. The ma-
terials flow, settle, and fall to produce a beautiful symmetrical
landform with a broad circular base and concave slopes tapering up-
ward to a small circular crater. Mount Rainier, Mount Saint Helens,
and Mount Fuji are stratovolcanoes. Also known as a composite cone.
Stratum. A single bed or layer of sedimentary rock. See also Strata.
Stream. Body of water in a channel, moving downhill because of gravity.
Geographers prefer the term to “river,” because it emphasizes the fact

Geographers and other physical scientists tend to prefer the word “stream” over “river” for a
body of water that moves down a channel. (PhotoDisc)
 Glossary / 515

that water flows in a confined channel, between banks. “River” is a less

precise term, partly because it suggests a large and constant stream. In
arid regions, streams are often intermittent in their flow, or even
ephemeral, when they contain flowing water only for a short period.
Stream order. System of studying streams devised by Robert Horton, an
American hydrologist. The smallest streams in the headwaters are
designated first-order streams. When two first-order streams converge,
the result is a second-order stream. When two second-order streams
converge, a third-order stream is formed. Quantifying a drainage net-
work in this way enables calculations of drainage area, discharge, and
other factors in the stream network.
Streambed. Channel through which a stream flows. Dry streambeds are
variously known as arroyos, dongas, washes, and wadis.

Striations cut into Devonian-era dolomite by large, sharp rocks pushed by gla-
cial ice. (U.S. Geological Survey)

Striations. Grooves eroded into bedrock by the ground moraine, or

rocks, carried by a glacier as it makes its way downslope. Sometimes
the striations are merely scratches; in other places the grooves can be
several centimeters deep. Study of striations now exposed reveals much
about the direction and size of glacial flows during previous ice ages.
Strike. Term used when earth scientists study tilted or inclined beds of
sedimentary rock. The strike of the inclined bed is the direction of a
horizontal line along a bedding plane. The strike is at right angles to
the dip of the rocks.
516 / Glossary

Strike-slip fault. In a strike-slip fault, the surface on either side of the fault
moves in a horizontal plane. There is no vertical displacement to form
a fault scarp, as there is with other types of faults. The San Andreas
Fault is a strike-slip fault. Also called a transcurrent fault.
Strip mining. Removal of a long narrow strip of surface materials, using
excavation machinery called a dragline. The underlying mineral de-
posit then can be collected easily. When the dragline moves across to
the adjacent land to excavate the next strip, parallel to the first, the
waste or overburden from the former strip is deposited back over that
strip of land. Coal deposits are often mined using strip mining. This
type of mining is destructive of natural environments.

Strip mining involves the

removal of long narrow strips
of surface materials, using
excavation equipment called
draglines, so that underlying
minerals can be collected
easily. (PhotoDisc)

Subcontinent. Large piece of a continent. The term is especially used

when referring to the Indian subcontinent.
Subduction. Process that occurs when two tectonic plates converge. If
one plate is composed of lighter continental crust and the other of
heavier oceanic crust, the lighter plate rides up over the heavier
plate, forcing it downward. This is a destructive process, destroying
crust. At plate boundaries where subduction is occurring, oceanic
trenches are found close to the shore, with tall, young mountains
close to the coast on the land. Active volcanoes are common, and
eruptions and earthquakes are frequent. The combination of the
Peru Trench and the Andes Mountains marks a large plate boundary
region where subduction is proceeding.
 Glossary / 517

Subduction zone. Convergent plate boundary where an oceanic

plate is being thrust below another plate.
Sublimation. Process by which water changes directly from solid (ice) to
vapor, or vapor to solid, without passing through a liquid stage.
Submarine canyon. Channel cut deep in the seafloor sediments by
rivers or submarine currents.
Submergence. Coastline of submergence is formed when sea levels
that have risen since the last ice age have made former river valleys
and other landforms inlets, estuaries, and bays.
Subsidence. Sinking of the earth’s surface or a decrease in the distance
between the earth’s surface and its center.
Subsistence agriculture. System of production in which farmers grow
only enough food to feed themselves and their immediate families,
with just enough seed left over to ensure a crop the following year. No
surplus is produced for sale. Shifting cultivation is a form of subsis-
tence agriculture. Subsistence agriculturalists usually produce a vari-
ety of crops throughout the year and may keep a few animals for food.
The opposite of subsistence agriculture is commercial agriculture.
Subsoil. Term for the C horizon in a soil. See also soil.
Subsolar point. Point on the earth’s surface where the Sun is directly
overhead, making the Sun’s rays perpendicular to the surface. The
subsolar point receives maximum insolation, compared with other
places, where the Sun’s rays are oblique.
Suburbanization. Growth of population around the edge or fringe of a
city. This process of city growth began in the United States in the
eighteenth century, when wealthy people moved out of the crowded,
unhealthful city to the rural edge where they could have a large prop-
erty with fresh air and a large garden. This led to recent immigrants
moving into the inner city.
Sultanate. Islamic state ruled by a person with the title of sultan.
Summer solstice. See Solstices.
Summit. Highest part of any landform remnant, hill, peak, or moun-
tain. A summit can be either smooth or sharply defined.
Sun. The center of Earth’s solar system, the Sun is an average star in
terms of its physical characteristics. It is a large sphere of incandescent
gas that has a diameter more than 100 times that of Earth, a mass more
than 300,000 times that of Earth, and a volume 1.3 million times that
of Earth. The Sun’s surface gravity is thirty-four times that of Earth.
The earth revolves around the Sun in a slightly elliptical orbit that
takes exactly one Earth year to complete.
Sun Belt. Name given to certain parts of the United States that attract im-
migration because of their warm sunny climates. Retired people are
the main component of Sun Belt migration. The Sun Belt is not a
continuous belt, but California, Texas, Florida, Nevada, and New
Mexico have benefited from this trend.
 518 / Glossary

Sunrise occurs
when the top of
the Sun first
appears above
the horizon. As
with sunsets,
these times vary
with location and
season.
(PhotoDisc)

Sunrise. The time when the top of the Sun first appears above the hori-
zon. This time changes throughout the year.
Sunset. The time when the last part of the Sun totally disappears below
the horizon. This time changes throughout the year.

Sunset is the moment when the last part of the Sun disappears below the horizon. The exact
times vary within individual time zones and change throughout the year, with the changes be-
coming greater with distance away from the equator. (PhotoDisc)
 Glossary / 519

Sunspots. Regions of intense magnetic disturbances that appear as dark

spots on the solar surface; they occur approximately every eleven years.
Supercontinent. Vast landmass of the remote geologic past formed by
the collision and amalgamation of crustal plates. Hypothesized super-
continents include Pangaea, Gondwanaland, and Laurasia.
Supersaturation. State in which the air’s relative humidity exceeds
100 percent, the condition necessary for vapor to begin transforma-
tion to a liquid state.
Supranationalism. Process by which autonomous countries join together
in an agreement for their mutual benefit. Supranational ventures usu-
ally are economic in nature; the North American Free Trade Agree-
ment is an example of supranationalism between the United States,
Canada, and Mexico. Supranationalism can also be cultural or mili-
tary, for example the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Supratidal. Referring to the shore area marginal to shallow oceans that
are just above high-tide level.
Surface water. Relatively warm seawater between the ocean surface and
that depth marked by a rapid reduction in temperature.
Suspension. Means by which small particles are moved by water or wind.
The particles are so light that they can be picked up and transported.
Suspended particles make rivers appear muddy, or make dust clouds
visible.
Sustainable agriculture. Commercial agriculture that is ecologically re-
sponsible and sound. Soil conservation is practiced, using contouring
and shallow plowing. Pest management is achieved by intercropping
or natural pesticides, rather than chemicals.
Sustainable energy. See Alternative energy.
Swamp. Wetland where trees grow in wet to waterlogged conditions.
Swamps are common close to the river on floodplains, as well as in
some coastal areas.
Swell. Regular pattern of smooth rounded waves moving across the
ocean surface in one direction.
Swidden. Area of land that has been cleared for subsistence agricul-
ture by a farmer using the technique of slash-and-burn. A variety of
crops is planted, partly to reduce the risk of crop failure. Yields are low
from a swidden because soil fertility is low and only human labor is
used for clearing, planting, and harvesting. See also Intertillage.
Symbiosis. Cooperative living arrangement of two different species. When
both species benefit, it is called mutualism; when one benefits more
than the other, it is called commensalism. Parasitism sometimes is re-
garded as a form of symbiosis.
Symbolic landscapes. Landscapes centered on buildings or structures
that are so visually emblematic that they represent an entire city. The
Eiffel Tower of Paris or the Harbour Bridge of Sydney are examples of
such features. Other cities have more generic cityscapes that are sym-
 520 / Glossary

bolic of the entire nation or the entire culture. For the United
States, three such symbolic cityscapes are recognized by most geogra-
phers. The New England village or townscape, with the steepled
white wooden church and village green, accompanied by deciduous
trees in fall colors, not only represents a regional architecture but also
symbolizes a community rooted in Puritan values of morality, industri-
ousness, and a God-centered, family-oriented life. The familiar sym-
bolic cityscape generally referred to as Main Street U.S.A. is an image
of an earlier age, with sidewalks and small, family-run shops, which was
adopted as the centerpiece of Disneyland. The California landscape is
a third symbolic U.S. landscape, typified by tall palms, suburban
houses, and an individualistic, recreation-oriented, middle-class popu-
lation. This final landscape has been widely popularized by the mo-
tion picture industry.
Syncline. Downfold or trough shape that is formed through compres-
sion of rocks. An upfold is an anticline.

Syncline in weathered shale, with a left limb that dips to the right and a vertical right limb. (U.S.
Geological Survey)
 Glossary / 521

Cape Town’s aptly named Table Mountain, viewed from Table Bay in South Africa. (Corbis)

Table mountain. Mesa with a particularly well-defined shape resembling

a table. The most famous mountain of this type is Cape Town’s aptly
named Table Mountain in South Africa.
Tableland. Large area of land with a mostly flat surface, surrounded by
steeply sloping sides, or escarpments. A small plateau.
Taiga. Russian name for the vast boreal forests that cover Siberia. The
marshy ground supports a tree vegetation in which the trees are co-
niferous, comprising mostly pine, fir, and larch.
Takeoff. Stage in the economic development of a country when condi-
tions are right for the country to undergo an industrial revolution,
making that country an industrialized export economy. The term
comes from the work of the American economist Walter Rostow.
Talus. Broken and jagged pieces of rock, produced by weathering of
steep slopes, that fall to the base of the slope and accumulate as a talus
cone. In high mountains, a rock glacier may form in the talus. See
also Scree.
Tarn. Small circular lake, formed in a cirque, which was previously oc-
cupied by a glacier.
Taxonomy. Another name for a system of scientific classification. The
soil classification used in the United States is called the Soil Taxon-
omy or the Seventh Approximation.
Technology. Practical application of knowledge. It could refer to simple
techniques such as using fire to cook food or a rock to crack oysters.
In modern use, technology implies the use of power and machinery, as
522 / Glossary

in mining technology or communications technology. In developed

or high-income economies, technology has largely replaced the need
for human labor, but many low-income countries have a low level of
technology.
Tectonic plate. Large portion of the earth’s crust. Plates are in constant
motion, separating or colliding, changing the shape of continents
and the configuration of the surface both above and below sea level.
The North American Plate is slowly moving northwest. The other large
plates are the South American, African, Eurasian, Indo-Australian,
and Antarctic plates. There are also several smaller plates.
Tectonism. The formation of mountains because of the deformation of
the crust of the earth on a large scale.
Temperate zone. Areas between the tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Cir-
cle and between the tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle.
The ancient Greeks divided the world into three climate zones, based
on their understanding of geometry and geography. At the equator
was the hot region the Greeks called the Torrid Zone, believing that
human life was not possible there. At the poles were the two Frigid
Zones, thought to be too cold for human life. Between the Torrid and
Frigid Zones lay two temperate zones, one in each hemisphere. The
civilized world as known to the ancient Greeks lay in the temperate
zone, where humans flourished because agriculture was possible.
Although the Greeks believed that life was possible in the temperate
zone of the Southern Hemisphere, they did not think that the beings
there would resemble the humans of the Northern Hemisphere. Be-
cause the Greeks thought it was not possible to travel through the Tor-
rid Zone to see what the southern regions were like, there were specu-
lations about whether the inhabitants there had one eye, or perhaps
walked upside down, because of the earth’s curvature. Drawings of
creatures with feet on their heads led to the origin of the word antipo-
des, which is now used to described southern lands.
Temperature. Measure of the kinetic energy of molecules, felt by hu-
mans as sensible heat. Temperature is usually measured using the Cel-
sius scale, but in the United States, the Fahrenheit scale is more
commonly used. The Kelvin scale is used by scientists.
Temperature inversion. Increase in air temperature with increased al-
titude. This is the opposite of normal conditions whereby the tem-
perature in the troposphere decreases uniformly with height. An in-
version can be produced in a number of ways. A radiation or ground
inversion occurs on cold clear nights when the ground cools rapidly
through terrestrial radiation. Air in contact with this cold surface is
then cooled, becoming colder than the air above it. If the air is moist
and the temperature falls below the dew point, fog can form; this is
called a radiation fog. A subsidence inversion forms when air in a
high-pressure cell descends and unequal compression causes the up-
 Glossary / 523

per part of the air to become warmer than the lower part. An inversion
can form in the surface layer or at an upper level in the troposphere. A
layer of stratus clouds usually marks the upper-level inversion. To-
pography can be an important influence on a ground inversion. In
hilly or mountainous areas, cold air drains into the valleys, especially
at night, and causes an inversion that can persist for more than one
day. Under normal conditions, warm air near the surface rises be-
cause it is less dense, which lessens pollution. Cool surface air over-
lain with warmer air prevents the upward rise of smoke and other pol-
lutants, which become trapped under the inversion layer. The United
States’ worst air pollution disaster occurred in Donora, Pennsyl-
vania, in 1948, when a temperature inversion led to a deadly fog full of
industrial pollutants; it persisted for four days, affecting thousands of
people and causing twenty deaths.
Temporary base level. Streams or rivers erode their beds down toward
a base level—in most cases, sea level. A section of hard rock may
slow erosion and act as a temporary, or local, base level. Erosion slows
upstream of the temporary base level. A dam is an artificially con-
structed temporary base level.
Tension. Type of stress that produces a stretching and thinning or pulling
apart of the earth’s crust. If the surface breaks, a normal fault is
created, with one side of the surface higher than the other.
Tephra. General term for volcanic materials that are ejected from a vent
during an eruption and transported through the air, including ash
(volcanic), blocks (volcanic), cinders, lapilli, scoria, and pumice.
Terminal moraine. Ridge of unsorted debris deposited by a glacier.
When a glacier erodes it moves downslope, carrying rock debris and

Terminal moraine in the French Alps. (Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad, 1880)
524 / Glossary

creating a ground moraine of material of various sizes, ranging from

big angular blocks or boulders down to fine clay. At the terminus of
the glacier, where the ice is melting, the ground moraine is deposited,
building the ridge of unsorted debris called a terminal moraine.
Terra rossa. Red soil formed from limestone, which provides a strong
contrast to the paler limestone bedrock below. The red color comes
from insoluble iron hydroxides. Name is Italian for red soil.
Terrace. Horizontal ridge in a hillside. In many Asian countries, the
steep slopes of hills or mountainsides have been transformed,
through great human effort, into a series of steplike terraces to pro-
vide flat land for rice paddies. River terraces are natural formations
on either side of a river.

Asian rice paddies maximizing agriculture use of difficult mountainous terrain.

(PhotoDisc)
 Glossary / 525

Terracettes. Small parallel terraces or steps on a hillslope. They are

thought to originate from a combination of mass movement down-
slope and trampling by the hooves of grazing animals.
Terrain. Physical features of a region, as in a description of rugged ter-
rain. It should not be confused with terrane.
Terrane. Piece of continental crust that has broken off from one
plate and subsequently been joined to a different plate. The terrane
has quite different composition and structure from the adjacent conti-
nental materials. Alaska is composed mostly of terranes that have ac-
creted, or joined, the North American plate.
Terrestrial planet. Any of the solid, rocky-surfaced bodies of the inner so-
lar system, including the planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars
and Earth’s satellite, the Moon.
Terrigenous. Originating from the weathering and erosion of moun-
tains and other land formations.
Tertiary industry. Sector of the economy, also known as the service sec-
tor, that does not produce material goods for sale. Tertiary industry in-
cludes services such as banking and insurance, real estate, retailing,
transportation and communications, and such necessities as po-
lice, defense, and education. In high-income economies, most people
are employed in the tertiary sector; the secondary sector is of dimin-
ished importance, and primary industries are highly mechanized, with
few workers.
Tertiary period. Period in the Cenozoic era of the geologic time scale;
it encompasses the time span between about 65 million and 2 million
years ago.
Texture. One of the properties of soils. The three textures are sand,
silt, and clay. Texture is measured by shaking the dried soil through
a series of sieves with mesh of reducing diameters. A mixture of sand,
silt, and clay gives a loam soil.
Thalweg. Profile obtained when the elevation of a streambed is plotted
against the stream’s length. The shape is a concave curve. German
word for “valley way” or “path,” spelled Talweg in modern German.
Thematic map. Map that displays information concerning a theme, such
as geology, vegetation, or annual precipitation. Using computer
mapping with a Geographic Information System (GIS), many themes
can be added to a project, overlaid to create spatial queries, and dis-
played as desired.
Thermal equator. Imaginary line connecting all places on Earth with the
highest mean daily temperature. The thermal equator moves south
of the equator in the Southern Hemisphere summer, especially
over the continents of South America, Africa, and Australia. In the
northern summer, the thermal equator moves far into Asia, northern
Africa, and North America.
Thermal erosion. Erosion of water ice from a solid state to vapor.
526 / Glossary

Thermal fracture. Formation of a fracture or crack in a rock as a result of

temperature changes.
Thermal gradient. Increase of temperature with depth below the earth’s
surface, expressed as degrees Celsius per kilometer; the average is
25 to 30 degrees Celsius per kilometer; also known as geothermal
gradient.
Thermal pollution. Disruption of the ecosystem caused when hot water
is discharged, usually as a thermal plume, into a relatively cooler body
of water. The temperature change affects the aquatic ecosystem,
even if the water is chemically pure. Nuclear power-generating plants
use large volumes of water in the process and are important sources of
thermal pollution.
Thermal springs. See hot springs.
Thermocline. Depth interval at which the temperature of ocean water
changes abruptly, separating warm surface water from cold, deep
water.
Thermodynamics. Area of science that deals with the transformation of
energy and the laws that govern these changes; equilibrium thermo-
dynamics is especially concerned with the reversible conversion of
heat into other forms of energy.
Thermometer. Instrument for measuring temperature. Commonly, a
long thin glass tube containing alcohol. Early thermometers used mer-
cury in a glass tube. The liquid inside the tube expands when the tem-
perature rises. There are three temperature scales in regular use:
Celsius, Fahrenheit, and Kelvin. Most countries in the world use the
Celsius scale, where the boiling point of pure water is 100 degrees and
the freezing point is zero. Temperatures in the United States are usu-
ally given in degrees Fahrenheit. On this scale, the temperature at
which water boils is 212 degrees, and the temperature at which water
freezes is 32 degrees.
Thermopause. Outer limit of the earth’s atmosphere.
Thermosphere. Atmospheric zone beyond the mesosphere in which
temperature rises rapidly with increasing distance from the earth’s
surface.
Third World. Term formerly used to refer to low-income countries, where
the standard of living was poor and per-capita income low. The term
dates from the Cold War, when the capitalist countries were regarded
as the First World, and the Communist countries as the Second World.
Threshold. Minimum market size required to make the sale of a product,
or the provision of a service, economically profitable. Luxury goods
may need few buyers and so they have a low threshold; fast-food outlets
need to sell large quantities of their product, so they have a high
threshold. See also Range.
Thrust belt. Linear belt of rocks that have been deformed by thrust
faults.
 Glossary / 527

Thrust fault
showing fault drag.
(U.S. Geological
Survey)

Thrust fault. Fault formed when extreme compression of the earth’s

crust pushes the surface into folds so closely spaced that they over-
turn and the rock then fractures along a fault.
Thunderstorm. Huge cumulonimbus cloud that brings heavy rain, or
sometimes hail, together with thunder and lightning. Cumulus
clouds form in moist warm air as it rises, and the presence of updrafts
can lead to continued growth of the clouds into a thunderhead. Such
clouds typically have a flat top, or anvil head, when they reach their
greatest height of development, which may be in the stratosphere. A
tornado can develop from a thunderstorm. Microbursts are an-
other common phenomenon.

Cumulus clouds form in moist

warm air as it rises, and the
presence of updrafts can lead
to continued growth of the
clouds into thunderheads,
which typically have flat tops,
or anvil heads, when they
reach their greatest elevations,
which may be in the
stratosphere. (Corbis)
528 / Glossary

Tidal bore. See Bore.

Tidal energy. The regular ebb and flow of tides can be harnessed, in suit-
able locations such as narrow inlets or estuaries where there is a
large tidal range, and used to generate electricity. The oldest tidal
generating plant is located at La Rance in France; another is located in
the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia.
Tidal force. Gravitational force whose strength and direction vary over a
body and thus act to deform the body.
Tidal range. Difference in height between high tide and low tide at a
given point.
Tidal wave. Common but inaccurate name for a tsunami.
Tides. Daily variations in sea level, and in large lakes, caused by the
gravitational pull of the Moon and Sun on the earth, and especially on
the hydrosphere. When Earth, Moon, and Sun are in conjunction
(lined up), it causes spring tides with the greatest tidal range
(highest and lowest tides). When the three bodies are in opposition
(aligned at right angles), it causes neap tides, those in which the tidal
range is smallest. Most coasts on Earth experience two high tides and
two low tides in a 24-hour day.

High tide at Bolinas

Lagoon in California’s
Marin County in 1906.
(U.S. Geological Survey)

Low tide at Bolinas

Lagoon in California’s
Marin County in 1906.
(U.S. Geological Survey)
 Glossary / 529

Till. Mass of unsorted and unstratified sediments deposited by a gla-

cier. Boulders and smaller rounded rocks are mixed with clay-sized
materials.
Timberline. Another term for treeline, the boundary of tree growth on
mountain slopes. Above the timberline, temperatures are too cold
for tree growth.
Time-space convergence. Concept explaining how technology has en-
abled places to seem closer, because the time to send a communica-
tion between two places, or the time to travel from one place to the
other, has shortened. The history of transport is one of increased time-
space convergence, as clipper ships, steam ships, trains, automobiles,
and airplanes reduced the time of journeys. The radio, telegraph, tele-
phone, and Internet allow for almost instantaneous communication,
the ultimate in time-space convergence.
Time zones. The earth is divided into twenty-four standard time zones,
each of which is fifteen degrees of longitude apart. The central me-
ridian for the first time zone is the prime meridian, or zero degrees.
Each central meridian is fifteen degrees apart, so all central meridians
are a factor of five or ten degrees. Because political boundaries do not
conform well to meridians in some places, time zones do not follow
meridians exactly, but are often adjusted to the political boundary.
Tombolo. Strip of sand or other sediment that connects an island or

Mont-Saint-Michel,
an ancient fortified
island abbey, is
connected to the
mainland by a
tombolo.
(PhotoDisc)
530 / Glossary

sea stack to the mainland. Mont-Saint-Michel is linked to the French

mainland by a tombolo.
Topocide. Death of a place, usually the result of industrialization,
mining, or urbanization.
Topographic map. Map showing the detailed shape of the land using con-
tours, which are imaginary lines drawn at equal elevation above sea
level, with a regular contour interval. On an American topographic
map, for example, contours might be shown for 20, 40, and 60 feet,
and so on, above mean sea level. A standard set of symbols and colors is
used in the production of topographic maps, so that a legend is not
necessary once a user becomes familiar with these maps. Topographic
maps are used by hikers, campers, and engineers. The U.S. Geologic
Survey produces topographic maps at scales of 1:24,000 and smaller
scales.
Topography. Description of the natural landscape, including land-
forms, rivers and other waters, and vegetation cover.
Topological space. Space defined in terms of the connectivity between
locations in that space. The nature and frequency of the connec-
tions are measured, while distance between locations is not considered
an important factor. An example of topological space is a transport
network diagram, such as a bus route or a map of an underground rail
system. Networks are most concerned with flows, and therefore with
connectivity.
Toponyms. Place names. Sometimes, names of features and settle-
ments reveal a good deal about the history of a region. For example,
the many names starting with “San” or “Santa” in the Southwest of the
United States recall the fact that Spain once controlled that area. The
scientific study of place names is toponymics.
Topophilia. Love of place. Feelings or emotions that people associate
with certain places. The home area or region hold a special place in
the affections of many people and give them a sense of identity and be-
longing to a community.
Topsoil. In reclamation, all soil which will support plant growth, but nor-
mally the 8 to 12 inches (20-30 centimeters) of the organically rich top
layer.
Tor. Rocky outcrop of blocks of rock, or corestones, exposed and rounded
by weathering. Tors frequently form in granite, where three series
of joints often developed as the rock originally cooled when it was
formed.
Tornado. Narrow vortex of rotating winds around a low-pressure center.
Tornadoes are about 600 feet (200 meters) in diameter at ground
level, and they travel across the land at speeds of up to 30 miles (50
km.) per hour. Within the tornado, windspeeds on average reach 270
miles (450 km.) per hour but can be even higher. Because of this, tor-
nadoes are extremely destructive. Tornadoes can occur in many coun-
 Glossary / 531

Narrow vortexes of wind rotating around low-pressure centers, tornadoes move across land
surfaces at speeds of up to 30 miles (50 km.) per hour. (PhotoDisc)

tries, but the United States has the world’s greatest frequency of torna-
does, especially in its Great Plains states.
Town. Urban settlement with a form of local self-government, such as a
mayor. A town usually has more than twenty-five hundred residents
and can be much larger. See also City.
Township and range. System of surveying and subdividing land quickly,
introduced in the United States in 1785. Each township was a square
with a side of six miles, or thirty-six square miles. Each square mile was
then divided into four squares, each covering 160 acres. This was the
smallest piece of land a farmer could buy. The legacy of this survey sys-
tem is the checkerboard landscape of the agricultural land of the
Midwest.
Traction. Means by which a stream moves part of its load. Large pebbles,
or even boulders, are dragged along, in contact with the bed of the
stream. The process is traction; the material is the bedload.
Trade. Exchange of goods and services, with or without the use of cur-
rency. In modern economies, currency or money is the medium of
trade. Trade opened the world to European influences, as mariners
and explorers sought new sources of minerals and other trade goods.
International trade is an important part of high-income economies
and is regulated by agreements such as the General Agreement on Tar-
iffs and Trade (GATT) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Ar-
guments for increased international trade include the creation of jobs
532 / Glossary

in other countries that supply goods to wealthy markets, and the lower
price of commodities in those countries. Arguments against interna-
tional trade include the perpetuation of low-wage labor in poor coun-
tries and environmental degradation in some industries.
Trade winds. Winds that converge toward the intertropical conver-
gence zone. Trade winds move from the subtropical high-pressure
zones of each hemisphere toward the low-pressure belt but are de-
flected by the Coriolis effect and by friction, so that they produce
the northeast trade winds in the Northern Hemisphere and the
southeast trade winds in the Southern Hemisphere. The name comes
from the days when sail-powered ships carried goods between conti-
nents. These warm and reliable winds were favored by sailors. Part of
the circulation pattern known as Hadley cells.
Transculturation. Cultural mingling that occurs when two cultures are
in close contact over a sustained period. The culture of modern Mex-
ico, which combines Spanish and Amerindian cultures, is a good ex-
ample of transculturation. Compare with acculturation.
Transferability. Economic term that describes the ability to move goods
from one place to another and to bear the costs incurred.
Transform faults. Faults that occur along divergent plate boundaries,
or seafloor spreading zones. The faults run perpendicular to the
spreading center, sometimes for hundreds of miles, some for more
than five hundred miles. The motion along a transform fault is lateral
or strike-slip.
Transgression. Flooding of a large land area by the sea, either by a regional
downwarping of continental surface or by a global rise in sea level.
Transhumance. Form of pastoral activity in which farmers take their graz-
ing animals up to high alpine pastures during the spring, bringing
them down to lower levels in the colder months. In cold climates,
livestock can even be kept indoors during the winter. Transhumance
is practiced in the European Alps and in mountainous parts of Asia
and Scandinavia.
Transit. Passage of a small object across the face of a larger object, such as
a moon passing across a planet.
Transpiration. Loss of moisture to the atmosphere through the leaves of
plants. When considered together with evaporation, the term evapo-
transpiration is used.
Transportation. Movement of goods or people from one place to an-
other. In earlier times, and in some poor countries today, animals pro-
vide the means of transportation. Most countries now have mechani-
cal transportation, such as trains, buses, automobiles, airplanes, and
steamships. Improvements in transport and communications, espe-
cially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, led to what geogra-
phers call time-space convergence. Places were connected more
quickly, easily, and cheaply, which contributed to globalization. Trans-
 Glossary / 533

portation based on the burning of fossil fuels is a major cause of

greenhouse gases.
Transverse bar. Flat-topped body of sand or gravel oriented transverse to
the river flow.
Transverse dunes. Asymmetrical sand dunes running at right angles to
the prevailing wind direction. They form where there is an abundant
supply of sand and only moderate winds.
Transverse valley. River-cut valley or gorge that runs perpendicular to
the main strike direction of a mountain chain.
Transverse waves. See S waves.
Travertine. Limestone formations such as stalactites and stalag-
mites that form in limestone caves and around calcareous springs.
Also known as tufa.

Travertine formation, the Liberty Cap, at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone

National Park. (U.S. Geological Survey)

Treeline. See Timberline.

Trench. Long, deep shape in the ocean floor, close to a continent or an
island arc. Trenches are formed as part of subduction, when oce-
anic crust is forced down beneath an adjacent tectonic plate. Ad-
jacent to a trench is a zone of active volcanoes, formed by the heat,
pressure, and melting of the descending material. The lowest place
on Earth is at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, more than 36,000
feet (11,000 meters) below mean sea level.
534 / Glossary

Triassic. Period of time about 225 to 195 million years ago at the begin-
ning of the Mesozoic era when dinosaurs lived.
Tributary. Stream that joins its water with a larger stream. The smallest
tributaries are tiny streams, numbered as first-order streams in a net-
work (see stream order). Some tributaries are themselves major
rivers, such as the Missouri, a tributary of the Mississippi.
Trophic level. Different types of food relations that are found within an
ecosystem. Organisms that derive food and energy through photo-
synthesis are called autotrophs (self-feeders) or producers. Organisms
that rely on producers as their source of energy are called heterotrophs
(feeders on others) or consumers. A third trophic level is represented
by the organisms known as decomposers, which recycle organic waste.
Tropical cyclone. Storm that forms over tropical oceans and is character-
ized by extreme amounts of rain, a central area of calm air, and spin-
ning winds that attain speeds of up to 180 miles (300 km.) per hour.
Tropical depression. Storm with wind speeds up to 38 miles (64 km.)
per hour.
Tropical rain forest. See Rain forest, tropical.
Tropical storm. Storm with winds of 38-70 miles (64-118 km.) per hour.
Tropics. The region of the earth lying between the tropic of Capricorn,
23.5 degrees south, and the tropic of Cancer, 23.5 degrees north.
More than one-third of the earth’s land lies in the Tropics, with cli-
mates ranging from the hot humid tropical rain forest to the hot
arid tropical desert. Temperatures in the Tropics are high all year,
because the Sun is always nearly vertically overhead. The annual
range of temperature is 77-82 degrees Fahrenheit (25 to 28 degrees
Celsius). Seasons are not measured by temperature variation or by
changes in length of day, but by the season of rainfall (except in the
tropical rain forest, where it rains all year). The most spectacular cli-
mate change in the Tropics is the monsoon; the dramatic onset of the
Asian monsoon is both eagerly awaited and dreaded. The ancient
Greeks believed that human life was not possible in the Tropics, be-
cause of the high temperatures, but today the tropical region of South-
east Asia contains about one-fifth of the world’s population.
Tropopause. Boundary layer between the troposphere and the strato-
sphere.
Troposphere. Lowest and densest of Earth’s atmospheric layers, marked
by considerable turbulence and a decrease in temperature with in-
creasing altitude.
Trough. Long, relatively gentle-sided depression or furrow, sometimes
subdivided into many smaller troughs.
True horizon. See Horizon, true.
Tsunami. Seismic sea wave caused by a disturbance of the ocean floor,
usually an earthquake, although undersea landslides or volcanic
eruptions can also trigger tsunami. A tsunami travels through the
 Glossary / 535

ocean at great speed; it has a small wave height but long wave
length. The Japanese word means “harbor wave,” because when the
tsunami reaches the coast it grows tall and creates tremendous de-
struction. Tsunami have caused such destruction and loss of life that
there is a warning system in place covering the Pacific Ocean, with sta-
tions in Alaska and Hawaii ready to transmit instant warning of im-
pending tsunami. It is incorrect to use the term “tidal wave” for a tsu-
nami, since tides have nothing to do with tsunami.
Tsunami warning. Second phase of a tsunami alert; it is issued after the
generation of a tsunami has been confirmed.
Tsunami watch. First phase of a tsunami alert; it is issued after a large
earthquake has occurred at the seafloor.
Tufa. Limestone or calcium carbonate deposit formed by precipita-
tion from an alkaline lake. Mono Lake is famous for the dramatic
tufa towers exposed by the lowering of the level of lake water. Also
known as travertine.

Tufa tower on California’s Mono Lake. (Corbis)

Tuff. Compacted deposit that is 50 percent or more volcanic ash and

dust.
Tuff ring. Larger form of a maar.
Tumescence. Local swelling of the ground that commonly occurs when
magma rises toward the surface.
Tundra. The treeless far northern lands of Canada and Eurasia, covering
about one-tenth of the earth’s lands. There, the climate is so cold that
only low plants can grow. The ground is snow-covered for eight or
more months a year and precipitation is low. Plants of the tundra are
adapted to a short growing season. The Inuit peoples of North Amer-
ica and the Saami of nothern Europe are native to the Arctic tundra.
In high mountains there is a second type of tundra, known as alpine
 536 / Glossary

tundra. Temperatures there are too low for trees to grow, snow covers
the ground for much of the year, and strong winds are frequent. Both
types of tundra are fragile environments where development for min-
ing, oil drilling, or even recreation threatens the ecosystems.
Tunnel vent. Central tube in a volcanic structure through which material
from the earth’s interior travels.
Turbulence. Rapid flow of water in rivers, in estuaries, and near ocean
surfaces, and the movement of air in storms. High-speed winds and
large-scale atmospheric phenomena usually create large differences in
fluid velocity over relatively small distances. These highly sheared
flows tend to be generically unstable when their otherwise smooth
“laminar” motion is subjected to naturally occurring disturbances.
The resulting oscillations in air or water velocity tend to grow rapidly
in amplitude and can produce a chaotic, highly fluctuating state of
fluid motion known as hydrodynamic turbulence. The turbulent mo-
tion of fluids is a universal phenomenon, occurring in a wide variety of
environmental fluid flows, in the flow of air about aircraft and water
about ship and submarine hulls, in the interior motions of stars, and in
galactic jets and clouds.
Typhoon. Name used for a hurricane or tropical cyclone occurring
in East Asia, in the East China Sea, and as far north as southern Japan.

U-shaped valley. Steep-sided valley carved out by a glacier. Also called

a glacial trough.

U-shaped valley in England’s Lake District. Erosion is particularly rapid at the heads of gla-
ciers, which press rock fragments against the sides of the valleys they move through, widening
and deepening the valleys by abrasion. (Ray Sumner)
 Glossary / 537

Ubac slope. Shady side of a mountain, where local or microclimatic con-

ditions permit lower timberlines and lower snow lines than occur
on a sunny side.
Ultimate base level. Level to which a stream can erode its bed. For most
rivers, this is sea level. For streams that flow into a lake, the ulti-
mate base level is the level of the lakebed.
Ultramafic rocks. Dense, dark-colored, iron- and magnesium-rich silicate
rocks composed primarily of the minerals olivine and pyroxene.
They are the dominant rocks in the earth’s mantle but also occur in
some areas of the crust. Ultramafic rocks are important for what they
contribute to the understanding of crust and mantle evolution. They
also serve as an important source of economic commodities such as
chromium, platinum, nickel, and diamonds, as well as talc and various
decorative building stones.
Ultraviolet radiation. Electromagnetic radiation extending from just
above the sensitivity of the human eye. Form of energy that can cause
chemical reactions; it has more energy than visible light and contrib-
utes to the breakdown of ozone in Earth’s atmosphere.
Unconfined aquifer. Aquifer whose upper boundary is the water ta-
ble; it is also called a water table aquifer.
Unconformity. Interruption or break in the depositional sequence of
sedimentary rocks, representing a long period of geologic time.
This might result from a fall in sea level or a tectonic event. Gen-
erally, an unconformity represents an erosional surface. Other sedi-
ments later were deposited on top of this erosional surface. Near the
bottom of the Grand Canyon walls lies the Great Unconformity.

This small mesa near San Lorenzo Arroyo in Arizona shows an unconformity overlying upthrust
rock. (U.S. Geological Survey)
538 / Glossary

Underclass. Group of people who experience a form of poverty that keeps

them isolated from the mainstream population and from the formal la-
bor market. In the United States, persons with limited English-speaking
skills, single parents, and the long-term unemployed are commonly
members of the underclass. The underclass is also subject to increased
levels of violence and higher-than-average levels of drug use, illness,
and crime.
Underemployment. Phenomenon that occurs when people work less
than they wish or less than full time. This is often a way to prevent some
workers being fired or laid off.
Underfit stream. Stream that appears to be too small to have eroded the
valley in which it flows. A river flowing in a glaciated valley is a good
example of underfit.
Uniformitarianism. Theory introduced in the early nineteenth century to
explain geologic processes. It used to be believed that the earth was only
a few thousand years old, so the creation of landforms would have
been rapid, even catastrophic. This theory, called catastrophism, ex-
plained most landforms as the result of the Great Flood of the Bible,
when Noah, his family, and animals survived the deluge. Uniformi-
tarianism, in contrast, stated that the processes in operation today are
slow, so the earth must be immensely older than a mere few thousand
years.
Universal time (UT). See Greenwich mean time.
Universal Transverse Mercator. Projection in which the earth is divided
into sixty zones, each six degrees of longitude wide. In a traditional
Mercator projection, the earth is seen as a sphere with a cylinder
wrapped around the equator. UTM can be visualized as a series of six-
degree side strips running transverse, or north-south.
Universalizing religion. Proselytic religion; one that actively seeks to
convert others to its belief system. Followers of a universalizing reli-
gion believe that their religion is appropriate for everyone. See also
Ethnic religion.
Unstable air. Condition that occurs when the air above rising air is un-
usually cool so that the rising air is warmer and accelerates upward.
Upland. Land that is higher than nearby river valleys. A plateau is
one kind of upland.
Uplift. Rising of the earth’s surface or the increase in distance between
the earth’s surface and its center.
Upper mantle. Comparatively rigid part of the earth’s interior below the
crust of the earth down to about 700 kilometers, composed of mag-
nesium and iron-rich rock.
Upthrown block. When earthquake motion produces a fault, the
block of land on one side is displaced vertically relative to the other.
The higher is the upthrown block; the lower is the downthrown block.
Upwelling. Ocean phenomenon in which warm surface waters are
 Glossary / 539

pushed away from the coast and are replaced by cold waters that
carry more nutrients up from depth.
Urban area. In many places, a settlement with two thousand or more
residents is considered urban; smaller settlements are rural. Generally
the population of an urban area is engaged in secondary or tertiary
economic activity. A large urban settlement is a city or megalopolis.
Urban heat island. Cities experience a different microclimate from sur-
rounding regions. The city temperature is typically higher by a
few degrees, both day and night, because of factors such as surfaces
with higher heat absorption, decreased wind strength, human heat-
producing activities such as power generation, and the layer of air
pollution (dust dome).
Urbanization. Increase in the proportion of a population living in ur-
ban areas.
UTC. See Coordinated universal time.
UTM. See Universal Transverse Mercator.
Uvala. Slavic term for an enlarged sinkhole in limestone, or a karst
valley.

Vadose zone. The part of the soil also known as the zone of aeration,
located above the water table, where space between particles con-
tains air.
Valley. Natural landform in which a long low shape is surrounded by
higher valley sides reaching up to a valley crest. Valleys are eroded over

Valleys are natural landforms in which long, low shapes are surrounded by
higher valley sides reaching up to crests. Valleys are eroded over time by
streams, or sometimes by glaciers. (PhotoDisc)
540 / Glossary

time by streams, or sometimes by glaciers. Rift valleys are created

by tectonic movement. River valleys have been the hearths of many
great cultures of the past, such as the Egyptians on the Nile River.
Valley glacier. See Alpine glacier.
Valley train. Fan-shaped deposit of glacial moraine that has been moved
down-valley and redeposited by meltwater from the glacier.
Van Allen radiation belts. Bands of highly energetic, charged particles
trapped in Earth’s magnetic field. The particles that make up the in-
ner belt are energetic protons, while the outer belt consists mainly of
electrons and is subject to day-night variations.
Varnish, desert. Shiny black coating often found over the surface of
rocks in arid regions. This is a form of oxidation or chemical
weathering, in which a coating of manganese oxides has formed
over the exposed surface of the rock.
Varve. Pair of contrasting layers of sediment deposited over one year’s
time; the summer layer is light, and the winter layer is dark.
Vegetation. The plant life of an area. The four broad types are forest,
grasslands, tundra, and desert (or xerophytic). Forests are found
in the Tropics and the midlatitudes, wherever there is sufficient rain-
fall. Grassland dominates in regions of lower rainfall. Tundra vege-
tation is small in size because of high temperatures and a permanently
frozen ground surface known as permafrost. Desert vegetation is
adapted to low precipitation, less than one foot (30 centimeters) per
year. Deserts are found in the Tropics and in midlatitudes.
Vein. Mineral deposit that fills a crack; veins form by precipitation of
minerals from fluids.
Veld. South African term for grasslands found when the early Dutch
settlers, or Boers, trekked inland onto the plateau. Afrikaans word for
“field.” Southern Africa’s plateau region is known as the high veld.
Ventifacts. Pebbles on which one or more sides have been smoothed and
faceted by abrasion as the wind has blown sand particles.
Vernacular region. Culture region that is identified by both the major-
ity of people living within the region and by people living outside the
region. People living in a vernacular region have a sense of regional
identity. The vernacular region usually has a name that is widely un-
derstood by large numbers of people. Vernacular regions have a re-
gional identity associated with the name. An example of a vernacular
region in the United States is Appalachia.
Vernal equinox. See Equinox.
Village. Small settlement, usually in a rural area. Urban geographers
regard a village as being larger than a hamlet but smaller than a
town. Generally, this means that a village has fewer than twenty-five
hundred residents, most of whom are engaged in agricultural activity.
Volcanic ash. Also known as volcanic dust, the fine pyroclastic material
thrown into the air in explosive volcanic eruptions. These particles
 Glossary / 541

are small enough to be held in suspension in the atmosphere, and

can be spread around the whole earth by upper-level winds. The erup-
tion of the Philippines’ Mount Pinatubo in June, 1991, sent about
twenty million tons of volcanic ash, dust, and gases into the atmo-
sphere. The resulting cloud was spread by global winds, producing a
band around the entire earth, extending from twenty degrees north
latitude to thirty degrees north latitude. Because of the increased re-
flection of solar radiation, temperatures were slightly lower than
usual for two years following the eruption.
Volcanic earthquakes. Small-magnitude earthquakes that occur at rela-
tively shallow depths beneath active or potentially active volcanoes.
Volcanic island arc. Curving or linear group of volcanic islands associ-
ated with a subduction zone. See also Oceanic islands.
Volcanic neck. The throat of a volcano, or the pipelike opening in which
the lava rises up before an explosion. Sometimes the lava solidifies in-
side the opening, then the surrounding cone is eroded away, leaving
the neck exposed as a tall, steep-sided landform. Ship Rock, New
Mexico, and Devil’s Tower, Wyoming, are well-known volcanic necks.
Volcanic plumes. Material thrown up from the surface by eruptions;
they indicate high volcanic activity.
Volcanic rock. Type of igneous rock that is erupted at the surface of the
earth; volcanic rocks are usually composed of larger crystals inside a
fine-grained matrix of very small crystals and glass.
Volcanic tremor. Continuous vibration of long duration, detected only at
active volcanoes.
Volcano. Geologic phenomenon produced by the eruption of magma
from beneath a planet’s surface; it creates mountains that often dis-
play a cone shape. Volcanic activity usually occurs in subduction
zones, in seafloor spreading zones, and at hot spots. When one
tectonic plate is pushed or dragged beneath another plate, the pro-

Oregon’s Mount
Hood, part of the
Pacific Coast’s
Cascade Range, is
a beautiful example
of a cone-shaped
volcano. As is the
case with Japan’s
Mount Fuji, Mount
Hood’s appearance
is enhanced by the
absence other
nearby mountains.
(PhotoDisc)
542 / Glossary

cess is called subduction. Friction melts the descending rock, which

is also full of steam, and the hot magma rises until it bursts through the
overlying plate in a volcano. When plates diverge at a seafloor spread-
ing zone, magma spreads out from the rift, forming long mid-ocean
ridges of volcanoes. Hot spots, or mantle plumes, are small regions
of the earth’s crust where magma rises in a thin stream to the surface,
as in Hawaii, or close to the surface, as in Yellowstone National Park.
Volcanic cones are classified by their composition into cinder cones,
shield volcanoes, and composite cones or stratovolcanoes.
Volcanology. Scientific study of volcanoes.
Voluntary migration. Movement of people who decide freely to move their
place of permanent residence. It results from pull factors at the cho-
sen destination, together with push factors in the home situation.

Wadi. Arabic word for a wash, or dry streambed.

Warm cloud. Visible suspension of tiny water droplets at temperatures
above freezing.
Warm front. See Front.
Warm temperate glacier. Glacier that is at the melting temperature
throughout.
Wash. Dry streambed, filled with alluvium, in an arid area. Arroyo is
the Spanish word for this feature.
Water cycle. Continuous movement of the water of the earth’s hydro-
sphere. Evaporation from the ocean is followed by condensation
into clouds, then precipitation. Runoff returns water to the ocean,
where it is again evaporated. Also called the hydrologic cycle.
Water gap. Low point in a ridge through which a stream flows. Gen-
erally, a water gap indicates uplift of the region while the stream has
continued to erode its bed.
Water power. Generally means the generation of electricity using the en-
ergy of falling water. Usually a dam is constructed on a river to pro-
vide the necessary height difference. The potential energy of the fall-
ing water is converted by a water turbine into mechanical energy. This
is used to power a generator, which produces electricity. Also called
hydroelectric power. Another form of water power is tidal power,
which uses the force of the incoming and outgoing tide as its source of
energy.
Water resources. All the surface water and groundwater that can be
effectively harvested by humans for domestic, industrial, or agricul-
tural uses.
Water table. The depth below the surface where the zone of aeration
meets the zone of saturation. Above the water table, there may be
some soil moisture, but most of the pore space is filled with air. Be-
low the water table, pore space of the rocks is occupied by water that
has percolated down through the overlying earth material. This water
 Glossary / 543

is called groundwater. In practice, the water table is rarely as flat as a

table, but curved, being far below the surface in some places and even
intersecting the surface in others. When groundwater emerges at
the surface, because it intersects the water table, this is called a spring.
The depth of the water table varies from season to season, and with
pumping of water from an aquifer.
Waterfall. Part of a stream where there is a steep, nearly perpendicular,
fall in the streambed. Waterfalls often form where there is resistant
rock in one part of the streambed and softer rock in the next section.
The softer rock is eroded more rapidly, leaving a rock ledge over which
the water then falls. Other waterfalls are caused by earthquake fault-
ing or by stream rejuvenation due to uplift. Over time, the edge of
the waterfall recedes because of erosion of the lip. Another term for a
waterfall is a knickpoint.

Oregon’s
Multnomah Falls.
(PhotoDisc)
544 / Glossary

Watershed. The whole surface area of land from which rainfall flows
downslope into a stream. The watershed comprises the streambed
or channel, together with the valley sides, extending up to the crest
or interfluve, which separates that watershed from its neighbor.
Each watershed is separated from the next by the drainage divide.
Also called a drainage basin.
Waterspout. Tornado that forms over water, or a tornado formed over
land which then moves over water. The typical funnel cloud, which
reaches down from a cumulonimbus cloud, is a narrow rotating
storm, with wind speeds reaching hundreds of miles per hour.
Wave. Moving swell on the surface of a body of water. In the deep ocean
are waves of oscillation (waves of transition), where the wave energy,
but not the water, is moving forward. The friction of winds blowing
over the surface of the ocean creates waves. As ocean waves approach
the shore and water becomes shallower, they change to waves of trans-
lation, in which the water and the energy both move toward the shore.
See also Breaker.
Wave crest. Top of a wave.
Wave-cut platform. As sea cliffs are eroded and worn back by wave at-
tack, a wave-cut platform is created at the base of the cliffs. Abrasion
by rock debris from the cliffs scours the platform further, as waves
wash to and fro and tides ebb and flow. The upper part of the wave-cut
platform is exposed at high tide. These areas contain rockpools, which
are rich in interesting marine life-forms. Offshore beyond the plat-
form, a wave-built terrace is formed by deposition.
Wave height. Vertical distance between one wave crest and the adjacent
wave trough.
Wave length. Distance between two successive wave crests or two succes-
sive wave troughs.
Wave trough. The low part of a wave, between two wave crests.
Weather. Day-to-day variations in atmospheric conditions, including tem-
perature, precipitation, humidity, cloud cover, winds or storms, and
atmospheric pressure conditions. Weather is constantly changing,
and scientists study it so as to make predictions or forecasts. Climate is
the long-term average of recorded weather data.
Weather analogue. Approach to weather forecasting that uses the
weather behavior of the past to predict what a current weather pat-
tern will do in the future.
Weather forecasting. Attempt to predict weather patterns by analysis of
current and past data.
Weathering. The change or breaking down of rock when it is exposed at
the earth’s surface. Physical weathering is the breaking down into
smaller pieces, or disintegration; chemical weathering is the pro-
cess of decomposition through chemical change. Weathering is a pre-
lude to erosion.
 Glossary / 545

Well. Artificial entry into the water table. Both farmers and cities sink
wells to tap groundwater.
Western Hemisphere. The half of the earth containing North and South
America; generally understood to fall between longitudes 160 de-
grees east and 20 degrees west.
Wetlands. Places where the ground is saturated with water, Specialized
vegetation, called hygrophytic plants, grows there. Wetlands are a
transition between aquatic ecosystems and terrestrial ecosystems.
Coastlines where deposition is occurring commonly have wetlands
in estuaries and infilled lagoons. These wetlands are classed as salt
marsh. Tropical coastal wetlands have mangrove swamps. There
can be wetlands with fresh water, as in peat bogs in northern lati-
tudes or backswamps on floodplains. Wetlands are rich biological
reservoirs but are greatly endangered by development.

Wetlands are places in which the ground is permanently saturated with water.
Wetlands form transitions between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. (Photo-
Disc)

White water. Turbulent and frothy portions of rapids; so called because

of the tendency of the water to form white foam.
Wilderness. Originally, a place where no humans lived, generally be-
cause of harsh conditions. In the second half of the twentieth century,
as roads were constructed into mountains and forests and off-road
vehicles became widely used for recreation, people came to see a need
for preservation of parts of the country that would only be accessible
on foot—wilderness areas. The Wilderness Act of 1964 defined “wil-
derness” as “a place that is not controlled by humans, where natural
 546 / Glossary

ecological processes operate freely and where its primeval character

and influences are retained; a place that is not occupied or modified
by mankind, where humans are visitors, and the imprint of their activ-
ity is largely unnoticeable; a place with outstanding opportunities for
the solitude necessary for a primitive and unconfined recreation expe-
rience.” Numerous areas have been set aside as wilderness areas in na-
tional parks, in national forests, and on land controlled by the Bu-
reau of Land Management. In the year 2000, there were forty-nine
national park wilderness areas in the United States.
Willy willy. Australian term for a dust devil. (Americans sometimes mis-
takenly believe it is an Australian term for hurricane.)
Wilson cycle. Creation and destruction of an ocean basin through the
process of seafloor spreading and subduction of existing ocean
basins.
Wind. Horizontal movement of air relative to the earth’s surface, caused
by differences in atmospheric pressure. These pressure differences
arise largely because of unequal heating of the earth’s surface by the
Sun’s rays. Winds play an important role in weather and climate.
Winds that blow predominantly from one direction are called prevail-
ing winds. Before the invention of steamships, sailing ships relied on
prevailing winds to cross oceans.
Wind energy. Power generated using the force of the wind. Windmills
have provided wind energy for centuries, generally to pump water or
grind grains. In the late twentieth century, concern about the use of
fossil fuels led to research into generating power through wind en-
ergy, which is a renewable and nonpolluting source of energy. Cali-
fornia has been a world leader in modern wind-generation technol-

This array of wind turbines at Altamont in Northern California is part of one of the largest arrays
of wind turbines in the United States. (PhotoDisc)
 Glossary / 547

ogy, with major wind farms located near Palm Springs. Although this is
a sustainable energy form, some people are opposed to the appear-
ance of fields of wind generators.
Wind gap. Abandoned water gap. The Appalachian Mountains contain
both wind gaps and water gaps.
Windbreak. Barrier constructed at right angles to the prevailing wind di-
rection to prevent damage to crops or to shelter buildings. Generally, a
row of trees or shrubs is planted to form a windbreak. The feature is
also called a shelter belt.
Windchill. Measurement of apparent temperature that quantifies the
effects of ambient wind and temperature on the rate of cooling of the
human body.
Windward. Front or exposed side of a mountain or range is the wind-
ward side. A rain shadow is usually located on the windward side of a
mountain range. Compare to leeward.
Winter solstice. Day on which winter begins; in the Northern Hemi-
sphere, about December 21, and in the Southern Hemisphere,
about June 21.
Woodlands. Vegetation communities in which the upper canopy is not
completely closed because the trees are more widely spaced than in a
forest. In the intervening spaces, shrubs and other groundcover
grow. Woodland is a response to drier conditions, where rainfall is
not sufficient for true forest to grow. Savanna woodland grades into
savanna grassland with increasing aridity.

Woodlands differ from forests in having upper canopies that are not completely closed to sun-
light because their trees are more widely spaced than those in forests. (PhotoDisc)
548 / Glossary

World Aeronautical Chart. International project undertaken to map the

entire world, begun during World War II.
World Bank. Bank providing developmental assistance in the form of fi-
nancial loans to client countries. The World Bank and the Interna-
tional Monetary Fund (IMF) were created after World War II, follow-
ing the Bretton Woods Conference of 1944. There were 160 members
of the World Bank in 2000.
World city. City in which an extremely large part of the world’s eco-
nomic, political, and cultural activity occurs. In the year 2000, the
three world cities were London, New York, and Tokyo.

Xenolith. Smaller piece of rock that has become embedded in an igne-

ous rock during its formation. It is a piece of older rock that was in-
corporated into the fluid magma.
Xeric. Description of soils in regions with a Mediterranean climate,
with moist cool winters and long, warm, dry summers. Since summer is
the time when most plants grow, the lack of soil moisture is a limiting
factor on plant growth in a xeric environment.
Xerophytic plants. Plants adapted to arid conditions with low precipita-
tion. Adaptations include storage of moisture in tissue, as with cactus
plants; long taproots reaching down to the water table, as with
desert shrubs; or tiny leaves that restrict transpiration.

Yardangs. Small landforms produced by wind erosion. They are a se-

ries of sharp ridges, aligned in the direction of the wind.
Yazoo stream. Tributary that flows parallel to the main stream across
the floodplain for a considerable distance before joining that stream.
This occurs because the main stream has built up natural levees
through flooding, and because relief is low on the floodplain. The
yazoo stream flows in a low-lying wet area called backswamps. Named
after the Yazoo River, a tributary of the Mississippi.

Zero population growth. Phenomenon that occurs when the number of

deaths plus emigration is matched by the number of births plus immi-
gration. Some European countries have reached zero population
growth.
Zone of ablation. See Ablation, zone of.
Zone of accumulation. See Accumulation, zone of.
Zone of aeration. See Aeration, zone of.
Zone of saturation. See Saturation, zone of.
Zoning. Land-management tool used to limit uses and define conditions
and extent of use.
This page intentionally left blank
 Bibliography / 551

The Nature of Geography

Harley, J. B., and David Woodward, eds. The History of Cartography: Cartog-
raphy in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies. Vol. 2, book 1.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992. Offers a critical look at
maps, mapping, and mapmakers in the Islamic world and South Asia.
_______, eds. The History of Cartography: Cartography in the Traditional East
and Southeast Asian Societies. Vol. 2, book 2. Chicago: University of Chi-
cago Press, 1994. Similar in thrust and breadth to volume 2, book 1.
Woodward, David, et al., eds. The History of Cartography: Cartography in the
Traditional African, American, Arctic, Australian, and Pacific Societies.
Vol. 2, book 3. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Investigates
the roles that maps have played in the wayfinding, politics, and reli-
gions of diverse societies such as those in the Andes, the Trobriand Is-
landers of Papua-New Guinea, the Luba of central Africa, and the
Mixtecs of Central America.
Woodward, David, and J. B. Harley, eds. The History of Cartography: Cartog-
raphy in Prehistoric, Ancient and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean.
Vol. 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. Critical look at early
European and Mediterranean mapmaking.

Physical Geography
Lutgens, Frederick K., and Edward J. Tarbuck. Foundations of Earth Science.
Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1998. Undergraduate text for
an introductory course in earth science, consisting of seven units cov-
ering basic principles in geology, oceanography, meteorology, and as-
tronomy, for those with little background in science.
McKnight, Tom. Physical Geography: A Landscape Appreciation. 6th ed. New
York: Prentice Hall, 2000. Now classic college textbook that has be-
come popular because of its illustrations, clarity, and wit. Comes with a
CD-ROM that takes readers on virtual-reality field trips.
Robinson, Andrew. Earth Shock: Climate Complexity and the Force of Nature.
New York: W. W. Norton, 1993. Describes, illustrates, and analyzes the
forces of nature responsible for earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes,
floods, glaciers, deserts, and drought. Also recounts how humans have
perceived their relationship with these phenomena throughout history.
Strahler, Alan, and Arthur Strahler. Physical Geography. 2d ed. New York:
Wiley, 2001. A popular introductory physical geography textbook con-
taining a readable account of the world’s climates.
Weigel, Marlene. UxL Encyclopedia of Biomes. Farmington Hills, Mich.:
Gale Group, 1999. This three-volume set should meet the needs of sev-
enth grade classes for research. Covers all biomes such as the forest,
grasslands, and desert. Each biome includes sections on development
of that particular biome, type, and climate, geography, and plant and
animal life.
552 / Bibliography

Human Geography
Erickson, Jon. The Human Volcano: Population Growth as Geologic Force. New
York: Facts on File, 1995. Reveals the geographic effects of overpopula-
tion on planetary resources such as wildlife habitats, food availability,
climatic conditions, and agriculture. It discusses the human impact on
the Earth’s natural cycles and introduces the concept of carrying ca-
pacity.
Glantz, Michael H. Currents of Change: El Niño’s Impact on Climate and Soci-
ety. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Aids readers in un-
derstanding the complexities of the earth’s weather pattern, how it re-
lates to El Niño, and the impact upon people around the globe.
Hunter, Malcolm L., Jr. Fundamentals of Conservation Biology. 2d ed. Mal-
den, Mass.: Blackwell Science, 2002. Introduces and explains the con-
cept of conservation biology and the applied science of maintaining
the earth’s biological diversity. Addresses social, political, and eco-
nomic issues in a manner that can be readily understood by people
outside of the field who are concerned about the future of Earth and
its inhabitants.
Novaresio, Paolo. The Explorers: From the Ancient World to the Present. New
York: Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 1996. Describes amazing journeys
and exhilarating discoveries from the earliest days of seafaring to the
first landing on the moon and beyond.
Reid, T. R. “Feeding the Planet.” National Geographic 194, no. 4 (October,
1998): 56-75. So far, global food production has kept pace with a bur-
geoning population. Maintaining that balance and finding ways to
share Earth’s bounty are critical challenges.

Economic Geography
Chandler, Gary, and Kevin Graham. Alternative Energy Sources. Breckin-
ridge, Colo.: Twenty First Century Books, 1996. Geared for young
adults, this volume focuses on the types of resources that will not dam-
age the environment.
Esping-Andersen, Gosta. Social Foundations of Postindustrial Economies.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Examines such topics as
social risks and welfare states, the structural bases of postindustrial em-
ployment, and recasting welfare regimes for a postindustrial era.
Prevost, P., and P. Le Gloru. Fundamentals of Modern Agriculture. Enfield,
N.H.: Science Publishers, 1997. Includes chapters entitled “Present-
day Agriculture,” “The Agricultural Farm: A Global Approach,” “A
Cultivated Plant,” and “Post-harvest Technology.”
Robertson, Noel, and Kenneth Blaxter. From Dearth to Plenty: The Modern
Revolution in Food Production. New York: Cambridge University Press,
1995. Tells a story of scientific discovery and its exploitation for tech-
nological advance in agriculture. It encapsulates the history of an im-
portant period, 1936-86, when government policy sought to aid the
 Bibliography / 553

competitiveness of the agricultural industry through fiscal measures

and by encouraging scientific and technical innovation.

Regional Geography
Biger, Gideon, ed. The Encyclopedia of International Boundaries. New York:
Facts on File, 1995. Entries for approximately two hundred countries
are arranged alphabetically, each beginning with introductory infor-
mation describing demographics, political structure, and political and
cultural history. The boundaries of each state are then described with
details of the geographical setting, historical background, and present
political situation, including unresolved claims and disputes.

North America and Caribbean Region

Physical Geography
Jones, David. North American Wildlife. Portland, Ore.: Graphic Arts Center,
1999. Stunning look at the continent’s most amazing creatures, from
the vast herds of caribou that roam the Arctic tundra to the reptiles
that inhabit Florida’s wetlands.
Kricher, John G. Forests. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996. Describes and
illustrates the fifty different kinds of forest and related habitats found
throughout the United States and Canada, from the boreal forest and
tundra of the north to the mangrove swamps, desert scrub, and giant
saguaro forests of the southwest.
Maingot, Anthony P. The United States and the Caribbean: Challenges of an
Asymmetrical Relationship. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1994. Ex-
plores the complex interdependence between the small Caribbean
states and the United States and looks at their changing relationships
throughout history.
Maul, George A., ed. Climatic Change in the Intra-Americas Sea: Implications of
Future Climate on the Structure. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1995. Ex-
pert and comprehensive account of the implications that global warm-
ing and sea level rise will have on the ecosystems and socioeconomic
structure in the marine and coastal regions of the Caribbean, Gulf of
Mexico, Bahamas, Bermuda, and the northeast coast of South America.
Miller, Ralph L. et al., eds. Energy and Mineral Potential of the Central Ameri-
can-Caribbean Region. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1995. Presents studies
that examine in detail the energy and mineral resources of Central
America and the Caribbean.
Sealey, Neil E. Caribbean World: A Complete Geography. London: Macmillan
Caribbean, 1992. Provides comprehensive explanations of the natural
and human factors that affect the region, from geological and climato-
logical phenomena to population growth.
554 / Bibliography

Wemert, Susan J. North American Wildlife: An Illustrated Guide to 2,000

Plants and Animals. Pleasantville, N.Y.: Reader’s Digest Association,
1998. Spans the land from Florida to the Northwest Territories and
embraces fields, forests, ponds, and prairies and includes more than
two thousand plants and animals of all types.

Human Geography
Bean, Frank D., et al., eds. At the Crossroads: Mexican Migration and U.S. Pol-
icy. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1997. Comprehensive col-
lection of chapters such as “Mexico and U.S. Worldwide Immigration
Policy,” “Mexican Immigration and the U.S. Population,” and “Fiscal
Impacts of Mexican Migration to the United States.”
Castaneda, Jorge G. The Mexican Shock: Its Meaning for the United States.
New York: New Press, 1995. Provides a vision of the meaning of devel-
opments for the future such as NAFTA and California’s “Proposition
187” on immigration, the collapse of the peso and the subsequent U.S.
bailout, the uprising in Chiapas, and the unresolved assassination of
Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio.
Collier, Christopher, and James Lincoln Collier. Hispanic America, Texas,
and the Mexican War 1835-1850. Tarrytown, N.Y.: Marshall Cavendish,
1998. Examines the settlement of the area that became the southwest-
ern portion of the United States, detailing how it evolved from land
settled by Native Americans, to Spanish territory, to states that were
pawns between the North and the South prior to the Civil War.
Monge, Jose Trias. Puerto Rico: The Trials of the Oldest Colony in the World.
New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1999. The island of Puerto
Rico has a severely distressed economy, is one of the most densely pop-
ulated places on earth, and enjoys only limited political freedom. In
this book a distinguished Puerto Rican legal scholar and former gov-
ernment official discusses the island’s century-old relationship with
the United States and argues that the process of decolonization should
begin immediately.
Needler, Martin C. Mexican Politics. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1995. Ex-
amines the postrevolutionary Mexican political system and the politi-
cal and economic influences that are transforming it.
Patterson, Thomas G. Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of
the Cuban Revolution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Story of
Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista’s fall, Castro’s triumph, and the roots
of Cuban-American enmity lays bare the failures of U.S. policy.
Salutin, Rick. 1837: William Lyon MacKenzie and the Canadian Revolution.
Toronto: Theatre Communications Group (Playwrights Canada Press),
1998. Lively, humorous, and ultimately tragic look at Canada’s ill-
starred revolution for national independence.
Smith, David E. The Invisible Crown: The First Principle of Canadian Govern-
ment. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1995. Presents a perspec-
 Bibliography / 555

tive on the Crown in Canadian politics as a structuring principle of

government. He traces Canada’s distinctive form of federalism—with
highly autonomous provinces—to the influence of the Crown, going
so far as to characterize Canadian government as a system of com-
pound monarchies.
Stephens, Sonya, and Richard Steckel. A Population History of North America.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Describes the peopling
of North America by the various immigrant groups, the demograph-
ics, each group’s percentage of the population, and their subsequent
role in society.

Economic Geography
Ayala, Cesar J. American Sugar Kingdom: The Plantation Economy of the Span-
ish Caribbean, 1898û1934. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina
Press, 1999. Focuses on the development of plantation economies in
Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic in the early twentieth
century. It focuses on how closely the development of the Spanish Ca-
ribbean’s modern economic and social class systems is linked to the
history of the U.S. sugar industry during its greatest period of expan-
sion and consolidation.
Cremeans, Jack E., ed. Handbook of North American Industry. 2d ed. Lan-
ham, Md.: Bernan Associates, 1999. Presents narrative articles and
comparative statistical data on the economies of the three member
states of NAFTA: the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
Pillsbury, Richard, and John Florin. Atlas of American Agriculture: The Amer-
ican Cornucopia. New York: Macmillan Library Reference, 1996. The
first half discusses twelve agricultural regions (including brief sections
on Alaska and Hawaii). The second covers twenty-four specific crops,
from aquaculture to wheat.

Regional Geography
Fisher, Ron M., and William R. Gray, eds. Heartland of a Continent: Amer-
ica’s Plains and Prairies. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Soci-
ety, 1994. More than a hundred photographs capture the sweep and
the space of America’s central grasslands in this witty, touching look at
the plains, the prairies, and the people of the continent’s heartland.
Gore, Rick. “Cascadia.” National Geographic 193, no. 5 (May, 1998): 6-37.
This article looks at the physical forces and geology of the Pacific
Northwest, especially the Cascade Mountain country.
Homberger, Eric. The Penguin Historical Atlas of North America. New York:
Penguin USA, 1995. Examines the history of North America’s three
principal nations, the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, from their colonial ori-
gins to the formation of the North American Free Trade Association.
The survey follows the rise of the U.S. to superpower status and assesses
the relation of the three nations as a whole to the rest of the world.
556 / Bibliography

Parfait, Michael. “Mexico, A Special Issue.” National Geographic 190, no. 2

(August, 1996): 2-131. This entire issue is dedicated to Mexico. The ti-
tles of the articles are “Emerging Mexico,” “Mexico City,” “Sierra
Madre,” “Monterrey,” “Veracruz,” “Heartland and the Pacific,” “Ti-
juana and the Border,” “Yucatán Peninsula,” and “Chiapas.”

South America and Central America

Physical Geography
Georges, D. V. South America. Danbury, Conn.: Children’s Press, 1986. Dis-
cusses characteristics of various sections of South America such as the
Andes, the Amazon rain forest, and the pampas.
Matthews, Down, and Kevin Schaefer. Beneath the Canopy: Wildlife of the
Latin American Rain Forest. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1999.
Kevin Schaefer’s photographs offer a rare, up-close look at the beauti-
ful and elusive creatures that make their home in this natural para-
dise—from its leafy shadows to the forest canopy. Captions and text by
nature writer Matthews give further insight into the lives of these amaz-
ing animals.

Human Geography
Early, Edwin, et al., eds. The History Atlas of South America. Foster City, Calif.:
IDG Books Worldwide, 1998. Describes South America’s history, which
is a rich tapestry of complex ancient civilizations, colonial clashes, and
modern growth, economic challenges, and cultural vibrancy.
Kelly, Philip. Checkerboards and Shatterbelts: The Geopolitics of South America.
Austin: University of Texas Press, 1997. Uses the geographical con-
cepts of “checkerboards” and “shatterbelts” to characterize much of
South America’s geopolitics and to explain why the continent has
never been unified or dominated by a single nation.
Levine, Robert M., and John J. Crocitti, eds. The Brazil Reader: History, Cul-
ture, Politics. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1999. Selections
range from early colonization to the present day, with sections on im-
perial and republican Brazil, the days of slavery, the Vargas years, and
the more recent return to democracy.
Levinson, David, ed. The Encyclopedia of World Culture, Vol. 7: South America.
Indianapolis, Ind.: Macmillan, 1994. Addresses the diverse cultures of
South America south of Panama, with an emphasis on the American
Indian cultures, although the African-American culture and the Euro-
pean and Asian immigrant cultures are also covered. Linguistics, his-
torical and cultural relations, economy, kinship, marriage, sociopoliti-
cal organizations, and religious beliefs are among the topics discussed
for each culture.
 Bibliography / 557

Webster, Donovan. “Orinoco River” National Geographic 193, no. 4 (April,

1998): 2-31. Examination of the Orinoco River Basin in the Amazo-
nian portion of Venezuela. The article focuses on the fauna, flora, and
the Yanomani, Yekwana, and Piaroa tribes and “tropical cowboys.”

Economic Geography
Biondi-Morra, Brizio. Hungry Dreams: The Failure of Food Policy in Revolu-
tionary Nicaragua. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1993. Exam-
ines how food policy was formulated in Nicaragua and the effects on
foreign exchange, food prices, and the relationship to wages and
credit.
Wilken, Gene C. Good Farmers: Traditional Agriculture Resource Management
in Mexico and Central America. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California
Press, 1987. Focusing on the farming practices of Mexico and Central
America, this book examines in detail the effectiveness of sophisti-
cated traditional methods of soil, water, climate, slope, and space man-
agement that rely primarily on human and animal power.

Regional Geography
Edwards, Mike. “El Salvador.” National Geographic 188, no. 3 (September,
1995): 108-131. An overview of present-day El Salvador and how it has
recovered from the internal strife of years past.
Egan, E. W. Argentina in Pictures. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publica-
tions, 1994. Introduction to the geography, history, government, peo-
ple, and economy of the second largest South American country.
Gheerbrandt, Alain. The Amazon: Past, Present and Future. New York: Harry
N. Abrams, 1992. Presents the past, present, and uncertain future of
the Amazon rain forest and its inhabitants. It includes spectacular il-
lustrations and a section of historical documents.
Haverstock, Nathan A. Uruguay in Pictures. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner,
1987. Introduces the land, history, government, people, and economy
of a small South American country.
McCarry, John. “Suriname.” National Geographic 197, no. 6 (June, 2000):
38-55. An overview of Suriname, which is home to a spectrum of na-
tive, Asian, African, and European cultures struggling to build a com-
mon future.
Putman, John J. “Cuba.” National Geographic 195, no. 6 (June, 1999): 2-35.
Cuba’s revolution ages, perhaps mellows, but keeps its grip on this is-
land nation. There is recognition, however, of the growing power of
the U.S. dollar in Cuba.
Sumwait, Martha Murray. Ecuador in Pictures. Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner
Publications, 1987. Text and photographs introduce the geography,
history, economy, culture, and people of the South American country
whose name derives from the equator.
558 / Bibliography

Africa

Physical Geography
Chadwick, Douglas H. “Elephants—Out of Time, Out of Space.” National
Geographic 179, no. 5 (May, 1991): 2-49. An extensive article that does a
thorough survey of elephants and their problems. It includes statistics
on elephant populations in every African and Asian country in 1989.
Conniff, Richard. “Africa’s Wild Dogs.” National Geographic 195, no. 5
(May, 1999): 36-63. These parti-color canines, one of Africa’s most en-
dangered species, are not as well known as lions or leopards but dem-
onstrate fascinating social behavior. The narration follows a number
of packs of dogs the authors studied for several years in the Okavango
Delta region of Botswana.
Disilvestro, Roger L., ed. The African Elephant: Twilight in Eden. New York:
John Wiley & Sons, 1991. Discusses elephant evolution and biology,
modern ivory poaching and trade, recent conservation efforts, and fi-
nally the problems that elephants face today.
Estes, Richard Despard. The Behavior Guide to African Mammals: Including
Hoofed Mammals, Carnivores, Primates. Berkeley: University of Califor-
nia Press, 1991. Describes and explains the behavior of four major
groups of mammals.
James, Valentine Udoh. Africa’s Ecology: Sustaining the Biological and Envi-
ronmental Diversity of a Continent. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1993.
Case studies and photographs document the effects of a growing de-
mand for consumer goods. They consider parks and reserves, forests,
savannas, deserts, and water resources; the impact of tourism, agricul-
ture, and other activities; and the role of women in protecting re-
sources.
Karekezi, Stephen, and Timothy Ranja. Renewable Energy Technologies in Af-
rica. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1997. Sums up the whole of Eastern
Africa (including the Horn) and Southern Africa (including South Af-
rica itself) with regard to what is known about the innovations and de-
ployment of renewable energy technologies in the regions.
Linden, Eugene. “Bonobos, Chimpanzees With a Difference.” National
Geographic 181, no. 2 (March, 1992): 46-53. A short study of a separate
species in the Congo (Zaire) which some say is our closest relative
among all of the primates.
Harcourt, Caroline S., and Jeffrey A. Sayer. The Conservation Atlas of Tropi-
cal Forests: Africa. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1992. Part 1
of this volume presents an overview of Africa’s tropical forests. Topics
discussed include history; biological diversity; effects of population,
agriculture, and the timber trade; forest management and conserva-
tion; and comments concerning the future. Twenty-two chapters in
Part 2 deal with individual African countries or a small group of re-
lated countries.
 Bibliography / 559

Steentoft, Margaret. Flowering Plants in West Africa. New York: Cambridge

University Press, 1988. Professor Steentoft provides an account of
the flowering plant flora of West Africa south of the Sahara (Gambia-
Nigeria inclusive) with the emphasis upon species of ecological or eco-
nomic importance.

Human Geography
Attah-Poku, Agyemang. African Ethnicity: History, Conflict Management, Res-
olution, and Prevention. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America,
1997. Has chapters with titles such as “Ethnic History and Composi-
tion,” and “Role of Ethnicity in the Past.” It also discusses a number of
instances of ethnic skirmishes and conflicts in Africa.
Beckwith, Carol, Angela Fisher, and Graham Hancock. African Ark: People
and Ancient Cultures of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. New York: Harry
N. Abrams, 1990. Photographers Beckwith and Fisher captured the ex-
otic and natural beauty of the people of Ethiopia and the surrounding
area. Hancock covers the history back to the early pre-Christian era.
Haskins, James, Jim Haskins, and Joann Biondi. From Afar to Zulu: A Dictio-
nary of African Cultures. New York: Walker, 1998. Introduction to Afri-
can cultures, describing the history, traditions, social structure, and
daily life of some thirty ethnic groups. It also lists languages, popula-
tions, primary foods, and includes a section on Africa’s lost cultures.
Legum, Colin. Africa Since Independence. Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 1999. Assesses Africa’s experience since independence and of-
fers predictions about the continent’s future. It examines Africa’s
struggle for democracy, mounting economic problems, and AIDS.
Roberts, David. “Mali’s Dogon People.” National Geographic 178, no. 4
(October, 1990): 100-127. An excellent pictorial essay on the cliff-
dwelling Dogon of eastern Mali, who are world-renowned for their
wooden carvings and dance masks.
Stone, Martin. The Agony of Algeria. New York: Columbia University Press,
1997. Examines Algeria’s history, from the founding of the Berber
kingdoms, 130 years of French rule, and the devastating war for inde-
pendence gained in 1962 to the present. It makes intelligible the cur-
rent crisis tearing at the fabric of the country’s society, while offering
an analysis of the social, economic, and political challenges ahead.

Economic Geography
Byerlee, Derek. Africa’s Emerging Maize Revolution. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne
Rienner, 1997. Includes chapters on such topics as Africa’s food crisis,
Zimbabwe’s emerging maize revolution, maize technology and pro-
ductivity in Malawi, and maize productivity in Nigeria.
Fratkin, Elliot. Ariaal Pastoralists of Kenya: Surviving Drought and Develop-
ment in Africa’s Arid Lands. Needham Heights, Mass.: Allyn and Bacon,
1997. Presents the story of how one society of livestock herders in
560 / Bibliography

northern Kenya have adapted to and survived both natural and human-
induced disasters of recent times, including drought and famine.
Mortimore, Michael. Roots in the African Dust: Sustaining the Sub-Saharan
Drylands. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Based on stud-
ies from East and West Africa, this study rejects the notion of runaway
desertification driven by population growth and inappropriate land
use and proposes solutions.

Regional Geography
Zich, Arthur. “Modern Botswana, The Adopted Land.” National Geo-
graphic 178, no. 6 (December, 1990): 70-97. An account of conditions
in Botswana, including its democracy, current economy, its trade in di-
amonds and beef, and the Okavango Delta and its wildlife.
Zwingle, Erla. “Morocco.” National Geographic 190, no. 4 (October, 1996):
98-125. Overview of modern Morocco, its history, its current economic
conditions, and, in particular, its Berber people and their culture.

Europe

Physical Geography
Blake, S. F., and Alice C. Atwood. Geographical Guide to Floras of the World:
Western Europe. Port Jervis, N.Y.: Lubrecht and Cramer, 1974. Extensive
guide to the floras of areas such as Scandinavia, the Low Countries, the
British Isles, Iberia, France, Italy, and the Netherlands.
Kuusia, K. Forest Resources in Europe. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1995. Provides a detailed country-by-country account of the in-
crease in forest resources in Europe over the past forty years and what
needs to be done to preserve the sustainability and biodiversity of Eu-
rope’s forest ecosystems.

Human Geography
Germek, Bronislaw. The Common Roots of Europe. Translated by S. Mitchell
and R. Hunt. Oxford, England: Polity Press, 1997. Discusses unity, vari-
ety, and collective identity in medieval Europe, social and economic
structures in East and West, and the continuity and change in Euro-
pean identity in the intervening centuries.
Haudry, Jean. The Indo-Europeans. Washington, D.C.: Scott-Townsend,
1998. Study of the roots of the Indo-European peoples emphasizing
Europe, their migrations, and evolution into the present day.
Kiernan, Victor. Lords of Human Kind: European Attitudes to Other Cultures in
the Imperial Age. London: Serif and Pixel Press, 1996. Using a great array
of sources—missionaries’ memoirs, the letters of diplomats’ wives, ex-
plorers’ diaries, and the work of writers as diverse as Voltaire, William
 Bibliography / 561

Makepeace Thackeray, Oliver Goldsmith and Rudyard Kipling—the

author searches the full range of European attitudes to other peoples.
Unwin, Tim. A European Geography. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1998.
Chapters in this volume cover a wide swath of Europe such as the peo-
pling of Europe, the Celts, the peopling of Finland, European lan-
guages, religious dimensions of Europeans, and cultural landscapes.

Economic Geography
Grant, Wyn. The Common Agricultural Policy. New York: St. Martin’s Press,
1997. Examines the European Common Agricultural Policy and its im-
pact on trade between the United States and Europe. This study ar-
gues for a new set of objectives designed to deliver effective agricul-
tural production at an acceptable cost and attuned to the growing
concerns of citizens about food quality.
Holden, Mike J., and David Garrod. The Common Fisheries Policy. Williston,
Vt.: Blackwell, 1996. Focuses on the conservation policy because it
generated the most controversy, which continues to intensify even as
fish stocks deteriorate. For many the conservation policy is the Com-
mon Fisheries Policy, apparently a disastrous failure.
Laux, James Michael. The European Automobile Industry. Indianapolis, Ind.:
Macmillan, 1992. Looks at motor vehicle manufacturing on the Conti-
nent from 1890 to the present, paying particular attention to the post-
war spurt of growth that established which of Europe’s various auto-
makers would prevail. He examines how European factory owners
emulated American success in production and sales between the wars,
how the postwar market boom chipped away at American dominance
of the industry, and how Japanese models in turn began to cut into the
world market in the 1980’s.

Regional geography
Belt, Don. “Sweden.” National Geographic 184, no. 2 (August, 1993): 2-35.
Overview of modern Sweden, its culture and how it relates to the
world, especially its closest neighbors, Denmark, Finland, and Norway.
Coniff, Richard. “Ireland.” National Geographic 186, no. 3 (September,
1994): 2-36. An overview of present-day Ireland. Economic conditions
have improved since manufacturing surpassed farming in the island
nation.
Keillor, Garrison. “Civilized Denmark.” National Geographic 194, no. 1 (July,
1998): 50-73. An overview of present-day Denmark and its society.
Vulliamy, Ed. “Romania’s New Day.” National Geographic 194, no. 3 (Sep-
tember, 1998): 35-59. An overview of Romania and its postcommunist
society and the changes that are occurring.
Ward, Andrew. “Scotland.” National Geographic 190, no. 3 (September,
1996): 2-27. Overview of modern Scotland, its history, and its current
yearning for independence from England and the United Kingdom.
562 / Bibliography

Asia

Physical Geography
Hornocker, Maurice. “Siberian Tigers.” National Geographic 191, no. 2
(February, 1997): 100-109. Only a few hundred survive in the wild.
While zoos work to maintain the animal’s genetic diversity, Russian
and American scientists are pooling their efforts in the fight to save
this magnificent creature from extinction. This article outlines the
struggle, which includes the effects of poaching and habitat destruc-
tion.
Hutchison, Charles S. Southeast Asian Oil, Gas, Coal and Mineral Deposits.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Includes chapters on topics
such as the oil and gas basins of Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philip-
pines, and coal, iron ore, tungsten, and tin deposits.
Knott, Cheryl. “Orangutans.” National Geographic 194, no. 2 (August,
1998): 30-57. A study of a family of orangutans in Gunung Palung Na-
tional Park near the west coast of Borneo.
Laidler, Liz, and Keith Laidler. China’s Threatened Wildlife. Poole, Dorset,
England: Blandford Press, 1999. This profiles twenty of China’s more
attention-getting endangered species: sixteen mammals, two birds,
the giant salamander, and the Chinese alligator. It opens with a chap-
ter describing China’s eight distinct vegetation zones, ranging from
tropical rainforest to alpine.
Moullade, Michel, and A. E. M. Naim. Phanerozoic Geology of the World. New
York: Elsevier Science, 1991. Has chapters with titles such as “Southern
Africa,” “India,” “Pakistan,” “Late Precambrian and Paleozoic Rocks of
Iran and Afghanistan,” and “China.”
Pant, Govind B., and Rupa K. Kumar. Climates of South Asia. New York:
John Wiley and Sons, 1997. Explores the climates of countries in
Southern Asia—India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhu-
tan, and a few island countries of the Indian Ocean—using charts, dia-
grams, and data.
Schaller, George B. Wildlife of the Tibetan Steppe. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1998. Provides a detailed look at the flora and fauna of
the Chang Tang, a remote Tibetan steppe. The plains ungulates are
the main focus, especially the Tibetan antelope.
Verma, R. K. Geodynamics of the Indian Peninsula and the Indian Margin. Rot-
terdam, Netherlands: A. A. Balkema, 1991. On the geological history
and evolution of the Indian Continental Shelf. Gravity fields, geology,
and tectonics, radioactivity and heat sources, seismicity, and geody-
namics of the Himalayas.
Ward, Geoffrey C. “Making Room for Wild Tigers.” National Geographic
192, no. 6 (December, 1997): 2-35. An analysis of the work being done
to accommodate all five subspecies of tigers in the increasingly densely
populated areas of Asia where the animal is found.
 Bibliography / 563

_______. “India’s Wildlife Dilemma.” National Geographic 181, no. 5 (May,

1992): 2-29. The key problem is that growing numbers of poverty-
stricken farmers compete for land with diverse wildlife species. This is
threatening the future of India’s unique natural heritage.
Wenshi, Pan. “New Hope for China’s Giant Pandas.” National Geographic
187, no. 2 (February, 1995): 100-115. Out of perhaps 1,200 pandas that
remain in China, about 230 live in the Qin Ling area in Shaanxi Prov-
ince in central China at elevations between 4,000 feet (1,200 meters)
and 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). This is a look at a small family of pan-
das in that area.

Human Geography
Kublin, Michael, and Hyman Kublin. India. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1991. Introduces the history and civilization of India. It includes a dis-
cussion of the problems facing Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Lardy, Nicholas R. Agriculture in China’s Modern Economic Development. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1984. Explores the relationship be-
tween the Chinese peasantry, who are the fundamental base of sup-
port for the revolutionary Chinese Communist Party, and the state-led
economic system established by the Party after 1949.
Schirokauer, Conrad. A Brief History of Chinese Civilization. Orlando, Fla.:
HBJ College & School Division, 1991. Includes considerable material
on the classical civilization of China, including Confucius, the Bud-
dhist period, and the peoples.
_______. A Brief History of Japanese Civilization. Orlando, Fla.: HBJ College
& School Division, 1993. Includes discussion of Shinto, samurai, the
aristocracy, and even the Mongol invasion.
Songoiao, Zhao. Geography of China: Environment, Resources, Population,
and Development. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1994. Using a system-
atic and regional approach, this volume offers a comprehensive depic-
tion of official population numbers, land and resource usage in the
face of sobering population increase, population problems including
ethnic structure and family planning, and a pattern of historical and
economic development over China’s long and interesting history.

Economic Geography
Gamaut, Rose Gregory, Guo Shutian, and Ma Guonon, eds. The Third Rev-
olution in the Chinese Countryside. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1995. First section covers the issues of poverty in China and feed-
ing the population. The second section describes the agricultural mar-
kets in China and the price reform of agricultural products. The next
two parts discuss international and regional issues of China’s agricul-
tural economy.
Kalirajan, Kail P., ed. Productivity and Growth in Chinese Agriculture. New
York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999. Gauges the impact of economic and in-
564 / Bibliography

stitutional reforms on agricultural productivity in China using the most

recent farm household survey data. Results demonstrate the dynamic
nature of Chinese farm households, particularly in relation to the
changing demands placed on agriculture, especially the grain sector.
Pecht, Michael G., Wang Yong Wen, and Jiang Jun Lu. The Electronics In-
dustry in China. Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, 1999. Documents the
technologies, capabilities, and infrastructure that has made China a
major player in the Asian electronics industry.
Van Der Eng, Pierre. Agricultural Growth in Indonesia Since 1880: Productiv-
ity Change and Policy Impact Since 1880. New York: St. Martin’s Press,
1996. Assesses long-term trends in agricultural production and pro-
ductivity in Indonesia since 1880, providing an inventory of agricul-
tural policies. It evaluates the impact of these policies on agricultural
production, especially production of the country’s main food and ex-
port crops. Appendices with statistics on prices, employment, live-
stock, and arable land.

Regional Geography
Allen, Thomas B. “Turkey.” National Geographic 185, no. 5 (May, 1994): 2-
35. Overview of modern Turkey including discussion of its history, roots
of the modern-day state, the legacy of Kemal Ataturk, and the tension
between Islamic Turkey, which exists in the countryside, and secular,
urban Turkey. There is some discussion of the Kurdish minority.
Cockburn, Andrew. “Yemen.” National Geographic 197, no. 4 (April, 2000):
30-53. An overview of modern Yemen, the land of the Queen of Sheba.
It shows that Yemen is a land where a very traditional Arab culture is
still dominant.
McCarry, John. “The Promise of Pakistan.” National Geographic 192, no. 4
(October, 1997): 49-73. An overview of modern Pakistan, its roots, cul-
tures, peoples, geography, agriculture, and its problems.
Reid, T. R. “Malaysia.” National Geographic 192, no. 2 (August, 1997): 100-
121. Overview of Malaysia, a mix of Muslim Malays, Buddhist Chinese,
and Hindus, and its more recent development.
Theroux, Peter. “Syria, Behind the Mask.” National Geographic 190, no. 1
(July, 1996): 106-131. An overview of modern Syria. It tends to focus on
the mellowing of the current regime and its reaching out to the West.
Vesilind, Prit J. “Sri Lanka.” National Geographic 191, no. 1 (January,
1997): 111-133. Overview of modern Sri Lanka including the strife
which exists between Hindu Tamils and the Buddhist Sinhalese.
Ward, Geoffrey C. “India.” National Geographic 191, no. 5 (May, 1997): 2-
57. Overview of modern India, its complexity, diverse peoples, large
population, its great poverty, and its many accomplishments.
Waterlow, Julia. China. New York: Bookwright Press, 1990. Introduction
to the geography, climate, schools, sports, food, recreation, and cul-
ture of China.
 Bibliography / 565

Australia, Pacific, and Antarctica

Physical Geography
Blainey, Geoffrey. Rush That Never Ended: A History of Australian Mining.
4th ed. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Press, 1993. Aus-
tralia is one of the world’s great sources of mineral treasure. The find-
ing and development of minerals, oil, and natural gas have influenced
Australian racial attitudes, unionism, religious life, law, and politics.
Conacher, Jeannette, and Arthur Conacher, eds. Rural Land Degradation
in Australia. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Examines the
degradation of Australia’s ecosystems, the problems associated with
the increasing use of synthetic chemicals, and the direct and underly-
ing causes of land degradation. It also looks at broader social and eco-
nomic implications, and places the nature of the overall problem in its
global context.
Darcavel, John. Fashioning Australia’s Forests. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1996. Weaves together the story of industrial development and
forest use with the slow acceptance of the case for forest conservancy.
Flannery, Tim F. Mammals of the Southwest Pacific and Moluccan Islands.
Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1995. Draws together the results
of his five-year field survey and literature review on the mammals of an
area extending from the islands just east of Sulawesi (Celebes, Indone-
sia) in the Moluccas, to the Cook Islands in the central South Pacific,
north to Micronesia, and south to New Zealand, but excluding New
Guinea.
Hodgson, Bryan. “Antarctica: A Land of Isolation No More.” National Geo-
graphic 177, no. 4 (April, 1990): 2-51. Examination of the scientific re-
search there and the controversies revolving around tourism, mineral
exploitation, and water and atmospheric pollution.
Kanze, Edward. Kangaroo Dreaming: An Australian Wildlife Odyssey. New
York: Random House, 2000. Detailed look, in the form of a travelogue,
at the fauna of Australia.
Mueller-Dombois, Dieter, and F. Raymond Fosberg. Vegetation of the Tropi-
cal Pacific Islands. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1998. Extensive survey of
the vegetation of the Pacific Islands, including the island of New
Guinea, with illustrations.
Smith, David. Water in Australia: Resources and Management. New York: Ox-
ford University Press, 1999. Outlines the nature of the resource, past
management practices, policy, and the outlook for the future.
Soper, Tony. Antarctica: A Guide to the Wildlife. Old Saybrook, Conn.: Globe
Pequot Press, 1997. The storm-tossed Southern Ocean and the inhos-
pitable landscape of Antarctica combine to form one of the last true
wildernesses on Earth. They are also home to vast numbers of animals,
from the tiny shrimp of the zooplankton to the penguins, albatrosses,
seals, and great whales for which this region is famed.
566 / Bibliography

Human Geography
Belich, James. Making Peoples: A History of the New Zealanders: From Polyne-
sian Settlement to the End of the Nineteenth Century. Honolulu: University
of Hawaii Press, 1997. Account of the active and dynamic Maori en-
gagement with the history of New Zealand both before and after Brit-
ish settlement.
Darien-Smith, Kate, and David Lowe. The Australian Outback and Its People.
Orlando, Fla.: Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 1995. The large, dry regions of
Australia, known as the outback, are introduced through brief, slight
discussions of their history, environment, inhabitants, and future. The
aboriginal culture and the European impact on it are explored at
greater length.
Lindstrom, Lamont, and Geoffrey M. White. Culture, Custom and Tradi-
tion: Cultural Policy in Melanesia. Suva, Fiji: Institute of Pacific Studies,
1994. Looks broadly at cultural development programs and policies in
three Melanesian countries: Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and
Vanuatu. With more than a thousand distinct linguistic-cultural groups,
Melanesia is the most culturally diverse area in the world. Local and
national attempts to protect and promote this rich concentration of
cultural traditions have produced some novel experiments in cultural
development.
New Politics in the South Pacific. Suva, Fiji: Institute of Pacific Studies, 1994.
Written almost entirely by Pacific Islanders, many of whom are active
in the political process, this volume examines the evolving impact of
women in politics, of electronic media, of sovereignty movements on
one hand and federation movements on the other. It also examines
the search for forms of political and constitutional association be-
tween small countries and large metropolitan powers that yield both
the dignity of independence and the security and diversity of belong-
ing to large systems.
Nile, Richard, and Christian Clerk. Australia, New Zealand, and the South
Pacific. New York: Facts on File, 1996. Taking migration as one of its
themes, this Atlas traces the great movements of people into this re-
gion from earliest times. It describes the complex societies and cul-
tures that evolved in the Pacific and explores the cultural differences
between the three major cultural areas, Melanesia, Micronesia, and
Polynesia. It also examines the founding myths that shaped Australia
and New Zealand’s emergent national identities and looks at the great
changes that have taken place since 1945.

Economic Geography
King, Michael G. Fisheries in the Economy of the South Pacific. Suva, Fiji: Insti-
tute of Pacific Studies, 1991. Describes resources, methods, and man-
agement of fisheries in the South Pacific.
May, Dawn. Aboriginal Labour and the Cattle Industry: Queensland from White
 Bibliography / 567

Settlement to the Present. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Uncovers the central role of Aboriginal labor in the Queensland cattle
industry from first contact to the present. It shows that the use of Ab-
original labor was a complex process involving a high degree of state
intervention.

Regional Geography
McKnight, Tom L. Oceania: The Geography of Australia, New Zealand and the
Pacific Islands. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1998. Intro-
duces the geography of the Pacific region in broad terms, then focuses
on Australia, blending in discussion of the industries, population, con-
temporary issues, and problems as they relate to geography. New Zea-
land’s land, people, and regions are discussed next, and the smaller is-
lands of the Pacific receive one chapter’s discussion.
Dana P. McDermott
This page intentionally left blank
Appendices
This page intentionally left blank
1. Regions of the World (Numbers are keyed to regional maps that follow.)

ARCTIC OCEAN

8
11 12
2 EUROPE 16
NORTH 7 9 10 14 ASIA
AMERICA
18
13 17
4 AT LANTIC
15 PACIFIC
OCEAN
3 6
OC EAN
AFRICA
PACIFIC
19
OCEAN
SOUTH INDIAN OCEAN 20
AMERICA

5
AUSTRALIA

SOUTHERN OCEAN

ANTARCTICA

571
 572

2. North America

Alaska

Yu
Te kon
r ri
tor
y
Nor Nunavut
t hw
est T
er r it
or ies

Br i
tish
Co
lum Ne
bia wf
Albe ou
rta CANADA n

dl
an
d
Manitoba
Saskat
chewan Quebec

Was Ontario Prince

hin gton Edward
New Island
Brunswick
Monta
Ore na
go n North Dako
ta Minnesota
Maine Nova Scotia
Idah Mi
o ch
Ottawa New Hampshire
ig

South Dako Wisconsin

an

Wyomin ta Vermont
Califor nia

g
New York Massachusetts
Nev
ad a Rhode Island
Nebraska Iowa
Utah Pennsylvania Connecticut

UNITE Indiana Ohio New Jersey

Illinois
Colora D STA TE S West Washington D.C.
do Virginia
Kansas Missouri Delaware
Virginia
Kentucky Maryland
Arizo
na
New M Oklahoma Tennessee North Carolina
ex ico
Arkansas South
Baja Carolina
ppi

California
issi

Alabama Georgia
Atlantic
iss

Sonora Texas
Lo

Pacific
ui

ia n Ocean
s

Chihuahua a F
lo

Ocean
r id

Coahuila
Baja
a

California Sur
MEXICO Gulf
Sinaloa Durango Nuevo
Leon
` of
Zacatecas
San Luis
Tamaulipas Mexico
Hawaii Nayarit 1 Potosi`
Jalisco 2
3
Mexico
6 City
4 `
Yucatan
Key to States Colima
Michoacan 5 7 Campeche
8 9 Veracruz
(shown by numbers on map) Tabasco Quintana Roo
Guerrero
1 Aguascalientes 6 Tlaxcala
2 Guanajuato 7 Distrito Federal Oaxaca
Chiapas Caribbean Sea
`
3 Queretaro 8 Morelos
4 Hidalgo 9 Puebla
5 Mexico
 573

3. Central America
Yucatán
Gulf CUBA
of
Mexico
JAMAICA
MEXICO
BELIZE
Belmopan

GUATEMALA
Quiche
Province Puerto Lempira

Quezaltenango HONDURAS
Tegucigalpa Caribbean Sea
Guatemala City

San Salvador
San
Miguel NICARAGUA
EL SALVADOR Managua
Bluefields
Lake
Pan American Nicaragua
Highway Rivas
Liberia
Pacific Puntarenas Panama
Canal
Ocean San Jose Colon
Cañita Lake
COSTA Bayano
Panama
RICA PANAMA City

COLOMBIA
Medellin

4. Caribbean
Florida
Tampa U.S.A.

Miami
Gulf of Nassau Atlantic Ocean
Mexico
Straits of Florida San Salvador
THE BAHAMAS
Havana
Yucatan CUBA TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS
Channel United
British States
DOMINICAN Virgin Virgin
MEXICO REPUBLIC Islands Islands
CAYMAN ISLANDS Guantanamo Bay HAITI Santo PUERTO San LE EWA RD
Domingo ISL
RICO Juan AN
S D
JAMAICA ST. MARTIN
Port-au-
Kingston Prince ANTIGUA AND
BELIZE NAVASSA ST. KITTS AND NEVIS BARBUDA
MONTSERRAT
GUADELOUPE
W
IN

DOMINICA
DW

HONDURAS MARTINIQUE
Caribbean Sea
ARD

ST. LUCIA
ARUBA NETHERLANDS ST. VINCENT AND
THE GRENADINES
ISL

EL NICARAGUA ANTILLES
SALVADOR GRENADA
AN

CURAÇAO BARBADOS
D

Caracas
S

COSTA Panama
RICA Canal TRINIDAD
AND
TOBAGO
PANAMA VENEZUELA
COLOMBIA
GUYANA
 574

5. South America

North
PANAMA GUYANA
VENEZUELA Atlantic
SURINAME
FRENCH Ocean
Medellin GUIANA
Bogotá
Cali
Galápagos
Islands COLOMBIA
Quito
i n
B a s
ECUADOR n Belem
z o
m a
A
A

PERU BRAZIL
N
D

Lima
E

Brasilia
S BOLIVIA
La Paz
Arica
M

South PA
O

R AG
Pacific UA Sao Paulo Rio de Janeiro
Y
U

Asuncion
Ocean
N

CHILE
T

ARGENTINA
A

Santiago
URUGUAY
I

Buenos Montevideo
Aires
South
N

Atlantic
S

Ocean

Falkland Islands
 575

6. Africa
SPAIN TURKEY
Melilla
Ceuta (Spain) ITALY
(Spain) TUNISIA GREECE
ains
unt
Mo Med
iterranean Sea
MOROCCO s
Canar y t la
A Cairo
Islands ALGERIA
LIBYA N

ile
WESTERN EGYPT Arabian
SAHARA S a

Re
Riv
h a Peninsula
r a

d
D e s e r t

e
r

Se a
MAURITANIA
MALI CHAD ERITREA
NIGER
SENEGAL Lake DJIBOUTI

Bl
Gambia N Chad SUDAN en

Nile
River BURKINA Ad

ue
ig

of
Gulf
er

FASO N
NIGERIA ile
Ri

GUINEA te
er R iver hi
v

B e n ue SOMALIA
ETHIOPIA

W
IVORY CENTRAL
ON
COAST AFRICAN
LIBERIA UGANDA
RO

REPUBLIC
of E
ulf CAM
G

SIERRA LEONE
G

RWANDA
ui

River KENYA
nea

Sao I n d i a n
GUINEA BISSAU Tome
go

GABON Lake
on

GAMBIA C Victoria O c e a n
GHANA CONGO BURUNDI
TOGO (Kinshasa) Zanzibar
Cabinda TANZANIA
BENIN (Angola) SEYCHELLES
EQUATORIAL GUINEA COMOROS
SÃO TOMÉ & PRINCIPÉ ANGOLA
CONGO (Brazzaville) ZAMBIA
Za m b e z i R
MALAWI
iv

ZIMBABWE
er
N

NAMIBIA MAURITIUS
am

MOZAMBIQUE
Limpop
ib

A t l a n t i c o
BOTSWANA MADAGASCAR
Des

Ri

Kalahari Desert
ve

O c e a n
ert

Johannesburg
Orange River
SWAZILAND
SOUTH
AFRICA LESOTHO
Cape Town
Cape of
Good Hope
 576

7. Western Europe

Micro States
1. Andorra
2. Liechtenstein
3. Monaco North
4. San Marino IRELAND Sea
5. Vatican City
GREAT
BRITAIN Hamburg
NETHERLANDS
Rotterdam
Leipzig
Atlantic l i s h C h a n n e l BELGIUM Bonn
Eng GERMANY
Ocean LUXEMBOURG Frankfurt
Paris Nurnberg
Nantes
Strasbourg Munich
AUSTRIA
FRANCE Zurich 2
Bay of SWITZERLAND
Geneva
Biscay Bordeaux Lyon Milano
Genova
Bayonne 4
Porto Valladolid 3
1 Marseille
PORTUGAL Corsica
Madrid 5
Barcelona ITALY
Lisbon SPAIN
Valencia Naples
Cordoba Sardinia
Balearic
Islands
Palermo
Mediter ranean Sea
Sicily
 577

8. Scandinavia

Arctic
Ocean

Reykjavik

a
Se
n
ICELAND

gia
we

ia
thn
r
No

Gulf of Bo
`
Torshavn FINLAND
SWEDEN

NORWAY Helsinki
Atlantic
Oslo Stockholm
Ocean North
Goteborg

Sea
Sea

DENMARK Copenhagen i c
t l
Ba

9. Mediterranean Europe
FRANCE
Atlantic
Ocean Bordeaux Lyon Milano
Genova k Sea
Bayonne Marseille Blac
Porto Firenze
Valladolid A
ITALY dr ia
PORTUGAL SPAIN Corsica tic
Barcelona Rome Se
Lisbon Valencia a Thessaloniki
Madrid Naples
Sardinia
Balearic Tyrrhenian GREECE Aegean
Cordoba Sea
Islands Sea Agrinion
Gibraltar
Sicily Ionian Athens
Sea Cyprus
Rhodes
Malta
Crete
Mediterranean Sea
 578

10. Balkan Nations

SLOVENIA
Zagreb Subotica
Ljubljana CROATIA
S a va

a
Banja Luka

S e
Belgrade e r
iv

Dr ina
BOSNIA-
HERZEGOVINA D a n u b e R
Zadar
Vrbas

k
Bosna
A
Sarajevo SERBIA Varna

a c
d Split
r BULGARIA
Kosovska Burgas

B l
i

Sofia
MONTENEGRO Mitrovica
a

M a r it s a R iv er
t

i
c Podgorica
S Skopje
in

e MACEDONIA
a Dr
Prilep
Tirane
ALBANIA
Vijo
se

Mediterranean Sea
 579

11. Central Europe

Baltic Sea

Gdansk

Poznan Warsaw
Lodz

POLAND

Krakow
CZECH REPUBLIC
Prague Brno
SLOVAKIA
Bratislava
Budapest
Cluj
HUNGARY
ROMANIA
Timisoara

Bucharest Black Sea

Adriatic
Sea
 580

12. Former Soviet European Nations

White
Sea

Perm
RUSSIA
Izevsk

St. Petersburg Jaroslavl Kazan

ESTONIA Gorkiy
Rostov
ea

Moscow Tol Yatti

c S

LATVIA
lti
Ba

LITHUANIA
Saratov
BELARUS Caspian
Voronez
Volgograd Sea
Kharkov
UKRAINE
Lviv Donetsk
Krivoy Rog
Frunze
MOLDOVA
Odessa Krasnodar

Black Sea
 581

13. Middle East

GEORGIA UZ
Black Sea Nukus BE
Istanbul Tiflis KI
Zonguldak ST
ARM A Z
E ER

AN
Ankara Yerevan B AI J AN

N
Bursa Baku

IA
TURKMENISTAN
Izmir TURKEY Caspian Ashkhabad
Tabriz Sea
Ardabil
Antalya Adana
Mosel Tehran Mashhad
Nicosia Aleppo
CYPRUS
SYRIA Bakhtaran
Herat
n Sea Beirut Baghdad
nea

AFG
ra LEBANON Damascus
i ter Esfahan IRAN
ed ISRAEL IRAQ

HA
M Tel Aviv Amman

N
ST

I
Kerman AN
Al Basrah
Cairo JORDAN Shiraz Zahedan
Beni Suef Kuwait PA K
Bam I

ST
El-Minya

Pe
KUWAIT rs

AN
ia Bandar Abbas
BAHRAIN n
Gulf
Al Manamah
EGYPT Ad Dawhah Gul
Riyadh Abu Zaby f of
Aswan QATAR Oma
Medina
Red U. A. E. Muscat n
Sea
SAUDI ARABIA OMAN
Mecca
Al Khaluf
Port Sudan

Arabian
Atbarah Sea
SUDAN Al Ghaydan
ERITREA Salalah
Sanaa
Khartoum
Asmara
YEMEN
Taizz Al Mukalla
den
Mekele
of A Indian
DJIBOUTI Gulf
Djibouti Ocean
ETHIOPIA
Dire
Dawa Berbera
Hargeysa SOMALIA
Addis
Abbaba
14. Caucasus and Former Soviet Republics of Central Asia

582
RUSSIA

Omsk

Rudnyy Atbasar Pavlodar

Aktyubinsk Semipalatinsk

Volgograd
KAZAKHSTAN
Guryev Balkhash
Aralsk
Lake
Aral Balkhash

C as
Sea Kzyl Orda
GEORGI A ia Shevchenko

p
n Frunze Almaty
Black Nukus UZ Chimkent
Poti Sea
Sea BE Turbat KYRGYZSTAN
A IJA N KI
ARMENIA AZER B ST
AN
Tashkent
Baku TAJIKISTAN
TURKEY TURKMENISTAN
Ashkhabad

Tehran CHINA
SYRIA Kabul
IRAQ
AFGHANISTAN
Baghdad IRAN Islamabad
Per

PAKISTAN NEP
an AL
si
S

KUWAIT New Delhi

Gul
A

f
U

D Ad
I BAHRAIN Dawhah Gu
lf o
fO Karachi INDIA
A QATAR ma
n
R U. A. E.
A
BI OMAN Arabian Sea
A
 583

15. South Asia

UZ AN
BE Tashkent ST
TUR KI GYZ
KM K YR

ST
EN
TAJIKISTAN

AN
Ashgabat
IS

CHINA
TA
N

N
ISTA
AN Kabul
H
A FG

Islamabad
NEPAL
IRAN
AN

BHUTAN
ST

New
KI Delhi
Kathmandu
PA

Dhaka
Muscat INDIA
OMAN MYANMAR
LAOS
Arabian Rangoon
BANGLADESH Vientiane
Sea
THAILAND
Bay of Bangkok

And a
Bengal
Se
am CAMBODIA
an

Colombo SRI
MALDIVES
LANKA MALAYSIA
Kuala Lumpur
IN
D
O

I n
N

d i
ES

a n
IA

O c e a n
SINGAPORE
 584

16. Mongolia and Asian Russia

Arctic Ocean

RUSSIA

Taian Jixi
Krasnojarsk Qiqihar
Irkutsk Harbin Pacific
Omsk
Novosibirsk Jilin Ocean

Fuxin
Ulaanbaatar Benxi Pyongyang
Qaraghandy
MONGOLIA Seoul
Beijing
Baotou Kaifeng
Xuzhou
Urumqi Yinchuan
 585

17. East Asia

RUSSIA

M
KAZAKHSTAN an
ch
uri
a
Ulaan baatar
MONGOLIA lia
go Jilin
on
KYRGYZSTAN M
Yining r

e
n
Pyongyang

In
Hami NORTH
Beijing KOREA
AFG.
Tianjin
Seoul
PAK. SOUTH
KOREA
CHINA Qingdao
Ye l l o w
Xi’an Sea
Nanjing
T
i Shanghai
b e t Chengdu
NE Lhasa Wenzhon East
PA China
L Nanchang
BHUTAN Sea
Taipei
INDIA Guangzhou
BANGLADESH TAIWAN
(Canton)
Nanning
Hong Kong

VIETNAM Macao
MYANMAR Haikou
Bay of LAOS
Bengal South
China Sea
THAILAND PHILIPPINES
 586

18. Japan

Kuril
Islands

CHINA RUSSIA
HOKKAIDO
Sapporo

NORTH
KOREA
Sea of

Japan North
Pacific
J A PA N Ocean
SOUTH HONSHU
KOREA Kyoto Tokyo
Nagoya
Kobe
Hiroshima
Yokohama
Osaka
SHIKOKU
Nagasaki
KYUSHU
East
China
Sea
s

d
an
Isl
u
ky
u
Ry

Okinawa
 587

19. Southeast Asia

BHUTAN East
CHINA
INDIA China
BANGLADESH Sea
Dhaka
TAIWAN P a c i f i c
Hanoi Hong Kong
MYANMAR
AO
L

S South O c e a n
Rangoon V
Vientiane
IE
China Sea
TN
Bangkok P
THAILAND Manila
AM

H
Phnom

IL
Penh

IPP
And a

INES
Bay of
Se
am
an

Bengal CAMBODIA
BRUNEI
Kuala
Lumpur M ALAYS
IA

SINGAPORE
PAPUA
IND NEW GUINEA
ONES
IA EAST TIMOR
Jakarta
Indian
Dili AUSTRALIA Port Moresby
Ocean

20. South Pacific And Australasia

C HAWAIIAN
I R O ISLANDS
MEXICO CUBA
M N
PH

E P
S
IL

Philippine SAIPAN Caribbean Sea

O
IPPI

MARSHALL I
S e a GUAM FEDER A
OF M TED S ISLANDS A L
NES

ICR
PALAU ON TATE
ESI S
A COLOMBIA
GALAPAGOS
Y

NAURU E Q U A T O R ISLANDS
PAPUA K
N

NEW SO I R
I B A T I
GUINEA ISL LOM ECUADOR
I N D O N E SI A AN O
E

DS N TUVALU TOKELAU MARQUESAS

PER

ra M ISLANDS
A ra f u Se a ISLANDS
FR

WESTERN
Timor SAMOA AMERICAN
U
VA

Bougainville
E

A
EN
NDS

SAMOA
N

I
IV
L

Sea C o ral H
C
UAT

Sea PO
BOL

FIJI
LA
A

NIUE LYN
U

ES I A
IS

Tahiti
N

TONGA
NEW OK
AUSTRALIA CO
E

CALEDONIA PITCAIRN
EASTER CHILE
S

ISLANDS
ISLAND A
Sou
I

A N
Canberra th TI
N

Great Pacifi
Ta s

GE

Australian c Ocean
AR

Auckland
ma

Bight n
Sea Wellington

NEW ZEALAND
 588

The World’s Oceans and Seas

Approximate Area Average Depth

Name Sq. Miles Sq. Km. Feet Meters

Pacific Ocean 64,000,000 165,760,000 13,215 4,028

Atlantic Ocean 31,815,000 82,400,000 12,880 3,926
Indian Ocean 25,300,000 65,526,700 13,002 3,963
Arctic Ocean 5,440,200 14,090,000 3,953 1,205
Mediterranean and Black Seas 1,145,100 2,965,800 4,688 1,429
Caribbean Sea 1,049,500 2,718,200 8,685 2,647
South China Sea 895,400 2,319,000 5,419 1,652
Bering Sea 884,900 2,291,900 5,075 1,547
Gulf of Mexico 615,000 1,592,800 4,874 1,486
Okhotsk Sea 613,800 1,589,700 2,749 838
East China Sea 482,300 1,249,200 617 188
Hudson Bay 475,800 1,232,300 420 128
Japan Sea 389,100 1,007,800 4,429 1,350
Andaman Sea 308,100 797,700 2,854 870
North Sea 222,100 575,200 308 94
Red Sea 169,100 438,000 1,611 491
Baltic Sea 163,000 422,200 180 55

Major Land Areas of the World

Approximate Land Area

Portion of
Area Sq. Mi. Sq. Km. World Total

World 57,308,738 148,429,000 100.0%

Asia (including Middle East) 17,212,041 44,579,000 30.0
Africa 11,608,156 30,065,000 20.3
North America 9,365,290 24,256,000 16.3
Central America, South America, and Caribbean 6,879,952 17,819,000 8.9
Antarctica 5,100,021 13,209,000 8.9
Europe 3,837,082 9,938,000 6.7
Oceania, including Australia 2,967,966 7,687,000 5.2
 589

Major Islands of the World

Area

Island Location Sq. Mi. Sq. Km

Greenland North Atlantic Ocean 839,999 2,175,597

New Guinea Western Pacific Ocean 316,615 820,033
Borneo Western Pacific Ocean 286,914 743,107
Madagascar Western Indian Ocean 226,657 587,042
Baffin Canada, North Atlantic Ocean 183,810 476,068
Sumatra Indonesia, northeast Indian Ocean 182,859 473,605
Hfnshn Japan, western Pacific Ocean 88,925 230,316
Great Britain North Atlantic Ocean 88,758 229,883
Ellesmere Canada, Arctic Ocean 82,119 212,688
Victoria Canada, Arctic Ocean 81,930 212,199
Sulawesi (Celebes) Indonesia, western Pacific Ocean 72,986 189,034
South Island New Zealand, South Pacific Ocean 58,093 150,461
Java Indonesia, Indian Ocean 48,990 126,884
North Island New Zealand, South Pacific Ocean 44,281 114,688
Cuba Caribbean Sea 44,218 114,525
Newfoundland Canada, North Atlantic Ocean 42,734 110,681
Luzon Philippines, western Pacific Ocean 40,420 104,688
Iceland North Atlantic Ocean 39,768 102,999
Mindanao Philippines, western Pacific Ocean 36,537 94,631
Ireland North Atlantic Ocean 32,597 84,426
Hokkaido Japan, western Pacific Ocean 30,372 78,663
Hispaniola Caribbean Sea 29,355 76,029
Tasmania Australia, South Pacific Ocean 26,215 67,897
Sri Lanka Indian Ocean 25,332 65,610
Sakhalin (Karafuto) Russia, western Pacific Ocean 24,560 63,610
Banks Canada, Arctic Ocean 23,230 60,166
Devon Canada, Arctic Ocean 20,861 54,030
Tierra del Fuego Southern tip of South America 18,605 48,187
Kynshn Japan, western Pacific Ocean 16,223 42,018
Melville Canada, Arctic Ocean 16,141 41,805
Axel Heiberg Canada, Arctic Ocean 15,779 40,868
Southampton Hudson Bay, Canada 15,700 40,663
 590

Countries of the World

Area

Square Square
Country Map Region Population Miles Kilometers

Afghanistan 15 Asia 28,717,213 249,935 647,500

Albania 10 Europe 3,582,205 11,098 28,750
Algeria 6 Africa 32,818,500 919,352 2,381,740
Andorra 7 Europe 69,150 174 450
Angola 6 Africa 10,766,471 481,226 1,246,700
Antigua and Barbuda 4 Caribbean 67,897 170 440
Argentina 5 South America 38,740,807 1,068,020 2,766,890
Armenia 14 Europe 3,326,448 11,503 29,800
Australia 20 Australia 19,731,984 2,967,124 7,686,850
Austria 7 Europe 8,188,207 32,369 83,858
Azerbaijan 14 Asia 7,830,764 33,428 86,600
Bahamas 4 Caribbean 297,477 5,381 13,940
Bahrain 13 Asia 667,238 239 620
Bangladesh 15 Asia 138,448,210 55,584 144,000
Barbados 4 Caribbean 277,264 166 430
Belarus 12 Europe 10,322,151 80,134 207,600
Belgium 7 Europe 10,289,088 11,777 30,510
Belize 3 Central America 266,440 8,863 22,960
Benin 6 Africa 7,041,490 43,471 112,620
Bhutan 15 Asia 2,139,549 18,142 47,000
Bolivia 5 South America 8,586,443 424,052 1,098,580
Bosnia and 10 Europe 3,989,018 19,776 51,233
Herzegovina
Botswana 6 Africa 1,573,267 231,743 600,370
Brazil 5 South America 182,032,604 3,285,618 8,511,965
Brunei 13 Asia 358,098 2,227 5,770
Bulgaria 10 Europe 7,537,929 42,811 110,910
Burkina Faso 6 Africa 13,228,460 105,841 274,200
Burundi 6 Africa 6,096,156 10,742 27,830
 591

Area

Square Square
Country Map Region Population Miles Kilometers

Cambodia 19 Asia 13,124,764 69,881 181,040

Cameroon 6 Africa 15,746,179 183,520 475,440
Canada 2 North America 32,207,113 3,850,790 9,976,140
Cape Verde 6 Africa 412,137 1,556 4,030
Central African 6 Africa 3,683,538 240,470 622,980
Republic
Chad 6 Africa 9,253,493 495,624 1,284,000
Chile 5 South America 15,665,216 292,183 756,950
China, People’s 17 Asia 1,286,975,468 3,704,427 9,596,960
Republic of
Colombia 5 South America 41,662,073 439,619 1,138,910
Comoros 6 Africa 632,948 838 2,170
Congo (Brazzaville) 6 Africa 2,954,258 132,012 342,000
Congo (Kinshasa) 6 Africa 56,625,039 905,328 2,345,410
Costa Rica 3 Central America 3,896,092 19,725 51,100
Côte d’Ivoire 6 Africa 16,962,491 124,470 322,460
Croatia 10 Europe 4,422,248 21,824 56,538
Cuba 4 Caribbean 11,263,429 42,792 110,860
Cyprus 9 Europe 771,657 3,571 9,250
Czech Republic 11 Europe 10,249,216 30,379 78,703
Denmark 8 Europe 5,384,384 16,634 43,094
Djibouti 6 Africa 457,130 8,492 22,000
Dominica 4 Caribbean 69,655 290 750
Dominican Republic 4 Caribbean 8,715,602 18,810 48,730
East Timor 19 Asia 997,853 7,336 19,000
Ecuador 5 South America 13,710,234 109,454 283,560
Egypt 6 Africa 74,718,797 386,560 1,001,450
El Salvador 3 Central America 6,470,379 8,121 21,040
Equatorial Guinea 6 Africa 510,473 10,827 28,050
Eritrea 6 Africa 4,362,254 46,830 121,320
Estonia 12 Europe 1,408,556 17,457 45,226
(continued)
 592

Countries of the World — continued Area

Square Square
Country Map Region Population Miles Kilometers

Ethiopia 6 Africa 66,557,553 435,071 1,127,127

Fiji 20 Pacific Islands 868,531 7,052 18,270
Finland 8 Europe 5,190,785 130,094 337,030
France 7 Europe 60,180,529 211,154 547,030
Gabon 6 Africa 1,321,560 103,321 267,670
Gambia 6 Africa 1,501,050 4,362 11,300
Georgia 14 Europe 4,934,413 26,904 69,700
Germany 7 Europe 82,398,326 137,767 356,910
Ghana 6 Africa 20,467,747 92,076 238,540
Greece 9 Europe 10,665,989 50,929 131,940
Grenada 4 Caribbean 89,258 131 340
Guam 20 Pacific Islands 163,941 212 549
Guatemala 3 Central America 13,909,384 42,032 108,890
Guinea 6 Africa 9,030,220 94,902 245,860
Guinea-Bissau 6 Africa 1,360,827 13,942 36,120
Guyana 5 South America 702,100 82,978 214,970
Haiti 4 Caribbean 7,527,817 10,712 27,750
Honduras 3 Central America 6,669,789 43,267 112,090
Hungary 11 Europe 10,045,407 35,910 93,030
Iceland 8 Europe 280,798 39,758 103,000
India 15 Asia 1,049,700,118 1,269,010 3,287,590
Indonesia 19 Asia 234,893,453 740,904 1,919,440
Iran 13 Asia 68,278,826 636,128 1,648,000
Iraq 13 Asia 24,683,313 168,710 437,072
Ireland 7 Europe 3,924,140 27,128 70,280
Israel 13 Asia 6,116,533 8,017 20,770
Italy 9 Europe 57,998,353 116,275 301,230
Jamaica 4 Caribbean 2,695,867 4,242 10,990
Japan 18 Asia 127,214,499 145,844 377,835
Jordan 13 Asia 5,460,265 34,436 89,213
 593

Area

Square Square
Country Map Region Population Miles Kilometers

Kazakhstan 14 Asia 16,763,795 1,048,878 2,717,300

Kenya 6 Africa 31,639,091 224,903 582,650
Kiribati 20 Pacific Islands 98,549 277 717
Korea, North 17 Asia 22,466,481 46,528 120,540
Korea, South 17 Asia 48,289,037 38,013 98,480
Kuwait 13 Asia 2,183,161 6,879 17,820
Kyrgyzstan 14 Asia 4,892,808 76,621 198,500
Laos 19 Asia 5,921,545 91,405 236,800
Latvia 12 Europe 2,348,784 24,743 64,100
Lebanon 13 Asia 3,727,703 4,014 10,400
Lesotho 6 Africa 1,861,959 11,715 30,350
Liberia 6 Africa 3,317,176 42,989 111,370
Libya 6 Africa 5,499,074 679,182 1,759,540
Liechtenstein 7 Europe 33,145 62 160
Lithuania 12 Europe 3,592,561 25,167 65,200
Luxembourg 7 Europe 454,157 998 2,586
Macedonia 10 Europe 2,063,122 9,779 25,333
Madagascar 6 Africa 16,979,744 226,597 587,040
Malawi 6 Africa 11,651,239 45,733 118,480
Malaysia 19 Asia 23,092,940 127,284 329,750
Maldives 15 Asia 329,684 116 300
Mali 6 Africa 11,626,219 478,640 1,240,000
Malta 9 Europe 400,420 124 320
Marshall Islands 20 Pacific Islands 56,429 70 181.3
Martinique 4 Caribbean 425,966 425 1,100
Mauritania 6 Africa 2,912,584 397,850 1,030,700
Mauritius 6 Africa 1,210,447 718 1,860
Mexico 2 North America 104,907,991 761,404 1,972,550
Micronesia 20 Pacific Islands 136,973 271 702
Moldova 12 Europe 4,439,502 13,008 33,700

(continued)
 594

Countries of the World — continued Area

Square Square
Country Map Region Population Miles Kilometers

Monaco 7 Europe 32,130 1 1.95

Mongolia 16, 17 Asia 2,712,315 604,090 1,565,000
Morocco 6 Africa 31,689,265 172,368 446,550
Mozambique 6 Africa 17,479,266 309,414 801,590
Myanmar (Burma) 15, 19 Asia 42,510,537 261,901 678,500
Namibia 6 Africa 1,927,447 318,611 825,418
Nauru 20 Pacific Islands 12,570 8 21
Nepal 15 Asia 26,469,569 54,349 140,800
Netherlands 7 Europe 16,150,511 16,029 41,526
New Zealand 20 Pacific Islands 3,951,307 103,710 268,680
Nicaragua 3 Central America 5,128,517 49,985 129,494
Niger 6 Africa 11,058,590 489,062 1,267,000
Nigeria 6 Africa 133,881,703 356,575 923,770
Norway 8 Europe 4,546,123 125,149 324,220
Oman 13 Asia 2,807,125 82,010 212,460
Pakistan 15 Asia 150,694,740 310,321 803,940
Palau 20 Pacific Islands 19,717 177 458
Panama 3 Central America 2,960,784 30,185 78,200
Papua New Guinea 20 Pacific Islands 5,295,816 178,212 461,690
Paraguay 5 South America 6,036,900 157,006 406,750
Peru 5 South America 28,409,897 496,095 1,285,220
Philippines 19 Asia 84,619,974 115,800 300,000
Poland 11 Europe 38,622,660 120,696 312,683
Portugal 7, 9 Europe 10,102,022 35,663 92,391
Qatar 13 Asia 817,052 4,415 11,437
Romania 11 Europe 22,271,839 91,675 237,500
Russia 12, 16 Europe/Asia 144,526,278 6,591,027 17,075,200
Rwanda 6 Africa 7,810,056 10,167 26,340
Saint Kitts and 4 Caribbean 38,763 104 269
Nevis
 595

Area

Square Square
Country Map Region Population Miles Kilometers

Saint Lucia 4 Caribbean 162,157 239 620

Saint Vincent and 4 Caribbean 116,812 131 340
Grenadines
Samoa 20 Pacific Islands 178,173 1,104 2,860
San Marino 7 Europe 28,119 23 60
São Tomé and 6 Africa 175,883 371 960
Príncipe
Saudi Arabia 13 Asia 24,293,844 756,785 1,960,582
Senegal 6 Africa 10,580,307 75,729 196,190
Seychelles 6 Africa 80,469 176 455
Sierra Leone 6 Africa 5,732,681 27,692 71,740
Singapore 19 Asia 4,608,595 250 647.5
Slovakia 11 Europe 5,430,033 18,854 48,845
Slovenia 10 Europe 1,935,677 7,819 20,256
Solomon Islands 20 Pacific Islands 509,190 10,982 28,450
Somalia 6 Africa 8,025,190 246,137 637,660
South Africa 6 Africa 42,768,678 470,886 1,219,912
Spain 7, 9 Europe 40,217,413 194,834 504,750
Sri Lanka 15 Asia 19,742,439 25,325 65,610
Sudan 6 Africa 38,114,160 967,243 2,505,810
Suriname 5 South America 435,449 63,022 163,270
Swaziland 6 Africa 1,161,219 6,701 17,360
Sweden 8 Europe 8,878,085 173,686 449,964
Switzerland 7 Europe 7,318,638 15,938 41,290
Syria 13 Asia 17,585,540 71,479 185,180
Taiwan 17 Asia 22,603,000 13,888 35,980
Tajikistan 14 Asia 6,863,752 55,237 143,100
Tanzania 6 Africa 35,922,454 364,805 945,090
Thailand 19 Asia 64,265,276 198,404 514,000
Togo 6 Africa 5,429,299 21,921 56,790
Tonga 20 Pacific Islands 108,141 289 748
(continued)
 596

Countries of the World — continued Area

Square Square
Country Map Region Population Miles Kilometers

Trinidad and Tobago 4 Caribbean 1,104,209 1,980 5,130

Tunisia 6 Africa 9,924,742 63,153 163,610
Turkey 13 Europe/Asia 68,109,469 301,304 780,580
Turkmenistan 14 Asia 4,775,544 188,407 488,100
Tuvalu 20 Pacific Islands 11,305 10 26
Uganda 6 Africa 25,632,794 91,111 236,040
Ukraine 12 Europe 48,055,439 233,028 603,700
United Arab 13 Asia 2,484,818 31,992 82,880
Emirates
United Kingdom 7 Europe 60,094,648 94,501 244,820
United States 2 North America 290,342,554 3,716,829 9,629,091
Uruguay 5 South America 3,413,329 68,021 176,220
Uzbekistan 14 Asia 25,981,647 172,696 447,400
Vanuatu 20 Pacific Islands 199,414 5,697 14,760
Vatican City 9 Europe 900 0.2 .44
Venezuela 5 South America 24,654,694 352,051 912,050
Vietnam 19 Asia 81,624,716 127,210 329,560
Western Sahara 6 Africa 261,794 102,676 266,000
Yemen 13 Asia 19,349,881 203,796 527,970
Yugoslavia 10 Europe 10,655,774 39,507 102,350
Zambia 6 Africa 10,307,333 290,507 752,610
Zimbabwe 6 Africa 12,576,742 150,764 390,580
Note: Population figures are October, 2002, estimates.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base.
 597

The World’s Largest Countries by Area

Area

Rank Country Region Sq. Miles Sq. Km.

1 Russia Europe/Asia 6,591,027 17,075,200

2 Canada North America 3,850,790 9,976,140
3 United States North America 3,716,829 9,629,091
4 China, People’s Republic of Asia 3,704,427 9,596,960
5 Brazil South America 3,285,618 8,511,965
6 Australia Australia 2,967,124 7,686,850
7 India Asia 1,269,010 3,287,590
8 Argentina South America 1,068,020 2,766,890
9 Kazakhstan Asia 1,048,878 2,717,300
10 Sudan Africa 967,243 2,505,810
11 Algeria Africa 919,352 2,381,740
12 Congo (Kinshasa) Africa 905,328 2,345,410
13 Mexico North America 761,404 1,972,550
14 Saudi Arabia Asia 756,785 1,960,582
15 Indonesia Asia 740,904 1,919,440
16 Libya Africa 679,182 1,759,540
17 Iran Asia 636,128 1,648,000
18 Mongolia Asia 604,090 1,565,000
19 Peru South America 496,095 1,285,220
20 Chad Africa 495,624 1,284,000
21 Niger Africa 489,062 1,267,000
22 Angola Africa 481,226 1,246,700
23 Mali Africa 478,640 1,240,000
24 South Africa Africa 470,886 1,219,912
25 Colombia South America 439,619 1,138,910
26 Ethiopia Africa 435,071 1,127,127
27 Bolivia South America 424,052 1,098,580
28 Mauritania Africa 397,850 1,030,700
29 Egypt Africa 386,560 1,001,450
30 Tanzania Africa 364,805 945,090

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base.

 598

The World’s Smallest Countries by Area

Area

Rank Country Region Sq. Miles Sq. Km.

1 Vatican City* Europe 0.2 .44

2 Monaco* Europe 1 1.95
3 Nauru Pacific Islands 8 21
4 Tuvalu Pacific Islands 10 26
5 San Marino* Europe 23 60
6 Liechtenstein* Europe 62 160
7 Marshall Islands Pacific Islands 70 181.3
8 Saint Kitts and Nevis Caribbean 104 269
9 Maldives Asia 116 300
10 Malta Europe 124 320
11 Grenada Caribbean 131 340
12 Saint Vincent and Grenadines Caribbean 131 340
13 Barbados Caribbean 166 430
14 Antigua and Barbuda Caribbean 170 440
15 Andorra* Europe 174 450
16 Seychelles Africa 176 455
17 Palau Pacific Islands 177 458
18 Guam Pacific Islands 212 549
19 Bahrain Asia 239 620
20 Saint Lucia Caribbean 239 620
21 Singapore* Asia 250 647.5
22 Micronesia Pacific Islands 271 702
23 Kiribati Pacific Islands 277 717
24 Tonga Pacific Islands 289 748
25 Dominica Caribbean 290 750
26 São Tomé and Príncipe Africa 371 960
27 Martinique Caribbean 425 1,100
28 Mauritius Africa 718 1,860
29 Comoros Africa 838 2,170
30 Luxembourg* Europe 998 2,586
Note: Asterisks (*) denote countries on continents; all other countries are islands or island groups.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base.
 599

The World’s Largest Countries by Population

Rank Country Region Population

1 China Asia 1,286,975,468

2 India Asia 1,049,700,118
3 United States North America 290,342,554
4 Indonesia Asia 234,893,453
5 Brazil South America 182,032,604
6 Pakistan Asia 150,694,740
7 Russia Europe/Asia 144,526,278
8 Bangladesh Asia 138,448,210
9 Nigeria Africa 133,881,703
10 Japan Asia 127,214,499
11 Mexico North America 104,907,991
12 Philippines Asia 84,619,974
13 Germany Europe 82,398,326
14 Vietnam Asia 81,624,716
15 Egypt Africa 74,718,797
16 Iran Asia 68,278,826
17 Turkey Europe/Asia 68,109,469
18 Ethiopia Africa 66,557,553
19 Thailand Asia 64,265,276
20 France Europe 60,180,529
21 United Kingdom Europe 60,094,648
22 Italy Europe 57,998,353
23 Congo (Kinshasa) Africa 56,625,039
24 Korea, South Asia 48,289,037
25 Ukraine Asia 48,055,439
26 South Africa Africa 42,768,678
27 Mayanmar (Burma) Asia 42,510,537
28 Colombia South America 41,662,073
29 Spain Europe 40,217,413
30 Argentina South America 38,740,807
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base. Updated October 10, 2002.
600

The World’s Smallest Countries by Population

Rank Country Region Population

1 Vatican City Europe 900

2 Tuvalu Pacific Islands 11,305
3 Nauru Pacific Islands 12,570
4 Palau Pacific Islands 19,717
5 San Marino Europe 28,119
6 Monaco Europe 32,130
7 Liechtenstein Europe 33,145
8 Saint Kitts and Nevis Caribbean 38,763
9 Marshall Islands Pacific Islands 56,429
10 Antigua and Barbuda Caribbean 67,897
11 Andorra Europe 69,150
12 Dominica Caribbean 69,655
13 Seychelles Africa 80,469
14 Grenada Caribbean 89,258
15 Kiribati Pacific Islands 98,549
16 Tonga Pacific Islands 108,141
17 Saint Vincent and the Caribbean 116,812
Grenadines
18 Micronesia Pacific Islands 136,973
19 Saint Lucia Caribbean 162,157
20 Guam Pacific Islands 163,941
21 São Tome and Principe Africa 175,883
22 Samoa Pacific Islands 178,173
23 Vanuatu Pacific Islands 199,414
24 Western Sahara Africa 261,794
25 Belize Central America 266,440
26 Barbados Caribbean 277,264
27 Iceland Europe 280,798
28 Bahamas Caribbean 297,477
29 Maldives Asia 329,684
30 Brunei Asia 358,098
Note: Population figures are October, 2002, estimates.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base.
 601

The World’s Most Densely Populated Countries

Persons per square

Rank Country Region Mile Kilometer

1 Monaco Europe 41,423.2 15,993.5

2 Singapore Asia 18,481.7 7,135.8
3 Vatican City Europe 5,698.0 2,200.0
4 Malta Europe 3,207.2 1,238.3
5 Maldives Asia 2,764.0 1,067.2
6 Bahrain Asia 2,746.4 1,060.4
7 Bangladesh Asia 2,579.6 996.0
8 Taiwan Asia 1,810.2 698.9
9 Mauritius Africa 1,681.2 649.1
10 Barbados Caribbean 1,666.1 643.3
Note: Based on October, 2002, population estimates.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce.

The World’s Least Densely Populated Countries

Persons per square

Rank Country Region Mile Kilometer

1 Mongolia Asia 4.4 1.7

2 Namibia Africa 5.7 2.2
3 Australia Australasia 6.7 2.6
4 Suriname South America 7.0 2.7
5 Botswana Africa 7.0 2.7
6 Mauritania Africa 7.0 2.7
7 Iceland Europe 7.3 2.8
8 Libya Africa 8.0 3.1
9 Guyana South America 9.1 3.5
10 Canada North America 9.1 3.5
Note: Based on October, 2002, population estimates.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce.
602

The World’s Most Populous Cities

Rank City Country Region Population

1 Seoul South Korea East Asia 10,231,217

2 São Paulo Brazil South America 10,017,821
3 Mumbai (Bombay) India Asia 9,925,891
4 Jakarta Indonesia Asia 9,112,652
5 Moscow Russia Europe 8,368,449
6 Istanbul Turkey Europe 8,274,921
7 Mexico City Mexico North America 8,235,744
8 Shanghai China Asia 8,214,384
9 Tokyo Japan Asia 7,967,614
10 New York City United States North America 7,380,906
11 Beijing China Asia 7,362,426
12 Delhi India Asia 7,206,704
13 London Great Britain Europe 7,074,265
14 Cairo Egypt Africa 6,800,000
15 Teheran Iran Asia 6,750,043
16 Hong Kong China Asia 6,502,000
17 Bangkok Thailand Asia 5,882,000
18 Tianjin China Asia 5,855,044
19 Lima Peru South America 5,681,941
20 Rio de Janeiro Brazil South America 5,606,497
21 Bogotá Colombia South America 4,945,448
22 Shenyang China Asia 4,669,737
23 Santiago Chile South America 4,640,635
24 Kolkata (Calcutta) India Asia 4,399,819
25 St. Petersburg Russia Europe 4,232,105
26 Wuhan China Asia 4,040,113
27 Guangzhou China Asia 3,935,193
28 Chennai (Madras) India Asia 3,841,396
29 Baghdad Iraq Asia 3,841,268
30 Pusan South Korea Asia 3,814,325
Note: Population figures are for latest available years and are for defined cities. The metropolitan areas
of most of these cities are much larger.
Source: 1997 Demographic Yearbook, United Nations.
 603

Major Lakes of the World

Surface Area Maximum Depth

Lake Location Sq. Mi. Sq. Km Feet Meters

Caspian Sea Central Asia 152,239 394,299 3,104 946

Superior North America 31,820 82,414 1,333 406
Victoria East Africa 26,828 69,485 270 82
Huron North America 23,010 59,596 750 229
Michigan North America 22,400 58,016 923 281
Aral Central Asia 13,000 33,800 223 68
Tanganyika East Africa 12,700 32,893 4,708 1,435
Baikal Russia 12,162 31,500 5,712 1,741
Great Bear North America 12,000 31,080 270 82
Nyasa East Africa 11,600 30,044 2,316 706
Great Slave North America 11,170 28,930 2,015 614
Chad West Africa 9,946 25,760 23 7
Erie North America 9,930 25,719 210 64
Winnipeg North America 9,094 23,553 204 62
Ontario North America 7,520 19,477 778 237
Balkhash Central Asia 7,115 18,428 87 27
Ladoga Russia 7,000 18,130 738 225
Onega Russia 3,819 9,891 361 110
Titicaca South America 3,141 8,135 1,214 370
Nicaragua Central America 3,089 8,001 230 70
Athabaska North America 3,058 7,920 407 124
Rudolf Kenya, East Africa 2,473 6,405 240 73
Reindeer North America 2,444 6,330 720 220
Eyre South Australia 2,400 6,216 varies varies
Issyk-Kul Central Asia 2,394 6,200 2,297 700
Urmia Southwest Asia 2,317 6,001 49 15
Torrens Australia 2,200 5,698 — —
Vänern Sweden 2,141 5,545 322 98
Winnipegosis North America 2,086 5,403 59 18
Mobutu Sese Seko East Africa 2,046 5,299 180 55
Nettilling North America 1,950 5,051 — —
Note: The sizes of some lakes vary with the seasons.
 604

Major Rivers of the World

Approximate
Length

River Region Outflow Miles Km.

Nile North Africa Mediterranean Sea 4,180 6,690

Mississippi-Missouri-Red North America Gulf of Mexico 3,710 5,970
Rock
Yangtze Kiang East Asia China Sea 3,602 5,797
Ob Russia Gulf of Ob 3,459 5,567
Yellow (Huang He) East Asia Gulf of Chihli 2,900 4,667
Yenisei Russia Arctic Ocean 2,800 4,506
Paraná South America Río de la Plata 2,795 4,498
Irtish Russia Ob River 2,758 4,438
Congo Africa Atlantic Ocean 2,716 4,371
Heilong (Amur) East Asia Tatar Strait 2,704 4,352
Lena Russia Arctic Ocean 2,652 4,268
Mackenzie North America Beaufort Sea 2,635 4,241
Niger West Africa Gulf of Guinea 2,600 4,184
Mekong Asia South China Sea 2,500 4,023
Mississippi North America Gulf of Mexico 2,348 3,779
Missouri North America Mississippi River 2,315 3,726
Volga Russia Caspian Sea 2,291 3,687
Madeira South America Amazon River 2,012 3,238
Purus South America Amazon River 1,993 3,207
São Francisco South America Atlantic Ocean 1,987 3,198
Yukon North America Bering Sea 1,979 3,185
St. Lawrence North America Gulf of St. Lawrence 1,900 3,058
Rio Grande North America Gulf of Mexico 1,885 3,034
Brahmaputra Asia Ganges River 1,800 2,897
Indus Asia Arabian Sea 1,800 2,897
Danube Europe Black Sea 1,766 2,842
 605

Approximate
Length

River Region Outflow Miles Km.

Euphrates Asia Shatt-al-Arab 1,739 2,799

Darling Australia Murray River 1,702 2,739
Zambezi Africa Mozambique Channel 1,700 2,736
Tocantins South America Pará River 1,677 2,699
Murray Australia Indian Ocean 1,609 2,589
Nelson North America Hudson Bay 1,600 2,575
Paraguay South America Paraná River 1,584 2,549
Ural Russia Caspian Sea 1,574 2,533
Ganges Asia Bay of Bengal 1,557 2,506
Amu Darya (Oxus) Asia Aral Sea 1,500 2,414
Japurá South America Amazon River 1,500 2,414
Salween Asia Gulf of Martaban 1,500 2,414
Arkansas North America Mississippi River 1,459 2,348
Colorado North America Gulf of California 1,450 2,333
Dnieper Russia Black Sea 1,419 2,284
Ohio-Allegheny North America Mississippi River 1,306 2,102
Irrawaddy Asia Bay of Bengal 1,300 2,092
Orange Africa Atlantic Ocean 1,300 2,092
Orinoco South America Atlantic Ocean 1,281 2,062
Pilcomayo South America Paraguay River 1,242 1,999
Xi Jiang East Asia China Sea 1,236 1,989
Columbia North America Pacific Ocean 1,232 1,983
Don Russia Sea of Azov 1,223 1,968
Sungari East Asia Amur River 1,215 1,955
Saskatchewan North America Lake Winnipeg 1,205 1,939
Peace North America Great Slave River 1,195 1,923
Tigris Asia Shatt-al-Arab 1,180 1,899
 606

The Highest Peaks in Each Continent

Height

Continent Mountain Location Feet Meters

Asia Everest Tibet & Nepal 29,028 8,848

South America Aconcagua Argentina 22,834 6,960
North America McKinley Alaska 20,320 6,194
Africa Kilimanjaro Tanzania 19,340 5,895
Europe Elbrus Russia & Georgia 18,510 5,642
Antarctica Vinson Massif Ellsworth Mountains 16,066 4,897
Australia Kosciusko New South Wales 7,316 2,228
Note: The world’s highest sixty-six mountains are all in Asia.

Major Deserts of the World

Approximate area
Desert Location Sq. miles Sq. km. Type
Antarctic Antarctica 5,400,000 14,002,200 polar
Sahara North Africa 3,500,000 9,075,500 subtropical
Arabian Southwest Asia 1,000,000 2,593,000 subtropical
Great Western (Gibson, Australia 520,000 1,348,360 subpical
Great Sandy, and
Great Victoria)
Gobi East Asia 500,000 1,296,500 cold winter
Patagonian Argentina, South America 260,000 674,180 cold winter
Kalahari Southern Africa 220,000 570,460 subtropical
Great Basin Western United States 190,000 492,670 cold winter
Thar South Asia 175,000 453,775 subtropical
Chihuahuan Mexico 175,000 453,775 subtropical
Karakum Central Asia 135,000 350,055 cold winter
Colorado Plateau Southwestern United States 130,000 337,090 cold winter
Sonoran United States and Mexico 120,000 311,160 subtropical
Kyzylkum Central Asia 115,000 298,195 cold winter
Taklimakan China 105,000 272,265 cold winter
Iranian Iran 100,000 259,300 cold winter
Arctic Arctic Circle 62,000 161,000 polar
Simpson Eastern Australia 56,000 145,208 subtropical
Mojave Western United States 54,000 140,022 subtropical
Atacama Chile, South America 54,000 140,022 cold coastal
Namib Southern Africa 13,000 33,709 cold coastal
 607

Highest Waterfalls of the World

Height

Waterfall Location Source Feet Meters

Angel Canaima National Park, Venezuela Rio Caroni 3,212 979

Tugela Natal National Park, South Africa Tugela River 3,110 948
Utigord Norway glacier 2,625 800
Monge Marstein, Norway Mongebeck 2,540 774
Mutarazi Nyanga National Park, Zimbabwe Mutarazi River 2,499 762
Yosemite Yosemite National Park, Yosemite Creek 2,425 739
California, U.S.
Espelands Hardanger Fjord, Norway Opo River 2,307 703
Lower Mar Valley Eikesdal, Norway Mardals Stream 2,151 655
Tyssestrengene Odda, Norway Tyssa River 2,123 647
Cuquenan Kukenan Tepuy, Venezuela Cuquenan River 2,000 610
Sutherland Milford Sound, New Zealand Arthur River 1,904 580
Kjell Gudvanger, Norway Gudvangen Glacier 1,841 561
Takkakaw Yoho National Park, British Takkakaw Creek 1,650 503
Columbia, Canada
Ribbon Yosemite National Park, Ribbon Stream 1,612 491
California, U.S.
Upper Mar Valley near Eikesdal, Norway Mardals Stream 1,536 468
Gavarnie near Lourdes, France Gave de Pau 1,388 423
Vettis Jotunheimen, Norway Utla River 1,215 370
Hunlen British Columbia, Canada Hunlen River 1,198 365
Tin Mine Kosciusko National Park, Australia Tin Mine Creek 1,182 360
Silver Strand Yosemite National Park, Silver Strand Creek 1,170 357
California, U.S.
Basaseachic Baranca del Cobre, Mexico Piedra Volada Creek 1,120 311
Spray Stream Lauterburnnental, Switzerland Staubbach Brook 985 300
Fachoda Tahiti, French Polynesia Fautaua River 985 300
King Edward VIII Guyana Courantyne River 850 259
Wallaman near Ingham, Australia Wallaman Creek 844 257
Gersoppa Western Ghats, India Sharavati River 828 253
Kaieteur Guyana Rio Potaro 822 251
Montezuma near Rosebery, Tasmania Montezuma River 800 240
Wollomombi near Armidale, Australia Wollomombi River 722 2203
Source: Fifth Continent Australia Pty Limited.
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Index
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 Index / 611

Aa, 317 Alaska oil, 280-281

Ablation, 317; zone of, 83, 317 Albedo, 321, 450
Abrasion, 317, 358, 491, 540, 544 Alberta Clipper, 321
Absolute age, 317 Aldrin, Edwin “Buzz”, 37
Abyss, 318 Alexander the Great, 215
Abyssal, 318 Alienation (land), 321
Abyssal plain, 318 Alkali flat, 321
Abyssal seafloor, 318 Allogenic sediment, 322
Acclimatization, 318 Alluvial fan, 322
Acculturation, 318 Alluvial system, 322
Accumulation, zone of, 318 Alluvium, 322
Acid rain, 202, 207, 210, 318; and Alpacas, 323
volcanoes, 63 Alpine, 322
Acoustic echo sounding, 319 Alpine glacier, 322
Adiabatic, 319 Altamont, 546
Advection, 319 Altimeter, 323
Aeration, zone of, 319, 539, 542 Altiplanos, 323, 362, 471
Aerosols, 102, 319 Altitude, 323; zones, 323
Africa; border disputes, 313; Aluminum, 279
hydroelectric projects, 270; Amazon Basin; agriculture, 238;
minerals, 279, 431; national drainage, 78; rain forest, 482;
parks, 159; railroads, 228; roads, 223
savanna, 496 Amazon River, 337; volume of, 168
Aftershock, 319 Amerindians, 323
Agglomerate, 319 Amundsen, Roald, 5
Agglomeration effect, 319 Anabatic wind, 323
Aggradation, 319 Anaximander, 3
Agribusiness, 319 Andes Mountains, volcanoes, 56-57
Agriculture, 320; and clay, 348; and Andesite, 323
climate, 199-201; commercial, Andorra, 312
240-245; early revolutions, 320, Anemometer, 324
475; and erosion, 246-247; Aneroid barometer, 324
heritage seed movement, 244; Angle of repose, 324
monoculture, 248; origins of, 187; Animals, domestication of, 257
plantation, 471; and pollution, Animism, 324
248-249; problems, 245-250; Annan, Kofi, 290
subsistence, 517, 519; sustainable, Anorthosite, 324
519; traditional, 237-240, 415; Antarctic Circle, 324
and urbanization, 190, 249 Antarctica, 324; climate, 113;
Agrippa, Marcus Vipsanius, 10 glaciation, 87; and ozone hole,
Air, 320; drainage, 320; unstable, 538 102; seasons, 41
Air current, 320 Anthropocentric, 324
Air mass, 320 Anthropogeography, 324
Air pollution, 207-212, 320; and Anticline, 324
disease, 213; and volcanoes, 63 Anticyclone, 324
Air transportation, 230-234, 285; Antidune, 325
and trade, 292, 294 Antipodes, 325
Airplane, invention of, 231 Antitrade winds, 325
Akashi Kaikyo, 271 Aperiodic, 325
612 / Index

Aphelion, 325 Atolls, coral, 329, 357

Aplite, 326 Atomic clock, 330
Apogee, 326 Aurora, 330
Aposelene, 326 Aurora borealis, 417
Appalachian Mountains, 70-71; air Austral, 331
pollution, 209 Australia; minerals, 279, 431;
Apparent solar time, 326 national parks, 158; Outback, 460
Aquaculture, 326 Australopithecines, 331
Aqueduct, 326 Automobiles; production, 283; and
Aquifers, 327, 369, 401, 419, 494; urbanization, 192
confined, 353; and oases, 457; Autumnal equinox, 331
unconfined, 537 Avalanche, 331
Arab geographers, 4, 11 Ayers Rock, 415
Arabian Peninsula; international Azimuthal projection, 331
borders, 312
Arable land, 327 B horizon, 331
Aral Sea, 429, 497 Badlands, 92; South Dakota, 93
Archaeology, 327 Baikal, Lake, 168, 429
Arches National Park, 453 Baltic nations, 305
Archipelago, 327 Banff National Park, 158
Arctic, 327; seasons, 41 Bangladesh, rivers, 368
Arête, 327 Bank, 331
Argentina national parks, 158 Bar (climate), 331
Aridity, 327 Bar (land), 331
Aristarchus, 10; crater on Moon, 36 Barogram, 331
Aristotle, 4, 299, 303 Barograph, 331
Armstrong, Neil, 37 Barometer, 331
Arroyo, 327 Barrier islands, 97, 332
Artesian well, 328 Barysphere, 332
Aseismic, 328 Basalt, 332
Ash flow, 328 Base flow, 332
Asia; early trade, 215, 217-220; Base level, 332
minerals, 279; national parks, Basement, 333
159; railroads, 228 Basin, 333
Assimilation, 328 Basin order, 333
Asteroid, 329 Batholith, 333
Asteroid belt, 329 Bathymetric contour, 333
Asthenosphere, 45, 49-50, 52-53, 70- Bauxite, 279, 333
72, 329 Bay, 334
Astrobleme, 329 Bayou, 334
Astrolabe, 11, 329 Beach, 334
Astronomical unit, 26, 329 Beaufort scale, 335
Aswan High Dam, 204, 271 Bedrock, 335
Atacama Desert, 149-150, 367, 390; Bergeron process, 335
lifeforms, 151 Berlin Air Lift, 232
Atlas, 329 Berlin Wall, 309
Atmosphere, 100-106, 329; bands, Bight, 335
108; composition of, 100; Bikini Atoll, 330
pollution, 207-212; pressure, 329 Billabong, 335
 Index / 613

Biodiversity, 141, 244, 335 California; climate, 111, 202, 243;

Biogenic sediment, 335 fault lines, 54; flora, 136, 145; oil,
Biogeography, 336 280; population, 186
Biomass energy, 259 California, Gulf of, 72, 346
Biomes, 131, 133-138, 336 California Current, 107
Biosphere, 336 Calms of Cancer, 340
Biostratigraphy, 336 Calms of Capricorn, 340
Biotechnology, 336 Calving, 340
Birth rate, 336. See also Crude birth Cambrian period, 340
rate Camels, 135; Asia, 215, 219
Bison, 147 Canada; borders, 312; national
Bitter lake, 336 parks, 158; oil, 282; roads, 223
Blache, Paul Vidal de la, 6 Canadian Shield, 502
Blizzard, 336 Canals, 340; environmental
Block mountain, 336 problems, 273; irrigation, 203-
Blowhole, 337 204; and transportation, 227, 272-
Bluff, 337 273, 292
Body wave, 337 Canary Islands, and prime meridian,
Bog, 337 10
Bora, 337 Cancer, tropic of, 39, 41, 340
Borders, 311-314, 337-338; Africa, Canyon, 340
314; Asia, 304; conflicts, 313; Cão, Diego, 217
South America, 304 Cape Cod, 403
Bore, 337 Cape of Good Hope, 273
Boreal, 337 Capes, 341
Bosporus, 306; strategic importance, Capillary water, 341
307 Capital, 341
Botswana, and Namibia, 314 Capitol, 341
Bottom current, 337 Capricorn, tropic of, 39, 41, 341
Bottom-water mass, 337 Carbon cycle, 341
Bourne, 338 Carbon dating, 341
Brae, 338 Carbon dioxide, 341; in atmosphere,
Brahmaputra River, 368 101, 165, 212; and greenhouse
Brazil-Venezuela Highway project, effect, 97, 101, 202, 212, 265; on
223 Mars, 27-28
Breaker, 338 Carbonates, 341
Breakwater, 338 Carboniferous period, 67, 341
Breeze, 338 Cardinal points, 341
Bridges, 271, 339; land, 429; natural, Carlsbad Caverns, 425
453 Carnivore, 341
Brine, 339 Carrying capacity, 342
Brook, 339 Cartography, 342. See also
Buildings, tall, 274-275 Mapmaking
Bush, 339 Cascade, 342
Butte, 339 Cascade Range, 398; volcanoes, 56,
541
Cabotage, 292 Caspian Sea, 429, 497
Caldera, 339 Cataract, 342
Calendar, 339 Catastrophism, 342
614 / Index

Catchment basin, 343 primate, 477, 484; shock, 503;

Cattle, 253 world, 548
Causeway, 343 City, 348
Caves, 82, 343 City Beautiful movement, 348
Cay, 343 Civilization, 348
Celsius scale, 343 Clastic, 348
Cenozoic era, 66, 343 Clay, 348
Censuses, 186, 343; historical, 187 Clearing, 348
Central America, altitude zones, 323 Cliff, 348
Central place theory, 343 Climate, 198, 348; determinants,
Central places, 343 106; and disease, 212-214; global,
Centrality, 344 106-108, 110-115; human impact
Centrifugal forces, 344 on, 202; and human settlement,
Centripetal forces, 344 182, 198-203; Mediterranean,
Chain, mountain, 344 111; and recreation, 202; and soil
Chalk, 344 formation, 161; tropical, 199;
Chang Heng, 11 types, 107-108, 110-113
Channel, 344 Climatology, 348
Chaparral, 131, 136, 344 Climograph, 349
Charon, 30 Clinometer, 349
Chart, 344 Clock, 349
Chemical farming, 344 Clockwise, 349
Chemical weathering, 75, 345 Clothing, manufacture of, 284, 287-
Chernobyl nuclear disaster, 208 288
Chile; minerals, 279; national parks, Cloudburst, 350
158 Clouds, 349-350; altocumulus, 323;
China; agriculture, 242, 244; air altostratus, 323; cirrocumulus,
pollution, 210; canals, 273; early 347; cirrostratus, 347; cirrus, 347;
geographers, 4, 10-11; early trade, cold, 350; cover, 349;
215, 219; exploration, 218; Great cumulonimbus, 362, 393, 407,
Wall of, 311; and India, 313; and 434, 438, 527, 544; cumulus, 362,
United States, 310; and Vietnam, 527; and cyclones, 120; formation
313 of, 115-121; funnel, 393; and hail,
China, dynasties; Ch’in, 311; Han, 42; polar stratospheric, 473;
215 seeding, 350; types, 118
Chinook, 345 Coal, 278, 350
Chlorofluorocarbons, 346 Coastal plains, 350
Cholera, 213 Coastal wetlands, 350
Chorology, 6, 346 Coastline, 350
Christaller, Walter, 343 Coasts, 350; types, 95. See also Ocean
Chronometer, 12, 346 margins
Chubasco, 346 Cod, 172-173
Chunnel, 274 Coke, 350
Cinder cone, 346 Col, 350
Circle of illumination, 346 Cold front, 350
Cirques, 84, 347 Cold War, 307, 350; and geopolitics,
Cirro, 347 309
Cities; colonial, 351; edge, 378; Cold wave, 350
gateway, 395; megacity, 443; Colombia, 415
 Index / 615

Colonialism, 351 Convection currents, 50

Colony, 351 Convectional rain, 356
Colorado Plateau, 71 Convective overturn, 356
Colorado River, 313; Hoover Dam, Convergence, 356
271 Convergent plate boundary, 356
Columbia River Gorge, 398 Convergent plate margin, 356
Columbian exchange, 219, 351 Conveyor belt current, 356
Columbian Plateau, 382, 437, 471 Cook Islands, and New Zealand, 392
Columbus, Christopher, 5 Coordinated universal time, 357
Combe, 351 Copper, 279; and Bronze Age, 276;
Comets, 31, 351 and solar energy, 266; and
Comfort index, 352 volcanism, 62
Commodity chain, 352 Copse, 357
Communications, 352 Coral islands. See Atolls
Compass, magnetic, 11, 352; Coral reefs, 357
invention of, 11 Cordillera, 357
Complex crater, 352 Core-mantle boundary, 358
Composite cone, 352 Core region, 358
Condensation, 352 Coriolis effect, 358
Condensation nuclei, 352 Corn, 253
Cone of depression, 353 Corn Belt, 358
Confederations, 300 Coronelli, Vincenzo, 12
Confining bed, 353 Corrasion, 358
Confluence, 353 Cosmogony, 358
Conglomerate, 353 Cosmopolitanism, 358
Conglomerate corporation, 353 Cotton; cultivation, 243; North
Congo-Kinshasa; national parks, 159 America, 199-200
Congo River, 217 Cotton Belt, 358
Conical projection, 353 Counterclockwise, 359
Conservationism, 354 Counterurbanization, 359
Containerization, 293-294 Counties, 359
Continental crust, 43, 53, 354 Countries, 359
Continental divide, 354 County seat, 359
Continental drift, 355 Cove, 359
Continental glaciers, 355 Crag, 359
Continental island, 355 Crater Lake, 60, 339, 359
Continental margin, 355 Craters, 359; morphology, 360
Continental rift zones, 355 Craton, 360
Continental shelf, 355 Creep, 76, 360
Continental shield, 356 Crestal plane, 360
Continental slope, 356 Cretaceous era, 360
Continentality, 107, 111-112, 150; Crevasse, 360
and climate, 354 Crop rotation, 360
Continents, 354; discovery of, 5, 10; Cross-bedding, 361
formation of, 47, 49-50, 55; and Crown land, 361
glaciation, 87-88; mapping of, 14- Crude birth rate, 361
15; movement of, 175 Crude death rate, 361
Contour lines, 356 Crude oil, 361
Convection, 356 Crust, 361
616 / Index

Crustal movements, 361 Degree (temperature), 368

Crypotozoic era, 66 Dehydration, 368
Cuesta, 362 Delta, 368
Cultural ecology, 362 Demography, 369
Cultural geography, 362 Dendritic drainage, 369
Cultural landscape, 362 Dengue fever, 212-214
Cultural nationalism, 362 Denmark, bridges, 271
Culture, 362 Denudation, 369
Culture hearth, 362 Dependency, 369
Curie point, 363 Deposition, 369
Cycle of erosion, 363 Depression, 369
Cyclones, 363; and clouds, 120; Deranged drainage, 369
extratropical, 125; tropical, 122- Derivative maps, 369
123. See also Hurricanes Desalinization, 369
Cyclonic rain, 363 Desert, 369
Cylindrical projection, 363 Desert climate, 370
Desert pavement, 370
Débâcle, 365 Desertification, 152, 181, 184, 240,
Dahomey, 217 247, 370, 390; and siltation, 503
Dale, 364 Deserts, 90-95, 606; biomes, 135,
Dams, 270, 364; environmental 148-153; polar, 150; rain shadow,
problems, 273; and flooding, 204, 150
207 DesertUSA, 153
Darwin, Charles, 158, 329, 420; and Detrital rock, 370
social Darwinism, 506 Detritus, 371
Datum level, 364 Development, 371
Davis, William Morris, 363 Devils Postpile, 332
Dawn, 364 Devolution, 371
Day, 364 Devonian period, 66
Daylight saving time, 196, 364 Dew, 371
Dead Sea, 497 Dew point, 116, 120, 372
Death rate, 365. See also Crude death Diagenesis, 372
rate Dialect, 372
Death Valley, 72, 90; sliding rocks, Dias, Bartolomeu, 217
16 Diaspora, 372
Debris avalanche, 76, 365 Diastrophism, 372
Debris flow, 365 Diatom ooze, 372
Declination, magnetic, 366 Differential weathering, 372
Declination of the Sun, 366 Differentiation, 372
Deep, 366 Diffusion, 372
Deep ecology, 366 Dike (geology), 372
Deep-ocean currents, 366 Dike (water), 372
Defile, 366 Dinaric Alps, 425
Deflation, 367 Dingle, 373
Deforestation, 367, 482; and Disease; and air travel, 234; and
atmosphere, 114; and erosion, climate, 212-214; and flooding,
265; and plant diversity, 133, 171 212
Degradation, 368 Distance-decay function, 373
Degree (geography), 368 Distributary, 373
 Index / 617

Distribution, 373 Earthflow, 376

Diurnal range, 373 Earthquake swarm, 376
Divergence, 373 Earthquakes, 45, 50, 53-54, 376, 421,
Divergent boundary, 373 500-501; aftershocks, 319; deep-
Divergent margin, 373 focus, 366; epicenter, 380; focus,
Divergent plates, 373 376; and Richter scale, 488;
Diversity, 373 scales, 444; shallow-focus, 501;
Divide, 373 tremors, 402; volcanic, 541;
Doctor, 373 waves, 376, 461, 477, 493
Doldrums, 373 Earth’s axis, 39, 331; and seasons, 42
Doline, 374 Earth’s core, 43-44, 70, 358;
Dolomite, 374 boundary of, 47
Dolphins, 173 Earth’s heat budget, 376
Dome, 374 Earth’s mantle, 43-45, 47, 49-50, 52-
Domestication, 374 53, 70; boundary of, 47; plumes,
Donga, 374 54-55
Double cropping, 374 East Pacific Rise, 72
Downburst, 374 Eastern Hemisphere, 376
Downland, 374 Ebola virus, 234
Downwelling, 374 Eclipses, 35, 377, 457
Drainage, 374 Ecliptic, 377
Drainage basins, 78-79, 374 Eco-fallow farming, 247
Drainage density, 374 Ecological imperialism, 377
Drift ice, 374 Ecology, 181, 377
Drizzle, 374 Economy, 378; informal, 414;
Drought, 374 postindustrial, 475
Drumlin, 375 Ecosystem, 378
Dunes, 91-92, 321, 375, 505; Edaphic, 378
longitudinal, 437; sand, 495; seif, Eddy, 378
500; transverse, 533; types, 92 Effective temperature, 378
Dust, 375 Egypt; early mapmakers, 8;
Dust Bowl, 375 urbanization, 191
Dust devil, 375 Ejecta, 378
Dust dome, 376 Ekman layer, 378
Dust storm, 376 Ekman spiral, 378
El Niño, 256, 349, 378; and disease,
Early Paleozoic, 376 214
Earth; age of, 65; atmosphere, 100- El Niño Southern-Oscillation, 378-
106; biomes, 131, 133-138; 379, 427
circumference, 4, 10; external Elephants; Africa, 159; Asia, 219
processes, 73-77; formation of, Elevation, 378; and climate, 107
43; internal geological processes, Ellipse, 378
70-73; internal structure, 43-47; Eluviation, 378
layers, 43; orbit around Sun, 38; Embankment, 379
plate tectonics, 47, 49-50, 52-55; Emigration, 379
population of, 186-190 Emirate, 379
Earth pillar, 376 Enclave, 379
Earth radiation, 376 Endemic, 379
Earth tide, 376 Endemic species, 379
618 / Index

Endogenic sediment, 379 Estuarine zone, 382

Energy, 379; alternative sources, 266- Estuary, 382
270, 323; and pollution, 265; Etesian winds, 382
sources, 257-265; tidal power, 269; Ethnic group, 382
and warfare, 263; wind power, Ethnic religion, 382
268 Ethnocentrism, 382
Engineering projects, 270-275; Ethnography, 382
environmental problems, 273 Europe; air pollution, 209; canals,
English Channel; and Chunnel, 274 273; minerals, 279; national
Environment, 379 parks, 159; railroads, 228-229;
Environmental degradation, 379 roads, 224
Environmental determinism, 6, 379 Eustacy, 382
Environmental ethics, 380 Eustatic movement, 382
Environmental justice, 380 Evaporation, 382
Environmental Literacy Council, Evapotranspiration, 382
144 Exclave, 382
Eocene epoch, 380 Exfoliation, 383
Eolian, 380 Exosphere, 383
Eolian deposits, 380 Expansion-contraction cycles, 383
Eolian erosion, 380 Exploration; and early geographers,
Eon, 380 5; world, 214-220
Epeiric sea, 380 External economies, 383
Epicenter, 380 Extinction, 384
Epicontinental sea, 381 Extrusive rock, 384
Epifauna, 381 Exxon Valdez, 280
Epilimnion, 381
Epoch, 381 Fahrenheit scale, 384
Equal-area projection, 381 Fall line, 384
Equator, 381; and climate, 110, 135, Famine, 384
149, 198; and seasons, 41, 106 Fata morgana, 384
Equinox, 381 Fathom, 385
Equinoxes, 39, 41 Fathometer, 385
Era, 381 Faults, 355, 361, 372, 376, 380, 385-
Eratosthenes, 3, 10 386, 392, 421, 500, 523, 538; and
Erg, 381 grabens, 399; and horst, 404;
Erie Canal, 272 normal, 455; reverse, 487; and
Eritrea, 313 rifts, 488; and ring dikes, 489;
Erosion, 73, 79, 93, 161, 381; and scarp, 382, 497; slip-strike, 516;
agriculture, 246-247, 257; and thrust, 527; transform, 532
deforestation, 265; eolian, 91; Fauna, 386
and glaciation, 84; and Feldspar, 324, 386, 399
mountains, 71; and ocean Fell, 386
patterns, 95, 97-98; and Felsic rocks, 386
overgrazing, 166, 181, 247; and Fen, 386
sinkholes, 82. See also Fluvial Feng shui, 386
processes Fenno-Scandian Shield, 87
Eruption, volcanic, 381 Fertility rate, 386
Escarpment, 382 Fertilizer, 386
Esker, 382 Fetch, 387
 Index / 619

Feudalism, 387 France, mapping of, 11

Firn, 387 Free association, 392
Firth, 387 Fresh water, 392
Fission, nuclear, 387 Friction of distance, 392
Fissure, 387 Frigid zone, 392
Fjords, 387 Friisius, Gemma, 12
Flood tide, 388 Front, 392
Flooding, 388; control, 203-207, 388; Frontier, 393
and deforestation, 171; and Frontier thesis, 393
disease, 212; flash, 388; seasonal, Frost, 393
81; and storms, 124, 126, 201, Frost wedging, 393
212. See also Dams Fuji, Mount, 56, 159
Floodplains, 80, 388; and Fulton, Robert, 226
civilization, 203; and flood Fumarole, 393
control, 204, 207 Functional region, 393
Flora, 389 Fundy, Bay of, 337
Florida Keys, 357 Fusion, nuclear, 393
Fluvial, 389
Fluvial processes, 77-83 Galapagos Islands; national parks,
Fog, 389 158; volcanoes, 55, 60
Fog deserts, 390 Gale, 393
Föhn wind, 390 Gall’s projection, 394
Fold mountains, 390 Gama, Vasco da, 217
Folding, 390 Ganges River, 203, 368
Foliation, 390 Gangue, 394
Food, world production and Gap, 394
distribution of, 250-251, 253-257 Garigue, 394
Food chain, 390 Gas giant, 394
Food web, 390 Gateway city, 395
Forced migration, 390 GATT. See General Agreement on
Ford, 390 Tariffs and Trade
Forest biomes, 131, 138-141, 143-145 Gemstone, 395
Forest Service, U.S., 144, 148 General Agreement on Tariffs and
Forests, 390; boreal, 133-134, 143, Trade, 288-289
337; coniferous, 353; deciduous, Gentrification, 395
365; midlatitude, 143; temperate, Genus, 395
131; tropical, 131, 133. See also Geochronology, 395
Trees Geodesy, 395
Formal region, 390 Geographic Information System, 7
Fossil fuels, 258-261, 276, 281, 392; Geography; history of, 3-8; themes
and air pollution, 101, 202, 209, of, 19
212; prospecting for, 155. See also Geography education, 19-22
Natural gas; Oil Geography Education Standards
Fossil record, 392 Project, 20
Fossilization, 392 Geoid, 395
Fossils, 67, 391 Geologic record, 395
Foucault’s pendulum, 392 Geologic terrane, 395
Foxes, 134, 144 Geologic time scale, 63, 65-69
Fracture zones, 392 Geological column, 395
620 / Index

Geological Society of America, 69 exfoliation, 383; and spheroidal

Geomagnetism, 395-396 weathering, 509; and tors, 530
Geometry, 8 Granules, 399
Geomorphology, 396 Grassland biomes, 145-148
Geophysics, 396 Grasslands, 135-136, 399; North
Geopolitics, 306-311 America, 145
Geostationary orbit, 396 Gravimeter, 399
Geostrophic, 396 Gravitational differentiation, 399
Geotherm, 396 Gravity, 399; and mass movement, 76
Geothermal, 396 Great Artesian Basin, 328
Geothermal energy, 63, 262-263; for Great Britain; government of, 299-
heating, 267 302; national parks, 159
Geothermal power, 396 Great circle, 399
Germany; and geopolitics, 308-309; Great Lakes, 498, 502; creation of,
national parks, 159 89; size, 168
Geysers, 396, 404-405 Great Plains, climate, 112
Gibber plain, 370 Great Rift Valley, 52, 72, 488
Gibraltar, 306 Greece, early geographers, 3-4, 10,
Glacial erratic, 397 522
Glaciation, 83-84, 86-89, 397-398, 457 Green mud, 399
Glaciers. See Glaciation Green Revolution, 188, 248
Glaciology, 398 Greenhouse effect, 101, 103, 212,
Global Positioning System, 17, 398; 400; and global warming, 113-
and absolute location, 496 114, 210
Global warming, 113, 184, 202, 210, Greenhouse gas, 400
398; and agriculture, 210; and Greenland, 355; Blue Ice Valley, 360;
disease, 212-213; evidence for, glaciation, 87; Happy Valley, 424
212; and ozone depletion, 185, Greenwich mean time, 12, 195-197,
210; and sea level, 97, 210 400
Globe Program, 100 Gross domestic product, 400
Globes, 5, 14; Chinese, 11; Greek, Gross migration, 400
10; Venetian, 12 Groundwater, 167, 400
Gobi Desert, 90, 150, 370 Groundwater movement, 401
Goblin Valley, 425 Groundwater recharge, 401
Gold, 277, 279-280 Growth pole, 401
Gondwanaland, 49, 398 Guano, 401
Goosenecks State Park, 389 Guest workers, 401
Gore, Al, 182 Gulf Stream, 107, 458
Gorge, 398 Gulf War, 310
Gottman, Jean, 443 Gulfs, 401
Government, forms of, 299-303; Gutenberg, Beno, 488
monarchies, 301. See also Political Guyot, 401
geography Gyre, 401
Graben, 399
Grand Canal, 273 Hadrian’s Wall, 311
Grand Canyon, 78, 444, 471, 537 Haff, 401
Grand Tetons, 512 Hail, 42, 126
Granite, 326, 333, 354, 386, 399, Halley, Edmond, 12
412-413, 423, 473, 503; and Halley’s Comet, 351
 Index / 621

Hamlet, 402 Hot spring, 405

Harbor, 402 Howard, Luke, 349
Harmonic tremor, 402 Huerta, 406
Harrison, John, 12, 346 Human environment, 181-186
Hartshorne, Richard, 6 Humboldt, Alexander von, 5-6, 12
Haushofer, Karl, 309 Humid-midlatitude, 406
Hawaiian Astronomical Society, 31 Humidity, 352, 406; absolute, 317;
Hawaiian Islands, 428; origins of, 54, relative, 409, 485, 519
404; volcanoes, 55, 60, 317, 346, Hummocky, 406
405, 432, 469, 502 Humus, 406
Headland, 402 Huntington, Samuel, 310
Headwaters, 402 Hurricane Andrew, 124
Heat index, 402 Hurricane Camille, 124
Heat sink, 402 Hurricane Elena, 384
Hecataeus, 3 Hurricane Floyd, 212
Hemispheres, 402; and seasons, 41 Hurricanes, 97, 111, 120, 122-124,
Henry the Navigator, Prince, 5, 216 406; eye, 384; formation of, 123;
Heritage seed movement, 244 naming of, 124; prediction of, 124
Herschel, John, 195 Hussein, Saddam, 310
Heterosphere, 402 Hutton, James, 65
High altitude biomes, 153-156 Hydroelectric power, 407
High-frequency seismic waves, 402 Hydroelectric projects, 270
Hill, 402 Hydrography, 408
Hillock, 402 Hydrologic cycle, 408
Himalayas, and borders, 304 Hydrology, 408; and soils, 164
Hinterland, 402 Hydrolysis, 75
Hipparchus, 4 Hydrosphere, 182, 408
Histogram, 402 Hydrostatic pressure, 408
Historical inertia, 402 Hydrothermal, 408
Hitler, Adolf, 302; and geopolitics, Hydrothermal vents, 408
308-309 Hyetograph, 409
Hoar frost, 403 Hygrogram, 409
Hogback, 403 Hygrograph, 409
Holocene, 403 Hygrometer, 410
Homeland, 403 Hygrophyte, 410
Homosphere, 403 Hypocenter, 410
Honolulu, Waikiki Beach, 334 Hypsometer, 410
Hood, Mount, 541
Hook, 403 Ibn Battutah, 4
Hoover Dam, 271, 429 Ibn Khaldun, 4
Horizon, true, 404 Ice age, 410; future, 88
Horizon, visible, 404 Ice Age, 84, 87; and sea level, 188
Horse latitudes, 404 Ice blink, 410
Horses, 257, 263; domestication of, Ice caps, 410; climate, 410; polar, 473
257 Ice field, 410
Horst, 404 Ice sheet, 411
Horticulture, 404 Ice shelf, 411
Horton, Robert, 515 Ice storm, 411
Hot spots, 54-55, 404, 541 Icebergs, 411; calving, 340
622 / Index

Icefoot, 412 International Energy Agency, 265

Iceland; geothermal energy, 267; International migration, 416
volcanoes, 63 International Monetary Fund, 289
Idrisi, al-, 4, 11 International Trade Administration,
Igneous rock, 412 295
Iguazú National Park, 158 International Union for
Illinois, coal, 278-279 Conservation of Nature, 157
Immigration, 412 Intertillage, 417
Impact crater, 412 Intertropical convergence zone,
Imperialism, 413 108, 110-111, 417
Impervious rock, 413 Intrusive rock, 417
Import substitution, 413 Inuits, 8, 453, 535; Canada, 155
Index fossil, 413 Ionosphere, 105, 417
India; and China, 313; Kashmir Iran, and United States, 307
dispute, 312-313; national parks, Iraq, invasion of Kuwait, 263
159; railroads, 229 Ireland, potato famine, 199
Indian summer, 413 Iron ore, 278
Indigenous people, 413 Irredentism, 418
Indonesia, 304; national parks, 159 Irrigation, 418
Industrial Revolution, 188, 413 Isallobar, 419
Industrialization, 414 Islam, 419
Infant mortality, 414 Island arcs, 53, 70, 420
Infauna, 414 Islands, 329, 420, 589; archipelago,
Infiltration, 414 327; barrier, 332; cays, 343;
Informal economy, 414 climate, 415; continental, 355;
Informal sector, 414 key, 426; low, 437; oceanic, 458
Infrastructure, 414 Isobar, 420
Initial advantage, 414 Isobath, 420
Inlet, 414 Isoclinal folding, 420
Inlier, 414 Isogonic line, 420
Inner core, 414 Isohaline, 420
Insects, Arctic, 154 Isohel, 420
Inselberg, 414 Isohyet, 420
Insolation, 415, 486 Isoline, 420
Insular climate, 415 Isomagnetic charts, 420
Insurgent state, 415 Isopleth, 421
Intercropping, 416 Isoseismal line, 421
Interfluve, 79, 416 Isotasy, 421
Interglacial, 416 Isotherm, 421
Interlocking spur, 416 Isotropic, 421-422
Intermediate rock, 416 Isthmian links, 422
Internal drainage, 416 Isthmuses, 422
Internal geological processes, 70-73 ITCZ. See Intertropical convergence
Internal migration, 416 zone
International Biosphere Reserve
Program, 157 Japan; bridges, 271; early trade, 219;
International boundaries. See energy sources, 264; national
Borders parks, 159; Seikan Tunnel, 274
International date line, 197, 416 Jebel, 422
 Index / 623

Jet stream, 422 Lambert, Johan H., 12

Jetty, 423 Land breeze, 429
Johore Strait, 512 Land bridge, 429
Joint, 423 Land hemisphere, 430
Juan de Fuca Ridge, 72 Land use, 430
Jungle, 424 Landform, 430
Jupiter, 29-30 Landlocked country, 430
Jurassic period, 66, 424 Landmass, 430
Landsat, 13, 430
Kames, 89, 424 Landscape, 430
Kansas, 201 Landslide, 431
Kariba Dam, 271 Languages, 431; branches, 431;
Karst, 81-82, 425 families, 431; lingua francas, 435
Kashmir, 312-313 Lapilli, 431
Katabatic wind, 425 Las Vegas, 429
Kenai Fjords National Park, 387 Late Precambrian era, 431
Kettles, 89, 426 Laterite, 431
Key, 426 Latin America, 431
Khamsin, 426 Latitude, 432
Kilauea, Mount, 60 Laurasia, 49, 432
Kilimanjaro, Mount, 463 Laurentide ice sheet, 411
Kjellen, Rudolf, 306 Lava, 317, 332, 381, 412, 428, 432,
Knickpoint, 426 439, 502-503, 512, 514, 541;
Koeppen, Wladimir, 427 block, 336; pillow, 469; and
Koeppen climate classification, 427 pumice, 478; ropy, 492
Kola Well, 45 Leaching, 433
Komodo dragons, 159 Lebensraum, 308
Kopje, 427 Leeward, 433
Krakatoa, 479 Legend, 433
Kruger National Park, 159 Legumes, 433
Krummholz, 154 Levee, 433
Kuiper Belt, 30-31 Life expectancy, 433
Kuwait, and Iraq, 263 Light year, 434
Kwajalein Atoll, 330 Lightning, 434
Lignite, 434
La Niña, 427 Limestone, 434
Labrador, minerals, 278 Lingua francas, 435
Laccolith, 428 Liquefaction, 435
Lagoon, 428 Literacy rate, 435
Lahar, 428 Lithic, 436
Lake basin, 429 Lithification, 436
Lakebeds, 429 Lithology, 436
Lakes, 429, 436; base level, 332; Lithosphere, 44, 47, 49-50, 70-71,
bitter, 336; and drainage, 416; 436; faults in, 54; formation of,
intermittent, 416; kettle, 89, 426; 50, 52, 183; oceanic, 50, 53
largest, 603; oxbow, 460; Littoral, 436
paternoster, 462; perennial, 464; Livestock, 436; and nomadism, 237,
piedmont, 468; saline, 471, 493; 239; overgrazing, 166, 246
tarns, 521 Llanos, 436
624 / Index

Loam, 436 Mapmaking; history of, 8, 10-14;

Local sea-level change, 436 new technologies, 14-19;
Local winds, 436 projections, 14
Location, 436; absolute, 318, 368, Maps, 439; cognitive, 350; geologic,
496; relative, 486 395; mental, 444; projections,
Loch, 436 331, 353, 363, 381, 394, 439;
Lode deposit, 437 thematic, 525; topographic, 530
Loess, 437 Maquiladoras, 439
London, killer smog, 208 Marble, 439
Longitude, 437; and chronometer, Marchland, 440
12 Marine resources, 171-173
Longshore current, 437 Market town, 440
Longshore drift, 98, 437 Marl, 440
Los Angeles, 202 Mars, 27-28
Los Angeles River, 204 Marsh, 440
Lourdes, 493 Marshall Islands; atolls, 330; early
Low Countries, and mapmaking, maps, 8
11 Mass movement, 75-76
Luttwak, Edward N., 309 Massif, 441
Lyell, Charles, 65 Material culture, 441
Mather, Stephen T., 158
Maar, 438 Mead, Lake, 429
Mackinder, Halford John, 308-309 Mean sea level, 441
Macroburst, 438 Meander, 442
Macrofossil, 438 Measurement, systems of, 442
Madagascar, 355 Mechanical weathering, 443
Magellan, Ferdinand, 217 Mechanization, 443
Magma, 438 Medical geography, 443
Magnetic field, 438 Mediterranean biome, 136
Magnetic poles, 438 Mediterranean climate, 443
Magnetic reversal, 438 Megacity, 193, 443
Magnetic storm, 438 Megalopolis, 443
Magnetic survey, 438 Mekong River, 337
Magnetism, 438 Meltwater, 444
Magnetosphere, 438 Mental map, 444
Mahogany, 133; China, 218 Mercalli scale, 444
Malacca, 219 Mercator, Gerardus, 5, 11
Malaria, 212-213 Mercury, 27
Mammoth Cave National Park, 343, Meridian, 444
511 Mesa, 444
Mammoth Hot Springs, 405, 533 Mesosphere, 105, 444
Mandate, 438 Mesozoic era, 66, 445
Mangrove swamp, 439 Messina, Paula, 16
Mantle, 439 Mestizo, 445
Mantle convection, 439 Metamorphic rock, 445
Mantle plumes, 54, 439 Metamorphic zone, 445
Manufacturing, 282-286; Metamorphism, 445
globalization of, 286-291 Meteor, 445
Mao Zedong, 244 Meteor shower, 445
 Index / 625

Meteoric water, 445 Mudflow, 452

Meteorite, 445 Mulatto, 452
Meteoroid, 445 Multiculturalism, 452
Meteorology, 445 Multinational corporations, 184,
Metropolis, 445 284, 452
Metropolitan area, 445 Multnomah Falls, 543
Mexico; national parks, 158 Municipality, 452
Mexico City; air pollution, 208 Murchison, Roderick, 66
Michelangelo, 440
Microburst, 446 Nairobi, 229
Microclimate, 446 Nambung National Park, 435
Microcontinent, 446 Namib Desert, 150, 390
Microstates, 446 Namibia, and Botswana, 314
Mid-Atlantic ridge, 55 Napoleon Bonaparte, 221
Mid-ocean ridge, 447 Nappe, 452
Migration, 447; net, 454; voluntary, Narrows, 452
542 Nation, 452
Milky Way, 25, 38 Nation-state, 452
Minerals, 276-282, 448; ores, 459; National Education Goals, 20
primary, 477 National Geographic Society, 7, 21,
Mining, 276-278 144; and geography education, 19
Miocene epoch, 448 National Geography Standards, 19-
Mississippi River; drainage basin, 79; 21
flood control, 206; silting, 248, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
499 Administration, 100
Mist, 448 National parks, 156-160, 452, 546
Mohorovi#i$ (Moho) discontinuity, National Weather Service, 120
45 Nationalism, 453
Monadnock, 449 Native Americans, 453
Monarchy, 449 Natural bridge, 453
Mongolia, nomadism, 239 Natural gas, 175, 453; sources of,
Monkeys, 141 281
Mono Lake, 493, 535 Natural hazard, 453
Monogenetic, 449 Natural increase, rate of, 453
Monsoons, 107, 110, 449, 458, 534; Natural levee, 454
South Asia, 205; winter, 110 Natural selection, 454
Mont Blanc, 83 Nautical mile, 454
Mont-Saint-Michel, 529 Navigation, 454
Monument Valley, 93 Near-polar orbit, 454
Moon, 32-34, 36-37, 450; creation of, Nebraska, 201, 243
28; impact craters, 34; mapping Nekton, 454
of, 12; maria, 33 Neptune, 29; and Pluto, 30
Moraines, 86, 89, 450 Nevado del Ruiz, 62
Morphology, 451 Névé, 454
Mountains, 451; belts, 451; block, New Guinea, 355
336; as borders, 312; and climate, New Zealand, national parks, 158
108; formation, 70-71; highest, Niche, 454
606; ranges, 483 Nickpoint, 454
Mozambique; roads, 224 Nike, 288
626 / Index

Nile River, 203, 383, 422; cataracts, 494; seafloor spreading, 498; and
342; flooding, 203-204 seas, 497; trenches, 533; and
NIMBY, 454 tsunamis, 534; upwelling, 538;
Niño. See El Niño waves, 337-338, 437, 485, 500,
Nomadism, 239-240, 455 519, 544
North America; climate and Offshore financial centers, 458
immigration, 201; food Ogallala Aquifer, 168, 327, 419
production, 251; grazing animals, Oil, 459; distribution of, 280;
147; national parks, 157 sources of, 280
North American Free Trade Oklahoma, oil, 280
Agreement, 288 Oligocene epoch, 459
North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Oort Cloud, 31, 459
and Serbia, 310 Orbit, 459
North Cascades National Park, 398 Ordovician epoch, 459
North Korea, and United States, 307 Oregon; flora, 145; volcanoes, 56
North magnetic pole, 455 Organization of Petroleum
North Pole, 455 Exporting Countries, 280
North Sea; natural gas, 281 Orient, 459
North/south divide, 456 Orogeny, 459
Northern Hemisphere, 456 Orographic precipitation, 459
Nuclear energy, 262, 456; and Orography, 460
Chernobyl disaster, 208 Outback, 460
Nuclear fission, 261; pollution, 265 Oxbow lake, 460
Nuclear fusion, 38, 261, 263 Oxidation, 75, 460
Nuée ardente, 457 Ozone, 101, 104, 184, 208-209, 460;
Numerical weather prediction, 457 depletion, 184
Nunatak, 457 Ozone hole, 102, 460
Ozone layer, 460
Oases, 239, 457
Obduction, 457 P wave, 461
Oblate sphere, 457 Pacific Rim, 461; trade, 294
Occidental, 457 Paddies, 461
Occultation, 457 Pakistan, Kashmir dispute, 312-313
Ocean basins, 458 Paleobiogeography, 461
Ocean biome, 136-137 Paleobiology, 461
Ocean circulation, 458 Paleoceanography, 461
Ocean current, 458; and climate, 107 Paleodepth, 461
Ocean floors, mapping of, 13 Paleomagnetism, 461
Ocean margins, 95, 97-100 Paleontology, 461
Oceanic crust, 43-44, 52-53, 458 Paleozoic era, 66, 461
Oceanography, 458 Pampas, 304
Oceans, 337, 366, 457, 588; abyss, Panama, Isthmus of, 422
318; coasts, 350; continental Panama Canal, 272
shelf, 355; currents, 319, 366, Pandemic, 461
401, 458; doldrums, 373; as Pangaea, 49, 462
energy sources, 269; horse Paradigm, 462
latitudes, 404; hydrography, 408; Parallel, 462
and hydrosphere, 408; Parasitic cone, 462
paleoceanography, 461; salt water, Parish, 462
 Index / 627

Particulate matter, 462 Piedmont lake, 468

Pass, 462 Pilgrimage, 468
Pastoralism, 462 Pillow lava, 469
Patents, 286 Pinatubo, Mount, 479, 541
Paternoster lakes, 462 Pinnacles Desert, 435
Patriarchy, 462 Place, 469
Patterned ground, 153, 463 Plain, 469
Peak, 463 Planet, 470
Peat, 463 Planetary Society, 31
Pebble, 463 Planetary wind system, 470
Pedestal rock, 463 Planets; giant, 29-30; other solar
Pediment, 464 systems, 29; terrestrial, 25, 27, 29
Pedology, 464 Plankton, 136, 470
Pelagic, 464 Plantation, 471
Pele, 464 Plat, 471
Pelée, Mount, 61 Plate boundaries, 50, 52-54, 70
Penck, Albrecht, 13 Plate tectonics, 47, 49-50, 52-55, 471
Peneplain, 464 Plateau, 471
Peninsula, 464 Plato, 4, 299, 302-303
Percolation, 464 Playas, 94, 471
Perforated state, 464 Pleistocene, 84, 471
Periglacial, 464 Plinian eruption, 472
Perihelion, 464 Pliny the Elder, 472
Periphery, 464 Pliocene epoch, 472
Permafrost, 153-155, 465 Plucking, 472
Permeable, 466 Plume, 472
Permian period, 466 Plural society, 473
Persian Gulf War, 177 Pluto, 30
Peru, national parks, 158 Pluton, 473
Peru Current, 378 Plutonic, 473
Petrified Forest, 466 Pluvial period, 473
Petrified wood, 466 Polar deserts, 150
Petrochemical, 466 Polar vortex, 473
Petrography, 466 Polarity, 473
Petroleum, 466 Polder, 473
Phanerozoic eon, 466 Pole, 473
Phoenicians, 215 Political geography, 473; and
Photochemical smog, 466 geopolitics, 306; and physical
Photography, aerial, 13 geography, 303-306
Photometry, 467 Pollution, 473; and agriculture, 248-
Photosynthesis, 467 249; and energy, 265. See also
Phylogeny, 467 Atmosphere, pollution
Physical geography, 467; and Pool, 474
political geography, 303-306 Popular culture, 474
Physical weathering, 467 Population, 474
Physiography, 467 Population density, 474
Physiologic density, 467 Population explosion, 474
Piedmont, 467 Population growth and distribution,
Piedmont glacier, 468 186-190
628 / Index

Population pyramid, 475 Radon gas, 481

Porosity, 475 Railroads, 225-230; and time zones,
Ports, 475; Africa, 229; North 195-197; and urbanization, 192
America, 294 Rain forests, 170, 481; medicinal
Possibilism, 6, 475 plants, 171; tropical, 140-141, 482
Postindustrial economy, 475 Rain gauge, 482
Potable water, 475 Rain-shadow effect, 482
Potato famime, Irish, 199 Rainfall, 482
Potatoes, South America, 253 Rainier, Mount, 514
Potholes, 475 Rank-size rule, 484
Powell, John Wesley, 332 Rapids, 484
Powell, Lake, 429 Ratzel, Friedrich, 308, 324
Prairie, 476 Realm, 484
Prairie dogs, 147 Recessional moraine, 484
Precambrian period, 476 Recumbent fold, 484
Precipitation, 477; in desert Red Sea, 52, 72, 422
climates, 110-111, 135, 148-149, Reef (geology), 485
151; in grasslands, 146-147; and Reefs, 329, 485; coral, 357; fringing,
monsoons, 110; and topography, 392
198 Refraction of waves, 485
Primary economic activity, 477 Region, 485
Primary wave, 477 Regionalism, 485
Primate cities, 477, 484 Regolith, 485
Prime meridian, 12, 195-197, 477; Regression, 485
Ptolemy’s, 10 Rejuvenation, 485
Principal parallels, 478 Relief, 486
Principality, 478 Religion, 486
Protectorate, 478 Remote sensing, 486
Proterozoic eon, 478 Renewable resources, 486
Protruded, 478 Replacement rate, 486
Province, 478 Republic, 486
Psychrometer, 478 Reservoir, 486
Ptolemy, 4-5, 10 Reservoir rock, 486
Public Land Survey, U.S., 13 Resources, 486; nonrenewable, 174-
Pull factors, 478 175, 177-178, 455; renewable,
Pumice, 57, 478 170-174; strategic, 513
Push factors, 479 Respiration, 487
Pyroclasts, 479 Retrograde orbit, 487
Retrograde rotation, 487
Qanat, 479 Reverse fault, 487
Quartz, 480 Revolution, 488
Quaternary period, 480 Ria coast, 488
Rice, 243, 253; Asia, 219, 253; North
Radar imaging, 480 America, 199-200, 243
Radial drainage, 480 Richter, Charles, 488
Radiation, 480 Richter scale, 488
Radio, 105 Ridge, 488
Radioactivity, 456, 480-481; and Rift, 488
carbon dating, 341 Rift propagation, 488
 Index / 629

Rift valleys, 72, 488 Salt Lake City; temple, 391

Rills, 489 Salt water, 494
Ring dike, 489 Saltation, 494
Ring of Fire, 489 Salton Sea, 73
Riparian, 489 Saltwater wedge, 494
Riparian rights, 489 San Andreas Fault, 54, 72, 361
Ritter, Karl, 5 San Francisco Bay, 334
River terraces, 490 San Juan River, 389
Rivers, 489; antecedent, 324; as Sand, 494; and deserts, 91; dunes,
borders, 312; consequent, 354; 91-92
longest, 604; meandering, 442; Sandbar, 495
mouths, 452; silting, 248; types, 80 Sandstone, 495
Roads, 220-225 Sapping, 495
Roadstead, 490 SARS. See Severe acute respiratory
Roches moutonnées, 490 syndrome
Rock, 491 Satellite, 496
Rock avalanche, 491 Satellite meteorology, 496
Rock cycle, 68, 491 Satellites, and mapping, 13, 17
Rock fall, 491 Saturation, zone of, 496
Rock flour, 491 Saturn, 29-30, 394
Rock glacier, 491 Sauer, Carl, 6
Rock salt, 491 Savanna, 136, 170, 253, 496; climate,
Rock slide, 491 110
Rock types, 175 Scale, 496
Roger’s Book, 4 Scarp, 497
Roman Empire, boundaries, 311 Schist, 497
Romans, early geographers, 10 Scree, 497
Rome, ancient, 191; geographers, Sea level, 497; and glaciers, 97
3-4; roads, 220; trade of, 215-216 Seafloor spreading, 498
Ropy lava, 492 Seamount, 498
Rotation, 492 Seas, 497
Roundwood, 171 Seasons, 41-43, 498
Rubber trees, 133 Seaway, 498
Runoff, 492 Secondary industry, 498
Rural, 492 Sectionalism, 499
Russia; early trade, 219; iron ore, 278 Sedgwick, Adam, 66
Russo-Japanese War, 229 Sediment, 499
Sedimentary rocks, 499
S waves, 493 Sediments, 73-76, 79-81, 93;
Saami, 535 moraines, 86; and rivers, 95, 97-
Sacred space, 493 98, 248; and sinkholes, 82
Sagan, Carl, 31 Segregation, 499
Sahara Desert; lifeforms, 151 Seikan Tunnel, 274
Sahel, 247, 370, 493 Seismic, 500
St. Helens, Mount, 62, 339 Seismic activity, 500
Salinity, 494 Seismic tomography, 45, 47
Salinization, 494 Seismic waves, 46, 500
Salt, 494 Seismicity, 500
Salt domes, 494 Seismogram, 500
630 / Index

Seismograph, 500 Slave trade; Atlantic, 200, 216-217,

Seismology, 501 219, 390
Seismometer, 501 Sleet, 42, 505
Self-determination, 501 Slip-face, 505
Semidesert, 501 Slough, 505
Semple, Ellen Churchill, 6 Slovenia, Krs Plateau, 425
Serbia, NATO attack on, 310 Slump, 505
Serengeti National Park, 159 Smith, William, 12, 65
Settlement, 501 Smog, 505
Severe acute respiratory syndrome Snout, 505
(SARS), 234 Snow, 506
Shadow zone, 501 Snow line, 506
Shale, 161, 501 Social Darwinism, 506
Shale oil, 261, 276, 281-282, 501; Soils, 160-166, 506-507; as building
Canada, 265, 282 materials, 165; expansive, 383;
Shantytowns, 501 grassland, 147; and habitats, 165;
Sheet wash, 501 horizon, 507; and overgrazing,
Sheikdom, 502 246; roles of, 163-165; subsoil,
Shelter belt, 502 517; topsoil, 530; types, 161, 163
Shield, 502 Solar constant, 507
Shield volcano, 502 Solar energy, 40, 78, 103, 107, 262,
Shifting cultivation. See Slash-and- 507; and ancient Greeks, 264;
burn agriculture insolation, 415
Shire, 503 Solar nebula, 507
Shoal, 503 Solar radiation, 507
Shock city, 503 Solar system, 25-32, 507
Shore, 503 Solar wind, 31, 507
Shoreline, 503 Solifluction, 76, 507
Shuksan, Mount, 398 Solstices, 39-41, 508; and the poles,
Sial, 503 39
Sierra, 503 Solution, 508
Sierra Club, 106 Sonar, 319
Sierra Nevada, 71; formation of, 71 Sonoran Desert, lifeforms, 151
Sikkim, 305 Sound, 508
Silica, 503 Source rock, 508
Silk Road, 215-216 South Africa; Cape Doctor, 373;
Sill, 503 minerals, 279; national parks,
Silt, 503 159; provinces, 478
Siltation, 503 South America; altitude zones, 323;
Silver, 279 border disputes, 313; disease,
Sima, 504 214; international borders, 313;
Simple crater, 504 national parks, 158; savanna, 496
Sinkholes, 82, 504 South Asia; flooding, 205
Site, 504 South China Sea; oil, 263; Spratly
Situation, 504 Islands, 313; trade, 219
Skeleton Coast, 150 Southeast Asia, hydroelectric
Slash-and-burn agriculture, 237, projects, 270
239, 247 Southern Hemisphere, 508
Slate, 505 Southern Oscillation, 508
 Index / 631

Sovereignty, 509 Stromboli, Mount, 59

Soviet Union, agriculture, 244 Subcontinent, 516
Soybeans, 199, 242, 249, 253; Asia, Subduction, 516
253; United States, 243, 249 Subduction zone, 517
Spa, 509 Sublimation, 517
Space exploration, 36-37 Submarine canyon, 517
Spain; and exploration, 11, 217; Submergence, 517
national parks, 159 Subsidence, 517
Spatial diffusion, 509 Subsolar point, 517
Spheroidal weathering, 509 Suburbanization, 517
Spillway, 509 Subways, 264
Spit, 403, 509 Suez Canal, 272; and international
Splash erosion, 510 politics, 306
Spratly Islands, 313 Sultanate, 517
Spread effects, 510 Summit, 517
Springs, 510 Sun, 37-40, 517; as energy source,
Spykman, John, 309 258, 266. See also Solar energy
Squall line, 510 Sun angle, 106-107; tropical, 110
Squatter settlements, 510 Sun Belt, 517
Stacks, 510 Sunrise, 518
Stalactite, 511 Sunset, 518
Stalagmite, 511 Sunspots, 519
Stalin, Joseph, 244, 302 Supercontinents, 49, 519
State, 511 Superior, Lake, 278, 429
Steam engines, 226; principles of, Supersaturation, 519
261 Supranationalism, 519
Steno, Nicholas, 65 Supratidal, 519
Steppes, 511; climate, 111-112 Surface water, 519
Stock, 512 Suspension, 519
Stone Mountain, 399 Swamp, 519
Storm, 512 Sweden, national parks, 159
Storms, 121-128; and barrier islands, Swell, 519
97 Swidden, 519
Straits, 512 Switzerland, national parks, 159
Strata, 512 Swordfish, 173
Stratified drift, 513 Sydney, Harbor Bridge, 519
Stratigraphy, 65-66, 513 Symbiosis, 519
Stratosphere, 104, 513 Symbolic landscapes, 519
Stratovolcano, 514 Syncline, 520
Stream order, 515
Streams, 514; braided, 338; Table Mountain, South Africa, 521
ephemeral, 380; exotic, 383; Table mountains, 521
intermittent, 416; perennial, 464; Tableland, 521
sinking, 504; underfit, 538; yazoo, Taiga, 521
548 Takeoff, 521
Striations, 515 Talus, 521
Strike, 515 Tanzania, national parks, 159
Strike-slip fault, 516 Tariffs, 284, 289
Strip mining, 516 Tarn, 521
632 / Index

Tasmania, 355 454; spring, 510; and tsunami,

Taxonomy, 521 535
Technology, 521 Till, 529
Tectonic plate, 522 Timberline, 529
Tectonism, 522 Time-space convergence, 529
Telephones, 285 Time zones, 12, 195-198, 529
Temperate zones, 41, 131, 182, 198, Tobacco, North America, 199-200
522; agriculture, 237-238; and Tombolo, 529
economic progress, 200; rain Topocide, 530
forests, 140 Topography, 161, 530
Temperature, 522; inversion, 522 Topological space, 530
Temporary base level, 523 Toponyms, 530
Tension, 523 Topophilia, 530
Tephra, 523 Tor, 530
Terminal moraine, 523 Tornadoes, 127, 530; funnel cloud,
Terra rossa, 524 393; waterspouts, 544
Terrace, 524 Town, 531
Terracettes, 525 Township and range, 531
Terrain, 525 Traction, 531
Terrane, 525 Trade, 531; and containerization,
Terrestrial planet, 525 293; globalization of, 286-291;
Terrigenous, 525 multilateral, 292; world, 291-295
Tertiary industry, 525 Trade routes; historical, 214-220;
Tertiary period, 525 and resources, 177
Texas; cattle, 243; dengue fever, 213- Trade winds, 108, 532; mapping of,
214; oil, 280 12
Texture, 525 Trans-Canada Highway, 223
Thalweg, 525 Transculturation, 532
Thermal equator, 525 Transferability, 532
Thermal erosion, 525 Transform faults, 54, 532
Thermal fracture, 526 Transgression, 532
Thermal gradient, 526 Transhumance, 532
Thermal pollution, 526 Transit, 532
Thermocline, 526 Transpiration, 532
Thermodynamics, 526 Transportation; intermodal, 294;
Thermometer, 526 and marketing, 285
Thermopause, 526 Transverse bar, 533
Thermosphere, 105, 526 Travertine, 533
Third World, 526 Trees, 138, 145; as resources, 170-
Three Gorges Dam, 204, 271 171. See also Forests
Threshold, 526 Trench, 533
Thrust belt, 526 Triassic, 534
Thrust fault, 527 Tributary, 534
Thunderstorms, 125, 527 Trophic level, 534
Tibet, 304-305 Tropical cyclone, 534
Tidal power, 269, 528 Tropical depression, 534
Tidal range, 528 Tropical rain forests. See Rain forests
Tides, 335, 528; bores, 337; diurnal, Tropical storm, 534
373; ebb, 377; flood, 388; neap, Tropics, 534
 Index / 633

Tropopause, 104, 534 Uranus, 29

Troposphere, 104, 534 Urban heat islands, 194, 539
Trough, 534 Urbanization, 539; and agriculture,
Tsunamis, 182, 534-535 190, 249; counterurbanization,
Tufa, 535 359; and food distribution, 254;
Tuff, 535 global, 190-194;
Tuff ring, 535 overurbanization, 460; and
Tumescence, 535 population growth, 189;
Tundra, 134-135, 153-156, 535; suburbanization, 517
conservation of, 155; fauna, 154 Utah, 391
Tunnel vent, 536 UTC. See Coordinated universal time
Tunnels, 225, 273-274; natural, 89; Uvala, 539
and railroads, 227
Turbulence, 536 Vadose zone, 539
Turtles, sea, 173 Valley train, 540
Typhoons, 122, 536 Valleys, 364, 373, 394, 539; drowned,
375; fjords, 387; rift, 488; river,
Ubac slope, 537 490; transverse, 533; u-shaped,
Ultimate base level, 537 536
Ultramafic rocks, 537 Van Allen radiation belts, 540
Ultraviolet radiation, 101-102, 104, Varnish, desert, 540
537; and ozone, 208 Varve, 540
Uluru, 415 Vatican City, 447
Unconformity, 537 Vegetation, 540
Underclass, 538 Vein, 540
Underemployment, 538 Veld, 540
Uniform Time Act, 196 Venezuela, roads, 223
Uniformitarianism, 65, 538 Ventifacts, 540
United Arab Emirates, 313 Venus, 27
United Nations, and national parks, Vernacular region, 540
157 Vernal equinox, 540
United States; borders, 312; and Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, 272
China, 310; climate and Victoria, Lake, 312
productivity, 200; commercial Victoria Desert, 149
agriculture, 242-244; government Vietnam, and China, 313
of, 299-300; iron ore, 278; labor Vikings, and ice age, 88
force, 282-283, 286; minerals, Village, 540
278; national parks, 156; Volcanoes, 45, 50, 53, 55-63, 70-71,
railroads, 228-229; roads, 221, 541; ash, 540; and atmosphere,
223; water resources, 167 101, 207; and earthquakes, 541;
United States Naval Observatory, Hawaii, 54; Iceland, 55; and
198 island arcs, 541; on other planets,
Universal Transverse Mercator, 538 26; South America, 70
Universalizing religion, 538 Volcanology, 542
Upland, 538 Vostok, 113
Uplift, 538
Upper mantle, 538 Wadi, 542
Upthrown block, 538 Warfare, and energy, 263
Upwelling, 538 Wash, 542
634 / Index

Washington (state); flora, 145; Windchill, 547

volcanoes, 56, 59 Windward, 547
Washington, D.C., and time zones, Winter solstice, 547
195 Wolves, Yellowstone National Park,
Water; cycle, 542; gap, 542; power, 474
542; uses of, 168 Woodlands, 547
Water resources, 167-170, 542. See World Aeronautical Chart, 13, 548
also Hydrology; Lakes; Rivers World Bank, 289, 548; and roads,
Water table, 542 224
Waterfalls, 342, 543; highest, 607; World Conservation Monitoring
knickpoints, 426 Centre, 160
Watershed, 544; and flooding, 205 World Trade Organization, 288, 290
Waterspout, 544 World War I, 231; Europe, 231
Watt, James, 226 World War II, 232; and geography, 7;
Wave-cut platform, 544 Hitler, Adolf, 308
Waves, 544; crest, 544; height, 544; Wright, Orville, 231
length, 544; trough, 544 Wright, Wilbur, 231
Weather, 544. See also Climate
Weather analogue, 544 Xenolith, 548
Weather forecasting, 544 Xeric, 548
Weather World 2010, 106, 120 Xerophytic plants, 548
Weathering, 544
Wegener, Alfred, 355, 462 Yangtze River, 203
Well, 545 Yardangs, 548
Wenatchee Mountains, 347 Yellowstone National Park, 156, 332,
Western Europe, food production, 393, 405-406, 542; Old Faithful,
251 396; volcanism, 56
Western Hemisphere, 545 Yemen, 313
Wetlands, 205-206, 545 Yosemite National Park, 158, 383,
Wheat, 253 426; Half Dome, 383; waterfalls,
White Sands National Monument, 427
321 Yucatán; archaeological sites, 158
Wilderness, 545
Willy willy, 546 Zeppelin, Ferdinand von, 231
Wilson cycle, 546 Zeppelins, 231
Wind, 546; belts, 108 Zero population growth, 548
Wind gap, 547 Zheng He, 218
Wind power, 261, 268, 546 Zoning, 548
Windbreak, 547