Introduction to Geography - GEOG 101 Resource Guide

CQ Researcher September 9, 2011

AN EARTHQUAKE IS usually caused by the rupture of a geologic fault, or the seam between two large blocks of land that suddenly move in different directions. The two predominant types of faults are thrust faults and strike-slip faults. A strike slip fault is the most common in the United States; it is where two geologic plates move in opposite directions relative to each other, such as the San Andreas in California.

hurricane, tropical cyclone in which winds attain speeds greater than 74 mi (119 km) per hr. Wind speeds gust over 200 mi (320 km) per hr in some hurricanes. The term is often restricted to those storms occurring over the N Atlantic Ocean; the identical phenomenon occurring over the W Pacific Ocean is called a typhoon; around Australia and over the Indian Ocean, a tropical cyclone.

tsunami: series of catastrophic ocean waves generated by submarine movements, which may be caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, landslides beneath the ocean, or an asteroid striking the earth. Tsunamis are also called seismic sea waves or, popularly, tidal waves.

Geography as an academic discipline focuses on analysing and providing explanatory accounts for the nature and implications of the material character of the earth's surface and its use by people and societies. Its key concepts are space, place, and environment, each studied at a variety of scales.

A major field of geography that is centrally concerned with the ways in which place, space and environment are both the condition and in part the consequence of human activities. The history of geography (see geography, history of) as a systematic and ordered body of knowledge was long dominated by the physical and natural sciences.

Combination of weather conditions at a particular place over a period of time - usually a minimum of 30 years. A climate classification encompasses the averages, extremes, and frequencies of all meteorological elements such as temperature, atmospheric p

The term demography comes from the Greek words for population (demos) and for description or writing (graphia).

The science of place, i.e., the study of the surface of the earth, the location and distribution of its physical and cultural features, the areal patterns or places that they form, and the interrelation of these features as they affect humans.

The term ‘geopolitics’ is a gathering point for a series of varied and distinctive discourses about ‘geography’ and its relationship to the ‘political’ (O’Loughlin 1994; Parker 1998). Geopolitics can be considered in the broadest manner as the relationship between objects and entities conventionally understood as ‘geography’ and the ‘political’. For some, geopolitics is an objective relationship between geographical forms – rivers, mountains, soil, climate and location – and political structures, particularly states and national communities.

Process by which different parts of the globe become interconnected by economic, social, cultural, and political means. Globalization has become increasingly rapid since the 1970s and 1980s as a result of developments in technology, communications, and trade liberalization. Critics of globalization fear the increasing power of unelected multinational corporations, financial markets, and non-government organizations (NGOs), whose decisions can have direct and rapid effects on ordinary citizens' l

In recent years problematising the intersections of knowledge and power has pre-occupied critical thinkers across academic disciplines. Post-structural initiatives – especially inspired by the suggestive work of Michel Foucault – have informed thinking about the ways that knowledge is power-laden and implicated in the exercise of authority in different contexts.

The characterization and explanation of geological, hydrological, biological and atmospheric phenomena and their interactions at, or near the Earth’s surface. This is often, but not exclusively, in relation to human occupation and activity.