WGU C255 Intro to Geography questions and answers 2022

WGU C255 Intro to Geography questions and answers 2022Geography The study of the interaction of all physical and human phenomena at individual places and of how interactions among places form patterns and organize larger spaces physical geography Studies the characteristics of the physical environment. When geography concentrates on topics such as climate, soil, and vegetation, it is a natural science human geography Studies human groups and their activities, such as language, industry, and the building of cities; it is a social science Remote sensing Mapping Earth from satellites and aircraft Geographical information systems (GIS) Used for storing, displaying, and analyzing geographic data regional geography Special geography that describes and analyzes places in terms of categories such as local population, customs, politics, economy, and religion topical geography (systematic geography) The study of universal laws or principles that apply to all places; topics may be as diverse as the geography of soils (pedology), of life forms (biogeography), of politics (political geography), of economic activities (economic geography), and of cities (urban geography) system An interdependent group of items that interact in a regular way to form a unified whole site Sescribes the exact location of a place and can be described either in terms of latitude and longitude or in terms of the characteristics of the place situation The location of a place relative to other places region An area defined by one or more distinctive characteristics or features, such as climate, soil type, language, or economic activity area analysis Analysis which integrates the geographic features of an area or a place. Focuses on regions. spatial analysis (locational analysis) Analysis which emphasizes interactions among places. Looks for patterns in the distribution of human actions, environmental processes, and interactions among and between places or regions geographic systems analysis Analysis which emphasizes the understanding of physical and human systems and the interactions among them formal region A region that exhibits essential uniformity in one or more physical or cultural features, such as a climate type or language area functional region A region defined by interactions among places, such as trade or communication vernacular region A region defined by widespread popular perception of their existence by people within or outside them density The frequency of occurrence of a phenomenon in relation to geographic area (usually a number per .) pattern The geometric arrangement of objects within an area concentration The distribution of a phenomenon within a given area. Close proximity is concentrated, far apart is dispersed. distance The measure of how far away something is, sometimes expressed in time or cost instead of length friction of distance The effort to overcome distance when we want to move or transport items distance decay Term for how the presence or impact of any phenomenon may diminish away from its origin diffusion Term for an item or feature spread across space relocation diffusion Diffusion that occurs when people or things move between two points contiguous diffusion (contagious diffusion) Diffusion that occurs from one place to a neighboring place through direct contact hierarchical diffusion Diffusion that occurs up- or downward in a hierarchy of an organization human-environment interaction A reciprocal relationship: The environment affects human life and cultures, and humans alter and transform the environment natural landscape A landscape without evidence of human activity cultural landscape A landscape that reveals the many ways people modify their local environment latitude The angular distance measured north and south of the equator longitude The angular distance east and west of the prime meridian parallels Lines connecting all points of the same latitude, so called because they do not intersect meridians Lines connecting all points of the same longitude. They are farthest apart at the equator and converge at the poles conformal map A map that distorts size but preserves shape equal area map A map that preserves size but distorts shape Location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, region Name the five themes of geography weather This includes variables such as temperature and precipitation at any particular time, including both ordinary day-to-day conditions and extremes such as storms or heat waves climate The statistical summary of weather over time; includes both the average conditions and the extremes insolation The amount of solar energy intercepted by a particular area of Earth latent heat exchange This transfers tremendous amounts of energy from low latitudes to high latitudes, and it is also a key component of precipitation processes Sensible heat Heat detectable by your sense of touch latent heat Heat "in storage" in water and water vapor advection The horizontal movements of air or substances by wind or ocean currents orographic uplift Term for when wind forces air up and over mountains frontal uplift Term for when air is forced up a boundary (front) between cold and warm air masses adiabatic cooling Term for the decrease in temperature that results from expansion of rising air orographic precipitation Precipitation that occurs when the horizontal winds move air against mountain ranges, forcing air to rise as it passes over the mountains rain shadow A dry region on the leeward (non-windy) side of a mountain range frontal precipitation Precipitation that forms along a front, which is a boundary between two air masses intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) A low-pressure zone circling the globe between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn where surface winds converge trade winds The prevailing winds in subtropical and tropical latitudes that blows toward the Intertropical Convergence Zone, typically from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere, named for their importance to sailing commerce ships subtropical high pressure zones (STH) Persistent regions of high pressure and descending air at about 25°N and S latitudes, responsible for majority of deserts polar front A boundary between cold polar air and warm subtropical air that circles the globe in the mid-latitudes midlatitude low pressure zones Regions of low pressure with air converging from the subtropical and polar high-pressure zones polar high pressure zones Regions of high pressure and descending air near the North and South Poles monsoon circulation Seasonal reversal of pressure and wind in a large continental region. Strongest in Asia, where winter winds from the Asian interior produce dry winters and summer winds blowing inland from the Indian and Pacific Oceans produce wet summers evapotranspiration The sum of water converting from liquid to vapor state via evaporation and transpiration geomorphology The study of landforms and the processes that create them endogenic processes Forces that cause movements beneath or at Earth's surface, such as mountain building and earthquakes exogenic processes Forces of erosion, such as running water, wind,