Fundamentals of Geography Online Test 11th Geography Lesson 1 Questions in English

Eratosthenes is the scholar of Greek who coined the term Geography by combining two Greek words Geo (The Earth) and Graphien (to describe ). So, Geography means literally the Earth.

Systematic and Regional approaches are the methods to study the discipline of Geography which is concerned with descriptions also with analysis as well as prediction.

The study of specific natural or human phenomenon that gives rise to certain spatial patterns and structures on the earth surface is called systematic study.

Nomothetic/ systematic approach to study Geography was introduced by Alexander Von Humboldt a German geographer (1769- 1859).

Human geography is the study of human culture, population, dynamic socio economic political aspects. The study of human nature relationship is about biogeography.

Physical geography is study of various elements of earth systems like atmosphere (air), hydrosphere (water), lithosphere (rock) and biosphere (life) and their distributions.

Born on 14 September 1769 Alexander Von Humboldt was a Prussian polymath, geographer, naturalist. Humboldt’s quantitative work on botanical geography laid the foundation for the field of biogeography.

Alexander Von Humboldt who was a geographer was the first person to describe the phenomenon and cause of human induced climate change, in 1800.

Alexander Von Humboldt described the Guanoco asphalt lake as “The spring of the good priest”. It is the world’s second largest natural tar pit and lies in Venezuela in northern South America.

Regional approach is otherwise called as Ideographical approach. The regions could be classified based on a single factor like relief, rainfall, vegetation or there could also be multifactor regions.

Regional studies ii) Regional analysis iii) Regional development and iv) Regional planning are the four main sub branches of regional geography.

Regional approach of study of geography otherwise called as ideographical approach which was developed by Carl Ritter (1779 – 1859), a contemporary of Humbolt.

The matrixis a simple method of arranging many information in rows and columns to understand complex spatial problems. Brian J.L. Berry adopted this method from anthropology for studying geography more effectively.

Based on content and the available techniques, geography has been divided into three major domains. Physical Geography, Human Geography and Geographic Techniques.

Environmental Geography is the study of environmental issues arising out of misuse of various spheres of the earth and their impacts. The ozone layer depletion, global warming, melting of polar ice caps, rising sea level and other related aspects.

Phytogeography or plant Geography, Zoo Geography or animal geography and Ecology are the branches of biogeography. Biogeography is a study of ecosystems (distribution of plants, animals etc) spread over geographical space. It also analyses the changes occur in the ecosystems.

Hydrology is the study of earth’s realm of water such as oceans and surface water bodies like rivers, reservoirs, streams, lakes and ponds. It also comprises a study of underground water and its recharge and also pollution of water bodies( causes & effects)

Climatology deals with the study of global and regional weather and climatic conditions averaged over a period of time. Meteorology provides basic information on the composition, structure and the changes in the atmosphere.

Economic Geography deals with the distribution of economic activities such as, primary (agriculture and mining), secondary (manufacturing) and tertiary (the service sectors).

Social Geography is closely related to cultural geography. It examines the relationships among the social groups and social relationships of the groups in where they are living.

Human Geography is concerned with the changes made by the humans in the environment. It comprises Historical geography Anthropogeography Cultural geography Social geography Population geography Settlement geography Political geography Economic geography Medical geography

Anthropo Geography deals with the distribution of human communities on the earth in relation to their geographical environment

GNSS is the standard generic term for satellite navigation systems that provide geo-spatial positioning with global or regional coverage. This term includes the GPS (USA), GLONASS (Russia), Galileo (Europe), Beidou (China), IRNSS (India) and other systems

The GPS was the first GNSS system of the USA and originally used for military applications. Today it is commonly used in mobiles, vehicles, agriculture and other areas that allow us to use it in all fields of mapping.

Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computer-based tool of the recent decades for geographical studies. GIS is used for storing, retrieving, transforming, analyzing and displaying data to prepare useful thematic maps.

Geomorphology deals with the distribution of land forms, their origin and the forces related to their changes. Geology provides basic information to the study of geomorphology.

Geographers who specialize in cartography branch make traditional maps, digital maps, atlases, charts, globes and models. Quantification and cartography are considered as two sides of the ‘geography coin’

The geographical knowledge and training enable the students to interpret large scale maps of India and other countries of the world. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), one of the emerging field survey instruments, is gaining importance not only in earth sciences discipline but also in archaeology, civil engineering, city planning and other related fields

The geographers are also employed as climatologists, geomorphologists, GIS specialists and hydrologists. Geography background is an asset for careers in travel and tourism, particularly for ‘Travel Journalism’.

The Indian Geographical Society is conducting talent test examination to final year UG and PG geography students across the State.

The Indian Geographical Society is conducting talent test examination to final year UG and PG geography students across the State. The award has been given in the names of the IGS Founder Prof N.Subrahmanyam and the former Head of the Department of Geography of University of Madras Prof. A.Ramesh, respectively.

The Association of Geography Teachers of India conducts Annual Geography Talent Tests to the school students across the state. This talent test is conducted at two levels: Students of classes 7 and 8 will take Junior Level test while the students of classes 9 and 10 will take it at the Senior Level.

In 1963, William D. Pattison identified the core themes of geographic studies as The Four Traditions of Geography

William D. Pattison identified the core themes of geographic studies as The Four Traditions of Geography. These are spatial tradition, Area studies tradition, Man land tradition, Earth science tradition.

Spatial tradition (areal distribution and spatial distribution), Area studies tradition (hierarchy of areas), Man land tradition (man and physical environment), Earth science tradition (process of earth).

Themes of Geography are the educational tools for the better understanding of geography in detailed manner which was adopted in the year 1984.

Five themes of geography was adopted in the year 1984 by the Association of American Geographers and these five themes were published in the National Council for Geographic Education/Association of American Geographers’ publication Guidelines for Geographic Education

The Association of American Geographers published the ‘Five themes of Geography’ and it has been widely accepted by the geographers worldwide. The themes are location, place, human – environment interaction, movement and regions.

Every point on earth has a location. They are divided into two - The absolute and relative location

Absolute location is a location as described by its latitude and longitude on the earth. For instance, the coordinates of Chennai Central Railway station are 13°04'56" N latitude and 80°16'32" E longitude.

Relative location is the position of a place in relation to another well-known landmark. For instance, Kallanai Dam or Grand Anicut is located roughly 350 km south –southwest of Chennai City.

A place is an area that is defined by everything present in it. Toponym is a place name, especially one derived from topographical feature.

Situation is described as the location and surroundings of a place. Site is an area of ground on which a town, building, or monument is constructed. Toponym is a place name, especially one derived from topographical feature. A place is an area that is defined by everything present in it.

It is known as how people interact with the environment and how the environment reacts to it. There are three key concepts Dependency: How humans depend on the environment (Ex: For water, sunlight etc.) Adaptation: How humans adapt to the environment (Ex: Life in polar or desert regions) Modification: How humans modify the environment (Ex: Construction of Underground Metro and shifting agriculture)

Movement is the network of travel of people, goods and ideas from one location to another. Air transport which carries people and goods and the internet that allows access to ideas and knowledge across the world are also examples of this kind.

Regions are areas which is having distinct homogenous characteristics such as climate (Monsoon regions), natural vegetation (Temperate rain forests), crops (Corn Belt of USA), major landforms (Himalayan regions), Industry (Chota-Nagpur plateau).

The interaction of astronomy (deals with space), mathematics (measuring size and location of celestial bodies in space) and computer science with geography has paved way for the development of modern cartography and GIS.

Interaction between geology (study of rocks) and geography leads to formation of the new branch of study called geomorphology, the study of landforms

The study of biosphere is important for ecology, the study of life and its interactions with physical environment.

Raja Raja Chola or Rajendra Chola had trade relations with other countries of the world, especially South Asian countries because they had a vast knowledge in geography and by understanding the relief, seasons, ocean current movements they maintained good trade relation.

The study of ‘apartheid’ (a system of institutionalized racial segregation which existed in South Africa) is an instance of anthropogeography, the study of human races and their classification.

Anthropology attempts to study human races (on the basis of their habitat and cultural traits etc) and their classification. The relationship between anthropology and geography has resulted in the development of ‘anthropogeography’ or geography of humans

Geography have strongest affiliations with subjects like mathematics and environmental sciences, while others have very close connection with history and sociology. Some subjects deal with distinctive type of phenomena while geography examines several kinds of phenomena together.

Humboldt’s publication ‘Kosmos’ in 1844, examines the geology and physical geography of the earth. This work is still considered by many academics as a milestone contribution to geography.

There are two schools of thought that emerged during the period between 1800 - 1950 as an attempt to explain the interaction between human beings and their environment. These were environmental determinism and possibilism.

The proponents of possibilistic school of thought - Vidal de la Blache

The proponents of possibilistic school of thought, such as Vidal de la Blache and Ratzel saw the environment as a limiting factor rather than as a deterministic force. For instance in many arid countries, humans have overcome the constraints set by the natural environment such as low rainfall, high temperatures and poor soils.

The period between 1400 and 1800 was when the subject matter and the methodology of geography were not fully developed. So, it is called as embryonic stage of discipline geography. This period was well known by the discovery and conquest through the voyages of Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus.

The Greek scientist focused on the nature of human and physical features of the Earth. The first Greek geographer was Herodotus (484 - 425 BCE) who wrote a number of volumes on the human and physical geography of the Persian Empire. The other early Greek contributors to geography are, Thales, Aristotle and Eratosthenes (276 - 194 BCE).

The subject ‘Geography’ was considered as ‘The Mother of all Sciences’ because most streams of sciences took root from geography. It is a subject much needed in everyday life.

Prime Meridian is an imaginary line passing through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, England, serving by agreement as the zero degree line of longitude

Mercator projection, devised in 1569, in this all lines of latitude are in the same length as the equator. This results in increased deflection of area, moving from the equator towards the poles. So, this projection is suitable for navigation charts.

The Mollweide projection shows the land masses in the correct size but there is deviation of shape. As the Mollweide projection has no area distortion it is useful for showing distributions such as population distribution.

As the Mollweide and the Mercator projections shows some distortion, the globe is the only true representation of the Earth’s surface

The main source of heating of atmosphere is sun through the incoming solar radiation (atmosphere is transparent) which is short wave in nature. The radiation reflected from the earth’s surface is called outgoing terrestrial radiation (atmosphere is opaque) which is long wave in nature.