“THERE CAN BE NO GEOGRAPHY WITHOUT PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY!”

“GEOGRAPHY IS A LIGHT IN THE MIND NOT A LOAD ON THE MEMORY!”

The following has been used to describe PHYSICAL DIVERSITY:

• the basis• the groundwork• background

Physical Geography concerns itself with:

• The Shape and Form of the Earth• erosion• rivers glaciers• mountains, plains• earthquakes, volcanoes etc...

• The Make - Up of the Earth•rocks

• The Seas & Oceans

• The Atmosphere• climate• where human’s live ( Biosphere )

• Soils and Vegetation

• The Role of the Earth in the Solar System

• The Role of Humans in all of the above

How Humans interact with the:

Physical Environment

• anything is not alive - abiotic Eg. Rocks

• anything thats alive - bioticEg. Humans, Animals, Plants

• Physical Geography can be broadly defined as the study of the earth and its relationship to the life and needs of humans.

• In order to understand the place of humans on earth we must know something about his/her surroundings (where one lives -- one’s environment.)

• Before we can study humans themselves -- (that is their culture, their languages, their religious, their economies) -- we must look at how humans ADAPT to the earth’s conditions or how humans try to CONTROL these conditions. These conditions are also studied in PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

• Physical Geography also concerns itself with plant and animals not only humans. Humans of course depend on plants and animals for food.

List or explain how the following examples could use PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY to help humans:• construction of a building• growing of crops• a ski trip• a vacation in the sun• a boating trip• the location of a city• the location of a factory• flying in an air plane• Star Trek• your health

Physical Geography is broken up into what we callTHE EARTH SCIENCES:

1. ASTRONOMY - study of heavenly bodies- solar system- earth’s role

2. GEOLOGY- composition and structure of the earth- study of rocks and minerals

3. GEOMORPHOLOGY- shapes of the earth- earthquakes, volcanoes, rivers, glaciers etc.- plate tectonics- erosion

4. ECOLOGY- study of life and the environment (interactions)- pollution- Ecozones, Biomes or Biosphere

5. OCEANOGRAPHY- oceans and shorelines- Marine Biology

6. CLIMATOLOGY- types of world climate- the climate of the earth

7. METEOROLOGY- study of weather- mapping weather- study of storms

8. PEDOLOGY- study of soils

9. PLANT GEOGRAPHY ( FLORA )- vegetation- agriculture- biology

10. ANIMAL GEOGRAPHY( FAUNA )- zoology- animals and their environment

The many spheres of the earth:

• There are more sciences as you break these down even further. For example, someone who studies volcanoes is called a VULCANOLOGIST.

• You might also notice Physical Geography is very broad and touches upon many subjects.

• The main focus of physical geography is on the LIFE LAYER: a shallow zone of the lands and oceans containing most of the world’s Organic Life ( also called Biosphere).

• This is where we will begin our study of Physical Geography.

• As you can see from the previous slides the earth is made up of a number of spheres:

The Atmosphere

The Lithosphere

The Hydrosphere

• These spheres interact with one another to create The Biosphere or the earth’s Life Layer.

• It is the Biosphere that makes the earth unique among the other planets we know of.

• The Biosphere can be further broken down into what is called Biomes or Ecozones or Ecoregions. The names have changed over the years. These Biomes on the earth represent areas that have a similar plant and animal species and exist under a similar soil, vegetation and climate. We will learn more about these areas in a more detailed unit.

• The catalyst that creates the Biosphere from the other spheres is the Sun.

• The sun gives the earth energy in the form of Solar Radiation, sometimes called Insolation.

• The next two slides have diagrams that illustrate how the earth distributes this energy. This distribution is called the Earth’s Energy Balance or Budget.

Note: Yellow represents the energy coming from the sun. Orange represents what is absorbed and Red represents what is reflected back into space - called The Albedo.

• The earth either absorbs the energy and coverts it into other types of energy like:

- Fossil Fuels

- Temperature and Climate

- Photosynthesis

- Winds and Pressure

- The Hydrologic Cycle (see picture next slide)

- ETC.

• Or it reflects back into space - Albedo.

• One of the keys to life on earth is the fact that our planet has water in all three states. Of course it is the sun that allows this to happen.

• A good way to view these points and the role of Physical Geography is to think of the earth as a SPACESHIP.

• Spaceships must operate in all kinds of environments - friendly and hostile - so they must carry with them all the things needed to support life:

• Sufficient quantities of:- air- water- food- heat

• And an efficient waste disposal system

• Each of these items mentioned above are vital. They must be in perfect balance. If one of the above should fail, then life will die.

• The earth is this spaceship but only larger. The earth is travelling in space (a hostile environment), but it carries all the things necessary for life. But spaceship earth seems to have a crew that doesn’t really care about maintaining these LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS.

• The crew takes them for granted . A few years ago, the crew (humans) was small, our technology was limited, our ability to damage the spaceship was also limited.

• But today, we can no longer ignore the systems that make life possible on earth. We have grown to an incredible size (6 billion). Our technology is constantly presenting new threats to the environment:

• air pollution• oil spills• garbage• waste disposal• toxic waste• CFCs• carbon dioxide, etc...

• We must learn all we can about these factors that make up our life support systems. We must prevent the destruction of the physical environment.

THE FUTURE OF THE EARTH IS ATRISK!

Let’s begin our understanding of the spaceship earth by studying from outside and slowly making our way to the inside of the earth. In other words we will begin by studying the earth and it’s role in the universe, galaxy and solar system. We will then touch down on the earth and begin studying the planet itself.