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Dec 31, 2015
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Archipelago: a string or chain of islands
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Bay: a small body of water partially surrounded by land
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Butte: a visible hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top (Similar to but smaller than a plateau, mesa and table)
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Canal: a man-made waterway for boats or for draining or irrigating land
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Canyon: a deep valley or crevice in the earth’s surface, with very steep sides and usually with a river running through it
Also known as gorges; ravines are similar, but not as deep
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Cape: a point of land that extends into the sea or into a lake
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Delta: a triangular, fertile area of land around the mouth of a large river
The Nile Delta– northern Egypt
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Fjord: a narrow, winding ocean inlet with steep cliff-like sides (carved out by a glacier)
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Glacier: a huge sheet of snow or ice moving slowly down a slope (mountain) or valley
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What’s the difference between a GLACIER and an
ICEBERG?A glacier is a river of ice, mostly on land. It is fed by snowfields in the mountains and flows down a valley, like a very slow moving river, until it meets with the sea or a lake.
An iceberg is a large piece of ice floating in water. It may have broken off a glacier.
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Geyser: a spring from which boiling water and steam gushes into the air in intervals
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Gulf: a large portion of the ocean, partially surrounded by land
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Island: a body of land completely surrounded by water
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Isthmus: a narrow strip of land connecting two larger pieces of land
The Isthmus of Panama
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Jungle: land densely covered with trees, vines, etc. (typically found in the tropics)
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Lagoon: a body of shallow sea or salt water that is separated from a larger sea by some barrier (sand, rock, reef, etc.)
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Lake: a large inland body of standing water (usually freshwater)
Lake Michigan Lake Winnipesaukee
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Mesa: a tall, flat-topped mountain with steep, vertical sides (usually found in dry places)
Buttes are small mesas
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Ocean: a large body of salt water
Pacific
Atlantic
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Peninsula: a long piece of land surrounded by water on three sides
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Plain: a large, flat, and mostly treeless area of land
The Great Plains
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River: a natural stream of water larger than a brook or creek (typically flowing into an ocean or lake)
Mississippi River
Merrimack River
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Sound: a wide channel linking two larger bodies of water or separating an island from the mainland
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Swamp: wet, spongy land often partly covered with water
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Tundra: a vast, treeless arctic plain
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Volcano: an opening in the Earth’s surface that forms when lava, gases, and rocks erupt, or burst out, from deep inside the Earth
Mt. Saint Helens
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Map: two-dimensional model of the Earth or the portion of it’s surface, cartography is mapmaking
Simplification: when a cartographer gets rid of unnecessary details and focuses on the information needing to be displayed on the map
Distortion: error resulting from the “flattening” process – all maps you’ve memorized are wrong!
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Four Main Map Properties:1.Shape
• Geometric shapes of the objects on the map
2.Size (area)
• Relative amount of space taken up on the map by the landforms or objects on the map
3.Distance
• Represented distance between objects on the map
4.Direction
• Degree of accuracy representing the cardinal directions
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Cardinal Directions: north / south / east / west
Intermediate Directions: northwest / northeast / southwest / southeast
Relative Directions: right / left / up / down / etc
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Map Projections: attempts to portray the surface of the Earth or a portion of the Earth on a flat surface. Some distortions of conformality, distance, direction, scale, and area always result from this process
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Equal-area (or equivalent) projections: maps that maintain area but distort other properties
Conformal (or orthomorphic) projections:maps that maintain shape but distort other properties (it is impossible to have a projection that is both conformal and equal area)
Azimuthal projections: maps that maintain direction but distort other properties
Equidistant projections: maps that maintain distance but distort other properties
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Mercator: •Shows the shapes of the continents and landforms accurately
•Dramatically distorts the size (area) of the continents
•Created in 1569 by Gerardus Mercator
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Mercator:
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Web Mercator: variation of the Mercator projection, standard online map for web mapping applications and sites, created in 2005 by Google
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Robinson: •Shows the world according to slight distortion of all four properties (shape, size, distance, direction)
•Created 1963 by Arthur H Robinson
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Robinson:
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Peter: •Shows relative sizes of the Earth’s continents accurately (equal area)
•Distorts the shape of continents
•Created in 1855 by James Gall and Arno Peters
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Peter: