Geography Fundamentals

Cards · 52

Archipelago

A cluster, chain, or group of islands scattered across a body of water. Example: The Indonesian Archipelago, consisting of over 17,000 islands.

Isthmus

A narrow strip of land connecting two larger land areas with water on both sides. Example: The Isthmus of Panama connects North and South America.

Strait

A narrow waterway connecting two larger bodies of water. Example: The Strait of Gibraltar connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea.

Delta

A triangular landform created by sediment deposition at the mouth of a river. Example: The Nile River Delta in northern Egypt.

Peninsula

A landmass almost entirely surrounded by water but connected to the mainland. Example: The Iberian Peninsula, home to Spain and Portugal.

Fjord

A long, narrow, deep sea inlet flanked by steep, high cliffs carved by glaciers. Example: Geirangerfjord in Norway.

Plateau

An elevated, relatively flat landform rising sharply above surrounding areas. Example: The Tibetan Plateau, often called the 'Roof of the World'.

Atoll

A ring-shaped coral reef or series of islets enclosing a shallow lagoon. Example: Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Caldera

A large volcanic crater formed by the collapse of a volcano's mouth following an eruption. Example: Crater Lake in Oregon, USA.

Tributary

A freshwater stream or river that feeds into a larger main stem river or lake. Example: The Missouri River is a tributary of the Mississippi River.

Estuary

A partially enclosed coastal body of water where freshwater mixes with seawater. Example: The Chesapeake Bay along the eastern United States.

Oxbow Lake

A U-shaped body of water formed when a wide meander from a river is cut off. Example: Carter Lake situated between Iowa and Nebraska.

Cape

A prominent headland or point of land extending into a river, lake, or ocean. Example: The Cape of Good Hope on the coast of South Africa.

Enclave

A distinct territory or state completely surrounded by the territory of another state. Example: Vatican City is an enclave within Italy.

Exclave

A portion of a state's territory separated geographically from the main body. Example: Kaliningrad is an exclave of Russia, bordered by Poland and Lithuania.

Rain Shadow

A dry area on the leeward side of a mountain range that receives little precipitation. Example: Death Valley, in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada.

Choke Point

A narrow strategic geographical feature that restricts the flow of sea or land traffic. Example: The Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East.

Mesa

An isolated, flat-topped elevation with steep slopes, smaller than a plateau. Example: Grand Mesa in western Colorado, USA.

Butte

An isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, flat top. Example: Devils Tower in northeastern Wyoming.

Drainage Basin

An area of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet. Example: The Amazon Basin, the largest watershed on Earth.

Moraine

A mass of rocks and sediment deposited by a moving glacier along its edges or front. Example: Long Island, New York, formed in part by terminal moraines.

Lagoon

A shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by reefs or barrier islands. Example: The Venetian Lagoon in Italy.

Alluvial Fan

A triangle-shaped deposit of gravel, sand, and sediment formed as water slows down. Example: The fans at the base of the Zagros Mountains in Iran.

Karst Topography

A landscape formed by the dissolution of soluble rocks, marked by sinkholes and caves. Example: The sinkhole and limestone landscape of Guilin, China.

Rift Valley

A lowland region formed by the sinking of land between tectonic plates pulling apart. Example: The East African Rift System.

Taiga

A biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. Example: The Siberian taiga across northern Russia.

Tundra

A cold, treeless biome characterized by permanently frozen subsoil known as permafrost. Example: The Arctic coastal tundra of northern Alaska.

Steppe

An extensive grassland plain without trees, characterized by a semi-arid climate. Example: The Eurasian Steppe stretching from Ukraine to Manchuria.

Sound

A large sea or ocean inlet that is deeper than a bight and wider than a fjord. Example: Puget Sound located in Washington State, USA.

Gulf

A deep inlet of the sea almost completely surrounded by land, with a narrow mouth. Example: The Gulf of Mexico in North America.

Bay

A broad, curved coastal recess where land curves inward around a body of water. Example: The Bay of Bengal between India and Myanmar.

Canyon

A deep valley with steep rock sides, frequently carved over millions of years by a river. Example: The Grand Canyon carved by the Colorado River.

Barbed Drainage

A drainage pattern formed when tributaries join a main stream in an upstream-pointing direction. Example: Streams in the upper Arun River basin in the Himalayas.

Bight

A shallow, open bay formed by a long, gradual curve along a coastline. Example: The Great Australian Bight along southern Australia.

Gorge

A narrow valley with steep, rocky walls, typically narrower and steeper than a canyon. Example: The Three Gorges along the Yangtze River in China.

Continental Shelf

An edge of a continent that lies submerged under relatively shallow water. Example: The Siberian Shelf in the Arctic Ocean, the world's widest shelf.

Guyot

An isolated underwater volcanic mountain with a flat top beneath the sea surface. Example: The Great Meteor Tablemount in the northeastern Atlantic.

Glacial Horn

A sharp, pyramid-shaped peak formed by glacial erosion from multiple cirques. Example: The Matterhorn in the Swiss and Italian Alps.

Cirque

An amphitheater-shaped, steep-walled hollow carved at the head of a glacial valley. Example: Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington, New Hampshire.

Permafrost

Ground that remains completely frozen at or below zero Celsius for at least two years. Example: The subterranean frozen soils underlying northern Greenland.

Savanna

A tropical grassland biome with scattered individual trees and a distinct dry season. Example: The Serengeti in Tanzania and Kenya.

Tombolo

A sandy or shingle spit linking an island to the mainland or another island. Example: The Rock of Gibraltar connected by a tombolo to Spain.

Spit

A narrow coastal deposition landform composed of sand or gravel extending into water. Example: Spurn Head extending into the Humber Estuary in England.

Escarpment

A steep, continuous cliff or slope separating two relatively level land surfaces. Example: The Niagara Escarpment running through the US and Canada.

Monadnock

An isolated rocky hill or ridge that has resisted the erosion of the surrounding plain. Example: Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire, USA.

Intermittent Stream

A stream that ceases flow entirely during dry seasons and runs only during wet periods. Example: The ephemeral wadis of the Arabian Peninsula.

Peneplain

A low-relief plain formed by protracted erosion near base level over geologic time. Example: The erosion-leveled Australian Shield.

Bathymetry

The measurement and study of the depths and floor topographies of water bodies. Example: Mapping the depths of the Mariana Trench.

Watershed Divide

An elevated ridge that separates the precipitation flow into different drainage basins. Example: The Continental Divide running along the Rocky Mountains.

Subduction Zone

A convergent boundary where one tectonic plate is forced downward beneath another. Example: The Cascadia subduction zone off the Pacific Northwest coast.

Guyot

A seamount with a flat top formed by wave erosion before subsiding deeper underwater. Example: Horizon Guyot in the central Pacific Ocean.

Oasis

A fertile, vegetated spot in an arid desert fed by natural underground freshwater springs. Example: The Siwa Oasis located in western Egypt.