Geo 1290 Lecture 1-12

• The study of
• Physical features of the earth
• Atomosphere
• Human Activity

• Looks at places and what makes them unigue
• i.e descriptive

• is concerned with discovering understanding and modeling processes that differentiate the Earth's surface into places
• i.e. looks at common principles and phenomena

How human activities and behaviour shape places

• How natural processes shape the earth and its landscape
• Sets stage for human activities and the nature of the biosphere

• Heat and moisture processes associated with the land surface
• Weather vs. Climate

The study of landform-making processes

The study of movement, distribution and quality of water throughout the Earth

Examine coastal processes, marine resources and their human interface

• Distribution of soil types and properties 
• The processes of soil formation  (geomorphology, climatology and biogeography)

Examines the distrabution of organisms and the processes that produce these distrabution patterns

The science and art of map making

Computer based systems that can store and manipulate spatial data

Aerial photographs and satelite images obtained remotely from the earth's surface

To produce analyse and prodictions

• Atomosphere
• Lithosphere
• Hydrosphere
• Bioshpere
• 

Gaseous layer surrounding the Earth

Outermost solid layer of the Earth

• The Earth's water
• oceans, rivers, ice and water vapour

All living organisms

• supports the majority of life on earth
• includes land surface and upper ~100 meters of the ocean
• 

• Four spheres are interdependent
• operate at various spatial and temporal scales
• are typically defined as a cascade of a continuum

• Global
• Continental
• Reginal
• Local
• Individual

• Earth Sun relationship
• need to take a vantage point from space, considering the global energy balance as a whole
• 

• Unequal Solar heating, drives currents of air and water
• currents are knownas the global atmospheric and oceanic circulation systems
• can distinguish continents and oceans, enabling us to track winds and ocean currents

• Obseve phenomena such as cloud patterns of weather systems or broad scale land cover types (The prairies)
• Relationshop between weather systems and solar control of surface temperature form the basis for the climate of the world
• 

• Factors are important in determining the exact patterns of vegetation and soils
• Treed vegetation along rivers and standing water, cultivated lands, ect. 

• Study specific soil types or biological communites
• are formed by unique proporties of natural processes
• lowlands willow cover need very moist conditions, where as spruce forests require slightly drier conditions available at higher elevations

• Mountain ranges formnover millions of years of tectonic activity
• Earthquake can result in
• significant surface changes over a matter of minutes
• It is important to note that natural processes occur over various space and time scales
• Climate change over large scales whereas weather systems (such as a hurricane) operate on smaller scales

Set of related or organized objects

energy and/or matter flows in and between the 4 spheres

a mechanism by which matter or energy flows from one part of the system to another