|
GEOGRAPHY (Gr. See also: surface of the See also: earth
.
The fundamental basis of geography is the vertical See also: relief of the earth's crust, which controls all See also: mobile distributions
.
The grander features of the relief of the lithosphere or stony crust of the earth control the distribution of the hydrosphere or collected See also: waters which gather into the hollows, filling them up to a height corresponding to the See also: volume, and thus producing the important See also: practical division of the surface into See also: land and See also: water
.
The distribution of the mass of the atmosphere over the surface of the earth is also controlled by the relief of the crust, its greater or lesser See also: density at the surface corresponding to the lesser or greater See also: elevation of the surface
.
The simplicity of the zonal distribution of solar energy on the earth's surface, which would characterize a See also: uniform globe, is entirely destroyed by the dissimilar See also: action of land and water with regard to radiant heat, and by the influence of crust-forms on the direction of the resulting circulation
.
The influence of See also: physical environment becomes clearer and stronger when the distribution of plant and animal See also: life is considered, and if it is less distinct in the See also: case of See also: man, the reason is found in the modifications of environment consciously produced by human effort
.
Geography is a synthetic science, dependent for the data with which it deals on the results` of specialized sciences such as astronomy, geology, oceanography, meteorology, See also: biology and anthropology, as well as on topographical description
.
The physical and natural sciences are concerned in geography only so far as they See also: deal with the forms of the earth's surface, or as regards the distribution of phenomena
.
The distinctive task of geography as a science is to investigate the control exercised by the crust-forms directly or indirectly upon the various mobile distributions
.
This gives to it unity and definiteness, and renders superfluous the attempts that have been made from See also: time to time to define the limits which See also: divide geography from geology on the one See also: hand and from See also: history on the other
.
It is essential to classify the subject-See also: matter of geography in such a manner as to give prominence not only to facts, but to their mutual relations and their natural and inevitable See also: order
.
|
|
|
[back] GEOGRAPHICAL |
[next] GEOID (from Gr. yij, the earth) |
There are no comments yet for this article.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.
Links to articles and home page are encouraged.