Pub Quiz Reference - Geographical Terms

Name	Meaning
Abrasion	The wearing away of the land by rivers, glaciers and the sea armed with a load of debris.
Agriculture	Farming
Alluvium	Fine sediment deposited by a river.
Anabranch	Stram that leaves a river and re-enters it lower down, especially in Australia.
Anemometer	An instrument for measuring wind speed.
Anticyclone	An area of high pressure generally associated with light winds clear skies and settled weather.
Appalachian Trail	Public footpath that runs for over 2,000 miles between Mount Springer, Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine
Aquifer	An underground layer of rock which holds large amounts of water.
Arable	A type of farming: growing crops (e.g. wheat)
Atmosphere	The layer of air which surrounds the Earth: up to 15 km in depth at the equator and less thick in higher latitudes. The atmosphere comprises Oxygen (21%), Nitrogen (78%), Argon, Helium and other gases in minute quantities.
Atmospheric Layers	Troposphere is the lowest layer, 11 miles thick at the Equator. Stratosphere is the next layer and contains most of the Ozone layer. Mesosphere is the next layer and is often considered as part of the Stratosphere. Thermosphere is the layer between the Mesosphere and the Exosphere and reaches altitudes of 250 miles. Lonosphere is the are charged by the Sun's radiation.
Attrition	The wear and tear particles transported either by rivers and waves or the wind. These particles collide with each other and break down into smaller pieces.
Backwash	The backwards movement of water back down the beach after a wave has broken and advanced.
Bank	The side of a river channel.
Barometer	An instrument for measuring atmospheric pressure.
Basalt	An igneous rock forms when magma emerges onto the earth's surface and cools rapidly.
Bay	An indentation in the coastline with headlands on either side, resulting from the more rapid erosion of softer rocks.
Beach	A collection of deposited material. These can be found on the coast as well as on the inside bend of a river where the water is moving slowest. The material on a beach is often sorted or graded from large to small.
Bearing	A compass reading between 0 and 360 degrees (where 0° is North), indicating direction of one location from another.
Bed	The bottom of a river channel.
Birth Rate	The number of live births per 1,000 people in a population per year.
Brownfield Site	An area in a town which has been used in the past but can be redeveloped.
Caldera	A large crater formed by the collapse of the summit cone of a volcano during an eruption.
Capital	The money tied up in a factory or business.
Cataract	A large, rushing waterfall, usually over a precipice
Channel	The depression in the land that a river flows in.
Climate	The general or average atmospheric conditions that an area experiences.
Clouds	High Clouds: Cirrus - detached clouds resembling feathers, named from the Latin for 'Lock of Hair'. Cirrocumulus - rounded small clouds appearing in the form of grains or ripples. Cirrosrtatus - white veil of smooth fibrous ice crystals often forming a halo of light. Middle Cloud: Altocumulus - grey or white clouds having rounded shapes. Altostratus - flat, grey sheet cloud, often obscuring the Sun and often bringing drizzle. Nimbostratus - flat, shapeless clouds which are the main source of rain and snow. Low Cloud: Cumulus - detached clouds that vary from small fleeces to large cauliflower shapes. Cumulonimbus - often anvil shaped and noted for its accompianment of thunder. Stratus - Shapless thin, grey cloud, often starting as fog. Stratocumulus - round shaped patchy cloud often formed as Cumulus but thinning out.
Coast	Where the land meets the sea. There are two main types of coasts, those created by the action of erosion and those by deposition.
Commercial	Commercial farming is the growing of crops or rearing of animals for sale and to make profit.
Confluence	The point at which two rivers meet.
Constructive	Places where two plates are pulled apart by convection currents in the mantle. New crust is created in these zones.
Continental Crust	Continental crust is thicker and less dense than oceanic crust. It is what the continents are made of.
Contour Lines	Lines on a map that show relief. When they are close together then the slope is steep, when they are far apart then the slope is gentle.
Cordillera	System or group of parrallel mountain ranges together with intervening plateaux, especially of the Andes and in Central America and Mexico.
Core	The core is the innermost zone of the earth, probably solid at the centre and at very high temperatures, composed of iron and nickel.
Corrosion	A form of erosion where water dissolves the rock.
Crust	The solid outer-most layer of the Earth. There are two types: oceanic crust and continental crust.
Dairy	Types of farming that take products from livestock without harming them.
Deposition	The 'dropping' of transported material. Evidence of deposition is normally in the form of some sort of beach.
Demography	The study of population.
Drainage Basin	The area drained by a river and all of it's tributaries.
Earth: Composition	The most abundant elements of the Earth's composition are Iron (35.9%), Oxygen (28.5%), magnesium and Silicon (15% each). The most abundant elements of the Earth's crust are Oxygen, Silicon and Aluminium.
Earth: Dimensions	Mass 5,974,000,000,000,000,000,000 metric tons. Area 510,066,000 square Kilometres. Land 148, 429,000 square Kilometres (29.1%) Water 361, 637, 000 square Kilometres (70.9%) Population 5,420,391,000 approx.
Earths Layers	Crust, Mantle and Core.
Earthquake	A movement of the earth's surface.
Environment	The physical surroundings including soil, vegetation, wildlife and atmosphere.
Epicentre	The point on the surface directly above the focus of an earthquake. This is where the earthquake is felt strongest.
Erosion	The wearing away of the land by running water, moving ice, the wind or the sea.
Fault	A large crack in a layer of rock or the Earth's crust.
Farming	The management of the environment to produce to produce food.
Fluctuate	To move above and below a fixed point.
Focus	The point underground where two sides of a fault slip past each other and cause an earthquake. The deeper the focus is, the weaker the magnitude of the earthquake of the earthquake on the surface.
Frost Action	The breaking down of rocks by the repeated freezing and thawing of water in cracks. The freezing makes the water expand in the crack and forces to the crack to enlarge. When it thaws, the water trickles further into the crack and the process is repeated. Shards of rock known as scree fall away. This process happens in areas where the temperature fluctuates around freezing point (0°C): e.g. mountain areas. This process is sometimes known as freeze-thaw weathering.
Fumarole	Opening in or near a volcano through which hot vapours emerge.
Glacier	A body of ice which flows down a valley.
Glacier Types	Continental, Mountain and Piedmont.
Green Line	Boundary dividing Cyprus between Greek south and Turkish north since the 1974 Turkish invasion.
Greenfield Site	An area which has never been developed before, often on the edge of a town.
Gutenberg Discontinuity	The Core-Mantle boundary of the Earth.
Hydraulic Action	Type of erosion. The wearing away of the land by the action of water alone
Hypsography	Description or mapping of the contours of the Earths Surface.
Igneous	A rock which originated as magma at depth in or below the earth's crust.
In Situ	"Happening in one place". With no movement.
Isocheim	Line on a map connecting places having the same average temperature in winter.
Isohyet	Line on a map connecting plaves having the same amount of rainfall in a given period.
Jungle: meaning	From the Hindi Jangal meaning 'Wilderness'.
Labour	The workforce: i.e. people who work in a firm.
Lava	The name given to molten rock (magma) when it comes to the surface.
Levant	Area of the Mediterranean bordering Syria and the Lebanon.
Lithosphere	Rigid outer part of the Earth consisting of the crust and upper mantle.
Livestock	Farm animals.
Load	The material carried by rivers and glaciers.
Longshore Drift	The movement of beach material along a beach in the same direction as the prevailing wind. This process leads to the creation of depositional landforms such as spits and tombolos.
Magma	The molten rock below the Earth's crust.
Magnitude	The strength or size of an event. Usually used when discussing earthquakes or hurricanes.
Mantle	The layer of the Earth directly below the crust made up of slow moving molten rock or magma.
Map	A scale drawing showing a plan or birds-eye view of an area.
Market	The buyers for a particular product.
Market Gardening	Growing fruit and vegetables for sale.
Mashriq	Geographical region including Egypt, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Kuwait, UAE, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq.
Minerals	Naturally found chemicals (often salts) that are useful to plants, animals and peoples.
Mofette	Exhalation of vapour from a volcano. Sometimes used as an alternative name for the fumarole itself.
Mouth	Where a river ends in a sea or lake.
Oceanic Crust	Oceanic crust is denser and thinner than continental crust. It makes up the ocean floors of the Earth.
Onion Skin	The breaking down of rocks due to repeated extreme heating and cooling. The changes in temperature make the rocks expand and contract until the outer layer can be peeled away like the skin of an onion. This type of weathering occurs in areas with a large daily variation in temperature: e.g. hot deserts.
Pastoral	Types of farming that involve the rearing of livestock.
Peninsula	Arabian is the largest (1,250,000 sq miles): second largest is the Southern Indian (800,00 sq miles).
Permafrost	General term for ground that is permanently frozen.
Physical Geography	The study of the natural environment.
Plate	Plates, otherwise known as tectonic plates, are large, rigid slabs of the Earth's crust. The crust is divided into a number of these gigantic slabs, up to 100km thick, which float on the Earth's molten mantle.
Periphery	The outlying area around a core area.
Rapids	A part of a river with turbulent water caused by the uneven nature of the river bed. Often this is caused by the river flowing over narrow bands of hard and soft rock: they are like a series of small waterfalls.
Relief	The shape of the land.
Richter Scale	A logarithmic scale used to measure the magnitude of earthquakes. Each step on the scale is ten times greater than the previous one.
River	A moving body of water that flows from a source in a highland area to it's mouth where it meets a lake or sea.
Rock: types	Igneous, Sedimetary and Matamorphic
Scree	The sharp stones found at the bottom of rocky outcrops where freeze thaw weathering is happening
Seismograph	A graph that is produced by a seismometer, showing the magnitude and length of earth movements.
Seismometer	A machine that measures the magnitude of earthquakes.
Source	A place where a river begins, usually in a highland area.
Spit	A coastal landform that comprises an arm of beach material sticking out into the sea. It is created by the action of longshore drift.
Spring	A place where water comes to the surface, often the source of a river. Water from spring is often thought to be pure and have health-giving properties as it picks up minerals from the rocks that it has passed through underground.
Stream	A small river.
Swash	The movement of a wave going up the beach. This happens in the direction of the prevailing wind and can lead to longshore drift.
Taiga (cold forest)	Coniferous forests of Sub-Arctic North America and Eurasia bordered by Tundra and Steppes.
Tectonic Plates	Regions of the Earth's crust that may be oceanic or continental, and relate to the activity within the Earth, creating new surface material, moving the plates against or underneath each other, changing their location over time, forming mountain ranges and causing earthquakes and volcanic activity.
Transport	The methods of moving something from one place to another. This can be the ways that people move about (bus, car, bicycle, etc.) or the way in which natural forces such as wind, wave and rivers move material.
Tributary	A small stream that joins the main river in a drainage basin.
Tombolo	A coastal landform created when a beach links the coast with an island. It is created by the action of longshore drift.
Tundra	Area south of the North pole where the layers of soil are permanently frozen.
Twilight: types	Civil, nautical, astronomical (6, 12 and 18 degrees angle of the sun below the horizon).
'U'-Shaped	Valleys created by the erosion of glaciers. These valleys tend to have a distinctive rounded floor and steep sides (a 'u' shape).
Valley	A long area of low land between stretches of high land. There is normally a stream at the bottom.
Viscous	Viscous liquids are very sticky and slow moving. Viscous magma leads explosive volcanoes.
Volcano	A cone-shaped mountain formed by material ejected from the Earth's interior.
Volcano: classifications	Active, dormant and extinct.
Volcano: types	Fissure and Central.
'V'-Shaped	River valleys tend to have a 'v' shape caused by the river eroding downwards strongly
Water Cycle	The continuous movement of water between seas, the atmosphere and the land.
Watershed	The high land that marks out the edge of a drainage basin.
Weather	The state of the atmosphere at a particular moment in time. The elements of the weather include wind, precipitation, air pressure and humidity.
Weathering	Weathering is the breaking down of materials in situ by frost action, biological action, chemical action and onion skin weathering.