GEOG 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Water Cycle, Bionics, Spheroid
Physical Geography
IVC
The Basics
-System Theory: a system is any ordered set of things that are linked together by energy
and matter from the surrounding environment outside the system.
-Two Types: Open and Closed
-Equilibrium: when a system remains balanced over time in a steady-state condition.
(Inputs = outputs)
Ex). An earthquake on the ocean floor disrupts the state, causing the Earth to respond
with a tsunami to bring it back to equilibrium.
Earth's Four Systems
1. Lithosphere:
A. Earth's Crust:
-Continental
-Oceanic
B. Upper Mantle: "Rocks"
2. Hydrosphere: water in all 3 states (all connected by a hydrologic cycle)
3. Atmosphere: thin gassy layer surrounding the Earth.
4. Biosphere: (ecosphere)
-All living organisms
-Flora and fauna
-people
-The biosphere is the bionic realm (because all living elements reside)
-The other spheres are all abiotic (non-living environments)
*** All of these spheres are present and connected
Maps
-Make making is called cartography
-Why make maps? Because they are portable
-The problem? Maps are 2D and the Earth is 3D and since they lie flat they can not be
completely accurate
-Geodesy: the science of measuring the size and shape of the Earth
-Oblate spheroid: the actual name for the size and shape of the Earth
-Why?: Because the earth is being compressed at the poles (due to rotation) and this
causes a bulge at the equator (Input, output)
Longitude and Latitude
Location: "where"
-Absolute location
-Geographic grid system (latitude, longitude)
Latitude:
