Chapter 1: Looking at the Earth Geography is the study of the earth and its people.

Maps and globes are some of the tools used to study the physical and human characteristics of our planet. LANDSAT photos and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) help geographers provide information used by government and business leaders as they plan and make decisions. Our planet, Earth, is part of a solar system made up of a sun, nine planets (*or is it 8 - What! No more Pluto!!! - or is it 12 or more!?!), and thousands of smaller bodies. Life on Earth could not exist without the heat and light provided by the sun or the atmosphere of gases that surrounds the planet. The earth's rotation creates a twenty-four hour day and night, while its orbit around the sun and 23 1/2 degree tilt produce the seasons. Inside the earth are layers of varying thickness and composition: the inner core, outer core, mantle, and crust. Scientists theorize that volcanoes, earthquakes, and continental drift are caused by the movement of tectonic plates that float on top of the liquid rock in the mantle. The forces of weathering and erosion also continually change the earth's surface. People have adapted in order to live on various landforms. Mountains, plateaus, valleys, and other landforms are found on land and under the oceans. About 70 percent of the earth's surface is water. History of Geography and Physical Geography: The history of geography includes various histories of geography which have differed over time and between different cultural and political groups. In more recent developments, geography has become a distinct academic discipline. 'Geography' derives from the from Greekword - geographia,[1], a literal translation of which would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes (276-194 BC). However there is evidence for recognisable practices of geography, such as cartography (or map-making) prior to the use of the term geography. Babylon: The oldest known world maps date back to ancient Babylon from the 9th century BC.[2] The best known Babylonian world map, however, is the Imago Mundi of 600 BC.[3] The map as reconstructed by Eckhard Unger shows Babylon on the Euphrates, surrounded by a circular landmass showing Assyria, Urartu[4] and several cities, in turn surrounded by a "bitter river" (Oceanus), with seven islands arranged around it so as to form a seven-pointed star. The accompanying text mentions seven outer regions beyond the encircling ocean. The descriptions of five of them have survived.[5] In contrast to the Imago Mundi, an earlier Babylonian world map dating back to the 9th century BC depicted Babylon as being further north from the center of the world, though it is not certain what that center was supposed to represent.[2]

Greco-Roman world: The ancient Greeks saw the poet Homer as the founder of geography. His works the Iliad and the Odyssey are works of literature, but both contain a great deal of geographical information. Homer describes a circular world ringed by a single massive ocean. The works show that the Greeks by the 8th century BC had considerable knowledge of the geography of the eastern Mediterranean. The poems contain a large number of place names and descriptions, but for many of these it is uncertain what real location, if any, is actually being referred to.

Thales of Miletus is one of the first known philosophers known to have wondered about the shape of the world. He proposed that the world was based on water, and that all things grew out of it. He also laid down many of the astronomical and mathematical rules that would allow geography to be studied scientifically. His successor Anaximander is the first person known to have attempted to create a scale map of the known world and to have introduced the gnomon to Ancient Greece. Eudoxus of Cnidus used the idea of a sphere to explain how the sun created differing climatic zones based on latitude. This led the Greeks to believe in a division of the world into five regions Roman period: While the works of almost all earlier geographers have been lost, many of them are partially known through quotations found in Strabo. Strabo's seventeen volume work of geography is almost completely extant, and is one of the most important sources of information on classical geography. Strabo accepted the narrow band of habitation theory, and rejected the accounts of Hanno and Pytheas as fables. None of Strabo's maps survive, but his detailed descriptions give a clear picture of the status of geographical knowledge of the time.

Medieval Europe: During the Early Middle Ages, geographical knowledge in Europe regressed (though it is a popular misconception that they thought the world was flat), and the simple T and O map became the standard depiction of the world. The trips of Venetian explorer Marco Polo in the 13th century, the Christian Crusades of the 12th and 13th centuries, and the Portuguese and Spanish voyages of exploration during the 15th and 16th centuries opened up new horizons and stimulated geographic writings. During the 15th century, Henry the Navigator of Portugal supported explorations of the African coast and became a leader in the promotion of geographic studies. 19th century: By the 18th century, geography had become recognized as a discrete discipline and became part of a typical university curriculum in Europe (especially Paris and Berlin), although not in the United Kingdom where geography was generally taught as a subdiscipline of other subjects. One of the great works of this time was Kosmos: a sketch of a physical description of the Universe, by Alexander von Humboldt, the first volume of which was published in German in 1845. Over the past two centuries the quantity of knowledge and the number of tools has

exploded. There are strong links between geography and the sciences of geology and botany, as well as economics, sociology and demographics. 20th century: In the West during the second half of the 19th and the 20th century, the discipline of geography went through four major phases: environmental determinism, regional geography, the quantitative revolution, and critical geography.

Earth
Surface of the Earth Most of the Earth's surface (70%) is covered with water, and the remaining 30% is taken up by the seven continental landmasses. However, underneath the water that fills the oceans, and the dirt and plants that cover the continents, the Earths surface layer is made of rock. This outer layer formed a hard, rocky crust as lava at the surface cooled 4.5 billion years ago. The crust is broken into many large plates that move slowly relative to each other. Mountain ranges form when two plates collide and their edges are forced up. In addition, many other surface features are the result of the moving plates. The plates move about one inch per year, so millions of years ago the continents and the oceans were in different positions. About 250 million years ago, most of the land was connected together, and over time has separated into seven continents.

Continents on Earth
A continent is one of several major land masses on the earth. By most standards, there are a seven continents - Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. AFRICA:Africa is the SECOND LARGEST of the Earths seven continents, covering 30,244,000 sq km (11,677,000 sq mi), including its adjacent islands. It comprises 23 percent of the worlds total land area. In 2000 some 13 percent of the worlds population, an estimated 797 million people, lived in Africa, making it the worlds second most populous continent, after Asia. ANTARCTICA: Antarctica is the FIFTH LARGEST of the Earths seven continents. The southernmost, coldest, windiest, highest, most remote, and most recently discovered continent, it surrounds the South Pole, the point at the southern end of the Earths axis. Almost completely covered by ice, Antarctica has no permanent human population. The continent is ringed by the Southern, or Antarctic, Ocean, a body of water made up of the southern portions of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans but sometimes considered a separate ocean due to its lower temperature and salt concentration. The entire area south of the Antarctic Convergence, the zone where the Southern Ocean meets the other oceans, is referred to as the Antarctic region. Antarctica means opposite to the Arctic, the Earths northernmost region. ASIA: Asia is the LARGEST of the Earths seven continents, lying almost entirely in the Northern Hemisphere. With outlying islands, it covers an estimated 44,391,000 sq km

(17,139,000 sq mi), or about 30 percent of the worlds total land area. Its peoples account for three-fifths of the worlds population. AUSTRALIA: Australia is an island continent located southeast of Asia and forming, with the nearby island of Tasmania, the Commonwealth of Australia, a self-governing member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The continent is bounded on the north by the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea, and the Torres Strait; on the east by the Coral Sea and the Tasman Sea; on the south by the Bass Strait and the Indian Ocean; and on the west by the Indian Ocean. The commonwealth extends for about 4,000 km (about 2,500 mi) from east to west and for about 3,700 km (about 2,300 mi) from north to south. Its coastline measures some 25,760 km (about 16,010 mi). The area of the commonwealth is 7,682,300 sq km (2,966,200 sq mi), and the area of the continent alone is 7,614,500 sq km (2,939,974 sq mi), making Australia the SMALLEST CONTINENT in the world, but the sixth largest country. EUROPE: Europe is the SECOND SMALLEST continent (Australia is the smallest), Europe has an area of 10,355,000 sq km (3,998,000 sq mi), but it has the third largest population of all the continents, 726 million in 2000. The northernmost point of the Europ ean mainland is Cape Nordkinn, in Norway; the southernmost, Punta de Tarifa, in southern Spain near Gibraltar. From west to east the mainland ranges from Cabo da Roca, in Portugal, to the northeastern slopes of the Urals, in Russia. NORTH AMERICA: North America is the THIRD LARGEST of the seven continents, including Canada (the 2nd largest country in area in the world), the United States (3rd largest), and Mexico (14th largest). The continent also includes Greenland, the largest island, as well as the small French overseas department of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon and the British dependency of Bermuda (both made up of small islands in the Atlantic Ocean). With more than 405 million inhabitants estimate), North America is the 4th most populous continent; the United States ranks 3rd and Mexico 11th in population among the world's countries. Canada and the United States have technologically developed early modern economies, and Mexico, although less technologically developed than its neighbors, contains some of the world's greatest deposits of petroleum and natural gas. SOUTH AMERICA: South America is the FOURTH LARGEST of the Earth's seven continents (after Asia, Africa, and North America), occupying 17,820,900 sq km (6,880,700 sq mi), or 12 percent of the Earth's land surface. It lies astride the equator and tropic of Capricorn and is joined by the Isthmus of Panama, on the north, to Central and North America. The continent extends 7,400 km (4,600 mi) from the Caribbean Sea on the north to Cape Horn on the south, and its maximum width, between Ponta do Seixas, on Brazil's Atlantic coast, and Punta Parias, on Peru's Pacific coast, is 5,160 km (3,210 mi).

Earths Oceans:
Ninety-seven percent of Earths water comes from oceans.Oceans are an important natural resource. What are Oceans, Seas, and Basins? (C84-C85) y Most of Earths water is contained in large bodies of salt water called Oceans (examples: Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean)
y

The salt in the oceans comes from many sources

From rocks that breakdown through weathering From deep inside the Earth (volcanoes/water vapor/gases)
y

Salts are removed as fast as they are added Plants and animals use them to build shells and skeletons Other minerals fall out of the water and become part of the Ocean floor (or basin) Although you may have heard the ocean called the sea.. A sea is actually a body of water much smaller than an ocean Resources from the sea Seawater is an important source of minerals Oil, natural gas, and coal lie beneath the ocean floor Oceans living creatures: food and product ingredients Other resources are too difficult for us to take (examples: manganese, iron)

Ocean and life: The Ocean has a significant effect on the biosphere. Oceanic evaporation, as a phase of the water cycle, is the source of most rainfall, and ocean temperatures determine climate and wind patterns that affect life on land. Life within the ocean evolved 3 billion years prior to life on land. Both the depth and distance from shore strongly influence the amount and kinds of plants and animals that live there. Physical properties The area of the World Ocean is 361 million square kilometres (139 million square miles)[8] Its volume is approximately 1.3 billion cubic kilometres (310 million cu mi). [9] This can be thought of as a cube of water with an edge length of 1,111 kilometres (690 mi). Its average depth is 3,790 metres (12,430 ft), and its maximum depth is 10,923 metres (6.787 mi)[8] Nearly half of the world's marine waters are over 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) deep.[4] The vast expanses of Deep Ocean (anything below 200 metres (660 ft) cover about 66% of the Earth's surface.[10] This does not include seas not connected to the World Ocean, such as the Caspian Sea. The total mass of the hydrosphere is about 1,400,000,000,000,000,000 metric tons (1.510 18 short tons) or 1.41021 kg, which is about 0.023 percent of the Earth's total mass. Less than 3 percent is freshwater; the rest is saltwater, mostly in the ocean. Climate effects: Ocean currents greatly affect the Earth's climate by transferring heat from the tropics to the Polar Regions, and transferring warm or cold air and precipitation to coastal regions, where winds may carry them inland. Surface heat and freshwater fluxes create global density gradients that drive the thermohaline circulation part of large-scale ocean circulation. It plays an important role in supplying heat to the Polar Regions, and thus in sea ice regulation. Changes in the thermohaline circulation are thought to have significant impacts on the Earth's radiation budget. Insofar as the thermohaline circulation governs the rate at which deep waters reach the surface, it may also significantly influence atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.

The five major oceans that make up this planet, including the newest 'Southern Ocean', are:

Atlantic Ocean:The Atlantic Ocean is considered a passive margin ocean with most of its geological activity centered along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Most of its coastal regions are low and geologically quiet. The Atlantics major marginal seas include the Mediterranean Sea, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, Hudson Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea. The Atlantic covers an area of 82 million square kilometers (32 million square miles). It has an average depth of 3,600 meters (11,812 feet). Its greatest depth is in the Puerto Rico Trench at 8,605 meters (28,231 feet). Some of the current issues include endangered marine species include the manatee, seals, sea lions, turtles, and whales; driftnet fishing is exacerbating declining fish stocks and contributing to international disputes; municipal sludge pollution off eastern U.S., southern Brazil, and eastern Argentina; oil pollution in Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Lake Maracaibo, Mediterranean Sea, and North Sea; industrial waste and municipal sewage pollution in Baltic Sea, North Sea, and Mediterranean Sea Arctic Ocean: A smooth, pale-blue layer of polar pack ice edged by jagged chunks of floating ice covers much of the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean, the earths northernmost cap. With an area of 12 million square kilometres (5 million square miles), the Arctic Ocean is the smallest ocean - more than five times smaller than the Indian and Atlantic oceans. Some of the current issues include endangered marine species include walruses and whales; fragile ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover from disruptions or damage. Indian Ocean: The smallest of the three major oceans, the Indian Ocean covers an area of about 73 million square kilometres (about 28 million square miles) - about 20 percent of the total area covered by the world's oceans. The average depth of the Indian Ocean is 3,890 meters (12,762 feet). Its deepest point is the Java trench, at 7,725 m. Some of the current issues include endangered marine species include the dugong, seals, turtles, and whales; oil pollution in the Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, and Red Sea Pacific Ocean: The world's largest geographic feature, the Pacific Ocean covers more than 166 million square kilometres (more than 64 million square miles)about one-third of the earth's surface. The area of the Pacific is greater than that of all of the continents combined, and it makes up nearly half of the area covered by the earth's oceans. Some of the current issues include endangered marine species include the dugong, sea lion, sea otter, seals, turtles, and whales; oil pollution in Philippine Sea and South China Sea .

Southern Ocean: The Southern Ocean, designated as such in 2000, is a body of water that lies between 60 degrees south latitude and the Antarctica coastline. It's coordinates nominally are 65 00 S, 0 00 E, but the Southern Ocean has the unique distinction of being a large circumpolar body of water totally encircling the continent of Antarctica. This ring of water lies between 60 degrees south latitude and the coast of Antarctica, and encompasses 360 degrees of longitude. The Southern Ocean is now the fourth largest of the world's five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and Indian Ocean, but larger than the Arctic Ocean). Some of the current issues include impacts of global warming, ocean currents, environment and climate change research, fisheries.

Ports: A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbours where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land.
Port locations are selected to optimize access to land and navigable water, for commercial demand, and for shelter from wind and waves. Ports with deeper water are rarer, but can handle larger, more economical ships. Since ports throughout history handled every kind of traffic, support and storage facilities vary widely, may extend for miles, and dominate the local economy. Some ports have an important military role. Port types: The terms "port" and "seaport" are used for different types of port facilities that handle ocean-going vessels, and river port is used for river traffic, such as barges and other shallow-draft vessels. Some ports on a lake, river, or canal have access to a sea or ocean, and are sometimes called "inland ports". A fishing port is a port or harbour facility for landing and distributing fish. It may be a recreational facility, but it is usually commercial. A fishing port is the only port that depends on an ocean product, and depletion of fish may cause a fishing port to be uneconomical. In recent decades, regulations to save fishing stock may limit the use of a fishing port, perhaps effectively closing it. A "dry port" is a term sometimes used to describe a yard used to place containers or conventional bulk cargo, usually connected to a seaport by rail or road. A warm water port is one where the water does not freeze in winter time. Because they are available year-round, warm water ports can be of great geopolitical or economic interest. A seaport is further categorized as a "cruise port" or a "cargo port". Additionally, "cruise ports" are also known as a "home port" or a "port of call". The "cargo port" is also further categorized into a "bulk" or "break bulk port" or as a "container port". A cruise home port is the port where cruise-ship passengers board (or embark) to start their cruise and also debark (or disembark) the cruise ship at the end of their cruise. It is also where the cruise ship's supplies are loaded for the cruise, which includes everything from fresh water and fuel to fruits, vegetable, champagne, and any other supplies needed for the cruise. "Cruise home ports" are a very busy place during the day the cruise ship is in port, because off-going passengers debark their baggage and on-coming passengers board the ship in addition to all the supplies being loaded. Currently, the Cruise Capital of the World is the

Port of Miami, Florida, closely followed behind by Port Everglades, Florida and the Port of San Juan, Puerto Rico. A port of call is an intermediate stop for a ship on its sailing itinerary, which may include up to half a dozen ports. At these ports, a cargo ship may take on supplies or fuel, as well as unloading and loading cargo. But for a cruise ship, it is their premier stop where the cruise lines take on passengers to enjoy their vacation. Cargo ports, on the other hand, are quite different from cruise ports, because each handles very different cargo, which has to be loaded and unloaded by very different mechanical means. The port may handle one particular type of cargo or it may handle numerous cargoes, such as grains, liquid fuels, liquid chemicals, wood, automobiles, etc. Such ports are known as the "bulk" or "break bulk ports". Those ports that handle containerized cargo are known as container ports. Most cargo ports handle all sorts of cargo, but some ports are very specific as to what cargo they handle. Additionally, the individual cargo ports are divided into different operating terminals which handle the different cargoes, and are operated by different companies, also known as terminal operators or stevedores.

Major Ports of Asia: India, Hong Kong Marine Dept, Indonesia Port Corporation II, Japan(Ports in the Chiba Prefecture,
Port of Kitakyushu, Port of Yokohama,Port of Nagoya), Malaysia (Ports of Malaysia, Port of Bintulu, Port of Johore, Port of Kemaman, Penang Port), Philippines (Philippine Ports Authority), South Korea, Singapore (Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore), Taiwan (Port of Kachsiung, Keelung Harbour).