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Geography Vocab C
All useful Geography Vocab starting with C!
77
Geography
6th Grade
05/12/2013

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Term
caldera
Definition
a giant crater formed in the top of a volcano when the cone collapses; often fills with rainwater making a lake
Term
canal
Definition
man-made, artificial river; see also ship canal
Term
canyon
Definition
a river valley with very steep sides; the American expression for a gorge, e.g. the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River
Term
capital
Definition
finance or money needed as an input to start and maintain a business or a farm
Term
Carboniferous Period
Definition
geological time when Britain was covered by warm seas and limestone and the coal seams were deposited
Term
cartographer
Definition
a person who makes or draws maps; today satellites and computer technology are used
Term
cash crop
Definition
a crop sold to earn money like tea, coffee, or bananas as opposed to a subsistence crop like rice which is eaten by the farmer and his family
Term
catchment area
Definition
see river basin
Term
cave
Definition
a hollow space in a cliff where the sea has attacked and widened cracks or faults
Term
cavern
Definition
an underground cave in limestone country formed by corrosion and solution and often containing stalactites and stalagmites
Term
Central Business District (C.B.D.)
Definition
the commercial and business centre of a city, the area with the highest land values containing shops, offices and entertainments but FEW houses
Term
cereals
Definition
cultivated grasses grown for their edible grain; e.g. wheat, barley ,oats, rice
Term
channel
Definition
the course of a river where it flows, made up of banks and bed
Term
china clay
Definition
white clay (kaolin) found in Cornwall and used in the pottery and paper industries; the Eden Centre is in an old kaolin quarry
Term
chemical weathering
Definition
breakdown of rocks by acid rain dissolving limestone/chalk; the stonework of King's College Chapel has to be replaced because of this process
Term
cholera
Definition
disease spread by dirty drinking water; is a secondary effect of natural disasters like earthquakes (Haiti) and floods (the recent Pakistan flooding of the River Indus)
Term
cirque (corrie, cwm)
Definition
an armchair-shaped hollow on a mountainside where snow collects, turns to ice, and then begins to erode the rock by sliding under the influence of gravity; it is where a glacier often starts; cirque is the French word, corrie is the Scottish word, and cwm is the Welsh word
Term
cirrus cloud
Definition
very high, wispy, feather-like cloud made of ice crystals; nick-named The Mare's Tail it often forecasts rain to come
Term
citrus
Definition
oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit that require high temperatures to ripen and are therefore found around the Mediterranean Sea and in the Tropics
Term
cliff
Definition
the high, steep rock face where the land meets the sea
Term
climate
Definition
the AVERAGE weather data over 50 to 100 years or more
Term
clinometer
Definition
an instrument for measuring slopes and gradients
Term
cloning
Definition
Term
coal
Definition
a Sedimentary Rock formed when vegetation and trees were buried in ancient swamps and decayed; see also lignite and methane
Term
cold front
Definition
the dividing line where a cold air mass is advancing on and going under a warmer air mass; see also warm front, frontal rain
Term
collision boundary
Definition
where two continental plates collide (India crashing into Eurasia creating the Himalayas); there is no subduction here and so there are earthquakes but no volcanoes
Term
combe
Definition
a small armchair-shaped hollow on a chalk hillside like The North and South Downs, the Cotswolds or the Chilterns; many place names of villages use this word
Term
commercial farming
Definition
where crops or animals are sold for money and profit as opposed to subsistence farming
Term
Common Agricultural Policy (C.A.P.)
Definition
the system of rules and regulations within the E.U. designed to enable farmers to make a good income and to produce large quantities of essential foods; see also overproduction, surplus, set-aside and Single Farm Payment
Term
comparison goods
Definition
high order goods or products that cost a lot and so are not bought very often, such as electronics, fridges or cars
Term
compass
Definition
instrument used to identify direction
Term
components
Definition
bits and pieces, finished products themselves, assembled to make another finished product; for example, a car is made of thousands of components like tyres, windscreens, brakes, light bulbs, leather seats all made in other factories and put together (assembled) in the car factory; a computer is put together from components made of metal, plastic, glass, silicon chips; see also secondary industry
Term
commuter
Definition
a person who travels a distance from a village or town to work in another town or city usually by road or rail; many children commute to school; see also dormitory town (village)
Term
concave
Definition
a slope that is gentle to start with at the bottom (contour lines spaced out) and then becomes steeper towards the top (contour lines close together). When standing at the top you can see all the slope right to the bottom; there is intervisibility and, in cross-section, the shape is like a CAVE !
Term
cone
Definition
the shape of a volcano; can be a tall, steep-sided composite cone (made of ash and viscous lava) or a flatter, wider shield cone (made of runny lava)
Term
condensation
Definition
invisible gas becoming visible liquid; in the Water Cycle the droplets of water vapour form clouds as the temperature falls
Term
conflict
Definition
the clash between the needs or wishes of tourists, residents and farmers in national parks, e.g. peace and quiet/traffic jams and pollution, jobs/high house prices, bed and breakfast money/crops trampled
Term
confluence
Definition
the point at which two rivers merge to form one bigger river, i.e. the Blue and White Niles meeting at Khartoum, Sudan
Term
congestion
Definition
traffic jams; see also Park and Ride, and road pricing
Term
conical hill
Definition
a round topped hill with circular contour lines increasing in height towards the peak (summit) of the hill
Term
coniferous forest
Definition
softwood forest of cone-bearing trees like fir, pine, spruce; also called evergreen because the trees lose their needles (leaves) all the year round but also keep some all year; see also deciduous forest, mixed forest and taiga
Term
conservation
Definition
looking after, protecting and preserving resources and the environment so that they are available for future generations; see also management, sustainable development and stewardship
Term
conservative boundary
Definition
where two plates slide past each other and crust is neither formed nor destroyed; there is no subduction here and so there are earthquakes but no volcanoes; San Francisco, California 1989 and Haiti 2010 are examples
Term
constructive boundary
Definition
where two plates move apart from each other and new crust is formed; as magma erupts and solidifies on the seabed as lava the Mid-Atlantic Ridge was formed, and underwater volcanoes emerged as islands like Iceland and Surtsey
Term
consumer goods (industry)
Definition
industry producing items used in the home such as food, clothes and domestic appliances (T.Vs., refridgerators, computers)
Term
container
Definition
a large steel box that can hold a variety of cargoes securely and can be refrigerated; it can be quickly loaded from ships to lorries to trains and therefore enables goods to be moved cheaply
Term
container port
Definition
like Felixstowe or Harwich, it has the special gantry cranes used for loading and unloading containers
Term
container ship
Definition
large ship designed to carry only containers; see also bulk carrier and supertanker
Term
continent
Definition
a large land mass
Term
continental drift
Definition
the slow movement of the continents and oceans on the surface of the earth; the shapes of Africa and South America would suggest that they were once joined together and have drifted apart; see also plate tectonics, convection currents, Pangaea, Gondwanaland and Laurasia
Term
continental plate
Definition
slab of the earth's crust consisting of mainly land areas; it is thicker but less dense than oceanic plate; example the African Plate
Term
continental shelf
Definition
the shallow area of sea or ocean just off the edge of a continent; the British Isles sit on the continental shelf off the north west of Europe
Term
contour line
Definition
a brown line on an O.S. map joining all points of the same height above mean sea level; figures are in metres (m.); see also vertical (contour) interval, concave and convex slopes
Term
contour ploughing
Definition
when a farmer ploughs around a hillside following the contours of the slope, not ploughing straight up and down a hill; contour ploughing helps prevent soil erosion by water by making horizontal ridges and furrows that hold back the water; ploughing straight up and down makes little vertical gullies which help soil erosion because the water rushes down these artificial channels under the influence of gravity taking soil with it
Term
conurbation
Definition
a large urban area that has resulted from the growth and merging of two or more cities; e.g. London, Merseyside (Liverpool and Manchester), New York and the east coast of the U.S.A. south to Washington; see also mega-city, urbanisation and urban sprawl
Term
convectional rainfall
Definition
rainfall caused by the sun heating the ground (or rivers or forests at the Equator) and the warm, moist air rising, cooling and condensing often in a thunderstorm; occurs every day in the Rain Forests of Amazonia in Brazil but only after a hot, summer's day in the U.K., particularly in East Anglia
Term
convection currents
Definition
this is the heat rising up from the very hot earth's core through the mantle that drags the tectonic plates of the crust either apart from each other or towards each other; see also plate tectonics and continental drift
Term
convenience goods
Definition
low order goods or products that cost less but are bought more often, such as food, bread, milk or newspapers
Term
convex slope
Definition
a slope that starts off steep at the bottom (contour lines close together) but becomes more gentle (contour lines further apart) towards the top; you cannot see from the top of the slope to the bottom and so there is no intervisibility and you are VEXed !
Term
coral
Definition
a tiny marine animal that takes limestone out of sea water and when the polyps die they leave a deposit that builds up to make a coral reef; most corals live in warm tropical waters (the Great Barrier Reef off the east coast of Australia) but cold water corals have recently been discovered in the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Britain
Term
core
Definition
the solid centre of the Earth, probably a very hot ball of nickel and iron
Term
corrasion
Definition
see abrasion
Term
correlation
Definition
a statistical technique for comparing two or more sets of data; can be positive or negative
Term
corrie lake
Definition
a lake in the bottom of a cirque/corrie/cwm today where ice would have been during the Ice Ages; see also tarn
Term
corrosion
Definition
process of erosion when river water dissolves limestone and chalk; see also solution
Term
Countryside Code
Definition
a set of practices designed to protect rural areas and the people who live there, e.g. close gates, no litter, keep to paths, don't damage crops, walls, hedges, keep dogs on a lead; see also national park
Term
crater
Definition
the depression at the top of a volcano; sometimes contains a crater lake; see also caldera
Term
crevasse
Definition
vertical, very deep crack in a glacier; often covered in snow and can't be seen
Term
crofting
Definition
a small, self-sufficient, subsistence farm in the Scottish Highlands, Western Isles (Hebrides) or parts of Ireland; the farmer would combine growing crops or keeping animals with fishing or gamekeeping; today they can be involved in the tourist industry and the croft (cottage) may be rented out to holidaymakers; it is a hard life and over the last hundred years many crofts have been abandoned but many have also recently been sold to retired people as second homes
Term
crop rotation
Definition
changing the crop in each field every year to maintain soil fertility and crop yields, and to prevent the spread of crop diseases
Term
cross-section
Definition
an imaginary slice through part of an O.S. map to show the relief; don't exaggerate the vertical scale of the section - the South Downs should not look like the Himalayas !
Term
crust
Definition
the thin outer layer of solid rock around the Earth's surface on which we live
Term
cumecs
Definition
cubic metres per second; see discharge
Term
cumulonimbus cloud
Definition
tall, towering thunder cloud with a flat, anvil-shaped head; produces heavy rain and hail
Term
cumulus cloud
Definition
fluffy, white, 'cotton wool' cloud; may produce a shower but normally typical of a fine, dry, summer's day
Term
cutting
Definition
where engineers have cut away the ground to keep a motorway or a railway on a fairly level gradient to maintain high speeds; the road or train track are, therefore, slightly below the ground surface; cuttings are often found before going into or out from a tunnel; they have a special symbol on O.S. maps; see also embankment and viaduct
Term
cyclone
Definition
a deep depression (low pressure) found in the tropics of the Indian Ocean and south-east Asia; brings very strong winds, heavy rain and storm surges that cause floods in India and Bangladesh; it is called a hurricane in the West Indies and U.S.A., and a typhoon in China and Japan
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