Regional Geography of North America

Social Studies 9

Definition of Geography

Geography comes from the Greek words Geo (γη) or Gaea (γαια), both meaning "Earth", and graphein (γραφειν) meaning "to describe" or "to write“ or "to map"

Science that deals with the earth’s surface and its division into continents and countries, and the climate … [kind of weather patterns that a place has over a period of years] , animal and plant life, peoples, resources, industries, and products of these divisions

from Canadian Intermediate Dictionary

Branches of Geography

Science of geography can be divided into two main parts:

• Human

• Physical

Human Geography

• Is the study of how humans interact with different environments

• It focuses on the causes (reasons for) and consequences (impacts) of where human activity is distributed across the earth’s surface

• Subfields include: cultural, economic, social, urban, and political

Physical Geography

• Is the study of the natural processes that

shape the surface of the Earth and life on it

Subfields of Physical Geography

• Geomorphology (surface of earth and processes which shape it now and in the past)

• Hydrology (amount and quality of water moving and accumulating on the land surface and in the soil and rocks near the surface)

• Glaciology (glaciers and ice sheets)• Biogeography (how different species are distributed

across the earth and reasons for these patterns)

Subfields continued

• Climatology (climate or weather conditions averaged over a long period of time)

• Pedology (study of soils)• Oceanography (study of earth’s oceans and seas)• Environmental Geography (study of human interactions

with the natural world)

Our focus …

• In this part of the course, we will be focusing on the physical branch of geography – Science 8 connection.

• We will begin with a brief review of the Earth’s components (parts) and the forces, including tectonic forces and glaciation, that shape the surface of the Earth

Physical Regions of North America

• Look at page 163 of your text• Continent of North America can be divided into 8

different geographic regions:• Appalachian Region• Coastal Plains• Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Lowland• Interior Plains• Canadian Shield• Western Cordillera• Intermountain Region• Arctic Region

Geographic Regions

• These geographic divisions are based mainly on topography or the shape of the land

• As you will see, the types of climate (patterns of weather) and vegetation (plants that grow naturally in an area) vary from one region to another