Geography

On the GED social studies test, you’ll need to know more than how to read a map if you want to answer geography questions correctly.

Physical Geography

Physical geography refers to the physical environment and the living things it contains.

The Earth is divided into landforms and bodies of water. Landforms can include:

• Plains
• Mountains
• Canyons
• Basins
• Valleys

Bodies of water can include:

• Oceans
• Seas
• Lakes
• Rivers
• Ponds

How landforms and bodies of water interact with living things make up the ecosystem. Living things use the environment’s natural resources to thrive. Humans use natural resources differently than other animals, such as burning coal for electricity or melting iron to make steel.

The study of physical geography also involves climate, trends in the weather over thousands of years. Many eras in Earth’s climate history were much colder and hotter than present day. Unlike climate, weather refers to a much shorter period of time, such as a week or two.

Continents and Oceans

The Earth’s Seven Continents

Source: One or more images by AlexCovarrubias, Corticopious, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Most geographers agree that the Earth can be split into seven continents. A continent is a large landmass, usually separated from other landmasses by water. In the case of Europe and Asia, the Ural Mountains and cultural differences between the two regions draw a dividing line.

The Earth’s Six Oceans

Source: Pinpin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Earth’s six oceans are a single body of water. The oceans have different names due to their relative location to other things. The Arctic Ocean is near the Arctic Circle, while the Southern Ocean is near the most southern continent, Antarctica.

Cultural Geography

Geologists also look at the Earth in terms of its diverse cultural regions. Migration over tens of thousands of years and geographic boundaries created the cultural regions present today. As we already saw, the Ural Mountains are one of the main reasons that Asian and European cultures are so dissimilar. They prevented the diffusion, meaning the spread, of cultural traits between the two continents.

In other places, diffusion happened more easily. For example, the Chinese and Japanese written languages use similar characters. This is due to centuries of contact between the two groups.

As ideas were shared between peoples, so was culture, the beliefs and values that make groups of people unique. Different cultural traits include child-rearing practices, religion, and social norms.

Reading Maps

Let’s explore everything you need to know about maps by examining the map below.

A Map of the Falkland Islands

Source:Eric Gaba (Sting – fr:Sting), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

This map of the Falkland Islands provides a lot of useful information. Let’s start at the bottom, where you’ll immediately notice one box on the left and two boxes on the right.

The box on the left indicates elevation, with darker colors indicating higher elevation. Using shades of blue, the map also tells us how deep the ocean is.

The top box on the right provides us with the Falkland Islands’ exact location, just east of Argentina. In the box below, a key explains what the circles, triangles, and lines on the map indicate. We now know that the red lines are roads, the circles cities/settlements, and the triangles mountain peaks.

Let’s not forget the scale in the bottom left corner. This important tool helps us figure out just how big the Falkland Islands are. It provides information in kilometers and miles. Kilometers are shorter than miles, so 50 km is just over 30 miles.

Lastly, can you spot something that’s missing from this map?

Hint
Besides the map’s orientation, is there any way to tell which way is north?

What’s missing is the compass rose:

Source: User:Vloeck, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The compass rose tells you which way is north, south, east, west, and everything in between. Many maps put the compass rose in one of the two bottom corners.