Glossary
- altitude
- Distance above sea level.
- atlas
- A bound collection of maps.
- archipelago
- A group of islands or a sea studded with islands.
- barge
- A large boat, usually flat-bottomed, for carrying heavy freight on rivers, canals, etc.
- bay
- A wide area of water extending into land from a sea or lake.
- boundaries
- Lines indicating the limits of countries, states, or other political jurisdictions.
- canal
- A man-made watercourse designed to carry goods or water.
- canyon
- A large but narrow gorge with steep sides.
- cape (or point)
- A piece of land extending into water.
- cartographer
- A person who draws or makes maps or charts.
- continent
- One of the large, continuous areas of the Earth into which the land surface is divided.
- degree
- A unit of angular measure. A circle is divided into 360 degrees, represented by the symbol °. Degrees, when applied to the roughly spherical shape of the Earth for geographic and cartographic purposes, are each divided into 60 minutes, represented by the symbol '. Thus, 1°=60'.
- delta
- The fan-shaped area at the mouth, or lower end, of a river, formed by eroded material that has been carried downstream and dropped in quantities larger than can be carried off by tides or currents.
- desert
- A land area so dry that little or no plant life can survive.
- elevation
- The altitude of an object, such as a celestial body, above the horizon; or the raising of a portion of the Earth's crust relative to its surroundings, as in mountain range.
- equator
- An imaginary circle around the Earth halfway between the North Pole and the South Pole; The largest circumference of the Earth.
- glacier
- A large body of ice that moves down a mountainside from highlands toward sea level.
- gulf
- A large arm of an ocean or see extending into a land mass.
- hemisphere
- Half of the Earth, usually conceived as resulting from the division of the globe into two equal parts, north and south or east and west.
- ice shelf
- A thick mass of ice extending from a polar shore. The seaward edge is afloat and sometimes extends hundreds of miles out to sea.
- international date line
- An imaginary line of longitude generally 180° (degrees) east or west of the prime meridian. The date becomes one day earlier to the east of the line.
- island
- An area of land, smaller than a continent, completely surrounded by water.
- isthmus
- A narrow strip of land located between two bodies of water, connecting two larger land areas.
- lagoon
- A shallow area of water separated from the ocean by a sandbank or by a strip of low land.
- lake
- A body of fresh or salt water entirely surrounded by land.
- latitude
- An angular distance north or south of the equator, measured in degrees.
- legend
- A listing which contains symbols and other information about a map.
- longitude
- The angular distance east or west of the prime meridian, measured in degrees.
- mountain
- A high point of land rising steeply above its surroundings.
- oasis
- A spot in a desert made fertile by water.
- ocean
- The salt water surrounding the great land mass, and divided by the land masses into several distinct portions, each of which is called an ocean.
- peak
- The highest point of a mountain.
- peninsula
- A piece of land extending into the sea almost surrounded by water.
- plain
- A large area of land, either level or gently rolling, usually at low elevation.
- plateau (or tableland)
- An elevated area of mostly level land, sometimes containing deep canyons.
- physical feature
- A land shape formed by nature.
- population
- The number of people inhabiting a place.
- prime meridian
- An imaginary line running from north to south through Greenwich, England, used as the reference point for longitude.
- range (or mountain range)
- A group or chain of high elevations.
- reef
- A chain of rocks, often coral, lying near the water surface.
- reservoir
- A man-made lake where water is kept for future use.
- river
- A stream, larger than a creek, generally flowing to another stream, a lake, or to the ocean.
- scale
- The relationship of the length between two points as shown on a map and the distance between the same two points on the Earth.
- sea level
- The ocean surface; the mean level between high and low tides.
- strait
- A narrow body of water connecting two larger bodies of water.
- swamp
- A tract of permanently saturated low land, usually overgrown with vegetation. (A marsh is temporarily or periodically saturated.)
- topography
- The physical features of a place; or the study and depiction of physical features, including terrain relief.
- valley
- A relatively long, narrow land area lying between two areas of higher elevation, often containing a stream.
- volcano
- A vent in the Earth's crust caused by molten rock coming to the surface and being ejected, sometimes violently.
- waterfall
- A sudden drop of a stream from a high level to a much lower level.
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