Unit 1: Physical Geography Review Guide Test Date: Friday, Sept 4th

Directions: Answer the following questions, then check your answers and complete the activities
in the Nearpod Slideshow.

1. Topic: Geospatial Technology

a. What is GPS?
Global Positioning System helps us locate someone's position or where something
is located at.
b. What are some examples of how GPS is used?
1. Map out the topography
2. Locate where a specific person or item is
3. Map out the best path to an area
c. What is GIS?
Geographical Information System helps us solve or prepare for what is about to
happen or what is happening in a certain area.
d. What are some examples of how GIS is used?
1. Identify current issues through spatial analysis
2. Analyze geographic trends in various fields (health,natural
resources, demographics)
3. Monitor changes to data over time

2. Topics: Map Projections & Earth-Sun

a. How does the Earth’s revolution and direct or indirect sunlight cause the seasons?
Earth revolves around the sun which impacts the seasons. The sunlight reaches
over the Earth's sides there is less direct sunlight , so it will be colder in the area
with indirect sunlight.

b. What season does the hemisphere (side of the Earth) experience if they have more
indirect sunlight? They experience winter because there is indirect sunlight.

c. What season does the hemisphere experience if they have direct sunlight? They
experience summer because there are more direct sunlight.

d. Which climate zone receives the most direct sunlight - year round?
(arctic, temperate, tropical) Tropical receives the most direct sunlight.

3. Topics: MELCO & Climate

a. How does the process of the rain shadow effect impact the climate on the leeward
side of a mountain? (Vocab to include in your response: Windward, leeward,
mountain, elevation, precipitation, arid)
Perception only hits windward side and the leeward side is dry and the elevation
make it cold the more
 b. Fill in the blank: The closer to the equator, the (Hotter / Colder) the temperatures.

c. Fill in the blank: The more in land (away from the coast) a city is, the more (varied /
consistent) the temperatures will be.

d. Fill in the blank:The closer you are to the ocean coast, the more (varied /
consistent) the temperatures will be.

4. Topics: Plate Tectonics & Natural Disasters

a. What are plate tectonics? Tectonic plates are continental plates that shift and they
can create landforms.

b. What evidence do we have to support the theory of continental drift?

In the mid atlantic ridge the farther you got from it the older the rock is
c. Fill in the Chart: What natural disasters are caused by tectonic (seismic) activity?
Earthquakes
Natural Disaster How does plate tectonics cause?

Volcanic eruptions Make magma rise

Earthquakes Plate crash

tsunami Plates crash making earthquake which

makes a tsunami

5. Topics: More on Natural Disasters

a. What is El Nino?
El Niño is a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface
waters in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean
b. Fill in the Chart: What natural disasters can be caused by El Nino?
Natural Disaster How does El Nino cause?

Hurricanes Warm and cold mix causing hurricanes

flooding Hurricane drop a lot water and

flooding nearby land

6. Topic: External Forces

a. What is Weathering?
Weathering is when sediments are broken down by wind,water,glaciers.
b. What are the ways weathering impacts the Earth’s crust (rocks, landforms)
1. Frost wedging
2. Acid rain
3. oxidation
c. What is Erosion?
Erosion is when broken down sediments get picked up and get moved to another
place usually by wind.
d. What are the agents (methods) of erosion?
1. Wind
2. Ice
3. Water