Absolute direction: Direction with respect to cardinal east, west, north, and south reference

points.
In times of old, we knew our absolute directions through the sun setting and rising

Absolute distance: The shortest-path separation between two places measured on a standard unit
of length.
The absolute distance from here to South Dakota is 37,562 kilometers.

Absolute location: The exact position of an object or a place stated in spatial coordinates of a
grid system designed for locational purposes. In geography, the reference system is the global
grid of parallels of latitude north or south of the equator and of meridians of longitude east or
west of a prime meridian.
The equators absolute location on the map is always 0 degrees longitude.

Acculturation: The cultural modification or change resulting from one culture group or
individual adopting traits of a more advanced or dominant society; cultural development through
borrowing.
Many people who move undergo acculturation to fit in easier.

Activity space: The area within which people move freely on their rounds of regular activity
My activity space includes mostly the school and my dorm room.

Agglomeration: The spatial grouping of people or activities for mutual benefit

Weber having a production factory in South Carolina to ship away is agglomeration.

Agriculture: Cultivating the soil, producing crops, and raising livestock; farming.
Many people make a living off of agriculture around east Tennessee.

Assimilation: The social process of merging into a composite culture, losing separate ethnic or
social identity, and becoming culturally homogenized.
Many Native Americans underwent assimilation when Europe entered the scene.

Carrying capacity: The numbers of any population that can be adequately supported by the
available resources on which that population subsists; for humans, the numbers supportable by
the known and utilized resources usually agriculturalof an area.
The worlds carrying capacity is slowly dwindling due to how many people are being
born a year.
Choropleth map: A map that depicts quantities for areal units by varying pattern and/or color.
He showed me a choropleth map to explain the population density of the cities in TN.

Climate: The long-term average weather conditions in a place or region.

The climate for today is muggy and wet.

Comparative advantage: A regions profit potential for a productive activity compared with
alternative areas of production of the same good or with alternative uses of the regions
resources.
Tennessee holds a great comparative advantage over New York when it comes to corn.

Connectivity: The directness of routes linking pairs of places; all of the tangible and intangible
means of connection and communication between places.
Roads and trains systems are a part of our connectivity that is tangible, while things like
email are the same just intangible.

Crude birth rate: The ratio of the number of live births during 1 year to the total population,
usually at the midpoint of the same year, expressed as the number of births per year per 1000
population.
The crude birth rate is ever slowly increasing causing overpopulation.

Crude death rate (mortality rate): A mortality index usually calculated as the number of
deaths per year per 1000 population.
The crude death rate is slowly dying away causing overpopulation.

Culture: A societys collective beliefs, symbols, values, forms of behavior, and social
organizations, together with its tools, structures, and artifacts; transmitted as a heritage to
succeeding generations and undergoing adoptions, modifications, and changes in the process.
Our culture is what defines us as individuals from unique areas of the world.
Economic base: The manufacturing and service activities performed by the basic sector of the
labor force of a city to satisfy demands both inside and outside the city and earn income to
support the urban population.
You can tell the economic base is doing well when you see more people out shopping.

Economic geography: The study of how people earn a living, how livelihood systems vary by
area, and how economic activities are spatially interrelated and linked.
I enjoy learning about economic geography because it helps me when looking for better
places to live.

Ecotourism: Tourism to relatively pristine natural environments that attempts to conserve the
quality of the environment and improve the local quality of life. In theory, ecotourism
destinations generate resources for conservation, educate visitors, and hire local workers and
local companies.
Our last field trip to Hawaii could be considered ecotourism.

Enclave: A territory that is surrounded by, but is not part of, a state.
Lesotho is an enclave due to it being surrounded by South Africa.

Energy: The ability to do work.

It is taking all my energy to write this dictionary.

Equidistant projection: A map projection on which true distances in all directions can be
measured from one or two central points.
He showed me the equidistant projection between Athens and Rome on a map. The
distance was right, but not when you measured anything else.

Equivalent projection: A map projection on which the areas of regions are represented in
correct or constant proportions to earth reality; also called equal-area projection.
He also showed me a map where the equivlent projection was based off of Athens TN!
Ethnicity: The social status afforded to, usually, a minority group within a national population.
Recognition is based primarily on culture traits, such as religion, distinctive customs, or native or
ancestral national origin.
Ethnicity is a very touchy topic that we should all learn how to treat with respect.

Exclave: A portion of a state that is separated from the main territory and surrounded by another
country.
Kentucky bend is an exclave area because it is separated from Kentucky by the
Mississippi River.

Folk culture: The body of institutions, customs, dress, artifacts, collective wisdoms, and
traditions of a homogeneous, isolated, largely self-sufficient, and relatively static social group.
People who like to do things the old way are a part of folk culture.

Gentrification: the rehabilitation of housing in the oldest and now deteriorated inner-city areas
by middle- and high-income groups, renewed depressed neighborhoods surrounding the central
business district
Many homeless people are now living in new homes thanks to the citys attempt to use
more gentrification on the old houses in town.

Global warming: A rise in surface temperatures on Earth, a process believed by some to be

caused by human activities that increase the concentration of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere, magnifying the greenhouse effect.
Global warming could be caused by green house affects.
Globalization: The increasing interconnection of all parts of the world as the full range of social,
cultural, political, economic, and environmental processes and patterns of change becomes
international in scale and effect.
Accessibility has become a driving factor in our quest for Globalization.

Igneous rock: Rock formed from cool, solidified magma; may solidify beneath or at the earths
surface.
I found many igneous rocks around the base of the volcano in Hawaii.

Insolation: Process that the suns radiation goes through hen reaching the surface of the earth
being absorbed and insulated through water, clouds, and even the soil.
Insolation protects the earth from going up in flames.

Metamorphic rock: Rock transformed from igneous and sedimentary rocks into a new type of
rock by earth forces that generate heat, pressure, or chemical reaction.
My marble countertop is a metamorphic rock.

Migration: The permanent (or relatively permanent) relocation of an individual or a group to a

new, usually distant place of residence.
Many people today take use of migration, though now we mostly call it moving.

Mineral: A natural inorganic substance that has a definite chemical composition and
characteristic crystal structure, hardness, and density.
Just like at a jewelry store, you test minerals on their structure, hardness, and density.
Natural resource: A physically occurring item that a population perceives to be necessary and
useful to its maintenance and well-being.
Our natural resources are the reason many of us today have power and energy.

Nonrenewable resource: A natural resource that is not replenished or replaced by natural

processes or is used at a rate that exceeds its replacement rate.
Nonrenewable resources should be something we become less dependent on.

Outsourcing: (1) Producing abroad parts or products for domestic use or sale; (2) subcontracting
production or services rather than performing those activities in house.
Many people do not like outsourcing because they say it makes for less jobs here in the
US.

Overpopulation: A value judgment that the resources of an area are insufficient to sustain
adequately its present population numbers.
Overpopulation is a scary fact once you think of us all living face to face with nowhere
to go.

Population projection: A report of future size, age, and sex composition of a population based
on assumptions applied to current data.
We can get a better outlook on overpopulation through population projection.

Reflection: The process of returning to outer space some of the earths received insolation.
The earth is basically a mirror for the suns UV rays when you remember about
reflection.

Regionalism: In political geography, minority group identification with a particular region of a

state rather than with the state as a whole.
If you think of home as a city and the places around rather than just the state as a whole,
you have a great sense of regionalism.

Renewable resource: A naturally occurring material that is potentially inexhaustible, because

either it flows continuously (such as solar radiation or wind) or it is renewed within a short
period of time (such as biomass).
Renewable resources are the only resource we should be living off of in the far future.

Sedimentary rock: Rock formed by the accumulation of particles of gravel, sand, silt, and clay
that were eroded from already existing rocks and laid down in layers.
I found the rest of my sedimentary rocks at the local lake I like to swim at.
Spatial diffusion: The outward spread of a substance, a concept, a practice, or a population from
its point of origin to other areas.
The largest diseases, like the black plague, started off with spatial diffusion.

Subnationalism: The feeling that one owes primary allegiance to a traditional group or nation
rather than to the state.
If you cheer for America more than the Vols you have a large amount of
subnationalism.

Subduction: The process by which one lithospheric plate is forced down beneath another into
the asthenosphere as a result of a collision with that plate.
You know subduction has occurred when there are earthquakes occurring nearby.

Subsistence economy: A system in which goods and services are created for the use of
producers or their immediate families. Market exchanges are limited and of minor importance.
My grandfather lived mostly off of a subsistence economy because he owned his own
farm.

Suburb: A functionally specialized segment of a large urban complex located outside the
boundaries of the central city.
Once you get out of the city into the suburb every building starts to look the same.

Supranational: The acceptance of the interests of more than one state, expressed as associations
of states created for mutual benefit and to achieve shared objectives.
Nafta, a good example of supranationalism, may be removed under president Trump.

Temperature inversion: The condition caused by rapid reradiation in which air at lower
altitudes is cooler than air aloft.
Many forms of precipitation depends on temperature inversion.

Topographic map: A map that portrays the shape and elevation of the terrain, often in great
detail.
He showed me a topographical map so I could understand how to climb the mountain.
Transition economies: Economies in formerly communist countries that are in the process of
shifting away from central planning towards free market exchange.
Russia is an example of a transitional economy.

Urbanized area: A continuously built-up urban landscape defined by building and population
densities with no reference to the political boundaries of the city; it may contain a central city
and many contiguous towns, cities, suburbs, and unincorporated areas.
Many people find urbanized areas scary, though I find most of my relaxation there.