Sunday 7 July 2013

M - list of geographical terms and definitions

M
Machinery: used in industrial processes to produce the finished product for sale. (Manufacturing).
Magma Plume: One of the very crucial geography terms, magma plume is the rising magma within the mantle.
Magma: Magma refers to the molten rock below the surface of the earth. It is normally found in the mantle or the crust of the earth. Find out what is magma made of.
Magma: Molten rock containing liquids, crystals, and dissolved gases that forms within the upper part of the Earth's mantle and crust. When erupted onto the Earth's surface, it is called lava.
Magnetic North: Point near North Pole where the magnetic needle dips vertically.
Malnutrition: ill-health caused by a diet deficiency, either in amount (quantity) or balance (quality).
Managed Retreat: allowing cliff erosion to occur as nature taking its course: erosion in some areas, deposition in others. Benefits include less money spent and the creation of natural environments.
Mangrove Swamp: It refers to a kind of wetland forest which has salt adapted trees. It is mainly found in inter tidal zone of tropical coast areas. They, in addition to preventing soil erosion, on the coasts, also provide a rich habitat for a good amount of biodiversity.
Mantle: A zone in the Earth's interior between the crust and the core that is 2,900 kilometers (1,800 mi) thick. (The lithosphere is composed of the topmost 65-70 kilometers (39–42 miles) of the mantle and the crust.)
Mantle: Between the crust and the core of the earth, there is another layer. That is called the mantle. This word is another 'must have' in a geography terms list.
Map: A picture of a place that is usually drawn to scale on a flat surface.
Maquis: Maquis, a French word, basically refers to a shrubland biome, especially in the Mediterranean region. It consists of dense evergreen shrubs, like juniper and myrtle. The word is derived from the plural form of Italian word 'macchia', which means thicket in English. It is found in areas where forests have been cleared by humans.
Marginal Land: land of poor quality because of lack of nutrients, soil erosion, distance from market or otherhuman and physical factors.
Mariculture: It is a branch of aqua culture, which specializes in the breeding and cultivation of marine organisms in salt water.
Marina: It is an artificial mooring area or dock, especially made for mooring of a pleasure craft and is protected form the sea.
Maritime climate A climate with a low temperature range influenced by proximity to the sea. Winters will be warmer and summers cooler compared to a continental location for the same latitude.
Maritime climate: A climate strongly influenced by an oceanic environment, found on islands and the windward shores of continents. It is characterized by small daily and yearly temperature ranges and high relative humidity.
Maritime Climate: Maritime climate is the climate found in areas near coastal regions, where the climate is affected by the land's proximity to the sea.
Maritime: Maritime simply means anything related to the sea. This is one of the very important geography terms.
Market Area: the area served by a particular settlement, shop or service. (See sphere of influence).
Market Forces: the system where prices for products are the result of supply and demand; if demand is high and supply cannot be increased to meet it, prices go up; if demand is low and there is too much supply, prices fall. (See Intervention).
Market Gardening: The growing of fruit, vegetables and flowers.
Market Gardens: farms which produce vegetables, fruit and flowers; usually found near a large market.
Market Location (for industry): where transport costs for the finished product exceed the transport costs of the raw materials. Transport costs are lowest if the raw materials are transported to the factory located at the market and processed there. Today, since power (electricity) can be transported over long distances, a market location is more important than a raw material (coal) location.
Market Town: a town whose main function is that of a shopping and service centre for the surrounding region.
Market: A place where raw materials and goods are sold.
Market: where industrial products are bought and sold.
Marram Grass: This a type of grass, which thrives in dry and sandy environment.
Mass Movement: the downhill movement of weathered material under the force of gravity. The speed can vary considerably, from soil creep, where the movement is barely noticeable, to slumps, slides and mudflows, where the movement becomes increasingly more rapid.
Mean Annual Flood: This is an annual mean average of the optimum flood discharges by a specific river.
Meander: A bend in a river.
Meander: It is a very pronounced and prominently looping bend in a river. Meanders separate themselves from the river later and then become non-existent. Meander is one of the most favorite geography definitions of any geography course book.
Meander: a bend in a river. The outside of the meander has the fastest flow and deepest water.
Mechanised: Work done by machines.
Medial Moraine: a narrow band of weathered rock debris which runs down the centre of the glacier. It forms from the merging of the lateral moraines of two glaciers.
Mediterranean climate: A climate characterized by moist, mild winters and hot, dry summers.
Mediterranean Climate: It is the climatic characteristics observed around the Mediterranean region. This is one of the most common geographical terms.
Mediterranean Climate: Places which have hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters.
Megalopolis: a continuous stretch of urban settlement which results from towns cities and conurbations merging together.
Megalopolis: An expansive length of metropolitan area, brought about by joint urban centers is called a megalopolis.
Meltwater: Meltwater is simply the water which has been derived from the melting of snow or ice.
Meridian: A line passing through south pole and north pole, forming a circle.
Mesa: A hill having a flat surface at the top, but which rises prominently around the surrounding landscape is called a Mesa.
Mesa: An isolated, relatively flat-topped natural elevation, usually more extensive than a butte and less extensive than a plateau.
Mesozoic: It is the name of a geologic era, which was around 245 to 65 million years ago.
Mesquite: A spiny deep-rooted leguminous tree or shrub that forms extensive thickets in the southwestern United States.
Metamorphic Rock: Rock that has been physically altered by heat and/or pressure.
Meteorology: The branch of geography involving the study of atmosphere is called meteorology.
Metes and bounds: A system of land survey that defines land parcels according to visible natural landscape features and distance. The resultant field pattern is usually very irregular in shape.
Metropolitan coalescence: The merging of the urbanized areas of separate metropolitan regions; Megalopolis is an example of this process.
Microclimate: Climatic conditions on a local, micro level, which shows the differentiation between that and the general and macro climatic conditions.
Middle Course: the section of the river between the mountains and the lowland, where transport of eroded material is important and the river begins to cut sideways due to the reducing gradient.
Midnight Sun: Appearance of the sun at midnight in the Arctic Circle. Orbit: The path of the heavenly bodies.
Mid-Oceanic Ridge: Formed by lava, a mid oceanic rid is a long range of mountains under sea.
Migrant Workers: People who are born in one country and travel to work in another.
Migrant: someone who moves from one place to another to live.
Migration: movement of people.
Migration: The movement of people from one place to another to live or to work.
Milk Lakes: milk surpluses in the EU caused by over-production.
Millionaire City: a city with over one million inhabitants.
Minerals: found in rock. They may be mined or quarried and then either melted down like iron ore (iron) or bauxite (aluminium), or used as a source of power (coal, oil).
Mining: Mining is simply extracting minerals from the crust of the earth for solely industrial objectives.
Mining: The extraction or digging out of minerals from deep under the ground, e.g. coal, iron ore.
Misfit Stream: After the ice has melted and the river returns to the valley, it often looks tiny and out-of-place in its huge U-shaped trough.
Mist: It is nothing but a light fog.
Mistral: Katabatic wind, wind which blows down the slope of a mountain, is called Mistral in French.
Mixed Farm: one which produces crops and animals.
Model: a theoretical representation of the real world in which detail and scale are simplified in order to help explain reality.
Monadnock: An isolated hill or mountain of resistant rock rising above an eroded lowland.
Monoculture: a farming system in which a single crop is grown continuously in the same field. This can exhaust the soil nutrients, lead to a breakdown in soil structure and the loss of soil through wind or rainwater erosion.
Monoculture: It is a type of an agricultural system, where the norm is to cultivate a single crop.
Monsoon: the rainy season in south-east Asia.
Monsoon: This refers to a prevailing seasonal wind, which is of two types - summer monsoon and winter monsoon. Well, this is perhaps one of the most cliched and run of the mill geography terms and geography definitions. More on what causes monsoons.
Moor: A hilly tract of land, having typically wet, spongy soil and comprising moss, heather and coarse grass is called moor.
Mor: A partially decomposed humus layer having high level of acids and devoid of nutrients is called mor.
Moraine: The movement of a glacier results in transportation of unwanted material from a place to another. So the debris that is deposited by the glacier is called moraine.
Moraine: The rocks and soil carried and deposited by a glacier. An "end moraine," either a ridge or low hill running perpendicular to the direction of ice movement, forms at the end of a glacier when the ice is melting.
Moraines: frost-shattered rock debris and material eroded from the valley floor and sides, transported and deposited by glaciers.
Morphology: It is the study of various landforms and the different processes which result in those particular geographical landforms.
Mouth: The end of a river where it flows into the sea.
Mouth: The spot where a river joins another water body is called the mouth of the river.
Mouth: where a river ends, at a lake or the sea.
Mud Flows or Slides: occur after periods of heavy rain when loose surface material becomes saturated and the extra weight causes the material to become unstable and move rapidly downhill in an almost fluid state.
Mudflow: A flowing mixture of water and debris (intermediate between a volcanic avalanche and a water flood) that forms on the slopes of a volcano. Sometimes called a debris flow or lahar, a term from Indonesia where volcanic mudflows are a major hazard.
Multilingual: The ability to use more than one language when speaking or writing (see Bilingual). This term often refers to the presence of more than two populations of significant size within a single political unit, each group speaking a different language as their primary language.
Multiplier Effect: the 'snowballing' of economic activity. e.g. If new jobs are created, people who take them have money to spend in the shops, which means that more shop workers are needed. The shop workers pay their taxes and spend their new-found money, creating yet more jobs in industries as diverse as transport and education.
Municipal waste: Unwanted by-products of modern life generated by people living in an urban area.