Sunday 7 July 2013

P - list of geographical terms and definitions

P
Pacific Rim: The far eastern countries located at the margin of the Pacific ocean which includes Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan form the Pacific rim.
Pacific Ring of Fire: The Pacific ring of fire is a zone of volcanic and seismic activity located on the Pacific Rim and falls roughly on the borders of the Pacific Ocean.
Paddy Field: a flooded field where rice is grown.
Page update 5/05/13
Page update 5/05/13
Paleoclimate: The inference of the climate of a prehistoric time, obtained by studying geological evidence, is called paleoclimate.
Paleozoic: In geographical usage, paleozoic refers to anything that belongs to the Paleozoic era - an era of geological times that existed about 245 million years ago.
Particle Size: range from clay (0.001mm), through silt, sand, gravel, pebbles, cobbles and boulders (500+mm).
Pastoral Farm: one which specialises in the production of animals/animal products e.g. sheep farming in the Welsh hills..
Pastoral Farming: Pastoral farming is a kind of farming that involves the rearing of livestock for obtaining milk, meat, wool, etc.
Peak: The top or summit of a hill or mountain.
Peasant Farming: small-scale farming in LEDCs in which subsistence still plays a part.
Peninsula: A narrow piece of land jutting out into the sea.
Pensionable age: a person of a pensionable age is a man aged 65 or over or a woman aged 60 or over.
Percolation: The passage of a liquid substance, like water, through a porous object, like rocks or soil, is known as percolation.
Peripheral Region: an area on the fringe of economic activity e.g. a poor backward region of a country. An example is South Wales.
Permafrost: A permanently frozen layer of soil, permanently frozen ground at high latitude and high elevation.
Permeable Rock: allows water to percolate or pass through it e.g. limestone, sandstone and chalk.
Permeable: A rock that will allow water to pass through it such as limestone.
Pesticide: Pesticides are chemical substances, or a mixture of various chemical substances, used to kill pests and to prevent their infestation.
Pesticide: poisonous chemicals applied to crops to kill pests.
Pests: these affect crops and animals reducing yields, e.g. locusts.
Photochemical Smog: A type of smog or air pollution caused due to photochemical reactions of compounds like nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons is known as photochemical smog. It is mainly observed in large cities with high levels of air pollution.
Physical Factors affecting Location of Industry: include raw materials, energy (power supply), natural routes, site and land.
Physical Features/Activities: These are the result of natural forces which shape the earth and effect the atmosphere.
Physical Weathering: Physical weathering, also known as mechanical weathering, is the breaking down of rocks and minerals by natural agents like wind, tree roots, action of moving water, and human activities like construction and farming.
Physical Weathering: the disintegration of rock into smaller pieces without any chemical change in the rock; this is most likely in areas of bare rock where there is no vegetation to protect the rock from extremes of weather e.g. freeze-thaw and exfoliation (or onion weathering).
Physical Weathering: the disintegration of rock into smaller pieces without any chemical change in the rock; this is most likely in areas of bare rock where there is no vegetation to protect the rock from extremes of weather e.g. freeze-thaw and exfoliation (or onion weathering).
Physical Weathering: the disintegration of rock into smaller pieces without any chemical change in the rock; this is most likely in areas of bare rock where there is no vegetation to protect the rock from extremes of weather e.g. freeze-thaw and exfoliation (or onion weathering).
Physiographic region: A portion of the Earth's surface with a common topography and common morphology.
Piedmont Glacier: A piedmont glacier is a glacier formed due to the meeting of large valley glaciers to form a stagnant ice sheet. This type of glacier is found mainly in Alaska.
Plain: A low flat area.
Plan: A detailed map of a small area.
Planning: attempting to carry out a programme of work, such as building a new town or protecting historic buildings, by following an agreed set of guidelines, design or plan.
Plantation: a large farm in the tropics where one main cash crop is grown, often run by a transnational corporation.
Plantation: A plantation is a large area brought under cultivation in which the crops are raised by resident workers. These crops are sold in distant regions and are not really made available for local consumption.
Plate Tectonics: Geologic theory that the bending (folding) and breaking (faulting) of the solid surface of the earth results from the slow movement of large sections (plates) of that surface.
Plate Tectonics: Plate tectonics is a geological theory that explains volcanic and seismic activity, continental drift, formation movement, destruction of the lithospheric plates, and the formation of mountains.
Plateau: A high flat area.
Plateau: A large area of land which is slightly raised and has a level surface is called a plateau.
Pleistocene: The period the last one million years in geologic history when ice sheets covered large sections of the Earth's land surface not now covered by glaciers.
Plucking: a type of erosion where melt water in the glacier freezes onto rocks, and as the ice moves forward it plucks or pulls out large pieces along the rock joints.
Plunge Pool: the deep pool below a waterfall.
Point Bar: also known as Slip-Off Slope.
Polders: areas of reclaimed land that were once part of the sea bed in the Netherlands. See lsselmeer Polders.
Political Map: A map which shows countries, their borders and main cities.
Pollarding: Pollarding is a system of pruning trees regularly in which the main stem of a fast-growing tree is cut about 2 meters above ground level to allow healthy development of the branches. The system also involves cutting back of the tree branches to the trunk, to enable it produce new shoots in abundance.
Pollution: Noise, dirt and other harmful substances produced by people and machines which spoil an area.
Populated place: place or area with clustered or scattered buildings and a permanent human population (city, settlement, town, or village) referenced with geographic coordinates.
Population Change: Births - Deaths + In-Migration - Out-Migration = Population Change.
Population Density: number of people per square kilometre.
Population Distribution: How people are spread out over an area.
Population Explosion: A sudden rapid rise in the number of people.
Population Growth Rate: A measure of how quickly the number of people in an area increases.
Population Growth: The increase in the number of people in an area.
Population Pyramid: a graph which shows the age and sex structure of a place.
Port: A place used by ships to load and unload people and goods.
Port: a settlement site located where ships could be anchored in safety, sheltered from the sea. Large ports tend to be route centres, serving a hinterland.
Position: Where a place is.
Post-Industrial Economy: the economies of economically developed countries where most employment is in service industries.
Post-industrial: An economy that gains its basic character from economic activities developed primarily after manufacturing grew to predominance. Most notable would be quaternary economic patterns.
Pot Holes: holes eroded in the solid rock of a river channel. They are drilled by pebbles caught in eddies in the river.
Potential Evapotranspiration: In geographical terms, potential evapotranspiration is the measure of the amount of moisture that could be lost from the surface of the earth, caused by evaporation and transpiration.
Poverty: This is where people are poor, have no savings, own very little and often have low living standards.
Power: Energy needed to work machines and to produce electricity.
Power: this is needed to work the machines in the factory. Early industry needed to be sited near to fast- flowing rivers or coal reserves, but today electricity can be transported long distances and the size and location of markets have become more important as a location factor.
Precambrian rock: The oldest rocks, generally more than 600 million years old.
Precipitation Any of all of the forms of water particles, whether liquid or solid, that fall from the atmosphere and reach the ground. The forms of precipitation are: rain, drizzle, snow, snow grains, snow pellets, diamond dust, hail, and ice pellets.
Pressure Gradient: As per geographical terminology, pressure gradient can be defined as the rate of change of barometric pressure at a particular time in a particular region.
Pressure Melting Point: As per geography terms, pressure melting point is the temperature at which ice, on the application of pressure, will melt. This temperature is often below 0°C.
Prestige: the image of a company, gained from its headquarters address (e.g. Oxford Street, London) or its its traditional high-quality manufacturing location e.g. Sheffield (steel). See Industrial Inertia.
Prevailing wind The most common wind direction for a particular location.
Prevailing Wind: the direction from which the wind usually blows.
Prevailing winds: The direction from which winds most frequently blow at a specific geographic location.
Price Support Policies: in the EU a target price is set for farm produce and also an intervention price. If the price of farm produce falls to the intervention price the EU buys the product. This guarantees a minimum price for the farmer but can lead to the EU building up food mountains.
Primary Activity: Collecting and using natural resources, e.g. farming, fishing, forestry and mining.
Primary Consumers: Primary consumers, also known as herbivores, are organisms of the food chain that feed on the primary producers ( green plants).
Primary Industry: industry concerned with extracting natural resources from the ground or the sea, e.g. agriculture, fishing, forestry, mining and quarrying. The output of such primary production often needs further processing.
Primary Product Dependency: see Single Product Dependency.
Primary product: A product that is important as a raw material in developed economies; a product consumed in its primary (i.e., unprocessed) state (see Staple Product).
Primary sector: That portion of a region's economy devoted to the extraction of basic materials (e.g., mining, lumbering, agriculture).
Primate City: some countries have one city - the primate city - which, in terms of its population size and functions, dominates all other urban places.
Prime Meridian: An imaginary line running from north to south through Greenwich, England, used as the reference point for longitude.
Prime Meridian: The prime meridian is the line of longitude, designated as 0° and used as a reference line to measure longitude west and east.
Processes: the activities that take place in a farm e.g. harvesting.
Processes: the activities that take place within a factory e.g. rolling out steel.
Producer Services: services for manufacturing and other tertiary industries, e.g. advertising, legal services, management consultancy, market research.
Productivity: how much food is produced per worker or per hectare of land.
Professional Occupations: these comprise employers, managers and professional workers whose occupations normally require a university degree or other highly selective qualification such as doctors, civil engineers, etc..
Profile: the cross-section of the river, from its source to its mouth, concave in shape.
Profit: making more than you need to survive.
Profits: money left over when wages, interest, rent, raw materials and other costs have been paid by businesses. Profits are the financial reward for taking risks.
Prosperous: This is where people are rich and well-off.
Pull Factors: Things that attract people to live in an area.
Push Factors: Things that make people want to leave an area.
Push-Pull Factors: push factors encourage or force people to leave a particular place; pull factors are the economic and social attractions (real and imagined) offered by the location to which people move (i.e. the things which attract someone to migrate to a place).
P-wave: P-waves, also known as seismic waves, are elastic waves that are capable of traveling through gases, liquids and solids. These waves are released when an earthquake occurs.
Pyramidal Peak: where several cirques cut back to meet at a central point, the mountain takes the form of a steep pyramid, e.g. the Matterhorn in the Alps.