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.
