Lernmaterialien für GEO 1206 lecture 1: Foundations of Physical Geography an der University of Guyana

deep down in the ocean where there is no sunlight

When different gases absorb solar energy more than others

any nonliving part of an environment

rocks

often leads to questions and hypotheses

Upper thermosphere

Graphical conceptual models
• Maps
• Dynamical models
– Use field-derived conditions to model the behavior of a phenomena
– Can be used to predict or forecast the future
• Dynamical models can also be used to hindcast the past and study
events that have already happened
• Simulations
– Mathematically-based
– Can be given visual form, i.e., animated
– Has no actual counterpart in the real world, i.e. observational data is not
what drives the simulation

Models are a simplified, often idealized
representation of reality.
– Intent of a model is to recreate patterns by
capturing the underlying explanatory processes
– Your role is to learn models, recognize they are
idealized, and try to identify why they are
incomplete.

The natural world is as complex as the human
world, if not more so
– Consider these facets of the Earth’s surface
• Its immense extent (size) and resolution (detail)
• History and time since origin (4.5 billion years)

• The Lithosphere is always in
motion, but it is very gradual and
usually takes hundreds to
thousands of years to notice. The
movement of the Earth's crust is
known as PLATE TECTONICS.

• Lithosphere is talking
about the crust of the
Earth and also the part of
the Earth that is right
under the crust that is
called the Mantle.