GEO 102 - Unit 2 Flashcards
(37 cards)
Guianas (two countries and one territory)
o Guyana
o Suriname
o French Guiana
Islands part of the Greater Antilles
o Cuba
o Hispanola
o Jamaica
o Puerto Rico
Lesser Antilles Plate Tectonics and Formation
o Small islands from Virgin Islands to Trinidad
o Formed as a volcanic island along the subduction zone (volcanic eruption)
Orographic Percipitation Patterns (windward vs leeward)
o Windward: wet conditions (cooler)
o Leeward: dry conditions (warmer)
o Found on mountains or hills
Caribbean Population Distribution
o About 45 million
o 85% live in Greater Antilles
o Hispaniola is the most populous
Creolization
o The blending of African, EU and Amerindian culture
o Creole language: merging of language (ex: Haitian Creole)
o Syncretic religion: blending of different religions (ex: Santeria in Cuba or Voodoo in Haiti)
Maroon Societies
o Communities of runaway slaves
o Remains intact
o Preserved African Tradition
o Suriname and Jamaica
o EX: farming, language, music, housing, social organization
How did the USA attain Puerto Rico?
Spanish-American War
Features of the Great Rift Valley Region
o Divergent plate boundary zone where African’s plate is slowly splitting
o Features
o E African highland
o Elongated lakes
o Volcanic mountains
o Steep slopes (escarpments)
Tropical Savanna Climate Characteristics (ex: Tanzania and Zambia)
o Climate: wet and dry
o Very warm/hot all year
o Rainy in “High Sun” season
o Low precipitation
The Sahel and Desertification
Desertification: the spread of desert conditions in semi-arid land
o The Sahel: “Shore” in Arabic
o Semiarid transition zone between Sahara and the savannas
o Prone to drought
o Food insecurity
o Loss of income
Sub-Sahran Africa High TFR Factors
o More people involved in agriculture
o Children provide labor
o Grown children care for elders
o Low states and education of women
o High IMR
o Little contraceptives
o Early marriages
Region in Sub-Saharan Africa with the world’s highest HIV/AIDS rates
South Africa (70%)
Swahili
o Lingua Franca: mutually understood by people with different native languages
o Widely spoken and common
Shifting Cultivation
o Swidden: common on poorer tropical soils
o Natural vegetation is burned for crops to be planted
o Crop plots left to FALLOW (unseeded) to restore fertility
World’s top two cocoa-producing countries
o Ivory Coast
o Ghana
Cattle pastoralism and tsetse flies
o Redial on livestock for livelihood
o N: Camel and Goat
o S: Cattle
o Tsetse flies: cause sleeping sickness and infection in humans and cattle
Country that leads the world in platinum production
South Africa
The Berlin Conference and political boundaries in Africa
o Berlin Conference (1884)
o Africa parted into European colonial territories
o No regard for indigenous cultural and political boundaries
o Difficulty in establishing a national identity
Civil War in the DR of the Congo
o Africa’s first major war
o More than 5 million people died
o Corrupt ruler was overthrown in 1997
o Deadliest conflict since WW ii
The split between Sudan and South Sudan
o Post-colonial history: N-S Civil War
o N: Arab-Muslims
o S: Non-Arab Christians and Animists
o Republic of South Sudan formed July, 2011
Darfur
o A region in West Sudan
o Many lives have been lost bc of…
o drought
o desertification
o ethnic rivalries
o Massive population growth
Plate tectonics and the formation of the Red Sea
o Arabian Plate diverging from African Plate
o Read Sea began as a rift valley that widened into a sea (formed because of the split)
Salinization
o Increase of salt in soil
o Cause: irrigation
o Accumulation of salts in topsoil prevents the growth of crops/plants
