Educator’s Guide
For
Physical Geography:
Making Sense of Planet Earth
For Advanced Placement and College
Series produced by
Centre Communications, Inc. for
Ambrose Video Publishing, Inc.
Executive Producer
William V. Ambrose
Educator’s Guide by
Mark Reeder
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Table of Contents
Page
Table of Contents and Rights……………………………………………………. 2
Materials in the Series…………………………………………………...….....… 3
Instructional Notes………………………………………………………………. 3
Introduction and Summary of Series………………………………………....…. 3
Summary of Programs (accessed through DVD Menu Screen under chapter selects)
Program 1: Inventing the Tools of Geography…………………………….. 5
Program 2: Portraying the Earth…………………………………………… 8
Program 3: Landforms…………………………………………………....... 10
Program 4: The Ever Changing Planet…………………………………….
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Program 5: Layering the Planet……………………………………………. 16
Program 6: Geographical Regions…………………………………………… 20
Program 7: Physical Geographic Influences on the Development
of Human Societies……………………………………………. 23
Program 8: Human Impacts on the Natural Environment…………………. 27
This DVD is closed–captioned.
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whole or in part, this Educator's guide and the Test Question and Timeline handouts that
accompany it for the purpose of teaching in conjunction with this series, Physical
Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth. This right is restricted only for use with this
DVD series. Any reproduction or duplication in whole or in part of this guide and the
handouts for any purpose other than for use with this series is prohibited.
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MATERIALS IN THE SERIES
Educator's Guide – This Educator's Guide has been prepared to aid educators in
utilizing materials contained within this series. In addition to this introductory material,
the guide contains the following:
 Suggested Instructional Notes
 Student Learning Goals
INSTRUCTIONAL NOTES
It is suggested that you preview the series and read the Student Goals and Educator
Points. By doing so, you will become familiar with the materials and be better prepared
to adapt the series to the needs of your class. Please note that each program is set up to be
played continuously and you will probably find it best to follow the series and the
programs in the order in which they are presented, but this is not necessary. Each
program can be divided into chapters accessed through the DVD’s Menu Screen under
Chapter Selects. In this way each chapter can be played and studied separately. It is also
suggested that the series presentation take place before the entire class and under your
direction. As you review the instructional programs outlined in the Educator's Guide, you
may find it necessary to make some changes, deletions, or additions to fit the specific
needs of your students.
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY OF SERIES
Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth is a new approach to presenting the
amazing world of physical geography. In this series acclaimed geographer Alec Murphy
presents significant discoveries, individuals, and theories that have led to physical
geography becoming one of the leading sciences of the 21st Century. Indeed, physical
geography encompasses earth systems, from the smallest land feature to whole continents
… to how weather affects the planet … to how humans interact with natural resources
and their physical landscape. Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth begins
with how the principles of geography have developed over the last 500 years. It continues
with an in depth look at how maps, and other representations of the Earth, have helped to
guide our understanding of the planet. It then lays out the planet’s major landforms and
the forces that have shaped them. Next, the series examines the many spheres of the
planet, from the inner core to the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and to the
biosphere. It also shows how the geographical concept of regions brings a unique
perspective to understanding the Earth and the people who live on it. Finally, the series
concludes with a look at how humans and the Earth’s natural landscape have interacted
over the last 12,000 years.
The eight programs are laid out so they can be viewed in their entirety, or by selecting
individual chapters, be viewed separately. Each chapter presents a story of the science of
geography. Most importantly, scientific concepts as well as historical themes and
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figures, are clearly presented using state of the art visuals that make learning easy and
fun.
Below is a list of the series’ programs and their chapters. Using these programs,
educators can create a lesson plan to cover the specific issues, themes and historical
figures mentioned.
Program 1: Inventing the Tools of Geography
 Chapter 1: Modern Geographical Thinking
 Chapter 2: The Three Laws of Geology
 Chapter 3: Creation of Planet Earth
 Chapter 4: The Rise of Human Geography
Program 2: Portraying the Earth
 Chapter 1: A History of Cartography
 Chapter 2: Map Making Tools
 Chapter 3: Specialty Maps
 Chapter 4: Geographical Information Systems
 Chapter 5: Maps in the 21st Century
Program 3: Landforms
 Chapter 1: Geomorphology
 Chapter 2: Scale and Landforms
 Chapter 3: Mountains and Hills
 Chapter 4: Buttes and Mesas
 Chapter 5: Plains
 Chapter 6: Basins, Valleys and Canyons
 Chapter 7: Coastlines
 Chapter 8: Landforms and People
Program 4: The Ever Changing Planet
 Chapter 1: The Ever Changing Earth Surface
 Chapter 2: Continental Drift
 Chapter 3: Hotspots
 Chapter 4: Water Erosion
 Chapter 5: Wind Erosion
 Chapter 6: Glaciers
Program 5: Layering the Planet
 Chapter 1: The Geographical Spheres
 Chapter 2: Earth’s Physical Structure
 Chapter 3: The Lithosphere
 Chapter 4: The Pedosphere
 Chapter 5: The Hydrosphere
 Chapter 6: The Atmosphere
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Chapter 7: Connecting the Five Major Spheres
Chapter 8: Landforms and People
Program 6: Geographical Regions
 Chapter 1: Geomorphic Regions – Great Basins
 Chapter 2: Geomorphic Regions – Colorado Plateau
 Chapter 3: Geomorphic Regions – Atlantic Coastal Plain
 Chapter 4: Physiographic Process
 Chapter 5: Regions and Scale
 Chapter 6: The Three Types of Regions
Program 7: Physical Geographic Influences on the Development of Human Societies
 Chapter 1: Environmental Determinism
 Chapter 2: Importance of Rivers in Developing Civilizations
 Chapter 3: Challenges to Environmental Determinism
 Chapter 4: Importance of Soils in Developing Civilizations
 Chapter 5: Importance of Natural Resources in Developing Civilizations
 Chapter 6: Co-Development of Peoples and Place
Program 8: Human Impacts on the Natural Environment
 Chapter 1: Changing the Physical Landscape
 Chapter 2: Changing the Physical Landscape - Paleolithic Age
 Chapter 3: Changing the Physical Landscape – Neolithic Age
 Chapter 4: Changing the Physical Landscape – Ancient Civilizations
 Chapter 5: Changing the Physical Landscape – Modern Age
 Chapter 6: Changing the Physical Landscape – The Future
SUMMARY OF PROGRAMS FOR PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY: MAKING SENSE
OF PLANET EARTH
Program: 1: Inventing the Tools of Geography
Program one presents an historical overview of the principles that form the foundation of
geography. These include the three laws of geology, the importance of scale and the
origins of the two great branches of geography: physical and human.
Chapter one shows how modern geographical thinking treats the 7 billion people living
on the planet as part of an interconnected web of earth processes and developing human
cultures.
The Three laws of geology are described in chapter two.
Chapter three discusses the 19th Century debate over the age of the Earth and how it was
created.
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Chapter four examines the rise of human geography and how it relates to physical
geography.
Chapter 1: Modern Geographical Thinking
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 Geographical thinking is focused on why physical features and processes occur where
they do
o Geographical thinking brings an analytical perspective to bear on the world
o Geographical thinking addresses the issues and challenges of the 21st Century
o Geography is a way to integrate what is known about the social and natural world
o It is a skill set needed by individuals, companies and governments
o People who understand how the different parts of the Earth system work together
are going to be the ones that hold the future in their hands
o Geography emphasizes space, spatial thinking, and understanding spatial
associations, flows and patterns
o Geography is the discipline that fosters the understanding of the interaction
between the natural sciences and the social sciences
 Geography makes sense of the world and answers the questions:
o What is my place in my family and my culture
o What is my place in my community, my country, the world and the universe
 A few hundred years ago many people believed the Earth to be only a few thousand
years old
 People also once believed the landscape was always the same from the beginning
 In the modern age it is commonly understood the Earth is very old
 Every aspect of the planet’s surface and its atmosphere is ever changing
 Understanding these changes has become critical to the geographical perspective
Chapter 2: The Three Laws of Geology
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 17th Century naturalist, Nicolas Steno, deduced the three fundamental laws of geology
 The Law of Super Imposition states the lower layers are always older
o The second law is the Principal of Original Horizonality - all rock layers were
originally horizontal
o The third law is the Principle of Disconituity - discontinuities are younger
 One implication of all these laws is that the Earth was not created in one moment
Chapter 3: Creation of Planet Earth
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 Of all the 19th Century scientific debates none were more hotly contested than
o ‘How old is planet Earth?’
o ‘How did the surface come to be as it is?’
 19th Century scientists believed the physical character of the surface of the Earth must
have resulted from some natural process
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There were two competing theories that held the Earth developed from sudden
singlular episodes then was done
o The Neptunist theory held that the Earth was totally covered by water and its
features resulted from the recession of the floodwaters
o The Plutonist theory advanced the idea that Earth’s features resulted from a
cataclysmic event of intense heat and pressure
In 1830 Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology laid the foundation for the modern
study of landforms and the processes that shape them
o Lyell argued that scientists should look to the forces in play today: volcanism,
wind and water erosion
o The Grand Canyon, for example, is a product of processes we see operating right
now, today, but it also operated over immense time periods
Another factor in shaping the Earth’s surface was glaciation, first presented in 1837
by Louis Agassiz in his books The Discovery of a Great Ice Age
As a result of the Ice Age, climatology would become an important part of geography
Other questions puzzled scientists
o How mountains came to be formed in the first place
o Why volcanoes and earthquakes occurred where they did
The answer began with observations from Abraham Ortelius, a 16th Century Flemish
cartographer
o He saw similarities between Africa's West Coast and South America's East Coast
o Ortelius asked, ‘Could they have been joined sometime in the distant past?’
In 1912 Alfred Wegener, proposed the Continental Drift theory of plate tectonics
o The outer layer of the planet, the crust, was cut into large movable plates
o Plate techtonics forced all the geological sciences to rethink how many of Earth’s
features were formed
The last piece of important understanding was that features that look the same might
have very different histories or origins
Geographers needed an accurate set of conventions in mapmaking
o This allowed them to keep accurate records of how the Earth’s surface was
changing
o This was accomplished by a network of intersecting latitudinal parallels and
longitudinal meridians forming a geographical grid over the Earth
In the U.S. two agencies were established to provide more detailed, large-scale
mapping
o The U.S. Geological Survey and the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey
Chapter 4: The Rise of Human Geography
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 How the the end of last Ice Age set the stage for the emergence of human culture
 Modern humans, were able to take advantage of the interglacial warmer world
 The last major phase of geography to develop was a branch of the discipline called
human geography
o It matured in the 1960s and 1970s
 The age of planet Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old
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Program 2: Portraying the Earth
Program two focuses on the history of portraying the Earth from the earliest maps of
ancient Greece to the 21st Century computer-based GIS - Geographical Information
Systems. The program includes a visit to the U.S. Geological Survey, the institution that
has served as America's center for mapmaking for the past 150 years.
Chapter one depicts how map making developed.
Chapter two examines the tools necessary for cartographers to make maps.
How maps can be separated into types that show specific themes, such as seismic
activity, is shown in chapter three.
Chapter four investigates the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS).
Maps in the 21st Century are examined in chapter five.
Chapter 1: A History of Cartography
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 Modern technology has given us many ways of representing the Earth with maps
 A good map requires many critical decisions
 Cartography, the art and science of making maps, had its origins in antiquity
o Ancient peoples were interested in knowing where things were
o Greek work in cartography was more in terms of theory, developing ideas about
the circumference of the Earth
 Exploration required knowing exactly where you were anywhere on the globe
 An imaginary grid of latitudes and longitudes had been developed by the Greeks and
perfected by Islamic geographers
 Latitude is decreasing circles extending in both directions from the equator
 For longitude a reference line had to be chosen called the Prime Meridian
 The Mercator projection transposed these lines of latitude and longitude from a globe
onto a flat map
o How the Mercator Projection came to be
 In the U.S. a national mapping program can be traced back to the Jefferson
administration
 In the 1800s the U.S. Geological Survey began to map the country, producing
topographic maps
Chapter 2: Map Making Tools
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 Maps are important for building roads and identifying natural resources
 In 1879 the United States created the U.S. Geological Survey for just that purpose
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How map making was done 150 years ago
The tools used in map making
As cartography entered the 20th Century, countries settled on a standardized set of
symbols to designate map-worthy features
Some of the most important map-worthy features were man-made
Equally important in the mapmaking process is the choice of scale
Scale determines how much of the planet's surface is covered in a map
o The smaller the scale the larger the area covered
In the 20th Century, the tools of map making changed
o Cartographers began using aircraft equipped with binocular cameras
How modern map making techniques work
What a typical topographic map tells map readers
Chapter 3: Specialty Maps
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 In the 21st Century, topographic maps are digitized so users can separate and
manipulate each type of map-worthy feature independent of the others
o It is important to have thematic maps as well, such as maps that locate areas of
seismic activity, watersheds or identify where resources can be found
o The different kinds of specialty maps and what they show
 By the middle of the 20th Century geographers combined landform features with
Earth geological processes on a single map
o The story behind the development of this new kind of map
Chapter 4: Geographical Information Systems
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 The future of cartography rests in GIS - Geographical Information Systems
 GIS represents the merging of cartography, statistical analysis, and powerful remote
sensing technology
 GIS integrates, stores, analyzes, shares and displays geographic information for
guiding human decision making
 How GIS works
Chapter 5: Maps in the 21st Century
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 There are new ways of interpreting the Earth that find their way into everyday life
through GPS and Google Earth.
o In the 1980s, GPS revolutionized the technology in digital cartography
o Google maps is making it easy for average users to know where they are
 The U.S. Geological Survey has added 3-D elevation to relief maps
o The goal will be to see maps in a three dimensional display
o It’ll make maps so much more usable for people
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Maps have played a fundamental role in understanding the evolving character of
planet Earth
Understanding that that evolution has proved critical in everything from supplying the
information needed for getting first responders to locations to solving practical landuse problems
Program 3: Landforms
Program three categorizes and defines the major landforms found on the planet and
shows how defining landforms helps geographers organize the world we live in.
Chapter one discusses the scientific study of landforms and the processes that shape
them.
Chapter two examines the use of scale - perspective - in understanding the topography of
areas.
Mountains and hills, Earth landforms that rise above the surrounding land, are discussed
in chapter three.
Chapter four describes the landforms called buttes and mesas.
Chapter five discusses plains and how they came into existence.
The landforms that are depressions - valleys, basins and canyons - are discussed in
chapter six.
Chapter seven looks at coastlines and why they are some of the most dynamic of the
planets landforms.
Chapter eight examines the relationship between humans and landforms.
Chapter 1: Geomorphology
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 Early humans knew their local landscape well
 Later, geographers began to see patterns in landforms
 Out of these observations came geomorphology - the scientific study of landforms
and the processes that shape them
 After geographers were able to map topographical features, the next step was to
understand what caused these features
 Geomorphologists are concerned with the nature of the materials and the history of
the landforms or landform regions that we deal with
o The Atlantic coastal plains and the Columbia River Plateau are topographically
similar but very different geomorphical origins
Chapter 2: Scale and Landforms
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Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 Whether areas are topographically similar often depends upon scale or perspective
 Geographers use tools like remote sensing and GIS to study landforms at different
scales
 Local landforms, regional landforms and on up are dynamically interconnected
 The biggest perspective, but the smallest mapping scale geographers deal with is the
view from outer space
o From here we can see the grandest of Earth's landforms, the continents
 Increasing the scale to the bird’s eye view, we see the principal landforms that are
natural features of the landscape
Chapter 3: Mountains and Hills
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 Mountains and hills are features that rise above the surrounding land
o To a geomorphologist a mountain is usually a larger scale feature
o Mountains tend to be steeply sloped, large features
o Mountains play a role in our social perceptions of the landscape
o The Inca culture in South America built a great civilization high in the Andes
Mountains
 Hills rise up above the landscape but are not as steep or as high as mountains
o Hills are common landscape features
o They can be found in almost any kind of terrain
o Hills have played a dominant role in human history
 Ancient Rome was built on hills
 Medieval Castles were often built on hills
 Sometimes hills become sacred or holy places
Chapter 4: Buttes and Mesas
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 A butte is a specialized kind of hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small,
relatively flat top
 Three buttes found at Scotts Bluff in Nebraska marked the halfway point 19th Century
pioneers traveling the Oregon Trail
 Mesas are generally wider than they are high
Chapter 5: Plains
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 A plain is basically a large stretch of coastal or interior land that has no great changes
in elevation
o The material that forms that plain is fairly uniform
 A classic example of plains is the Great Plains of North America
o This prairie biome supported vast herds of buffalo
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o Today the Great Plains has become one of the world's important breadbaskets
When a plains area gets high enough it is called a plateau
o Some plateaus are quite large like the Columbia Plateau
o Much of the Columbia Plateau is underlain by ancient deposits of lava
o It is home to some of the most striking barren volcanic landscapes in the world
Chapter 6: Basins, Valleys and Canyons
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 Landforms that are sunken or depressed below the surrounding are called basins
o Basins are major depressions in the surface of the earth
o Basins are often quite large
o There is often an association between basins and fossil fuels
 Canyons are relatively deep depressions in the Earth with steep sides
 Another kind of depression found on Earth's surface is a valley
o Valleys can be V-shaped or become U-shaped if carved by glaciers
Chapter 7: Coastlines
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 For human societies, one of the most important land configurations occurs at the
interface between land and sea
o Here landforms are perhaps more dynamic than anywhere else
 Coastal areas can change rapidly, with impacts on human inhabitants
Chapter 8: Landforms and People
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 Throughout history landforms have impacted human cultures
 People tended to build structures in certain landform regions
 Road networks of the United States were built in areas where it was easy to do so
 There are things about landscapes that have influenced human settlement patterns
o Pretty much every city and town has been organized around natural landforms
o How Eugene, Oregon developed
 Geographers eventually cataloged and learned how to represent landforms on maps
 Maps with different scales determine what features are represented on the maps
 The geographic information regarding landforms has become absolutely critical to
almost every phase of life in the 21st Century
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Program 4: The Ever Changing Planet
Program four examines the forces that have shaped the planet for the last 4 billion years
and are still at work today. These forces operate on timescales ranging from days to tens
of millions of years.
Chapter one looks at how the Earth’s surface and landscape are constantly moving and
changing.
The fascinating forces of plate tectonics and the concept of Continental Drift are
explained in chapter two.
Chapter three examines the tectonic phenomenon known as a hotspot and how it works in
conjunction with plate movements.
Chapter four studies water’s powerful ability to change the landscape through erosion.
Chapter five shows how wind erosion shapes landforms.
The power of glaciers in forming landforms and changing the Earth’s surface is explored
in chapter six.
Chapter 1: The Ever Changing Earth Surface
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 Earth’s landscape is always changing
o On the big Island of Hawaii molten lava spews out and creates more land surface
o 800,000 years ago there was no island at all
o Millions of years ago, the massive Rocky Mountains were nowhere to be found
o The Grand Canyon was just a shallow depression in the surrounding red rock
o During that time, the continents weren't in their present-day configuration
o They were all much closer together
 It was hard for people and scientists in the 19th Century to accept that Earth's surface
and landscape were not fixed but a constantly moving and changing
o Land forms are the result of a combination of constructive and destructive forces
o These forces produce their effects either abruptly or slowly
Chapter 2: Continental Drift
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 As the 20th Century dawned, geographers and geologists could not explain many
geologic events
o They didn't understand what produced mountains
o They didn't know why earthquakes concentrated in certain areas
o Paleontologists were puzzled by the discovery of virtually identical trilobites in
different continents
 A big explanation was needed
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That explanation was suggested in 1912 by Alfred Wegener
Wegener came up with the theory of Continental Drift
The history of Continental Drift started 500 years ago with Abraham Ortelius
20th Century scientists have shown how South America and Africa were joined
together at one time
o The theory of Continental Drift would become the spark that ignited a new way of
viewing the Earth
Earth’s crust is cut up into a jigsaw puzzle of independent plates
o Some are oceanic plates and others are continental
o They're all slowly drifting, propelled by internal forces within the planet
Oceanic and continental plates are quite different
Plate tectonics has proven to be important to the Earth sciences
o Plate tectonics answers the questions about mountain building
How the formation of the Pacific Northwest’s Cascade Mountain Range is explained
through plate tectonics
o The Cascade Range was first uplifted by tectonic forces
o Later, subduction produced the Cascade Range’s many volcanoes
o These volcanoes are superimposed on the older Cascade Range
The answer to the question ‘Why are so many earthquakes concentrated in particular
areas?’ is found in plate tectonics
o It's all about the boundaries between individual plates
o Earthquake and volcanic activity is concentrated near these boundaries
Plate tectonics also answers the question why mountain ranges are long and narrow
Chapter 3: Hotspots
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 How the volcano that produces all of Yellowstone's hydrothermal features works
 Yellowstone Park is a high plateau surrounded by the Rocky Mountains
o The plateau was formed by a geological feature known as a hotspot
 There are three hotspots in the U. S.
 A hotspot is a plume of molten magma from deep within the mantel
o It stays stationary as the crust moves over it
 Yellowstone National Park was created only 600 thousand years ago
 The ‘Yellowstone hotspot’ has produced a dramatic trail of volcanic effects from
present-day eastern Oregon to its present position
 How the hotspot created Yellowstone National Park
Chapter 4: Water Erosion
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 One of the most impressive landforms in Yellowstone is the Grand Canyon of the
Yellowstone
o This landform was carved out by the rushing water of the Yellowstone River
 Water also created the geographical feature known as the Grand Canyon
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Water is one of the main erosional forces on the Earth
o At the very smallest scales, water can erode and dissolve rocks
o At larger scales water begins to collect into streams and networks
o The large river systems of the world move an enormous quantity of sediment
across the landscape and that can be seen from space actually
o Over long periods rivers are the primary large-scale shaper of landforms over
most of the continental surface
Chapter 5: Wind Erosion
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 Some landforms are created by wind
 Wind is especially effective in areas that do not have much vegetation
 The Algodones Sand Dunes are the largest mass of sand dunes in California
o They were formed by windblown sands of ancient Lake Cahuilla around 600
years ago
 Sand dunes clearly show that the Earth’s surface is ever-changing
Chapter 6: Glaciers
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 Glaciers are a powerful force in changing the planet’s landscape
 John Muir, the founder of the modern conservation movement, proposed Yosemite
Valley in central California was carved by glaciers
 The Sierra Nevada Mountains are a 400 mile long mountain range shaped by tectonic
forces
o Eventually the early Sierras eroded away and then the granitic core began rising
up around twenty million years ago
o Four million years ago the current High Sierras experienced a tilt
o The tilt created gentle west slopes and dramatic east ridges
o Approximately 2 million to 250,000 years ago, Yosemite Valley, began to fill
with ice and snow
o These glaciers carved out the valley
o In addition, the granite peaks were also formed by those glaciers
 Some natural scientists describe glaciers as a landform in themselves, always growing
or retreating
o As glaciers melt they create many land features such as glacial lakes, outwash
plains, moraines, kames and kettle lakes
o Moraines are an accumulation of glacial sediment at the ice margin
o There are recessional moraines and terminal moraines
 By the turn of the 20th Century, most scientists in the fields of geography and geology
accepted that geologic forces could rearrange virtually every land feature and every
landform on the planet
 At the same time the climate was also subject to the same dramatic possibility of
change
 Life is constantly changing and was once very different than it is today
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Natural forces play out differently depending on where they unfold
Understanding the variable geographic patterns associated with landform change can
offer telling insights into the forces that produce those patterns
This is one of the reasons why the study of physical geography is so important in the
21st Century
o It presents solutions to such critical challenges as species extinction, freshwater
supplies, sustainable agriculture, climate change and the survival of humanity
Program 5: Layering the Planet
Program five shows how the Earth is layered in a series of spheres: the inner core, the
crust or lithosphere, a soil layer, known as the pedosphere, the hydrosphere, the
atmosphere and biosphere. And the program shows how they are all interconnected in
one dynamic system.
Chapter 1 introduces the geographical spheres and why they are important to
understanding not only how the Earth’s surface and landscape are formed, but also how
the Earth works as a system.
Chapter two reviews plate tectonics in the Earth's inner core.
The lithosphere and what it is made of are examined in chapter three.
Chapter four describes the soils that make up the pedosphere.
Chapter five examines the importance of the hydrosphere in making planet Earth a living
world.
Chapter six shows the relationship between the hydrosphere and the atmosphere.
The importance of the biosphere is examined in chapter seven.
Chapter eight shows how the five major spheres of the Earth and a sixth sphere, the
human sphere, are components that continuously interact in the larger system of the Earth
that is constantly changing.
Chapter 1: The Geographical Spheres
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 A classic story of the interaction of the Earth’s geographical spheres can be examined
at the John Day Fossil Beds in Central Oregon
o During the Cenozoic Era spectacular volcanic eruptions took place
o The old ecosystem was destroyed and a new ecosystem formed
o The volcanic action that formed the Cascade Mountain range, cooled and dried
the climate in this region
o Today the force of water is eroding away the rock, producing new soil and
reshaping the landscape
16
o Today, humans are increasingly getting involved in altering the character of these
spheres
Chapter 2: Earth’s Physical Structure
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 The various spheres of the planet are interacting not only in the present but over
enormous time scales and over great distances
 The discovery of plate tectonics showed that the surface of the Earth is carved up into
a number of massive plates
o Some plates are continental and others oceanic
o These plates are on the move
 The Earth is made up of three main shells
o The very thin, brittle crust that we’re all familiar with
o The mantle below the crust
o The core at the very center
 What the Earth’s shells are composed of and how they work
Chapter 3: The Lithosphere
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 For every type of rock there is a process that produces it
o The origins of igneous rock lie below the hard and brittle crust in a liquid state
and they solidify when they come to the surface
o The least common crustal rock type are sedimentary rocks, which have been
formed by the buildup of sediments
o The second most common rock type making up the crust is metamorphic rock
o Sedimentary rocks become metamorphized when they are subjected to heat and
pressure, usually related to mountain building
o It is out of these three rock types that virtually every land formation has been
shaped and formed over time by a wide variety of forces on varying timescales
 Every landform visible on the planet today was created after the great extinction
event that killed most dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
 Oceanic plates are denser than continental plates
 The lithosphere has its greatest impact on the pedosphere, the surface layer
commonly called soil
Chapter 4: The Pedosphere
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 As the exposed crust breaks down, it can be ground into increasingly fine bits and
interact with the biosphere to form soil
o Soil is the uppermost layer of the land surface
o It's relatively loose, largely derived from the lithosphere and plants depend on it
for nutrients, water and physical support
o Soil can contain a wide variety of matter, including minerals and organic material
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By the early 19th Century, Earth scientists began to recognize that different
combinations of these factors were critical to agricultural production
In the U.S. geographers organize soils into about 10 or 12 major soil types
o Each individual type of soil is controlled by its environment
o Soil types range from the spodosols of the conifer forests of northern North
America, to the mollisols of the Great Plains to the aridisols of desert areas
The production of soil is interconnected not only with the lithosphere but with three
of Earth's other spheres: The biosphere, the atmosphere and the hydrosphere
Chapter 5: The Hydrosphere
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 70% of Earth’s surface is covered by water
 Freshwater makes up less than 3% of the water in the world, but its impact on Earth's
other geographical spheres is enormous
 Water is a major component of the atmosphere, and, along with temperature, defines
the climates of the world
o Water is essential for all land plants and animals
o Water has enormous erosional and depositional potential
o In the form of glaciers, water carved the magnificent peaks of the Grand Tetons
and deposited the hilly drumlins in the upper Midwest
o In its liquid state, it shaped the Grand Canyon
o In short periods of time, such as days, it can flood farmland and cities
 The hydrologic cycle is a geographical model that describes the storage and
movement of water from the surface to the atmosphere and back to the surface
 No interaction between the planets’ various spheres is more important to life, and
human life in particular, than the hydrological cycle
 How the hydrological cycle works
 The water on Earth forms a closed system, that is, the same finite amount of water
molecules has been here for eons
Chapter 6: The Atmosphere
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 The remaining 1% of water is in the atmosphere
 Powered by solar energy, water is constantly circulating from one storage area to
another through the hydrological cycle
 Over time, water’s cycle of evaporation and precipitation reaches a dynamic global
balance
 This balance does not hold true for individual places, however
 More or less precipitation in a region dramatically affects the biosphere
18
Chapter 7: The Biosphere
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 The biosphere is the part of the Earth that contains all life
o The biosphere goes far beyond the surface skin of the Earth
o Life exists in the lithosphere and the atmosphere
 The environmental sciences are a 20th Century undertaking
 Geographical approaches are an important part of this undertaking, as can be seen in
the work of Russian botanist Nikolai Vavilov
o In 1920 Vavilov categorized eight zones with different plants, which he termed
biomes
o Biomes represent one of the central organizing ideas in bio-geography
o The major biomes are the tundra, coniferous forests, temperate deciduous forests,
grasslands, deserts, Mediterranean scrub or chaparral, and tropical
Chapter 8: Connecting the Five Major Spheres
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 Rock, soil, water, air and life are the five major spheres of planet Earth
o In the 21st Century we can include an additional sphere: humanity
o Human activity has now become a unique and powerful force of interaction with
the other five spheres
o Geography connects all the spheres
 Understanding how the various spheres of the Earth connect with one another, has
increased dramatically in the 21st Century
 This is done by using powerful remote sensing equipment to observe the world in
ways that people haven’t been able to do before
o The satellite system allows us to find areas where there are problems, or where
there are biological hotspots, or where there’s rapid change
 The study of bio-geography in many ways is the study of the interconnections
amongst all of the different parts of the Earth’s environmental cycles
o Some of the things studied are patterns of land use and how those types of uses
impact the organisms in their areas
o There is also a broader understanding that past land uses and past activities have
also shaped the things that we see today
 The study of geography brings the studies of all the different spheres back together
o In the last 10 to 20 years there is movement back towards a more comprehensive
Earth systems approach
o Geography employs the tools to bring together a comprehensive Earth systems
approach
 Every place on Earth’s surface is a product of the physical and human elements found
there
o Each of these components is part of a larger system that is both constantly
changing and interacting with all of the planet’s spheres, including the human
sphere
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How every place on Earth came to be the way it is, is one of the most fundamental
geographical questions
o Answering this question requires considering how the characteristics of individual
places are shaped by larger processes
Program 6: Geographical Regions
Program 6 looks at how the geographic concept of regions is an important tool used in
geographical thinking, allowing scientists to bring a unique perspective to understanding
the physical and human organizations found on the Earth.
Chapter one explores the geomorphic region of the Great Basin.
A second geomorphic region, the Colorado Plateau, is examined in chapter two.
Chapter three describes a third geomorphic region known as the Atlantic Coastal Plain.
Chapter four looks at how Earth and its landforms can be organized through
physiographic processes.
The different ways of organizing North America's geographical features using different
scales is examined in chapter five.
Chapter six discusses the three types of regions: vernacular regions, functional regions
and formal regions.
Chapter 1: Geomorphic Regions – Great Basins
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 The Great Basin extends from the Rocky Montains westward to the Sierra Nevadas in
California
o The Great Basin is a geomorphic region punctuated by shallow lakes and large
sand deposits, with rivers that don’t flow to the sea
o Its ecosystem is populated by desert Flora - junipers and the ubiquitous sagebrush
– and fauna such as jackrabbits and marmots
o Human habitation is minimal, mostly along its boundaries
o It is a product of tectonic forces
o It is a good example of a physiographic region
 Physiographic regions are defined by their underlying geologic structures
o They also combine physical surface topography characteristics with
biogeographic characteristics and climatological characteristics
 The concept of geomorphic regions is that the Earth is split up into sections that
behave similarly within the sections
o It’s a useful way of breaking up the world into areas to simplify our understanding
 One of the great discoveries of physical geography was that at all levels or scales,
patterns can be found on Earth’s surface
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The United States is divided into large areas characterized by similar physiographic
features
These areas are called physiographic regions
By mapping these characteristics and understanding how they came to be geographers
can make sense of the surface of the planet
Chapter 2: Geomorphic Regions – Colorado Plateau
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 The Colorado Plateau is another physiographic region, also known as a geomorphic
region
o It is dominated by the Colorado River and its tributaries flowing to the sea
o The region is characterized by deep canyons, spectacular pinnacles and bluffs,
and highly eroded badlands
o The climate is hot and dry
o Few people live there
 The Colorado Plateau is an area of highly uplifted sedimentary rocks that were very
little deformed when they were uplifted
 The forces that shaped the Colorado Plateau
o The uplift was caused by the subduction of the Farallon Plate beneath the edge of
North America Plate
 Once uplifted, the elements of weathering, water and erosion attacked this uplifted
plateau, creating canyons and mesas
Chapter 3: Geomorphic Regions – Atlantic Coastal Plain
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 The Atlantic Coastal plain is a third physiographic region
o Accented by oceanic coastlines and vast flat topography, it has a subtropical
climate
o The summers are hot and humid, but with dryer temperate winters
o The natural vegetation found here is pine and mixed pine-oak forests, punctuated
by cypress swamps and large marshy regions
o The region is home to many wintering birds and the American alligator
o It is an agricultural area that is highly populated
 The forces that shaped the coastal plain
 Over a long period erosion brought remnants of the Appalachian Mountains to the
plain and the Atlantic Ocean
Chapter 4: Physiographic Process
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 The three previous geomorphic, or physiographic, regions are broad-scale
subdivisions based on terrain texture, rock type, and geologic structure and history
 This perspective was pioneered by American geographer Nevin Fenneman
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o It is an enduring approach to organizing in space the great variety of physical
features found in the continental United States
Figuring out how different phenomena are organized on Earth’s surface is a key
geographical concern
o This allows us to identify and characterize regions that display a common set of
characteristics around which boundaries can be drawn
Regions are often contained within larger regions
The processes underlying geomorphic or physiographic regions
o The geomorphic processes underlying the Great Basin are tectonic activities
o The forces producing the Colorado Plateau are uplift combined with dramatic
water erosion
o The forces shaping the Atlantic Coastal Plain are flowing water and the
mechanics of rivers
Chapter 5: Regions and Scale
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 A scale is a way of organizing geographical features
 A scale shapes thinking about what's important
 About different levels of scales, from single regions to groups of regions
 Organizing regions by major ecosystems is another regional approach
 What makes a region a region from a physical geographical perspective
o The processes or other geographical features found within the boundary, such as
plant type, are more common within the region than those found outside the
boundaries
 One set of regions critically important to physical geography and human geography
are regions defined by river watersheds
 Important world watersheds
 Why watersheds are important
o Humans occupy river systems
o River systems are important ecologically
o Land surface connected to a river system is important to the health of the
watershed
o The bigger the watershed gets, the more complex the problems are
o Part of that complexity derives from the fact that rivers and their watersheds often
cut across multiple physiographic regions
 Thinking in terms of regions is useful in understanding the physical environment
o Regions are also important in understanding the human world as well
o Identifying regions can be an important first step toward explaining why people
and the products of their activities are found where they are
Chapter 6: The Three Types of Regions
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 There are basically three types of regions
o Vernacular regions - regions of perceptual significance such as the West
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o Functional regions - regions that function as a unit such as the San Francisco Bay
metropolitan area
o Formal regions - regions that are characterized by the presence of a particular
phenomenon
Formal regions have the particular characteristic that for some variable, the variation
inside that area is lass than the variation between that area and its neighbors
o The United States and Canada’s wheat-growing belt is an example of a formal
region where the dominant form of agricultural production is growing wheat
Functional regions are defined by processes that either take place within those regions
or that can be defined in the flow of materials, information or economic wealth
between one place and another
o The steel producing areas of the upper Midwest and the coal mining areas of the
northern Appalachians form a functional region
o Here raw materials and resources were combined to create a specific industrial
product, steel
Vernacular regions refer to the way we use regional labels in our language and in our
thinking
o An example of a vernacular region is ‘the South’
o The South has a distinctive culture, language, and racial make up as well
Physical geography has defined and mapped many kinds of functional and formal
regions beyond the major geophysical provinces
Dividing up a large area into regions requires looking for general patterns
The identification and analysis of regions is the critical component of the effort to
analyze a broad array of important physical geographic matters
Program 7: Physical Geographic Influences on the Development of
Human Societies
Program seven examines one of the great debates in geography: ‘How much does place
or physical geography determine human development - cultural and economic?’ Using
historical examples and present-day case histories, series host Alec Murphy guides
viewers through both sides of the argument known as environmental determinism.
Chapter one examines how by studying patterns in the rise and fall of ancient human
civilizations, we can see in what way relevant physical geographic factors played a role
in the advancement of human civilizations.
Chapter two looks at how early human cultures developed along the banks of river
systems.
Using the Maya civilization as an example, chapter three discusses why we have to be
careful in making simple assumptions about the influence of the physical environment on
human societies.
Chapter four looks at how adapting to regional soil conditions has played an important
role in the development civilizations.
23
How the discovery of natural resources has in some cases triggered massive changes in
population distribution and activity is shown in chapter five.
Chapter six examines the relationship between people and places and how the physical
environment still places constraints on what is possible, and how efforts to defy those
constraints can have consequences.
Chapter 1: Environmental Determinism
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 Scientists today are able to examine the rise and fall of great human civilizations
o They study patterns that would show in what way relevant physical geographical
factors play a role in the advancement of human civilizations
o Scientists can also study how the absence of certain physical geographical factors
created challenges for cultures in different environmental settings
o If these issues are not dealt with carefully, they can lend to an immature or a naïve
form of environmental determinism
 The idea of environmental determinism relates to the impact that environmental
resources and landscape features have had on the development of human societies
 Environmental determinism has a long history
o In recent decades it has focused on two important ideas
o The impact that climate and soils have had on societies
o The impact that biogeographic resources have had, such as the availability of
certain crops and their implications for the development of permanent settlements
 The physical settings cultures find themselves in contain certain resources and certain
limitations
o Geographers have traditionally been at least aware of this and incorporated it into
their studies
 A brief history of the impact of environmental determinism from the beginning of the
20th Century
Chapter 2: Importance of Rivers in Developing Civilizations
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 Physical factors have been very important in the development of civilizations
 Most of the earliest cultures were along the banks of rivers
o Rivers provided transport and nutrients for the soil
o They were very important for the distribution of human civilizations
 One example of the importance of rivers can be studied by looking at the
Mississippian mound builders
o The Mississippian culture was a vast network of city-states
o This network of Mississippian cities flourished for 600 years
o Agriculture was a main function of that culture
o The Mississippian Culture was based on centralized control
o The river system provided transportation and trading corridors between the
various city-states
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So, most early cultures were concentrated in places where they could grow food
Later, many cities of the world were developed along coastlines or waterways that
could facilitate trade with other places
Chapter 3: Challenges to Environmental Determinism
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 We have to be very careful in making simple assumptions about the influence of the
physical environment on human societies
 The same environmental setting can be used in very different ways, depending on the
culture, technology, and socio-economic system of its inhabitants
 In the early 20th Century, some geographers were drawn to a way of thinking called
environmental determinism
o It was the idea that the environment determined how human societies evolved
o Some argued, for example, that the tropical and desert climates of the lower
latitudes were not conducive to the development of high civilization
o Such arguments are historically untrue
 No culture challenged the old assumption that civilizations located in the tropics had
to be primitive more than the Maya
o Their accomplishments in the arts, science, and mathematics equaled or surpassed
any on the planet until Europe's age of Enlightenment
 In architecture Maya architecture is one of the world’s great architectures
 The Maya homeland encompasses Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and parts of Central
America
 The Maya homeland is covered by an extensive tropical rainforests
 The climate has hot summers, warm winters, high humidity and devastating tropical
storms
 The physical geography of the Mayan homeland is one of almost endless, flat terrain
o It was in this hot, humid, flat landscape of poor soil that the Maya built a
remarkable network of thriving city-states that lasted for over 2000 years
o They did it by inventing an agriculture that was adapted to these geographical
conditions
 The Mississippian mound builders and the Maya were located in dramatically
different geographical settings
o Yet in some important ways these societies were similar
o City states with pyramidal mounds, maize agriculture, hierarchical societies and
similar art work
 These two examples show us how complicated the link between environment and
human development can be
Chapter 4: Importance of Soils in Developing Civilizations
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 How adapting to regional soil conditions has played out in the development of the
United States by studying the land around George Washington’s plantation
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o For over 100 years it supported a thriving agricultural economy of grains and
tobacco
o By the early 1800s, yields had dramatically and mysteriously declined
o The southern plantation system and slavery might have ended then except for two
things
o New fertile lands opened up further west
o A groundbreaking book written in 1813, Elements of Agricultural Chemistry
described how soils could be brought back to productivity
Understanding the nature of soils would be transformational for the advancement of
agriculture and human civilizations
o This idea is not determinism, but geography shaping society, which feeds back on
geography
o It’s much more rich and interesting than a simple environmentally deterministic
approach
The discovery of the importance of fertilizing was soon followed by geographers
dividing, classifying, and defining major soil types
o Scientists mapped soil distribution across the globe, seeking answers to why
different soil types are found in different places
o They then studied how these differences affected the evolution of human society
and their technologies in those places, including irrigation
The dynamic interplay of physical geographical factors, the ancient technology of
irrigation, and modern agricultural machinery
o The final chapter of this interplay has yet to be written as the climate changes and
the competition for freshwater grows
Chapter 5: Importance of Natural Resources in Developing Civilizations
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 Few geographical factors drive cultural change faster than the discovery of a precious
natural resource
o Natural resources have always been one of the great shapers of human history
 The discovery of gold in the Western Hemisphere spurred European exploration of
North and South America
 The results of the discovery of gold in Wyoming and South Dakota's Black Hills
o The Plains Indians were a nomadic horse culture, living off the vast herds of
buffalo
o For the Plains Indians the Black Hills were a place for sacred rituals and sanctuary
o Early on, Americans going west to the Pacific coast ignored the Black Hills
o Then in 1874, Colonel George Armstrong Custer’s Black Hills Expedition
discovered gold in the heart of the Black Hills
o The U.S. Army Cavalry removed the Plains Indians from the region, eliminating
the Native American horse culture forever
o A hundred years later the Black Hills have transformed into a mecca for tourists
 Important resources change throughout time but the constant is that some resources
like water are essential to human life
 In the 21st Century an important resource is oil
26
Chapter 6: Co-Development of Peoples and Place
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 In recent times, new technologies and trading relationships have allowed humanity to
develop lifestyles that are seemingly at odds with the local environment
o Bananas are grown in Canadian greenhouses
 But the physical environment still places constraints on what is possible
 Efforts to defy those constraints can have consequences
o For example, areas of earthquakes not only cost money to build in but that money
and that energy has to be paid over and over both in dollars or in lives
 Comparing places that share characteristics can help us understand how the world
works
Program 8: Human Impacts on the Natural Environment
Human beings have become a geographical force. In the 21st Century each year humans
bring more change to the surface of the planet than all the natural forces combined.
Program eight looks at how humans have impacted the Earth from the earliest huntergatherer societies to the modern nation-states of the 21st Century and what the future
holds for the planet and the 7 billion people living on its surface.
Chapter one examines how in the modern age humans are transforming the physical
landscape at a tremendous rate.
Chapter two looks at the impact of humans on the physical landscape in Paleolithic times.
The effect of human cultures on the physical landscape during the Neolithic Age is
discussed chapter three.
How ancient civilizations transformed the Earth is shown in chapter four.
Chapter five examines human transformation of the physical landscape in the Modern
Age.
Chapter six looks at what the future holds for humans and the physical landscape.
Chapter 1: Changing the Physical Landscape
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 In the 21st Century the ‘bulldozer’ has become the primary shaper of the United
States’ landforms
 Humans have a tremendous capacity to change the landscape
 The dams across the northern hemisphere hold back so much water, that they’ve
actually changed the rotation of the Earth
 This process of humans transforming the physical landscape is not a new thing
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Well over half of the planetary surface has changed from what it was prior to the
modern age
Chapter 2: Changing the Physical Landscape - Paleolithic Age
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 The human capacity to change the physical landscape began with the end of the last
Ice Age 10,000 years ago
 At that time humans had already started organizing themselves in small huntergatherer groups
 Notably, they were able to manufacture tools that allowed them to manipulate their
environment and hunt larger game than had previously been possible
 At the same time, many of these hunter-gatherers began using hides and other
material to craft simple shelters and clothes
 It is even claimed that these Paleolithic tribal hunters became so effective that they
wiped out the mega fauna of North America
Chapter 3: Changing the Physical Landscape – Neolithic Age
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 By present standards humans’ imprint on the physical landscape was minimal until
4500 years ago, when structures like Stonehenge began appearing
o By this time human organizations had grown beyond simple tribes of huntergatherers into the beginnings of agrarian communities
 How ancient British groups began transforming Britain into an agricultural land
o These ancient Britons began an aggressive clearing of the forest with more
advanced stone tools
o This was the start of the Neolithic or New Stone Age
 How the emergence of Stonehenge and other similar structures heralded the
rearrangement of the physical landscape
o A brief history of Stonehenge and its uses as a burial site, for astronomy, and
healing
Chapter 4: Changing the Physical Landscape – Ancient Civilizations
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 The changes a society makes on the environment changes the society
 Change in the landscape changes how people think, go about their daily business,
what they worship and how they see and make sense of themselves
o It is impossible to think about the Egyptians without their pyramids
o The ancient Greeks without their Parthenon
o The Romans without their Forum and Colosseum
o The Maya without their temples
 All of these great ancient cultures were based on one particularly profound way of
modifying their environment - preparing land to grow crops
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o The development of agriculture led to massive human-induced changes to the
physical geography of the planet
The Incas were an ingenious people able to produce a surplus agriculture capable of
supporting a grand empire
A brief history of Inca Civilization and how it worked
o The Inca Empire ran from modern-day Columbia to the tip of Chile
o The climate ranged from Mediterranean to tropical to temperate
o Climates were marked by dry and rainy seasons
o On the eastern side of the Andes is the tropical Amazon River basin
The rise of the Incas was accompanied by modifying the landscape
The miracle of the Incas was their ability to grow surplus food
o There’s plenty of food for the Inca Empire to have an army and all the other
things that an empire needs
o The Incas successfully grew potatoes, corn, beans and squash
The people of the Andes also had domesticated beasts of burden
The Inca success in growing food was based on their unique social organization
Their human power and knowledge enabled them to modify their geographical setting
o They terraced the mountain slopes to grow and harvest food
o Built roads connecting the farthest outposts of their vast empire
o Engineered grand cities and marvelous palaces
Each step in the increased capacity to rearrange the landscape brought greater
interconnectivity between more and more groups and their activities
The Inca exhibited a kind of ability to modify their environment and geography that
became one of the cornerstones of industrialized societies
Chapter 5: Changing the Physical Landscape – Modern Age
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 The effects of changing a landscape can be studied by looking at the dramatic
changes made to the Colorado River and its environs
o Las Vegas, Nevada has become America’s glitz and glamor city of over a million
people living on Colorado river water and hydropower
o Multiple bumper crops of every fruit and vegetable through irrigation are grown
in California and Arizona's desert Imperial Valley
o Much of this change is the result of Hoover dam and Glen Canyon dam
 The Colorado River originates high in the Rocky Mountains and flows south through
the Colorado plateau, creating spectacular canyon lands
o In northern Arizona it has cut one of the seven wonders of the natural world, the
Grand Canyon
o The river finally empties into the Gulf of California
 Through engineering and construction, humans have altered the nature of the river
and its ecosystems
o By the time the lower dams along the river siphon water for irrigating crops in the
Imperial Valley, barely a trickle of water flows into the Gulf of California
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
o The Colorado River story shows how the physical geography of a region can be
so drastically changed by human engineering that it transforms an even larger
region
Through a second case involving lakes districts in Illinois, how global markets can
impact a small region half a world away
o Central Illinois was a coal region in the 19th and early 20th centuries
o When coal was all mined the pits filled with water and became lakes supporting a
tourist and vacation home industry
o Now that the demand for coal has increased world wide, the region is turning
once more to coal mining and may eventually sell coal to China
Chapter 6: Changing the Physical Landscape – The Future
Student Goals – In this Physical Geography: Making Sense of Planet Earth chapter
the students will learn:
 What the ever-increasing capacity by human societies to change the physical
landscape means
o Humans have become the biggest geomorphic agent on the planet
o In terms of biological alteration of the planet, we’ve already seen massive
environmental changes
o One of the frontiers now is genetic alteration of the planet’s plants and animals
o The planet is poised on the brink of some very radical transformations
 Geographic information is a primary method by which we are able to make
predictions in order to make intelligent management decisions
o For example, if we build a dam, what will happen to our physical environment
 About the impact of the human population on the planet over the coming decades
o Population will increase 2 billion by mid century
o At the same time, individuals in the developing world are demanding more
resources to live a lifestyle like that enjoyed by developed countries
o Not only will there be more people, but the demand for resources will increase
 We have to plan now for this impact
o Geographers can play a really important role in managing our planet through what
could be a crisis point over the next 50 years
 We live in a world of constant change
o Part of that change is driven by humans themselves
 It is increasingly clear that we need to see the environment not just as a blank stage
on which the human drama plays out, but as an inextricable part of that drama
 We need to understand the individual components of the environment as well as the
places and patterns that are created by the interaction of these features
 Geography helps us understand the diversity of the planet and the ways in which
where something happens influences what unfolds
 If we are to confront the most pressing challenges of our time we must grasp how
Earth’s surface is organized and how geographical context shapes what happens
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