Glossary of geography

With

Abyssal zone: Underwater plain of which the depth generally lies between 5.000 and 6.000 meters compared to the sea level.
Adret: In opposition to the Ubac, slope of a valley more exposed to the sun.
Ice Age: Historical period being spread out over thousands of years and during which the world average temperature falls, causing an upheaval of the ecosystems and a projection of the ices on the surface of the Earth.
Alluvia: Muds, sands and gravels deposited by a river.
Alpine:
Upstream: Place located low in altitude compared to a place of reference.
the Antarctic: In opposition to the Arctic, area of the Earth located around the south pole. By extension, this name indicates also the Antarctic continent.
Anthropique ; anthropized; anthropisation: Says itself of a medium modified by the man. It is the case of the cities but also campaigns or forests subjected to sylviculture.
Anticline: Geological structure or the layers of rock are folded in the shape of “U” reversed.
Antipodes : Geographical place located at the intersection of the surface of the Earth and an imaginary line on the basis of a place chosen like reference and passing by the center of the Earth.
Archipelago: Together of islands more or less distant and gathered under the same geographical unit.
Arctic: Area of the Earth located around the north pole. By extension, this name indicates also the Arctic Ocean.
Slate: Metamorphic rock sinks with black, the fine grain and presenting a marked foliation allowing obtaining very flat fragments and far from thick.
Clay:
Atoll: Geological formation made up of a coral barrier partially or completely immersed and coarsely circular surrounding a lagoon.
Downstream: Place located higher in altitude compared to a place of reference.
Swallow-hole: Karstic formation appearing itself as a pit.

B

Bay:
Stopping: Geological formation made up of rock, ground and/or lava or human infrastructure blocking the bed of a river and creating a lake upstream.
Bar:
Basalt: Volcanic rock with microlithic structure generally emitted by volcanicity of hot spot, rift and dorsal.
Area catchment: Says itself in connection with a river by considering the whole of the valleys which feed it, including his.
Batholite :
Bush: uncultivated, wild area or simply not urbanized in the tropical zones.

C

Calcareous:
Channel:
Canyon:
Cape:
Cataract: fall of important water (of a river for example).
Chain: Alignment of mountains more or less rectilinear and composed of one or more mountainous solid masses.
Channel:
Cluse: Jurassic relief represented by a valley cutting a mount perpendicularly. A cluse is often framed cliffs and is appeared as throats.
Collar: Passage low in altitude of a watershed constituting a passage between two valley often borrowed by a road or a path.
Combe : Jurassic relief represented by a valley notching the top of a mount in the direction length.
Junction: Place or meet two rivers or more.
Confluent: River being thrown in another.
Unintermitting: Great emerged ground mass made up of bases granitic and partially covered with sedimentary rocks and volcanic.
Coral: Animal specie of small size which constitutes colonies of which the skeletons form structures limestones being able to give rise to coral barriers or atolls.
Cordillera:
Running: Mass water moving in a privileged direction.
Chalk: Calcareous rock with the very fine grain formed by the accumulation of skeletons (tests) of phytoplankton.
Crater: Depression generally circular on the surface of the ground or hidden and formed by the fall of a celestial body, an volcanic eruption, a natural or human explosion, etc
Crack:

D

Delta: Mouth of a river, generally in a sea closed or protected from the big wide, presenting a sedimentation of materials at the origin of a ramification of the water ways which divide and are anastomosed.
Depression:
Deserted: Terrestrial area where annual precipitations are lower than 200 mm et/où the ground is more or less unsuitable with the establishment of the life and presenting an impoverishment more or less marked of the biomass or number of species.
Strait: Maritime or lake passage tightened between two emerged grounds.
Diaclase: Fissure through a sedimentary layer of rocks limestones or sandy.
Dam: Slope of ground and/or stone, generally of human origin, protecting a zone from a flood or a risk of maritime, lake or river flood.
Dune: Mass of sand accumulated and moult by the wind, present on the littorals and/or in the arid zones.
Dyke: Magmatic seam of rock.

E

Scale of Beaufort: Scale of measurement of the force of the Wind to the 10 m height above a ground flat and discovered.
Scale of Richter: Open scales of measurement magnitude of a seism.
Ecology:
Mouth: Zone where a river flows in an ocean, a sea or a lake in the shape of an estuary, a delta or a cascade.
Ecuador:
Erg (dune): Desert area presenting a regrouping of dunes corresponding to a zone of wind accumulation of materials.
Erosion: Together phenomena physique, chemical or physicochemical causing disintegration, dissolution, the fragmentation and the mobilization of the surface part of the earth's crust.
Estuary: Mouth of a river, generally in an ocean or an opened sea, presenting an evacuation of the sediments to broad by the marine currents at the origin of a progressive widening of the width of the river whose water becomes brackish.

F

Fault:
Fjord: Glaciated valley invaded by marine water, being inserted sometimes with kilometers in the grounds and presenting very abrupt paroies.
River: River being thrown in an ocean or a sea.
Flow:

G

Geodesy:
Geography:
Geology: Science of the study of the Earth, its history, its reliefs, its structure, its dynamics and its operation.
Geophysical:
Geyser: Geological structure made up of a network of underground galleries filled with water heated by magma and being able intermittently to form a vapor and water jet spouting out sometimes with several meters height.
Layer:
Glacier: Mass of ice formed by the compaction of layers of snow and running out under the effect of gravity or of its own weight towards lower zones in altitude.
Gulf: Part of great extent of a sea or an ocean advancing in the grounds.
Granite:
Sandstone:
Cave: Immersed network entirely or partly formed of underground cavities connected by galleries.
Ford: Not very major zone of a river allowing to cross it to feet.

H

Hemisphere: One of the two zones in the shape of half-sphere located at the north or the south of the equator.
Swell: Together of surface maritime waves formed by the action of the wind at water surface.
Hydrography:

I

Iceberg: Mass of detached ice of a glacier, an icecap or an ice cap and floating at water surface (lake, sea, ocean).
island: Mass detached emerged ground of a continent.
Irrigation:
Isthmus: More or less narrow strip of land connecting two grounds (continent, island) and delimiting two oceans, two seas or two gulfs.

J

Jungle:
Ebb:

L

Lake: Mass or not fresh water, brackish or salted, supplied with rivers and present inside the grounds, generally at an altitude higher than the level of the oceans.
Laccolite:
Lagoon: Stretch of water isolated entirely or partly from broad by a coral reef being able to form an atoll.
Lagoon: Part of a sea or an ocean separate of this sea or this ocean by an offshore bar.
Ground swell: Vagueness of great intensity which rises sea-bed abruptly.
Moor:
Latitude:
Lava: Volcanic rock corresponding to total or partial degasification and the depressurization total or partial of a magma.
Lignite:
Silt:
Loess:
Longitude:

M

Magma: rock partially or entirely under fusion, gasified and pressurized.
Coat:
Marsh:
Tide:
Mascaret : Vague going up the mouth of a course sometimes on kilometers inside the grounds and caused by the meeting of the rising tide with the mouth of the river.
Massive: Together of mountains presenting a certain unit geographical or geological and being able to belong to an assembly line.
Meander: In a plain, part of a river whose layout forms a more or less tightened loop.
Meridian:
Mineral:
Mountain: Mass earth's crust projected in height by tectonic compressive forces.
Moraine: Mass detrital materials of size varied transported and/or set up by a glacier and appearing itself as a slope or a hill of lengthened form.

NR

Firn: Mass persistent Neige of high mountain when this one does not have the sufficient mass to be transformed into ice or basic mountain when it is sufficiently protected not to melt entirely from one winter to another.
Core: Central metal part of the Earth.

O

Oasis: Regrouping localized of vegetation in a desert signs that water is present and relatively accessible.
Ocean: Vast extended from salt water.
Oceanography:
Wadi: Temporary river of the desert and semi-desert areas supplied with rare but sudden and powerful rains.

P

Pampa:
Parallel:
Peneplain: Plain formed following the total erosion of an mountainous area.
Peninsula: Part of an emerged ground advancing in a sea, an ocean or a lake.
Flat:
Plate: Area relatively punt framed partly or entirely by steepsided valleys.
Polder: Areas located under the sea level and gained on this one by the construction of dams and the draining of the grounds.
Pole: One of the two points or the meridian lines meet.
Meadow:
Peninsula: Part of an emerged ground advancing in a sea, an ocean or a lake until being connected to the ground only by one isthmus.

Q

Quartz:

R

Roads:
Tidal wave: See Tsunami.
Reef: Mass rocks located at flower of water and presenting a risk for navigation.
Undertow: Violent return of the Vague S on themselves when they break against an obstacle.
Ria :
River: River being thrown in a river or another river.
Rock:

S

Sand:
Savanna:
Schist:
Sediment:
Seism: Jolt of the earth's crust caused by a brutal relaxation of the telluric constraints accumulated during years and at the origin of destruction and changes of the landscape on the terrestrial surface.
Serac: Block of ice of big size partly disunited of a glacier on the level of a glacial bolt.
Sial :
Sierra:
Sima :
Ground:
Source: Birthplace of a river.
Sphaigne :
Steppe:
Stratigraphy:
Synclinal: Geological structure or the layers of rock are folded in the shape of “U”.

T

Taïga: Terrestrial ecosystem of the Arctic climate made up mainly of conifers.
Topography: Art of the measurement then of the representation on a plan or a chart of the forms and details visible on the ground, which they are natural, in particular relief, or artificial (like the buildings, the roads, etc).
Tundra: Terrestrial ecosystem of the Arctic climate made up mainly of foams and lichens.
Peaty: Watery ecosystem of the Arctic climate or mountain dweller made up of a water level more or less invaded by acidifying watery species which slow down or stop the vegetable decomposition.
Earthquake: See Seism.
Tropic: Geographical area, climatic or human defined by certain characteristics specific to the areas ranging between the Capricorn and tropics of Cancer.
Tsunami: Vagueness or together of waves to the amplitude abnormally raised, created by a singular phenomenon (seism, landslide, volcanic eruption, etc) affecting a water mass put then moving and being able to cause extensive damage with its meeting with emerged grounds.

U

Ubac: In opposition to the Adret, slope of a valley less exposed to the sun.

V

Vague: Watery wave formed for the wind and/or the interaction of currents between them or with obstacles (shores, rocks, etc).
Valley: Place framed by two watersheds and whose bottom corresponds to a talweg.
Volcano: Relief being generally appeared as a mountain and being formed by the accumulation of materials resulting from the terrestrial coat.

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