Poland Liceum ogólnokształcące, klasa I Geography
Chapters: 6
1. I. Sources of geographical information, geoinformation and data presentation
Maps and data · Images, GPS and GIS
- Introduction to Maps – A map is a small, flat drawing of all or part of the Earth, seen from above and drawn to a scale. Every map needs a title, scale, direction (north arrow), legend with symbols, and a grid based on a projection. Maps are grouped by scale (large or small) and by what they show (physical or cultural).
- Spatial Information Technology: GIS (Class 12 Geography Practical) – A Geographical Information System (GIS) is a computer system that stores, links, analyses and shows data about places. It keeps the world in layers. It needs hardware, software, data, people and methods. Spatial data come in raster (grid of cells) and vector (points, lines, polygons) formats. Data are entered by digitising, scanning, GPS or satellite images and linked to attribute tables. Overlay combines layers to find where conditions meet; buffer draws a zone of fixed distance around a feature.
2. II. Earth in the Universe
Earth and the Solar System
- The Solar System – The Solar System is the Sun and everything its gravity holds: 8 planets, their moons, dwarf planets, asteroids, comets and dust. The inner four planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) are small and rocky. After the asteroid belt come the giants: gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, ice giants Uranus and Neptune. Gravity pulls planets towards the Sun while they move sideways, so they travel in orbits; closer planets move faster and have shorter years. It all formed about 4.6 billion years ago from a spinning cloud of gas and dust.
3. III. Atmosphere
Climate factors and circulation · Weather, climate zones and change
- Atmospheric Circulation and Weather Systems – Air has weight, so it presses down: this is air pressure (about 1013 mb at sea level). Wind blows from high pressure to low pressure, pushed by the pressure gradient force, turned by the Coriolis force (right in the north, left in the south) and slowed by friction near the ground. Uneven heating makes pressure belts (equatorial low, subtropical highs, subpolar lows, polar highs) and three circulation cells, giving planetary winds: trade winds, westerlies and polar easterlies. Belts shift with the seasons, giving seasonal winds like the monsoon; local winds include land and sea breezes and mountain and valley winds. Big bodies of air with the same temperature and moisture are air masses; where two meet is a front. Cyclones are low-pressure storms: tropical cyclones form over warm seas; extratropical ones form along fronts. Thunderstorms and tornadoes are small but violent storms.
- Climate Zones of the World – Climate is the average weather of a place over about 30 years. It depends mainly on latitude (how high the Sun climbs), altitude (about 6.5 °C cooler per km up), distance from the sea, winds and ocean currents. Using these, the Köppen system sorts the world into five groups: A tropical, B dry, C temperate, D continental and E polar, plus highland climates on high mountains. Monsoon climates have winds that change direction with the seasons.
4. IV. Hydrosphere
Waters of the Earth
- The Hydrosphere: All the Water of the Earth – The hydrosphere is all the water on Earth: oceans, ice, groundwater, rivers, lakes and the vapour in the air. About 97.5% is salty sea water and only 2.5% is fresh. Of the fresh water, about 69% is frozen in glaciers and ice caps, about 30% is groundwater and about 1% is in lakes, rivers, soil and air. Sea water has about 35 g of salt per kg. Surface ocean currents carry heat. Rivers collect water from a basin and carry it to the sea. Melting ice raises sea level.
5. V. Lithosphere
Internal and external processes
- Distribution of Oceans and Continents: Drift, Spreading and Plates – In 1912 Alfred Wegener said all continents were once one landmass, Pangaea, surrounded by one ocean, Panthalassa, and that they drifted apart. Matching coastlines, rocks, fossils, glacier deposits and placer gold supported him, but he could not explain the force. Mapping the ocean floor showed ridges, plains and trenches; Harry Hess then proposed sea-floor spreading: new crust forms at mid-ocean ridges and old crust sinks at trenches. This led to plate tectonics: the lithosphere is broken into rigid plates that move on the soft asthenosphere and meet at divergent, convergent and transform boundaries. The Indian plate broke away from the south, moved north, and collided with Asia to raise the Himalayas.
6. VI. Pedosphere and biosphere
Soils and vegetation
- Soil: How It Forms, Its Layers and How to Protect It – Soil is the thin, loose top layer of the land where plants grow. It is a mix of rock grains (about 45%), organic matter or humus (about 5%), water (about 25%) and air (about 25%). Soil forms very slowly when weathering breaks parent rock and living things add humus. Five factors control it: parent rock, climate, living things, relief (slope) and time. A cut through the ground shows layers called horizons: O (litter and humus), A (topsoil), B (subsoil, where washed-down minerals collect), C (broken rock) and R (bedrock). Soil texture depends on the share of sand, silt and clay. Soil feeds plants, stores and cleans water, stores carbon and is home to countless organisms, but erosion, salt and pollution can destroy it far faster than it forms.