The Spatial Characteristics of the Various Natural Phenomena - Essay Example

112372 Geography when it did not mingle with any other disciplines had a limited solitary splendour of its own. Nothing evoked more interest in human minds as Geography throughout history. There was and is no end to geographical explorations. Because of its all-pervading nature, it had always been difficult to give a proper definition to Geography. "A better definition of geography may be the study of natural and human constructed phenomena relative to a spatial dimension" http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/1a.html When physical geography got slightly separated from the parent geography, it took away most of the main topics of the discipline Geography with it. It had been branching out for a long time, more so, with the new discoveries. History of physical geography starts with the cartography of early Greeks, developed by Eratosthenes, Strabo and Aristotle, and later popularised by Ptolemy, who even thought of latitude and longitude. The voyages of the discoverers and adventurers, conquests of Alexander the Great, geographical exploration and the broadening of the scientific outlook in humans, contributed immensely to the development of physical geography. Physical/Environmental geography includes hydrosphere, Lithosphere, atmosphere and biosphere. Physical geography is considered to be a branch of two disciplines, Geography and Earth Sciences. . "The main purpose of Physical Geography is to explain the spatial characteristics of the various natural phenomena that exist in Earth's hydrosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, and lithosphere," http://www.physicalgeography.net/home.html Study of Physical geography consists of rocks, minerals, land formations, animals, water, plants, environment, water bodies, oceans, atmosphere, rivers, weather and climate etc. It also covers Meteorology, Climatology, Biogeography, Geomorphology, Pedology, and Hydrology and every natural aspect, shape on the outer skin of Earth. It also consists of a history of uniformitarianism, Charles Darwin's Evolution, constant exploration and survey, and the recently popularised conservation. It explains the quantitative revolution with statistics and measurement and determines man's relationship with the land. It deals with global warming and greenhouse effect. It explains the environment as it is found on Earth today, points out the natural and human-made changes and assimilates efforts of restoration. There are many future scopes of physical geography research. Applied physical geography is used for solving human-induced environmental problems. It has solutions for many daunting riddles, posed by an ecologically imbalanced world. It also can be used for new techniques like Remote Sensing to monitor the resources of the earth and atmosphere. Cartography combined with the modern scientific methods, could be a formidable force. These are the fundamentals of physical geography: It is concerned with the atmospheric composition and the layered atmosphere, consisting of troposphere, tropopause, stratosphere, influence by the polar jet stream and the subtropical jet stream, isothermal layer, ozone layer, mesosphere, stratopause and mesopause, and thermosphere. It learns the physical behaviour of the atmosphere and gas laws, temperature, density, pressure, volume, proportional atmosphere, proportional and inversely proportional volumes. It studies mass, gravity, force of acceleration, terminal velocity, ultra violet radiation, atmospheric effects on incoming radiation, absorption, patterns of solar radiation absorption, greenhouse effect and photosynthesis, short and long wave radiations, global heat balance, meridional transport, sensible, latent and surface heat flux, ocean currents, the concept of temperature, daily and annual cycles of temperature, global surface temperature distribution, forces acting to create wind, local and regional wind systems, global scale circulation of the atmosphere, upper air winds and the jet streams, air masses and frontal transitional zones, the mid-latitude cyclone, thunderstorms and tornadoes, tropical weather and hurricanes, climate classification and climatic regions of the world, applied climatology, Earth's Climatic history, causes of climate change, and El Nino, La Nina and the southern oscillation and similar changes. (Based on http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/chapter7.html It deals with the earthquakes, volcanoes, glaciers and glaciation. It justifies Alexander Von Humboldt's holistic view of transdisciplinary geography. Humboldt's comprehension of the world, and his ideas became synonymous with the environmental/physical geography for the last half-century 'in the form of application-oriented long-term ecosystem research'. He was considered to be the only theorist who understood the world in its structural diversity with the interrelationship of all the lives in it. Till Humboldt came into the scene, more prominence was given to human geography and every aspect of it was dominated by its human connections. Humboldt separated geography from human domination and made it more of an environmental science. He is widely respected as one of the founders of modern geography. Physical Geography, initially did not cover weather and climate mainly because anything above the surface of the earth was separated from it. This traditional view changed later with the advent of Darwin, Humboldt and Mackinder. "Weather and climate have reference to the earth's atmosphere, which like a gaseous shell or hull several hundred miles thick, complexly surrounds the solid liquid earth. it is just as integral a part of the planet as land and water, and is equally important as they are in comprising the human habitat," (Finch et al, 1957, p.21). Mackinder, in his Democratic Ideals and Reality (1904), proclaimed that Eurasia is the geographical pivot and heartland of history, and this idea got rooted in Germany, which assumed geopolitics as a base for Nazism. Physical/environmental geology sets limitations for human efforts of environmental preservation, by showing the destruction caused on the planet by elements and natural process. "It certainly is not possible to stop losses by wind and water erosion entirely; these have gone on since the world began. However, it is possible to reduce the rate of destructive erosion brought about by careless human disturbances of the natural balance of the soil components," (Trewartha, 1961, p.357). Its spectrum of development of present landscapes combined with the evolution touching plants, humans and animals all alike, had been the basis, present and future potential fields of physical geography. "These landscapes have developed as the result of the interaction of many different factors. Any given rock structure is subjected to erosion, which sculpts it in different ways according to the climate and vegetation. The nature of the vegetation, moreover, is dependent on the type of rock and the degree of erosion. Only structure and climate can therefore be considered as primary factors", (Birot, 1966, p. 111). Physical geography provides insights into the formation of various structures in the world scene. Structural changes, their formations, time taken and circumstances conducive for such a creation are important to understand the earth. Especially so, where soil is concerned, as we have to understand its formation, elements and its perishable qualities. "A soil is a natural system on the land surface resulting from weathering and soil-forming processes. The nature and rate of the soil-forming processes are strongly influenced by parent material, climate, vegetation, landforms, and time," (Patton, 1970, p. 369). Today environmental/physical geography is complete with revolutions, debates and controversies. Humankind is unable to decide which course of action should be taken to preserve this wonder of a world. Thinkers are arguing over every issue like ozone depletion, global warming, destruction of plans, killing of animals and extinction of species. Each problematic decision of various countries generates an avalanche of protests and cries against those protestors. Even though physical geography is separated from human geography sometime ago, it had not been able to severe itself completely, because humans aggressively attack it all the time, from every direction. Awareness of preservation and environmental conservation had not been of much help, though it is a right step in the right direction. Preserving the biodiversity and habitats has become a matter of imperative importance. "Awareness of threats to the environment has grown markedly, and so has readiness to act on those threats. Since the late 1980s, the nations of the world have signed landmark global conventions aimed at promoting sustainable development, preserving biodiversity, and halting climate change and the depletion of the ozone layer," http://www.rotary.org/newsroom/downloadcenter/pdfs/378en.pdf Only when we standardise these methods completely, humankind will win the ongoing battle from the side of physical and environmental geography. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Birot, Pierre (1966), General Physical Geography, George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., London. 2. Finch, Vernor, Trewartha, Glenn, Robinson, Arthur and Hammond, Edwin (1957), Physical Elements of Geography, 4th edn., McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York. 3. Patton, Clyde, Alexander, Charles and Kramer, Fritz (1970), Physical Geography, Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, California. 4. Trewartha, Glenn, Robinson, Arthur and Hammond, Edwin (1961), Fundamentals of Physical Geography, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., New York. ONLINE SOURCES: 1. http://www.physicalgeography.net/home.html 2. http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/1a.html 3. http://www.rotary.org/newsroom/downloadcenter/pdfs/378en.pdf 4. Read More