Introduction to Geography 100
Exam 1 – Physical Geography
Test for…
1. Read Maps: topographic, traffic, regions
2. Use map points, lines, and area symbols, as well as color, to show how those
features are located, arranged, distributed, and related to one another.
3. Given a map of Paris, write down directions from the Eifel Tower to the
Louvre, using cardinal directions, distances in miles or meters, and
significant landmarks.
4. Weather Fronts - Fronts are zones of transition between two different air
masses. The zone may be 20 miles across or it may be 100 miles across, but
from one side of a front to the other, one clearly would sense that the
properties of an air mass had changed significantly (e.g., contrasts in
temperature and dew point, wind direction, cloud cover, and on-going
weather). The frontal zone represents the leading edge of a wedge of
cold/cool air. If the wedge is moving into an area of warmer air, the front is
called a cold front. If the wedge is retreating and warmer air is moving into
an area previously occupied by cool air, the front is termed a warm front.
To locate a front on a surface map, find:
a. would the temperature be
i. higher at A or B;
ii. higher at B or C;
b. would the dew point (moisture content of the air) be
i. higher at A or B;
ii. higher at B or C;
c. shifts in wind direction,
d. the wind direction
i. at A would be from the SW or the NW;
ii. at B would be from the SW or the NW;
iii. at C would be from the SW or the NW;
e. the pressure at
i. A would be higher or lower than B;
ii. B would be higher or lower than C;
f. clouds and precipitation patterns;
g. cold fronts move faster or slower than warm fronts.
C
A
B
5. Wind Barb Interpretation
The above chart shows barb symbol wind speeds and direction.
a. The barb below would show a wind speed of _____________ and the wind
blowing from the _____________.
b. The barb below would show a wind speed of _____________ and the wind
blowing from the _____________.
6. Spanish Armada
a. “Armada pilots appear not to have had a rutter for the west of Ireland
as they misidentified almost everything they saw.” Describe what this
statement means.
b. The Armada did not have the Wagenaer (1584) and Mercator (1594)
maps with them. What specific features of these two maps could have
helped the Armada pilots determine their longitude locations?
c. Midlatitude cyclone
d. Latitude and longitude in navigation
e. What critical instrument did the Spanish Armada lack in the 16th
century that was later developed in the 18th century, which is used to
determine longitude by means of celestial navigation?
i. Astrolabe
ii. Compass
iii. Chronometer
iv. Lead and line
7. Landforms: alluvial fan, alpine glacier, volcanism, convergent plate boundary,
delta, divergent plate boundary, drainage basin, earthquake, fault, floodplain,
glacier, igneous rocks, karst, lava, loess, longshore current, longshsore
transport, magma, mantle, mechanical weathering, metamorphic rocks,
moraine, outwash plain, overland flow, plate tectonics theory, seafloor
spreading, sedimentary rocks, seismic waves, soil creep, surface erosion,
tectonic plate, terminal moraine, transform plate boundary, tsunami, volcano,
weathering.