Geography is the study of the earth's surface, its physical and human features, and the spatial patterns and processes that shape and are shaped by these features. It encompasses a wide range of subfields, including physical geography, human geography, environmental geography, and regional geography, among others. Geographers use a variety of tools and methods, such as maps, GIS, remote sensing, and field observations, to study and understand the earth's surface.
Course Content
Geography
Geography is the study of the earth's surface, its physical and human features, and the spatial patterns and processes that shape and are shaped by these features. It encompasses a wide range of subfields, including physical geography, human geography, environmental geography, and regional geography, among others. Geographers use a variety of tools and methods, such as maps, GIS, remote sensing, and field observations, to study and understand the earth's surface.
For anything Geography related that doesn’t require its own separate discussion.
The extent to which aerosol particles affect the climate depends on how much water the particles can hold in the atmosphere. The capacity to hold water is referred to as hygroscopicity (K) and, in turn, depends on further factors — particularly the size and chemical composition of the particles, which can be extremely variable and complex. Through extensive investigations, an international research team under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (MPIC) and the Leibniz Institute for Tropospheric…
The deep sea is home to one of the world’s largest communities of animals about which we still know very little. Yet it is already subject to a growing number of human-induced environmental pressures. How do its inhabitants respond to these stressors? A new study led by researchers from the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, published today in the scientific journal Nature Communications, provides first insights into the stress response of a deep pelagic jellyfish (jellies) to ocean…
Polar regions contain vast, undiscovered biodiversity but are both the most-threatened and least-understood areas of the world. Now scientists led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) are calling for a roadmap of polar ecosystems to fill that knowledge gap, preserve polar life and even protect “our everyday life and our planet’s health.” The study would map all biodiversity in those regions, from the atmosphere to the deep sea and from land to the…
Despite public perception, the Antarctic ozone hole has been remarkably massive and long-lived over the past four years, University of Otago researchers believe chlorofluorocarbons(CFCs) aren’t the only things to blame. In a study, just published in Nature Communications, the group analysed the monthly and daily ozone changes, at different altitudes and latitudes within the Antarctic ozone hole, from 2004 to 2022. Lead author Hannah Kessenich, PhD candidate in the Department of Physics, says they found there is much less ozone…
When the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted on January 15, 2022 in the South Pacific, it produced a shock wave felt around the world and triggered tsunamis in Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand, Japan, Chile, Peru and the United States. It also changed the chemistry and dynamics of the stratosphere in the year following the eruption, leading to unprecedented losses in the ozone layer of up to 7% over large areas of the Southern Hemisphere, according to a recent study published…
Worldwide, coastal river deltas are home to more than half a billion people, supporting fisheries, agriculture, cities, and fertile ecosystems. In a unique study covering 49 deltas globally, researchers from Lund University and Utrecht University have identified the most critical risks to deltas in the future. The research shows that deltas face multiple risks, and that population growth and poor environmental governance might pose bigger threats than climate change to the sustainability of Asian and African deltas, in particular. “We…
Long considered myth, freakishly large rogue waves are very real and can split apart ships and even damage oil rigs. Using 700 years’ worth of wave data from more than a billion waves, scientists at the University of Copenhagen and University of Victoria have used artificial intelligence to find a formula for how to predict the occurrence of these maritime monsters. The new knowledge can make shipping safer. Stories about monster waves, called rogue waves, have been the lore of…
Using historical records from around Australia, an international team of researchers have put forward the most accurate prediction to date of past Antarctic ice sheet melt, providing a more realistic forecast of future sea level rise. The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest block of ice on earth, containing over 30 million cubic kilometers of water. Hence, its melting could have a devastating impact on future sea levels. To find out just how big that impact might be, the research…
For over 20 years, a research team at Lund University in Sweden has studied the common bluetail damselfly. Females occur in three different colour forms — one with a male-like appearance, something that protects them from mating harassment. In a new study, an international research team found that this genetic colour variation that is shared between several species arose through changes in a specific genomic region at least five million years ago. The question of how and why genetic variation…
Geochemist Alexandra Phillips has sulfur on her mind. The yellow element is a vital macronutrient, and she’s trying to understand how it cycles through the environment. Specifically, she’s curious about the sulfur cycle in Earth’s ancient ocean, some 3 billion years ago. Fortunately, the nutrient-poor waters of Lake Superior offer a welcome glimpse into the past. “It’s really hard to look back billions of years,” said Phillips, a former postdoctoral researcher at UC Santa Barbara and University of Minnesota, Duluth.…
