Resources to help you learn more about physical geography.
Basics: Earth/Sun Relations,
Coordinate Systems, Maps Maps,
GIS, Remote Sensing
Meteorology and Climatology Biogeography and Environmental Issues
Soils
Rocks, Plate Tectonics,
and Tectonic Processes Geomorphology
and Landforms
General Information Geography as a Career
Basics: Earth/Sun Relations, Coordinate System, Maps
Tutorial on Earth/sun Relations and Seasons This is in case you missed the first lecture in physical geography class, or maybe didn't quite absorb it all.
Earth View gives you a beautiful view of the Earth from above, showing day and night, at your choice of time and date, and centering on any latitude and longitude. If you play with this a little, you can get a very good idea of the patterns of day and night over the Earth at different seasons. For more options, see the main page of this great web site: Earth and Moon Viewer.
Here Comes the Sun is a good tutorial about earth-sun relations and seasons, with clear diagrams and animations.
Guide to Arctic Sunrise and Sunset lets you see where the sun is shining (or not) at three different locations in the Arctic for your chosen month. Good for visualizing how the seasons work at high latitudes. Also, you can get a calendar (printable) of sunrise and sunset times for many locations in the world at Custom Sunrise Sunset Calendar.
Here is a good page on How to Read the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Grid, from the U.S. National Park Service.
Longitude is measured from the Royal Observatory Greenwich in London, England. Here is the home page of the observatory. They have information leaflets on a variety of topics, such as The Equinoxes and the Solstices, The Seasons, The Calendar, Latitude and Longitude, and many others. See their entire list of Fact Files.
Magnetic Declination is a very interesting page from the Geological Survey of Canada, explaining in some detail why your compass needle does not really point to the North Pole. ("What do you mean "North isn't North"?"). There is a short section on using a compass and map. Also, if you know your latitude and longitude, the Geological Survey will provide you with a magnetic declination calculator for your location.
Coordinate Systems Overview is a comprehensive page on coordinate systems and related topics, including latitude and longitude, UTM, and MGRS, among others.
Here is a summary of the Township and Range System (PLSS) in the US, from About.com.
How to Read Topographical Maps is a summary that covers the basics of reading USGS topo maps: what information to look for, how contour lines work, several coordinate systems (latitude/longitude, UTM, PLSS) that you might encounter on a topo map. This web site from Arizona will also tell you how to find ghost towns.
Geography--The National Map, from the US Geological Survey, has a tremendous amount of information on maps of all types, imagery, educational materials...
A great Remote Sensing Tutorial from NASA, covering topics from the history of remote sensing to a wide variety of applications, with many images.
Computer Mapping Systems/GIS for Teachers is the schedule for a web-based class on GIS from Emporia State University in Kansas. There are links to web lectures on various topics in GIS and Remote Sensing, some from the instructor, Dr. James Aber, and some from the National Council for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA). Many of the topics have fairly complete lecture notes. Plenty of maps and images.
Here is the schedule for an entire online course in Remote Sensing, also from Dr. Aber at Emporia State. The schedule links to lectures (complete, not just outlines) on various topics, and again, there is access to a lot of imagery.
Internet Resources in Aerial Photography and Remote Sensing,from UC Berkeley, contains many links to sources of imagery, and information about imagery.
Map Projection Home Page can get you started learning about map projections.
The Online Remote Sensing Guide has tutorials on remote sensing as applied to weather.
The Online Meteorology Guide, from the University of Illinois, is an excellent introduction to weather. It has discussions of air masses and fronts (with maps and diagrams), photos of clouds, with a description of each type, information on winds, midlatitude cyclones, severe storms, and much more.
A good page on Reading Weather Maps, surface and upper air, from the University of Illinois.
My tutorial on Humidity covers physical states of water, adiabatic processes, ways of expressing humidity, and everyone's favorite, relative humidity.
Bad Coriolis talks about misconceptions about the Coriolis Effect. Complete with photos of sinks draining the wrong way.
Here is some information on thermal inversions and on photochemical smog.
Need weather information? Check the National Weather Service, San Diego. Other National Weather Service Homepages has links to NWS offices all over the U.S.
The Western Regional Climate Center has a great deal of information, both current and historical, on climate and weather.
Wondering what the story is on global warming? Try the EPA's GLOBAL WARMING SITE, for a useful introduction. The Union of Concerned Scientists also has a lot on global warming. If you want to dig into the topic even more, Global Climate Change: Selective List of Online Resources is pretty comprehensive.
Biogeography and Environmental Issues
Major Biomes of the World is an excellent tutorial on biomes, from Dr. Susan Woodward, at Radford University. It has descriptions, photos, a glossary, and study guides.
The California Environment includes information resources on the geography and environment of California, its natural history, natural hazards, and environmental issues.
Here is a wonderful Field Guide to the Natural History of Southern California, from the San Diego Natural History Museum.
Here is the Endangered Species Program, from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Pedosphere and Its Dynamics is a complete online introductory textbook on soil.
Lab on Soil Texture is a summary of basic information on soil texture, and a description of how to analyze a soil for texture, put together for a class at the University of Minnesota. Soil Texture Slides show photos of various soil textures.
These well-illustrated Laboratory Units from soils classes at the University of Minnesota cover several soils topics, and would be a good introductory overview on soils.
Rocks, Plate Tectonics, and Tectonic Processes
A summary of The Rock Cycle, including definitions of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks.
For more detail, see Igneous Rocks, a lecture outline with photos, by Dr. Pamela Gore. Also, see Sedimentary Rocks, and Metamorphic Rocks, by Dr. Gore.
This Dynamic Earth: the Story of Plate Tectonics, is an online book from the US Geological Survey.
How fast are you moving? Find out with this Plate Motion Calculator from the UNAVCO Facility, Boulder, Colorado. Enter your latitude and longitude, and it will give you your rate of speed.
Learn about Volcanoes, from the USGS.
Here's an interesting website on How Volcanoes Work, from Dr. Vic Camp at the SDSu Geology Department.
Lots of earthquake information, on this page from the Earthquake Hazards Program--Northern California of the USGS.
Natural Hazards in California will lead you to a lot of information on natural hazards, including earthquakes, volcanoes, and the tectonic processes that cause them.
also, take a look at the geomorphology and landforms section below
The Hydrologic Cycle, from Environment Canada, has a diagram of the hydrologic cycle, with definitions of many pertinent terms, and other information on water.
This Weathering and Mass Wasting Learning Module has study guides, quizzes, and links to online information on weathering and mass wasting.
Hydrology, Running Water, Erosion, and Sediment Transport is an informative outline for a lecture on streams; especially interesting are the photos of rivers, and the discussion of levees and flooding. For further understanding of streams, here is a great on-line exercise called Virtual River, which will help you understand river processes, such as the relationship between a river's discharge, on the one hand, and its velocity and the size of the channel, on the other. Some other links to information about rivers and water, are provided by About.com.
Deserts: Geology and Resources, is an online textbook from the USGS, that covers desert formation and features, aeolian processes, desertification, and other topics.
Tour of Park Geology is maintained by the US National Park Service. Discusses Mountain Building, Glaciers, Caves, Volcanoes, and many other aspects of the geology of our National Parks. There are examples and great photos from each Park.
Geomorphology from Space is a remarkable book from NASA. It contains 237 plates, including Landsat images and mosaics, of geomorphological features, such as tectonic landforms (the Great Basin, the Appalachians, San Andreas Fault, the Canadian shield, among others), volcanic, fluvial, coastal landforms, and many more, all with commentary explaining what can be seen and its significance. You could learn a lot about geomorphology from this book.
Shorelines and Coastal Processes is an outline for a class lecture on these topics. It give a good overview of coastal processes, and has some good photos illustrating coastal erosion and structures designed to slow erosion.
If you are interested in karst topography and related topics, Karst Link is a pretty comprehensive page of links to websites on karst worldwide. The origin of the term "karst" was in Serbia and Montenegro, and this page on Karst of Serbia and Montenegro is worth a visit; not many photos, but lots of maps, a discussion on the geology of the region, and details on the caves. For marvelous photos, The Virtual Cave is a beautiful site, covering caves of all sort, including solution caves (formed in limestone), lava tubes, sea caves, and erosion caves. Well worth a visit!
Learn all about glaciers and ice ages with this series of web lectures on Ice Age Environments. This is an entire online course, from Professor James S. Aber, at Emporia State University in Kansas.
Many links to information about glaciers, from About.com.
What is geography? The Association of American Geographers defines geography, and discusses what geographers do.
Fundamentals of Physical Geography is an online textbook for University and College students studying introductory Physical Geography. Written by Professor Michael Pidwirny, at Okanagan University College in Canada, it covers most of the range of physical geography, from an introduction to systems through meteorology and climatology, biogeography, plate tectonics and geomorphology. This could be a useful reference source for getting a different approach to a topic you need to work on.
Here is the World Lecture Hall's listing of web-based courses in Geography. Some of the courses listed just have the course schedule, some have lecture notes (varying in the amount of detail), some have images and other links. (This is not a comprehensive listing: there are lots of other courses out there).
About.com's Physical Geography and Hazards index has links to many sites on all aspects of Physical Geography on the web.
Geography as a Career. What do geographers do for a living? Can you get a job as a geographer? Here is some information that may give you some ideas.
Careers in Geography is a page from the Association of American Geographers for people who wonder if they can make a living as a geographer. There are topics on many aspects of having a career in geography, from a simple list of geographer's job titles in What Can You do as a Geographer? to a Job-Search and Internship Guide For Geographers. Also, if you wonder if geography is the right field for you, try answering the questions in How do you know if you want to be a geographer?
For another viewpoint, the University of Washington's Geography Department asks so, what can you really DO with a major in geography? This site has a lot on concrete strategies for getting jobs. For instance, see the page on geographers: getting jobs , and career portfolio resources , which has quite a few examples.
Many more links to information on Careers in Geography can be found in this page from About.com.
Last Revised
May 15, 2004
visitors since January 27, 2000