The Geography Portal
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Geography (from Greek: γεωγραφία, geographia, literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of the Earth and planets. The first person to use the word γεωγραφία was Eratosthenes (276–194 BC). Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding of Earth and its human and natural complexities—not merely where objects are, but also how they have changed and come to be.
Geography is often defined in terms of two branches: human geography and physical geography. Human geography is concerned with the study of people and their communities, cultures, economies, and interactions with the environment by studying their relations with and across space and place. Physical geography is concerned with the study of processes and patterns in the natural environment like the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and geosphere.
The four historical traditions in geographical research are spatial analyses of the natural and the human phenomena, area studies of places and regions, studies of human-land relationships, and the Earth sciences. Geography has been called "the world discipline" and "the bridge between the human and the physical sciences". (Full article...)
In this month
- 1 June 2007 – Formation of Cyclone Gonu in the Arabian Sea
- 6 June 1953 – Death of geographer Fred K. Schaefer, considered one of the pioneers of quantitative revolution
- 19 June 1965 – Province of Eastern Samar (pictured) created from Samar by virtue of Republic Act No. 4221
- 30 June 2008 – Decision reached by United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in case Greenberg v. National Geographic
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![Portrait of a woman in bonnet and long dress holding](https://web.archive.org/web/20220606155208im_/https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/Mary_Anning_painting.jpg/220px-Mary_Anning_painting.jpg)
Mary Anning (21 May 1799 – 9 March 1847) was an English fossil collector, dealer, and palaeontologist who became known around the world for the discoveries she made in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Channel at Lyme Regis in the county of Dorset in Southwest England. Anning's findings contributed to changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth.
Anning searched for fossils in the area's Blue Lias and Charmouth Mudstone cliffs, particularly during the winter months when landslides exposed new fossils that had to be collected quickly before they were lost to the sea. Her discoveries included the first correctly identified ichthyosaur skeleton when she was twelve years old; the first two nearly complete plesiosaur skeletons; the first pterosaur skeleton located outside Germany; and fish fossils. Her observations played a key role in the discovery that coprolites, known as bezoar stones at the time, were fossilised faeces, and she also discovered that belemnite fossils contained fossilised ink sacs like those of modern cephalopods. (Full article...)More featured biographies
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Did you know
- ... that glaciation in Wisconsin 17 thousand years ago helped create its unique geography?
- ... that the first known paravian dinosaurs were from China, but they now live on every continent?
- ... that Johann Reinhold Forster's 1778 book Observations Made During a Voyage Round the World has been described as "the beginning of modern geography"?
- ... that during the collision of India with Asia, the southern part of the Tibetan Plateau achieved its high elevation before the northern part?
- ... that the dark and fatalistic humour of Canadian comedians has been attributed to the dangers of Canada's climate and geography?
- ... that although Constance Kies was a nutrition scientist, she majored in English, and minored in history, geography, library science, and home economics?
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