| caldera | a bowl-shaped circular depression caused by the destruction of the peak of a volcano. crater lake, oregon is a caldera and not a crater |
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| cartogram | a "map" that is a diagram used to present statistical information. a common cartogram shows the countries of the world with the size of the country representing its population. |
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| cartography | the art and science of making maps |
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| census | an investigaton or count of a population |
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| central business district (cbd) | the heart of a city, the downtown center of commerical activity |
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| central place | a town or city which provides services to a surrounding region |
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| choke point | a narrow water passageway between two bodies of land |
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| chorology | regional geography, the study and description of regions |
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| choropleth map | a map which shows differences by using shading or colors |
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| cirque | a bowl-shaped depression on a mountain that is carved out by an alpine glacier |
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| cis | cis stands for the commonwealth of independent states. the cis is an alliance of 12 of the 15 former soviet republics (armenia, azerbaijan, belarus, georgia, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, moldava, russia, tajikistan, turkmenistan, ukraine, and uzbekistan). |
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| climate | the long term trends in weather conditions for an area |
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| climatology | the study of the climates of the earth |
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| colonialism | the system by which one country controls and dominates a subordinate territory politically and economically. |
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| continental drift | the current theory that the continents of the earth move across the earth on giant tectonic plates |
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| continental shelf | the extension of the continents into the ocean; continental shelf land would be exposed if sea level dropped |
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| contour map | a map which shows points of equal elevation as a line |
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| conurbation | several adjacent metropolitan areas with form a huge urban area. megalopolis |
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| coriolis effect | the coriolis effect results from earth's rotation causing freely moving objects to veer toward the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere. it effects things like wind, ocean currents, airplanes, missiles, but does not effect toilets or sinks. |
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| country | an independent political entity, also known as a state |
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| culture | the belief systems, attitudes, languages, social relationships, institutions, and material goods transmitted within a society |
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| cultural geography | the branch of geography dealing with human culture and its impact on the earth |
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| cultural landscape | the evidence of human impact on a physical environment |
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