| pangea | a huge landmass consisting of almost all the continental land on the earth which then divided and slowly became the continents we know today |
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| parallel | a line of latitude |
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| perihelion | the point when the earth is closest to the sun during its annual orbit. takes place near january 4 when the earth is a mere 91,445,000 miles from the sun |
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| permafrost | permanently frozen water in soil |
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| physical geography | the branch of geography dealing with the natural features of the earth |
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| plate tectonics | the surface of the earth is composed of many large plates which slowly move around the planet, meeting and diverging, creating a variety of earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountains at their margins |
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| population density | the number of people per a unit of area |
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| population pyramid | a bar graph which displays the age and sex distribution of a population. age-sex pyramid |
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| precipitation | any form of water that falls from the atmosphere to the surface of the earth (e.g. rain, snow, sleet, and hail) |
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| primary activity | agriculture, fishing, and extraction of mineral resources |
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| primate city | a city which is greater than two times the next largest city in a nation (or contains over one-third of a nation's population). usually very expressive of the national culture and often the capital city. |
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| prime meridian | zero degress longitude. also known as the greenwich meridian because it was established at the greenwich observatory near london |
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| push-pull factors | the push factor involves a force which acts to drive people away from a place and the pull factor is what draws them to a new location |
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