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A medieval depiction of the Ecumene (1482, Johannes Schnitzer, engraver), constructed after the coordinates in Ptolemy's Geography and using his second map projection. In cartography, a map projection is any of a broad set of transformations employed to represent the curved two-dimensional surface of a globe on a plane.
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. While geography is specific to Earth, many concepts can be applied more broadly to other celestial bodies in the field of planetary science. [2]
For example, Albany, New York is roughly 140 miles north of New York City. Every site on Earth has a unique absolute location, which can be identified with a reference grid (such as latitude and longitude). Maps and globes can be used to find location and can also be used to convey other types of geographical information.
The Earth's radius is the distance from Earth's center to its surface, about 6,371 km (3,959 mi). While "radius" normally is a characteristic of perfect spheres, the Earth deviates from spherical by only a third of a percent, sufficiently close to treat it as a sphere in many contexts and justifying the term "the radius of the Earth".
For example, the lifespan of a feature could be considered as the temporal extent of its existence. The location of a city can change over time as annexations expand its extent. The resident population of a country changes frequently due to immigration, emigration, birth, and death.
Solidified lava flow in Hawaii Sedimentary layers in Badlands National Park, South Dakota Metamorphic rock, Nunavut, Canada. Geology (from Ancient Greek γῆ (gê) 'earth' and λoγία () 'study of, discourse') [1] [2] is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. [3]
The orientation (rather than the angle) of Earth's axis also changes over time, precessing around in a complete circle over each 25,800-year cycle; this precession is the reason for the difference between a sidereal year and a tropical year. Both of these motions are caused by the varying attraction of the Sun and the Moon on Earth's equatorial ...
the Earth's mass, its gravitational field, and its angular inertia. These are all affected by the density and dimensions of the inner layers. [20] the natural oscillation frequencies and modes of the whole Earth oscillations, when large earthquakes make the planet "ring" like a bell. These oscillations also depend strongly on the inner layers ...