Glossary of geography terms (N–Z)

This glossary of geography terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts used in geography and related fields, including Earth science, oceanography, cartography, and human geography, as well as those describing spatial dimension, topographical features, natural resources, and the collection, analysis, and visualization of geographic data. It is split across two articles:

Glossary of geography terms (A–M) lists terms beginning with the letters A through M.
This page, Glossary of geography terms (N–Z), lists terms beginning with the letters N through Z.

N

nadir
narrows: A land or water passage that is confined or restricted by its narrow breadth, often a strait or a water gap.
nation: A stable community of people formed on the basis of a common geographic territory, language, economy, ethnicity, or psychological make-up as manifested in a common culture.
national mapping agency: A governmental agency which manages, produces, and publishes topographic maps, geographic data, and sometimes cadastral information that is specific to an individual nation or political territory, such as the United Kingdom's Ordnance Survey.
national park: A type of protected area created and managed as a public park by a national governmental authority for conservation purposes. Though individual governments designate national parks differently, they usually share the common goal of preserving natural or semi-natural landscapes (often wilderness) for posterity and as symbols of national pride.
natural landscape: The original landscape that exists before it is acted upon by humans. Contrast cultural landscape.
nautical mile: A unit of distance traditionally defined as the length equal to one minute of arc (1⁄60 of one degree) along a meridian of the Earth. Because the Earth is not a perfect sphere, the length of one minute of arc at the Equator differs from that measured at the geographic poles; thus the modern internationally agreed-upon standard defines the nautical mile as the average of these two extremes: 1,852 metres (6,076 feet; 1.151 miles).^[1] It is widely used in air, marine, and space navigation as well as for defining the limits of territorial waters.
navigable: 1. (of a place) Capable of being navigated; sufficiently deep, wide, predictable, and/or free of obstructions to afford easy or safe passage to vessels such as ships or automobiles. The term is often used to describe river channels and coastal inlets.; 2. (of a vessel) In a navigable condition; steerable; seaworthy or roadworthy.
navigation: 1. The determination of position and direction, generally by comparing the navigator's position to known locations or patterns.; 2. The process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a vehicle or craft from one place to another.
neap tide: A tide of decreased tidal range occurring semi-monthly as a result of the Moon being in quadrature with respect to the Earth and the Sun (i.e. in the first quarter or last quarter phases, when roughly half of the lunar disk is visible), or the time period recurring every 14 days during which such tides occur. The average height of the high waters of the neap tides occurring at a particular location is called neap high water or high water neaps, and that of the corresponding low waters is called neap low water or low water neaps.^[2] Compare spring tide.
nearshore: The part of a beach between the shoreline and the line at which the waves break.^[2]
neatline: A line separating the main body of a map from the map's margin. On a standard quadrangle map, the neatlines are the meridians and parallels delimiting the quadrangle.^[3]
neck: 1. A narrow stretch of land with water on each side, e.g. an isthmus or promontory.^[4]; 2. A narrow stretch of woodland or of ice.^[4]; 3. A high level pass, especially the narrowest part.^[4]
nehrung: A long sandspit separating a haff or lagoon from the sea, especially one along the south coast of the Baltic Sea.^[4]
neighborhood: A geographically localized community within a larger city, town, suburb, or rural area, particularly one which supports considerable face-to-face interactions between residents.
ness: In Scotland and parts of England, a headland or cape, or another name for a cuspate foreland; or a spur of a mountain ridge.^[4]
nodal region: A region characterized by a set of places connected to another place by lines of communication or movement.^[5]
North Geographic Pole: The point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is the northernmost point on Earth, directly opposite the South Geographic Pole, and defines the direction of true north at a latitude of 90 degrees North; its longitude can be assigned any degree value. Unlike the South Pole, the North Pole is not located on a continental landmass but in the middle of the Arctic Ocean. See also North Magnetic Pole.
North Geomagnetic Pole: The point in the Northern Hemisphere where the axis of a theoretical simplified dipole passing through the center of the Earth would intersect the Earth's surface. It is antipodal to the South Geomagnetic Pole. Because of the fluid nature of the Earth's molten core, the true axis of the Earth's magnetic field is not a perfect dipole, and so the Geomagnetic Poles and the actual Magnetic Poles lie some distance apart.
North Magnetic Pole: The point in the Northern Hemisphere at which the Earth's magnetic field points vertically downward. It is close to but distinct from the Geographic North Pole and the Geomagnetic North Pole, and its precise location varies considerably over time due to frequent magnetic changes in the Earth's core. Its counterpart in the Southern Hemisphere is the South Magnetic Pole, though the two poles are not directly opposite each other.
Northern Hemisphere: The half sphere of the Earth that is north of the Equator. It is opposite the Southern Hemisphere.
northing
nubbin: A small, gentle hill consisting of a bedrock core dotted with rounded residual boulders. Nubbins form in a similar way to castle koppies and bornhardts.
nunatak

O

oasis: A combination of a human settlement and an area of cultivated vegetation in an otherwise desolate desert or semi-desert environment, made fertile when sources of fresh water, such as underground aquifers, irrigate the surface naturally or via man-made wells.
oblate spheroid: The approximate geometric shape of the Earth: a three-dimensional ellipsoid that is nearly but not exactly a true sphere, being instead slightly flattened at the poles and slightly elongated at the equator.
obsequent: (of a stream, river, or any natural water flow) Flowing in the direction opposite to that of the dip of the underlying rock strata.^[4] Contrast consequent and subsequent.
ocean: The vast, contiguous body of salt water covering more than 70% of the Earth's surface area and surrounding the continental landmasses; or any portion of this larger body of water that is divided and distinguished from the other portions, each of which is called an ocean, by the presence of the landmasses.^[6] The International Hydrographic Organization recognizes five principal oceanic divisions on Earth: from largest to smallest, they are the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean, and Arctic Ocean.
ocean current
ocean floor: See seabed.
ocean trench: A long, narrow, very deep depression in the ocean floor where, at the junction of two tectonic plates, one plate is subducted steeply beneath the other, often penetrating the mantle.
oceanography: The scientific study of the Earth's oceans and all processes and phenomena relating to them, including their formation and evolution over time; their physical and chemical properties and how these vary within the ocean and across its boundaries; their interactions with landmasses along coasts; the bathymetry and geology of the sea floor; currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics; marine life and ecosystems; and how humans affect and are affected by oceans. The interdisciplinary field draws from and involves a diverse range of other sciences, including physics, biology, geology, hydrology, meteorology, and climatology, among others.
oeconym: A toponym or proper name for a house or other residential building, or in the broadest sense for any inhabited settlement, such as a village, town, or city.^[7]
oecumene: See ecumene.
offshore: 1. Moving away from the shore and toward the sea.^[4]; 2. Located at a point or in an area that is relatively close to but still seaward of the shore (as with an offshore island). Contrast onshore.^[4]; 3. Seaward of the foreshore and the backshore.^[4]
ogive: One of a series of regularly spaced bands of alternating height and color visible on the surface of some glaciers, resulting from seasonal patterns of alimentation and ablation. Because ice flows faster near the center of the glacier, where there is less friction with the surrounding glacial bed, ogives are usually shaped into conspicuous arcs that point towards the terminus of the glacier.^[8]
ojo: In the southwestern United States, a small pond, lake, or spring, especially a hot spring.^[9]
open ocean: The part of the ocean that is beyond or outside of coastal areas,^[10] i.e. distant from land and not enclosed or partially enclosed by it. In oceanography, the term is synonymous with pelagic zone and is often defined as all oceanic waters seaward of any continental shelf; politically and economically, "open ocean" usually refers to all areas of a sea or ocean that are not within territorial waters (hence, any area that is within international waters) or, much more restrictively, not within any sovereign state's exclusive economic zone. See also high seas.
open range: A cattle- or sheep-ranching area characterized by a general absence of fences and in which livestock are by law allowed to roam freely.^[5]
opisometer: An instrument used to measure the lengths of arbitrary curved lines, especially the distances of rivers and roads on a map.
ordinal directions: See intercardinal directions.
ordnance datum (OD): Any vertical datum used by the British Ordnance Survey as the basis for reporting elevations on maps. In modern Great Britain, the standard ordnance datum is the ODN, defined as the mean sea level calculated from hourly observations of the tidal gauge at Newlyn, Cornwall, between 1915 and 1921. All heights shown on British maps are measured from this benchmark.^[4]
orientation: The position of or the act of positioning a person or object with respect to the directional points of a compass, especially the placement of a map or surveying instrument in the field so that a north–south line on the map or instrument lies parallel to a north–south line on the ground.^[4] Determining one's orientation at a given time is the chief aim of orienteering, and is generally of critical importance in navigation.
orienteering
orographic rainfall: Precipitation that results when moist air is lifted over a topographic barrier, such as a mountain range.^[5]
orography: A branch of physical geography and geomorphology concerned with the scientific study and description of the topographic relief of the Earth, particularly of mountains and hills, and more broadly of any elevated terrain.^[4]
orthodrome: See great circle.
orthodromic distance: See great-circle distance.
orthophotograph: An aerial photograph or satellite image that has been geometrically corrected or orthorectified such that the scale is uniform across all parts of the image, allowing the image to align with a particular map projection. In an uncorrected aerial photo, distances on the ground may be distorted by topographic relief, camera tilt, or the curvature of the Earth; techniques of digital image processing can compensate for these distortions, often by combining multiple images captured from slightly different perspectives into a single composite image. Orthophotos can be used to measure true distances because they accurately depict the relative sizes and positions of features on the Earth's surface.
outback: In Australia, the vast, remote, sparsely populated backcountry. See also bush.
outcrop: Any visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth; or more generally, any bare, rocky surface that is topographically distinct from the surrounding terrain. Outcrops occur frequently in places where the rate of erosion exceeds the rate of weathering, such as on steep hillsides and mountains, river banks, and coastlines.
outwash: Rocky and sandy surface material deposited by melted water that flows from a glacier.^[5]
outwash plain: A smooth, flat plain of sandy or gravelly alluvial sediment formed by outwash deposited in front of the toe of a melting glacier, with larger material deposited closer to the terminal moraine.^[9]
overbank: 1. Alluvial sediment, usually consisting of fine sand, silt, and clay, that has been deposited on the floodplain of a river or stream by flood waters that have broken through or overtopped the river's banks.; 2. The stage when a river or stream overflows the banks of its normal channel and spreads on to a floodplain, depositing such sediment.
overburden: Uneconomic material covering a mineral seam or bed that must be removed before the mineral can be extracted in strip mining.^[5]
oxbow: 1. A wide U-shaped meander in a river or stream.; 2. The lake formed when a meander is cut off from the main stem of the river, creating a separate body of water.

P

Pacific-type coastline: See concordant coastline.
padang: An uncultivated, treeless grassland in Southeast Asia, sometimes swamp-like, supporting a scrubby heath-type vegetation common on leached sandy soils.^[4]
palisade: 1. A wall of wooden stakes used as a defensive barrier.; 2. A line of bold cliffs, especially one showing basaltic columns.^[5]
palsa: An elliptical dome-like permafrost mound containing alternating layers of ice lenses and peat or mineral soil, commonly 3–10 metres (10–33 ft) high and 2–25 metres (7–82 ft) long, and occurring frequently in bogs in the Arctic and subarctic zones of discontinuous permafrost.^[11]
paludal: Of or pertaining to a swamp or marsh, or to sediments that accumulate in a marshy environment.^[9]
pampa: In parts of South America, a vast, fertile, grassy plain; or the temperate lowland region encompassing these plains.
pan: Any shallow, generally rounded basin or hollow, which may seasonally capture and hold water from rainfall or snowmelt, especially one occurring in an arid or semi-arid region; more specifically, the flat central part of such a depression, which may be temporarily or seasonally flooded.^[4]
panhandle: See salient.
panhole: A rounded or circular depression eroded into flat or gently sloping cohesive rock, typically shallow and ranging in diameter from a few centimeters to several meters, that is capable of collecting and holding rainwater and snowmelt. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with pothole, though the latter may also refer to distinct geological features.
pantanal: In southern Brazil, a wetland region consisting of a usually dry savanna that is seasonally flooded by a river.^[4]
pantograph: An instrument that enables the mechanical copying of a map or technical drawing on a selectable scale, such that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen, resulting in a duplicate image that is the same size, enlarged, or miniaturized with respect to the original. Pantographs typically consist of hinged rods arranged in the shape of a parallelogram which rotate about a fixed point.^[4]
parallel: 1. (geometry) Extending in the same direction, equidistant at all points, and never converging or diverging; having the same orientation, nature, tendency, or course; corresponding or similar.; 2. (geography) Another name for a circle of latitude.
parish: A type of subnational division of a country or federal state used for religious, administrative, or other purposes.
park
pass: See mountain pass.
passive glacier: A glacier with low rates of both alimentation and ablation because it receives only light snowfall and undergoes little melting throughout the year. Such glaciers move very slowly and transport relatively small amounts of ice and debris.^[4] Contrast active glacier.
pasture: Any land used for grazing by livestock, often a natural grassland supporting native grasses and forbs with little or no active management by humans, as opposed to a meadow, where the vegetation is mown for hay or silage.^[4]
peak: 1. A pointed or protruding top or vertical projection on a landform, e.g. a mountain, especially implying the highest point or elevational maximum, i.e. the summit.^[4]; 2. A mountain as a whole, in particular a high, isolated, or prominent one.
pediment: An eroded, often bare rock platform, cut into the local bedrock, usually slightly concave and triangular in shape and extending over a considerable area at the foot of an abrupt mountain slope or face, the lower edge sloping gently away. Pediments form basal slopes of transport for weathered material derived from the steeper slope above, and are characteristic of arid and semi-arid lands.^[4]
pediplain
pedology: The scientific study of the morphology, composition, and spatial distribution of soils, with an emphasis on classifying soils and understanding their formation and evolution.^[4]
pedosphere
pelagic zone
peneplain: A low-relief plain leveled by long-term erosion, often implying a landscape that is in the final stages of fluvial erosion during an extended period of tectonic stability, i.e. approaching the point at which all initial topographic inequalities such as mountains and hills have been eroded and evenly redistributed into a broad, flat, uniform surface at or near sea level.
peninsula: A piece of land surrounded by water along the majority of its border while still being connected to a mainland from which it projects.
perched water table
perennial stream: A stream that normally flows continuously throughout the entire year, without drying up, as opposed to a transient or intermittent stream.
pericline
periglacial: 1. Of or relating to an area located adjacent to or on the margin of an ice sheet or glacier, either presently or in the past; or to associated phenomena.^[4]; 2. Any place where seasonal cycles of freezing and thawing modify the landscape in a significant manner.
periplus: A historical manuscript listing the ports, safe anchorages, and coastal landmarks that a maritime vessel could expect to encounter along a shore or coastline, arranged in order according to a particular direction of travel and including the intervening distances between them. See also itinerarium.
permafrost: A permanently frozen layer of soil;^[5] permanently frozen ground at high latitude and high elevation.^[12]
petrographic province
photic zone: The uppermost layer of a body of water (e.g. a lake or ocean), defined by the maximum depth to which sunlight can penetrate the water column. The photic zone usually supports large populations of photosynthetic organisms and the majority of the aquatic life inhabiting the body as a whole.
photogrammetry: 1. The science and technology of obtaining reliable information about physical objects and environments through the process of recording, measuring, and interpreting photographic images (usually aerial or orbital ones) and patterns of electromagnetic radiant imagery and other phenomena.; 2. The science of extracting three-dimensional measurements from two-dimensional data, such as images.
phreatic water: See groundwater.
phreatic zone: The part of an aquifer that is below the water table, where nearly all pores and fractures are fully saturated with water. Contrast vadose zone.
physical geography: The branch of geography that studies processes and patterns in the natural environment, such as the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere, as opposed to the cultural or built environment. Along with human geography, it is one of the two major sub-fields of geography.
physiographic region: A portion of the Earth's surface with a common topography and morphology.^[5]
physiography: Another name for physical geography.^[5]
piedmont: Any geographic region lying or formed at the base of mountains. The term is used primarily in the southeastern United States to refer to a broad region extending from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Atlantic coastal plain.^[5]
piezometric surface
pingo: A periglacial landform consisting of a relatively large conical mound of soil-covered ice, commonly 30–50 metres (100–160 ft) high and up to 1,000 metres (0.6 mi) in diameter, and that grows and persists in part as a result of hydrostatic pressure within and below the permafrost of Arctic and subarctic regions.^[11]
pinnacle: Any natural, free-standing, vertical or nearly vertical column of earth or rock in the shape of a tall, often slender shaft or spire, and which is distinguished by its isolation from nearby rocks or other landforms. The term is applied to a wide variety of geological formations of various sizes and has numerous regional and local synonyms with which it may be used more or less interchangeably. See also demoiselle, hoodoo, prominence, stack, and zeuge.
pit crater: A type of crater formed by the sinking or collapse of the surface lying above a void or empty chamber. Pit craters are similar to calderas and are often associated with volcanic activity, but lack the ejecta deposits and lava flows of volcanic craters.
place: A particular point on the Earth's surface, or the area surrounding such a point, having or encompassing a definite position; a location, often specifically named, that is identifiable in social interaction because humans have endowed it with meaning or purpose;^[13] a mental representation of a physical space created from functional or emotional associations in the human mind. The concept of place – how places are created, identified, mapped, connected, and used – is fundamental to many aspects of geography.
place identity
place utility: The measure of approval or satisfaction accorded by an individual to a location in his or her action space; the value or usefulness of a particular place as perceived by a particular person. Dissatisfaction with place utility may result in migration.^[4]
placename: See toponym.
placer: 1. (mineral deposit) An accumulation of valuable minerals, particularly gold, formed by gravity separation from a source rock during natural sedimentary processes. The minerals, weathered from rocks or veins, are washed out by streams and mixed with alluvial deposits of sand or gravel, from which they can then be extracted by placer mining.; 2. (reef) A flat, shallow sandbank or reef submerged beneath the ocean surface, often with a sandy bottom suitable as an anchorage for seagoing vessels.
plain: Any broad, flat expanse of land that generally does not show significant variation in topography or elevation.
plane table: A small drawing board mounted on a tripod used in surveying, site mapping, and related disciplines to provide a solid and level surface upon which to make drawings, charts, and maps while in the field.
planimetric map: A map which uses a two-dimensional coordinate system, i.e. in which each point is represented by only two coordinates (x, y), as if all of the depicted features existed within a single, flat plane. These maps usually exclude information about vertical position and therefore do not show topographic relief and represent only horizontal distances.^[14]
plat: A cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the legal boundaries and divisions of a surveyed tract of land, particularly of the type used to divide real property for sale and settlement in the Public Land Survey System of the United States.^[14]
plate tectonics: A geologic theory that the bending (folding) and breaking (faulting) of the solid surface of the Earth results from the slow movement of large sections of that surface called plates.^[5]
plateau: A large area of relatively flat terrain that is significantly higher in elevation than the surrounding landscape, often with one or more sides with steep slopes.
platted land: Land that has been divided into surveyed lots.^[5]
playa: An exceptionally flat, arid basin that is the dry bed of an evaporated lake; or the shallow, usually saline lake itself which periodically forms when the basin is temporarily covered with water, e.g. after substantial rainfall. See also salt pan.
plucking: An erosional phenomenon whereby a glacier gradually scours and displaces pieces of rock from the bedrock beneath it and transports them along with the glacial flow of ice and debris. As the glacier moves down a valley, friction causes the basal ice to melt and infiltrate joints and cracks in the bedrock; repeated freezing and thawing widens and deepens these cracks, eventually loosening the rock and causing large blocks and boulders to be carried along by the overlying ice. These boulders are often deposited hundreds of kilometers from their source, becoming erratics. The term is also sometimes used to describe the similar process of quarrying, which occurs on a smaller scale in fast-moving rivers and streams.^[4]
plug: A cylindrical mass of volcanic rock marking the neck of an ancient volcano, especially one exposed by denudation of the surrounding cone.^[4]
plumb line: A vertical reference line created by suspending a weight, known as a plumb bob or plummet, from a string above the Earth's surface and allowing it to hang freely in the direction of the pull of gravity. A precursor to the spirit level, plumb lines are used to establish a vertical datum in a wide range of applications, particularly in surveying to determine the nadir of a point in space, and often in combination with an instrument to set the instrument precisely over a fixed survey marker.
plunge pool: A deep depression at the base of a waterfall into which the water drops with great force, plucking and abrading the rock beneath and behind the falls and creating an often nearly circular concavity which may remain filled with water long after the waterfall itself dries up.^[4]
plural society: A situation in which two or more culture groups occupy the same territory but maintain their separate cultural identities.^[5]
point bar: A depositional feature made of alluvium that accumulates on the inside bend of a meandering stream or river, below the slip-off slope and often directly opposite a cut bank. Point bars are usually crescent-shaped beaches of sand, silt, or gravel, similar to shoals and river islands.
polar aspect: A planar map projection with its origin located at either the North or the South geographic pole.^[14]
polar circle: Either of the two circles of latitude enclosing the Earth's polar regions: the Arctic Circle in the Northern Hemisphere and the Antarctic Circle in the Southern Hemisphere.
polar ice cap: Either of the two very large regions near the Earth's geographical poles that are seasonally or persistently covered in ice, which occurs because high-latitude regions receive less direct solar radiation than other regions and therefore experience much lower surface temperatures. The Earth's polar ice may cover both land and sea, and varies in size seasonally and with long-term climate change. They typically cover a much larger area than true ice caps and are more correctly termed ice sheets.
polar region: Either of the two high-latitude regions surrounding the Earth's geographical poles (the North and South Poles), which are characterized by frigid climates and extensive polar ice caps. The polar region of the Northern Hemisphere is often simply called the Arctic and that of the Southern Hemisphere is called the Antarctic.
polder: A low-lying tract of land enclosed by dikes, forming an artificial hydrological entity by creating land from a naturally inundated area, e.g. by reclaiming land from a lake or sea, or by building barriers around a floodplain or marsh and then draining it. All polders are eventually below the surrounding water table some or all of the time, making them especially prone to flooding, and they often require continuous draining.
pole: 1. An extreme geographical point, especially one of a pair.; 2. Either of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface, i.e. the geographic poles, representing the northern and southern extremities of terrestrial latitude: the Geographic North Pole and the Geographic South Pole.; 3. Either of the two ends of the geomagnetic field generated by the dynamo in the Earth's core. These ends may refer either to the true magnetic poles, known as the Magnetic North Pole and the Magnetic South Pole, which are not directly opposite each other, or to the antipodal poles of a hypothetical perfect dipole passing through the Earth's center, known as the Geomagnetic North Pole and the Geomagnetic South Pole.
pole of inaccessibility: A location that, with respect to a given geographical criterion, is the most difficult to reach according to that criterion, e.g. the geographical location that is the most distant from the nearest point meeting that criterion. The term most commonly refers to the so-called continental or oceanic poles of inaccessibility, i.e. the point on a given continental landmass that is the furthest distance from a coastline, and the point in the ocean that is the furthest distance from land, respectively.
political geography: The study of both the spatially uneven outcomes of political processes and the ways in which political processes are themselves affected by spatial structures. A sub-discipline of human geography, its primary concerns can be summarized as the relationships between people, state, and territory.
polje: A very large plain found in karstic regions, enclosed within a depression, usually elliptical, with a flat floor either of bare limestone or covered by alluvium, and generally surrounded by steep limestone walls; or more broadly any enclosed or nearly enclosed valley. The term is used primarily in the Slavic-speaking world.
polynodal: Many-centered; having many nodes.^[5]
polynya: An area of unfrozen seawater surrounded by an otherwise contiguous area of pack ice or fast ice. Polynyas are often formed along polar coastlines through the action of katabatic winds, but may also form in the open ocean.
pond: A natural or artificial body of standing water that is usually smaller than a lake.
populated place: A place or area with clustered or scattered buildings and a permanent human population (a city, settlement, town, or village) that is referenced with geographic coordinates.^[12]
population: A collection of organisms of the same group or species which live in a particular geographical area. In the context of geography, it often refers to a collection of humans and is represented at the most basic level as the number of people in a given geographically or politically defined space, such as a city, town, region, country, or the entire world.
population geography: A branch of human geography that studies the ways in which spatial variations in the composition, distribution, migration, and growth of populations are related to the nature of places. This often involves factors such as where populations are found and how the size and composition of these populations is regulated by the demographic processes of fertility, mortality, and migration.
positional error: The amount by which the mapped location of an imaged cartographic feature fails to agree with the feature's actual location in the real world.^[2]
positioning system: Any technology or mechanism used to determine the position of an object in space. Numerous methods for determining position have been practiced since ancient times, though modern positioning systems generally rely on electromagnetic and/or satellite-based technologies capable of providing coverage ranging from local or regional to global and accuracy ranging from tens of metres to sub-millimetre.
post-industrial: An economy that gains its basic character from economic activities developed primarily after manufacturing grew to predominance. Most notable would be quaternary economic patterns.^[5]
potamology: The branch of hydrology that studies rivers, including the processes and phenomena that occur at their sources, main channels, and mouths; the structure and morphology of drainage basins; and the water, thermal, ice, and sediment regimes that affect and are affected by river discharge.
potentiometric surface: See piezometric surface.
pothole: 1. Any smooth, bowl-shaped or cylindrical hollow, generally deeper than it is wide, that is carved into the rocky bed of a watercourse such as a stream or river. Fluvial potholes are created by the grinding action of stones or coarse sediment kept in perpetual motion in the same spot by the turbulence of the current. The term is also used to refer to plunge pools beneath waterfalls, which are created by similar processes. See also kolk.; 2. A vertical or steeply inclined karstic shaft in a limestone deposit.; 3. In the Great Plains of North America, a shallow depression, generally less than 10 acres (4.0 ha) in area, occurring between dunes or on morainic relief on a prairie and often filled by an intermittent pond or marsh.; 4. Another name for a kettle.; 5. Another name for a panhole.
prairie: A type of temperate grassland ecosystem dominated by a characteristic composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than by trees. The term is used primarily in North America, but similar ecosystems can be found across the world.
Precambrian rock: The oldest rocks, generally more than 600 million years old.^[5]
presque-isle: A peninsula connected to the mainland by an extremely narrow neck of land such that the land at its distal end is very close to being an island. See also tied island.
prevailing winds: The direction from which winds most frequently blow at a specific geographic location.^[12]
primary sector: That portion of a region's economy devoted to the extraction of basic materials (e.g., mining, lumbering, agriculture).^[5]
Prime Meridian: The imaginary line running from north to south through the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England which is assigned a longitude of 0 degrees and is therefore used as the reference point for all other lines of longitude.^[6]
proglacial: Preceding, in advance of, or in front of the toe or moraine of a glacier, either spatially or temporally.^[4]
progradation: The natural extension of a shoreline into a body of water by the gradual accumulation of sediment over time,^[15] especially as a result of fluvial sedimentation processes, such as the protrusion of a river delta into the sea. This occurs when the volume of sediment carried by the river and deposited at its mouth exceeds the volume lost through subsidence, sea level rise, or coastal erosion.
prominence: 1. A conspicuous high point that projects above or beyond its surroundings, e.g. a butte or a promontory.^[9]; 2. See topographic prominence.
promontory: A raised mass of land that projects into a lowland or a body of water. Compare headland and cape.
protected area: Any clearly defined geographic space in which human occupation or the exploitation of resources is limited or forbidden through legal or other effective means because of the area's recognized natural, ecological, cultural, or historical value.
province: A type of second-level administrative division within a country or federal state.
psychogeography
public land: Any land area held and managed in the public domain by a federal or local government.
pueblo: A type of Indian village constructed by some tribes in the southwestern United States. A large community dwelling, divided into many rooms, up to five stories high, and usually made of adobe. This is also a Spanish word for town or village.^[5]
puna: An ecoregion in the central Andes Mountains of South America, or any of the various high-altitude ecosystems encompassing it, including cold deserts and alpine grasslands.

Q

quadrangle: A standard division of the Earth's surface area used in maps produced by the United States Geological Survey. Quadrangles are four-sided polygons of varying size, depending on the map series; for example, 7.5-minute quadrangles divide the mapped surface into quadrilaterals measuring 7.5 minutes (0.125 degrees) of latitude by 7.5 minutes of longitude, with each 7.5-minute map showing the topographical detail within one particular quadrilateral of this size. Because the boundaries of quadrangles are based on lines of latitude and longitude, the northern and southern limits of a quadrangle map are not straight lines, and the eastern and western limits are usually not parallel; the actual surface area covered by each map varies with the latitudes depicted.
quagmire: See bog.
quarry: A place from which stone, rock, sand, gravel, slate, or aggregate is excavated from the ground, especially a large man-made pit that is exposed to the open air.

R

raft ice: A jumbled mass of blocks of ice that impedes the flow of water in a river or stream.^[9]
rail gauge: The distance between the two rails of a railroad.^[5]
railroad bed: The track or trace of a railroad route, commonly raised slightly above the adjacent natural ground surface and constructed mostly of locally occurring, earthy materials (e.g. gravel and rock fragments).^[11]
rain shadow: An area on the leeward (downwind) side of a mountain or mountain range that receives greatly diminished precipitation.^[5]
rainforest: Any forest characterized by abundant rainfall, dense layers of vegetation, and extremely high biodiversity. Rainforests are found in both tropical and temperate regions. The term jungle is sometimes used to refer to a tropical rainforest.
rake: A sloping terrace on a mountainside or rock face. The term is used primarily in Scotland.^[4]
rapid: A section of a river or stream where the riverbed is sufficiently steep, the rate of flow is sufficiently fast, and/or the channel is sufficiently narrow or obstructed by shallow or protruding rocks or other obstacles that the water at the surface is visibly swift, turbulent, and broken,^[4] often forming large white-capped breaking waves, eddies, whirlpools, and "holes", in contrast to other sections where relatively slow, steady, laminar flows predominate. Rapids can persist long enough to form distinct, stable patterns at particular locations, though they are ultimately dependent on water volume and thus may change seasonally, disappearing entirely if water levels are too low or too high. Generally, watercourses are more likely to form rapids closer to their source, where channels are relatively shallow and narrow and often pass through mountainous or highly eroded terrain, than to downstream portions near their mouth, where channels tend to be deeper and wider.
raster: A representation of spatial data within a two-dimensional image that defines space as a rectangular array or grid of equally sized cells arranged in rows and columns, where each cell can be identified with location coordinates and is associated with attribute values containing a discrete amount of information from one or more layers or "bands". Raster models are useful for storing and presenting large amounts of complex multivariate data that vary continuously across space, as is commonly encountered in maps, aerial photographs, satellite imagery, and many other aspects of geographic information science. Raster data are contrasted with vector data, which instead store and represent geographic information in the form of points, lines, and polygons.^[14]
ravine: A fluvial slope landform of relatively steep sides, sometimes with an intermittent stream flowing along the downslope channel. Ravines are typically narrower and shallower than canyons, larger than gullies, and smaller than valleys.
reach: 1. A relatively straight, level, uninterrupted segment of a stream, river, channel, or other watercourse, or of an arm of a sea or ocean, traditionally defined by its ability to be sailed in one "reach" (i.e. on a single point of sail, without tacking) and also usually implying a line-of-sight stretch of water between two bends or horizons, or between rapids, locks, stream gauges, or any other landmarks.; 2. Any expanse or widening of a watercourse, natural or man-made (commonly on dammed streams and rivers), or even an expanse of land, especially one that appears to be visually contiguous.; 3. In fluvial hydrology, a length of a stream or river having fairly uniform characteristics and which is therefore convenient to study as a discrete subdivision of the longer whole.
reclaimed land: 1. Any land area that is artificially created from earthy fill material that has been intentionally placed and shaped so as to approximate natural contours, especially as part of land reclamation efforts such as those designed to bury tailings following the cessation of mining operations.; 2. An area of land, commonly submerged underwater in its natural state, that has been protected by artificial structures such as dikes and drained for agricultural or other purposes (e.g. a polder).^[11]
reef: A submerged ridge-like or mound-like structure built by sedentary calcareous organisms, especially corals, in shallow marine waters, and consisting primarily of their skeletal remains, though often still supporting living colonies as well. Reefs may also be partially composed of rocks, sand, gravel, or seashells. They are locally prominent above surrounding sediments deposited on the sea floor, rising to or nearly to the water's surface.^[11]
re-entrant: See draw.
reference ellipsoid: A mathematically defined surface that approximates the geoid for use in spatial reference systems or geodetic datum definitions. Because of their relative simplicity, reference ellipsoids are used in geographic applications as preferred surfaces on which geodetic network computations are performed and point coordinates such as latitude, longitude, and elevation are defined.
reg: See desert pavement.^[4]
region: An area having some characteristic or characteristics that distinguish it from other areas; a territory that is of interest to people, for which one or more distinctive traits (e.g. climate, economy, history, etc.) define its identity.^[5]
regionalism: 1. The feeling or expression of a common sense of identity, purpose, or group consciousness associated with a particular geographical region, e.g. the Southern United States, Scandinavia, or Lower Egypt, often combined with the creation of institutions that accommodate that particular identity and shape public action.^[4]; 2. A movement to decentralize central government, placing administrative responsibility instead at a level intermediate between that of the state and that of smaller local or municipal units.^[4]; 3. In architecture, an approach that strives to counter placelessness and lack of identity by incorporating elements of the building's geographical context in its design.; 4. In linguistics, a word or phrase originating in, characteristic of, or limited in usage to a particular region.
regiopolis: A city located outside the core of a metropolitan area that serves as an independent driving force for political, economic, or cultural development within a larger region. Contrast metropolis.
regolith: A layer of loose, unconsolidated, heterogeneous superficial deposits (e.g. soil, sediments, broken rock, volcanic ash, wind-blown material, etc.) overlying solid bedrock.^[4]
relative height: See topographic prominence.
relative relief: The elevation or altitude of one location relative to another location; the difference between the highest and lowest points within a given geographical area.^[4]
relief: See terrain.
relief map: See topographic map.
remote: (of a particular location) Isolated or inaccessible, either by being physically very distant from another location or by lacking connectivity to transportation or communication networks which would otherwise make exchange between locations convenient.
remote sensing: The gathering of information about an object or place from a remote location (i.e. without making physical on-site observations), most commonly by the use of satellite- or aircraft-based electromagnetic sensor technologies.
representative fraction (RF): The fraction expressing the ratio between the distance measured between two points on a map and the corresponding actual distance measured between those points in the real world, used to indicate the map's scale. The fraction's numerator is typically 1 (indicating one of some specified unit of length, e.g. inches or centimetres) and the denominator is the number of the same unit in the real world which this length represents on the map. For example, a representative fraction of 1⁄1,000,000, often written as 1:1,000,000 or 1:1 mn, means that one inch (or one centimetre) on the map itself is equivalent to one million inches (or centimetres) in the real world. One statute mile is equal to 63,360 inches, so 1,000,000 inches is approximately 16 miles.^[4]
reservoir: An artificial lake or an artificially enlarged natural lake that is used to store water. Reservoirs are often created by the construction of a dam or lock in a natural drainage basin.
resource: Anything that is both naturally occurring and of use to humans.^[5]
retroreflector
rhumb line: A line drawn on the surface of a sphere (or on an idealized representation of the Earth) which crosses all meridians of longitude at the same angle, and which therefore has constant bearing relative to true or magnetic north.
ria: The seaward end of a river valley which has been flooded as a result of a rise in sea level.^[13]
ribbon development: The build-up of residential and economic communities along the main routes of communication and transportation radiating from a city or other developed area, because of the advantages of accessibility, relatively inexpensive land, and trade from passers-by.^[16]
ribbon lake: A long, narrow, finger-shaped lake, especially one found in a glacial trough and dammed by a rock bar or moraine.
ridge: An elongated raised landform which forms a continuous elevated crest for some distance, such as a chain of hills or mountains. The line formed by the highest points, with only lower terrain immediately to either side, is called the ridgeline.
ridge and swale
riegel: An outcrop of resistant bedrock that forms a bar across a glacial trough and often acts as a dam to impound the waters of a lake.^[13]
rift valley: A valley that has formed along a long, narrow continental trough bounded by normal faults; a graben of regional size.
rill: A shallow water channel, generally not more than 6 inches (15 cm) deep, that has been cut into a soil surface (especially a cultivated agricultural soil) by the erosive action of flowing water. Larger erosional channels may be called gullies.
rimaye: See bergschrund.
riparian rights: See water rights.
riparian zone: The area along the margins or banks of a river, stream, canal, estuary, or other watercourse; or the interface between land and a watercourse, generally including any land that is close enough to the watercourse to be frequently or persistently hydrated with its water. Riparian areas are important biomes with characteristics of both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and often support dense hydrophilic plant communities of high biodiversity. They often overlap with and by some definitions may be considered wetlands.
river: A natural watercourse, usually fresh water, that flows towards an ocean, sea, lake, another river, or in some cases into an endorheic basin or an underground aquifer. See also stream.
river pocket: An area of land enclosed within the bend of a river, especially where the bend is extended or pronounced (e.g. a meander) and the only road access is along the isthmus. The term is used primarily in Australia.
riverine: Located on or inhabiting the banks or the area adjacent to a river or lake.^[5]
rivulet: A very small stream or brook, often intermittent or ephemeral; a streamlet.
road map: Any map that shows the man-made roads, streets, highways, railways, and/or other transportation routes within a specific coverage area, especially one which prioritizes the display of this information over other information such as natural features. Road maps are designed to emphasize information relevant to motorists, often including political boundaries and labels as well as points of interest such as important buildings and businesses, tourist attractions, parks and recreational facilities, hotels, restaurants, gas stations, public transit networks (airports, train stations, etc.), and emergency services. The widths of the roads themselves are often exaggerated to make the routes more conspicuous.
roadstead: A body of water, natural or man-made, that is sheltered from rip currents, spring tides, and swells, and is therefore a known general station in which ships can safely be anchored without dragging or snatching.
rôche moutonnée: See sheepback.
rock mill: See pothole.
route: 1. A way or course taken in getting from one place to another; an established or selected course of travel or action; a line of travel or means of access, especially when marked by a path, track, road, or rail.; 2. A circuit traveled in delivering, selling, or collecting goods, e.g. by a mail carrier.
routefinding: The determination of a viable route or line of travel between two places, especially in rugged or unexplored areas such as mountainous terrain or in conditions of poor visibility, and especially when done without the benefits of prior knowledge of the area, maps, or other technology that might aid orienteering, instead relying entirely on recognition of natural features and landmarks and quick estimations of distance, scale, ease, and safety.
rural: An adjective describing any geographic area located outside areas of significant human population such as towns and cities; all population, housing, and territory not included within an urban area is often said to be rural. Rural areas are typified by low population densities, very small settlements, and expansive areas of agricultural land or wilderness.

S

sabkha
saddle: For a given pair of mountain summits, the region surrounding the elevational low point or col on the ridge connecting the two summits; mathematically, it is the critical point that is simultaneously a relative minimum in one axial direction (e.g. between the peaks) and a relative maximum in the perpendicular direction. Assuming it is navigable, a saddle can be thought of as the area surrounding the highest point on the lowest route which one could use to pass between the two summits.
salient: Any narrow, elongated protrusion of a larger territory, either physical or political, such as a state.^[5]
salt marsh: A natural coastal marsh ecosystem in the upper intertidal zone, between land and open seawater or brackish water, that is regularly flooded by the tide at high water. Salt marshes support dense stands of terrestrial salt-tolerant plants, especially grasses and low shrubs, which trap and bind sediments from the ocean and help protect the nearby shoreline from coastal erosion.
salt pan: A large, flat expanse of land naturally covered with salt and/or other minerals, usually to the exclusion of virtually all vegetation. Salt pans are common in deserts, where they form by the precipitation of dissolved mineral solids as a large body of water evaporates. See also playa.
saltwater: Any naturally occurring water, especially the water from a sea or ocean, characterized by high concentrations (between 3 and 5% by volume) of dissolved salts, primarily sodium and chloride ions, relative to fresh water or brackish water. Salt water in the Earth's oceans has an average salinity of about 3.5%; it is both denser and freezes at a lower temperature than fresh water.
sand dune: See dune.
sand sea: See erg.
sandbar: See shoal.
sandplain: A flat area where the soil or ground surface is covered with or composed of sand that has been transported from elsewhere and deposited by wind or oceans, rather than by weathering of the local bedrock.
sandur: See outwash plain.
satellite navigation: A method of navigation or an autonomous geospatial positioning system that relies on artificial satellites in orbit around the Earth to transmit time signals at radio frequencies along a line of sight to electronic receivers on the surface, which can then use this information to determine their location, direction, and the current local time to high precision. Satnav systems operate independently of telephonic or internet connectivity, though simultaneous use of these technologies can enhance the accuracy and usefulness of the positioning information generated.
satellite state: A formally independent state or polity which nevertheless depends economically, politically, or militarily upon, or is strongly influenced or controlled by, another, more powerful state.^[4]
savanna: A mixed woodland-grassland ecosystem characterized by scattered trees and bushes that are sufficiently widely spaced that the canopy does not close, permitting enough sunlight to reach the ground to support an unbroken herbaceous layer of primarily xerophytic grasses. The term is used especially to refer to the vast, hot, arid grasslands covering parts of equatorial Africa, South America, and northern Australia, but is also sometimes applied more broadly.^[4]
scale: 1. The relationship between a linear measurement on a map and the distance it represents on the Earth's surface.^[6]; 2. The level at which a geographical phenomenon occurs or is described.
scarp: A steep cliff face or slope terminating an elevated surface of low relief,^[4] formed either because of faulting or by the erosion of inclined rock strata.^[5]
schrund: See bergschrund.
scroll: 1. A narrow stretch of floodplain added to the outer end and downstream side of spurs between enclosed meanders on a river.^[4]; 2. A type of point bar consisting of a low, narrow ridge running in line with the curve of a meander, formed when the river overflows its banks.^[4]
sea: 1. Any large body of salt water surrounded in whole or in part by land.; 2. Any large subdivision of the World Ocean. "The sea" is the colloquial term for the entire interconnected system of salty bodies of water, including oceans, that covers the Earth.

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