Physical Geography of Southern and Eastern Asia

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Physical Geography of Southern and Eastern Asia

• An Overview

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Land of Contrasts

• Larger than North and South America
• 1/3 of the earths land
• Many physical features - huge mountains, deserts,
  fertile river valleys and plains

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Vocabulary

• Asia has a subcontinent - a large land mass that
  is smaller than the continent
• Only continent to have a subcontinent
• The subcontinent is India, but also includes the
  countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan Nepal

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Thousands of Islands

• Formed by volcanoes
• Archipelagoes (groups of many islands)
• Indonesia - largest, has 13,500 islands
• Philippines - has 7,000 islands

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The Worlds Highest Mountains

• The Himalayas - Mt. Everest
• Form the heart of Asia
• Called The Roof of the World
• Many mountain ranges
• - Pamirs (center of the roof - the Pamir
  Knot
• - Altai
• - Tian Shan

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Mountains affect

• Climate
• Soil fertility
• Amount of rainfall
• Separate countries and peoples

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Effect of Mountains

• Farming and traveling difficult
• Uncomfortable living (very cold dry)
• Block rain-bearing winds from south
• -north of mountains and Plateau of Tibet are
  deserts
• - Gobi
• - Takla Makan

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River Valleys

• Rivers flow down from mountains
• Extremely high population
• Flood and leave behind rich, fertile soil

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Vocabulary

• Winds blowing off mountains blow yellow top soil
  into the North China Plain
• Creates loess - very fertile soil, refertilized
  every year

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The rivers are

• Huang River (or Yellow River)
• Chang River (or Yangtze River)
• Mekong River
• Also the Ganges, Indus, Brahmaputra
• Rivers start in the Plateau of Tibet, flow across
  the plains and empty into the sea

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Vocabulary

• Civilization began in China along the Huang He
  River
• People learned to farm the alluvial soil -
  fertile soil deposited by the river as it flows
• Huang is called Chinas Sorrow

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The Pattern of the Land

• High mountains and great river valleys - reason
  why some areas are crowded and some are not
• Mountains isolate regions and peoples -so
  cultures developed without outside influences

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Asia
India - The Taj Mahal
Japanese Symbols
A Chinese Symbol