---

 

Moving Geography: Antarctic Ice Shelf Breaks Up

Share This Page Follow This Site

---

Part 3: Moving Geography

Now, on to the second point: Moving Geography.

An iceberg's breaking off from an ice shelf and roaming the planet is a literal example of moving geography. When you think of geography, you tend to think of maps and charts and graphs and things that are on a piece of paper or a wall chart or a web page or in the newspaper: You think of things that are static, or not moving. But an iceberg that roams the seas is geography that moves.

Now this is fun.

Rivers are another example of geography that moves. Rainfall and floods change the course of rivers all the time. (And, literally, a change in the width of a river could mean the shifting of a border between two states or two countries: Many countries and U.S. states use rivers as the dividing line between them.)

And it's not just water that produces moving geography. Every time one country conquers another or a new country is made from parts of an old, that's moving geography. (You have to get a new map all the time these days to keep with political changes.) In the same way, maps showing religions and languages are updated constantly, as more and more people learn new languages or convert to new religions.

Another term for this kind of constant changes is dynamic geography. Geography is indeed dynamic. It's not just wall charts and maps and graphs in books. It's ever-changing weather and ever-growing populations and roaming icebergs in the oceans. Geography can be fun if you let it.

First page > Recent Events > Page 1, 2, 3