Geography is translated from ancient Greek as a description of the earth. In fact, this is what science is. It is a series of interconnected teachings about the Earth. About its composition, structure, relief, countries and more. There are a great many classifications of geography, and sometimes it is not easy to understand them.
Classification of geography
The main divisions of geography distinguish the physical and socio-economic branches of this science.
In turn, economic geography is divided according to the objects of study into the geography of the population, industry, agriculture, services, transport and many others. The development of science and technology provokes the emergence of increasingly narrow specifications.
Physical geography is also a whole complex of sciences. These include paleogeography, geomorphology, climatology, land hydrology, oceanology, soil geography, biogeography.
It is difficult to make a clear classification also because a number of sciences belong to related fields of knowledge.
For example, platform geography is a science,which applies not only to geography, but also to geology.
History of geography
The history of geography begins at the same time as the history of human writing. And maybe even earlier, because even before the first recordings, people traveled, memorized and transmitted their knowledge orally.
Officially registered research expeditions date back to Ancient Egypt, 2nd century BC.
Written descriptions of the area with a list of rivers, mountains and oceans have come down to us from Ancient India, Greece.
With the development of navigation, the geography of the seas and oceans inevitably appears, and marine cartography develops. Information about the compilation of maps in the days of Ancient Greece has reached our time. Perhaps at that time it was not yet known about such subtleties as the underwater relief, the platform of the region, but the external manifestations and their features were described quite accurately.
The Middle Ages became a dark age for the sciences as well. The achievements of previous civilizations were lost, European science shifted towards theology, and this explained natural phenomena. However, geographical science did not stop its development, just its center shifted to the east. During those periods, the main discoveries were made by Arab scientists and travelers.
In the XV-XVII centuries, geographical science and cartography gradually began to return to Europe. With the development of navigation, the era of research and expeditions began.
As a separate science
The geography of the platform isa branch of science that studies vast parts of the crust of our planet, creating its solid frame. These areas are inactive in tectonic significance.
Their dimensions are huge and measured in millions of square kilometers. They cover more than 40% of the entire surface of the continents.
Structure
Platform geography is a complex science along with genealogy. She studies not only the location and movement of parts of the earth, but also their structure.
The shields that are part of the platforms include basement ledges without sedimentary rocks. The second kind of areas are plates dressed in a sedimentary cover.
Don't assume that the terrain is determined by the platform. The shape of the relief also depends on the rocks that cover them.
Modern science most often distinguishes two main structural levels. The lower floor, the older one and the upper one, is a platform cover. Often the upper case is composed of un altered sedimentary rocks.
What are they like
Geologists and geographers identify ancient platforms and young ones.
The foundations of the Precambrian period are typical for the ancients. These include the East European, Siberian platforms, on which part of the territory of the Russian Federation is located. This type covers approximately 40% of the total area of the continents.
Young platforms consist of the basement of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic age. These are Scythian, Turan, West Siberian. It is in this type of platforms that the intermediate structural floor occurs. They cover only 5% of the area of the continents.
Russian platforms
And what about in Russia? As an independent science in the Russian Federation, platform geography is a rarity. This is important to know.
Russian platforms are studied more often within the framework of geology. After all, the country is wide and immeasurably vast.
Russian platforms include: East European, on which the European part of the country is located, West Siberian (located under the Ural Mountains) and Siberian (stretches right up to the Lena River and corresponds to the location of the Central Siberian Plateau).
As you can see, the geography of the platform is a series of interrelated sciences about the earth, not as an outer shell, but about its internal composition. The structure of the earth, its relief in different areas of the world are different. And you always need to know in which region, on which shield, depression or platform your native land (city, country) is located. Depending on such characteristics, faults in the earth's crust, earthquakes, volcanoes, cracks, natural disasters and other natural disasters are possible or unacceptable. In addition to the fact that such knowledge is a necessity, studying the structure of the earth is also very interesting!
