Different climates and landscapes on the Earth. 1º Social Science.

1. Climates and landscapes on the
Earth

2. CLIMATES OF THE EARTH
There are several climate
zones in the world:
• One hot zone between
both two tropics. It is due
to the sun, which falls on
the surface vertically.
• Two temperate zones
between the tropics and
the polar circles in each
hemisphere. The sun falls
on the surface in an
oblique way.
• Two cold zones above
each polar circle.
Insolation is minimal
since the sun falls on the
surface extremely
obliquely.

3. Climate Zones
• HOT CLIMATE
– Tropical rainforest or equatorial climate
– Tropical or savannah climate
• Whet tropical climate
• Dry tropical climate
– Hot Desert Climate
• TEMPERATE CLIMATES
– Oceanic climate
– Mediterranean climate
– Continental climate
– Humid sub-tropical or Chinese climate
• COLD CLIMATES
– Polar climate
– Alpine climate

5. HOT CLIMATE:
Tropical rainforest or equatorial climate
•It is located around the equator, so it is only found in Africa, America, Indonesia and some
Oceania’s islands.
•Its temperatures are quite stable throughout the year and are usually 25ºC average.
•It is a really humid climate since its precipitations exceed 2,000 mm/year.
•There is not any seasonal change.

6. Tropical or savannah climate
• Wet tropical climate:
•Its temperatures are quite high, although it is warmer during the humid season. They are
never below 18ºC.
•It has a humid season with high precipitations. Total amount is between 500 and 2,000
mm/year.
•It has a short dry season when precipitations are almost non existent.

7. • Dry tropical climate
This climate gets drier as it gets
closer to the tropic.
•Its temperatures are really high.
•It has irregular rain during the
summer.
•This climate is a transition to the
desert climate.

8. Hot desert climate
It is usually located close to the
tropics.
•It is a really hot climate during the
day (c. 50ºC), but it cools during the
night (c. 0ºC). However its average
temperature is above 18ºC.
•It is extremely dry, since it rains less
than 250 mm/year. When it rains it
falls as heavy downpours.

9. TEMPERATE CLIMATES
They are located between the tropics and the
polar circles. All of them have four different
seasons with changes in temperatures and
precipitations.

10. Oceanic climate
• It is usually a climate
located on the west coasts
of the continents at mid-latitude:
• Its temperatures are quite
mild, since its average is
between 10 and 15ºC.
• It has regular and abundant
rain, more usual in winter.
It exceeds 1,000 mm/year.

11. Mediterranean climate
It is mostly located around the
Mediterranean Sea, although it
has some other locations in
South Africa, California, Chile,
and Australia:
•Its winter is quite mild, but its
summer is hot and dry. Its
average temperature is around
15ºC.
•Precipitations are quite irregular
and non-abundant (never over
800 mm/year). They are more
common in spring and autumn.

12. Continental climate
It is a climate with very little maritime
influence since it is usually inland. It can
only be found in the northern hemisphere
(Europe, Asia, North America):
•Temperatures vary a lot between
summers (hot) and winters (really cold). Its
average temperature is around 9ºC.
•Precipitations are irregular and they fall
mostly in summer (circa 700 mm/year)

13. Humid sub-tropical or Chinese climate
It can be mostly found in China,
southeast of the USA, River Plate,
and east of Australia:
•Temperatures: Its winter is mild and
dry. Summer is really hot (almost
tropical) and rainy.
•Precipitations are above 1,000
mm/year, whereas the average
temperature is between 15 and
20ºC.

14. COLD CLIMATES
They are located in high latitudes and altitudes.
• Polar climate
It is located above the polar circles:
•There is not any warm summer.
•Average temperatures are around 0ºC and they can reach up to
-50ºC.
•There are very few precipitations (less than 300 mm/year), although
they remain frozen due to the extremely low temperatures.

15. • Alpine climate
It is located in the highest
mountains of the world:
•Its temperatures are quite low,
since their average does not
exceed 5ºC.
•It is a rainy climate with more
than 1,500 mm/year

16. THE EARTH´S LANDSCAPES
HOT CLIMATE LANDSCAPES
• Equatorial landscapes
•This landscape is affected by the equatorial climate.
•The typical vegetal formation is the rainforest.
•It is really thick and evergreen.
•Trees are quite high and do not let sunlight go down.
•There are some shrubs, ferns, creepers, and lianas.
•The typical trees are mahogany, ebony and rubber
trees.
•Rivers are regular and have a large flow. The main
examples are the Amazon, and the Congo.
•Its fauna is really varied of species, such as jaguar,
monkey (chimpanzee, gorilla, and orangutan), snake
(anaconda), spider, hummingbird, parrots, some insects...
•Soils are quite poor and make agriculture difficult. They
are mostly leached and have very few nutrients.
•The inhabitants of this region practise traditional and
semi-nomadic agriculture by felling the forest.
-They mostly grow tubers such as yam and
cassava (or manioc).
•On the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, Antilles and Guiana
it is quite typical the agriculture of plantation:
- It is mostly developed by international companies.
- It is based on monoculture crops, such as
sugar, coffee, rubber, tobacco...
- It is usually sold abroad.

17. This landscape varies according to the kind of tropical
climate.
•The wet tropical climate has a very similar
landscape to the equatorial climate.
•The dry tropical climate can have several kinds of
landscapes:
• The most important formation is the savannah:
 It is a grassland ecosystem characterised by
the trees being
sufficiently small or widely spaced so that the
canopy does not close.
They typical species are acacia and baobab.
 The open canopy allows sufficient light to
reach the ground to
support an unbroken herbaceous layer.
 They can grow up to 4 metres in the humid
season.
• Around the rivers grows the gallery forest
composed of species than need a
lot of water and that make a quite thick forest.
•Next to the desert areas the steppe is usual,
since there is very little water and that does
not let trees grow
•Tropical landscapes
•Rivers are slightly irregular with high
rises in flow during the humid season
and low water during the dry season. Major
tropical rivers are the Orinoco, the
Zambezi, and the upper course of the
Nile.
•Its fauna is really important since the
great mammals live in this kind of
landscape, such as the lion, cheetah,
elephant, giraffe, zebra, hyena,
rhinoceros, hippopotamus, antelope...
•Soils are not really rich either and that
makes agriculture difficult. It is mostly
unirrigated agriculture with several kinds
of crops.

18. • Monsoon Asian landscapes
•It is located in Southeast Asia (India,
Bangladesh, Burma, Indochina and southeast
China).
•This landscape is affected by the monsoon,
a kind of wind with two major
characteristics basing on the season:
o Winter monsoon. It is cold and dry
wind that blows from Central Asia
towards the Indian Ocean.
o Summer monsoon. It is a warm and
humid wind that blows from the
Indian Ocean towards Central Asia.
The vegetation is exposed to massive
summer rainfalls:
o Deciduous forest: Teak, shorea.
o Monsoon forest: Bamboo.
•Rivers have a large flow and their
level rises during the humid
season: Ganges, Brahmaputra,
Yangtze (Blue), Indus, Mekong.
•It is common to find a varied fauna,
such as elephant, tiger, panda,
snakes, or
spiders.
•Soils are quite rich due to the
rainfalls. Rice is its most common
crop. Tea is also appreciated.
•This landscape is overpopulated
between the Ganges and the
Yangtze.

19. • Desert landscapes
It is an extremely arid landscape due to the scarce
and irregular rainfalls.
•Vegetation is quite poor:
o Plants have thick prickles and deep roots to get
some water, such as cactus, esparto grass, or
palmetto.
o Around the oasis there is a wider range with
palm trees, fig trees, apricot trees or
pomegranate trees.
•Rivers are inexistent due to the lack of water. There
are just irregular streams when it rains, which are
called wadis. The only permanent waters are the
oases.
•There is little fauna which is adapted to the heat such
as camels, dromedaries, coyotes, foxes, lizards,
beetles, snakes or scorpions.
•There are three kinds of desert landscape:
o Sand desert (erg): It is composed of dunes
(hills of sand built by the wind).
o Stony desert (hamada): It is flat and composed
of stones.
o Rocky desert (reg): It is a vast extension of
land covered of rocks.

20. TEMPERATE CLIMATE LANDSCAPES
•Oceanic landscape
• The mild temperatures and the
abundant precipitation let have a
lot of vegetation:
• Oceanic deciduous forest: It
is mostly composed of high
trees such as oak, beech,
chestnut tree, elm or ash.
• Scrubland or moors: In the
areas where the oceanic forest
disappears it is common to
have bushes such as retama
or heather.
• Grasslands: It is common in
the plains and it is the basis of
the pastures.
• Rivers are quite regular due to the
rainfall. They do not have any rise
or low levels.
• Major rivers are the Rhine, Seine, Loire or
Thames.
• There is a wide variety of fauna composed
of foxes, boars, deer or bears.
• Soils are really fertile and help agriculture
and stockbreeding.
-It is a very industrial production in
these fields.
-The landscape has been strongly
modified by the exploitation of the soil.

21. • Mediterranean landscape
The Mediterranean landscape has its
vegetation adapted to the irregular rainfall
and to the severe and dry summers:
•Mediterranean forest: It has evergreen
trees with very deep roots to get water. The
mains species are the holm oak and the cork
oak inland and pine in coastal areas.
•Scrublands are typical in this landscape
due to the reduction of the extension of the
Mediterranean forest. The main formations
are:
 Maquis. It has high bushes like
strawberry tree, rock rose, salvia,
and mastic.
 Garrigue. It is composed of minor
bushes such as thyme, rosemary,
lavender, and retama.
 Steppe. When there is little water and
the other scrublands have disappeared it
is common to find palmetto, esparto
grass and asparagus.

22. • Rivers are quite irregular and have major rises
and low level periods.
- Most of them are quite short due to the fact
that their source is close to the sea.
- The main rivers are Ebro, Rhone, and Po.
• It has a quite varied fauna composed of rabbits,
foxes, deer, wolves, boars, squirrels, eagles,
vultures, and sparrows.
• Soils are quite poor, but in the valleys. There are
different kinds of agriculture:
- Unirrigated agriculture: It is the most
common agriculture, based on three typical
crops: wheat, vines, and olive tree.
- Irrigated agriculture: It is common in the
coastal plains and in other regions with
greenhouses. They usually grow vegetables,
legumes or fruits.
• Tourism has developed a lot in this landscape. It
is mostly based on sun and beaches.

23. • Continental landscape
• The northernmost continental
landscape is defined by the coniferous
forest (taiga):
- It has evergreen trees such as the
pine and fir.
- Some other trees are larch or birch.
• The southern continental landscape
is defined by two kinds of formations:
- The areas which are cooler and more
humid have large prairies, composed
of high grass, such in the American
Midwest.
- The areas which are warmer and
drier have steppes, composed of low
grass, like in East Europe or Central
Asia.

24. • Rivers have a large flow with
important rises in the level in spring
because of the thaw. They are
frozen in winter. Major rivers are
Volga, Danube or Missouri.
• Its fauna is adapted to the extreme
temperatures and it is mostly
composed by moose, reindeers,
bears, lynxes, wolves, otters,
marmots, ferrets, ravens and owls.
• Soils are really different according to
the region:
- Prairies are quite fertile and
make agriculture possible. It is
quite common
to have large plantations of corn
and wheat.
- Steppes and taiga are quite
barren and are almost uninhabited

25. COLD CLIMATE LANDSCAPES
• Polar landscape
• It is located above the Polar
circles.
• There is no vegetation owing
to the perpetual ice.
• There are not rivers either.
• Its fauna is adapted to the
extreme cold. There are
animals like penguins,
whales, polar bears, seals,
and walrus.
• In the Arctic and Antarctic
Oceans it is common to have
floating ice blocks called
icebergs that are fragments
which have detached from the
icefield that covers the whole
ocean.

26. • Antarctica is a continent completely
covered of snow and really thick ice
over the land called ice sheet.
- It is a completely uninhabited
continent. Only scientists have
settled there to study it.
• Border lands have a milder climate:
o Their vegetation appears after
the thaw and it is based on tundra,
which is composed of lichens and
moss.
o Their soils are quite infertile and
their surface is quite muddy after
the thaw, but it remains frozen in
lower strata. They are called
permafrost.

27. • Alpine landscape • This landscape is adapted to the severe
cold winters Vegetation is in tiers and
varies according to the altitude owing to the
difference of temperatures and humidity.
- In the lower levels the vegetation has
the same features of the region where the
mountains are.
- In middle levels deciduous forest is
common, alternating with some conifers.
- In the upper levels meadows and little
flowers are the only species that can grow
due to the fact that part of the year this
stratum is completely covered of snow.
• The fauna is composed of major birds such
as the condor, vulture or eagle and some
mammals such as the mountain goat and
chamois.
• Soils are not fertile due to the erosion.
• In developed countries it is common to
build ski resorts in this area.
• In hot areas (Africa, South America), these
regions are overpopulated owing to the
milder weather conditions.