I generally don't limit my theme to a technical field, with words of specialized meaning "of that field". But since I did so last week, for fireworks words, let's do it again this week for words that have a geography meaning.

graticule – a network of fine lines as a measuring scale or to locate objects, as on an oscilloscope screen, or to facilitate re-scaling to another size. (Also, the crosshairs in a rifle scope.) geography: the latitude/longitude grid (would not be used for others, such as a street grid)

I asked the head shikari, "Anybody sight these scopes in? Graticules all checked?" And got a blank look. "You know," I said, "scopes have to be checked – atmospheric pressure, joggling around in jeeps, … that sort of thing. They get out of alignment."
– Robert Ruark, The Old Man's Boy Grows Older

Meridians and lines of latitude (parallels) form the global coordinate grid, or graticule.
– New Comparative World Atlas (Hammond)

Bonus word: shikari – a big-game hunter, or a guide for one

One more set of words about maps:

cartographer – a mapmaker

cartogram – a map showing statistical information graphically; e.g., countries are deliberately distorted so that the area of each is proportionate to its population.
. . .This cartogram of the US sizes each state to represent its number of electoral votes. (Coloring is used to show how each state voted, a choropleth.)

choropleth – a map using shading or color to show a trait; e.g., colors indicate altitude; or darker shading indicates more-dense population.
. . .This choropleth shows climate zones.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by wordcrafter:
One more set of words about maps:

cartographer – a mapmaker

Anyone interested in the origins of mapmaking should see:
The Map That Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology. by Simon Winchester (Paperback) , available via Amazon and others.

Processes that build up the earth can cause special features of the landscape. Illustrated here.

grabben – a rift valley; a lowered elongated block of the earth’s crust lying between geologic faults [German 'trench']
horst – a similar raised block [German 'heap']

… a series of odd cracks, fissures and grabens up to 7m deep. Most of those you see today were formed by earthquakes and dramatic fissuring and subsidence …
– Joe Bindloss, Paul Handing, Lonely Planet Iceland

orographic – relating to mountains; esp., associated with or induced by mountains: orographic rainfall

The north trades [winds] are moist when they reach the islands, but through orographic lifting, the air is relieved of most of its moisture as it passes over eastern Oahu's Koolau Mountains.
– Richard Sullivan, Driving and Discovering Oahu

quote:

Driving and Discovering Oahu

I doubt many people will be able to drive to discover Oahu. As it's an island, their cars might get a teensy bit wet on the way.

Perhaps the motorists were transported there, by oreads...

Take a look at Oahu's INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS

A glacier will grind down the rock beneath it and move the debris that results. Sometimes that debris is bulldozed into a large mass.

moraine – a mass of rocks and sediment carried down and deposited by a glacier
[French dialect morre ‘snout’]

The fires burned through a wild area called Dogtown Common, an expanse of swamp and glacial moraine that was once home to the local crazy and forgotten.
– Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm

We end our geography theme, today and tomorrow, with terms about the human relationship with the globe.

swidden – an area cleared for temporary cultivation by cutting and burning the vegetation

… the road wound gently through a tunnel of dense foliage … The forest here was unmolested by loggers and swidden agriculture. Insects shrieked in the bamboo groves, and clouds of yellow butterflies corkscrewed in our wake.
– Andrew Marshall, The Trouser People: A Story of Burma [etc.]

Political geographers classify countries' shapes as compact, fragmented, elongated or prorupt.

In a compact country such as France, no part of its border lies extremely farther from the center than others. Thus it can easily be knit together with roads and rail (assuming no impeding mountains, etc.) and, relative to its size, is unlikely to have major internal differences. For these reasons it tends to be politically cohesive.

A fragmented country, like Indonesia, is broken into pieces, impeding internal travel. An elongated country (Chile), long and narrow, is hard to travel and may well have major internal differences of climate, culture, or ethic regions. All these factors make cohesion difficult, though varied climates may help create a more-diversified economy.

A prorupt country is mostly compact but has a significant appendage, which is very apt to become politically isolated. Examples are Namibia and Afghanistan (corridors), and Thailand and Myanmar (peninsulas).

Wouldn't be complete if we omitted:

"Exclave" - Part of a state separated from the main body.

"Enclave' - Part of a state totally surrounded by another state.

"Perforated" - State which totally surrounds another.

******

In the vein of "prorupt" and talking of pieces of states, can there be such a thing as a "ruptured," "disrupted," or "interrupted" state? (Poland vanished for a while, no?)

Or even a "corrupt" state, I wonder?