Talk:Physical geography/Archive 1

Request for Feedback
Nice use of pictures to illustrate some of the fields. Can you continue that for the whole list? I would also like to see a discussion of when "physical geography" was used as an umbrella term for all of these fields; is it currently the mainstream term to indicate all these fields; and how it relates to the term "natural history." VisitorTalk 03:17, 30 August 2007 (UTC)

Physiography and inline citations
I added the tag about no inline citations so the article will be more clear where these terms come from. Along the same lines, I have found a couple of references that may help show an area of confusion with the term "physiography" (and may need the 'redirct' changed). For further information (and to see the references), please see Physiographic regions of the world. I would also appreciate any assistance on that article if anybody else cares to help. Thanks. wbfergus undefinedTalk 14:00, 20 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Physiography by all the definitions from a google search suggest that it's either a) synonymous with physical geography, b) a description of the land or c) geomorphology. The term doesn't seem to be widely used apart from in a geological sense when describing the partitions of the continent in to separate cratons etc. Ultimately it seems to me to be a left over from the days of regional geography and area studies, when one would publish the physiography of say Western Australia. On a personal note I'd say it was more akin to geomorphology (http://tapestry.usgs.gov/physiogr/physio.html calls physiographic regions geomorphic regions thus also implying the link).Hope that helps somewhat. 81.111.119.98 (talk) 15:53, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Overlap
The salinization image is overlapping the far right column of text under the literature section. Could this be corrected in any way?

Distinctiveness
How is physical geography distinct from Geoscience? I've always understood them to be synonyms.

Proginoskes (talk) 15:45, 15 May 2008 (UTC)


 * The distinction tends to be based on physical geography largely examining surface and above features and on a timescale usually going no further back than the Quaternary. Whereas, Geoscience is an umbrella term used to group physical geography and geology together. Although the distinction is somewhat arbitrary as many research just go where their interest are. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.154.168.156 (talk) 21:44, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

List of physical geographers
This list seems to contain a number of natural scientists, i'm not sure its correct to describe all of these as physical geographers. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Vokidks (talk • contribs) 15:01, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

this is a bad for now because its going to be a storm with lightning and a hurricane with a tornado and a sanami only at Brisbane and over the whole wide world too except........ —Preceding unsigned comment added by 123.211.17.20 (talk) 06:50, 11 October 2009 (UTC)

Three "subfields"?
What are the three "subfields"? The article on geography refers to two subsidiary fields. Unfree (talk) 04:50, 24 October 2009 (UTC)
 * The source says two - physical and human geography - which is also my understanding, so I've changed the text to two. Ghmyrtle (talk) 14:17, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

Unreliable source - Muslimheritage.com material
Content from Muslimheritage.com / FSTC is an unreliable source, as discussed on Reliable_sources/Noticeboard/Archive_18. None of its publications are peer-reviewed, and its authors often exhibit a strong bias and incomplete or flawed citation practices. The site has been used as a source in numerous science and history of science articles to make extraordinary claims about Islamic invention and discovery. I am working to remove these extraordinary claims where they stem directly and solely from a Muslimheritage.com reference. Many of these claims were added by a user who has a history of using flawed sources for extraordinary claims, as discussed on Requests_for_comment/Jagged_85. That page details numerous examples where claims from these sources contradict more reliable sources, on a scale which casts the entirety of the material originating from the site into doubt. If you would like to discuss this or any related removal with me, please leave a note on my talk page. Dialectric (talk) 12:41, 26 April 2010 (UTC)

Section on Russian Physical Geography
The section on russian physical geography (following the discussion of 18th and 19th century european colonialism) has a number of language problems. it may be a valuable contribution but needs careful editing for use by English language readers - also the following sections on W.M. Davis and Ratzel need work. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Pmchaffie (talk • contribs) 13:57, 14 June 2010 (UTC)

Geology is missing?
I noticed that Geology is not on the list of Sub-fields, Am I missing something?

I think this field deserve a paragraph here (Plates tectonics, earth structure, earthquakes etc). currently it's only referenced in the Palaeogeography section.

BTW, its also hardly mentioned in the Geography article.

Erez — Preceding unsigned comment added by Erez.o (talk • contribs) 08:17, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
 * After reading more about the two fields, I now understand that there is a clear distinction between them. I think this distinction would be more clear if we add it to the geography article. --Erez O (talk) 10:43, 27 December 2012 (UTC)
 * Frankly, the whole article is an unreadable, unreliable and unreferenced shambles. Ghmyrtle (talk) 11:56, 27 December 2012 (UTC)

Pedology
Pedology, also listed here as a broad division of physical geography, is definitely NOT a sub-branch or sub-field of physical geography. Rather, soil science is an independent science. See Friedrich Albert Fallou. ...intent on establishing the study of soils as an independent science, Fallou introduced the term pedology. That independence is evident in the fact that the International Union of Soil Sciences and the International Geographical Union are co-equal members of the International Science Council. Soil science classes are often taught in association with another department (agronomy, biology, geology, geography, engineering, environmental sciences) which naturally lead students to understand soil science at large as subsidiary in nature. It is not. I see several options available to reconcile the article with this fact. 1) Retitle the subsection from sub-branches to something more fitting such as collaborative disciplines, . 2) move the pedology paragraph to a new section titled something like collaborative disciplines, 3) remove pedology from this list of sub-branches, as well as this one of divisions. Edit: 4) Use the term soil geography to replace the term pedology, and rewrite the paragraph based on that phrase. -- Paleorthid (talk) 19:29, 20 November 2019 (UTC). Edited 00:36, 21 November 2019 (UTC)


 * My 2012 comment above still applies. However, there is obviously no one consistent or standard definition of "physical geography".  Many aspects of physical geography overlap with other disciplines.   Some sources and authors will include elements of soil science as an integral part of geographical study, while others will not.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 08:24, 21 November 2019 (UTC)

Meteorology doesn't belong on list
In one graphic, Climatology lies between Meteorology and Geography, with meteorology being outside the geography realm similar to biology and geology. Unlike the climatology article, the meteorology article _does not_ list it as subdiscipline of geography. -- Paleorthid (talk) 01:46, 21 November 2019 (UTC) Edited 01:59, 22 November 2019 (UTC)