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GENETIC & EVOLUTION
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EVOLUTION
GEOGRAPHY
THE SOLAR SYSTEM
The solar system is made up of the sun and everything that orbits around it, including planets, moons, asteroids, comets and meteoroids. The sun is by far the largest object in our solar system, containing 99.8 percent of the solar system's mass. It sheds most of the heat and light that makes life possible on Earth and possibly elsewhere. Planets orbit the sun in oval-shaped paths called ellipses, with the sun slightly off-center of each ellipse.
The solar system comprises of the sun and the 8 planets, approximately 170 natural planetary satellites (moons), and countless asteroids, meteorites, and comets.
Inner solar system
The four inner four planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars — are made up mostly of iron and rock. They are known as terrestrial or earthlike planets because of their similar size and composition. Earth has one natural satellite — the moon — and Mars has two moons — Deimos and Phobos
The outer planets — Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — are giant worlds with thick outer layers of gas.
EARTH’S MOVEMENT
The Earth Moves Two Ways
The earth moves two ways. It spins and it moves around the sun. The spinning of the earth is called rotation. It takes the earth abut 24 hours, or one day, to make one complete rotation. At the same time, the earth is moving around the sun. This is called a revolution. It takes a little over 365 days, or one year, for the earth to make one full revolution around the sun
What is Rotation?
A rotation is a circular movement of an object around a centre of rotation. If three-dimensional objects like earth, moon and other planets always rotate around an imaginary line, it is called a rotation axis. If the axis passes through the body’s centre of mass, the body is said to rotate upon itself or spin.
What is Revolution?
Revolution is often used as a synonym for rotation. However, in many fields like astronomy and its related subjects, revolution is referred to as an orbital revolution. It is used when one body moves around another, while rotation is used to mean the movement around the axis. For example, the Moon revolves around the Earth and the Earth revolves around the Sun.
Rotation of the Earth
The spinning of the Earth around its axis is called ‘rotation’. The axis has an angle of 2312∘ and is perpendicular to the plane of Earth’s orbit. Which means, Earth is tilted on its axis, and because of this tilt, the northern and southern hemispheres lean in a direction away from the Sun. The rotation of the Earth divides it into a lit-up half and a dark half, which gives rise to day and night.
Revolution of the Earth
The movement of the Earth around the Sun in a fixed path is called a revolution. The Earth revolves from west to east i.e, in the anticlockwise direction. The Earth completes one revolution around the Sun in one year or precisely in 365.242 days. The revolution speed of the earth is 30 km/s-1
LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE
Latitude and longitude are a system of lines used to describe the location of any place on Earth. Lines of latitude run in an east-west direction across Earth. Lines of longitude run in a north-south direction. Although these are only imaginary lines, they appear on maps and globes as if they actually existed
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EARTH’S STRUCTURE
STRUCTURE
e to day and night.
Crust: The crust is the thin outer later of the Earth where we live. The crust varies from around 5km thick (in the ocean floor) to around 70km thick (on land where we live called the continental crust). The continental crust is made up of rocks that consist primarily of silica and alumina called the "sial".
Mantle: The mantle is much thicker than the crust at almost 3000km deep. It's made up of slightly different silicate rocks with more magnesium and iron.
Tectonic plates : The tectonic plates are a combination of the crust and the outer mantle, also called the lithosphere. These plates move very slowly, around a couple of inches a year. Where the plates touch each other is called a fault. When the plates move and the boundaries bump up against each other it can cause an earthquake.
Outer Core : The Earth's outer core is made up of iron and nickel and is very hot (4400 to 5000+ degrees C). This is so hot that the iron and nickel metals are liquid! The outer core is very important to earth as it creates something called a magnetic field. The magnetic field the outer core creates goes way out in to space and makes a protective barrier around the earth that shields us from the sun's damaging solar wind.
Inner Core : The Earth's inner core is made up of iron and nickel, just like the outer core, however, the inner core is different. The inner core is so deep within the earth that it's under immense pressure. So much pressure that, even though it is so hot, it is solid. The inner core is the hottest part of the Earth, and, at over 5000 degrees C, is about as hot as the surface of the sun.
WEATHER AND CLIMATE
Weather involves air conditions that occur over a short time, while climate involves the average patterns of weather over a long period of time. Weather reflects short-term conditions of the atmosphere while climate is the average daily weather for an extended period of time at a certain location. ... Weather can change from minute-to-minute, hour-to-hour, day-to-day, and season-to-season. Climate, is the average of weather over time and space
BASIS FOR COMPARISON
WEATHER
CLIMATE
Meaning
Weather is day-to-day information of the changes in the atmospheric condition in any area.
Climate is statistical weather information that provides information about the average weather condition of a particular place over a long period.
Duration
The short term atmospheric condition of any place is the weather, which may vary by time-to-time.
The long term average weather atmospheric condition of a place or country is the climate.
Affected By
Weather is affected by temperature, pressure, humidity, cloudiness, wind, precipitation, rain, flooding, ice storms, etc.
The climate is the long term observations of the atmospheric conditions at any location like humidity, temperature, the sunshine, wind, etc.
It affects the
The weather may affect the day-to-day occupation, and it may hamper transportation services, agriculture, etc.
Climate significantly affects agriculture, industries, the livelihood of the peoples.
Changes observed
The changes in the weather condition can be observed very frequently.
The changes in climate take a longer time to change.
Studied by
Weather forecasting is observed by the Meteorological Department of any particular place, and the study is known as Meteorology.
The Climate Prediction Centre predicts climate and its study is known as Climatology.
NIGERIA
LOCATION AND SIZE.
Nigeria is located in Western Africa, and borders the Gulf of Guinea, between Benin on the west and Cameroon on the east. It has a compact area of 923,768 square kilometers (356,376 square miles). The country's land mass extends from the Gulf of Guinea in the south to the Sahel (the shore of the Sahara Desert) in the north. Comparatively, Nigeria is slightly more than twice the size of California, or the size of California, Nevada, and Arizona combined. Abuja, the capital city of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, replaced the former capital city, Lagos, in December 1991, because of its more central location, among other reasons. Lagos remains Nigeria's commercial capital. Other major Nigerian cities include Ibadan, Kaduna, Kano, Maid-uquri, Jos, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Calabar
POPULATION.
Accurate population counts for Nigeria are difficult to obtain because such figures are tied directly to representation in the National Assembly and distribution of national wealth; therefore, they are often skewed by groups vying for political or economic advantage. In the absence of an accurate census, it is impossible to determine how many people live in Nigeria beyond rough estimates. The population of Africa's largest country was estimated at 123,337,822 in 2000
Nigeria is a plural or multinational state, with 250 ethnic or nationality groups. The most populous and politically influential of the nationality groups include the Hausa-Fulani (29 percent) in the north, the Yoruba (21 percent) in the southwest, the Igbo (18 percent) in the southeast, and the Ijaw (10 percent) in the Niger Delta. This characteristic ethnic composition gives Nigeria a rich diversity in customs, languages, religious and cultural traditions. It also compounds Nigeria's political and economic problems. Although the people are primarily rural dwellers, Nigeria, like other post-colonial African countries, has been urbanizing rapidly.
PORTS: Ports provide facilities for exports and imports. The port in Lagos handles the majority of cargo flowing in and out of the country by ship; other important ports include Port Harcourt, Calabar, and the delta port complex of Warri, Sapele, Koko, and Alesa Eleme. In addition to these port complexes, 2 specialized tanker terminals at Bonny, near Port Harcourt, and Burutu, near Warri, handle crude oil exports.
NATURAL RESOURCES IN NIGERIA
The principal mineral resources include fossil fuels (petroleum, natural gas, coal, and lignite), metallic minerals (tin, columbite, iron, lead, zinc, gold), radioactive minerals (uranium, thorite, monazite, and zircon), and non-metallic minerals (limestone, marble, gravel, clay, shale, feldspar, etc.)
Mineral resources in Nigeria and their locations
Bitumen – Lagos, Edo, Ondo, Ogun. Coal – Ondo, Enugu.
Oil and gas – Akwa Ibom, Abia, Bayelsa, Edo, Delta, Ondo, Rivers, Imo.
Gold – Edo, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Ijesha, Oyo.
Iron ore – Benue, Anambra, Kogi State, Kwara, Delta State.
Lead and zinc – Ebonyi, Benue, Ogoja, Kano.
Salt – Akwa Ibom, Abia, Ebonyi, Cross River.
Tin – Jos, Bauchi.
AGRICULTURAL RESOURCES IN NIGERIA AND THEIR LOCATIONS
Agricultural resources are extremely important for the country’s economic purposes just like the mineral resources. They are not only used for export and trading like the mineral ones, but they also can be consumed directly by Nigerian people. Here is the list of the important agricultural resources in the country, and the states where you can find them:
Cocoa – Edo, Anambra, Imo, Kwara, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Oyo.
Coffee – Kwara, Bauchi, Osun.
Cotton – Katsina, Kano, Niger, Kwara, Sokoto.
Groundnut – Ebonyi, Katsina, Sokoto, Kano, Niger
. Kola nut – Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Kwara.
Oil palm – Akwa Ibom, Imo, Anambra, Ondo, Oyo, Aba.
Plantain – Ogun, Oyo, Osun.
Rubber – Delta, Cross River, Ogun, Edo.
Sugarcane – Sokoto.
Timber – Edo, Ogun, Ondo, Delta.
1. The original discovery of coal, the popular Nigerian mineral resource, is dated 1909. It was placed in Enugu. The explorers started discovering more coal at the ogubate mine in 1918. According to the research, Nigerian coal holds a high place among the best coals in the world, due to containing a low amount of sulphur and ash. This means the Nigerian coal is eco-friendly. Nigeria has about three billion tons of coal, which are preserved in seventeen fields, and there is about 600 tons of coal reserve.
2. The main source of the Nigerian economy is petroleum. This resource was originally discovered in Oloibiri, Bayelsa State, in 1959. Nowadays, the whole 2.5 million barrels of oil are produced daily, and there are 180 trillion cubic metres of gas reserve.
3. One of the mineral resources that have the highest demand in Nigeria is rock salt. Rock salt is a combination made of table salt, caustic soda, chlorine, hydrogen peroxide, and various other materials. There is currently 1.5 million tons of rock salt preserved in Nigeria. It is estimated that there are 10 million tons of lead/zinc in Nigeria. The states that produce this material are Enugu, Abuja, Cross Rivers, Cano, and others. The east-central part of Nigeria is the richest in lead/zinc – there is about 5 million tons of this resource. In 1979, the Nigerian national iron ore company was established. Nowadays, it is said that 3 billion tons of iron ore are available in the country. The supplies of this material are present in such states as Enugu, Abuja, Niger, and Kogi. The interesting fact is that there are two companies in Nigeria that produce steel. They do not function currently. One of them is situated in Aladja, Delta State, and the other one is located in Ajaokuta.
4. What about precious stones in Nigeria? Believe it or not, there are a lot of gemstones in the country nowadays, and Nigeria can be proud of them, as they are considered to be among the best in the world. The states where you most often can find the precious gemstones are Bauchi, Plateau, and Kaduna. The kinds of gemstones that can be found are ruby, emerald, sapphire, and various others.
5. Bitumen is a material which people often use in road constructing. In Nigeria, it was explored first in 1905. Bitumen is widely used for constructing roads in the following states: Ogun, Edo, Ondo, and Lagos. The reserves of bitumen in Nigeria are large – they are twice more than the existing reserves of crude oil. Of course, they are also widely exploited.
6. Gypsum is the resource which helps the Nigerians to produce the cement, chalk, and POP (plaster of Paris), to use them for building. Currently, there are about 1 billion of the gypsum supplies in Nigeria. The states that produce this material are Edo, Delta, Gombe, and Kogi, along with a few others.
7. The mineral resource called talc can be found in the states like Kogi, Oyo, Osun, and Niger, as well as a few others. The estimated amount of Nigerian talc deposits is 4 billion tons. The only existing Nigerian talc plant is RMRDC, which stands for Raw Materials Research Development Council.
8. The bentonite and barite are primary substitutes of the mud, which can be used for oil wells drilling. There are supposedly 700 million tons of bentonite in Nigeria, which can be found in the following states: Borno, Plateau, and Adamawa. On the other hand, the 7.5 million tons of barite can be found in Bauchi and Taraba states
GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS)
A geographic information system (GIS) is a computer system for capturing, storing, checking, and displaying data related to positions on Earth's surface. By relating seemingly unrelated data, GIS can help individuals and organizations better understand spatial patterns and relationships
What are the six components of GIS?
The six parts of a GIS are: hardware, software, data, methods, people, and network.
What is GIS and its types?
The two major types of GIS file formats are raster and vector. Raster formats are grids of cells or pixels. Raster formats are useful for storing GIS data that vary, such as elevation or satellite imagery. Vector formats are polygons that use points (called nodes) and lines.
USES OF GIS
Common uses of GIS include inventory and management of resources, crime mapping, establishing and monitoring routes, managing networks, monitoring and managing vehicles, managing properties, locating and targeting customers, locating properties that match specific criteria and managing agricultural crop data
BENEFITS OF GIS
The benefits of GIS generally fall into five basic categories:
Cost savings resulting from greater efficiency. ...
Better decision making. ...
Improved communication. ...
Better geographic information recordkeeping. ...
Managing geographically.
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