Trey Huneycutt Fall '25 World Geography Blog

Lab 10, Oceania Our final module for the semester was on Oceania, which includes Australia, the realms of the Pacific Islands, Polar regions of the Arctic and Antarctic.  This is the only world region not connected by land to another region. The region of Oceania is connected more by its isolation than by a shared physiography or human experience.  The region is dominated by Australia, not only by its size but also its economics and population.  Australia and New Zealand are culturally similar; however, their physical landscapes are quite different.  Australia's outback consists of extensive grassland that supports one of the world's largest sheep and cattle industries.  It is also home to the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef, that stretches over 1400 miles.  Australia is geographically stable, while New Zealand is on the boundary of the Australia and Pacific plates and is prone to both earthquakes and volcanoes.  The Pacific islands ...

Lab 9 East and SE Asia  EEZ and Piracy This week we discussed East and Southeast Asia.  This area contains the world's most populous country and the most populous metropolitan area.  This region has experienced internal disparities and has an ever-changing landscape.  These two regions share a common economic and political history.  Asia's largest river, the Yangtze, flows through central China and economic activity that surround the river accounts for one fifth of the country's GDP.  In 2003, the Chinese government built the Three Gorges Dam, and it is the world's largest hydroelectric power station.  This dam greatly changed the local landscape, displaced millions of people, and submerged an ancient city.  Humans settled the area at least 80,000 years ago, and around 10,000 years ago several cultural groups emerged during the New Stone Age.  Around 6500 BCE, humans along the Yangtze first domesticated rice.  Indonesia, Malaysia, and th...

Lab_8 India Dot Density Flooding   This week's discussion was on the geography of South Asia, the area made up of the countries of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh.  Most of the physical geography is the result of tectonic activity with the Inda Plate still pushing against the Eurasia Plate.  This collision resulted in the formation of the Himalaya Mountain Range and the two largest mountains in the world, Mount Everest and K2.  Even though K2 is the smaller of the two, it has fewer people successfully make it to the summit and has a death rate of 25%.  The lowland region is formed by the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra rivers where they provide the necessary water for agricultural irrigation and an abundance of fish.  These rivers have had significant environmental concerns, and the Ganges is ranked as the most polluted river in the world. The most important climatic feature of the region is the monsoon, which our lab covers the destruction of...