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Geography is the study of the location, extent, distribution, frequency and interaction of all significant elements of the human and physical environment on the Earth's surface, particularly its features and of the distribution of life on the earth, including human life and the effects of human activity. The word geography derives from the Greek γη (ge) or γαια (gaia) ("Earth") and γραφειν (graphein) ("to inscribe"). Physical geography focuses on Earth science (and is sometimes called Earth System Science). This provides an understanding of the physical, meteorological and ecological patterns of the Earth. Human geography includes economic, political and cultural geography and focuses on the social science or the non-physical aspects of the world. It examines how human beings adapt themselves to the land and how they impact the physical world. Geographers not only study the human and natural features of the Earth but also its place in the Solar System and the Universe and how this affects the Earth features (e.g. climate, sea currents and tides).

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Shaw and Crompton is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the Pennines, 2.3 miles (3.7 km) north of Oldham, 3.6 miles (5.8 km) southeast of Rochdale, and 8.7 miles (14 km) to the northeast of the city of Manchester. It is regularly referred to as Shaw.

Historically a part of Lancashire, Crompton (as it was originally known) and its surroundings have provided evidence of ancient British and Anglian activity in the area. During the Middle Ages, Crompton formed a small township of scattered woods, farmsteads, moorland, and swamp with a small and close community of families. The local lordship was weak or absent, and so Crompton failed to emerge as a manor with its own lord and court. Farming was the main industry of this broadly independent and self-supporting rural area, with locals supplementing their incomes by hand-loom woollen weaving in the domestic system. The introduction of textile manufacture during the Industrial Revolution initiated a process of rapid and unplanned urbanisation. By the late-19th century Crompton had emerged as a densely populated mill town.

Today, Shaw and Crompton, which covers 4.5 square miles (11.7 km²), is a predominantly residential area of mixed affluence with a population of 21,721. Its double name has been said to make it "distinctive, if not unique". The legacy of its industrial past can be seen in its six surviving cotton mills.

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Topographic map of Albania.

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Did you know...

...that sandstone layers (pictured) now exposed in the Canyons of the Escalante in Utah were deposited during the Mesozoic period, when the area was covered with sand dunes about 180 to 225 million years ago?
...that the Firth of Clyde is Great Britain's first seabird reserve?
...that Amsterdam has a concentric belt of canals around it?
...that the Karatoya River, a small stream in Rajshahi Division of Bangladesh, was once a large and sacred river?
...that Belgium's sillon industriel (steelmaking) was the first fully industrialized area in continental Europe?

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