Physical Geography: Relief, Climate, Water and Soils of Georgia
The Physical Geography domain tests whether you can explain Georgia's landforms, climate, rivers, lakes and soils as products of tectonic setting and of the country's position between the Black Sea and the Caucasus barrier. Questions usually ask you to link a feature to a cause rather than simply to name it.
Relief framework
- Georgia sits in the central segment of the Alpine–Himalayan belt, where the Arabian plate converges with Eurasia; compression built the Greater Caucasus fold-thrust belt in the north and the Lesser Caucasus in the south.
- The Greater Caucasus (Kavkasioni) carries the highest ground: Shkhara reaches about 5,193 m (some sources give 5,201 m). Cirques, trough valleys and small glaciers occur above roughly 3,000 m.
- The Lesser Caucasus includes the Meskheti and Trialeti ranges; the Javakheti plateau is volcanic, built of andesite–basalt lavas with cones such as Didi Abuli and Samsari.
- Between the two systems lie the Colchis Lowland (Rioni basin) in the west and the Kartli plain in the Mtkvari trough in the east.
- Karst is well developed in western Georgia; the Arabika massif contains Krubera (Voronya) Cave, the deepest known cave on Earth at more than 2,000 m.
Climate controls
Westerlies carry moisture from the Black Sea; the Greater Caucasus forces the air to rise, so western slopes are extremely wet - Mtirala receives roughly 4,000 mm a year - while the eastern interior lies in rain shadow with 400–600 mm. Altitude produces vertical zonation: subtropical lowland, forest belt, subalpine and alpine meadows, then nival zone. Javakheti is cold with long snow cover.
Drainage
Black Sea basin: Rioni, Enguri, Kodori, Bzipi, Chorokhi. Caspian basin: Mtkvari (Kura) and its tributary the Alazani. The Likhi (Surami) range separates them. Most lakes are volcanic or glacial in the south - Paravani (largest, about 37 km², at 2,073 m), Tabatskuri, Kartsakhi - while Paliastomi is a coastal lagoon near Poti.
Worked example
Question: explain why the Colchis Lowland is much wetter than the Kartli plain. Reasoning: both lie at similar latitude and low altitude, so those controls do not explain the difference; exposure does. Westerly air picks up moisture over the Black Sea, is forced to rise over the Likhi range and condenses, giving heavy orographic rain to Colchis. On the eastern side the sinking air warms and dries, so Kartli receives a fraction of that rainfall. Answer in two linked steps: moisture source, then orographic lifting and rain shadow.
Traps that cost marks
- Naming Elbrus as Georgia's highest peak - it lies in Russia.
- Placing the Mtkvari in the Black Sea basin or the Rioni in the Caspian basin.
- Confusing Lake Paravani with Armenia's Sevan.
- Describing eastern Georgia as humid subtropical; it is dry subtropical.