physiography

physio- +‎ -graphy

physiography (countable and uncountable, plural physiographies)

1. (geography) The subfield of geography that studies physical patterns and processes of the Earth. It aims to understand the forces that produce and change rocks, oceans, weather, and global flora and fauna patterns.
   • 1914, School Science and Mathematics (volume 14, page 119)

     Questions that bewilder the globe student of seasons are easily answered by pupils who have been taught seasons by the globeless method, as the writer knows from experience with three classes, two in astronomy and one in physiography.

2. The descriptive part of a natural science as distinguished from the explanatory or theoretical part.

   mineral physiography

• geosystems, physical geography