...Gertrude Obeng Geology Geology and National Parks Final 11/27/2013 PART 1 Weathering is the gradual destruction of rock when it comes to certain surface donitions, it can occur with a physical process as well as chemically and of course living things can and will weather as well. The breakdown of minerals can and will vary from surface to surface and depending on the type of weathering that’s happening, it can either have a tiny effect over a long period of time or a major effect over a short and long period of time. It’s known to loosen and alter material and transform minerals and material into a whole different landform. Then we have erosion which is the breakdown and movement of a planet’s urface by the action of gravity, running water, waves, currents, ice and wind, this too also gradually wears away landforms. Which makes weathering and erosion completely two different things but also one in the same. The major importance of both weather and erosion when speaking about flat landforms is the fact that these two occurrences had probably created that flat landform. We are able to experience and have the pleasure of having mountains, slopes, and different shaped landforms because of weathering and erosion. National Parks like Nevada’s Great Basin are prime examples of what weathering and erosion can create over time. The basin is home to many landforms and mountains that have been narrowed and shaped by running water, different types of weathering like snow, hail...
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...Landforms Hydrologic Cycle The field of Hydrology is primarily concerned with how water falls from the atmosphere, to the Earth; rolls downhill via gravity eventually out to the ocean and then back up into the atmosphere starting all over again. Biological processes of animals and plants have evolved over millions of years to adapt to, and depend on, when the right amount of water is available (Lutgens & Tarbuck, 2014, p. 83). The hydrologic cycle goes through many processes; This continuous cycle of water releases up into the air, forms into a cloud, rains down to the Earth and then evaporates again, repeating this continuous process. Some amount of groundwater also releases back into the atmosphere through a process called transpiration which is evaporation of water from plants. The remaining water on the earth's surface is runoff, which finds its place in the lakes, streams and rivers, which eventually enters the oceans, starting the repetition of the hydrologic cycle. (Tallman, 2011). In Colorado, all of these concepts of the water cycle apply to the Colorado River Basin. Most of the storms that bring moisture into Colorado come from the Pacific Ocean and travel east through the atmosphere. Because of the altitude in the Rocky Mountains this moist air results in huge amounts of snow on the western slope. The Colorado River Basin is often called a snowmelt dominated system because this snow often sits in a deep snowpack until the spring when the temperature raises...
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...sequence of mountain ranges that form the western "backbone" of North America, Central America, South America and Antarctica. The Sierra runs 400 miles (640 km) north-to-south, and is approximately 70 miles (110 km) across east-to-west. Notable Sierra features include Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in North America; Mount Whitney at 14,505 ft (4,421 m),[1] the highest point in the contiguous United States; and Yosemite Valley sculpted by glaciers out of one-hundred-million-year-old granite. The Sierra is home to three national parks, twenty wilderness areas, and two national monuments. These areas include Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks; and Devils Postpile National Monument. The Sierra Nevada range is the highest mountain range in the contiguous United States. The character of the range is shaped by its geology and ecology. More than one hundred million years ago during the Nevadan orogeny, granite formed deep underground. The range started to uplift four M.A. (million years) ago, and erosion by glaciers exposed the granite and formed the light-colored mountains and cliffs that make up the range. The uplift caused a wide range of elevations and climates in the Sierra Nevada, which are reflected by the presence of five life zones. Uplift continues due to faulting caused by tectonic forces, creating spectacular fault block escarpments along the eastern edge of the southern...
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... • New Zealand’s climate is classified as Cbf (Fig. 2). • Most of the North Island lies on the Australia Plate, where as the South Island is on the Pacific Plate (Fig. 1). This, combined with active volcanoes, creates a hotbed for seismic and volcanic activity (CIA). • One quarter of the earthquakes have been below a 2.0 magnitude, but within the last year alone, New Zealand has seen 17,246 earthquakes with a majority ranging from 0-5 magnitudes (Geonet). (Fig. 2) Link: http://koeppen-geiger.vu-wien.ac.at/. Topography • New Zealand formed after the collision of the Australian and Pacific Plates (Fig. 1). • This Collision created an extremely undulated landmass. • The picture to the right, (Fig. 3) courtesy of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, shows the topography of New Zealand. o The green areas indicate a lower area, where as a yellow/tan color shows elevation. o Information for this image gathered through satellite sonar imaging (NASA)....
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...Ladies and gentleman we need your help. Today I want to talk about the facts, disperse the myths and highlight the many ways we can help save our planet. Our planet is slowly dying right beneath our feet. Our planet has risen 0.6 of a degree for the past ten years. The United Nations panel has predicted that the temperature will rise 3-10 degrees Fahrenheit by the century’s end. Yet we are still burning coal and oil the two of the world’s most top reasons why global warming is happening. If we do not do anything about it what we call as our today we will be saying was our planet yesterday. If global warming continues and temperatures continue to rise then it will be enough to have the polar caps all but melted. If this happens majority of Americas border will be under water including the famous city New York. Monuments and great building, as well as homes and lives will be lost forever, unless we all work together and take action to stop global warming today! I know we are all concerned about the effect global warming we can feel its affects on a daily basis. Yes we have heard it all before, but what can we do as individuals do to help save our planet? If everyone made some minor changes in their life than it we will have already started in saving our planet. Australia is particularly vulnerable to global warming environmentally and economically. We already live on the driest inhabited continent on earth. We are already experiencing more severe droughts in the bush, and...
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...coined the term to explain how carbon dioxide traps heat in the Earth's atmosphere. Today, scientists disagree on the effects of global warming while some deny the phenomena all together. Despite these arguments many historians point out the direct relationship between man and the environment, often referencing the American Dust Bowl of the 1930s, where large scale soil erosion reduced parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas to arid deserts. Currently, many governments and corporations are working to reduce fuel emissions and produce "Earth friendly" products such as hybrid cars. Yet, many scientists warn that global warming is an imminent and pressing problem that needs to be addressed before it becomes irreversible. (History of Global Warming, The New York Times, page 1) I would like to start with three opinions on global warming. “It’s complete nonsense. Global warming is just nonsense. I’m not seeing any destroying of planet Earth, I haven’t been seeing, and I do not think that...
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...Analysis and Impact of the Geologic Features In Iceland By: Tan Kai De Introduction Iceland is an island located in the middle of the North Atlantic and Arctic Ocean, and with a population of just over 300,000, it is the most sparsely populated country in Europe, with its people inhabiting a total land area of 103,000 square kilometers. To put that into perspective, the Netherlands is about two and a half times the area (nationsonline.org, 2015), but has nearly 60 times the population at nearly 17 million inhabitants (Countrymeters.info, 2015). This is despite the fact that the cultural history of the country can be dated back to about 800AD, and settlement occurred from 870-930AD. However, the true history of Iceland goes much beyond than that. Iceland has a rich geologic history that dates back thousands, if not millions of years, that makes it one of the most fascinating countries in the world. In this essay, we will explore the origins of Iceland from its formation to its current size, some of the unique features that Iceland has that most countries do not have, as well as a few significant geologic events in Iceland that have shaped Icelandic and even global events. Formation of Iceland Diagram 1 from classroomatsea.net Diagram 1 shows a general idea of how Iceland was formed. Iceland is situated in the centre of the Eurasian and the North American plate. The two plates move away from each other due to the magma undercurrents, due to the convection effect...
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...Jessemon Garcia Professor Rudolph English 102 13 December 2011 Warming Up Topic The issue of global warming has been front page news for over a decade from magazines, newspapers, journal articles, books and even local news channels. This has begun 20 years ago when a Global Warming treaty was signed at the United Nation Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992(Qtd. Harf p. 141). Global warming is the unusual rapid increase in the average temperature of the earth's atmosphere and is responsible for changes in global climate patterns. It occurs when greenhouse gasses including carbon dioxide, methane, black carbon, and other toxic gasses trap the heat and light from the sun in the earth's atmosphere, which increase the temperature. Some scientists agree that human consumption of the earth's natural resources and activities over the years had contributed to the earth's current state of being. However, opposing sides claim that there is no evidence to support this; rather it is just a bogus statement. They believe human action has nothing to do with the earth’s hot temperature. The controversy involves a disagreement over the fact, cause and consequences of the global warming. Both sides of the issue can find multiple experts to support their case that the earth is or is not warming, that global warming is either the consequences of human activities or a cyclical phenomenon and that global warming will be good for us or will bring tragedy. Global warming has created awareness...
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...coastline, with wildlife-rich savannah grasslands inland towards the capital. Nairobi has a cool climate that gets colder approaching Mount Kenya, which has three permanently snow-capped peaks. Further inland there is a warm and humid climate around Lake Victoria, and temperate forested and hilly areas in the western region. The northeastern regions along the border with Somalia and Ethiopia are arid and semi-arid areas with near-desert landscapes. Lake Victoria, the world's second largest fresh-water lake and the world's largest tropical lake, is situated to the southwest and is shared with Uganda and Tanzania. Kenya is famous for its safaris and diverse wildlife reserves and national parks such as the East and West Tsavo National Park, the Maasai Mara, Lake Nakuru National Park, and Aberdares National Park. There are several world heritage sites such as Lamu, and world renowned beaches such as Kilifi where international yachting competitions are held each year. The African Great Lakes region, of which Kenya is a part, has been inhabited by humans since the Lower Paleolithic period. The Bantu expansion reached the area from West-Central Africa by the first millennium AD, and the borders of the modern state comprise the crossroads of the Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan and Afro-Asiatic ethno-linguistic...
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...[pic] OSTRAVSKÁ UNIVERZITA Přírodovědecká fakulta Katedra sociální geografie a regionálního rozvoje Seminární práce Název: Jižní ostrov Nového Zélandu Do předmětu: Destinace cestovního ruchu – Asie a Oceánie (KSG/MCRAS) Vyučující: prof. RNDr. Vladimír Baar, CSc. RNDr. Vincenc Kopeček, Ph.D Autor: Martin Šmigala Obor a semestr studia: Politická a kulturní geografie, 5. semestr Datum odevzdání: 19. 12. 2014 Obsah 1 Lokalizační přepoklady 3 1.1 Poloha 3 1.2 Reliéf 3 1.3 Vodstvo 5 1.4 Klimatické podmínky 5 1.5 Fauna a flóra 5 1.6 Ochrana přírody 6 2 Kulturně municipiální předpoklady 7 3 Itinerář 9 3.1 1. den 9 3.2 2. den 9 3.3 3. den 10 3.4 4. den 11 3.5 5. den 11 3.6 6. den 12 3.7 7. den 13 3.8 8. den 14 3.9 9. den 14 3.10 10. den 15 3.11 11. den 16 3.12 12. den 17 4 Organizace garantující rozvoj cestovního ruchu 18 5 Bibliografie a internetové zdroje 18 Lokalizační přepoklady Nový Zéland je v současnosti jednou z nejpopulárnějších destinací cestovního ruchu. V roce 2013 navštívilo Nový Zéland více než 2,7 milionů zahraničních turistů, zejména z Austrálie, Velké Británie, USA, Číny a Německa.[1] Nový Zéland ve své propagaci cestovního ruchu umně využívá popularity filmové trilogie Pána prstenů, který se natáčel ve zdejších nádherných lokacích. Zavedl také značku 100% Pure New Zealand, která se stala hlavním logem novozélandského turismu. Odkazuje na nedotčenou, čistou přírodu...
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...BIO-FUELS With the rising need for development with sustenance, the importance of biofuels is rapidly creating a wave amongst the current manufacturers. Bio-fuel is presumed to be an innovative successor to the fast depleting non-renewable sources of energy. What is bio-fuel? A biofuel is a fuel that is produced through contemporary biological processes, such as agriculture and anaerobic digestion, rather than a fuel produced by geological processes such as those involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as coal and petroleum, from prehistoric biological matter. The history of bio-fuels dates back to several centuries and had been discovered as a primitive resource much prior to the discovery of electricity and fossil fuel. They...
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...Alaska Brand Audit Brand Inventory History Alaska has been a unique brand for many years. Originally known as Russian America because it was owned by Russia, the origin of the name Alaska is a misconception from the first Russian explorers to venture into Alaskan waters (the original Aleut word "alaxsxaq" literally meaning "object toward which the action of the sea is directed"[Alaska]). When the United States bought Alaska, even though the price was only two cents an acre, it was known for many years as “Seward’s Folly” or “Seward’s Icebox”, after William Seward, the Secretary of State who was primarily responsible for pushing the purchase from Russia through Congress. In the early days Alaska’s brand image was mostly negative. It was known as the “Frozen North”, the “land of ice and snow”, the “land without summer”. Many of these images are from the stories and poetry of Robert Service, Jack London and their contemporaries. A good example of this writing is the poem “Cremation of Sam McGee”— see appendix II, (Service). All these extreme brand images dominated perceptions of Alaska prior to the discovery of gold in the Klondike in the late 1800s. After gold was discovered these negative perceptions were softened somewhat, though they remained rather negative—in large part due to the difficulty of living in the far north. Our Brand Survey We did a brand audit of Alaska to see how well Alaska has worked past these harsh criticisms. To accomplish this we surveyed...
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...Unit 13- Adventure Tourism Task 1 Introduction Adventure travel is a type of tourism, involving exploration or travel with possibly risk, and potentially requiring specialized skills and physical exertion. Adventure tourism involves activities that are physically challenging. Adventure tourism is traveling that consists of having fun traveling to far distant or exotic destination for the purpose of exploration or engaging in a variety of challenging activities. Here are some examples of water-based, land-based and air based adventure tourism activities; bungee jumping, canoeing, caving and horse riding. In the 20th century rise in popularity of rambling, hiking and camping, a much wider cross-section of the public started to experience the great outdoor activities. Cannock Chase Cannock Chase District is located between Stafford and Birmingham and contains the district centres of Cannock, Hednesford and Rugeley, It is open all year. Cannock Chase Forest is separated by several roads. There are many activities which we can do in Cannock Chase, first of all the Birches Valley Forest Centre is an excellent starting point for an exhilarating day out on Cannock Chase. Cannock chase has the best bike trails in the Midlands, and the best woodland walks to have an adventurous experience and Go Ape. Visitor Centres in Cannock Chase http://www.visitcannockchase.co.uk/Do.htm Birches Valley Forest Centre Birches Valley Forest Centre is an exciting starting point in Cannock...
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...Natural environment From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other uses, see Environment. See also: Nature and Environment (biophysical) Land management policies have been developed to preserve the natural characteristics of Hopetoun Falls, Australia while allowing ample access for visitors Bachalpsee in the Swiss Alps; generally mountainous areas are less affected by human activity. A satellite image of the Sahara desert; the world's largest hot desert and third-largest desert after Antarctica and the Arctic The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species.[1] The concept of the natural environment can be distinguished by components: * Complete ecological units that function as natural systems without massive civilized human intervention, including all vegetation, microorganisms, soil, rocks, atmosphere, and natural phenomena that occur within their boundaries * Universal natural resources and physical phenomena that lack clear-cut boundaries, such as air, water, and climate, as well as energy, radiation, electric charge, and magnetism, not originating from civilized human activity The natural environment is contrasted with the built environment, which comprises the areas and components that are strongly influenced by humans belonging to a civilized (i.e. hierarchically structured, agricultural, densely populated...
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...center is to promote a creative learning atmosphere, seeking to reveal to the visitors the significance of cultural or historical heritage of the surrounding environment. The main objective is nature education. This is achieved by hosting tours of the land/sea-scape, informative classes and hands on interaction with the environment, in an effort to create awareness and promote biodiversity, conservation and ecotourism. Usually located within a protected open space, these “nature” centers often have trails through their property. Some centers are located within a state or city park, and some contain facilities where various plants are cultivated for exhibition. Their properties can be characterized as nature preserves and wildlife sanctuaries. They often have on display small live animals, such as reptiles, rodents, insects, or fish. They contain different types of museum exhibits and displays about natural history, or preserved mounted animals or nature dioramas. Nature interpretation centers are generally staffed by paid or volunteer naturalists and most offer...
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