Appendix M
Week Six Lab Report: Deserts
Answer the lab questions for this week and summarize the lab experience using this form.
|Full Name |Jessica Payne |
|Date |12/19/10 |
Carefully read pages 265-276 of Geoscience Laboratory.
Complete this week’s lab by filling in your responses to the questions from the Geoscience Laboratory. Select answers are provided for you in red font to assist you with your lab work. Although you are only required to respond to the questions in this worksheet, you are encouraged to answer others from the text on your own.
Lab Questions
15.4. Given principles 1–4 on page 265, explain the occurrence of the two contrasting climates illustrated in Figure 15.5.
Warm air and cold air.
15.8. Why are nights in arid lands surprisingly cold? Hint: Think of a feature of the atmosphere that holds daytime heat during the night.
Arid regions typically exhibit surprising differences in daytime/nighttime temperatures.
15.14. What is the prevailing wind direction indicated by the barchan dunes in Figure 15.14?
Answer: From west to east
15.16. Notice in Figure 15.14 that some of the dunes are not perfectly symmetrical like that shown in Figure 15.13. (A) Describe this asymmetry, and (B) try to explain it. Hint: Study the caption to Figure 15.13A.
A constant wind direction produces a dune that is symmetrical in plan view. The windward side is the gentler slope, and the leeward side is the steeper slope.
15.17. On page 278 of the Answer Page draw a topographic profile from coordinates F-6.7 to H.5-10 on the Lakeside quadrangle.
15.18. Which is the steeper side of this dune—the northwest side or the southeast side?
The northwest side.
15.19. Which kind of dune illustrated in Figure 15.15 do you believe you traversed with your topographic profile? Three