Glacier And Desert Research Paper
Deserts, Glaciers, and Climate
September 19, 2010
SCI/245
Deserts and Glaciers Deserts cover about one-third of the earth’s surface and have unique geologic features that cannot be found in more humid environments. The features found in deserts are mostly formed by wind and water erosion. Desserts are usually created because they are located in a dry region downwind of a mountain range caused by air losing its moisture as it passes over mountains, also known as a rain shadow. Rocks of different hardness and strength weather at different rates producing many of the unique shaped structures in found in the desert. There are many geological forms found in the desert, but here are a few of the unique ones. Arroyo is a dry gully, usually a small, narrow canyon with steep walls and flat, gravel floor. A butte is a narrow flat topped hill of resistant rock with very steep sides, which may have previously been a mesa. …show more content…
A mesa is a large, flat topped hill with cliffs with a resistant rock layer. A hoodoo has a column or pillar shape and this is caused by differential erosion on rocks of different hardness. Glaciers create landforms by erosion as well.
A glacier is a large body of ice that is formed on land from the compaction and recrystallization of snow. Glaciers move slowly downhill due to gravity. The erosion features of a glacier can be extremely large or extremely small. As a glacier moves, its scours away material underneath it pulling up rocks, this is the material that is embedded in the ice at the base of a glacier. Though there are many landforms caused by glaciers but here are a few, cirque, crevasse, erratic, a kettle. A cirque is a bowl shaped depression carved out of a mountain by an alpine glacier. A crevasse is a deep, vertical crack that develops in the upper portion of glacier ice. Erratic is a large boulder that a glacier deposits on a surface made of different rock. And a kettle is a shallow, bowl shaped depression formed when a large block of glacial ice breaks away from the main glacier and is buried beneath glacial till, then melts. If the depression fills with water then it is called a kettle lake.
Climate Global warming is the current term used for climate change, but it is not a new concept. The earth’s climate has changed many times throughout the life of our plane and will continue to change as earth exists. Just like the ages of different rocks and geological features on earth, scientists can also determine when climate changes have occurred by ice cores from arctic regions, tree rings, and ocean sediments. Changes in the orbit of the Earth around the sun, changes in how intense the sun is or was, and volcano eruptions that introduce particles and gas into the air are some of the many reasons that climate change can occur. Ice ages and when the earth warmed causing interglacial periods are examples of climate change throughout history. Earth has been in a warming period for the past 2000 years, though there was a “little ice age” that occurred from about 1500 to 1850 that caused the earth to cool by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit. The earth has started to warm at a faster since the beginning of the industrial age, which may be caused by the increase in greenhouse gasses produced by humans. Greenhouse gasses are gases in the earth’s atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that can come from a natural source such as volcanoes and ads to the cooling and warming of the earth. Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor are being trapped in the earth’s atmosphere and can be human made. With the mixture of natural and human made greenhouse gases the earth’s temperature is getting warmer, As a result of the warming, in the future we can expect further melting of glaciers which in turn will increase the sea level. When the sea level increases this also causes temperatures to warm which will cause more extreme weather events and greatly affect the coastal regions with land erosion and loss of land. The earth will change very drastically as a result of climate change. Deserts survive off of the little water they receive from rain or streams. If the earth warms too much in the desert, because it is already arid, this may cause the streams to dry quickly and provide little or no water to the desert.
DesertUSA (2010). Desert Environment and Geology. Retrieved September 19, 2010 from http://www.desertusa.com/Thingstodo/geo/geology.html
Slackpacker (2005). Glacial Formations. Retrieved September 19, 2010 from http://www.slackpacker.com/glacial.html
U.S. EPA (2010). Climate Change – Science. Retrieved September 19, 2010 from http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/pastcc.html
World Meteorological Organization (1977). Why Do Human-Made Greenhouse Gases Matter When Water Vapor Is the Most Potent Greenhouse Gas? Retrieved September 19, 2010 from http://www.gcrio.org/ipcc/qa/09.html
September 19, 2010
SCI/245
Deserts and Glaciers Deserts cover about one-third of the earth’s surface and have unique geologic features that cannot be found in more humid environments. The features found in deserts are mostly formed by wind and water erosion. Desserts are usually created because they are located in a dry region downwind of a mountain range caused by air losing its moisture as it passes over mountains, also known as a rain shadow. Rocks of different hardness and strength weather at different rates producing many of the unique shaped structures in found in the desert. There are many geological forms found in the desert, but here are a few of the unique ones. Arroyo is a dry gully, usually a small, narrow canyon with steep walls and flat, gravel floor. A butte is a narrow flat topped hill of resistant rock with very steep sides, which may have previously been a mesa. …show more content…
A mesa is a large, flat topped hill with cliffs with a resistant rock layer. A hoodoo has a column or pillar shape and this is caused by differential erosion on rocks of different hardness. Glaciers create landforms by erosion as well.
A glacier is a large body of ice that is formed on land from the compaction and recrystallization of snow. Glaciers move slowly downhill due to gravity. The erosion features of a glacier can be extremely large or extremely small. As a glacier moves, its scours away material underneath it pulling up rocks, this is the material that is embedded in the ice at the base of a glacier. Though there are many landforms caused by glaciers but here are a few, cirque, crevasse, erratic, a kettle. A cirque is a bowl shaped depression carved out of a mountain by an alpine glacier. A crevasse is a deep, vertical crack that develops in the upper portion of glacier ice. Erratic is a large boulder that a glacier deposits on a surface made of different rock. And a kettle is a shallow, bowl shaped depression formed when a large block of glacial ice breaks away from the main glacier and is buried beneath glacial till, then melts. If the depression fills with water then it is called a kettle lake.
Climate Global warming is the current term used for climate change, but it is not a new concept. The earth’s climate has changed many times throughout the life of our plane and will continue to change as earth exists. Just like the ages of different rocks and geological features on earth, scientists can also determine when climate changes have occurred by ice cores from arctic regions, tree rings, and ocean sediments. Changes in the orbit of the Earth around the sun, changes in how intense the sun is or was, and volcano eruptions that introduce particles and gas into the air are some of the many reasons that climate change can occur. Ice ages and when the earth warmed causing interglacial periods are examples of climate change throughout history. Earth has been in a warming period for the past 2000 years, though there was a “little ice age” that occurred from about 1500 to 1850 that caused the earth to cool by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit. The earth has started to warm at a faster since the beginning of the industrial age, which may be caused by the increase in greenhouse gasses produced by humans. Greenhouse gasses are gases in the earth’s atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas that can come from a natural source such as volcanoes and ads to the cooling and warming of the earth. Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor are being trapped in the earth’s atmosphere and can be human made. With the mixture of natural and human made greenhouse gases the earth’s temperature is getting warmer, As a result of the warming, in the future we can expect further melting of glaciers which in turn will increase the sea level. When the sea level increases this also causes temperatures to warm which will cause more extreme weather events and greatly affect the coastal regions with land erosion and loss of land. The earth will change very drastically as a result of climate change. Deserts survive off of the little water they receive from rain or streams. If the earth warms too much in the desert, because it is already arid, this may cause the streams to dry quickly and provide little or no water to the desert.
DesertUSA (2010). Desert Environment and Geology. Retrieved September 19, 2010 from http://www.desertusa.com/Thingstodo/geo/geology.html
Slackpacker (2005). Glacial Formations. Retrieved September 19, 2010 from http://www.slackpacker.com/glacial.html
U.S. EPA (2010). Climate Change – Science. Retrieved September 19, 2010 from http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/pastcc.html
World Meteorological Organization (1977). Why Do Human-Made Greenhouse Gases Matter When Water Vapor Is the Most Potent Greenhouse Gas? Retrieved September 19, 2010 from http://www.gcrio.org/ipcc/qa/09.html