Geography Final

Monday, November 18, 2024

8:39 AM

• Matanuska Glacier (valley)

  • Between 2 glaciers they erode and mix with the rocks and things around causing an ice stream

• Vatnajokull (ice cap)

  • In Iceland

• Formation of glaciers

  • Begins with snow

    • We lose more in summer than we gain in winter - this allows the glacier to form

    • Compacted snow is needed

    • Snow is recrystallized by melting and refreezing of ice in pore spaces

  • Firn

    • Granular, compacted snow

    • Not quite glacial ice

  • Glacial ice

    • Further compression and recrystallization

• Accumulation and ablation

  • Zone of Accumulation

    • The addition of snow

  • Zone of ablation

    • Loss of ice

      • Melting

      • Sublimation

      • Calving

  • Equilibrium line altitude

    • Altitude where accumulation = ablation

  • Glacier never moves upwards it always declines in altitude

• Glacial Ice

  • Flows like liquid but is able to crack like a solid

• Glacial movement

  • Brittle upper layers are studded with crevasses

  • The deeper you go the more the ice flows

• How do Glaciers move?

  • Glacial creep

    • Slow

    • Internal deformation of ice

  • Glacial sliding

    • Movement of the entire glacier over the rocks below

  • Glacial surge

    • Fast

    • Rapid movement as much as 1 meter/hour

    • Often last for more than a month

  • Basal sliding

    • Walsh and logan glaciers are good examples of this over time

    • Malaspina glacier is also well known

      • Melting in the middle for sure

• How thick can glaciers get?

  • Biggest is 15,700 feet (4800m)

  • This doesn’t happen so badly

• How do Glaciers Erode?

  • Plucking

    • Bedrock is broken off and frozen within a glacier

  • Abrasion

    • Rock debris carried by glaciers scrapes the bedrock below

    • Causes striations

    • Sediment in frozen ice

•  

• What types of sediment are associated with glaciers?

  • Glacial Sediment (also called drift)

    • Till: poorly sorted deposits, moved from ice directly on the bottom of the glacier

    • Outwash: meltwater carries sediment some distance and sorts them by particle size. Fluvial water. Well sorted. Melting water carries

• What erosional and depositional landforms are created by glaciers?

• What are the effects of thawing permafrost?

• Terms: till, outwash, erratics, terminal and recessional moraines, esker, kame, kettle, horn, cirques, aretes, tarns

• Characteristics of glacial landscapes

  • Hummocky topography

    • Small depressions

  • Lakes

    • Water-filled depressions

    • Kettle lakes, cirque lakes, moraine-dammed lakes

  • Erractics

    • Large boulders far from source

  • Linear ridge of glacial drift

    • Terminal Moraine: indicates the outer-most limit of glacier

    • Recessional Moraine: retreat stalls or minor readvancement

  • Drumlins

    • Smooth, steep, elliptical shaped mounds

    • Beneath glacial ice

    • Parallel to direction of movement

  • Depositional Features

    • Esker: under-glacial, stream channel

    • Kame: rounded hill of sediment

    • Kettles: steep, water filled depressions

• Erosional Features

  • Glacial Troughs

    • Mountain glacier fills river valley

    • Widens the valley bottom making a big U shaped valley

  • Truncated spurs

    • Really steep cliffs with blunt ended ridges. Caused by erosion of moving glaciers

  • Hanging Valley

    • Tributary valley sits higher than main valley floor

    • Mared by scenic waterfalls

  • Horn

    • Multiple cirques

    • Sleep and sharp

  • Cirques

    • Amphitheater-like landform; bowl-shaped, steep

  • Aretes

    • Razor sharp. Jagged

    • Forms when 2 large cirques interact

  • Rock Steps

    • Step-like profile form by differential resistance

  • Glacial Lakes

  • Tarns

    • Lakes dammed

  • Fjord

    • Narrow steep elongated ocean inlets

    • Area where glacial troughs inundated by seawater

  • Rock flour

    • Grounded up, fine grained

  • Moraines

    • Lateral moraines: ridges of debris located along both sides of a glacier

    • Medial Moraines: marked the bounder between two glaciers

      • These are places you can walk up because they don't mix

• Permafrost

  • Anything that is frozen for a year or more

  • Thawing is taking place

    • This is causing problems like:

      • Increased risk of infrastructure breaking

• Patterned ground

  • Rock and soil debris that is shaped and sorted so that they create designs

  • These designs include rings and polygons

• Glaciation and Landscapes

  • Before glaciation

    • Rounded peaks and ridges

    • Accumulation of snow at higher slopes

    • Downslope movement of ice under

      gravity

  • Glacial erosion occurs

  • Transforms source areas of glaciers

• o sediment reduction

• Old floodplains record the history of river incision

  • Terraces = old floodplains

• Minnesota had been getting wetter and wetter

• Drain tiles

• Lane's Balance

• Figuring out where sediment is coming from

  • Used a lot of tools

  • Set a budget

  • Made gages around the knickzone

  • Calculating erosion rates of bluffs

  • Aerial Lidar analysis

  • Mapping the river to see migration and widening

  • Sediment finger printing

• Pre-settlement: primarily near channel sources

• Soil erosion was the problem but the found out that the increase in streamflow was the biggest thing

• Stakeholder-engaged modeling to explore solutions

• Many Management options

  • Drain management

  • Ditch management

  • Wetland restored

  • Soil Organic Mater

  • Conservation tillage

  • Buffer strips

  • Cover Crops

• Temporary water storage leads to reduction in peak flows down streams which leads to a reduction in bluff erosion

  How do geologic structure, lithology, climate, and other factors influence fluvial erosion and drainage patterns?

  • Lithology: rocks have different hardness and resistance to weathering and erosion

  • Ridges and Valleys: erosion of synclines and anticlines produces a series of parallel ridges and valleys

• What types of drainage patterns form and why?

  • Influenced by structure and rock type

  • Radial

  • Annular

  • Rectangular

  • Dendritic

  • Trellis

• How do landscapes evolve as a result of rock uplift or subsidence?

  • Overtime changing

  • Tectonic uplift of area

  • Uplifted areas shaped by erosion

  • Most hills eroded away to from flat time periods

• What are floodplains and why is human development on floodplains problematic?

  • Humans don't adjust well as risk grows

  • Used for farming

• What are alluvial fans and deltas and how do they form?

  • Alluvial fans: fan shaped streams that empty from mountain valleys

    • Happens on land

  • Deltas: deposits where streams empty into oceans or lakes

    • Happen underwater

• Terms:

  • meandering river

    • Bends in sinuous channels

  • oxbow lakes

    • Cut off meanders from rivers

  • braided river

    • River with multiple channels separated by sand or gravel bars

  • Floodplain: flat low-lying ground bordering

    What are mass movements and why do they occur?

    • Downslides and landslides, they are caused by Gravity

      • Shear stress and perpendicular stress

  • What are the different types of mass movements and what differentiates them?

    • Nature of motion and the velocity of the motion determine what they are

    • Need relief to have mass wasting (relief is like the height)

  • What risks do mass movements pose to people?

    • Harming housing

    • Boulders moving at quick speeds

    • Danger to roads/highways

    • Causes earthquakes

  • Rivers aggrade or degrade depending on the factors considered in Lane’s Balance, adjusting to base level

  • Terms:

    • Angle of repose: a threshold angle on an inclined plain that if exceeded results in downslope movement of rock and soil

      • Different materials have different angles of repose

    • Frictional Strength: resistance of downhill motion

    • Cohesion: the tendency of slope material to stick together

    • Creep: slow almost imperceptible mass movements

    • Solifluction: soil freezes with wetting and rise, flow occurs mostly in cold high latitudes

    • Landslide

    • Rock Fall: Rocks break off and fall to base of slope/cliff

    • Debris Flows: fast moving mixture of sediment and water

    • Mudflows: debris flows of mostly muddy sediment

    • Earth Flows: slow moving flows of mostly fine grained or clay-rich soil

    • Failure/Slip Planes: planes of weakness that overlying material can move across

• What general shapes do hillslopes and rivers tend towards longitudinally?

  • Concave up?

• How do hillslopes and rivers adjust their slope to move sediment delivered from upslope?

  • Starting from the ridge: steeper and steeper

  • Further down: stays pretty constant

  • Further down: slope decreases

• What is represented in Lane’s Balance and how can it help predict if a river will aggrade or degrade?

  • The balance of water and slope(will aggrade)  vs the amount of sediment and grain size (will degrade)

• What determines the size (width and depth) of a river channel?

  • Small/common floods

• What are the processes by which rivers erode their bed and transport sediment?

  • Hydraulic action, Abrasion, Corrosion

• Terms:

  • Drainage divide: high area between watersheds

  • Watershed: a land area that collects and drains water to a common body of water

  • Sheet Flow: runoff from intense rain

  • Rills and Gullies: moving water and sediment

  • Rain splash: erosion moves sediment downslope

  • Graded stream: slope has been adjusted to an equilibrium (very predictable pattern to this)

  • Recurrence Interval: average time between floods of given magnitude

  • Hydraulic Action: water breaking away and moving rock material from valley floor and sides

  • Abrasion: erosion caused by moving sediment

  • Corrosion: Minerals and rocks dissolved by water

  • Bedload: particles moved on stream bottom

  • Suspended Load: clays and silts suspended in water

  • Dissolved Load: dissolved rock material

  • Transport Capacity: maximum load that can be carried (actual load may be less if supply is limited)

  • Competence: largest particle moved

  • Stream Power: indicator of ability to do work (increases with discharge and channel slope)

  • Base Level: the level below which a stream cannot erode

• What is a Biome?

  • A biome is the broadest justifiable subdivision of the plant and animal world, an assemblage of plants and animals

• What are the main factors influencing Biomes distribution?

  • Climate

    • Desert climates will have desert plants distributed

  • Terrain

    • A mountain could get in the way of it causing 2 different climates and biomes

  • Maritime effect/continentality

  • Latitude and Altitude

• What are the main Biomes, their characteristics, and spatial distribution?

  • Terrestrial Biomes

    • Moisture - how much or how little

    • Temperature - how hot or cold

    • Sunlight - amount, directness, intensity

    • Topography - slope steepness, aspect, elevation

    • Competition/Predation

    • Natural Disturbance (succession)

  • Tropical Rainforest

    • Ex the Amazon

    • Tall, closely spaced evergreen trees

    • Tropical climates (Af, Am, Aw)

    • Ultisols and Oxisols

  • Tropical Savanna

    • Transitional environment between rainforest and desert

    • Tropical grassland with widely spaced trees

    • Fire will deeply harm

    • Dominated by Aw

    • Ultisols

  • Desert Biome

    • Sparse vegetation

    • Few large animals

    • Arid and Semiarid (Bw and Bs)

    • Aridisols

  • Temperate Grassland Biome

    • Vast areas of Continental interiors

    • Inhabited by man predators and other grazing ANABLISS

    • Mollisols

  • Deciduous Forst B

    • Mild latitude with no cry season

    • Semiarid (Bs)

    • Mostly Alfisols ad Ultisols

  • Evergreen Forest Biome

    • West Coast with Abundant perception Alfisols and Ultisols

    • Cf

  • Mediterranean Scrub Biome

    • Widely spaced evergreen[

    • Dense, deciduous trees and dense shrugs with small leaves

  • Northern Coniferous

    • Boreal Forest

    • Needle-leaf trees and withstand periodic drought after freezing conditions

    • Df Dw

    • Spodosols and Gelisols

  • Tundra

    • Usually found in high latitudes or high elevation

    • Cold-tolerant vegetation

    • Polar and highland

    • Usually related with gleisoil

• NPP is vegetation growth on an annual scale

• How does evolution work?

  • The change in genetic material in an organism over many generations

  • Survival of the fittest

• What are the main evolution mechanisms?

  • Mutation

    • Caused by: Errors during cell division, mutagens,

    • Non-lethal mutations increase genetic variation

    • Non-favorable changes are less likely to be passed on

  • Genetic Drift - Bottleneck Effect

    • A change in genes due to chance

  • Genetic Drift - Founder Effect

    • A few individuals from a population start a new population with a different allele frequency than the original

  • Gene Flow

    • Changes from from movement from one place to another and the offspring end up in a new place

• Why do species that were “isolated” for a long time differentiate more from other species?

• Define Range, Habitat, and Niche.

  • Range

    • Spatial distribution - the area in which is occurs

  • Habitat

    • Where species live

  • Niche

    • The environment where species operate most efficiently (also includes the role they have in the ecosystem)

• What are Zoogeographic Realms?

  • Broad regions of the world in which animals tend to share common evolutionary origins

  • "Island effect"

• What are The differences between Native, Endemic, and Non-native species?

  • Native

    • A species that is within its known natural range and occurs naturally in the given area or habitat

  • Endemic

    • A species that is restricted to a geographical area and do not occur naturally in any other part of the world

  • Non-native

    • A species that exist where they have not naturally occurred. (Toxic, exotic)

• What are the problems that can arise from the introduction of “invasive” species?

  • Overtake the natural species

  • Disrupt the ecosystem

• How can decimating one species affect the whole food chain?

  • The bison slaughter

  • Loose energy source

  • How do photosynthesis and respiration affect the production of Biomass?

    • Biomass: the total living plant material in a given area

    • Photosynthesis

      • Limits: sunlight, Water supply, Soil nutrients

      • Put in CO2 and energy and produce sugars and oxygen

      • Energy is stored in biomass

    • Respiration

      • Opposite of photosynthesis

      • Put oxygen and sugar in and produce CO2 and energy

  • What Factors affect Net Primary Productivity (NPP)?

    • The amount of biomass produced by photosynthesis minus the biomass lost by respiration in a given year

    • Sunlight and water factor into how higher or low the NPP

  • What is the distribution of NPP in the world?

    • Places with better water access and sunlight have higher NPP while dry places with less sunlight have lower NPP

  • How does energy flow in ecosystems?

    • Autotrophs are primary producers that sustain the food chain

    • Food chain allows energy to flow and be used in the ecosystem

  • What are trophic levels, and how much energy is lost between each level?

    • A trophic level in a level of the food chain

    • 90% is lost between levels

  • How does ecological succession occur? What are the types of succession?

    •  Plant Succession: starts over rocks (predictable and orderly)

    • Secondary Succession: when vegetation is recovering from an impact

    • Aquatic Succession: glacial lakes are filled with sediment

  • Describe how biotic and abiotic factors influence the distribution of life on the planet.

    • Abiotic: not alive (Water, rocks, etc.)

      • Limiting factors:

        • Water availability

        • Temperature (tree lines)

        • Aspect (sunlight)

        • Soil Salinity

        • Species area limited geographically by their range of tolerance to local climate factors

    • Biotic: alive (birds, fish, animals, plants, etc.)

      • Limiting Factors

        • Competition: two or more organisms are trying to use the same resource and are harmed in the process

        • Amensalism: two species are associated and one is inhibited or destroyed

        • Predation: one organism eats another organism (one will die)

        • Mutualism: when two or more species have beneficial effects on each other

      • Mallard and Snail Kite

        • Snail kite is only in one region while the mallard is in a lot more areas

        • What is the soil classification system used in the US?

          • USDA Soil Taxonomy

          • World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is used most internationally

        • How are the soil orders in the Soil Taxonomy formed? What are their main characteristics, uses, and spatial distribution?

          • Aridisols (Common in Utah)

            • Climate

              • Dry (no matter average temp)

            • Characteristics

              • Can be developed in B horizon, commonly formed in Clay, calcium

            • Uses

              • Farmed only if irrigated, livestock grazing is common

          • Alfisols

            • Climate

              • Savannas in tropical and subtropical and scrublands in temperate climates

            • Characteristics

              • Marked by development in B horizon with clay accumulation

              • A horizon is relatively thin

              • Common in E horizon

              • Chemically Rich

            • Uses

              • In Wet regions they are used for farming

              • In dry regions, cattle and sheep grazing is common

          • Ultisols

            • Climate

              • Savannas and forests in tropical and subtropical climates

              • Wet and warm (more weathering occurs)

            • Characteristics

              • Almost the same as Alfisols

              •  this is Chemically Poor

            • Uses

              • Any agricultural endeavors if corrected by fertilizers

          • Oxisols

            • Climate

              • Under forests in tropical climates and subtropical climates

              • Hot and really wet

            • Characteristics

              • B horizon

              • Dominated by iron and aluminum (very red color)

              • A horizon is relatively thin

              • Chemically poor

            • Uses

              • Used for anything if corrected chemically

          • Mollisols (most important in Utah!)

            • Climate

              • Developed in grasslands in temperate climates

            • Characteristics

              • Thick, Humus-rich A horizon (really good soil)

              • Very fertile

            • Uses

              • Grain production

            • Utah

              • We live in this area of Utah because it gives us access to water and food, that is why all of the city parts of Utah are built on these soils

          • Spodosols

            • Climate

              • Forests and subarctic climates

            • Characteristics

              • B Horizon with Humus Iron and aluminum oxides

              • Sandy and Acidic

            • Uses

              • Silviculture (Planting forests)

          • Gelisols (Ice Soil)

            • Climate

              • Tundra and Arctic

            • Characteristics

              • Permafrost within 2 meters of the surface and presents signs of cryoturbation

              • Lots of carbon and methane that will release if it starts warming up

              • Could be a large tipping point

            • Uses

              • Great source of greenhouse gasses

          • Histosols

            • Climate

              • Wetlands all over the world

            • Characteristics

              • Dominated by organic matter

              • A horizons over and over

              • Sulfur

            • Uses

              • Once drained it can be used for agriculture

          • Vertisols

            • Climate

              • Where parent material is high activity clay

            • Characteristics

              • Present big cracks when dry and are very sticky when wet

            • Uses

              • Hard to build on top of

          • Andisols

            • Climate

              • Developed over Vulcanic ash

            • Characteristics

              • Weekly developed in B horizon

            • Uses

              • Intensive farming

          • Inceptisols

            • Climate

              • Young, in steep slopes

            • Characteristics

              • Weekly B horizon

              • Very shallow

            • Uses

              • Varies on the thickness of the A horizon

              • Not too much to do more with

          • Entisols

            • Climate

              • Very young, found in steep places

            • Characteristics

              • Dues

              • A horizon over C horizon

            • Uses

              • Vary depending on A horizon thickness

        • What are the main soil orders in Utah?

          • Aridisols and Mollisols

        Other Notes

        • Climate

          • Influence how fast weathering occurs

        • Vegetation

          • Also in fluences watering speed

          • Exerts a big influence by adding organic matter to the soil and controlling soil pH

• Proportion of sand silt and clay that make up mineral fraction in soil

• Classified by size

• Proportion of each is strongly related to the parent material and the amount of weathering that the material went through

• What are the Chemical and physical characteristics of each of the particles:

  • Clay: Smallest (Smaller than 0.002 mm)

  • Silt: Middle (0.05 - 0.002 mm)

  • Sand: Largest (2.0 - 0.05 mm)

• Describe the characteristics of Clay, Silty, and Sandy soils.

  • Sandy Soils

    • No charges, grains do not stick together

    • Does not produce soil structure - it is loose

    • Acidic and low in nutrients

    • Sands tend to produce soils with big pores; these soils have quick water drainage

    • To improve sandy soil properties you can add organic matter

  • Clay Soils

    • Have charges, grains tend to stick together

    • Produce soil structure

    • Bigger capacity to "hold" nutrients

    • Small pores; slow water drainage (can be good or bad because it will hold things well but can also cause flooding"

  • Silt Soils

    • Grains that are still being weathered

    • Release nutrients while being broken down

    • Chemically rich (fertile)

    • Good drainage

    • Not rich in charges

• What is soil structure? How is it formed?

  • How particles are grouped together into aggregates (also called peds). They are cemented or bound together by physical, chemical and biological processes

  • Physical-Chemical processes include

    • Poly valent cations bind together clay

    • Soil particles are pushed closer together by freezing and thawing, wetting and drying

  • Biological

    • Cemented together by humus and organic glues created by fungi and bacteria, and polymers and sugars

    • Fungal hyphae and fine roots stabilize aggregates

• Describe the characteristics of the most common soil structures:

  • Granular

    • Most common soil structure in soil layers especially those with organic matter

    • Most pore space of any structure

  • Blocky

    • Look like blocks

    • Mostly found in B horizons (should be deeper in the soil)

    • Develops as clay moves from A to B horizon (translocation)

    • Reduces water permeability, air movement and root penetration

  • Platy

    • Rare in natural soils

    • Flat

    • Form as a result of compaction (like people walking on the soil over and over again so nothing grows)

    • Hinder drainage and challenges root growth

  • Prismatic

    • Common in the B horizon of semiarid and arid soils

    • Seasonal drying and wetting separate blocks

    • Initially water flows rapidly along these prism but as the soil becomes wetter the prisms expand reducing water permeability and hindering air movement and root penetration

• What are the main factors that influence soil color?

  • Color is one of the most important physical characteristics

  • Main factors include:

    • Organic Matter Content: increased organic matter content can darken the soil

    • Mineral composition (parent material): soil color is influenced by the minerals it contains like how iron is red

    • Moisture content: soil color changes between well-drained and poorly-drained soils because of varying levels of oxygen

Other notes

• Most people believe that the perfect soil texture is 33.3% of each particle size this is called a clay loam

• Texture Triangle shows the class (in the middle of the 3 lines you make on it)

• You cannot change soil texture

• Soil Toposequence shows different levels of soil within the topography

Key Things to know:

• Why soils are important? What services does it provide?

  • CO2 goes and stays in the ground after a tree dies

  • This carbon comes out when the ground/forest is affected by human interaction

  • Only thing that doesn't really come from soil is oxygen and water (minerals and things needed are in there)

  • Flood regulation - water travels through soil

  • Soil is not dead things it is full of life

  • Infrastructure

  • Culture heritage

  • Civil engineers are concerned about the capacity of the soil in sustaining whatever they build on top of it

  • Geologists and agronomists and biologists also care about it

• How long does it take to form or lose one inch of soil?

  • 500-1,000 years to form

  • But when there is badly managed soil it can lose several inches in a single precipitation event

• What are the main components of the soil and their typical distribution?

  • 45% is mineral

  • 5% is organic matter (things that are or were living)

  • 25% water

  • 25% air

    • Roots need air to do stuff

• What is a soil profile?

  • A vertical section of the soil that depicts all its horizons

• What are soil horizons? Describe horizons O, A, E, B, C and R.

  • A soil horizon is a layer of parallel to the soil surface whose physical, chemical, and biological characteristics differ from the layers above and beneath

    • Organic (O and A) (A is the most important)

    • Top soil(E )

    • Subsoil (B)

    • Parent material ( C)

    • Bedrock (R)

• Describe how the CLORPT factors affect soil formation.

  • Soil = f(CL,O,R,P,T)

  • CLimate

    • An increase in temp tends to increase the reaction speed and weathering rate

  • Organisms

    • Worms and stuff mean the soil is good because they break down plant litter and animal wastes and remains which become organic matter

  • Relief (topography)

    • Influences mass movements and soil drainage

    • Ex. Very steep slopes

  • Parent Material

    • Soils are formed of different materials and that will influence the soil characteristics

  • Time

    • As time moves the soil will start to separate into these groups^

• Describe the how the four soil forming process work:

  • Addition

    • Organic matter, dust and other sediment are added

  • Depletion

    • Dissolved material, mineral and organic particles are depleted

  • Transformation

    • Organic matter transforms into humus, parent materials into clays, iron and aluminum oxides

    • This is the Time impact factor from CLORPT

  • Translocation

    • Mineral particles, humus, iron and aluminum oxides, and dissolved ions, are translocated by soil water or plants/animals (back and forth between the top and bottom of soil)

Other Notes

• Soil layers: organic (O and A), top soil(E ), subsoil (B), parent material (C), bedrock (R)

• Some soils fluctuate in the amount of organic matter within soil

• Water goes through sand very quickly because there are so many macropores

• A scientists who studies soil is a Pedologist

• Soil functions

• Cemeteries are usually higher up because the soil is dryer which makes it smell better than it would in wet soil

• Soil regimes

  • Soil develops under similar conditions present similar characteristics

• Important things to know:

  • Landscapes are made of landforms

  • Erosion is weathering + transport

  • Weathering occurs by physical and chemical processes, which dominates depends on temperature and precipitation

  • Chemical weathering processes rely mostly on the fact that water is acidic

  • Terms: landform, landscape, erosion, exfoliation, solution, hydrolysis, oxidation/reduction, chelation

• Landforms

  • Features of earth's topography distinguished and studied as a single unit

• Landscape

  • And aggregation of landforms

• Uplift vs erosion

  • Landscapes are a product of uplift vs erosion

  • Categories of erosion

    • Diffusive

    • Advective

    • Mass wasting

• Weathering is breakdown of rocks

  • Physical

    • Material strength vs stress applied really affect the mechanical breakage

  • Chemical (alteration)

    • Mineral stability vs water/acidic solns

• Positive feedback between the two

  • Positive feedback builds on itself

  • Negative feedback is where things start to decrease constantly

    • Reaches an equilibrium

  • Positive feedback alone leads to exponential growth and leads to negative consequences (tipping point)

• Where do physical and chemical weathering happen?

  • Physical happen in places with little precipitation and cold

  • Chemical happens where there is much precipitation and warmth

• Expansion/contraction of rocks

  • Sheeting or exfoliation

    • Starts due to confining stress being removed

    • Fxn of rocks geologic history

  • Thermal expansion/contraction

    • Solar insolation

    • A different way

  • Freeze/thaw (frost action)

  • Roots

• Chemical weathering processes

  • Waters at earth surface are slightly acidic

  • Carbon dioxide gas dissolves in water to form carbonic acid

  • Carbonic acid separates into bicarbonate and hydrogen ions

  • Relies upon acidic surface waters

  • Breaking of chemical bonds changing rock forming minerals

  • Solution and hydrolysis

    • Solution: acidic H2Odrives dissolution and leaching

    • Hydrolysis: turning rock forming minerals to clays

      • Breaks down into silicates and then clay minerals

      • Consumes CO2 and regulates the climate

  • Weathering and soils

    • All to of these things form soils which are important

• Main Ideas

  • Precipitation can be intercepted by plants, infiltrate into soils, or run over the surface. Water cycles through various stocks.

  • The amount of water on Earth is huge. The amount of usable water is small, relative to demand.

  • Infiltration and stream channel flow are complex, but well understood processes. Many non-linearities, but we have excellent predictive tools in hydrology.

  • Groundwater in the saturated zone is stored in aquifers, which humans are substantially over drafting...and they don’t recharge quickly.

  • Terms: hydrology, interception, infiltration, thalweg, discharge, hydrograph, vadose/unsaturated zone, phreatic/saturated zone/groundwater, confined/unconfined/perched aquifers

• Lecture notes (hydrology)

  • Hydrology: the science of water is concerned with origin, circulation, etc.

    • Key to understanding water issues and water quality

    • Many different branches within hydrology

  • Where water is:

    • 96.5% of water is in oceans

    • 1.7% is in glaciers

    • 1.7% ground water

    • .02 Lakes and Rivers

  • Global water budget

    • Stock and flux diagram - shows how numbers balance out throughout the environment

    • 70% of rainfall will evaporate and never reach a stream or river

    • Water infiltrates the soil - most places water can get down in the ground

    • Some water gets intercepted by vegetation, amount depends on plants

  • Interception

    • Plants get in the way of the rainfall (think of corn fields)

    • Cycle of how much interception we get due to plants growing cycles

  • Infiltration

    • High rainfall intensity

    • Dye pattern shows that there are multiple places where the water moves as a front due to less pressure to keep it

  • Water flow in stream channels

    • Flow driven by gravity

    • Steeper rivers mean faster flow

    • Depth also affects how fast a stream flows

    • Rocks trees and bends disrupt flow and slow it down

    • Stream moves fastest in the deepest part of the stream

  • Velocity

    • Water flows faster just below the surface and slower near the bottom due to friction

    • Water flows faster along the center of the channel and slower along the banks due to friction

    • High velocity zone is called the Thalweg

  • Discharge of a stream

    • Water volume passing a cross section of a channel within a certain amount of time

    • Average velocity X area of cross-section = discharge

  • Hydrograph

    • Stream discharges vary over time

    • Graph showing river discharge over time

    • Important for dam construction and flood control

  • Ground water

    • 25% of freshwater is ground water

    • Two zones in ground may hold water

      • Vadose zone

      • Saturated Zone

  • Saturated zone

    • Aquifers are fully or partially saturated zones

    • Upper part of zone is water table

  • Human use of groundwater

    • Pumping causes a cone of depression

    • May dry up wells if you go too deep

    • Too much pumping around coastlines may cause salt water to come instead

  • Salt lake valley's aquifers

    • Shallow unconfined and contaminated from uranium

    • Shattering rocks causes gaps for water to move more freely

• Stress in the lithosphere is a fault

• What produces an earthquake?

  • Stress is applied to a body of rock

  • Rocks deform while storing energy

  • Eventually stress becomes greater than the strength of rocks and breaks

  • Energy is released in the form of seismic waves

  • Waves radiate in all directions

• Terms

  • Focus: where the earthquake originates

  • Epicenter: the point directly above the focus on the earth's surface

  • Magnitude: number that measures energy released

    • magnitude is the same across the planet

  • Seismograph: used to detect and record earths motion

  • Intensity:

    • measures the amount of shaking that has occurred

    • Determined by human reporting and property damage

    • The amount of shaking decreases with increasing distance from the focus - attenuation

    • That amount of shaking increases with increasing distance because of loose sediment - amplification

• Tsunamis

  • "Tidal Wave" (but don't use that)

  • Tsunamis are caused by earthquakes underwater

  • Displaces water quicky causing a wave

• Earthquake Damage

  • Damage is not proportional to magnitude

  • Damage is proportional to population density and building environment

  • What causes the damage?

    • Shaking accounts for a fraction of damage

    • Things that come after cause most (fire, avalanches, landslides, mudslides, etc.)

• Subduction Zone Earthquakes

  • Mag 9 always produces large Tsunamis

• Landforms

  • Fault Scarp: exposed cliff-like face

  • Fault Plane: contact surface along which blocks move on either side of a fault

  • Fault Trace: Lower edge of a fault scarp

• olcanoes

  • Eruption of molten rock, ash, gasses etc.

  • Creates igneous rock

  • Process of creating new lithosphere

• Where do they occur?

  • Along plate boundaries

  • "hot spots"

• Volcano Life Cycle

  • Active Volcanoes

    • Has erupted before in recorded history

  • Dormant

    • Has not erupted in recorded history

    • Shows little sign of being worn down

  • Extinct

    • Has not erupted in recorded history

    • Long term weathering and erosion (starting to go be worn down so it won't erupt)

• Composite Volcanoes

  • AKA Stratovolcanoes

  • Explosive

  • Formed over subduction zones

  • Composed

  • Ex. Mt. Rainier!!!

  • Lahars

    • Viscous mudflow of debris and water

    • May be triggered by rapid snow melt or rain

    • Most composite volcanoes are covered in ice because they are so tall^

  • Pyroclastic Flows

    • Outburst of hot gas and flowing volcanic ash

    • Often accompanied by an explosive eruption

    • Can be really fast and hot

  • Predicting risks

    • Understanding precursors

    • Frequent earthquakes

    • Growing bulge due to rising magma chamber

    • Increased gas emissions

• Shield Volcano

  • Fluid basaltic, slow-silica magma produce quiet eruptions

  • Sheets

  • Broad gentle flowing flanks

  • Lava may be smooth and ropy or angular and blocky

  • Over hot spots

• Basalt Plateaus and Plains

  • Floods entire area

• Hot Spots

  • As lithospheric plate moves over a hot spot, a new volcano forms (Hawaii)

  • As the plate moves pas the hot spot a long chain of extinct volcanoes form

  • Cross sections of hot spots

    • Large plume of excess heat advected from the core and lower mantle

• Yellowstone Super-volcano

  • Volcanoes can become energy sources through geothermal energy

  • Yellowstone has enough to power the entire USA

  • Unpredictable ways of losing things in the environment

    • Geysers, animals, etc.

• Static or dynamic planet?

  • Pangaea

    • Super Continent a long time ago

  • Continental Drift

    • The breakup of Pangaea

  • Evidence of Pangaea comes from fossils

• Paleomagnetic Reversals

  • After WW2 many warships were still traveling the ocean with no purpose

  • Became science project

  • Started measuring the magentigy of the rock

  • Polarity changes

  • Minerals align themselves to the poles

  • Very predictable how they are facing and changing

• Pattern of Seismic activity

  • Volcanos and earthquakes

• Ocean Floor rocks

  • The ages show a trend in where things are older and younger

• Emergency of Plate Tectonics Theory

  • Mid-ocean ridges are areas of new seafloor

  • Seafloor Spreading

    • New rock forms in the mid-ocean ridges

    • As that rift opens and ocean forms

    • Old seafloor is destroyed as it gets deeper

  • Lithospheric plates

    • Large fragments of Earth's crust separated along ridges

  • Plate tectonics

    • Divided into 7 major plates across the Earth's surface

• Plate Motion

  • Driven by convection currents

    • Hot magma rises which pulls plate apart

    • At the opposite side of the plate, the cool ocean is pulling the plate behind it has it subducts

    • Loses buoyancy as it gets thicker - becomes more dense

    • Causes it to fall back into the mantel

  • Divergent, convergent, transform plates

• Divergent Plate Boundaries

  • Where things are being pulled apart

  • New crust is being brought up from the mantel

  • Most of western US has been divergent

  • Extension away from plate boundaries

• Convergent Plate Boundaries

  • Means that 2 plates are coming together and that is causing the oceanic plate to subduct the continental plate

  • Compressional forces results in plates colliding

  • Depending on the type of plates that collide, different land features will form (mount baker in WA!)

  • Happens in the PNW and Taiwan

  • Doesn't have to be continent-ocean, can happen ocean-ocean

    • Causes a chain of volcanic islands

  • Continent-continent happens occasionally as well

    • India and Asia

    • Can't sink because it's continental crust, so they just smash into each other and make large mountains

• Transform plate boundaries

  • Big fan?

  • Moves

  • San Andreas fault

• Past Environments - measurements

  • Strata

    •  Rock Layer or bed

    • Stratification

      • Layering of sedimentary rock

    • Stratigraphy

      • The orientation and layout of strata

  • Fossils

    • Interpreting fossils allows us to understand how they relate to other sedimentary rocks

  • Unconformity

    • Gap in the rock record (stratigraphy isn't constant all the time)

    • Contact between the eroded strata and the strata of resumed deposition

• Metamorphic rocks

  • Altered by varying degrees of heat and/or pressure

  • Could have started as igneous or sedimentary

  • Plate tectonics are connected to this

• Minerals

  • Naturally occurring solids

  • Characterized by

    • Hardness

      • Hard means that it is stronger, able to scratch other lower metals

    • Color

    • Luster

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

8:31 AM

• Elevation Profile of the Earth

  • Everything above sea level is affected by erosion

  • 2 different rocks sit on the earth that are on different depths in the liquid mantel

    • Think of an ice cube floating on the water

  • Less dense granite and more dense basalt is what the crust is made of

• Earth Layers: Core

  • Inner Core

    • Solid, made of iron and nickel

  • Outer Core:

    • Liquid, made of Iron and Nickel

• Mantel

  • Lower Mantel

    • Solid. Iron, Magnesium, Silicon

  • Upper Mantel

    • Solid-plastic-solid. Iron

• Moho

  • Layer Between crust and mantel

  • Makes it possible to measure the thickness of the crust

• Crust

  • Continental Crust

    • Almost all of the earth topography is made up of this continental crust

    • Low Density

    • Light Colored

    • Felsic

  • Oceanic Crust

    • Mafic

    • Dark Colored

    • Higher Density

• Evidence of Earth's Internal Structure

  • Seismic Waves (from earthquakes)

    • Surface waves

      • Travel along the surface

    • P-waves (primary)

      • Back and forth, compressional

      • Get bent as they travel

      • Travel through liquids and solids

      • Refracted as they pass through the outer core

    • S-waves (secondary)

      • Up and down, right angles

      • Travel through solids only

      • Absorbed as they travel through the outer core

  • Only the really way we know about the structure of the earth^

• Rock Types

  • Igneous Rock

    • Forms from cooling magma

    • "fresh" rocks

    • Intrusive vs Extrusive

      • Intrusive

        • Cooled beneath the surface

        • Cooled slowly; coarse grained

      • Extrusive

        • Cooled above the surface

        • Cooled quickly; fine grained

    • Felsic Vs Mafic

  • Sedimentary

    • Lithification of rock fragments

    • Most rocks are sedimentary

    • Clastic

      • Made from particles of other rocks

      • Conglomerate

        • Gravels, pebbles and sands

      • Sandstone

      • Shale

        • Fine grained muds and clays

    • Nonclastic

      • Formed from evaporation of chemical solution or from organic deposition

      • Limestone (CaCO3)

        • Marine shell fragments

      • Evaporites

        • Halite (salt)

        • Gypsum

        • Anhydrite

  • Metamorphic Rocks

• world?

  • 0 carbon plastics, fertilizer, steel, hydrogen, biofuels

  • Next gen Nuclear fission, fusion (possible but taking a long time to get there)

  • Long term grid-scale electricity storage

  • Improved electrical transmission

  • Pumped hydro

  • Geothermal Energy - transition oil and gas careers?

  • 0 carbon alternatives to palm oil

• Getting to 0 Emissions is the only meaningful goal that we need to aim for

  • Takes multiple factors to get there

    • Laws, regulations, taxes, etc.

• Major Rules Change - lots of attention recently

  • Putting price on carbon pollution

    • Wrap the cost of the environment into prices

    • Will cause producers and consumers to see the price and make more conscientious choices

• Problems need to be solved at the same time

• What is the economy?

  • Companies and people each other for things that we want (labor/goods)

  • GDP

    • Consumer spending

    • Investments

    • Government spending

  • Economy was designed to grow

    • There is more of everything when it grows

  • Many things within the economy are resources from the earth and waste being left behind

• Cell Phones

  • Use multiple things that will affect the environment

  • Throwing phones away end up piling up as toxic waste

• Growth in the Economy

  • % growth means that the economy will double every 23 years

  • This essentially  doubles the resources and waste

  • Energy use doubles in 23 years

  • GDP and energy are almost entirely connected

  • The only way to turn the Global Energy Consumption curve over is by de-coupling from a growth economy

  • Big world on a small planet is what we are currently living in right now

• Behavioral Changes

  • What can we do right now on our part individually

    • Vote

    • Reduce where possible - what you do matters

      • Your choices matter but don't let it

become crippling

• The stages of talking about it

  • Climate changes

  • We get scared ( lots of people say that others will take care of it

  • Share how it affects us

  • People feel empowered and that creates action

• Mental shortcuts called heuristics

  • We think we are rational and careful and capable of sound judgement

• Many things we do are intuitive, experimental emotional and energetically efficient.

  • Social Pressure

  • Emotions - be aware

  • Confirmation bias

  • Filter bubbles

  • Self-sorting

  • Media can tell you a lot of different id

    impacts

    • Damages nature

  • Extreme Events in Temperature

    • Longest heatwave days

    • More heat related deaths

    • People who are affected

      • Vulnerable Populations

        • Children elderly and economically disadvantaged people are at risk

        • Decreased access to AC

      • Outdoor workers

        • Anyone that works outside (construction, athletes, etc.)

        • Prolonged exposure to extreme heat

      • Health Disparities

        • People of color and low-income populations

        • Less greenery, higher urban heat

    • Affects ocean heat waves

      • Animals start to die off during these heat waves

  • Extreme Events in Precipitation

    • More energy in the system causes the system to work faster

    • Stronger precipitation causes

      • Flooding

      • Drowning

      • Poor water quality

      • Property damage

      • Breading grounds for disease insects

      • Soil erosion

      • Crop damage

    • Rio Grande flood

  • Extreme Events in Droughts

    • Megadrought

      • We are in one of the driest times ever in the southwest

    • Flash Droughts

      • Rapid onset of a drought

      • Like a flash flood but with drought

      • Low Precipitation

      • High Temp

      • Strong Winds

  • 3.3 to 3.6 billion people live in contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change

  • Sea Level Rise & Human Migration

    • Lots of people live in Low Elevation Coastal Zones (LECZ)

    • Sea Level Rise(SLR) is expected to displace people (happening faster than predicted)

    • Responses to SLR

      • Protection: building walls

      • Accommodation: change your house

      • Migration

    • How does that affect Utah? People are moving here from LECZ

  • Drought and increasing Aridity Threaten Water Resources

  • Pacific marine heatwaves have had coast wide impacts on ecosystems and fisheries

  • Wild fire patterns Pose Challenges for Southwest Residents and Ecosystems

    • Vegetation is becoming something else after fires happen

  • Climate Change reshapes demographics

  • Food and Fiber Productions are impacted

    • Food exportation bans are taking place to allow people to keep their people healthy

    • Prices go up

  • What Does it mean for Utah?

    • Warmer habitat and new diseases

    • West Nile Virus has started in Utah

  • Tipping Points

    • Methane will cause a positive feed back

   

   

   

  Where to find reliable data and info?

  • NASA, NOAA, NCAR UCAR, IPCC are all solid

  • Many reports on global warming

• Engineering and Scientific research is pretty much done in terms of helping the environment

  • We as humans are not good at dealing with long term global problems

• Global Energy Consumption

  • Solar panels and renewable energy hasn't caused oil gas and coal consumption to go down

  • We haven't really started to help fix things

• Two Major Pools of Carbon

  • The "Neutral" Biomass carbon cycle

    • Biogenic carbon

    • More gets released as temp goes up

    • Equilibrium over long periods of time

  • Carbon transfers from geological Reserves

    • Doesn't do anything until it is brought up from the ground and immediately burned, releasing carbon into the atmosphere

    • Needs to stay in the ground!

• Observations

  • Mountain glaciers

    • Average water balances show that glaciers are shrinking in the last 50 years

  • Sea ice is declining

  • Oceans have absorbed a lot of heat

    • Ocean heat has increased significantly, new record daily for years

  • Temp anomalies have become very warm and constant

  • Snow cover is declining in northern hemisphere

  • Rivers and lakes are warming

• Human caused warming is obvious and unprecedented

  • Global warming potential for Greenhouse gases

    • There are more strong gasses than CO2

    • Methane is important

    • Nitrous oxide

    • Fluorinated gases are more than 1000x stronger than CO2

  • Top emitters: fossil CO2

    • China, USA, EU27, India, Russia

    • USA is greatest per capita

  • Creation of Greenhouse gases

    • 73% of ghgs use is for energy

    • Domestic flights do the most in travel, then cars

    • Beef creates greenhouse gases - we use a lot

• The Future

  • We have the data, we just need to choose what to do with i

• st evidence of climate change

  • The rocks were out of place in 1815

  • When things are out of place you can see that something bigger is happening

• Paleoclimate variations

  • O18 and O16 ratios

    • You can go really far back in time to see

  • Paleo Dendrology

    • Tree rings!

    • Can go as far back as 13,000 years

    • Rings show if it was a wet or dry year

  • Utah is a wet period right now, will be dryer in years to come

• Climate Change over the years

• Natural Drivers of Climate Change

  • Volcanic Eruptions

    • Erupts and releases sulfur dioxide, leading to a higher atmospheric albedo, reflecting more sunlight that will temporarily cool the earth's surface

  • Solar Radiation

    • Variations in the sun's energy. Increased solar activity can lead to warming while decreased activity can lead to cooling

    • Doesn't matter long term!

  • Tectonic Activity

    • Movement of tectonic plates alters ocean and atmospheric circulation patterns

    • Impacts climate over long periods

  • Eccentricity, obliquity, and precession: The Milankovitch cycles

    • Milankovitch did it all by hand and found that these 3 things will impact it the most

    • Eccentricity: earths cycle around the sun changes every 100,000 years

    • Obliquity: the tilt in the axis changes over time every 41,000 years, changing the amount of sunlight coming to the earth. (when angle increases it becomes warmer)

    • Precession: the earth wobbles at the axis, caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and Sun. impacts seasonal contrasts

  • Natural Greenhouse Gas Concentrations

• Snowball earth stages

  • Lots of ice leads to more ice

  • Volcanic eruptions emit CO2 which will get the snowball effect to stop

  • Lasts millions of years

• Hot-house and the PETM

  • 2 trillion metric tons is needed to metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere to cause a hot-house

  • We as humans emit a billion a week

    • 50 Billion a year

• Glacial/interglacial Cycles

  • Not ice ages!

  • Sea level will go down as the water is being stored in glaciers

  • Temperature changes first, then CO2 comes

• Weather Vs Climate

  • Weather 

    • what happening in a short period of time

    • What you really get

  • Climate

    • what happens during a long period of time

    • What you expect

  • Climate accounts for average, frequency, intensity and more statistics of weather

  • Climate influences species distribution and economic activities

• Climatology

  • Typical Conditions

  • What you can expect at a certain location at some point in time

  • Climatologists use the Climatic Normal

    • The last 30 years of data which is used to predict the upcoming conditions

    • However this doesn't account for climate change, we have to use a future projection

• The Koppen Classification System

  • He was a botanist (works with plants)

  • Realized that plant distribution is highly correlated with climate conditions

• Main climate drivers

  • Latitude and Insolation

  • Air Masses

  • Location of high and low pressure zones

  • Ocean Currents

  • Topography

  • Land and water Distribution

• Tropical Climates

  • Trade winds are converging

  • Hot and humid

  • Around the equator

  • No dry season

• Dry Climate

  • Located

    • around 30 degrees N and S

    • Rain Shadows

    • Regions that are highly influenced by continentality

  • Utah is semiarid (BS)

• Mild Mid-Latitude Climate

  • Moderate winter temp

  • Between 25 and 45 degrees N&S

  • ITCZ moves up and down

• Severe Mid-Latitude Climate

  • Wet and very cold

  • Extreme winter temp

  • Between 45 and 64 N

  • Effected by continentality

  • Only in the north because there is no land in the south at this latitude

• Polar Climate

  • Dry and very cold

  • Less sunlight

  • High Albedo - lots of snow

  • Antarctic and Arctic Circles (over 65 N&S)

• Highland

  • Altitudes over 1500 M

  • Unclassified ??

• Air mass

  • Large bodies of air with a relatively homogeneous character of temp and humidity

  • Moisture Content:

    • m: Marine (wet)

    • c: Continental (dry)

  • Temperature:

  • A: Arctic – Very cold and often dry, originating from the poles.

  • P: Polar – Cold, but not as cold as the Arctic, originating from areas like Canada or Russia.

  • T: Tropical – Warm and usually moist, found near the equator or in tropical regions

• Convergence

  • When similar air masses converge they are forced to rise

• Frontal Lifting

  • When warm air and cold air collide, cold air lifts the warmer air which forms clouds

• Orographic Precipitation

  • Air is coming from the water, hitting the mountains and moving up

  • This causes expansion and cooling, causing condensation (reaching dew point)

  • Opposite happens on other side of the mountain

  • This causes a precipitation shadow

• Convectional Precipitation

  • Surface heating causes warm air parcels to rise fast and form clouds

  • Often grow into thunderstorms

• Tornados

  • Extreme low pressure vortices that descend from powerful thunderstorms

• Low Latitude Tropical Storms

  • Hurricanes are tropical cyclones and are typhoons

  • Conditions for Hurricanes

    • Over warm water greater than 79.7 degrees F or 26.5 C

    • Initial disturbance (storm forming)

    • Sufficient Coriolis forces

    • Weak upper air winds (strong flow destroys formation)

  • Stages of Hurricanes (based on wind speed)

    • Unorganized Thunderstorms

    • Cyclonic Circulation (caused by Coriolis effect)

    • Spiral Bands

    • Tropical Depression

    • Tropical Storm

    • Hurricane

  • In the eye of the hurricane there is high pressure, no precipitation

  • Hurricanes stop when they run out of warm water

    • This happens quickly when it reaches land

• Storm Surge

  • Wind drives it (hurricanes are a big cause)

  • This is the abnormal amount of water rise

  • This is the most dangerous part of the hurrciane

• Water Distribution

  • There are lots of places with moving water

  • 2.8 of water is freshwater

  • 2.15% of that water is glaciers

  • Very little of this is actually available to humans to use

• Physical properties of water

  • Water is absorbing or releasing energy all the time

  • Latent Heat is when water changes from one phase to another

  • Sensible heat is the heat that will move from one to the other

  • Atmospheric pressure - latent heat

• Relative Humidity

  • Relative to the temperature

  • The amount of vapor present that is expressed as a percentage showing the amount needed for saturation at the same temp

  • Warmer air can hold more water

  • When temp rises

    • When temp changes the capacity increases

    • Quantity of water vapor is not effected directly

    • As temp increases the capacity grows exponentially

    • 7% increase for every degree

    • Air wants the water, the hotter it is the more it wants

    • Every degree does matter

  • When temp decreases

    • Capacity decreases

    • When the amount of water vapor goes over the capacity it will condense and rain until it is at 100%

    • Condensation is the conversion of a vapor or gas to a liquid

      • Like the soda can or car window, the water appears of the outside because it is colder on the surface

• Dew Point

  • The temp where water begins to condense and dew can form

  • Always lower than the temp you are at right now

  • On a dew point graph it will be where the temp and relative humidity cross

  • When the dew point is significantly lower than the air temp, the air will be dry and comfortable

• Evapotranspiration (ET)

  • The process by which water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation from soil, other surfaces, and transpiration by plants

  • Potential Evapotranspiration (PET)

• Cloud formation

  • 2 Necessary conditions

    • Air must be saturated

    • There needs to be a large quantity of small airborne  particles called cloud condensation nuclei

• Surface Water Balance

  • When do you need the water and how does PET play a role

  • Years are not consistent

• Ocean Layers

  • Mixed Layer: about 75m in depth

  • Thermocline: below mixed to 1000m

  • Deep-ocean Layer: below 1000m

• Ocean energy

  • How much does it hold?

    • The top 10m of the ocean has as much mass as the entire atmosphere

    • Mixed layer is 30x greater than the atmosphere

    • The whole is about 1000x greater than the atmosphere

    • Ocean Albedo is about 0.3 (70% of the energy from the sun is absorbed)

  • How much does it move?

    • Up to about 18degrees north, most of the heat is transported by the ocean

    • The wind drives the ocean's surface current (this is the main driver)

      • The friction of the wind blowing above the ocean

    • Currents don't move in straight lines

    • Other drivers of surface ocean currents

      • Earth's rotation

      • Position of landforms

      • Density differences in water masses

• Coriolis Effect (again)

  • Causes an Ekman Spiral

    • Water level is lower at the equator

    • More Chlorophyll makes a more productive area

    • Dry air comes from the poles (California and Peru are dry)

  • Upwelling is where the water comes up (away from the equator)

    • Upwelling is important because it brings cold nutrient rich water to the surface allowing growth, it supports population of sea life, and influences the climate and economy of coastal regions

  • When wind is going towards the land you have downwelling

  • When wind is going away from the land you have upwelling

• Deep Ocean

  • Water Density controls deep ocean circulation

    • Density is controlled by temperature and salinity

    • This is also known as Thermohaline Circulation

    • Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is the path this takes (AMOC)

    • Melting glaciers from Greenland bring in freshwater which causes problems in AMOC

      • If AMOC stops, then everything will get colder and energy will stop moving. The North will get cooler

• El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO)

  • A recurring climate pattern involving changes in the temperature of waters in the central and eastern tropical pacific

    • El Nino is every 2-7 years

    • Every time it changes it will have a big impact all around

    • El Niño refers to the above-average sea-surface temperatures that periodically develop across the east-central equatorial Pacific, while La Niña refers to the periodic cooling of sea-surface temperatures across the same region

  • The Walker Cell

    • Normally the convection system is towards Australia

    • During El Nino it will be in the middle of  the ocean

    • El Nina makes it closer to Australia than normal

  • A microcosm to study heat transfer

    • Using a pan to explain

      • Heats up in the middle, goes up, cools down and comes back down

      • This is like the earth - the equator is being heated up and then the gases are pushed around as they cool off

    • Surplus heat moves towards the poles

    • Heat moves from higher energy to lower energy

    • Rotation causes Trade winds

      • Wind from the north and south is going towards the equator (slightly to the right cause of Coriolis effect)

      • Trade winds are consistent and useful for navigation

      • ITCZ (intertropical convergence zone)

        • When 2 areas of trade winds meet up

        • Low pressure zones

        • Cloud formation and precipitation

      • Tropical High

        • High pressure, stable weather, dry

      • General Atmospheric Circulation

        • Hadley Cell - up at the equator, wet

        • Ferrel Cell - dry at 30 degrees then wet when meeting ->

        • Polar Cell - wet then dry

        • Every 30 degrees it will change from wet to dry (you can see this on the map)

      • ITCZ moves with the sun (between 23 degrees)

        • As the solar heating changes, the ITCZ will move up and down along the earth throughout the year

        • Everything with it moves

        • Very wet!

    • Semi-permanent Pressure Cells

      • They are always around the same place

      • Control temperature and precipitation in those areas

      • Seasonal Variations

        • Move a little between seasons

      • Jet Streams

        • Fast flowing narrow air currents

        • Near the altitude of the tropopause

        • Like fast tubes of wind

        • Always moving west to east

        • Wiggling is called Rossby Waves

        • Warm pushing north, cold pushing south

        • Jet streams steer storms and weather patterns

        • The jet streams are starting to slow down, causing the wiggling to increase, creating unstable weather

          • These are the heat waves and cold waves

    • Monsoons

      • Caused by differential heating of the land and ocean and changes in wind patterns

      • Local circulation patterns

    • Diffusion

      • Heat emanates from the hot pot

        • Much slower process of moving heat

        • That causes convection currents to start

    • Tremendous amounts of heat that can't leave quick enough

      • Causes hurricanes and big storms

ertical Air Movement

• Adiabatic Process is where no heat is exchanged between the system and its surroundings

• Air is a poor conductor of energy

• Vertical air movement is a fight between gravity and buoyancy

• The adiabatic lapse rate

  • As air moves up it decompresses and cools down

  • As air moves down it compresses and warms up

  • The average Adiabatic Lapse Rate of the troposphere is 6.4 C/ 100 m

• Environmental Lapse Rate (ELR)

  • Local lapse rate

  • If it is cooler it will move down

  • High pressure system (air is coming on top of you)

• The Dry Adiabatic Lapse Rate (DALR)

  • Lapse rate of a dry air parcel

  • Unstable air - like a windy cloudy day

  • Low pressure system

  • If air is warmer than the surrounding air, it will move up (causes the creation of clouds)

• Temperature inversion and air pollution

  • Temperature inversion

    • Where the usual temperature gradient in the atmosphere is reversed

    • Where it will be warmer as you move up

    • Inversions are natural

    • Calm winds come when there is high pressure

  • Air Pollution

    • Cars and Cows

• Continentality and maritime

  • Water absorbs and emits heat slowly

  • Specific Heat is the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of a substance by 1 degree Celsius

    • Specific heat of water is 1 calorie

    • Specific heat of sand is .2 calories (can get warm fast but also loose it's heat very fast)

      • That's why deserts get real hot and real cold

      • There is no water^

  • The ocean in the northern hemisphere is hottest in august and September, which increases the chances of hurricanes

• Horizontal Distribution of Temperature

  • Northern gets warmer and cooler because there is more land

• Air pressure

  • How do we measure it?

    • Barometers has the mercury go up because of the air pressure around

  • Air movement comes from areas of high pressure towards low pressure

  • Coriolis Effect

    • The closer to the equator the faster things are moving (air especially) because they are covering more distance

    • You are slowing down as you move north or south

    • Low pressure always moves counter clockwise in the northern hemisphere but clockwise in the southern hemisphere

    • High pressure moves clockwise in the northern and counterclockwise in the southern

    • The Coriolis effect makes things spin

    • Lower pressure is moving in and up

    • High pressure is moving down and out

• Local winds

  • Costal breeze

  • Mountain breeze

    • Lower part of valley warms up faster than mountains, winds go up the canyon

    • At night it reverses

  • In high elevation temp changes faster

• 3 different parts

  • Function

  • Temperature

  • Composition

• Temperature Layers are seen more often

• We all live below the Tropopause

• Atmospheric Composition

  • Constant Configuration

    • 99% of the atmosphere is made up of Nitrogen and Oxygen

  • Variable Configuration

    • These are the ones we can "mess with"

    • Values are unstable over time

  • We are made of air and use all these same values

  • Aerosols are like dust, they are other solid or liquid particles in the air or another gas

    • The Dusty Bowl - drought period caused a problem that affected over half of the USA

  • Oxygen entering the atmosphere

    • Photosynthesis started 2.5 billion years ago

  • Variable Gases

    • Ozone

      • Stratospheric (good): Protects the earth from harmful radiation (the ozone layer)

      • The Ozone Hole: Starting in 1979 a hole started in the ozone layer because of canned sprays and stuff

        • Chlorofluorocarbons limits were put in place to cause things to get better

    • Carbon Dioxide

      • Every year we hit a new high in amount of CO2 in the atmosphere

  • Atmospheric Temperature

    • Controlled by radiation and gases

    • In troposphere the lower you are the warmer you are because the heating comes from the ground, which is warmed by the suns radiation

    • In the ozone layer the temp rises

    • In the mesosphere it goes back down

    • Ionosphere has interactions w x-rays and gamma rays which gets it really hot

    • Lapse rate is the rate at which temperature changes with elevation

    • Environmental Lapse rate

      • Actual observed rate of temp

    • Atmospheric Protection - the ozone layer

  • Air Pressure

    • More on top is more pressure

    • Less on top is less pressure

    • The lower you are on the earth the more gas you have on top so there is more pressure

    • The higher you go the less dense it is

  • Troposphere is thicker towards the equator

    • Thicker during the summer than during winter

  • The Layers:

    • Troposphere is where all of life happens

    • Stratosphere is where the ozone layer is

    • Mesosphere gets cold but that's about it

    • Thermosphere gives the auroras

  • The Sun

    • Solar energy comes from fusion

    • Lots of energy comes from the sun and it allows everything to work on the earth

    • Drives atmospheric circulation (weather)

  • Revolution and Rotation

    • Revolution is earth going around the sun

    • Rotation is the earth spinning on its axis

    • The axis of the earth is always pointing to the same direction as it revolves around the sun

    • Artic and Antarctic circles will have no sunlight for half of the year

  • Solar Radiation

    • In one day the earth receives over 2,000,000 TWh which is enough to support all of humanity for 11 years

    • Insolation

      • Incoming Solar Radiation

      • More energy is received by the equator because the energy is not stretched out across more area

    • Radiation

      • Energy that is traveling through space

      • Energy is heat

      • Everything that is over 0 Kelvin emits radiation (anything over absolute 0)

      • Electromagnetic radiation spectrum

        • Does 3 things:

        • Reflectance (bounces off)

        • transmittance (goes through)

        • Absorbance (goes in and stays)

    • Remote Sensing

      • Visible light works with small particles

      • The wavelength that something emits depends on its temperature

      • The hotter it is, the shorter the wave length and the more energy comes

      • This helps cause the greenhouse effect (the top and bottom of the atmosphere trap the energy from the sun)

      • Net incoming is  W/m^2 and so is the outgoing

  • Heat and Temperature

    • Heat is energy

      • When heat hits something the molecules start speeding up

    • Temperature is the measure of the molecular motion

    • 3 Ways that heat is transferred

      • Radiation: electromagnetic radiation

      • Conduction: direct contact

        • Heat moves from hotter substances to colder substances

      • Convection: molecules transferring between each other

        • Sensible heat: change in temperature without a change in phase (you can sense/feel it change)

        • Latent Heat: heat exchanged from a change of phase (no temperature change because of phase change)

    • Evaporative cooling

      • Water will regulate temperature by changing it (cooling it down)

    • Albedo

      • The amount of radiation that reflects back

        • Albedo 1 means that 100% of the energy is being reflected

        • The higher the Albedo the slower it takes to heat up because the energy is being reflected

        • Ocean absorbs a lot of energy

      • Earth is an Ellipsoid

        • It is longer on one side, not quite round

      • Earth is not smooth

        • Tallest mountain depends on the reference point

        • Mariana Trench is deeper than mount Everest is tall

      • Latitude and Longitude

        • Latitude is horizontal, starting at the equator goes from 0-90 north and 0-90 south

          • Center of the earth is 0

        • Longitude is vertical

          • 0 starts in england

        • Coordinates

          • Find a place in the world

          • latitude N/S, Longitude E/W

        • Latitudes correlate w climate

        • Longitude correlates w time zones

      • Flat Maps?

        • Globe is the only way to really preserve all the details of the earth

        • Flat maps use map projections that will be distorted in some way

        • Flat maps are made for a purpose, so make sure to use it for that purpose cause other things will be distorted

        • Use the right map for the right purpose!

      • Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)

        • GPS is the American one

        • Others include Galileo, BeiDou and GLONASS

        • GPS uses triangulation (3 different reference points)

        • Remote Sensing

          • Using images from the satellites

          • Remote Sensing Platforms are most common

          • Passive and active sensors

            • Passive use the energy from the sun to see radiation (visible light)

            • Active sensors use internal stimuli, like a laser pointer (radar)

            • Electromagnetic Radiation uses waves that contain electric and magnetic

          • Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR)

          • Geographical Information Systems (GIS)

            • Shows different maps of the geography of the earth

            • Shows different layers of it as well