Although deserts and glaciers appear very different, they have a common link: extreme climates. The extreme temperatures these regions face has a significant impact on both the desert and glacial landscape. Extreme changes in temperatures can be caused by human activity, environmental changes, or a combination of both. Climate changes can cause less rainfall in desert areas which can cause water tables to become lower and more salt appears in top-soil and water. The wind can become arid and dry and cause desert like conditions in non-desert areas, thus expanding the size of a desert.
Not only can sinking air not produce rain, but when it reaches the ground it absorbs water from the soil and vegetation, creating even more arid conditions. We find deserts where this air descends. In fact, at about 30° North, hold the Sahara, the
Erosion is powerful among desert and glacial areas. Erosion is powerful because of high winds and the way rocks along with sand dunes in the desert are formed. Water erosion also plays a huge part in redeveloping the landscape of deserts by transferring sand from one region to another. Glaciers are created by the thickening of ice and snow. As a result of glaciers tends to float toward the outside using the pressure of its own weight.
There was little cloud cover to protect the land from the sun or to provide moisture from rain. Also the high pressure equatorial belts and rain shadow effect kept the area dry. Therefore the land became loose and dry and blew away with the winds, spreading over large surfaces of area creating deserts.Deserts are usually found 15 and 30 degrees North and South of the Equator. They generally lie on the Western side of land masses and are affected by cold ocean currents. Examples of Hot Desert Biomes are the Sahara Desert covering most of South Africa, one country being Sudan, and the Namib Desert in Namibia.
Description of a haboob Haboob comes from an Arabic word “habbe”, which means wind. “Haboob is a type of an intense dust storm usually carried on an atmospheric gravity current” (Weather Online, 2011). This type of dust storm is common in arid areas. They have occurred in Sahara desert and Arabian Peninsula. In America, haboobs are common in the deserts of Yuma, Arizona and Phoenix.
Another source is the release of salts as rocks weather. Another possible cause could be ancient drainage basins or inland seas that evaporated during dry periods, leaving behind salt deposits that still remain today making that land infertile and useless for any agricultural purpose. However, rising groundwater levels are bringing previously stored undisturbed salt to the surface where it affects soils, streams, vegetation and farming. Rising groundwater levels can be caused in two different ways. The first is the naturally changing Australian landscape.
It turns into a river because of all the water the mountains have and then creates a path. Rivers cause erosion. Runoff from rivers cause rocks to erode. Because of gravity, runoff, and the sediment it has, to move downhill. An example of this sheet erosion.
The oceans play an important role in determining the atmospheric concentration of CO2. Changes in ocean circulation may affect the climate through the movement of CO2 into or out of the atmosphere. Earth orbital changes - The earth makes one full orbit around the sun each year. It is tilted at an angle of 23.5° to the perpendicular plane of its orbital path. Changes in the tilt of the earth can lead to small but climatically important changes in the strength of the seasons, more tilt means warmer summers
Discuss the view that the impact of earthquake hazards depends primarily on human factors [40] An earthquake is a tremor or shockwave in the earth’s crust that is caused by the sudden movement of the crust, resulting in the earth shaking. Most earthquakes are a consequence of tectonic plate movement by tension causing a sudden release of energy or rubbing. These normally occur at plate margins or along fault lines and can cause hazards which need to be prevented where possible. Earthquakes can therefore occur at all plate boundaries, destructive, constructive and conservative but the most damaging tend to happen at destructive margins where the earthquakes have a high magnitude due to the rubbing of the oceanic and continental crusts. A hazard is a natural event that has the potential to effect both life and property.
EAP VI/A R/W YUCHENG WAN 11/27/12 Is Global Warming Manmade? Abstract Global warming is caused by numerous activities such as driving, taking airplanes, generating electricity, displaying fireworks, using air conditioning, developing industry and logging because those activities emit so much carbon dioxide that global temperatures rise up. Trees store CO2 in the forest system, so if forests are damaged, much CO2 will be released, which will increase the global temperatures. As this paper illustrates, natural climate cycles have already changed from warm to cool, so global warming is not because of natural factors. The solutions for global warming may include improving the efficiency of energy, protecting forests, producing more energy from renewable sources, generating electricity by wind, traveling in more fuel-efficiently vehicles, riding bicycles and using more efficient electrical appliances.