The critical thinking assignment for this week entails two questions, describe the hydrologic cycle and apply it to where I live, and secondly choose a landscape either glacial or desert and describe how it forms, as well as the landscape features found on it. I will use this essay to answer both questions. I will be using my hometown of Napa California to answer the first question and I have selected the Mojave Desert landscape to answer the second question.
The hydrologic cycle is how water moves through the natural process of evaporation, condensing as clouds and then falling back to the earth as rain, sleet, snow or fog. The Hydologic Cycle as defined by Lutgens F. and Tarbuck E. (2013), “The unending circulation of Earth’s water supply. The cycle is powered by energy from the sun and is characterized by continuous exchanges of water among the oceans, the atmosphere, the geosphere and the biosphere.” In Napa California the hydrologic cycle is when water enters the system as rainfall and leaves the system as either runoff to the San Francisco Bay or evaporates back into the cycle.
The rainfall in the Napa valley varies with elevation, from 25 to 55 inches per year with the larger rainfall coming from the north end of the valley. Snow falls occasionally on both Mount Veeder to the south and Mount Saint Helena to the north. The surface runoff increases with intensified land use, for example the largest runoffs occur within the populated city area where there are many streets, roofs and parking lots. The channel flow of the valley leads to the Napa River, which is fed by the streams, creeks and runoff. The annual water flow in the Napa River varies from near zero to over 400,000 acre feet. The natural ground water in th...
... middle of paper ...
...e covered with Bajadas which are long sedimentary slopes sprinkled with cacti and creosote bushes. Another feature is the desert pavement, this is an extremely dry and baron type of landscape that is composed of gravel and small rocks overlaid with thin clay and other particles that mimic pavement. One area of the Mojave Desert located in Death Valley California, the elevation drops from 3,400 meters above sea level to 88 meters below sea level and looks like an ocean during flood season. The Mojave Desert is quite fascinating, as it does not fit the classic image of a desert as it only has limited sand dunes and is characterized by parched mountains that rise abruptly from alternating plains. The Mojave is quite different from the temperate climate found where I live in Napa California and though I find it fascinating to look at, I would not want to live there.
The California water drought has been declared a crisis by the governor of California. 2013 was the driest year on record, and California could be running out of water. Californians should be water wise, and their use, or no use, of water will have an enormous impact on this drought. They can use the techniques published in a recent Time article called, 5 Ways to Bust California’s Drought, to reduce their water use. Landscape techniques, alternate water sources, and the personal conservation of water can reduce the use of water, and can have a positive change on this water crisis.
Desert Solitaire aims to draw attention to the activities of a man voluntarily isolated in nature. It seeks to identify the strife that Abbey faces with modern day human’s treatment of his nature. As such, the argument that Abbey poses in one his earlier chapters Rocks is, that the Modern Day man is destructive and cannot be trusted to preserve nature as is.
How does the vegetation surface type affect the amount of runoff? Speculate why this happens.
The Colorado River is formed by small streams created by a huge amount of snowmelt from the Rocky Mountains. The ecology and flow of the river varies highly by region. The river is divided into two different regions, the Upper Basin and the Lower Basin. Beginning in the early 1900s, western states began to build dams in the Colorado river, diverting the water flow to fast growing cities like Los Angeles, San Diego, and Phoenix. The river now services over 30 million in the southwestern parts of the United States and Mexico (Patrick 1). Diverting the water of the nation’s seventh-longest river may be seen has a great accomplishment, however to others this is a great crime against nature. Over the past couple years the river has been running significantly low, since a drought has come up the southwest. At the lakes edge, “bathtub rings”, lines in the rock walls, can be seen showing the decrease in water level. It is recorded in some areas of the river that the water has lowered 130 feet since 2000. Some water resource officials say those areas will never be filled back to normal. The surrounding states must adjust to living with less water or further actions need to be taken to save the river’s water. There has been some talk about adding water to the river to replenish the river but nothing has hap...
The water was calm, like the morning; both were starting to get ready for the day ahead. The silent water signals that although rough times occurred previously, the new day was a new start for the world. As I went closer to the water, I heard the subtle lapping of the water against the small rocks on the shore. Every sign of nature signals a change in life; no matter how slight, a change is significant. We can learn a lot from nature: whatever happens in the natural world, change comes and starts a new occurrence. I gazed over the water to where the sky met the sea. The body of water seemed to be endless under the clear blue sky. The scope of nature shows endless possibilities. Nature impresses us with the brilliant colors of the sky, the leaves, the water. She keeps us all in our places and warns us when we are careless with her. After all the leaves have fallen from the trees, she will offer us the first snows of the year to coat the earth with a tranquil covering. That will only be after we have recognized the lessons of autumn, the gradual change from warm to cold, rain to snow, summer to winter.
Americans today tend to believe that the Colorado River drought has been a recent occurrence, although drought relief strategies have been implemented since early 1997. To summarize, in the book The Colorado River Basin Drought Planning and Organizations, Colorado is named as the original state to acquire a drought relief plan. For instance, various assume water levels are diminutive in the Colorado and blame is due to the previous ten years of drought throughout the United States. Although it is true that water levels are at a record low, initial plans in the early 1920’s to introduce manufactured structures into the water basin is the original reason Colorado’s water system began to be compromised. It follows, then the supplementary natural
His expertise may attract an array of readers, both newcomers and old-timers. It seems that his intended audience might be those who share his love of the desert and also those who want to know more. The essay is quasi-organized like an educational brochure or an expert interview with an inveterate desert denizen. An unintended audience of course might include the fledgling environmental activists who were emerging in the 1960s to fight for the protection of wilderness. Because of its focus on natural history, the article and the anthology, Desert Solitaire, in which it was published, might...
Precipitation is the source for both groundwater and surface water in the Basin. Most flow in perennial streams is from snowmelt and rejected recharge from Mesozoic through Precambrian aquifers in the surrounding mountains and irrigation return flows from Quaternary and Tertiary aquifers (Taucher et al., 2012). The basins consumptive uses make up 37% of surface and ground water use and is used for agriculture, stock water, domestic/municipal, industrial/mining water, and reservoir evaporation (Taucher et al., 2012). The flow of surface water alters throughout the year as well as ground water. The monthly changes in flow are heavily reliant on the amount of precipitation that the area had received throughout the year. The most obvious occurrence is between April and August for the Wind-Bighorn River when average monthly flow rises from around 300cfs in April to 1,600cfs in June, and back down to 300cfs in August. This large spike can mostly be attributed to the melting of snow in the high country. Ground water released by springs drive up peak flow during this time of the year increasing total
In the article, “The Great American Desert”, Edward Abbey (1977) is trying to convince the general public that the desert is not a place for humans to explore. He talks a lot about the dangers of the desert and tries to convince the readers that the desert is not worth wasting your time and going and visiting. I disagree with Abbey. Anyone who has some knowledge about the desert and takes a class or is accompanied by an expert who knows a lot about the desert should be able to venture out in the many great American deserts.
There are numerous stages that take place simultaneously in the hydrologic cycle and this includes evaporation. This is when the water alters from a liquid state into a gas. The damp air from the water rises into the atmosphere and when it cools, the vapor condenses and shapes into clouds. But those billows are not the only form the vapors make; it can also materialize as dew, fog and mist, which blanket the Earth, characteristically on a rainy or humid day. Evaporation takes place when water changes from a liquid state into a gaseous state, and ascents out of the pores of the earth and into the atmosphere as a vapor (“How”). While evaporation is taking place, condensation is also occurring. When the temperature in the air plunges, the clouds become heavy and as a result they relieve themselves of the extra weight, which is called precipitation. This produces rain, hail, snow and sleet, conditioned upon the temperate. As the precipitation falls, it enters the surface of the ground and percolates into the soil, which is called infiltration. The more porous the land is, the more the infiltration can take place. However, the ground cannot hold all of that water and floods. The excess rainfall, which is also called runoff that has not been absorbed makes its way into bodies of water, such as small ponds, rivers, lakes and parts of the ocean (“Summary”).
MacDonald, Glen. "Water, Climate Change, and Sustainability in the Southwest." Water, Climate Change, and Sustainability in the Southwest. "Divvying Up the Mighty Colorado." NPR. NPR.
“… The difference between the present reservoir, with its silent sterile shores and debris-choked side canyons, and the original Glen Canyon, is the difference between death and life. Glen Canyon was alive. Lake Powell is a graveyard.” – Edward Abbey, “The Damnation of a Canyon”, Beyond the Wall
Drought is no stranger to the state of California especially is the southern part of the state. California has been a technological creation since the first American settlers starting migrating from the east. It naturally has a semi-arid climate. It was inevitable that prolonged severe drought would occur in such a climatic region from time to time. California has depended on redirecting natural waterways and investing an incredible amount of money into pumping water to Southern California. This is not only a California debacle but a global one as well. According to the World health Organization, 1 billion people do not have access to clean, piped water. A world Resources Institute analysis adds that 2.3 billion people, 41% of Earth’s population, live in water-stressed areas, a number expected to climb to 3.5 billion by 2025. To make matters worse, global population is rising by 80 million a year, and with it the demand for new sources of fresh water (7 pg. 1). Water affects everyone and everything including the economies of both developing and industrialized nations. “The current situation has heightened the need for reliable sources of water, especially in these type of times when there is rationing across the state, “said Paul Shoenberger, assistant general manager with the West Basin Municipal Water District in Carson and chair of a desalination subcommittee for the Association of California Water Agencies. “ Desalination is more available and isn’t linked to rain or snow pack.” The only methods to increase water supply beyond what is available from the hydrological cycle are desalination and water reuse (8).
From the 16.5 MAF of groundwater pumped annually in the state of California, 39% will be used for agriculture, 41% will be used in the urban sector, while 18% will be used to manage the state’s wetlands (DWR 2015). The Central Valley alone uses 74% of all extracted groundwater, where the Tulare Lake Hydrologic Region is the greatest groundwater user (DWR 2015). Since the state’s topography and hydrological conditions vary throughout the state, the amount of precipitation that the state receives will vary. Some areas lack access to enough water to meet water demands, so the state and federal water projects help by importing water. When the amount of surface water from the state and federal water projects does not fully meet local water demands,
The Measurements of Desertification “Drought and desertification threaten the livelihood of over one billion people in more than 110 countries” warned general Kofi in 2001 (Kovach,2003). Desertifications definition is highly disputed but it is generally the shift of arid or semi-arid regions to desert-like conditions, which support: little vegetation, a low soil fertility and high evaporation rates (Haggett, 2001). This work will overlook how deserts are measured by a variety of different means. To measure the growth of deserts characteristics need to be obtained.