Living Physical Geography

708 Pages·2015·148.87 MB·English

by  Bruce Gervais

WORLD PHYSICAL MAP Highest Barometric Pressure Highest Dew Point Temperature Largest Freshwater
Agata, Siberia Dhahran, Saudi Arabia Lake by Volume
ARCTIC OCEAN December 31, 1968 July 8, 2003 Lake Baikal
World’s Greatest 24-hr Largest Lake by Surface Area
1083.8 mb (32.03 Hg) 35°C (95°F) 23,600 km (5,700 mi )
Temperature Change Lake Superior
Greenland
Loma, Montana 82,000 km 31,652
57°C (-48°C to 9°C)
103°F (-54°F to 49°F)
Highest Elevation
N O R T H Mt. Everest
8,848 m (29,029 ft)
A M E R I C A
Largest Hailstone
Vivian, South Dakota E U R A S I A
July 23, 2010
20 cm (8 in.) diameter Lowest Barometric Pressure
Typhoon Tip
October 12, 1979
870 mb (25.63 Hg)
Highest Temperature
Death Valley
July 10, 1913
56.7°C (134.1°C)
AT L A N T I C
Greatest Rainfall in One Year
O C E A N Cherrapunji, India
August 8, 1860
Lowest Land Elevation 26.5 m (86.8 ft)
Dead Sea
A F R I C A -424 m (-1,391 ft)
Highest Waterfall Greatest Ocean Depth
Angel Falls, Venezuela Challenger Deep
979 m (3,212 ft) Longest River -10,971 m (-35,994 ft)
Nile River
PA C I F I C 6,671 km (4,145 mi)
O C E A N
PA C I F I C
S O U T H
O C E A N
A M E R I C A
I N D I A N
Largest River by Discharge O C E A N Fastest Wind
Amazon River Barrow Island, Australia
209,000 m /sec (273,790 ft /sec) April 10, 1996
Highest Frequency of A U S T R A L I A 408 km/h (253 mph)
Thunderstorm Days
Kampala, Uganda
242 days per year
Lowest Average
Annual Precipitation
Arica, Chile
0.08 cm (0.03 in. )
Lowest Temperature
Vostok, Antarctica
July 21, 1983
S O U T H E R N O C E A N -89.2°C (-128.6°F)
Red dots show the places
visited in this book
A N T A R C T I C A
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WORLD PHYSICAL MAP Highest Barometric Pressure Highest Dew Point Temperature Largest Freshwater
Agata, Siberia Dhahran, Saudi Arabia Lake by Volume
ARCTIC OCEAN December 31, 1968 July 8, 2003 Lake Baikal
World’s Greatest 24-hr Largest Lake by Surface Area
1083.8 mb (32.03 Hg) 35°C (95°F) 23,600 km (5,700 mi )
Temperature Change Lake Superior
Greenland
Loma, Montana 82,000 km 31,652
57°C (-48°C to 9°C)
103°F (-54°F to 49°F)
Highest Elevation
N O R T H Mt. Everest
8,848 m (29,029 ft)
A M E R I C A
Largest Hailstone
Vivian, South Dakota E U R A S I A
July 23, 2010
20 cm (8 in.) diameter Lowest Barometric Pressure
Typhoon Tip
October 12, 1979
870 mb (25.63 Hg)
Highest Temperature
Death Valley
July 10, 1913
56.7°C (134.1°C)
AT L A N T I C
Greatest Rainfall in One Year
O C E A N Cherrapunji, India
August 8, 1860
Lowest Land Elevation 26.5 m (86.8 ft)
Dead Sea
A F R I C A -424 m (-1,391 ft)
Highest Waterfall Greatest Ocean Depth
Angel Falls, Venezuela Challenger Deep
979 m (3,212 ft) Longest River -10,971 m (-35,994 ft)
Nile River
PA C I F I C 6,671 km (4,145 mi)
O C E A N
PA C I F I C
S O U T H
O C E A N
A M E R I C A
I N D I A N
Largest River by Discharge O C E A N Fastest Wind
Amazon River Barrow Island, Australia
209,000 m /sec (273,790 ft /sec) April 10, 1996
Highest Frequency of A U S T R A L I A 408 km/h (253 mph)
Thunderstorm Days
Kampala, Uganda
242 days per year
Lowest Average
Annual Precipitation
Arica, Chile
0.08 cm (0.03 in. )
Lowest Temperature
Vostok, Antarctica
July 21, 1983
S O U T H E R N O C E A N -89.2°C (-128.6°F)
Red dots show the places
visited in this book
A N T A R C T I C A
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Living
Physical
Geography

BRUCE GERVAIS
CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO
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Vice President, Editorial: Charles Linsmeier
Associate Publisher: Steven Rigolosi
Marketing Manager: Taryn Burns
Developmental Editor: Donald Gecewicz
Media Editor: Lukia Kliossis
Market Development: Stephanie Ellis and Burrston House, Ltd.
Photo Editor: Sheena Goldstein
Photo Researcher: Jerry Marshall
Art Director: Diana Blume
Cover and Text Designer: Tom Carling, Carling Design Inc.
Project Editor: Enrico Bruno
Managing Editor: Lisa Kinne
Illustrations: Precision Graphics; Mapping Specialists
Art Manager: Matthew McAdams
Production Coordinator: Susan Wein
Composition: Tom Carling; codeMantra
Printing and Binding: Quad/Graphics
Cover Art: Tennessee Cove, Marin Headlands, © 2013 by Tom Killion
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014945391
ISBN-13: 978-1-4641-0664-4
ISBN-10: 1-4641-0664-9
© 2015 by W. H. Freeman and Company
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First printing
W. H. Freeman and Company
41 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10010
www.whfreeman.com
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For Nancy, Katherine, and Natalie
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Chapter GT, icon page 27: © Jumper/Photodisc/Getty Images; Chapter 1, icon page 50: NASA Ozone Watch; Chapter 2, icon page 84: © Harald Sund/Stockbyte/Getty Images;
Chapter 3, icon page 116: © Erkki Makkonen/E+/Getty Images; Chapter 4, icon page 148: © Frank Krahmer/Digital Vision/Getty Images; Chapter 5, icon page 183: Image Science
and Analysis Laboratory, NASA-Johnson Space Center (ISS007-E-14887); Chapter 6, icon page 214: Bruce Gervais; Chapter 7, icon page 247: © Ethan Daniels/Shutterstock.com;
Chapter 8, icon page 285: © Nicholas James McCollum/Flickr Open/Getty Images; Chapter 9, icon page 318: © David Palmer/E+/Getty Images; Chapter 10, icon page 351: © 2011
Ferdi Rizkiyanto; Chapter 11, icon page 377: © Jason Reed/Photodisc/Getty Images; Chapter 12, icon page 409: Bartosz Hadyniak/Getty Images; Chapter 13, icon page 434: © Jon
Mullen/E+/Getty Images; Chapter 14, icon page 468: © Stocktrek Images/Getty Images; Chapter 15, icon page 500: fotoVoyager/Getty Images; Chapter 16, icon page 534: U.S. Dept.
of the Interior/Bureau of Reclamation; Chapter 17, icon page 568: NASA World Wind using data from NASA’s Earth Observatory; Chapter 18, icon page 596: © David Gomez/E+/
Getty Images; Chapter 19, icon page 625: Dave & Les Jacobs/Blend Images/Getty Images
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BRIEF CONTENTS v
Brief Contents
Contents vi
Preface xvi
The Geographer’s Toolkit.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
P ART I ATMOSPHERIC SYSTEMS: Weather and Climate
CHAPTER 1 Portrait of the Atmosphere. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
CHAPTER 2 Seasons and Solar Energy.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
CHAPTER 3 Water in the Atmosphere.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
CHAPTER 4 Atmospheric Circulation and Wind Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
CHAPTER 5 The Restless Sky: Storm Systems and El Niño. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
CHAPTER 6 The Changing Climate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
P ART II THE BIOSPHERE AND THE GEOGRAPHY OF LIFE
CHAPTER 7 Patterns of Life: Biogeography.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
CHAPTER 8 Climate and Life: Biomes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
CHAPTER 9 Soil and Water Resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
CHAPTER 10 The Living Hydrosphere: Ocean Ecosystems.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
P ART III TECTONIC SYSTEMS: Building the Lithosphere
CHAPTER 11 Earth History, Earth Interior.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
CHAPTER 12 Drifting Continents: Plate Tectonics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
CHAPTER 13 Building the Crust with Rocks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
CHAPTER 14 Geohazards: Volcanoes and Earthquakes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 442
P ART IV EROSION AND DEPOSITION: Sculpting Earth’s Surface
CHAPTER 15 Weathering and Mass Movement.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 478
CHAPTER 16 Flowing Water: Fluvial Systems.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
CHAPTER 17 The Work of Ice: The Cryosphere and Glacial Landforms.. . . . . . . . . . . 544
CHAPTER 18 Water, Wind, and Time: Desert Landforms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 578
CHAPTER 19 The Work of Waves: Coastal Landforms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 606
Appendices A-1
Glossary G-1
Further Readings. FR-1
Indices I-1
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vi CONTENTS
PART I
Contents ATMOSPHERIC SYSTEMS:
Preface xvi Weather and Climate
The Geographer’s Toolkit 2 CHAPTER 1
G T.1 Welcome to Physical Geography! 4 Portrait of the Atmosphere 34
What Is Physical Geography? 4 THE HUMAN SPHERE: Wyoming’s.Air.Pollution.Problem. 36
Scales of Inquiry 5
• Spatial Scale: Perspective in Space 6 1.1 Composition of the Atmosphere 37
• Temporal Scale: Time as a Perspective 7 Gases in the Atmosphere 37
About the Metric System 7 Gas Sources and Sinks 37
Aerosols in the Atmosphere 38
G T.2 The Physical Earth 8
Matter and Energy 8 1.2 The Weight of Air:
Earth’s Shape 8 Atmospheric Pressure 38
• Rotation 10 • Relief and Gravitation 10 Air Pressure 38
Earth Systems 10 Air Density and Pressure 39
• The Atmosphere 10 • The Biosphere 11
• The Lithosphere 11 • The Hydrosphere 11 Measuring Air Pressure 39
The Structure of Living Physical Geography 11 1.3 The Layered Atmosphere 40
•
• Part II: :A Tthmeo Bsipohseprhice rSey asntedm tsh:e W Geeaotghrearp ahnyd o Cf lLimifea te13 12 Layers Based on Temperature 40
• Part III: Tectonic Systems: Building the Lithosphere 13 The Weather Layer: The Troposphere 41
• Part IV: Erosion and Deposition: Sculpting Earth’s Surface 14 A Protective Shield: The Stratosphere 43
G T.3 Mapping Earth 15 The Mesosphere and Thermosphere 44
The Geographic Grid 16 The Ionosphere: Nature’s Light Show 44
• Latitude 16 • Longitude 16 • Using the Geographic Grid 18 1.4 Air Pollution 45
Maps 19 Primary Pollutants 45
Map Scale: How Far Is It? 20 • Carbon Monoxide 45 • Sulfur Dioxide 46
• Types of Map Scales 20 • Lines on the Map: Contour Lines 22 • Nitrogen Dioxide 46 • Volatile Organic Compounds 47
G T.4 Imaging Earth 23 Secondary Pollutants 47
Satellite Imagery 23 Particulate Matter 47
Radar and Sonar 25 Factors That Affect Air Pollutant Concentrations 48
Geographic Information Systems 26 The Clean Air Act 48
G T.5 GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES The Scientifc Method and 1.5 GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES Refrigerators and Life
Easter Island 27 on Earth 50
Easter Island: The Scientifc Method Applied 27 A Landmark Paper and an International Protocol 51
• 1. Observation: Stone Statues 27 • 2. Question: How Were Effects of a Thinning Ozonosphere 52
the Statues Moved across the Island? 28 • 3. Collect Data: • Human Health 52 • Plants 53
HPoylpleonth 2e8si s: •L o4g. HRyoplloetrhse Dsois :W Lorgk R2o8ll er•s 62. 8F ur•t h5e. rT eInsqt utihrey : A Crisis Averted 53
Collapse of Society 29 CHAPTER 1 Exploring with Google Earth 54
How Is a Hypothesis Different from a Theory? 29
CHAPTER 1 Study Guide 55
THE GEOGRAPHER’S TOOLKIT Study Guide 30
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(Courtesy of Anthony Koppers, Seamount
Catalog (http://earthref.org))
(© Andy Rouse/naturepl.com/NaturePL)
CONTENTS vii
Global Horizontal Irradiance (W/m2)
165 200 235
  CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3
Seasons and Solar Energy 58 Water in the Atmosphere 92
THE HUMAN SPHERE: People.and.the.Seasons. 60 THE HUMAN SPHERE: Evaporation.and.the.Great.Lakes. 94
2.1 The Four Seasons 61 3.1 The Hydrologic Cycle and Water 95
What Causes Seasons? 61 States of Water: Solid, Liquid, and Gas 95
Migration of the Subsolar Point 62 The Hydrologic Cycle: Water on the Move 96
How Does Earth’s Tilt Affect Day Length? 64 Properties of Water 96
• Day Length on an Equinox 64 • Day Length on the December Latent Heat of Water: Portable Solar Energy 97
Solstice 64 • Day Length on the June Solstice 65
3.2 Atmospheric Humidity 99
2.2 Temperature and Heat 66
The Heat-Index Temperature 99
What Is Temperature? 66
The Many Names for Humidity 100
What Is Heat? 67
• Vapor Pressure 100 • Specifc Humidity 100
How Heat Moves 67 • Relative Humidity 100 • The Dew Point 102
2.3 Surface Temperature Patterns 68 3.3 Lifting Air: Atmospheric Stability 103
Average Annual Temperature Patterns 68 Rising Air is Cooling Air:
• Elevation: Colder in the Mountains 69 • Latitude: Colder near The Adiabatic Process 104
the Poles 69
Forming Clouds: The Lifting
Patterns of Seasonality 69 Condensation Level 105
• What Causes the Continental Effect? 70 • Ocean Currents and
Three Scenarios for Atmospheric Stability 106
Seasonality 73 • Prevailing Wind and Seasonality 73
Four Ways to Lift Air and Form Clouds 107
2.4 The Sun’s Radiant Energy 75 • Convective Uplift 107 • Orographic Uplift 107
Photons and Wavelengths 75 • Frontal Uplift 107 • Convergent Uplift 108
Earth’s Important Wavelengths: Ultraviolet, Visible,
3.4 Cloud Types 108
and Infrared 76
• Ultraviolet Radiation 76 • Visible Radiation: Light 76 Cloud Classifcation 108
• Infrared Radiation 77 • Fog 111
2.5 Earth’s Energy Budget 77 3.5 Precipitation: What Goes Up . . . 111
The Great Balancing Act 81 Making Rain: Collision and Coalescence 111
The Global Heat Engine 83 Making Snow: The Ice-Crystal Process 111
Four Types of Precipitation 113
2.6 GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES The Rising Solar
Hail Formation 113
Economy 84
The Goal: 15 Terawatts 84 3.6 GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES Clouds and Climate 116
The Decentralized Approach 85 Clouds and Temperature 116
The Centralized Approach 85 Cloud Feedbacks 117
• Stratus Clouds 117 • Cirrus Clouds 118
CHAPTER 2 Exploring with Google Earth 87
CHAPTER 3 Exploring with Google Earth 119
CHAPTER 2 Study Guide 88
CHAPTER 3 Study Guide 120
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