Chapter 3

Section 1
1. Earth's distance from the sun, approximately 93 million miles, is ideal. It allows for plants to grow, but also for water to freeze. Direct sunlight can heat the ground to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, but indirect light fragments off the ground, reducing the heat generated.

2. Due to global warming, Earth's air will become hot and humid. Earth's polar ice caps will melt, swelling oceans and rivers that connect to them, destroying most of earth's coastal cities. Cold climate plants will die out, along with cold climate animals such as polar bears, penguins, seals, caribou, and arctic wolves. This leaves an opportunity for warmer climate plants and animals to grow in size and population.



the world's average temperatures



creative writing: I believe that global warming is a natural occurrence, but humans do have some part in it. I think that if we had been more environmentally aware, we could have lessened the severity of the effects, or at least slowed down the process. Global warming occurs in between two ice ages, as some scientists believe, and that in the next thousand years, another ice age will begin, but in the meantime, the weather will continue to get hotter, the icecaps will continue to melt. I think that as a planet, if everyone did something, whether it be riding a bicycle instead of driving a car everywhere, or conserving water, or recycling paper, glass, plastic and metal instead of making new products, then we can make a difference in our future.

Section 2

1. Latitude and elevation can affect climate. The farther away you are from the equator, the cooler the weather gets. The equator is usually closest to the sun, and is always warm, but if you travel farther north or south, then you are travelling out of direct sunlight and therefor, the ground, air and water are all colder. Elevation is different. the farther up above sea level that you are, the thinner the atmosphere, and therefor, the colder the atmosphere. earth's atmosphere holds and regulates temperature. But since the atmosphere is thinner, the atmosphere cannot retain the heat of the sun and the weather is colder. If you go lower down, below sea level, the hotter it is, because the atmosphere is thicker, and absorbes more heat.

the world's currents

2. Wind patterns can bring reliving rain to a dry inland landscape by blowing rain clouds in from the oceans. Ocean currents can bring a decrease or an increase of temperature depending on where they started, and where they end up. The gulf stream, for example, brings warm water from the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico all the way up to Britain and the UK. land forms, like mountains can block rain clouds from reaching the area beyond, creating a desert plane. Mountains also receive more rain and snow because of their height, temperature, and atmosphere.

creative writing: It would be an environmental disaster if the  North Atlantic Current came to a permanent stop. The North Atlantic Current is an extension of the Gulf Stream, and brings warm water to northern Europe, and Greenland, which keeps these places from completely freezing over in the winter. The current also keeps the oceans from becoming like the northern polar region - that is, frozen almost completely and difficult to retain life. if the current were to stop, however, all of these things would come true. The northern countries of Europe - Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and parts of Russia would become frozen and would take on an Arctic aspect.

section 3
1. Geographers classify climate regions into five classes: highland, high latitude, mid latitude, dry, and tropical regions.

2. Recurring phenomena, such as El Nino and La Nina, can affect different climates in different ways. El Nino, which is the warming of the pacific ocean, creates rainstorms and floods all along the pacific coast, disrupting the food chains of birds, fish and sea mammals, and also by lessening hurricanes in the Atlantic. La Nina, is just the opposite. It is created by the cooling of the pacific ocean, and makes rain and snow along the pacific coast, drought in the southwest of the American continents, cold weather in Alaska and Canada, hot weather in the rest of the USA and Mexico, and more hurricanes in the Atlantic.

creative writing: In Huntington Beach, which is a dry, coastal desert region, rain is rare, and temperatures usually remain in the 60's to the high 80's. Sea breezes are daily occurrences, and land breezes are nightly ones. The natural vegetation here are cacti and succulents, woody bushes and shrubs, and short growing trees. The natural soil is full of hard clay and sand, and is mostly barren.


Southern California's natural vegetation



Chapter 2

Section 1
1. landforms and oceans are the largest natural features on the earth's surface. the seven largest landforms on Earth's surface are the continents (Africa, Asia, Australia, Antarctica, Europe, South America, North America). these continents yield a variety of features:
 rivers - moving bodies of water that move down hill, pulled by gravity, usually fed by rain water, snow melt, or a lake
 lakes - a large body of still water that rests inland,
 desert - a large, dry area that receives little to no liquid water in the form of rain,
 seacoasts - land lying next to a sea or ocean,
 glacier - a large, wide, and thick body of ice that slowly moves, carving out vallies,
 mountains - a peice of land with sweeped sides that rises sharply from surrounding land (usually more than 1,000 ft),
 volcano - mountain or hill created as liquid rock and ash erupt from inside the earth's crust.
oceans are large bodies of salt water that cover over 70% of the earth's surface.

2. The point on Earth's surface that is the greatest distance from sea level is Mount Everest (29,028 feet, 8,848 m).

creative writing: I believe that when small objects such as meteorites or comets enter earth's atmosphere, they have no long-term affect on the lithosphere, atmosphere, or biosphere. I say this because the smaller objects are usually burned off in the outer layers of the atmosphere, and usually don't reach the biosphere or lithosphere, and the the earth's gravity pulls the dust toward the earth and it becomes soil.

Section 2
1. the Earth's layers create movement within the  mantle (the layer of molten rock just under the earth's top layer, the crust), which in turn, move the plates on the earth's crust. This creates mountain ranges, volcanoes, hot spot islands like Hawaii, fault lines, and folds in the crust. the solid inner core of the earth, made of iron and nickel, spins faster than the rest of the earth, and creates the magnetic field that protects us from the sun's harmful solar wind.

2. The movement of magma - liquid rock and metal -  in the earth's mantle creates continental drift that forces the continents and the plates under the oceans to move. this move is very slow (sometimes less than and inch a year), but progressive. For it was this force that moved our continents out of the singular, mega continent, Pangaea, into the seven that we know today. the external forces that shape our continents are rivers, wind, and glaciers. The rivers pick up silt and rock and dirt when they move, and deposit them farther downtsream, creating banks and canyons. this process is called erosion. Erosion is how the Grand Canyon was formed. Wind can pick up sand, dust and dirt and scrape them into dunes and hills. This activity is most common in a desert. glaciers move perhaps the slowest of all (inches a year), but do the most work. they scrape out valleys and  wear down mountains.


creative writing: the internal forces of the earth have changed the surface of North America over the past 225 million years.
when the continents were one, continental drift was beginning to pull them apart. 200 million years ago, the continents were just barely touching. they were only connected by thinning isthmuses (thin pieces of land connecting larger pieces of land). 65 million years ago, the continents were almost in place. they were spreading out over the globe. North America, surrounded by six different tectonic plates, was pushed, bumped and squished into the place it is today. the rocky mountains, running up and down the western side of the plate, were formed from the movement of the North American plate and the Pacific plate. the San Andreas fault, running along the west coast, goes right through many southern and central California towns.

first assignment!

chapter one, section one
1. Two concerns that cartographers have when choosing map projections are the size proportion of the land masses and oceans, and the distance between places on the map.
2. Two physical features seen on an urban area map might be a beach, and a river. Two man made features would be a freeway and an office building. two political features seen on a map might be a capitol building and a political monument.
ceative writing: if i were a city planner in a growing urban city, and i had to choose locations for new elementary schools, i would look out for any hazards to young children. the information that i would need to choose a safe location would be: if there were any busy streets of intersections nearby, or if there were any developing neighborhoods nearby (new families with young children).
There would be numerous features on a map of an urban area. The physical features would probably include any rivers, hills, lakes or ponds nearby. These would be important when choosing safe places for an elementary school, because they can be hazards to younger children. the human made features that would be shown on a map would be sub-urban neighborhoods, streets, freeways, buildings, and abandoned structures.
these could also be dangers if near a school. Lastly, the political features would be police buildings, fire houses, hospitals, and the capitol buildings in the city. these would be essential should there be an emergency at the school, and it would be helpful if they were in close proximity.

chapter one, section two
1. The major branches of geography are region(weather, average temperatures), human-environment interaction(use of resources, pollution), political(governments, economy), site(in relation to other cities, countries), and location(where a certain place is in the world).
2. Geography is used to study the earth, its features, the plants and animals that live here, and the things that happen in different areas of the world, and how they affect life there.
creative writing:  In Huntington Beach, in southern California, we live in a hot, dry coastal desert. with a drought upon us, many of  us do our best to conserve energy, whether it be water, or electricity, or oil. While living above the solstice of cancer does little to cool down the hot summer months, many still conserve water (I turn off the sink when I brush my teeth), although we have plenty of it! the ocean is right in our backyard, and we use it! the beach is always a popular spot during spring, summer and early fall, but not all is well in the swells. trash is sprinkled along the sand and parking lots along the coastline, yet another issue with the environment. although monthly beach clean-ups are held throughout the year, its still important to make sure everything gets into the trash cans!
  People immigrate to California from all over the world. in the 1900's, Asian immigrants came into our country through San Fransisco, people from Africa, Asia, Europe and immigrants from Mexico still come in today. this has a great impact on the culture of Huntington beach. everybody knows somebody from a different background and ethnicity, somebody who is different from themselves.with so many people, we have many view points and opinions, about ourselves as a whole, as individuals, and as a species in an endangered environment.

Here in HB, living next to the ocean is a large part of human-environment interaction!

i did it!

haha! now i can turn in my homework!