Alaska - Oil extraction Flashcards
How does human activity cause change within glaciated and periglacial landscapes?
description of situation
Huge oil fields - Prudhoe Bay on the north coast
The Alyseka pipeline (1300km) transports oil up to 1.4 million barrels per day.
Need for oil:
2014 the USA consumed 6.95 billion barrels
40% of supply comes from imports + this is a concern for us gov as political implications of not having energy security
Impacts on periglacial landscape system?
Can impact processes, flows of materials + energy through periglacial landscape.
Material flows are affected is through use of gravel pads. Gravel is extracted from stream + river beds + used as insulating layer for road construction.
Loss of gravel from river systems alters rate at which gravel is transported + deposited further downstream. Can affect equilibrium between erosional + depositional processes in river system.
Hydrological processes - gravel extraction from a glacial outwash aquifer near Palmer, water levels fell by more than a metre in an area over 2km.
How are energy flows affect?
- By production of heat from extraction + transportation
- Release + burning of gas during drilling.
- Gases burnt in flaring which releases carbon dioxide into atmosphere. Methane vented without burning into atmosphere. Both contribute to greenhouse effect with higher levels of terrestrial radiation being trapped in lower atmosphere, raising temp.
