(Options) Extreme Environments Case Studies Flashcards
West Coast Desert Example x2
- Extreme West Coast of Africa
- the Baja, California
Desert due to Continentality Example
Gobi Desert, NW China
Desert due to Rain Shadow Example x2
- Death Valley
- Patagonia, East of the Andes
Desert due to Sub-tropical high pressure Example
Sahara
Erratic Example
Madison Boulder, New Hampshire, USA
Terminal Moraine Example
Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA
Lateral Moraine Example
Gorner Glacier, Switzerland
Medial Moraine Example
Gorner Glacier, Switzerland
Drumlin Example x2
- Drowned Drumlins of clew bay, CO. Mayo, Ireland
- New York State
Continuous Permafrost Example x4
- Parts of Siberia
- Arctic Circle
- Interior Plateaux of Central Asia
- Mountainous Regions
Periglacial Environment: Resources Case Study
Alaska (oil drilling):
- resource rich - oil, gold, fish, timber
- exploitation for economic vs inaccessibility, permafrost
- 20% USA oil from here
- Trans-Alaska Pipeline: oil through at 80 degrees, 3m above ground, $8bn, built on sleepers allow displacement earthquake
- ANWR: 9mn hectares protected wildlife area, oil companies want to drill here
High Altitude Environment Case Study
The Altiplano of Bolivia (South America poorest nation)
- land locked
- 10mn ppl - 65% indigenous, 35% spanish immigrant
- Silver Mining: mines bad conditions (forced labour), soil erosion and vegetation loss
- Tourism: local resentment (can’t afford), culture disregarded
- Agriculture: short growing season, subsistence
La Paz
- Urban Growth: shanty towns, over 1mn people, rural-urban migration, wealth disparity
Polar Environment Case Study
Siberia (-18 to -50 degrees)
- Buildings: on stilts, need constant heat and light
- Transport: sea frozen 8 months year - navigable 100 days, expensive to build rail/pipelines as large distances
- Nenets: traditional lifestyle
- Melted permafrost due to infrastructure, pasture destroyed pipeline/railway construction = 20,000 reindeer dead + migration routes blocked, 75% Russian oil, 90% Russian gas
- Noril’sk Mining: more oil and gas being found, pollution, 250,000 population
Tourism Case Study
Switzerland
- 13bn to economy in 2000
- employs 10% + = multiplier effect
- 1800 services (densest tourist transport infrastructure world) - 43 heliports
- no fly zones
- pollution
- deforestation
- congestion
- waste incinerators / landfill 65% plastic
- hard to predict impact of sports / tourism on environment
- browsing damage from animals migrating due to tourist threat
Exotic / Exogenous River Example
The Nile, Egypt