3rd Blog Post
May 8-2013
In the picture above, behind the dinosaurs there is a long stream of water. Due to the fact that there is rocks surrounding the river it is assumed that the river is carrying a load. From the look of the rocks surrounding and what looks to be a large desert, the stream is carrying a large bed load A bed load is sediment transported along the bed of a river by sliding rolling or hopping. As you can see the rocks on the side have been moved by the stream and the stream continues to move particles down its flow. Bed loads often occur where there is steep gradients in the land. This is also one of the biggest reasons that this river was formed. This is not a suspended load as the particles are not flowing at the same velocity as the river. So what will this scenery look like in a million years? In fact this river will not be here, all the land will be a large desert. I assume this will happen in a million years because this picture shows all the characteristics that lead to a warm dessert. Also the climate in the background looks gloomy which is always in result to rain shadow. The last reason I believe this land will turn to desert is because of the mountains in the background which like the Andes mountains could be blocking moisture sources from the other side. In one million years I am almost sure that this long stream of water surrounded by the mountains and dirt will evaporate and no longer exist.
It is definitely obvious that in this image above the area is far away from moisture source, which means it is in extreme continentality. This is one main cause of a warm desert. Due to the dry climate it will result in less transpiration and evaporation which equals in no cooling. Eventually the heat will gather with the wind forming convection on the bare rocks. The wind blows sediment off the rocks causing deflation which is erosion by wind of loose material from flat areas of dry, uncemented sediments. The trees are dead due to lack of water and get rain shadow because of the mountains that are in the background. But this climate could eventually flip upside down in a million years creating a huge valley of water from an ice age which was told by scientists to be the cause of extinction of the dinosaurs. This would have created the valley to blend in with the mountains forming glaciers of ice and completely changing the whole climate of this area.
The image above shows a large flat terrace with a drop off to a sandy area leading to some water. The terrace was created from when the sea level was higher and waves were crashing on that area of land, causing it to flatten out as it looks in the picture. After the waves smoothed and flattened the land, the sea levels decreased for one reason or another, leaving the flat terrace the characters stand on in this picture. People might think that the sea level decreased because it was getting hotter, but that can't be true because of the really green landscape. It actually might have been the exact opposite, it was getting colder. It was getting colder and glaciers around the area might have been accumulating, or gaining ice, a lot more than there were melting, causing surrounding areas or water to be sucked up and resulting in the decrease in sea levels and showing many new marine terraces or platforms like the one depicted above. As I previously said the above picture actually shows temperature getting colder as glaciers are accumulating, so in 1000 year patterns would persist and more and more water froze up the would be more massive glaciers and tons of more platforms like the one above showing the different sea levels at different times. 10,000 years from now, because the climate was getting colder and colder, the area would be in the early stages of an ice age with everything covered in snow, shown in following movies, and correlating the the hypothesis scientist use as why dinosaurs are extinct. One million years from now the ice age would be similar to the one we are in today, warmer weather and recovery and tons of land and vegetation and rise of sea levels, but still relatively cooler temperatures than there were before.