Gemorphology Assignment 2

Introduction to Physical Geography

For this assignment you are expected to make liberal use of either Google Maps and/or Google Earth. Both are free. If you do not know how, it is your responsibility to learn. I have provided links below.

  • Google Maps (New) Tutorial Videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcRbp4LqBpwFpqdfEVOanvjmeVMUk5fAV (all of them)
  • Google Maps (New) website information: http://www.google.com/maps/about/explore/
  • Google Earth Tutorial Videos: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC5E193AC559FCBF3

(At a minimum know: Navigation, Searching for Places, Drawing and Measuring, Street View, 3D Buildings and Terrain)

  • Google Earth Text Tutorials: https://support.google.com/earth/answer/176576?hl=en

This assignment is intended to exercise the knowledge you have gained concerning landscape processes and forms. You are expected to identify a range of landforms through interpretation of their physical features as well as data interpretation based on your knowledge of process. You can view the locations 3 different ways: 1-input the coordinates into Google Maps yourself, 2-Click on the built in link and it should open in google maps, 3-Use the associated KMZ file to be used in Google Earth & each question has an associated placemark.

Please identify the landform/land feature and dominant forming process at each of the following coordinates:

  1. N 39.773532, E -117.872991
  2. N 21.416804, E 9.033767
  3. N 30.292932, E 8.759973
  4. N 27.791422, E -11.326579
  5. N -2.911617, E 36.216973 (For #5, what are the green dots. Do NOT just say mountains.)
  6. N 2.026474, E 73.364165
  7. N -40.508746, E 172.897169
  8. N 52.492473, E -171.254077 (For #8, Zoom out and use the knowledge you’ve gained from this class to tell me the specific type and why that type would form.)
  9. N 34.672002, E 88.799643
  10. N 25.250346, E 26.491427
  11. N -33.521277, E 23.069302 (Identify the major structural feature, not just river valleys or ridge lines)
  12. N 46.517456, E 9.102971 (What is the central feature, and what is the water body within it called. Don’t forget to name the process of its formation.)
  13. Please identify the most likely stream pattern for each of these coordinates & the controlling influence for each type: N -2.899393, E 36.218773
  14. N 28.372995, E -9.576107
  15. N 45.793089, E -89.478382
  16. Please identify the tectonic force which created the following landscape: N 28.204578, E -10.742519
  17. What is the name of the feature depicted in the google earth screen shot below (next page) & how was it formed? Feel free to explore the area at these coordinates N 54.15989, E -127.92944
  18. Which of the 8 (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW) cardinal & ordinal directions was the wind blowing that formed the large dunes at this location? N 37.673704, E 81.711520 Phrase your answer in the format of “From direction to direction.”
  19. What is the object at this location, and what are the 3 dark lines? N 35.3376708, 77.5398439 Phrase your answer in the format of “From direction to direction.”
  20. What are the objects at this coordinate and what is the formative wind direction (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW)? N 30.871146, E 58.057119 Phrase your answer in the format of “From direction to direction.”
  21. What are the objects at this location? What is the name of the large (hint) thing in the center of Isla Fernandina (the specific name)? Given these islands location (zoom out), how did they form (what is causing the things I ask you in the first part of this question to exist)? What type rock most likely (and in fact does) make up these islands? N -0.360012, E -91.381511
  22. What is the feature that the red arrows (if you are color blind, they are the arrows without circles on one end) are pointing to in the image below? Feel free to explore the surrounding terrain at N 64.646399, E -18.747058
  23. What is the feature marked by the blue arrows (if you are color blind, they are the arrows with circles at one end)?
  24. Explore the image at these coordinates, N 40.390409, E -77.914395. What is the oldest nature feature at the location? (IE what existed here first!) Explain your reasoning.
  25. What did the green arc used to be? Feel free to explore the area at these coordinates N 35.260913, E -90.387429
  26. What are these long, raised, linear features which are mostly beyond the base of Silver Mountain? No, they are not eroded ridgelines from the mountain. If you need a hint, check out Shiprock & the book’s diagram for it. N 37.627519, E -105.035717
  27. The lakes at this location seem abnormally long … The sit at a plate boundary. N -5.598266, E 29.791743 What type?
  28. Go to these following coordinates, N 35.719105, E -121.313389. What active process is working on that landform? What will be the longterm result?
  29. In the image on the next page, name and explain the formation of the landforms the arrows are pointing to, and yes, they are all explained by the same process.