Oh, Wind

The wind is an interesting thing. A Walk to Remember (yes, I did watch that movie and ok I guess I kind of liked it) says that, "you cant touch it, you can't see it, but you can feel it." Way to state the obvious, movie. Wind is something rather amazing to me. Prior to my geography class I had no desire to understand where wind comes from. Now that I know what it is caused by, it has peaked my interest in it a little bit. I have found out that there are different types of winds. There are winds that come from the ocean, there are winds that come down from the mountains, etc. Land-sea breezes are caused by the different heating levels of land and the water. I did not know that heating characteristics could cause wind. I took a Walk to Remember approach to wind, thinking that it just was. After almost completely geography class, I know that the winds are caused by certain specific things in the weather. There are local winds, Katabatic winds, Monsoonal winds, etc. A lot of different things regarding the earth go into forming winds. I have found that wind a long with many other geographical features are caused by the combination of elements. Everything on Earth works together; without the world being in perfect sync our planet as we know it would not be functional.

Plate Tectonics

This last section of classes I have learned a lot about plate tectonics and how our earth moves. Earth is obviously continually moving. However, not only is the earth rotating, the ground underneath us is also moving. At one point all of the continents fit together in a giant mass called Pangaea. Plate tectonics and gravitational forces have caused the continents to shift and spread apart. There are three difference types of boundaries that are seen next to the borders of the continents. There are divergent, convergent, and transform boundaries. Each are different and apply to the crust differently. Divergent boundaries creat tension for the plates and in return cause earthquakes. The tension is so great that the plates can no longer take it and they begin to shake and move. This is going to become something that I will be dealing with very soon in my life. Next year I am moving to LA where the San Andreas fault is. Los Angeles is a city that gets hit by earthquakes a lot more often than Sacramento ever will. It's going to take a lot of years but, Southern California will one day be all the way where Alaska is currently. The plates continue to move, although slowly, and in millions of years our continents will look very different than they do today.

Volcanoes

I have been to Hawaii a number of times however, I have not been to the Big Island. The Big Island is where a great number of active volcanoes are. The Volcano Disaster Assistance Program was started in order to help those who have been hurt by volcanoes. Volcanoes have killed 29,000 people, which in the long span of things does not seem like a lot. But for volcanoes which there are not a lot of it kind of is. I am very interested in volcanoes because there are still a lot that are active. Those active ones are extremely dangerous and scientists can not be completely accurate when predicting when the next eruption will be. Something else that I am concerned with is earthquakes. Earthquakes are common in California. They are especially common in Southern California which is where I am moving next year. Understanding why earthquakes occur will help me be less scared about them.

Mesothermal climates vs. Microthermal climates

In my last blog, I briefly discussed the climate of Sacramento. It is a Mediterranean type climate which fits in the category of the Mesothermal climate. This means that it has mild-calm winters and hot dry summers. I have lived in Sacramento my whole life therefore, I believe that it is a really wonderful climate. I am on Spring Break right now and unlike the rest of the college-aged youth I went to a semi-cold place for my holiday. I was in New York on Saturday and stayed there for three days. Although we have passed the Spring Equinox on March 21st, it was freezing and rainy all during my stay there. This is due to it being in a Microthermal climate. They have a much greater seasonality than to Mesothermal climates. I have become used to the short mild winter of California and not the long, cold winter of much of the East Coast. I am now in Maryland, which is also a Microthermal climate, but the weather decided to change to warmer temperatures now. I am definitely not complaining about this! Being a California girl, I can not wait to return to my warm state and our Mesothermal conditions.

Climate

Living in Sacramento, I am used to mild winters and hot summers. Throughout the world there are different climates. Even in the United States we experience different climates from East Coast to West Coast. all of these climates are produced by different factors including insolation, temperature, air pressure, etc. Sacramento is part of the Mediterranean climate. Because I have lived here my whole life I am biased towards this climate. I think that our mild winters (compared to that of the East Coast and other parts of the world) is wonderful! Although we have extremely hot summers, I think I prefer them over wet hot summers as found in the Tropical climates. However, I think that it would be nice to experience life in a Tropical Rainforest because the weather is always warm and consistent. It is also interesting to me that climate, weather, and what we do with the environment affects what can grow and what kind of animals can live in the area. If we change what is naturally found in an area the ecosystem will be greatly influenced. Plants and animals have a natural way of progressing and living but, with our current rising climates our ecosystems are in danger.

Clouds!

This past week in Sacramento we have been experience a lot of rough weather. It is nearing spring and the Spring equinox yet, there is still a lot of rain. There were a lot Stratus clouds, which are dull and gray clouds. There were also nimbostratus clouds for most of the days where there was rain. The nimbosratus clouds are clouds that contain precipitation. My favorite type of clouds are cumulus clouds because they look soft and would be fun to touch. I think that cumulus clouds are the best clouds because when having a picnic they are they type of clouds that you can "see" pictures in.
Another type of weather that I have recently learned about in my geography class is fog. Before my class, I never knew why fog existed. I always thought of it as a stupid thing that makes it hard to drive in. Although, it is still this, I now understand why fog exists. Fog is formed when air temperature and the dew-point temperature at the ground is the same. My sister's fiance lives in Visalia and the drive there at certain times contains so much fog! I always get worried about her when she is going there or coming home. Fog is a dangerous thing.

Number one!

On the first day of class, I learned that the earth is an open and closed system. It is an open system in regards to energy and a closed system in regards to material. I found that this is how people are as well. By thinking this way it allowed me to better understand the systems theory. I think that people are like an open system because we take many things from other people and those things effect who we are and what we become. Open systems work this way as well. The earth takes energy from the sun which allows it to maintain all of it's necessary functions. If people were not open systems then we would never learn from each other . We are also a closed system because some people can be very private and keep to themselves without sharing with the world.

Another thing that I thought about after class that I had heard about in lectures was the Tropics. In class I learned that at the Tropic of Capricorn (25.5 degrees south) the days are often long at a specific time of year. I went to the Caribbean over the summer and it was very warm but, I did not notice whether the days seemed longer than what I was used to. Actually, i really was not paying attention to the days at all; however, if I went back again I would pay more attention to some of the geographic principles that i have now learned.