Earth, Moon and Mars: How They Work

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Earth, Moon and Mars How They Work
Professor Michael Wysession Department of Earth
and Planetary Sciences Washington University, St.
Louis, MO Lecture 4 Earths Water Cycle
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Water Exists at Earths surface in all 3 phases
(and has for Billions of Years!) Has many
important properties.
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Water movement, in km3/year.
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Deep Earth water cycle
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Water Reservoirs (near surface)
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Water circulation Connected to atmospheric
circulation
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Atmospheric circulation with no planetary
rotation.
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Average annual solar radiation received at the
surface, in Watts/meter2 Q? Why is peak not
always at the equator?
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Average annual solar radiation received at the
surface, in Watts/meter2 Q? Why is peak not
always at the equator? A Clouds
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Distribution of the worlds arid regions
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Dendritic pattern of stream tributaries
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Major drainage basins of the world
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Idealized Stream Gradient
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Idealized Stream Gradient
Mostly erosion
Erosion and deposition
Mostly deposition
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Stream down-cutting works together with mass
wasting
Makes a V-shaped Valley!
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Stream Valley
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Flood Plain
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Downcutting
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Headward Erosion
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Grand Canyon
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Stream velocities fastest at the outside of a turn
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Development of stream meanders and oxbow lakes
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Stream Meanders
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Lakes and Ponds (Fill-in quickly through
sedimentation)
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1993 Flood Missouri, Mississippi, and Illinois
Rivers
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1993 Flood Missouri River
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Nile Delta
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Birdfoot Delta Mississippi River
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Birdfoot Delta Mississippi River
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• Shoreline Battleground
• Tectonics, Stream Valleys, Sea-level rise make
  shorelines jagged.
• Wave action Ocean Currents make them straight
  again.

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Chesapeake Bay
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Chesapeake Bay Why is it is even there?
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Chesapeake Bay Why is it is even there? A 35.5
Ma Impact Crater!
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Cape Cod What is the prevailing direction of
ocean currents?
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Cape Cod What is the prevailing direction of
ocean currents?
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East Coast Inland Waterway
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Water Table Similar to surface, but smoother
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Water Table can change with the seasons
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Whole crust and mantle beneath the water table is
saturated, though porosity is greatest at the top.
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Ogallala aquifer
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Ogallala aquifer contains water from Ice Age
runoff
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Caves form by dissolution when they are below the
water table (water tables high after Ice Ages)
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Typical cave features
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Cave Formations
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Sinkhole
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Karst region early development
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Karst region mature development
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Glacial Ice Budget
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(Note the change in color, top to bottom)
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Glacial movement flowing and sliding
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Alpine glacier features cirques, U-shaped
valleys, tributaries
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Fjord Glacial valley flooded by rising sea level
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Alpine glacier features lateral moraine
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Continental glacier features
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Glacial ponds (kettles)
Erratics boulders carried great distances within
the ice.
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Minnesota Land of Ten Thousand Lakes
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Terminal Moraines Ex/ Cape Cod and Long Island
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Antarctica
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Greenland
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Last Ice Age
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Glacial Loess Covers much of the Midwestern U.S.
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Giant glacial lakes often drained catastrophically
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Channeled Scablands Bursting of Glacial Lake
Missoula
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Inland Seas following Ice Age melting
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Ocean Contains most of surface water
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Sea water composition
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Average ocean surface currents (in
February-March). Currents determined by wind
patterns, Coriolis effect, and continental
outlines.
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GULF STREAM Brings Warm Currents to Europe
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Notice that Great Britain is at the same latitude
as Hudson Bay and southern Alaska.
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Who first mapped the Gulf Stream?
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Who first mapped the Gulf Stream? Ben Franklin
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Simplified conveyor belt of oceanic circulation.
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Atmosphere Rapid reduction in air pressure with
altitude.
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When I visited Disneyworld in the summer, people
told me that it always rains in the
afternoon. Why?
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The warm land air rises, causing condensation and
precipitation.
Convergence
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Air flow From high to low pressure regions
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(ITCZ Intertropical Convergence Zone)
Simplified air currents in January
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Simplified air currents in July
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Warm front arrives slowly and gradually
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Cold front tends to arrive quickly
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Hurricane Mitch, Oct., 1998
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Weather related deaths Flooding Yellow River
(China) 1931 (1-3.7 million) 1887 (1-2
million) 1332 (up to 7 million) Cyclone
Hurricanes Bangladesh Cyclone 1970
(500,000) India Cyclone 1839 (300,000) Typhoon
Nina (China) 1975 (229,000) (Included
catastrophic failure of the Banquio Dam most
died from ensuing epidemics) In Western
Hemisphere Great Hurricane of 1780
(Caribbean) (22,000) Hurricane Mitch (Honduras,
Nicaragua) 1998 (18,277) For scale, Hurricane
Katrina, 2005 (1836)