Deserts, Glaciers and Climate
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- Date Submitted: 03/25/2011 04:34 PM
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Deserts, Glaciers and Climate
Deserts and glaciers are the two most disparate examples of Earth’s climate. However, they are linked not only by their diverse beauty and extreme climates, but also by severe erosional forces and by the fact that they are possibly the most important indicators of Earth’s climate changes.
Deserts are not necessarily just the barren oceans of sand, such as the Sahara Desert of Northern Africa, which has figured so prominently in movies and on television. There are also polar deserts, where the snow builds up into thick ice sheets the way sand can build up into enormous dunes. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of the word “desert” is “an arid land with usually sparse vegetation and receiving less than 25 centimeters of rainfall annually”. The ice sheets that form over large areas of land, such as those located at the North and South poles, Greenland and Antarctica, are also considered continental glaciers.
Both deserts and glaciers create landforms by erosion and by deposition. In the desert, landforms such as sand dunes, mesas, and buttes are formed by erosion and deposition – the wind picks up fine, loose particles of sand and gradually erodes the softer surfaces of large rock, forming them into angular, fantastic rock formations. The larger, heavier particles are deposited in depressions in the ground or sheltered areas near cliffs to form sandy dunes. The dunes of the Sahara desert are also formed by wind. Dune formation is also called surface-creep. This is the transportation of particles of sand along the ground by wind.
In the glacial environment, landforms are also created by erosion and deposition. As the glacier moves along the ground, the weight and movement of the ice scrapes the material beneath it, leaving marks as small as a scratch on a rock, or gouging out areas as large as a lake. The material that is eroded by the ice is carried along with it and is...
Deserts and glaciers are the two most disparate examples of Earth’s climate. However, they are linked not only by their diverse beauty and extreme climates, but also by severe erosional forces and by the fact that they are possibly the most important indicators of Earth’s climate changes.
Deserts are not necessarily just the barren oceans of sand, such as the Sahara Desert of Northern Africa, which has figured so prominently in movies and on television. There are also polar deserts, where the snow builds up into thick ice sheets the way sand can build up into enormous dunes. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of the word “desert” is “an arid land with usually sparse vegetation and receiving less than 25 centimeters of rainfall annually”. The ice sheets that form over large areas of land, such as those located at the North and South poles, Greenland and Antarctica, are also considered continental glaciers.
Both deserts and glaciers create landforms by erosion and by deposition. In the desert, landforms such as sand dunes, mesas, and buttes are formed by erosion and deposition – the wind picks up fine, loose particles of sand and gradually erodes the softer surfaces of large rock, forming them into angular, fantastic rock formations. The larger, heavier particles are deposited in depressions in the ground or sheltered areas near cliffs to form sandy dunes. The dunes of the Sahara desert are also formed by wind. Dune formation is also called surface-creep. This is the transportation of particles of sand along the ground by wind.
In the glacial environment, landforms are also created by erosion and deposition. As the glacier moves along the ground, the weight and movement of the ice scrapes the material beneath it, leaving marks as small as a scratch on a rock, or gouging out areas as large as a lake. The material that is eroded by the ice is carried along with it and is...