38:169 Discovering Physical Geography Assignment

This is a required assignment for students in the 38:169 version of How Earth Works. The objectives of this assignment are to demonstrate your understanding of a selection of topics or concepts covered in this course by producing a series of five Wikipedia style entries focusing of the physical geography of a place of your choice. By “Wiki style”, I mean brief descriptive text accompanied by figures, tables, and illustrations (e.g. see the Wiki entry for Brandon, MB) The first three entries or parts will be assigned to you in Teams over the first couple of months of the course, after we have covered the relevant material in class. Parts 4 and 5 will be assigned in the last month and the topics covered will be selected by you and will depend on the unique characteristics of the place that you have selected.

Below are some instructions on how to begin by first selecting your place, followed by a brief overview of the five parts of this assignment. Further details will be provided when each part is assigned in Teams.  At the very bottom are some additional instruction of how to reference your work.

Step 1 – You can get started by selecting a place that you are interested in. You do not necessarily have to know anything about this place beforehand, in fact, it might be more interesting if you don’t. This place could be your home town, somewhere you have previously lived, or a place you have or would like to visit some day. It would be best if you selected a place such as a town, city, provincial or national park, or other relatively small locality rather than a state, province, country or other larger region that will have varying geographic characteristics due to its size.

Part 1 – The objective of this first assignment will be to introduce your place by writing an introductory paragraph that simply identifies the place you have selected and why. You will then describe its absolute and relative location (as discussed in Topic 2). You will include a location map and possibly one or more photos or other graphics. Your introduction should also include a brief description of the physical setting and the cultural and economic characteristics of your place. The total length of this first entry is not normally more than a couple of pages of double spaced text, not including the location map and other graphics.

Part 2 – In part two you will describe the seasonality of your place. Does it have a spring, fall, winter, and summer, or no real seasons? You will explain why with reference to the five “reasons for the seasons” discussed in Topic 3. You will also calculate the angle of the noon sun on the longest and shortest days of the year and include a sketch along with your calculations.

Part 3 – No matter what Place you have selected it will have a characteristic climate. As discussed in Topic 5, the most important element of climate is temperature. In Part 3 of the Discovering Physical Geography assignment you are going to described the factors that influence your Place’s diurnal, mean monthly, and mean annual temperatures. You will start by providing a concise overview of the primary factors that influence temperature. Then you will provide an overview of the other  local factors that also influence temperature and note how each influence the temperature of your Place, or not.

Parts 4 & 5 – As we progress through the remainder of the course you will learn about a variety of other topics in physical geography. Based on the unique characteristics of your place, you will select two of these topics to discuss in parts 4 and 5 of your assignment. I have provided a short, descriptive list of some of these other topics below, but any topic we discuss is class that is a characteristic of your place would be a good choice. Check with me if you are unsure.

List of Possible Topics

Energy Balances – Discuss the energy balance and net radiation expenditures at the place you have selected. If you can’t find actual data for your location you can discuss it in general terms similar to how we discussed the two sample stations (El Mirage, CA and Pitt Meadows, BC). For example, would the albedo be higher or lower than average resulting in more or less outgoing shortwave radiation? Is it a dry or wet location resulting in more or less net radiation being used for evaporating water? Would the Bowen ratio be high or low?

Atmospheric and Oceanic Circulation – Do unique regional or local scale atmospheric circulation patterns affect the climate of your location? For example, is the climate affected by a seasonal monsoon or local winds such as Chinooks or Katabatic winds. Do unusually warm or cold ocean currents moderate or otherwise affect the climate in a significant way?

Water Balance – Does the place you selected experience seasonal surpluses or deficits of water? How does this effect agriculture or runoff? To calculate the water balance you will need mean monthly precipitation and potential evapotranspiration data. If you can’t find these data for your exact location, try to find it for a nearby weather station. Precipitation should be easy to find but PE may not be available. Maybe you can find a completed water balance graph for a nearby location and analyze the graph as part of your discussion. Check first before you plan to select this as one of your five topics. You can use the sample water balance table and graph available here to help you with your calculations and when constructing your water balance graph. Alternatively, the location you selected may rely on groundwater for either drinking, industrial, or agricultural use. Perhaps their are issues with groundwater mining or contamination; these would also be interesting topics to discuss.

Tectonics, Earthquakes and Volcanism – Has the place you selected ever been “rocked” (pun intended) by an earthquake? Or , is it in a volcanically active zone? Based on your knowledge of tectonics and the forces and types of faults and volcanic activity operating at different plate boundaries you should be able to discuss the type of faulting and/or volcanic activity (explosive vs. effusive) associated with your place.

Weathering – Is the place you selected particularly susceptible to any of the weathering processes we discussed? Is it located in a region of karst topography or exhibit any other unique landforms associated with physical or chemical weathering?

Mass Movements – Mass movements affect many landscapes and places; not just mountainous ones. Has the place you selected ever experienced a mass wasting event? If so, discuss the type of mass wasting event that occurred in terms of the criteria we discuss in class.

Fluvial Processes and Landforms – Many towns and cities are located near rivers, since they have always provided a source of water and a means of transportation. Is your place located near a river? What is the channel morphology; is is braided or meandering? Is your place located in a floodplain or deeply incised river valley? Is it susceptible to flooding? If it is an urban place, how might urbanization have affected the recurrence and severity of flooding?

Glacial Processes and Landforms – Glaciers have had a significant impact of the types of landscapes and landforms characteristic of most northern latitudes in the northern hemisphere and many alpine regions worldwide. Has the place you selected been glaciated during the Pleistocene? What evidence of glaciation still exists? Can you describe any specified landforms or landscapes of a glacial origin?

Other Topics? – There are other chapters in your textbook that we do not focus on in this course; such as coastal and aeolian processes and landforms, weather systems and extreme weather (e.g. tornadoes and hurricanes), and soils. If the place you selected is either along a coastline or in a desert environment, experiences extreme weather events, or has some unique and important soil characteristics then you might want to consider including a topic related to these chapters. There may also be other topics related to physical geography that I have not included above that are unique to your place; if so please ask me about them and let’s see if they make sense to include as a topic.

How to Reference Your Information

References should be included for all figures, tables, diagrams, etc. that are not your own work, as well as all factual statements within the written text that would not be considered “common knowledge” with respect to the intended audience. The format and style used to cite and reference sources used to complete your work varies according to discipline and field of study. For this assignment, please consult Appendix E of the “Undergraduate Thesis Guidelines” for honors students in the Department of Geography and Environment for examples of how to include citations within your text and compile your list of references. The course textbook will probably be your primary source of information and when you reference it you should include the relevant page number(s).