geography database

Plate Tectonics:
- Continental Crust: 35 - 40 km, reaching 60 - 70 km under mountains
- Oceanic Crust: 6 - 10 km
- Continental Crust: >1500 million years
- Oceanic Crust: <200 million years
- Mid-Atlantic Ridge: 1000 km wide, 2500 m height
- Afar Triple Junction: Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, East African Rift Valley
- African Plate: Somali Plate & Nubian Plate
- Japan: Pacific under Eurasian
- Andes: Nazca under S American
- Himalayas: Eurasian Plate overriding Indian Plate
- San Andreas Fault: Pacific (6cm/year) & N American (1cm/year)
- Basaltic: <50% SiO2
- Andesitic: >55% SiO2
- Rhyolitic: >70% SiO2
- Pyroclastic Flow: 100km/h, overcome 1000m high topography
- Kilauea (1986): 2000 tons of SO2 daily
- Laki Fissure (1783): 80 million tons of SO2
- Mt Etna (1983): detonation of explosives
- Heimaey (1973): water sprays
- Mt Iwate: awareness posters
- Pinatubo (1991): 200,000 evacuated, Philippines Institute of Volcanology and
Seismology (PHIVOLCS)
- Nevado Del Ruiz (1985): 23,000 death toll
- Mt St Helens (1980): 62 dead; pyroclastic flow reached 80 mph
- Richter Scale: logarithmic; each unit = 31.5-fold increase in energy
- Mexico City (1985): 8.1; 7400 buildings damaged
- 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami: 230,000 dead
- Haiti (2011): 7.0; 316,000 dead
- San Francisco (1906): 90% damage from fires
Weathering:
- Vant Hoffs Law: rate of chemical reaction doubles every 10C
Mass Movement:
- Vaiont Dam landslide (1963)
- Aberfan, Wales (1996)
Atmosphere:
- ELR: 6.4C/1000m
- DALR: 9.8C/1000m
- SALR: 4C/1000 (warm air), 9C/1000m (cold air)
- 30% reflected, 20% absorbed by clouds and atmos., 50% absorbed by land & oceans
- North Atlantic Current (clockwise in N Hem), Kuroshio Current (North Pacific)
- N Hem Winter: Siberian High, Canadian High (land), Aleutian Low, Icelandic Low (Ocean)
- N Hem Summer: low over Afghanistan, Azores High (Atlantic), Hawaiian High (Pacific)
- Polar Jet moves south (winter) - leaves depression - 1987 England storms
- Polar Jet moves north (summer) - leaves blocking anticyclones - 1976 UK hot summer

Climate:
- Tropical Rainforest: 10N and S
- total annual rainfall >2500 mm/year
- Tropical Monsoon: 5 to 25 N and S
- Tropical Desert: 15 to 25 N and S
- annual temp range 20-30C, diurnal range over 50C
Drought:
- El Nino (1997-98): March - Peru received equivalent of 6mths rain every day for 12 days
- El Nino (1982-83): drought in E. Australia - 2000mil loss in agriculture
- El Nino (1997-98): droughts in Australia, India, Southern Africa
- El Nino (1991-92): worst drought of 20th century in southern Africa - affected 100m ppl
- La Nina (2012 Paraguay drought): 60% crops lost, soy production cut half
- 2012 US drought: Arctic Oscillation & North Atlantic Oscillation in positive phase
- removed winter storms - no snowmelt
- covers 80% of US
- global warming: 98mm decrease in precipitation in northern tropics
- 1950-1980 Brazil drought: migration of 5.5 million people
- Australia: National Drought Policy (1992) - Drought Statement (>3 mth), Drought Watch
- UK drought 2006: water metering
- global warming: Sahel rainfall reduced by up to 25% by 2100
- Sahel: 100,000 - 250,000 drought-related deaths from 1968-1973
- Chad: temperature reached 47.6C
- Australia: federal takeover of Murray-Darling Basin, A$6bn modernize irrigation
Tropical Cyclone:
- 5 - 20 N and S
- SST > 27C
- warm water at least 150 feet
- RH > 60%
- National Hurricane Centre (NHC): Hurricane Watch, Hurricane Warning
- QuikScat (measure near-surface wind and dir)
- National Flood Insurance Program - classify flood zones
- Typhoon Warning Signals (HK)
- Katrina (2005): $108bn USD, 1833 dead, 80% New Orleans flooded, 50 levees failed, 7
mil gallons of oil, 360000 fled New Orleans
- Federal Emergency Management Authority
- Nargis (2008): 138,000 dead, Irrawaddy Delta, Bay of Bengal, 75% local health facilities
destroyed
- Bangladesh: 2 planes, hundreds of aid workers
- India: Operation Sahayata (2 ships, 2 aircraft, 100 tons relief matl)
- 1970 Bangladesh: 85% homeless
Microclimates:
- daytime temperature on average 0.6C higher in urban areas, night-time: 3-4C higher
- 3 - 7 times more dust particles
- 200 times more sulfur dioxide

Climate Change:
- global average for 2005 was 14.76C and 14.73C for 2007 - two warmest since records
- IPCC predicts a global warming of 1.5 - 4.5C by 2100
- by early 1980s, 20,000 million tons of CO2 added annually
- deforestation - decline in photosynthesis + CO2 from combustion
- accounts for 20% of anthropogenic CO2 annually
- IPCC: 18cm sea level rise by 2030, 44 cm by 2070
- rise of 1 m = disappearance of Maldives
- world cereal production 1-7% lower in 2060 as compared to without anthropogenic
climate change
- renewable energy provides 18% of total electricity generation worldwide
- 20% in Denmark, 100% in Iceland, 85% in Brazil
- natural gas emits 60% of CO2 of fossil fuels
- UK: Department of Energy - new buildings to have 20% improvement in energy efficiency
(1990)
- Montreal Protocol (1990)
- carbon dioxide concentrations 380 parts per million - highest in 650,000 years - could
reach 450-550 ppm by 2050
- Great Barrier Reef could lose 95% of living coral by 2050
- Venezuela: only 2 glaciers remain where there were 6 30 years ago
- Kilimanjaro: 75% of glacier retreated
- 15-37% species will go extinct (e.g. Hawaiian honeycreepers)
- 15% of Bangladesh may be inundated
- by 2050, rice in Bangladesh decline by 8%, wheat by 32% (vs 1990)
- allow malarial mosquitoes to expand range - 0.5C increase - 30-100% increase in
mosquito abundance
- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
- Kyotol Protocol (1990) - Annex I, non-Annex I
- Conference of Parties (COP)
- carbon trading - cap and trade
- European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS)
- Debt for Nature: US and Brazil (2010) - 21mil USD of Brazilian Debt - protect forests