Future Changes In Australia's Landscape

Australia is known to have a wide variety of landscape including many different aspects that can alter the way these landscapes were formed. From major dust storms forming Haboobs (dust walls) to mountains shaped by plate tectonics. As seen throughout this Australian geography blog, the formations are subject to change through numerous processes that weather produces. All of the processes displayed have already undergone some type of weathering to be formed the way that they are today. Ayers rock could be weathered within the next 1000000 years until there is nothing left of it.

Ayers rock has undergone processes such as salt weathering
which eats away at the rock and can form Tafoni and Alveoli
(large and small holes). The rock also could have had mass
wasting events where large parts of the rock and debris slid
down the side. Ayers rock also could have numerous Joints
that allow the rock to decay. 
Photo Credit:http://cache.desktopnexus.com/thumbnails/1212365-bigthumbnail.jpg  

Australia's landscape has become very vast and differentiates itself from other areas due to the variety of physical geography. There are many rain forests, mountain ranges, rock formations, caves, volcanoes, and weather formations. This variety allows for great predictions on what the landscapes might look like 1000, 10000, and 1000000 years from now. The Imbil State Forest is a prime example to predict what events could change in 1000 years from now. The mountains in this area could have been formed from plate tectonics rising up the land, however, this transport limited landscape may undergo numerous weathering processes. The mountains may experience a mass wasting event where rock and debris break free from the landscape and slide down the mountain. In 1000 years from now this forest and mountain range may be much flatter, also vegetation may become limited due to climate. climate changes 1000 years from now may change the availability to grow certain plants or trees. Australia also has opposite seasons due to its locations south of the equator, which could effect the way vegetation grows 10000 and especially 1000000 years from now.

Imbil State Forest in Australia
Photo Credit:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbeBYyCIDOIB2OMR3ijvCwuT1vaDDRjKnhrtSSyuqe6TtjoEE6dXUGWloaF7t_ZaCoeRtr2nIekqjD9zxc9CRZid-PVXf91c5GG8-PZMeAT5lq4rd4wwtH_H5oZ-hu_D79s01HoU3ZS0M/s320/Imbil+4.jpg 

Mass wasting event causing land mass to fall down the
mountain side severely changing the landscape. This type
of event can also change the way that vegetation grows due
to the altered landscape. The plants and trees may grow
roots that will now curve to grow straight up.
Photo Credit :http://geology.campus.ad.csulb.edu/people/bperry/Mass%20Wasting/LaConchitaAerialPhota4AllenK.jpg 





  
Koeppen's Climate Classification displaying the current climtates, however,
with many factors Australian climate may change drastically over the next
1000,10000, and 1000000 years from now.
Photo Credit:http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/images/climate_map.gif 

Another landscape of Australia that may have serious physical changes in the coming years would be the numerous caves. The Jenolan Caves of Australia have been formed by dissolution (breakdown in chemicals) of limestone and have carved out landscapes that today are thriving. 1000, 10000, and 1000000 years from now that story may not be true anymore as weathering processes take over and possibly extremely alter these formations. Due to the fact that these caves are produced by (dissolution) there is nothing to stop this process from completely altering the state of the cave years from now. The dissolution may continue until the cave is hollowed out, and in 1000000 years from now could collapse and no longer even exist. Another process that would change the aspects of these caves in the future I predict would be salt weathering. Salt would collect water and expand and contract causing new joints in the cave and within 1000 years from now much of these caves would end up where the visitors are supposed to walk. The salt weathering would cause fissures and crack the landmasses apart. In 1000 years from now these caves would probably be more hallow. In 10000 years from now I predict them to be harder to access and rocks would be breaking apart. In 1000000 years from now I predict that this landscape would cave in and no longer be accessible at all. 

The Jenolan Caves of Australia being accessed today, however, in 1000000
years from now this landscape may completely being caved in.
Photo Credit:http://www.jenolancaves.org.au/images/slider/caves.jpg  

Salt Weathering that may cause the caves
and landmasses to decay and change
dramatically over the next 1000000 years.
Photo Credit:http://www.kwaad.net/Tropez_4jpg.jpg 

The landscapes of Australia as proven above were formed through different types of weathering. Along with the formation of these areas new processes will drastically alter their physical state. These landscapes have evidence that they have changed already from thousands of years past and continue to prove themselves to be changing even more. More events either eat away at these landscapes or build them up. For example although I believe Ayers rock shows evidence that it will decay and weather, the underlying ground may have a change in plate tectonics and raise the rock higher at the same time. The landscapes show substantial evidence of weathering and future change and I believe that 1000,10000, and 1000000 years into the future these land masses will be completely different from what we see today. At the same time new landscapes continue to be formed through the same processes and amazing structures will be revealed through the factors of physical geography.

Climate and Weather

The climate and weather of Australia has much variety. While most of the climate is Subtropical Desert (BWh on Koppen Scheme), it differs in come coastal areas. Due to the desert climate there have been major dust storms in western Australia. Haboobs(dust walls) signal air being forced out of a storm and hitting the ground forming the wall, behind comes a massive collaboration of dust and dirt.

Haboob in western Australia. This wall of dust is due to air being forced out of the coming storm ahead of the rest of the storm. Particles of all sorts fill the air while the sky appears to be filled with Nimbostratus clouds.
Photo Credit: http://www.sciencemediacentre.co.nz/wp-content/upload/2009/09/red-dust.jpg

Nimbostratus clouds are low layered, usually rain filled clouds. The base height (bottom of cloud) can be as low as 2000m. The base of the cloud is where the Dew Point is located. The Dew point is where relative humidity's goal is to reach 100 percent.

Nimbostratus clouds, layered and low almost featureless rain clouds. 

Photo Credit:http://www.2d-digital-art-guide.com/images/paintnimbostratusclouds4.jpg

Flat cloud base representing the Dew Point.

Valley Fog is another type of cloud that contains water located very close to the earths surface.

Valley Fog containing water droplets lays over the mountains in the Imbil State Forest in Australia.

Photo Credit: http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/72929370.jpg

There are numerous types of storms that occur in Australia due to its varying climate and weather. Many of these are thunderstorms which produce a wide variety of lightning. Lightning is the product of positive and negative charges that are in excess, being discharged from mainly Cumulonimbus clouds. Lightning can travel in three directions such as from cloud to cloud, cloud to ground, and intracloud. The part of lightning that we are not able to see is the Stepped Leader. The Stepped Leader is the very fast lightning bolt that searches for attracting charges from another source such as the ground.  

Above is an example of Zigzag lightning hitting from cloud to ground in Sydney Australia. Zigzag lightning is produced by air between the cloud and the ground that holds pockets of charge. These charges create bolts that move along the ground from pocket to pocket.

Photo Credit: http://www.lovethesepics.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/australia.jpg

Another form of lightning that occurs in Australia is Forked lightning. Below is an example of Forked lightning at Ayers Rock in Australia. 

Forked cloud to ground lightning at Ayers Rock in Australia. Forked lightning forms when there is an overage of negative charge in the end of a bolt that can split apart in midair to form two more bolts. 

Sources

• http://clasfaculty.ucdenver.edu/callen/1202/Climate/Weather/Weather.html
• http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa011700b.htm

Weathering

The continent of Australia contains many sings of weathering landscapes. A main process in which weathering takes place is called jointing. Joints are cracks in rocks which split the rock to allow further weathering processes to take place.

The picture captures numerous joints (cracks) in the rock, pointing to signs that this landscape has been physically weathered.
Photo Credit: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFFqmqQpXhg0BRCi59wnlNYUOKIlsXtyyt5980s-FxPhjlDt6WT6HEERmtLDIml8tdqmXvxlaFtE7S38ddVG_PhriLjzj2IKm1ma8cpgyzhME0dQQkbBIkUvp6V4pH_DVjfcBYQmQnJu6U/s400/dike-Wolf-Creek-zoom.jpg

Ayers Rock (also known as Uluru) is a large sandstone rock in central Australia. The rock is known to have very little jointing. The survival of the rock is due to the lack of scree slopes and soil allowing it to stretch over 5.8 miles today. Scree (talus) is the accumulation of broken rocks or sediment around the base of a rock. 

A far look at Ayers Rock, showing the lack of joints and scree.

Photo Credit: http://britishfreedom.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/ayers-rock.jpg 

Another form of physical weathering takes place with the introduction of salt. Salt, being able to hold water, can expand and contract rocks forming splits or joints. It can also form small or large holes in the rock called alveoli (small) or tafoni (large). To the right is a picture illustrating the examples of salt weathering.

Ayers rock displays both large scale tafoni on the bottom half of  the rock to the right, and small scale alveoli in the center of the picture.  The white hues of the rock are signs of salt weathering creating these cavernous structures.

Photo Credit: http://www.themikezone.co

Chemical weathering is another process that can decompose rocks and minerals. A common type of chemical weathering takes place through the process of dissolution. Dissolution created the Jenolan Caves of Australia illustrated in the picture below. Dissolution of limestone (most common) breaks down the chemicals in the rock to make carbonic acid. After this process they start to dissolve the limestone creating these large caves.

The Jenolan Caves illustrate the chemical process of dissolution. These caves stretch over 40 kilometers long and are still being explored today.

Photo Credit: http://dawsosblog.edublogs.org/files/2011/10/Katoomba-Jenolan-Caves-01-1zfhhz6.jpg

The chemical process of dissolution

• Carbonic acid development

• Dissolution of limestone

Photo credits: carbonicacid.gif, dissolution.gif

Sources

• http://www.crystalinks.com/ayersrock.html
• http://www.jenolancaves.org.au/about/geology-of-limestone-caves/cave-formations-speleothems/

Volcanism and Faulting

The Australian Alps stretch across the southeastern border of Australia creating high plateau like mountains. The Australian Alps were formed by the splitting apart or divergent plates of a supercontinent called Gondwana (India, Australia, Antarctica, and Zealandia) 160 million years ago. Extension faults (where the earth crust of the earth pulls apart) formed between Australia and Zealandia as magma from the asthenosphere (partially molten second layer of earth) uplifted the earths crust (lithosphere or top layer) and formed new rock. The faults caused a rift valley (low and usually water filled land) to form between the continents and the Tasman sea (body of water between Australia and Zealandia) expanded in between the two continents drifting them apart. The western scarp (face of the newly faulted land mass) of the split continents left behind what was the start of the Australian Alps. Over time erosion (weathering) played the role of carving out the rest of the Australian Alps.

Photo Credit:
http://www.australianalps.environment.gov.au/nature/geology.html 

Australian Alps
Photo Credit:
http://www.undurraarabians.com.au/home/images/stories/location/mthotham.jpg

Australia contains many extinct volcanoes and only two remaining active volcanoes on Australian territory (Big Ben and Mawson Peak). Australia's Western Victorian Volcanic Plains are one of the most volcano dense on the continent and third largest in the world. Around 400 volcanoes exist in this region, mainly cinder cones (extrusive volcanic landforms) that have produced large basaltic (low viscosity) lava flows. Viscosity measures the thickness of a liquid and basaltic lava having low viscosity, is very thick and slow moving. Mt Noorat is a cinder cone that exploded pyroclastics (tephra) out with a basaltic lava flow, leaving a (Maar eruption) crater that dives down lower than the surrounding plain of the volcano. Tephra comes in many forms including ash, small grainy deposits, and large rocks or bombs. A Maar eruption occurs when groundwater collides with lava or magma. The volcano is estimated to be formed between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago with a crater 159 meters deep. The Western Victorian Volcanic Plains contain many types of extinct volcanoes that have erupted forming this vast expanse of basaltic rock and sediment.       

Western Victorian Volcanic Plains
Photo Credit:
http://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S1871101409001150-gr1.jpg

Mt Noorat
Photo Credit:
http://www.visit12apostles.com.au/media/operator_import/92066_48b77b8615d1b_MtNooratA28_640x480.jpg

Aerial tour of Mt Noorat

Kilauea Volcano Basalt Lava Flow

Video Credit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hE2DZdl0IA

Solidified Basaltic Lava

Photo Credit:

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/education/fieldtrips/2006/explorations/images/basalt_lava_flow.jpg

Sources

• http://www.visitterang.com/MountNooratWalk.php
• http://vro.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/vro/glenregn.nsf/pages/eruption_points_noorat
• http://home.iprimus.com.au/foo7/volcmap.html
• http://www.australianalps.environment.gov.au/nature/geology.html
• http://www.australianalps.environment.gov.au/learn/pubs/geology.pdf

Introduction

My name is Matthew Ammon and this blog is created for Physical Geography 1202.

Territories of Australia
Photo credit: http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/time-zone/australia/_derived/_txt_australia-map.gif

The location I have chosen for my blog is the outback country of Australia. The reason I chose Australia is due to the diverse physical geography that it offers. Australia is divided into seven different territories, each with distinct differences in its physical characteristics. From the Australian Alps in the southeast to desert climates in the west and everything in between, Australia has much to offer in geographical research. Although I have never been to Australia, I believe that it is a geographical location that is viewed in a very biased perspective. I am interested in learning the diverse physical geography that Australia truly has to offer and depicting it through this blog.  

The Australian Alps
Photo credit: http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/04/115404-004-55B542FD.jpg

                                                                                                                                    

The Deserts of Australia
Photo credit: http://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com/image-files/australian-deserts.jpg

Daintree Rainforest
Photo credit: http://www.jennifermarohasy.com//archives/Daintree%20Rainforest.jpg