Climate Change

What I wanted to talk about this week as evidence of climate change in my life is the water lever at  Lake Mead.  I grew up going to this lake and had the opportunity to see all the changes from its continuously dropping levels. here is a picture from 2001 and one from 2015


My family moved to the area in 2000, We loved to go to the lake with our boat and during the summer went at least 20 times every year. Over the years we would be unable to go to our favorite spots because the water level kept on dropping.

There is a lot of factors on why the lake level fell but the main two are: a drought in the western part of the USA. The second being the increase of population in AZ and Cal. With out sufficient rainfall the reservoir kept on providing water to the surrounding communities.

So I could not figure out how to label and trace. But I did find out that the Highest point of the ridge is 7713', I also found out the the Mid Atlantic Ridge is part of the longest mountain range in the world.

https://www.abc4.com/news/local-news/5-7-earthquake-reported-in-magna/

So I actually felt the earth quake this morning at 7:10 AM it woke me up! Crazy stuff! I looked into why we get earth quakes here in Utah. What I have found is that even though we don't have a boundary near us they come from the activity from the Pacific plate along the plate margin on the west coast of the United States. This movement is what causes fault breaks on the Wasatch front.

Earthquakes in My Area

Currently I live in Orem UT and the earthquake activity is extremely low. There hasn't been a large earthquake in the area for a long time.

What surprised me about the area was the unknown active volcano that is really close to my house. Now I want to go and visit these sites to learn more about them and take pictures.

Black Rock Desert is only 3 hours away from my home this looks like a great place to check out.

From studying the files on google earth I still feel safe living where I live and have noted some places that I may not want to live like California. I know the risk is small there but you would need to pay for insurance and the cost of living there is way to high. 

Week W09 

So I love going to the dunes here in Utah. I go to Little Sahara located in central Utah and is a large sand dune area that people love to take their ATVs and motorcycles to.  So for this week I am going to post about Sediment Transportation in sand dunes. 

What is unique of the Little Sahara dunes is that they have a large mix of pure sand and vegetation. This limits the erosion on the mountain in the center of the dunes but the rest of the area has pure sand. This allows the area to stay the same in one area and the surrounding area changes all the time. This makes it a fun place to go ride.

 

Let me tell you a story about Watt the water bug. Watt has seen many things in his lifetime but this experience he will never forget. It all started in his favorite cavern He loved the dark and there was water there. He also loved the geodes that he would crawl in and out of near the water's edge. During this time is when things got crazy. Watt thought he was in a geode when suddenly he found himself in a geyser! Hot water surrounded him and up he went to the surface. After falling into a nearby spring He was happy to be back in regular water. Watt knew that he needed to get back to his own water table so He started looking for any type of well, sinkhole, any kind of opening in the earth's surface. With no luck finding a way back to Watt's original groundwater He was feeling hopeless but pressed on! To his luck he found a new cave! This one being better than his last home because it had stalagmite. Watts was the happiest water bug ever!

Say hi to Watts the water bug

Here is the link https://www.ajnews.com/news/county/landslides-close-sr--from-tortilla-flat-to-roosevelt-lake/article_01120fda-e49c-11e9-8e4f-bb6f3165f895.html

This was a landslide in AZ that blocked a state highway to tortilla flat to Roosevelt Lake. IT was caused by a monsoon rain storm that came in august of 19 but was prepped by a forest fire earlier that year. With little vegetation the ground was ready to move with the water.