The segment I want to start is sharing geologic images from Google Earth and explaining (through a geologists eyes) what I am visualizing. I am excited about this because not only do I get to share amazing images of geologic features, but I also get to learn more about a certain subject myself and sort of teach about it! Now just to be fair, if you Google "Google Earth geology" there are very good websites that are dedicated to providing overlays that have geologic maps, paleogeography maps, etc. I myself have downloaded these overlays, and I will likely use them in the future in my posts and I will make sure I tell you where I downloaded them.
The inaugural Google Earth image is from New Zealand where my wife and I recently vacationed. We visited Fox Glacier which is located on the western side of the southern island. As you can probably guess from the name, I am somehow convinced my wife to visit a glacier! I was super excited because my wife booked a helicopter ride for us onto the actual glacier! Regardless of what you study, this is definitely high on a list of what geologists dreams of geologic adventures. Unfortunately the day we were suppose to take off, there was a bad storm that resulted in a cancellation of the trip :(. As disappointed as I was, it was better to be safe then sorry when it came to a helicopter ride onto a glacier.
Fox Glacier is an ~13 km long glacier that is fed by alpine glaciers of the southern Alps. This glacier is one among a few glaciers that terminates in a lush rainforest. (Some information gathered from the Wikipedia page).
This image from Google Earth is looking approximately east at Fox Glacier. There are a few things on this photo that I labeled that are very interesting. The first are towards the top of the glacier you can see horizontal cracks in the glacier that are referred to as transverse crevasses. Transverse crevasses form in zones of longitudinal extension. The crevasses are transverse to the flow direction which in this image would be towards the bottom of the image. Another feature that I illustrated is called an arete. An arete is simply a a sharp mountain ridge that is usually created by the movement of glaciers. Now obviously there are many more glacial features on this image that can be identified, but I won't always describe everything in an image. If you have questions you can always post comments and then we can have discussions about additional features.
Well I had another set of images that I wanted to post that showed how the glacier has retreated from 2006 until 2013, but I am learning a new program and apparently only half of the image was saved. I will admit, I am feeling a little lazy and I do not feel like redoing the image. However if you go into Google Earth they have a great preference that allows you to compare satellite images from different years. I encourage you to look at this glacier or other glaciers to see if you can notice either the retreat or advance of glaciers.
If you are interested in viewing this glacier in Google Earth go to the following coordinates:
Fox Glacier is an ~13 km long glacier that is fed by alpine glaciers of the southern Alps. This glacier is one among a few glaciers that terminates in a lush rainforest. (Some information gathered from the Wikipedia page).
This image from Google Earth is looking approximately east at Fox Glacier. There are a few things on this photo that I labeled that are very interesting. The first are towards the top of the glacier you can see horizontal cracks in the glacier that are referred to as transverse crevasses. Transverse crevasses form in zones of longitudinal extension. The crevasses are transverse to the flow direction which in this image would be towards the bottom of the image. Another feature that I illustrated is called an arete. An arete is simply a a sharp mountain ridge that is usually created by the movement of glaciers. Now obviously there are many more glacial features on this image that can be identified, but I won't always describe everything in an image. If you have questions you can always post comments and then we can have discussions about additional features.
Well I had another set of images that I wanted to post that showed how the glacier has retreated from 2006 until 2013, but I am learning a new program and apparently only half of the image was saved. I will admit, I am feeling a little lazy and I do not feel like redoing the image. However if you go into Google Earth they have a great preference that allows you to compare satellite images from different years. I encourage you to look at this glacier or other glaciers to see if you can notice either the retreat or advance of glaciers.
If you are interested in viewing this glacier in Google Earth go to the following coordinates:
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