Name______
Geography 15 Google Earth Shoreline Assignment (Lab 14)
First, Google Earth is available on the computers in SCI 316. Or another professor can let you in. Google Earth is also available for a free download to your own computer http://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/agree.html
The easiest way to open the Google Earth program on a computer that has the software installed is just to double-click on a Google Earth file. “Shorelines.kmz” is posted on the website. If you double-click on that file, it will open Google Earth. Spend 5 minutes or so just getting used to the ways that you can “fly around” in Google Earth. In the upper right of your screen, there are 3 different semi-transparent controls. You can alter the direction you are looking, the pitch (looking down vs looking ahead), and the zooming using these controls and your mouse. So for a few minutes just mess around with the software.
To “reset” your perspective, look on a panel on the left side of the screen that says “Places”. If you double-click on any of the features there, it will reset you to look at that feature. If there is a “+” mark to the left of “Shorelines.kmz”, click the plus to expand the choices of features you can zoom in to. In this lab, you will be double clicking on specific placemarks and then answering questions about those locations. Also, by clicking on the clock icon at the top of the screen, you can look at imagery from a specific date.
I have put figures at the end of this file that will make answering the questions possible. Here is a description of those figures:
For the first figure, “Longshore Current and Beach Drift”, what is shown here is that when waves hit a shoreline at an angle, the in-and-out process of the waves breaking results in sand being transported along the shoreline, in a process known as “longshore drift”. If you can see the direction the waves are hitting the shoreline, you can guess the direction that the sand is being transported.
Shorelines can broadly be divided into “emergent” and “submergent” coastlines based on if the land is being lifted up or. Uplift of land occurs over very long geologic timescales, and is responsible for hills, mountains, and other features. If the land is being lifted up, the coastline is considered emergent, and the major processes that occur along the coast will be erosional, as the waves cut into and break up the newly exposed shore. If there is not much uplift, the coastline will be rather low-lying, and the major processes occurring will be “depositional” features where waves deposit sand.
The second figure shows an emergent coastline, where uplift exposes the land to the force of the waves, and “terraces”, or flat areas are prevalent features. Multiple terraces represent multiple periods of uplift.
The third figure shows a depositional coastline. This coastline is not experiencing much uplift, instead the features you see are characteristic of sand deposited in the area.
The fourth and final figure shows what is going on in the “littoral zone”, which just means that it’s right along the coast. This figure isn’t as important as the other ones, but do check out the terrace in this figure. By imagining the ground being lifted up by strong tectonic forces, see if you can imagine a terrace from figure 2 being created as the terrace from figure 4 is left high and dry.
Name______
Geography 15 Google Earth Shoreline Assignment (Lab 14)
Location 1: Sandy Point, Kiawah Island, South Carolina
1. Is the landform erosional, or depositional? (circle one). What evidence can you provide to support your answer?
2. Referring to imagery from 2003 (use the clock icon which is near the measuring tool to select imagery from a specific time), what term best describes the landform at A and B? ______
3. Do you think the general direction of longshore current and beach drift is to the left or the right near point A? Why?
4. Zoom out to an eye altitude of 20 or so miles (eye altitude is at the bottom right of the screen). What is the most likely source of the sand that this landform is composed of?
Location 2: Coastal California, south of Montana De Oro State Park
5. Is the area here an emergent or submergent coastline? (circle one). What evidence can you provide to support your answer?
6. Using Nov 2004 imagery, study the appearance of the sea within 100–200 meters of the shore (around locations A and B). Does the depth of the water appear to be relatively deep, or shallow? (circle one) around those locations? Does the water depth appear to be relatively constant in the immediate area, or does it seem to get deeper with increasing distance from shore? (circle one).
7. What term best describes the seafloor at placemarks A and B?
8. What term best describes the landforms at the placemarks labeled D?
9. Describe the topography of the land surface in the areas around placemarks labeled C.
10. What is the average elevation of those areas (move your cursor over them and check the bottom of the screen)? ______
11. How are the spires of rock at placemark E related to the landforms at placemarks D?
12. What term best describes the relatively flat surfaces at A and B, C, and F?