Geo Pr 2: Power of Nature

Geo Pr 2: Power of Nature

Chart/Report on terms (all)
Slide show on one phenomenon
Speech
Slide show to accompany speech
Bibliography (all outside sources used)
Time Log (hours spent on each section) / 20/25
18/20
20/25
18/20
5/5
5/5
/100
COMMENTS:
Time / Working On
7-715 / Project plan
715-735 / Step one
735-8 / Chart
300-400 / Step two – power point - Earthquakes
215-315 / Step two – power point - Earthquakes
835-940 / Step two – power point - Earthquakes
140-250 / Step two – power point - Earthquakes
305-315 / Step three - research
230-650 / Step three – research & power point
1125-1250 / Step three – power point
915-1120 / Step three - speech
2. Next, you will research El Nina/El Nino (Try Google...and use only articles about the Western World).You can also use some of the information found in the links below:


Your task is to imagine you are asked to speak to a group of Junior High students, explaining the weather phenomenons of El Nina/El Nino.
Yourspeech will be thoroughly researched, but will be written in simple enough language for your audience to understand and define the what, where, who, when and why.
Your speech should be about 2-4 pages in length, and include a power point with graphics and text that you could use to help you in your speech.
Remember, you will not be using overly formal language or technical terms with this speech; you will be docked marks for overly technical language.
Also, remember to have an introduction, body and closing for the speech.
La Nina is characterized by her cold air and water temperatures unlike El Nino which is characterized by warm air and water. These are the cold and warm phases of El Nino Southern Oscillation, and consist of an usually cold or warm ocean temperatures and the air over the water. Both can last for up to several months.
La Nina occurs when winds move warm water away from the land, allowing the cold underwater to rise to the surface. This causes the water that is closer to land to become cool. The picture on the top shows a cross section in the tropical Pacific during normal conditions. Winds from the east move the water westward along the equator this is shown by the white arrows. The solar radiation causes the water to warm, creating warmer sea surface temperatures. This also causes large amounts of rain in the western tropical Pacific along with drier conditions in the eastern tropical Pacific. The picture below shows a cross section in the tropical Pacific during La Nina conditions. During La Nina the cold pools in the pacific intensify as well as the trade winds. Wind from the east blows water westward along the equator allowing deep-sea cold water to move up along the coast of South America. Again this is shown by the white arrows. Because of the warmer than normal Sea surface temperatures clouds begin to form over the western tropical Pacific. This produces great amounts of rain in the western tropical Pacific and drier conditions in the eastern topical Pacific.
What does La Nina mean? Long ago the people living in South America that were affected by this odd weather decided to name is La Nina, meaning ‘The little girl’ in Spanish. Why it is called ‘the little girl’, I do not know. It has also been called El Viejo, meaning ‘old man’. Other common names used for La Nina are, ‘A cold event’ and ‘A cold episode’.(I would have put this section first?)
La Nina occurs due to the changes in the tropical pacific and large modifications to the jet stream. This causes the jet stream to shift its usual course over North America. Abnormalities in the temperature and precipitation over North American are a result from the overall changes.
La Nina affects both North America and South America. In South America, La Nina causes drought through the coastal regions of both Peru and Chile. While between the months of December to February there is much more rain in northern Brazil. La Nina causes more precipitation in the north Midwest, northern Rockies, Northern California, and the Pacific Northwest’s southern and eastern regions, of North America. North America also gets a below average precipitation in the southwestern and southeastern states.
Unlike El Nino, La Nina has many recorded dates of when it has occurred. These dates range from being two years apart, to being, thirteen years apart. In the past La Nina has occurred in 1904, 1908, 1910, 1916, 1924, 1928, 1938, 1950, 1955, 1964, 1970, 1973, 1975, 1988, and 1995.
There are also many different characteristics that make La Nina original. La Nina consists of unusually cold ocean temperatures in the eastern equatorial pacific. It also causes above average precipitation in the north eastern and north western parts of North America, and below average precipitation in the south eastern and south western parts of North America. Droughts occur in the coastal regions of Peru and Chile. While northern Brazil receives wetter than normal conditions between December and February.
Discoveries have led and added to the knowledge we have about La Nina. In the 1920’s the head of the Indian Meteorological Service, Sir Gilbert Walker, realized there was a pattern to the rainfall is South America. His observation led to the realization of the changes and pattern of the ocean temperatures and atmospheric pressure. He called the rising pressure in the east accompanied by lowering pressure in the west and vice-versa, Southern Oscillation. Further study led to the findings that monsoons in Asia, under certain conditions were linked to droughts in Australia, Indonesia, India and parts of Africa, as well as mild winters in Canada. The connection between the changes of weather from La Nina was not noticed until the late 1960’s by a Norwegian meteorologist, Jacob Bjerkens. His discovery led to the recognition that La Nina and El Nino are interrelated, and led to the full name ‘El Nino Southern Oscillation’.
What is El Nino? Similar to La Nina, El Nino is the warm phase of El Nino Southern Oscillation. “El Niño events begin when trade winds, part of the Walker circulation, falter for many months. A series of Kelvin waves—relatively warm subsurface waves of water a few centimetres high and hundreds of kilometres wide—cross the Pacific along the equator and create a pool of warm water near South America, where ocean temperatures are normally cold due to upwelling.” (Wikipedia) El Nino Causes unusual warmer water along the coasts of North America and South America.(again, this could have gone near the beginning)
In the 1500’s, fishermen in South America wondered about the current of unusually warm water that came to their shore every few years, around Christmas time. Because they believed in the birth of Jesus Christ, and celebrated his birth at Christmas, they decided to call this odd weather El Nino, meaning ‘the infant’ in Spanish.
Scientists are still not sure why El Nino occurs. They are still investigating the causes.
El Nino occurs in both South America and North America like La Nina. In South America between the months of December to April, the coasts of northern Peru and Ecuador experience warm and very wet weather. The center of Chile gets large rainfalls and mild winters, in the season of El Nino. Usually during the spring and early summer, southern Brazil and Argentina have wetter conditions. In North America the air temperature is usually higher than normal over most of Canada. In Northwest Mexico and Southwest United states the winters are significantly wetter. As for the northwest United States, northmidwest United States, and northmideast United States, the climate is warmer and drier than normal, and gets smaller snowfalls.
The first recorded El Nino occurred in 1986. Since then there has been another 5 recordings of El Nino. These are from 1991-1992, 1994-1995, 2002-2003, 2004-2005, and 2009-2010.
The Characteristics of El Nino consist of, the rise in surface pressure of the Indian Ocean, Indonesia, and Australia. The fall of pressure over the central and eastern Pacific ocean. The weakening or eastern heading trade winds in the south Pacific. Warm air rises near Peru, causing rain in the desserts. Warm water spreads from the west Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the east Pacific Ocean. Drought in the western pacific and more rainfall in the eastern Pacific.
La Nina and El Nino are very different but at the same time they are similar. They look different and feel different but they share characteristics, even if those characteristics are in different areas of the world. La Nina is the cold phase of the El Nino Southern Oscillation, and El Nino is the warm phase. They occur at different times and can both occur for long periods of time.
Bibliography

1. I would like you to start by researching the following terms using the sites below and any other information you wish (be sure to put any sources in your bibliography). You will use this information for the activities that follow the web sites. (Please do not cut and paste...summarize information).

1. Earthquakes (San Andreas Fault) an earthquake is a series of vibrations in the crust of the earth cause by the sudden rupture and rebound of rocks in which elastic strain has been accumulating.

2. Hurricanes A hurricane is a violent, tropical storm of intense severity occurring in the ocean and moving inland.

3. Tornadoes A tornado is a spiralling windstorm that is violent and occurs over land.

4. Floods A flood is an overflow of water on land that is usually not covered by water
5. Monsoons/TsunamisA monsoon is a seasonal wind of the Indian ocean and southern Asia that blows southwest in the summer time and northeast during the winter.

A tsunami is a giant wave that is created by an earthquake under water, commonly called a seaquake or by a volcano erupting under the water’s surface.

Create a chart, (or use paragraph format) supplying this information for each of the terms above:

Causes / Geographical Locations / Kind of damage inflicted / Fore-warning systems (if any)
Earthquake / An earthquake is caused by the sudden rupture or the rebound of rocks in which elastic stains have been accumulating / Earthquakes can happen anywhere in the world inland. Earthquakes that happen underwater are called seaquakes.(most often occur along coastlines and fault lines) / The damage that typically occurs from an earthquake is the splitting of land and the crumbling of buildings / Seismometer. It is used to measure the movements of the ground(usually very little notice)
Hurricane / The cause of hurricanes is converging winds near the surface of the water that collide, pushing more water vapor upward, and increasing the circulation of warm air, and accelerating the speed of the wind. While strong winds blow at higher altitudes pulling the rising warm air away from the storm’s center sending it swirling into the hurricane’s classic cyclone pattern. / Hurricanes occur on the coast of a continent and first accumulates over the ocean and moves inland. / Hurricanes bring damaging winds and lots of rain. They can cause flooding, and can also tear apart homes and tear down trees and electrical polls. They can also cause flying debris that causes damage / GFDL hurricane model
Tornados / Tornados are cause(d) by the colliding of warm air masses and cool air masses causing the air to spin. / Tornados occur inland and typically away from the coast. / Tornados cause damaging winds that can rip apart houses, tear down trees and electrical polls along with damaging flying debris and can also cause damage to the land in which it goes over. / weather radar
Floods / Floods are cause(d) by excess rain or snow that then melts quickly in areas that have a lower land level. They can also be caused by Hurricanes that cause excess rain and by tsunamis. / Floods usually occur in areas where the land is lower than sea level(often near rivers which swell over their banks) / Floods more-or-less cause water damage and cause wet homes that can grow mould if not dried fully / flood risk maps
Monsoons / ? / Indian ocean and southern Asia / ? / Weather Radar
Tsunamis / Tsunamis are caused by seaquakes or volcanoes that erupt underwater. / Tsunamis occur on the coast of continents / Tsunamis can cause flooding, destroyed buildings and cars, and can knock over trees and electrical polls. / seismic-monitoring stations and sea level gauges.

Bibliography for chart and earthquake power point

Chart

1906 San Francisco Earthquake

1964 Alaska "Good Friday" Earthquake

1994 Northridge Earthquake