Summative Assessment Unit 1 Module 2

You should hand in your Summative Assessment exercise as word document.

#1 Greenland (fly to an eye altitude of approximately 3,000 m, centered over the Arctic Circle)

1.1Provide a paragraph justifying the most appropriate Inman and Nordstrom (1971) tectonic classification for this location. Be sure to check out this webpage to get some additional insight on tectonic boundaries relative to Greenland and this one Keep in mind that the west coast of Greenland faces a formerly active spreading center and that the east coast of Greenland faces the currently active Reykjanes spreading center that runs through Iceland.

1.2Zoom in to an eye altitude of 300k and examine the morphology of the southern tip of Greenland (area south of 61º 15’ N). Provide 2-3 sentences describing the configuration of the south Greenland coastline. What process is dominantly shaping this coastline and why do you think so?

1.3In the Google Earth Layers box turn on the Photos option and you should see numerous small boxes spread out across different locations on the map. These boxes indicate photos that people have uploaded to show the features of that particular location. Examine some of these photos and pick one that shows evidence supporting your answer about the process that is most dominantly affecting the southern Greenland coast best. Copy the image and paste it into your document that you will be handing in along with a caption clearly stating why you chose this photo to support your claims (e.g what is observable in the photo that supports your claim).

1.4Do you think that this coastline is a submerged or emergent coastline? Explain your answer.

#2 Baja California and Gulf of California (fly to an eye altitude of approximately 1,000 km, centered over 25º 00’ N 110º 00’ W)

2.1Examine the seafloor of the Gulf of California, which is located between Baja California on the west and the mainland to the east. Carefully examine the shape and features of seafloor in the Gulf of California. Is it regular and smooth or irregular and blocky in appearance? Also notice that there appears to be two trends of lines in the ocean crust here. One set of lines trends approximately northwest-southeast and the other shorter set of lines trend northeast-southwest. Take another look at figures 1 and 2 of this module to describe the type of tectonic process that is taking place in the Gulf of California?

2.2 On the basis of figure 1 and your answer from above explain what type of tectonic coast the east side of Baja California would be considered?

#3 River Deltas

Using Google Earth complete the following questions:

3.1Find the Niger River Delta (04º 30’ N 06º 6’ E) and examine the shoreline. Now find the shoreline of the Ganges-Brahmaputra River (N 21º 45’ N 89º 15’ E). Which of these locations do you think is a wave dominated shoreline? Which do you think is a tide dominated shoreline? Justify your answers by providing observations about the configuration of each coast.

3.2Go back to the Niger River Delta and fly out to an eye altitude of approximately 1000 km. Notice how the shoreline in the area of the Niger delta protrudes into the Atlantic Ocean. Also examine the bathymetry in front of the subaerial part of the delta. Integrating your knowledge of plate tectonics, sea level history during the last 18,000 years, and coastal processes describe the plate tectonic setting and provide several descriptive sentences explaining what events and processes have contributed toward the long-term (last 18,000 years) evolution of this coast.

3.3Now go back to the Ganges-Brahmaputra River delta and fly out to an eye altitude of approximately 1500 km. Examine the configuration of the many rivers and drainage networks delivering sediment to the delta. Where do the rivers originate? Why do the largest of the rivers extend to the north and then suddenly turn toward the east or west? What type of plate tectonic setting exists where the rivers originate? Explain whether you think that this tectonic setting can influence the availability of sediment to the rivers and ultimately the long-term evolution of the delta.