Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Final Days in Tanzania...


The Final Assessment:  Geographic Tanzania in the Future

Tanzania can boast of a diverse and unique physical geography examples of which we have discussed in our blog.  The mainland is a part of the Great Valley Rift which is a continuous geographic trench (3700 miles). This chasm is caused by movement of the tectonic plate.  The illustration below illustrates the same rift that helped define the Tanzanian geography.  Rifts are usually preceded by huge volcanic eruptions such those from Ngorongora and Mt Kilimanjaro.  These geological actions created the backflows for the formation of Lake Victoria.  Each action (process) resulted in a reaction (form) that created new geological constructs.


East Africa's Great Rift Valley: A Complex Rift System by James Wood and Alex Guth Michigan Technological University.


Geological formations in the Great Rift Valley of Tanzania

             



The Same Actions Get the Same Results

If left unchecked, our disregard for the natural balances in nature may be the most critical factor affecting the rate at which geographic changes occur, and then negative changes which would have normally occurred over a longer period of time will be exponentially accelerated.   Information considered when developing support for the hypothesis include: Warming of the Indian Ocean (3.6 degrees in 40 Years), severe droughts and floods in 2012, CO2 concentration in the atmosphere at 280 parts per million, and changing weather patterns.

Landscape Tanzania 2021:  Kilimanjaro already having lost 80% of its ice pack will be devoid of glaciers and snow.  Coastal regions will see slight increases in coastline erosion due to rising ocean water levels and inland lakes will receive more precipitation. Drought and flooding will become more severe increasing soil erosion. Average temperatures will hot affecting  all living things. Migrating animals will find less fertile pastures.  Ngorongora crater will see a slight loss of plant life in the low lying valley, but the Dodo Region will be more desert like. 

NASA Earth Observatory Photo illustrates the receding snow and glacial ice on Kilimanjaro in 2009.


Droughts are so severe wells are dug deeper and deeper as seen of the woman exiting one in the above photo.  This was not mitigated in 2012.



Landscape Tanzania 2112:  The circumstances in 2112 are those of 2021 magnified by 10.    Additional concerns are the Indian Ocean rises robbing the coast line of as much as ten feet of land,  coastal islands begin to disappear,  basal weathering accelerates eroding lake islands, and  deforestation caused by nature are compounded in the quest for new farm land.  Forests, natural reabsorption agents for CO2 , are lost in the quest to grow food.  Arid lands become more desert like.  The DoDo Region is rutted with gullies from flood waters that come with the torrential rains.  Winds create tornado like storms there. Ngorongora has becoming  marsh land as the water comes in and has no outlet. 

Landscape Tanzania 3012:  21th century heat waves increase the average temperature by 6.4 degrees based on our current 1.4 degree increase every 230 years.  Ngorongora is a lake.  Islands off the coast are covered with ocean water which has moved inland 23 feet due to the changing  hydrologic cycle, increased ocean temperatures and trade winds.  The coral reefs  are gone.  The country is plagued by wildfires, heat waves and tropical storms.  Carcasses of animals litter the land.  Plant and animal life have either adapted or become extinct. Lush green lands are few. 

Climate is temperature, humidity, wind and precipitation all of which are affected by the land’s latitude, terrain, altitude and bodies of water. Tectonic plate movement and volcanic eruption change the topography of the land and the climate. The eruption of Mount Tambora produced a year without a summer.  If these events occurred with global warming, it could well impact the earth for tens of thousands of years. 


Weather systems and climate changes have always occurred but usually over hundreds of thousands of years and were not created by changes outside of nature.

 

This is no ordinary storm in the scenario of climate change created by global warming. Lightening, tornados, mega rain are hidden in the clouds.



References

Chanton, Jeffery. "Global Warming and Rising Oceans." Actrionbioscience.org. Actionbioscience, Sept.-Oct. 2002. Web. 27 Apr. 2012.

Duncan, Sandi. "How Do Volcanos Affect Our Weather?" Farmersalmanic.com. Sept.-Oct. 2009. Web. 28 Apr. 2012.

"Geography of Tanzania." Www.howstuffworks.com. Web. 27 Apr. 2012.

Holman, Teresa. "The Effects of Global Warming on Continental Oceans." Www.ehow.com. May 2011. Web. 28 Apr. 2012. <27>.


Woods, James, and Alex Guth. "East Africa; Great Rift Valley: A Complex Rift System." Geology.com. Web. 28 Apr. 2012. <http//gelogy.com>.





No comments:

Post a Comment