Hawai'i Physical Geography: Helicopter Data Tour: GPH 112: Intro to Phys Geography Lab (2024 Spring)
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Arizona State University *
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Course
112
Subject
Geography
Date
Apr 3, 2024
Type
Pages
15
Uploaded by DoctorPartridge4095
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Hawai'i Physical Geography: Helicopter Data Tour: GPH 112: Intro to Phys Geography Lab (2024 Spring)
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https://canvas.asu.edu/courses/178831/quizzes/1343078
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module_item_id=12797139
Hawai'i Physical Geography: Helicopter
Data Tour Due Mar 31 at 11:59pm
Points 8
Questions 4
Time Limit None
Instructions
If you are short on time, reading
and just doing the lab is faster.
But if you are nervous or worried,
this video about doing this lab was
made for you. (10 minutes in
length)
GPH112: Overview of the First Hawai'i lab on
…
INTRODUCTION: OBJECTIVE OF THIS LAB IS TO BRAINSTORM
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Geographers love to pour over and examine maps
. Many professional geographers got their start as
kids nerding out on books of maps called atlases. Today, future geography stars might spend their
hours pouring over collections of all types are widely available online in placed like the Library of
Congress
(https://www.loc.gov/maps/collections/) , university libraries such as the map and
geospatial hub
(https://lib.asu.edu/geo) at ASU, seamless topographic maps (
USA topo link
(http://mapper.acme.com/) ), and for K-12 teachers the Arizona Geographic Alliance maps
(http://geoalliance.asu.edu/maps) . A lot of physical geography research
starts with examining maps, looking
at patterns, and then coming up with
possible physical geography
processes to explain those patterns.
El Niño is but one example; the
fishing industry off the coast of South
America has known for centuries (if
not millennia) that around the time of
Christmas, warm water shows up
and fish die offs occur every few
years. It wasn't until the 1920s,
however, that Gilbert Walker
examined maps of pressure and
noticed that a "Southern Oscillation"
sometimes flip-flops high and low
pressure (and rainfall patterns)
across the tropical south Pacific.
Then, in the 1960s, Jacob Bjerknes
connected everything together by
studying more maps of pressure,
climate, and ocean currents and
called the pattern ENSO (El Niño-
Southern Oscillation) you learn about
in the GPH 111 lecture.
Sardine die-off in Chile (
NASA
(https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/ElNino/page3.php)
)
In a synchronous class, whether online or in person, map interpretation often ends up being a
brainstorming session. One person might see a pattern, and then another three might offer up
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explanations of processes to explain that pattern. This can then lead to dreaming up "tests" or ways
to disprove one explanation or another. For every pattern that eventually gets figured out, like El Niño,
there are often dozens of hypotheses offered up and then disproven by these tests. A review of the
science in 1957 listed possible causes of El Niño fish die offs that are now disproven, including:
"troublesome and unwholesome" north winds; trade winds extending along the Peruvian coast from
the Gulf of Panama; the southward flow of equatorial water; submarine landslides; vertical exchanges
of heat and water above the coastal shelf; and changes in the oxygen content of the eastern Pacific
waters and more. This graphic gets at the essence of science -- that
we can never "prove" anything doing science.
Proofs are for mathematicians. Scientists just try to
come up with ways to disprove our explanations for
the patterns we see. We publish when we disprove
an explanation and we publish we cannot (yet)
disprove an explanation. And we try to teach to our
students those explanations that are not yet
disproven. But in an asynchronous class like this, we want you
to have this experience. Each of the questions you
will see in this quiz attempts to provide you a
brainstorming experience to think about the patterns you will see.
QUESTIONS IN THIS LAB OVERVIEWED
Each question has you flying a virtual helicopter in the geovisualization with the idea of you kicking
back and observing what you are seeing. The questions are designed NOT to be tricky. If they seem
easy for you, please don't second guess your answers. Of the questions seem easy, this means you
are good at seeing geographical patterns.
Kohala Volcano: Observing rainfall patterns and how they relate to development of river valleys
Volcano Types: Flying over two very different giant volcanoes, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea Dew point: This indicator of the amount of moisture is something you can see virtually in the game
environment, and you figure out why it changes so much as you go higher and higher
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Attempt History
Attempt
Time
Score
LATEST
Attempt 1
3 minutes
7 out of 8
Score for this quiz: 7 out of 8
Submitted Mar 12 at 3:34pm
This attempt took 3 minutes.
Question 1
2 / 2 pts
When a lava flow buries a forest: What comes next? Straight(ish) lines are rare in nature, but they can be explained
Part 1: Background Information:
Kohala is the oldest of the five large volcanoes
(called shield volcanoes). All of Hawai'i's shield
volcanoes are composed of the same rock type
(basalt). The shield shape of these volcanoes
describes that (with some exceptions) they all
have gentle slopes. Most of the Kohala volcano had formed by about
a million years ago, even though younger
volcanics occur here and there. For the purposes
of this question - you can consider the entire
Kohala volcano surface to be about a million
years old.
Part 2: Exploring the Geovisualization
In the Hawai'i geovisualization - you will use the
helicopter mode of fast travel to study the
mapped data
Use Fast Travel to jump to the Honokane Nui
Lookout at latitude: 20.1967, longitude:
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-155.7246
Again, in the Fast Travel menu, select the
other side of Kohala (you can either click on
the other side as seen below, or input these
coordinates: latitude: 20.0551, longitude:
-155.8376) - this time don't click on the paper
airplane icon.
You will be going by helicopter.
But I suggest you move the air speed to the
fast position and click on scale speed. This
will make the helicopter go faster. Just look
at the topography and vegetation cover you
see in the game. Then, do this again, but when you are flying
click on the isohyet rainfall layer. You can
also go back and forth between Landsat and
rainfall. Also - I recommend that you pull the camera way up high and have the camera point in the direction
of the helicopter movement. You might have to experiment with the mouse/mousepad/trackball to
figure out camera movement. But this will allow you to see a lot more like this shot of the rainfall layer
with the helicopter way below you:
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There's a lot more rainfall on the west-facing side of Kohala, to get bigger streams and more stream erosion
Since the rainfall is pretty even on both sides, there has to be a different explanation than precipitation amounts
Correct!
Feel free to make this virtual trip a few times and think about why there are deep stream valleys on
one side, and there is only one tiny stream valley on the other side. Part 3 (Optional): What scientists have found...
This 2013 paper on the role of precipitation in river evolution on Kohala
(https://canvas.asu.edu/courses/178831/files/79358225?wrap=1) supports one of the hypotheses, but
the current way of thinking might be wrong. Science can only disprove. You certainly do not have to
read this journal article to get the quiz question correct, but we hope that you are curious enough to at
least skim it. QUESTION: What physical geography process is the most likely explanation for the much
greater development of river valleys on the eastern side of the Kohala volcano (than the
western side of Kohala)? The answer that is keyed as correct is based on the information you
saw on the helicopter trip (Landsat image, topography, rainfall).
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