CHAPTER 15 Exploring with Google Earth

CHAPTER 15 Exploring with Google Earth

To complete these problems, first read the chapter. When you are finished, go to LaunchPad and open the Exploring with Google Earth file for this chapter. Click on the “Workbook Problems” folder to “fly” to each of the problems listed below and answer the questions. Be sure to keep your “Borders and Labels” layer activated. Refer to Appendix 4 if you need help using Google Earth.

PROBLEM 15.1 This geographically remote limestone plateau is in Bolívar State, in southeastern Venezuela. Note the large circular depressions in the land surface.

Question 15.12

1. What is the name for these sunken, circular landforms?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 15.13

2. What is the name of the process that created these landforms?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 15.14

3. Zoom out. Why are there no surface streams on this plateau, even though it has a tropical rainforest climate?

A.
B.
C.
D.

PROBLEM 15.2 Note that this placemark, near the placemark for the previous problem, pins to an exposed, blocky bedrock surface.

Question 15.15

1. What is the name of this type of bedrock surface?

A.
B.
C.
D.

PROBLEM 15.3 This placemark lands on the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, the largest radio telescope in the world. The telescope is built in a natural, steep-sided depression in limestone bedrock. Pan around and zoom in and out to get a sense of the landscape’s features.

Question 15.16

1. What is the name of the natural depression in which the telescope was built?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 15.17

2. Notice the rounded hills that compose this landscape. What is the name for this type of landscape?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 15.18

3. What is the distance across the telescope?

A.
B.
C.
D.

PROBLEM 15.4 Florida is composed of low-lying limestone bedrock that is pockmarked with many water-filled depressions, forming wetlands, ponds, and lakes. This placemark is pinned to Lake Louisa.

Question 15.19

1. What is the name of these natural depressions after they have filled with water?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 15.20

2. What natural features here indicate the elevation of the water table?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 15.21

3. Compare the elevation of Lake Louisa with that of the larger Lake Apopka just to the northeast in this same view. (Measure near the shoreline, not the center of the lake.) Which is higher?

A.
B.

Question 15.22

4. In what direction will groundwater flow in this area?

A.
B.

PROBLEM 15.5 This mass movement occurred on October 9, 1963, in Italy, leaving a large open scar on the mountainside. The material slid into the reservoir and created a large wave that overtopped the dam. Some 2,000 people lost their lives in this mass movement event. In response to this catastrophe, the reservoir was drained. All that remains is Vajont Dam, visible in the foreground of this view. Turn on your 3D Buildings layer in the sidebar menu to better see the dam.

Question 15.23

1. What kind of mass movement was this?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 15.24

2. The placemark is on what part of this mass movement?

A.
B.
C.
D.

PROBLEM 15.6 This placemark is pinned to a landform in the Karakoram Range of Pakistan.

Question 15.25

1. What is the name of this landform?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 15.26

2. What physical weathering process created this landform?

A.
B.
C.
D.

PROBLEM 15.7 Lines following equal elevations on the hillside are seen at this placemark.

Question 15.27

1. What are these lines on the hillside called?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 15.28

2. How were they formed?

A.
B.
C.
D.

PROBLEM 15.8 Mount Bawakaraeng, in South Sulawesi, Indonesia, is a volcano. This mass movement event on the slopes of the mountain was triggered by the collapse of the wall of a caldera of the volcano, not a volcanic eruption.

Question 15.29

1. What kind of mass movement event was this?

A.
B.
C.
D.
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Question 15.30

2. Zoom out until you can see marker 1. (You may need to activate it if it is not already activated.) How many kilometers did the material travel from the top of the mountain down to marker 1?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 15.31

3. What is the approximate elevation drop of the mass movement, from top to bottom?

A.
B.
C.
D.

PROBLEM 15.9 This placemark marks the terminus of the accumulations of several enormous submarine landslides that occurred at different times in the past. The slides originated on O‘ahu and Moloka‘i islands.

Question 15.32

1. What is the length of the slide material between the placemark and the Moloka‘i coast?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 15.33

2. What is the depth where the placemark is positioned at the terminus of the slide material?

A.
B.
C.
D.

PROBLEM 15.10 This placemark is in Pasadena, California, at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains. It marks one of hundreds of concrete dam–like structures built at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles County (notice another one just to the east—or to the right). These structures are not designed to hold water. They are instead designed to constrain mass movements within a concrete channel. Zoom out and tilt to get a sense of these structures in the geographic context of the city and the San Gabriel Mountains.

Question 15.34

1. What type of mass movement are these structures designed to protect city residents and property from?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 15.35

2. Zoom out a bit. Notice marker 1, located in a small canyon. Tilt your view so you can see its position in relation to the containment channel. Do mass movements pose a risk to the residents of homes along the street at marker 1?

A.
B.

PROBLEM 15.11 This placemark, also in Southern California, pins to a road that suddenly terminates.

Question 15.36

1. What kind of mass movement destroyed this road?

A.
B.
C.
D.

Question 15.37

2. Pan to the south and west of the placemark. What evidence indicates that this mass movement destroyed homes, but that they have been rebuilt?

A.
B.
C.