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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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