GEOG101 Introduction to Geography : Human Economic and Social Perspect

Part 1

It is fascinating how climate and weather have formed key references to life hence impacting every aspect of living and non-living components in varied ecosystems ("International Symposium on Weather and Climate Extremes" 78). While weather is the daily atmospheric condition of a place including weather elements such as humidity, sunshine, cloud, wind, precipitations noted over a short period of time such as days, climate has been defined as the average daily atmospheric condition of a locality observed over a long period of time at least 30 years ("HS. Weather and Climate - National Weather Service" 27).

From the class sessions, I have since endeared myself to two concepts related in this area, namely; precipitation and temperature. These two seem to have significant influences on some other weather elements as well as such as humidity. They are briefly discussed as below:

Precipitation

Precipitation is any form of water formed in the atmosphere after which it reaches the earth's surface under gravitational influence (Weather and climate 45). I have been marveled by the intriguing revelation that precipitation takes different forms such as drizzle and rain of liquid kinds; snow, hail, freezing rain and sleet as freezing kinds(Pipe 107). Interestingly, precipitations form the basis of the hydrological cycle along with evaporation and condensation.

Temperature

Temperature essentially denotes the degree of hotness or coldness of a locality either in Fahrenheit or Celsius units. Similar to precipitation, the temperature has noteworthy influences to other elements of weather and climate such as winds, sunshine, altitude, latitudes etc. temperature is usually a key dimension in determining the climate of a place in weather forecasting ("Chapter 2. Weather and Climate - NASA" 52). It as well guides human activities as well as geographical utilities of places for human economic and social perspectives.

Part 2

Fundamentally, earth materials include minerals, soil, rocks in addition to water (Klein & Philpotts "Materials of the solid Earth" 35). These four form the basic resources to sustain life, industry and agricultural components. I have grown so inquisitive and in a way caught up in the beauty, manifestation, correlation as well as the distinction concerning two of these materials such as soil and rocks. In a way, they are the same but only set apart by processes or exposure conditions and time.

Soil  

Soil is formed from pedogenesis process which entails interactions between topography, organisms, climate and parent rock material over time interrelating over varying degrees. An aspect of weathering is also included in soil formation processes (Barnes 13). Based on the parent rock composition, various kinds of soils are formed. Varied parent rock materials depending on their occurrence, age, depth of exposure contain various constituents in various proportions hence the different types and properties of soils. Some of the soil types include nitisols, vertisols, acrisols, chernozems, podzols, ferralsols, podzoluvisols just to mention but a few (Goel 121).

Rocks

Rocks are naturally occurring and nonliving materials on earth. Three broad classifications of rocks exists based on processes and way of a formation such as metamorphic, igneous and sedimentary rocks (Menezes & Lovell 179). Sedimentary rocks form from sediment material accumulation over time consolidating into a rock. Sedimentary rocks include limestone and conglomerate among others. Metamorphic rocks are formed under the earth's surface under influences of either heat or pressure and sometimes a combination of heat and pressure. Some examples of metamorphic rocks include marble and gneiss. Igneous rocks are formed from magma movement and subsequent cooling within or on the earth's surface. Igneous rocks include obsidian and basalt etc.

Works cited

Barnes, Graham. “Soil Formation and Nature.” Soil Mechanics, 2017, pp. 1–15., doi:10.1057/978-1-137-51221-5_1 .

Chapter 2. Weather and Climate - NASA. 5 June 2011, www.nasa.gov/centers/langley/pdf/245893main_MeteorologyTeacherRes-Ch2.r4.pdf.

Goel, Tarun. “Soil Mechanics: Soil Formation.” Brighthub Engineering, 12 Nov. 2018, www.brighthubengineering.com/geotechnical-engineering/119615-geotechnical-topics-soil-formation/.

Weather and Climate - National Weather Service. Oct. 2014, www.weather.gov/media/bgm/Outreach/HS_Weather_and_Climate.pdf.

“International Symposium on Weather and Climate Extremes.” Weather and Climate Extremes, vol. 4, 2014, pp. iii-45., doi:10.1016/s2212-0947(14)00059-0 .

Klein, Cornelis, and Tony Philpotts. “Materials of the Solid Earth.” Earth Materials, 2015, pp. 14–37., doi:10.1017/cbo9781139028028.003 .

Menezes, Pradeep L., and Michael R. Lovell. “Influence of Rock Mechanical Properties on the Formation of Rock Fragments During Cutting Operation.” ASME/STLE 2011 Joint Tribology Conference, 2011, doi:10.1115/ijtc2011-61220 .

Weather and Climate. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Oxford: OUP, 2007. Print.