Deserts, Glaciers, and Climate Change

Deserts, Glaciers, and Climate Change

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Axia College University of Phoenix

At first glance it may be difficult to relate two seemingly opposing environmental regions of the world as the blistering heat of the deserts and the frozen polar areas, or cryosphere, which spawns glaciers. Upon further examination it becomes clear the geologic and climatic similarities between the two. Although not initially apparent, deserts and the extremely cold areas that include glaciers are alike in that they both experience extremely low precipitation yearly. Another similarity is in the eroding forces of wind and ice, and how they play a dominant role in shaping their surrounding landscapes. Both deserts and glaciers both act as environmental signals to regional and global climate change by their advancement into, or retreat from, surrounding terrain. Today the advancement, or desertification, of large arid areas and the retreat of glaciers worldwide is testament to the increased global temperature. Human inhabitants of Earth may be for the first time in our history influencing or adding to climate change with yet unknown consequences.

A desert is meant to refer to an area that has very little vegetation and receives less than 10 inches of precipitation per year. Processes related to wind, or eolian processes, are most effective in arid or semi-arid areas of the world (Axia, 2010). Wind will alter the desert terrain by stripping away sediment and sand from some areas and depositing this material in others, causing the erosion of surrounding rock in the process.

Wind erosion transforms the rock of the desert landscape by forces of deflation or abrasion. Deflation is a form of wind erosion which occurs when smaller and more loose particles of sand are blown away, leaving the larger and more course material behind. This action leaves the landscape in a rockier form. A second type of erosion called abrasion. This erosion occurs when smaller grains of...