Week 8 - Global Warming - Natural Cycles

Credit: Dartnell, USGS

I woke up from a long slumber and realized that I had traveled forward in time to the year 7018. I find myself in what used to be San Francisco. After a damaging 6.9 magnitude earthquake broke down several buildings and killed thousands of its inhabitants in 2037, the city by the bay became the bay. Another intense 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit in 2295 leveling more of the remnants.

Credit: Noboru Hashimoto, AFP/Getty Images

A great deal of the remaining rubble sank into the muddy ground at a rate of approximately ten millimeters a year by "subsidence," which accelerated the flooding process. Subsidence was created because the city was built on heaps of trash and Holocene-era mud that slipped away. While the sea level rose around five and a half feet by the year 2100 from the effects of global warming, the Cascadia subduction zone created a tsunami rising more than 16 feet high that submerged much of the city area under water (Brueck, 2018).

Credit: Mustafa Lazkani, FEMA

Climate is cumulative information collected on weather conditions over a long period of time for an area or region, these conditions shift over time. Earth’s climate system consists of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, biosphere, and cryosphere that have a complex interchange of moisture and energy. Weathering, erosion, and mass wasting may change when the climate changes. Observing past changes in the climate system assists in several ways in which such changes are detected and possible future changes. Human modifications to the environment for thousands of years has changed important climatic factors, such as surface winds, evaporation rates, and surface albedo. They release carbon dioxide (CO2) and trace gases into the atmosphere, generating climate change. Cutting down forests and burning fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas, and coal releases CO2. The ocean dissolves and plant matter absorbs more than half of the carbon released by humans and around 45% remains in the atmosphere. This can influence the climate for decades. Observations of glacial ice with air bubbles has revealed that the atmosphere contains around 30% more CO2 currently, then it has in the past 800,000 years. The atmosphere has increased in heat nearly one degree Celsius as a result of heat retention by added CO2 levels and are projected to continue inclining another two to four and a half degrees Celsius in the future.  (Lutgens, 2016, pp. 552-554).

Credit: Christopher Scotese

This explains many of the changes that made San Francisco virtually unrecognizable to what it once was. The plate movements have shifted the entire California region northwest and the gaps created have filled with water as well. Human contributions influenced the climate change greatly and assisted in this destruction of a once thriving city. One can only hope the remaining population learn from the consequences and take part in building a better future for the coming generations.

References

Brueck, H. (2018). Why San Francisco is a nightmare, according to science. Business Insider. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/san-francisco-bay-area-nightmare-according-to-science-2018-4

Lutgens, F. K, Tarbuck, E. J., & Tasa, D. (2016). Essentials of geology. (13th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall (Pearson). ISBN-10: 0134446623; ISBN-13: 9780134446622

[Scotese, C.] (2015). Future of California - CR Scotese PALEOMAP Project [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BxnIkqK1J4

Zolfagharifard, E. (2016). Is the US ready for the 'Big One'? Simulations set to prepare California for megaquakes that could have 30 times more energy than San Andreas. Daily Mail. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3597524/Is-ready-Big-One-Simulations-set-prepare-California-megaquakes-30-times-energy-San-Andreas.html