Plannng an expedition to an extreme environment.Svalbard. Glaciers as an attraction and under threat.

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Extreme environment

Task 1

The place that our expedition is going to take is in the region of Norway called Svalbard. To get there we have to take a boat from Norway port and bring our equipments ready for the cold environment. The average temperature is around 5°C and -12°C in winter.

Equipments I need to bring on the expedition are:

A parka is essential in cold weather. It insulates the heat even at a -47 degree Celsius. It is waterproof so the melted snow couldn't get in to your body.

Insulator trousers are used to keep our legs warm. It is water proof with fleece lining to keep the heat in because the temperature is really low there.

Fleece jumper is essential in this harsh weather condition. It keeps our body temperature in which is great.

A woolly jumper is also good to keep heat in. I use this jumper as a spare in case the fleece gets dirty.

A long sleeve shirt is to be worn before the jumper to keep me extra warm.

Tracksuit bottoms with fleece lining are ideal to put on first before the thermal trousers. It will keep me extra warm.

These are essential accessories for parts of our body like hands, neck and head.

This faux fur hat keeps most of my body temperature in because the heat is loss through our head.

Earmuffs are good to keep my ears warm; scarf is great to prevent coldness to enter my body.

Waterproof gloves are used to keep my hands warm and prevent melted ice to get through the material.

Thermal socks are there to keep my feet warm and these water proof boots are useful to walk through snow and uneven land. They have thick rubber soles to prevent slipping and provide good friction.

Map and compasses are the must have. They will help me to find my way back if I get lost.

Water is good because it stop me from being dehydrated.

Dry food is ideal in this weather as it is easy to cook and quick.

Swiss knives are useful because you never know when you need it. I will need it to open a can or defend myself when I get attacked by a bear.

Task 2: Glacier retreat project

A: Find maps and photographs of Glaciers on Spitsbergen

1: Label the features you can see

2: How did glacier form and move?

. Snow is collected over millions of years. The snow flake compressed and fused together, squeezing air and moistures out to create one solid ice block. With the pressure of more snow the firn will eventually over years become glacier ice.

2. Glacier is like a mighty river of ice. It is capable of doing what a river can do such as flow and change in flow rate. In ice, the flow rate is faster in the centre than at the edges and quicker on the surface than at the bottom because the gravity pulls the weigh there greater. That is why some glacier surge forwards than the other.

3. When ice moves it picks up rocks on the way therefore the rock make good cutting tools such as erosion. Erosion by plucking and abrasion make the hollow deeper and bigger.

* Plucking is when rocks and stones froze to the bottom of the glacier and being plucked up by the movements of the glacier.

* Abrasion happens when the materials rubbed against the bedrock at the bottom and sides of the glacier. They were being pulled down by gravity. This also causes wearing to the landscape. Fine grained debris polishes the bedrock called glacial polish.

4. Some of this debris is deposited at the edge of the corrie, as a moraine, building up the lip. This combined process creates a rounded shape, with a steep back wall, and an armchair shape characteristic of a corrie.

5. When the ice melts, a lake is left in the corrie. This is called a tarn.

3: Why do you think that many people might find them both interesting and enjoyable to look at?

I think people find it interesting to look at the glacier because they can find answers to their wonders of how landscape form. It is amazing to see the nature is so powerful which can move and change the land. They can also do some sporting activities such as camping and sledge riding. Furthermore they can compare the difference between places which are affected by glacier retreated and see how much ice have melted. They might find it interesting because they can see how the climate is changing and some responsibilities are down to human.
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B: Look at the map on page 11 and other evidence that shows how glaciers have retreated on Spitsbergen

1: Using the picture above, the time scale that retreating of glacier has been measured is 103 years. Since 1900 and up until 2003, the resources tell me that the glacier has moved 3 miles from 1983 to 2003. I measure the scale and worked out that 3mile is equivalent to 1 cm. Therefore I can say that from 1900 to 2003, the glacier has moved 16 miles and in the present time, there is a great possibility ...

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