Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Transport Limited Slopes/Weathering

Alderaan, for the most part, has many hills and slopes throughout its region. Lets take a look at a permeable slope for example:

(Top View from Mountain)

(Bottom View)


At the top of the mountain you can look below that the slope is permeable as it supports vegetation. The process known as "creeping" results in how vegetation and trees grow. This is a result of Alderaan having a moist climate. As the snow falls, moisture seeps into the soil and as it dries from the sun, it causes a creep in how the trees and vegetation grow.

I can also tell that this is a permeable slope from trees nearby:


I can tell that trees nearby have fallen down indicating biogenic transport. This tree was located at the top of the mountain and died later falling to the ground at the bottom of the hill.

Now let’s take a look at some weathering that has occured around Alderaan's mountains.


If you take a close look at where the snow falls, you can see where the joints are located on this particular mountain. This is most likely due to faulting, folding, or what I believe is due to plate tectonics (from previous blog entry) that crack the rocks in the process.

Here is another picture of some Mass Wasting that has occurred:


Do you see the rocks at the bottom? Those rocks were once part of the mountain but have now taken a fall. This fall that occured, is most likely due to frost weathering. The snow that falls on top of the mountain will later freeze during the night causing the water to expand and exert force inside the cracks of the mountain, causing part of the mountain to fall over time.