Colorado

When people think of Colorado the first thing that comes to mind is our beautiful landscape,However because of natural processes the landscape will continue to evolve.

Maroon Lake in Aspen,Colorado

10,000 Today our Rocky Mountains are stunning and overwhelmingly large, Mountain ranges are formed by compression. In the next 10,000 years however our beautiful mountains will look different from the ones we see today. Gravity plays a big role in the change of our landscape; mass wasting will occur just as it does today. The type of mass wasting that I am referring to is rock slides  over time more of the mountain will break off due to erosion. In Colorado it may be nice in the city but due to the altitude the weather is different, there is snow on our mountains and that is also a large contributor to the decaying of the mountains. The weather in Colorado is constantly changing and the harsh cold will break down the mountains. I hypothesize that will be the first major change we will see is in the mountains the next major change that will occur is the glaciers we have will be extremely melted or completely gone. As a result of the glacial melting we will have more fresh water in our rivers. 
1,000,000 A million years from now we can now see very clearly the Davis theory taking place. today we know our slopes as the steep and beautiful ones we see in Vail. The back wearing process is a long one because it is leveling out the land. The step mountains and slopes are becoming more like hills.

What Colorado will look like with back wearing 

The Colorado river had widened into Nevada and California. The river like other bodies of water has made eroded more land to expand its self. The mouth of the river has expanded to double its size.

100,000,000
The Colorado we once knew is now completely flat. The hills are now lost,  gravity has completed its course and lowered the majestic moutains.

Colorado in 100,000,000

Now that Colorado is a flat land it is also prone to getting tornadoes. The Rocky Mountains was protecting us from many of the elements is the way that it intercepted the different fronts.



Colorado like all other locations on earth is exposed to natural evolution. Natural changes will constantly be changing the earth and its landscape. We were able to see how the Davis theory take place and how it would work. Most of all we were able to see how drastically a location could change.

Lalala Lightning

   Lightning Season in Colorado occurs mostly in our spring and summer months. Lightning occurs when a negative charge in the base of a cumulonimbus cloud connects with a positive charge on Earth.

Process of lightning occurring

   The first stroke that occurs is called a stepped leader and it is invisible to the human eye.

Once the stepped leader and the traveling spark connects to a positive charge on the Earth we are then able to see the strike.

The process of stepped leader and a return stroke

    In Colorado we are lucky to have our beautiful Rocky Mountains however during the summer because of the high elevation the air and the climate are drier. In the year 2014 only Two people have died in Colorado because of lightning. Each of the fatalities occurred well each of them were in an areas of high risk. One person was hiking on an open hiking trail well the other was sightseeing.Lightning is about 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit that is 5 time hotter than the surface of the sun.  The most dangerous place to be when there is lightning is outdoors. If there is lightning NEVER seek shelter under a tree because that is one of the higher risk areas. It may not be very likely that you would get struck by lightning but it's better to be safe than sorry.

   In the unlikely event that someone does get struck by lightning and dies you don't need to worry about the lightning transferring to you because there will be no electrical charge left in the body. The only way that lightning can get many people at once is if it strikes the ground or a body of water. 

Lightning doesn't only occur with rain storms it can also occur in snow storms, sand storms, and even over volcanoes as they erupting. The lightning occurs because of the positive and negative charges as well as the different climates. Just like lightning can occur in different types of storms also has different forms.
 

Lightning over downtown Denver

Mass Wasting

In 2013 most of the Front Range area in Colorado had been flooded;The time of the disaster Colorado had been getting an excessive amount of rain. St. Vrain creek had overflowed its' banks as the rain continued to fall the and the creek began to rise the town of Lyons had become submerged in water. http://foge.flopper.dk/banda/banda_487.htm in this link we can get a clear look how serious the damage was. The flash flood that occurred because of the location of the creek, The creek is in a steep location and the flow of the creek would flow faster. According to the met office "Flash flooding happens when rain falls so fast that the underlying ground cannot cope, or drain it away, fast enough" http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/learning/rain/flash-floods with no time to drain and the creek not flowing fast enough the water would have to spread out

Us highway 36

Us highway 36 when water was lower

With the flash flooding we also get debris flows. Unlike mud flows there is many different materials that could be found other than just mud and rocks. Mud flows occur at a slow speed. When debris flows occur they can range anywhere from 10 mph to exceeding 35 mph according to the disaster center http://www.disastercenter.com/guide/landslide.htm
 the flood and flow happen very quickly and are very dangerous it is most likely not the best idea to try and outrun them or be in the middle of them when you can find a safe location. 

Debris at the bank of St.Vrain creek

North St.Vrain creek road broke apart.

 

  






 Flash floods and debris flows affected the people of Lyons Colorado in the way that it destroyed their homes. The town of Lyons Colorado had to completely rebuild their town and homes from the ground up. The people of Lyons came together to rebuild their homes and town;they continue to remain determined and courageous.According to http://www.townoflyons.com/ they seem to still be recovering from their devastation.

                                    Colorado's Weather  

Colorado's Weather can change in the blink of an eye. We are very luck to be able to enjoy all four seasons. We know that the seasons occur because of the Earth's tilt. 

As we know the Earth revolves around the sun because of the tilt and the time of the rotation of the sun we will be experiencing four seasons (Summer, Spring,Winter,and Fall)

How the seasons happen 

  Colorado is located on the Northern Hemisphere. We are able to see where it faces when it rotates during each of the labeled seasons. 

 

 

 

 

Equator

Colorado is also located further from the equator. As it says in the image above that the rays of the sun are almost directly above the equators location. Colorado is above the equator so the temperatures are not as high as those states and counties near or on the equator,
  

The Earths tilt is 23.5 degrees. When the northern hemisphere of the earth is  tilted toward the sun (Summer and spring) The earth and Colorado are facing the sun for a longer period of time. When the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the earth there is less time to be in the sun and the earth will be cooler. During summer and spring the waves from the solar output we are getting are longer well waves in the winter would be cooler. The earths tilt and the location of Colorado is the reason Colorado experiences all four seasons.

 http://sciencenetlinks.com/science-news/science-updates/tilted-earth/

http://sciencemonday.wordpress.com/2011/09/19/23-5-degrees-seasons-on-earth/ 

The two pages I used for research

The earths tilt and the location of Colorado is the reason Colorado experiences all four seasons. 

Mt.Evans

       Hi!My name is Aleah Vigil and for my Blog I picked Colorado Because I LOVE it so much. I was born and raised in Colorado, there is so many amazing things that happen here.We have beautiful views and get to see every season. We are 5280feet above sea level how cool is that? the picture I took was at Mt.Evans with my family. My first time to Mt.Evans was just a few weeks ago and I have never seen so many breathtaking views or felt more happy to freeze to get a sweet profile picture.   I am going to be majoring in early child education because I love children and want to give them the best experience in the start if their education

 

This was taken at Summit Lake Park I was so cold but I needed my little mermaid moment 

There is no place in the world that I will love more than my own "backyard"