Aoraki/Mount Cook

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Aoraki/Mount Cook

• Evolution

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Step one
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Step 2
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Step 3
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Step 4
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Glaciers

• Notes on what a glacier is how a glacier forms
• SIHC\AorakiMC glaciers.doc
• Glacial recipe
• SIHC\glacier formation 1.doc
• Drawing on page 8 of El Bible Discussion of Key
  terms.

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Terms

• Neve (accumulation zone) The area where the ice
  accumulates.
• Bedrock The rock that lies below the snow. In
  MC what will it be?
• Ablatation Zone Area where the snow is
  beginning to be melted away and lost (area below
  the firn line)
• Moraine Material that gets transported then
  deposited by the glacier.

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Precis Sketch Drawing

• Divide your picture of MC on page 9 into 8ths
  with doted ruled lines.
• In your book draw a similar area once again
  divided into 8ths.
• Now using the intersection of the lines you have
  ruled in our diagram draw an accurate precis
  sketch of MC.

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How glaciers move

• These rivers of ice flow at around 100,000 times
  slower than water and they do so at different
  speeds.
• So how do they move? Ice Skater eg on Youtube.
• Notes on how a glacier moves
• SIHC\How Glaciers move.doc

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Images
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Images
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Jason dwarfed by a Serac
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Glacier features

• Crevasse This is an umbrella term to describe a
  number of different features. A Crevasse is a
  crack in the ice created by tension.
• Often crevasses are 70 metres deep.
• Transverse Crevasse Go from one side of the
  glacier to the other.

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More features

• Longitudinal crevasse found near the terminus or
  end of the glacier. The show the glacier is
  spreading outwards.
• Marginal crevasse which point 40 degrees
  upstream.
• Bergschrund A deep crevasse formed at the
  cirque.

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Pictures
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Moraine and Till

• Till Rock debris carried by glaciers.
• Moraine The feature created by deposited till.
  Moraine shows where glaciers once were.
• Lateral Moraine Found at the edges of glaciers.
  Debris usually originates from rockfalls and
  avalanches. Tasman glacier has impressive lateral
  moraines.

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More Moraines

• Medial Moraines Formed by lateral moraines
  coming together when a tributary glacier flows
  into a main glacier.
• Surface Moraines Occur most at the terminus of
  a glacier because ice melt exposes them.
• Eglacial Moraine and subglacial moraine These
  are carried within and under the glacier. The
  greatest bulk of the debris is carried by these.
• Terminal moraine The remains of a moraine that
  has receeded.
• Firnline and equilibrium line Transition
  between the neve and melt zones.

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Melt-water features

• Surface Moraines at Tasman glacier are 1-2 metres
  deep. They cover sinkholes or moulins.
• A moulin starts as a small pothole that
  eventually deepen to join up with melt-water
  conduits that form the glacial plumbing system.
  On Tas glacier Moulins have expanded into large
  grey circular lakes.
• These systems eventually find their way to the
  base of the glacier and they get dischard
  themselves into the fluvialglacial system
  carrying rock flour. The amount they discharge is
  enormous at present the outwash gravels are
  500-1000 metres deep.

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Icefalls

• Icefalls occur at Tasman glacier above the
  glacier. This is called the Hochstetter icefall.
• Icefalls usually occur just below the neve.

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Activity

• Create your own mountain and glacier system.
• Your Mountain can be called whatever you want
  (within reason) and each glacier or glacial
  feature can be called what you want (within
  reason).
• On an a4 sheet of paper you are to create this
  glacier and accuratly add to it the different
  features glaciers create.

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Surface Processes

• Either created by abrasion or plucking.
• Abrasion Scraping
• Plucking Pulling of rocks from bedrock.
• Small Scale features Striations, Polished rock,
  pot holes
• Created by glacier running across the rock and
  either scraping or smoothing. Pot holes created
  by the glacier plumbing system.

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Large Scale Features

• When Glaciers move they carve out the landscape
  they travel over. Due to the mass material they
  move they create u shaped valleys. Rivers dont
  carve out as much and therefore only create
  v-shaped valleys.
• U-shaped valleys often get damned up by terminal
  moraine which creates finger lakes. Lakes Tekapo,
  Pukaiki and Ohau are finger lakes.

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Conitued

• The Cirque Where the neve/accumulation zone was.
  Often contains a small lake called a tarn.
• Roche Moutonee Foliage hill provides an eg of
  this. It is a hill under the glacial ice. One
  side is a smooth gradual slope the other is a
  rough plucked cliff side.

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Continued

• Hanging Valleys Created by tributary glaciers
  not cutting as deep a path as the main glacier
  therefore hang above.
• Arete South ridge at MC provides a good example
  of this. It is a ridge between two criques
• Col A pass where 2 Cirques converge. Tuckett Col
  is a good example of this.

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Glacial transportation

• Glaciers act as massive conveyor belts. They
  transport both fine and large material down the
  glacial system. Around the terminus products of
  glacial transportation are ever present. The
  Tasman glacier used to extent much further and
  material found at the snout of this glacier
  showed where it used to flow to.

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Human Modification of the environment.

• Copy in the glacier system and explain it briefly
  underneath.
• Glaciers work on the equation of accumulation vs.
  ablation. This is called the Mass budget.
• This is how Humans have affected glaciers. Global
  warming has heated the earth which has meant that
  less snow is being deposited in the neve and more
  is being melted. This affects the glaciers
  ability to erode, transport and deposit.

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Continued

• Copy in paragraph written in italics.
• When Answering these Questions be sure to include
  your question within the answer!!!!
• Using text explain the following terms
  downwasting, ablation, accumulation.
• How much of its volume is Tasman glacier losing
  each year?
• Describe what you think a trimline is.
• How much has the Tasman glacier dropped since
  1895?
• At the Muellar glacier why dont the melt waters
  breach the moraine.
• What glacier mentioned has a terminus that hasnt
  receeded yet.
• How much has the temp at mount cook risen since
  the 1900s
• How has El Nino affected glaciers in the
  neighbouring regions?

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Humans and Glaciers

• Global Warming created by the Greenhouse affect
  has led to some recession in glaciers. This
  combined with El Nino, La Nina and the Southern
  Oscillation has meant the amount caused by Humans
  is difficult to tell.

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Climate

• Air Pressure Air Pressure always moves from
  areas of high pressure to low pressure.
• Wind The movement of air from low pressure to
  high pressure.
• Precipitation Moisture in the atmosphere rain,
  hail snow, fog. Precipitation occurs when air is
  forced to rise and therefore it cools and
  condenses to dew point.

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Rainfall

• There are three different types of rainfall
  Frontal when two fronts collide, convection when
  a water source gets evaporated and orographic.
• Orographic rainfall is the focus for Mt. Cook.
• This is because the Southern Alps act as a
  massive barrier to the moisture laden westerly
  winds that flow from the Tasman sea.

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Climate

• The west coast of New Zealand receives 7600mm of
  rainfall annually.
• The area to the east of the SIHC is the driest in
  the country because of the rain shadow provided
  by the southern alps.

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Vegetation (DW)

• The levels of vegetation at Aoraki Mt. Cook
  differ vastly. At the top of the 3754m peak there
  is no vegetation. To the west at the foothills
  there is temperate rainforest and to the East
  there is grasslands what is the reasoning for
  these differences?

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Vegetation

• Life is hard for plants to survive at Aoraki Mt.
  Cook.
• The climate is cold and blustery
• The soil is thin and infertile
• The landscape is steep
• The alitude is high
• Plants need to be resilient to survive these
  conditions
• What would be the issues with each of the points
  above for plants?

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vegetation

• The temperatures at Mt. Cook drop around a degree
  every 200 metres.
• This inhibits the plants that can grow and the
  process of plants growing at different heights is
  called altitudinal zonation.
• At Aoraki Mt. Cook there is over 400 different
  species of plants.
• At the lower altitudes (up to 1300m) the
  temperate rainforest grows. This includes species
  of podocarps like Kahikatea.

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Higher up

• From 1300-1900m asl smaller shrub like plants
  dominate these include
• Spear grass, Mt. Cook lily the worlds biggest
  lily, Snow tussocks, vegetable sheep.
• Above 1900m 14 different types of Lichens have
  been found.

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Cultural perspectives and Human activity in the
SIHC

• Culture is an important geographic idea and is
  simply defined as a common way of life
• Cultural perspective perception
• How people view things differently.

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Land Use SIHC

• Agriculture
• Intensive farming is it an option in the SIHC?
  Why/why not?
• Farmers in the SIHC have developed a farming
  system known as extensive pastoralism
• Farms are characteristically large and carry few
  sheep because of the difficult environment
• Sheep are the main animal grazed, for wool
  production rather than meat
• Fodder crops are grown to feed livestock in
  winter when grass growth slows down or is under
  snow.

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• Farmers cultural perspective would be considered
  economic
• The major impact on the natural landscape caused
  by extensive pastoralism is the accelerated soil
  erosion caused by burning pastures and
  overgrazing by stock
• Grazing animals accelerate soil erosion by
  removing vegetation, thereby loosening the soil
  and making erosion
• How else might the landscape be affected?

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Viticulture

• In Central Otago, viticulture has also become a
  very popular form of intensive farming.
• What is viticulture?
• The growing of grapes for making wine
• The hot summers and low rainfall of the region
  make it well-suited for grape-growing
• How would vintners affect the natural landscape?

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Hydro-electric power

• There are many hydroelectric power schemes
  located in the SIHC, where the rivers are fed
  each year by melting snow from the Southern Alps.
  The annual snow-melt usually provides enough
  power for much of the nation
• The cultural perspective sustainable
  perspective
• The largest hydroelectric schemes in the SI are
  the Waitaki Valley Scheme and the Clyde Project
  on the Clutha River

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Tourism

• The SIHC is one of the fastest growing regions in
  NZ
• Resorts in QTown ? provide jobs ? bring to the
  region
• Cold winter temps. are an advantage to tourist
  operators ? Cardrona, Coronet Peak, Treble Cone
• Tourism is carried out from an economic
  perspective
• Ecotourism involves nature-based attractions that
  are developed with local communities for
  sustainable tourism
• What issues might tourism create?

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Aoraki Mt. Cook the legend

• Aoraki plays an important part in the creation
  stories of Te Waipounamu the South Island.
  Aoraki, along with his brothers, is believed to
  have brought his waka down from the skies to
  visit Papatuanuku. As they tried to return home
  failed and the waka fell back into the water and
  turned onto its side. As the brothers scrambled
  to the higher side of the canoe, they were turned
  to stone. They remain there today as the
  mountains of the Southern Alps, with Aoraki being
  the tallest.
• Spiritual Perspective.

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Ngai Tahu perspective

• For Ngai Tahu, traditions such as the legend of
  Aoraki represent links between the world of the
  gods and Maori today. These stories are part of
  their identity and history and shape the
  attitudes and beliefs they hold towards Aoraki
• To Ngai Tahu, Aoraki is tapu. It represents the
  most sacred of ancestors from whom Ngai Tahu
  descend. In particular, the summit and the melt
  waters that flow from Aoraki are sacred, since
  Maori do not believe it is appropriate to climb
  onto the head of an ancestor.

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Ngai Tahu Settlement

• In 1997, the Crown agreed to return Aoraki to
  Ngai Tahu. Ngai Tahu responded giving the
  mountain back to all the people of NZ
• Topuni of Aoraki/Mt Cook protection
• Topuni ? derives from Ngai Tahu tikanga (custom),
  where a chief extends his protection over a
  person by placing a cloak (topuni) over him or
  her
• This can been extended over an area or place
• DOC has been asked by the Govt. to promote
  certain principles

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Encouragement of respect of Ngai Tahus
association with Aoraki

• To promote these principles DOC will
• Provide all visitors with information about the
  Ngai Tahu values and the existence of the topuni
  over Aoraki
• Provide education material to all climbers and
  guides explaining that to Ngai Tahu, standing on
  the very top of the mountain does not respect its
  topuni status
• Ensure the removal of all rubbish and wastes