With references to relevant examples of the Earth's internal processes in the development of landforms
Answers
Answer:
Earth’s surface is the arena for most life and all human activity, yet what lies beneath our feet is as mysterious as it is familiar. Earth scientists or not, we recognize hills, mountains, glaciers, deserts, rivers, wetlands, and shorelines. If a good deal of rain falls, floods may occur; if a storm strikes the coast, the beach may erode; if we are careless with our soil, we may damage or even lose it. These ideas are well known, but with just a few questions we arrive at the edge of our knowledge and face gaps that matter to our safety, our food and water security, the infrastructure of roads and river navigation, and the survival and diversity of ecosystems and services they provide.
Explanation:
Landscapes at Earth’s surface host a suite of interconnected landforms and processes that can remain stable for long periods of time and can also respond rapidly to changes in climate or land use. In this view of a recently deglaciated valley in the Juneau Icefield, Alaska, surface features comprise hillslopes, rock falls and slides, glaciers (in the far distance, upper right corner of the image), alluvial fans, streams, wetlands, and biota. Integral processes less visible than the landforms and land cover include weathering, soil formation, climate, surface and groundwater flow, nutrient fluxes, and tectonics. SOURCE: Photograph courtesy of Dorothy Merritts, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Spurred by growing recognition of the importance and relevance of research in these areas, the National Science Foundation (NSF) requested that the National Research Council (NRC) convene a committee to address challenges and opportunities in Earth surface processes. The committee was asked to address three tasks related to Earth surface processes in the context of both scientific and societal issues:
Assess the current state and the fundamental research questions of the field of Earth surface processes; Identify the rate-limiting challenges or opportunities for making significant advances in the field; and Identify the necessary intellectual collaborations and high-priority needs to meet these challenges.
Interconnected processes at Earth’s surface are coupled to those of Earth’s interior in various ways that extend to millennial and longer time scales. The height and shape of rising mountains, for example, influence regional weather patterns, which affect rates of erosion via the amount and type of precipitation. As rivers and glaciers fed by topographically controlled precipitation carve deeply into uplifted rock in tectonically active areas, their concentrated erosion draws even more rock upward due to the effect of unloading (Figure 1.2). Spatial variation in erosion across a mountain belt due to climatic differences can affect the pattern of upward and lateral movement of rock toward Earth’s surface. While the volume of rock drawn into a mountain belt is affected by Earth surface processes, the composition of the rock also is altered and this change can affect climate. Chemical weathering of rock freshly exposed in rapidly uplifting mountains affects the chemistry of water draining the mountains and can draw down carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, thereby influencing climate over relatively long periods of geologic time.
Answer:earthquake
Explanation: