Impact of Hydrological Cycle on Earths Surface Processes

Impact of Hydrological Cycle on Earths Surface Processes The impact of a changing hydrological cycle on  Earth’s surface processes Introduction The hydrological cycle is the cycle of processes by which water circulates between the earth’s oceans, atmosphere, and land, involving precipitation as rain and snow, drainage in streams and rivers, and return to the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration.(Website 1) Throughout this essay I will emphasise the importance of this cycle together with the factors that affect the water quality correlated with the climate change and the direct impact upon three Earth geological surfaces. The importance of the Hydrological Cycle Figure 1 : the hydrological cycle (evaporation, condensation, precipitation, surface runoff, infiltration and transpiration and the transitions of water between the solid, liquid and gas phases) (website 2) This process is extremely important for the biosphere, as it sustains all the life on Earth. Although water is continuously recycled, recent studies confirm that direct or indirect human activities (fossil fuels burning, factory pollution, etc.) have a huge impact upon the environment and continuous pollution may cause serious changes on the hydrological cycle, affecting both water quality and the processes that take place on Earth’s surface. Factors that influence the water quality Rapid growth of population and heavy industrialisation coupled with a weak effort to find a more suitable way of waste disposal are the main factors that induce water pollution.( Hennigan, 1969) Figure 2: various sources of water pollution (website 3) Chemical pollution The chemical industry is one of the most important threats to water contamination. For example the most dangerous wastes that come from the fertilizer manufacturing plants are nitrogen and phosphorous and their varying chemical forms. Nitrates can increase eutrophication, leading to the promotion of algae and macrophytes growth affecting thus the water quality. As for humans, the health hazards related to nitrates present in water are considered to be infant methemoglobinemia and cancer appearance. Phosphates can affect the growth rate of aquatic plants that may fix atmospheric nitrogen. Under these circumstances, phosphate becomes the growth-limiting agent, and programmes to control eutrophication have generally sought to reduce available phosphate limits, to prevent excessive algal and macrophyte growth, with subsequent increase in nutrient retention. ( Bahadori et al,2013) Biological pollution Bacterial pollution of water is the most serious threat, as diseases can be transmitted very easily through the underground water system. It only can be removed by filtration through a thick layer of porous and permeable sediments, but this happens only in certain areas. If the biological hazard will occur in one spot, it will be transmitted several kilometres from the initial place through water circulation, affecting a large area. That’s why it is very important to have a sewerage system carrying the human wastes away from the source, or to have a piped water supply. Journal (American Water Works Association, 1957) Changes of the hydrological cycle affecting Earth’s surfaces The chemical or biological pollution of water can lead to changes in climate and temperature that can affect the Earth’s surface processes. Chemical Weathering Weathering is the chemical or physical process that changes the rock structures located on Earth surface. In order to occur, the rocks must be directly exposed to water and air. The weathering disintegration takes place at the sub-microscopic level, and therefore exposed rocks that contain complex pore systems, fracture surfaces and grain boundaries provide the perfect surface where the chemical weathering occurs. However, as the concentration of chemicals in the atmosphere increases, the process is accelerated. ( Siegesmund et al, 2002) Chemical weathering rate depends on three main factors: temperature, amount of surface area and availability of water or natural acid. So, the rocks in the tropical environments experience the most severe weathering.( Siegesmund et al, 2002) Figure 3: Cube dimensions versus surface area (website 4) Because water is a dipolar molecule, it is categorized as a good solvent being able to dissolve many chemical compounds.(Mahhafy) In addition to this effect, water aids decomposition through acid action, hydrolysis and oxidation. A good example is the weathering of silicate minerals by carbonic acid that forms by the interaction of water with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The reaction is given below: 2KAlSi3O8+ H2O + 2H2CO3= Al2Si2O5(OH)4+ 2K+++4SiO2(aq)+ 2HCO3 Other minerals that dissolve easily in water are halite and calcite. In particular, structures made out of limestone and marble contain calcite and are prone to chemical weathering by dissolution.(for example marble tombstones ) Erosion Erosion refers to the transportation of rock particles and minerals from the initial location to another. It is different from weathering as it is a dynamic element. The main force that induces erosion is gravity and the main agents are: wind, rain, running water, and glaciers. As the temperature increases, the amount of rain is also increased so the transportation of sediments is faster. The result is the rapid erosion of the river banks, producing a wider channel. A good example of this process can found in the testimonies of Kansas residents. They stated that Cimarron River, which was a small meandering stream in 1914, began to increase after the flood from the same year. The channel at Point of Rocks was 66feet in 1874, but in 1916, a bridge of 644 feet was necessary to be built in order to cross the channel at that point. By 1939, the width was measured as being 1400 feet, so many houses were engulfed by the channel in 1944. (McLaughlin, 1947) Figure 4: Aerial view of Cimarron River in the vicinity of Point of Rocks(lower left corner at N) and Elkhart bridge (upper right center) (McLaughlin, 1947) Deposition The final step in the weathering-erosional system is deposition. The rock particles that are picked up and transported by an eroding agent will be deposited in a final location and the erosion agents will become deposition agents. The deposited sediments will then be arranged from largest to smallest, process known as horizontal sorting. The main factor that influence the sorting of the rocks is water. However if the flow is high, small particles like clay, sand and silt will be found in the depositional basin together with a large quantity of bigger sediment, including boulders, cobbles and pebbles.( The International Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 1997) Diameter(mm) Particle type 256 mm and up Boulders 64-256 mm Cobbles 2-64 mm Pebbles 0.0625-2 mm Sand 0.002-0.0625 mm Silt 0.002mm and smaller Clay Table 1 : The diameter of various sediments that can be found in depositional basins(Grotzinger et al, 2010) Conclusion The chemical and biological pollution of water is in a direct relation with the changes that occur in the processes on Earth’s surface. The release of toxic gases in the atmosphere contributes to the increase in temperature that directly affects the hydrological cycle. As the temperature is increased, the amount of water that is precipitated is also increased and surface processes such as weathering, erosion and deposition are accelerated causing rock decomposition, alteration of river banks or the high abundance of large sediments in the depositional basins. Bibliography Books and Journals Water Pollution Robert D. Hennigan BioScience Vol. 19, No. 11 (Nov., 1969) (pp. 976-978) Alireza Bahadori Malcolm Clark and Bill Boyd,2013. SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology Essentials of Water Systems Design in the Oil, Gas, and Chemical Processing Industries, Siegesmund, S., Weiss, T. Vollbrecht, A. (eds) 2002. Natural Stone, Weathering Phenomena, Conservation Strategies and Case Studies. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 205 The American Water Works Association, (April 1957) Pollution of Ground Water World Health Organization Report Journal Vol. 49, No. 4 (pp. 392-396) The International Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 1997.Rain erosion hazard evaluation by soil surface micro-topographic features A case of the soil loss plots at ChiangDao experiment station, northern Thailand. (pp. 45-58.) Thad G. McLaughlin, (Mar., 1947). The Accelerated Channel Erosion in the Cimarron Valley in Southwestern Kansas. Journal of Geology Vol. 55, No. 2 (pp. 76-93) Grotzinger, J, Jordan, T H, Press, F and Siever, R (2010). Understanding Earth (6th Edition) pp Webpages http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/water-cycle http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycle.html http://visual.merriam-webster.com/images/earth/environment/water-pollution.jpg http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~lanbo/G229Lect06121Weathering.pdf

The Evolution of High Heels Essay -- Fashion

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Elements of Fiction Essay

The six major elements of fiction are character, plot, point of view, setting, style, and theme. 1. Character — A figure in a literary work (personality, gender, age, etc). E. M. Forester makes a distinction between flat and round characters. Flat characters are types or caricatures defined by a single idea of quality, whereas round characters have the three-dimensional complexity of real people. 2. Plot –- the major events that move the action in a narrative. It is the sequence of major events in a story, usually in a cause-effect relation. 3. Point of View — the vantage point from which a narrative is told. A narrative is typically told from a first-person or third-person point of view. In a narrative told from a first-person perspective, the author tells the story through a character who refers to himself or herself as â€Å"I.† Third –person narratives come in two types: omniscient and limited. An author taking an omniscient point of view assumes the vantage point of an all-knowing narrator able not only to recount the action thoroughly and reliably but also to enter the mind of any character in the work or any time in order to reveal his or her thoughts, feelings, and beliefs directly to the reader. An author using the limited point of view recounts the story through the eyes of a single character (or occasionally more than one, but not all or the narrator would be an omniscient narrator). 4. Setting –- That combination of place, historical time, and social milieu that provides the general background for the characters and plot of a literary work. The general setting of a work may differ from the specific setting of an individual scene or event. 5.Style — The author’s type of diction (choice of words), syntax (arrangement of words), and other linguistic features of a work. 6. Th eme(s) — The central and dominating idea (or ideas) in a literary work. The term also indicates a message or moral implicit in any work of art. What is the connection of Literature to the history? The main connection between literature and history is that literature is used to report and represent history. The two are, therefore, intertwined with  one another. The biggest difference between literature and history is that the latter posits itself as fact, while the former is taken to be an artistic form. The twin ideas of fact and entertainment intertwine often within literature and history to produce historical fiction and narrative non-fiction. Literature takes many forms. They range from personal notes to poems and non-fiction articles. Literature can be presented in a number of mediums including online content, magazine and newspaper articles and in book form. For a work to be considered literary, it usually requires artistic merit and quality. What constitutes as literary is a subjective matter and rarely agreed upon. History at its most basic is the story of humanity. This is divided into anthropology,archaeology and history. History is the story of man’s representation of his own story — that is to say, what people through the ages have chosen to record and write down. Literature and history both occur in numerous forms, from tax records and letters to full histories of whole nations and people. Meaning: Anthropology is the scientific study and analysis of human beings and humanity. Archaeology is the discipline of excavating old artifacts and buildings to learn more about human history. It is often considered a type of science, though it is based more on interpretation and cross-comparisons than hypothesis-making and experimentation. Philippines Natural Artist of Literature Francisco Arcellana N. V. M. Gonzales Nick Joaquin F. Sionil Jose Jose Garcia Villa Edith L. Tiempo Virgilio S. Almario Amado V. Hernandez Carlos P. Romulo Alejandro R. Roces Bienvenido Lumbera Francisco Arcellana, writer, poet, essayist, critic, journalist and teacher, is one of the most important progenitors of the modern Filipino short story in English. He pioneered the development of the short story as a lyrical prose-poetic form. For Arcellana, the pride of fiction is â€Å"that it is able to render truth, that is able to present reality†. Arcellana has kept alive the experimental tradition in fiction, and has been most daring in exploring new literary forms to express the sensibility of the Filipino people. A brilliant craftsman, his works are now an indispensable part of a tertiary-level-syllabi all over the country. Arcellana’s published books areSelected Stories (1962), Poetry and Politics: The State of Original Writing in English in the Philippines Today (1977), The Francisco Arcellana Sampler (1990). Some of his short stories are Frankie, The Man Who Would Be Poe, Death in a Factory, Lina, A Clown Remembers, Divided by Two, and his poems beingThe Other Woman, This Being the Third Poem This Poem is for Mathilda,To Touch You and I Touched Her, among others. Nestor Vicente Madali Gonzalez, better known as N.V.M. Gonzalez, fictionist, essayist, poet, and teacher, articulated the Filipino spirit in rural, urban landscapes. Among the many recognitions, he won the First Commonwealth Literary Contest in 1940, received the Republic Cultural Heritage Award in 1960 and the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining in 1990. The awards attest to his triumph in appropriating the English language to express, reflect and shape Philippine culture and Philippine sensibility. He became U.P.’s International-Writer-In-Residence and a member of the Board of Advisers of the U.P. Creative Writing Center. In 1987, U.P. conferred on him the Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, its highest academic recognition. Major works of N.V.M Gonzalez include the following: The Winds of April, Seven Hills Away, Children of the Ash-Covered Loam and Other Stories, The Bamboo Dancers, Look Stranger, on this Island Now, Mindoro and Beyond: Twenty -One Stories, The Bread of Salt and Other Stories, Work on the Mountain, The Novel of Justice: Selected Essays 1968-1994, A Grammar of  Dreams and Other Stories. Nick Joaquin, is regarded by many as the most distinguished Filipino writer in English writing so variedly and so well about so many aspects of the Filipino. Nick Joaquin has also enriched the English language with critics coining â€Å"Joaquinesque† to describe his baroque Spanish-flavored English or his reinventions of English based on Filipinisms. Aside from his handling of language, Bienvenido Lumbera writes that Nick Joaquin’s significance in Philippine literature involves his exploration of the Philippine colonial past under Spain and his probing into the psychology of social changes as seen by the young, as exemplified in stories such as Doà ±a Jeronima, Candido’s Apocalypse and The Order of Melchizedek. Nick Joaquin has written plays, novels, poems, short stories and essays including reportage and journalism. As a journalist, Nick Joaquin uses the nome de guerreQuijano de Manila but whether he is writing literature or journalism, fellow National Artist F rancisco Arcellana opines that â€Å"it is always of the highest skill and quality†. Among his voluminous works are The Woman Who Had Two Navels, A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, Manila, My Manila: A History for the Young, The Ballad of the Five Battles, Rizal in Saga, Almanac for Manileà ±os, Cave and Shadows. F. Sionil Jose’s writings since the late 60s, when taken collectively can best be described as epic. Its sheer volume puts him on the forefront of Philippine writing in English. But ultimately, it is the consistent espousal of the aspirations of the Filipino–for national sovereignty and social justice–that guarantees the value of his oeuvre. In the five-novel masterpiece, the Rosales saga, consisting of The Pretenders, Tree, My Brother, My Executioner, Mass, and Po-on, he captures the sweep of Philippine history while simultaneously narrating the lives of generations of the Samsons whose personal lives intertwine with the social struggles of the nation. Because of their international appeal, his works, including his many short stories, have been published and translated into various languages. Jose is also a publisher, lecturer on cultural issues, and the founder of the Philippine chapter of the international organization PEN. He was bestowed the CCP Centennial Honors for the Arts in 1999; the Outstanding Fulbrighters Award for Literature in 1988; and the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts in 1980. Carlos P. Romulo’s multifaceted career spanned 50 years of public service as educator, soldier, university president, journalist and diplomat. It is common knowledge that he was the first Asian president of the United Nations General Assembly, then Philippine Ambassador to Washington, D.C., and later minister of foreign affairs. Essentially though, Romulo was very much into writing: he was a reporter at 16, a newspaper editor by the age of 20, and a publisher at 32. He was the only Asian to win America’s coveted Pulitzer Prize in Journalism for a series of articles predicting the outbreak of World War II. Romulo, in all, wrote and published 18 books, a range of literary works which included The United(novel), I Walked with Heroes (autobiography), I Saw the Fall of the Philippines, Mother America, I See the Philippines Rise (war-time memoirs). His other books include his memoirs of his many years’ affiliations with United Nations (UN), Forty Years: A Third World Soldier at the UN, and The Philippine Presidents, his oral history of his experiences serving all the Philippine presidents. Alejandro Roces, is a short story writer and essayist, and considered as the country’s best writer of comic short stories. He is known for his widely anthologized â€Å"My Brother’s Peculiar Chicken.† In his innumerable newspaper columns, he has always focused on the neglected aspects of the Filipino cultural heritage. His works have been published in various international magazines and has received national and international awards. Ever the champion of Filipino cultures, Roces brought to public attention the aesthetics of the country’s fiestas. He was instrumental in popularizing several local fiestas, notably, Moriones and Ati-atihan. He personally led  the campaign to change the country’s Independence Day from July 4 to June 12, and caused the change of language from English to Filipino in the country’s stamps, currency and passports, and recovered Jose Rizal’s manuscripts when they were stolen from the National Archives. His unflinching love of country led him to become a guerilla during the Second World War, to defy martial law and to found the major opposition party under the dictatorship. His works have been published in various international magazines and received numerous national and international awards, including several decorations from various governments.

Enterprise Resource Planning Is The Fruit Of The Hard Work

Introduction Some years ago, there had been a situation in the market that every Business Company or organization had faced the problem of sharing their data within their different trades of the company. And also the problem of integrating all the information into one base structure, which created a burning problem affecting the efficiencies of the organizations. Every organization was waiting to have an organized system which could save all their work and collaborate all the information and communicate among themselves. It was a situation of having a desperate need of new build system, which would improve their process. The complications aroused in every single business process i.e. from the start to end point of developing and delivering†¦show more content†¦But due to some factors like cost, time etc. it would not be possible. So, there could be some situations that it might fail due to miscellaneous reasons and bringing down the organization to an even more worse condition. Hershey’s chocolate factory Background It is one of the leading chocolate manufacturer in the North America. It is a very famous brand for chocolates that every child wants to have one. This chocolate business is started by Mr. Milton S Hershey in 1876 and was been established in the year 1894. According to the statistics the Hershey’s company contributes 80% of its sales for only chocolates and the remaining 20% on other products. This company products are sold almost all countries across the globe and also provides employment for around 16000 people. Goals The company has decided to implement ERP system to increase its efficiency and the management process in the year 1996, and after deciding on it they have given approval for the project â€Å"Enterprise21†. To implement the ERP system the company has selected the SAP’s R/3 ERP software, Manugistic’s Supply Chain Management software and Seibel’s CRM software and IBM global service to get integrated with these three systems which would be beneficial in bringing good output for the company. The recommend time for the company was 4 years and they did not listen to that and had no patience and ordered to do it in 2.5 years which made it more worse than the present, as the time was not sufficient to deliver