Landscape
Yellowstone National Park
is situated in a semi arid geographical area. The air in this area holds relative humidity with sporadic
rainfall. The average annual
precipitation in the park is only 15.4 inches. Although many people think of hot temperatures in deserts,
the temperatures range from a freezing 9.6 degrees in January to a comfortable
79.6 in July.
Many rivers and lakes
make up this beautiful park. The
Yellowstone River is a type of exoreic drainage because it passes through this
desert area but originates from the Missouri River. Some of the lakes here are tarns. Tarns are lakes created in a depression as a glacier
is melting.
Yellowstone River in yellow originates from the Missouri River |
Landscape
1000 Years From Now
The
landscape will look quite different in the park from what it does today. The water features will look nothing as
they do today and in some instances flow in completely different areas. Most of these rivers are
meandering. The process that will
cause this change has to do with deposition and erosion. As the water flows down the streams it deposits
sediments at the point bars and will start eroding each cut bank. Over time this will cause the river to
change shape and even “move” through a different area if it creates close goosenecks
that will eventually be eroded and create a cut-off.
Landscape
10,000 Years From Now
Another
water feature that will not look the same will be Yellowstone Falls. It will have been eroded back
from the point where it lies today.
As streams try to reach equilibrium, they start removing nick points and
eventually begin undercutting the lower part of the rock. As this process repeats over and over
the falls will erode and move back.