How to Read Nature by Tristan Gooley

Author:Tristan Gooley
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781615194308
Publisher: The Experiment
Published: 2017-01-31T05:00:00+00:00

ONCE WE ARE used to seeing the landscape as a series of habitats, we can begin to ask and answer more interesting questions. And we will find a large number of the answers by thinking about water and rocks. First we need to clear up a big misconception. There is a temptation to think of places as being different because they are in different places. North West England’s Lake District is like the Lake District because it is . . . the Lake District. Yosemite National Park is like Yosemite National Park because it is Yosemite National Park. Beneath the ludicrousness of these statements lurks something big and key.

Rocks and water explain a lot about every natural environment, regardless of where they are. Time for our final set of building blocks:

8. All land is based on rocks of some kind.

9. Some rocks, like chalk, are porous and some, like slate, are non-porous. Non-porous rocks hold water above them and lead to wet areas. Porous rocks let the water filter down through them and lead to dry areas.

10. Some plants and animals like wet conditions and some like drier conditions.

11. Some rocks, like granite, lead to soil above them that is acidic and some, like chalk, form soil that is alkaline.

12. Most plants prefer alkaline conditions, so you get more plants and more diverse plants growing in areas with alkaline soils.

13. Rivers carve V-shaped valleys and meander, creating interlocking spurs that result in restricted views. During the last ice age, on the other hand, glaciers carved big, wide U-shaped valleys with great views.

14. Where the sea meets land, the wind creates waves and constant erosion. Depending on the rocks it acts upon, this process gives us beaches, cliffs, and many more beguiling landforms.

15. The side of a landmass closest to the sea, in the direction the wind comes from, will get most of the rain.

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