Malham Field UK Essay Example for Free

Malham Field UK Essay Malham field is very vast piece of land situated the northern eastern of the England. It lies within the Yorkshire part of England. The region has wide variations of geographical features which contribute to the attractiveness of the region as centre of tourism attraction. The region has therefore been a region of great importance in the development of geographical learning and other linked course such as agricultures, tourism as well as fishing. (Raistrick, 1972) The geology The Malham field is a region famous of geological activities. One of the most famous geological activities in the sites lies with the presence of limestone features of their own uniqueness. The place is well known because of the wide variety of features, however, the site has is deeply significant in geological work through the understanding of limestone. Generally, Malham is speculated to be a region of useful limestone minerals. The region has been of unique shape which is attributed to the endowment of limestone. The presence of the limestone of the nature of KARST in this portion of land has led to the spectacular landscape. (O’Connor 1964): Due to the nature of limestone present, the region experiences underground drainage more often rather than surface drainage and run offs. Therefore, like in many other areas where KARST occurs, the underground drainage forms a main feature in the region. The presence of limestone in region makes it possible in the formation of different geographical feature. These physical geographical features formed in the region depend on the chemical properties of calcium carbonate. The rocks are readily dissolved by rainwater. As result of this kind of rock the cover the land, the reactions of the rock with rainwater leads to the formation of sinkholes. Usually, sinkholes which are salient features in the regions occur with surface water disappearing underground hence leaving behind dry valleys and stream less. The nature of the rock in the area also prevents ease formation of the soils. The rock has very high rate of dissolving which renders the processes of soils formation quite impossible. While soils are not easily formed on soluble rocks, then the place has vast lands with bare rocks. In addition to bare rocks, other common salient features in the regions includes crags and pavements Figure 1 The figure above shows the presence of several feature found in the region. Bare rock s and other features are clearly indicated. Scree slopes and crags are shown in the figure with varying ways. This figure was retrieve from http://www. malhamdale. com/geology. htm on 21 February, 2009 Landforms and soils The part of Malham has several features which are formed through different activities. There are two major activities which are involved in the formation of the various landforms in the region. Perhaps, there are three most distinct ways in which these features are attained. One of these is the glaciations process which is believed to have taken place during the era of ice ages. The place of Malham is said to have been covered with glaciers at about 15000 years ago. The sheet of ice that covered Malham glaciated leading to scoured and modified KARST landscape. This made the place to come to be referred to as GLACIOKARST landscape. The process led to the formation of limestone pavement with exposed rocks to the element of the environment. (Burek et al,1998) The figure 2 below shows an example of limestone pavement. Retrieved from http://www. malhamdale. com/cove. htm on 21 February, 2009 The figure above shows a Malham cove which is said to be an inspiration to numerous art and literature work. The Malham cove is a huge shaped cliff formed of limestone rock. The top of the cove is covered by classical limestone pavement. The high of the vertical face of the cliff is 260 feet. The cove is deeply eroded at the top. (Muir 1991) The other kind of features and landscapes can result through erosion and solution processes. Generally, these processes are likely to create feature of tourism attraction such as the Gordale Scar. This is a huge gorge that existed since the ice ages in which water melted forming a cavern that gradually collapsed resulting to waterfall and a gorge (Sweeting, 1972) Vegetation and drainage The Malham part has mostly underground drainage system. This is because the rock allows the formation of such systems more easily than any other drainage systems. Most of the rivers in this region remain as dry river bed due to percolation of the surface water from the surface. Most rivers become surface drainage systems only with heavy rainfall. Despite that the region has several underground water systems; the Malham tarn is salient feature within the region. While most of the drainage systems are naturally salty, the Malham Tarn system has been very significant in the provision of freshwater. The Malham tarn lake draws off its contents to the small stream of Malham water. This system of the Malham water enters to the limestone where it disappears at water sinks. The system continues with its course by adopting the common way of underground channel before it reappears at the Airehead Springs in the southern part of Malham. (Smith and Atkinson, 1977) Figure 3 Malham Tarn lake drainage system This is the famous largest freshwater lake in the United Kingdom Climate The region of Malham experiences four climatic seasons in a year. However, there has been some change in the recent times which is not only being experienced in this region but is a matter that is causing an alarm allover the world. The Malham region is being affected by the global warming process which is taking place in whole world. The winter season is portrayed to have the extreme of temperature increase, implying that there is the least frost and ground air at such a time. During the summer period, the amount of rainfall is more or less that received during the winter time. However, there has a tendency of drier summers and wetter winters in the past few decades. (Manley, 1979)