Environmental Science, 10th Edition (Cunningham)

Chapter 12: Biodiversity: Preserving Landscapes

GE Exercise: Yellowstone National Park

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Take a virtual field trip with Google Earth!
Google Earth is a free, online application that uses satellite imagery to allow the user to zoom across the globe in a realistic, virtual environment. Downloading Google Earth is free at http://www.earth.google.com.

An overview manual is available by clicking here... Google Earth Overview (342.0K)

To continue:
- Make sure you have the Google Earth software installed and running.
- Copy the following latitude and longitude and paste into the "Fly to" field under the Search tab.
- Hit “Enter” for Google Earth to take you to the specified coordinates, then come back here and read the following overview.

Latitude/Longitude: 44.4627, -110.827

Overview: Yellowstone National Park, p. 269

Established in 1872, Yellowstone is considered the world’s first truly national park. Actually, it was preceded by the Hot Springs Reservation in Arkansas (1832) and Yosemite Valley in California (1864), but these areas were managed by state governments until the National Park Service was established in 1916. Yellowstone remains one of the most popular units of the U.S. National Park system and has about 3 million visitors every year. With more than 2.2 million acres (about 900,000 ha), the park is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. The place marker is just north of the Old Faithful Geyser Basin, undoubtedly the most popular tourist attraction in the park.

1
Do you see any evidence of the facilities that might be needed to accommodate the millions of tourists who visit this area every year?
A)There is little in the way of accommodations and infrastructure for tourists.
B)There is a basic but primitive level of accommodations and infrastructure for tourists.
C)A moderate level of accommodations and infrastructure for tourists exists.A
D)An extensive network of sidewalks, roads, parking lots, lodges, and service buildings is provided to accommodate tourists.
2
About 20 km east of Old Faithful is a very large lake. What is its name? What is the surface elevation of this lake? (Remember you need to have the “terrain” layer turned on to see elevations for your mouse pointer.)
A)Yellowstone Caldera is 3257 m above sea level.
B)Lewis Lake is 2375 m above sea level.
C)Jackson Lake is 2573 m above sea level.
D)Yellowstone Lake is 2358 m above sea level.
E)Swan Lake is 3572 m above sea level.
3
How was this lake formed?
A)The lake is rainwater and groundwater collecting in a large impact crater.
B)The lake was formed by glacial scouring and damming of a stream valley.
C)The lake is rainwater collected in an ancient caldera (a large, collapsed volcanic crater).
D)The lake has always been a repository for water from Yellowstone Creek, with no outlet available for the water to drain away.
E)The lake was created by the Yellowstone Dam in 1934.
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