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Professional Paper 1386–A

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Crosphere Notes Figures (1–30)

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Figure 1-1.–The Earth System. Its two primary components are the geosphere (the collective name for the lithosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and atmosphere) and the biosphere; climatic processes, the hydrologic cycle, and the multiple biogeochemical cycles are interactive in the Earth System; the Sun is the primary source of energy. Graphic design by James A. Tomberlin, USGS.		 pp1386a_fig1-2

Figure 1-2.–The Earth’s cryosphere is comprised of four elements: glaciers, snow cover, floating ice, and permafrost. Graphic design by James A. Tomberlin, USGS.		 pp1386a_fig1-3

Figure 1-3.–Variation in concentration of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere for the previous six glacial/interglacial cycles (past 650,000 years), from analyses of the ice core taken by the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA) from Dome C, Antarctica. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in 2009 was 390 ppmv.		 pp1386a_fig1-4

Figure 1-4.–The Earth. Photograph taken during the Apollo 17 Mission to the Moon in December 1972, the last of the Apollo missions, by the geologist-astronaut Harrison H.(Jack) Schmitt. NASA photograph No. 72-HC-928, courtesy of the NASA Public Information Office, Washington, D.C.		 pp1386a_fig2-1

Figure 2-1. The global hydrological cycle. Water evaporates from oceans and lakes and precipitates on land as rain or snow. The cycle transports runoff from rivers and streams, by subsurface movement through aquifers, through animals, plants, and other organisms, through the soil, and stores water in oceans, lakes, and glaciers. Modified from U.S. Geological Survey, 2009, Water science for schools: The water cycle: accessed 23 February 2010, at http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycle.html. The global hydrological cycle. Water evaporates from oceans and lakes and precipitates on land as rain or snow. The cycle transports runoff from rivers and streams,by subsurface movement through aquifers, through animals, plants, and other organisms, through the soil, and stores water in oceans, lakes, and glaciers. Modified from U.S. Geological Survey, 2009, Water science for schools: The water cycle: accessed 23 February 2010, at http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycle.html.		 pp1386a_fig2-2

Figure 2-2.–Ground photograph of glacial meltwater plunging over the 60-m-high Skógafoss waterfall, southern Iceland. The glacial meltwater originates from the Eyjafjallajökull ice cap and flowssouth into the North Atlantic Ocean. Photograph by Richard S. Williams, Jr., U.S. Geological Survey.
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Figure 3-1.–Oblique aerial photograph of the ice front in Okuma Bay, eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica, on 22 October 1961. A tabular iceberg is visible in the bottom left-center foreground.		 pp1386a_fig3-2

Figure 3-2.–Landsat 1 MSS digitally enhanced false-color composite image of the south slope of the Greenland ice sheet northwest of Julianehåb (Qaqortoq), South Greenland on 13 September 1980. The image shows the well-de ned edge of the Inland Ice which spreads over the lowlands of South Greenland toward the outer coast. In some areas, the snowline is clearly visible. The marginal areas of the Greenland ice sheet have undergone severe thinning during the late 20th century and early 21st century		 pp1386a_fig3-3

Figure 3-3.–Landsat 1 MSS image of the Vatnajökull ice cap, Iceland, on 22 September 1973. Digitally enhanced falsecolor composite Landsat image (1426-12070) from the U.S. Geological Survey EROS Data Center, Sioux Falls, SD 57198		 pp1386a_fig3-4

Figure 3-4.–View of dam on Oberaarsee (Lake Oberaar) and Oberaargletscher (Oberaar Glacier) in the background, Bernese Alps, Bern Canton, Switzerland, in September 1978. Photograph by Richard S. Williams, Jr., U.S. Geological Survey. 		pp1386a_fig4-1

Figure 4-1.–The Earth System. Its two primary components are the geosphere (the collective name for the lithosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, and atmosphere) and the biosphere; climatic processes, the hydrologic cycle, and the multiple biogeochemical cycles are interactive in the Earth System; the Sun is the primary source of energy. Graphic design by James A. Tomberlin, USGS.		 pp1386a_fig4-2

Figure 4-2.–Snow cover in Glacier National Park, Montana, in March 1991. Photograph by Dorothy K. Hall, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center.
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Figure 4-3.–Snow cover on the Southern Alps and environs, South Island, New Zealand, on 11 July 2003. The intense storm that produced this snow cover was reported to be the worst blizzard to hit New Zealand in the past 50 years. The 500-meter-pixel resolution image is from the MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. Image courtesy of NASA’s MODIS Land Rapid Response Team.		 pp1386a_fig5-1

Figure 5-1. Sea ice in the Arctic region on 9 March 2003, shown on an image produced from data from NASA’s Aqua satellite. Delineation of maximum areal extent of sea ice is shown by the boundary between open water (dark blue) and sea ice (lighter blue).		 pp1386a_fig5-2

Figure 5-2.– Graph showing a 29-year average (1979–2007) (black line), seasonal variation of sea ice extent in the Arctic Ocean and environs. The red dashed line shows seasonal variation for 2007, a record low		 pp1386a_fig5-3a

Figure 5-3a.–Three Landsat-7 ETM+ images (bands 3, 4, 5) of the breakup of ice on Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada (at about latitude 61.5°N., longitude 14.5°W.) on (A) 4 May 2000, (B) 20 May 2000, and (C) 5 June 2000. Lake ice is shown in light blue, open water in dark blue. Each image covers an area of 185 km by 185 km.		 pp1386a_fig5-3b

Figure 5-3b–Three Landsat-7 ETM+ images (bands 3, 4, 5) of the breakup of ice on Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada (at about latitude 61.5°N., longitude 14.5°W.) on (B) 20 May 2000. 		pp1386a_fig5-3c

Figure 5-3c –Three Landsat-7 ETM+ images (bands 3, 4, 5) of the breakup of ice on Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada (at about latitude 61.5°N., longitude 14.5°W.) on (C) 5 June 2000. Lake ice is shown in light blue, open water in dark blue. Each image covers an area of 185 km by 185 km.
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Figure 6-1.– Map showing areal distribution of permafrost regions in the Northern Hemisphere. Prepared in 2007 by the Permafrost Laboratory, Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Map derived from the electronic version of the “Circum-Arctic Map of Permafrost and Ground-Ice Conditions” (Brown and others, 1997, http://nsidc.org/fgdc/). 		pp1386a_fig6-2

Figure 6-2.–Ground photograph of massive ice wedge and thawing of permafrost along the bank of the Kolyma River, Siberia, Russia. Photograph provided by Vladimir Romanovsky, Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks.		 pp1386a_fig6-3

Figure 6-3.–Oblique aerial photograph of ice-wedge polygonal ground on the Alaska Arctic coastal plain. Photograph by Robert I. Lewellen, Lewellen Arctic Research, Inc., Palmer, Alaska 		pp1386a_fig6-4

Figure 6-4. Ground photograph of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and parallel access road constructed on ice-rich permafrost. The pipeline is constructed on elevated thermopiles to dissipate heat and prevent thawing of permafrost.		 pp1386a_fig7-1

Figure 7-1. Rise in global sea level from meltwater from mountain glaciers and subpolar ice caps, 1961 to 2005. Although the average increase in global sea level was 0.58 mm per annum from 1961 to 2005, the rate of sea-level rise increased to 0.98 mm per annum from 1993 to 2005. Graph prepared by Mark Dyurgerov, University of Colorado, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Boulder, Colorado.		 pp1386a_fig7-2

Figure 7-2. A Landsat 2 Multispectral Scanner false-color composite image of the Malaspina Glacier (piedmont outlet glacier), tidewater Hubbard Glacier, and other glaciers in the St. Elias Mountains, Alaska, 24 August 1979; see figure 144, p. K160, in Glaciers of Alaska (https://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/p1386k).
pp1386a_fig7-3

Figure 7-3. Landsat image of four islands in the Society Islands of French Polynesia, about 200 kilometers northwest of Tahiti. Three of the islands are surrounded by fringing reefs with eroded extinct volcanoes within circumferential lagoons. Bora Bora is in the center. To its right is Taha’a and its neighbor to the south, Raiatea. Tupai, a small coral atoll, is in the upper left. 		pp1386a_fig8-1

Figure 8-1. Geographic locations of areas of glaciers that were retreating during the 20th century and of the ice-core sites in many of these areas. Map compiled by the Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. 		pp1386a_fig8-2a

Figure 8-2a. Two views of the receding margin of the Quelccaya ice cap, Perú’s largest glacier and the Earth’s largest tropical ice cap. The margin of the ice cap was photographed from the same camera station in 1977. Photographs by Lonnie G. Thompson, Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. 		pp1386a_fig8-2b

Figure 8-2b. Two views of the receding margin of the Quelccaya ice cap, Perú’s largest glacier and the Earth’s largest tropical ice cap. The margin of the ice cap was photographed from the same camera station in 2002. Photographs by Lonnie G. Thompson, Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. 		pp1386a_fig8-3

Figure 8-3. Glacier sites worldwide from which glaciologists have obtained ice cores containing paleoclimate histories and compared them with current climate records to better understand climate change. Map compiled by the Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. -4. Ground photograph of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and parallel access road constructed on ice-rich permafrost. The pipeline is constructed on elevated thermopiles to dissipate heat and prevent thawing of permafrost.		 pp1386a_fig8-4

Figure 8-4. Glaciologist extracting glacier ice core from a drilling barrel on the 6,100 meters col (pass) of Huascarán, Perú, in July 1993. Photograph by Lonnie G. Thompson, Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.


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