Final Assessment and Fluvial Landscape

The Victoria Falls region is a Fluvial Landscape. The Zambezi River that supports the Victoria Falls and creates them has a dissolved carrying load. The material is chemically carried in the water. So even though the water appears clear, the sediment and particles are just dissolved. Therefore, unlike suspended load, the flow has a much higher velocity that can “entrain clay and fine silt than coarse sand.” The Kentucky River is a good river in which to compare the Zambezi. The future will reveal more erosion due to the high velocity of the water concerning weathering.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Zambezi_River_at_junction_of_Namibia,_Zambia,_Zimbabwe_%26_Botswana.jpg

The Zambezi River stream has a Perennial flow regime, which means it flows year round. The key to perennial flow regimes is baseflow. Victoria Falls is a wet region. The types of channels that compile the Zambezi River are meandering channels, which are single channel wiggles across a floodplain. This is predominant in wet areas, such as the Zambezi, with perennial streams. The meandering channel’s elements include point bar, thalweg, and cut bank. This channel is able to handle flooding well.

The process of the meandering channel amplitude increasing is when deposition occurs at the point bars and erosion at cut banks, and the high velocity goes from cut bank to cut bank. The cut bank erodes and the bank collapses. The point bar deposits even as the cut bank moves over time. It then continues until it creates goosenecks. Specific to the Zambezi River according to tothevictoriafalls.com, “The point where the lake overflowed and eroded into its former margins is seen at Katombora, linking the Upper and Middle Zambezi river courses that we know today.”

After 10 Years

Because of the high velocity of the river, the finer particles have an erosive impact on solid rock because of the higher speed. According to tothevictoriafalls.com, the erosion and water level of the stream of water will decrease at a rate of 7 cm per year. Yet, the erosion of Victoria Falls is a very slow process, so there will not be much of a difference between the Falls today and in ten years.

After 100 Years

The Zambezi River flows and erodes upstream, and creates the wide waterfalls, then narrows and forms gorges at the bottom. The weathering in joints in the Zambezi River in the basalt promote weathering within the cracks of both chemical and physical. The Devil’s Cataract, which is the western north-south break-through is suspected to erode away because it is already lower than most of the lines of the Fall. Also, the water level is supposed to decrease by 7 meters every 100 years.

The Devil's Cataract

http://media-3.web.britannica.com/eb-media//36/102136-050-9D0524C3.jpg 

After 1000 Years

The Falls will have decreased by 70 meters. With global climate change, it is suspected that the Victoria Falls will have severely decreased, and may not exist at all within the next 1000-100,000 years.

Conclusion

The Fluvial Landscape of the Victoria Falls regarding weathering, soil type, and weather processes are connected through the formation of the Victoria Falls, and how it maintains itself. The Fluvial aspects and the high velocity of the river support weathering in carrying sediment throughout the wet region, the soil type is a result of the evaporation of the Falls and transformation into precipitation, therefore related to the climate, and the weather processes are also due to the climate in some aspects. The meandering channel may erode to reveal different pathways. Essentially, with global climate change, the falls may not exist in the next 1,000-100,000 years.

Sources

"To The Victoria Falls." Future of the Victoria Falls. Web. 30 Apr. 2012. 

Weather Processes and Storms

Victoria Falls has multiple seasons that determine different kinds of humidity. In the season that is warm and wet, around October, the saturation quantity ad the absolute humidity is much higher. Warm air can hold more water. Thunderstorms are prominent in the warm and wet season. Thunderstorms have three different stages, which are the updraft cumulus stage, mature stage, and dissipating stage. Though in the cool and dry season, the region is generally dry, with the landscape drying up and grass fires occurring more frequently. The cause for the climate moisture and weather is the inter-tropical convergence zone, which is “the meeting place of the sub-tropical high pressure areas of the northern and southern hemispheres. The inter-tropical convergence zone brings rain to the Victoria Falls region.

http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/weather/maps/city?LANG=en&PLZ=_____&PLZN=_____&WMO=67843&PAG=1&CONT=afri&LEVEL=160&REGION=0007&LAND=ZW&INFO=0&R=0&NOREGION=1

Also, water droplets will condense from the spray of the falls, and fall as “localized rain.” The rain supports the forest agriculture.

http://aerofile.blogspot.com/2009/07/botswana-rain-showers-virga-victoria.html

The thunderstorms in Victoria Falls are known to be violent. Hail accompanies the thunderstorms often, hail forming with trips in the atmosphere below the freezing level, gaining more layers of ice. The water droplets are picked up by updrafts carried above the freezing level, and the water droplet freezes. Risks of flash flooding increase with the thunderstorms in the warm and wet season. During thunderstorms, the convection form of precipitation occurs. The dew point can reach 100% through evaporation of the Victoria Falls and Zambezi River.

http://www.northpridemale.com/2012/02/victoria-falls-the-smoke-that-thunders/

Sources

"Africa - Zambia Travel Guide & Victoria Falls." Zambia Climate & Weather. Web. 12 Apr. 2012. 

Soil Type and Weathering

For this portion of my blog, I will focus on the soil type and weathering that exists and occurs on the Victoria Falls land. With the contribution of the constant spray of water along the edges of the waterfalls, the soil has become humid and moistened. Thus, a rainforest developed along the shores of the Falls. In the tropical climate, a deep, red soil can be found, called Oxisols, due to the process of laterization. Oxisol soil is hard and can be used as bricks. Though the rainforest has many different types of trees within its tropical landscape, such as Waterbooms and Red Milkwood, the oxisols soil has poor nutrients. This is due to the trees occupying the majority of the nutrients of the soil.

http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-photo/philandmaxjones/1/1315856593/red-soil.jpg/tpod.html

The soil is also interesting because of its change in pedogenic process between the rainforest and the soils within the Zambezi River, which is the river that creates the Victoria Falls. The Zambezi River contains basaltic rock and therefore, “the basalt soils tend to be shallow and stony” ("To the Victoria Falls"). Other soils within the basin are red Kalahari sands. The sands and the basalt soil are mixed together, and make a whole other vegetation arena along the shores of the Falls and the river. Victoria Falls is famous for its “Big Tree” the Baobab ("To the Victoria Falls"), which is supported by the Kalahari sands and the basalt soils, and it also supports life in the form of reed and papyrus. “River gravel” (ScienceDirect.com) has been created by weathering of rocks, and one side of the falls has soil developed by sediments.

(The Zambesi River)

http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Sect6/Sect6_13.html

(The official "Big Tree" Baobab)

http://vicfalls.zimbabwe.co.za/Climate,_Geology,_Flora-travel/explore-victoria-falls-trees-woodland-trees.html

The basaltic soil was created by sandstone filling the joints, or fissures, in the basalt of the Zambezi River, thus physical weathering occurred. The river continuously weathers the sandstone that lies within the joints, and this has shifted the river and Victoria Falls. Through weathering, the Batoka Gorge formed.

(The Batoka Gorge)

http://www.newzimbabwe.com/business-1686-Batoka+hydro-power+project+revived/business.aspx

Sources

"To The Victoria Falls." Flora of the Victoria Falls. Web. 08 Mar. 2012. <http://www.tothevictoriafalls.com/vfpages/ecology/flora.html>.

"ScienceDirect.com | Search through over 10 Million Science, Health, Medical Journal Full Text Articles and Books." ScienceDirect.com. Web. 08 Mar. 2012. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/>.

Forms and Processes

image from: http://knol.google.com/k/peter-yandle/a-photographer-s-guide-to-victoria-falls/1u3e3aii6uc9a/3#

Victoria Falls is unlike any other landform examined before. They waterfalls are wider and deeper than Niagra Falls, making the waterfall one of the largest in the world. The bottom or bed of the falls contains hard and thick rock. The rock formed from basalt lava flows millions of years ago. The lava flows came from very strong volcano activity that no longer occurs today.

The fissures that lie within the basalt of Victoria Falls were caused by tectonic plates shifting millions of years ago, as well. Once the fissures existed, the Zambezi River flowed over the fissures and created large waterfalls. The river flowed rapidly with the influence of the fissures. The mass flowing of the Zambezi River also caused the gorges that contribute to the waterfalls to expand through erosion. Therefore through erosion, the gorges have a zigzag shape or pattern.

image from: http://www.tothevictoriafalls.com/vfpages/formation/falls.html

Deposits settle into the fissures, and sedimentary rock formed, as it lies there still today.

image from: http://www.tothevictoriafalls.com/vfpages/victoriafalls.html

The Zambian people who live around Victoria Falls have succeeded in that Victoria Falls attracts tourism. Though Zambian, Zimbabwean, and/or the people of Victoria Falls do not depend on the falls for any life source, it is a huge attraction and beauty.

Sources

http://vicfalls.zimbabwe.co.za/Climate,_Geology,_Flora-travel/explore-victoria-falls-geology.html

Introduction

Hello there, my name is Chantelle Wilkerson. My chosen location is Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. I will be focusing on the waterfall itself, and not on the town of Victoria Falls.

I chose Victoria Falls because it is one of the most fascinating places I have ever come across. Obviously, as the picture above shows, the Devil's Pool is what makes this location the most unusual, most likely due to its unexpected landscape. Though, I will go into the specifics in later posts. Since I am now gaining knowledge about physical geography, land processes, and landscapes, it is a perfect spot for revealing mysteries of physical geography.