The Future Las Vegas

In the center of Vegas Valley lies Las Vegas; the place where dreams come true and tourists continue to venture to. Las Vegas sits in a desert region and as the driest city in the United States, it rarely gets any rainfall. As I mentioned before, the Spring Mountains and Sierra Nevada Mountains surround Las Vegas which also acts as a barrier towards cool air flow. The climate is hot, dry and windy as most desert conditions are. The Spring Mountains are composed of sedimentary rock that has layered on top of what was once an ancient sea bed. This arid landscape is formed mainly by mechanical weathering. Salt weathering occurs primarily due to Las Vegas being in this desert region. This form of weathering helps create arches and balancing stones that are noticeable in Vegas.

Arches created due to mechanical weathering.

Las Vegas 10 Years into the Future

Ten years doesn’t seem like a long time, but for Vegas, they may be seeing some changes happening in their landscapes as early as ten years. Of course with Las Vegas being in a desert region, there will be some mechanical weathering still occurring, but with only ten years passing, not enough would happen to drastically change the landscape. In my previous post, I explained about the water supply of Vegas. Las Vegas receives 90% of their water supply from Lake Mead at the Hoover Dam. From the year 2000 to 2010 the lake’s water has lowered 100 feet. With the maximum depth of Lake Mead being 590ft, 100ft is a drastic loss. If the cycle keeps repeating itself, then in ten years, Lake Mead can be more than half empty which in return can affect the entire city, both the landscape and tourism.

The "bathtub ring" at Lake Mead in 2010.

Las Vegas 100 Years into the Future

100 years into the future the mechanical weathering that creates the marvelous features will begin to be more noticeable. The arches that are seen in the present will begin to fall due to salt weathering. At the same time as these huge arches fall, the opposite will occur: more arches will begin to form. With there being a longer time span, we can also assume that Lake Mead may be dried out by then. The city of Las Vegas will have hopefully planned ahead and are aware that their main source of water will be gone, and they will need to find an alternative source or leave Vegas all together.

Las Vegas 1000 Years into the Future

In 1000 years Las Vegas would be nothing but dry rocks. Weathering will still take place, but with the water supply completely gone by now, there would be no way to live here. In 1000 years, this area will look completely different and hopefully the climate or weather patterns shift and convert it into a livable area.

What your vacation to Las Vegas may look like in 1000 years.

Finally...

Although we won’t be around in 100 or 1000 years from now, it is interesting and a bit scary to think about what a physical landscape may look like. We cannot be for sure that in 1000 years there will even be life or Earth anymore, but if there was, we can use our knowledge to see what may happen to our world as we see it now and we can only hope that there actually will be life.

Resources: http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/index.cfm/2008/10/30/Lost-in-Las-Vegas-A-Search-of-Irony-in-the-City-of-Excess

http://polizeros.com/2009/02/27/las-vegas-running-out-of-water-means-dimming-los-angeles-lights/

http://govegas.about.com/od/daytrips/ss/Las-Vegas-To-Arches-National-Park.htm

http://usparks.about.com/od/travelitineraries/tp/Driving-Distance-And-Drive-Times-From-Las-Vegas-To-Selected-National-Parks.htm

http://chelseanicoleblog.com/tag/dry-lake-bed/page/2/

Clouds and Climate of Las Vegas

In my previous post I learned that there isn't much of a water cycle here in Las Vegas, but what I have learned now is that there are still various types of clouds seen in the sky.

Clouds over New York New York

The picture above shows Cirrostratus clouds in the middle as well as what looks like Cirrocumulus clouds on the left of the image.

Beautiful clouds behind a resort.

In the photo above, there are some beautiful Cumulus clouds near the bottom of the picture and some Cirrocumulus clouds up top.

Various clouds over the strip.

In this last image, there are Stratocumulus clouds just above the Spring Mountains and above that there is a lenticular cloud.

Although there seems to be a lot of cloud coverage in Vegas, the climate has a midlatitude dessert type. The graph below compares the average precipitation to the average temperature over the span of a year. In a midlatitude dessert region, the dominant high pressure and lack of moisture combine to make the production of clouds.  The days and nights that the skies in Vegas are cloudless result in the large daily temperature ranges. Since Vegas lies in a midlatitude dessert, it experiences larger annual temperatures than the tropical desserts even though the midlatitude and tropical desserts are controlled by the same factors.

Climograph for Las Vegas, NV

Since Las Vegas is in a midlatitude dessert region, it makes sense that so much cloud coverage occurs here as seen in the above images. Overall, with the type of climate Vegas has and also all the various cloud types seen, it makes sense that there can be clouds without too much precipitation. This is something that I never knew and am glad to know now, since Vegas is one of my family's favorite vacation spots to visit.


Sources- http://favim.com/image/101932/
http://www.lvrealty.net/las-vegas/high-rise/sky-las-vegas
http://vinnyohare.com/pictures-from-las-vegas/
http://www4.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/geog101/textbook/climate_systems/midlatitude_desert.html

Water supply in Las Vegas

In most places, the hydrology cycle is a process that occurs on a daily basis, but in some places, like Las Vegas, water isn’t as available. Las Vegas, one of the driest cities in the United States, is located on a desert basin. According to the Las Vegas Valley Water District, The Las Vegas Valley gets about 90 percent of its water from the Colorado River, which is currently facing the worst drought on record. The water level in Lake Mead (which is in the Colorado River) has dropped about 100 feet since 2000. One cause of the current drought has to do with a decreased snowfall in the Rocky Mountains that feed water to the Colorado River and then to Lake Mead.

"Bath tub ring" of Lake Mead; water drop since 2000.

Shallow ground water through the Las Vegas Wash is one important aspect to how Las Vegas gets its water source. When it rains and snows, some water runs into lakes, rivers, and streams; some of it evaporates and some plants absorb. The other water soaks into the ground and becomes a part of the water table. The ground water beneath the entire city of Las Vegas is usually referred to as the "shallow groundwater system." This water needs to be monitored, because it can be very salty and can increase the amount of dissolved solids in Wash water, which can adversely affect the growth of wetlands and have negative impacts to habitat. This cannot be used for drinking.

Water flow of Las Vegas Wash

Since very little storms occur in Vegas, little precipitation and less of a hydrology cycle occurs. Therefore there are droughts that take place. Not every day can have precipitation like the photo below.

Storm in  Spring Mountains Las Vegas, Nevada.

Sources: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ideum/4648476744/
http://www.lvwash.org/html/what_flow_shallow.html

Spring Mountains, Las Vegas

Las Vegas is not all casinos and full of sin, like believed. Vegas is in a basin on the desert floor and surrounded by the Spring mountains. I am going to focus a lot on the mountains opposed to all of the man-made beauties of Las Vegas. These mountains are dry and most of the landscape is dusty and rocky.

Overview of Las Vegas showing the Spring Mountains.

The Spring Mountains are a composite of sedimentary rock that has lain down on top of what was once an ancient sea bed. There are stratum that are noticeable and made mainly of limestone that has been pressed together which led to them being layered on top of one another. Over time, these then folded and faulted and uplifted and eroded to form the peaks and cliffs that are there today.


Spring Mountains being the strip in Las Vegas.





The Red Rock Canyons (pictured below) are at the eastern foot of the Spring Mountains. These mountains are made of sandstone that formed millions of years ago by the shifting sands that got petrified. Due to a continent-to-continent convergence millions of years ago, layers of older rocks were thrust on top of the younger rocks creating the rock layers of different age. This formation is true at the top of the Spring Mountains where the limestone can be seen. The limestone is one of the older rocks in the Spring Mountains due to this tectonic shift millions of years ago.

Sandstone in Red Rock Canyon.

The Spring Mountains are just one area in Las Vegas where the development of different rocks can be seen. They have the most visited camp sites for tourists in Vegas that are more adventurous than gamblers.













Images from: http://www.wall-maps.com/Unique_Media/LasVegas.htm
http://www.squidoo.com/las_vegas_strip
http://www.goldengatephoto.com/westus/redrock.html



Introduction

Hello my name is Briana Perez, I am a Business management major and I have chosen the one and only Las Vegas for my location. Growing up my family would vacation every year in Las Vegas and it is one of my most favorite places to visit. When traveling to Vegas my family would always drive, so I would love to use this class to analyze Vegas in a geographers point of view and hopefully get a better understanding of its physical beauty.

Image from: http://www.reception-wedding.com/