Pandora in the Future

WHAT SHAPED PANDORA

As I have mentioned in all of my previous posts, the planet of Pandora is home to many unique features and landforms. The planet is composed of mostly tropical, coastal, and karst landscapes. However, Avatar focuses mainly on the Tropical and Karst landscapes, coastal is saved for the next movie. The planet has much more water than Earth has, which is a key reason the planet looks the way it does. Fluvial processes have had a major impact on shaping Pandora. The high amount of rain water in the higher altitudes feeds all of the waterfalls, rivers, and streams which all carve their own paths onto the surface.

Here we can see how water flow has previously shaped Pandora

Pandora is also home to many karst landscapes as well. These tropical karst landscapes are very unique because of the high amount of water and organic material. Dissolution has created many karst towers, such as we would find in China ( According to James Cameron this is where the majority of the inspiration came from) 

Here is a prime example of a karst tower in the background

For the sake of the blog, I will consider the Floating Mountains to behave in a similar manner to karst landforms, besides the fact that they are...well, floating.

 This post will refer back to these three images in a span of 1000 years and explain changes that will occur

 TEN YEARS FROM NOW





In ten years from now Pandora will look fairly similar as it does now. There will however be changes that may not be so obvious. The waterfall and stream (picture 1) will experience the most obvious changes. The flow of water across the rock face of the waterfall will begin to erode the rock, causing the falls to recede slightly. The meandering stream will most likely have changed its path by wiggling across the floodplain, which is typical for all meandering streams. The old route of the stream will dry out and become a rich environment for new flaura to develop. The karst landscapes will fall victim to even more dissolution in the next ten years. However, this change will not be drastic in such a small time frame.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW

Over the course of 100 years, the falls will have receded even more, creating a larger basin at the bottom, which will also begin to undercut the rock face. The meandering stream will have changed course so drastically that it created goose neck bends, that have been cut off to create ox bow lakes. Pandora's water table is extremely high, so the ox bow lakes will remain for quite some time. The karst towers will become noticeably steeper and more isolated due to dissolution. There may even be more towers beginning to form. The floating mountains will shrink in size due to the same process. Since these mountains float in a magnetic field, they will rise in elevation due to the decreased mass.

ONE THOUSAND YEARS FROM NOW

In 1000 years from now the small meandering stream we have seen may turn into a much larger river. The water flow in the falls will continue to erode the rock face, which will allow for a larger volume of water to travel these routes. This will expand the natural levies and widen the floodplain.

The "stone forests" will continue to grow and more towers will form. The chemical reaction between the water and stone will eat away at the floating mountains as well. Perhaps this will create caverns and cave systems inside (how cool would that be!)





 RECAP

The planet of Pandora has some fascinating land forms, and even though the location is fictional, a lot of inspiration came from actual locations on Earth. While Pandora is an extraterrestrial planet, and may not adhere to the same rules as earth, it is still feasible to explain the phenomena in the same ways as they happen on Earth.

Here are a few inspirational shots for the movie from China's Zhangjiajie Mountains



 


If the water keeps eroding Pandora, it may very well end up look like Halong Bay in Thailand

photo credits: http://nature.new7wonders.com/archives/wonder/halong-bay



AVATAR photo credits to

http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Avatar_Wiki

Source of inspiration

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar_(2009_film)

Zhangjiajie Mountain photo credits to

http://www.china-family-adventure.com/

Pandora's Climate

The climate on the planet of Pandora is very similar to the climate found around the Earth's equator. The planet experiences very warm and humid temperatures throughout the entire year. The high level of humidity is a result of the warmer air masses that are present on Pandora. The warmer air is able to retain more moisture, causing the specific humidity to be approximately 20g/kg.

This picture displays the lush fauna found on Pandora, which requires a large amount of precipitation to sustain

The warm weather along with the abundance of water on Pandora leads to one very important thing to sustain life on the planet...rain, and lots of it. Due to the rapid evaporation of the surface water, clouds in Pandora's atmosphere reach their dew point very quickly and very commonly. Cumulonimbus clouds develop and the storm systems build until the dew point has been reached and the convective precipitation falls in the form of rain. Pandora experiences higher levels or rainfall than anywhere else known to man kind, beating out Earth's tropical regions hands down.

This picture shows the final stages of a rain storm, also known as the dissipating stage, on Pandora
Notice the nimbostratus and remaining cumulonimbus clouds

Pandora also is very well known for its fog. Almost like San Francisco, only a lot cooler and more alien-ish. The fog on Pandora however often times occurs at higher elevations than on Earth. This is because of the floating mountains. When the rain water evaporates off of the mountains radiation fog is formed, making the mountains look even more majestic.

Here is a picture of radiation fog developing off of the floating mountains

and another

Pandora is the perfect incubator for fog due to the large amount of rain

Below is a picture of Pandora from space. You can clearly see the high and low pressure systems and the developing storm cells. It even looks like there is a developing hurricane, which I have circled. The warm waters and high humidity would make Pandora the essential location to study hurricanes, too bad it isn't real.

Water's influence on Pandora

The Imaginary landscapes of James Cameron's Pandora are greatly shaped and changed by the presence of water. Surprisingly, Pandora has a larger water to land ratio than that of Earth.
Perhaps the most memorable water shot from the movie is that of the Pandoran waterfall as seen below.
This waterfall is a prime example of overland flow. The falls are fed by a mountain top lake in an area of high precipitation. The amount of water present in the fall has exceeded the stone mountain side's infiltration capacity, causing the mass amount of water to continue down the falls, mainly because the stone is non porous. The water runoff is also responsible for shaping the falls due to the process of weathering. Whether (see what i did there) it be due to the water weathering away the weaker material, or the water transporting smaller rocks causing them to break down.



A scene from the movie showing the grand scale of the waterfall



here is another view of a Pandoran waterfall in the background, this image is also the background to my blog



This waterfall, as well as the others, are the largest contributor to feeding the streams seen in the movie. Pandora is mainly a tropical environment, however due to the atmospheric composition the highest amount of precipitation occurs in higher altitudes. This is why most of the water at lower elevations comes from mountain top runoff.



Here is another scene of a waterfall feeding a tributary. Notice the lush vegitation in the flood plane, which suggests a long perioid of time since a large flood.



The streams most likely begain as smaller rills, which then spread into gulleys. After time, the water has reached the soil's infiltration capacity which allows for the presence of ground and surface water. As part of the water cycle, all the streams eventually lead to rivers, and then to Pandora's oceans where the process begins again.



On an end note,  According to MTV Movie News, the planned sequal to Avatar will be focused on Pandora's Oceans so that will be very exciting. http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1637529/avatar-sequel-heads-underwater-heres-what-we-know-about-pandoras-oceans.jhtml



*All photo credits to http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Pandora

Blog Post 1

The Planet of Pandora is home to many geologic wonders that are visually stunning and unique to the planet.
The planet has experienced a large amount of plate techtonics which have resulted in many of the forms found on the planet. Plate techtonics are responsible for the creation of the "Hallelujah Mountains", the floating mountain range. The plates beneath the mountains, both being continental plates, have been involved in convergence. The two plates have pushed against each other, forcing a large deposit of "unobtanium" to shear into pieces and be lifted along the convergence zone. This process forces the resilient "unobtanium" deposits closer to the surface, which causes them to be pulled into the planets strong magnetic field in this area.

Plate techtonics are also responsible for the "Pandoran Mountain Range", Pandora's largest mountain range. The mountains were the result of a convergence plate boundary between two continental plates, the two plates have been pushing against each other creating compression yielding in  the uplift and growth of the mountains. The mountains' steep shear slopes are also the result of multiple extension faults. The rock bases pulled apart from each other causing one block to slip down lower than the other.

The planet is, for the most part, almost dormant with volcanic activity. However, ancient volcanic activity is responsible for some of Pandora's distinctive land forms.

The "Stone Arches" were created millions of years ago by subterranean lava deposits. The lave chambers had veins extending away from them in arch like shapes. The lava deposits cooled over time, and over millions of years the surrounding rock eroded exposing the arch like veins, as well as dikes and sills. The cooled veins contain dikes as well as sills because there are both vertical and horizontal deposits.

All images from http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Pandora_Locations

Introduction

Hello, my name is Mike Miller.
I have chosen to take a deeper look into the fictional world of Pandora, from James Cameron's "Avatar".

I decided to take a look at Pandora as a physical geographer because of the vast amount of features and landscapes that vary greatly from those on our planet.Such as the infamous floating mountains, known as the "Hallelujah Mountains"

I feel that trying to provide theories,forms, and processes that have led to the development of a fictional planet will prove to be an exciting challenge, and will offer an opportunity for me to take more out of the class. This planet has been designed with so many distinctive and unique features, I cannot wait to get more into the project.

All images from http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Pandora_Locations