Mass Wasting and Weathering

As we push forward through this semester there was a very funny thing I noticed that had not really crossed my mind until I was looking at Skyrim. Mass wasting is generally aided in a big portion by gravity, but in one instance when I was playing gravity was influence by a giant dragon. This dragon landed on the side of a mountain and caused a big rock fall, which caused a translational rock slide on this mountain. By that I mean a big flat piece of the mountain broke off and slid down the front side of the mountain.

Image courtesy of Google Image. Dragon just landed on mountain side, making middle boulder topple, and land slide start.

To be honest it's hard to completely be able to identify certain formations in a video game because to a certain extent it is up to the artist and only so much has to be realistic and fit the mold. I found an example of this while I was playing, an Earth flow that according to the laws of physics probably shouldn't exist. What occurred, although the picture makes it hard to see, is a piece of land just missing, and no landslide to be found. Now just for reference, everything around the landslide looks as it should, just normal rock formations, but just under the missing piece of land, which looks to have started as a rotational slump, there is no mass from mass wasting. This is easily explainable saying that it's just a video game but in reality if they want to be as accurate as possible then they need the land that slid down from the gap to be there as well.

Image Courtesy of Skyrim and Google Image. Just found place where land displacement is very uneven and pieces of rock seem to just be missing.

So why is this mass wasting occurring in Skyrim? It's fairly simple, as we talked about in class you need a permeable surface in order to have mass wasting. As we learned rocks with cracks are definitely permeable surfaces, and these are very prevalent in Skyrim. Also there needs to be some sort of water to permeate the surface (in this case snow). Also occurring though we see the weathering of rocks from that same water. This water after it has melted off the snow caps runs down through a system of canals and rivers and ends up in lakes. Before it makes it all the way down though Skyrim artists did a very good job a how this water would weather the rocks it passes. My last picture touches on how this weather and erosion of rock will look in Skyrim. This is a process that occurs because of the water pushing force through and around rocks which over time takes the weaker rock away and shapes the rock in such a form that leaves only strong and sturdy rock.

Rocks, Volcanos, and Magnetic Fields

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is part of a long-time running story that takes place in a northern province of Tamriel, a continent that is not unlike the original formation of Pangaea. This landform has been around for many centuries and proves it age with the formation of sedimentary rock.

 

The sedimentary rock formations I have noticed recently in Skyrim prove the land's age because there are many instances of strata. This is rock that has been deposited in  layers for so many years that it formed a layered looking rock wall in this cave I was exploring.

Basing my judgement off of its likeness to Mt. Fuji, I think the mountain range I was in was a mafic and felsic composite volcano. Meaning it would probably form around a subduction zone where one tectonic plate was being pushed under another. (The main stratovolcano is called the Throat of the World, seen here in the background)

 The last thing I thought of going through Skyrim is that the actual planet this province is on must be very similar to Earth. This planet is distant enough from it's sun to maintain life, liquid drinkable water, as well as an atmosphere. The biggest proof of the latter is the magnetic field (very similar to Earth's own) that protects the planet from solar radiation. (Magnetic field shown below causes Auroras just like the ones that can be witnessed close to the magnetic poles here on Earth).

 

The overarching theme here is the planet Skyrim is on closely resembles our own planet. It maintains many of the things Earth does to make sure it can sustain life. Many of the land formations show development through time. Learning about Earth's geology has definitely helped me to understand how intensely developed this game is and the amount of detail that was contributed.

Intro Blog

My name is Alex Oglesby, I am technically a sophomore at UCD in Denver although I've taken enough credits to basically be a senior. Transfer credits not counting and all that fun noise allows me to take place in creating a blog for a fun class like GEOG 1202! I thought for awhile about which location I would use to do my blog when it hit me. My roommate (who is not in school) does nothing all day but play Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, it is a game produced by Bethesda software. Now often I am doing homework or something and not paying attention to his gaming, but since I already have a blog to do on a location, and since he is always playing I figured I would kill two birds with one stone and just focus my blog on what my roommate is playing. I chose Skyrim because it is a massive world, very detailed and shows everything from valleys and mountains, to oceans and caves. I think Skyrim will be a good location not only because it has all these features but also I'm playing while I'm researching so it's a double positive!