As seen
from the previous blog posts, Skyrim is a land of many unique geographic features.
The vast majority of the Skyrim landscape is mountainous, and covered in pine
tree forests. The mountains reach very high altitudes and appear to be quite
young in geographic terms. The mountains must have formed from the collision of
two continental crusts, resulting in tall mountains. In the south east area of
Skyrim known as Eastmarch, there is a large volcanically active caldera that
features hot springs and rhyolite formations. Like I said before, Skyrim is
covered in pine forests, as well as large amounts of other vegetation. The
amount of vegetation that covers Skyrim actually affects the process of
weathering on the landscape. The vegetation slows down the process of
weathering and because of this; Skyrim is a transport limited landscape.
Finally, the overall high latitude of Skyrim means that Skyrim is a quite cold
place, and most of its precipitation is in the form of snowfall and
occasionally rain.
In 10
years, Skyrim will probably only feature minor changes in the landscape. This
is mainly because it is a transport limited landscape, and much of the
weathering will be greatly slowed down because of this. But there are a number
of changes that one could expect to see over the course of ten years, even if
they may be minor. For example, I noticed pine trees growing in rocks and
demonstrating root wedging. In time these trees will break off pieces of the
rock and the landscape will change. Another thing to be noted is the hydrology
of Skyrim. The White River is a fairly straight river at this time but in 10
years the cut banks will become sharper and more pronounced, and perhaps begin
to form narrow goosenecks in places.
This photo shows an aerial view of the White River. In time the curves will form goosenecks, and eventually, oxbow lakes.
(in-game screen capture)
In 100
years the changes in the landscape of Skyrim could be much more noticeable. The
White River I mentioned earlier could have gone from goosenecks to oxbow lakes
by this time. The sides of the rivers would be much more eroded overall as
well. Another thing that might be observed in 100 years is the size of the
rhyolite formation in the center of the Eastmarch caldera. Since volcanic
activity is likely to continue in this area, the formation will grow, little by
little and be larger in size in 100 years.
With continued volcanic activity, this rhyolite formation in the center of the Eastmarch caldera will continue to grow
(in-game screen capture)
In 1000
years drastic changes in the landscape of Skyrim might be observed. If volcanic
activity builds enough in the Eastmarch caldera, a massive eruption could occur
akin to the one hypothesized for Yellowstone. A massive volcanic eruption could
change the landscape by the sheer force of the explosion, but also change the
climate of Skyrim from the amount of ash released from the explosion. If an
eruption does not occur, some changes we could expect to see are meander scars left
over from oxbow lakes and erosion and breaking down of the rocks on and around
the mountain ranges. The mountains would perhaps be smoother by this time too
from weathering.
In
conclusion, Skyrim is a land where the landscapes will most likely change
slowly over time due to the transport limited landscape. The most prominent
factors of weathering and changing in Skryim will occur around the rivers, an
around areas of volcanic activity.
