Final Blog Post: Skyrim's Changing Landscape

                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.

The massive Eastmarch Caldera outlined in red could lead to a massive, landscape changing volcanic eruption

(in-game screen capture)

                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.