It was difficult to find a concrete topic to discuss as Maldives does not have any glaciers, arid landscapes, above water caves, or natural rivers. This seems to be the case because Maldives is a tropical with an elevation of 2.4 meters, thus there is no elevation gain for drainage paths to create fresh water rivers. Fresh water, rather is collected via rain fall and lays on top of a layer of saltwater that spreads through the limestone and corals of the atolls. These “lenses” of fresh water, however, are disappearing due to pollution produced by resorts and tourism. This is effecting flora on the atolls, such as mango trees, because of salt permeation. Coastal islands such as Maldives are a bridge between the lithosphere and hydrosphere in that the erosion caused by ocean waves repetitively hitting against the coastal limestone always creating and changing the coral reef habitats for flora and fauna. One of the more interesting underwater caverns in Maldives is called Kuredu. This cavern goes to a depth between 3 and 24 meters. What makes the Kuredu caves intriguing in that there is a community of green turtles. This is quite interesting with respect biogeography because sea turtles do not typically live in a community with one another. This seems to be the case because of the abundance of food and mechanisms to live hygienically. The walls and ceilings of the Kuredu caves are covered by soft coral and soldier fish. Other species that call the Kuredu caves home are sting rays, napoleons, porcupine fish, lion fish, moray eels, and scorpion fish. These underwater caverns take a extremely long time to form due to the fact that Maldives is an atoll/lagoon thus the current or wave pattern is not very strong. Thus the ocean seems very calm, and there is no strong rip current or undertow.

Kuredu Cave

http://maldivescomplete.com/blogs/maldivescomplete/archive/2011/02/08/best-of-the-maldives-caves-helengeli.aspx

Turtle airport. This picture displays the frequency of turtles around the Kuredo caves.

http://www.prodivers.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Green-Sea-Turtle-Maldives.jpg

 Ritter, Michael E. The Physical Environment: an Introduction to Physical Geography.

Date visited.  http://www4.uwsp.edu/geo/faculty/ritter/geog101/textbook/title_page.html

N/a, N/a. "Kuredu Caves." Maldives... the place to Dive. Prodivers, 2 11 2012. Web. 9 May 2013. <http://prodivers.com/kuredu-caves.asp&xgt;.

N/a, N/a. "Rivers and Drainage in the Maldives." Rivers and Drainage in the Maldives. The Geography Site, 13 1 2013. Web. 9 May 2013. <http://geography-site.co.uk/pages/countries/drainage/maldives_drainage.html>.  

     

Maldives' climate is completely effected by its location (in the middle of the ocean). As Maldives is an archipelago, or a chain of atolls that form a collective land mass such as the Philippines or Indonesia, located near the equator, there is typically a humid climate with a temperature scale (for both wet and dry seasons) between 24 degrees Celsius and 33 degrees Celsius. This is to say that the water vapor is high because the ability to hold moisture is a function of temperature. In other words, the higher the temperature, the greater the chance for high water vapor, given the elevation in the troposphere is low enough. This is to say that temperature and water vapor in the air decrease as one increases in elevation in the troposphere. This however is not a problem for natives and visitors to Maldives as the total elevation climb from sea level in Maldives is only 2.4 meters. Coupled with the monsoonal winds from the Indian Ocean, Maldives humidity and temperature do not feel overbearing.

     One of the major concerns with the further populating of Maldives is global warming. It is important to note, however, that warming and cooling does not occur globally, but locally. Maldives' contribution to global warming comes from the island of Thilafushi. This island is the garbage landfill for Malé and the various tourist islands of Maldives. Almost 330 tons of waste comes to this island a day, and improper recycling practices is allowing car battery acid and asbestos into the water killing the surrounding corral. This could potentially be a problem for Maldives, besides destroying their ecosystem, if sea levels rise even half a meter, many of the tourist attractions in the Republic will be submerged. This would also effect the economy in that the tourist attractions will be gone, and the coral reefs that the fish congregate around will also disappear due to pollution. And whether or not global warming is influenced by human action or is simply a natural cycle of the earth, any rise in sea level is unsettling for the people of Maldives. 

Short clip about the garbage island http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18073917

Trash island of Maldives

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/60249000/jpg/_60249624_simon.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18073917&h=360&w=640&sz=39&tbnid=Z8DMKd4HourWBM:&tbnh=69&tbnw=123&zoom=1&usg=__wobQYjyrnLR_WZGonx8N94HH3wY=&docid=L_loR4kaDKjDDM&sa=X&ei=2TJwUdfvAoOGyAGs8IHYCg&ved=0CFAQ9QEwBA&dur=28

Trash Island of Maldives

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/60249000/jpg/_60249624_simon.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18073917&h=360&w=640&sz=39&tbnid=Z8DMKd4HourWBM:&tbnh=69&tbnw=123&zoom=1&usg=__wobQYjyrnLR_WZGonx8N94HH3wY=&docid=L_loR4kaDKjDDM&sa=X&ei=2TJwUdfvAoOGyAGs8IHYCg&ved=0CFAQ9QEwBA&dur=28

Randeep, Ramesh. "Paradise lost on Maldives' rubbish island." Guardian . (2009): n. page. Web. 18 Apr. 2013. 

Post 2

This picture illustrates the baron nature of parts of Maldives.

http://toptravellists.net/deadwood-white-sand-beaches-maldives.html

 Maldives is rather interesting in that its soil capacity (being mostly sand) only allows for a few different types of agricultural crops. For the most part, although there are exceptions of tropical palm forests where atolls are large enough to support such an ecosystem, the only crops that are able to grow are few indigenous plants, such as: bamboo, banana, mangroves, breadfruit trees, tropical vines, and dissimilar types of coconut palms. On the larger atolls, the soil is rich enough to be used to grow sweet potatoes, yams, taro, millet, watermelon, citrus fruit and pineapples, however none of these crops are native to the island. Maldives has two distinct periods of monsoon season. The southwest monsoon or hulhangu lasts from about April to November and brings more moisture and storms. These months are essential to the water needs of the people of Maldives, as there is no natural source of fresh water on the islands. The northeast monsoon or lruvai lasts from December to March and are the drier month of the year. The main cash crop of Maldives lies just under the surface of the water around one of its many coral reefs. In other words, fish and marine life both in regards to tourism and consumption are the most abundant and illustrious cash “crop” of Maldives. One of the reasons, in fact, that Maldives has become such a desired tourist location is that there are seven different species of dolphin and nine different species of whale that call Maldives home. Along with sharks, sting rays, manta rays, and turtles.   

Fish of Maldives

http://www.asia-trip.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Maldives-Sky-Sea-Aquamarine-Water-Wallpaper.jpg

N/a, N/a. "Biodiversity FEatures." Bluepeace. Bluepeace, 2 11 2012. Web. 12 Mar 2013. <http://www.bluepeacemaldives.org/biodiversity.htm>

http://passion2luxury.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-residence-maldives.html

Both pictures illustrate how the atolls are completely surrounded by coral reefs.

Maldives is a group of islands that sit off the coast of India at 3° 15' N 73° 00' E. Although there are twenty-six distinct atolls in Maldives (all of which have twenty to sixty inhabited and uninhabited islands) the total land area of the republic is only about 300 km squared, or about 1.7 x the size of Washington D.C. Maldives bisects the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea and sits on top of a submarine ridge that is approximately 963 km long running North to South (which suggests the original hotspot is in the North). The ridge was cause by a divergent plate, or sea floor spreading. This is to say that there is a magma hotspot in the asthenosphere which funnels, then fans out in the upper half of the lithosphere until it breaks through the oceanic crust. This creates a rift zone and spreads the ocean floor creating a raised ridge on each side of the rift zone. In the case of Maldives, the highest point the ridge rises is 2.4 meters making Maldives the flattest country in the world or the country with the lowest high point. The Mid-Atlantic ridge in which Maldives is situated consists of coral reefs made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals and sand bars. According to Darwin, coral reefs start to form after the oceanic ridge is no longer active (with respect to being located on a hotspot) and the coral reef creates a fringing ring around the island. A fringing reef is characterized by a shallow or nonexistence back reef. As the decay of the island continues, the fringing reef becomes a barrier reef with a larger and deeper lagoon within the boundaries. In the end, the island sinks below, or in Maldives case, nearly below, sea level and the barrier reef becomes an atoll completely encasing the lagoon. An atoll then, as all the islands in Maldives are considered to be atolls, is a lagoon island. In other words, the reef creates a ring-shaped coral growth that circles a lagoon either partials or completely.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/02/27/15-year-old-girl-in-the-maldives-sentenced-to-100-lashes-for-premarital-sex/

(Ignore the story that goes along with this picture.  There are many social injustices that will be addressed when I get to the hazards that threaten the long term existence of Maldives.)

   

I'm Clinton Duffens. This is the last semester of my undergraduate career   The location I'm selecting is Maldives. I choose this location because of the natural beauty and it is the vacation spot that me and my cousin are planing to go to after graduate school.

http://go.hrw.com/atlas/norm_htm/maldives.htm

Map of Maldives