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