Alaska pipeline - cold case

?
View mindmap
  • North Alaska pipeline
    • Challenges of the tundra
      • low precipitation
      • Very low temperatures
      • Brief growing season
      • poor thin soils
      • Low biodiversity - fragile ecosystem
      • in summer thawing of active layer
      • Permafrost acting as impermeable layer
    • Physical Challenges
      •  Below freezing temperatures
      • Climate change- increases melt of permafrost- difficult to build/work on- subsidence problems (ground sinks down)
      • Tectonic activity- high level of earthquakes
    • Human Challenges
      • Waste disposal decomposition slow
      • Lack of daylight hours
      • ·         Remoteness- extra infrastructure and transport needed to reach remote locations
      • Fuel freezes in vehicles
    • Solutions
      • Elevation of houses and other small buildings on pile driven stilts
      • All pipelines must be insulated and elevated on stilts.
      • Larger unheated buildings and airstrips can be constructed safely on thick gravel pads

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar Geography resources:

See all Geography resources »See all Hot and cold environments resources »