Geography plays an important role in the field of air pollution. It is not a source of this serious problem. But you can call the geography – the nature of our world with all its natural phenomena – a deliverer of air pollution. We chose an example of the Central Valley’s geography for describing how geography effects air flow and transports pollution.
How Central Valley’s geography affects air flow and transports pollution
There are winds from the ocean that transport the pollution to three main passes: the Carquinez Strait, Altamont Pass, and Pacheco Pass. They are situated in the coastal ranges east of the San Francisco Bay Area. Further the pollution reaches Central Valley and the Sierra Nevada. Now the transported pollution combines local pollutions produced by mobile and industrial sources.
Central Valley is surrounded by a lot of mountains: the Klamath Mountains, Cascade Range, Modoc Plateau and Coast Ranges. The valley can be described as a tub: There is cool and warm air, which is not able to unite; polluted air settles down for weeks or months.
It is like a game of cat-and-mouse. In the daytime the wind transports the air pollutants to Bakersfield and Fresno. At night it is conversely. The wind brings all the polluted air back. Every day will be the same procedure, until the weather begins to change. Some pollution is also transported into the Sierra Nevada. In a lot of areas in the mountains the worst air quality of America dominates.
In summer there are strong winds that also transport fresh air. But in the wintertime, the degree of air pollution rises. The winds are not that strong. Especially in the months of winter hazes can occur until the weather changes again.