Fiji in the Future

Physical Exact Location of Fiji.

The Southern Pacific country of Fiji is made up of 332 small islands, which were created by numerous volcanic eruptions caused by the collision between the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates. Although a majority of the volcanoes located throughout the islands are dormant, there are still several which have on-going volcanic activity. Aside from the volcanic activity, Fiji is mostly famous for being one of the world’s premier vacation destinations. Fiji is also known for having wonderful temperature year round, with averange temperatures ranging from 78°F to 86°F in the summer and lows from 68°F to 79°F in the winter.

Over view of Taveuni Volcano and highlighted
portion shows where the volcano's peaking
point.

The country Fiji is one of the most magnificent on earth. After taking time and conducting research I am able to make a hypothetical prediction of what the landscape of Fiji will look like in 1,000 years, 10,000 years, and 1,000,000 years in the future.

Fast forwarding 1,000 years in the future, one of the changes which Fiji will face is another volcano eruption. According to Global Volcanism Program, it shows two different and main types of volcanoes located in the Fiji Island. Taveuni is one of Fiji’s islands, which is a shield volcano that is currently in radiocarbon status. Taveuni is the third largest volcano in Fiji islands and has erupted 58 times the discovery of this island which is about 950-750 BC. Therefore, within the next 1,000 years a Taveuni is due to erupt again.

Beautiful view of the New Fiji potentially being formed.

In 10,000 years Fiji will be a lot different then it is-presently. In the same way that Fiji formed, the same pattern will slowly reoccur in the 10,000. In 10,000 islands that are above water now will be under water and new islands will be formed. Not only will some of the islands take place of existing ones but also the location of the new islands will be relatively different than the ones that are present now.

This shows how easily new islands can be formed among each other.

An image of all tectonic plates surrounding Fiji
It shows the Pacific plate grinding against the Indo-Australian
plates to form part of Fiji.

A significant jump from 10,000 to 1,000,000 million years in the future, Fiji wouldn’t be how it is now. Not only will the location of Fiji be different but also the country as a whole would not exist anymore. As I previously stated, in about 10,000 years new islands are form to replace old ones, however in 1,000,000 the changes are 10 times more dramatic. As the Pacific tectonic plate submerges under the Indo-Australian plate new islands will be formed towards the north east of the current location now. Aside from just physical changes to the islands, the earth’s tilt will change and will have a huge climate effect on the Fiji Island. Since the current tilt is at 23.439 degree, however 1,000,000 years from now it is set to decrease significantly. With an earth’s tilt decrease and a physical location change of the Fiji Island the climate is due to increase the average temperature year round.

I am able to grasp a concise understanding of not only Fiji but the whole world in relatively to geography. Understanding how landmass are formed helps me predict what certain part of the world would look like in the future and grasping a broad perspective tilt of the earth can help me indentify the climate of a particular.  

Beautiful view of Fiji that has formed with many geographic features.

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Weather and Climate Changes.

The Graph above shoes the average temperature as well as precipitation throughout the whole year.

Fiji island is overall a warm tropical climate perfect for a holiday get away with wonderful beachside views. Since Fiji Island is located in the southern Hemisphere, so what’s considered “Summer” lasts fro November to April and “Winter” is from April to September. However, between the two different seasons there aren’t much difference in Temperature.

Wet Season in the Fiji Island:
The wet season in the Fiji Island can be very hot with temperature reaching up to 88 degrees as well as very humid. This wet season is from November thought April which is also known as typhoon season. During these months rain occurs none stop but is usually followed by sunshine.

Typhoons usually hit Fiji Island from January till March.

Dry Season in the Fiji Island:
Dry season occurs between the months of May and October, during this time the weather is dry and temperatures ranges from 79-86 degree Fahrenheit. The dry season is also considered “high season” where Fiji gets majority of their visitors. During this dry season it is in fact the most beautiful time of the year to travel and get away on a vacation. Price of airline tickets hit their peak filled with visitors from all over the world especially from New Zealand and Australia, who hop over islands to get away from their winter weather back at home to the beautiful weather in the Fijis.

Beautiful view of one of Fiji Island's as well as their underwater soft coral, technicolor fish and reef in March during their Dry Season.

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Soil of Fiji Island

This is the color of Oxisol
soil with high concentration
iron (III), aluminiumoxides
and hydroxides

The Fiji Islands is commonly known as a vacation spot as well a very tropical island. Aside from the beautiful beach and amazing resorts, Fiji is divided up into three major classes of landforms: plains; low mountains and hills and high mountains. Lowland soils are usually below 600m with an average temperature over 71 degrees Fahrenheit. The soils in this particular region are formed usually formed on beach sand. Also, in this particular area, the soil can be very oxisol, which means that the soil contains high concentration of iron (III), aluminiumoxides and hydroxides. This process is called lateralization which is a great amount of aluminum and ferric hydroxides which then creates a reddish or a yellowish color way.

A small village in Suva, Fiji that shows the type of poverty they're in.

Having such oxisol soil obviously contains a lack of nutrients in this certain region of the island, however in addition to oxisol soil, erosion of land in Fiji has been a big problem over the years. In fact, business executive Lautoka and community worker Peter Drysdale says “The rate of soil erosion in the hills behind western town were the real causes of poverty, there was a connection between soil erosion, floods, dry season, crop yields and poverty.” The main island of Fiji is Viti Levu. Viti Levu is actually big enough to have two different climates on one different side of the island. In fact, the climate in Viti Levu is so unique its called the “Water Cycle of Fiji.” The mountains on Viti Levu are located towards the center of the island and evaporation happens on the West side of the mountain, then transporting to the East side of the island for precipitation. However, with this particular process after precipitation is processed and run off towards the west side of the island, everything starts becoming dryer and dryer. 

This water cycle is a representation of the water cycle at Fiji. The west side of the island is dryed off because of
all the precipitation that happened in the east side of the island.

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Volcanism in the islands

The exact Geographical coordinates of Fiji Island are 18 00 S, 176 00 E.  and the exact total land area is 18,270sq. km. Fiji is located on the Fiji plate on the plate boundary of Australian as well as the pacific plate. Across the Pacific Ocean, the pacific plate subduct under most plates such as South America, North America, Asia, and now it subducts right under the Australian Plate. As the Pacific Plate subducts under the Australian Plate the layer of the earth get crushed down while magma rises up through the mantle and crush which forms underwater seamounts as well as making the volcanoes bigger over time. So with out the subduction of the Pacific plate under the Australian plate there wouldn’t be no Fiji, no diving and no beautiful coral reefs.

Koro is one of Fiji’s very well known volcanos that is a basaltic cinder cones which runs North and South of the island. Koro is a chain of basaltic cinder cones that haven’t been erupted since 10,000 years ago. The population by Koro is estimated at 5000 people with as few as 14 villages. Other than just Koro there are many other popular volcanos in the Fiji islands worth studying and taking a closer look at such as the Taveuni which a shield volcano and also the Nabukelevu which is known as the lava domes.

Sources: 

http://poleshift.ning.com/profiles/blogs/7-of-10-sinking-fiji-this-current-flood-is-worse-than-the-floods

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Koro_Island.jpg

http://awonders.com/tag/fiji/

Introduction

Welcome to Fiji Islands. My name is Kevin Sy and I am your blog host. I am currently a student at the University of Colorado in Denver and progressing in pursuing my Finance degree. The location I've picked out is called Fiji Islands. Even though there are millions of different places I could pick on the face of the Earth, I picked Fiji with many unique reasons. One of the main reasons why I chose Fiji Islands is because of how beautiful the environment truly is and how much I would rather to live there. In another word, if I could pick any where else to live in the world it would definitely be Fiji Islands. I prefer the tropical environment and being around an ocean.

 

Aside from Fiji Islands being such a beautiful place as it is, Fiji Islands seems very interesting to me as a place to pick as my location as well as me doing more research on. Therefore, after this course is over I plan on learning a lot more about Fiji Islands from the geographic standpoint as well as the country as a whole standpoint. Fiji Islands also grabbed a lot of my attention by being exactly where and how it’s on a map. Fiji Islands ’ location on a map is significantly different than most other countries. Locating in the south pacific Fiji is group of volcano active islands which is right off the shore of Australia . Being in such a considerable area, the weather is incredible and the climate is tropical marine which is the best climate there ever is. Being born and raised in the country of Vietnam and growing up around the tropical region, it would be my ideal dream home to be located at Fiji Islands .

  

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