Olympic National Park: Earth's Place and Function

(A map of Olympic National Park, map: http://www.olympic.national-park.com/map.htm)

In order to gain some perspective on the relationship of Olympic National Park to the rest of the earth, I wanted to compare how much space the park takes up to the space on the surface of the earth. According to class notes, the diameter of the earth is about 8,000 miles, which would make the radius approximately 4,000 miles. To find the surface area of the earth, I used the formula Surface Area = 4π times r squared. I came up with a little less than 200,000,000 square miles.

The majority of that surface area is made up of water, and only about 29 percent of the earth's total surface area is land (http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/8o.html). Around 1,400 miles of land surface area makes up Olympic National Park.

(An aerial image of Olympic National Park saved from the Google Earth application on my computer)

(An aerial image of Olympic National Park saved from the Google Earth application on my computer)

The Google Earth application places Olympic National Park at approximately 47 degrees, 47 minutes, and 39.91 seconds North, and 123 degrees, 41 minutes, and 05.74 seconds West.

Olympic National Park is located in the state of Washington in the United States of America and is therefore in the Pacific Time Zone, making the time there an hour behind those of us in Colorado.

The marine climate of Olympic National Park causes the weather to be a little unpredictable, but the park typically is warm in the summers and mild in the winters. Winter is a wet season for the park, but the temperature of the area rarely drops below freezing. Summer is usually more dry than the rest of the year.

Sources:

Google Earth
Class Notes
"Introduction to the Hydrosphere." PhysicalGeography.net. Web. 9 Dec 2010. <http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/8o.html>
Uhler, John William. Olympic National Park. Web. 8 Dec 2010. <http://www.olympic.national-park.com/>.