Hydrology and Northrend!

Hello once again ladies and gentleman. Today, for my blog on the geography of Northrend, we’re going to be focusing for the most part on the area known as Sholazar Basin and the hydrology that is involved within Sholazar Basin.

Sholazar Basin is a basin (obviously) with 5 streams coming in from different areas and each one draining off into the center of the basin called River’s Heart. Next off is the type of water that is in Sholazar Basin. Sholazar Basin’s hydrology is completely comprised of gravity water. The basin slopes inward to the center and the water collects into River’s Heart. All five of the streams that are found within Sholazar Basin are effluent streams since four of the streams are fed by waterfalls and then the fifth gets its water source from the melt off of the avalanche above it. All 5 streams have their water tables located above them. Whether it comes from the ocean located to the west of Sholazar basin (red circles), the run off from the snow at the avalanche area (black circle), or from an underground source in Wintergrasp (yellow circles), each one draining off into River's Heart (white circle).

If they were to be affluent they would have their water tables located below them. Next off we’re going to talk about insulation and how it can be reflected. Insulation that is reflected is referred to as albedo. Surface types that have albedo range from that of charcoal (which has some of the lowest albedo numbers, reflects very little light) to that of snow (which has the highest albedo numbers, reflects almost all light). An obvious surface in Sholazar that has a high albedo would be the snow from the avalanche area. You can see how easily it reflects the light.

A surface with a low albedo would be the dirty area right next to the area of the avalanche, since darker colors reflect very little light.

(All pictures taken by me in game.)