Geology Chapter 17-18

About ____ percent of the incoming solar radiation reaches Earth's surface.

50

____ measures the total energy in a sample.

Heat

The First Great Oxidation Event, is thought to have occurred after:

all the dissolved iron in the oceans was oxidized and precipitated as banded iron formations.

A/An ____ is used to measure air pressure

barometer

The atmosphere:

becomes less dense with increasing altitude

When is the coldest time of the day? The warmest?

before sunrise; before sunset

The modern concentration of 21 percent molecular oxygen in our atmosphere resulted largely from:

biologic activity.

Locations at the same latitude, which receive the same amount of solar radiation:

can have different climates.

If pure coal burned completely, it would produce:

carbon dioxide and water.

During photosynthesis, organisms (plants) convert ____ and ____ to organic sugars and oxygen.

carbon dioxide, water

Which pollutant has decreased the most since the enactment of the Clean Air Act?

carbon monoxide (CO)

The primary source of sulfur oxide pollution is/are:

coal-fired electric generators.

Evaporation from a body of water:

cools the water and air around it.

Evaporation from a body of water:

cools the water and air the around it.

If scientists were to spread a thin layer of ashes on the Antarctic ice cap, we would expect that the albedo of the region would:

decrease, leading to regional warming

The ____ is the entire range of radiation of different wavelengths and frequencies.

electromagnetic spectrum

The Earth's surface absorbs____ radiation.

high-energy ultraviolet

The Earth's atmosphere 4.6 billion years ago was mainly composed of ____ and ____.

hydrogen, helium

The Earth's modern atmosphere:

is composed of 78 percent nitrogen.

Solar energy breaks oxygen molecules apart in the stratosphere, releasing ____, which combine(s) with an additional oxygen molecule to form a(an) ____.

oxygen atoms, ozone molecule

Particles of light are called ____.

photons

When an object absorbs radiation, the

photons disappear and are converted to another form of energy.

Albedo is the:

proportional reflectance of a surface.

Chlorofluorocarbons:

react to destroy ozone in the stratosphere.

If you place a pan of water and a rock outside on a hot summer day, the:

rock becomes hotter than the water.

In the ____, temperature increases with altitude, because ozone absorbs ultraviolet radiation.

stratosphere

On Earth, abundant multicellular life as we know it, could not have evolved on the continents until:

sufficient oxygen was present in the upper atmosphere to absorb ultraviolet radiation by forming ozone.

The Earth remains warm at night because:

the atmosphere absorbs and retains much of the radiation emitted from the Earth's surface.

The sky appears blue because:

the blue component of sunlight scatters more than the other frequencies and colors the atmosphere.

Climate is best defined as:

the characteristic conditions of primarily temperature and precipitation a region averaged over several decades.

On ____, every place on Earth receives 12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of darkness.

the equinox

The region of the globe directly beneath the Sun is warmer because it receives:

the most concentrated radiation.

The deposition of abundant banded iron formations (BIFs) in the world's oceans from about 2.7 to 1.9 billion years ago is thought to be evidence for:

the presence of enough dissolved oxygen (O2) in the oceans to oxidize iron and precipitate iron oxides such as hematite in sediments.

The highest portion of the atmosphere that absorbs high-energy radiation is the:

thermosphere.

The largest source of air pollutants in the United States is/are ____.

transportation

In which atmospheric layer is 99.9% of our weather found?

troposphere

The layer of the atmosphere closest to the Earth is the ____.

troposphere

Which of the following orders of the layers of the atmosphere is correct? (Start with the lowest layer.)

troposphere < stratosphere < mesosphere < thermosphere

The most important greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are:

water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane

The state of the atmosphere at a given place and time with given temperatures, relative humidity, barometric pressures, cloudiness and precipitation is best defined as:

weather

Acidic precipitation is produced:

when sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen dissolve in water droplets in the atmosphere

Smog is produced:

when sunlight (solar radiation) reacts with automobile exhaust.

Ozone at the surface (in the troposphere) is produced:

when sunlight reacts with nitrogen oxides from automobile exhaust and oxygen.

As early photosynthetic organisms evolved, they released more and more ____ into the atmosphere.

oxygen

On the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, sunlight strikes Earth from directly overhead at the tropic of ____.

Cancer

____ absorbs infrared radiation in the atmosphere

Carbon dioxide

Cyanobacteria are thought to be the first organisms to

Produce oxygen and sugars via photosynthesis

Why doesn't Earth get hot enough to boil oceans and melt rocks from the radiant energy it absorbs from the Sun?

Rocks, soil, and water re-radiate all of the energy they absorb from the Sun

____ is the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of a substance by 1°C.

Specific heat

The greenhouse effect:

keeps Earth habitable and allows water to exist in all three forms, vapor, liquid, and ice.

When a substance changes from one state to another, ____ heat is absorbed or released.

latent

The Earth's surface emits ____ radiation.

low-energy infrared

The most abundant constituent of our atmosphere today is ____.

nitrogen