Earth Science B Exam
What are three substances found in every earth system
water nitrogen oxygen
How does a seamount become a guyot
wave erosion
When all three of the above natural processes line up what is the hypothesized result?
ice age
How do we know global warming is occurring
increase in hurricanes, coral bleaching, algae growth
Trench Abyssal Plain Cont. Shelf
trench-deepest part of the ocean, long narrow crevice/Crack Abyssal Plain- Lg. flat areas, thick layers of mud sand and silt, contains ooze Cont. Shelf-flat part of margin, gently slopes downwards, width varies, Lg. deposits of oils, minerals, and natural gas
What layer of the atmosphere has the majority of air? What atmospheric layer does weather happen in? What atmospheric layer has the highest air pressure?
troposphere
What are the two main fronts
warm and cold front
When a warm front moves and you expect what kind of weather?
warmer temps
How could a meteorite effect climate?
It would release huge amounts of vaporized material blocking the sun.
Very dense air exerts what kind of pressure on Earth's surface? Least dense air exerts what kind of pressure?
Very dense-High Pressure, Least Dense-Low pressure
How could a volcano effect global warming?
Volcanoes spew particles and gas over the atmosphere covering the earth from solar heat shading the earth cooling it.
What holds Earth's atmosphere to the Earth?
gravity
Why is Convergence important in creating tornadoes?
Air masses colliding creating spinning motion
What is a barometer, thermometer, anemometer, sling psychrometer, hygrometer, and wind vane used to measure?
Barometers measure air pressure. Thermometer measures temp. Anemometer measures wind speed. Sling psychrometer simply measures relative humidity. Hygrometer measures relative humidity. Wind Vane measures wind direction.
On a weather map what signifies warm moist air rising?
Big red L
List six renewable energies.
Biomass, geothermal,hydroelectric, wind, solar, tidal
Why is the sky blue?
Blue light has the most energy so it gets scattered out most often
If a bunch of trees are cut down, describe how this could influence CO2 in atmosphere. How would this scenario influence the hydrosphere directly in terms of groundwater?
Carbon Dioxide would increase in the atmosphere because trees would not be using it for photosynthesis, Groundwater would also increase because trees would not have to absorb water for photosynthesis.
Where is the majority of Earth's freshwater? Usable fresh water? Earth water? How much of earth's usable freshwater do lakes account for?
Glaciers have most of the earth's freshwater, most usable freshwater is in groundwater. Most Earth's water is located in the oceans. Lakes account for .3% of earth's freshwater.
Where is earth's internal heat from?
Gravity, pressure, radioactive decay
What is the greenhouse effect and how does it work? How can it be beneficial? How can it be bad?
GreenHouse effect is the trapping of the sun's warmth in the earth's lower atmosphere by radiation higher than would it would be without an atmosphere. Solar energy absorbed at Earth's surface is radiated back into the atmosphere as heat. As the heat makes its way through the atmosphere and back out to space, greenhouse gases absorb much of it. Having a healthy amount of heat from greenhouse gas effect regulates the earth's temp to make it suitable for living. It is harmful to the atmosphere because it heats the earth so an extreme.
What is the Coriolis effect and what causes it?
Rotation of the earth result in the apparent deflection of fluids.
What's salinity? Describe how could sea ice forming and evaporation lead to salinity currents?
Salinity is the salt concentration in the water measured in parts per thousand. When water evaporates or freezes it leaves the salt behind increasing the salinity.
What is a karst region? What are some common features in this region?
Sinkholes in limestone made from the drop in the water table caverns
How will ocean's warming affect the ability for the ocean to act as a sink?
Stop taking in CO2 making the temp warmer
What is the aspect of hurricanes that caused the most damage?
Storm surges or severe flooding
What are three factors that affect how much air pressure is around us?
Temp, elevation, water vapor
What are some states that are affected by hurricanes frequently?
Texas Florida Louisiana North and South Carolina Georgia
Where does the warm moist air come from in tornado Alley and where does the cold dry air come from in Tornado Alley?
Warm moist air comes from Maritime tropical-Gulf of Mexico Cold dry air come from Cont. Dry air- Canada
How could a warm ocean current affect the winter months of a maritime city? Summer?
Warm ocean currents warm the ocean during the winter and cool the ocean during summer
What is the boiling point temp of water? What is the freezing point temp? What type of water is most dense? How many sides should an ice crystal have?
Water's boiling point is 100 degrees C, water's freezing point is 0 degrees C. Max density is 4 degrees C. Ice crystals have six sides
How can carbon in fossil fuels be a benefit to humans? How can the carbon in plants and animals benefit humans?
We use carbon in fossil fuels in are car. We eat animals and we get the energy from them.
What is the name of the part of the thermohaline circulation that affects the US?
Western boundary current
What is frontal wedging sketch a picture of frontal wedging. What type of weather why ?
When a cold front meets a warm front. Stormy weather develops because of the dew point that results from the colder air meeting the warmer air.
What are three main factors that affect the size of oceans surface waves?
Wind speed, Wind duration, Wind fetch
What is the difference between artesian and ordinary well? Would a artesian well be common in a karst region of limestone?
An artesian well has water coming out without being pumped an ordinary will have to pump the water. It will be in limestone because it is permeable
What are upwellings and how are they caused?
An upwelling is when super cold, nutrient rich water rises, its caused by pressure differences and temp/density differences
How could animals on farmlands affect the quality of water? How could a agricultural Farmland affect the quality of groundwater?
Animal waste could pollute, fertilizer could pollute groundwater
As population increases what are some possible impacts on aquifers?
Aquifer levels will decrease because people will export more water to drink and to grow crops
Define Aquifer, Impermeable, Permeable, watershed
Aquifier-Water bearing rock layer that water passes through Impermeable-water can't go through easily Permeable-water can go through Watershed- land area from which water drains into a river system
What is tornado Alley? What states are involved? Describe why Tornado Alley is located where it is located.
Area in US where Tornadoes are frequent. Kansas Texas Oklahoma. Occur here because many air masses collide here.
How is carbon in the form of CO2 beneficial? How is it harmful?
Carbon in the form of Carbon Dioxide allows plants to use it in photosynthesis and humans can use the oxygen from photosynthesis to breath. It's harmful because it heats the atmosphere.
List fossil fuels and where the energy comes from.Then give one drawback and one benefit of each.
Coal-pollution from CO2 and affordable and high energy Oil-produces CO2 and pollution hard to clean (oil spills), High energy fuels cars and cheap Natural Gas-air pollution earthquakes (fracking), generates electricity cleanest fossil fuel surplus amount
Hurricanes get their energy from where how does this process work?
Condensation As the warm air warms the water it takes a long time to cool down due to the high heat capacity so therefore there's a mixing of warm water from Summer mixing with late summer or fall cold air a difference in pressure.
Sunlight that reaches the Earth and is given off by the Earth back into the atmosphere is which type of heat transfer?
Conduction
What is the difference between conduction and convection?
Conduction is the direct transfer of heat, Convection is when heated fluids become less dense and forced upwards cools and falls
As water condenses and molecules slow down what is given off? As water evaporates what happens to the heat?
Creates moist air and cools down taking in heat. As water evaporates it gives off heat
What is the name of the cloud type that is known for severe weather such as tornadoes hail and thunderstorms?
Cumulonimbus
What are three possible sources of added CO2 in the atmosphere?
Deforestation, burning of fossil fuels, and human carbon dioxide emissions.
What causes a deep current?
Differences in density, salinity, and temp
What are some possible consequences of increased evaporation in terms of precipitation for different places?
Drought and flooding in different places
What are Milankovitch Cycles, what effect do they have on climate and how often do they occur? Describe 2 other natural processes that affect earth's climate.
Earth's orbit around the sun changes slightly to more of an ellipse.This changes how the sun heats the earth lowering the temp. Occur every 100,000 years. Tilt of earth wobbles and Procession.
List and describe six steps of water cycle. What step of the water cycle purifies water the most.
Evaporation-Liquid to gas in bodies of water Transpiration-Liquid to gas in plants Condensation-gas to liquid, clouds from water droplets is the cleanest Precipitation-Liquid or ice falling out of clouds Infiltration-Water soaking into the ground Runoff-Water running over the ground
What is the cause of algal blooms in the ocean?
Excess amount of nutrients and higher concentration of nutrients in the ocean.
Where do hurricanes get their energy from?
Fueled by condensation
Describe each energy and give 2 drawbacks and 2 benefits. Geothermal, Biomass, Nuclear, solar, wind, hydroelectric.
Geothermal-radioactive waste released in setup, expensive to set up. Eco Friendly, cost less once set up. Biomass-global warming, deforestation. Carbon neutral, available, burns waste. Nuclear-radioactive waste, expensive to set up, high energy reliable no pollutions Solar-space needs to be sunny, expensive to set up and break easily, No emissions or pollution Wind-Ugly to look at, loud, kills birds, no pollution and eco friendly Hydroelectric-changes water flow in river, expensive to set up, no pollution cheap once set up.
What is the most dangerous form of precipitation and why?
Hail because they are ice chunks and can break things
Water takes a long time to heat up and a long time to cool down due to what unique property?
High heat capacity
How does air move in relation to pressure?
High to low pressure.
What do ice cores tell us and how? Mud cores? Tree cores?
Ice Cores tell us the climate and CO2 in the air thousands of years ago by trapping atmosphere air bubbles. Mud cores tell us temp and salinity thousands of years ago. Tree cores record rainfall
Why is the Cryosphere important to reduce the amount of heat absorbed from the sun?
Ice is used to reflect some heat so it's not so hot. If the ice melted the heat would absorb increasing the warmth of earth
What is the predicted result on the coastline in terms of hurricanes
Increase in flooding and erosion
What is the ozone layer? What does it mean for the Earth? Where is it found?
Layer of Ozone in the stratosphere that protects us from Ultraviolet radiation.
Describe how a hail storm becomes layered.
Looking it up drafts which carry raindrops above the freezing line in the cumulonimbus cloud which create layered hailstones
Why do you find warmer air in your attic in the summer as compared to your basement?
Low pressure has warmer temp and is less dense than high pressure so hi pressure pushes low pressure up along with the heat
What are the main two inputs that keeps rivers in Michigan flowing? For the Western USA what are three inputs of water that keep the rivers flowing with water?
Michigan-Rainfall snow-melt runoff groundwater Western-mountain runoff, rainfall, snowmelt, groundwater
What are some states that are often affected by flooding due to having a large watershed? What are some ways that you can reduce flood damage?
Mississippi, Ohio Build on stilts don't build on flood plain
What is the difference between Renewable energy and Nonrenewable energy? Which of these energies are the fossil fuels considered?
Nonrenewable is a natural energy source that once consumed can not be replaced, renewable energy is a natural energy source that replenishes itself. Fossil fuels are considered nonrenewable energy.
Which energies cannot be traced back to the sun in any way for their power?
Nuclear and Geothermal
What is the ultimate source of power for Nuclear and Geothermal energy?
Nuclear-Uranium 235 Geothermal-Radioactive decay and pressure
How do oceans reduce CO2
Ocean dissolve CO2 in the air
How could global warming effect hydrosphere biosphere cryosphere?
Plant growth ice melting water cycle
What is coral bleaching? Why is it happening?
Process when coral lose their color due to the loss of pigments making it white due to increase in temp in the oceans killing the corals.
Define residence time. What is the residence time of wetland and oceans?
The avg. amount of time a water molecule will stay in a specific reservoir. Wetland- longest surface freshwater RT, Oceans have 3000 yr residence time
What is drought? And what leads to it?
The prolonged period of very low rainfall resulting in a shortage of water
What is surface runoff? Give an example and when it would occur?
The rainfall or snow-melt at flows over land surfaces, occurs when an excess amount of water runs over the earth's surface example is flooding.
During thunderstorm where is the safest place to be? Where is the un-safest place to be? Why?
The safest place to be is low ground go on safest place to be is high ground because if you are and Higher Ground positive charges will try to use you to get to the cloud.
Define an estuary. What is a predicted result if a hurricane hits an estuary?
The tidal mouth of a large river that creates brackish water, where the tide meets the stream, it will have higher percentages of salt and plant decay and flooding
Define the Thermohaline circulation, why is it important , what could stop it and why would it stop?What would be a consequence if it stopped?
Thermohaline circulation is caused by temp and salinity difference and regulates global temp. It would stop if there was a large addition of fresh water like melting glaciers. The consequences would be that no heat would transported, and Europe wind would blow cold not warm.
Define Insolation
Total amount of radiation that reaches the earth's surface
List the layers of the atmosphere in order from closest to the ground and something significant chance about each layer.
Troposphere-temp drops with altitude, Stratosphere-temp slightly rises, Mesosphere-sharp drop in temp, Thermosphere- temp extremely hot
why do we have weather? Why do we have wind?
Unequal heating of the atmosphere. Pressure differences from unequal heating.
why does the threat of hurricanes, tornadoes, and thunderstorms go down in the winter?
Winter there isn't as much cold and warm mixing of Fronts or air.
Which energies that we learned about are primarily used to make electricity?
all of them
On a weather map what symbol signifies cold dense air falling?
big blue H
Name every sphere and what it contains
biosphere-earth's living things Cyrosphere- earth's ice hydrosphere-earth's water geosphere- earth's rock atmosphere- earth's air
types of green house gases
carbon Dioxide water vapor methane nitrous oxide
When a cold front moves and you would expect what kind of weather?
colder temps because it brings cold air
What is denser dry air or more humid air?
dry air
Why can't animals use Nitrogen directly from air?
it has a triple covalent bond
What adds matter to earth?
meteorites and space scruff
What are two ways the nitrogen gets fixed?
nitrogen fixing bacteria and lightning
In the northern hemisphere what is the direction the fluids like wind and ocean currents or returned due to the Coriolis Effect?
right
On a weather map close isobars mean what?
stronger wind speed
How can a fringing reef become a atoll reef
the inland begins to sink till completely submerged