Env 111

Marine organisms preserve the current oxygen-isotope ratio in their _______________.

shells

The Great Tohoku earthquake occurred as a result of ______.

subduction of the Pacific plate under the Japan plate.

The 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes were different from most California earthquakes because

the New Madrid earthquakes were centered in a plate interior

Using LIDAR mapping and carbon dating, geologists found evidence that _______.

the area around Oso had a history of landslides

The recurrence interval for a flood of a given magnitude is defined as...

the average number of years between occurrences of a flood of that magnitude or greater.

The background in the painting, The Scream, by Edvard Munch is evidence of what?

the high amount of sulfur dioxide put into the atmosphere by the eruption of Krakatau in 1883.

Why does the damming of rivers sometime contribute to coastal erosion?

the supply of new sand to replenish beaches is cut off

Which of the following would be a modern analogy to the Reelfoot Rift when it was active?

the triple junction centered around the Afar Triangle in northeast Africa.

When waves approach the shore and enter shallow water

the waves slow down and the wave height increases

How did mountain ranges like the Himalayas, Alps, and Appalachians form?

they all formed along continent-continent convergent plate boundaries

What effect do groins, breakwaters, and jetties have on coastal erosion?

they interrupt the transport of sand down the beach front

The sun's peak radiation is in the _______ part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

visible light

As a result of mass movements on the slope above the Vajont Dam, _______.

water levels in the reservoir were raised and lowered several times in an attempt to reach hydraulic equilibrium between the water level in the reservoir and the nearby rocks.

When is a large event such as a major earthquake not a disaster?

when it happens in an area without any people

When Charles Keeling began monitoring CO2 at the Mauna Loa Observatory in 1960, he recorded CO2 levels at around 320 ppm. What is the rate of change in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels between 1960 and 2017?

1.5 ppm/yr

The October 1963 Vajont Dam landslide killed around 2,500 people. How long did it take for the mass movement to flow out of the reservoir, over the dam, and into the valley below?

12 minutes

Approximately what year did CO2 levels start to noticeably increase from the pre-industrial levels? This part of the animation moves quickly so you will have to pause and rewind.

1850

From the time the siren went off and the tsunami hit the city of Sendai, how long did the residents of Sendai have to evacuate to higher ground before the tsunami hit?

3 minutes

An unusually wet summer was the primary cause of the 1993 Flood. The jet stream became locked over the midwest and ____ inches of rain fell over ____ months.

30, 6

Over the last 800,000 years before industrialization (between the year 1800 and 800,000 BCE), what was the largest amount of CO2 during that time?

300 ppm

Over the last 800,000 years before industrialization (between the year 1800 and 800,000 BCE), when was the largest peak of CO2?

325,000 yrs ago

What was the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere in January, 2017?

406 ppm

According to the video, how many people died in the Oso Landslide?

43

How many states in the United States are affected by landslides

50

What is the elevation of the city of New Orleans?

7-10 feet below sea level

How many states were directly affected by the 1993 Flood?

9

The wetlands surrounding New Orleans are rapidly disappearing. Why?

A and B

It was assumed that Yellowstone's heat source was an extinct volcano. What event made scientists realize that Yellowstone was still active and prompted them to take a closer look at the seismic activity of the national park?

A large earthquake in Yellowstone National Park in 1959.

Which of the following is not true concerning tsunamis on the open ocean?

A tsunami in the open ocean will look like a huge wall of water to a ship in its path.

How do we know about the internal structure of the earth?

By using the behavior of seismic waves as they travel through the earth.

Which town's levee failure was credited with saving St Louis, Missouri from flooding.

Columbia, IL

What is the major difference between oceanic crust and continental crust?

Continental crust is less dense than oceanic crust.

Earthquakes occur in association with convergent and transform fault boundaries, but not divergent boundaries.

False

The October 1963 Vajont Dam landslide occurred without any warning.

False

If you are at the beach and feel a large earthquake, what should you do, and when should you do it?

Immediately run up slope as far as possible.

Which is the product of a non-explosive style of eruption?

Lava flows

After the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed over New Orleans, why did the flood waters continue to rise in the low-lying areas of the city?

Levee along two canals failed and water from Lake Ponchartrain drained into the city center.

Select all the engineering systems or structures mentioned in the video that were put in place in New Orleans to deal with potential flooding.

Levees flood walls pumps drainage canals

Which of the following is true?

Much of the initial problems associated with the nuclear reactors was due to flooding of the generators, brought on by the tsunami.

What do the red and blue dots represent on the graph and small map?

NOAA observatory stations

Which earthquake waves travel the fastest and are felt first and appear first on a seismogram?

P waves

Water can be removed from a wet, unstable slope in all the following ways except...

Placing a load on the slope to squeeze water out

Which town's levee withstood the flood?

Prairie du Rocher, IL

Besides wind, what is the biggest hazard from hurricanes?

Storm surge

The Midcontinent Rift which underlies part of Iowa is evidence of what past geologic event?

The Midcontinent Rift is evidence that the central part of the North American continent was once the site of a divergent boundary that failed.

What is the tectonic reason for the Sunda Strait?

The Sunda Strait formed as a result of the wrenching motion caused by the north-northeast motion of the island of Sumatra and the east motion of the island of Java.

Which of the following is true with respect to the underlying geology in the Vajont River valley?

The Vajont River valley is underlain by rocks that dip (tilt) into the valley.

In the spring of 2003, some unusual events occurred in Yellowstone that caused some to worry that Yellowstone might erupt. Select the 3 events that occurred in 2003.

The ground heated up and cracks opened up. Large earthquakes occurred in the park. Steamboat Geyser, a geyser that can be dormant for up to 50 years, began erupting.

Why is Yellowstone's supervolcano so explosive?

The magma beneath Yellowstone is full of gas and very viscous because it is silica-rich.

Which of the following did not occur as a result of the eruption of Krakatau?

The sound of the explosions could be heard as far away as San Francisco, California.

What caused the Industrial Canal & Intercoastal Waterway levees to fail?

The storm surge sent a huge wave of water up the Intercoastal Waterway, over-topping the canal walls and scouring away the earthen levees.

Which of the following is not true with respect to the strongest aftershock during the 1811-1812 earthquakes?

The strongest aftershock caused the formation of the bluffs along the Missouri River near Council Bluffs, Iowa.

In the days preceding Hurrican Katrina, why did many people decide to stay in New Orleans? (select all that are true)

They were elderly or sick Many did not have transportation They had survived previous hurricanes without evacuating.

Why would a home built on the floodplain behind a levee be safe from flooding?

This statement is not true.

The most recent supervolcano to erupt was _________ and it occurred ________ years ago. This volcano may have nearly ended human life on earth.

Toba; 74,000

A rapid retreat of the shoreline can indicate a tsunami wave is imminent.

True

Major eruptions of volcanoes emit large amounts of CO2 and CH4, but their total contribution to atmospheric carbon levels is small.

True

What is Yellowstone?

Yellowstone is a caldera that overlies an active magma chamber.

What is the source of Yellowstone's volcanism?

Yellowstone sits on a hotspot.

Beach nourishment _______________.

a coastal engineering method that replenishes the sand to provide a recreation beach and helps protect coastal properties from erosion by widening the beach

The costs of catastrophic events continue to increase primarily because ____.

more people are moving into areas at high risk for natural disasters

Unlike regular ocean waves, tsunami waves are different because they ____.

move much faster

Earthquakes

occur on faults when rocks rupture, releasing stored up stress as energy

The residential construction that sustained the least amount of damage during the Haiti earthquake was _____.

one-story shanties made of mud and twig walls, sheet metal roofs, and earthen floors.

The massive loss of life in the 2010 Haiti earthquake was primarily due to _____.

poor construction and lack of attention to building design in residential homes.

An unstable marine sediment with a disorganized structure that can flow like water if disturbed is called _________.

quick clay

Most natural disasters are which of the following?

rarely if ever cyclic because there are too many overlapping effects

When you watch the segment for 1979-2011, you'll see the CO2 levels fluctuate (most dramatically at monitoring stations in the northern mid and low latitudes - around the equator) during each year. Why is this?

seasonal changes in vegetation photosynthesis

What is the primary cause of landslides

gravity exceeds strength of the slope

A strike-slip fault has what type of motion?

horizontal

As a tsunami approaches land, the height of a tsunami wave ____.

increases primarily because the water depth and velocity decreases.

Sand boils and mud volcanoes form when _____.

intense shaking ejects overpressured mud and sand to the surface along narrow fractures.

Rapid global warming may result in all the changes listed below except...

migration of people to coastal areas

What are two main causes of tsunami?

subduction-zone earthquakes and landslide into the ocean

Which type of earthquake waves do the most damage?

surface waves

What does the Richter Magnitude Scale depend on?

the maximum amplitude of earthquake waves on a seismograph

A transform plate boundary involves

two plates sliding laterally past each other.

​Approximately when did the rapid increase in human-produced atmospheric CO2 begin?

​1800s

Between 20,000 - 800,000 years ago, there were several ice ages (periods of global cooling interspersed with periods of warming). During these extended periods of cooling (we call these glaciations), ice advanced over the land and CO2 concentrations decreased. During warming periods (we call these interglacials) CO2 concentrations increased. What was the average atmospheric CO2 concentration during the ice ages?

185 ppm

What would the Volcanic Explosivity Index be if Yellowstone erupts?

8

How long before a flood can someone purchase insurance from the National Flood Insurance program?

30 days

Earthquakes associated with reverse faulting results in crustal shortening, which is generally found at which type of boundary?

Convergent

Earthquakes associated with normal faulting cause the extension of Earth's crust. This type of faulting is generally associated with which type of plate boundary?

Divergent

What causes caverns or open spaces to form in limestone?

Rainwater mixes with carbon dioxide to make weak carbonic acid that dissolves limestone.

Which of the following is not true with respect to the San Andreas fault?

The San Andreas fault represents the convergent boundary between the North American and the Pacific plates.

Which of the following was the main reason why most scientists did not believe in the concept of continental drift?

The originator of the concept of continental drift did not adequately explain how the continents could move.

According the Case Study, what do residents of Houston blame for exacerbating flooding in their neighborhoods?

Unregulated development/building in the area

How do volcanoes form at convergent boundaries?

Volcanoes at convergent boundaries form when the melting temperature of the rock is lowered by the water in the subducting plate. This melt may then rise to the surface where it will form a volcano.

Why did the 17th Street and London Street canals fail?

Water soaked into the underlying peat layer and weakened the soft sediments beneath the levee wall.

Which letter represents the epicenter of the Tohoku Earthquake?

Y

What is Anak Krakatau?

a small volcano that has formed over the site of the original Krakatau.

Like all hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, Hurricane Katrina began as _____.

a storm off the west coast of Africa.

The boundary between the Gonave microplate and the Caribbean plate is _____.

a strike slip fault.

The drawing below shows a cross-sectional view of a subduction zone. An earthquake that occurs at location X has the potential to displace the overlying seawater, causing

a tsunami

VEI stands for ______.

a volcano's explosivity index.

The 1811-1812 New Madrid earthquakes occurred _______.

all of the above

The layer of the Earth that deforms and flows, behaving like a plastic, is called the _____.

asthenosphere

According to the intensity map of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the greatest intensity experienced during this earthquake was ______.

IX

The New Madrid Seismic Zone does not include which of the following states?

Iowa

​Greenhouse gases include all of the following except ____.

radon

Streams receive water from 2 primary sources:

runoff and groundwater

Moment magnitude depends on what main factor(s)?

shear strength of the rocks displaced, total surface area of rocks ruptured, and average slip distance on the fault

Which of the following would not be a part of the Ring of Fire?

the Cascade Mountains

What makes Houston susceptible to flooding?

All the above

Earth emits most of its radiation in the _________ part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

infrared

A basalt magma typically erupts in what form?

lava flows

The theory of continental drift was explained and replaced by the theory of plate tectonics.

True

Volcanoes with high silica magmas generally have more explosive eruptions than those with lower silica magmas.

True

When the Dec. 16, 1811 New Madrid earthquake occurred in Missouri, church bells in New York rang in response to shaking from this earthquake.

True

Which of the following is true with respect to tsunamis?

Tsunamis occur when the seafloor is suddenly uplifted or dropped down during an earthquake.

Other than limestone, what types of rocks are soluble in water and can form cavities that collapse?

salt and gypsum

Which of the following is NOT a common reason cited for building large dams on rivers?

to raise groundwater levels

Approximately 40,000 people died as a result of the 1883 eruption of Krakatau. What were the two volcanic hazards responsible for these deaths?

tsunamis and pyroclastic flows

What are the two most abundant gases in magmas?

water vapor and carbon dioxide

The gradual process of subsidence can result from all of the following activities except

digging open-pit mines to mine for coal

Which does NOT control the characteristics or shape of a coastline

dominant wind direction

On average, more people die from which type of natural disaster than any other?

flash floods and flooding

What aspect of tropical cyclones tends to cause the greatest death and destruction

flooding from rain, waves, and storm surge

The point along a fault where movement first occurs during an earthquake is called the earthquake's ______.

focus

Landslides associated with the 2010 Haiti earthquake were

found mostly on slopes steepened at their base by road construction.

How might global warming exacerbate coastal hazards?

global warming is accompanied by sea level rise

Which of the following is the major driving force in all mass movements?

gravity

One of the geologists listed some potential precursors to a Yellowstone eruption. The precursors he listed are earthquake swarms, heating of the ground, increasing hydrothermal events, and _____.

ground uplift.

Highly explosive magmas are controlled by which of the following?

high silica content and high water

Select all the factors that contributed to the destabilization of the slope and led to the 2014 landslide.

higher than average precipitation undercutting of the slope by the Stillaguamish River slope composed of glacial sediments with high porosity

What does the Mercalli Intensity Scale depend on?

how much damage the shaking caused

The Great Tohoku earthquake occurred _______.

in the Japan trench subduction zone.

Most of Earth's active volcanoes are found _____.

in the Ring of Fire.

We can see the correlation between the start of industrialization (increasing manufacturing) and the increasing CO2 levels. What activity related to industrialization would add increasingly large amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere?

increasing use of fossil fuels

Over the last 30 years, hurricanes have become more ______ due to _______.

intense, warmer ocean temperatures

How do impermeable surfaces (ie: concrete) from urbanization affect runoff and flooding?

it increases runoff and decreases the time between the precipitation event and the water reaching the stream.

All the engineering approaches below are put in place to prevent a river from flooding except...

jetties

All the engineering structures below are used to alter or slow coastal wave erosion except...

levee

When pore spaces in sediment becomes saturated with water, the sediment loses strength and cohesion. This phenomenon is called __________.

liquifaction

The current flowing parallel to and just offshore of a beach is called

longshore current

Increases in precipitation lead to increased landslide risk. On average, how many landslide-related deaths occur in Nepal during each monsoon season?

100

Which of the following did not occur during the Dec. 16, 1811, New Madrid earthquake?

Downed power lines caused numerous small fires along the Mississippi River.

The 1993 Flood had a recurrence interval of ______.

500 years

Select the 3 methods inspired by the 1993 Flood to prevent future damage and loss from flooding.

Elevating homes above flood level Returning agricultural land to natural wetlands Leaving crop residue on the land to reduce soil erosion and run-off

The Reelfoot Rift formed when the supercontinent of Pangaea began to split apart around 700 million years ago.

False

The terms 'tsunami' and 'tidal wave' mean the same thing and are interchangeable when discussing a seismic sea wave.

False

What was unique about the 2014 Oso Landslide?

Given the height of the slope, the slide debris traveled 5 times farther than it should have.

Which of the following volcanoes formed over a hot spot?

Hawaii

Which proxy records are used in reconstructing the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations before modern direct measurements and monitoring stations?

Ice cores

Yellowstone's most recent eruption was _______. There is evidence that Yellowstone has errupted _____ in the last 2.3 million years.

~600,000 years ago, 3 times

​Why is it warmer in the northern hemisphere in July than it is in December?

​The sun's rays shine more directly on the northern hemisphere in the summer than in the winter.

​In a single year, which of the following is the largest emitter of carbon dioxide into Earth's atmosphere?

​coal-fired power plants

​Which change is NOT expected as a result of global warming?

​increase in the flow of the warm Gulf Stream toward Europe

​The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2014 estimated that Earth's average surface temperature would likely rise by how much above preindustrial levels by 2050?

​two degrees Celsius

Which agency manages the rivers, dams, and levees in the United States.?

Army Corp of Engineers

Why does the intensity map for the Dec. 16, 1811, earthquake not show any intensities on the west side of the map?

Intensities are not shown on the west side of the map because the population of European settlers in that part of the U.S. was sparse.

After scientists installed seismographs, how many earthquakes per week did they record?

25

The originator of the theory of continental drift called the single landmass _______.

Pangaea

Select all the things that can occur BEFORE a catastrophic landslide.

extensional cracks near the top of a slope slumping of soils and sediments on a slope small landslides

Why are the impacts of coastal hazards such as erosion, storm surge, and flooding so great?

because densely populated areas are located at or near the coasts

Which type or types of seismic waves can travel through the mantle of the Earth and be recorded by seismographs?

both P and S waves

In what way can the construction of dams and levees INCREASE flood damage (both loss of property and life) on a floodplain?

by giving a false sense of security that encourages building and living on the floodplain

Why does Japan rely so heavily on nuclear energy?

Because Japan has few natural resources that it can use to generate electricity.

Based upon knowledge of landslide physics, where did geologists direct rescue workers to search for survivors?

At the distal edge of the slide

The Reelfoot Rift formed _______.

as a result of the breakup of Rodinia over 700 million years ago.

Using the accompanying diagram, label the features correctly.

A: head, B: toe, C: crown, D: scarp

The meteorologist who originally proposed the idea of continents being able to move around on Earth's surface was _____.

Alfred Wegener

The force of the October 1963 Vajont landslide was enough to _____.

All of the above are results of the 1963 Vajont Dam landslide.

The Gonave microplate formed in response to ______.

All of the above have contributed to forming the Gonave plate.

A tsunami may occur when _____.

All of the above have the potential to cause a tsunami.

​What contains the largest reservoir of carbon?

carbonate rock

Select the 3 ENGINEERING flood-control methods.

dams, levees, channelization