Dynamic Earth Test 3
Approximately what percentage of shoreline on Earth is found on barrier islands?
10%
Using the AVERAGE environmental lapse rate in your calculation, if a mountain climber ascends 2000 m in altitude, how much cooler will the air temperature be at 2000 m than the air temperature where the climber started?
13 °C
Deserts occur where precipitation is less than
25 cm (10 in) a year.
What percent of the atmosphere's mass lies below the Karman line?
99.99%
The main cause of the stratospheric ozonosphere problem is what?
CFCs
Why do auroras form at the poles?
Earth's magnetic field concentrates solar wind particles at the poles.
What is one significant effect of wind‐blown dust from Northern Africa?
It fertilizes it plants in the Amazon rainforest of South America.
Which statement describes the ozonosphere situation?
It is a problem that is getting better.
What was Africa's Sahara like around 9000 years ago?
It was wetter and summers were warmer.
What will deflation do to a desert landscape?
It will lower the surface elevation.
What is the largest desert in the world?
Sahara
Which desert has the largest concentration of ergs?
The Sahara
All of Earth's weather occurs in the
Troposphere
What happens to wave motion below the wave base?
Wave motion ceases.
Which feature forms where the surface of a mesa dips more than 30° from horizontal?
a hogback
Most mesas, buttes, and chimneys occur where
a plateau has been uplifted and eroded by flowing water.
What results when Earth, the Moon, and the Sun are aligned along the same axis?
a spring tide
Which feature forms where a sandspit connects an island to the mainland?
a tombolo
When sulfur dioxide (SO2) combines with other nitrogen compounds, droplets of sulfuric acid (H2SO4) are formed that precipitate and fall to Earth as
acid rain
Microscopic solid or liquid particles suspended in the atmosphere are called
aerosols.
The presence of marine terraces can be evidence for
an emergent coast.
Any coast that has significant human modification is called a(n)
anthropogenic coast.
Rock varnish is a thin, weathered, and darkened surface on a rock formed by the activities of
bacteria
A broad, sloping plain formed when alluvial fans from adjacent valleys coalesce is called a(n)
bajada
Nevada's Great Basin Desert is an example of
basin‐and‐range topography.
Why are the tides in the Bay of Fundy in eastern Canada the world's highest?
because of the shape of the coastline
Inselbergs that take on a more rounded form and are usually derived from erosion‐resistant crystalline rock are called
bornhardts
White beaches are composed of
broken bits of coral.
Which combustion process is not a source of anthropogenic particulate matter pollution?
burning forest wildfires
A _____ is a medium‑sized flat‑topped hill with cliff‑face sides and is taller than it is wide.
butte
People clearing and burning tropical rainforests produce significant
carbon monoxide.
Which component of the atmosphere is an aerosol?
cloud droplet
What often results from the building of inland reservoirs?
coastal beach erosion
Without greenhouse gases, Earth's atmosphere would be very
cold
The transformation of fertile land to desert is called
desertification
At the tropopause, the troposphere
ends
Changes in global sea level as a result of changing the amount of water in the oceans is called
eustasy.
Approximately how often does any location on Earth pass through a tidal bulge?
every 12 hours
Variable gases exist in Earth's atmosphere in
extremely small quantities and change their proportions
A mesa is a
flat-topped elevated area.
Rias and fjords are both
flooded coasts.
The ancient remains of plants preserved in the Earth in the form of coal, oil, and natural gas are called
fossil fuels.
A linear structure made of concrete or stone that extends from a beach into the water to slow the erosion of sand on the beach is called a
groin.
Which pollutant is a secondary pollutant?
ground level ozone
What is formed when sunlight breaks nitrogen dioxide into NO + O?
ground-level ozone
How long does it take large ergs to develop?
hundreds of thousands to millions of years
All sand dunes migrate
in the direction of the wind.
What is not a factor that makes the Atacama Desert so dry?
interior continental location
The Basin‐and‐Range Province contains a large
internal drainage system.
The coastal area between the low tide line and the high tide line is called the
intertidal zone.
An earthquake that lifts a coastline upward results in _____ sea level changes.
isostatic
Which statement describes the stratosphere?
it has a permanent temperature inversion
The process where sediment moves down the length of a beach is called
longshore drift.
Which type of coast can only be found in the tropics or subtropics?
mangrove
Ground‐level ozone requires the presence of which pollutant to form?
nitrogen dioxide
Which process or feature is a carbon dioxide sink?
oceans
Where are rocky coasts most common?
on emergent coasts
The region in the stratosphere that blocks ultraviolet (UV) radiation is called the
ozonosphere.
Which type of sand dunes can form from transverse dunes or other dune types when vegetation anchors the sand?
parabolic dunes
Liquid and solid aerosols suspended in the atmosphere are called
particulate matter (PM).
A prehistoric rock carving that is often made by scratching away rock varnish from a rock's surface is called a
petroglyph
Which chemical or set of chemicals is NOT a primary pollutant?
photochemical smog
Through time, many coastal dunes become stabilized through the process of
plant succession.
Saline lakes form in
playas
Which feature is among the flattest and smoothest of all natural landforms on Earth?
playas
Which type of beach sediment is most common?
quartz grains
Unusually large waves are called
rogue waves.
Air pressure is greatest at
sea level
A shingle beach is composed of
sediment larger than sand.
In which type of rock is mesa‐and‐butte terrain most common?
sedimentary rock
Desert pavement forms as
silt and clay blow in and accumulate between rocks at the surface.
Gases exit the atmosphere through a
sink
Slow winds over a short fetch produce
small waves.
Because of water scarcity, all deserts have
sparse plant cover and low biomass.
Which pollutant comes mostly from coal burning?
sulfur dioxide
As breakers collapse on themselves in their forward momentum, they create a
swash
If caught in a rip current, the best thing to do is
swim parallel to the shoreline.
What often form in valleys, acting to concentrate air pollution levels near the ground?
temperature inversions
The troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and thermosphere are identified by
temperature trends at different altitudes.
Which desert is a subtropical hot desert?
the Arabian Desert
The movement of sediment along a beach happens because of
the longshore current.
Which zone contains breaking waves?
the nearshore zone
In the ionosphere, oxygen and nitrogen are energized and glow when they interact with
the solar wind
The rise and fall of sea level due to the gravitational effects of the Sun and Moon is called
tides
The Karman line represents
top of the atmosphere
A wind‐sculpted desert rock formed through abrasion by saltating sand is called a
ventifact
The most important agent of erosion in deserts is
water
The process wherein waves bend as they approach a shoreline so that their orientation is roughly parallel to the shore is called
wave refraction.
When do rip currents form most often?
when wave heights are at their maximum
Elongated ridges formed by sand abrasion in the desert are called
yardangs
