GEOL 125 Exam 4
1950 DA
1950 DA is a near-Earth asteroid. Among asteroids more than 1 km in diameter, it is notable for having the highest known probability of impacting Earth.
Solano's Hurricane was named for which person?
A Spanish Admiral.
What is the radar signature of a tornado?
A hook echo in the tail end of the supercell thunderstorm.
In which of the following areas do tropical cyclones NOT form?
Along the Equator.
The highest-velocity sustained wind speeds inside a tropical cyclone are found in ___________.
Along the eye wall at the outer margin of the eye of the tropical cyclone.
Thunderstorm anvil
Anvil clouds, which are mostly composed of ice particles, form in the upper parts of thunderstorms.
Why did Germany not interfere with the war being waged between England and France in 1360?
Because Germany did not yet exist as a unified country.
Today in the Atlantic Ocean, how are individual tropical cyclones named?
By alternating male and female first names.
Which of the following celebrities joined with President Obama in touring the devastation left by Hurricane Sandy?
Chris Christie
Cyclone Tracy
Cyclone Tracy was a tropical cyclone that devastated the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day, 1974.
In the United States during the 20th century, deaths from hurricanes __________ while property damage from hurricanes __________.
Decreased; Increased.
The highest-velocity, most persistent gust fronts are called ____________.
Derechos.
Which part of the continental United States has the greatest number of thunderstorm days per year and is the lightning frequency leader?
Florida.
The May 3-6, 1999, Oklahoma-Kansas Tornado Outbreak
From May 2-8, 1999, a significant tornado outbreak took place across much of the Central and parts of the Eastern United States. During this week-long event, 152 tornadoes touched down (including one in Canada), more than half of them on May 3 and 4 when activity reached its peak over Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and Arkansas.
Following the Samoan Typhoon of 1889, which two countries divided the Samoan islands between themselves?
Germany and the United States.
The Hurricanes of October, 1780
Great Hurricane of 1780, also known as Huracán San Calixto, the Great Hurricane of the Antilles, and the 1780 Disaster,[1][2] is the deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record. Between 20,000 and 22,000 people died when the storm passed through the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean October 10-16.
The English Windstorm of 1703.
Great Storm of 1703 arrived from the southwest on 26 November (7 December in today's calendar). In London, 2,000 chimney stacks collapsed. The New Forest lost 4,000 oaks. Ships were blown hundreds of miles off-course, and over 1,000 seamen died on the Goodwin Sands alone.
Which Kansas town decided to recover from its devastating tornado by becoming as energy-efficient as possible?
Greensburg, Kansas.
The Saffir-Simpson Scale for estimating the magnitude of tropical cyclones is a measure of _____________.
Highest sustained wind speed.
This notable storm was the first test of the Galveston, Texas, sea wall:
Hurricane Ike (2008)
This notable storm was the first test of New York City's hurricane evacuation plan:
Hurricane Irene (2011)
Hurricane Irene (2011)
Hurricane Irene was a large and destructive tropical cyclone, which affected much of the Caribbean and East Coast of the United States during late August 2011. Irene is ranked as the seventh-costliest hurricane in United States history.
Hurricane Sandy (2012).
Hurricane Sandy was the deadliest and most destructive hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, and the second-costliest hurricane in United States history.
Types of meteorites
Iron-nickel, stony iron, achondrite and chondite meteorites
Which of the following tornadoes is the costliest in US history? Topeka, Kansas (1966)? Manhattan, Kansas (2008)? Joplin, Missouri (2011)? Moore, Oklahoma (2013)?
Joplin, MO (2011)
Gas giant planets
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
The Greensburg, Kansas, Tornado of 2007
May 4, 2007, Greensburg was devastated by an EF5[8] tornado that traveled rapidly through the area, leveling at least 95 percent of the city and killing eleven people between the ages of 46 and 84
Terrestrial planets
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars
Which type of wind shear presents a particularly high risk for aircraft that are landing or taking off?
Microbursts.
Which of the following tornadoes is the second-most costly in United States history - Topeka, Kansas (1966)? Manhattan, Kansas (2008)? Joplin, Missouri (2011)? Moore, Oklahoma (2013)?
Moore, OK (2013)
Which of the following modern technologies was already in use in the United States during the Midwest Tornado Outbreak of 1925?
Radio.
A tornado outbreak consists of __________ tornadoes from the same storm system in 24 hours; a tornado superoutbreak consists of _________ tornadoes from the same storm system in 24 hours.
Six to 99; 100 or more.
Tropical cyclone hazards
Storm Surge, Waves, Winds, Rain
Which of the following is NOT another name for a tropical cyclone?
Supercell.
The Midwest Tornado Super Outbreak of 1974.
The 1974 Super Outbreak was the second-largest tornado outbreak on record for a single 24-hour period, just behind the 2011 Super Outbreak. It was also the most violent tornado outbreak ever recorded, with 30 F4/F5 tornadoes confirmed. From April 3 to April 4, 1974, there were 148 tornadoes confirmed in 13 U.S. states and the Canadian province of Ontario.[nb 1] In the United States, tornadoes struck Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and New York. The entire outbreak caused more than $600 million (1974 USD)
The Joplin, Missouri, Tornado of 2011.
The 2011 Joplin tornado was a catastrophic EF5 multiple-vortex tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri, late in the afternoon of Sunday, May 22, 2011. It was part of a larger late-May tornado outbreak and reached a maximum width of nearly 1 mile (1.6 km) during its path through the southern part of the city. $2.8 Billion in damage
The Moore, Oklahoma, Tornado of 2013
The 2013 Moore tornado was an EF5 tornado that struck Moore, Oklahoma, and adjacent areas on the afternoon of May 20, 2013; with peak winds estimated at 210 mph, killing 24 people and injuring 377 others.
The Big Bang
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model for the universe from the earliest known periods through its subsequent large-scale evolution.
Which of the following is currently used to rank the strength of a tornado?
The Enhanced Fujita Scale.
The merging of two equal-sized tropical cyclones to form a larger tropical cyclone is described in ______________.
The Fujiwhara Effect.
Most of the deaths in the three hurricanes of October, 1780, happened in which hurricane?
The Great Hurricane.
The Milky Way galaxy
The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our Solar System. Its name "milky" is derived from its appearance as a dim glowing band arching across the night sky whose individual stars cannot be distinguished by the naked eye.
The Saffir-Simpson Scale
The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale is a 1 to 5 rating based on a hurricane's sustained wind speed. This scale estimates potential property damage.
The Main Asteroid Belt
The asteroid belt is a circumstellar disc in the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets.
Which of the following is the third-costliest tornado in United States history?
Topeka, Kansas (1966)
In a _______________, conditions are right for a tornado to develop in your area; in a _____________ a tornado has been sighted in your area either visually or by radar, and you should seek shelter immediately.
Tornado watch; tornado warning.
The Red Shift
When an object moves away from us, its light waves are stretched into lower frequencies or longer wavelengths, and we say that the light is redshifted. In the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, blue light has the highest frequency and red light has the lowest.
The Samoan Typhoon of 1889
a Pacific tropical cyclone, which swept across Apia, Samoa on March 15, 1889 during the Samoan crisis.
Mesocyclone
a cyclonic air mass associated with a supercell; its presence is a condition for a tornado warning.
Shelf cloud
a low, horizontal, wedge-shaped arcus cloud.
meteorite
a meteor that survives its passage through the earth's atmosphere such that part of it strikes the ground. More than 90 percent of meteorites are of rock, while the remainder consist wholly or partly of iron and nickel.
Barringer Crater
a meteorite impact crater approximately 37 miles east of Flagstaff and 18 miles west of Winslow in the northern Arizona desert of the United States.
The Torino Scale
a method for categorizing the impact hazard associated with near-Earth objects (NEOs) such as asteroids and comets.
Nuclear fusion
a nuclear reaction in which atomic nuclei of low atomic number fuse to form a heavier nucleus with the release of energy.
Hurricane Ike (Galveston, 2008)
a powerful tropical cyclone that swept through portions of the Greater Antilles and Northern America in September 2008. The intensity of Ike and its abnormally large size wrought havoc on infrastructure and agriculture, particularly in Cuba and Texas. In these places, Ike remains the costliest tropical cyclone on record. Other locations were also seriously affected by Ike, which was ultimately the third costliest of any Atlantic hurricane and resulted in $25 billion in damages.
Fujita Scale
a scale of tornado severity with numbers from 0 to 6, based on the degree of observed damage.
The Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) Diagram
a scatter graph of stars showing the relationship between the stars' absolute magnitudes or luminosities versus their spectral classifications or effective temperatures. More simply, it plots each star on a graph measuring the star's brightness against its temperature (color).
The Manhattan, Kansas, Tornado of 1966./The Topeka, Kansas, Tornado of 1966.
a series of tornado outbreaks which occurred between June 2 and June 12. The most destructive tornado of this event occurred on the early evening of June 8, 1966, when Topeka, Kansas was struck by an F5 rated tornado.
The Moradabad Hailstorm of May, 1888.
a severe hailstorm that occurred on 30 April 1888 in Moradabad, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. One of the deadliest, it killed around 230 people and 1600 cattle and sheep.
meteoroid
a small body moving in the solar system that would become a meteor if it entered the earth's atmosphere.
meteor
a small body of matter from outer space that enters the earth's atmosphere, becoming incandescent as a result of friction and appearing as a streak of light.
Gust front
a storm-scale or mesoscale boundary separating thunderstorm-cooled air (outflow) from the surrounding air; similar in effect to a cold front, with passage marked by a wind shift and usually a drop in temperature and a related pressure jump.
Supercell
a system producing severe thunderstorms and featuring rotating winds sustained by a prolonged updraft that may result in hail or tornadoes.
Wedge tornado
a tornado that is at least as wide as it is tall. Some criteria that would qualify a wedge tornado includes moisture in air, intervening terrain, soil and dust lofting, cloud base height and actual tornado size.
Galveston, Texas (1900)
also known as the Great Galveston Hurricane,[1] made landfall on September 8, 1900, in Galveston, Texas, in the United States.[2] It had estimated winds of 145 miles per hour (233 km/h) at landfall, making it a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. It was the deadliest hurricane in US history, and the second costliest hurricane in U.S. history based on the dollar's 2005 value
The New England Hurricane of 1938
also referred to as the Great New England Hurricane and Long Island Express) was one of the deadliest and most destructive tropical cyclones to impact New England. The storm formed near the coast of Africa on September 9, becoming a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale before making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane[1] on Long Island on September 21.
Tornado warning
an alert issued by national weather forecasting agencies to warn the public that severe thunderstorms with tornadoes are imminent or occurring.
Tornado alley
an area of the Great Plains centered on eastern Kansas and Oklahoma and including parts of the surrounding states, where tornadoes are frequent.
The Oort Cloud
an extended shell of icy objects that exist in the outermost reaches of the solar system. It is named after astronomer Jan Oort, who first theorized its existence. The Oort Cloud is roughly spherical, and is the origin of most of the long-period comets that have been observed.
Bolides (asteroids and comets)
an extremely bright meteor, especially one that explodes in the atmosphere. In astronomy, it refers to a fireball approximately as bright as the full moon, and it is generally considered a synonym of a fireball. In geology a bolide is a very large impactor
Hurricane Catarina (2006)
an extremely rare South Atlantic tropical cyclone that hit southeastern Brazil in late March 2004.
Planetesimals
an object formed from dust, rock, and other materials.
Tektites
are gravel-size bodies composed of black, green, brown or gray natural glass formed from terrestrial debris ejected during extraterrestrial, meteorite impacts.
The East Pakistan Cyclone of 1970
devastating tropical cyclone that struck East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and India's West Bengal on 12 November 1970. It remains the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded and one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern times.
Tornado watch
does not mean that the severe weather is actually occurring, only that atmospheric conditions have created a significant risk for it.
Hurricane Camille (1969).
he third and strongest tropical cyclone and second hurricane during the 1969 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the second of three catastrophic Category 5 hurricanes to make landfall in the United States during the 20th century (the others being 1935's Labor Day hurricane and 1992's Hurricane Andrew), which it did near the mouth of the Mississippi River on the night of August 17.
Thunderstorm hazards
high winds, Lightning, Heavy rains, Hail, Tornadoes
The Kuiper Belt
home to three officially recognized dwarf planets: Pluto, Haumea, and Makemake. Some of the Solar System's moons, such as Neptune's Triton and Saturn's Phoebe, are also thought to have originated in the region.
impact breccia
in general, is a rock that is a mixture of angular fragments from different types of rocks surrounded by a fine-grained "matrix" that may be similar to or different from the fragmented material.
Wall cloud
is a large, localized, persistent, and often abrupt lowering of cloud that develops beneath the surrounding base of a cumulonimbus cloud and from which sometimes forms tornadoes.
Impact ejecta
is a special group of sediments comprising material that is thrown out from an impact crater in the excavation stage and deposited around it.
Super Typhoon
is a storm that reaches sustained windspeeds of at least 150mph.
Thunderstorm patterns
isolated, squall, supercell
Superyphoon Tip
known in the Philippines as Typhoon Warling, is the largest and most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded. The nineteenth storm and twelfth typhoon of the 1979 Pacific typhoon season, Tip developed out of a disturbance from the monsoon trough on October 4 near Pohnpei.
Apophis
near-Earth asteroid that caused a brief period of concern in December 2004 because initial observations indicated a probability of up to 2.7% that it would hit Earth on April 13, 2029.
Cratering density
number of craters in a defined area is crater density
Supertyphoon Haiyan
one of the strongest tropical cyclones ever recorded, devastating portions of Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines, in early-November 2013. (Category 5 on Saffir-Simpson Scale)
Enhanced Fujita Scale (EF Scale)
rates the strength of tornadoes in the United States and Canada based on the damage they cause. (EF0-EF5) US employed in 2007, Canada in 2013
iridium anomaly
refers to an unusual abundance of the chemical element iridium in a layer of rock strata, often taken as evidence of an extraterrestrial impact event because of the case of such an anomaly at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary (often abbreviated to K-Pg boundary).
Tropical cyclone frequency
refers to the number of tropical depression, tropical storms, and typhoons that enter or originate in the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) in a given year.
Lake Effect Snow
snow falling on the lee side of a lake, generated by cold dry air passing over warmer water, especially in the Great Lakes region.
Major hurricane
term utilized by the National Hurricane Center for hurricanes that reach maximum sustained 1-minute surface winds of at least 50 m/s (96 kt, 111 mph). This is the equivalent of category 3, 4 and 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale.
Hurricane Katrina (2004)
the eleventh named storm and fifth hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. It was the costliest natural disaster, as well as one of the five deadliest hurricanes, in the history of the United States. The storm is currently ranked as the third most intense United States landfalling tropical cyclone, behind only the 1935 Labor Day hurricane and Hurricane Camille in 1969.
The Midwest Tornado Outbreak of 1925.
the most exceptional tornado of a major outbreak of at least twelve known significant tornadoes across a large portion of the Midwestern and Southern U.S. The Tri-State Tornado alone inflicted 695 fatalities
The Nebular Hypothesis
the most widely accepted model in the field of cosmogony to explain the formation and evolution of the Solar System. It suggests that the Solar System formed from nebulous material
The Sun
the star around which the earth orbits.
Satellite Tornado
tornado that rotates around a larger, primary tornado and interacting with the same mesocyclone.
The Tunguska Event
was a large explosion that occurred near the Stony Tunguska River, in what is now Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, on the morning of 30 June 1908.
The Blizzard of 1888.
was one of the most severe recorded blizzards in the history of the United States of America. Snowfalls of 20-60 inches (51-152 cm) fell in parts of New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, and sustained winds of more than 45 miles per hour (72 km/h) produced snowdrifts in excess of 50 feet (15 m). Railroads were shut down and people were confined to their houses for up to a week.
The Fujiwhara Effect
when two nearby cyclonic vortices orbit each other and close the distance between the circulations of their corresponding low-pressure areas.
