Give it Some Thought #2
On which summer day would you expect the greatest temperature range? Which would have the smallest range in temperature? Explain your choices. a. Cloudy skies during the day and clear skies at night b. Clear skies during the day and cloudy skies at night c. Clear skies during the day and clear skies at night d. Cloudy skies during the day and cloudy skies at night
C. greatest temperature D. Smallest temperature Clouds reduce daily temperature ranges, reflect radiation during the day. At night the minimum temperature won't fall as low because the clouds retard heat loss. The opposite is true for a clear day and clear night.
If you hear that a cyclone is approaching, should you immediately seek shelter? Why or why not?
no, this term refers to the circulation around any low- pressure center, no matter how large or intense it is.
Is the glacial deposit shown in the photo an example of till or stratified drift? Is it more likely part of an end moraine or an esker?
till, and end moraine
In what state of matter is the "steam" rising from the liquid in the accompanying photo? (Hint: Is it possible to see water vapor?)
Gaseous State
These polished stones are called gastroliths. Explain how such objects can be considered fossils. What category of fossil are they? Name another example of a fossil in this category.
Gastroliths are stomach stones used to grind food by some extinct reptiles. They are indirect evidence fossils. Another example of a fossil in this category are Coprolites, which are fossils dung and stomach contents.
Examine the accompanying aerial photo that shows a portion of the New Jersey shoreline. What term is applied to the wall-like structures that extend into the water? What is their purpose? In what direction are beach drift and longshore currents moving sand: toward the top or toward the bottom of the photo?
Groins. Groins are barriers built at a right angle to the beach that are designed to trap sand. The beach drift and longshore currents are moving sand towards the top.
Say that someone brings several water samples to your laboratory. His problem is that the labels are incomplete. He knows samples A and B are from the Atlantic Ocean and that one came from near the equator and the other from near the Tropic of Cancer. But he does not know which one is which. He has a similar problem with samples C and D. One is from the Red Sea, and the other is from the Baltic Sea. Applying your knowledge of ocean salinity, how would you identify the location of each sample? How were you able to figure this out?
If one came from the near the equator, it would have a low salinity due to abundant rainfalls. In addition to this, the tropic of cancer should have high salinity due to the dry subtropic region and high evaporation. Furthermore, the Red sea salinity may be in excess of 4.2% since the evaporation exceeds precipitation. And Lastly, the Basaltic sea is freshwater supplied by rivers and precipitation, and has about 1.0% salinity.
Assuming that the average speed of sound waves in water is 1500 meters per second, determine the water depth if a signal sent out by an echo sounder on a research vessel requires 6 seconds to strike bottom and return to the recorder aboard the ship.
6/2= 3 1500x3=4,500
The accompanying graph shows how air temperature and relative humidity change on a typical summer day in the Midwest. Assuming that the dew-point temperature remained constant, what would be the best time of day to water a lawn to minimize evaporation of the water spread on the grass?
6AM
A portion of a popular college text in historical geology includes 10 chapters (281 pages) in a unit titled "The Story of Earth." Two chapters (49 pages) are devoted to Precambrian time. By contrast, the last two chapters (67 pages) focus on the most recent 23 million years, with 25 of those pages devoted to the Holocene Epoch, which began 10,000 years ago. a. Compare the percentage of pages devoted to the Precambrian to the percentage of geologic time that this span represents. b. How does the number of pages about the Holocene compare to its percentage of geologic time? c. Suggest some reasons the text seems to have such an unequal treatment of Earth history.
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The accompanying photo shows sea ice in the Beaufort Sea near Barrow, Alaska. How do seasonal changes in the amount of sea ice influence the salinity of the remaining surface water? Is water density greater before or after sea ice forms? Explain.
As the season becomes warmer, the ice will melt leading to decrease in salinity of the water. This affects the density of the water. The density reduces. Water density increases as ice formation takes place.
You and a friend set up an umbrella and chairs at a beach. Your friend then goes into the surf zone to play Frisbee with another person. Several minutes later, your friend looks back toward the beach and is surprised to see that she is no longer near where the umbrella and chairs were set up. Although she is still in the surf zone, she is 30 or 40 meters away from where she started. How would you explain to your friend why she moved along the shore?
Backwash effect. Swash effect is caused by the upsurge of water up along the slopping front of the beach and this same upsurge in water moves back into the beach in what is known as the Backwash effect.
The force of gravity plays a critical role in creating ocean tides. The more massive an object, the stronger the pull of gravity. Explain why the Sun's influence is only about half that of the Moon, even though the Sun is much more massive than the Moon.
Because the Moon is the closest to Earth.
Refer to the graph in Figure 16.3 to answer the following questions about temperatures in New York City: a. What is the approximate average daily high temperature in January? In July? b. Approximately what are the highest and lowest temperatures ever recorded?
a. 4C in January and 28C in July b. more than 40C in july highest; more than 12C lowest
Tropical environments on land are well known for their abundant life; rain forests are an example. By contrast, biological productivity in tropical oceans is meager. Why is this the case?
because it is low in the open ocean and the Thermocline eliminates the supply of nutrients from the deeper waters below.
Compare the sediment deposited by a stream, the wind, and a glacier. Which deposit should have the most uniform grain size? Which one would exhibit the poorest sorting? Explain your choices.
Wind has very uniform grain size because wind is only capable of suspending extremely small particles. On the other hand, glacier is the least organized and exhibits the poorest sorting because it cannot sort the sediment it carries.
Rank the following according to the wavelengths of radiant energy each emits, from the shortest wavelengths to the longest: a. A light bulb with a filament glowing at 4000°C b. A rock at room temperature c. A car engine at 140°C
a), c), b)
Solve the problems below that relate to the magnitude of Earth history. To make calculations easier, round Earth's age to 5 billion years. a. What percentage of geologic time is represented by recorded history? (Assume 5000 years for the length of recorded history.) b. Humanlike ancestors (hominins) have been around for roughly 5 million years. What percentage of geologic time is represented by these ancestors? c. The first abundant fossil evidence for multicellular organisms does not appear until the beginning of the Cambrian period, about 540 million years ago. What percentage of geologic time is represented by this abundant fossil evidence?
a. 1/1,000,000 b. 12 percent
Studies have shown that during the Ice Age, the margins of some ice sheets advanced southward from the Hudson Bay region at rates ranging from about 50 to 320 meters per year. a. Determine the maximum amount of time required for an ice sheet to move from the southern end of Hudson Bay to the south shore of present-day Lake Erie, a distance of 1600 kilometers. b. Calculate the minimum number of years required for an ice sheet to move this distance.
a. 32,000 years b. 5,000 years
You and a friend are watching TV on a rainy day, when the weather reporter says, "The barometric pressure is 28.8 inches and rising." Hearing this, you say, "It looks like fair weather is on its way." Your friend responds with the following questions: "I thought air pressure had something to do with the weight of air. How does inches relate to weight? And why do you think the weather is going to improve?" How would you respond to your friend's queries?
fair weather occurs when the pressure rises, if the pressure drops, bad weather is more likely to occur.
If Earth did not rotate on its axis and if its surface were completely covered with water, what direction would a boat drift if it started its journey in the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere? (Hint: What would the global circulation pattern be like for a nonrotating Earth?)
south
Refer to Figure 14.19. What is the average efficiency of energy transfer between trophic levels? Use this efficiency to determine how much phytoplankton mass is required to add 1 gram of mass to a killer whale, which is a third-level carnivore.
the efficiency is 10%. 10kg (10,000g)
Imagine being at the beach in this photo on a sunny summer afternoon. a. Describe the temperatures you would expect to measure at the surface of the beach and at a depth of 12 inches in dry sand. b. If you stood waist deep in the water and measured the water's surface temperature and its temperature at a depth of 12 inches, how would these measurements compare to those taken on the beach?
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The data below are mean monthly temperatures in degrees Celsius for an inland location that lacks any significant ocean influence. Based on annual temperature range, what is the approximate latitude of this place? Are these temperatures what you would normally expect for this latitude? If not, what control would explain these temperatures?=
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The accompanying photo shows two layers of sedimentary rock. The lower layer is shale from the late Mesozoic era. Note the old river channel that was carved into the shale after it was deposited. Above is a younger layer of boulder-rich breccia. Are these layers conformable? Explain why or why not. What term from relative dating applies to the line separating the two layers?
Disconformity- Strata on either side are parallel Younger sedimentary rock on top and older sedimentary rocks below. A disconformity is a gap in the rock record that represents a period during which erosion rather than deposition occurred. Imagine that a series of sedimentary layers is deposited in a shallow marine setting. Following this period of deposition, sea level falls or the land rises, exposing some the sedimentary layers
If you live in the Northern Hemisphere and are directly west of the center of a cyclone, what is the probable wind direction at your location? What if you were west of an anticyclone?
The winds west of a cyclone in the northern hemisphere would be northwest, and winds west of an anticyclone would be southeast.
Apply your knowledge of fronts to explain the following weather proverb: Rain long foretold, long last; Short notice, soon past.
1) A warm front moves slower than a cold air mass. The warm air rises steadily above the cooler air mass and causes gentle rain showers for longer periods of time. 2)As the warm air is pushed higher, the moisture it carries condenses and falls as rain. This is why a lot of heavy rain is produced along a cold front but once the cold air mass has come in this often abruptly changes to a clear spell of weather for a short period of time
The number of tornado deaths in the United States in the 2000s was less than 40 percent the number that occurred in the 1950s, even though there was a significant increase in population. Suggest a likely reason for the decline in the death toll.
1) Improvement in technology and rapid natural occurence prediction 2) Fast spread of information through television channels. 3)Improvement of protective measures, provision of using infrastructure for the displaced. 4) Quick government and medical interventions for casualties.
The accompanying image shows the metamorphic rock gneiss, a basaltic dike, and a fault. Place these three features in their proper sequence (which came first, second, and third) and explain your logic.
1. Oldest Gneiss, Basaltic Dike, and the youngest is the Fault. The dike has to come after the Gneiss because the dike needs an existing fracture from an existing rock in order for magma to rise up. Lastly, the Fault was the last feature to be created because it divided the dike and the gneiss rocks.
The circumference of Earth at the equator is 24,900 miles. Calculate how fast someone at the equator is rotating in miles per hour. If the rotational speed of Earth were to slow down, how might this impact daytime highs and nighttime lows?
1037.5
Refer to Table 17.1. How much more water is contained in saturated air at a tropical location with a temperature of 40°C compared to a polar location with a temperature of -10°C?
45 more grams
If the budget of a valley glacier were balanced for an extended span of time, what feature would you expect to find at the terminus of the glacier? Now assume that the glacier's budget changes so that wastage exceeds accumulation. How would the terminus of the glacier change? Describe the deposit you would expect to form under these conditions.
A balance in the glacier budget leads to an extension in the glacier margin to the zone of accumulation and the terminus of a glacier becomes stationary. In a case where the glacier budget has more wastage than accumulation, the ice-font retreats, When there is an increase in the trend of warming, there will be also be a increase in the zone of wastage. The decrease in snow fall decreases the zone of accumulation, thus causing the ice-font to retreat.
A friend wants to purchase a vacation home on a barrier island. If consulted, what advice would you give your friend?
A home on a barrier island is likely to take the full brunt of storm waves, making it a risky proposition. Your friend should think twice before purchasing. Barrier islands tend to experience significant erosion and deposition of sand. Mitigating these effects is extremely difficult and costly. Your friend would be wise to reconsider.
The accompanying maps of Africa show the distribution of precipitation for July and January. Which map represents July, and which represents January? How were you able to figure this out?
A is the map for July and B for January. There is heavy rainfall above the equator between June to September from west to east.
The accompanying diagram shows air flowing from the ocean over a coastal mountain range. Assume that the dew-point temperature remains constant in dry air (air having a relative humidity less than 100 percent). If the air parcel becomes saturated, the dew-point temperature will cool at the wet adiabatic rate as it ascends, but it will not change as the air parcel descends. Use this information to complete the following: a. Determine the air temperature and dew-point temperature for the air parcel at each location (B-G) shown on the diagram. b. At what elevation will clouds begin to form (with relative humidity = 100 percent)? c. Compare the air temperatures at points A and G. Why are they different? d. How did the water vapor content of the air change as the parcel of air traversed the mountain? (Hint: Compare dew-point temperatures.) e. On which side of the mountain might you expect lush vegetation, and on which side would you expect desert-like conditions?
A. B is 17C AND 7C is the dew-point temperature. On the other hand, G is 37C and the dew-point is B. between B and C C. because A is in the lush vegetation area, while the G is in the desert. d. it e. left side would be lush vegetation and right side would be desert-like conditions
Assume that it is late September 2021, and that the eye of Hurricane Fred, a category 5 storm, is projected to follow the path shown on the accompanying map of Texas. Answer the following questions: a. Name the stages of development that Fred must have gone through to become a hurricane. At what stage did the storm receive its name? b. If the storm follows the projected path, will the city of Houston experience Fred's fastest winds and greatest storm surge? Explain why or why not. c. What is the greatest threat to life and property if this storm approaches the Dallas-Fort Worth area?
A. Tropical disturbance, tropical depression, and tropical storm. Storms get a name when they become tropical storms. b. no c. Heavy rain, flooding, and strong winds.
Referring to Figure 12.4, write a brief summary of the events that led to the formation of Earth.
Big bang, hydrogen and helium atoms created, our galaxy forms, heavy elements synthesized by supernova explosions, accretion of planetesimals to form Earth and the other planets, as material collects to form the protosun rotation flattens nebula, solar nebula begins to contract, continual bombardment and the decay of radioactive elements produces magma ocean, chemical differentation produces Earth's layered structure, Mars size-objects impact young Earth, Debris orbits Earth and accretes, formation of Earth-Moon System, and outgassing produces Earth's primitive atmosphere and ocean.
The Sun shines continually at the North Pole for 6 months, from the spring equinox until the fall equinox, yet temperatures never get very warm. Explain why this is the case.
Earth is in such a position in its orbit that the axis is titled neither toward nor away from the sun, causing 24 hour sunshine.
Assume that you and a nongeologist friend are visiting the glacier shown in Figure 10.1. After studying the glacier for quite a long time, your friend asks, "Do these things really move?" How would you convince your companion that this glacier does indeed move, using evidence that is clearly visible in this image? What other figure in this chapter would aid your explanation?
I would tell them that the dark lines in the middle are called medial moraines and that they are caused by advancing glaciers coming together causing the dark strips, and the two tills become one.
After sampling a column of water from the surface to a depth of 3000 meters (nearly 10,000 feet), a colleague aboard an oceanographic research vessel tells you that the water column is isopycnal. What does this mean? What conditions create such a situation? What would have to happen in order to create a pycnocline?
It means the samples of the water column have constant temperature throughout its depth. In order to become pycnocline, the sample would have to be taken in the ocean at high latitude, and the temperatures would increase and the density would be the lowest.
The accompanying photograph shows layered iron-rich rocks called banded iron formations. What does the existence of these 2.5-billion-year-old rocks tell us about the evolution of Earth's atmosphere?
It shows that the atmosphere and ocean once had no oxygen. Photosynthetic organisms were making oxygen, but it reacted with the iron dissolved in seawater to form iron oxide minerals on the ocean floor, creating banded iron formations Photosynthetic organisms were making oxygen, but it reacted with the iron dissolved in seawater to form iron oxide minerals on the ocean floor, creating banded iron formations.
This scenic image is from Monument Valley in the northeastern corner of Arizona. The bedrock in this region consists of layers of sedimentary rocks. Although the prominent rock exposures ("monuments") in this photo are widely separated, we can infer that they represent a once-continuous layer. Discuss the principle that allows us to make this inference.
It's called the principal of Original Horinzontality. It states the layers of sediment are originally deposited horizontally as influenced by gravity. In this case, one can assume there was a continuous "blanket" of sedimentary rocks. Weathering and erosion of the sedimentary rocks caused the "monuments" to represent all that remains of the original sedimentary rock.
Is either of the following statements true? Are they both true? Explain. a. Wind does its most effective erosional work in dry places. b. Wind is the most important agent of erosion in deserts.
Only A is true and B is false. B is false because running water is, although it is infrequent.
Bryce Canyon National Park, shown in the accompanying photo, is in dry southern Utah. It is carved into the eastern edge of the Paunsaugunt Plateau. Erosion has sculpted the colorful limestone into bizarre shapes, including spires called "hoodoos." As you and a companion (who has not studied geology) are viewing the scenery in Bryce Canyon, your friend says, "It's amazing how wind has created this incredible scenery!" Now that you have studied arid landscapes, how would you respond to your companion's statement?
Running water is responsible, not the wind.
Imagine that you and a passenger are in a deep-diving submersible such as the one shown here in the North Pacific Ocean near Alaska's Aleutian Islands. During a typical 6- to 10-hour dive, you encounter a long, narrow depression on the ocean floor. Your passenger asks whether you think it is a submarine canyon, a rift valley, or a deep-ocean trench. How would you respond? Explain your choice.
Since the deep ocean trenches are located all along the pacific Rim where subduction is occurring and the Aleutian islands are a part of the Pacific Rim is a deep ocean trench. Deep ocean trenches are found in the deepest part of the oceans, most are located along the pacific ocean margins at convergent plate boundaries. The rift valleys are in oceans where the sea floor is spreading and the deep-ocean trench is a fracture not associated with subduction and within the continental slope.
The primary mechanism by which the human body cools itself is perspiration. a. Explain how perspiring cools the skin. b. Refer to the data for Phoenix, Arizona, and Tampa, Florida, in Table A. In which city would it be easier to stay cool by perspiring? Explain your choice.
Sweating cools you down by reducing the heat from your skin. When you sweat, the sweat needs heat to evaporate. It gets this heat from under the skin. So when it evaporates, it takes the heat with it. This heat is usually taken from the body and that is how you cool down. b. Tampa, Florida because it is hotter.
If Earth were to experience another glacial cycle, one hemisphere would have substantially more expansive ice sheets than the other. Would it be the Northern Hemisphere or the Southern Hemisphere? What is the reason for the large disparity?
The Northern Hemisphere. Ice sheets were more extensive in the Northern Hemisphere because ice sheets only form on land and the northern hemisphere has more land in high latitudes than the Southern Hemisphere.
Currently, oceans cover about 71 percent of Earth's surface. However, early in Earth history the oceans covered a greater percentage of the surface. Explain.
The assembly and dispersal of the supercontinents caused seafloor spreading.
If an unstable isotope of thorium (atomic number 90, mass number 232) emits 6 alpha particles and 4 beta particles during the course of radioactive decay, what are the atomic number and mass number of the stable daughter product?
The atomic number of the stable daughter product is 82, and the mass number is 208.
Describe how the sudden appearance of oxygen in the atmosphere about 2.5 billion years ago influenced the development of modern life-forms.
The availability of abundant oxygen in the atmosphere contributed to the proliferation of aerobic life-forms (oxygen-consuming organisms).
Contrast the eastern and western margins of North America during the Cenozoic era in terms of their relationships to plate boundaries.
The eastern margin was tectonically stable and therefore had abundant marine sedimentation. On the other hand, the western margins were on the edge of north america and as a result lead to mountain building, volcanism, and earthquakes.
A mass of granite is in contact with a layer of sandstone. Using a principle described in this chapter, explain how you might determine whether the sandstone was deposited on top of the granite or whether the magma that formed the granite was intruded after the sandstone was deposited.
The granite is the younger of the two due to the law of cross cutting relationships. The sandstone had to be there for the granite to be deposited. The rock layer containing the inclusions would be the younger of the two. In addition to this, evidence of contact metamorphism at the base of the sandstone would indicate that it was present before the granite was intruded
Are the continental margins surrounding the Atlantic Ocean primarily active or passive? How about the margins surrounding the Pacific Ocean? Based on your response to the foregoing questions, indicate whether each ocean basin is getting larger, shrinking, or staying the same size. Explain your answer.
The margins surrounding the Atlantic ocean are passive, meaning they are not actively taking part in a continental rift or collision. Contrarily, the pacific margin is active, as it occurs at a plate boundary. The pacific ocean is shrinking, while the rifting in the middle of the Atlantic is causing it to grow.
This photo shows a portion of the Maine coast. The brown muddy area in the foreground is influenced by tidal currents. What term is applied to this muddy area? Name the type of tidal current this area will experience in the hours to come.
The muddy area is tidal flat. The area will experience an Ebb current, which will move the water seaward.
During a visit to the beach, you get in a small rubber raft and paddle out beyond the surf zone. Tiring, you stop and take a rest. Describe the movement of your raft during your rest. How does this movement differ, if at all, from what you would have experienced if you had stopped paddling while in the surf zone?
The raft's net movement is not toward the shore compared to the surf zone. The raft moves in a circle, and it returns to essentially the same place.
The accompanying graph relates to the abundance of ocean life (productivity) in a polar region of the Northern Hemisphere. Which line represents phytoplankton, and which represents zooplankton? How did you figure this out? Why are the curves so low from November through February?
The red line represents Diatom mass, while the blue line represents the Zooplankton mass. The amount of Zooplankton will decrease as the food supply decreases
Refer to the graph in Figure 19.29. Explain why wind speeds are greatest when the slope of the pressure curve is steepest.
The steeper the gradient, the greater the gradient force, which means the stronger the winds.
Figure 19.28 shows Hurricane Fran on successive days. Did the storm get stronger or weaker on September 6 compared to September 5? What feature on the weather map (other than the label change from one day to the next) is most useful in figuring this out at a glance? Suggest a reason that the storm's intensity changed.
The storm became weaker on september 6 based on the intensity of the winds that are in the land area.
If divergence in the jet stream above a surface low-pressure center exceeds convergence at the surface, will surface winds likely get stronger or weaker? Explain.
The surface wind is more likely to get weaker due to low pressure and cloudy, rainy weather if the divergence in the jet stream above a low-pressure surface center exceeds covergence at the surface.
Examine the accompanying sketch, which shows three sediment layers on the ocean floor. What term is applied to such layers? What process was responsible for creating these layers? Are these layers more likely part of a deep-sea fan or an accretionary wedge?
The three sediment layers show a gradient in sediment size. These sediment deposits are collected by turbidity current and are called turbidity currents. They are part of an accretionary wedge
A hypothetical unstable isotope has a half-life of 10,000 years. If the ratio of radioactive parent to stable daughter product is 1:3, how old is the rock that contains the radioactive material?
The two half-lives have transpired, making the rock 20,000 years old. 2x10,000= 20,000
A television meteorologist is able to inform viewers about the intensity of an approaching hurricane. However, the meteorologist can report the intensity of a tornado only after it has occurred. Why is this the case?
Tornado intensity based on damage done.
The accompanying diagrams show surface temperatures with isotherms labeled in degrees Fahrenheit for noon and 6 p.m. on January 29, 2008. On this day, a powerful front moved through Missouri and Illinois. a. What type of front passed through the Midwest? b. Describe how the temperature changed in St. Louis, Missouri, over the 6-hour period. c. Describe the likely shift in wind direction in St. Louis during this time span.
a. A cold front b. from 70F to 20F c. Southeast?
Refer to the accompanying weather map to answer the following questions: a. What is a likely wind direction at each city? b. Identify the likely air mass that is influencing each city. c. Identify the cold front, warm front, and occluded front. d. What are the barometric tendencies at city A and city C? e. Which one of the three cities is probably coldest? Which one is probably warmest?
a. A is going southward, B is eastward, and C is going west. b. CP for A, MP for B, and MT for C c. Cold front going from A to B, warm front going from B to C, and occluded front formed above A d. Low reading which indicates low pressure e. A is the coldest and B is the warmest
Use the accompanying drawing to answer the following: a. Identify the arrows labeled A and B as representing either the pressure gradient force, the Coriolis effect, or friction. b. Is the wind in this drawing occurring near Earth's surface or aloft?
a. A is the pressure gradient force, B is the Coriolis effect, and the wind is the friction b. Earth's aloft
Refer to the accompanying diagram of the eastern seaboard of the United States to complete the following: a. Associate each of the following with a letter on the map: continental rise, continental shelf, continental slope, and shelf break. b. How does the size of the continental shelf surrounding Florida compare to the size of the Florida peninsula? c. Why are there no deep-ocean trenches on this map?
a. B is continental shelf. C is the continental rise. D is the shelf break. A is the continental slope. b. The size of the continental shelf that surrounds Florida is much larger than that of Florida peninsula, which is why a lot of Florida is below sea level. c. Deep trenches are found in the deepest parts of the ocean, most are located along the pacific ocean margins at convergent plate boundaries.
The accompanying sketch map represents a hypothetical continent in the Northern Hemisphere. One isotherm has been placed on the map. a. Is the temperature higher at City A or City B? b. Is the season winter or summer? How are you able to determine this? c. Describe (or sketch) the position of this isotherm 6 months later.
a. B is higher because it's the farthest away from the Isotherm b. it's summer
Refer to Figure 13.2A to answer the following questions: a. Water dominates Earth's surface, but not everywhere. In what Northern Hemisphere latitude belt is there more land than water? b. In what latitude belt is there no land at all?
a. Between latitudes 45 north and 70 north there is actually more land than water. b. At about 60-65 latitude there is not land at all.
This satellite image shows a tropical cyclone (hurricane). a. Examine the cloud pattern and determine whether the flow is clockwise or counterclockwise. b. In which hemisphere is the storm located? c. What factor determines whether the flow is clockwise or counterclockwise?
a. Clockwise b. Southern Hemisphere c. The direction of the wind is pressure gradient, Coriolis effect and what hemisphere is in.
Five mass extinctions, in which 50 percent or more of Earth's marine species became extinct, are documented in the fossil record. Use the accompanying graph, which depicts the time and extent of each mass extinction, to answer the following: a. Which of the five mass extinctions was the most extreme? Identify this extinction by name and when it occurred. b. When did the most recent mass extinction occur? c. During the most recent mass extinction, what prominent group of land animals was eliminated? d. What group of terrestrial animals experienced a major period of diversification following the most recent mass extinction?
a. Permian- triassic b. 66 million years ago c. Dinosaurs d. Mammals; The three major lineages of living mammals, the monotremes (egg-laying mammals), marsupials (mammals with a pouch), and placentals (the group to which humans belong), emerged during the Mesozoic.
Refer to Figure 17.2 to complete the following: a. In which state of matter is water the most dense? b. In which state of matter are water molecules most energetic? c. In which state of matter is water highly compressible?
a. Solid b. Gas c. Gas
This is an aerial view of the Preston Mesa dunes in northern Arizona. a. Which one of the basic dune types is shown here? b. Sketch a simple profile (side view) of one of these dunes. Add an arrow to show the prevailing wind direction and label the dune's slip face. c. These dunes gradually migrate across the surface. Describe the processes responsible for this movement.
a. barchanoid b. c. Sand moves up on the windward side. Sand moves up the gentler side of the dune by saltation and accumulates just beyond the crest of the dune.
The accompanying map is a simplified surface weather map for April 2, 2011, on which three pressure cells are numbered. a. Identify which of the pressure cells are anticyclones (highs) and which are cyclones (lows). b. Which pressure cell has the steepest pressure gradient and therefore the strongest winds? c. Refer to Figure 18.2 to determine whether pressure cell 3 should be considered strong or weak.
a. cell 2 and 1 are anticyclones, and cell 3 is a cyclones. b. Cell 3 c. Strong winds
This map shows the mean percentage of possible sunshine received in the month of November across the 48 contiguous United States. a. Does this map relate more to climate or to weather? b. If you visited Yuma, Arizona, in November, would you expect to experience a sunny day or an overcast day? c. Might what you actually experience during your visit be different from what you expected? Explain.
a. climate b. sunny day c. no because the weather could change
Refer to Figure 19.4 to answer these questions: a. Thunder Bay and Marquette are both on the shore of Lake Superior, yet Marquette gets much more snow than Thunder Bay. Why is this the case? b. Notice the narrow, north-south zone of relatively heavy snow east of Pittsburgh and Charleston. This region is too far from the Great Lakes to receive lake-effect snowfall. Speculate on a likely reason for the higher snowfalls here. Does your answer explain the shape of this snowy zone?
a. continental polar cold dry air; a lot of the heat energy from the lakes and that moisture is transferred to the overlying air mass which then basically becomes unstable by the time it gets over to the far ashore and as a result it ends up dumping a bunch of snow once it gets over there. b. low pressure
Which of the three mechanisms of heat transfer is clearly illustrated in each of the following situations? a. Driving a car with the seat heater turned on b. Sitting in an outdoor hot tub c. Lying inside a tanning bed d. Driving a car with the air conditioning turned on
a. convection b. Radiation c. Radiation d. convection
Between 300 and 250 million years ago, plate movement assembled all the previously separated landmasses together to form the supercontinent Pangaea. Pangaea's formation resulted in deeper ocean basins and a drop in sea level, causing shallow coastal areas to dry up. Thus, in addition to rearranging the geography of our planet, continental drift had a major impact on life on Earth. Use the accompanying diagram showing the movement of hypothetical landmasses and the information above to answer the following: a. Which of the following types of habitats would likely diminish in size during the formation of a supercontinent: deep-ocean habitats, wetlands, shallow marine environments, or terrestrial (land) habitats? Explain. b. During the breakup of a supercontinent, would sea level remain the same, rise, or fall? c. Explain how and why the development of an extensive oceanic ridge system that forms during the breakup of a supercontinent affects sea level.
a. deep-ocean habitats b. long-term sea level rise c. As Pangaea gradually broke apart, the westward-moving North American plate began to override the Pacific basin. This tectonic event triggered a continuous wave of deformation that moved inland along the entire western margin of North America.
Determine which statements refer to weather and which refer to climate. (Note: One statement includes aspects of both weather and climate.) a.The baseball game was rained out today. b.January is Omaha's coldest month. c.North Africa is a desert. d.The high this afternoon was 25°C. e.Last evening a tornado ripped through central Oklahoma. f.I am moving to southern Arizona because it is warm and sunny. g.Thursday's low of -20°C is the coldest temperature ever recorded for that city. h.It is partly cloudy
a. weather b. climate c.climate d. weather e. climate and weather f. climate g. weather h. weather
In this chapter you learned that global winds are the force that drives surface-ocean currents. A glance at the accompanying map, however, shows a surface current that does not exactly coincide with the prevailing wind. Provide an explanation.
because the current is located in the southern Hemisphere, the subtropical gyre pulls the current in a counterclockwise direction. Also, the Coriolis effect deflects ocean currents in the Southern Hemisphere to the left due to Earth's rotation.
The accompanying table lists the number of tornadoes reported in the United States by decade. Propose a reason to explain why the totals for the 1990s and 2000s are so much higher than for the 1950s and 1960s.
change of climate and possibly more effective equipment
Mercury is 13.5 times denser (heavier) than water. If you built a barometer using water rather than mercury, how tall, in inches, would it have to be to record standard sea-level pressure?
h1x 13.5=0.76x13.5= 10.26 m
