GSCI Final
Place the following in the correct order from MORE RECENT in time to OLDER.
1. Agriculture 2. Homo sapiens dispersed from Africa 3. Branching between Pan (chimpanzees) and Homo (humans) 4. Dinosaur extinction 5.Cambrian Explosion
How many pounds each of salt, cement, petroleum and iron ore is a 2019 U.S. baby projected to use? (Hint: I'm not asking for a sum.)
10,000-100,000
he start dates for the universe and earth are approximately ______ and _______ years old.
14, 5 billion
Study the graph below. How much sea-level rise has taken place since the year 1900? (give your answer in millimeters [mm])
210
The terrestrial portions of Earth went "green" (i.e. began to accumulate forests of land plants which were newly evolved) approximately how many years ago?
400 million
Look at the map below. About how much time elapsed between when Storrs, Connecticut (indicated by the black star), lost its glacial ice to when Plattsburgh, New York (indicated by the white star) lost its glacial ice? Enter your answer in THOUSANDS OF YEARS (numerical values on the map are all in units of thousands of years before present).
5.75
An increased rate of weathering of concrete by the year 2100 is expected due to (select the best answer):
A combination of accelerated leeching of cement and chlorination
Eutrophication is
A major cause of oceanic anoxia Caused by addition of excessive nutrients in an aquatic ecosystem
Which of these features of the East African Rift Valley likely led to the development of human intelligence and adaptability in that location:
A mosaic-like habitat with fluctuating conditions
These two images, one of a golf course and the other of a mountain top removal pit mine, are both examples of what?
Anthropogenic land use
How does Godzilla relate to the Anthropocene?
As Godzilla's size increased, so did the global collective anxiety about human impact on the planet
Which of the following are EXTRATERRESTRIAL risks to the world, as opposed to terrestrial? Select all that apply.
Asteroids Gamma-ray bursts
What is an example of climate change?
Average temperatures in Hartford are higher in the 2000's than in the 1950's
The fracking of natural gas-bearing bedrock is taking place where relative to the body of groundwater?
Below
Consider the following statements about volcanoes. I. The size of the eruption is negatively correlated to the frequency of eruption II. A supervolcano eruption is any eruption with a Volcanic Explosivity Index of more than 8
Both are true
Mountains in New England, such as Mt. Katahdin in Maine (image below) have been shaped in part by glaciers. What type of glaciers?
Both the Laurentide ice sheet and alpine glaciers
The Bering Land Bridge (see image below) was exposed by the fall of global sea-levels, which was in turn caused by ________.
Buildup of continental ice sheets
As our sun ages, what key chemical process will occur causing the transition to a "Red Giant"?
Burning Helium Gas instead of Hydrogen
f the options below, what does an explosive volcanic eruption release into the atmosphere? Select all that apply.
CO2, ASH ,H20
Modern ocean acidification is caused mainly by excess
Carbon from the atmosphere
This image of a lush Vermont forestscape is what most of us consider "wilderness", but during the Anthropocene it may still be subject to global changes that are hard for individual people to see. What are some of these changes, select all that apply.
Changing temperatures that lead to habitat shifts Changing atmospheric chemistry
Which of the following energy sources are ultimately derived from ancient life?
Coal Oil Natural Gas
Based on these images, what type of plate boundary experiences the most and most intense earthquakes?
Convergent
Which of these is not an important part of the scientific process:
Discovering correct interpretations of phenomena that can never be overturned
Based on this graph which of the following statements is accurate?
Earth in the globally warmed near future is colder than the average over the last 500 million years
Which of the following statements is true about ecosystem engineers:
Ecosystem engineers create, modify, or maintain habitat
Which is the correct order from largest (most inclusive) to smallest?
Eon, Era, Epoch
Explicitly and officially, the Anthropocene is (or will be) a(an)
Epoch of geological time
A sediment-starved beach will
Erode away rapidly
At which of the following would we expect high rates of erosion?
Exposed rock and sediment at high elevation Sediments perturbed by conversion to cropland
All asteroids that hit Earth originate from outside of the Solar System.
False
Connecticut is projected to undergo greater flooding than Louisiana in terms of land area inundated
False
Earth has since its formation had an oxygen-rich atmosphere.
False
Hydroelectric dams have no ecological impact and should therefore be used more widely to generate power.
False
Most of the mass extinctions recorded in the sedimentary record were caused by meteor impacts.
False
Study the figure from the coursebook, that shows "the evolutionary tree" of hominins, including Paranthropus, Ardipithecus and Australopithecus. True or false: different species of Homo, Paranthropus, Australopithecus and Ardipithecus never co-existed (meaning were alive at the same time).
False
The concept of climate change was invented by geographers based on maps.
False
Study the table below and place the following in the correct order from largest to smallest water reservoir. (1=largest and 5=smallest)
Glaciers Groundwater Lakes Atmosphere Rivers
During which part of Earth's history was its surface hot enough to melt rock?
Hadean
The original forests of China, Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa:
Have mostly been lost
Relative to the inner core of the Earth, the crust contains much lower concentrations of ________ and much higher concentrations of __________.
Heavy Metals / Silicates
Volcanoes almost exclusively occur in close association with plate boundaries except in which case?
Hot spot volcanism
Study the figure below from your coursebook. Which of the following statements about this figure is FALSE? I - The figure suggests that mammal extinctions have been rising over the last 50,000 years II - The figure suggests that mammals are going extinct
II is false
The machine below is called the Bagger 288, with which humans can do so-called "mountaintop removal mining". With machines such as these, it has been calculated that humans are responsible for 75 Gigatons of mass transfer per year (a gigaton is 1000000000000 kg, mass transfer refers to the movement of material from one place to another). How does this rate compare to the average of the Phanerozoic and the Pleistocene?
It is at least 3 times higher than both the Phanerozoic and Pleistocene averages
What's wrong with Google's definition of the Anthropocene?
It uses the terms age and period incorrectly It describes humans as a force of nature It uses the terms climate & environment interchangeably All of the above answers
Which of the following is FALSE about the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption?
It was easily one of the largest volcanic eruptions known to humanity
The acronym LUCA refers to
Last Universal Common Ancestor
Which of the following hazards are unique to volcanic eruptions (select all that apply)?:
Lava flows Lahars Pyroclastic flows
When Notre Dame Cathedral burned in April 2019, the main neurological environmental impact involved.
Lead
Which of the following are common sources of groundwater contamination?
Leaking gasoline storage tanks Leaking septic systems Landfills with breached containment Road Salts Pesticides Fertilizers All of the above
Which is NOT important to the flux of groundwater flow in a uniform aquifer?
Location
Which of the following is a consequence of local extinction of beavers? Select all that apply!
Lower productivity and carbon storage Decreased wetland size Lower productivity and carbon storage
Much of the past several decades of data on weather and climate in the United States come from (Select all that apply):
NOAA's weather buoys Haruspicy Stream gage stations Voyager probes Airport weather stations
Which of the following statements is false: I - The Little Ice Age was caused by an increase in Anthropogenic activity in the 14th century II: The last glaciation in the Pleistocene epoch is an example of climate change that happened completely independent of human activity.
Option I is false
Which of the following elements is the most common element in the Earth's crust?
Oxygen
Which type of seismic wave arrives first?
P-waves
Pangea was a
Paleozoic super-continent
Compare the table about volcanic eruptions to the graph about asteroid impacts. Assuming that a "global catastrophe" is the same level of destruction as "apocalyptic", which of the following statements is true?
Potentially apocalyptic supervolcano eruptions are more common than apocalyptic asteroids
_____ hazards have the farthest reaching consequences, capable of triggering ____ thousands of miles away.
Seismic, Tsunamis
Which of the following summarizes the weather/climatic effects of volcanoes
Short-term cooling, long-term warming, acid rain
Where does coastal sediment (beach sand) come from?
Siliciclastic coastal sediment is eroded from terrestrial sources (on land) and is washed to coastlines by rivers and streams.
Which type of seismic wave causes the most damage due to ground shaking?
Surface waves
Which of the following is a mineral?
Table Salt
Geologic timespans in the Phanerozoic Eon (the past 541 million years) are defined by:
The features of the sedimentary layers or fossils they contain
Why does humanity have little control over things like Earthquakes and Volcanoes?
The geothermal energy that drive these forces are too great
Which of the following is NOT a reason why the lower Mississippi delta is at increased risk of flooding?
The physical limit of levee height has been reached
Ocean circulation would form latitudinal cells resembling those in the atmosphere if not for which of these factors?
The presence of continents
Which of these is a good reason to set the 1950s as the beginning of the Anthropocene:
The prevalent radiogenic isotopes (nuclear fallout) resulting from nuclear weapons testing is easy to detect in a geochemical survey Many new materials were being invented and introduced to the Earth System at this time
What are benefits of well-maintained coastlines?
They can act as buffer zones that protect inland areas from storms They provide habitat and nursery grounds for coastal organisms They lend themselves to human recreation They provide locations of food resource extraction (fishing, crabbing, etc.) All of the above
A climate can change even if average temperatures remain the same.
True
Rocks can undergo metamorphism by experiencing an increase in temperature but little to no change in pressure or differential stress.
True
The advent of the use of controlled fire by humans had a significant impact on the capacity of humans to alter the world around them.
True
The dumping by the U.S. Air Force of toxic wastes on Cape Cod caused polution plumes in the groundwater that is used for drinking water accessed through private wells.
True
The orbital theory of ice ages deals with the tilt and wobble of earth's orbit.
True
The risk to civilization of a Solar Storm is higher than it was 500 years ago
True
The ultimate fate of this planet, as far as we can currently tell, is for its orbit to decay to the point that it falls into the sun.
True
There has been life on Earth for more than half of Earth's existence.
True
There is robust evidence for human involvement in the extinction of many forms of megafauna in Australia.
True
Throughout the vast majority of human history, humans lived as hunter gatherers.
True
True or False, some of Earth's greatest biotic and climatic crises are associated with novel evolutionary adaptations of plants.
True
True or false: boundaries between all geological epoch are associated with some change in the environment and biology, that resulted in the rocks changing.
True
Who sucked the Fenton River dry?
UConn
Which scenario may result in liquefaction during an earthquake?
Unconsolidated sediment, saturated with water
The Park River in Hartford now flows
Underground
Which of the following does NOT exert control on long term evolution of populations of organisms?
Weather
The dumping of wastewater by the US Air Force into a Cape Cod well started during World War II (1941). By now, the plume has spread through groundwater movement to up to 5 miles away from the well. Based on this, what is the speed of groundwater flow below Cape Cod?
about 300 foot per year
The Neolithic revolution is most closely linked to the rise of ______.
agriculture
Which is NOT a mineral
amber
Study the image below. Phylogenetically speaking, animals are ________.
are a relatively small part of the tree of life
Looking back from 2100 AD, How much warmer are global temperatures likely to be than today measured in degrees Celsius?
between 1 and 4 °C
early life got energy through_________, which still happens on Earth today especially in places witch that lack
chemosynthesis,light
Biosphere 2, which represents a [A] (open/closed/isolated) system, was an experimental analog of the Earth system. It did not successfully reproduce many Earth system processes because it did not take into account the [B] (tectonic/meteoric/organic) subsystem.
closed,tectonic
Igneous rocks can be categorized by their _______.
crystal size
Today the timing of peak snowmelt runoff in New England streams is happening [blank] than it typically occured historically.
earlier
Study the figure below. Winds at the equator predominantly move from _______.
east to west
The main cause of anoxia in water bodies is
excess nutrient
Artifical intelligence is ____.
expected to upend labor markets in the coming decades
The great rise in the use of coal for generating electricity during the last half-century was directly linked to
fear of nuclear energy
Which type of radiation poses a global human hazard during distant supernova explosions?
gamma waves
The universe of Ptolemy was
geocentric
Which earthly phenomenon was least impacted by humans during the Anthropocene?
geothermal heat
During the 1960s and early 1970s, a widespread political concern for climate change was about
global cooling toward another ice age
The proposed date of ~1950 for the base of the Anthropocene is based on
globally synchronous markers of human activity
If it wasn't for _____ in the atmosphere, our planet would be _______
greenhouse gases, too cold for life
Our modern day carbon emission rate is _______ compared to carbon emission rates at the end Permian mass extinction, which is the greatest mass extinction in Earth's history.
higher
Before the age of fossil fuels, New England's industrial strength relative to other regions in the U.S. came from what power source?
hydropower
In archaeology, the arrival of hunter/gatherer societies is associated with a(n) _____ in _____
increase, fire
Prior to their local extinctions from the fur trade, beavers had _______ most American streams
increased the habitat diversity of
The cause of the Plainfield Earthquake swarm was due to
intraplate compression along old faults
A terraced hillside, such as picture here, is an example of an Anthropogenic _
land conversion
The Dust Bowl of the central United States was an example of what gone wrong?
land conversion
Which rock type absorbs carbon dioxide and therefore acts as a "sink" for carbon?
limestone
Relative to colonial people, the indigenous people of New England caused ________.
little transformation to the land.
Earth has concentric layers stratified by density. Which is the correct sequence from the internal reference point?
mantle, crust, ocean, atmosphere
For most of Phanerozoic earth history, global climates were _________.
much warmer than today
The 2010 Haiti Earthquake was [blank], considering the geologic history of the location
not without precedent
A good marker for the base of the official Anthropocene is
onset of plastic pollution
The greenhouse effect works by certain gas molecules absorbing and re-radiating _______
outgoing long-wave infrared radiation
Examine the image below. In the Vostok Core, the _____.
pattern is slow cooling followed by rapid warming
Ultimately, the energy stored in fossil fuel comes from ________.
photosynthesis
The threat of near earth objects like asteroids and comets is due to
physical impacts
In Earth System Science, a reinforcing feedback, or positive feedback loop (see for example the figure below)
pushes a system further out of balance
The unofficial Anthropocene is
regional
Land conversion, for example from forest to arable land can lead to _______.
salinization soil erosion stony soils All the above
Beach sand is composed of small fragments of other rocks. Which part of the Rock Cycle can beach sand be classified as?
sediment
Earth's interior is
slowly cooling down
Earth subsystems that are important to life, such as the hydrosphere and the atmosphere, receive most of their energy from _______.
solar input
A sea wall is normally built to
stop erosion
The frequency of asteroid impacts on earth is mainly a function of
their size
Saying that early humans were in the middle of the food chain means what?
they were both predator and prey
Study the image below. At which tectonic setting does volcanism NOT commonly occur?
transform plate boundary
Study the figure below. California is at a _______ plate boundary, and Iceland is at a ________ plate boundary.
transform, divergent
When a species "Overshoots" or exceeds it's population carrying capacity, is an example of?
unsustainability
Below is microscopic image of a rock. Rocks are _________ aggregates of _________.
usually, minerals
Which of the following options were responsible for the Permian-Triassic extinction that occurred 252 million years ago? Select all that apply. (Hint: you should have selected three of the options).
volcanic activity greenhouse gasses acid rain
The greatest mass extinction in Earth's history was due primarily to
volcanic gas emissions
Earth's "thermostat" involves long-term carbon balance caused by a balance between volcanism and __________.
weathering
