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197 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is a resource?
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Any thing obtained from the enviornment that is used to meet the needs and wants of human life and civilization
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What chemical group represents the most abundant minerals in the Earth's crust?
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Silicates
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Is human population increasing or decreasing and in what way?
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Increasing exponentially
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The nucleus of an atom contains what?
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Protons and neutrons
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What determines the atomic number of an atom?
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The number of protons
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Is the earth an open or closed system?
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an open system
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A scientific hypothesis that is extensively tested and continuously passes these tests is widely accepted by the scientific community is called what?
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Theory
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What are the two most abundant elements in the Earth's crust?
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Oxygen and silicon
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What is the most abundant gas in the atmosphere
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Nitrogen
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What do minerals not have
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a characteristic color
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What are characteristics of minerals
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They are always solid, all minerals have a definite chemical composition, they are always naturally occurring
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A non- renewable resource that has become too expensive to extract is said to be what?
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economically depleted
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In what region of the world is population growth currently most rapid?
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Africa
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The presence of free oxygen in Earth's atmosphere is attributed mainly to
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development of plant life, especially algae
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Resources are categorized as renewable or nonrenewable based on what?
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the rate at which they replenish
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Things that complicate the application of the scientific method to the understanding of geologic processes include what?
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1. The very long times required for some kinds of changes to occur
2. the fact that many different events may have affected one rock during its history 3. the fact threat it may be difficult to relate the results of controlled laboratory experiments to natural systems |
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The United states makes up what percent of the world's population?
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5%
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The united states uses how much of the world's resources?
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30%
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Which event led to a drastic decrease in population across the world, especially in Europe, during the 14th century?
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the black plague
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Which mineral is the most abundant mineral in the Earth's crust
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feldspar
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When modeling the behavior of a system, negative feedback loops what?
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slow down or reverse changes in that system
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When considering the cycling matter between Earth's subsystems, any water that is in solid form (ice) is considered to be part of the ....
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cryosphere
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What is the average global population growth rate?
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1.2% per year
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What are the characteristics of rocks
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1. a rock is an aggregate of minerals
2. rocks are classified by the processes that form them 3. a rock can consist of one mineral |
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What is a resource reserve?
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the part of a resource that has been found and can be economically and legally extracted with existing technology
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What is an ion that has a positive electrical charge called?
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cation
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What is the largest reservoir of carbon in the carbon cycle?
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carbonate sediments and sedimentary rocks
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In 1912, Alfred Wegener proposed the concept of what?
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continental drift
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What are two types of crust at the Earth's surface
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oceanic and continental
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Increases in heat and pressure convert what rocks?
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any rock into igneous
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With increasing distance from a mid- ocean ridge, the rocks that makes up the sea-floor becomes what?
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older
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human population began to grow very rapidly beginning with what?
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the industrial revolution
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Rocks that form crystallizing from silicate melts are what kind of rocks?
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Igneous rocks
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What is the concept of the rock cycle?
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Rocks are continuously formed, transformed, destroyed, and reformed
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What is residence time
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The average length of time a substance remains in a system
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What are the common phosphorous reservoirs in a phosphorus cycle
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1. living organisms
2. rocks d. marine sediments |
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As the size of a population increases the amount of resource use....
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increases faster than population growth
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What can we do when a non- renewable resource becomes economically depleted?
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1. Recycle/ reuse existing supplies
2. waste/use less 3. develop substitutes |
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What is the #1 environmental problem that we face today
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increasing population
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What is the movement of water through the hydrosphere
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the hydrologic cycle
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In a population growth rate of 3.5% per year would cause a population to double in size in how many years>
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20 years
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What elements are involved in major biochemical cycles?
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1. nitrogen
2. sulfur 3. phosphorous |
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What is a possible "driving force" for plate motions?
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Convection in the earth's mantle field
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Nitrogen is an important nutrient, but organisms can not directly use elemental nitrogen. It must be converted to compounds such as ammonia through the processes of what?
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nitrogen fixation
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What is sustainability?
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the ability to meet then needs of a society without jeopardizing the needs of future generations
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What are characteristics of iron?
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1. Iron is more common in the crust than other metals such as copper
2. Iron (steel) is harder than bronze and copper 3. Iron has a very high melting temperature |
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What does exponential growth mean?
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Growth starts out slowly but then quickly becomes very rapid
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What is an alloy
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A mixture of two metals
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The need for fuel to power steam engines during the Industrial revolution led to shortages of which resource in the united Kingdom?
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wood
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What were the first metals that were probably exploited by humans
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Gold and copper
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Transfer of carbon between organisms and the rest of the carbon cycle depends primarily on what?
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Photosynthesis and aerobic respiration
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What are the two types of sedimentary rocks
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chemical and clastic
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The world's population is expected to double in approximately the next 50 years. This doubling time corresponds to approximately what growth rate?
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1.4%
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What are the features of divergent plate boundaries?
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1. Rising magma
2. Transform faults 3. Mid-ocean ridges |
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What are the characteristics of a system?
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1. A system can be any part of the univese we wish to study
2. A system consits of componenets that interact 3. Types of systems include isolated, closed and open 4. A system has defined boundaries |
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What is a mineral group that includes many valuable metal ores?
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Sulfides
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What happens at a convergent plate boundary?
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High mountains may be built during continent- continent collusion
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What is the mostly solid part of Earth that includes continental and oceanic crust as well as the various layers of the earths interior?
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Geosphere
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Clastic sedimentary rocks are formed from what?
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from broken- up fragments of preexisting rocks
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What is a closed system
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only energy can be freely exchanged between the system and its surroundings
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Describe Plate tectonic activity
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1. It has existed for at least hundreds of millions of years and probably much longer
2. It recycles various kinds of rocks back into the mantle at subduction zones 3. It can account for most volcanic eruptions and earthquake |
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What is the most important function of the ozone layer in the stratosphere?
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Absorption of incoming UV radiation from the sun, that otherwise would increase the risk of skin cancer
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What is a body of highly porous and highly permeable rock or sediment called?
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an aquifer
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What two gases make up 99% of the volume of dry, clean air
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1. Oxygen
2. Nitrogen |
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Where is the deflection of wind due to the Coriolis effect strongest at?
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The poles
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How is the ease with which fluids pass through a rock or sediment determined by?
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Permeability
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True or False. Essentially all important weather occurs in the stratosphere.
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False.
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What process explains the heating of the atmosphere?
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The greenhouse effect
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In an actively pumping well in an unconfined aquifer, what can develop in a water table.
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a cone of depression
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Acid deposition occurs when which chemicals react in the atmosphere to create acids?
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Sulfur Dioxide and Nitrogen Oxides
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What is the largest reservoir of carbon in the carbon cycle?
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Carbonate sediments and sedimentary rock
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If water is so abundant on Earth, why are water resources such a big concern?
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Water resources are not necessarily where and when humans need them
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What is the ultimate energy source and driving force of wind?
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solar energy
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What is major component of photochemical smog?
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Ozone
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Where is most of the water in the hydrosphere found?
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The oceans
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What are the two principal atmospheric gases that absorb heat radiated from Earth's surface
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1. Carbon Dioxide
2. Water Vapor |
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In urban areas, what comes from internal- combustion engines may contribute to rainfall acidity
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Nitrogen oxides
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What occurred in Greeley, Colorado during the summer of 2003 that may have connections to global climate change?
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Epidemic outbreak of West Nile Virus
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To what level will water fill a well when you drill a well into the ground?
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Water table
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Where is the greatest exchange of carbon in the carbon cycle between?
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The ocean and the atmosphere
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What is the ocean "conveyer belt" responsible for?
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Keeping northern Europe's climate relatively mild
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Where does seasonal ozone loss appear to be the greatest over?
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Antarctica
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When the ground cannot absorb the rainfall, and it does not evaporate, the water flows over the surface into lakes and rivers as what?
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Runoff
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True/False. Photochemical smog is considered a secondary pollutant.
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True
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Sea- level is expected to continue to rise because of what?
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1. Melting glaciers
2. Global atmospheric warming 3. Thermal expansion of water volume |
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CFCs break down in the stratosphere under the influence of what?
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Ultraviolet radiation
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An atmospheric thermal inversion originates from where?
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Cold air trapped beneath
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What is most of the world's water used for?
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Agricultural Irrigation
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What is the cycle Milankovitch
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Variations in Earth's orbital parameters
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Where does blacksburg get its water from?
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the new river between blacksburg and radford
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Th pollutants concentrated during the London Smog Crisis of 1952 were largely emitted from what source?
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Burning coal
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Where does Global warming occur?
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troposphere
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Where does ozone depletion occur?
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stratosphere
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When the amount of water available to recharge an aquifer is significantly less than the amount being withdrawn, groundwater is what?
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Is a non-renewable resource
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True/False. High latitudes receive more solar energy than the lower latitudes.
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False.
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Which material would make the best aquitard? Sand, Gravel, Clay, or Sandstone?
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Clay
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How are secondary air pollutants created?
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Reaction of primary pollutants in the atmosphere
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What is the primary greenhouse gas that the Kyoto protocol plans on reducing?
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Carbon dioxide
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What is causing the Aral sea to shrink in size and become saltier?
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Diversion of water for irrigation
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Methane is only found in very small traces in the atmosphere. Why then are atmospheric scientists so concerned about it?
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It is a much more potent greenhouse gas then carbon dioxide
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Destruction of ozone seems to be hastened by what?
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1. Sulfate
2. From volcanoes 3. Ice particles acting as catalysts |
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What are the largest influences on global atmospheric circulation?
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1. Earth's rotation
2. Unequal heating of Earth's surface |
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A well in which water rises above the aquifer is called a what?
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Artesian Well
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True/False. Weather and climate are related but they do not mean the same thing.
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True
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What are possible consequences of global warming?
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1. More frequent and intense storms
2. Rising sea levels 3. Increase in heat waves and droughts |
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How does global climate change appear to be affecting El Nino?
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El Ninos appear to be occurring more frequently
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What is the main reason that is given for why the United States did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol?
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It would be expensive and damage the economy
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What kind of pollutants are emitted directly into the air
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Primary
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How does the stratosphere differ from the troposphere?
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The stratosphere has much more ozone
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How has glacial ice aided in the study of climate change?
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Glacial ice contains trapped air bubbles that record former atmospheric chemistry
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What is the boundary between drainage basins called
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Drainage divide
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In which part of the United States is the acidity of rain fairly high?
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Northeast
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How does global climate change appear to be affecting El Nino?
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El Ninos appear to be occurring more frequently
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Gray- air smog comes primarily from suspended particles of what?
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Soot
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If all the world's ice sheet and glaciers were to melt, the estimated global sea level rise would be about how many feet?
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250 feet
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What is the main reason that is given for why the United States did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol?
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It would be expensive and damage the economy
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How can the threat of global warming be addressed?
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1. Using energy more efficiently
2. Shifting to renewable resources 3. Halting Deforestation |
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What kind of pollutants are emitted directly into the air
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Primary
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How does the stratosphere differ from the troposphere?
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The stratosphere has much more ozone
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True/False. El Nino events reflect changes in atmospheric flow and water temperatures in the equatorial Pacific.
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True
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How has glacial ice aided in the study of climate change?
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Glacial ice contains trapped air bubbles that record former atmospheric chemistry
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What causes the Coriolis effect in the atmosphere and the oceans?
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Rotation of the earth around its axis
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What is the boundary between drainage basins called
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Drainage divide
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Why is much of the world's fresh water unavailable to us?
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It is locked up in ice caps or glaciers
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In which part of the United States is the acidity of rain fairly high?
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Northeast
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Which area would most likely to experience atmospheric temperature inversions?
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A valley surrounded by mountains
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Gray- air smog comes primarily from suspended particles of what?
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Soot
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How much more effective does methane absorb radiation than CO2?
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25x more effective
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If all the world's ice sheet and glaciers were to melt, the estimated global sea level rise would be about how many feet?
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250 feet
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How can the threat of global warming be addressed?
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1. Using energy more efficiently
2. Shifting to renewable resources 3. Halting Deforestation |
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True/False. El Nino events reflect changes in atmospheric flow and water temperatures in the equatorial Pacific.
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True
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What causes the Coriolis effect in the atmosphere and the oceans?
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Rotation of the earth around its axis
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Why is much of the world's fresh water unavailable to us?
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It is locked up in ice caps or glaciers
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Which area would most likely to experience atmospheric temperature inversions?
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A valley surrounded by mountains
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How much more effective does methane absorb radiation than CO2?
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25x more effective
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What is the stream's volume of water flowing past a point along a stream in a given point of time called?
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discharge
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Natural gas is a mixture of several hydrogen and non-hydrocarbon gases, but mostly consists of what?
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Methane
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What is the average length of time a substance remains in a system
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Residence time
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Cultural eutrophication of surface waters is most often cause by input of what?
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Nitrates and phosphates
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The maximum elevation that a stream's surface reaches during a flood is called what?
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Crest
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Breakdown of organic matter in the absence of oxygen is what kind of decay
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Anaerobic decay
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How is oil formed?
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Tiny algae and plankton decomposed under conditions of heat, pressure, and low oxygen
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True/False. Constructing levees may increase the amount of property at risk from future flooding by encouraging flood-plain development.
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True
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What is a concern of Methane Hydrates?
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That disturbing the material by mining may release potent greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
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True/False. Nonpoint pollution sources are more diffuse and thus harder to monitor and control than are most point sources.
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True
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What is the steepness or slope of a stream channel called?
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The stream's gradient
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Primary and secondary petroleum recovery methods extract approximately how much of the oil in a petroleum trap?
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1/4 to 1/3
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What is the annual probability of occurrence of a 50- year flood
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2%
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What is Biological oxygen demand?
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the amount of oxygen required for the aerobic break down of organic matter
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What is the term relating to the lowest elevation to which a stream can erode?
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Base Level
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What do gasification and liquefaction techniques do?
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Convert coal to a more versatile fuel
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Where is the world's largest known deposits of tar sands?
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Canada
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True/ False. The lag time between peak rainfall and peak stream discharge is typically increase by urbanization.
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False
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True/ False. Most of the oil used in the United States is produced domestically.
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False
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What is the oxygen sag curve cause by?
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Aerobic decay of organic matter
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What is natural gas easily transported by?
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pipeline
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What are the fossil fuels?
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1. Oil
2. Tar Sand 3. Coal |
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What is the best approach to reducing flood risks?
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Flood-plain management
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When is a body of water said to be eutrophic?
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when it is an excess of nutrients exits, especially nitrates and phosphorus
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How is coal formed?
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through the remains of land plants
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The smaller a flood is, is it more or less frequently occurring?
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The more likely it is to occur
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True/False. It is easier to estimate coal reserves than oil reserves because coal is solid and does not migrate
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True
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The removal of vegetation, especially on hillsides increase the risk of what?
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1. Erosion
2. Surface runoff 3. Flooding |
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Oil shale and tar share what environmental problems
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1. The need for a great deal of water and energy for processing the material into usable fuel
2. The extracted fuel contributes to air pollution and global warming just like other fossil fuels 3. Large land disturbance because of the need to mine the material to extract the fuel |
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What does it mean if a region just had a 30 year flood?
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A flood event of that size has a 3.3% probability of occurrence in the next year
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What is a possible consequence of eutrophication?
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Fish kills, because of the lowered dissolved oxygen in the water
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In a petroleum deposit, which substance is most likely to be found at the top of the deposit
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Natural Gas
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With intentions of acquiring oil, what region did Japan invade in 1942?
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Dutch East Indies
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What is a drainage divide?
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Is a ridge that separates one watershed from another
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True/False. The basic requirements for formation of a fossil- fuel deposit are abundant organic matter and a great deal of oxygen to cause the deposit to mature.
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False.
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What is an oil shale?
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It contains a waxy solid called kerogen
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What does urbanization in a flood-plain do?
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It increases flood hazards by reducing flood-plain storage capacity and increasing surface runoff
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Enhanced oil recovery methods include what?
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1. Using steam or hot water to reduce oil viscosity
2. Using high pressure gas to force the oil out 3. Deliberately fracturing rock to increase reservoir porosity |
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Which of the following is a major groundwater pollutant in parts of India and Bangladesh?
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Arsenic
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Construction of a flood dam control does what?
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1. May increase erosion downstream from the dam
2. limits navigation along a river 3. May cause earthquakes in the area near the dam |
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True/False. All levees are man- made.
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False
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Crystalline solid mixtures of water and methane that are found in arctic regions and in marine sediments are called what?
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Methane hydrates
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Which type of flood is typically caused by intense rainfall of short duration?
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Upstream flood
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The Mississippi River flood of 1993 had a recurrence interval of over 100 years. What does this mean?
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A flood with a magnitude equal to or exceeding the 1993 flood can be expected statistically about every 100 year or more
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During WWII, Germany had no major oil resources. They created synthetic oil from a resource that they did have in abundance....
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Coal
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What is a stream?
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Any body of flowing water that is confined to a channel, regardless of size
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True/False. Coal and oil are termed "non-renewable" resources because the processes by which they formed are no longer taking place.
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False
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A fossil- fuel source that may either be an immature petroleum deposit or a petroleum deposit that has lost its lighter hydrocarbons is what?
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Tar Sand
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True/ False. Floods only occur where human activities tamper with natural streams systems.
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False
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Which is the highest grade and most carbon- rich coal?
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Anthracite
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At the current rate of consumption, it is estimated that the world's identified oil reserves will last how many years?
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40-50 years
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Oil and natural gas migrate out of their source rocks and....
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Upward toward the surface
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How do humans increase the likelihood of flooding?
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1. building on flood-plains
2. urbanization 3. removing vegetation |
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How is oil shale extracted?
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Strip mining
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What is the discharge of a stream equal to?
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The stream's cross- sectional area multiplied by its velocity
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What is a body of water described as dead water?
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Anaerobic decay is taking place
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Which one of the following is an example of a point source of pollution?
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a sewer outlet emptying into a river
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The fossil fuel with the least environmental impact is
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Natural Gas
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True/ False. A Flash flood is a variety of upstream flood.
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False
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What are results of improperly designed and located landfills?
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• Air and water pollution
• Disease • Land subsidence • Fire |
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What does incinerating waste do?
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reduces the volume of material in landfills and produces energy
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What steps does recycling involve?
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o Collecting Manufacturing
o Buying- consumers “closet the loop |
