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77 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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a sharp decrease in the number of species in a relatively short period of time
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extinction event/mass extinction/extinction-level event (ELE)
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What are the three terms for mass extinction?
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Mass extinction, extinction event, extinction-level event
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_____ affects _____ major taxonomic groups
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mass extinctions; most
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Which taxonomic groups are affected by mass extinction?
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Birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, and other simpler life forms
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mass extinctions significantly exceeded the _____
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background extinction rate
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_____ significantly exceeded the _____
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background extinction rate
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Which mass extinction attracted attention because it killed dinosaurs? How long ago was it?
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Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) event; 65 million years ago (think KT "Boots" Powell, or that Suze Orman's girlfriend killed the dinosaurs)
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In the past _____ million years, there have been _____ major events, causing over _____ of animal species to die
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550; five; 50% (think a lot of fives)
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In order to get a "mass extinction," you have to exceed the _____
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background extinction rate
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_____ states that there is variability within the species. There are certain characteristics which keep you alive, and you pass those characteristics onto your babies, thereby helping them to live.
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evolution
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The largest extinction event on Earth was the _____ transition, which caused 96% of all marine species and 70% of all land species to become extinct
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Permian-Triassic
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The present era as part of a mass extinction event is the _____ extinction event, which states there will be an extinction of _____ of all species in the next 100 years
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Holocene; 50%/half
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What are the most supported explanations for mass extinctions?
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(1.) flood basalts, impact events, and plate tectonics (2.) sea-level change, methane hydrates, oceanic overturn, anoxic events, hydrogen sulfide, (3.) sustained global cooling and warming, (4.) supernova or gamma ray burst
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_____ come from things decaying and is something that we can burn to create energy. When it gets into the ocean, it solidifies and freezes, and if the ocean starts to warm, the area around methane warms and thaws the methane, allowing it to come through and start trapping more CO2, thereby melting more ice -- known as a _____
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methane hydrates; feedback cycle
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Is the planet Earth in peril?
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No, the planet is not in peril, but the people/things living on it are.
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The AGU states that the biggest cause of Earth's climate being out of balance and warming is best explained by _____ and _____ loading in the atmosphere caused by human activity
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greenhouse gas emissions; aerosol
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About 30% of incoming solar radiation is _____ back to space; 23% powers the _____ and 47% is directly converted to _____
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reflected; hydrologic cycle; heat
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the Greenhouse effect _____ Earth's surface temperature
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raises
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the _____ effect raises Earth's surface temperature
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Greenhouse
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solar radiation reaches Earth at _____ wavelengths and is re-radiated at _____ wavelengths
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short; long
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Excess heat is re-radiated at _____ wavelengths that are absorbed by ______ in the atmosphere and radiated back down to Earth's surface, _____ Earth's climate
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long; greenhouse gases; warming
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about _____ of long wavelength re-radiated heat is trapped
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95%
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without greenhouse gases, the average surface temperature of Earth would be about _____ degrees Fahrenheit
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3 (1, 2, 3, Peter, Paul, and Mary)
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The atmospheres of _____ and _____ are thought to have changed very little in the last 4 billions years; _____'s atmosphere, on the other hand, has undergone a _____ change from _____-rich to _____-poor
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Venus (hot); Mars (cold); Earth; radical ; CO2; CO2
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_____ ocean waters absorb and store huge amounts of solar energy
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Surface and near-surface
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Some of the amount of solar heat (which is very high at the surface and near the surface of ocean waters) is transferred deeper by _____ and _____
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tides; winds
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Surface and deep-ocean _____ transfers heat throughout oceans, affecting _____
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circulation; global climate
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Both Venus and Mars have _____-rich atmospheres
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CO2
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Earth's atmosphere has undergone a _____ change from _____ to _____
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radical; CO2-rich; CO2-poor
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changes in Earth's atmosphere are caused by _____
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life processes
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plants remove CO2 from the atmosphere by _____
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photosynthesis
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atmospheric CO2 _____ in water and is _____ by marine life
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dissolves; absorbed
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in the early Earth climate, 80% of CO2 is chemically tied up in _____
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limestone
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How did early photosynthesizing life on Earth lower temperatures?
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They removed CO2 for other animal life to survive, making skeletons of CaCO3, which further reduced atmospheric CO2, lessening the greenhouse effect on Earth, and lowering temperatures.
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before life, the atmosphere was full of CO2 and had a surface temperature of about _____ degrees Celsius
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290
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What are two causes of the greenhouse effect?
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glass (in greenhouses, windows of car, etc.) or gases in the atmosphere (CO2, water vapor, methane, chlorofluorocarbons)
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What is the most important greenhouse gas?
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CO2, carbon dioxide
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How are humans changing the atmospheric CO2 concentration?
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By burning tremendous volumes of living plants (trees and shrubs) and dead plants (coal, oil, and natural gas)
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At present, CO2 is _____ of the atmosphere, leading to a _____ greenhouse effect compared to the early Earth
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0.038%; weakened
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_____ rocks contain information about the climate at the time they were formed
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sedimentary
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Fossil reefs, limestones, bauxite, and evaporite materials are indicative of _____ climates
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warm
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Erosion by glaciers -- distinctive marks and debris deposition -- is indicative of _____ climates
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cold
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Through sedimentary rocks, it is possible to derive _____
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the history of Earth's climate
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The current glacial interval has been _____ since 34 million years ago, the period known as the _____
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cooling; late Eocene
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The Eocene era was _____ and _____
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hot; wet
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the late paleozoic era was _____ and _____
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cold; wet
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the Ice Age may have ended because
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Pangaea broke apart
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Methane gas is a powerful _____ that causes further _____
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greenhouse gas; warming
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What produces methane hydrates?
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bacteria in the ocean
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Methane hydrates have _____ times the heat trapping ability
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21
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We can determine temperature through the ratio of _____ and _____
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oxygen-16 and oxygen-18
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_____ defined changes in Earth's orbit, tilt and wobble changes the amount of solar radiation received by Earth
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Milankovitch
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Milankovitch defined changes in Earth's _____, _____, and _____ could lead to changes in the amount of solar radiation received by Earth
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orbit, tilt, and wobble
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Milankovitch stated that the _____ of orbit around the Sun varies every _____ years from circular to elliptical
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eccentricity; 100,000
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a greater tilt means
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the sun will hit the polar areas more and melt it more
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the _____ of tilt means the direction of the tilt changes (as in, from / to \)
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procession
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in the last 1 million years there have been about _____ glacial advances and retreats
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10
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Considering glacial advances and retreats, _____ last only decades to a few thousand years and are much faster than _____
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retreats; advances
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glacial advances and retreats are caused by _____
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cycles in Earth's orbits around the sun that affect the amount of solar energy received by Earth
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Glaciers were at their maximum extent around _____ years ago and covered _____ of today's land
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20,000; 27%
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Greenland ice cores began _____ around 14,700 years ago as CO2, methane, and oxygen-18 contents increased
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warming
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Currently, wobble puts Earth closest to the sun during _____ winters, meaning that the hemisphere has milder summers and winters than the _____ hemisphere
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northern hemisphere; southern hemisphere
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Currently, eccentricity and tilt are acting to _____ climate
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cool
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Currently, glacial advances and retreats are _____ in both hemispheres through _____ in the ocean and the atmosphere
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synchronous; heat transfer
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The National Academy of Science reported to Congress in 2006 that the Earth's atmosphere has warned _____ degrees Celsius and that the last few decades have been _____ than any time in the last _____ years
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0.6; hotter; 400
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As CO2 concentration goes up, _____ goes up
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temperature
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the total area of ice on Kilimanjaro has _____ by _____
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decreased; 80%
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Why is melting glaciers a problem?
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Because as sunlight comes in, it can reflect off of ice; if the ice isn't there, the Earth absorbs that sunlight and more heat is trapped, leading to melting more glaciers.
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What are the 3 consequences of melting glaciers?
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(1.) the loss of nature's water towers, (2.) ice on Earth, and (3.) sea rise
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Glaciers are disappearing -- meaning what else is disappearing?
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A very valuable paleoclimate archive
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plant dates are the same age as _____, the iceman that melted out of a glacier in the Australian alps in 1991
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Otzi
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carbon dioxide has a residence time in our atmosphere of _____, which means what?
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over 100 years; the carbon dioxide we are releasing today will be impacting our climate 100 years from now
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there is a _____ relationship between temperature and CO2
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cause and effect
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CO2 increases are mainly due to _____
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fossil fuel burning
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new and independent evidence from many types of past data is known as
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paleoclimatology/paleoclimate
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The current IPCCWG finding on global warming is
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"Warming is unequivocal, and most of the warming of the past 50 years is very likely (90%) due to increases in greenhouse gases."
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According to the IPCC, warming is _____
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unequivocal
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