Natural Disasters

Front 1

The heat that transformed the Earth early in its history came primarily from all but which of the following?

Back 1

magnetic energy

Front 2

Which of the following is NOT a basic tenet of plate tectonics?

Back 2

-Melted asthenosphere flows upward as magma and cools to form new ocean floor lithosphere.

-The new lithosphere slowly moves laterally away from the zones of oceanic crust formation on top of the underlying asthenosphere (seafloor spreading).

-When the leading edge of a moving slab of oceanic lithosphere collides with another slab, the older, colder, denser slab turns downward and is pulled by gravity back into the asthenosphere (subduction), while the less-dense, more buoyant slab overrides it.

The slab pulled into the asthenosphere begins the process of melting and moves into the liquid core.

-The slab pulled into the asthenosphere begins the process of reabsorption into the mantle.

Front 3

The return period of a disaster is the average number of years ________________.

Back 3

between same-sized events

Front 4

Most of the more-developed countries have _________________.

Back 4

low death rates and low birth rates

Front 5

During the last half of the 20th century, earthquakes, tsunami, and ______________ account for the majority of deaths from natural disasters.

Back 5

typhoon

Front 6

Easter Island is _________________.

Back 6

an isolated volcanic island located in the Pacific Ocean

Front 7

As radioactive atoms decay, energy is _________.

Back 7

released

Front 8

The growth rate of the world population equals ______________.

Back 8

the birth rate minus the death rate

Front 9

Using the rule of 70, a population growth rate of 2% annually will result in doubling a population in __________ years.

Back 9

35

Front 10

At present, the world population of humans grows by over ______ million per year.

Back 10

80

Front 11

The slide-past motions of long transform faults occur in all but which of the following?

Back 11

-In the northeastern Pacific as the Queen Charlotte fault, located near a sparsely populated region of Canada.

-Along the San Andreas Fault in California with its famous earthquakes.

-At the southwestern edge of the Pacific Ocean where the Alpine fault cuts across the South Island of New Zealand.

Where the Indian subcontinent touches Asia.

Front 12

Which of the following disasters has the highest probability of causing a "1,000-fatality event" each year?

Back 12

a hurricane

Front 13

The present human population of the world is a little more than ____________.

Back 13

6 billion

Front 14

During prosperous times, the Easter Islanders' diet was based on _______________.

Back 14

chicken and yams

Front 15

Based on insurance industry records of economic loss from natural disasters, 32 of the 40 most expensive disasters between 1970 and 2012 were __________________ and floods.

Back 15

storms

Front 16

The _________ explains that sediments (such as sands, gravels, and muds) are originally deposited or settled out of water in horizontal layers.

Back 16

law of original horizontality

Front 17

_________ waves travel only through solids; on reaching liquid or gas, the _______ wave energy is reflected back into rock or is converted to another form.

Back 17

S-

Front 18

Tsunami wavelengths can be as great as ____________.

Back 18

840km

Front 19

A ____________ is an oscillating wave that sloshes back and forth within an enclosed body of waters such as a sea, bay, lake, or swimming pool.

Back 19

seiche

Front 20

Tsunami are typically about _____ high in the open ocean, and 6-15 m high on reaching shallow water.

Back 20

1m

Front 21

Geologists have shown that the east coast of the United States faces a serious tsunami threat from ________.

Back 21

volcanic flank collapse in the Canary Islands

Front 22

________ faults are commonly found at areas of plate convergence where subduction or continental collision occurs.

Back 22

reverse

Front 23

Detailed mapping of the ocean bottom around the Hawaiian Islands revealed a previously unrecognized tsunami source. What did geologists discover on the seafloor in this area?

Back 23

slumps and debris avalanches formed by volcanic flank collapse

Front 24

The reduction of ______ waves at the core-mantle boundary indicates that the outer core is mostly liquid.

Back 24

S-

Front 25

The Richter Scale is set up so that for every _______ increase in the amplitude of the recorded seismic wave, the Richter magnitude increases one number, e.g., from 4 to 5.

Back 25

ten-fold

Front 26

Earthquake-related tsunami are created by sub-sea fault movements with pronounced vertical offsets of the sea floor. Such movements occur most commonly along __________________.

Back 26

subduction zones

Front 27

The intensity of an earthquake is influenced by all but which one of the following?

Back 27

the presence of people to record their innermost feelings

Front 28

The deadly 1992 tsunami in Papua New Guinea was caused by ________.

Back 28

an undersea landslide triggered by an earthquake

Front 29

The _____ wave travels fastest and moves in a push-pull fashion of alternating pulses of compression (push) and extension (pull).

Back 29

P-

Front 30

The captain of a ship tells you that he once experienced a huge tsunami while sailing in the Pacific Ocean several hundred miles from any landmass. You decide that this sounds a little farfetched because __________________.

Back 30

tsunami are rarely felt in deep water because they have long wavelengths and low heights

Front 31

Which state accounts for the greatest percentage of all U.S. earthquakes of magnitude 3.5 and above?

Back 31

Alaska

Front 32

Prehistoric earthquakes may be interpreted using faulted pond sediments. The amount of offset of sediment layers from one earthquake is proportional to the ________________.

Back 32

earthquake magnitude

Front 33

When is the best time for an earthquake to occur in California to minimize loss of life?

Back 33

during the night, when most people are home and asleep

Front 34

The Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee __________________.

Back 34

are pull-apart basins and the result of strike-slip motion

Front 35

Which of the following is NOT a divergent margin?

Back 35

Aleutian Island Arc

Front 36

Paleoseismologic analysis of trenches cut across faults and folds in the New Madrid, Missouri, area has led the U.S. Geological Survey to forecast a 25-40% chance of a magnitude ______ earthquake here within the next 50 years.

Back 36

6 to 7

Front 37

The New Madrid earthquakes are apparently related to ______________.

Back 37

an old buried rift zone

Front 38

Earthquakes in Hawaii are mostly related to ________________.

Back 38

movement of volcanic magma beneath the ground

Front 39

The Pacific plate subducts along _________ edges and creates enormous earthquakes, such as the 1923 Tokyo seism.

Back 39

its northern and western

Front 40

Another class of active faults is created by southern California pushing into the "Big Bend" of the San Andreas fault. These faults are __________________.

Back 40

mostly east-west-oriented thrust faults (reverse faults)

Front 41

When the part of California west of the San Andreas fault plows into Alaska it _______________.

Back 41

will become part of Alaska's southern margin

Front 42

Shallow subduction zone earthquakes occur __________________.

Back 42

-In the upper portion of the down-going plate

-At the bend in the subducting plate

-In the overriding plate

All of these are correct.

Front 43

Recent work has shown that the last major earthquake in the Cascadia subduction zone occurred about 9 p.m. on 26 January 1700 and was about magnitude 9. This is known by __________________.

Back 43

analysis of annual growth rings in trees of downed forests along the Oregon-Washington-British Columbia coast showing no rings after 1699 and Tsunami of 2-m (7-ft) height that hit Japan from midnight to dawn pointing to a 9 p.m. earthquake along the Washington-Oregon coast on 26 January 1700 are correct

Front 44

If Alaska and California are ignored, the list of 10 largest U.S. earthquakes shows ____________.

Back 44

10 events affecting at least 10 different states

Front 45

We know that the part of California on the Pacific plate will not break off in a giant earthquake and sink into the Pacific Ocean because ______________________.

Back 45

of isostasy

Front 46

The Houston-Galveston, Texas, area has been sinking. This is related to the _______________.

Back 46

withdrawal of groundwater by pumping

Front 47

The most famous of all volcanoes probably is Vesuvius, and the most famous of its eruptions are those of 79 C.E., which buried the cities of ____________.

Back 47

Pompeii and Herculaneum

Front 48

Silicon and oxygen link up to form the silicon-oxygen ______________.

Back 48

tetrahedron

Front 49

Catastrophic subsidence into sinkholes tends to occur more often in areas underlain by ________________.

Back 49

acidic freshwater flowing through limestone

Front 50

The typical trend in a rising plume of subduction-zone magma is to increase ____________.

Back 50

-the percentage of SiO2

-the viscosity

-the explosive potential of the magma by holding in the gases more tightly

All of the choices are correct.

Front 51

In August 1986, a gigantic volume of gas belched forth from Lake Nyos in Cameroon and swept down the adjacent valleys asphyxiating 1700 people. The gas was _____________.

Back 51

carbon dioxide

Front 52

In 1883, this volcano exploded and the resulting tsunami killed 36,000 people on Java and Sumatra.

Back 52

Krakatau

Front 53

If basaltic lava reaches the sea or a lake, it cools rapidly into ____________.

Back 53

pillow lava

Front 54

____________ in the Aegean Sea underwent an explosive series of eruptions around 1628 B.C.E. that buried the Bronze Age city of Akrotiri on Thera to depths of 70 meters.

Back 54

Santorini

Front 55

Areas of geyser activity include _______.

Back 55

-Iceland

-Yellowstone Park in the United States

-North Island of New Zealand

-Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia

All of these are correct.

Front 56

In ________________, masses move down and out by sliding on planes of weakness, such as faults, bedding, or clay rich layers.

Back 56

translational slides

Front 57

The energy behind the 1902 pyroclastic flow that destroyed St. Pierre came from _________________.

Back 57

-the blast of the volcano

-gravity

-gas escaping from pieces of airborne pyroclastic material, creating a "popcorn" effect

All of the choices are correct.

Front 58

On 20 February 1943, a new volcano, a scoria cone, was born when an eruption rose up through a farm field near a village in Mexico. The volcano is ________________.

Back 58

Paricutin

Front 59

In 1985, this volcano produced a minor eruption that melted part of a glacier near its summit, sending a lahar down its slopes and killing at least 22,000 people:

Back 59

Nevado Del Ruiz, Colombia

Front 60

Some of Earth's most beautiful mountains are ________, including Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Mt. Shasta in California, Mt. Rainier in Washington, and Mt. Fuji in Japan.

Back 60

stratovolcanoes

Front 61

The inside of a tornado funnel has ____________________.

Back 61

low atmospheric pressure

Front 62

The Little Ice Age that affected Europe from about ___________ lowered average annual temperature by only about 1?C but was enough to reduce crop yields, cause mountain glaciers to advance, and produce winters much more severe than in the twentieth century.

Back 62

1400 to 1900 C.E.

Front 63

Conditions necessary to turn an ordinary thunderstorm into a tornado-spinning monster include _______________.

Back 63

-a low-altitude, northerly flow of warm, humid, tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico

-a cold, dry air mass moving down from Canada or out of the Rocky Mountains at > 50 mph

-jet-stream winds racing east at speeds in excess of 150 mph

All of the choices are correct.

-a low-altitude, northerly flow of warm, humid, tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico and a cold, dry air mass moving down from Canada or out of the Rocky Mountains at > 50 mph only

Front 64

During the 20th century, the average global surface temperature rose ______.

Back 64

0.6?C

Front 65

One of the greatest weather disasters in U.S. history occurred during the ______, when several years of drought turned grain-growing areas in the center of the nation into the "Dust Bowl."

Back 65

1930s

Front 66

The polar jet stream flows from west to east, under the influence of the Earth's rotation, in ____________________.

Back 66

both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres

Front 67

In the United States, total deaths from lightning per decade have _________________ since the 1940s.

Back 67

been decreasing steadily

Front 68

Ascending air at the equator and descending air around 30?N and S latitudes create semicircular air circulation routes known as ___________________.

Back 68

Hadley cells

Front 69

Which of the following types of severe weather results in the highest average annual death toll in the United States?

Back 69

Heat

Front 70

The basic sequence within a lightning flash includes all but which of the following?

Back 70

Static electricity builds up within the lower thundercloud and induces identical-polarity charges on the ground.

Front 71

The fraction of solar energy reflected back to space due to Earth's cloudiness or snow and ice cover is known as ______________.

Back 71

albedo

Front 72

The greenhouse effect results in ________________.

Back 72

global warming

Front 73

Many of the United States' and world record rainfalls in the 1- to 24-hour range were established during thunderstorms in ______________.

Back 73

Texas

Front 74

The "White Hurricane" of 1993 was an immense winter cyclone that covered the eastern United States, causing $800 million in damage and 238 deaths. The hardest hit area was

Back 74

Florida

Front 75

The major factors in glacial periods lasting tens of millions of years appear to be ____________________.

Back 75

Both having one or more large continental masses near the poles and oceanic circulation that is more longitudinal (north-south) than latitudinal (east-west) are correct.

Front 76

The air in the eye of a hurricane ______________________.

Back 76

sinks, warms, and absorbs moisture, leaving the core clear and cloud-free

Front 77

During the great flood of July 1993, the southeastern United States experienced ________________.

Back 77

persistent high atmospheric pressure and a flood.

Front 78

When flooding occurs along a river, as you go farther downstream _________________.

Back 78

the flooding gets less severe as water spreads out in time and space

Front 79

Most flood-related deaths in the United States are caused by __________________.

Back 79

flash floods from local thunderstorms

Front 80

The "channeled scablands" of the state of Washington were caused by _________________.

Back 80

the failure of an ice dam during glacial melting

Front 81

A braided stream has ____________.

Back 81

too much sediment to carry

Front 82

A hurricane is defined as a large area of sustained winds greater than 74 miles per hour. This is the wind speed at which ______________________.

Back 82

the center of the storm develops a calm area known as the eye

Front 83

If a stream is choked with sediment and has insufficient water to carry it away _______________.

Back 83

the water will pick its way through as a braided stream

Front 84

Which of the following conditions led to the 1993 flood in the midcontinental United States?

Back 84

the jet stream locked in place over north-central plains for an unusually long time

Front 85

Hydrographs from urban settings _____________________.

Back 85

Both show higher rates of runoff than rural settings, for a given precipitation event and show floods are of shorter duration than in rural settings, for a given precipitation event are correct

Front 86

What is the probability that a 100-year flood will occur at least once in 100 years?

Back 86

63 percent

Front 87

If a flood has a recurrence interval of ten years, it means ____________________.

Back 87

that in any given year a similar flood has a 1/10 chance of occurring

Front 88

Which of the following is a rotating, low-pressure weather system with a warm core that generally forms over warm seawater between 5? and 20? latitude and then travels off to deliver its heat to higher latitudes?

Back 88

-hurricanes

-typhoons

-southern hemisphere cyclones

All of the choices are correct.

Front 89

Why are floods so common along the Red River of the North (in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota)?

Back 89

-The Red River valley is geologically young (about 9000 years old) and has not carved a deep valley.

-The gradient or slope of the riverbed is very low.

-River flow increases as winter snow melts and meltwater runs northward into still frozen parts of the river.

All of these choices are correct.

Front 90

Between 1960 and 2009, floods in the United States produced an average of _______ in damage per year.

Back 90

$6.76 billion

Front 91

In the photosynthesis reaction in plants, ________ is given off as a by-product of the reaction.

Back 91

oxygen

Front 92

Mistakes, or "how to sacrifice your house to the fire gods" include _______________.

Back 92

-locating your house on a slope

-constructing your house of wood

-having a roof made of flammable wood shingles

-allowing tree limbs to hang over the roof

All of these choices are correct.

Front 93

Longshore drift:

Back 93

acts like an offshore river

Front 94

The organic debris left on the ground after logging or windstorms is called _____________.

Back 94

slash

Front 95

Chinook winds and Santa Ana winds are _____________.

Back 95

warm, dry winds

Front 96

In effect, the solar energy stored by plants during their growth is _________________.

Back 96

returned to the atmosphere during fire

Front 97

Pyrolysis results in emanation of all but which of the following?

Back 97

oxygen

Front 98

Groins are:

Back 98

wave enhancers

Front 99

Newton showed that differential tidal forces are inversely proportional to the ________ of the distance between them.

Back 99

cube

Front 100

Fire produces _______________.

Back 100

carbon dioxide and water vapor

Front 101

During burning, the chemical structure of solid wood breaks apart and yields ________________.

Back 101

-flammable hydrocarbon vapors

-water vapor

-tar

-mineral residues

All of these choices are correct.

Front 102

Heat-expanded air _________________.

Back 102

is less dense than cool air

Front 103

In Mediterranean climates such as in the Californias, Australia, and South Africa, frequent wildfire is necessary for the health of natural plant communities because ___________________.

Back 103

many of the plant species must have the smoke and/or heat of fire to germinate their seeds, it helps to control parasites and it influences insect behavior are correct

Front 104

The spread of fire depends on behavior within the fire itself and on __________________.

Back 104

the types of fuel, weather and topography are correct

Front 105

Pyrolysis of cellulose produces which of the following?

Back 105

water vapor

Front 106

Return Period

Back 106

or recurrence interval, which is the number of years between same-sized events

Front 107

Radioactive dating

Back 107

is a technique used to date materials such as rocks or carbon, usually based on a comparison between the observed abundance of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope and its decay products, using known decay rates.

Front 108

Epicenter

Back 108

The point on the surface of the Earth directly above a fault movement (i.e., earthquake location)

Front 109

Pangaea

Back 109

"super continent"