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Earth Science Cdm Exam February 18
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1. How did Earth's motion originate? Answer: Earth’s motion began with the formation of the solar system. Gas clouds collapsed under gravity, causing the system to spin. This spinning motion carried over to the Earth, which now orbits the Sun and spins on its axis, maintaining its motion due to inertia. 2. Where does Earth fit in the universe’s hierarchy? Answer: Earth is part of a solar system, which resides within a galaxy, and our galaxy is just one of many in the expanding universe. 3. What are the main principles behind planetary orbits, according to Kepler’s laws? Answer: Kepler's laws state that planets follow elliptical orbits with the Sun at one focus. A line from the planet to the Sun sweeps equal areas in equal times, meaning planets move faster when closer to the Sun. The time taken for a planet to orbit is proportional to the distance from the Sun. 4. How does Earth’s motion interact with the solar system, galaxy, and universe? Answer: Earth follows an elliptical orbit around the Sun, which itself orbits the galaxy. The universe is expanding, and Earth's movement contributes to the seasonal changes and day-night cycles, with the Earth's tilt affecting the solar energy received. 5. What is precession?
Answer: Precession is the gradual shift in Earth's axis caused by the Sun’s gravitational pull on the planet’s equatorial bulge. This movement occurs over 26,000 years, changing the position of stars visible from Earth but not affecting seasons or day lengths.
6. What is nutation? Answer: Nutation is a smaller, periodic oscillation in Earth's precession due to the Moon’s gravitational forces. It causes slight shifts in Earth's tilt every 18.6 years and has minor effects on seasons. 7. What is a barycenter? Answer: A barycenter is the center of mass around which two bodies orbit each other. In the case of the Earth and Moon, for example, both orbit a point that lies slightly outside the Earth’s center. 8. Is the Sun stationary in the solar system? Answer: No, the Sun moves as the planets exert gravitational forces on it, causing the Sun to orbit the solar system’s barycenter, although it stays relatively close to this point. 9. What causes the daily and seasonal changes on Earth? Answer: The daily rotation of Earth creates day and night cycles, while Earth's axial tilt and its orbit around the Sun cause seasonal changes in temperature and sunlight. 10. Why is Earth's circumference larger at the equator than at the poles? Answer: Earth's spin causes centrifugal forces that push outward at the equator, making the circumference there greater than at the poles.
17. How does Earth's magnetic field protect it from solar radiation? Answer: The Earth's magnetic field deflects solar winds, preventing harmful charged particles from stripping away the atmosphere and affecting life on Earth. 18. What is the rock cycle, and what processes are involved? Answer: The rock cycle involves the continuous formation, breakdown, and transformation of rocks. Processes such as weathering, heat and pressure, deposition, and the creation of new rocks drive the cycle. 19. How do mechanisms like mantle convection and ridge push drive plate tectonics? Answer: Mantle convection currents cause plates to move, while ridge push occurs when new, hot crust at divergent boundaries pushes plates apart. Slab pull happens when older, denser plates sink into the mantle at subduction zones, pulling the plates along. 20. What landforms are created by different plate boundaries? Answer: Convergent boundaries can create mountains, deep ocean trenches, and volcanic islands. Divergent boundaries form rift valleys and ocean ridges, while transform boundaries often cause earthquakes. 21. How do volcanoes, magma, and lava relate to plate boundaries? Answer: Magma forms beneath Earth's surface and becomes lava when it erupts through volcanoes, often at convergent and divergent plate boundaries. Lava solidifies to create new crust. 22. What is the anatomy of an earthquake? Answer: Earthquakes occur when stress along faults is released. The epicenter is the point on Earth’s surface above the focus, where the earthquake originates. P- waves arrive first and are less destructive, while S-waves cause more damage.
23. What are the major geologic events in North Carolina? Answer: The Appalachian Mountains formed from ancient collisions with other landmasses. The region's features, like the Piedmont and coastal plains, were shaped by erosion and deposition over geological time. 24. How does sea level change over time? Answer: Sea levels rise and fall due to factors like climate cycles and melting ice, which affect coastal landforms and can shift shorelines and create or reshape barrier islands. 25. What factors influence erosion and landform development? Answer: Erosion is caused by water, wind, ice, and gravity, which shape landforms. For example, rivers carve valleys, glaciers form U-shaped valleys, and wind shapes dunes. 26. Where should development be avoided to reduce geohazard risks? Answer: Avoid development near fault lines, volcanic areas, flood zones, and unstable slopes to minimize risks from earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, and flooding. 27. What precautions protect life from geohazards? Answer: Measures like reinforced buildings, proper drainage, and avoiding construction in high-risk areas help mitigate the effects of geohazards such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and landslides. 28. How have human activities impacted Earth’s lithosphere? Answer: Activities like mining, deforestation, agriculture, and urbanization degrade the land by causing erosion, pollution, habitat loss, and resource depletion.
Explain the effects of human activity on mountainsides, especially in development and artificial stabilization efforts. - ANSWER✔✔Destroys forests, habitat, and biodiversity, loosens and de-fertilizes soil and contributes to erosion, causes mud/rock slides etc.; stabilization interrupts wildlife movement and changes how wind moves. Compare the methods of obtaining energy resources: harvesting (peat and wood), mining (coal and uranium/plutonium), drilling (oil and natural gas) and the effect of these activities on the environment. - ANSWER✔✔See above; Harvesting: destroys habitat, messes with the water table and eutrophication. Coal: surface or underground mining. Drilling: pollute air/water, destroy habitat, light pollution, waste production, contribute to global warming, Explain how the density of ocean water is affected by temperature and how this results in major ocean currents distributing heat away from the equator toward the poles. - ANSWER✔✔Hotter water is less dense than colder water. The water in the equator heats up and expands, working outward on top of the cold water, and is replaced by colder, then cools down and sinks and moves back towards equator etc. Explain how coastal climates are moderated by water (due to its high specific heat capacity) in comparison to inland climates. - ANSWER✔✔During the day, the water keeps the land cool, and at night the heated up water keeps the land warm. Day: ocean breeze at ground level. Night: sea breeze at ground level. Illustrate the water cycle to explain the connection between groundwater and surface water, detailing how groundwater moves through the lithosphere. (Emphasize the processes of evaporation and infiltration in the conceptual diagram of the hydrologic cycle.) - ANSWER✔✔evaporation, condensation, transpiration, precipitation, sublimation, deposition, groundwater, plant uptake, runoff, infiltration, percolation
Explain river systems including NC river basins, aquifers, and watersheds. - ANSWER✔✔River systems are the watersheds of rivers. Rivers flow downwards from their source, which might be snow melt, a spring from an aquifer (a layer between rocks or of permeable rocks which holds water either from open depositing or from infiltration) or a glacier. As it flows it is joined by tributaries and meanders. It finally reaches the sea or lake at the mouth. Link has more terms: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/river/ Explain how flood events might be affected by groundwater levels. - ANSWER✔✔Flood events occur when there is an excess of groundwater, or when water cannot permeate into the groundwater. Explain various water uses by humans and evaluate for benefits and consequences of use (ex. wells, aquifer depletion, dams and dam removal, agriculture, recreation). - ANSWER✔✔please Explain consequences of aquifer depletion including subsidence and salt-water intrusion on the coast - ANSWER✔✔Wells can go dry, the water table can reduce in water (streams and lakes), water quality can deteriorate because salt water is sucked up into the water table (saltwater intrusion), the ground can sink because it's no longer held up by the water (land subsidence), and more fresh water can run out. Evaluate the effects of population growth on potable water resources. Infer future effects. - ANSWER✔✔Will reuslt in water shortages and more water pollution, might result in agricultural shortages and political tension over water in shortage areas. Explain how pollutants might flow through a watershed and affect inhabitants that share the same watershed. - ANSWER✔✔They will flow through any
groundwater). - ANSWER✔✔Non-point solution is pollution that cannot be traced back to a single source. This type of pollution could come from many sources such as acidic precipitation, runoff of excess pesticides & fertilizers from agricultural fields, oil & gasoline contamination as runoff passes over roads and parking lots, or more recently a contamination of pharmaceutical waste in our water systems. Each of these would have different effects on water quality. Acidic precipitation lowers the pH of the waterways, which can degrade water quality and harm the organisms that live in the water system. Excess pesticides & fertilizers can cause an overgrowth of algae which ultimately leads to fish kills due to low dissolved oxygen levels. Contaminations due to petroleum products causes residue to float on top of the water and in extreme cases can coat the organisms that live there. We are just beginning to see the effects of pharmaceutical contamination in our water systems. This is first seen in deformities in fish and amphibians. Evaluate conservation measures to maximize quality and quantity of available freshwater resources. - ANSWER✔✔In order to avoid the increasing threat of a water shortage, we need to conserve & protect the water resources that currently exist. Regulations currently exist that protect our water systems and limit the amount of contaminants that can be discharged. These need to be followed and strengthened to ensure the future quality of our water resources. Conservation methods include using low-flow devices in homes & businesses, NOT washing cars in driveways or fund-raising carwashes, taking shorter showers, turning off water while brushing teeth or shaving, watering yards as little as possible and only at night. Summarize information from charts and graphs regarding layers of the atmosphere, temperature, chemical composition, and interaction with radiant energy - ANSWER✔✔SEE NOTES but add chemical comp. Explain how air masses move (pressure differentials). - ANSWER✔✔They move from high to low pressure areas.
Explain how interactions of air masses form frontal boundaries, clouds, and affect wind patterns. - ANSWER✔✔At a cold front, the warm air is forced upwards, cools, and condenses, forming clouds. (Often forms thunderstorms) At a cold front, the warm air slowly advances upwards, which leas to long periods of gentle preciptation. The larger the temperature difference, the more severe the weather - tornadoes and thunderstorms. Uneven heating causes convection. Explain factors that affect air density and understand their influence on winds, air masses, fronts and storm systems. - ANSWER✔✔Temperature, pressure, humidity. Higher temp = lower pressure=lower density. higher humidity=lower density because water vapor is lighter than the molecules it replaces. Observe, analyze and predict weather using technological resources.
- Interpret and analyze weather maps and relative humidity charts. - ANSWER✔✔https://docs.google.com/document/d/1VT4hdl3TZKepkziB_F41RZ MvWIm0SizEv3VJV5nRRG8/edit?usp=sharing Explain the importance of water vapor and its influence on weather (clouds, relative humidity, dew point, precipitation). - ANSWER✔✔Heat radiated from the ground is absorbed by water vapor in the atmosphere and radiated in all directions; therefore, it acts as a second warming. Higher humidity=lower density because water vapor is lighter than the molecules it replaces. Water vapor forms clouds, although while the places with the most water vapor in any month are always among the cloudiest, it is not always true that the cloudiest places are among the most humid locations because cloud formation depends on both water vapor and air temperatures. The colder the air, the more readily any water vapor in the air will condense into clouds. The dew point is the temperature to which air must be cooled to become saturated with water vapor. When further cooled, the airborne water vapour will condense to form dew. When air cools to its dew point through contact with a surface that is colder than the air, water will condense on the surface. When the temperature is below the freezing point of water, the dew point is called the frost point, as frost is formed rather than dew.
- Over-farming is taking too much away from the land and not returning enough back, also contributes to the excess of carbon dioxide/greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Exemplify methods to mitigate human impacts on the atmosphere - ANSWER✔✔Organic farming, use of alternative energy sources (solar panels, hydroelectric power, etc.), limiting development, decreasing the burning of fossil fuels, etc. Explain major climate categories (Köppen climate classification system - temperate, tropical, and polar). - ANSWER✔✔The Köppen climate classification divides climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on seasonal precipitation and temperature patterns. The five main groups are A (tropical), B (dry), C (temperate), D (continental), and E (polar). Compare weather and climate. - ANSWER✔✔weather is short term and climate is long term Summarize natural processes that can and have affected global climate (particularly El Nino/La Nina, volcanic eruptions, sunspots, shifts in Earth's orbit, and carbon dioxide fluctuations). - ANSWER✔✔El Nino/La Nina: opposite phases of what is known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle: the fluctuations in temperature between the ocean and atmosphere in the east-central Equatorial Pacific. El Niño is the ocean-atmosphere climate interaction linked to- Warm sea surface: central, east-central Equatorial Pacific. Warm atmosphere: western, central Canada and w,c Northern United States. Wet conditions: U.S. Gulf Coast, Florida. Dry conditions: Ohio Valley, Pacific Northwest. La Nina is the opposite Volcanic eruptions: Magma is lighter than rock so rises towards the Earth's surface. As the magma rises, bubbles of gas form inside it. If magma is thick, gas bubbles cannot easily escape and pressure builds up as the magma rises. When the pressure is too much an explosive eruption can happen. Another way an eruption happens is
when water underneath the surface interacts with hot magma and creates steam. There are different types of volcanic eruptions: Phreatic: explosion of steam, water, ash and rock as magma comes in contact with groundwater or surface water - Rhyolite flow: high-silica lava (>68%) - Basalt flow: low-silica lava (when the silica content is low, lava usually has a higher magnesium and iron content) - Pyroclastic flow: fast-moving hot ash, gas and rock - Lahar: mudflow of pyroclastic material into a river valley - Carbon dioxide emission. Sunspots: Sunspots are darker, cooler areas on the surface of the sun in a region called the photosphere. They are caused by interactions with the Sun's magnetic field which are not fully understood. But a sunspot is somewhat like the cap on a soda bottle: shake it up, and you can generate a big eruption. Sunspots occur over regions of intense magnetic activity, and when that energy is released, solar flares and big storms called coronal mass ejections erupt from Explain the concept of the greenhouse effect including a list of specific greenhouse gases and why CO2 is most often the focus of public discussion. - ANSWER✔✔Heat bounces off the surface of the earth and is reflected back by the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases: Water vapor (H2O) Carbon dioxide (CO2) Methane (CH4) Nitrous oxide (N2O) Ozone (O3) Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) Hydrofluorocarbons (includes HCFCs and HFCs) Sulfur Hexafluoride (SF6) Nitrogen Trifluoride (NF3). CO2 is most talked about because it puts us at greatest risk for irreversible change because it's caused the most change and is most released by human activities, and sticks around for longer than most other greenhouse gases. Outline how deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels (linked to increased industrialization) contribute to global climate change. - ANSWER✔✔Plants and fossil fuels act as containers for large amounts of carbon and when they are burned, they release these into the air as carbon dioxide which traps heat. Also, deforestation removes co2 to o2 converters. Explain how large-scale development contributes to regional changes in climate (i.e. heat islands in large cities like NY, Chicago, Beijing, etc). -
Explain how changes in global temperature have and will impact sea level. - ANSWER✔✔As the temperature rises, so does the sea level because the ice caps melt. Analyze how sea level has been affected by other earth processes such as glaciations and tectonic movements. Consider long- and short-term changes. - ANSWER✔✔Eustatic sea level change represents a global adjustment in the total volume of sea water contained within the oceans' basins. During periods of glaciation, precipitation becomes trapped in glaciers, preventing it from replenishing the Earth's oceans. This results in a global, or eustatic, drop in sea level. Isostatic sea level change results from either the depression or uplift of the Earth's crust. Isostatic depression is caused by the loading of the Earth's crust in a localized area. During glacial periods, ice accumulates over a given area and its weight pushes down on the crust, causing the lowering of the land relative to sea level. Isostatic uplift is caused by a reduction of weight on a given area of the Earth's crust, resulting in the rebounding of the land. Sea level change caused by tectonic factors is the most geographically restricted of these three factors and occurs in seismically-active regions. Due to the mechanics of plate tectonics, stress builds along convergent or transverse plate margins until it is released through the slippage of one crustal block relative to the other along a fault line. This can result in either raised shorelines or drowned beaches. Explain how biotic and abiotic factors determine biome classification (temperature, rainfall, altitude, type of plant, latitude, type of animals). - ANSWER✔✔Climate includes abiotic factors, which determines the biome classification and the life that exists there. Compare impacts of biotic and abiotic factors on biodiversity. - ANSWER✔✔The balance of these factors determines which living things can survive in a particular environment.
Match landforms and soils (and their change over time) to biomes - ANSWER✔✔1. Tropical forests have high mountains, rapid decomposition and thin soil. 2. Deserts have dry sandy soil and can contain mountain regions or plains. Sand dunes are present in these biomes. 3. Temperate forests have thicker soil profiles and sustain many species of trees. 4. The tundra is characterized by permafrost. 5. Grasslands are typically characterized by prairies or plains with dry soil. Rolling hills can also be found in grasslands. 6. The taiga biome has thin, poor quality dry soil. Coniferous and needle leaf trees do well in this biome due to their tightly constructed leaves. Define the biosphere. - ANSWER✔✔The biosphere is all life on earth Explain biodiversity as including genetic variation within populations and variation of populations within ecosystems that makeup the biosphere. - ANSWER✔✔Biodiversity is genetic variation within populations and variation of populations within an ecosystem Infer the relationship between environmental conditions and plants and animals that makeup live within various biomes that comprise the biosphere. - ANSWER✔✔Environmental conditions determine which organisms can survive where by meeting or not meeting the needs of the organisms Explain the global impact of loss of biodiversity. - ANSWER✔✔Loss of biodiversity leads to imbalances in ecosystems, which can lead to mass extinctions. It also makes ecosystems less productive (read: farmland) Explain effects of human population growth, habitat alteration, introduction of invasive species, pollution and overharvesting on various plant and animal species in NC. - ANSWER✔✔Human population growth effects include land use and loss of productivity. The introduction of invasive species bring many effects such as they prey on native species and spreading diseases. Pollution can cause diseases
Include the economics and environmental impacts in this comparison. - ANSWER✔✔Traditional AgriculturePros•___ time • Don't have to __ as many workers•May get more of ___ cropCons•Typically only grow ___ crop ( monoculture)•Often uses ___ and ____•Deplete soil ___ (Need to farm somewhere else after a season or two)•Possible ______ from use of chemical pesticides and _______•Need to _____ buy chemicals and seeds. Sustainable AgriculturePros•_____, continually replenishing ______ in the soil•Extends the "_________"•Don't need to buy chemical _______ and _______. Cons•Takes ___ and _____ to crops to be proactive about problems•Hard to do on a ____ scale(Note: This is just a test plot) Sustainable AgricultureCommon Practices•Aquaculture•Intercropping•Crop rotation•Companion Planting•Trap crops Judge potential impact of sustainable techniques on environmental quality (include magnitude, duration, frequency). - ANSWER✔✔please Explain carrying capacity. - ANSWER✔✔The maximum amount of organisms that can be supported by an environment. Infer limiting factors to human population growth. - ANSWER✔✔Food, fresh water, fossil fuels. Summarize the impacts of a growing population on natural resources in North Carolina - ANSWER✔✔Will use up lots because it's a farming state. Esp. use up space for farming. Explain how ecological footprints exist at the personal level and extend to larger scales. - ANSWER✔✔The impact of a person or community on the environment, expressed as the amount of land required to sustain their use of natural resources.
Evaluate the impact of implementing change that adheres to the "reduce, reuse, recycle" philosophy (e.g. through case studies, data collection/analysis, model development, etc.). - ANSWER✔✔please
