Global Change Science Midterm

Lithosphere

rocks, Earth’s crust & upper mantle; oceanic & continental crust

Pedosphere

soil: thin layer above crustWhat ar

Lithosphere, pedosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, atmosphere

What are the five spheres?

axial tilt

Climate is controlled by Earth’s position in space related to..?

Exosphere, Thermosphere, Mesosphere, Stratosphere, Troposphere

What are the five layers of the atmosphere?

Convection, conduction, and radiation

What are the three mechanisms of heat transfer?

Thermal, electrical, gravitational, and radiant energy

What are the four different types of energy?

Insolation

Power/unit area of electromagnetic radiation received from the Sun.

Shortwave radiation

Incoming radiation from the Sun.

Longwave radiation

Heat radiated back to the atmosphere from Earth’s surface.

Albedo

Fraction of sunlight a surface reflects.

water vapor and CO2

Longwave radiation is absorbed very well by…

tropical, dry, temperate, continental, and polar

What are the five major climate systems?

Latitudinal association, Earth’s tilt, rotation, and land-sea distribution

What controls the locations of climate zones?

Milankovitch Cycles

Describes the collective effects of changes in Earth’s movements on its climate in geologic time.

The shape of Earth’s orbit, the angle of Earth’s axis with respect to the orbital plane, and the direction Earth’s axis is pointed

What three factors are Milankovitch cycles dominated by?

Milankovitch Cycles, eccentricity, obliquity, and axial precision

What factors generate ice ages and warm periods in 100,000 year intervals?

Less weather development and clear, sunny skies

What kind of weather should you expect at a high pressure zone?

More weather development in the form of clouds, wind, and precipitation.

What kind of weather would you expect at a low pressure zone?

Orographic lift

Wind rises over a mountain

Frontal wedging

Warm air forces over cooler air

Convergence

Piling up of horizontal air flows resulting in upward movement.

Convective lift

Uneven heating of surface, pockets of air rises

Adiabatic cooling

Processes of reducing heat through a change in air pressure caused by volume expansion.

Dew point

Temperature at which a given body of air must be cooled to become saturated with water vapor; dependent on humidity/air pressure

Dry bulb temperature

ambient outdoor temperature

Wet bulb temperature

Temperature taken with a thermometer wrapped in wet cloth; shows the extent to which the body can be cooled by evaporation from sweating.

salinity

Heat convection is not enough to cause ocean circulation. Density differences due to ______ cause deep circulation.

lower

Salinity is ______ at the equator and poles (low pressure, higher rainfall)

water, land

_____ warms more slowly, stores more heat, and cools more slowly than ____

Eureka

Moderating effect via ocean influencing prevailing wind direction

atmosphere and biosphere

What spheres are involved with the fast carbon cycle?

Lithosphere, hydrosphere, and pedosphere

What spheres are involved in the slow carbon cycle?

energy

Bonds in the long carbon chain contain a lot of _____. When those chains are broken, stored _____ is released.

Slow carbon cycle

Driven by rock weathering; CO2 dissolves into ocean > makes water acidic > carbonates; weathered or subducted rock and CO2 is released back to the atmosphere

paleoclimatology

Study of Earth’s atmosphere during our entire 4.6 billion year history.

proxies

Paleoclimatology uses ______ preserved in sediments, rocks, tree rings, corals, and ice sheets to reconstruct past climate in terrestrial and aquatic environments.

isotopes

atoms w/ different number of neutrons than expected.

stable isotopes

isotopes that don’t decay but differ in relative abundance

radioactive isotopes

isotopes that decay to a different element and release energy

Rayleigh distillation

That air cells around the globe evaporate, condense, and precipitate. C

CO2

Burning hydrocarbons releases ___ into the atmosphere.

Alpha, beta, positron, and spontaneous fission of heavy atoms

What are the four types of decay?

alpha decay

a particle with two protons and two neutrons with a charge of +2 is lost from a radiogenetic isotope.

beta decay

spontaneous loss of an electron from a nucleus

positron decay

emission of a positron which is an anti-electron

spontaneous fission of heavy atoms

nucleus splits into two or more nuclei and produces an alpha particle

alpha, beta

_____ and _____ decay are usually combined processes that lead to heavy, unstable isotopes decaying to lighter, more stable elements.

half-life

Radiogenic isotopes have a..?

half-life

The time it takes for half the original concentration of a radioactive isotope to reach 50% of its value

Tiny air bubbles become encased as snowfalls but when snow is compressed into ice, the bubbles are preserved. these bubbles preserve the makeup of the atmosphere and can be tested later on.

How do ice cores provide atmospheric data?

layering

_______ is observable in ice cores and represents change is average ocean surface water temperature.

heavier

Higher temperature water > ______ 18-O evaporating

Temperature, water content, and O2 content

What atmospheric factors effect tree growth?

arid

In ____ climates, tree rings record wet or dry years.

cold

In ____ climates, tree rings record temperatures.

Wind, water, and ice

What are the three mechanisms of sediment deposition?

sediment

Cored _______ can be used to reconstruct paleoclimate because the minerals, biologic materials, and other components preserve the climate record from the time of burial.

speleothems

cave formations; deposition of minerals in caves from groundwater

drought, higher

With speleothems, thin layers indicate ______ while thick layers indicate ______ precipitation.

fluvial

______ sediments are also deposited in caves and can be cored and used to date the sediment feature.

Water temperature, freshwater influx, pH changes, and wave action

What four factors effect the growth of corals?

biomarkers

organic molecules specific to certain organisms.