EPS 7 Homework #7

Natural gas is

fossilized plankton

January is during the Southern Hemisphere's

summer

Coal is

fossilized peat

What is plankton?

Any collection of microscopic organisms that drift in the sea.

When was most oil formed?

Jurassic period 150 Mya

What is another way to write 300 Mya?

0.3 Gya

Respiration is best described by what chemical reaction?

O2 + CH2O → CO2 + H2O + photon

What is the empirical formula for coal?

C or CH

When was the Earth formed?

4.5 Gya

Atmospheric CO2 decreases most rapidly in

Northern-Hemisphere summer

What is 3 Gya?

3 billion years ago

When was most coal formed?

Carboniferous period 300 Mya

What causes the seasons?

the Earth's axis of rotation is tilted with respect to Earth's orbital plane

When the Northern Hemisphere is in summer, the Southern Hemisphere is in

winter

What is the empirical formula for gas?

CH4

What is peat?

soggy swamp soil

Photosynthesis is best described by what chemical reaction?

CO2 + H2O + photon → O2 + CH2O

Oil is

fossilized plankton

Which is not a contributing factor to the seasonal cycle in atmospheric CO2?

CO2 is a greenhouse gas.

When was the universe formed?

14 Gya

What is the empirical formula for oil?

CH2

What is the current concentration of atmospheric CO2?

400 ppm

If the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere increases by 100 GtC, roughly how much does the concentration of CO2 increase?

50 ppm

Roughly at what rate are fossil fuels being burned today?

10 GtC/year

What is roughly the per-capita consumption of oil in the United States?

20 barrels/year

Roughly how much of the recoverable coal have humans used?

a few percent

What is a GtC?

A billion tons of carbon

Roughly how much of the recoverable oil have humans used?

half

Roughly at what rate are the ocean and plants absorbing CO2 at present?

5 GtC/year

In a business-as-usual scenario, what is a likely concentration of atmospheric CO2 in the year 2100?

1000 ppm

How many GtC were there in the preindustrial atmosphere?

600 GtC

How much fossil fuel have humans burned?

400 GtC

Which of the following carbon pools has the largest amount of carbon at present?

Coal

Roughly at what rate is the atmospheric concentration of CO2 increasing?

2.5 ppm/year

If the concentration of atmospheric CO2 increases by 100 ppm, roughly how much more carbon is there in the atmosphere?

200 GtC

What is roughly the per-capita consumption of coal in the United States?

3 tons/year