Environmental Midterm Study Guide

List the 4 layers of the Earth’s atmosphere in order and include a fact about each.

troposphere- weather occurs

stratosphere- ozone layer

mesosphere- coldest layer

thermosphere- thinnest/hottest layer

List the planets in order from closest to the sun to furthest/

Mars, Venus, Earth, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto (My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pies)

List the 3 general types of rocks and how they were formed.

Igneous- when rock liquid cools down

Sedimentary- layers of sediment accumulate and cement together

Metamorphic- transformed through heat and pressure

Basalt

Sandstone

Limestone Chalk

Gneiss

Coal

Igneous

Sedimentary

Sedimentary

Metamorphic

Metamorphic

What percent of the Earth is covered in water?

70%

What percent of the Earth’s water is salt?

97%

How thick is the Biosphere?

20km

What is the most common salt in our oceans?

NaCl

What percent of the Earth’s water is fresh water?

3%

List 2 problems fish might have surviving a long time below 500 meters of the ocean.

high pressure

to dark

List 2 reasons an organism might have trouble living at too high an altitude (above 5km).

low pressure

to cold

Other than Earth, list two gas planets and two rocky planets.

gas: Neptune & Uranus

rocky: Mars & Venus

What layer of our atmosphere is most dense (has the most gas) and least dense (has the least amount of gas)?

most dense: troposphere

least dense: thermosphere

The name of this type of ground water?

Arsten wall

What is causing this water to shoot up?

pressure

How does the sun’s energy travel to us?

through the sun’s waves

Distance from the sun to Earth?

150 million kilometers

What could/ would happen if the ozone layer disappeared?

it would increase skin cancer, and we wouldn’t have algae in the water

What direction do we generally receive our weather?

west

What 3 things do we get from the Biosphere?

water, air, food