Physical Connections Exam Review

Practice flashcards covering geologic eras, plate tectonics, glaciation, climate factors, and environmental agreements based on the lecture notes.

Precambrian

An era characterized by volcanic activity, the formation of the Canadian Sheild, and the existence of single cell organisms.

Paleozoic

An era where Canada collided with pangaea, resulting in the formation of the Appalachin mountains and an explosion of life including fish, insects, and amphibians.

Mesozic

The era when Canada moved West and hit the Pacific Plate to form the Rockies, also known as the time of Dinos and Flowers.

Cenozic

The current era which included the Ice age, the rise of mammals, and the drying up of seas.

Wengener's Theory

The theory of continental drift proposing that approximately $300$ million years ago all of earth's landmasses converged to become one land mass called Pangaea.

Pangaea

A large landmass formed $300$ million years ago when all of earth's landmasses converged.

Plate Tectonics

The theory explaining how earth's roughly $20$ plates move because they float upon a layer of liquid rock.

Convection Currents

The continuous circular flow of heat driven in liquid and gases within the mantle that moves tectonic plates.

Esker

Steep ridges that follow the paths of ancient glacial rivers, created when retreating glaciers deposit sand and gravel from rivers flowing under them.

Kettle Lake

Deep lakes created when chunks of glacial ice become buried in layers of till and eventually melt.

Drumland

An oval shapped hill made up of glacial till.

Fiords

Long narrow steep walled inlets created when the sea floods large U Shapped Central Valleys left by retreating glaciers.

Convergent

A tectonic plate movement where two plates move towards eachother.

Subduction

A tectonic process where one plate slides under another.

Transform

A tectonic plate movement where two plates move against eachother.

Divergent

A tectonic plate movement where two plates move apart and new crust is created by magma.

Canadian Sheild

A mountainous region formed during the precambrian era that has since become eroded.

Terminal Morraine

Ridges or piles of glacial till.

Erratic

A large rock or boulder picked up by a glacier and moved great distances before being deposited as the glacier melts.

Weather

A day to day environmental conditions.

Climate

Long term weather patterns of an area.

Westerlies

The prevailing wind system that affects Canada the most, blowing from the West to the East.

Jet stream

A fast flowing river of air in the lower atmosphere that acts as a curtain separating cold arctic air masses and warm gulf air masses.

Maritime West

A climate region characterized by low temperature range, cool summers, mild winters, and high total yearly precipitation.

Maritime East

A climate region characterized by high temperature range, cold winters, warm summers, and lower yearly precipitation.

Continental Climate

A climate region with a large temperature range featuring cold winters, warm summers, and higher precipitation values.

Arctic Climate

A climate region with temperatures dropping into $-30^\text{o}$ in the winter and the low teens in summer, with very low yearly precipitation.

Temp. Range

The difference between the highest temperature and the lowest temperature.

Growing season

The months out of the year where the average temperature exceeds $5.6$ degrees.

Paris agreement: Cop21

A legally binding treaty involving nearly $200$ countries with a global goal of keeping temperatures below $2^\text{o}C$.

Kyoto protocal

An agreement joined by $170$ countries with the goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 5.2 \times 10^{0}\text{%} by $2012$.

Cop25

A conference where the Trudeau government pledged for Canada to become carbon neutral / net zero by $2050$.

Natural Greenhouse Effect

The process where the atmosphere traps the sun's heat, keeping Earth's average temperature at $14^\text{o}C$ rather than $-19^\text{o}C$.