MEA 100 Exam 2

What evidence do we have that precipitation > evaporation on land?

Rivers flow into the sea.

The renewability of a water resource depends on the ___________, not the ______.

Flux, reservoir size

Where is the largest reservoir for water in the hydrologic cycle

Ocean

Which list of water reservoirs in the hydrologic cycle is correctly ordered from largest to smallest in size?

Ocean – Ice – Groundwater

Which fluxes in the hydrologic cycle most directly involve the biosphere?

Evapotranspiration

Which process in the hydrologic cycle releases heat?

Condensation

Seawater sinks from the surface to the deep ocean when it is…

cold and has high salinity.

The thermohaline system refers to…

Ocean circulation.

What direction do ocean gyres turn in the northern hemisphere? Why?

Clockwise because of the rotation of the Earth

Which factors affect the circulation of surface ocean currents?

All of the above

Wind blowing from south to north along the western coast of southern Africa causes

Western movement of surface water and coastal upwelling

A(n) _____________ in salinity or a(n) _____________ in temperature would cause the density of water in the North Atlantic to ____________ and ___________ the formation of new bottom water.

Decrease; increase; decrease; inhibit

How long does it take water to circulate from the surface North Atlantic to the deep North Pacific Ocean? How do we measure this time interval?

2000 years; Use of the naturally occurring radioactive tracer, 14C

An artesian well (where water flows up to the surface without pumping) must be sunk into…

a confined aquifer.

A spring occurs…

where the water table intersects Earth’s surface.

When a river meander cuts off to form an oxbow lake, the sinuosity (curviness) of the river…

decreases.

Use the diagram above to answer this question. Where along this stream would you find the greatest velocity?

A

Use the diagram above to answer this question. What is the name of the feature labeled D?

Oxbow lake

Which of the following is NOT an impact of excessive groundwater water withdrawal?

Changing the porosity of the bedrock

What changes occur in a stream/river in moving from the headwaters toward the coast?

Channel gradient decreases

Under which type of conditions would you expect to have groundwater come from a great distance away

A confined aquifer

___________________ is a measure of how easily a solid allows fluids to pass through it.

Permeability

A watershed is ________________

the area of land that is drained by a river stream

Which of these are examples of groundwater discharge?

d.A and B

A lack of access with clean drinking water is most strongly correlated with

Low GDP or low socioeconomic status

In Bangladesh, villagers were encouraged to drill wells extract groundwater instead of using surface water that was often contaminated by bacteria. However, it was later discovered that at the depth most of the wells were drilled, the sediments naturally contained high levels of Arsenic. In this example, an attempted solution to a water ________ threat led to a water _______ threat.

Quality; quality

The Ogallala Aquifer spans 8 states in the Midwest and accounts for 30% of the groundwater used in the U.S., but the water table in the aquifer is dropping by as much as 2 ft per year. What are some possible outcomes of continued over-pumping of this aquifer?

d.A & C

Which of the following are actions that governments have taken/allowed in order to meet demand for water resources?

All of the above

The amount of water vapor needed to saturate air…

increases with increasing temperature.

Ultraviolet radiation from the sun is absorbed by…

Ozone gas, O3 (g)

List the constituents of the atmosphere from most to least abundant.

nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide

Assuming moisture content remains constant, how does relative humidity change with rising air?

Increases

Which two layers of the atmosphere increase in temperature with increasing height?

Thermosphere and stratosphere

The process of __________ added molecular oxygen to the atmosphere.

Photosynthesis

__________ is a form of oxygen that is able to absorb the most lethal kind of ultraviolet rays from the Sun.

Ozone

How do we know that Earth’s early atmosphere had very little oxygen?

We find rock types from that time that could only have formed in a low-oxygen environment.

How does the temperature of the atmosphere change as you go up in altitude near the surface of the Earth?

It decreases due to adiabatic expansion

What is a distinct way the atmosphere is important for life on Earth.

All of the above

Which of the following best describes Earth’s global energy balance?

Sunlight in = Infrared radiation out

Air, and other fluids, flow from areas of ___________ pressure to areas of ____________ pressure.

High, low

If the Earth was not rotating on its axis (but was stationary instead), how would wind flow?

Air would flow directly from high to low pressure

Differential heating is responsible for the surface winds on Earth and the predominant atmospheric circulation cells. What is the cause of this differential heating?

The curvature of the earth causes the sun to provide more energy per unit area at the equator than at high latitudes

How does uneven heating of the Earth’s surface lead to global atmospheric convection?

Air heated at the equator becomes less dense and rises.

Near the equator the general trend in winds is to __________; the general trend in surface ocean water circulation is to __________.

Converge, diverge

Which model best represents global atmospheric circulation?

c

Most water in the atmosphere is…

in the vapor phase in the tropics.

Although there are different mechanisms involved, clouds generally form when

Air is lifted

Which best describes a low pressure system at the surface?

Rising warm, converging air at the surface and diverging, moist (higher RH) air aloft.

Hot Arid Deserts are most often found where?

At the intersection of cold, dry, descending circulation cells

__________ is the average weather conditions of a place.

Climate

ENSO (El Nino Southern Oscillation) is an interaction between the _______________ and the ______________.

Hydrosphere (ocean); atmosphere

Without thermohaline circulation, the climate in northern latitudes would be _________.

Colder