Exam Study Guide

True/False/Multiple Choice Answers

  1. c. Iron

  2. a. Anthracite

  3. b. Table Salt

  4. d. Sulfuric Acid

  5. b. It floats and has many vesicles

  6. d. Discharge

  7. a. True

  8. d. 1:100

  9. a. Recurrence Interval

  10. True

  11. False

  12. c. Recurrence interval

  13. d. Flood

  14. d. On average, we can expect a flood of this size or greater to occur within a 100-year period.

Key Concepts

Iron Ores

  • Hematite, magnetite, and pyrite are iron ores.

Anthracite

  • Anthracite has the highest carbon content among coal types.

Halite

  • Halite is the mineral form of sodium chloride (table salt).

Pyrite Decomposition

  • Pyrite decomposition produces sulfuric acid.

Pumice

  • Pumice is lightweight and porous; it floats due to vesicles (gas bubbles).

Discharge

  • Discharge measures river flow rate (e.g., cubic meters per second).

Flooding

  • Flooding is a significant issue for U.S. waterways.

100-Year Flood

  • A 100-year flood has a 1% annual probability (1:1001:100 ratio).

Recurrence Interval (RI)

  • RI is the average time between flood events of a given magnitude.

Flood Stage

  • Flood stage occurs when water overflows stream banks.

Climate

  • is the an average of the long-term weather pattern across a geographic area, which is complicated metric contolled by factors wiiiith the lithosphere, atmosphere, sryosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere an anthoposphere as well as factors beyond our own planet.

Weather

  • is the local and short-term pattern in temperature, humidity, precipitation, atmospheric pressure, and wind, which can change rapidly and affects daily life and environment.

Albedo

  • The proportion of solar radiation that is reflected off the Earth surface is called

Greenhouse

  • gases in the atomsphere allow sunlight to pass through and reach earth surface but absorb terrestrial energy and radiate it in all direction including back to the surface of the earth