The Water Planet – Midterm Study Guide | 460 204, Study notes of Geography

Download The Water Planet – Midterm Study Guide | 460 204 and more Study notes Geography in PDF only on Docsity! CHAPTER ONE: THE EARTH SYSTEM  Earth is a unique planet because it has 1. Plate tectonics 2. Liquid water 3. Life  Earth is made up of : 1. Hydrosphere- earth’s water (except water vapor in the atmosphere) 2. Atmosphere- 70% nitrogen and 20% oxygen, rest argon and carbon 3. Biosphere – organisms and organic matter that hasn’t decomposed 4. Geosphere – rock and regolith  Types of Systems 1. Isolated System – no energy or matter exchange 2. Closed system- energy exchange no matter exchange (Earth) 3. Open system- energy and matter exchange  Feedback 1. Negative feedback – example would be a household central heating; systems response is in the opposite direction of the output. 2. Positive feedback—increase in input leads to a further increase in output; example would be a forest fire (keeps burning and burning) CHAPTER 2: ENERGY  Earth’s energy cycle comprised of: 1. Solar Radiation- incoming short-wave (99.9% of energy) 2. Geothermal Energy – internal heat energy (volcanoes) 3. Tidal Energy  Physical Definitions of Energy A. Potential Energy 1. Chemical energy, Nuclear energy, Gravitational energy, Stored mechanical energy B. Kinetic energy 1. Radiant , Electrical ,Thermal, Sound, Motion EXAMPLE OF CHANGE: chemical (gas) to energy (car) THE SUN  Medium sized middle aged star (hydrogen atoms)  Nuclear Fusion is an energy making process that is continuous in the sun D + T  4He + N The Water Planet Official Study Guide 1. What makes the "Earth System Study" different than traditional scientific disciplines? Earth System Study is a holistic approach of studying the entire planet 2. What are the different components of earth? Hydrosphere- earth’s water (except water vapor in the atmosphere) Atmosphere- 70% nitrogen and 20% oxygen, rest argon and carbon Biosphere – organisms and organic matter that hasn’t decomposed Geosphere – rock and regolith 3. What processes led to the formation of the different chemical elements in the solar system? Nucleosynthesis- Nuclear Fusion of hydrogen and helium atoms created heavier elements 4. What is an atom? An element? Compound? Mineral? An atom is the smallest indivisible particle. An element is a pure substance. A compound is mixture of elements. 5. What are the most abundant elements in Earth, the ocean, and the atmosphere? EARTH- iron (32.1%), oxygen (30.1%), silicon (15.1%), magnesium (13.9%), sulfur (2.9%), nickel (1.8%), calcium (1.5%), and aluminium (1.4%); OCEAN-Element Percent Element Percent Oxygen 85.84 Sulfur 0.091 Hydrogen 10.82 Calcium 0.04 Chlorine 1.94 Potassium 0.04 Sodium 1.08 Bromine 0.0067 Magnesium 0.1292 Carbon 0.0028 ATMOSPHERE-nitrogen (78.1%), oxygen (20.9%), argon (0.96%), followed by (in uncertain order) carbon and hydrogen because water vapor and carbon dioxide, which represent most of these two elements in the air, are variable components. Sulfur, phosphorus, and all other elements are present in significantly lower proportions. 6. What processes led to the evolution of the solar system? The solar nebula hypothesis-started as a huge swirling cloud of cosmic dust and gas. The heavier elements may have come from a supernova of a previous star.6 billion years ago. The sun started burning 4.7 bill years ago. Then cosmic snowballs impacted due to gravitaional attraction called planetary accretion. Melting was caused by the impacts of large matters giving off energy in the form of heat. The melting caused lighter elements to come to the surface of the planets, and heavier elements to go to the core. 23. What is the driving force of the hydrological cycle? What processes determine water movement through the earth system? The sun provides the heat to power the cycle. It evaporates water which enters the atmosphere and moves with the flowing air. Evaporation, condensation, and precipitation are the main pathways for water to move between reservoirs in the system. There is also transpiration where evaporation occcurs on the surfaces of the leaves of plants. And infiltration where water on the surface penetrates into the soil and eventually becomes part of groundwater. 24. What is heat capacity? Visible heat? Latent heat? HEAT CAPACITY- the amount of heat that is required in order to change a body's temperature by a given amount. For example, water has a very high heat capacity because it can absorb a large amount of heat with a minimal change in its actual temperature. So the ocean observes much less change in temperature than on land. Visible Heat- Objects which radiate electromagnetic energy reflect different colors for how hot they are, they start out at a duller color, and as they get hotter they go, orange, yellow, to brighter colors ending at bluish white. Latent Heat- the heat that is released or absorbed per gram during a change of state. ex. It takes 2260J/ g of heat in order to evaporate water. 25. What factors affect light penetration in the ocean? overall light levels (i.e., a cloudy versus a sunny day), the angle at which the light rays meet the water (called the “angle of incidence”) and the roughness of the surface. 26. What is the Sound velocity and what affects it? Sound velocity is the distance a sound wave travels in a unit of time It is affected by the medium of which it is traveling through compressibility and density, for instance sound travels about 4 times faster through water than air. 27. What is the importance of the world's ocean to the earth's climate? Water’s high heat capacity prevents large fluctuations in temperature nears the coasts High heat transmission- efficiently moves heat from hot to cold regions. For example, in the ocean the Gulf Stream transports heat from the equator to the high latitudes of the North Atlantic High latent heat of vaporization - provides a very efficient evaporative cooling. Heat is lost by th evaporation of water from the ocean 28. What is a stream channel? Stream gradient? Discharge? Stream velocity profile? Drainage basin? Divide? Types of stream channels? Stream gradient: the vertical distance that a stream channel descends between two points along its course Discharge: the quantity of water passing a point on a stream bank during a given interval of time Stream velocity profile: Drainage basin: the total area that contributes water to the stream Divide: the line that separates adjacent drainage basins (a high or ridge) Types: meandering stream, smooth loop like bends; and braided streams, a stream with many interlacing channels and bars 29. Types of stream load? Bed load: coarse particles that move along the bed (sediment load) Suspended load: fine particles that are suspended in the water (sediment load) Dissolved load: dissolved substances carried by the stream 30. Why is groundwater important to human society? Because it is the second largest source of freshwater (next to glaciers) which is critical for human survival and health, as well as industry, agriculture, and other economic activities 31. What conditions are necessary for the occurrence of ground water? Precipitation, porous and permeable rock 32. What is an aquifer? Aquiclude? Water table? Aquifer: a body of rock or regolith sufficiently porous and permeable to store and conduct significant quantities of groundwater Aquiclude: a rock or sediment unit that slows or prohibits the passage of groundwater Water table: the upper surface of the saturated zone, if you drill a well, the top surface of the water that rises in the well 33. Type of springs? Wells? Domestic wells (unconfined aquifer) Irrigation and industrial wells (unconfined aquifer) Artesian well (confined aquifer) Artesian Spring (confined aquifer) 34. What processes determine the chemistry and quality of ground water? What is hard water? The contact time the water has with the rocks determines the amount of elements and compounds dissolved into the water, ie. The more time the water spends in direct contact with the rock, the more mineral constituents will be dissolved from the rock into the water. Hard water is water that is in contact with an abundant amount of limestone therefore rich in dissolved calcium and magnesium bicarbonates 35. What factors determine seawater salinity? density? Salinity: 1. Evaporation, which removes fresh water and leaves the remaining water saltier; 2. Precipitation, adds fresh water, thereby diluting the seawater and making it less salty; 3. Inflow of fresh (river) water, which makes the sea water less salty; 4. Freezing of sea ice because when seawater freezes salts are excluded from the ice, leaving the unfrozen seawater saltier Density: temperature and salinity, seawater becomes denser as its temperature decreases and as its salinity increases. 36. Types of ocean circulation? Surface currents vs. deep-water circulation? Surface currents: result from radiation from the sun that provides heat energy to the atmosphere, no uniform heating generates winds, these winds in turn drive the movement of the ocean’s surface water Deep water circulation: since these are too deep to be influenced by wind and frictional drag, the movement is driven by the characteristics of water itself, especially temperature and salinity, which cause the water to be more or less dense and thus to sink or float more readily 37. What is the Coriolis Effect? What is upwelling? Downwelling? Coriolis Effect: causes all moving bodies to be deflected to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern. The magnitude of this force varies with latitude with the strongest angular velocity at the poles, and the weakest near the equator. Upwelling: when the net Ekman transport is away from land, subsurface water flows upward and replaces the water that is moving away Downwelling: when the net ekman transport is toward the coast, the surface water thickens and sinks 38. What is El Nino? ENSO is a combined ocean-atmosphere phenomenon occurring in the tropical Pacific Ocean but