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Earth Systems
Spring Semester Exam Study Guide
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Completed Study Guide will count as lab grade. Turn in on Exam Day.
Define or answer the question:
Ch 10- Continental Movement
1. What is Wegener’s hypothesis and what mechanism finally verified it?
2. How does sediment near mid-ocean ridges explain the age of the sea floor?
3. How does sea floor spreading relate to continent movement?
4. What evidence is used to support the theory of continental drift?
5. What are three types of plate boundaries? (know the movement of each)
6. What are three causes of plate motion?
Ch 11- Crustal Deformation
7. Deformation
8. Isostasy
9. Fault plane / hanging wall / foot wall
10. What are the three types of faults?
11. What are three types of tectonic plate collisions that form mountains?
12. What are the three types of mountains and how do they form?
Ch 12- Earthquakes
13. Elastic rebound
14. Focus
15. Epicenter
16. What are the two types of seismic waves and which is fastest?
17. How are convergent plates and divergent plates different?
18. What causes tsunamis?
Ch 13-Volcanoes
19. What are the pyroclastic material types based upon size?
20. What is a subduction zone?
21. What happens at mid-ocean ridges?
22. What geologic areas have the highest volcanic activity?
23. How do calderas form?
24. What are hotspots?
Ch 14- Weathering
25. How does mechanical weathering differ from chemical weathering?
26. What are three types of mechanical weathering?
27. Which climate conditions have the fastest rate of weathering?
28. What are the factors that affect the rate of weathering?
Ch 15- Rivers
29. Desalination
30. Stream load
31. Gradient
32. Meander
33. Alluvial fan
34. Floodplain
35. What are the three types of stream load?
36. What factors contribute to a river’s erosive ability?
37. Describe the evolution of a river from meander to oxbow lake.
38. What methods do humans use for flood control?
Ch 16- Groundwater
39. Aquifer
40. Permeability
41. Cone of depression
42. What two factors affect an aquifer’s ability to hold water?
Ch 17- Glaciers
43. Cirque
44. Amrête
45. Erratic
46. Moraine
47. Milankovitch theory
48. What causes ice ages?
49. What are two ways in which glaciers move?
50. What are two types of glacier? (know the difference)
51. What is glacial till?
Ch 18- Wind and Water Erosion
52. Saltation
53. What are the effects of wind erosion?
54. What determines the composition of beaches?
55. Why are barrier islands important?
Ch 19- not tested
Ch 20- not tested
Ch 21- Ocean Currents
56. Coriolis effect
57. What causes surface currents?
58. What happens as a tsunami approaches shore?
59. What causes tides?
Ch 22- The Atmosphere
60. What are the percentages of the two primary gases in the atmosphere?
61. Why is the ozone layer important and what chemicals may destroy it?
62. In which layer does most weather occur?
63. What is albedo?
64. What is a temperature inversion and why may it be harmful?
65. What is convection and how does it affect the atmosphere?
Ch 23-Water in the Atmosphere
66. How do clouds form?
67. How does cloud seeding work?
68. Why are some hail stones larger than others?
Ch 24- Weather
69. How does air move?
70. What is an air mass?
71. Page 607- interpret and understand the map symbols
72. Page 617- understand the weather map, figure 3.
73. Stationary front
74. Occluded front
75. Hurricane & tornado
Chapter 25: Climate
76. Page 636, figure 5
77. What is a rain shadow?
78. How do elevation, latitude and large bodies of water affect climate?
79. What are three non-human potential causes of climate change?