Term
| The number of F6 tornadoes documented in recorded history is __? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Heat moves from one latitude to another |
|
Definition
| by means of the oceans and the atmosphere |
|
|
Term
| In terms of physics, the formation of tornadoes depends on ________ in a spinning vortex. |
|
Definition
| the conservation of angular momentum |
|
|
Term
| In a tornado, you are likely to be in less danger in a car or mobile home? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| With respect to the greenhouse effect, the Earth's atmosphere is _____ |
|
Definition
| transparent to short and opaque to long-wavelength radiation |
|
|
Term
| Large Plinian eruptions change climate by _____ |
|
Definition
| ash and sulfuric acid blocking out incoming solar light |
|
|
Term
| The air in the center of a tornado |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Annual deaths from tornadoes over the long term |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Over the last 7000 years, there has been a |
|
Definition
| lowering of global average temperature totaling 2 degrees celsius |
|
|
Term
| Internal causes of slope failure include all but which of the following? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| the size of a lump of clay |
|
Definition
| can swell substantially with adsorption of water |
|
|
Term
| A potential threat from the growing hole in the ozone layer is that |
|
Definition
| there will be increased skin cancer in humans |
|
|
Term
| The Earth is ____ during the Northern Hemisphere summer. |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Surface temperatures on Mars are _____ those on the surface of Earth. |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| The Older Dryas and Younger Dryas stages represented |
|
Definition
| two cooling stages during the warm-up from the last major glacial advance |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| The bulk chemical compositions of feldspars and clays are |
|
Definition
| similar, but their internal structures are radically different |
|
|
Term
| In California on March 12, 1928, a dam failed and unleashed a 185-ft hight wall of water moving 18 mph that killed about 420 people. This was caused by ____. |
|
Definition
| dissolution of gypsum cement holding the dam's foundation rock together |
|
|
Term
| When an ice sheet melts into the ocean, it |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Many hill-slope masses are weak due to preexisting geologic conditions such as: |
|
Definition
| ancient slide surfaces, rock layering dipping less than topographic slopes, and structures within the rocks, including as fractures, ancient faults, and thin clay seams (all of these) |
|
|
Term
| The Great Plains region of the central United States plays host to about _____ percent of the tornadoes that occur on Earth. |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Rocks have weaknesses that set-up slope failure in all but which of the following situations: |
|
Definition
| rocks are cemented together |
|
|
Term
| Catastrophic subsidence into sinkholes tends to occur where limestone has been dissolved by ___. |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Glass is opaque to ___ radiation. |
|
Definition
| long-wavelength radiation |
|
|
Term
| In low-pressure atmospheric areas, the overall vertical movement of air tends to be _____. |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Which of the following provides the most favorable conditions for tornado formations? |
|
Definition
| cold, dry air overriding warm, damp air |
|
|
Term
| Freshwater that passes through uplifted sediments containing quick-clay changes the sea-salt content, leaving quick-clay with ____. |
|
Definition
| decreased strength due to low salt content |
|
|
Term
| As noted in the videa "Warnings from the Ice," the most recent research indicates that climatic fluctuations of several degrees Celsius can occur on scales as small as ______. |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Interglacial periods refer to ____. |
|
Definition
| intervals of warmer global average temperatures |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a long-runout movement of a huge mass of earth material at great speed |
|
|
Term
| During a La Nina condition, the trade winds in the Pacific |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| The human drama of the 1930s "Dust Bowl" was captured in many articles and books, including: |
|
Definition
| The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck |
|
|
Term
| The Coriolis Effect is generated by: |
|
Definition
| the rotation of the Earth |
|
|
Term
| The difference between climate and weather is: |
|
Definition
| climate covers long term conditions and weather covers short term processes |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| void space within a soil or rock |
|
|
Term
| Escaping water within a sand body may create quicksand when: |
|
Definition
| the uplifting force of the water exceeds the weight of the sand grains |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| relatively narrow bands of high-velocity winds flowing eastward at high altitudes |
|
|
Term
| Prevailing winds at ocean shorelines |
|
Definition
| tend to be from land to sea in winter |
|
|
Term
| The horse latitudes are located at |
|
Definition
| about 30 degrees north of the equator |
|
|
Term
| Within the context of climate change, a tipping point is: |
|
Definition
| the concept that there are points at which small changes suddenly produce large effects |
|
|
Term
| As shown in the film "Warnings from the Ice," an ice ____ floats on the sea. |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| What type of material caused a major landslide in Norway in 1978 seen in a video in class? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| What effect does high albedo have on Earth's climate? |
|
Definition
| lowers surface temperatures |
|
|
Term
| What gas makes up more that 90% of Mars' and Venus's atmospheres and was also that predominant in early Earth's atmosphere? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| The most important greenhouse gas on Earth is |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Greenhouse-gas effectiveness on a per-molecule basis is |
|
Definition
| greater for methane than for carbon dioxide |
|
|
Term
| Large flood basalt eruptions would change global climate by |
|
Definition
| increasing global temperature from increasing CO2 |
|
|
Term
| A mass movement at Nevados Huascaran in 1970 was triggered by |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Of the following types of mass movements, which moves fastest? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Water tends to move __ in quick sand and ___ in quick clay. |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Which of the following cities has not experienced significant coastal subsidence? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Subsurface erosion by groundwater can cause |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Volcano flank collapse in Hawaii has produced slumps and debris avalanches on the ocean floor that are |
|
Definition
| larger in area than the islands themselves |
|
|
Term
| In a video shown in class, houses were seen to move as fast as 18 mph on top of |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Water weakens earth materials in which of the following ways: |
|
Definition
| interplay with clay minerals, decreasing the cohesion of rocks, subsurface erosion, pressure in pores of rocks and sediments (all of these) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| The sum of all underlying causes can push a slope to the brink of failure, and then an immediate cause may trigger the movement. Triggers for mass movements include |
|
Definition
| heavy rains, earthquakes, thawing of frozen ground, the construction projects of humans (all of the above) |
|
|
Term
| The Dust Bowl in the 1930s was caused primarily by |
|
Definition
| the jet stream position that caused dry air to sink over the plains |
|
|
Term
| As a hurricane forms, the air |
|
Definition
| rises, cools, and releases the latent heat of vaporization, thus heating up the core |
|
|
Term
| Inside the eye of a hurricane, |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| A Himalaya-sized mountain range extending from Wyoming to Ohio would |
|
Definition
| be likely to decrease the number of tornadoes in the Great Plains |
|
|
Term
| The highest wind speed recorded in a hurricane is |
|
Definition
| not as high as the maximum speed ever recorded in a tornado |
|
|
Term
| Cloudiness or snow- and ice-cover may cause solar radiation to be reflected back to space, which is known as |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| The peak season for tornadoes to strike in the US is |
|
Definition
| earlier in the year than for hurricanes in the US |
|
|
Term
| If a hurricane moves east and strikes the west coast of Florida, the most damage will be |
|
Definition
| on the south side of the strike zone |
|
|
Term
| The atmospheric pressure above the mound of water in a hurricane storm-surge is |
|
Definition
| lower than the air pressure in the surrounding area |
|
|
Term
| Freshwater that passes through uplifted sediments containing quick-clay changes the sea-salt content, leaving quick-clay with |
|
Definition
| weak structure, grains mostly less than .002 mm in diameter, water contents commonly in excess of 50 percent, a low salt content (all of the above) |
|
|
Term
| The calmest location in a hurricane is |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Thunderstorms occur where warm, moist air has absorbed enough heat and moisture to be significantly ___ than the surrounding air |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Quick clays are more likely to |
|
Definition
| move when saturated with fresh water |
|
|
Term
| A potential benefit from the growing hole in the ozone layer is that |
|
Definition
| greenhouse effects will be decreased |
|
|
Term
| Surface temperatures on Venus are ______ those on the surface of Earth |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Of the following types of mass movements, which moves slowest? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| The Earth is ___ during the Northern Hemisphere winter |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| In a video shown in class, houses at _____, California, were sliding toward the ocean. |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Slope failures in soil often occur because ____ swell when they get wet |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| A few years ago, a student in this class reported that her great-great-great grandfather died as a result of a mass movement listed in our textbook. This occured at |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| External processes that increase the odds of a slope failure include |
|
Definition
| steepening the slope, as by fault movements, removing support from low on a slope, as by stream or ocean-wave erosion, adding mass high on a slope, as in sediment deposition (all the above) |
|
|
Term
| Clay materials may have their strength lessened by water |
|
Definition
| adsorbed to the exterior of clays, thus spreading the grains apart, absorbed between the interlayer sheets, with resultant expansion (both A and B are correct) |
|
|
Term
| Catastrophic subsidence into sinkholes tends to occur more often in areas underlain by |
|
Definition
| acidic freshwater flowing through limestone |
|
|
Term
| The underlying cause of the Rissa, Norway, landslide was |
|
Definition
| too little salt in the soil |
|
|
Term
| In July 1996, a 162,000 ton mass of granite pulled away from a canyon wall and slid down 540 ft, then launched into the air for a 1,640-ft drop in an arcing trajectory, reaching a speed of 270 mph before hitting the valley floor at |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| When a meteorite produces an impact crater on Earth, the crater typically is |
|
Definition
| about 10 times the diameter of the meteorite |
|
|
Term
| Evidence for the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary impact includes which of the following: |
|
Definition
| shock lamellae in quartz grains from samples worldwide form a layer at that time boundary |
|
|
Term
| The worst diaster (i.e. most people killed) in Kansas since settlement by people of European descent was probably |
|
Definition
| either the blizzard of 1886 or the Udall tornado in 1955 |
|
|
Term
| Arrange the geologic eras in order from youngest to oldest: |
|
Definition
| cenozoic, mesozoic, paleozoic |
|
|
Term
| A state in the US with the fewest lightning deaths in a typical year is: |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| The air in the center of the tornado moves ___ and the air in the center of the eye of a hurricane moves ____. |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| The trend of annual fire-related deaths in the US over the last 20 years has |
|
Definition
| decreased, despite population increase |
|
|
Term
| The elevation change of a stream per unit of horizontal distance is its ___. |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Which of the following was partially destroyed by a large fire in 1871? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Which of the following is most likely to occur in Kansas in the next 100 years? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| The worst flood since 1850 at St. Louis occurred in |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Sinkholes in Kansas are usually related to dissolution of |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| The Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) boundary layer worldwide has a high percentage of the element ____ in its clay, an enrichment about 300 times greater than the normal abundance |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| When space debris blazes through the Earth's atmosphere as a streak of light or shooting star and lands on Earth as a solid rock, it is referred to as |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| If a hurricane moves west and strikes the southern coast of Texas, the most damage will be |
|
Definition
| on the north side of the strike zone |
|
|
Term
| The part of Kansas that was glaciated about 700,000 years ago was |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| Typhoons rotate in a ____ fashion around a central core in the Northern Hemisphere |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| When flooding occurs along a river, as you go further downstream |
|
Definition
| the flooding gets less severe as water spreads out in time and space |
|
|
Term
| Assume that we have a 100-year flood here this year. What is the possibility that a 100-year flood will occur here next year? |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| The presence of a strong La Nina condition |
|
Definition
| correlates to an increase in the number of Atlantic hurricanes |
|
|
Term
| Which of the following US National Parks was devastated by forest fires in 1988, only to undergo renewal of its ecosystem in the years since? |
|
Definition
| Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Idaho and Montana |
|
|
Term
| Worldwide sea level is affected by the rate of sea-floor spreading. A low rate of spreading |
|
Definition
| produces deeper seas and lower sea levels |
|
|
Term
| In comparison to the outer planets, the inner planets have |
|
Definition
|
|
Term
| In effect, the solar energy stored by plants during their growth is |
|
Definition
| returned to the atmosphere when the plants burn during a fire |
|
|
Term
| A stream with too much bed load will result in what type of channel pattern? |
|
Definition
|
|
