Geog 103

• Water temperature is not a parameter that influences wave height and length during a storm. The parameters are:

• Wind speed

• Wind duration

• Fetch

• True, tidal waves have a lower frequency than wind waves.

Coastal Landforms and Definitions

• Tombolo: Depositional landform connecting rocky headlands to the mainland.

• Spit: Depositional, shore-parallel landform formed by longshore drift.

• Sea Stack: Erosional landform, former bedrock leg of a sea arch.

• Bluff: Erosional landform, steep walls of unconsolidated sediment.

• False, firn is denser than snow.

• The equilibrium line altitude (ELA) does not always occur at the same altitude throughout the year.

Erosional Landforms and Definitions

• Cirque: Bowl-shaped depression at high altitudes.
• Hanging Valley: Valley carved by a smaller, tributary glacier.
• Arête: Steep ridge between two glacial valleys.
• Roche Moutonée: Small, asymmetric bedrock ridges with abraded and plucked surfaces.

Depositional Landforms and Definitions

• Moraine: Ridge-shaped glacial deposit formed at glacier's snout, orthogonal to glacial flow direction.

• Esker: Ridge-shaped glacial deposit formed under ice, aligned with glacial flow direction.

• Drumlin: Small depositional mound, occurs in 'fields' (many features together).

• Advection is not a process contributing to recharge in an aquifer; processes that do are:

• Precipitation

• Infiltration

• Percolation

Types of Soil Water and Definitions

• Hygroscopic: Microscopic water in pore spaces, not available to plants.

• Gravitational: Excess water in a soil, that drains rapidly.

• Capillary: Water held in the pore spaces, may move upward through surface tension.

• False, field capacity is not the minimum amount of water that a soil can hold.

• True, clay has a larger volume of pore spaces than sand.

• (Unconfined) aquifers tend to have a larger recharge zone than (confined) aquifers.

• False, the lithosphere comprises the oceanic and continental crust, and the uppermost part of the mantle.

Earth's Structure Characteristics and Terms

• Moho discontinuity: Transition between mantle and crust.
• Lithosphere: Crust and upper mantle.
• Outer core: Liquid; rich in iron and nickel.
• Crust: Brittle; rich in silica.

Chemical Elements in Earth's Crust (Most to Least Abundant)

• Oxygen
• Silicon
• Aluminium
• Iron

Types of Rocks and Formation Processes

• Sedimentary: Lithification of sediment or shelled organisms.

• Igneous: Solidification of magma or lava.

• Metamorphic: Change of crystalline structure of an existing rock due to intense pressure and/or heat.

• Dating of the ocean floor was not used as evidence for the theory of Continental Drift. The evidence used was:

• Distribution of ice sheets

• Jigsaw-puzzle fit of continents

• Same fossils on different continents

• False, hot spots are not always located along plate boundaries.

Endogenic vs. Exogenic Processes

• Mass Wasting: Exogenic Process

• Weathering: Exogenic Process

• Mantle Convection: Endogenic Process

• Landslide is not a weathering product; the following are weathering products:

• Regolith

• Sediment

• Soil

Chemical vs. Physical Weathering Processes

• Dissolution: Chemical Weathering Process

• Oxidation: Chemical Weathering Process

• Salt-weathering: Physical Weathering Process

• Hydrolysis: Chemical Weathering Process

• Thermal expansion: Physical Weathering Process

• Hydration: Chemical Weathering Process

• False, more resistant rocks weather slower than less resistant rocks.

• Earth is an (open) system in terms of energy and a (closed) system in terms of matter.

• True, a system in steady-state equilibrium experiences no overall change to its average state.

• A negative feedback tends to (decrease) overall instability in a system. This is because it acts against change in a self-regulating manner.

• Two units of energy are joules and calories.

• The Stefan-Boltzman law states that the (higher) the (kinetic) energy of molecules, the (higher) is the temperature of the object made up by the molecules.

Heat Transfer Definitions

• Conduction: Molecule to molecule transfer by molecules in direct contact with each other.

• Convection: Transfer by flowing through a medium (like air or ocean currents).

• Radiation: Heat transfer through electromagnetic waves.

• In the case of condensation, latent heat energy is (released), while latent heat is (absorbed) during evaporation.

• Wien's law states that the (hotter) an object the shorter the peak wavelength of emitted electro-magnetic energy.

• The greenhouse effect refers to the trapping of (long) wave energy emitted by earth in the atmosphere.

Atmospheric Gases (Most to Least Abundant)

• Nitrogen

• Oxygen

• Water vapor

• Carbon Dioxide

• Methane

• The Global Warming Potential of a greenhouse gas refers to its ability to trap heat in the atmosphere compared to carbon dioxide (CO2).

• True, scientists use proxies to estimate global temperatures of the past.

• Besides rising temperatures, other evidence of physical impacts on Earth due to climate change includes sea level rise, ocean warming, sea ice retreat.

• The two first of the eight main geographic factors that influence the climates of the Earth are latitude and elevation.

• The two variables/attributes of climate used in the Koeppen-Geiger climate classification system are precipitation and temperature.

• Milankovitch described repeated cycles in the relative position of Earth and Sun that change the solar constant, eccentricity operates on the longest time scale.

Future Climate Change Scenario Shifts

• Polar Climates: shift to Moist continental mid latitude climates
• Moist Continental mid latitude climates shift to: Moist subtropical mid latitude climates
• Moist subtropical mid latitude climates shift to: Tropical moist climates.

Major Climate Category Letters

• Tropical moist climates (A)

• Moist continental mid-latitude climates (D)

• Polar Climates (E)

• Dry Climates (B)

• Moist subtropical mid altitude climates (C).

• Air pressure (decreases) with altitude due to a lower concentration (density) of molecules.

• Air pressure is (lower) in regions of warm temperatures, because warm air has a (lower) density than cold air.

Pressure Systems and Pressure at Center

• Cyclones: Low Pressure Center
• Anticyclones: High Pressure Center

Pressure Systems and Air Flow

• Cyclones: Toward center.

• Anticyclones: Away from center.

• Wind velocity will (decrease) with distance between low and high pressure center.

• Wind velocity will (increase) with the magnitude of the difference (gradient) between the two pressure systems.

• The degree of deflection by the Coriolis force is (higher) in higher latitudes and (higher) for air masses traveling faster.

• The Coriolis force deflects moving objects in the northern hemisphere: deflection to the right

• The Coriolis force deflects moving objects in the southern hemisphere: deflection to the left

• Winds that occur at high altitude where friction is negligible and pressure gradient force and Coriolis force are perfectly balanced are called geostrophic winds.

• geostrophic winds flow parallel to the isobars.

Physical States of Water (Most to Least Organized)

• Ice

• Liquid Water

• Water Vapor

• Latent heat must be (absorbed) to break down a tight structure of molecules, whereas latent heat must be (released) when a structure is to be formed.

Humidity Descriptive Terms

• Specific humidity: amount of water vapor a parcel of air actually holds

• Maximum humidity: amount of water vapor a parcel of air can hold

• Relative humidity: specific humidity / maximum humidity

• The relative humidity of air at the dew point is 100%.

Freshwater Components by Volume (Largest to Smallest)

• Glaciers

• Groundwater

• rivers and lakes

• Residence time increases with volume.

• Radiation does not result in atmospheric lifting. Ways the atmosphere can be lifted are:

• Convection

• Orographic obstacles

• Convergence

• As air sinks down to the Earth surface it (compresses) and (warms).

• The moist adiabatic lapse rate is (lower) than the dry adiabatic lapse rate, because latent heat is (released) past the dew point.

• Warm fronts experience (more) precipitation than cold fronts, because uplift is (less) rapid.

• True, the ITCZ is predominantly characterized by precipitation due to convergent uplift.

• False, cyclones are associated with low-pressure systems.

• The Atlantic ocean basin receives the highest percentage of total global river discharge.

• The base flow contributors to river flow has the longest reaction time to heavy precipitation.

Contributors to River Flow:

• base flow

• interflow

• direct precipitation

• surface runoff

• Stream discharge patterns are determined by all of the following:

• slope

• Erodibility or resistance of bedrock

• jointing, folding and faulting of bedrock