Weather and Climate Patterns

• The most significant hurricane damage along a coastline is generally due to storm surge
• Hurricane formation is most likely where there is little wind shear, some Coriolis force to provide spin, and warm ocean water to provide energy
• In the hydrologic cycle, runoff from continent to ocean is about 95% overland and about 5% through groundwater
• In a water budget graph, the area between the potential evapotranspiration and actual evapotranspiration curves refers to a period of soil moisture withdrawal
• According to the Principle of Continentality, coastal locations have smaller annual and daily temperature ranges than inland locations
• A lateral moraine will form parallel to the glacier along the edge of the ice mass
• A folded feature that resembles a dip or trough in the rock layers is called a syncline
• Along a coast, when the inland area warms up during the day, there is likely to be a sea breeze
• A mid-latitude cyclone will form along the polar front, below a region of divergence in the jet stream
• An effusive type of eruption will tend to build shield volcanoes
• A coastal structure that is built to protect the mouth of a harbor, which extends out from the coast to interrupt sediment movement, is a jetty
• A flat surface formed by erosion at sea level, which may be covered by water at high tide and fully exposed at low tide, is a wave-cut platform

EC Practice Quiz 02

• Using the saturation specific humidity chart, the dew point of a parcel of air with a measured specific humidity of 20 g/kg, is 25° C
• The relative humidity of a parcel of air at a temperature of 20° C and a measured specific humidity of 5 g/kg is 33%
• Atmospheric pressure is highest at the surface and decreases with elevation
• Both air mass thunderstorms are most likely to form when the lower troposphere is humid and unstable
• To get condensation(cloud and rain drops), the air must be saturated, cooling the air by lifting is the way to produce rain
• In terms of surface temperature and energy, latitude is important because solar energy hits the surface less directly at higher latitudes (latitude determines the sun angle)
• In terms of surface temperature, clouds might cool the surface by reflecting sunlight, warm the surface by absorbing longwave radiation and re-radiating energy downward, and decrease the diurnal temperature range
• In the Northern Hemisphere, the jet stream is found above the polar front and is stronger and shifted south during the winter
• In the three-cell model of global circulation, the dominant surface pressure feature near the Equator is the Equatorial Low
• In the troposphere, temperature decreases the higher you go

EC Practice Quiz 03

• In Figure 2, upper level divergence is most likely occurring at point C
• In Figure 2, the upper-level winds at Point A is blowing from the northeast
• An igneous rock that cools and solidifies below ground and will usually have a texture characterized by intrusive; large crystals (coarse grain)
• An underground formation of rock, sand, or gravel that contains water is An aquifer
• As an ocean wave travels through the water, the movement of water molecules due to the passages of the wave is detectable down to a depth of approximately one-half the wavelength
• In an alpine glacial environment, a cirque is formed when ice erodes a bowl-shaped depression in the mountainside, near the upper part of the mountain glacier
• In a river meander, the depositional feature that forms on the inside of the curve is called a point bar
• In a stream, the form of transportation in which particles are rolled or slid along the bottom is traction
• Stress applied to a block of crust involves a permanent deformation of the rock, but not an actual break involving plastic (ductile) deformation
• When a falling precipitate particle melts into liquid, then refreezes into solid ice before hitting the ground, it is a form of precipitation that is referred to as sleet
• When a fault plane dips down below the Earth's surface at an angle other than vertical, the side of the fault, that is underneath the other is known as the footwall
• Carbon dioxide is NOT one of the three largest constituents of the atmosphere

EC Practice Quiz 04

• A tapered, elongated hill formed when a continental ice sheet deposits and rearranges sediment is a drumlin
• In a floodplain, a secondary river flowing parallel to the main river but not joining it is a yazoo tributary
• In the figure, the band of winds labeled H is the Polar easterlies
• The figure below is a surface high pressure feature produced dynamically by sinking air

Weekly Quiz 01

• If the concentration of a gas in the atmosphere significantly changes from season to season or from place to place, then variable gas concludes that this is a variable gas

• The Earth makes its closest annual approach to the sun on January 4, the date of perihelion

• The most common gas in the Earth's atmosphere is nitrogen

• The ozone layer is located in the stratosphere

• When the sun angle is low, the intensity of radiation arriving at the surface will be reduced because the radiation is spread out over a larger area when it hits obliquely., and the longer path diagonally down through the atmosphere means more of the energy is prevented from reaching the surface

• The latitudes that will have the largest seasonal range of day length are 75° S

• At the Tropic of Capricorn, on 1 day per year, the sun will be directly overhead at solar noon

• Two layers of the atmosphere are characterized by inversions, which is the thermosphere and the stratosphere

• The atmosphere is most dense near the surface because it is cooler in the lower layers, and the density increases(a basis gas law)

• 100 mb is the pressure level will be found farthest above the Earth's surface

• The four basic spheres of physical geography refers to the upper layers of the solid planet (i.e., the rock and landforms of the Earth's surface) is the lithosphere

• The Earth is warmer in summer than in winter because the Earth's tilt allows the sun's rays to hit more directly

Weekly Quiz 02/3

• According to the Principle of Continentality, an inland location has higher seasonal temperature variability than a coastal site at the same latitude
• Deserts tend to be hot during the day and cool at night because during the day, most surplus energy goes into sensible heating of the atmosphere, and at night, the lack of clouds and water vapor allows longwave energy to escape easily
• In the local radiation balance, clouds may cool the surface by reflecting incoming solar radiation, warm the surface by absorbing/trapping outgoing longwave radiation and decrease the diurnal temperature range
• The latitudinal gradient of temperature is weakest in summer because in summer, sun angles are higher the farther poleward you go
• Day lengths are always shorter as you go poleward, which does NOT help to explain why high-latitude (polar) locations are cooler than lower latitudes throughout the year
• The Earth emits most of its radiation at longer wavelengths than the sun
• The energy that is required when water evaporates, which is then released into the atmosphere when the water vapor condenses, is latent heat
• The method of energy transfer in which heat is moved by the mixing (or turbulence) of a liquid or gas is called convection
• The percentage of radiation striking an object that is reflected away is the albedo
• Carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapor are important greenhouse gases
• clouds are the largest overall contributor to the planetary albedo
• Over a wet surface, latent heat transferring energy to the atmosphere accounts for the most net radiation received during the day

Weekly Quiz 05

• Referenced by the letters on the figure, L indicates the location of the Southeasterly Trades
• When a mT air mass advances into a cP air mass, there will be a warm front
• Sinking air, you would not expect to find at the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)
• An air mass formed over the open ocean in the Icelandic Low (North Atlantic) very likely has cool temperatures and moderate humidity
• Mid-latitude cyclones form when a low surface-pressure center develops along the polar front underneath upper-level divergence in the Polar Front Jet Stream
• During the Northern Hemisphere summer, the large-scale circulation feature that will have the most significant and direct impact on California is the Pacific (Hawaiian) High
• The Lakes are frozen over, and thus can't warm and humidify the passing air masses, is why Lake Effect snows in Buffalo get fewer in later January
• The large curves (meanders) in the flow of the upper-level westerlies are called Rossby Waves
• Referenced by the letters of the idealized Three-Cell Model, region C and D contains the Hadley Cell
• Typically, a surface anticyclone (high pressure cell) is characterized by descending air, diverging surface winds, and clear, sunny conditions
• In the northern hemisphere, the Coriolis force turns winds right and is stronger near the pole
• Santa Ana Winds are warm winds because They are warmed adiabatically by compression as they descend from higher elevations

Week 06 Quiz

• In an unconfined aquifer, the top of the zone of saturation is the water table
• In the soil column, the water that is loosely held against the pull of gravity, and thus is available to plants and evaporation, is capillary water
• Potential evapotranspiration (PET) is primarily determined by temperature
• In the water budget graph below, region B refers to a period of soil moisture withdrawal
• The oceans contain about 97% of all the water on the planet
• Hurricanes are large, cyclonically (counter-clockwise) rotating storms, with rotation source from the Coriolis Effect
• Air mass thunderstorms are short-lived because the downdrafts caused by falling rain tend to snuff out the updrafts that produced the storm.
• In a hurricane, the most severe weather will be found in the eyewall
• Tornadoes occurs most annually in the United States
• Fujita Scale is used to describe the intensity of a tornado
• When a hurricane makes landfall, the local rise in sea level results from water being pushed up against the shoreline is storm surge
• Hurricanes are most likely to form in the summer in the tropical Atlantic

Week 07 Quiz

• Slow vertical movement of the Earth’s crust, that can occur when a weight such as an ice sheet is removed, describes Isostatic rebound
• Exogenous is a geomorphic process that is driven by energy outside of the Earth system
• Both radioactive decay and collisions with other objects are the sources of partial melting to the Earth originally solid based on the nebular hypothesis
• Convergent, between two oceanic plates, describes the formation of island arcs
• Ancient, stable core of a continental landmass is the craton
• Soft or 'plastic-y' internal layer of the Earth on which the continents float describes the asthenosphere
• The type of rock that makes up oceanic crust is said to be mafic, which has high concentrations of magnesium and iron, and is relatively dense
• Middle Mantle NOT a layer of the Earth’s mantle
• Sill is an intrusive igneous structure that is tabular and concordant
• Diverging plates of the Earth, new oceanic crust is produced
• Batholith will generally cover the largest spatial extent
• Transform, is a description that fits the San Andreas Fault in California

Week 09 Quiz

• Horizontal displacement along the line of the fault describes strike-slip
• elastic deformation of rock stores the released energy in an earthquake
• A long ridge in a folded landscape is an anticline
• Seismic waves radiate out in all directions from the point where an earthquake occurs; the fastest waves are the P-waves
• Deposition around a curve in a meandering river is likely to occur on the inside of the curve, forming a point bar
• Flood deposits made up of the coarsest (heaviest) materials may form a natural levee along the edge of the overflowing river
• Saltation refers to the stream form of transportation in which particles are bounced along the bottom
• Oxbow lake results from water trapped in an altered curve of a river
• A tilted fault-block mountain or range can be found in the Sierra Nevada
• Refers to the size of the objects that the stream can maintain in transport
• Pothole is formed in a stream uses rock and gravel to abrade and scour the stream bed in times of flood
• At the fault called hanging wall, one would be crawling down into a normal fault with a dip of 45°

Week 10 Quiz

• On the east coast in the mid-latitudes, a warm current flows towards the pole
• Different parts of a wave slow down at different times producing wave refraction and concentrates energy on points and headlands
• When Earth, Sun, and Moon are in a straight line, spring tides
• Beach drift sediments are in zig-zag movement across a beach and as breaking waves swash diagonally up and down along the sand
• Esker is formed by a sediment deposit from a stream flowing along and beneath a glacier
• The water depth is less than one-half of the wavelength to begin the wave break
• Tombolo is a depositional feature formed in the coastal environment
• Moraines are not an erosional features of glaciers
• Changing tilt of Earth's axis is one of the factors that has controlled the expansion and contraction of continental scale ice sheets in the ongoing Ice Age of the last ~2 million years