6: Hydrosphere + Lithosphere Flashcards
What are fossil fuels?
- Coal, natural gas, oil
- Emit thermal energy through combustion
- Come from organic residue (animals/plants buried under sand, silt, rocks and minerals)
Define uranium’s characteristics/benefits/downsides
- Radioactive, natural element
- Handful will produce same amount of energy as 70k KG of coal
- Creates energy through fission
- No greenhouse gas emissions
- Radioactive, hard to handle and get rid of
Define geothermic energy characteristics/benefits/downsides
- Comes from Earth’s internal heat
- Fluid circulates underground, then heated up and converted into electricity
- Used in volcanic regions where hot water rises to surface
- Reduced heating cost, renewable, no greenhouse gas
- Expensive
What is soil depletion caused by?
- Heavy machinery compacting soil, depriving it from oxygen and rain penetrating ground
- Water runs off into bodies of water, carrying nutrients with it
- Crop rotation too fast/often without letting soil regenerate
- Too many fertilizers used
- Pesticides killing microorganisms, insects, and small animals helping maintain soil balance
What is contamination and what is it caused by?
Abnormal presence of harmful substance in the env.
- Overuse of pesticides/fertilizers
- Gas stations leaking hydrocarbons
- Landfills leaking water containing heavy metals
- Mining waste spreading acidic residue
- Acid rain (pH4 instead of 5-5.5)
What are the problems with acid rain?
- Soil can no longer retain nutrients essential to plant life
- Slows down plant/tree growth
- Kills microorganisms beneficial to plants
Define the hydrosphere’s characteristics
- Earth’s outer layer of water (liquid, solid, gas forms)
- 2/3 of earth covered in water
- 2.5% fresh water, 79% frozen (glaciers)
What are inland waters?
- Fresh water found on continents
- Watersheds: waters draining into same larger body of water (drainage basin/catchment area)
What are the 3 subwatersheds in QC?
- Hudson bay
- Ungava bay
- St Lawrence river
What factors affect subwater sheds?
- Topography (shape, slope, terrain)
- Geology (type, depth, rock structure)
- Climate (precipitation, temp)
- Vegetation (density, diversity)
- Agric./indus./urban dev.
What are the 5 oceans?
Indian, Pacific, Atlantic, Arctic, Southern
What are temperature zones influenced by?
Depth: sunlight warms upper layer, varied by winds tides and waves. 200m in, temp falls (thermocline), cold.
Seasons: loss of heat stored during summer
Latitude: more heat at equator (25-28C) vs poles (12-17C)
Define salinity’s characteristics
- Salt dissolved in water
- Sea water against rock degrades it, eats up salt
- Average ocean salinity between 3.4%-3.7%
- Melting glaciers lower salinity to 3%
- Water evaporates in dry areas, salinity 4%
Ocean circulation vs current
Circulation: combined effects of currents moving across oceans
Current: movement of seawater in a certain direction (surface and subsurface)
What is the thermohaline circulation?
Regulates ocean temp between Equator and poles by bringing cold water down, hot water up, and back around
What is the cryosphere?
Portion of Earth’s water that is frozen
Define pack ice
- Ice floating near poles
- Frozen fresh water pushes out salt
- Ice floes (smaller sheets of pack ice)
- Sea levels do not rise because water was already there
Define glaciers
- Mass of ice on land
- Formed by compressed snow
- Slides off land, creates icebergs, melt and rise sea levels
- Melted, affect density and salinity, thereby affecting ocean current and weather patterns
- Ice density 0.91g/mL
Define hydroelectricity and its (dis)advantages
- Energy from moving water (hydraulic)
- Water activates turbines, connected to alternators to make mechanical energy into electricity (hydroelectric dam)
- Renewable, little greenhouse gas emissions
- Floods large water areas, mercury released, fish ingest, we eat
Define wave/ocean currents
- Buoys use waves from turbines to create electricity
- Underwater turbines use ocean currents
- Very expensive, new (prototype level)
What is eutrophication?
- Phosphorous/nitrogen based substance (fertilizer) lands in water, promoting algae growth
- Algae cover the water, blocking sun from entering (photosynthesis)
- Dead algae sink and collect, decomposing bacteria eats up oxygen too fast, cutting oxygen off from other organisms which die
What is permafrost?
- Ground temp below 0 for 2+ years, covers methane
- Canada 50% permafrost
- Active layer thaws in summer
- Impossible to build or cultivate
