apes unit 4

Question 1

la nina

Answer 1

la Nina is an over exaggeration of the seasonal pattern. The Eastern Pacific is colder than during normal conditions.

Question 2

el nino

Answer 2

El Nino is a weakening of the normal seasonal pattern.

Question 3

el nino and la nina

Answer 3

Both El Nino and La Nina have an impact on climate across the globe - disrupting normal wind patterns and precipitation.

Question 4

Ecological Footprint

Answer 4

A rough measure of the amount of biologically productive land needed to sustain a person or population.
More developed countries have large ecological footprints.
Less developed countries tend to have smaller footprints.
Recall the IPAT Equation
Impact = (population) (affluence) (technology)

Question 5

Equinox

Answer 5

Equinox - September and March - Sun is directly over the equator and shines evenly north and south of the equator.

Question 6

solstice

Answer 6

Solstice - December and June - Sun shines over one of the Tropical Latitudes resulting in uneven sun exposure in N & S. Hemisphere..

Question 7

seasons caused by

Answer 7

Earth’s tilted axis causes the seasons. Throughout the year, different parts of Earth receive the Sun’s most direct rays. When the North Pole tilts toward the Sun, it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere. When the South Pole tilts toward the Sun, it’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

Question 8

water shed

Answer 8

A watershed is an area of land that drains all the streams and rainfall to a common outlet such as the outflow of a reservoir, mouth of a bay, or any point along a stream channel.

Question 10

Coriolis Effect

Answer 10

Occurs due to rotation of Earth on its axis.
Explains ocean current patterns and wind and storm patterns.

Question 11

urban heat island ppl

Answer 11

Caused by differing ability of building vs. plant materials to absorb and hold heat. Human activity is also a factor. Effect is more drastic at night and during weak winds.

Question 12

Plate Tectonics

Answer 12

The inner core of solid iron is surrounded by an outer core of molten iron, and the rocky mantle includes the molten asthenosphere near its upper edge.
At Earth’s surface, dense and thin oceanic crust abuts lighter, thicker continental crust.
The lithosphere consists of the crust and the uppermost mantle above the asthenosphere.

Question 13

The Continental Drift Theory

Answer 13

1915 – Alfred Wegener proposed that all present day continents originally formed one land mass (Pangaea). Wegener believed that this super-continent began to break up into smaller continents around 200 million years ago. He based this theory on five factors:
1. Fossilized tropical plants were discovered beneath Greenland’s icecaps.
2. Glaciated landscapes occurred in the tropics of Africa and South America
3. Tropical regions on some continents had polar climates in the past, based upon paleoclimatic data.
4. The continents fit together like pieces of a puzzle.
5. Similarities existed in rocks between the east coast of North America and South America and the west coasts of Africa and Europe.

Continental drift gained acceptance in the 1960s when the theory of plate tectonics provided a mechanism that would account for the movement of the continents.

Question 14

Seafloor Spreading Theory

Answer 14

During the 1960s, alternating magnetic properties were discovered in the rocks found on the seafloor. Similar patterns were discovered in either side of the mid-oceanic ridge near the center of the oceanic basins. Dating rocks indicated that as one moved away from the ridge, the rocks became older. This suggested that new crust was being created at volcanic rift zones.

Question 15

lithosphrere

Answer 15

The lithosphere (crust and upper mantle, approximately 62 miles (100 km) thick) is divided into massive sections/pieces known as tectonic plates. These float and move on the viscous asthenosphere.

There are about a dozen or so plates in the lithosphere that move independently of each other. The plates are made of both mantle and crust. The majority of the land on earth sits above six giant plates, the remainder of the plates lie under the oceans as well as the continents. Some plates consist only of ocean floor (the Nazca plate). Some contain both oceanic and continental material (North American Plate). The largest plate is the Pacific Plate. The plates move slowly over time. They sink in areas of volcanic island chains, folded mountain melts, and trenches. They rise up from ridges and rift valleys. These plates move in relation to one another. The edges of the plates are called plate boundaries. The three types of plate boundaries are , divergent, and convergent.

Question 16

Transform Boundaries

Answer 16

Occur where plates slide past each other.
The friction of the plates sliding past each other causes earthquake (common at these boundaries)
Example: The San Andreas fault (western coast of North America) is where Pacific Plate and North American plate move past each other such that the Pacific plate is moving northwest with respect to North America.

Question 17

Divergent Boundaries

Answer 17

Occur where two plates slide apart from each other with the space that was created being filled with molten magma from below forming new crust.
Examples of Oceanic divergent boundaries: Mid-Atlantic Ridge and East Pacific Rise
Examples of Continental divergent boundaries: East Africa Great Rift Valley.
Can create massive fault zones in the oceanic ridge system and are frequent areas of oceanic earthquakes.

Question 18

Convergent Boundaries

Answer 18

Occur where two plates slide toward each other, forming either a subduction zone (if one plate moves underneath the other) or an orogonic belt (if two plates collide and compress).

Question 19

subduction

Answer 19

When a denser oceanic plate moves underneath (subducts) underneath a less-dense continental plate, an oceanic trench is produced on the ocean side and a mountain range on the continental side. An example is the Cascade Mountain range (extends from California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains and includes Mt. St. Helens.

Question 20

island arc

Answer 20

When two oceanic plates converge, they create an island arc – a curved chain of volcanic islands rising deep from the seafloor and near a continent, They are created by subduction processes and occur near the continent side of the subduction zone. Their curve is generally convex toward the open ocean. A deep undersea trench is located in front of such arc where the descending plate dips downward. Examples include Japan and the Aleutian Islands of Alaska.