Changing Climate Flashcards
What is a glacial period?
This is when the earth is cooler for a longer period and more of the earth is covered in ice.
What is an interglacial period?
This is a period of warmer climate between glacial periods.
What are sun spots? What do they tell us?
These are black areas on the surface of the sun, sometimes the sun has lots of these spots and at other times they disappear.
The sun spots tell us that the sun is more active than usual, lot of spots means more solar output.
What are the Milankovitch cycles? In general terms
Changes in the Earth’s orbit that alter the amount of sunlight the earth receives and where sunlight falls on the earth.
What are the three changes in the earth’s orbit that occur over very long periods of time? (The Milankovitch cycles)
1) The earth’s orbit is sometimes circular, and sometimes more of and ellipse (oval), it takes 100,000 years for the orbit to change.
2) The Earth’s orbit axis tilts, sometimes it is more upright, and sometimes it is more on its side, it takes 41,000 years for a change to happen.
3) The Earth’s axis wobbles, it takes 26,000 years for the axis to wobble, straighten up, and wobble again.
What was The Little Ice Age?
Give four impacts of this period.
A cooler period across Norther Europe that began in the 15th century and lasted to the mid 19th century.
1) Crops did not grow well which meant less productivity and less food for people.
2) Crops changed from wheat and oats to potatoes.
3) The winters were very cold and the summers short.
4) Increased spread of disease such as malaria.
What were the likely causes of The Little Ice Age?
Fewer sunspots
Volcanic ash in the atmosphere
What species of megafauna evolved during the ice age?
What two thing may have caused the extintion of megafauna after the ice age?
Megafauna, such as mammoths, sabre-toothed tigers and giant beavers had evolved during the ice age
1) The ice age ended and temperature rose by 5 degrees celsius in 10,000 years, the megafauna could not adapt to the warmer climate and became extinct
2) Hunting by early humans may also have been a factor in their extinction
What is an ecosystem?
An ecosystem is a community of plants and animals (living) which interact with the atmosphere, water and minerals (non-living) as a system.
What is meant by the term extinction?
Extinction means a species of plant or animal dying out completely, so none survive.
What does megafauna mean? Examples.
Megafauna means ‘big animals’, most weighed over 40kg and included the wooly mammoth, giant elk and sabre-toothed tiger.
Which two greenhouse gases are linked to human activity?
Carbon dioxide and methane.
The rise in greenhouse gases matches the start of what period?
The industrial revolution.
During a countries development what happens to the amount of greenhouse gases it releases into the atmosphere?
They amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere increases.
During a country’s development, why is more carbon dioxide produced? Give four reasons.
More carbon dioxide is produced because:
1) There is more industry, e.g. steel and cement making
2) More energy is needed so more fossil fuels are burned
3) Transport increases so more oil is burned as petrol and diesel
4) Land is needed so there is deforestation and the trees are often burned.