Environmental Change and Management

Question 1

What is the difference between erosion and weathering?

Answer 1

Weathering - the breakdown or disintegration of rocks or materials in situ.

Erosion - breaking down and/or movement of material.

Question 2

What are the agents of weathering and erosion?

Answer 2

• Wind
• Ice
• Gravity
• Water

Question 3

What are the four spheres of the environment?

Answer 3

• Hydrosphere
• Lithosphere
• Atmosphere
• Biosphere

Question 4

What is “freeze-thaw weathering”?

Answer 4

Freeze-thaw weathering is a process of erosion that happens in cold areas where ice forms. A crack in a rock can fill with water which then freezes as the temperature drops. As the ice expands, it pushes the crack apart, making it larger. When the temperature rises again, the ice melts, and the water fills the newer parts of the crack. The water freezes again as the temperature falls, and the expansion of the ice causes the further expansion of the crack. This process continues until the rock breaks.

Question 5

Define physical and chemical weathering.

Answer 5

Physical weathering - a change that affects the structure of a rock, but not its composition.

Chemical weathering - alters the chemicals that compose the rocks and might thus change shape, solidity, or vulnerability to other agents of weathering and erosion.

Question 6

Explain the continental drift theory.

Answer 6

Continental drift is the hypothesis that the Earth’s continents have moved over geologic time relative to each other, thus appearing to have “drifted” across the ocean bed due to the forces of convection currents

Question 7

Explain convergent, divergent, and transform plates.

Answer 7

Divergent - occur along spreading centers where plates are moving apart and new crust is created by magma pushing up from the mantle.

Convergent - plates are moving toward each other, and sometimes one plate sinks (is subducted) under another.

Transform - these large faults or fracture zones connect two spreading centers (divergent plate boundaries) or, less commonly, trenches (convergent plate boundaries). Most transform faults are found on the ocean floor.

Question 8

Name four ideas that support the theory of continental drift.

Answer 8

Fossil correlation, fit of continents, rocks and mountain correlation, and paleoclimatic data.

Question 9

What is the difference between a food chain and a food web?

Answer 9

A food chain consists of linear arrows that show energy transfer from one species to another while a food web shows the non-linear energy transfer between multiple food chains.

Question 10

Name three types of organisms in a food chain.

Answer 10

Producers, consumers, and decomposers.

Question 11

Order the worldviews from most sustainable to least sustainable.

Answer 11

• Ecocentric
• Biocentric
• Stewardship
• Anthropocentric
• Egocentric