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Sophomore Exams :/ > ESCI Exam 2 > Flashcards

ESCI Exam 2 Flashcards

1
Q

Define stream load and explain what factors control it.

A

the total quantity of material that a stream transports
Factors that control it:
gradient-steepness of the stream change
discharge-volume of water
amount of water/time

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2
Q

Why do stream sediments tend to be well sorted?

A

streams have high velocity and energy that keeps light and moveable grains in suspension (on top) and heavier in bed load

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3
Q

Explain how migration and enlargement of meanders contributes to floodplain development.

A

meanders: curves in a stream

Meandering rivers create floodplains, as they get bigger, so does the floodplain so it becomes more established

Oxbow lakes: meander loops are cut off

can also form cut banks and point bars

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4
Q

Describe some of the factors that cause rivers to be braided, rather than meandering.

A

braided: bed load, coarse grain materials, steep gradient, poor bank stability, close to source

Meandering: mixed load (bedload and suspensded) w/low gradient and higher stability can break off and become oxbow lakes

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5
Q

What is a flood-frequency curve?

A

tool to figure out how often a flood of a given discharge can occur. can get it from plotting a graph of discharge vs. reoccurrence interval

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6
Q

What is recurrence interval and how is it determined?

A

The average number of years between floods of a certain size

number of years in the record (N) divided by the the number of events (n)

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7
Q

Describe how urbanization can affect stream flooding.

A

changes land views. vegetation creates a stabilized soil. disrupts natural stuff. build buildings by water and it displaces the water around it and disrupts other things. increase run off and chance for flood

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8
Q

Why does the Earth have seasons?

A

earth is tilted at an axis and 23.5 degrees and always pointed to one side as it goes around the sun and also spins and thats why we have seasons always pointed at one side of the sun

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9
Q

In what way does climate change impact hurricanes?

A

warmer water and air leads to more frequent and stronger hurricanes

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10
Q

Describe the “greenhouse effect”.

A

gases are trapped in the atmosphere which retain heat

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11
Q

The sun emits energy in what parts of the electromagnetic spectrum?

A

UV rays

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12
Q

The Earth emits energy in what parts of the electromagnetic spectrum?

A

Infrared

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13
Q

What is ‘insolation’ and how does it vary with latitude and season?

A

Amount of sun one hemisphere gets based on the positioning in orbit compared to the sun

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14
Q

Describe how global atmospheric circulation patterns affect climates at different latitudes.

A

Hadley cell: equator, warm air will rise and cool, rains rises and cools air circulates rises and cools
farrel cell: stormy
polar cell: cool air sinks and moves down to lower latitude

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15
Q

What are the two main mechanisms by which the energy from the sun is transported from the equator
toward the poles?

A

Atmosphere and Ocean

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16
Q

What drives the thermohaline circulation in the oceans, and how does this “conveyor” affect climate around the North Atlantic?

A

Salt and temperature, gulf stream brings warm air to northern Europe

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17
Q

What is upwelling and why does it occur?

A

a rising of seawater, magma, or other liquid. occurs where wind blows along a coastline. Surface water moves away from coast and deeper ocean water moves up and takes it place. Deep new water lots of nutrients

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18
Q

El Nino and la Nina are naturally occurring variations in the climate. Describe the conditions that lead to El
Nino and its effects on weather patterns in the Pacific.

A

El Nino- warm surface water in west pacific pile up waters higher than 18 inches than east pacific. Wind is the condition that leads to it.

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19
Q

What are the three components of Milankovitch cycles? Name and describe them in some detail

A

natural variations in Earth’s orbit
eccentricity (measures how much the shape of Earth’s orbit departs from a perfect circle), obliquity (axis of rotation, tilt), and precession (the slow change in the direction of Earth’s rotational axis)

20
Q

What is the ‘Snowball Earth” hypothesis? Describe two of the feedback loops that it assumes.

A

when Earth’s oceans and land surfaces were covered by ice from the poles to the Equator

negative feedback loops: weather of rocks draws down atmospheric CO2 leads to cooling of earth which leads to more snow and reflect sun from earth
volcanic activity, large emissions of carbon dioxide, melt ice, warm earth, interglacial period with no ice

21
Q

What are some expected changes to climate in New Hampshire in the coming decades? Be specific.

A

heat, longer growing season, sea level rise, drought, climate similar to North Carolina now

22
Q

What are two primary factors that contribute to the uncertainty in climate change projections (like those
from the IPCC)?

A

uncertainties about future human actions, especially those that affect the sources and sinks of greenhouse gases, and (2) uncertainties about how the climate system will respond to these actions.

23
Q

Name and describe the factors influencing slope stability.

A

strength of soil or rock that its built on, types of soil, angle of repose, geometry of slope, added weight on bottom of slope

24
Q

What is “angle of repose”?

A

steepest angle at which a sloping surface of a certain material (sand) is stable

25
Q

Name and describe three different types of mass wasting

A
  1. Creep: The very slow movement of soil on a slope
  2. rock fall: rock fall, man on the mountain
  3. rock slide: sliding motion of rock along a sloping surface
26
Q

Describe why heavy rains increase the risk of landslides in some areas.

A

weakens rock and soil on slope which is easily pulled by gravity

27
Q

What human activities contribute to slope instability? Explain these activities create instabilities?

A

building roads eats away at the base and cuts into the natural angle of repose and disrupts the slope. To prevent it: add more vegetation, don’t want to super saturate because it creates a fluid flow. Slope reduction

28
Q

Name and describe the methods that humans employ to prevent instabilities.

A

barriers and walls, drainage pipes, reduce the steepness of the cuts, add weight to bottom of slope, and immediate revegetation

29
Q

Name and describe the major parts of a beach (beach face, berm, etc.)

A

Face: portion regularly washed by waves, high tide and low tide
Berm: flatter part of beach behind beach face
Dune, cliffs, land, seawalls

30
Q

What causes waves? As waves approach a shoreline, they ‘break’. Why?

A

waves are induced by the flow of wind across the water surface

breaks develop as waves approach shore and hit the bottom of sea floor

31
Q

What causes tides? What is the difference between neap and spring tides? What causes the so-called “King tide” ?

A

Causes: gravitational pull of the sun and moon

Neap: when sun and moon pull at different angles so the difference between high and low tide is minimized

Spring: when the sun, moon, and Earth are aligned- high tides are extra high and low are extra low

King tides: when moon is closest Earth in it’s orbit, when the orbits and alignment of the Earth, moon, and sun combine to produce the greatest tidal effects of the year

32
Q

How do longshore currents impact shorelines? What is littoral drift

A

longshore currents occur when waves hit coast at angle, brings sediment with it
littoral drift: Sand movement along the length of a beach

33
Q

What is a storm surge and what are its components?

A

an increase in local sea level due to a storm

onshore winds pushing and low air pressure

34
Q

What is a wave cut platform? How does it form?

A

A flat area of rock in front of a cliff created by cliff retreat

develops where the land is rising or water is falling

35
Q

Why do drowned valleys form?

A

Form between glacial periods

Form when rising water levels from melting glaciers flood coastal plains and low-lying rivers

36
Q

Name and describe two methods of coastal stabilization

A

hard structural stabilization: the use of man-made protective structures to control erosion, parallel to shoreline, seawall/bulkhead

soft structural stabilization: sand replenishment or dune rebuilding

37
Q

How does wave refraction work to erode points of land jutting out into the sea?

A

Areas that stick out into the water are eroded by the strong wave energy that concentrates its power on the wave-cut cliff.

38
Q

Briefly describe the fate of the Hampton Beach community under the climate scenario coinciding with net zero by 2050?

A

projection is upwards of 3 feet of sea level rise by 2050

39
Q

What is a glacier? How do glaciers form?

A

massive ice that moves because of its own weight.

moisture in air, winter snowfall must exceed summer melting

40
Q

What are the differences between continental and alpine glaciers?

A

continental: larger and rarer, known as ice caps, can cover whole continents

Alpine: most frequent, mountain or valley glaciers, high altitudes

41
Q

What part of a glacier flows fastest? Slowest? Why?

A

fastest: top, center middle because there is no resistance
Slowest: near base or at sides because ground will hold ice back

42
Q

Define and describe the following: striations, till, outwash, drift, moraine.

A

striations: parallel scratches made by rock at the bottom of the glacier
till: sediment deposited directly from ice
outwash: till transported and deposited from water
drift: Sediment transported and deposited by a glacier
moraine: landform made out of till

43
Q

How does a ‘wineglass valley’ form?

A

U-shape valley formed by glacier, stream or river will cut and form v shape which leads to the wineglass shape

44
Q

What is the “Water Budget Equation” and use it to explain the fall of the Aral Sea?

A

inflows-outflows= change in storage
Amount of storage it has changed. There was more outflows than inflows

45
Q

In what region of the United States are water resources analogous to those of the Aral Sea? Briefly explain how the two are similar.

A

Colorado River Basin: Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, California, and Arizona. Losing water due to states taking more than their allotted water, and basing numbers for the river on a wet year instead of average

46
Q

How do we commonly measure the quantity of “Renewable Fresh Water Resources” in a region and how is this quantify used to determine ‘Water Scarcity’?

A

RFWR ~ River Discharge = (Precipitation- EvapoTranspiration)*Area

Water Scarcity Withdrawals - Desalination/
Water Availability

Water Stress occurs when Water Availability less than 1700 m3/yr per person

Sophomore Exams :/ (5 decks)

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