Final Exam Review Flashcards
The Mount Pinatubo volcano is located in what geographic location?
- philippines
Which has the highest annual risk for an Albertan?
- blizzard
Why didn’t the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines result in large human casualties?
- most people obeyed the early warnings and evacuation orders
What is a Milankovitch cycle?
- it is a variation of Earth’s orbit leading to climate changes
What is K-T boundary?
= Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary with the dinosaur extinction
What is the kinetic energy of a two tonne asteroidal fragment entering the atmosphere at 15km/s?
- 2.25x10 (to the 11th) joules
What are the three main requirements of fires?
- fuel, oxygen, ignition
What is the current (2015) approximate doubling time of Earth’s population?
- 45 years
Which of the following describes an atmospheric inversion?
- warm air overlying cold air
What is a growler?
- a small iceberg
Which of the following is true about lightning?
- it is discharge of voltage generated in a. cloud
About how long oddly it take for a coin, dropped overboard from a. shop passing over the deepest part of the Pacific, to reach the ocean bottom?
- 1 day
The rapid increase in human population during the past several centuries is an example of _____ growth.
- exponential
Which of the following natural hazards is not the direct result of the process of plate tectonics?
- flooding
What is a jokulhaup?
- a sudden outburst of water from a glacier
Which of the following is the most likely cause for the extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago?
- an asteroid or cometary impact
What is a crown fire?
- a forest fire that spreads from treetop to treetop
Which off the following typically causes the greatest annual energy input to the Earth’s surface?
- sunlight
What will a seismic gap likely do?
- eventually rupture causing an earthquake
In New Orleans, the death and destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina was a result of:
- flooding
What country has suffered the greatest number of fatalities from cyclonic storms in recent years?
- Bangladesh
Which of the following is true about earthquakes?
- they have a low-pressure centre ands surrounding powerful updrafts
Which of the following is true about glaciers?
- glaciers have been covering a significant global area for 2 million years
What are some factors that describe the Frank Slide?
- turtle mountain landslide
- 71 casulties
- a limestone anticline failure
- situated in the Crowsnest Pass
Volcanoes are formed as a result of:
- strain build up caused by continental drift
What is a hypo centre?
- the initiation point of an earthquake usually below the surface
Which of the following describes a Gamblers’ ruin?
- a statistical fluctuation in population that can lead to species extinction
This type of wave associated with earthquakes moves along the surface by oscillating side to side as opposed to up and down and only produce horizontal motion.
- love waves
If you were to live in Japan, which of the following is likely to impact you the most?
- an earthquake while driving to work
The Himalaya mountains are the result of which tectonic phenomena?
- Indo-Asian continent-continent collision
Which of the following is not a surface wave associated with earthquakes?
- S wave (S waves are body waves)
Which of the following allows landslides to rock, such s the Frank slide, to run out to great distances?
- formation of an air cushion between the moving rock mass and the stationary rock mass
What is the Oort Cloud?
- an envelope of comets surrounding the solar system
Most fatalities during a hurricane occur as the result of which of the following?
- flying debris
Design mistakes, which increase your house vulnerability to fire, include which of the following?
- locating your house on a slope
- allowing tree limbs to hang over the roof
- constructing your house of wood
- having your roof made of flammable wood shingles
Mass movement of geologic matter occurs when gravity overpowers friction. (True or False)
- True
Which of the following greenhouse gases accounts for 60% of global warming?
- carbon dioxide (CO2)
What is the mechanism that drives creep?
- freezing and thawing of the surface
- wetting and drying of the surface
- heating and cooling of the surface
Much of the mid-latitude severe weather in the Northern Hemisphere occurs via cyclones: air masses rotating…
- counter-clockwise about a low pressure cone.
The main destructive actions of tornados include which of the following?
- high-wind speeds blow away buildings and trees
- flying debris act like bullets of shrapnel killing people
- debris picked up by the winds smash into buildings and trees damaging or destroying them
If you spray water into a fire, it will help prevent the spread of fire or extinguish it because water will
- reduce the heat
What is the primary source of energy for severe weather such as thunderstorms?
- release of latent heat due to condensation
Most common mineral or geologic material that is associated with slope failures is
- clay
The effects of drought in Canada are mostly felt in ____.
- Saskatchewan and Alberta
The stability of a hill slope is improved by
- decreasing the weight of hill slope materials
How would you increase the stability of a hill slope?
- by decreasing the weight of sediments
