Geography Flashcards
3 phases of a wildfire
- Preignition
- Combustion
- Extinction
Preignition
fuel (Earth materials) with low water content reach a high temperature
- pyrolysis: heat breaks down the chemicals in Earth material
Combustion
lighting strikes, nearby fires, or human ignition lights the fuel on fire
Extinciton
the wildfire runs out of fuel and burns out
South facing slopes
get more sun exposure and are more prone to wildfires
Types of wildfires
- Ground
- Surface
- Crown
Ground fires
fires that move underneath the ground, no flames, lots of smouldering
Surface fires
fires that burn along the surface, burning up ground materials
Crown fires
fires that burn up into the air, carried by trees
Rain shadow effect
wind from the ocean, carrying water vapour, stop at tall mountains, so the other side of the mountains is only dry air
Prescribed fires
purposefully set forest fires with the intent to destroy dangerous fuel buildup and destroy invasive plant species
Ebola
discovered in the 1970s and peaked in Africa in 2014
4 stages of a disease outbreak
- Outbreak: several cases appear simultaneously
- Epidemic: disease starts spreading uncontrolled locally
- Pandemic: international uncontrolled spread
- Endemic: society achieved majority immunity
Common vehicle / Source epidemic
disease spreads and contaminates circulated resources
- ex. E-Coli spread in lettuce
Propagated epidemic
diseases spread by infectious agents, like humans or animals
Spanish flu
- Killed 40 million people in 1918 + 1919
- Spread through WW1 soldiers travelling internationally
- Killed 30k Canadians
Bubonic plague (black death)
infectious disease carried by rats and fleas
- 1347-50: 50 million killed in Europe, Asia, and Africa
- 1894: 13 million killed in Europe, due to the the spread in port cities
- 2020s: 120 deaths annually
World Health Organization (WHO)
UN org in charge of the spread of disease
Chelyabinsk meteorite
pieces of a meteor that imploded in the atmosphere, crashed down into Russia
Meteoroid
a broken off section of an asteroid
Meteorite
meteoroids that enter the Earth’s atmosphere
Shooting stars
very far away super fast moving asteroids
Kuiper belt
large asteroid belt just beyond Neptune
Airburst
meteorites that implode in the atmosphere before reaching the troposphere
Impact craters
craters in the Earth that are evidence of past meteor impacts
- simple and complex
Simple impact crater
0 to 5 km wide
Complex impact crater
6 km and up wide
Breccia
small rock pieces that are left over from a meteor