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
Catastrophism
belief that catastrophic events are the cause of large Earth features, like mountains and valleys
Uniformitarianism
belief that large Earth features are always growing and moving, just very slowly over long periods of time
6 major mass extinction events
Ordovician, Devonian, Permian, Triassic, Cretaceous, and Eocene
Yucatan Peninsula crater
predicted impact crater of the meteor that killed the dinosaurs found in Mexico
- 180 km wide and 40 km deep
Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT)
asteroid detection system
Incoming asteroid solutions
- Blow the asteroid up
- Push the asteroid out of Earth’s orbit
- Evacuate predicted impact area
Torino Impact Hazard Scale
scale used to measure the severity of asteroids
Senotea
large hole in the ground filled with water
What would constitute a category 9 on the Torino scale?
Regional devastation causing tsunamis and earthquakes
How did the Ebola virus spread so quickly?
Poor literacy rates and sharing needles (low medical supplies)
A complex meteorite impact crater is how long?
At least 6 km wide
Chernobyl (1986)
Nuclear power plant that exploded in Ukraine because of a flawed reactor operator and untrained staff
Socio-technological disasters
results of human activity (accidental or poor decision making)
- 3 types: routine, global, and titanic
Routine socio-technological disaster
- Common disasters
- Car crashes
- Drug epidemics
Global socio-technological disaster
- Widespread and long-term
- Nuclear war
- Contaminated food or water
- Pollution
Titanic socio-technological disaster
- Singular event mass loss
- Plane crash
- Ship sinking
Biomagnification
toxins and diseases move up the food chain when larger animals eat smaller animals
3 sectors of hazards
- Large scale / structural: buildings, dams, bridges
- Transport: trains, planes, cars
- Industry: power plants
Radiation cycle
- Uranium mining
- Nuclear fuel production
- Nuclear power
- Transport and waste disposal
In 1959, Listowel arena roof collapsed. What kind of disaster was this?
Socio-technological structural failure
Migration
movement of people who choose to move to another place with the intent of settling permanently
Push factors
reasons to leave your country or city
Pull factors
reasons to migrate to another country or city
Voluntary migrants
people who choose to move somewhere else for personal advantages
Involuntary migrants
people who are forced to leave their country due to conditions or outside forces
Post-WW2 migration
Eastern Europeans moved west and many Europeans moved to North America
What is a push factor for migration?
Unemployment, drought, war, and sea-level rise
Tuvalu
country in the South Pacific made up of 9 small islands that has a maximum elevation of 4.5 meters
Climate
long-term atmospheric conditions
Weather
short-term atmospheric conditions
Climate zones
temperature and precipitation zones affected by ocean currents and mountain ranges
Sun emits
short-wave radiation (hotter)
Earth reflects
long-wave radiation (colder)
Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
CO2 holds long-wave radiation in the atmosphere, which is why pollution makes the Earth hotter
Atmosphere Gas contents
- Permanent gasses: Nitrogen (78%) and Oxygen (21%)
- Variable gasses: water vapour, carbon dioxide, and methane
Glacial intervals
periods of times with major ice glaciers on Earth (ice ages)
Pleistocene
- The last glacial interval
- 20,000 years ago
- Earth was 30% covered in ice
Paleoclimate proxy records
how scientists determine historic time periods
- Tree rings: gasses in the trees grow based on temp
- Lake and ocean sediment
- Ice: bubbles and rings
Global warming
increase in land and ocean temperatures over the past 60 years
COP28
UN climate change conference 2023
Greenhouse effect
the atmosphere absorbs 50% of the short wave radiation from the Sun and the Earth receives and reflects the other 50%
Positive feedback loop
Ice reflects Sun radiation and water absorbs radiation
Ocean acidification
Carbon dioxide emissions into the ocean
- kills the coral reef
