Geography Flashcards
What is extreme weather?
Weather events significantly different from normal conditions, causing damage or disruption.
Name a type of extreme weather characterized by intense low-pressure systems with strong winds and heavy rain.
Tropical Storms (Hurricanes, Cyclones, Typhoons)
What are heatwaves and droughts?
Extended periods of above-average temperatures and low rainfall.
What causes floods?
Heavy rainfall or storm surges causing rivers to overflow.
Define tornadoes.
Violently rotating columns of air, usually over land.
What are blizzards and heavy snow known to disrupt?
Transport and can cause avalanches.
List some impacts of extreme weather.
- Economic damage
- Loss of life
- Destruction of homes and infrastructure
- Environmental effects (e.g., habitat loss)
What is an El Niño event?
A climate phenomenon where the Pacific Ocean warms, affecting global weather patterns.
What causes El Niño events?
- Trade winds weaken or reverse
- Warmer water spreads across the Pacific, reducing cold water upwelling
What are some effects of El Niño?
- Droughts in Australia, Indonesia, and parts of Africa
- Heavy rainfall and floods in South America (Peru, Ecuador)
- Disrupts fishing
- Increased global temperatures and extreme weather events
What is La Niña?
The opposite effect of El Niño, where stronger trade winds cause cooler ocean temperatures.
What is the theory of plate tectonics?
Earth’s crust is divided into tectonic plates that move due to convection currents in the mantle.
What occurs at destructive (convergent) plate boundaries?
Plates collide, leading to subduction.
Give an example of a destructive plate boundary.
Nazca & South American Plate leading to the Andes Mountains.
What characterizes constructive (divergent) plate boundaries?
Plates move apart, and new crust forms.
Provide an example of a constructive plate boundary.
Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
What happens at conservative (transform) plate boundaries?
Plates slide past each other, and there is no crust created or destroyed.
