OCR A Level ELSS - 4. OCR A Level ELSS 4.1a Water and Carbon facts

Question 1

In what units are atmospheric, land and ocean stores of water given?

Answer 1

000’s of km³ or km³ x 10³

Question 2

In what units are flows of water within the global water cycle measured?

Answer 2

000’s km³/year

Question 3

How much water is found in the ocean store at any given time?

Answer 3

1,370,000,000 km³

Question 4

How much water is found in the atmosphere at any given time?

Answer 4

13,000 km³

Question 5

How much water is found on land at any given time?

Answer 5

39,000,000 km³

Question 6

What percentage of global water is found in the atmosphere (give your answer to 3 dp)?

Answer 6

0.00%

Question 7

To the nearest whole number, what percentage of global water is stored in oceans?

Answer 7

97%

Question 8

How much precipitation falls on land in a year?

Answer 8

111,000 km³

Question 9

How much water evapotransires from land back to the atmosphere every year?

Answer 9

71,000 km³

Question 10

How much water enters oceans as run off or groundwater flow every year?

Answer 10

40,000 km³

Question 11

What volume of water is stored on land in reservoirs of polar ice and glaciers?

Answer 11

29,000,000 km³

Question 12

What volume of water is stored in aquifer reservoirs?

Answer 12

9,500,000 km³

Question 13

What volume of water is stored in soil reservoirs?

Answer 13

65,000 km³

Question 14

How much water evaporates from the sea every year?

Answer 14

425,000 km³

Question 15

What does the USGS estimate the annual water cycle budget to be?

Answer 15

505,000 km³

Question 16

What is the unit used to measure stores of carbon?

Answer 16

Gigatonnes (1 billion tonnes)

Question 17

What is the term for the average length of time carbon remains in each store?

Answer 17

Residence time

Question 18

How much carbon is in the atmosphere at any given time?

Answer 18

600 Gt

Question 19

How long on average does it stay there?

Answer 19

6 years

Question 20

How much carbon is stored in terrestrial biomass?

Answer 20

560 Gt

Question 21

On average how long does it stay there?

Answer 21

18 years

Question 22

How much carbon is found in soil?

Answer 22

2300 Gt

Question 23

How much carbon is found in sea floor sediments?

Answer 23

6000 Gt

Question 24

How much carbon is found in sedimentary rocks?

Answer 24

60,000,000 - 100,000,000 Gt

Question 25

How long on average does carbon stay in deep oceans?

Answer 25

1250 years

Question 26

How long on average does carbon stay in surface oceans?

Answer 26

25 years

Question 27

On average, how long does carbon stay in sedimentary rocks?

Answer 27

150 million years

Question 28

How much carbon is trapped in fossil fuels?

Answer 28

4130 Gt

Question 29

What is the estimate for how much carbon is circulated in the slow cycle?

Answer 29

10 - 100 million tonnes a year

Question 30

How much faster is the fast carbon cycle than the slow carbon cycle?

Answer 30

10 - 1000 times

Question 31

How much carbon is stored in the deep oceans?

Answer 31

38,000 Gt

Question 32

How much carbon is stored in the surface oceans?

Answer 32

700 Gt

Question 33

At what rate does terrestrial carbon enter the atmosphere by respiration and decomposition?

Answer 33

60 Gt/year

Question 34

At what rate is carbon absorbed from the atmosphere into the oceans?

Answer 34

92 Gt/year

Question 35

At what rate is carbon released from oceans to the atmosphere?

Answer 35

90 Gt/Year

Question 36

What is the average length of time a water molecule spends in the atmosphere?

Answer 36

9 days