Statistics Flashcards
What did Scientists at NOAA’s Mauna Atmospheric Baseline Observatory find?
That Co2 levels are higher now than they have been for 4 million years
What is the Keeling Curve?
An anomolly is carbon levels. There’s a annual peak in carbon emmissons due to
high decomposition and ff
Earthquake distribution ?
Over 80% of earthquakes take place around the edge of the pacific ocean aka the ring of fire
Benioff Zone - an area of intense earthquake activity
Volcano distribution ?
They tend to form on subduction zones, and hot spots (like the ones by hawaii e.g Mauna Loa which is the biggest active volcano on earth)
Most volcanoes can be found on the ring of fire
Earths Energy Budget
100% of incoming solar energy is shared between…
6%= Reflected by the atmosphere
20%= Reflected by clouds
4%= Reflected from the earths surface
64%=Radiatated to space by clouds and atmopshere
6%=Radiated directly to space from earth
16%= Absorbed by the atmosphere
3%=Absorbed by clouds
7%=conduction and rising air
51%= Absorbed by land and ocean
23%= Carried to clouds and atmosphere by latent heat in water vapour
15%= Radiation absorbed by atmosphere
How much solar radiation is recieved at the top of the atmosphere?
Solar radiation: 1368 kWm-2
Absorption of infra-red
Absorption of infra-red by CO2, CH4, N2O, water vapour
Some gases absorb radiation at wavelengths
Earth’s equilibrium temperature
Similarly, Earth has an equilibrium temperature of 255 K (−18 °C; −1 °F), but a surface temperature of about 288 K (15 °C; 59 °F) due to the greenhouse effect in our lower atmosphere.
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations have increased by…
about 40% since 1750, due to human activity and exceed values recorded in ice cores for the last 800,000 years
How much carbon does Global photosynthesis capture?
30 terrawatts (1 TW = 1012 W) of solar energy in chemical form, 50% from land plants and 50% oceanic primary productivity, removing CO2 from the atmosphere and replacing it with O2
How much organic carbon escapes recycling and is buried in sedimentary sequences during oxidation?
is almost perfect, but 0.1% of organic carbon escapes recycling and is buried in sedimentary sequences. This leaves an equivalent amount of oxygen in the atmosphere and is responsible for the long-term oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere.
Product of ff but the incomplete decompaction of the sediment ff has produces = preserved organic matter
Give two gravity statistics
The suns acceleration due to gravity is 274.13
The earths acceleration due to gravity is 9.81
G Force
the earth has 1G = the earth is the collaboration point
The sun is 28G
Eccentricity?
100 ka (it’s actually 96) and 400 ka cycles
The eccentricity of an elliptical orbit is a measure of the amount by which it deviates from a circle; it is found by dividing the distance between the focal points of the ellipse by the length of the major axis.
How often does the earth oribit the sun?
365 days
How often does the moon oribit the earth?
27 days
How much more gravitational attraction is there between the Earth and the sun and the Earth and the moon
Although the gravitational attraction between the Earth and the Sun is more than 177 times that between the Earth and the Moon, the moon dominates the tides.
How much bigger is the sun that the moon? How does that affect it’s gravitational pull?
The sun is 27 million times more massive than our moon. If tidal forces were based solely on comparative masses alone, the sun should have a tide-generating force that is 27 million times greater than that of the moon.
How much futher is the sun from the earth than the moon? what does this mean in regards for tides?
However, the sun is 390 times further from the Earth than is the moon. Thus, its tide-generating force is reduced by 3903, or about 59 million times compared to that of the moon. Because of these conditions, the sun’s tide-generating force is 27/59, or about half that of the moon.
The sun is only half as important as the mood when determine our tides
How much sea level lowering was due to the loarronties ice sheet?
75% of the sea level lowering was due to the loarronties ice sheet – it was about 4km thick = pushed the crust down
How many stable isotopes does oxygen have
3 which are
16O – 99.76 %
17O – 0.0375 %
18O – 0.1995 %
In the natural environment 18O:16O 1:500
Global precipitation distribution
Th highest rainfall = the equatorial zone and the monsoon area of Southeast Asia.
Middle latitudes receive moderate amounts of precipitation, but little falls in the desert regions of the subtropics and around the poles
The yearly precipitation averaged over the whole Earth is about 100 cm (39 inches), but this is distributed very unevenly.
What is a The flood hydrograph
Flood hydrographs are graphs that show how a drainage basin responds to a period of rainfall. They are used to plan for flood situations and times of drought. They show the river discharge that occurs as a result of precipitation from an earlier storm
In 2019, atmospheric CO2 concentrations were higher than at any time
in at least 2 million years
