Test 6: Lithosphere, Hydrosphere and Atmosphere Flashcards
What is the lithosphere?
It is the hard shell of the Earth, consisting of the crust and the top most part of the upper mantle (magma).
What are minerals?
They are inorganic substances, that come from the Earth and not from living things.
What are minerals made up of?
Some are made up of one type of atom.
Some are made up of several.
How do we extract minerals?
We use mining to locate and extract them.
What are mineral deposits?
If the mineral is found at the surface of the lithosphere, ore can be collected and then separated.
What is ore?
- Rock and the mineral
- Heterogeneous
What are the impacts of mining?
- CO2 emissions mess with the surface, it disturbs the ecosystem.
- Changes water flow
- Produces heat
- Uses lots of water (for a cooling system)
- Scars the Earth (seen from space)
How is soil created?
Through the process of erosion of the parent rock (solid part of Earth’s crust.
What are the soil horizons?
Layers of soil.
- Organic matter
- Topsoil
- Subsoil
- Fragmented parent rock
- Unaltered parent rock
What does the organic matter layer of soil contain?
Humus
What does the topsoil layer of soil contain?
A mix of humus and minerals.
What does the subsoil layer of soil contain?
Nutrients for small minerals and trees.
What is the fragmented parent rock layer of soil made of?
Disintegration of parent rock.
What is the unaltered parent rock?
The starting point of soil.
What alters the soil and how?
- Oxidation (mineral + O2 —> mineral oxide)
- Neutralization (alters pH of soil)
- Decomposition (organic —-> inorganic + CO2)
- Contaminants
What is soil buffering capacity?
How well the soil can adjust to a change in pH. (low=poorly. high=very well, can resist changes in pH when acidic or alkaline compounds are added)
What is the optimal pH of soil so it’s appropriate for the types of producers?
pH of 7 (neutral).
What thickness of soil has the best buffering capacity?
Finer soil.
What makes acid rain?
SOx and NOx combining with water vapours and oxygen and other chemicals to form acid rain.
What does acid rain effect and how?
Lithosphere - contaminates (acidifies) soil with low buffering capacity, destroying nutrients and killing decomposers.
Hydrosphere - contaminates water (pH levels rise), kills plants, small fish (chain reaction).
Atmosphere - Hits birds, harms or kills them.
What can deplete soil?
- Agriculture
- Water run off
- Mudslides
What is permafrost?
A layer of permanently frozen soil, that’s been at 0*C or lower for over 2 years.
What are consequences of permafrost thawing?
- Loss of infrastructure
- Landslides
- Release of stored carbon as CH4 (powerful greenhouse gas) contributing to global warming acceleration
- Increase of vegetation
What is the hydrosphere?
The Earth’s outer layer of water, uniting water in solid, liquid, gas states.
What is a catchment area?
An area of land where lakes and rivers all empty into the same larger body of water. It catches rain, surface water and ground water over that region.
Watersheds/drainage basins
What is the catchment area determined by?
Natural lines that are formed by the land (ridges). Water flows down slopes towards the basin.
What causes human disturbances on watersheds?
- Creation of a reservoir upstream from a hydroelectric power plant can disturb the ecosystem
- Contaminants that are upstream of the basin can be spread anywhere downstream (red town, blue town experiment)
What plays an essential role in regulating climate? How?
The oceans by absorbing heat and standardizing the temperature of the Earth.
What are factors that influence water temperature? How?
- The season (angle of sunlight to Earth as we rotate)
- The latitude (closer to equator = hotter)
- The depth (deeper = colder, less sunlight)
What is salinity?
The concentration of salt.
Where does salt in the hydrosphere come from?
The weathering of the lithosphere (dissolved minerals).
How will hot and cold water react when mixed?
Cold water will sink due to high density and warm water will float due to being less dense.
How will salt and pure water react when mixed?
Salt water sinks because it is more dense than pure water (more dense = sinking).
What is an ocean current?
The movement of seawater in a certain direction.
What are the 2 types of marine currents?
- Surface currents
- Deep currents
What are surface currents?
They are (horizontal) currents that are mostly generated by wind.
What are deep currents?
They are (vertical) currents caused by differences in temperatures, salinity and densities. They are controlled by thermohaline circulation.
What is the cryosphere?
The layer made up of frozen water on Earth.
What are ice floes?
They are ice packs, slightly salty ice floating on the ocean. They form when the surface of water freezes due to cold temperatures and break into sheets.
What are glaciers?
When snow is compressed on land.
What are ice bergs?
Broken pieces of glaciers that fall into the water.
What are impacts of melting ice?
- Thermohaline currents are disturbed
- Reduction of reflectivity, land and oceans absorb more heat
- Increase in sea level due to accelerated thawing of glaciers and ice bergs.
- Losing Earth’s cryosphere
- Loss of habitat when pack ice melts
What is thermohaline?
A combination of surface and deep currents, create ocean circulation of temperature and salinity distribution. Mixes water around the world (warm water near equator to poles, vise-versa), regulates Earth’s climate and overall temperature.
What affects density in oceans?
Temperature and salinity of water.
What are the effects of less ice on the climate?
No ice means the land and water will absorb more heat because the ice isn’t reflecting sunlight.
What is the albedo?
Measure of how much light that hits a surface is reflected without being absorbed.
What are the effects melting pack ice on climate?
- Melted ice pack water is less salty than ocean water, so less dense, doesn’t sink as much, so affects thermohaline circulation, which worsens climate change.
- Less surface area to reflect sunlight, more heat absorbed by ocean water
- Loss of habitat
What are consequences of melting glaciers?
- Reduction of reflectivity
- Rise in sea levels
How is thermohaline altered by global warming?
Change in densities.
- Glaciers are melting, diluting salt concentration and making water colder.
- Evaporation of ocean at equator - increasing concentration of salt.
- Albedo effect
How does altered thermohaline generate climate change?
- Melting of pack ice.
What causes tides?
The gravitational pull of the moon.
How many tides in one day?
2 high tides, 2 low tides
What is the atmosphere?
The layer of air surrounding the Earth.
What is the atmosphere composed of? What are these gases necessary for?
O2 + CO2: cellular respiration + photosynthesis
Water vapour: cloud formulation + precipitation
- Acting as a shield and blocking out the UV rays
- Ensuring a stable climate on Earth by retaining heat
What are the layers of the atmosphere?
- Exosphere
- Thermosphere
- Mesosphere
- Stratosphere
- Troposphere
What determines atmospheric pressure?
Collisions between particles, the more there are, the higher the pressure.
What is the affect altitude has on atmospheric pressure?
High altitude - density + temperature decrease - low pressure.
What is the affect temperature has on atmospheric pressure?
Temperature rises - density decreases - warm air rises.
What is convection?
Cycling/movement of the air: rises above humid regions at the equator and head toward the poles, then sink over cold regions. At the same time, Earth rotates, cold polar air makes its way to the equator.
What is the Coriolis effect?
Rotation of the Earth causes the wind to bend.
What are prevailing winds?
Major atmospheric currents that blow in a given direction according to atmospheric circulation. (Westerlies winds, west to east, for Canada)
What are air masses?
Large regions of the atmosphere with uniform temperature, density, pressure and humidity that can change the weather due to winds.
What happens when two air masses meet?
- They form a front (hot or cold).
- Warm air rises (on top), cold air sinks (under)
- We get clouds and rain
What’s a warm front?
- Mass of warm air moves toward mass of cold air
- Warm air rises over cold and creates cloudy weather and showers
What is a cold front?
- Mass of cold air meets mass of warm air
- Warm air rises quickly and in a steep slope over the cold air, then cools
- Heavy rain and wind. Storms, blizzards
What is a cyclone?
- Air gets hot, air mass less dense
- Air mass lighter and rises, leaving an empty space under it, a depression. Space becomes low pressure
- Rising air encourages cloud formation and often results in precipitation (cyclone)
What is an anticyclone?
- Air sinks, pressure increases
- Air density increases and mass of air becomes heavier and falls toward the ground creating area of high pressure (creating anticyclone)
- Cold air, no clouds or rain, clear skies and stable weather
What is the greenhouse effect?
- Natural process that retains heat by trapping greenhouse gases (CO2, H2O, CH4) in the atmosphere
- Without it, average temperature of Earth would be -18 (very cold)
What are human disturbances on greenhouse effect?
- Combustion of fossil fuels, deforestation, a lot of cows, palm oil
- Humans use/emit too many greenhouse gases, that causes the atmosphere to trap too much heat (before humans disturbed it, more greenhouse gases were escaping than staying in)
What are substances that contaminate the atmosphere?
- SO2 + NOx (acid rain and smog)
- Metals that come from the combustion of fossil fuels, burning garbage and glass making (toxic to humans)
- Dust and other particles coming from factory chimneys and exhaust pipes (can damage the respiratory system)
Due to fossil fuel combustion by-products - CFCs (destroy the ozone layer)
Due to production of propellant coolant
What is the ozone layer?
- Chemical filter that absorbs UV rays
- It’s composed of 3 oxygen atoms and more concentrated in high altitudes (where it’s beneficial to us) than at low altitudes, where it’s dangerous (contributes to smog)
What destroys the ozone layer?
CFCs = more UV rays = increase in cancer, etc
What is smog?
- A thick mixture of smoke, fog and other pollutants
- Ozone and low altitudues, SOx, NOx, volatile organic compounds and sunlight, when mixed, contributes to smog.
What are the different energy resources?
- Fossil fuels
- Nuclear energy
- Geothermal energy
- Hydraulic energy
- Wind energy
- Solar power
How are oil, natural gas, coal formed? What are the advantages and disadvantages of fossil fuels?
- Oil and natural gas formed by dead small marine animals and algae, sink to bottom of the sea, covered with silt, sand, minerals
- Coal formed from terrestrial swamps being buried and compressed by silt and sand
Advantages: Less expensive, easy to burn, a lot of immediate energy, transportable, easily accessible
Disadvantage: Non- renewable, releases CO2 (not green)
What is nuclear energy? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
- Energy is produced by atomic fission, mainly uranium (which is split)
Advantages: Green, little amounts of stuff produce a lot of energy
Disadvantages: renewable, radioactive waste
How is geothermal energy formed? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
- From the internal heat of the Earth’s molten rock. Water deep underground - heated by lava - rise to surface - transformed into electrical energy
Advantages: Green, renewable, can be used remotely
Disadvantages: Not good everywhere, expensive to set up
What is hydraulic energy? + marine currents and tides? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Energy from moving water (mechanical energy –> electrical energy)
Marine currents and tides create large quantities of energy. Tidal power plants use tides to produce electrical energy.
Advantages: Green, renewable
Disadvantages: Disrupts ecosystem, may kill fish, expensive to set up
What is wind energy? What are the advantages and disadvantages
- Energy that can be drawn from the wind
Advantages: Renewable, green
Disadvantages: Noisy, unpredictable, can’t be stored
What is solar power? What are the technologies that change solar to electrical energy? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
- Nuclear reactions that transform H –> He. Produces energy which is dispersed as radiation through the atmosphere.
Advantages: Renewable, green
Disadvantages: No sun = no energy, expensive to set up, energy not easily stored
1) Passive heating systems: positioning a house to maximize the heat and light from the sun, naturally heats air. A: Once done, always heating. D: Summer, too hot.
2) Photovoltaic cells (solar panels): Sunlight hits the material, which allow the electrons to move = electric current. A: Portable. D: Expensive, position of panels.
3) Solar collectors: glass panels that capture heat to warm up the air, home or pools. A: Easily used. D: Could get too hot.
