Test One Flashcards
“Snows of kilmenjaro” by Hemingway
85% of our glaciers have melted and there hasn’t been such a high rate of melting since the 1900s but we have had droughts
Spheres of earth
- Geosphere-earths interior
- Pedosphere-soil
- Hydrosphere-water
- Biosphere-living things
- Atmosphere-air
- Cyrosphere-water in solid form
Chemical differentiation as earth cools
- Core:physical=solid iron
- Mantle:liquid
- Crust:earths surface
Stock v reservoir
Stock: your resource, what you’re taking
Reservoir:stock holder, what you’re saving
Types of systems (between stock and reservoir?)
Open: anything (matter and energy) in and out (ie ocean/lake rain goes in then water evaporates out)
Closed: things go in but can’t get back out (
Ike sun in a glass fishbowl)
Isolated: no change, not in or out
Dynamic: changes: more in or more out
Static: stays the same: some in some out
Steady state
When the stocks in a dynamic system remains balanced w time even though matter is being exchanged
Lithosphere
Crust broken into plates floating on upper mantle
Astherosphere
Upper mantle
Types of rocks
- Igneous
- Metamorphic
- Sedimentary
Two types of behaviors
Linear: even predictable
Exponential: spikes indefinitely like population
Reinforcing and balancing
Reinforcing: process may arise promoting further change in same direction; positive feedback
Ie) Ice, reflects sun so it’s colder so more ice forms
Balancing: change in one direction leads to events that reverse direction; negative feedback
Ie) clouds coverage
Pedosphere
Weather, erosion, decomposed rock.
Critical zone regulates natural things to provide life
Geosphere
Earths metallic interior and rocky outter shell
Hydrosphere
All water
- most is salt water or freshwater that is locked up
- hydrologic system (water cycle)
Atmosphere
Envelope of gases
21% oxygen
-everything else small amount
-co2 (and methane?) small naturally occurring but it’s increasing
We live in “troposphere” where oxygen is at its most comfortable level
Biosphere
Us :)
8.9 mil species
Lots depend on photosynthesis
60-90% of all cells is water: this is an example of the interaction between the biosphere and hydrosphere
-another example is the fact that carbon is the building blocks of cells
Cyrosphere
Ice
Frozen
Amount depends on the climate
States of energy
Gas, liquid, solid
-exchanges throughout the spheres
Types of energies (measured in calories?)
Kinetic-moving
Potential-held back energy like water at a dam
Thermal-heat energy
Energy starts by….
Coming from the sun
Insulation: how much sun/energy enters the earth
-some energy is trapped y clouds and greenhouse gasses
Energy budget
25% reflected by clouds
5%reflected by earths surface
25% absorbed by clouds
45% reaches us
Most energy we absorb
Fossil fuels (81%) Geothermal Per country or per person (per capita)
Human population
Number one problem in environmental geology
Total Impact=individual impact x number of people
Hunters and gatherers
40k-9k bc
Less than a few mil people