Climate
What is the definition of climate
long term weather patterns
Surface currents are driven by what?
prevailing winds
What state would be the most affected by sea level rise?
Florida
What do we call a chemical, biological, or physical characteristic that we measure as a stand in for climatic conditions in the past?
What is thawing in the arctic and releasing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere?
permafrost
What are the two characteristics we most commonly use to describe an areas climate?
Temperature and Precipitation
Prevailing winds are cause by what?
unequal heating of the Earths surface
What two things cause sea level rise?
thermal expansion and glacial melting
What is the correlation between temperature and carbon dioxide?
direct correlation
(they follow the same trend where one is likely to cause the other- specifically CO2 causing warming)
What is The deflection of a moving body on the Earth because of the Earths spin
coriolos effect
Name 3 geographic factors that determine what an areas climate will be like.
Lattitude, elevation, topography, water bodies, ocean currents, vegetation, prevailing winds
Surface currents are important for climate because they do what?
transport heat across the Earth- equator to poles
How many meters would sea level rise if the whole Antarctic ice sheets were to melt?
60 m
Name 3 greenhouse gases
carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide
Acid rain is caused mainly by this process
coal combustion
desert, deciduous forest, conifer forest, tundra, polar, tropical rainforest, temperate rainforest, grassland
Why are upwelling zones so full of life?
Nutrient rich deep water is brought up to the surface
how many meters has sea level risen to date?
0.5 meters
Name 4 reservoirs in the carbon cycle
plants, animal, soil, fossil fuels, surface ocean, deep ocean, atmosphere
What marine animal is experiencing massive die off due to the warming of our oceans?
corals
What term describes the ability of certain gases to absorb and re-emit infared radiation
greenhouse effect
Deep Ocean currents are driven by what?
Density differences
What is the process called where the land is uplifting after an ice sheet melts.
post-glacial rebound
What is responsible for the natural climate changes we see in our paleoclimate data with 100,000 year cycles of glacial and interglacial periods
Milankovich cycles
What would happen if global warming caused a lot of glacial meltwater to pour into the arctic?
slowing/weakening or stop of the Atlantic deep ocean current