Plate Tectonics
Soils
Atmosphere/ Wind Patterns
Climate/ Watersheds
El Nino and La Nina
100
Causes of earthquakes at transform plate boundaries
What is stored energy is released from locked plates
100
Determine the soil texture using a soil texture triangle given the following...
Sand: 60%
Silt: 10%
Clay: 30%
What is sandy clay loam?
100
Where warm air stops rising in the hadley cell.
What is the tropopause?
100
Identify our watershed.
What is the Big Sioux River?
100
Describe upwelling and explain its importance.
What is
Upwelling brings cold deep waters to the surface which contain more oxygen and cause life in the waters to flourish. This helps fishermen to catch more fish.
200
Identify and describe the plate boundary that can lead to sea floor spreading
What is a divergent plate boundary? Tectonic plates moving away from each other.
200
Identify two factors that would increase a soil's water holding capacity.
What is more clay, humus, manure
What is less sand, gravel
200
Describe why the westerlies blow from the west.
What is
- Ferrel cells cause the winds to blow away from the equator
- Winds near the equator have a faster velocity due to the Earth being thicker in circumference in the middle and therefore are deflected the opposite direction than would be expected in the coriolis effect.
200
Describe what factor determines the seasons and how they are different in the northern and southern hemispheres.
What is the tilt of the Earth?
Northern hemisphere is tilted most towards the sun in June
Southern hemisphere is tilted most towards the sun in December
200
Identify conditions that would improve fishing conditions off the west coast of South America.
What is
increased upwelling
La Nina
300
This boundary type often causes mountain ranges. Describe the boundary.
What is a convergent boundary? Two plates moving towards one another.
300
Identify and describe the different soil horizons starting at the top and moving deeper into the ground.
What is
O- organic layer, contains leaf litter
A- topsoil, lots of humus, biotic activity and decomposition. Nutrient dense
B- subsoil, lighter in color, little to no organic matter, mostly minerals from the parent material
C- Closest to the parent material aka bedrock. Least weathered layer
300
What factor drives the hadley, ferrel, and polar cells?
Warm, moist air is less dense and rises. Driven by the sun's radiation.
300
Describe lake effect snow.
What is warm lake water evaporates and condenses into snow therefore leeward shores have higher snowfall amounts.
300
Identify the conditions to cause more intense monsoons in SE Asia.
What is La Nina
400
Hawaii is caused by this tectonic activity. Describe how the islands of Hawaii were formed.
What is a hotspot? The tectonic plate moves over the hotspot and the hotspot melts through the plate as it moves.
400
Describe the relationship between these terms in relation to soils: porosity, permeability, water holding capacity
What is
The higher the porosity, the more permeable the soil is, which mean the lower the water holding capacity.
400
Identify the climates found at 0 and 30 degrees latitudes and explain what phenomenon determines these climates.
0- tropical rainforests
30- deserts
Hadley cell driven by convection of hot, moist air rising, releasing rain at 0 and then cool dry air sinking at 30
400
Identify three non-point sources of pollution in a watershed.
What is fertilizing lawns, spreading manure, littering, sediments run off from construction etc.
400
These redistribute heat in the ocean.
What is a gyre?
500
Identify and describe what activity we would expect at a convergent boundary between two oceanic plates.
What is formation of island arcs
One plate subducts the other, magma rises with the increased pressure forming island arcs on the boundary
500
Propose a solution for a farmer whose soil is depleted of nitrogen.
- Plant legumes, bacteria on roots performs nitrogen fixation
- Add compost or manure
- Use fertilizer
500
Identify and describe the five layers of the atmosphere from closest to the Earth to farthest from the Earth.
Troposphere- weather occurs here
Stratosphere- thickest layer of ozone
Mesosphere- less dense layer, colder
Thermosphere- absorbs xray and UV, northern lights appear here
Exosphere- outermost layer, least atmospheric pressure
500
Explain why the westward side of the Andes Mountains is a desert.
What is the rainshadow effect due to the Eastern Trade winds and 30 latitudes are deserts
500
Describe the conditions caused by El Nino.
What is trade winds weaken, then reverse
Warm equatorial current brings heat and precipitation to the Americas
Less upwelling off the South American coast
Cooler and dryer conditions in Australia and SE Asia
High Pressure in W Pacific
Low Pressure in E Pacific