The Carbon Cycle
Plants take in Carbon Dioxide ($CO_2$) to make food during this process.
What is photosynthesis?
This gas makes up almost 80% of the air you are breathing right now.
What is Nitrogen?
This natural effect keeps Earth warm enough for life, but humans are making it stronger by adding more $CO_2$.
What is the Greenhouse Effect?
To slow down climate change, many countries are switching from fossil fuels to these, like wind and solar.
What are renewables?
Of the three types of rock, this one is most likely to contain fossils because the high heat and pressure required to make the other two types would usually destroy the remains of dead plants or animals.
What is Sedimentary Rock?
When we burn coal, oil, or gas (fossil fuels), we are releasing carbon that has been trapped underground for millions of years into this.
What is the atmosphere?
Most of the Nitrogen in the air is "locked" and useless until these tiny organisms in the soil "fix" it so plants can use it.
What are bacteria?
This is the most powerful greenhouse gas produced by human activity, mostly from cars and power plants.
What is Carbon Dioxide ($CO_2$)?
This is the term for the total amount of greenhouse gases a single person or company is responsible for.
What is a Carbon Footprint?
While Weathering is the process of breaking rock down into smaller pieces, this process is responsible for carrying those pieces away to a new location is what?
What is Erosion?
This process is the opposite of photosynthesis; it’s how animals (and humans) release carbon back into the air when they breathe.
What is cellular respiration?
This describes what happens when too much fertilizer (Nitrogen/Phosphorus) hits a pond, causes an algae bloom, and kills the fish.
What is Eutrophication?
As the planet warms, this "frozen" water melts and flows into the ocean, causing sea levels to rise in places like Virginia Beach.
What are glaciers or ice sheets?
This energy source uses large blades to capture kinetic energy from the air. It is popular in offshore projects currently being built off the coast of Virginia Beach.
What is Wind Energy?
What do plates do at a divergent boundary?
What is pull apart?
The ocean is a massive "sink" for carbon, but as it absorbs more $CO_2$, the water becomes more of this, which can hurt coral reefs.
What is acidic (Ocean Acidification)?
Farmers use this to add Nitrogen and Phosphorus back into the soil to help crops grow, but it often washes away in the rain.
What is fertilizer?
This "layer" in the stratosphere acts like sunscreen for the planet, blocking UV rays.
What is the Ozone Layer?
Tectonic plates move because of "Convection Currents" in the Earth's interior. In this process, the Upper Mantle moves because _______ material rises and _______ material sinks.
What is Hot (Warmer) and Cold (Cooler)?
Because water has a High Specific Heat, it takes a lot of energy to change its temperature. This explains why Virginia Beach is usually _______ in the winter and _______ in the summer compared to inland cities like Richmond.
What is Warmer (winter) and Cooler (summer)?
These are the three main fossil fuels that, when burned, move carbon from the ground to the sky.
What are Coal, Oil, and Natural Gas?
Unlike Carbon or Nitrogen, Phosphorus is unique because it is never found in this part of the Earth.
What is the Atmosphere (or the air)?
This is the difference between weather and climate.
Weather is short-term; Climate is long-term
Water is considered a Polar molecule. This means the Oxygen atom has a slightly _______ charge, while the Hydrogen atoms have a slightly _______ charge.
What is Negative (Oxygen) and Positive (Hydrogen)?
When oxygen reacts with iron in rocks to turn them red and crumbly, it is an example of this specific type of weathering.
What is Chemical Weathering?