Chapter 1
What is the definition of environmental science?
The interdisciplinary study of how the natural world works and how humans interact with our environment. It is an applied science, that means it applies the knowledge and research being conducted to solving real world problems.
Center core (solid), outer core (liquid), mantle, crust.
(more specifically lithosphere is upper mantle and crust)
Define ecosystem.
A system made up of living organisms and the environment and how they interact with one another.
What are fossil fuels and why do we care?
Coal, oil, natural gas made from broken down organic matter. Burning them for energy contributes to climate change by adding CO2 to the atmosphere.
Why is it important to be able to calculate the velocity of a tsunami?
We can use it to determine how long people have to evacuate before the tsunami reaches the coast.
What does interdisciplinary mean in relation to environmental science?
Using two or more fields of research. Environmental science combines geology, biology, chemistry, physics, and even social sciences.
What is the difference between minerals and rocks?
Rocks are composed of minerals. Cookie analogy, the cookie is the rock; the flour, butter, eggs, etc. are the minerals.
What cycle have humans forced to an extreme through our burning of fossil fuels?
Carbon Cycle
What type of rock forms from being buried at high heat and pressure but does NOT melt.
Metamorphic rocks.
What is a watershed?
A topographical area where all water that enters will move toward a single body of water (like a river or lake).
How do we ensure "good" science is being shared?
Through peer review, conferences, and collaboration.
If a plate is older what does that suggest about the density and temperature of the plate?
It is colder and more dense.
How can GIS be used in environmental geology?
Mapping natural hazards. Looking at spatial distribution of people, animals, and plants. Lots of examples.
What is a high net primary productivity associated with?
High temperature and high moisture.
Compare and contrast magnitude and intensity.
Magnitude is a single measurement of the amount of energy released by an earthquake. Intensity is the shaking experienced at the surface and it varies with your location.
What do we consider when determining a person's ecological footprint?
Their lifestyle choices (car, size of house, temp of house, commute, eating habits, etc.) and where they live.
Compare and contrast the epicenter and hypocenter of an earthquake.
The hypocenter tells us the location and DEPTH of an earthquake. The epicenter tells us only the location on the surface.
Provide an example of a positive and negative feedback loop.
Bodies shivering when cold is a negative loop.
Climate change due to ice melting and decreasing albedo causing warming which melts more ice is a positive loop.
How do humans influence the occurrence of landslides?
Building on slopes, destabilizing slopes, removing plants that help stabilize sediment, building surfaces water can't pass through which cause greater erosion.
What is an example of a renewable resource?
Water, trees, etc.
Compare and contrast environmental science, environmental studies, and environmental geology.
Env Science - Interdisciplinary interactions of environment.
Env Studies - Humanities/social science view of the environment.
Env Geology - Solving environmental problems using geologic concepts.
Describe the motion and names of the three types of plate boundaries (be specific).
Transform - Plates move alongside one another (zigzag pattern)
Divergent - Plate pull away from one another.
Convergent - Plates move toward one another. Either forms mountains (continent-continent) or a subduction zone (ocean-ocean or ocean-continent).
What is the difference between the Nitrogen and Phosphorous Cycle?
Nitrogen cycle has an atmospheric component, but the phosphorous cycle does not.
What are the 5 spheres?
Lithosphere, Hydrosphere, Biosphere, Atmosphere, and Anthroposphere.
Where do most volcanos form and why do they form there?
At convergent boundary subduction zones. As one plate is pushed down into the mantle it melts, the magma then rises to the surface and forms a volcano.