Natural Hazards
This scale measures the magnitude of earthquakes using seismic waves.
What is the Richter scale?
This biome, found in polar regions, is defined by permanently frozen subsoil known as permafrost.
What is the tundra?
This greenhouse gas, represented by the formula CO₂, is the main anthropogenic driver of global warming.
What is carbon dioxide?
This city, on the River Thames, is the capital and largest metropolitan area of the United Kingdom.
What is London?
Covering about one-third of Earth’s surface, this is the largest ocean basin.
What is the Pacific Ocean?
These fast-moving clouds of hot gas and volcanic debris, reaching speeds over 100 km/h, devastated Pompeii in 79 CE.
What are pyroclastic flows?
Savannas typically form in regions with this kind of rainfall pattern — a distinct wet and dry season.
What is seasonal (monsoonal) rainfall?
The Paris Agreement aims to limit global temperature rise to this threshold above pre-industrial levels.
What is 1.5°C (or “well below 2°C”)?
Known as the “City of Angels,” this U.S. metropolis grew rapidly due to the film industry and immigration.
What is Los Angeles?
This warm ocean current originates in the Gulf of Mexico and moderates the climate of northwestern Europe.
What is the Gulf Stream?
The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami occurred along the subduction zone where this oceanic plate descends beneath Japan.
What is the Pacific Plate?
The Sonoran Desert, unlike most deserts, receives rain in both winter and summer due to this climate pattern.
What is a bimodal rainfall regime?
The rapid thawing of this carbon-rich soil type in the Arctic may create a dangerous positive feedback loop.
What is permafrost?
Once called Edo, this city became Japan’s capital in 1868 during the Meiji Restoration.
What is Tokyo?
The Mariana Trench, the deepest known point on Earth, lies near this island arc.
What are the Mariana Islands?
This hazard occurs when saturated sediment temporarily loses its strength during seismic shaking, causing ground failure.
What is liquefaction?
In taiga biomes, trees like spruce and fir dominate because of this adaptation to cold and snow.
What is having needle-like leaves (to reduce water loss and snow load)?
The albedo effect explains how melting sea ice accelerates warming by decreasing this surface property
What is reflectivity?
This megacity straddles Europe and Asia and was formerly known as Byzantium and Constantinople.
What is Istanbul?
The longest mountain range on Earth is located here.
What is the Atlantic Basin?
(Mid-Atlantic Ridge: 16,000 kilometers)
(Andes: 8,900 kilometers)
The Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) is logarithmic, meaning each whole number increase represents this change in eruptive volume.
What is a tenfold increase?
There are five major Mediterranean-type climate regions worldwide. Besides the actual Mediterranean Basin, name one other region with this biome.
What is California-West Coast / central Chile / southwestern Australia / the Cape Region of South Africa?
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is driven primarily by contrasts in these two seawater properties.
What are temperature and salinity?
The urban areas of Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria have expanded rapidly along this body of water, creating severe flooding challenges.
What is the Gulf of Guinea?
The global system of surface and deep currents that redistributes heat and nutrients is known as this.
What is the thermohaline circulation?