Hydrosphere
What is the best way to describe how Earth's water is distributed?
97% of water on Earth is saltwater/found in the oceans and 3% of water on Earth is freshwater
This physical property of water measures how cloudy or clear it is.
What is turbidity
How is nuclear energy classified?
What is nonrenewable because uranium is depleted at a quicker rate than it is being replenished.
What is a major contributor to increased global temperatures?
Wat is burning fossil fuels
This law states that in undisturbed rock layers, the oldest layer is at the bottom
What is the Law of Superposition
How does the ocean contribute to the water cycle?
Majority of the water the enters into the atmosphere is evaporated from the ocean.
This is the first step in the water treatment process, where chemicals are added to clump particles.
What is coagulation?
Harnessing the kinetic energy of moving air that is naturally replenished over a short period of time describes what energy source?
What is Wind Energy.
Permafrost is created when the water in the ground freezes and remains frozen year-round. Alaska has permafrost that has remained frozen for at least 12,000 years. Scientists have discovered that this permafrost contains powerful greenhouse gases, and the permafrost releases these gases to the atmosphere as it melts.
What relationship might exist between global climate change and this permafrost?
What is increasing air temperature will cause more permafrost to melt, releasing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
This term describes the idea that current geologic processes have always worked the same way.
What is uniformitarianism
Should a city rely on surface water or groundwater during drought? Justify your choice.
What is groundwater, because it is less affected by surface evaporation?
Why is monitoring the hydrosphere essential for public health?
What is it ensures safe drinking water
What is one long-term benefit of using renewable energy?
What is decreased carbon dioxide emissions
A community uses a coal-fired power plant to generate all of its electricity. The community
recognizes that the demand for electricity will exceed the power plant’s capacity. The
community decides to
• set aside a large portion of grassland,
• construct solar panels on this land to generate all of the community’s electricity,
and
• phase out the coal-fired power plant.
Which choice best identifies the environmental implications of this plan?
What is the community will increase its contribution of greenhouse gases and disrupt the grassland ecosystem.
Students observe the following rock layers (top to bottom):
Layer A: Fossil Fish
Layer B: Igneous Rock
Layer C: Trilobite Fossils
Fault cuts through A and B
Which layer is the oldest?
What is layer C
Mr. Wazowski lives in a town near the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuary. The Neuse River feeds into the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuary. Mr. Wazowski has noticed a higher than average amount of precipitation. What can Mr. Wazowski conclude about the flow of water and the increase in precipitation?
What is the water flows from the stream and tributaries in the Neuse River into the Albemarle-Pamlico Estuary. The increase in precipitation will cause the estuary to be less salty due to the increase in freshwater.
A new neighborhood was built upstream from the town's lake. A scientist notice an increase in fish deaths in the lake. What can the scientist determine is the cause of the increase in fish deaths?
What is the runoff from the neighborhood being built can cause lake's turbidity to increase which decreases the dissolve oxygen causing the fish to die.
Mining and drilling for fossil fuels often cause this type of impact.
What is environmental damage or pollution?
Why would turning off the lights in your house and unplugging appliances that are not in use be considered energy stewardship?
A scientist finds a fossil that is easily recognizable, in multiple rock layers and in multiple locations. What can be concluded about about the fossil that the scientist found?
What is it is not an index fossil because it is found in multiple rock layers which mean it did not exist for a short period of time.
What happens to the water at the ocean's surface as it moves away from the Arctic Ocean towards the equator.
Students test river water and record:
pH: 4.8
DO: 3 mg/L
Nitrates: High
Turbidity: Cloudy
Which reading suggests eutrophication?
What is high nitrate levels
What is the primary disadvantage of using renewable and nonrenewable resources?
What is renewable resources tend to cause habitat destruction while nonrenewable resources produce greenhouse gases/carbon dioxide.
Suppose a new source of natural gas is found beneath a rural farming area. A company begins hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract the gas. In this process:
Water, sand, and chemicals are injected underground at high pressure,
Wastewater is stored in large open pits nearby.
Several small farms and homes use well water in the area.
How might this fracking operation affect the environment and nearby community?
What is groundwater contamination from chemicals or wastewater leaking into nearby wells used for drinking and farming.
A scientist discovers two rock layers. The top layer is conglomerate, and the bottom is rock salt. The list below describes how these rocks formed.
• Conglomerate: Strong ocean waves carried large stones and deposited them on a beach. Over time, these large stones became compacted and cemented.
• Rock Salt: A saltwater lake existed in a desert environment. The lake water evaporated for many years, creating a layer of rock salt.
What does the ordering of these rock layers indicate about past conditions on Earth?
What is the rock salt (bottom layer) formed first, in a dry desert environment with a saltwater lake that gradually evaporated, leaving behind salt deposits.
The conglomerate (top layer) formed later, in a marine or coastal environment where strong ocean waves deposited large stones on a beach, which then compacted into rock.