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Environmental Test #1

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Name the chemical that is dangerous to the ozone layer and is used as a refrigerant?
Chlorfluorocarbons (CFCs)
What are the relative sizes of subatomic particles?
Neutron is slightly more massive than a proton and an electron is 1/1,800 the size of an proton.
What is the name of chemical with different levels of neutrons?
isotope
What are the three types of bonds?
Covalent, Ionic, and Van der Waals
What is a covalent bond?
bonding atoms share electrons (H2O)
What is an ionic bond?
occur between positively charged and negatively charged atoms (NaCl)
What is a Van Der Waals bond?
They are very weak and produce fragile molecules (more like mixtures) think graphite.
What is energy?
The capacity to do work
What is work?
Force x distance
What are the different forms of energy?
Mechanical, Gravitational, Kinetic, Electromagnetic, Chemical, and Nuclear
What is potential energy?
The energy in a system that can be transferred to other forms of energy or can do work
What is a calorie?
Energy required to heat 1 gram of water 1 degree C.
What is heat?
Refers specifically to the kinetic energy in a collection of molecules?
Temperature
A measure of the average kinetic energy of a group of molecules
What are the temp. scales?
Farenheit - ice=32 and boiling water = 212. Celsius - ice = 0 and boiling water = 100. Kelvin absolute zero - no molecular motion = 0, ice =273, boiling = 373.
What properties does electromagnetic energy have?
both of a particle and a wave
What is an exergonic reaction?
A reaction that releases energy
What is an endergonic reaction?
A reaction that requires energy
What is activation energy?
The energy required to get a reaction going.
What is a reaction called that has a very low activation energy?
A spontaneous reaction.
What is a catalyst?
A chemical that lowers activation enrgy without being consumed in a reaction.
What is fusion?
When atoms collide to form a new element, which leads to some mass converting to energy.
What is the law of thermodynamics?
1.Energy may be transformed from one form to another but it can be neither created nor destroyed.
2. All energy transformations increase the disorder of the universe (think food chain example)
What are chemicals?
Atoms/molecules with mass.
What is the nature of chemical reactions?
Formation or breaking of bonds that vary in strength.
What makes chemical reactions more or less reactive?
A vareity of things including ability to donate, accept or share electrons.
What is the role of energy in chemical reactions?
Energy is required to activate and may also be produced or consumed.
When did the solar system start condensing from galactic gasses?
4.6 Billion Years Ago
Mercury
Does not rotate relative to the sun, extremes of hot and ocld.
Venus
Similar size to earth. No surface water.
Mars
About 40% of the size of earth.
Thin atmosphere with some water, no 02.
What are the different spheres of the earth?
Aethenosphere, Lithosphere, Hydrosphere, and Atmosphere.
What is the Aethenosphere?
Includs the earth's inner core, outer moltern core, and mantel.
What is the Lithosphere?
crust and uppermost layer of mantel
What is the hydrosphere?
Earth's surface waters
What is the atmosphere?
Gaseous layers extending up to 150 KM
What are the two types of crust?
Ocean and continental
What provides the force for plate tectonics?
Convectional heating in the mantel
What occurs when there is a convergent boundary where ocean meets continental crust?
Subduction
What is ocean crust young?
It is constantly being subducted.
What are igneous rocks formed from?
The crystallization of molten lavas.
What are the two types of igneous rocks?
Basaltic and acidic.
What do sedimentary rocks form from?
The accumulation of either eroded or biologically produced materials.
What are metamorphic rocks formed from?
The alteration of igneous or sedimentary rocks under extreme pressure.
What are the main natural forces reworking the earth's surface?
Glaciation, Water, Wind Erosion, and Plate Tectonics.
What are the layers of the atmosphere, starting from the top?
Magnetosphere, Thermosphere, Mesosphere, Stratosphere, and Troposphere.
What is the composition of the troposhere?
N2 - 78%, 02 - 21%, Ar - .9%, C02 -.036%, Remainder - H20, hydrogen neon, helium, and other trace elements.
What is barometric pressure?
The density of air molecules (atmospheric pressure)
Why is the temperature very high in the thermosphere, but not much heat exists?
Very low air density.
What is in the mesosphere?
Lot more N2, H20, 02 and 03 than upper layers.
What is in the stratosphere?
A mixed layer of gases rich in ozone (03), and shields troposphere and lower earth from UV radiation.
What is absolute humidity?
The total water content in the air.
What is saturation humidity?
The amount of water that air can hold
What is relative humidity?
The degree to which the air is saturated - % saturation
RH%=Ab hum/Sat Hum X 100
What is dew point?
The temperature at which air containing a givena moutn ofwater reaches 100% relative humidity.
When do we get frost?
When the air reaches dew point and is alow below the freezing point for water.
What is adiabitic cooling?
Air rising by convection becomes less dense and cools
What is the adiabitic lapse rate
The rate of cooling due to the adiabitic effect. 10c/1000 meters above dew point or 5c/1000 below dew point
What are the horse latitudes?
Zone of dry air with few prevailing winds.
What are the Easterly tradewinds?
Air moving back to equator along the Earth's surface
What is the noritic zone?
THe green water of the hydropshere, shallow waters near land.
What is the oceanic zone
The ocean of the hydrosphere.
What are the different currents?
North Pacific Gyre, North Atlantic Gyre, South Pacific Gyre, South South Atlantic Gyre, Indian Ocean Gyre, and the Antarctic Current.
What are ocean water's direction affected by?
Changes in temp, changes in salinity, long term climate patterns
What are the three general life zones?
The tropics - 0-25, temperate zone 25-60, and the circumboreal zone 60+
What is biome?
Whole assemblages of organisms, particulary plants with similarities in structure, function, behavior, and seasonal adaption, which also thrive in similar climactic zones.
What are the characteristics of a tropical rainforest?
Very little seasonal variation in temperature. Rainfall varies through the season.
What are the characteristics of a tropical seasonal forest?
Tropical seasonal forest has a very distinct dry season, increases in abundance away from the equator and the tres are often drought deciduous.
What is a tropical savanna?
Has pronounced dry seasons, often more than half a year. Dominated by grasses and scatterred trees. Grazing by large mammals and fire are often important.
What is a deciduous forest?
Rainfall is event. Growing season less than 8 months. Deciduous broadleved trees able to overwinter.
What is a grassland?
Extends as a graidnet from tall grass to short grass prairie as moisture deficits increase. Rainfall generally highest in the summer months.
What marks the transition from forest to grassland?
Where evaporation=precipitation
What is temperate evergreen forest?
Complex mix of forest types dominated by evergreen conifers in n. hemisphere. Compared to deciduous forests, has warmer winters, dryer summers, and less overall rainfall.
What is Caparral and Mediterranean-climate Grasslands?
Dominated by plants able to tolerate long summer. Rainfall similar to grassland, but with little rainfall in the summer.
Desert
most common in horse latitudes and in rainshadows of major mountains?
What is taiga?.
Taiga is dominated by evergreen cone-bearing trees. Influenced by polar easterly winds. Extended harsh winters. Limited precipitation, but low evaporation. Permafrost in many locations impedes water drainage.
What is tundra?
2-4 months growing season, very harsh winters. Low grass or shrub vegetation. Limited Precipitation. Low evaporation plus permafrost results in abundant surface water.
What are the three trophic levsl?
1 - Primary Producers, 2 Herbivores, and 3 Carnivors
What is net primary production?
Energy capture/unit area/unit time minus the amount respired limocalories/m2/year
What is net ecosystem production?
Energy accumulated/unit area/unit time, minus the amount respired.
What are the names of the last 6 ages?
Current - Pleistocene, Creataceous/Tertiary Extinction (66 MY BP), Carboniferous Epoch (340-280 MY BP), Close of Permian 250 MY BP, Devonian Period (420 MY BP), Ordovician and Silurian (500-420 MY BP), and the Cambrian (542 MY BP)
What are the ice age/normal age cycles driven by?
Periodic changes in earth's orbit, changes in earth's energy budget - as snow accumulates, increase reflectivity (don't know how it ends).
The genus Homo appeared when?
About 2M BP
When did homo sapiens arrive?
100,000 years ago
When does the earth's atmosphere reach 10% oxygen?
The Devonian period.
When did the major extinction of marine and land species occur?
Close of Permian Period - 250 MY BP
Who is John Muir?
Preservationist
Who is Gifford Pinchot?
Conservationist.
What do the conservationists believe?
The greatest good to the greatest number for the longest amount of time.

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