Deck 16: Climate Changes: Past and Future

Question 1

What are proxy indicators?

Answer 1

Scientists gain insight into past climates based on information left in the geological and biological records through what are called proxy indicators.

Question 2

The term ________ refers to the climate of the past.

Answer 2

paleoclimate

Question 3

An example of a climatic boundary condition change would be

A)New York city increased by several million people.
B)if the output of the Sun were to increase or decrease.
C)the rain forests of Brazil were all cut or burned.
D)putting more dams on the major rivers of the world.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

All of the following statements about coral reefs are true,except

A)they grow to just below the ocean surface.
B)they require warm water.
C)their composition is independent of water temperature.
D)their shells are composed primarily of calcium.

Question 5

This isotope of oxygen is the least common: ________.

Question 6

Explain why we should not blame climate change for every unusual weather event.

Question 7

This is an example of a

A)positive feedback.
B)negative feedback.
C)boundary condition.
D)proxy indicator.

Question 8

This is NOT a climate boundary condition.

A)composition of the atmosphere
B)amount of sunlight reaching the top of Earth's atmosphere
C)arrangement and size of the oceans
D)the value of the heat capacity of water

Question 9

This is an example of a

A)positive feedback.
B)negative feedback.
C)boundary condition.
D)proxy indicator.

Question 10

Describe three methods used to study past climates.

Question 11

What are some of the important problems involved in defining climate change?

Question 12

A system that regulates itself depends on

A)negative feedback.
B)positive feedback.
C)feedback filtered by related variables.
D)inputs from surrounding systems only.

Question 13

Glaciers do all of the following,except

A)move large boulders long distances.
B)leave scratch marks on rock.
C)polish rock.
D)create v-shaped valleys.

Question 14

Climate change is defined as

A)a shift in the upper level flow.
B)a change in how observations are made.
C)noting changes in meteorological statistical values over time.
D)measuring the change in sea level.

Question 15

The smallest time periods on the geologic column are the ________.

Question 16

Oxygen-18

A)is the more common isotope of oxygen.
B)is more prevalent in oceans when glaciers are expanding.
C)has not been a useful tool in ice-core analysis.
D)is useful to scientists because it emits alpha rays.

Question 17

A ________ can transform a v-shaped valley into a u-shaped valley.

Question 18

________ is the term for the fact that a single set of boundary values can yield more than one climate.

Question 19

In the context of climate change,what is a forcing agent?

Question 20

This data record from ice cores shows

A)increased temperatures have frequently been associated with elevated methane and carbon dioxide concentrations.
B)lower temperatures have frequently been associated with elevated methane and carbon dioxide concentrations.
C)increased temperatures have frequently been associated with reduced methane and carbon dioxide concentrations.

Question 21

During the mid-Cretaceous period

A)corals grew substantially closer to the poles than they do now.
B)dinosaurs were confined to areas within 10 degrees of the equator.
C)global temperature was 2-4 degrees Celsius higher than now.
D)sea level was lower than now.

Question 22

The current ice age

A)began around 38-55MYA.
B)began during the Pleistocene.
C)came about rapidly.
D)had a uniform drop in temperature.

Question 23

Which of the following coincided with the Viking settlement of Greenland?

A)Younger Dryas
B)African Humid Period
C)Little Ice age
D)Medieval Climate Anomaly

Question 24

During the mid-Cretaceous period,dinosaurs lived as far north as ________ degrees latitude.

Question 25

We are currently living in the

A)Mesozoic era.
B)Tertiary period.
C)Holocene epoch.
D)midst of Earth's sixth major ice age.

Question 26

Large-scale human impacts on the climate may have started how long ago?

A)only 200 years ago
B)2,000 years ago
C)8,000 years ago
D)100,000 years ago

Question 27

During the last 750,000 years

A)Earth has had at least two ice ages.
B)ice volume changes have been highest in the Southern Hemisphere.
C)there has been a pattern of roughly 100,000-year cycles in climate change.
D)there has been little change in climate.

Question 28

During ice ages,the ice sheets were thickest and most wide spread in

A)the southern hemisphere.
B)the northern hemisphere.
C)Europe, and especially Russia.
D)the south pole.

Question 29

During the last glacial maximum

A)most ice was stored in Eurasia and North America first.
B)sheets of ice did not exceed about 800 meters in thickness.
C)there was a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska.
D)the main sector of glaciation did not extend more than 100 kilometers south of the present U.S.-Canadian border.

Question 30

During the last glacial maximum

A)there were four main pulses of glaciation.
B)Scandinavia was relatively ice-free.
C)sea level was about 20 feet lower than now.
D)higher latitude regions were drier than they are now.

Question 31

The time scale of climate change

A)is well defined and immutable.
B)is difficult to pin down for a wide variety of reasons.
C)can be measured and tracked with satellite data.
D)is easy to follow because climate changes little in spatial variation.

Question 32

In the United States,how far south did the last major glaciation get?

A)St. Louis
B)San Francisco
C)Oklahoma City
D)Atlanta

Question 33

The Holocene

A)saw a gradual warming trend at its beginning.
B)saw only one period of cooling.
C)saw sea levels rise during its early times.
D)was a transfer from an interglacial period to a glacial period.

Question 34

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)is primarily mandated to

A)assess the present state of knowledge concerning climate change.
B)report on the human and environmental impacts of climate change.
C)offer mitigation strategies to deal with climate change.
D)All of these are correct.

Question 35

How is it possible to reconstruct past climates when no records were available?

Question 36

The shape of millennial oscillations is

A)peaked.
B)sinusoidal.
C)indeterminate.
D)square-like.

Question 37

Explain how caves are used to analyze past climates.

Question 38

The Cretaceous period was in this era

A)Cenozoic.
B)Mesozoic.
C)Paleozoic.
D)Precambrian.

Question 39

Of the past 2.5 billion years,what % have been ice ages?

A)60-70%
B)10-20%
C)40-50%
D)70-80%

Question 40

The geologic column

A)was constructed by looking at evidence of major climate change.
B)is a hierarchical system dividing time into five categories.
C)is based in part on fossil evidence.
D)assigns equal time values to each era.

Question 41

How long ago was the last major peak of glaciation?

A)5,000 years
B)20,000 years
C)75,000 years
D)115,000 years

Question 42

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)report outlines several observed changes in the Earth's climate that are consistent with global warming.List two of these items.

Question 43

How many ice ages occurred in the first 2 billion years of Earth's history?

A)0
B)1
C)2
D)5

Question 44

What was significant about African Humid Period?

A)Northern Africa was almost completely vegetated.
B)The Sahara Desert was greatly expanded.
C)Savanna landscapes were minimal.
D)South Africa was heavily glaciated.

Question 45

During the last glaciations,what were the moisture conditions like?

A)very wet
B)the same as today
C)a little drier
D)more than 50% drier in the northern latitudes

Question 46

Should Earth be considered a "warm" planet or a "cold" planet? Explain your response.

Question 47

During the current geologic period,ice volume changes have been largest in

A)the Southern Hemisphere.
B)Asia.
C)Europe.
D)the Northern Hemisphere.

Question 48

Carbon dioxide

A)is a noble gas.
B)is a solid that contributes very little to atmospheric and climatic change.
C)is a greenhouse gas that may hold the key to important climatic changes.
D)has become so thick that certain insects can no longer fly but are forced to crawl.

Question 49

Millennial-scale oscillations

A)typically begin with a slow increase in temperature.
B)take 500 or so years for a complete cycle.
C)indicate the earth flips back and forth between warmer states and colder states.
D)have little impact on precipitation patterns.

Question 50

One of the chief issues with climate change is that

A)climate can change on more than one scale.
B)there is not enough data available to build a reliable climate.
C)climate change is spatially consistent.
D)data are too sparse to develop climatic trends.

Question 51

Describe the characteristics of millennial-scale oscillations.

Question 52

Which regions of North America experienced the greatest temperature differences from current values during the last glacial episode of the Pleistocene?

A)Pacific Northwest
B)Southern Florida
C)Tennessee and South Carolina
D)little difference across North America

Question 53

The Medieval Warm Period

A)began after the end of the Little Ice Age.
B)allowed Vikings to colonize Greenland.
C)was a significant global event.
D)saw glaciers advance in the Rockies of North America.

Question 54

Most of Earth history has been characterized by conditions that are

A)about the same as today.
B)colder than today.
C)warmer than today.
D)none of these

Question 55

The eccentricity of Earth's orbit

A)has been increasing.
B)changes cyclically on several scales.
C)is currently zero, meaning Earth has a circular orbit.
D)varies between 3 and 8 percent.

Question 56

The ________ led to decreases in agricultural productivity in Renaissance Europe.

Question 57

Trace the major changes in temperature during the Holocene,with a special emphasis on the last 1,000 or so years.Also discuss evidence for the temperature changes.

Question 58

Milankovitch cycles include all of the following,except

A)changes in the eccentricity of the earth's orbit.
B)changes in the distance between the earth and the Moon.
C)changes in the earth's obliquity.
D)precession.

Question 59

Describe important characteristics of the last glacial maximum,including ice extent and thickness,crustal deformation,and changes in air temperature and sea level.

Question 60

The "Little Ice Age"

A)caused the least impact to humans in Northern Europe.
B)was the reason the Jamestown colony failed.
C)began in about 1600.
D)was a global event.

Question 61

________ involves long-distance flows of ocean water at deep depths and is driven by both temperature differences and salinity differences.

Question 62

Precession

A)leads to changes in which star is the pole star.
B)has a 100,000-year cycle.
C)does not have a significant impact on the amount of incoming radiation.
D)was not considered by Milankovitch.

Question 63

Large volcanic eruptions

A)increase global temperatures due to the increased albedo of volcanic aerosols.
B)decrease global temperatures due to the increased albedo of volcanic aerosols.
C)have no effect on global temperatures despite the increased albedo of volcanic aerosols.
D)have little effect on the atmosphere unless only a small amount of sulfuric gases are released.

Question 64

If the earth's orbit around the Sun were absolutely spherical

A)the southern hemisphere would be warmer.
B)the northern hemisphere would be cooler.
C)there would be no change because the Sun's energy is constant.
D)the southern hemisphere would be cooler and the northern hemisphere would be warmer.

Question 65

Tropospheric aerosols

A)have residence time of at least several centuries.
B)have the net effect of reducing global temperatures.
C)form a positive feedback loop with increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide.
D)are rarely anthropogenic in origin.

Question 66

If the earth's orbit around the Sun were more elliptical than now with the same inclination angle

A)the northern hemisphere would be warmer.
B)the southern hemisphere would be about the same in yearly temperature.
C)storms in both hemispheres would be stronger.
D)there would be no change because the Sun's energy is constant.

Question 67

Describe the thermohaline circulation and how it is associated with climate change.

Question 68

Aerosols

A)typically enter the atmosphere as solid particles.
B)come entirely from nonbiological sources.
C)do not absorb incoming sunlight to a significant extent.
D)can lead to higher nighttime temperatures.

Question 69

Changes in the output from the Sun

A)are significant and account for varying climatic cycles.
B)are totally insignificant.
C)do effect the earth-atmospheric temperature but the total impact is not fully understood.
D)account for the periods of drought and wetness over North America.

Question 70

Continental drift

A)is now considered the primary cause of most long-term climate change.
B)occurs very slowly.
C)has been correlated with Milankovitch cycles.
D)did not affect mountain building processes on continents.

Question 71

A period of minimal sunspot activity between 1645 and 1715 is known as

A)the quasi-biennial oscillation.
B)the Maunder Minimum.
C)eccentricity.
D)a millennial-scale oscillation.

Question 72

Explain how aerosols in the troposphere and stratosphere affect global temperature.

Question 73

Sulfuric gases from volcanic eruptions often rise high to become ________.

Question 74

If a new range of high mountains arose in western Europe along the coast of Spain through France and on to Denmark

A)the climate of England would change drastically.
B)Germany and central Russia would be much drier and colder.
C)Italy would become much warmer.
D)there would be no climate change because the general circulation would compensate for this change in topography.

Question 75

Milankovitch cycles

A)explain little of the Pleistocene climate variation.
B)explain ancient climate change better than more recent climate change.
C)have not yet been tested due to inadequate amounts of data.
D)have difficulty in accounting for effects caused by changes in Earth's eccentricity.

Question 76

The input of anthropogenic carbon dioxide into the atmosphere

A)comes primarily through deforestation.
B)does not affect the rate at which the ocean absorbs carbon dioxide.
C)comes primarily from the Northern Hemisphere.
D)has been significant from a climate standpoint since the late sixteenth century.

Question 77

Deforestation does all of the following,except

A)increase evapotranspiration.
B)increase temperatures near the surface.
C)decrease precipitation.
D)increase atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Question 78

Which of he following are factors involved in climatic change?

A)variations in Solar Output
B)changes in the Earth's Orbit
C)changes in Atmospheric Turbidity
D)all of these

Question 79

How can ice-albedo feedback affect climate?

Question 80

The Milankovitch cycles deal with these changing characteristics of Earth: ________,________,and ________.