Deck 12: Climate Change

Question 1

A strong El Ni-o is characterized by __________________.

A)the arrival of warm ocean water to Peru and Ecuador near Christmastime
B)high atmospheric pressure over the eastern Pacific Ocean resulting in trade winds that blow toward the equator from the north and south
C)a southern jet stream branch that flows eastward bringing higher rainfall to the southeastern United States and helping break apart Atlantic and Caribbean storms resulting in fewer hurricanes
D)heavy rainstorms in the western United States
E)All of these choices are correct.

Answer 1

E

Question 2

Episodes of climate change during the last 1000 years include all but which of the following?

A)the Maunder Minimum
B)the Medieval Maximum
C)the Little Ice Age
D)the Renaissance Warming
E)All of the choices were episodes of short-term climate change

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The climatic cooling of the last 55.5 million years has been caused by __________________.

A)the ongoing breakup of Pangaea into separate continents
B)continental masses moving into polar latitudes
C)snow and ice accumulating on polar landmasses,increasing albedo
D)the uplifts of the Tibetan Plateau/Himalaya Mountains in Asia and the Colorado Plateau in the western United States deflecting west-to-east atmospheric circulation in the midlatitudes
E)
All of these choices are correct.

Answer 3

E

Question 4

Which of the following greenhouse gases accounts for 60% of global warming?

A)Carbon Dioxide (CO₂)
B)Methane (CH₄)
C)Nitrous Oxide (N₂O)
D)Ozone (O₃)
E)Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's)

Question 5

The major factors in glacial periods lasting tens of millions of years appear to be ____________________.

A)having one or more large continental masses near the poles.
B)oceanic circulation that is more longitudinal (north-south)than latitudinal (east-west).
C)oceanic circulation that is more latitudinal (east-west)than longitudinal (north-south).
D)Both having one or more large continental masses near the poles and oceanic circulation that is more longitudinal (north-south)than latitudinal (east-west)are correct.
E)Both having one or more large continental masses near the poles and oceanic circulation that is more latitudinal (east-west)than longitudinal (north-south)are correct.

Question 6

One of the greatest weather disasters in U.S.history occurred during the ______,when several years of drought turned grain-growing areas in the center of the nation into the "Dust Bowl."

A)1920s
B)1930s
C)1940s
D)1950s
E)1960s

Question 7

About 14,000 years ago,the Earth began to warm according to changes seen in annual ice layers in glaciers-the O¹⁸,CO₂,and methane content in ice ________.

A)decreased
B)increased
C)stayed the same despite orbital changes that brought warming

Question 8

During the 20^th century,the average global surface temperature rose ______.

A)0.06 ^$\circ$ C
B)0.16 ^$\circ$ C
C)0.6 ^$\circ$ C
D)1.6 ^$\circ$ C
E)6.0 ^$\circ$ C

Question 9

Likely global climate changes in the 21^st century include all but which of the following?

A)melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets
B)melting of permafrost in Arctic regions
C)melting of mountain glaciers
D)30 meter rise in sea level
E)more frequent severe drought in the central United States

Question 10

In the 1995 heat wave,most deaths in Chicago occurred to people living ______________.

A)on the top floors of buildings
B)on the ground floor
C)in the basement where ventilation is poor
D)There was no preferential floor for deaths.
E)out in the open,sleeping in parks or under bridges

Question 11

The 2003 European heat wave resulted in more than ___________ human deaths.

A)350
B)3,500
C)13,500
D)35,000
E)135,000

Question 12

Principal factors that come into play when volcanism affects climate include all but which of the following?

A)the size and rate of eruptions
B)the heights of eruption columns
C)the types of gases and the atmospheric level at which they are placed
D)the latitude of the eruptions
E)All of these factors are considered

Question 13

The famous violins made by Antonio Stradavari in the late 1600s may owe their superior acoustical properties to the dense wood grown during a 70-year global __________________.

A)warm spell called the Medieval Warm Period
B)warm spell called the Primary Greenhouse Warming
C)cold spell called the Maunder Minimum
D)cold spell called the Stradavari Minimum

Question 14

Over the last 7000 years there has been a ________________________.

A)lowering of global average temperature totaling 2ºC
B)raising of global average temperature totaling 2ºC
C)constant global temperature,on average
D)None of these are correct.

Question 15

The Older Dryas and Younger Dryas stages represented ______________________.

A)two cooling stages during warm-up from the last major glacial advance
B)two of the more abrupt warming stages during the last glaciation
C)one warming stage and one cooling stage during the last glaciation
D)periods of dry climate

Question 16

The Earth is _________ during the Northern Hemisphere winter.

A)farthest from the Sun
B)closest to the Sun
C)the same distance from the Sun in the summer as

Question 17

The cycles of slow buildup and advance of glaciers followed by rapid shrinkage and retreat is caused by ____________________.

A)eccentricity of the Earth's orbit around the Sun
B)tilt of the Earth's axis
C)precession of the equinoxes
D)All of these are correct.
E)None of these are correct.

Question 18

The level of oxygen in the form of O₂ in the Earth's atmosphere ________________.

A)has not changed substantially in the past 450 million years
B)is drastically decreasing due to pollution
C)is no different than it was 4.6 billion years ago
D)is drastically increasing due to growth of new bacterial strains
E)cannot change because Earth is a closed system

Question 19

Which of the following greenhouse gases is the most efficient at trapping heat (i.e. ,has the highest global warming potential - GWP)?

A)Carbon Dioxide (CO₂)
B)Methane (CH₄)
C)Nitrous Oxide (N₂O)
D)Ozone (O₃)
E)Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's)

Question 20

Observed effects of global warming in recent decades include all but which of the following?

A)increasing abundance of warm-water species in the North Atlantic Ocean
B)descending tree-line in mountainous regions of Europe and New Zealand
C)earlier arrival of migrating birds in springtime
D)lowland birds extending ranges to higher elevations
E)All of the choices are observed effects of global warming

Question 21

Global cooling beginning in late Eocene time has led us into the current glacial interval.

Question 22

The major factor in glacial periods lasting tens of millions of years appear to be changes in the sun's heat output,rather than changes in shapes,sizes,and orientations of the continents and oceans.

Question 23

Our knowledge of the global advance-retreat history of glaciers has been leaping ahead from analyses of cores of sediments taken from the ocean floor and cores of ice removed from the Greenland ice cap.

Question 24

Biologic use of CO₂ has lessened the greenhouse effect to yield the present congenial temperatures on Earth.

Question 25

A major release of methane hydrate,which is found just beneath the ocean floor,may have been the trigger for the final temperature increase near the end of the Late Paleocene Torrid Age.

Question 26

Because of its fluctuations in abundance,CO₂ is the most important of the greenhouse gases.

Question 27

Not only do warm and cold intervals come and go,but they do not necessarily correlate with wet and dry periods,nor is there a distinct,geological-time pattern to the arrivals and departures of various climates.

Question 28

One of the major Ice Ages in Earth's history began in Early Carboniferous time (360 million years ago)and lasted for tens of millions of years until Late Permian time (260 million years ago).

Question 29

The CO₂ from the early Earth's atmosphere is stored in physical form in several ways,but over 99 percent of that CO₂ is now chemically tied up in clays.

Question 30

Beginning from a temperature peak at 55.5 million years ago,the Earth began a long-term warming trend that has carried us into our current time between Ice Ages.

Question 31

Ice sheets in the northern hemisphere have a smaller effect on global climate change than Antarctic ice sheets because they expand and shrink in more dynamic fashion.

Question 32

Methane has about a 24-times stronger capacity to trap heat as a greenhouse gas than does carbon dioxide.

Question 33

Paleoclimatic analyses of the Earth's rocks tell of extreme variations and changes in world temperature and precipitation throughout geologic time.

Question 34

The distribution of fossil organisms tells much about ancient climates,including the latitude at which a rock formed.

Question 35

Water has such a tremendous capacity to either absorb or release heat that it acts as a powerful control or buffer on global climate.

Question 36

Shells constructed from seawater incorporate the O¹⁸/O¹⁶ ratio of seawater during their lifetime within their CaCO₃ shell walls,providing a paleothermometer that is used to estimate the temperatures of ancient seas.

Question 37

If CO₂ were not present in the atmosphere,the average temperature at the Earth's surface would be about 0 ^$\circ$ F.

Question 38

The atmosphere of Venus is thought to be greatly changed over more than 4 billion years.

Question 39

Before life was present on Earth,the atmosphere was full of CO₂,and the average surface temperature of the Earth would have been about 550 ^$\circ$ F.

Question 40

The initial growth of northern continental glaciers that occurred between 3 million and 2.7 million years ago coincided with the formation of the Isthmus of Panama.

Question 41

A typical La Nina winter brings cold air with high rainfall to the northwestern United States and western Canada,but causes warming and below average rainfall in most of North America.