Part I. You will be asked to answer 20 of the following questions in a sentence or so.
1) Why are most deserts of the world located at latitudes of 30*N or 30*S?
2) Give an example of how a volcanic eruption has changed the course of
history.
3) Explain how a stream can erode sediments in some places and deposit
sediments in others.
4) Why do deltas and alluvial fans form?
5) During the Missouri River flood of 1993, thousands of square miles of
farmland was flooded. Why (from the farmers' point of view) was this not
entirely a bad thing?
6) Give an example of how wind shapes the surface of the land in desert
environments.
7) What causes tides? Why does this slow the rate of earth's rotation?
8) Does a secondary coast tend to have a coastline that is more straight or
crooked than a primary coast? Why?
9) There are places in northern North America like the "Channelled Scablands"
in Washington state, now dry, that show evidence of enormous amounts of water
flowing up to 40 km3/hour. Where did this water come from?
10) Glaciers move downhill partly by basal sliding on a layer of water at its
base. Why is there often water at the base of a glacier?
11) Why does climate history provide a record of global sea levels?
12) Why is the historical climate record so closely correlated with the amount
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere?
13) What is ozone, and why is it so important for us?
14) Give an example of a mass migration of humans that has been caused by a
change in climate.
15) Why would you want an aquifer to have high porosity and high permeability?
16) Why are coal and oil called "fossil" fuels?
17) Give three examples of energy sources that are directly or indirectly
solar-driven.
18) Why must the process of genetic replication during reproduction be
imperfect for evolution to occur?
19) What evidence do we have that an impact likely contributed to
the extinction of the dinosaurs (65 million years ago)?
20) How is it that very large volcanic eruptions might alter the history
of civilizations that may be far away from them?
21) The Rocky Mountains used to be much taller than they are now. How
did they become shortened?
22) How do oil and natural gas form?
23) What is the mostly likely cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs,
65 million years ago? What evidence supports this?
24) What is the "greenhouse effect," and why is this a topic of concern?
25) Do shoreline processes of erosion and deposition tend to make a
coastline straight or jagged? Why?
26) Why do we consider water to be a non-renewable natural resource
in many parts of the world?
27) The atmosphere contains only about 0.0001% of the water that exists at
Earth's surface, yet it is vitally important for the hydrologic cycle. Why?
28) How can urbanization make the effects of floods worse than they naturally
would be?
29) Why doesn't a stream maintain a constant course across a floodplain?
30) What causes a spring?
31) Why are the North and South Poles considered deserts?
32) What happens to the shape of coastlines as they mature? Why is this so?
33) Why do atolls form?
34) Just by looking at a glacier you can often recognize roughly where the snowline
is. How, and why?
35) What is unusual about the global climate of the past 10,000 years
(compared to the times before)?
36) How might very long term (at scales of 10's to 100's of millions of years)
climate change be associated with levels of plate tectonic activity?
37) Most of the continent of Antarctica has not been near the equator for a
very long time (at least a billion years). Why would Antarctica be an unlikely
place to find large coal reserves?
38) Pikaia is the name of a fossil chordate found in the Burgess Shale
formation. Why might this be very significant?
39) Why would a time of plate separation (as with the current distribution of
continents) foster greater animal and plant speciation than during the time of
a supercontinent (like Pangea)?
40) For more than the past decade the world's total petroleum oil reserves
have actually stayed nearly constant (at about a trillion barrels of oil). Why
is this?
41) Why doesn't $1.80/gallon of gasoline reflect the true costs of using this
fossil fuel?
42) What do periods of mass extinction of life have to do with the names of
geological periods (Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous, etc.)?
43) Why might dumping waste into a sinkhole be a bad idea?
44) What is meant by the term "Cambrian Explosion"?
45) How did early fishes differ from modern fishes?
46) Why did mammals not become the dominant terrestrial clade until
the Cenozoic, even though they existed long before then?
47) What are three ways that glaciers lose ice?
48) How does the thermocline differ between ocean regions at high and low
latitudes?
49) Why is a strong thermocline associated with low levels of oceanic life?
50) How does the Coriolis force work?
51) Why does increased cloud cover reduce the total swing in temperatures
over the course of a day?
52) Why do clouds often form when air flows up and over mountains?
53) Why is a high pressure air mass (anticyclone) often associated with
clear skies?
54) Your barometer has been steadily falling over the past day or two.
Are you likely to be in for good or bad weather? Why?
55) How was climate change associated with the initial human settling of
North America?
56) How was climate change associated with the severe plagues of 1345?
57) The rate that the U.S. is generating waste is increasing each year, but
the amount that is being disposed is only increasing moderately. Why?
58) Give an example of an evolutionary response of a life form to a environmental control
associated with deserts (dry areas)?
59) Give an example of an evolutionary response of a life form to a environmental control
associated with jungles (wet areas)?
60) What are the pros and cons associated with wind power?
Part II: You will be asked to answer 6 of the following questions in a paragraph or so.
1) Describe the life cycle of an ocean, in plate tectonic terms. Use current
oceans or places as examples of the different stages.
2) Describe and compare the different ways that rock is eroded and
transported in stream, desert, glacial, and shoreline environments.
3) Describe four different kinds of groundwater pollution. What complications
make it difficult for us to identify the locations and flow patterns of
groundwater and any pollutants it may contain. Why do hydrocarbons pose a
unique hazard?
4) Gold and other precious metals are mined in areas where they are found in
concentrations much greater than their average crustal percentages. Describe
how the plate tectonics system is responsible for concentrating gold in places
like California and Alaska.
5) Imagine that you are in charge of setting the energy policy for a town,
limited to the usual constraints (i.e., if you raise costs too much, you won't
get re-elected or re-appointed). What energy sources would you use (use at
least four)? What are the pros and cons of each of these sources?
6) The fossil record and current diversity of life show a wide variety of
evolutionary mechanisms that have developed to allow organisms to survive long
enough to reproduce. Describe five of these mechanisms, and give an example
for each.
7) Earthquakes and volcanoes are both significant worldwide natural
hazards. Discuss the different kinds of damage or destruction they can cause.
8) Imagine that you are in charge of designing a plan for the supply
of electricity in the year 2100, and you are responsible for three
U.S. states: Ontario (formerly of Canada), Nebraska, and Durango
(formerly of Mexico). What will be your main energy sources, and
how might the mix differ for the three different regions?
9) Seattle is close to Mt. Rainier. What possible hazards exist for Seattle
and the surrounding region? What would the effects be of these hazards? How
might the effects be lessened?
10) Describe four ways that continental rock can be transported to the ocean.
Which of these is significant in (A) deserts, (B) glaciers, (C) temperate
regions, (D) underground?
11) What are tides, and what causes them? Why are tides slowing down the rate
of rotation of the Earth? There are usually 2 high tides and 2
low tides each day, but the period between them is 12.5 hr and not 12 hr.
Why?
12) Creating a dam across a river can provide a source of energy (hydroelectric
power). What are some of the possible pros and cons of doing so?
13) Explain how minerals, metals, and ores get concentrated in volcanic
regions.
14) Describe three significant effects that human activity has had
on the atmosphere.
15) Describe three significant effects that human activity has had
on underground environments.
16) Describe three ways that life in the Cambrian differed from life
in the Devonian.
17) Describe three ways that life in the Triassic differed from life
in the Cretaceous.
18) Explain how kettles, drumlins, eskers, lateral moraines and terminal
moraines form.
19) Explain how the Milankovitch Cycles are related to climate change.
20) Explain the difference between relative humidity and the dew point.
When you see these values given in a weather report, what does each of
these tell you?
21) Explain why winds may blow from the ocean onto land during the
day, but the other way at night.
22) Explain the difference between the weather that might be
associated with a warm front and a cold front? What is an
occluded front?
23) What is El Nino, and why is it bad for fishing along the
west coast of South America?