SS 1 Flashcards
(145 cards)
1
Q
What is ESS?
A
a relatively new approach to studying the natural world, which looks at Earth as a whole
2
Q
How many subsystems are in ESS?
A
there are 4 basic subsystems, 5 if you count the cryosphere
3
Q
What are the subsystems of ESS?
A
atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere
4
Q
What is the geosphere?
A
all the rock on Earth
5
Q
What is the hydrosphere?
A
all the water and ice on Earth
6
Q
What is the biosphere?
A
all the living things on Earth
7
Q
What is the atmosphere?
A
all the air on Earth
8
Q
What are forcings?
A
factors, usually external, that alter the stability of weather and climate
9
Q
When forcings alter climate, what is produced?
A
a feedback, either positive or negative
10
Q
What are the 2 types of feedbacks?
A
positive feedbacks and negative feedbacks
11
Q
What is scale?
A
how large or small something is occurring
12
Q
The Earth’s subsystems interact with each other to influence what?
A
weather and climate
13
Q
The Earth’s subsystems interact with each other to influence the weather and climate. These interactions an occur on very different geographical ___________.
A
scales
14
Q
How large of a scale is a stream drying up?
A
small scale
15
Q
How large of a scale is an ocean warming up?
A
large scale
16
Q
What is another term for geosphere?
A
lithosphere
17
Q
Lithosphere is derived from what language?
A
Greek
18
Q
Lithosphere incorporates the Greek word for what?
A
rock or stone
19
Q
What created mountains, volcanoes, and oceans?
A
tectonic plates
20
Q
Where do most of the interactions between the geosphere and the other subsystems occur?
A
the crust
21
Q
The Earth’s crust is a relatively _____ layer.
A
thin
22
Q
How does the biosphere influence the geosphere?
A
it changes the composition of the soil
23
Q
How does the geosphere interact with the hydrosphere?
A
mountains cause clouds to form, resulting in rainfall
24
Q
How do mountains cause rainfall?
A
they help form clouds, which eventually cause rainfall
25
What subsystem is the cryosphere part of?
the hydrosphere, as it is not usually considered its own subsystem
26
What is the cryosphere?
all the ice on Earth, not an official subsystem
27
What is the lowest layer of the atmosphere?
the troposphere
28
What is the second lowest layer of the atmosphere?
the stratosphere
29
What is the middle layer of the atmosphere?
the mesosphere
30
What is the second highest layer of the atmosphere?
the thermosphere
31
What is the highest layer of the atmosphere?
the exosphere
32
What is the main way the atmosphere affects climate?
the greenhouse effect
33
Light that comes from the Sun is either __________ or ___________.
absorbed, reflected
34
What is the greenhouse effect?
when certain gases in the atmosphere trap heat
35
Is the greenhouse effect bad?
Not necessarily, we need it to keep our planet warm, but too much of it can harm the planet
36
How high above Earth is the troposphere found?
0 to 12-18 km
37
How high above Earth is the stratosphere found?
11 to 50 km
38
How high above Earth is the mesosphere found?
40-50 to 80-90 km
39
How high above Earth is the thermosphere found?
80-90 to 800 km
40
How high above Earth is the exosphere found?
800 to 3000 km
41
What is the temperature of the troposphere?
15 to -56.5 C
42
What is the temperature of the stratosphere?
-56.5 to -2.5 C
43
What is the temperature of the mesosphere?
-2.5 to -86.5 C
44
What is the temperature of the thermosphere?
-86.5 to 1200 C
45
What is the temperature of the exosphere?
1200 C
46
Life influences the _________ and __________ makeup of the Earth's subsystems.
chemical, thermal
47
What is the carbon cycle?
the cycle of carbon throughout Earth, humans inhale oxygen produced by trees and plants, etc
48
What has the human use of fossil fuels rapidly accelerated?
the carbon cycle
49
What are the 2 types of systems?
open systems and closed systems
50
What is an open system?
a system where the exchange of matter or energy occurs
51
What is a closed system?
a system where the exchange of matter or energy doesn't occur
52
What type of system is Earth's climate?
an open system
53
What is Earth's main source of energy?
the Sun
54
What are the 3 most influential forcings?
solar energy, volcanoes, and greenhouse gases
55
Cooler temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere in the late 1600s and 1700s corresponded with what?
fewer sunspots and low solar activity in general
56
What are the Milankovitch cycles?
different cycles that Earth goes through which influence the amount of solar energy received by Earth
57
What are the intervals of the Milankovitch cycles?
100,000 years, 41,000 years, and 26,000 years
58
What happens when multiple volcanoes erupt one after another?
it can cause a period of cooling, and may even bring down the average global temperature
59
What is shown when a car is parked, its windows are rolled up, and sunlight is coming through the windows?
the greenhouse effect
60
Water vapor, CO2, and methane are what type of gases?
greenhouse gases
61
What is a positive feedback in the context of Earth's climate?
a reaction that warms the climate
62
What is a negative feedback in the context of Earth's climate?
a reaction that cools the climate
63
Is the melting of ice sheets in the North Pole a positive or negative feedback?
positive, because when they melt, it reduces the amount of ice that reflects light, warming Earth
64
Positive feedbacks can push climate change to a _________ ________.
tipping point
65
Does Earth's surface emit infrared radiation?
Yes
66
Is the weakening of the polar vortex of a positive or negative feedback?
Negative, because it brings cooler weather to North America
67
What is the polar vortex?
cold air that circulates the poles
68
What is an archive?
a physical collection of documents
69
What are archives of society?
places and sources with written records of past climates
70
What are archives of nature?
parts of nature that hold clues about past climates
71
What is a proxy?
something observable in nature that gives an indication of past climate conditions
72
What are the 3 most revealing sources of climate history?
ice, trees, and soil
73
What is ice core sampling?
a technique of drilling long cylinders of ice out of deep glaciers to reveal past atmospheric conditions
74
Ice cores are analyzed in _________.
layers
75
What causes ice cores to reveal past atmospheric conditions?
as snow fell, the new top layer would trap particles and freeze them in the ice, revealing what the atmosphere was like in the past
76
How can you identify the age of a tree?
by counting the rings when it has been cut through
77
What is the practice of gathering climate and weather information from trees called?
dendrochronology
78
What is dendrochronology?
the practice of gathering climate and weather information from trees
79
Dendrochronology is a combination of words that refer to __________ and _______.
trees, time
80
What do layers of sediment and mud at the bottom of lakes and oceans contain information about?
the historical composition and content of the water
81
What does coral sampling reveal about oceans and lakes?
similar data as the sediment, as well as past temperatures and content of the water
82
What is the main limitation of the archives of society?
they only go back to the past hundred or thousand years
83
When do the oldest instrumental records of weather and climate date back to?
1700, when the thermometer was invented
84
When was the thermometer invented?
around 1700
85
How are the archives of society more specific in dating occurrences compared to the archives of nature?
the archives of society can give an exact date or time something happened, making them more specific
86
What is the strength of instrumental records of weather and climate?
they are very precise and specific
87
What is the weakness of instrumental records of weather and climate?
they only go back a relatively short period of time
88
Why did Phoenix, AZ receive attention in the news in 2023?
for record-breaking heat
89
When did Phoenix, AZ receive record-breaking heat?
the summer of 2023
90
When do the temperature records for Phoenix, AZ date back to?
1896
91
What is a scholarly field?
a group if scholars who share common ways of studying evidence they analyze
92
What is a scholar?
a member of a field
93
What happens when a scholar develops methods for analyzing sources with useful information, and scholars begin to join that work?
a scholarly field is born
94
What are the 4 main scholarly fields regarding climate history?
historical climatology, paleoclimatology, climate history, and history of climate and society (HCS)
95
Historical climatology is most related to which field?
paleoclimatology
96
How similar are historical climatology and paleoclimatology?
they are so similar that they're different names for essentially the same field
97
What is climatology?
the study of climate that relies on the archives of nature
98
Climatology uses what source as evidence for past climates?
the archives of nature
99
What does paleo mean?
ancient or old
100
Paleo conveys a similar idea as which other term?
historical
101
Historical climatology or paleoclimatology study climates primarily before when?
the 1800s
102
What source does the climate history field use as evidence for past climates?
the archives of society
103
Who is an influential pioneer in the climate history field?
Swiss historian Christin Pfister
104
Who is Christin Pfister?
a Swiss historian and an influential pioneer in climate history
105
Which of the scholarly fields mentioned in the resource guide is the newest?
The History of Climate and Society (HCS), as it is a relatively new field in the study of climate
106
Who has led the push to form HCS?
Dagomar Degroot
107
What does HCS focus on?
the relationship between past climate conditions and human societies
108
Why is HCS better at what it does compared to other fields?
because other fields aren't that precise and makes sure evidence and scale size are sufficient
109
What does HCS scrutinize?
scholarly claims about climate's past impacts on society that lack sufficient evidence, or "CAUSAL (NOT CASUAL) claims"
110
To put it simply, HCS scrutinizes ___________ __________.
causal claims
111
The field of HCS also pays attention to _________.
scale
112
What is scale?
the size of an investigation
113
What are the 2 parts of the word Anthropocene?
anthro and cene
114
What does the first part of Anthropocene, anthro, mean?
human
115
What does the "cene" within Anthropocene indicate?
that the geologic time is within the Cenozoic era
116
When did the Pleistocene start?
2.6 million years ago
117
When did the Pleistocene end?
11,700 years ago, roughly 9700 BCE
118
What does the term Anthropocene put a strong emphasis on?
the cause of our current climate change, humans
119
What group proposed the Anthropocene should be officially recognized as a new time period?
the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG)
120
What is the AWG?
a body of experts on the Earth's geological epochs
121
What did the AWG propose in 2019?
that the Anthropocene should be the new geological time period
122
When did the AWG propose the Anthropocene as the new epoch?
2019
123
According to the AWG, when did the Anthropocene start?
1950
124
Did the International Union of Geological Science accept or reject the AWG's Anthropocene proposal?
they formally rejected it, but it will still be used among scientists
125
What does the AWG stand for?
Anthropocene Working Group
126
What does IUGS stand for?
International Union of Geological Sciences
127
When did the IUGS reject the proposal for the Anthropocene?
March of 2024
128
Professional historians have been telling stories about global history since when?
the profession become formalized in Europe in the 1800s
129
French historians E. Le Roy Laudurie and Fernand Braudel didn't include climate in their global history narratives until when?
2000 CE
130
The history of China can be portrayed as a timeline of what?
dynasties, such as the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, and more
131
What empire did the Mediterranean area start out with?
the Greek Empire, with the Roman Empire and Middle Ages succeeding it
132
What empire succeeded the Greek Empire?
the Roman Empire
133
Why is there not enough information to prove a cause-effect relationship with many climate and society theories?
because they could've happened coincidentally and they may be unrelated
134
What is the argument that climate sets the course for human history called?
climate determinism
135
Almost all studies of climate and society today state that they are _________ing climate determinism.
rejecting
136
What are causal mechanisms?
simple mechanisms that directly cause another happening
137
The chronological scale of human history dates back to when?
when the first major human societies emerged, roughly 5 or 6 thousand years ago
138
Who wrote "Silent Spring"?
Rachel Carson
139
When was "Silent Spring" published?
1962
140
What was "Silent Spring" about?
the harmful effects of DDT, and how humans could destroy and transform entire ecosystems, even Earth itself
141
What is found in the exosphere?
spaceships and satellites
142
What is found in the thermosphere?
aurora
143
What is found in the mesosphere?
meteors and meteorological rockets
144
What is found in the stratosphere?
radiosondes
145
What is found in the troposphere?
planes and hot air balloons
