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PART A: THE ATMOSPHERE
Atmosphere: Composition & Structure
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List the four most important (meteorologically) variable
gases? Which has the greatest variation in concentration?
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Describe and explain why tiny suspended particles are important
in the atmosphere
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Meteorologically, why is carbon dioxide (CO2) so important
ifor weather and climate? Why do atmospheric concentrations change naturally?
How are humans altering this? Why are scientists expressing concern about
increasing CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere?
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Ozone (O3) is concentrated in two locations in the atmosphere.
Where are they? In which layer are we concerned by its depletion? Why is
it being depleted? What are some of the likely implications?
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Define temperature and pressure? What in the atmosphere is
exerting the pressure? Why does pressure decrease with height (give two
reasons)? Why is it difficult to breathe at the top of a tall mountain?
Why are the cabins of commercial planes pressurized?
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Draw a diagram to illustrate the vertical change in temperature
away from the Earth's surface. Label each of the layers. Where do each
of the layers get their energy from? How does this allow us to explain
the vertical change in temperature?
Solar and terrestrial radiation
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What is the primary source of energy for the Earth's atmosphere?
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Draw & label a diagram to show the Earth's rotation on
its axis. Make certain you show the axis and direction of rotation. What
time period does a complete rotation take? What is the inclination of the
axis (the angle of tilt)? How does this vary over geological time periods?
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Draw and label a diagram to show the Earth's revolution around
the sun. Make certain you show the aphelion, the perihelion, and the earth's
rotation relative to the orbit. What shape is the path? What time period
does a complete revolution take? Why is there a leap year every four years?
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There are four days of special significance based on the
annual migration of the direct rays of the sun. What are they each called?
When are they? Where are the sun's rays directly overhead on these days?
Make sure you describe what happens in both the northern and southern hemispheres?
Where are the sun's rays directly overhead today?
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Why are the i) Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, ii) the Equator,
and iii) the Arctic and Antarctic circles located where they are?
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Define the term solar (sun) angle. In the northern
hemisphere when in the year will the sun's midday altitude (sun angle)
be greatest? Draw a diagram to show how the latitude where the sun angle
is 90 changes through the year.
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Why on a given day does the sun angle vary both from place
to place (spatially)? Why at a given place does it vary from day-to-day
(temporally)? what is the relationship between sun angle and daylength?
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Why is there summer and winter? Why are the seasons
reversed in the northern and southern hemispheres?
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The processes of absorption, reflection and scattering all
affect radiation as it passes through the Earth's atmosphere. Describe
each briefly. In your answer also explain their main effects, identify
the wavelengths they affect the most, and speculate as to how each process
would be affected by a volcanic eruption.
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What is scattering. Which gives the sky its color when it
is clear (no clouds)?
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Define the term albedo? Which surface will have the lower
albedo: snow, grass or pavement?
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What controls the amount of longwave radiation emitted by
the Earth's surface? How does the emitted longwave radiation affect the
atmosphere?
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What gases in the atmosphere are best at absorbing longwave
radiation? Collectively these gases result in the "greenhouse effect".
What is this?
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What is net all wave radiation? How might you expect it to
vary (a) from day to night? (b) from summer to winter? (c) from the equator
to the pole? For each explain why.
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describe briefly conduction and convection. How do each heat
the atmosphere? What portion of the atmosphere do they have their greatest
effect on?
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What is latent heat? How does it result in heating/cooling
of the atmosphere?
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Why does temperature decrease with height in the troposphere?
[S]
Temperature
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Explain the difference between temperature and energy.
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Why does warm air rise and as it rises cool? Why does cool
air sink and as it sinks warms?
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Describe and explain the general pattern of world distribution
of temperatures. Make sure you explain why the isotherms (lines of equal
value of temperature) have a general East- West trend and decrease polewards.
How are these perturbed by oceans/continents? What is the influence of
warm currents compared to cold currents. Are there any notable differences
(anomalies) between the expected average/normal pattern and current conditions?
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Why does air temperature decrease with height in the troposphere
but increase with height in the stratosphere?
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What are the processes that cause it to be colder in winter
in the middle of a continent (e.g. Indiana) than beside a large water body
(e.g. Eureka, CA), even though both are at the same latitude and thus receiving
the same amount of solar radiation at the top of the atmosphere?
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Why do we have meridional (poleward) transport of energy?
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The mid-latitudes experience predominately westerly winds,
how does this influence the seasonal temperature patterns of the east and
west coast climates?
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What is the influence of altitude on air temperature?
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Use a diagram to show the influence of cloud on the daily
cycle of air temperature. Explain the differences between the day and night.
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Why are urban areas often warmer than surrounding rural areas?
Explain the processes involved.
Atmospheric moisture; VIII. Clouds &
precipitation
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What is the hydrologic cycle? Draw a diagram to show how
evaporation, condensation and precipitation relate to the hydrologic cycle
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Water changes through three phases. What are these? How do
we "see" each in the atmosphere? What are the names given to the processes
of change? What is the name of the heat exchange that occurs with these
changes?
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What controls the rate of evaporation from the Earth's surface?
Where is it greatest? Why is it greater on a warm day? Why is it greater
on a windy day?
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Why when we sweat do we cool ourselves? Why do we feel so
hot and unpleasant on humid days in the summer?
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What is relative humidity? How would you expect relative
humidity to vary over the course of a day? Why?
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Draw a diagram to show the relationship between air temperature
& saturation vapor pressure (the air's ability to "hold" moisture).
Using this diagram does the statement "warm air can hold more moisture
than cold air" hold true?
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What is the dew point temperature? What is the condensation
level? How are the concepts of saturation, dew point temperature and relative
humidity related? How can an air parcel be brought to it dew point temperature?
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Explain the difference in the influence of warm and cold
ocean currents on the humidity experienced on nearby land regions. Use
Georgia and California as examples.
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Describe and explain the difference between visible, infra-red
and the water vapor satellite imagery. What are the relative advantages
of each?
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What are condensation nuclei? What are their sources? What
is the relation between cloud droplets, rain droplets and condensation
nuclei?
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What are the two mechanisms by which rain droplets form?
Which of the two precipitation processes are you likely to find in cold
clouds?
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What is the influence of mountains (orographic uplift) on
precipitation (amount and type)? Explain the processes involved.
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Why do cumulus clouds have flat bottoms?
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Why do all clouds not yield rain?
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What conditions in the atmosphere result in Sleet? Freezing
rain? Snow? Hail?
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Why does dew occur more on clear than cloudy nights? Why
does steam appear to rise over rivers/lakes on cold winter mornings? Why
does fog often occur downwind of a lake or river in the winter? Why does
fog appear to thicken from the ground up at night, and "lift" from the
surface up in the morning?
Atmospheric Pressure and Winds
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What is the wind? Describe and explain the forces that influence
wind direction and wind speed.
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What is a pressure gradient? On a weather map, how do you
know where the strongest winds are found?
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The earth's rotation causes an apparent deflection of the
air. What is the name of this? Where is this strongest? Where is it weakest?
What is the influence of wind speed? What components of wind (direction
and speed) does this influence?
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What is the pattern of flow around a high pressure in the
northern and southern hemispheres? How is this different to a low pressure
system? Why? How do wind directions differ at the surface and aloft?
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What is the influence of friction on surface winds?
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What is a convection cell? What produces it?
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How does differential heating result in the generation of
winds? Explain the heating patterns and winds that result in: land-sea
breezes, monsoons and the global circulation
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Draw a diagram to show the location of the major pressure
systems and winds at the global scale (4 pressure systems; 3 winds in each
hemisphere). How are each of the pressure and wind systems formed?
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Why do we have subtropical highs, equatorial lows, subpolar
lows and polar highs?
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Why are there bands of westerly winds in the mid-latitudes
in both hemispheres when coriolis works in opposite directions? Why do
these systems not run in perfect symmetrical bands, but bend north and
south?
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What is the ITCZ? Where does it occur? Why does its location
vary? How would you recognize it on satellite imagery?
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What is a jet stream? At what elevation in the atmosphere
do jet streams occur? On what type of weather map would you look to find
evidence of their occurrence?
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Explain why: At the equator there is a low pressure at the
surface but a high pressure aloft (above the surface); Deserts are located
where they are; Tropical rainforests occur at the equator; The jet stream
moves north and south over the course of a year ; California is hot and
dry in the summer and wet in the winter
Weather systems
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What is an air mass? Where will air masses form? Why do air
masses form in association with high pressures? Why do they not tend to
form in association with low pressures?
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Why do air masses move from their source regions? What happens
to an air mass as it moves from its source region?
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What are the boundaries between air masses called?
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How are lake effect snows generated? Why do areas of N. Indiana
get lake-effect snows?
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How does a low pressure develop at the Polar Front? What
are the characteristic stages in the development of a cold front?
warm front? midlatitude cyclone? How would you identify each of these on
a surface weather map?
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Why does warm air rise at a front?
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Why does the precipitation precede a warm front but occur
at the time of a cold front? What are the first signs of an approaching
warm front?
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What does a cyclone look like from a satellite? What happens
to surface pressure as a cyclone passes? Why does the shape of a midlatitude
cyclone change through time? Why do midlatitude cyclones move west to east
across the US? On the current weather map, locate the midlatitude cyclones
in the proximity of the US.
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Where does a midlatitude cyclone derive its energy from?
How big is it? How long does it last? Why does it dissipate?
Severe storms
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What are the essential ingredients for a thunderstorm to
start? Where in the world do most thunderstorms occur? Why?
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Explain the role of convection and latent heat release in
the development of thunderstorms
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How do hailstones grow? Why are they layered?
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How are thunder and lightning generated? Why do we see lightning
and then hear thunder?
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What are the implications of a slow rotation within a thunderstorm?
What is a wall cloud? What is a tornado?
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Under what synoptic (frontal) conditions do tornados tend
to form? What is the funnel cloud? Why does it appear to descend?
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Geographically where do most tornados occur? Why? Why do
tornados tend to track from the southwest to northeast?
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Why do most tornados tend to occur in the springtime in the
Midwest?
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What is doppler radar ? What does it show? Why does it help
in the forecasting of tornados?
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How big are hurricanes? Where do they occur? Why do they
not occur at the equator? Why is peak hurricane season Aug-Oct in the Northern
hemisphere?
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What is the "eye" of a hurricane? How would you identify
it on a satellite image? Describe and explain happens to wind speed in
a transect across the eye.
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How is a storm surge generated? Why is it so destructive?
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What is the source of energy for a hurricane?
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Why do hurricanes dissipate when they hit land or move over
the northern Atlantic Ocean?
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What controls the direction hurricanes track?
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What do thunderstorms, tornados and hurricanes have in common?
How are they different? Consider their scale (spatial and temporal), source
of energy, and spatial occurrence.
Climate Change
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What would be the likely effects of the following changes
on climate (explain the mechanisms involved and think about both temperature
and moisture): 1. A hotter sun; 2. The perihelion in March;
3. The Earth's tilted at 20o; 4. Lower sea levels; 5. Increased
cloud cover; 6. Greater number of explosive volcanic eruptions;
7. Large scale deforestation; 8. Increased Carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere
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Describe three methods used in the reconstruction of past
climates.
PART B: THE SOLID EARTH
Composition & Structure
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Draw a diagram to show the structure of the Earth
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Why are the elements that make up the Earth different to
those that make up the atmosphere?
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What is the relationship between elements, minerals, magma
and rocks?
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What are the three general classes of rock types? On what
basis are they classified? How does the mode of formation affect their
susceptibility to erosion?
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How are intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks different?
Why?
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In what ways are the formation of sedimentary rocks a product
of the interaction of the solid-earth environment
and the atmosphere?
Plate Tectonics
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What lines of evidence led Wegener to believe that the positions
of the continents are not fixed in time? What more recent findings support
his assertions?
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What is the mechanism that drives plate tectonics?
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Differentiate between sima and sial. Where would you expect
to find each?
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What are the three types of plate boundary? What landforms
would you expect to be associated with each?
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What sorts of landforms result from folding and faulting?
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Explain the terms: plate tectonics, continental drift, sea
floor spreading, rifting, subduction, hot spots, island arcs
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How does the theory of plate tectonics help in an explanation
of the spatial distribution of earthquakes and volcanos
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What determines whether a volcano erupts explosively or not?
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How useful is plate tectonics as a framework to understand
global geomorphology?
PART C: THE EARTH'S SURFACE
Weathering and Mass Wasting
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What is weathering? Define the terms erosion, transport and
deposition. How are they inter-related?
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Why are rocks inherently unstable when they are exposed at
the Earth's surface?
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What are the primary types of physical and chemical weathering?
In which climatic environments will each predominate? How are the products
of mechanical weathering different from those of chemical weathering?
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How does percolating groundwater in limestone areas both
erode and deposit? How does a sinkhole form? Why is there a scarcity of
surface drainage in karst topography?
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How is gravity an agent of erosion? Describe a classification
of mass movements based on: the amount of water involved and the steepness
of the slope.
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What is soil creep?How important is it in the long term movement
of sediment?
Soils
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What is regolith? How is it different
to soil? What is the relationship between weathering and soil development?
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What is a soil profile? What are soil
horizons?
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Briefly describe the five factors of
soil formation?
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What role does organic material play
in soil? What is it called?
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What can soil color tell us about a
soil? Why are there often red/orange soils in tropical climates?
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What sorts of soils would you expect
to develop in: a) Tropics, b) Midlatitude areas covered with coniferous
forest, and c) deserts. Describe and explain the processes involved.
Rivers
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What is the difference between hydrology
and hydraulics? What is overland flow?What is stream discharge?
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Why is streamflow more capable of creating
landforms than other fluvial processes (subsurface flow, overland flow)?
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How does a stream carry its load?
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Why does a stream deepen its valley?
Make sure you refer to the concept of base-level
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Differentiate between abrasion and
corrosion? Why when you look at pebbles in the bottom of a river
are they often rounded?
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What are the characteristic landforms
of the headwaters of a river system?
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How do the landforms of the lower reaches
differ?
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Briefly describe two distinct types
of plan-form channel pattern?
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In what sorts of environments would
you expect to find these?
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Explain with examples how underlying
rock structure may control river pattern.
Arid Landscapes
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Where are the deserts/dry lands found?
Why?
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How do the processes operating in deserts
and the characteristics of that environment differ from humid areas?
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Describe the significance of running
water in deserts.
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How are rivers in arid areas different
from those in humid areas?
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Distinguish between erosional and depositional
landforms that result form running water in arid environments.
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Is there a predominance of mechanical
or chemical weathering in arid environments? Why?
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What are the implications for the soil
that develops?
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What is the significance of differential
weathering? What landforms result?
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How does the wind erode sediment? How
does it carry its load? How is this different to a river?
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Why is wind erosion relatively more
important in arid than humid regions?
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What landforms result from wind erosion?
Which are erosional and which depositional?
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What is loess? Where is it found? Why
is it important?
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Why is there often a ring of white
salt deposits around lakes in arid/semi-arid areas?
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What is distinctive about badlands
topography? Were in the US would you find badlands terrain?
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Based on underlying rock structure,
there are two common landform assemblages in arid areas, what are they?
Where are they found? Why do they differ?
Glacial Landscapes
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What was the Pleistocene Epoch?
How was the distribution of glaciers different to that of today? What was
its effect on the landforms of Indiana?
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Today where in the world do glaciers
exist? Distinguish between alpine and continental glaciers?
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How do glaciers form? Under what conditions
will a glacier advance, retreat, remain stationary?
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How does a glacier move?
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How does a glacier erode sediment?
How does it transport sediment? Why do glaciers deposit sediment?
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Describe and explain the formation
of erosional and depositional landforms created by glaciers
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Why are glaciers more efficient agents
of erosion than either running water or the wind?
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Why are glaciations associated with
a change in sea level? What are the implications for fluvial processes?
REVIEW AND INTEGRATION
1. Discuss how the cycling of energy and matter (sediment
and water) has been used as a basic framework to understand each of the
environmental spheres we have studied in this course
2. Discuss how the idea of gradients can be used
to understand processes occurring in each of the environmental spheres
we have studied in this course. Provide examples to illustrate your answer.
3. Discuss how vegetation cover and precipitation pattern
act together to control soil development.
4. Compare and contrast the way in which wind, running
water and glaciers erode/deposit sediment. What are the implications for
the landforms that develop?
5. High magnitude low frequency events are more important
in transforming the physical environment than low magnitude high frequency
events. Discuss with examples.
6. Solar energy is the main energy source for all spheres
of the physical environment. Discuss
7. Internal processes generate relief whereas external
processes wear it down. Discuss this statement. Give examples to substantiate
your answer
8. For any geographical region of North America, describe
the soils that you would expect to develop based on a consideration of
the five factors of soil formation
9. How is the approach of Geographers to the natural environment
different to that of Biologists, Geologists,
Chemists etc.
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