Unit 4 Earth Systems APES Exam Review

Plate Tectonics

1) What are the four layers of the Earth? Describe the composition of each layer.

1. Inner Core- Innermost layer, composed of mostly iron and nickel, extremely dense2. Outer Core-This part of the core is also made from iron and nickel, just in liquid form3. Mantle- The thickest layer of Earth above the core containing magma

a. Contains the asthenosphere which is the outer part of the mantle, composed of semi-molten, ductile rock

4. Crust- It is extremely thin, cold and brittle compared to what lies below it. The crust is made of relatively light elements, especially silica, aluminum and oxygen.

a. Another name is the lithosphere

2) Compare and contrast continental and oceanic crust.

Both the continental and oceanic crust float on top of the mantle. Continental crust is less dense than oceanic crust, though it is considerably thicker; mostly 35 to 40 km versus the average oceanic thickness of around 7-10 km.

3) Compare a divergent with a convergent plate boundary.

Divergent boundaries are boundaries where plates pull away from each other, forming mild earthquakes and volcanoes as magma comes to the surface.

Convergent boundaries are boundaries where two plates are pushing into each other.

4) Why are plates moving? Draw a diagram with the explanation.

Plates at our planet's surface move because of the intense heat in the Earth's core that causes molten rock in the mantle layer to move. It moves in a pattern called a convection cell that forms when warm material rises, cools, and eventually sinks down. As the cooled material sinks down, it is warmed and rises again

5) Why do oceanic plates dive underneath continental plates when they collide? What is this process called and what is created?

Oceanic plates are more dense than continental causing them to dive underneath when they collide. This is called a convergent boundary and it usually creates an uplifting of land resulting in a mountain range.

Geographic Features from Plate Tectonics

6) What is a mid-oceanic ridge? Where is it formed? Give an example of one.

Seafloor spreads at a great depth of the ocean from a divergent plate boundary.

Example: Mid-Atlantic Ridge

7) How are mountains made?

Mountains are made at convergent plate boundaries where two plates collide.

8) What two plates are grinding together to form the San Andreas fault in California? What type of plate boundary exists here?

The Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. This is a transform plate boundary.

9) How are island arcs and trenches made?

An island arc is a chain or group of islands that forms from volcanic activity along a subduction zone. Subduction occurs when oceanic lithosphere sinks underneath continental or oceanic lithosphere.

Trenches are formed by subduction, a geophysical process in which two or more of Earth's tectonic plates converge and the older, denser plate is pushed beneath the lighter plate and deep into the mantle, causing the seafloor and outermost crust to bend and form a steep, V-shaped depression.

Soil Formation and Soil Horizons

10) What is soil made of? How is it made?

Soil is made of a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Formed from the physical and chemical weathering of rocks.

11) Identify what can be found in each horizon:

a) O-Organic matter in various stages of decomp

b) A-Zone of underlying organic material mixed with underlying mineral material

c) B-Zone of accumulation of metals and nutrients

d) C-Least weathered portion of the soil profile, similar to the parent material

e) R-Layer of unweathered or partially weathered bedrock

Soil Conservation

12) Describe four techniques that keep soil in place:

a) Contour Plowing-plowing grooves into the desired farmland, then planting the crop furrows in the grooves and following the contours.

b) Windbreaks- rows of tall trees are used in dense patterns around the farmland and prevent wind erosion.

c) No-Till- this is the method of growing crops year round without changing the topography of the soil by tilling or contouring.

d) Cover crops-rotated with cash crops in order to blanket the soil all year- round and produce green manure that replenishes nitrogen and other critical nutrients.

Soil Composition

13) Arrange the following particles in order of smallest to largest: clay, sand, silt.

Clay-->Silt-->Sand

14) Compare porosity to permeability.

Porosity is a measure of how much of a rock is open space.

Permeability is a measure of the ease with which a fluid can move through a porous rock.

Earth’s Atmosphere

15) Use the axes to the right for the following:

a. Draw a line representing the temperature as you increase in altitude through the atmosphere.

b. Label each layer of the Earth’s atmosphere and identify where the greenhouse effect occurs and the ozone layer is situated.

16) List causes of an urban heat island.

a) Change in surfaces of urban areas

b) Waste heat

c) Population density

Global Wind Patterns and the Coriolis Effect

17) How is wind created?

It is produced by the uneven heating of the earth's surface by the sun.

18) How does wind control ocean currents?

Surface currents are set in motion by the wind, which drags on the surface of the water as it blows. The winds pull surface water with them, creating currents.

19) What is the Coriolis effect? How does this affect wind and water movement on earth?

The result of Earth's rotation on weather patterns and ocean currents. The Coriolis effect makes storms swirl clockwise in the Southern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere.

Watersheds

20) Explain what a watershed is and why it is significant.

A watershed describes an area of land that contains a common set of streams and rivers that all drain into a single larger body of water

Watersheds are important because the surface water features and stormwater runoff within a watershed ultimately drain to other bodies of water. It is essential to consider these downstream impacts when developing and implementing water quality protection and restoration actions

21) Identify what A, B, C, and D are in the watershed diagram to the right.

A- Waterfall

B-Riparian Zone

C-Ridge

D-Estuary

Solar Radiation and Seasons

22) Why do we have seasons?

Tilt of the Earth’s axis

23) How does solar radiation differ in the Northern Hemisphere winter and summer?

When the North Pole of the Earth is tilted toward the Sun, we in the northern hemisphere receive more sunlight and it's summer.

When it is tilted away from the Sun, it is winter in the northern hemisphere.

24) What are equinoxes?

When day and night are of equal length.

Reading Climatograms

25) A climatogram of Washington, D.C. is presented to the right. What does a climatogram show?

The mean temperature and average rainfall over the course of a year

26) Answer these questions using the graph:

a) In which month do we see the highest temperatures? How did you determine this? July, I looked at the line graph and found it was 27 C

b) In which month do we see the highest precipitations amounts? How did you determine this? May, The blue bar graph with the highest bar (101.3)

Earth Geography and Climate: Rain Shadow

27) The box to the right contains a crude depiction of a mountain, use it to sketch and label the essential attributes of a rain shadow. Include labels for the direction of the prevailing winds and nearest ocean.

ENSO aka El Nino and La Nina

28) The acronym ENSO refers to El Niño-Southern Oscillation, which occurs in the Pacific Ocean.

29) Explain what an El Niño event is and why it is significant. What are the effects of an El Nino event?

El Niño is a climate pattern that describes the unusual warming of surface waters in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. This has negative impacts off the coast of South America because it stops the upwelling of the cool nutrient rich water which decreases the amount of fish available for catch. This also can increase storm systems in South America. El Niño can also lead to unusually high temperatures and reduced rainfall in Australia.

30) Compare El Nino to La Nina.

El nino is the warming of surface waters while la nina is the cooling of surface water.

Ecological Footprints

31) Define the term ecological footprint.

The impact of human activities measured in terms of the area of biologically productive land and water required to produce the goods consumed and to assimilate the wastes generated.

32) How does an ecological footprint of a developed country compare to a developing country? Why?

Higher income, more developed countries generally have a higher Footprint than poorer, less developed countries. This is mostly due to the higher energy and food demands of developed countries.

Sample FRQ’s

33) Suppose that you have just started a summer internship working for a cooperative extension service, where you will collect soil samples, conduct laboratory and field tests, and make recommendations on soil conservation and agricultural practices.

(a) Identify and describe one chemical soil test and one physical soil test that could be performed and explain how the results of these tests will allow the cooperative extension service to make specific recommendations for sustainable agriculture.

(b) Explain one advantage and one disadvantage to using inorganic commercial fertilizers.

(c) Describe TWO soil conservation practices that are designed to decrease soil erosion.

(d) Identify one biome that is characterized by soil that is rich in humus. Describe how humus originated in the soils of this biome and TWO ways that humus improves soil conditions for plant growth.

34) As the world’s population increases and availability of new arable land decreases, providing sufficient food for the world’s human population is becoming increasingly difficult. The table below shows the area of land needed to feed the world’s population from 1900 projected to the year 2060.

(a) On the graph below, plot the data from the table above and draw a smooth curve.

(b) Assume that the maximum arable land area on Earth is 4.00 billion hectares. Using the smooth curve that you created above, determine the year in which the human population is likely to run out of arable land for agriculture.

(c) Soil quality is a critical factor in agriculture. Identify TWO physical and/or chemical properties of soils and describe the role of each property in determining soil quality.

(d) Describe TWO viable strategies for reducing the amount of land needed for agriculture.

Modified by A. Willis from David Hong’s AP Environmental Science Review Packets (Diamond Bar HS), 2020. FRQ’s are College Board Released.

Unit 4 Earth Systems Review Videos

Mr. Andersen, Bozeman Biology

002 - Environmental Systems003 - Geology 004 - The Atmosphere006 - Soil & Soil Dynamics

Mrs. Campbell’s APES Page

Solar Radiation and Earth Season’s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WQYGUJFKtM

Earth’s Atmosphere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYGmu2cvjDA

Battle River Watershed

What is a watershed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOrVotzBNto

Earth Rocks

Seasons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX3Y5bzNDiU

Crash Course

Earth Science: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2381lUhqc0

Coriolis Effect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdGtcZSFRLk&list=PLIRCOr8Z3UMVdcoz1mZfkij29HpBSB5k_

National Geographic

Atmosphere: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YAOT92wuD8

Barron’s Review Chapters, 7th Edition

Chapter 1: The Earth (Page 11)

Chapter 2: The Atmosphere (Page 41)

Unit 4 Earth Systems Vocabulary

asthenosphere- the soft, flexible upper layer of the mantle, on which the tectonic plates movecontinental drift- the theory that all of Earth’s continents were once joined together into a single large landmass, and then moved apart, forming the continents we see todayconvection- transfer of heat by movement of a fluid

convection currents- movement within hot fluids, when the heat source is on the bottom, such as in a boiling pot of soup on the stove. Convection currents happen because the hotter material is less dense and rises; when it reaches the surface, it cools and becomes less dense, so it sinks. This rising and sinking creates a circular motion within the fluid.convergent plate boundaries- where two tectonic plates move toward each otherdivergent plate boundaries- where two tectonic plates move away from each otherGondwana- the southern continent formed when Pangaea split into two piecesLaurasia- the northern continent formed when Pangaea split into two pieceslithosphere- the rigid, brittle layer made up of the crust and the uppermost part of the mantle. It is broken up into pieces called tectonic plates.mantle convection- convection currents in the mantle that occur because hot rock in the lower part of the mantle is less dense and rises, and cooler rock in the upper part of the mantle cools, becomes more dense, and sinks. Mantle convection is thought to be the mechanism driving the movement of tectonic plates.mid-ocean ridge- a system of connected underwater mountain ranges that run throughout the world’s oceans. There is a rift valley in the center of the mid-ocean ridge, where magma rises up from the mantle, and pushes out to either side, producing seafloor spreading.Pangaea- (“all land”) the single huge supercontinent that existed 245 million years ago, when all of Earth’s continents were joined together.seafloor spreading- the process by which new oceanic crust forms when magma rises up and solidifies at the mid-ocean ridges. The newer crust pushes the older crust out to each side, which is why the age of the sea floor increases with distance away from the mid-ocean ridges.subduction- the process by which one tectonic plate sinks below another, returning to the mantle, where the rock is re-melted. Subduction takes place at convergent plate boundaries. Oceanic crust, which is denser, will always subduct under the less dense continental crust.tectonic plates- large pieces of the lithosphere that slowly move on top of the asthenosphere. There are seven primary plates and many smaller ones. The seven primary plates are the African Plate, Antarctic Plate, Eurasian Plate, Indo-Australian Plate, North American Plate, Pacific Plate, and South American Plate.tectonic plate boundary- a place where two tectonic plates meettransform plate boundary- where two tectonic plates slip past each other, moving in opposite directionsatmosphere: The layer of air that surrounds the Earth (like a blanket). The atmosphere is made up of a mixture of gaseous elements and compounds and a small amount of tiny solids and liquids. The atmosphere is held close to Earth due to gravity.Thermosphere: The atmospheric layer between the mesosphere and the exosphere where the molecules contain the most heat energy; the Northern and Southern lights, known as the auroras are found here. The ionosphere; the temperature increases as altitude increases.Mesosphere: The middle layer of Earth’s atmosphere where most meteoroids burn up. The temperature decreases as altitude increases.jet stream: “Rivers” of high-speed air in the atmosphere, found in the top section of troposphere/early stratosphere. It affects air masses and affects aircraft by speeding or slowing their path.ozone layer: A layer of a special kind of oxygen (ozone = O3) found in the stratosphere that protects life on Earth from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet raysstratosphere: The second layer from the Earth’s surface. It contains the ozone layer. The temperature increases as altitude increases due to the ozone layer’s absorption of ultraviolet rays from the sun.troposphere: The lowest layer of the atmospheric, containing about 75% of all the air in the atmosphere. It contains the air we breathe and is where weather, clouds, and air pollution are found. The temperature decreases as altitude decreasesair pressure: The amount of force pushing on a surface or area.-Think about how your ears feel under water.....image that higher up in the atmosphere....what might they feel like.low pressure: When air warms, its molecules scatter, the air becomes less dense and it rises. This causes low pressure. Air is usually cloudy and winds are particularly stronghigh pressure: When air cools, its molecules move closer together, the air becomes more dense and it sinks. This causes high pressure. Weather is fair and winds typically light.Radiation: The transfer of energy (including heat) through electromagnetic (light) waves. Examples include: radio, microwave, infrared, ultraviolet, visible light, x-rays, gamma raysultraviolet rays (UV radiation): A form of energy given off by light with wavelengths that are shorter than visible light. Ultraviolet rays are harmful to living thingswind: Horizontal movement of air from an area of high pressure to an area of lower pressure