Climate and Weather Systems Study Guide
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Course Introduction
Climate and Weather Systems explores the fundamental principles governing the Earth's atmosphere and its dynamic processes. This course covers atmospheric composition, energy transfer, global circulation patterns, and the mechanisms that drive weather phenomena such as storms, fronts, and precipitation. Students will examine the differences between weather and climate, how climate zones form, and the ways in which climate change is impacting weather systems globally. Emphasis is placed on interpreting weather data, understanding forecasting models, and assessing the interaction between human activity and atmospheric processes.
Recommended Textbook
Physical Geography A Landscape Appreciation 10th Edition by Darrel Hess
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Introduction to Earth
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Sample Questions
Q1) Write a paragraph explaining the relationship of geography to other scientific disciplines.
Answer: not answered
Q2) One degree of longitude equals 0 miles on the ground at the ________.
A) Tropic of Capricorn
B) North Pole
C) Tropic of Cancer
D) Antarctic Circle
E) Arctic Circle
Answer: B
Q3) A cross section of Earth cut from pole to pole would reveal which shape?
A) circle
B) parabola
C) sine curve
D) ellipse
E) crescent
Answer: D
Q4) If you walked along a parallel, in what direction(s) would you be walking?
Answer: east or west
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Chapter 2: Portraying Earth
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Sample Questions
Q1) To construct an isoline on a map it is necessary to A) make the map both equivalent and conformal.
B) note the magnetic declination.
C) color it purple.
D) first draw the line on a globe.
E) interpolate between points of known value.
Answer: E
Q2) The explanations of symbols used on a map should be contained in A) the title.
B) the scale.
C) the legend.
D) the space under the north arrow.
E) the data source.
Answer: C
Q3) There are major discrepancies between the true shape of the Earth and that of a globe.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Page 4
Chapter 3: Introduction to the Atmosphere
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Sample Questions
Q1) In the atmosphere, the temperature decreases with increasing altitude in the ________ and the ________.
A) thermosphere, mesosphere
B) mesosphere, stratosphere
C) stratosphere, troposphere
D) troposphere, mesosphere
E) troposphere, thermosphere
Answer: D
Q2) The part of the atmosphere that contains "weather" and supports life
A) extends about as high above the Earth as the distance from Earth's surface to its center (radius).
B) is very shallow.
C) is the hottest part of the atmosphere.
D) consists largely of oxygen.
E) consists of a chemical called "air".
Answer: B
Q3) Temperatures in the thermosphere are warmer than in the troposphere.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 4: Insolation and Temperature
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Sample Questions
Q1) The basic direction of flow of the equatorial counter current is A) to the east.
B) to the west.
C) to the northeast.
D) to the southwest.
E) to the south.
Q2) The tropics are characterized by wide variations between temperatures of seasons. A)True
B)False
Q3) In the 20th century, the increased greenhouse effect raised global atmospheric temperatures by A) less than 1°C.
B) 5°C.
C) 20°C.
D) 40°C.
E) an insignificant amount.
Q4) The term "atmospheric effect" has been suggested as a more proper substitute for the widely used term "________".
Q5) The ________ temperature scale has 100 units between freezing and boiling.
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Chapter 5: Atmospheric Pressure and Wind
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Sample Questions
Q1) Air rises in the centers of cyclones.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the below is located at the top of the troposphere above the polar front?
A) the subtropical jet stream
B) the antitrade winds
C) the doldrums
D) the polar easterlies
E) the Rossby waves
Q3) Monsoons bring general devastation to all regions they pass over, with few beneficial side effects.
A)True
B)False
Q4) With a diagram, explain the occurrence of a Santa Ana (chinook) wind.
Q5) Cold air drainage is the nighttime sliding of cold air downslope to collect in low areas.
A)True
B)False
Q6) ________ are semipermanent areas of high pressure centered over oceans.
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Atmospheric Moisture
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Sample Questions
Q1) Liquid water that has cooled below the dew point becomes ________.
A) stable
B) supercooled
C) unstable
D) foggy
E) violent
Q2) Radiation fogs develop in valleys because of downslope air drainage.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Along the western coasts of continents between 35° and 60° of latitude the heaviest precipitation occurs during the winter.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Which of the following lapse rates represents the greatest temperature change over altitude?
A) wet adiabatic
B) dry adiabatic
C) average
D) They are all very close to being the same rate.
E) more information needed
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Chapter 7: Atmospheric Disturbances
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Sample Questions
Q1) A densely-spaced, automated weather observation network such as Oklahoma's Mesonetwork can pick out a weather phenomenon such as a(n) ________ much better than observing networks with less densely-spaced surface observations.
A) tornado funnel cloud
B) Rossby wave
C) entire air mass
D) divergence in the upper air
E) dryline
Q2) North America does not contain air mass source regions.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Scientists have reached consensus as to whether or not global warming is linked to occurrence of hurricanes.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Air masses rarely are generated in the ________ latitudes.
Q5) A large body of air with internal homogeneous characteristics is known as a(n)
Q6) A north-south meandering of the winds aloft is known as ________ flow.
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Climatic and Climate Change
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Sample Questions
Q1) Over the ENTIRE past 70 million years there has been ________.
A) a global cooling
B) a global warming
C) a global warming and then a global cooling
D) no significant climate changes
E) no way to determine if there have been climate changes
Q2) A Cfb climate exists along the northwest coast of the United States. Which climate type exists along the northeastern coast of the United States?
A) Cfa
B) Csa
C) Cfb
D) BWh
E) Dfa
Q3) The E climates are, by definition, summerless.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The lowest temperature ever recorded was recorded in Antarctica.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Explain the Cap-and-Trade idea for influencing greenhouse gas emissions.
Page 10
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Chapter 9: The Hydrosphere
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Sample Questions
Q1) The tides with the maximum tidal elevation are ________ tides.
A) flood
B) high
C) ebb
D) spring
E) leap
Q2) It is expected that the thawing of permafrost will lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Earth's widest ocean is the ________.
Q4) Which of the oceans has, by far, most of its surface south of the Equator?
A) Arctic
B) Atlantic
C) Pacific
D) Indian
E) none of the above
Q5) The amount of moisture in existence is finite and remains constant over time.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 10: Cycles and Patterns in the Biosphere
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Sample Questions
Q1) Of the sum total of environmental relationships affecting plant distributions, ________ is the least predictable.
A) topography
B) temperature
C) wildfire
D) edaphic influences
E) succession
Q2) Planetwide, a balance of chemicals is maintained by ________.
A) negative feedbacks
B) cycles
C) seasonal patterns
D) solar radiation
E) decomposition
Q3) In the early days of Earth history, ________ was poisonous to living cells; now this substance is required by living cells.
Q4) Some substances are very stable and become harmfully concentrated in the higher levels of the food chain..
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 11: Terrestrial Flora and Fauna
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Sample Questions
Q1) Authorities commonly accept ________ biomes.
A) 2
B) 7
C) 10
D) 25
E) 47
Q2) In the desert biome, animal life can be said to be ________.
A) non-existent
B) composed mainly of snakes
C) inconspicuous
D) Sun-loving
E) hygrophytic
Q3) The tallest trees in the tropics are found in the savanna biome.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The ________ provides the best scale for geographic examination of world distributions of plants.
Q5) Usually, plants are not considered "motile."
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 12: Soils
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Sample Questions
Q1) A soil that has experienced major environmental shifts in climate and vegetation will retain evidence of past environments. Such soils are known as
A) polygenetic.
B) infertile.
C) clayey.
D) acidic.
E) lateritic.
Q2) The smallest-sized pieces of a soil are ________.
A) sands
B) gravels
C) clays
D) silts
E) cobbles
Q3) On soils of the ________ soil order, the litter decomposes slowly and the upper part of the soil is so leached that it is light in color.
Q4) The measure of acidity/alkalinity in soils is based on the relative concentration of active hydrogen ions.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 13: Introduction to Landform Study
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why does the landform portion of your textbook concentrate on process more than geographic distribution?
Q2) The ________ is NOT a portion of Earth's interior.
A) outer core
B) asthenosphere
C) Moho
D) lithosphere
E) magnetosphere
Q3) ________ refers to the analytical element of landscape study concerned with the nature, arrangement, and orientation of the materials comprising the observed feature(s).
A) Slope
B) Drainage
C) Process
D) Structure
E) None of the above
Q4) Draw a sketch and describe the pathways by which igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks may change into each other.
Q5) About 100 chemical ________ are found in the Earth's crust.
Q6) Explain why geographers are as interested as geologists in geomorphology.
Page 15
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Chapter 14: The Internal Processes
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Sample Questions
Q1) In earthquakes, P waves ________.
A) are absent
B) arrive more slowly than surface waves
C) are faster than S waves
D) travel towards the focus
E) are also known as surface waves
Q2) A(n) ________ is an abrupt movement of the Earth's crust usually associated with a fault zone.
Q3) A volcanic mudflow is known as a(n) ________.
Q4) Worldwide, volcanic eruptions are ________.
A) mostly explosive
B) a thing of the past
C) rare
D) mostly underwater
E) rarely fatal to those around them
Q5) In earthquakes, buildings on loose regolith, soil, and sediments seem to be protected from violent shaking.
A)True
B)False
Q6) The Great Rift Valley is on the continent of ________.
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Preliminaries to Erosion: Weathering and Mass Wasting
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Sample Questions
Q1) The most widespread form of mass wasting is ________.
Q2) The peeling of thin layers of stone off a large rock is ________.
A) carbonation
B) hydrolysis
C) scree
D) exfoliation
E) explosion
Q3) Water is a major agent of weathering because of its property that, when it freezes, it decreases in density and ________.
A) evaporates
B) turns white
C) expands in volume
D) stays in liquid form below 0° Celsius
E) turns acidic
Q4) Which of the following is the slowest of all types of mass movement?
A) slump
B) earthflow
C) landslide
D) rockfall
E) solifluction
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Chapter 16: Fluvial Processes
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Sample Questions
Q1) The relative frequency and size of floods are related to ________.
A) a day of data from a stream gage
B) the recurrence interval
C) the shape of electromagnetic waves
D) the first law of thermodynamics
E) all of the above
Q2) In terms of erosion, a gulley is a larger example of a feature called a(n) ________.
A) dendritic pattern
B) rill
C) radial
D) alluvial fan
E) interfluve
Q3) Usually 4th order streams are more numerous than 1st order streams.
A)True
B)False
Q4) A remnant of a previous valley floor is called a stream terrace.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Using a diagram, explain the process of stream capture.
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Chapter 17: Karst and Hydrothermal Processes
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Sample Questions
Q1) Some geysers erupt 24 hours a day.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which feature is created by solution?
A) stalactites
B) stalagmites
C) speleothems
D) pillars
E) sinkholes
Q3) ________ is a deposit of hydrothermal materials.
A) Travertine
B) Karst
C) Limestone
D) Stalagmite
E) Stalactite
Q4) A ________ is usually less massive than its companion feature, the stalagmite.
Q5) It might be said that karst and hydrothermal features are the result of "underground" fluvial processes and are covered in Chapter 17 of your textbook while surface fluvial processes form the core of Chapter 16. Compare/contrast the actions of water as a landscape former underground and at the surface.
Page 19
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Chapter 18: The Topography of Arid Lands
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Sample Questions
Q1) The ________ is a river which received its name from the color of the loess sediment it carries.
Q2) Dry lake beds with especially heavy salt concentrations are most properly called ________.
A) arroyos
B) wadis
C) playas
D) salinas
E) all of the above
Q3) In arid lands, intricately rifled and barren terrain is called ________.
A) badlands
B) a bajada
C) barranca
D) a butte
E) alluvial fans
Q4) Lakebeds are uncommon in desert areas.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Explain the "special" processes that make desert landforms differ from humid landforms.
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Chapter 19: Glacial Modification of Terrain
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Sample Questions
Q1) If all the ice in Antarctica were to melt, sea level would ________.
A) lower slightly
B) rise slightly
C) stay about the same
D) lower significantly
E) rise significantly
Q2) Draw a diagram showing five landforms resulting from continental glaciation. Explain how each landform is created.
Q3) Glacial processes are still the most important erosional forces at work in the world today.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Most of the material carried by a glacier is moved at the ________. A) sides
B) bottom
C) surface
D) middle
E) none of the above
Q5) Morainal surfaces containing a number of mounds and depressions are called ________ topography.
21
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Chapter 20: Coastal Processes and Terrain
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Sample Questions
Q1) A linear extension of sand from the shore into the ocean is a ________.
A) spit
B) lagoon
C) estuary
D) barrier island
E) none of the above
Q2) Beach sand moves along the shore in a movement of materials called ________.
A) barrier bar deposition
B) spit organization
C) beach drifting
D) tombolo genesis
E) karst solution
Q3) Which of the following is most closely associated with the compression of air in coastline rocks?
A) abrasion
B) growth of salt crystals
C) hydraulic pounding
D) pneumatic action
E) coral reef formation
Q4) The input and output of sediment from a beach is known as ________.
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