Environmental Hazards and Risk Management
Midterm Exam
Course Introduction
This course explores the identification, analysis, and management of environmental hazards, with a focus on their impact on human health, ecosystems, and built environments. Students will examine natural and anthropogenic hazards such as floods, earthquakes, chemical spills, and climate change, learning methods for risk assessment, mitigation, and disaster preparedness. Through case studies and practical exercises, the course emphasizes understanding vulnerability, developing risk management strategies, and integrating scientific, policy, and community perspectives to promote sustainable and resilient solutions.
Recommended Textbook
Natural Disasters 1st Canadian Edition by Patrick Leon Abbott
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14 Chapters
917 Verified Questions
917 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/study-set/2932
Page 2
Chapter 1: A Global and Canadian Outlook on Natural Disasters
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42 Verified Questions
42 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/58418
Sample Questions
Q1) In general,there is an inverse correlation between the frequency and the magnitude of a disaster process.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) The magnitude of a hazardous event is related to the amount of energy fuelling the natural event.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) According to the population distribution map of Canada by census division (CD)(2011),the population in rural areas is constantly rising from 1980.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q4) Today,the world growth rate for human population is rapidly declining.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Page 3
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Chapter 2: Earths Internal Energy and Plate Tectonics
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91 Verified Questions
91 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is attributed to the Canadian geophysicist J.Tuzo Wilson?
A) Theory of continental drift
B) Theory for hot spot volcanoes
C) Discovery for slab-pull mechanism
D) Discovery of magnetic reversal of the poles
E) Sea floor spreading hypothesis
Answer: B
Q2) All of the continents were once combined into a single supercontinent called
A) Laurasia
B) Gondwanaland
C) Tethys
D) Panthalassa
E) Pangaea
Answer: E
Q3) Pangaea covered 60% of the Earth's surface while Panthalassa covered the remaining 40%.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 3: Earthquake Geology, Seismology, and Engineering
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67 Verified Questions
67 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Aftershocks are smaller than the mainshock in an earthquake sequence.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Where the frequencies of seismic waves match the natural vibration frequencies of local geology and buildings,destruction may be great.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) __________ waves move in a side-to-side motion propagating in a horizontal plane parallel to the Earth's surface.
A) P-
B) Rayleigh
C) Both Body and Surface Waves
D) Both Rayleigh and P-
E) Both Love and S-
Answer: E
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Page 5
Chapter 4: When the Earth Shakes in Canada
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44 Verified Questions
44 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The city with the second highest seismic risk in Canada is _________.
A) Victoria
B) Vancouver
C) Toronto
D) Montreal
Q2) The city with the highest seismic risk in Canada is __________.
A) Victoria
B) Vancouver
C) Toronto
D) Montreal
Q3) Natural Resources Canada recognizes and earthquake as significant when the magnitude is equal to or greater than 6 or the modified intensity is VI or stronger.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Charlevoix,Quebec,has suffered frequent earthquakes because it is the site of an ancient meteorite impact.
A)True
B)False
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Page 6
Chapter 5: Volcanic Eruptions and Landforms
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70 Verified Questions
70 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) About 80 percent of the magma reaching the Earth's surface is basaltic,with only about 10 percent andesitic and 10 percent rhyolitic.
A)True
B)False
Q2) A scoria cone is likely to form if lava is low in gas content and high in viscosity.
A)True
B)False
Q3) When magma cools so quickly that crystallization cannot take place it produces
A) aa lava
B) granite
C) metamorphic rock
D) obsidian
E) pahoehoe
Q4) When it comes to volcanic hazards,the key problem is how easily the dissolved gases can escape from the magma.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 6: Volcano Case Histories : Killer Events
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54 Verified Questions
54 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The majority Earth's volcanic activity occurs in which of the following tectonic settings?
A) Hot spots
B) Transform faults
C) Spreading centres
D) Subduction zones
E) Continent to continent collision zones
Q2) If a volcanologist installs a sensitive seismometer besides a volcano and it detects longer-period seismic waves this means that:
A) magma is still in the mantle zone
B) magma eruption is imminent
C) only gases will erupt from the volcano
D) no eruption is expected since short-period waves are the precursor for imminent eruption
E) none of these choices are correct,we still don't know the meaning of these signals
Q3) The Tseax Cone is a very young volcano and it never caused any problems to people.
A)True
B)False
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Page 8
Chapter 7: Tsunamis
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63 Verified Questions
63 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The pressure sensors employed in tsunami warning system by the U.S.National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)exploit a fundamental feature of tsunami waves:
A) tsunami waves create a turbulence of a few tens of metres.
B) tsunami waves disturb the entire water column up to the ocean floor.
C) tsunami waves travel very slowly so pressure sensors can detect their existence in advance.
D) tsunami waves increase in height close to the shore so the pressure sensors will be activated.
E) none of these choices are correct.
Q2) The 1975 tsunami at Kitimat,BC was generated by _______.
A) a flank collapse of a fjord volcano
B) an earthquake at the subduction zone at the mouth of the fjord
C) construction work in the local area triggering underwater slope failure
D) massive rock fall from the cliff face
E) the eruption of an underwater volcano
Q3) There is no threat of a tsunami striking the east coast of Canada and the United States.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: The Ever Changing Climate
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30 Verified Questions
30 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Wild weather in the last a few years (frequent tornados,hurricanes,ice storms and heavy rains)undoubtedly show climate change.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Increasing the albedo makes the cold polar climate warmer.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Weather and climate processes and disasters are fuelled by _________.
A) nuclear fusion
B) solar energy
C) radioactive decay
D) magnetization
Q4) Looking the planet as a whole,about _____ of the Sun's energy reaching the Earth is involved in creating activity in and out the Earth's systems,and about ____ is reflected back to space.
A) 10%;90%
B) 50%;50%
C) 70%;30%
D) 100%;0%
E) 90%;10%
Page 10
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Chapter 9: Severe Weather
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85 Verified Questions
85 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) A sloping surface separating air masses that differ in temperature and moisture content is called ____________________.
A) a front
B) a jet stream
C) a Hadley cell
D) a trade wind
E) none of these are correct
Q2) There is evidence to support that the St.Lawrence River Valley ice storm of 1998 was a direct result of the El Nino.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Water has a _______ heat capacity than land and therefore land heats more _______ than water.
A) lower;quickly
B) higher;quickly
C) higher;slowly
D) lower;slowly
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Chapter 10: Hurricanes
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67 Verified Questions
67 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/58417
Sample Questions
Q1) Bangladesh is a low-lying country with most of the nation only 30 cm above sea level.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What do you call tropical cyclones affecting the Western Pacific Ocean?
A) Cape Verde-type hurricanes
B) Intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ)hurricanes
C) Oceanic tornadoes
D) Typhoons
E) Tsunami
Q3) Tropical cyclones differ from hurricanes and are called typhoons worldwide.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season set multiple records,including all but which of the following?
A) Greatest number of named storms in one season
B) Greatest number of hurricanes in one season
C) Greatest number of hurricanes reaching category 5
D) Greatest number of deaths in one season
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Chapter 11: Floods
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67 Verified Questions
67 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) "The Barrier" a lava flow that forms a natural dam in Garibaldi Provincial Park makes the areas below vulnerable to flooding.What is the mitigation strategy used here to reduce vulnerability?
A) Building a levee
B) Building a floodway
C) Channelization
D) Zoning and land-use policies
E) All of these are correct
Q2) On a given stream,small floods happen _______________________.
A) with the same frequency as large floods
B) more often than large floods
C) less often than large floods,which explains why we hear about large floods more often in the news
D) sometimes more often,sometimes less often than large floods,depending on long-term climatic trends
Q3) In Canada,flash flooding most often occurs when a thick snowpack melts rapidly due to the late arrival of spring.
A)True
B)False
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Page 13
Chapter 12: Fire
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69 Verified Questions
69 Flashcards
Source URL: https://quizplus.com/quiz/58415
Sample Questions
Q1) Firestorms are fires powerful enough to generate their own winds.
A)True
B)False
Q2) In Mediterranean climates such as in the California,Australia,and South Africa,frequent wildfire is necessary for the health of natural plant communities.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Because of the poor conductance of heat in wood,the interior of a log remains below the combustion point even when the exterior is engulfed in flames.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Fire occurrence and fire-behavior processes is(are)influenced by
A) fuel
B) weather and topography
C) fuel and people
D) the impact of extraterrestrial debris
E) all of these except the impact of extraterrestrial debris
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Chapter 13: Mass Movements and Snow Avalanches
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85 Verified Questions
85 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Quick clays are among the least mobile of all deposits and so provide favorable building sites.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Slab avalanches can be triggered by all but which of the following?
A) A heavy snow fall
B) Skiers
C) Snowmobiles
D) Acoustic vibrations
E) Solar warming
Q3) The main types of mass movement are downward,as in falling or subsiding,or downward and outward,as in sliding and flowing.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The number of fatalities due to rockfall in Quebec City since 1775 is ______________.
A) 6
B) 12
C) 26
D) 88
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Chapter 14: Hazards From Space
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83 Verified Questions
83 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Tunguska event of 1908 was the biggest meteorite event of the 20<sup>th</sup> century evidence from the blast site shows _____________.
A) it was likely caused by a metallic meteorite
B) it was likely caused by stony meteorite roughly 100 metres in diameter
C) it was likely caused by a fragment of the Encke comet
D) it was likely caused by an asteroid and comet colliding 8 km above the Earth's surface
Q2) The 1989 Hydro-Québec blackout coincided with a large magnetic storm.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The Chelyabinsk meteor was detected a few days before the impact. A)True
B)False
Q4) Asteroids are distinguished from meteorites by their composition.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The solar system is surrounded by the Oort cloud composed of about a trillion comets.
A)True
B)False
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