Environmental Hazards and Risk Management
Chapter Exam Questions
Course Introduction
This course explores the nature, assessment, and management of environmental hazards, including natural disasters (such as floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes) and human-induced threats (like pollution, chemical spills, and industrial accidents). Students will learn to identify the types and sources of environmental hazards, evaluate risk using quantitative and qualitative methods, and examine policies and strategies for mitigating and managing risks to ecosystems, human health, and infrastructure. Case studies and current events are incorporated to highlight practical applications and to develop critical thinking and decision-making skills in environmental risk management.
Recommended Textbook
Keller Natural Hazards 3rd Canadian Edition by Edward A. Keller
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Chapter 1: Introduction to Natural Hazards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Mapping is an essential tool in understanding many natural hazards.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) Why were so many people killed by the 2010 Haitian earthquake?
A) Haiti has never had any previous earthquakes.
B) The earthquake hit the most densely populated area of Haiti and buildings were not constructed to withstand earthquakes.
C) Most of the fatalities were due to a tsunami.
D) Most people died because of landslides.
E) Most people died in flooding that followed the earthquake.
Answer: B
Q3) Contrast proactive and reactive approaches to disaster mitigation.
Answer: Reactive approaches involve cleaning up after a disaster,search and rescue operations,provisions of emergency food,water,and shelter.Proactive approaches to disaster mitigation involve anticipating and avoiding disasters through land-use planning,hazard-resistant construction,and hazard modification or control.Proactive measures must be taken before a disaster occurs.
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Chapter 2: Internal Structure of Earth and Plate Tectonics
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Sample Questions
Q1) What would be the correct relationship between the crust and the lithosphere?
A) The crust sits on top of the lithosphere.
B) The lithosphere sits on top of the crust.
C) The lithosphere and the crust are the same thing.
D) The lithosphere contains both the oceans and the continents, the crust only includes continents.
E) The lithosphere is liquid, whereas the crust is solid.
Answer: A
Q2) Why aren't volcanoes associated with continent-continent convergence?
A) Both plates are too buoyant to sink into the asthenosphere.
B) The continental plate isn't hot enough to cause volcanoes.
C) Volcanoes are not associated with convergent plate boundaries.
D) Rising magma from melted plates can't break through continental crust.
E) Volcanoes only occur on islands in the ocean and not on land.
Answer: A
Q3) Subduction zones commonly feature submarine trenches which have some of the deepest ocean waters,reaching several kilometres in depth.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 3: Earthquakes
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Sample Questions
Q1) Horizontal shaking from earthquakes causes more damage than vertical shaking.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) When a building has the same natural vibration frequency as earthquake motion this causes
A) surface waves.
B) resonance.
C) refraction.
D) ground rupture.
E) faulting.
Answer: B
Q3) Describe two natural service functions of earthquakes.
Answer: Faulting can produce mineral deposits,such as gold and silver along veins.Faulting produces spectacular mountain and fault scarps which are tourist attractions.
Q4) The Queen Charlotte fault off the coast of Vancouver Island is a normal fault.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Page 5
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Chapter 4: Tsunamis
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is a secondary effect of tsunamis?
A) flooding
B) beach erosion
C) ripped up vegetation
D) fire
E) house destruction
Q2) The fault that ruptured and caused the Indonesian earthquake and tsunami of 2004 had been "locked" for
A) 10 years.
B) about 1000 years.
C) about 150 years.
D) about 50 years.
E) 4.5 years.
Q3) Shallowly sloping sandy coastlines are more vulnerable to tsunamis than steep rocky shores.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Only earthquakes with up-down motion of the tectonic plates produce tsunamis.
A)True
B)False
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Volcanoes and Volcanic Eruptions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Lava cooled rapidly by water or ice forms "pillows."
A)True
B)False
Q2) The presence of water lowers the melting temperature of rocks.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The largest volcanoes on the planet are
A) shield volcanoes.
B) volcanic domes.
C) composite volcanoes.
D) stratovolcanoes.
E) cinder cones.
Q4) Basic names of volcanic rocks are based on the rock's
A) iron content.
B) magnesium content.
C) aluminum content.
D) silica content.
E) calcium content.
Q5) What is a large igneous province? Give a likely modern example.
Q6) Composite volcanoes are both scenic and deadly.What factors contribute to this?
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Landslides
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Sample Questions
Q1) If a slope has a factor of safety equal to one,it is highly unlikely to fail.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What are the two basic patterns of landslide movement?
Q3) Vegetation is a significant factor in slope stability because
A) it provides a protective cover that reduces the impact of falling rain.
B) plant roots reduce cohesion to slope materials.
C) it adds weight to a slope which can decrease the likelihood that the slope will fail.
D) plant roots accelerate surface erosion.
E) plant roots decrease the resistance of a slope to landsliding.
Q4) A landslide triggered the most destructive tsunami in Canadian history.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What is colluvium and what is its significance to landslides?
Q6) Why do people build houses in landslide-prone regions?
Q7) Landslides can cause tsunami.
A)True
B)False
Q8) What is one characteristic of a turbidity current?
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Chapter 7: Snow Avalanches
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Sample Questions
Q1) What was a common trigger for snow avalanches in the Alps during World War I?
A) earthquakes
B) artillery fire
C) cavalry movements
D) refugees crossing snow fields on foot
E) unusual spring weather
Q2) How does clear cutting influence the future avalanche danger to remaining stands of trees?
Q3) If you were backcountry skiing and wanted to conduct a rutschblock test to assess the avalanche risk,what would you do?
A) dig a hole one metre deep and examine the character of the snow layers
B) pull back the upper part of a column of snow with your shovel and observe the fractures produced
C) push on the snow with the back of your shovel and observe fractures on the exposed vertical face
D) push on the snow with your skis, then jump on it and assess the force necessary to set the snow in motion
E) throw a fist-sized rock or larger snowball at the slope you're testing and observe the resulting pattern
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Page 9
Chapter 8: Subsidence and Soil Expansion and Contraction
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Sample Questions
Q1) "Karst plain" describes a ground surface that is pockmarked with many sinkholes.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following types of bedrock is most associated with subsidence?
A) limestone
B) basalt
C) granite
D) mudstone
E) sandstone
Q3) Solution mining
A) is a term used for mining of renewable resources.
B) is no longer used.
C) does not lead to subsidence.
D) is only used for surface deposits.
E) is a method used to extract soluble minerals from the ground.
Q4) The city of Venice is no longer sinking now that groundwater pumping was stopped in the 1970s.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What pH conditions are needed for dissolution of limestone?
Page 10
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Chapter 9: River Flooding
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Sample Questions
Q1) A stream in its natural state (unmodified by human infrastructure)will reach bankfull discharge on average
A) 5 times per year.
B) 2 times per year.
C) once per year.
D) once every 1-2 years.
E) once every 5-6 years.
Q2) If you hear on the news that a river has reached "flood stage," what does this statement mean?
A) that the river has overflowed its banks
B) that the river has just reached bankfull discharge
C) that the water level has topped a levee
D) that the river discharge has peaked and is expected to decrease
E) that the water level is likely to cause property damage
Q3) Smaller floods occur more frequently than larger floods.
A)True
B)False
Q4) In an area where agriculture is the primary human use of floodplain land,which would be more damaging: a flood in the winter or a flood in the summer? Why?
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Chapter 10: Atmosphere and Severe Weather
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Sample Questions
Q1) If you observe cumulus clouds,what's the weather like?
Q2) A thunderstorm cell is rarely higher than 1 km.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Why is the humidity index important to estimate the severity of a heat wave?
Q4) Tornadoes are violent cyclonic funnel clouds
A) that touch the ground.
B) that form where there are large differences in atmospheric pressure over short distances.
C) that have wind speeds of greater than 200 km/hr.
D) all of A, B, C
E) A and B
Q5) Near-freezing temperatures can be considered 'extreme cold' and has resulted in lives lost in
A) Florida.
B) British Columbia.
C) California.
D) Manitoba.
E) Prince Edward Island.
Q6) What are the requirements for a typical thunderstorm?
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Hurricanes and Extratropical Cyclones
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Sample Questions
Q1) The destruction of sand dunes can increase the damage from cyclones on a coastline.
A)True
B)False
Q2) A larger fetch will result in a larger storm surge.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What is storm surge?
A) a large amount of rainfall
B) a large increase in sea level
C) a large amount of wind
D) a sudden increase in rainfall
E) a sudden increase in wind
Q4) Tropical cyclones are storms that rotate around a centre of high atmospheric pressure.
A)True
B)False
Q5) To be called a hurricane a tropical cyclone must have what characteristics?
Q6) Which way does a cyclone rotate in the southern hemisphere?
Q7) List the three environmental conditions for a hurricane to form.
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Chapter 12: Waves, Currents, and Coastlines
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Sample Questions
Q1) If you were watching waves from the shore and started counting the seconds between one crest to the next,what would you be measuring?
A) Wave height
B) Wave length
C) Wave period
D) Wave energy
E) Wave speed
Q2) Coastal erosion is a natural process.
A)True
B)False
Q3) How are barrier islands different than spits?
Q4) At a depth equal to their wavelength waves begin to feel the bottom.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Longshore drift is the transport of sediment by currents that flow parallel to the shore.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Why does the direction of littoral transport differ markedly along different coastlines?
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Wildfires
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Sample Questions
Q1) What other major natural hazard can be caused by wildfires?
Q2) If you were to predict wildfire behaviour in a certain area,what three factors would be most important to consider?
Q3) What is flaming combustion?
Q4) Why does the specific geographic area at risk from wildfires change from year to year?
Q5) Hydrophobic soil layers formed by fire disintegrate when the temperature cools back to normal.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Ash is non-combustible.
A)True
B)False
Q7) Fires can produce a hydrophobic soil layer; what is this?
Q8) What is the greatest risk during a well-planned,well-researched prescribed burn?
A) The amount of fuel will change.
B) Fire fighting equipment will break down.
C) Nearby towns will have to be evacuated.
D) The weather will change.
Page 15
E) Lightning strikes will increase the fire's area.
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Chapter 14: Climate Change
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Sample Questions
Q1) Due to the burning of fossil fuels,the Earth is warmer today than in any other period in the last 1 million years.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Which of the following atmospheric gases is considered "permanent," i.e.,its atmospheric concentration does NOT change?
A) carbon dioxide
B) ozone
C) water vapour
D) methane
E) argon
Q3) Why are climate models not 100% accurate?
Q4) What is the difference between a variable and permanent gas?
A) Variable gases have less effect on weather and climate than permanent gases.
B) Abundance of variable gases in the atmosphere change and abundance of permanent gases do not.
C) Variable gases comprise more of the atmosphere than permanent gases.
D) Variable gases are heavier than permanent gases.
E) Permanent gases are at a higher temperature than variable gases.
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Chapter 15: Meteorite Impacts and Extinctions
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Sudbury Impact Basin is famous for nickel-copper-platinum deposits.How is this related to the impact event?
A) These minerals deposits form when hot fluids move upwards along faults.
B) These minerals formed in the depressions at the base of the magma pool.
C) These minerals were deposited directly by the asteroid.
D) These materials were organized by gravity as impact breccia.
E) The impact event created a depression and the mineral deposits formed subaqueously.
Q2) How do comets differ from asteroids?
Q3) Scientific acceptance of the idea that asteroids could strike Earth and wreak havoc is relatively recent.What event made this possibility become nearly universally accepted?
A) discovery of the iridium layer at the K-T boundary
B) discovery of the Chicxulub Crater
C) observation of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's collision with Jupiter
D) discovery of Near-Earth-Objects that have Earth-crossing orbits
E) recognition of ancient eroded craters in Canada
Q4) The Kuiper belt contains comets and asteroids.
A)True
B)False
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