Environmental Science Exam Preparation Guide
Course Introduction
Environmental Science explores the complex relationships between humans and the natural environment, examining the physical, chemical, and biological processes that shape the world around us. This course investigates pressing issues such as climate change, resource management, biodiversity loss, pollution, and sustainable development. Through a combination of scientific theory, case studies, and practical applications, students will develop a foundational understanding of the environment, the impact of human activities, and the strategies for promoting environmental stewardship and sustainability.
Recommended Textbook
Natural Disasters 9th Edition by Patrick Leon Abbott
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783 Verified Questions
783 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: Natural Disasters and the Human Population
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Sample Questions
Q1) If 6 billion people stood shoulder-to-shoulder with each person having his or her own 3-ft by 1-ft space,the entire world population would fit inside a square fence about 42 kilometers (26 miles)on a side.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) The growth of human population worldwide over the past 1000 years has been
A)essentially zero
B)exponential,with a constant growth rate
C)exponential,with a generally increasing growth rate
D)on a straight linear increase with time
E)logarithmic
Answer: C
Q3) Asia dominates the list of the 40 worst killing disasters of the last three decades of the 20<sup>th</sup> century,with almost 86 percent of the fatalities occurring in these regions.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 2: Internal Energy and Plate Tectonics
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Sample Questions
Q1) Above the oceanic ridges,the ocean water depths are relatively deep in comparison to depths away from the ridges.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) The hotspot-melting-through-lithosphere process forms lines of extinct volcanoes on the ocean floor,from youngest to oldest,______________________.
A)with random ages along the lines
B)in a direction pointing toward the sun
C)pointing at 90 degrees to the direction of plate movement
D)pointing in the opposite direction of plate movement
E)pointing in the direction of plate movement
Answer: E
Q3) The greatest mountain ranges on Earth lie on the ocean bottoms and extend more than 40,000 miles.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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4
Chapter 3: Earthquake Geology and Seismology
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Sample Questions
Q1) Passing through the mantle below the asthenosphere,the seismic wave velocities vary but generally increase until about 2900-km depth where P-waves slow markedly and S-waves disappear at the core-mantle boundary zone.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) The high-frequency seismic waves are most energetic for short distances close to the epicenter,whereas low-frequency seismic waves carry significant amounts of energy for much greater distances away from the epicenter.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) It is the horizontal fault movements at subduction zones that most commonly cause tsunami,mostly in the Pacific Ocean.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 4: Plate Tectonics and Earthquakes
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Sample Questions
Q1) The Dead Sea fault zone is an Eastern Hemisphere analogue of the San Andreas Fault in California.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The greatest earthquakes in the world occur _____________.
A)where plates collide with each other
B)where plates separate from one another
C)where plates slide past each other D)in the interiors of individual plates
Q3) The biggest disasters are from great earthquakes occurring at great depths.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Which of the following does NOT have a significant convergent margin?
A)Kamchatka
B)Australian Plate
C)South American Andes
D)Caribbean Plate
E)African Plate
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Chapter 5: Earthquakes Throughout the United States and Canada
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Sample Questions
Q1) New England has a long record of significant earthquakes.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The state (other than Alaska)most likely to have a magnitude 9 or larger earthquake in the next several hundred years is ______________.
A)California
B)Washington
C)Missouri
D)Nevada
E)South Carolina
Q3) The fires from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake did about ten times as much damage as the earthquake itself.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The Rio Grande rift in New Mexico,Colorado,westernmost Texas,and Mexico is one of the major continental rifts in the world where the continental crust is being heated and stretched from below.
A)True
B)False
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Volcanic Eruptions: Plate Tectonics and Magmas
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the cause of volcanism at Italy's Vesuvius,Stromboli,Vulcano,and Etna?
A)The subduction of Mediterranean sea floor beneath Europe.
B)The subduction of Mediterranean sea floor beneath Africa.
C)The continent-continent collision of Africa and Europe.
D)
Rifting along Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Q2) Water circulating at thousands of feet below the surface can be heated to temperatures far above 100<sup>\(\circ\)</sup>C (212<sup>\(\circ\)</sup>F)without boiling because the pressure of the overlying groundwater body is so great.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Over 90 percent of volcanism is associated with the edges of tectonic plates,and most of the rest is caused by hot spots.
A)True
B)False
Q4) No magmas contain dissolved gases.
A)True
B)False
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Volcano Processes and Deadly Events
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Sample Questions
Q1) Violent causes of death from volcanic eruptions include _______________.
A)pyroclastic flows
B)tsunami
C)lahars
D)poison gases
E)All of the choices are correct.
Q2) The eruption of Nevado del Ruiz in Columbia in 1985 dropped hot pyroclastic debris onto glaciers,resulting in lahars.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Pyroclastic flows can travel across bodies of water.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Nuee ardente (French for glowing cloud)is another term used to describe a lava flow.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Pyroclastic flows cannot travel down all sides of a volcano simultaneously.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: Tsunami Versus Wind-Caused Waves
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Sample Questions
Q1) The largest historic tsunami wave run-up ever recorded was caused by a massive rockfall into the water at ________________.
A)Kilauea,Hawaii
B)Lituya Bay,Alaska
C)Crescent City,California
D)Arica,Chile
E)Gibraltar
Q2) Most of the 245,000 deaths from the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami occurred in _______.
A)Thailand
B)Sri Lanka
C)India
D)Bangladesh
E)Indonesia
Q3) The major earthquake that generated the killer 1992 Nicaragua tsunami was not felt by coastal residents who were later hit by the waves.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 9: External Energy Fuels Weather and Climate
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Sample Questions
Q1) The vertical movement of air is large compared to its horizontal motion.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Adiabatic effects include expansional cooling or compressional warming.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Polar latitudes show a net cooling because the heat radiated to space from the Earth's interior is less than the amount gained from the Sun.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The amount of heat required to raise the temperature of a sample of water is referred to as the ________________.
A)greenhouse heat
B)latent heat
C)specific heat
D)condensation heat
Q5) Sublimation describes the same process as evaporation.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 10: Tornadoes, Lightning, Heat, and Cold
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Sample Questions
Q1) The highest wind speeds of any weather phenomenon occur in ________________.
A)tornadoes
B)hurricanes
C)typhoons
D)cyclones
E)derechos
Q2) The average annual number of deaths from tornadoes in the United States from 1920 to 2004 was 136 people.The long-term average annual number of tornado deaths has ___________________.
A)gradually increased over the last 85 years because of U.S.population increases
B)gradually decreased over the last 85 years
C)changed very little over the past 85 years
D)fluctuated widely,but with no real trend
Q3) Thunder is caused by ____________________________.
A)the compression of free neutrons in the lightning bolt
B)the compression of free photons in the lightning bolt
C)the compression of free electrons in the lightning bolt
D)the combustion of flammable atmospheric gases by the lightning bolt
E)high temperatures of lightning that flash heat the surrounding air,causing it to expand explosively
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Hurricanes
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Sample Questions
Q1) As a hurricane forms,the air ____________________.
A)rises,cools,and releases latent heat,cooling down the hurricane's core
B)rises,cools,and releases latent heat,heating up the hurricane's core
C)rises,warms,and releases latent heat,heating up the core and adding energy to the storm
D)falls,cools,and releases latent heat,heating up the core and adding energy to the storm
Q2) The deadliest natural disaster in U.S.history was ____________________ which killed more than 8000 people.
A)Hurricane Katrina in 2005
B)the Mt.St.Helens eruption in 1980
C)the Great Flood of 1993 on the Mississippi River
D)the San Francisco earthquake of 1906
E)the Galveston,Texas,hurricane of 1900
Q3) Hurricanes can push high mounds of seawater onshore as surges that temporarily raise sea level over 20 feet.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 12: Climate Change
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Sample Questions
Q1) Observed effects of global warming in recent decades include all but which of the following?
A)increasing abundance of warm-water species in the North Atlantic Ocean
B)descending tree-line in mountainous regions of Europe and New Zealand
C)earlier arrival of migrating birds in springtime
D)lowland birds extending ranges to higher elevations
E)All of the choices are observed effects of global warming
Q2) One of the major Ice Ages in Earth's history began in Early Carboniferous time (360 million years ago)and lasted for tens of millions of years until Late Permian time (260 million years ago).
A)True
B)False
Q3) If CO<sub>2</sub> were not present in the atmosphere,the average temperature at the Earth's surface would be about 0<sup>\(\circ\)</sup>F.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 13: Floods
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Sample Questions
Q1) Ignoring scale,the fact that most streams worldwide have the same longitudinal cross section is a testimony to the effectiveness of their negative-feedback mechanisms.
A)True
B)False
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 climate
Q3) The largest flood known in an area is likely to be exceeded someday by a larger one,even in an area with a long history.
A)True
B)False
Q4) A braided stream has ____________.
A)too much sediment to carry
B)too little sediment in suspension,causing erosion in a braided pattern
C)no relationship to the amount of sediment being transported
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Chapter 14: Fire
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Sample Questions
Q1) Heat-expanded air _________________.
A)is more dense than cool air because molecules are pushing harder on each other
B)is less dense than cool air
C)has the same density as cool air because matter is neither created nor destroyed in fire
D)contains less energy than cooler air because there are fewer molecules per unit volume
Q2) In 1880,nearly half of forest fires were caused by people clearing land.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In glowing combustion the wood burns more slowly but at a higher temperature as the fire consumes the solid wood instead of pyrolized gases,as occurs in flaming combustion.
A)True
B)False
Q4) In effect,fire is the photosynthesis reaction in reverse.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 15: Mass Movements
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Sample Questions
Q1) Clays are among the least abundant of all sediments.
A)True
B)False
Q2) The most likely explanation for how highly fluidized rock flows occur is that
A)the jostling of fragments in the flowing mass provides energy that propagates as trapped sound waves and supports the particles,thus fluidizing the mass (acoustic fluidization)
B)water lubricates the material,allowing it to flow (hydro fluidization)
C)steam lubricates the material,allowing it to flow (aqueous fluidization)
D)the flowing mass rides on a cushion of compressed air (jetting)
E)heat generated by friction melts material within the mass,allowing it to flow (thermal fluidization)
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
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Chapter 16: Coastal Processes and Hazards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Groins are:
A)wave enhancers
B)wave diffraction inhibitors
C)small,boulder/rubble deposits
D)short,elongated mass,parallel to the shore
E)short,elongated mass,perpendicular to the shore
Q2) When waves reach shallow water their velocity is controlled by:
A)water fluidity
B)water salinity
C)water volatiles
D)water depth
E)water chemistry
Q3) Why is there more coastal damage if the sand dunes are lower? Which of the following is least important?
A)There is more erosion because wave energy is not used in moving the dune sand.
B)Waves can go over the dunes to strike the homes
C)Waves can carry sand inland as overwash
D)The surge can move much farther inland
E)The wind is stronger near the ground in low-dune areas
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Chapter 17: Impacts With Space Objects
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Sample Questions
Q1) Asteroids lie mostly __________________.
A)between Mars and Jupiter
B)between the inner and outer planets
C)beyond Pluto,and in the Van Halen Belt
D)between Mercury and the Sun
E)Both between Mars and Jupiter and between the inner and outer planets are correct
Q2) When space debris blazes through the Earth's atmosphere as a streak of light or shooting star,it is referred to as a _______________.
A)moonlet
B)falling star
C)sunspot
D)meteor
E)starlet
Q3) The four inner planets are small,close together,near the Sun,and rocky.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Asteroids are distinguished from meteorites by their composition.
A)True
B)False
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