Physical Geography
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Course Introduction
Physical Geography explores the natural features and processes that shape the Earth's surface, including weather and climate systems, landforms, water bodies, soils, and ecosystems. The course examines the interactions between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere, providing students with a comprehensive understanding of environmental patterns, natural hazards, and global physical systems. Through lectures, case studies, and practical exercises, students learn to analyze spatial patterns and gain skills relevant to sustainable environmental management and fieldwork in geography.
Recommended Textbook
Foundations of Earth Science 7th Edition by Frederick K. Lutgens
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Chapter 1: Matter and Minerals
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is a silicate mineral with a single-chained structure?
A)olivine
B)pyroxene
C)amphibole
D)mica
Answer: B
Q2) Rocks are solids composed of one or more minerals.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) An atom's mass number is 13 and its atomic number is 6. How many neutrons are in its nucleus?
A)19
B)13
C)7
D)6
Answer: C
Q4) If a mineral has a specific gravity of 3, it must be ________ times as dense as water.
Answer: 3
Page 3
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Chapter 2: Rocks: Materials of the Solid Earth
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Sample Questions
Q1) Most rock outcrops (about 75% of the total)are ________.
A)igneous
B)sedimentary
C)metamorphic
D)fossil-bearing
Answer: B
Q2) Chemical weathering would be most effective ________.
A)in a warm, wet climate
B)in a cold, dry climate
C)in a warm, dry climate
D)deep beneath a mountain range
Answer: A
Q3) In order to metamorphose, metamorphic rocks must melt.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q4) The rock ________ is a description of how one rock may be transformed into another kind of rock through various internal and external processes.
Answer: cycle
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Chapter 3: Landscapes Fashioned by Water
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Sample Questions
Q1) Sinkholes form when the roof of a cavern collapses.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) In Pearson County, residents are concerned because the water table has been dropping for more than two years. What might be some of the reasons that the amount of groundwater in Pearson County is decreasing?
Answer: It could be due to a lack of replenishment to a temporary change in the weather, such as a drought. It could also be a longer-term lack of replenishment, where a viable recharge mechanism is missing, such as in much of the High Plains Aquifer, where we are essentially mining "fossil" water. Another possibility is that residents of the county (or some other county "upstream")are extracting water in greater volume, or more rapidly, than previously, and that has diminished the groundwater "budget."
Q3) Infiltration adds water to ________.
A)the groundwater
B)runoff (streams)
C)the atmosphere
D)base level
Answer: A
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Glacial and Arid Landscapes
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Sample Questions
Q1) Where are drumlins formed?
A)in areas of alpine glaciation
B)in areas of ground moraine
C)in fiords
D)in areas of glacial plucking
Q2) ArĂȘtes, horns, and U-shaped valleys are depositional features made of till.
A)True
B)False
Q3) 9)sea ice
10)ice sheet
11)alpine glacier (or "valley glacier")
12)ice shelf
Q4) Under typical conditions, glaciers flow ________.
A)at a rate between 2 meters (6.5 feet)and 800 meters (2600 feet)per year
B)throughout the entire glacial ice mass
C)at a rate between 1.6 to 8 kilometers per hour (1 and 5 miles per hour)
D)only when the snow is falling
Q5) Moraines are the only glacial deposits composed of till.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 5: Plate Tectonics: A Scientific Revolution Unfolds
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Sample Questions
Q1) A volcanic island arc is the result of ________.
A)subduction of continental crust underneath oceanic crust
B)subduction of oceanic crust underneath oceanic crust
C)subduction of oceanic crust underneath continental crust
D)subduction of continental crust underneath continental crust
Q2) In convection, warm material rises because it is more dense.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The plate tectonics model has been verified by multiple lines of evidence.
A)True
B)False
Q4) ________ was an aquatic reptile that lived in South America and Africa during the Permian period.
A)Mesosaurus
B)Lystrosaurus
C)Glossopteris
D)Tyrannosaurus
Q5) ________ was a supercontinent that existed in the late Paleozoic era of geologic time.
Q6) The North American plate is currently ________ in size.
Page 7
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Chapter 6: Restless Earth: Earthquakes, Geologic Structures, and Mountain Building
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Sample Questions
Q1) Would earthquakes of similar magnitudes in different regions of the Earth cause approximately the same levels of damage necessarily? In your explanation, consider both geologic and human-induced factors.
Q2) Terranes are relatively small crustal fragments (microcontinents, volcanic island arcs, or oceanic plateaus)that may be accreted to continents when subduction brings them to a trench.
A)True
B)False
Q3) In general, buildings constructed on ________ fare better in an earthquake than buildings constructed on ________, as this material amplifies seismic shaking.
Q4) A(n)________ is an instrument that is used to record earthquake vibrations.
Q5) With regard to earthquakes, what distinguishes intensity from magnitude?
A)Intensity is a measure of how much energy is released by the earthquake, but magnitude is a rough measure of local shaking.
B)Magnitude is a measure of how much energy is released by the earthquake, but intensity is a rough measure of local shaking.
C)Intensity and magnitude both depend on people reporting their experiences.
D)Magnitude cannot be measured from a distance using seismograms.
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Chapter 7: Volcanoes and Other Igneous Activity
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Sample Questions
Q1) A long-lived magma source located in the mantle is called a ________.
A)magma welt
B)plume
C)hot spot
D)basalt spout
Q2) If you want to melt a rock, even partially, there are three methods you can employ. Which of the following is NOT a way that melting is triggered in rocks in the Earth?
A)adding heat
B)releasing pressure
C)adding water
D)removing water
Q3) How do calderas form?
A)collapse of a partially emptied magma chamber
B)explosive eruption carving out a big hole in the ground
C)impact of a meteorite
D)erosion by lava flows
Q4) Hawaii is located on a plate boundary.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: Geologic Time
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why do the eras of the Pharnerozoic eon all end with "zoic"?
A)They are based on rock called zoisites.
B)These names refer to life or living things; they invoke the changes in fossil organisms from one era to the next.
C)"Zoic" means "time" in Latin.
D)These eras were all first described near the London Zoo, so the names pay tribute to that location.
Q2) Why isn't the Precambrian more finely divided into sub-divisions like periods and epochs?
A)Fewer and less diverse fossils exist in Precambrian rocks.
B)Precambrian rocks don't have radioactive isotopes in them.
C)Geologists just don't care about the Precambrian the way they do about more recent time periods.
D)The Precambrian lacks the igneous rocks that are most useful for radiometric dating.
Q3) The idea of ________ suggests that the physical, chemical, and biological laws that operate today have also operated in the geologic past.
Q4) The remains or traces of prehistoric life are called ________.
Q5) Compare the doctrine of catastrophism with the doctrine of uniformitarianism.
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Chapter 9: Oceans: The Last Frontier
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Sample Questions
Q1) The ________ Ocean is largest; the ________ Ocean is smallest.
A)Pacific; Arctic
B)Atlantic; Indian
C)Pacific; Indian
D)Arctic; Atlantic
Q2) At low latitudes, the ________ is a zone of rapid temperature change over a relatively short depth. It is associated with a similar depth zone marked by a change in density, called the ________.
A)thermocline; pycnocline
B)pycnocline; thermocline
C)thermocline; isotherm
D)isotherm; pycnocline
Q3) The gently sloping submerged surface extending from the shoreline toward the deep ocean is termed the ________.
A)submarine canyon
B)continental shelf
C)continental slope
D)continental rise
Q4) The oceanic ridge is elevated above the abyssal plain because it is ________.
Q5) A pile of clam shells is an example of ________ sediment.
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Chapter 10: The Restless Ocean
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Sample Questions
Q1) When waves reach shallow water they tend to be ________, which makes them become parallel to the shore.
A)reflected
B)refracted
C)translated
D)eroded
Q2) The ________ is the distance the wind has traveled across open water.
Q3) ________ are large circular-moving currents of water within an ocean basin.
Q4) ________ are huge circular-moving current systems that dominate the surface of the ocean within an ocean basin.
A)Tombolos
B)Gyres
C)Coriolis
D)Upwellings
Q5) Marine terraces in coastal California are evidence that this coastal area is emergent.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Currents within the surf zone that flow parallel to the shore are known as ________ currents.
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Heating the Atmosphere
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Sample Questions
Q1) Human beings have no effect on climate.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Even though ground-level ozone is a health hazard, the "ozone layer" in the stratosphere is a health benefit because ________.
A)it stops global warming
B)it reduces thunderstorms
C)it screens out some harmful solar radiation
D)it absorbs certain wavelengths of infrared radiation that are emitted by Earth's surface
Q3) The monthly ________ temperature is calculated by adding together the daily means for each day of the month and dividing by the number of days in the month.
Q4) A city located along a windward coast will probably have ________.
A)warmer summer temperatures than an inland location at the same latitude
B)summer temperatures that are very similar to an inland location at the same latitude
C)cooler summer temperatures than an inland location at the same latitude
D)the season of summer, while inland locations don't experience summer
Q5) Closely spaced isotherms indicate a high ________.
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Page 13
Chapter 12: Moisture, Clouds, and Precipitation
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Sample Questions
Q1) Why are hygroscopic nuclei important?
A)They encourage cooling of the atmosphere.
B)They facilitate warming of the atmosphere.
C)They aid in condensation, and therefore in cloud formation.
D)They aid in evaporation, and therefore in cloud dissipation.
Q2) On average, snow takes up about ten times as much volume than the same water falling as rain.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A fire extinguisher containing compressed CO is used to put out a fire. In spite of being close to the flames, the firefighter notices a white layer of "frost" forming on the exterior of the fire extinguisher can. What's going on?
A)The gas in the extinguisher is expanding when released, cooling adiabatically.
B)The gas in the extinguisher is cooling under higher pressure.
C)The exterior temperature must be dropping.
D)The fire is pulling heat from the surrounding air.
Q4) Cirrostratus clouds are associated with stormy weather.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 13: The Atmosphere in Motion
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Sample Questions
Q1) ________ is the result of horizontal differences in air pressure.
Q2) If Earth's surface were uniform, ________ belts of pressure oriented east to west would exist in each hemisphere.
Q3) All of the following instruments are used to measure air pressure except for ________.
A)mercurial barometer
B)aneroid barometer
C)barograph
D)anemometer
Q4) The faster the wind speed, the ________ the deflection of winds due to the Coriolis force.
Q5) This pressure zone is associated with abundant precipitation and warm temperatures.
A)subtropical high
B)equatorial low
C)subpolar low
D)anticyclone
Q6) Polar easterlies may dominate Alaska's prevailing winds, and NE trade winds may dominate in Hawaii, but ________ dominate the prevailing winds of the "lower 48" (contiguous)United States.
Page 15
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Chapter 14: Weather Patterns and Severe Weather
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Q1) Continental polar air masses seldom influence the weather south of the Great Lakes.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Several consecutive days of rather constant weather in an area probably indicates ________.
A)warm-front weather
B)cold-front weather
C)air-mass weather
D)occluded front weather
Q3) Compare the characteristics (general weather, movement, etc.)of a cold front to a warm front. Also, briefly explain why they exhibit different characteristics.
Q4) When an active cold front overtakes a warm front a(n)________ forms.
Q5) Doppler radar is a useful tool for detecting tornadoes.
A)True
B)False
Q6) Divergence aloft helps maintain surface lows.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 15: The Nature of the Solar System
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Q1) The law of universal gravitation was formulated by ________.
Q2) ________ is the only planet in the solar system whose axis of rotation lies close to the plane of the solar system.
Q3) ________ is the apparent shift in the position of a nearby star when viewed from extreme points in Earth's orbit six months apart.
Q4) Which of the following shows the correct order of formation according to the nebular theory?
A)nebula, planetesimals, protoplanets, planets
B)planetesimals, protoplanets, planets, nebula
C)planets, protoplanets, planetesimals, nebula
D)nebula, protoplanets, planetesimals, planets
Q5) In addition to Earth, the planet ________ shows clear evidence of water erosion.
Q6) How did the lunar maria most likely originate?
A)huge impact basins that were nearly filled with basaltic lava flows
B)Huge impact craters filled with frozen carbon dioxide and dark-colored silt and dust.
C)Massive, basaltic comets melted when they hit the lunar surface.
D)The solar wind eroded very wide, shallow basins that filled with lunar dust.
Q7) Saturn's well-developed rings are made of ________.
Page 17
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Chapter 16: Beyond Our Solar System
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Sample Questions
Q1) Smallest white dwarves have the largest mass.
A)True
B)False
Q2) A star's size (volume)is directly proportional to its mass.
A)True
B)False
Q3) A star is observed through a telescope, and a measurement of the star's spectrum is made. The left side of the star appears to be bluer than the center of the star, but the right side appears to be redder. What's going on here? Interpret these observations as fully as possible.
Q4) "Red shift" refers to the tendency of stars to cool over time and thus to become red in color.
A)True
B)False
Q5) According to the big bang theory, the first two elements to form in the universe were
A)gluons and quarks
B)hydrogen and iron
C)hydrogen and helium
D)oxygen and carbon
18
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