Deck 11: Glaciation and Long-Term Climate Change

Question 1

What is the name of ice accumulation at the foot of mountain ranges where several valley glaciers emerge, flow laterally, and coalesce?

A) alpine glacier
B) ice field
C) ice cap
D) piedmont
E) continental ice sheet

Answer 1

piedmont

Question 2

Which of the following apply to Greenland and Antarctica?

A) alpine glacier
B) ice field
C) ice cap
D) piedmont
E) continental ice sheet

Answer 2

continental ice sheet

Question 3

What is ablation?

A) wind driven snow
B) melting or wasting away of glacial ice
C) erosion by meltwater
D) collapse of glacial ice by gravity failure
E) increase in the volume of ice when it freezes

Answer 3

melting or wasting away of glacial ice

Question 4

Increasing temperatures of earth's surface and lower atmosphere provide strong evidence that global warming is happening right now. This evidence includes all of the following except:

A) Average earth temperature from land areas and global shipping lanes indicate that average Earth temperature increased 0.74 degrees Celsius during the 20^th century.
B) Half of the increase in Earth's average temperature from the 20^th century increased during its last 30 years.
C) Nine of the ten years during the first decade of the 21^st Century were in the top 10 warmest years of a 160-year-long record.
D) Earth's present average temperature is the warmest it has been since 1400, which is as far back as we can go with certainty by direct and indirect evidence.
E) During the recent increase in Earth's temperature the greatest amount of warming occurred during the day near the equator.

Question 5

What is the name given to a coastal glacial valley that has been drowned by the sea?

A) bay
B) bergschrund
C) fjord
D) Neptunian valley
E) submarine canyon

Question 6

What is glacial outwash?

A) a flood
B) a stream that originates from beneath a glacier
C) a large wave created by calving of ice
D) sediment deposited by meltwater streams
E) loess

Question 7

According to the Oregon energy office, which of the following actions will bring about the greatest reduction in CO₂ in pounds per year?

A) Insulate your home, install water-saver showerheads, and clean and tune your furnace.
B) Buy a fuel-efficient automobile with a rating of at least 32 mpg to replace your most-used car.
C) Do not drive your car two days a week.
D) Replace your refrigerator with a high-efficiency model.
E) Replace your washing machine with a low-water-use, low-energy model.

Question 8

According to the United Nations what estimated percentage of all energy-related CO₂ emissions will developing countries be responsible for by the year 2025?

A) 30%
B) 40%
C) 50%
D) 60%
E) 70%

Question 9

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Control (IPCC), what is expected to decrease in the 21^st century?

A) sea level
B) sea surface temperatures
C) CO₂ levels
D) biodiversity
E) variability of Asian summer monsoons

Question 10

Judge the following sentence according to the criteria given below: The worldwide retreat in mountain glaciers is significant BECAUSE these glaciers' reaction times are much slower than the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland.

A) The assertion and the reason are both correct, and the reason is valid.
B) The assertion and the reason are both correct, but the reason is invalid.
C) The assertion is correct, but the reason is incorrect.
D) The assertion is incorrect, but the reason is correct.
E) Both the assertion and the reason are incorrect.

Question 11

Which of the following statements about the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets is false?

A) The volume of the world's ice in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets is much greater than the cumulative volume of the world's ice stored in mountain glaciers.
B) The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets together contain about 90% of the world's freshwater.
C) If 20% of the water in the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets were to melt sea level would rise by over 6 meters (20 ft).
D) The Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets are both losing ice at the rate of about 150 million cubic kilometers per year.
E) The Greenland ice sheet is a remnant of the continental glaciers of the last Ice Age.

Question 12

Judge the following sentence according to the criteria given below: The decline of glacial ice in alpine and ice-cap glaciers from mid- and low-latitudes is not significant BECAUSE only very few glaciers have been surveyed.

A) The assertion and the reason are both correct, and the reason is valid.
B) The assertion and the reason are both correct, but the reason is invalid.
C) The assertion is correct, but the reason is incorrect.
D) The assertion is incorrect, but the reason is correct.
E) Both the assertion and the reason are incorrect.

Question 13

Which of the following has lost the greatest percentage of its ice mass over the past few decades?

A) Mount Kenya, Africa
B) Southern Alps, New Zealand
C) Swiss Alps, Switzerland
D) Caucaus Mountains, Russia
E) Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, China

Question 14

The greatest amount of the increased temperature that Earth experienced during the 20^th century occurred at:

A) nighttime in higher latitudes.
B) daytime in higher latitudes.
C) nighttime in lower latitudes.
D) daytime in lower latitudes.
E) the same rate everywhere.

Question 15

What percent of the world's energy comes from burning fossil fuels?

A) less than 50%
B) 50% to 60%
C) 60% to 70%
D) 70% to 80%
E) more that 80%

Question 16

The blizzards and subzero, bone-chilling cold over Eastern Europe and Russia in February 2012 have been attributed to

A) an increase in the ice at the north pole.
B) a cooling of Earth's climate.
C) a negative arctic oscillation.
D) warmer conditions over Antarctica.
E) less atmospheric moisture being available

Question 17

Which of the following statements about coal as an energy source is false?

A) Coal is inexpensive.
B) Coal is sparse.
C) Coal is easily mined.
D) Coal produces about one-third of U.S. electricity
E) Coal produces about 35% of US carbon dioxide emissions

Question 18

Which of the following geoengineering techniques involves capturing greenhouse gases from smokestacks and pumping it underground?

A) fertilizing the ocean
B) carbon capture and sequestration
C) solar radiation management
D) large-scale forestation
E) atmospheric capture of CO₂

Question 19

Which of the following geoengineering techniques involves using 17 million 50-foot high resin-based carbon dioxide scrubbers?

A) fertilizing the ocean
B) carbon capture and sequestration
C) solar radiation management
D) large-scale forestation
E) atmospheric capture of CO₂

Question 20

Which of the following geoengineering techniques involves injecting large amounts of sulfur dioxide aerosols into the stratosphere?

A) fertilizing the ocean
B) carbon capture and sequestration
C) solar radiation management
D) large-scale forestation
E) atmospheric capture of CO₂

Question 21

Most of the mass of a glacier behaves fluidly.

Question 22

North America and Eurasia enjoyed at least four major glacial stages during the most recent Ice Age.

Question 23

The ice of a glacier that is retreating is still moving forward.

Question 24

A kettle lake forms in mountainous areas due to glacial erosion.

Question 25

Eskers are snakelike ridges of layered sand and gravel formed by subglacial streams.

Question 26

Sea-floor sediments indicate more climate fluctuations during the Pleistocene than is indicated by land deposits.

Question 27

Earth's ocean stores large amounts of carbon dioxide during the cold periods of an Ice Age.

Question 28

Greenland's largest outlet glacier is now in rapid retreat.

Question 29

Ice core data show that atmospheric CO₂ concentrations were higher during each of the major glacial periods and lower during the warmer interglacial periods.

Question 30

Ice cores from Antarctica span hundreds of thousands of years of time.

Question 31

Isotopes of Carbon found in gas bubbles from ice cores are used to measure Earth's past temperature record.

Question 32

Glaciers and glaciation have always disrupted human transportation routes due to icebergs and glaciers covering roads or train tracks.

Question 33

Melting of the north polar ice cap has resulted in an increase in sea level of 20 cm since 1880.

Question 34

The lurching of Greenland's glaciers results in seismic activity called ice quakes.

Question 35

A personal behavior that an individual can do to reduce the pace of human-generated global warming is to switch to a locally-grown vegetarian diet.

Question 36

Buying a hybrid car and replacing a few lightbulbs with compact fluorescents will be enough to reverse global warming.

Question 37

Society can reduce greenhouse gas emissions without major changes to our sources and consumption of energy.

Question 38

The geoengineering technique called solar radiation management involves capturing greenhouse gases from smokestacks and pumping it underground.

Question 39

The United States already injects about 48 million tons of carbon dioxide underground each year.

Question 40

When burning coal to generate electricity, installing carbon dioxide scrubbers is the least costly way to implement carbon capture and sequestration.

Question 41

Explain how glacial ice is formed.

Question 42

What is the difference between a terminal (end) moraine and a recessional moraine?

Question 43

What would happen to our coastlines if all of the glacial ice were to melt?

Question 44

How would melting all of the world's glacial ice affect the flow of streams and rivers?

Question 45

How does the principle of isostatic rebound apply to Hudson Bay?

Question 46

Human-induced global warming using today's technology can be thought of as a geologically temporary phenomenon. Why is this?

Question 47

The Pleistocene Epoch (10,000 to 1.6 million years ago) is the glacial age of the geological time scale. But is that the end of the story? What does the long-term pattern suggest in terms of the potential for future glaciation?

Question 48

Why does data from the ocean sediments show evidence for 20 or more glacial periods during the Pleistocene but the continental record only shows evidence for four?

Question 49

What are the proposed geoengineering techniques to lower greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere?

Question 50

Which proposed geoengineering techniques to lower greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere involve polluting the air or water with chemicals in order to reduce the effects of global warming?