Chapter 12 Climate Change Exam Questions

Natural Disasters, 11e (Abbott)

Chapter 12 Climate Change

1) The famous violins made by Antonio Stradavari in the late 1600s may owe their superior acoustical properties to the dense wood grown during a 70-year global ________.

A) warm spell called the Medieval Warm Period

B) warm spell called the Primary Greenhouse Warming

C) cold spell called the Maunder Minimum

D) cold spell called the Stradavari Minimum

2) Episodes of climate change during the last 1,000 years include all but which of the following?

A) the Maunder Minimum

B) the Medieval Maximum

C) the Little Ice Age

D) the Renaissance Warming

3) The Little Ice Age that affected Europe from about ________ CE lowered average annual temperature by only about 1°C but was enough to reduce crop yields, cause mountain glaciers to advance, and produce winters much more severe than in the 20th century. 

A) 400 to 800

B) 900 to 1,200

C) 1,200 to 1,400

D) 1,400 to 1,900

E) 1,900 to 2,100

4) During the 20th century, the average global surface temperature rose ________.

A) 0.06°C

B) 0.16°C 

C) 0.6°C 

D) 1.6°C 

E) 6.0°C

5) 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) mosquitoes carrying diseases migrating to higher latitudes

6) ________ accounts for 60% of global warming.

A) Carbon dioxide (CO2)

B) Methane (CH4)

C) Nitrous oxide (N2O)

D) Ozone (O3)

E) Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's)

7) Which of the following greenhouse gases is the most efficient at trapping heat (i.e., has the highest global warming potential—GWP)?

A) carbon dioxide (CO2)

B) methane (CH4)

C) nitrous oxide (N2O)

D) ozone (O3)

E) chlorofluorocarbons (CFC's)

8) Likely global climate changes in the 21st century include all but which of the following?

A) melting of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets

B) melting of permafrost in Arctic regions

C) melting of mountain glaciers

D) shorter duration of heat waves

E) more frequent severe drought in the Central United States

9) Assuming all other factors are equal, the greatest growth of glaciers would likely occur when Earth was tilted at ________ degrees from its orbital plane.

A) 21.5

B) 22.5

C) 23.5

D) 24.5

10) The Older Dryas and Younger Dryas stages represented ________.

A) two cooling stages during warm-up from the last major glacial advance

B) two of the more abrupt warming stages during the last glaciation

C) one warming stage and one cooling stage during the last glaciation

D) periods of dry climate in the last 20,000 years

11) Over the last 7,000 years there has been a ________.

A) lowering of global average temperature totaling 1°C

B) raising of global average temperature totaling 2°C

C) effectively constant global temperature

D) lowering of global average temperature totaling 4°C

12) The major factors in glacial periods lasting tens of millions of years appear to be ________.

A) an increase in volcanic activity and excess amount of methane in the atmosphere

B) minimum rates of coral and limestone formation and the existence of a supercontinent

C) a long-term cooling of the Sun and extended periods of maximum axial tilt

D) having one or more large continental masses near the poles and oceanic circulation that is more longitudinal (north-south) than latitudinal (east-west)

E) having one or more large continental masses near the equator and extended periods of minimum axial tilt of Earth

13) The climatic cooling of the last 55 million years has been caused by ________.

A) the ongoing breakup of Pangaea into separate continents

B) continental masses moving into polar latitudes

C) snow and ice accumulating on polar landmasses, increasing albedo

D) the uplifts of the Tibetan Plateau/Himalaya Mountains in Asia and the Colorado Plateau in the western United States deflecting west-to-east atmospheric circulation in the midlatitudes

E) All of these choices are correct.

14) The cycles of slow buildup and advance of glaciers followed by rapid shrinkage and retreat is caused by ________.

A) eccentricity of Earth's orbit around the Sun

B) tilt of Earth's axis

C) precession of the equinoxes

D) All of these choices are correct.

E) None of these choices are correct.

15) A strong El Niño is characterized by ________.

A) the arrival of warm ocean water to Peru and Ecuador near Christmastime

B) high atmospheric pressure over the eastern Pacific Ocean resulting in trade winds that blow toward the equator from the north and south

C) a southern jet stream branch that flows eastward bringing higher rainfall to the southeastern United States and helping break apart Atlantic and Caribbean storms resulting in fewer hurricanes

D) heavy rainstorms in the western United States

E) All of these choices are correct.

16) The eruption of ________ has been called the greatest eruption in historic times, killing about 10,000 people outright by pyroclastic flows and another 117,000 indirectly through famine and disease.

A) Tambora in 1815

B) Vesuvius in 79 

C) Mt. St. Helens in 1980 

D) Mt. Pinatubo in 1991

E) El Chichón in 1982 

17) Principle factors that come into play when volcanism affects climate include all but which of the following?

A) the size and rate of eruptions

B) the heights of eruption columns

C) the types of gases and the atmospheric level at which they are placed

D) the latitude of the eruptions

E) the isotopic ratio of oxygen gas (O2) emitted during eruptions

18) Where is the majority (~80%) of the carbon dioxide that was abundant in Earth's early atmosphere?

A) It has been lost to space.

B) It is chemically tied up in limestone.

C) It is contained with the biomass of plants.

D) It is trapped within the glaciers of Antarctica and Greenland.

E) It has radioactively decayed to carbon monoxide.

19) Currently Earth is ________ during the Northern Hemisphere winter.

A) farthest from the Sun

B) closest to the Sun

C) at its average distance from the Sun

D) at 25.5 degrees tilt

E) at 16.5 degrees tilt

20) One of the greatest weather disasters in U.S. history occurred during the ________ , when several years of drought turned grain-growing areas in the center of the nation into the "Dust Bowl." 

A) 1920s

B) 1930s

C) 1940s

D) 1950s

E) 1960s

21) The human drama of the "Dust Bowl" was captured in many articles and books, including ________.

A) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

B) The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

C) Roughing It by Mark Twain

D) Intruder in the Dust by William Faulkner

E) Dust in the Wind by Kerry Livgren

22) Increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has the effect of making the ocean ________.

A) more acidic

B) more basic

C) richer in 16O relative to 18O

D) adiabatically warm

E) adiabatically cool

23) The two main categories of mitigation options for limiting climate change are controlling the CO2 content of the atmosphere and ________.

A) reducing our dependence on nuclear energy

B) limiting the energy output of the Sun

C) changing Earth's orbital parameters

D) controlling the motion of tectonic plates

E) managing the solar radiation received by Earth

24) When the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) is in its warm phase which of the following is most likely?

A) the relocation of storms and rainfall but without a net change in their totals

B) a general increase in volcanic activity around the Pacific Ocean

C) a general increase in storms and rainfall

D) a general decrease in sea-surface temperatures in the North Pacific Ocean

25) What allows the warm pool of water to move east across the Equatorial Pacific Ocean in an El Niño event?

A) weaker than normal trade winds

B) stronger than normal easterlies

C) stronger than normal upwelling off the west coast of South America

D) the formation of a supercell thunderstorm in the Western Equatorial Pacific Ocean

26) A large volcanic eruption can slightly cool the climate for a few years because ________.

A) volcanic gases bind with greenhouse gases, removing most of them from the atmosphere

B) material they eject into the atmosphere reduces the amount of sunlight reaching Earth

C) lava absorbs massive amounts of carbon dioxide as it cools

D) volcanic ash is good for soils and that speeds the growth of forests

E) volcanoes emit nitrogen (N2), a cooling agent in the atmosphere

27) The atmosphere of Venus greatly changed as compared to Earth over the last 4 billion years.

28) The CO2 from the early Earth's atmosphere is stored in physical form in several ways, but over 90 percent of that CO2 is now chemically tied up in trees and other land plants. 

29) The average surface temperature on Earth before life was present was about 290°C.

30) Because of its fluctuations in abundance, CO2 is the most important of the greenhouse gases.

31) Biologic use of CO2 has lessened the greenhouse effect to yield the present temperatures on Earth. 

32) If CO2 were not present in the atmosphere, the average temperature at Earth's surface would be about 34°C.

33) The distribution of fossil organisms tells much about ancient climates.

34) Paleoclimatic analyses of Earth's rocks tell of extreme variations and changes in world temperature and precipitation throughout geologic time.

35) Not only do warm and cold intervals come and go, but they do not necessarily correlate with wet and dry periods, nor is there a distinct, geological-time pattern to the arrivals and departures of various climates.

36) During the Paleocene it was much warmer on Earth than it is now.

37) Water has such a tremendous capacity to either absorb or release heat that it acts as a powerful control or buffer on global climate.

38) Ozone, a greenhouse gas, is also a health hazard in the stratosphere where it reflects ultraviolet radiation toward Earth's surface.

39) The major factor in glacial periods lasting tens of millions of years appear to be changes in the Sun's heat output, rather than changes in shapes, sizes, and orientations of the continents and oceans.

40) A major release of methane hydrate, which is found just beneath the ocean floor, may have been the trigger for the final temperature increase near the end of the Late Paleocene Torrid Age.

41) Methane has about a 24-times stronger capacity to trap heat as a greenhouse gas than does carbon dioxide.

42) Beginning from a temperature peak at 55 million years ago, Earth began a long-term warming trend that has carried us into our current time between Ice Ages. 

43) Shells constructed from seawater incorporate the 18O/16O ratio of seawater during their lifetime within their CaCO3 shell walls, providing a paleothermometer that is used to estimate the temperatures of ancient seas. 

44) Ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere have a smaller effect on global climate change than Antarctic ice sheets because they expand and shrink in more dynamic fashion. 

45) The initial growth of northern continental glaciers that occurred between 3 million and 2.7 million years ago coincided with the formation of the Isthmus of Panama.

46) Our knowledge of the global advance-retreat history of glaciers has been leaping ahead from analyses of cores of sediments taken from the ocean floor and cores of ice removed from the Greenland ice cap.

47) La Niña results in colder-than-normal surface waters in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean and generally causes below-average rainfall in most of North America.

48) Approximately ________ million years ago, glaciers were widespread in Antarctica as the cold waters of the Southern Ocean efficiently flowed around and isolated the continent.

A) 10

B) 34

C) 14

D) 47

49) ________ is the weakest of the three Milankovitch parameters.

A) Obliquity

B) Precession

C) Eccentricity

D) Both Obliquity and Precession

50) Due to a strong influence at the polar latitudes, ________ was responsible for ice advancing in the Northern Hemisphere every 41,000 years between 2.6 million and 1.0 million years ago.

A) precession

B) obliquity

C) eccentricity

D) All of the choices are correct.

51) The Tambora-cooled climate let to which of the following events?

A) weakened monsoons in Asia for 3 years

B) failed rice harvests in Yunnan Province, China

C) cholera epidemic in Bengal, India

D) All of the choices are correct.

52) Following the last large Yellowstone eruption some 631,000 years ago, sea surface temperatures near Santa Barbara, California ________.

A) stayed the same

B) increased by 3°C

C) decreased by 3°C

D) increased by 1.5°C

53) The United States Climate Science Special Report in 2017 forecast that sea levels will rise ________.

A) several inches in the next 15 years

B) 4 feet by 2100

C) as much as 8 feet by 2100 cannot be ruled out

D) All of the choices are correct.

54) It has been estimated that about ________ of the CO2 added to the atmosphere has been absorbed by seawater.

A) 5%

B) 40%

C) 25%

D) 15%

55) Ice shelves in Antarctica are melting due to ________.

A) ponds of melt water on top the ice shelf draining into cracks and crevasses

B) rising air temperatures

C) warming oceans currents melting the underside of the ice shelf

D) All the choices are correct.