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GEOG 111 FInal Notes

This document contains summaries of lecture materials from a GEOG 111 course. It covers topics including: - How glacial ice forms through the accumulation and compression of snow over time. - Characteristics of ice ages in Earth's history and climate factors that influence glacial advance and retreat. - How the last ice age and Little Ice Age shaped landscapes in coastal British Columbia. - Differences between landscapes formed by rivers versus glaciers. - Key concepts in biomes and ecosystems distribution, and identification of the local biome in coastal BC.

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254 views17 pages

GEOG 111 FInal Notes

This document contains summaries of lecture materials from a GEOG 111 course. It covers topics including: - How glacial ice forms through the accumulation and compression of snow over time. - Characteristics of ice ages in Earth's history and climate factors that influence glacial advance and retreat. - How the last ice age and Little Ice Age shaped landscapes in coastal British Columbia. - Differences between landscapes formed by rivers versus glaciers. - Key concepts in biomes and ecosystems distribution, and identification of the local biome in coastal BC.

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GEOG 111 Final Lecture Questions

Lecture 12: Glaciation

- Explain how glacial ice forms


o Glacial ice forms by first the accumulation of snow. Over time, as more snow accumulates, the
snow will start to compress and form a layer of ice. The names for this process is snowflakes to
granular snow to firm to glacier ice. This is a ratio of air and ice
- Describe the characteristics of ice ages
o Ice ages have occurred many times throughout earth’s history. Protozoic, snowball earth,
phanerozoic ice age cooler temperatures and less green house gas effects. Pliocene-quaternary
retreated to just past
o Continents and oceans
o Karoo ice age
o Glacial = periods of advance, interglacial periods of retreat, 10 thousand year interval
- Identify climate factors related to changes in the size and extent of glaciers
o Positive and negative feedback: positive= advancement of glaciers, negative= retreat of glaciers,
rising sea levels
- Explain (in basic terms) how the Ice Age and Little Ice Age shaped the landscape in the Sea to Sky corridor
o The little ice age melted and eroded and washed out the land making it flat?
- Differentiate between landscapes formed by rivers and glaciers
- Compare the principle processes of glacial erosion
o Till, erratic, fluvial, and moraines
- Identify glacial landforms from descriptions and photos
- Explain the terms accumulation zone, ablation zone, and equilibrium line as they relate to glacier mass
balance
- Interpret data about the status of contemporary glacier retreat and advance

Lecture 11: Biomes and Ecosystems

- Describe how species distribution defines biomes


o There are different biomes on earth each with different characteristics and living conditions.
Consider Latitude & location on earth
- Explain the factors that determine whether a species is absent from somewhere on Earth
o Dispersal: all plans and animals can moe but there
are limitations
o Behavior: is area sufficient for habitat?
o Biotic Factors: Other species that live there:
competition, neutral, mutual, predication,
amensalism
o Abiotic factors: Light, atmosphere, lithosphere,
hydrosphere
- Identify the biogeoclimatic zone we live in in coastal BC
o Coastal Western- Hemlock
- Explain the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, with reference to the mountain pine beetle outbreak in
BC
o It is killing out the trees which is necessary for logging. It will overflow the Fraser river and destroy
habitats and flood potentially.
o Intermediate: a mixture of species coexist. Only resistant species survive (trees)
- Describe how ecosystems in the lower Fraser Basin have changed since colonization
- Discuss why the Fraser River Estuary is of high ecological important

Lecture 10: Fluvial Processes and Landforms

- Define “watershed”/”drainage basin” and describe the size and location of the Fraser River watershed
- Delineate a watershed on a topographic map, and identify stream orders using the Strahler method
- Identify different stream channel patters and describe the erosion and deposition patterns associated with
each
- Explain how streamflow can shape valleys, in terms of deepening, widening, knickpoint migration, and
lengthening
- Interpret a stream hydrograph
- Explain stream discharge, flow velocity, and stream competence and capacity with regard to sediment
transport, erosion and deposition

Lecture 9: Earthquakes and Masswasting

- Explain what an earthquake is, and define the terms focus/hypocenter and epicenter
- Name and explain the scales on which earthquakes are measured, in terms of magnitude and intensity
- Describe the frequency of earthquake events as related to magnitude
- Describe the distribution and characteristics of earthquakes associated with convergent and divergent
plate boundaries
- Investigate the Cascadia subduction zone and explain what type of earthquake we can expect in the
future
- Describe the different types of mass wasting that affect our local region (falls, slides, and flows), and
explain the variables that can lead to mass wasting events

Lecture 8: Plate tectonics and Earthquakes

- Identify the structure of Earth’s layers.


- Identify and describe the three basic rock types (igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic), and recognize a
local example of each type.
- Explain Wegener’s original plate tectonics theory, including the evidence supporting it and the reason it
was not widely accepted at the time.
- Describe the evidence supporting the seafloor spreading theory.
- Describe the different types of plate boundaries, and identify landforms/processes that occur at each type.
- Recognize major volcanic landforms.

Lecture 7: Global and Local Climate Change Trends


- Describe how temperature changes in the last several decades are different from temperature changes in
Earth’s history.
- Explain the difference between climate variability and climate change.
- Describe how Earth’s surface temperatures have changed over the past several decades and identify what
region of Earth has experienced the greatest change.
- Identify trends in indicators of climate change in BC, and describe how they have changed and are
projected to change in the future.

Post Lecture 6

- Human activities such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation are changing Earth’s carbon budget and
radiation budget.
- We are removing “old, slow carbon” from its sink deep in the lithosphere, and adding that carbon to the
atmosphere as excess carbon dioxide.
- This excess carbon dioxide (along with other greenhouse gases) is causing an enhanced greenhouse effect.
- This is causing Earth’s lower atmosphere and surface to warm.

Lecture 6: Carbon Cycle

- Describe how carbon is transferred between the atmosphere and Earth’s other spheres.
- Describe changes in fossil-fuel carbon emissions from 1959 to 2014.
- Describe changes in the uptake of carbon by the atmosphere, oceans,
- and terrestrial biosphere from 1959 to 2014.
- Explain why atmospheric CO2 concentrations changed over the past 50 to 60 years.

Lecture 5: Radiation & Climate controls

- Briefly describe the 5 Laws of Radiation as they relate to the energy given off by the sun and the earth
- Explain why the earth’s average surface temperature is so much warmer than the temperature of the
earth as a whole
- Explain the Greenhouse Effect (GHE) and the human-enhanced GHE with reference to Earth’s energy
budget

Lecture 4: Weather and Climate Part 2

- Identify the major surface components of global atmospheric circulation


- Explain the mechanism of local winds and orographic lifting
- Describe how ENSO, la Nina, and the PDO affect BC weather
- Describe how local topography and geographic location affect weather in different regions of BC

Lecture 3: Weather and Climate Part 1

- Distinguish between weather and climate


- Describe how temperature and pressure changes throughout atmosphere
- Explain the three factors that govenrn the direction of windflow
- Explain what happens to an air parcel as it rises or descends in the atmosphere
- Identify areas of high and low pressure on a weather map, and summarize wind direction
- Define anticyclone and cyclone in the context of air flow
- List three differences between a hurricane and a mid latitude cyclone
- Explain what happens when a cold or warm front moves into an area with respect to: air masses,
temperature, clouds, and air pressure

Lecture 2: Mapping; earth movements

- Explain the earth’s reference grid: latitude and longitude


- Explain mapping basics: map sale and map projections
- Describe modern geoscience techniques and GIS and explain how these tools are used in geographic
analysis
- Illustrate the interception of solar energy and its uneven distribution at the top of the atmosphere
- Reconstruct earths annual orbit around the sun
- Describe annual variability of solar declination and daylength
- Describe seasons
F
Chapter 6: Carbon cycle

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