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Env Geo Final
HElp me dear lord baby jesus
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| The human population on earth can be roughly modeled using exponential growth rate (k) hasn't been constant over the last 300 years. When did we see a substantial increase in k? | 1950, during the baby boom, duh |
| We've created a cropland & pasture biome that covers what % of the earth's surface? | 40% |
| Today atmospheric CO2 is close to | 390 ppmv |
| Which soil forming factor has the most control over US fertile soils from coast to coast? | Climate |
| Civilizations collapse every ~1000 years because ag causes topsoil to erode at a rate of...? | 6m/my |
| During the 20th century, how many people died from flooding? | 10,000 (same number of digits as letters in the word flood) |
| Compared to the natural rate of 180 mt/yr human-induced N fixation is estimated to be...? | also 180 because we've doubled it |
| What % of US rivers are dammed | 98% |
| The # of flood deaths has done what since early 1900s? | remained the same, not gotten better with technology |
| If you were to walk in the channel of a typical mid-atlantic stream 400 years ago, your feet would mostly be in...? | an organic-rich silt loam |
| Channel erosion is commonly responsible for what % of total stream sediment load? | 60-80% |
| In a northern deciduous forest, in what month does evapotranspiration have the strongest control on reducing stream discharge? | August because summer, everything is the alive-est |
| What is the specific design goal of a stormwater retention pond in James County, VA? | to delay the peak inflow to outflow stormflow centroid of the 1-year event by 24 hours (the complicated one) |
| Erosion rates from ag field plowing now, compared to native methods, creates how much larger rates of soil production? | 10 to 100 times |
| By what factor has the 30-year stormflow increased? | do e^(wherever the line ends up) for both lines. Divide the bigger product by the smaller. |
| Global sea level has been rising at what rate throughout the last 130 years? | 1 inch (2.5 cm) per decade |
| What is responsible for the LARGEST AMOUNT of sea level rise in the last century? | thermal expansion of the oceans |
| On average, what percentage of N deposition runs off into surface waters in any given year? | 20% |
| When did human impacts first show up in the sedimentary record in the bay? | 1775 (american revolution times) |
| What sector contributes the highest N and P loads to the Chesapeake Bay? | Agriculture |
| Over the last 20 years, how has the size of the Chesapeake Bay dead zone changed? | it has remained about the same size |
| What is true about how N & P additions to ecosystems increase productivity? | Adding N&P to any ecosystem usually causes significantly more productivity than either nutrient alone |
| What is the best indicator of freshwater anoxia? | pyrite |
| Radioactive Cesium 137 can be used to trace soil erosion since...? | the 60s. |
| Driscoll M - in the US, what is the largest source of Hg emissions to the atmosphere? | coal-fired electric plants |
| Driscoll M - in the US, have total Hg emissions increased, decreased, or remained constant since 1990? | they have decreased |
| Driscoll M - what specific environment (or habitat) is most sensitive to mercury deposition, with respect to having the most severe accumulation of mercury in biota? | Forested areas with unproductive surface water |
| Chen M - List 5 specific variables they used to determine mercury content of fish in the northeastern US. | pH, sulfides, dissolved organic carbon, acid neutralizing capacity, fish type. |
| Gasses in the atmosphere & residence times | *N2, *O2 (long residence time), *Ar, CO2 (long 10 yr residence time), Ne, He, Kr, H2, CH4, SO2 (short residence time), NOx (long 100 yr residence time), H2O (short residence time) |
| Aerosols | suspended particles or liquid droplets • ~20 day residence time in the troposphere (close to the residence time of water) • ice • dust (soil, salts) • liquid droplets |
| Heavy Metal Ores: Sulfides | -earth sequesters the toxic metal Pb in Galena (PbS) -other metals that bind to sulfide – mercury, gold, copper, zinc, silver -he who smelted it dealted it (S) |
| Wet and Dry mechanisms of deposition | -wet • rain • snow -dry • dustfall • direct uptake (by plants) • cloud water impaction (commonly forms when H2O gas reacts with a particle in the atmosphere and goes to H2O liquid. Can have a pH of 3 or 4. Bad for high elevation ecosystems) |
| What is the range of pH across US | ~6 to ~4.7 |
| What is the geographic distribution of acid rain in the US? | most on east coast (east of MS river). Major acid in industrial areas. Most in ohio, PA, WV. Less in agricultural areas. |
| By what factor does [H+] vary across US? | A factor of 20 |
| Dry deposition & importance of vegetation | -vegetation traps bad stuff (condenses on it) -it breathes it in through stomata -they trap a lot of mercury -how long do contaminates stay in soil? Mercury – long time. N – 10 to 30 yrs. Definitely decades. |
| Elevation & atmospheric deposition | -huge change in deposition along a landform. -40 to about 140. Cloud water makes the difference. -cloud base is a sharp feature responsible for a threshold in forest and soil composition |
| Sulfate ion wet deposition | -really bad in northeast -sulfur is a stronger acid (than nitric acid) -S tends to dissolve in water faster -mountains and more rain |
| Wind patterns matter for S deposition | -takes contaminated air to the northeast -coal plants largely to the south of contaminated areas |
| Indicators of atmospheric contaminants | -dead trees in high elevation areas (NE of coal plants) -dead lakes (loons, fish) |
| Acid deposition effects (part 1) | -you start to lose the soil nutrient saturation -soil particles tend to have a negative charge (Al3+ subs for Si4+) -base cations (nutrients) are attracted to it |
| Acid deposition effects (part 2) | -so they stick to negatively charged particles. We like this. Plants can grab the nutrients when they need to (by exuding H+) and the nutrients will go up the root. This is ion exchange. |
| Acid deposition effects (part 3) | -so acidified soils will have H+ everywhere instead of nutrients (low BS soil) -Ca deficiency in trees made them very intolerant to cold. -Al goes up in low pH water. Thats what actually kills the fish (their gills get filled with it and the suffocate) |
| Shenandoah NP | -southern, lower (high 4s) • siliclastic rocks (meta-ss) • no pH buffering capacity • doesn’t dissolve easily -northern, higher (8) • basaltic rocks (7-8) • granites (6.5-7) • chemical weathering reaction buffers acid rain (minerals dissolve) |
| Sulfur levels | -has actually decreased because of successful cap & trade -pH of water is starting to rise |
| Funny things about mercury | -liquid at room temp -coal has it bc Hg associates itself with organic matter naturally -things that hurt you are more like Methyl-Mercury. Billions of x more toxic than anything else. Liquid Hg doesn’t pass through your skin or stay in your body. |
| Hg, when heated, becomes one of 3 species | • Elemental Hg (uncharged mercury gas, not particularly reactive. Dry deposition) • Reactive gaseous Hg (Mercury chloride or bromide, dissolves quickly in water) • Particulate Hg (soot containing some of the mercury, wet deposition) |
| Coal vs Nuclear | -A good amount of electricity is from nuclear -We have 200-300 years of coal left. -22% of electricity comes from nuclear -35 g of U235 (shot glass), has the energy potential of 100 tons of coal. A factor of ~3M more -we have 1000 yrs of coal |
| Arguments for Nuclear | -A LOT LESS greenhouse gasses -Factor of 50 lower -energy and fatality – deaths per trillion kilowatt hour -you can’t even see it, less than 100. Whereas coal is at 200000. -no acid rain associated |
| Nuclear fission | -U235 is heavy, wants to separate -bombard it with neutron, it splits -22% of US energy, 75% of france’s -can propel itself, they have things to dip in, absorb extra neutrons. Without them it could go runaway and meltdown -but has radioactive waste |
| Issues associated with it | -0.1% of rock with Uranium is actually Uranium -what do you do with the rest? Lot of waste associated with mining -you have to do something with the fuel rods bc they’re radioactive -safe/efficient operation of power plants |
| Deposition | -hydrothermal deposit -hot water goes somewhere in crust, dissolved metals re-precipitate when they cool -water-rich magma transport, water infiltrates fractures, metals precipitate -some in valley & ridge from Mesozoic basins, crust thins, rifting |
| Do we mine in VA? | -found in 70s, but then 2 huge disasters in US -coles hill region has some on surface, most below ground -going down = sands, then ore rock (granites and gneisses) around 215 ft down -120 million lbs -we import a lot of our U, political implications |
| Geological background for VA U mining | -rifting ~220 Ma -uranium ore below surface ~1200 ft -it’s an economic deposit How do we do the mining? -turn it into cake |
| Problems | -every 1000 lbs generates 999 lbs of waste -altering environment of rocks at depth, where do you put the water? You oxygenate the system, maybe move U around naturally -largest US disaster – 1979 church rock hill then 3 mile island. Chernobyl worst ever |
| thermonuclear explosion won’t do a mushroom cloud but... | o Instant damage & later cancer/failure of kidneys/liver o U dust has alpha particles o decays really slowly • Human U death unpresc. = 1g • decays to all kinds of radioactive daughters • tailings pile has dust, gas, gamma radiation, mass wasting |
| Nuclear fuel cycle part 1 | -the fission happens in the rods which are in cylinders which are in boxes which are in water which create steam -they are full of radioactive isotopes and bad stuff (lethally radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years) |
| Nuclear fuel cycle part 2 | -150 ish nuclear reactors -waste is either on site or close to it. |
| Wish list for nuclear waste storage (part 1) | • low population density • low elevation (less likely to erode) • tectonically quiet • well above the water table (desert) • somewhere without extreme weather (tornados, hurricanes) |
| Wish list for nuclear waste storage (part 2) | • dry, no flooding • closed basin (not in ocean if it ever washed away) • not near something culturally or ecologically valuable • cold might be better than warm • somewhere safe (not near a border) • in/near rocks that aren’t easily eroded |
| Yucca - the good | o dry (desert) o remote o internal drainage basin o land has already been nuked (since 1950s) o on air force base – easy to secure o low water table o rock is tuff – welded ash and volcanic rock (not soluble) |
| Yucca - the bad | o in basin & range province (tectonically active) o most of the nuclear waste is far away, you have to transport o tuff has water in it. Water vapor is a major constituent of volcanic eruption o tuff is highly fractured, water can travel down |
| Yucca - the ugly | o heat (no way to test that time scale) o climate change o transport o how do you communicate to the next civilization what’s in there? |
| SAPROLITE | chemically weathered rock |
| Midterm -MS chart question | • nothing to do with diatoms • N addition not killing diatoms (diatoms can’t keep up with it because they are limited by silica. Something else moves in to consume that N – algae.) |
| Global change | -over long timescales, we separate climate into “Hot House” or “Ice Age” • 4 major ice ages in the last billion years • several hot houses, mostly during Mesozoic where volcanism was happening |
| -We are currently in an Ice Age, despite a very recent warming trend -How do we know this? -Sedimentary record (last 100 My) - Ice | Evaporation <3s O16. Condens/precip <3s O18. Cloud water becomes more depleted in H2O18 as it moves poleward. Snow & ice are depleted in O18 relative O16. Ice enriched in O16 in glacials. Calcite in glacials are O18 rich. Ice melt = dumping O16 in ocean |
| -We are currently in an Ice Age, despite a very recent warming trend -How do we know this? -Sedimentary record (Last 100 My) - Ocean sediment | o Ocean sediment, dead foraminifera (plankton with calcite shells). Calcite traps ocean chemistry in it. They trap oxygen isotope composition of ocean (H2O 16, H2O 18, etc). Calcite is CaCO3, the O in that reflects the O isotope. |
| -We are currently in an Ice Age, despite a very recent warming trend -How do we know this? • Isotopes (last 70 My) | o Pos # means a lot, - means less. Light until ~50Ma, started to get lighter. ~10 Ma, ocean got heavier. o Last ~2.5 My, = cycles of glacial-interglacial (every 100 Ky) o Ice records give annual scale resolution. Deterium is heavy H. Na, dust, etc. |
| GHGs and temp change | -something causes the temp change, GHGs respond -solids have order, gasses don't -small temp change ~3-5 C -decomp -> to entropy (disorder) and it’s a positive feedback loop -there’s a lag. Greenhouse gasses lag temperature by a few thousand years |
| Carbon cycling | -60 in, 60 out, from atm. 90 in, 90 out in ocean. -stable bounds controlled by terrestrial cycle. -humans putting 6.5 into the atm pool, volcanoes put in 0.05 -400 ppm now (larger that the last My), and projections put us at more than the last 15 My |
| Methane | -molecule for molecule, can do much more warming than CO2 -largely comes from wetlands (anoxic decomposition product) -with glaciation, there’s less decomposition in wetlands |
| Last 130 years (1880-2013) | -relative change on global land-ocean temperature index -global change is something like 1.1 degrees C, which is small change compared to a change between glacials and interglacials -temperature is not a simple climb like CO2 is |
| what year was the hottest on record (1880-2013)? | • Tie between 2005 an 2010 |
| what were the 5 hottest years on record (1880-2013)? | • 2010/2005, 2007, 1998, 2002, 2003 |
| beginning in which year do temperatures appear to climb at a faster and systematic (not random) pace? | • 1977 (no more negative) |
| Clean Air Act and Temperature | -industry post-WW2, high levels of particulate emissions due to smokestacks. These regulated greenhouse gasses, blocked sunlight. -right after flatline period is clean air act. Then it goes up because particles aren’t there anymore to negate GHGs |
| Levels of scientific understanding | -we have a good scientific understanding of greenhouse gasses, medium understanding of aerosols and clouds, and very low understanding of albedo and solar. |
| Fertilization theory | -idea that more CO2 is creating more plant tissue and that’s the missing sink -FACE project – testing the theory (blasting CO2 at plants) |
| How much we know (about GCC) | -where will C go in the future? Nobody knows. -as far as GHGs go, carbon dioxide, then methane, then N2O, then halocarbons -then with aerosols & clouds we don’t really know |
| Increase in warming since 1900 | - ~1.1ish degrees C globally -not uniform, varies with lat -most warming in N lats • + feedback loops w/ ice caps ^ albedo = Less reflection. • Ice holds in heat, warm air comes up out of the ocean and warms the air -averages mask local effects |
| What are 2 ways humans have increased N fixation? | Burning fossil fuels, Agriculture (N-rich fertilizer) |
| List three specific environmental effects of atmospheric N species | Nitrous oxide - GHG. Nitric oxide - smog. Nitric acid - acidifies water |
| What are the 3 major carbon pools? | Biosphere, Atmosphere, Hydrosphere |
| What are 2 primary mechanisms by which humans have impacted the global carbon cycle? | Burning of fossil fuels, burning of plants |
| How have SO2 and NOx emissions changed since 1990? | Atmospheric SO4 declined because of clean air act. NOx has remained relatively constant. |
| Which organisms are harmed most by acid deposition? | Trees (red spruce, sugar maple), Fish (in acidic lakes/streams, esp. trout) |
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