Earth Systems & Resources unit test
A test on this unit alone, marked as a percentage and a letter grade — for the test your class is actually sitting, rather than for May. Answer everything, then submit once: seeing the answer to question 3 before attempting question 4 makes the final percentage meaningless.
El Niño and La Niña
Earth's atmospheric layers
Watershed
Rain shadow effect
Cation exchange capacity
Coriolis effect
Saltwater intrusion
Plate tectonics
Upwelling
Soil erosion causes
Hadley, Ferrel and Polar cells
Cone of depression
Short answer 1. Define or explain: Soil texture triangle
3 ptsShort answer 2. Define or explain: Albedo
3 ptsShort answer 3. Define or explain: Soil horizons
3 ptsShort answer 4. Define or explain: Soil permeability and porosity
3 ptsFree response
10 ptsThis course has no free-response prompt tagged to this unit, so one from elsewhere in the course is used. It is still worth writing — the skill transfers.
A city of 500,000 residents is developing a climate action plan. At present each resident drives an average of 12,000 km per year in a vehicle averaging 10 km per liter of gasoline, and burning one liter of gasoline releases 2.3 kg of CO₂.
Calculate the total distance driven per year and the fuel used.
Calculate the annual CO₂ emissions in metric tons.
Recalculate the fuel used and emissions under the improved fuel economy.
State the annual reduction in emissions that the improvement achieves.
Identify the effect that could reduce the real-world benefit of better fuel economy.
Explain how that effect offsets part of the expected reduction.
Identify ONE source of the city's greenhouse-gas emissions that does not come from vehicles.
Describe a policy that would reduce emissions from that source.
Distinguish between mitigation and adaptation.
Classify improved fuel economy as one of the two, and justify your choice.