3. Planet Earth (9 pts) throughout the semester to answer the following four que

Question

3. Planet Earth (9 pts) throughout the semester to answer the following four questions: a. (2) Plate Tectonics - Answer either(i) or (ii), but not both: Lithospheric plates move at a rte of-2 cm/yr (-2×10-5 km/yr). At this rte how long would it take for Boulder to move around Earth once? (Earth's radius is -6400 km. (i) Remember that the circumference of a sphere is 2 x x Radius) (ii) What is one reason that we think that lithospheric plates move relative to each other? b. (2) Liquid Water at the Surface -Give two examples of different types of water erosion in your home state / province / country. Features with names are preferred (e.g. Grand Canyon) c. (2) Life - Which colonized land first: plants or animals? Explain why this is so, based on the composition of Earth's early atmosphere. d. (3) For each of the three characteristics listed in boldface in parts (a)-(c) describe how Earth's atmospheric composition would be different if Earth lacked only that characteristic.

Explanation / Answer

a) (i) Diameter of boulder = 25.6 cm =25.6x 10-3km

Circumference of earth = 2x pie x r = 2x 3.14 x 6400 =40212.385 km

Total distance to be travelled = 40212.385 + 25.6x 10-3km = 40212.411 km

Rate = 2 x10-5km/yr

Time = 40212.411/ 2 x10-5 = 2010600578 years

a) (ii) The laws of physics which apply when you are at rest on the earth also apply when you are in any reference frame which is moving at a constant velocity with respect to the other plate. For example, you can toss and catch a ball in a moving bus if the motion is in a straight line at constant speed.

b) Gully erosion is the removal of soil by running water, with the formation of channels that cannot be smoothened out completely by normal agricultural operation or cultivation.

Sheet erosion is the removal of erosion is the removal of surface soil by running water, with the formation of normal cultivation.

c) Cyanobacteria came first and transformed the atmosphere. They came before complex cells, Eukaryote cells. Some of which incorporated symbiotic cyanobacteria and became algae.  

Some algae became multicellular, and one line of these gave rise to the land plants.

Land plants arose after complex animal life, including vertebrates. But mammals emerged as a distinct group long after.

d)"Climate change" is usually (today, anyway) reserved for the anthropogenic warming of the atmosphere. In this case plate tectonics has really no role at all. If the question is how is plate tectonics related to global climate, then may of the above answers work. However, the earth, as a system is so vastly complex the question is rendered almost meaningless. Plate tectonics is a construct to explain dynamic processes, and the physiographic nature we observe at or near the surface of the earth. These processes cause earthquakes, volcanoes, faulting, mountain building, basin formation, etc. They affect land mass distribution, ocean and atmosphere circulation, distribution of ice, etc. Each of these has their own influence on climate, but they also combine influences to have different effects, or effects on other phenomena that then can affect climate. There are certainly generalizations that can be (and have been) made, but acknowledgement must be made to the complexity of systems involved in climate.

The links between biodiversity and climate change run both ways: biodiversity is threatened by climate change, but proper management of biodiversity can reduce the impacts of climate change.There is evidence that climate change is already affecting biodiversity and will continue to do so. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment ranks climate change among the main direct drivers affecting ecosystems. Consequences of climate change on the species component of biodiversity include:

• changes in distribution,

• increased extinction rates,

• changes in reproduction timings, and

• changes in length of growing seasons for plants. Some species that are already threatened are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The following are examples of species and of their vulnerabilities

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