CYCLES OF THE EARTH
SCIENCE 101
SPRING 1999
By the end of this section you need to be able to address the following:
 
  1. Why does the Earth have winds?
  2. Describe the dependence of the rock cycle on the movement of water.
  3. In which of the three classes of rocks would you find fossils?  Explain.
  4. What would be the consequences if the Earth were not able to recycle physical resources?  Energy is not recycled, it just passes through our ecosystems.  Why doesn't this need to be recycled?
  5. To stay at a constant temperature, the oceans must lose as much heat as they gain.  Considering what yo know about methods of heat transfer, specifically how would the ocean lose heat back to the atmosphere?  Evaporation is also a major factor.  Explain how evaporation causes the oceans to lose heat.
  6. During an ice age, large amounts of water that is currently in the oceans freezes out at the polar caps and in glaciers and snow cover.  What happens to the salinity of the remaining ocean water?  Speculate on how this might affect ocean plant and animal life.
  7. Are ocean currents an example of heat transfer by conduction, convection, or radiation?
  8.  Dr. Martin discussed the movement of continents over time.  Long ago the west coast of Africa and the east coast of South America were in contact.  Should we be able to find similar rocks in these two locations?  Will this be true for all types of rocks?  Are the rocks there now, the same ones that were there when the two land masses were joined?

[Adapted from Trefil, J. and R. M. Hazen.  1995.  Instructor's manual:  The sciences, an integrated approach.  John Wiley & Sons.]