Student Name ___________________
Salt Lake Community College - Geography 1000
Quiz #4
AJ Allred, Adjunct
1. The price of corn flakes in the United States is directly influenced by non-renewable aquifer water that
was deposited during the last ice age. Corn 12 feet tall is also based on artificial fertilizers derived from
heavy use of non-renewable fossil fuels. Elsewhere, the Russians over-consumed much of their own
fresh water in the Aral Sea. A salty desert now dominates that area.
True _X__
False ___
Much of the developed world is consuming water resources faster than they can be replaced.
Meanwhile, climate change may be melting more ice and evaporating more water than in the past. Not
surprisingly, many lakes and underground aquifers are shrinking.
2. A “cone of depression” forms when groundwater is pumped out for farming. During the winter ‘offseason’ such cones always fill back in and restore an aquifer to its previous overall volume of water.
True ___
False _X__
Cones of depression do fill-in slowly over time, but when consumption of ground water is very high,
cones of depression get bigger until holes appear in aquifers. Eventually, the entire aquifer thins to the
point that it may take hundreds of years to recover. Meanwhile, farmers continue to press for ever
greater crop yields. Corn flakes are inexpensive because we are not paying the full cost of using up
water that will take hundreds of years to replace.
We also using immense amounts of fossil fuel to produce and deliver artificial fertilizer that is also
required for massive crop yields.
3. Which statement(s) are (is) true:
a. Soils in the western United States are often somewhat alkaline and have been ‘dormant’.
b. Soils in the western United States are often too acid for good farming.
c. Prevailing winds usually carry air pollution (with acidity) from Utah westward to China.
d. Hurricanes in the eastern Pacific Ocean often move into northwestern Mexico and southern
California.
e. Based on the general pattern of the ITCZ and Hadley cells, Arizona should be green like Florida.
Wet soils, such as found in humid climates and the tropics, tend to be acidic. Soil nutrients can be
depleted quickly. In dry climates, such as the western United States, soils are usually under-developed
or dormant. For lack of water, many soils have not developed much at all. Such land tends to be about
8.0 on the pH scale. Adding water is often enough to increase acidity to something closer to 6.0, which
improves their ability to grow crops.
Winds do not prevail from the east in Utah, so winds can’t carry Utah air pollution directly across the
ocean to China. The reverse is probably more true. Trade winds blowing westward will tend to blow
hurricanes away from the U.S. and Mexican west coast.
Los Angeles does not experience hurricanes, but sometimes gets rain from the northern edge of a
hurricane that is moving westward away from the coast.
Utah and Arizona can get moisture that blows in from hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean and/or the Gulf of
Mexico, but we are too far inland to experience the real effect of a hurricane.
4. Which of the following is (are) true of monsoon conditions:
a. The ITCZ undulates north and south, following the sun’s relative position in the sky.
b. If the ITCZ is not far enough north in June, places like India will probably experience drought.
c. Even Utah and Arizona can receive a bit of ‘monsoon’ rain when the ITCZ rises northward
during our longest days of the year.
d. In the northern hemisphere, the south end of Hadley cells will tend to be rainy.
e. All of the above are true.
Hadley cells converge near the equator (ITCZ) and move north and south with the sun. The north and
south ends of Hadley cells (about 30 degrees N and S) exhibit dry, descending air and promote desert
climates.
As Hadley cells move, so do the dry and wet ends, so there tends to be a dry season and a rainy season
as the ITCZ moves closer or further away. Places like India may be drought-stricken if the ITCZ does
not move far enough north during summer.
5. When a frontal storm occurs, air masses don’t mix at first. Instead, cooler, drier air rides above warmer,
wetter air. Precipitation tends to result.
True ___
False _X__
The first statement is true. The second statement is not true. When warm and/or moist air collides with
cooler, drier air, the warm/wet air will lift, being lighter in weight or more buoyant.
6. Iso-lines for atmospheric pressure that are close together and in concentric circles could represent:
a. a severe down-draft of wind, such as a micro-burst.
b. a tornado with rapidly rising air.
c. a hurricane.
d. All of the above are good possibilities.
e. None of the above is possible based on the limited description provided.
Where iso-lines of any kind are close together, the rate of change is rapid. Wind is not just blowing, it is
accelerating. When iso-lines are concentric, or in circles, something powerful is happening in the
middle.
Most of the time, a “bulls-eye” of air pressure suggests an intense storm, such as a tornado or hurricane.
A brief micro-burst downdraft can also exhibit rapidly changing air speed. Micro-bursts are unusual and
very brief, so the vast majority of sets of concentric isolines represents low-pressure rising air, not
downdrafts.
7.
“Frontal” weather patterns can produce violent winds and heavy precipitation because one air mass is
drier and cooler than the other.
True _X__
False ___
Humid, warm air is buoyant and can lift easily. Such air will seem even more buoyant if heavier, more
stable air is adjacent.
8. The famous “Great Pacific Garbage Patch” is caused by persistent high atmospheric pressure that causes
a rise or ‘dome’ of higher-than-usual sea level.
True ___
False _X__
Utah soils are often somewhat alkaline, or higher than pH 8.0. Soils generally tend to be more able to
transfer nutrients to growing plants when acidity is about 6.0.
9. With ‘global warming’ ocean shelf ice (floating ice) is melting, resulting in rising sea level. However, a
‘positive feedback loop’ also ensures that a strong pattern of change is off-set by a countering change to
prevent conditions from getting out of control.
True ___
False _X__
Positive feedback loops are self-reinforcing, which means that once a trend starts it tends to get stronger.
The more you get, the more you tend to get. Positive feedback loops tend to “get worse” or get out-ofcontrol, leading to severe consequences.
The concept of “global warming” may be a good example of a positive feedback condition. Frozen
water tends to be white or reflective, and does not absorb energy readily. Liquid water tends to be dark,
and easily absorbs energy in radiation. So, if a melting trend begins for any reason, the conversion of
reflective ice to absorbent dark water will tend to reinforce or strengthen that trend. The more dark
water, the less ice until ostensibly all ice is gone. Once water is warm, it may not be able to freeze
again. Dark water will have overwhelmed any possibility of ice re-appearing.
10. Evaporation is an effective way of absorbing or ‘hiding’ heat so that it can be carried away by
convection. One result is severe storms in places away from the Equator, and precipitation that helps
prevent drought in sub-tropical regions.
True _X__
False ___
This question contains its own answer.
11. For Utah to have tornadoes we need:
a. More water.
b. More heat.
c. More mountains.
d. To be close to the equator.
e. None of the above will help produce such severe weather.
Utah already has enough heat to produce dust devils during warm weather. A tornado is much more
powerful because it contains heat and humidity (evaporated water), which adds a great deal of energy to
air that is already rising due to heat-caused buoyancy.
12. Looking down on a hurricane moving northward, which part of the storm should show the weakest
winds?
a. Southwest side (left rear)
b. Southeast side (right rear)
c. Northeast side (right front)
d. Northwest side (left front)
e. In the ‘eye wall’ directly adjacent to the “eye” of the storm (the book doesn’t include the eye as
part of storm winds, but technically yes the lack of wind in the eye would be less than anywhere
else in the storm)
The answers to this question are based on the typical direction that North American hurricanes move. I
have put the corresponding answers for the viewer looking down on any hurricane that is moving
forward. See if they make sense to you.
13. The general effect of Hadley cells helps ensure that:
a. Florida and Alabama have a mild “C” climate with plenty of green landscapes.
b. Arizona is dry.
c. regions near the equator are rainy and humid.
d. Answers ‘b’ and ‘c’ above are correct.
e. Answers ‘a’ and ‘b’ above are correct.
Arizona is near the north end of a general Hadley cell. The equator is at the south end of Hadley cells.
The convergence of two Hadley cells forms the ITCZ, which tends to be rainy because air is lifting in a
region that is mostly water and receives abundant solar energy.
Florida and Alabama should be dry like Arizona, but they are not because trade winds bring humidity
and rain westward from the Atlantic Ocean to the southeastern United States.
14. Cyclonic weather involves wind:
a. moving counter-clockwise with rising air.
b. moving clock-wise with sinking air.
c. moving counter-clockwise with sinking air.
d. that is rising, and then falling later.
e. answers “a” and “d” above are correct.
Cyclones are always about rising air, turning counter-clockwise. It is also true that “what goes up must
come down” so subsiding air must occur somewhere, sometime, to account for air that was rising with
the cyclone. So ‘a’ and ‘d’ are both correct.
15. Animal and plant populations are controlled primarily by the same two factors that are shown in typical
climographs.
True _X__
False ___
16. Much of the world’s soils are too acidic, resulting in rapid loss of nutrients. Deposits of new volcanic
minerals tend to be quickly leached or eroded away in climates that are hot and humid. Meanwhile, new
volcanic minerals may lie dormant forever in high-latitudes.
True _X__
False ___
See question #20 above. Most of the United States experiences most storms or weather changes arriving
from the west and moving eastward. This pattern is also true of tornadoes.
Hurricanes are a bit different. At their beginning, the arrive from the east, pushed by trade winds. As
they reach land, they tend to either run out of warm water. Or, they can bend toward the north, running
along the U.S. eastern seaboard before dying out in cold northern ocean.
So, even west-bound hurricanes will often tend to gradually blend with prevailing winds from the west
that dominate North America.
17. The condition of soil is all about unavoidable aging: as time passes, all soils grow ‘old’ by oxidizing,
leaching or otherwise just wearing out. That is why humans are always moving to new places by ‘slash
and burn’ practices.
True ___
False _X__
18. “The world’s great farming ‘breadbaskets’ are found in rich soils that support tropical forests, such as in
warm, equatorial regions that have plenty of rain and year-round sunshine.
True ___
False _X__
The first statement is true. The second statement is mostly nonsense.
19. The world’s most productive farmlands are found in areas that violate most of Mr. Allred’s ‘Four
Climate Rules’ for mildness. Regions with the best farmland also exhibit weather that is typical of the
‘Severe Continental’ (D) climate zone (tornadoes, blizzards, heat waves, etc).
True _X__
False ___
The United States hosts at least 90 percent of the world’s tornadoes. Bangladesh experiences much of
the remainder.
20. Clay particles are so small that they are useless for farming. Good farm soils contain no clay, because
clay is too heavy, wet and acid for growing food.
True ___
False _X__
Clay particles are often nutritious, but tend to be too dense for plant roots to penetrate. When dry, clay
soils are too hard. When wet, clay tends to be too gooey to run a plow. You might say that plants can
“choke” on clay.
The best soils are called “loam” because they have a good mixture of sand, silt, clay and organic
materials. Clay can be a useful part of good farm soils.