Final Exam Coverage:  Earth's External Processes
Web Learning Modules:  Weathering and Mass Wasting, 
The Hydrologic Cycle,  Ground Water,  Surface Water,  Glacial Landforms
Waves and Coastal Landforms,  Desert Landforms
Textbook: Earth Science, Tarbuck & Lutgens
      10th Edition Chapters 3, 4, 5, and 14
      11th Edition Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 15
Review:  Past Exams, Study Guide, Quizzes, and Practice Quizzes

Format:  There will be about 50 multiple choice questions, a choice of modified true-false questions, a map question (U.S. Lakes and Rivers), and some short answer questions.
You need a long green Scantron form for the multiple-choice portion of the final exam.

Hydrologic and Erosional Processes - Earth's External Processes
 
Diagram the hydrologic cycle and identify the driving force of the cycle and the processes that move water between the hydrosphere, atmosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere. Describe the distribution of water on Earth and explain how energy is absorbed or released (latent heat) as water changes form.
 
Understand the terms porosity, permeability, aquifer, aquiclude, water table, zone of aeration, zone of saturation, and artesian wells. Describe ground water and the types of rock in which it is found. Describe the human impact on ground water.
 
Define physical and chemical weathering processes. Explain the role of mass wasting in shaping the landscape. Where is it most active? Identify diagrams showing various forms of mass wasting and describe the kinds of movement involved, (slip, flow or both), the dangers they present to life and property, the rate of movement, and whether rock or regolith is involved in the movement.
 
Explain how and why people’s activities can contribute to landslides (slope failure). Evaluate various ways in which slope failure can be reduced.
 
Explain how stream velocity determines stream processes, and the kinds of landforms produced by stream erosion and deposition. Evaluate the causes of flooding and the methods employed to reduce flooding. How do people change the natural processes of stream erosion, transport, and deposition with such activities as dam building, urbanization, and deforestation?
 
Identify landforms from a sketch showing an alpine glaciated region after glaciation has ended. Explain in detail the processes that formed these landforms. Explain how glaciers and ice sheets transformed the landscape of North America during the Ice Age and changed sea level worldwide. What percent of land worldwide was affected by glaciation during the Great Ice Age. What percent of land worldwide is still covered by ice?
 
Explain how water moves in waves. Describe longshore transport and predict the direction of longshore transport along a coast based upon the direction of the wind. Describe the depositional features that form as a result of longshore transport. Compare and contrast the characteristics of Pacific and Atlantic coastal landforms. Identify such coastal features as: barrier islands, sandspits, baymouth bars, marine terraces, caves, stacks, wave-cut abrasion platforms, cliffs, beaches, and lagoons. Distinguish between features formed by deposition and features formed by erosion. Examine the impact of groins, seawalls, and jetties on coastal processes.
 
What percentage of the land surface is classified as desert? How and why do desert landforms differ fom landforms in humid regions? How do streams differ in deserts from streams in humid regions? How do the desert landforms of the Great Basin differ from those in the horizontal sedimentary rock of the Colorado Plateau?
 
What are the two ways in which wind erodes the landscape?

The Global Ecosystem - Earth System (2 questions)
 
Describe how the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere are interconnected and the sources of energy for internal and external processes.

Atmospheric Processes - Weather and Climate (8 questions)
 
Why do we have seasons?
Why are the Tropics warmer than the Polar Regions?
Explain the colder temperatures in winter and warmer temperatures in summer in the middle latitudes.
Why it is warmer in winter and cooler in summer along the coast than in inland locations?
What is the greenhouse effect and what is global warming?
How do urban climates differ from the surrounding countryside?

Why the sky is blue?
In California, why do we have fog along the coast in summer and fog in the valleys in winter?
What causes winds? What are the dominant winds across the United States?
What weather do you expect during low pressure (cyclones) and high pressure (anticyclones)?
What weather do you expect when the weather map shows a cold front?

What is the characteristic rainfall pattern in the Mediterranean Climate (e.g., California)? Why does this pattern occur? Which parts of California are wettest and driest and why?
Compare hurricanes and tornadoes and their impact upon people and property.
Why does air cool when it rises?
What are the three main ways air lifts to form clouds and precipitation?
Why do temperatures decrease with altitude?

Explain the cause of the Coriolis Effect and how it alters the direction of moving air, water, or solids.
Why are seasons reversed in the Southern Hemisphere compared with the Northern Hemisphere?

Tectonic Processes - Earth's Internal Processes (5 questions)
 
Identify the processes that form the three major rock classes.
What do you understand by the hypotheses of continental drift and sea floor spreading, and how they relate to the theory of plate tectonics?
How are earthquakes, volcanoes, and mountain building related to plate tectonics?
How has California’s landscape been shaped by tectonic processes in the past and how will it be changed in the future?
Locate the places on earth most vulnerable to earthquakes and the reasons for them.
Evaluate California’s earthquake potential and the hazards they present.
Where and why there are volcanoes and volcanic activity in the 50 United States?

Modified True-False and Short Answer Questions
 
Questions will be selected from the following topics:
The hydrologic cycle, human impact upon ground water, impact of floods, urbanization, and dam building upon streams, rates of weathering in different climates, changing sea level, renewable energy in California, differences in coastal landscapes in the United States, hazardous forms of mass wasting, and human activities that affect coastal processes.

Final Score and Course Grade:
Class Code 42866

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Created by Rita D. Haberlin, Geography Professor
rhaberlin@aol.com
Peralta Community College District
333 East Eighth Street
Oakland, CA 94606
www.Peralta.edu