Earth Science Climate

Which event is inferred by most scientists to be responsible for a climate change that has recently led to a decrease in the size of most glaciers?

• a decrease in the rate of divergence of lithospheric plates along a mid-ocean ridge

• a decrease in the amount of insolation reaching Earth's surface

• an increase in the amount of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere

• an increase in the amount of vegetative cover in the tropics

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-6

NGSS.MS-ESS3-5

Arrows on the maps below show differences in the direction of winds in the region of India and the Indian Ocean during January and July. Isobar values are recorded in millibars. Heavy monsoon rains usually occur in India during

• January, when winds blow from the land

• January, when winds blow toward high pressure

• July, when winds blow from the ocean

• July, when winds blow toward high pressure

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-5

NGSS.MS-ESS2-6

Which current has a cooling effect on the climate of the west coast of South America?

• Falkland Current

• Peru Current

• Benguela Current

• Brazil Current 

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-6

Which diagram best illustrates how air rising over a mountain produces precipitation?

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Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-5

Land surfaces of Earth heat more rapidly than water surfaces because

• more energy from the Sun falls on land than on water

• land has a lower specific heat than water

• sunlight penetrates to greater depths in land than in water

• less of Earth’s surface is covered by land than by water

The planetary surface winds and air currents near Earth’s equator are usually

• converging and sinking

• diverging and sinking

• converging and rising

• diverging and rising

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-5

NGSS.MS-ESS2-6

In which cross section do the arrows represent the most probable direction of air movement over land and water surfaces at an ocean coast on a hot, sunny, summer afternoon?

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Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-5

NGSS.MS-ESS2-6

Ocean gyres in the Northern Hemisphere consist of a number of surface ocean currents that, together, generally flow clockwise in a roughly circular pattern. Which list contains three warm surface ocean currents that make up most of the North Atlantic Ocean gyre?

• Kuroshio Current, North Pacific Current, and California Current

• Canary Current, North Equatorial Current,

  and Equatorial Countercurrent

• Labrador Current, North Atlantic Current, and East Greenland Current

• North Equatorial Current, Gulf Stream Current, and North Atlantic Current

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-6

Mt. Marcy often has the coldest nighttime temperatures in New York State because of its

• latitude and planetary winds

• latitude and elevation

• longitude and planetary winds

• longitude and elevation

Which graph best represents the average monthly temperatures for one year at a location in the Southern Hemisphere?

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