THE PLANET AND HUMANITY

CHAPTER QUIZ

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

1. The ocean-girdling zone of crustal instability, volcanism, and earthquakes is known as:

  a.  Hot Zone

  b. Plate Tectonics

  c. Continental Drift

  d. The Pacific Ring of Fire

2.  The  ?  was a time of great extinctions and occurred during the Permian Period.

  a. Dwyka Ice Age

  b. Gondwana Ice Age

  c. Cambrian Explosion

  d. Snowball Earth Period

3.  About 65 million years ago the Earth was impacted by a carbonaceous meteorite that hit what is today the northwestern edge of:

  a.  Utah

  b. Mexico ’s Yucatan Peninsula

  c. Arizona

  d. the Gulf of Mexico

4.  The most recent glaciation of the Pleistocene, the  ?  left its mark on much of the Northern Hemisphere.

  a. Wisconsinan Glaciation

  b. KT Boundary

  c. Dwyka Ice Age

  d. Medieval Optimum

5.  The greatest threat to human existence ever to come from any source occurred about 73,500 years ago when a volcano erupted on the Indonesian island of:

  a. Bali

  b. Jakarta

  c. Sumatera ( Sumatra )

  d. Papua

6.  Global warming began about 18,000 years ago during the:

  a. Precambrian Period

  b. Jurassic Period

  c. Eocene Epoch

  d. Holocene Epoch

7.  The  ?  was a brief cold period that occurred about 12,000 years ago, when a large ice sheet slid into the North Atlantic and caused disastrous waves along coasts and chilled the ocean back into glaciation-like temperatures.

  a. Cambrian Explosion

  b. KT Boundary

  c. Younger Dryas

  d. Wisconsinan Glaciation

8.  The  ?  was a good time for the Roman Empire , and the Han in eastern Eurasia due to favorable climatic periods:

  a. Younger Dryas

  b. Wisconsinan Glaciation

  c. Medieval Optimum

  d. Postglacial Optimum

9.  The Little Ice Age marked a period of increasing cold in Europe beginning in the :

  a. thirteenth century

  b. fourteenth century

  c. fifteenth century

  d. sixteenth century

10.  Which of the following did NOT occur as a result of the “Little Ice Age” in China ?

  a. The Black Death swept over an already weakened population in waves killing half the population or more

  b. Rains failed, rivers dried up, wheat crops shrank

  c. Famines broke our and social disorder and epidemics raged

  d. Maritime expeditions ended with burning of oceangoing fleet

TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS

1.  The Second Agricultural Revolution was necessitated by the Little Ice Age (TF)

2.  The fifteenth century closed with one of the most extreme decades in Europe ’s known environmental history (TF)

3.  During the seventeenth century, conditions were worsened by a series of volcanic eruptions in Southeast Asia (TF)

4.  The initial failure of the Jamestown colony in America may be explained by the Little Ice Age (TF)

5.  In 1783, a volcanic eruption in Iceland ( Mount Laki ) lasted eight months and lowered temperature in North America by 7 degrees Fahrenheit (TF)

6.  Violent weather in South America in 1788 included hailstorms that felled forests. (TF)

7.  1816  in Europe was “the year without a summer”. (TF)

8.  The United States ’ farmers were affected by the Tambora explosions in that corn wouldn’t ripen, for instance. (TF)

9.  By 2115 the Earth will carry four times as many people as it did when Tambora erupted (TF)

10.  The Earth may very likely have a “year without a summer” again.  (TF)

STUDY QUESTIONS

1. We live today during an interglacial period.  The Earth is experiencing a warm phase: sea levels are already high, coastal plains lie partially submerged, climates are comparably mild.  Write a brief report for a real estate office describing how your (or your family's) place of residence would be affected by (a) a further and significant warming of the atmosphere, or (b) a sudden return to glacial conditions.  (Be sure to use your AP Human Geography vocabulary!)

2. Discuss how the "Little Ice Age" affected Europe and China.

3. Give a brief summary of the changes that occurred on Earth during the following periods: Younger Dryas, Medieval Optimum, and the Industrial Optimum.