Unit 4 Energy Transfer in Natural Systems

Chapter 10 Resources

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Chapter 10 Graphics Package - text graphics from chapter 10. Each of the image files has the text page number in the file name, so it should be easy to find and identify the image that you need. (Windows Downloading Tip: Right-click on the link and choose "Save Link As...", once the file is on your hard drive, right-click on it and choose "Extract All...")

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Global Energy Transfer - energy and matter transfer into, and around, Earth and its atmosphere.

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The Worldwide Transfer of Matter and Thermal Energy by Earth's Atmosphere - discover how things do, and do not, move through our atmosphere:

• Earth's Atmosphere - a nice overview of this complex system.
• Earth as a System - an overview of many of the energy and matter transfer systems on Earth, including a video (5:31)

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What is Space? - what we call "space" is practically a vacuum, but there are some particles out there.

• How Do We Know What's in Space? - Is space really a vacuum?
• Density of Outer Space - there are particles, but they are few and far between.

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The Kinetic Molecular Theory - the tiny particles that make up all matter .

• The Structure of Matter - an interactive tour through the kinetic molecular theory (shockwave required).

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Temperature and Temperature Scales - the average energy of the particles in a sample of matter.

• What is Temperature? - a nice discussion with a variety of quoted sources.
• Temperature and Absolute Zero - this description includes a nice interactive visual of how kinetic energy changes with temperature.
• Metric System Temperatures - a quick comparison/conversion page for Celsius, Fahrenheit and Kelvin.
• Temperature Scales - a comparison of the three temperature scales.

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Solving Superconductors - - Superconductors are truly wondrous materials that can conduct electricity with absolutely no electrical resistance. With superconductors, we can build amazing things, such as magnetically levitating trains and even quantum computers. The one problem: superconductors only work at very low temperatures. In this 10 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Louis Taillefer, a professor of physics at the University of Sherbrooke, thinks he's finally solved one of the vexing mysteries of superconductors and he believes this will give room temperature superconductors a big step forward.

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Thermal Energy - the total energy of all the particles in a solid, liquid or gas.

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Martian Gas Jets - - For the past few years, scientists have been puzzled by strange dark spots that appear on Mars’ southern ice cap each spring, as it starts to melt. This 10 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Phil Christensen of THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System) and a professor of Geological Sciences at Arizona State University, says he has found evidence that these dark spots are caused by violent jets of carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas and sand bursting out of the ice cap.

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Heat - the transfer of thermal energy

• Heat - energy moving from high temperature to lower temperature.
• Heat and Temperature - how to tell the difference.
• Early Attempts to Understand Heat - imagine trying to explain what 'heat' was 300 years ago!

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Heat Transfer - thermal energy can move as heat by conduction, convection, or radiation.

• The Basics of Heat Transfer - explanations of the three methods of heat transfer.
• Heat Transfer - another set of explanations.
• Convection, Conduction and Radiation - a review of the three types of thermal energy movement, including a quiz at the end.

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Heat Transfer - these activities are designed to familiarize you better with heat transfer

• Heat Conduction - this interactive exploration allows you to test the conductive properties of four different metals.
• Heat Transfer - an interactive explanation of heat transfer.
• Beat the Heat - NASA provides explanations and games.

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Staring At The Sun - - The NASA/European Space Agency Satellite SOHO, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, has been observing the sun for nearly ten years, bringing us pictures of an spectacularly active star. In this 9 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Alex Young, a Senior Support Scientist with the SOHO mission at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, has been analyzing the pictures of the sun's surface that SOHO delivers 24/7, and his pictures show a roiling stew of superheated gas, with daily sunspots, solar storms, and huge magentic disturbances that lead to "coronal mass ejections", that fling billions of tonnes of material off the sun into space. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Advection - instead of the vertical transfer of heat in convection, advection refers to horizontal movement, usually in ocean currents or weather patterns.

• Advection vs Convection in Water - horizontal flow vs vertical flow.
• Advection in Weather - movement from one region to another, usually by wind. Think of how a bank of fog can roll in as an example.

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Thermal Energy and Early Earth - many important events, like early life, may have been made possible by the trapping of thermal energy by early Earth.

• Earth's Early Years - a variety of thermal energy sources were trapped by the sinking of iron into Earth's core.
• The Heat History of Earth - how is it that Earth is the only planet of its type that has trapped internal thermal energy?

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THEMIS Update - - Last February, a group of five satellites were launched from Kennedy Space Station with the goal of studying the Northern Lights. Because of the launch orbits, they weren't supposed to start collecting data until next February. But in March there was an event they couldn't afford to miss. In this 9 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, we learn about a large substorm, an event in space that triggers an aurora, that exploded over Alaska. The satellites, and associated ground stations in Canada, sprung into action, and caught a huge storm, that's forcing researchers to rethink what happens when the Northern Lights are triggered. Dr. Ian Mann, at the University of Alberta, is one of the researchers analysing this surprise data. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Ozone - what is the ozone layer, and why were we so concerned about it at the end of the last century.

• The Ozone Resource Page - NASA provides information about ozone, and a current status of the ozone layer, including today's stats if you are interested.
• How Does the Ozone Layer Change over Time? - a guided tour through the hole in the ozone layer.

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UARS: The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite - a video describing the UARS mission into the ozone layer (17.1 mins).

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Temperature and Heat - a puzzle on energy and heat terms. (Also available for download )

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From Montreal to Kyoto - - The Montreal Protocol is seen as a model for international agreement to avoid environmental catastrophe. Many hope that we can apply lessons from it to the larger and more difficult problem of greenhouse gases and global climate change. This 11 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast interviews Dr. F Sherwood Rowland, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine, who discovered that chlorofluorocarbon gases were degrading the ozone layer and won the Nobel prize in chemistry for his work in 1995. Dr. Rowland now advises policy leaders on the issue of climate change. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Section 10.1 Quiz - need more practice? Try this online quiz.

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Atmospheres - if you have enough mass, and therefore gravity, you too can have an atmosphere.

• Atmosphere - a definition of an atmosphere, along with several examples of different atmospheres in our solar system.
• Origin of Earth's Atmosphere - this site describes the evolution of Earth's atmosphere, and briefly covers our current atmosphere.
• The Earth's Atmosphere - not only answers questions about its origin, but also addresses a number of questions about our atmosphere.
• Earth's Atmosphere - another general overview of Earth's atmosphere.

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Earth's Atmosphere - these activities examine the atmosphere on its components.

• Balloon Race Around the World - a NOVA website that explores the challenges of flying around the entire Earth - in a balloon.
• The Goldilocks Principle - an activity (utilizing jellybeans) that discusses the composition of the atmosphere.

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Early Earth Air - - Titan, one of Saturn's moons, has an atmosphere of methane and nitrogen. Sunlight breaks this atmosphere down into complex hydrocarbons -- basically smog particles -- which rain down on the surface. If all this reminds you of Earth, then you live in Los Angeles, or your memories are of a time about 3 billion years ago. In this 8 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, we learn that Titan, one of Saturn's moons, has an atmosphere of methane and nitrogen. Sunlight breaks this atmosphere down into complex hydrocarbons -- basically smog particles -- which rain down on the surface. If all this reminds you of Earth, then you live in Los Angeles, or your memories are of a time about 3 billion years ago. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Layers of Earth's Atmosphere - there are many unique qualities found at each level of Earth's atmosphere.

• Layers of the Earth's Atmosphere - a nice illustrative look at the atmospheric layers.
• Layers in the Atmosphere - an overview of each layer, along with a graph showing the changes in temperature with increasing altitude.
• Layers of the Atmosphere - another site with a nice description of the atmospheric layers.

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Earth's Atmosphere - an interactive tour of the atmosphere.

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Principles of Aeronautics: Atmosphere - a very complete review of the atmosphere. A less-detailed version is also available.

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Radiation and Conduction in the Atmosphere - insolation (the amount of solar radiation reaching Earth's surface) causes re-radiation off the surface, and allows the conduction and convection of energy.

• The Earth-Atmosphere Energy Balance - where the solar energy entering Earth's atmosphere goes.
• What is Insolation? - includes insolation levels for hundreds of locations around the world.
• Atmospheric Effects on Incoming Solar Radiation - examining insolation as it applies to individual molecules in the atmosphere.
• Earth-Sun relationships and Insolation - Earth's tilt results in the northern and southern areas of both hemispheres receiving varying amounts of solar radiation.

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Atmospheric Processes - thermal energy moves through Earth's atmosphere.

• Radiation - an exploratory activity about radiation in Earth's atmosphere, including a student guide for the procedure.
• Conduction - an exploratory activity about conduction in Earth's atmosphere.
• Convection - an exploratory activity about convection in Earth's atmosphere, including a student guide for the procedure.

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Solar Sunscreen - - Global warming is upon us. It's too late to stop it by controlling our emissions -- we've already put enough greenhouse gas into the atmosphere to ensure temperature increases, and there's no indication of us slowing down. But in this 11 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Roger Angel, a professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona, proposes to cool the Earth by creating a solar sunshade that will block enough of the sun's rays to compensate for the warming effect from greenhouse gases. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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The Radiation Budget - what happens to all that solar energy entering Earth's atmosphere?

• The Earth-Atmosphere Energy Balance - the numbers may not always be exactly the same, but the idea that there is an energy balance is the same.
• Global Energy Balance - a guide through Earth's energy balance.
• Radiation Budget - information, as well as a series of activities (worksheet 1, worksheet 2, worksheet 3).

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Albedo - the amount of radiation absorbed or reflected depends on the physical characteristics of that surface.

• Albedo - albedo defined, along with global maps of different albedo values.
• Albedo - what it is, albedos of various substances, and some interesting examples of how albedo can vary with the surfaces present in a particular location.
• Albedo - what influences albedo values on Earth and in the atmosphere?
• The Ice-Albedo Effect - why the Arctic may be far more susceptible to changing albedo than other areas.

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Earth’s Albedo and Global Warming - how a changing albedo can be a cause/effect/cause relationship.

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Weather Activities - examine the different aspects of weather.

• Make the Earth's Weather - an interactive Earth, where you control the conditions that create weather. Good background is provided as well.
• What is Weather? - made for younger students, but a fun way to be reminded of all the different factors that weather includes.

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Atmospheric Pressure - what we call "weather" is essentially the conditions that occur based on the atmospheric pressures in an area.

• Feeling Pressured? - questions, explanations, explanations and interactive tools to help you better understand atmospheric pressure.
• Air Pressure - how it applies to weather, in addition to activities to illustrate properties of air pressure.
• How Does a Barometer Measure Air Pressure? - how changing pressures can be measured, and how these changes reveal weather changes.
• Barometer - general information about barometers.

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Atmospheric Pressure Examples - a series of videotaped experiments and apparatus showing atmospheric pressure at work.

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ScienceMan Digital Lesson - Physics - Pressure Measurement - includes instructions for a home-made barometer.

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Atmospheric Pressure Changes - the relationship between atmospheric pressure and altitude, temperature and humidity.

• Air Pressure and Temperature - a variety of scientists address this relationship.
• How barometric pressure changes with weather conditions - a nice comparison of air pressure and weather radar.

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Convection in the Atmosphere - warm air is less dense than cold air, and rises up.

• Cycles of the Earth and Atmosphere - includes separate activities on radiation, conduction and convection of thermal energy.
• Forces and Winds - use the links to study winds and air pressure, as well as the Coriolis effect, sea breezes and land breezes.
• High and Low Pressure Systems - as warm air rises, and Earth spins below, large weather systems are created.
• Weather: High and Low Pressure - the interaction between warm and cold air masses.
• Wind and Air Masses - the relationship between winds and how air masses form.

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Prevailing Winds - even though weather systems are complex and unpredictable, geographic regions tend to have predictable, repetitive winds.

• Prevailing Winds - the illustrations may be low-tech, but the information here, written for pilots, is excellent.
• Prevailing Winds Map - a general map of the direction of Earth's prevailing winds.
• An Animation of Land and Sea Breezes - a simple illustration of how warm air rises, and cooler air flows in to take its place.
• Sea and Land Breezes - a thorough explanation of the formation of these prevailing winds.

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The Coriolis Effect - when air warms, it rises, and cooler air flows in to take its place.

• How the Coriolis Effect Influences Wind Direction - start by observing how the Coriolis effect works, then see how winds are affected as well.
• Coriolis Force - a simple explanation with a terrific video at the end explaining the curviness of the Coriolis force.
• Coriolis Forces - the constant spinning of Earth on its axis creates a pattern of wind systems.
• Flush Bosh - how water goes down a drain does NOT have anything to do (OK, very little to do) with the Coriolis force.

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Global Wind Systems - the predictable, consistent patterns of global air movement.

• Global Wind System - images to help understand the global wind systems.
• The Doldrums - along the equator, where northeast and southeast trade winds meet.
• Trade Winds - when air is heated over the equator, it rises, and the trade winds flow in to replace the rising warm air in the doldrums.
• Westerlies - these are the winds that we experience most frequently in Canada, and explain why flying east is faster than flying west.
• Easterlies - near Earth's poles, the Polar easterlies move in a similar pattern to the trade winds.

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The Jet Stream - warm air is less dense than cold air, and rises up.

• Inside the Jet Stream - an excellent series of explanations and animations explaining the jet stream.
• How Does the Jet Stream Change through the Year? - a description of the jet stream, along with a study of how it changes throughout the year.

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Fronts - when one air mass approaches another, the border between them is referred to as a front.

• Weather Front - air masses, with different air pressures, densities and temperatures, are separated by fronts.
• Weather Front Animations - very nice visualizations of how warm and cold fronts move in to replace old air masses.

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Jet Stream - - We know the jet stream is related to changes in our weather. And as we see on the Weather Channel, there are significant changes every day in the jet stream. What causes these changes? Dr. Susan Allen, an associate professor and a member of the Atmospheric Science Program in the Department of Earth & Ocean Sciences at the University of British Columbia, answers this question for us in this 4 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Extreme Weather - as air masses rush and push with each other, some remarkable energy can produce extreme weather.

• Visualize Extreme Weather - animations of thunderstorms, tornadoes and hurricanes.
• Hurricanes: How They Work - great information, and a cool interactive hurricane to tour through.
• How Hurricanes Work - every facet of tropical cyclones.
• Horrific Hurricanes - a nice, complete site of tropical cyclone information.
• Floods and Thunderstorms - the ravaging effects of flooding from sudden downpours.

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Tornados and Technology - a research project where students become storm chasers.

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Inside Tornadoes - National Geographic has some amazing footage from inside a tornado.

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Tropical Cyclones - NASA provides some excellent video resources on studying hurricanes.

• 27 Storms: Arlene to Zeta - the year 2005 was a record-breaker for both the number and the severity of hurricanes. This video studies why 2005 was host to all these "perfect storms" (5:00 minutes).
• Hurricanes - a NASA film studying hurricanes from space (8:30 minutes).
• Behold, A Whirlwind Came: The Science of Tracking Hurricanes - tracking hurricanes from space.
• The Birth of a Hurricane - NASA records the birth of hurricane Isabel (53 seconds).
• Towers in the Tempest - this 2007 video explores research into how and why weather disturbances evolve into hurricanes, and how hurricanes strengthen.

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Tornadoes in Canada - with a variety of climates, Canada sometimes provides the right conditions for large tornados to form.

• List of Canadian Tornadoes - an extensive list of the larger, more damaging tornados that have occurred in Canada over the past 130 years.
• Tornadoes - from Environment Canada, includes a short list of the most damaging tornadoes in Canadian history.
• Deadly Skies: Canada's Most Destructive Tornadoes - many video and audio reports from some of Canada's most destructive weather.
• Major Tornadoes - short videos of Canadian tornados, and a map illustrating where tornados are most likely to occur.

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Tornados - an interactive explanation and quiz site about tornados.

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Predicting the Path of a Tropical Cyclone - for a huge, relatively slow-moving weather phenomenon, hurricanes are very difficult to predict.

• Where Is the Hurricane Going? - an article about the challenging field of predicting hurricane movements.
• Hurricanes: New Tools for Predicting - information and video explaining advances in this field. (Free Teacher's Domain registration required)
• Anatomy of Katrina - hurricane Katrina was an unpredictable storm - with devastating consequences.

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Tropical Cyclones - huge storms analyzed.

• Hurricane Tracking from a Safe Distance - this activity puts you in charge of predicting the path of a hurricane, including the responsibility of deciding who should be evacuated, and when.
• Hurricanes - an interactive explanation and quiz site about hurricanes.

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Wacky Weather on Other Worlds - some of our neighbours in the solar system have some amazing weather.

• Mars Weather - a NASA description of what weather to expect on the red planet.
• Jupiter Weather - this planet (which is almost a star) has some tricky weather systems, including a massive storm that never ends.

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Gassy Windbags - - Think a hurricane has strong winds? Well, you'll be blown away by the winds on three extra-solar planets that astronomer Nicolas Cowan, a doctoral student in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Washington, has been studying. Described in this 8 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Cowan found both sides of each planet were about the same temperature, meaning that the super-heated atmosphere from the sun-scorched sides of the planets is being pumped into the cooler night sides. The resulting atmospheric models suggest that the winds on these planets reach over 14,000 kms per hour - over 11 times the speed of sound! (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Energy Transfer - a puzzle on atmospheric energy terms. (Also available for download )

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Section 10.2 Quiz - need more practice? Try this online quiz.

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Chapter 11 Resources

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Chapter 11 Graphics Package - text graphics from chapter 11. Each of the image files has the text page number in the file name, so it should be easy to find and identify the image that you need. (Windows Downloading Tip: Right-click on the link and choose "Save Link As...", once the file is on your hard drive, right-click on it and choose "Extract All...")

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Polar Bears - Certain species, such as the polar bear, provide us with natural indications of the effects of climate change.

• Polar Bears - What has been happening to polar bears in recent decades?
• Polar Bears International - the self-proclaimed 'most complete source of polar bear information on the web.

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Declining Polar Bears - - Dr. Ian Stirling, a senior research scientist with the Canadian Wildlife Service, and an adjunct professor at the University of Alberta, has been studying polar bears in the north for 30 years, and he's found that their numbers have recently dropped by more than 20 per cent. Find out more in this 8 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Climate - the average conditions in the atmosphere over at least a 30-year period of time:

• What is Climate? - an overview of climates.
• World Climate - this site provides climate information for many cities and towns in the world.

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Biogeoclimatic Zones of British Columbia - from the Tree Book, an excellent online resource of BC trees.

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Paleoclimatology - by studying clues and evidence from the past, paleoclimatologists can begin to understand the cycles and fluctuations of climates:

• Paleoclimatology - NASA's collection of information and materials about the study of ancient climates.
• NOAA Paleoclimatology - an excellent collection of resources that relate to paleoclimatology.
• Paleoclimatology - The Study of Ancient Climates - another very thorough description of the relationships between evidence and climate change.

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Introduction to Climate - this site has a nice overview of climate, and then provides activities for students to use to further explore climates.

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Ice Age Impact - - The mystery of what killed the Mammoths and other ice age animals of North America has a new suspect. In fact, it may be a serial killer, since it's the same suspect implicated in the demise of the Dinosaurs. In this 8 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Luanne Becker, a geochemist at the University of California at Santa Barbara, thinks she has evidence that an asteroid struck the ice sheet that covered Canada about 13,000 years ago. She thinks this impact, which would have been smaller than the one that killed the dinosaurs, would still have been large enough to cause major fires and climatic disruption resulting in the loss of a whole group of large Ice Age mammals. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Mystery of the Missing Mammoths - - At the end of the last ice age animals like the mammoth, the wooly rhino and the Yukon horse disappeared from Alaska and the Yukon where they'd roamed for thousands of years. Why these great mammals became extinct has been a mystery. In this 9 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Dale Guthrie, a paleoecologist from the University of Alaska in Fairbanks suggests that trees were the real culprit -- assisted by climate change. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Greenhouse Effect - the natural greenhouse effect allows life to exist on Earth, while human activity adds to the enhanced greenhouse effect:

• Enhanced greenhouse effect - an Australian perspective on the greenhouse effects.
• The Greenhouse Effect - information from the government of Canada.

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The Greenhouse Effect - another nice overview, with student activities given at the end.

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Earth’s Tilt, Rotation, and Orbit Around the Sun - essentially, these are the reasons for the seasons:

• The Reasons for the Seasons - explanations utilizing many illustrations that show the relationship between solar position and energy reaching Earth.
• Motion of the Earth in Space - there is some tough math on this page, but if you ignore that, the overview of climate and Earth is excellent.

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Climate and the Water Cycle - aka the hydrologic cycle, the movement of water is also responsible for the movement of large amounts of trapped solar energy:

• Greenhouse Gases FAQ - information here may help to clarify how water fits into climate change.
• Is CO₂ the Most Important Greenhouse Gas? - this story offers a nice explanation of the confusing matters of greenhouses and global warming.
• A Delicate Balance - the challenges of observing how much water vapour and solar thermal energy are connected.

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Climate and Ocean Currents - although climate generally refers to conditions in the atmosphere, the ocean transfers huge amounts of water, energy and biomass throughout the planet:

• Earth's Big Heat Bucket - NASA provides information on the oceans storing large amounts of excess heat energy.
• Surface and Subsurface Ocean Currents - this overview of currents includes an excellent map at the end that shows energy transfer and currents.

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Opening the Drake Passage - - Once warm and green, Antarctica turned icy about 34 million years ago. But researchers have debated the reason behind the dramatic climate change. Now, Dr. Ellen Martin, a professor in the department of geological sciences at the University of Florida, believes she has made a discovery that helps explain the cooling. Learn more in this 9 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Current Issues - - A strong ocean circulation pattern that brings warm water north from the tropics, and keeps northern Europe's climate relatively mild, may be weakening. In this 7 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Harry Bryden, a professor of oceanography at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK., has early evidence that the major Atlantic Ocean circulation pattern that brings some of the warm Gulf Stream towards northern Europe is slowing down, probably in response to melting of Arctic ice and Greenland ice cap.

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Ice. vs. Global Warming - - As the earth warms, and the northern ice melts, there's a risk Europe might go into deep freeze. That's because the warm water that flows north from the tropical ocean will be blocked by fresh water from melting ice. Dr. Peter Flynn, holder of the Poole Chair in Management for Engineers at the University of Alberta, has come up with a way to possibly avoid this problem. Learn about it in this 9 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast.

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El Niño and La Niña - two of the most famous cyclical climatic events, found in the Pacific ocean, and strongly affecting BC weather and climate:

• El Niño and La Niña - if ocean currents had a homepage, this would be theirs.
• Tracking El Niño - This NOVA site includes many interesting facts about El Niño.
• Clouds in the Balance - the relationship in the tropics between clouds, solar energy and El Niño.
• El Niño and La Niña Predictions - predicting occurrences and effects.

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Carbon Capture and Storage - - If we can't wean ourselves off our fossil fuel habit as quickly as we need to in order to prevent catastrophic climate change, perhaps we can tackle the problem another way. In this 12 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. David Keith from the University of Calgary, is working on ways to extract and separate carbon dioxide when fossil fuels are burned for energy. The CO₂ gas can then be piped into deep underground storage reservoirs, sometimes the very sites from which the fossil fuel was originally extracted. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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The Carbon Cycle - a general overview of all aspects of the carbon cycle.

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Can We Blame El Niño for Wild Weather? - this interactive explanation shows how a fairly localized event can have such widespread weather effects.

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Climate and Catastrophic Events - some of the largest climatic changes ever recorded may have been due to huge, catastrophic events effecting the entire planet.

• Volcanoes and Climate Change - the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 provided scientists with a recent large eruption to observe.
• Climate Effects of Volcanic Eruptions - the massive amounts of gases, dust and particles in the air can drastically change solar energy in Earth's atmosphere.
• Asteroid and Comet Impact Hazards - near Earth objects (NEO) are tracked and searched for by NASA.

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How Can One Volcano Change the World? - an interactive tour through the global effects of the Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991.

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Climate Models - many of the projections and predictions made about Earth's future climate are based on climate models such as these.

• Back to the Future - the Earth System Climate Model, whose actual website is at UVic Earth System Climate Model, is a famous BC climate model.
• Climate models and Modeling Groups - an extensive list of worldwide climate models.

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JAVA Climate Model - run your own climate model online.

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Comet in the Dark - - The year 536 was a particularly tough one for planet earth. That summer and the two that followed were the coldest in 5000 years. Crops failed, and the first round of bubonic plague swept Europe. For years there have been two theories for this global temperature drop. One was that a giant volcano erupted, but no one could find the peak. Alternately, it could have been a meteor strike, but no one could find a crater. In this 9 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Derek Ward-Thompson, a lecturer at the University of Wales, introduces a new theory. He thinks a meteor broke up on the way into the atmosphere, and the plume of dust it created covered the earth, blocking out the sun. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Greenhouse Effect in the Classroom: a Project- and Laboratory-based Curriculum - it's just reading, but this is an excellent study that gives great practical tips for performing greenhouse effect activities in the classroom.

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Extinction Crater - - As alluring as Mexico's Yucatan peninsula is for a little sun and sand, you wouldn't have wanted to be there 65 million years ago, when a 10-km long asteroid plowed into it. In this 9 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Sean Gulick, a geophysicist at the University of Texas, has found that the lay of the land may explain, in part, why the meteor had such a devastating effect. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Visualizing El Niño and La Niña - subtle changes in the Pacific ocean change atmospheric conditions over thousands of kms for months at a time.

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In the Shade of the Volcano - the effects of volcanic eruptions are often felt far from their source.

• Mount St. Helens - site of the most recent large eruption in the pacific northwest (May, 1980), with live webcams.
• Supervolcanoes - details of historic supervolcanoes..

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How Fast Do Gases from Volcanic Eruptions Travel? - an interactive exploration of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption.

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Climate Change and Ice Cores - - One of the challenges of developing good climate models is having enough detailed historical data to be sure the models are accurate. A European consortium recently published results from Antarctic ice cores that look back 650,000 years. It's the most detailed record of climate events we have, and shows six ice ages. In this 7 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Thomas Stocker, a professor at the University of Bern in Switzerland and the leader of the project looking at ice cores tells us about alarming evidence that our greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere are higher than they've been at any point in the record we now have. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Canada in 2050 - Our Future in a Changing Climate - - There will be no part of Canadian life that won't be affected by climate change. In this 54 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Canadian climate scientists look ahead to 2050, to paint us a picture of what our country will look like as it's being transformed. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Stepping on the CO₂ Pedal - - Carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels are largely to blame for current and anticipated climate change. Unfortunately, those emissions are rising faster than even the most pessimistic scenarios had predicted. In this 14 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Chris Field, Director of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University, and his colleagues, have found that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have been rising precipitously. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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SciSat/ACE Satellite - - The SciSat/ACE satellite is a great example. It's a $42-million-dollar ozone observatory that's studying the Arctic atmosphere to understand the chemical processes contributing to the hole in the ozone layer. In this 8 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Peter Bernath, the mission scientist for the project and professor of chemistry at the University of Waterloo, explains how it works. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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From Montreal to Kyoto - - The Montreal Protocol is seen as a model for international agreement to avoid environmental catastrophe. Many hope that we can apply lessons from it to the larger and more difficult problem of greenhouse gases and global climate change. In this 12 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. F Sherwood Rowland, a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Irvine, who discovered that chlorofluorocarbon gases were degrading the ozone layer and won the Nobel prize in chemistry for his work in 1995, now spends much of his recent time studying atmospheric greenhouse gases and advising policy leaders on the issue of climate change. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Science Vacations - - Rather than spending your summer lounging on the beach, why not volunteer to be a research assistant on a scientific expedition? One opportunity is to join Dr. Peter Kershaw, a professor of Earth and Atmospheric Science at the University of Alberta, on his expeditions. Dr. Kershaw is involved in a long-term project studying the impact of climate change on sub-arctic landscapes and animals. Learn more in this 7 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Climate Change and Fresh Water - - One aspect of climate change that's been largely overlooked is the effect on fresh water around the world. In many places, the main source of fresh water is the spring run off from the mountains. That water comes from melting glaciers and snow, which build up during the winter. But as temperatures rise, the amount of snow fall is decreasing. This means less run off, and what there is is coming down from the mountains earlier. In this 12 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Tim Barnett, a researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, predicts increases in spring floods and summer droughts throughout the northern hemisphere, even if we clean up our greenhouse gas emissions now. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Arctic Warming - - The 2004 release of a report called the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, a comprehensive survey of the current and future impact of global warming on the Arctic, has news that is dramatic and not good. In this 12 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, arctic warming is predicted to be many times worse than that in the rest of the world, and the ecological and climatological impacts will be severe. Dr. Terry Prowse was one of the contributors to the report. He holds an Environment Canada research Chair in the National Water Research Institute at the University of Victoria.

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Arctic Ice Packs It In - - In this 9 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Julienne Stroeve, of the National Snow and Ice Data Centre at the University of Colorado, and her colleagues, say that the Arctic Ice Cap is melting far more quickly than most scientists had thought. It's thirty years ahead of the IPCC's models, and that means that it may well be gone only a couple of decades from now.

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Disappearing Canadian Glaciers - - As the climate continues to change, Canadian glaciers are under threat. In this 10 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Gwenn Flowers, a Canada Research Chair in Glaciology at Simon Fraser University, studies these threats, and what it's going to mean for our oceans and coast lines. While the details still need to be worked out, she and her colleagues see potential disaster if the glaciers melt any faster than they already are.

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Cimate Change - examine the effects humans have on climate with this puzzle. (Also available for download )

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Chapter 12 Resources

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Permian Extinction: Global Warming Theory - - The greatest extinction event in earth's history happened 250 million years ago and is known as the Permian Extinction. Most of the life on earth was extinguished, but scientists don't know why. One theory that has gained popularity is that an asteroid impact might have been responsible. In this 9 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Peter Ward, a professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, has evidence that the extinction was slow and gradual, and he thinks this means it was related to global warming driven by volcanoes and tectonic shifts on the early earth. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Earth's Layers - tectonic plates float around on many layers of differing materials:

• Earth's Interior & Plate Tectonics - a very thorough description of Earth's layers.
• Structure of the Earth - nice illustrations of the interior structure of Earth.
• Plate Tectonics - a very complete review of plate tectonics, starting with the layers of Earth.
• The Restless Earth: A Geologic Primer - more in-depth information about Earth's interior, including convection in the mantle.

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Continental Drift - examine the evidence for continental drift with this puzzle. (Also available for download )

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Planetary Predictions - - We live on a planet that's constantly changing. Wait long enough and Australia will have made its way north, possibly crashing into China. In this 14 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, while geologists agree that this will inevitably happen, the details vary depending on whom you ask. Dr. Stephen Johnston, a tectonics researcher at the University of Victoria, and Dr. Brendan Murphy, a geologist from St. Francis Xavier University, say the Pacific Ocean will disappear as North America bumps up against Asia. Or it'll be a reuniting of the Americas and Europe - there are the pros and cons of each prediction. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Burping the Baby Earth - - Immediately after the Earth formed from gases in the early solar system, there was a period during which the planet was bombarded constantly by the leftovers from planetary formation: meteoroids large and small. We've never known just how much of this material was deposited on the earth, though and how much of the earth's outer layers are made up of it. In this 9 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Barbara Sherwood Lollar, a professor of Geology at the University of Toronto, and colleagues have completed a study of the gases in the Earth's upper mantle. These reflect a signature of early meteoric bombardment that reveals that much of the upper 600 km of the Earth's surface is the debris from this massive bombardment. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Plate Motion - the mechanism that allows the tectonic plates to slowly move over the surface of Earth:

• Plates, Plate Boundaries, and Driving Forces - the methods that allow tectonic plates to move.
• What Drives the Plates? - a short explanation from the USGS.

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Mantle Convection - this video illustrates the convection within Earth's mantle.

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Ridge Push and Slab Pull - as the tectonic plates meet, edges are being pushed and pulled:

• Plate Driving Forces and Tectonic Stress - in-depth information about plate motion.
• The Mechanism of Plate Tectonics - a great discussion of the potential methods plates move.

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Deep Ocean Drilling - the mechanism that allows the tectonic plates to slowly move over the surface of Earth:

• Project Mohole - although it failed in its goal to reach Earth's mantle, this project provided scientists to learn much about Earth's structure.
• Project Mohole - an overview, with images.
• Chikyu Hakken - that's right, Chikyu Hakken. This is Japan's attempt at drilling deep into Earth's layers.
• Chikyu Hakken: The Main Site - the home site of this amazing engineering and geological project.

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Plate Interactions - plate boundaries, the area where two plates interact, can be convergent, divergent or transform in nature :

• Understanding Plate Motions - excellent information, illustrations and animations of plate boundaries.
• Plate boundaries - great explanations, and informative animations, of the three types of plate boundaries.
• Tectonic Plate Boundaries - a map showing most plates, as well as their relative movement to each other.
• Plate Boundaries - animations.
• Convergent Plate Boundaries - oceanic-continental, oceanic-oceanic and continental-continental plate convergence.
• Mountain Building - tall, jagged mountain ranges can form when two plates converge.
• Volcanic Arc Islands - when one oceanic plate subducts under another, released magma can form islands.
• Transform Plate Boundaries - two tectonic plates passing each other.
• The San Andreas Fault - USGS information about this dangerous transform fault.

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Canada's Gravity Gap - - Canada has less gravity than our neighbours to the south. At first, scientists thought this gap in gravity was from the ancient ice sheets that compressed our country during the last Ice Age. In this 9 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Jerry Mitrovica, a professor in geophysics at the University of Toronto, and armed with the most detailed gravity measurements of our country yet, has determined that Canada is being sucked down into the centre of the Earth by plate tectonics. While the gravity gap from the former ice sheets will disappear in a few thousand years, the plate tectonics will still keep Canada's weight down for a long time afterwards. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Earthquakes and Tsunamis - earthquakes anywhere in the ring of fire can result in huge waves crossing the Pacific ocean to crash on beaches:

• How Tsunamis Work - their origins, their dangers, and how we can protect ourselves from their damage.
• NOAA Center for Tsunami Research - ongoing research and education about these huge waves.
• Prepare for Tsunamis in Coastal British Columbia - information and warnings for BC residents and visitors.

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BC's Tsunami Disaster - this 1964 disaster devastated Port Alberni, on Vancouver Island.

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Earthquakes - the huge pressure that builds up when tectonic plates grind against each other is released as earthquakes:

• Earthquakes - a complete online resource for information about earthquakes.
• National Earthquake Information Center - NEIC - a USGS site with detailed information earthquakes and safety.
• Earthquakes in Canada: Surviving the moderate ones - a CBC report on earthquakes in Canada.
• The M9 Cascadia Megathrust Earthquake of January 26, 1700 - one of the largest earthquakes in modern history, the events were passed on by oral tradition by the First Nations people of Vancouver Island and by Japanese stories telling of the huge tsunami that struck that island as a result.

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Earthquakes in Canada - several clips from the CBC, including The Threat to BC, and Predicting the Unpredictable.

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Describing Earthquakes - the important facts and terminology about earthquakes:

• Earthquakes / Seismology - explanations of terms and processes.
• How Earthquakes Work - descriptions of earthquakes and their damage.

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Earthquakes - to help understand something so unpredictable, simulations are often used.

• Virtual Earthquakes - an activity where students determine the location of the focus and epicenter of an earthquake from seismic graphs.
• Virtual Courseware: Earthquakes - again, students use seismic data to locate earthquakes.

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Earthquake Waves - the mechanism that allows the tectonic plates to slowly move over the surface of Earth:

• What Is Seismology? - a very complete description of earthquake waves.
• Animations of Earthquake Waves - the different ways these waves travel through the ground.
• Seismic Waves and Earth's Interior - a very complete description of how seismic waves reveal the interior structure of Earth.
• Using Seismic Waves to Image Earth's Internal Structure - using seismic waves has allowed seismologists to construct amazing maps of Earth's interior.

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Earthquake Resistant Buildings - building can, and have been, built to withstand almost any shaking an earthquake can bring:

• Yasaka Pagoda - an amazing architectural - and artistic - construction in Kyoto, Japan.
• Tremor Tech - buildings which can resists earthquake damage, from foundation to roof.
• Damage Control - steps necessary for earthquake-safe construction - plus, jelly San Francisco.
• Building for Earthquake Resistance - from New Zealand, another location along the ring of fire.

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Earthquake Resistant Buildings - practical tests on scale models allow scientists to observe design strategies in action.

• Earthquake-Proof Buildings - gather materials, construct building, shake!
• Make a Quake - choose the parameters, then watch your building in the earthquake.
• Earthquake! - from a chemical engineering perspective, what materials should go into the foundation of an earthquake-resistant building?

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Measuring Earthquakes - the mechanism that allows the tectonic plates to slowly move over the surface of Earth:

• Measurements - the methods and measurements of earthquake power.
• How Are Earthquake Magnitudes Measured? - the Richter and Mercalli scales.
• Seismometer - a general overview of seismometers.
• How Do I Read a Seismogram? - a concise explanation for reading seismograms.

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Seismometer - build your own variation of the ancient Chinese seismometer, then test it - hopefully just by jumping around.

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Volcanoes - the mechanism that allows the tectonic plates to slowly move over the surface of Earth:

• How Volcanoes Work - a very in-depth source of information about volcanoes. Includes review questions.
• Volcanoes - a collection of volcanic links and resources.
• Plate Tectonics and the Cascade Range - overhead and cross-sectional looks at volcanic activity in the Pacific Northwest.
• Volcanism in Canada - British Columbia is the center of Canadian volcanoes, although other do exist.
• Shield Volcanoes - low, flat and broad volcanoes. Olympus Mons, a shield volcano on Mars, is the tallest volcano (and mountain) in our solar system.
• Rift Eruptions - long cracks in the lithosphere, even underwater, sometimes release large amounts of lava.

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Volcanic Eruptions - although difficult to predict, some video footage of eruptions exists.

• Kilauea Volcano - several eruption movies.
• Volcanic Activity in Hawaii - several clips of lava and rift eruptions.

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Volcanoes - an interactive explanation and quiz site about volcanoes.

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Antarctic Volcano - - In this 9 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. David Vaughan, a glaciologist with British Antarctic Survey, and his colleagues, recently discovered a volcano when radar images revealed a layer of volcanic ash, like a layer of icing in a wedding cake, buried half-way down in the ice. Beneath the ice, says Dr. Vaughan, is a tuya, a flat-topped volcano, like the kind found under the glaciers in Iceland. It turns out that the volcano in Antarctica last erupted during the lifetime of Alexander the Great and sent a plume of ash and steam about 12 kilometers into the sky. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Undersea Volcano - - In this 9 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast, Dr. Verena Tunnicliffe from the department of Biology and the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria, and her colleagues, have been observing a spectacular undersea volcano near the Northern Mariana Islands, north of Guam. This volcano spews ash, rocks and molten sulfur at a depth of 550 metres of water. She has discovered strange and hardy organisms, including strange shrimp, that can live in the hostile and acidic conditions around the volcano. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Io Volcanoes - - Io's orbiting between Jupiter and Europa, and the gravitational pull of those two much larger bodies, is creating so much friction and energy on Io that there are constant volcanic eruptions to get rid of some of the heat. Because the friction is constant, Io has never cooled down like other planets, so it might offer some insight into what our own planet looked like when it was very young. Learn more in this 9 minute audio Quirks and Quarks broadcast. (Tip: Download audio files to your hard drive by right-clicking and choosing "Save Link As...")

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Supervolcanoes - any volcano large and explosive enough to have potentially catastrophic eruptions.

• Supervolcano - focused on Yellowstone Park, but also includes other supervolcanoes and what it takes to be considered a supervolcano.
• YVO: Yellowstone Volcano Observatory - recent observations from this northwest supervolcano.
• The Secrets of Supervolcanoes - a nice article on supervolcanoes, past and present.
• Supervolcanoes - details of historic supervolcanoes.

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Volcanologist - the mechanism that allows the tectonic plates to slowly move over the surface of Earth:

• Trailblazer: Dr. Catherine Hickson - one of Canada's foremost volcano experts.
• Volcanologist - popular questions, plus how to become a volcanologist.

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Minimizing Your School’s Carbon Footprint - the mechanism that allows the tectonic plates to slowly move over the surface of Earth:

• Calculate Your Carbon Footprint - before you begin to minimize your footprint, you need to know how large it is.
• Carbon Detectives' Kit - a complete kit for evaluating your school's carbon footprint.

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Climate Change: Where Do We Go from Here? - thee links will give you a start on answering these tough questions. Remember to cite your sources; make the job easy by using the Citation Machine:

Topic 1: Is weather becoming more extreme?

• Extreme Weather and Climate Events - from the NOAA, a US government organization.
• Future Forecasts - another site from the NOAA

Topic 2: How are humans using technology to deal with climate change concerns?

• Mitigation of global warming - this site lists, and updates, several technologies that can be researched further.
• Solving Global Warming - from the NRDC.
• ecoACTION - a government of Canada website listing ecological technologies.

Topic 3: What changes can society make in order to deal with the problems associated with climate change?

• 10 Solutions for Climate Change - from Scientific American magazine
• The Cities for Climate Protection^TM (CCP) Campaign - an organization promoting methods for local communities to deal with climate change.
• Who Should Have the Greatest Responsibility for Reducing Canada’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions - this award-winning essay gives an excellent view of the question.

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Plate Tectonics - the features of plate tectonics are covered in this puzzle. (Also available for download )

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Section 12.2 Quiz - need more practice? Try this online quiz - coming soon.