Final Exam

study guide subject to CHANGE until Sunday, Dec 8; CHANGES WILL BE HIGHLIGHTED IN BOLD FACE

PLEASE ALSO REVIEW UPDATED LECTURE NOTES (update dates are marked in red on the course schedule).

POSTED: 02 December 2019; Please expect that some questions on the final will be drawn from the online quizzes on the "lecture slides and quizzes" page

If you know that you cannot take this test as scheduled, please contact Gabi Laske immediately!
Also, there will be opportunities to take the final early: Tuesday (12/10) or Wednesday (12/11) noon. Space is extremely limited. First-come-first-served. Please email Gabi Laske. You must use your UCSD email address, and put SIO15 in your subject line.

Date and Location

When: Friday, December 13, 2019; 3:00-6:00pm
Where: Warren Lecture Hall 2001 (usual lecture hall)
Material covered: all lectures (notes, short videos, online quizzes) + pop quizzes + homeworks, beachwalk, aquarium trip
We bring: final exam (various versions), scantron
You bring:

several #2 pencils (no pen, incl. ink, ball point, felt tip, gel)
your student ID
2 handwritten 8.5x11" note sheets (written on both sides, front and back, ok)
we do NOT recommended to write only a list of Q&A (old tests)! Such a list does NOT help you understand the material!

Leave at home or switch off:

any electronic devices (incl. cell/smart phone, tablets, e-reader, music player, laptop computer, iWatch)
any noise makers (laptop computer, cell phone, mp3 player, smartphone, alarm clock etc.)
You may not use your electronic device to check the time! Please bring a conventional watch!
you may not use any electronic device, including phones, at any time!
dictionary
anything printed

Fill out scantron and submit correctly:

write your name and student ID on your test
print your full name (all-Capital/upper case letters) and student ID on your scantron
bubble in your version number on your scantron
make sure version on scantron matches version on your test
make sure your test and and scantron are submitted to the corresponding group!!

Contact

Gabi Laske: email: glaske@ucsd.edu; phone: 858 534-8774

When sending emails, please include "sio15" in your subject line.
You must use your ucsd email address and sign your email with your full name.

Code of Conduct

Concentrate on your test, not your neighbor’s!
Copying answers from your neighbor or providing answers to your neighbor is considered cheating;
the tests of cheaters will be voided and the cheating will be reported to UCSD
You may mark the test (cross or circle) but not write on in it.
The test and scantron must stay on the table AT ALL TIMES!
You may not use your electronic device to check the time! Please bring a conventional watch!
You may not bring anything printed or photocopied. Anything printed or photocopied will be confiscated, even if it is your note sheet!
please take off your hat if it has a shade (e.g. baseball hat)
we also kindly ask that students do not hide their faces behind any type of clothing or long hair
People not following the rules may be reseated.

The Final exam - What to expect?

The final exam will be a multiple choice test using the same format and rules as the midterms. The test is cumulative, i.e. covers the whole course as summarized above. It is highly recommended to practice-test both midterms as some questions will be recycled/altered and used in the final exam. Please also review the questions on the midterm study guide pages.

95-110 questions
only one answer is right
STAY CALM AND READ THE QUESTIONS CAREFULLY!
Not reading the entire question may lead to misunderstandings and wrong answers.
We usually try to not ask trick questions, but a 'low' instead of a 'high' in the question will most likely be a way to alter a question used in previous tests.
DO NOT CHECK YOUR NEIGHBOR'S TEST! Questions may be worded slightly differently!

Example questions (these are not necessarily on the final):

a) radioactivity, the Sun, nuclear fusion

b) nuclear fusion, meteoroid and asteroid impacts, gravitational collapse

c) primordial meteoroid and asteroid impacts, radioactivity, gravitational collapse

d) nuclear fusion, chemical reactions, plate tectonics

a) left-lateral strike-slip

b) normal dip-slip

c) thrust dip-slip

d) right-lateral strike-slip

a) about 7 seconds

b) about 18 minutes

c) about 1 hour

d) about 14 hours

a) above

b) below

c) all of the above

d) none of the above

a) Compressional body waves

b) Shear body waves

c) Rayleigh surface waves

d) Love surface waves

a) thrust

b) strike-slip

c) normal

a) cold rock

b) water

c) honey

d) cookie dough in the oven

a) pyroclastic flows

b) indirect (famine)

c) lava flows

d) lahars

a) Hawaiian

b) Icelandic

c) Plinian

a) true

b) false

a) CO2 and water vapor

b) CO2 and ozone

c) water vapor and ozone

d) CO2 and CH4

a) fossils and pollen

b) ancient glacial moraines

c) lava flows

d) ice cores

a) troposphere

b) stratosphere

c) mesosphere

d) thermosphere

a) an explosion of high pressure air in the core of a super-cell thunderstorm

b) the sudden, unexpected appearance of a tornado at ground level

c) the burst of sound waves from a lightning strike

d) a sudden violent downdraft at the base of a thunderstorm

a) Feb-Apr

b) May-Jul

c) Aug-Oct

d) Nov-Jan

a) hurricanes

b) magnetic storms

c) tornadoes

d) dust storms

a) magnetic field has vortices

b) temperatures are too high

c) the Coriolis effect is weak and reverses

d) humidity is too high

a) tides

b) surface winds

c) air pressure

d) air humidity

a) strong winds aloft

b) weak winds aloft

c) high humidity in the source region

d) warm ocean water in the source region

a) true

b) false

a) true

b) false

a) global warming

b) local deforestation and related decrease in precipitation

c) for both

d) Mt. Kili is not losing its ice cap.

a) ice sheets and glaciers melt

b) global cooling

c) faster seafloor spreading

d) all of the above

e) only a and c

a) true

b) false

a) tornado

b) dust storm

c) hurricane

d) magnetic storm

a) magnetic field has vortices

b) temperatures are too high

c) The Coriolis effect is weak and reverses

d) humidity is too low

a) can happen any time

b) happens exactly every 100 years

c) is more likely to occur sooner than later

a) true

b) false

a) high

b) low

a) Richter Scale

b) Fujita Scale

c) Saffir-Simpson scale

d) Trapir Scale

a) the place where the spring is

b) near the top

c) near the center

d) near the bottom

a) a plate boundary

b) a boundary between a sliding mass and the ground

c) a boundary between two air masses

d) a boundary between two geologic periods

a) true

b) false

a) coal

b) oil

c) natural gas

d) nuclear

a) 0%, plastic is not made of petroleum

b) 15%

c) 50%

d) 80%

a) true

b) false

a) CO2 and acid rain

b) acid rain and ozone

c) methane and carbon dioxide

d) nitrogen and argon

e) oxygen and carbon monoxide

a) the depth of the ozone hole

b) a cloud formation

c) the fraction of sunlight received on Earth that is reflected back to space

d) a metal

a) a few months

b) a few years

c) a few decades

d) a few centuries

e) a few thousand years

a) they do not migrate

b) a few miles

c) tens of miles

d) hundreds of miles

e) thousands of miles

41) After carp and salmon which fish is the 3rd most important aquaculture fish?
a) tuna

b) shrimp

c) tilapia

d) monk fish

e) eel

42) Which of these countries is the world's leading producer in aquacultured tilapia?
a) China

b) Egypt

c) Brazil

d) the U.S.

e) Puerto Rico

a) plant material

b) plankton

c) fish bones

d) dinosaur fossils

e) wood

Answers:
1c (hint: the radioactive decay that occurs inside the Earth is called fission, not fusion. Fusion, the combination of atoms, occurs on the Sun.)
2d (hint: stand in San Diego on the Pacific Plate and look east onto the North American plate; we move north, they move south, to the right, so the strike-slip is right-lateral)
3d (hint: a tsunami travels the 11,000km (6850mi) at 700km/h (435mph); so the tsunami takes about 15 hours....which is close enough to 14 hours)
4a (hint: water lubricates the glide horizon. So rain from above or the raise of the ground water table above the horizon are both mechanism to make a slump more likely)
5a (hint: the order, from fastest to slowest, is compressional, shear, Love, Rayleigh)
6b (hint: tsunami are generated by vertical movement!)
7a (hint: cold rock is extremely viscous but can deform over geologic times, under pressure)
8c (hint: lava flows cause extensive destruction but people often have enough time to flee)
9c (hint: Plinian eruptions are the most violent in general)
10b (hint: the liquid outer core is mainly iron)
11a (hint: read the question carefully! the most important greenhouse gases keeping our planet warm are CO2 and water vapor; there is much more water vapor than CO2; the greenhouse gases discussed in global warming are CO2 and CH4 because they have increased dramatically over the last 150 years)
12c (hint: the only rocks that reveal past climates are sedimentary rocks; lava flows do not carry fossils and don't reveal past environments other than that there was a volcano)
13a (hint: weather usually happens in the troposphere; only the jet stream is in the stratosphere and some gigantic hurricanes can reach into the stratosphere)
14d (hint: microbursts are extremely dangerous to landing airplanes which would suddenly lose their lift)
15c (hint: hurricane formation lags the time of warming of ocean water, which is in summer)
16c (hint: a hurricane caused the strongest officially measured wind speeds but the winds in tornadoes are stronger; they are difficult to measure because it is difficult to put instruments into the path of a tornado and many break before the strongest winds ever hit the instrument)
17c (hint: the Earth's magnetic field has nothing to do with hurricanes; hurricanes also need warm, moisture rich air to form)
18d (hint: hurricanes need warm, moist air to gain strength, but moisture does not directly influence the height of storm surges; storm surges are particularly high during hide tide, and even more so during spring tide)
19a (hint: strong winds aloft prevent the formation of a strong updraft that accelerates the release of latent heat of rising air, which in turn fuels a hurricane)
20b (hint: FALSE; when water evaporates latent heat is CONSUMED)
21b (hint: it's more complicated than that)
22c (hint: both contribute to the loss of the ice cap)
23e (hint: faster seafloor spreading causes the oceans to have less space for oceans than slow spreading because there is less time for lithosphere to cool and seafloor to deepen)
24b (hint: in cooling air, water vapor eventually condenses but this process is no longer adiabatic because energy is released)
25a (hint: compare an F5 tornado with a category 5 hurricane in the tables in the book; only one hurricane is known to have spawned tornadoes: Andrew 1992)
26c (hint: humidity at the equator is usually high; humidity is low near 30 deg N and S where the deserts are)
27a (hint: there is a 1% chance in any given year; there is a 67% chance that it happens within 100 years but a 33% chance that it occurs later than that)
28b (hint: large gradient=steep; meanders form on flat ground)
29a (hint: cyclones are low pressure systems; in the Northern hemisphere winds around the low pressure go counterclockwise)
30c (hint: the Fujita scale is for tornadoes)
31d (hint: the baselevel is the lowest level/altitude a stream can assume; it's either another stream, river, lake or ocean or it can simply disappear when the water goes into the ground in karst regions or when evaporation in deserts is very high)
32d (hint: the K-T boundary is between the Cretaceous (Kreide in German -> K) and the Tertiary periods, the time when the dinosaurs disappeared)
33a (hint: tropical soil is very thick but the humus layer is thin because in the warm humid climate organic material decays too fast to accumulate)
34d (hint: nuclear is non-renewable because the source, Uranium-oxide, takes a geologically long time to form; but nuclear is not a fossil fuel because it is not made of ancient organic material)
35b (hint: we burn about 85% for energy generation or traffic; and yes, plastics are made from petroleum)
36b (hint: guess again; increased fish catches have depleted most of our most important fish stocks)
37c (hint: see also question 11! methane and carbon dioxide are not very abundant but their increase is responsible for global warming; )
38c (hint: see lecture 14)
39d (hint: the Greenland shark lives nearly 400 years)
40e (hint: they cross oceans, which makes protection a global problem, not a local one)
41c (hint: tuna is a predator, so difficult for aquaculture; shrimp is not a fish; monk fish is a deep-sea fish)
42a (hint: China has recently surpassed Indonesia in the tilapia aquaculture)
43b (hint: coal is made of plant material)

Additional Homework-Related Questions
for earlier homework question, please see midterm study guides

Homework 7

₂

a) burning of fossil fuel

b) deforestation

c) reforestation

d) farming

e) leaky refrigerators

a) it slowed down

b) it accelerated

c) it stayed the same

d) it reversed

a) mammals and fungi

b) plants and fishes

c) mammals and fishes

d) plants and fungi

e) mammals and plants

a) increased by 35%

b) decreased by 35%

c) decreased by 10%

d) increased by 10%

e) stayed the same

a) Antarctica

b) Borney

c) France

d) North America's Pacific Coast

e) Hawaii

Answers:
1b) (hint: )
2b) (hint: by a factor 2-3)
3b) (hint: )
4b) (hint: )
5d) (hint: the area has to be large AND be at mid-latitude)

Homework 9/Aquarium Trip

a) water temperature goes down

b) corals emit bleach

c) coral expel colorful algae they depend on

d) corals can willfully change their color

a) cooling ocean temperatures

b) warming ocean temperatures

c) seawater becomes more salty

d) seawater becomes less salty

e) appearance of a new predator

a) spoiled food

b) sewage

c) floating pumice

d) plastic

e) cigarette butts

a) fish

b) whales

c) krill

d) all of the above

a) Great Barrier Reef, Australia

b) Jamaica, Caribbean

c) Jordan, Red Sea

d) Hawaii

₂

a) they acidify

b) pH goes up

c) pH goes down

d) a) and b)

e) a) and c)

7) Where off-shore Southern California is ocean water colder?
a) inside the California Bight

b) outside of the California Bight

c) same temperature everywhere

8) In the Keeling Curve (atmospheric CO₂) how do seasonal variations compare to the overall trend since 1958?
a) much larger

b) much smaller

c) about the same

Answers:
1c)
2b)
3d)
4d) (hint: plankton is at the bottom of the food chain)
5b)
6e)
7b)
8b) (hint: seasonal variations are +/- 3 ppm; the overall trend since 1958 is > 80 ppm)

STUDY HINTS:

It is useful to review both note sheets (!), the study guides for the two midterms, the study guide below for the material after midterm 2, homework sets, pop quizzes, online quizzes and the lecture notes/web summaries. At this point, reading book is too late!!
It is better to know the material and understand the concepts rather than to rely on the note sheets. The note sheets should be well organized (perhaps highlight topics with a marker) and not be too full. It is recommended to redo the notes sheets rather than bringing the old note sheets written for the midterms.
It is NOT recommended to write only a list of questions and answers on the note sheet! such a list will not help with answering even slightly modified questions if the underlying material is not understood.
For students who did less well than expected on the tests, it is highly recommended to practice the midterms version B repeatedly (using the unmarked test sheets) and check the answers against the answer sheet, until the tests are aced within 15-20 min. Please go to the midterm results pages to download the tests and answer sheets.
Students who need more practice: here is the final exam of 2018.
2018 test, 2018 answer sheet. This test is for practice only! It does not cover exactly the same material asked in this year's final exam! Also be mindful that some questions covered 2018 homeworks that are not relevant this year.

A study guide for the lectures after midterm 2 is given below. For earlier material, please review the midterm study guides. Lecture 23 material will be covered in the final exam. For guidance see the midterm 2 study guide.

Aquarium Trip

Keeling curve; ocean acidification; coral symbiosis; coral bleaching
the Southern California Bight; islands and currents; temperatures
North Pacific Ocean Gyre; plastic life span; plastic hazard; toxins in food chain
coral reefs; ocean ecosystems; human threats; conservation effort
ocean food web
Baja California and adjacent oceans and ecosystems

Lecture 24

fossil fuels and pollution
acid rain, its sources (east U.S. vs west U.S.) and its effects on the environment
Black carbon; radiative forcing
particulate matter; most polluted cities in the world (which continent?)
pros and cons of nuclear power
Mercury in the Environment: where does it come from and what effects does it have?
lead in drinking water
farming, deforestation and ultimate impact on oceans
DDT and the California Brown Pelican
red tides; costal dead zones

Lecture 25

global warming, ocean changes and coastal areas (see also Lecture 22)
the impact on coral reefs and coral bleaching (see also aquarium trip 2)
ocean acidification (see also aquarium trip 2)
the local kelp forest, habitat and uses of kelp
plastics in the oceans
fishing industry; the decline of fish stocks (only the general trends, no details!)
what is by-catch? by-catch in the shrimp fishery; aquaculture as alternative to harvesting wild fish

Lecture 26

fossil fuels; what are they? what are they made of?
how much of the global energy needs are met by fossil fuels; how much by hydrocarbons
how long will fossil fuels last?; when did U.S. oil production peak?
the pros and cons of nuclear energy as an alternative
what is renewable vs. non-renewable energy? examples of renewable energy resources
mineral resources; how long will they last?; the dependence on imports
plastics; where do they come from? recycling plastic

Lecture 27

conditions for life to develop on Earth
Earth's early and current atmosphere
classification of life; early life, photosynthesis and O₂ production
the Cambrian explosion of life; what's so special about fossils from then on?
the 5 major mass extinctions and possible causes
causes for extinctions during ice ages and more recent times
Gambler's ruin and the problems of re-introduction of endangered species

Discussion Session Practice Tests and Problem Questions

Midterm 1 discussion session practice test and answers
Midterm 1 tricky questions test and answers
Midterm 2 discussion session practice test and answers
Midterm 2 tricky questions test and answers

Final Exam

POSTED: 02 December 2019; Please expect that some questions on the final will be drawn from the online quizzes on the "lecture slides and quizzes" page

Date and Location

Contact

Code of Conduct

The Final exam - What to expect?

Additional Homework-Related Questions for earlier homework question, please see midterm study guides

Discussion Session Practice Tests and Problem Questions

Additional Homework-Related Questions
for earlier homework question, please see midterm study guides