Sections Review

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Vocabulary

Review Questions

1. What distinguishes Venus from the rest of the planets? Why is Venus so hot?
2. What is a runaway greenhouse?
3. If the clouds of Venus were perfect reflectors of visible light from the Sun so that no visible light reached Venus' surface, what would happen to the surface temperature? Explain your answer.
4. If the atmosphere of Venus trapped all of the infrared light from the surface, what would happen to the surface temperature? Explain your answer.
5. How does the ultraviolet-water interaction explain why Venus is so dry? How is the same process prevented on the Earth?
6. If Mars' atmosphere is over 90% carbon dioxide like Venus', why does it have such a small greenhouse effect?
7. What atmospheric phenomenon can quickly wipe out any view of Mars' surface from above? What causes this phenomenon?
8. Why does Mars have such a thin atmosphere? What is the runaway refrigerator?
9. How does liquid water remove carbon dioxide gas from an atmosphere?
10. Why does a less massive moon of Saturn have a more extensive atmosphere than Mars and Earth? (Recall the factors that affect atmosphere thickness.)
11. What distinguishes Earth from the rest of the planets? What is so unusual about its atmosphere and what produces this unusual feature?
12. What are the different ways that life removes carbon dioxide from the Earth's atmosphere?
13. Where do coal, oil, and natural gas come from? What happens when they are burned?
14. What is a natural way that most of the carbon dioxide is returned to the atmosphere on Earth?
15. How does plate tectonics regulate the climate of the Earth?
16. What is a non-natural, human activity that returns a lot of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere?
17. What are the benefits of the presence of the ozone layer?
18. Is the greenhouse problem on Earth different from the ozone problem? How so?

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last updated: June 1, 2007