Earths Climate Past and Future 3rd

Edition Ruddiman Test Bank

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1. The tectonic uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas:
A) produced a unique high elevation area in the Cenozoic.
B) resulted in increased rates of sediment accumulation in the northern Indian Ocean.
C) resulted in the development of a strong monsoon system.
D) occurred starting 55 million years ago.
E) All of the answers are correct.

2. An increase in benthic foraminifera 18O can result from:

A) local warming of the bottom ocean waters.
B) an increase in global ice volume on land.
C) the warming of the overlying surface ocean.
D) sea ice formation.
E) Both A and C are correct.

3. What was the general long-term climate trend in the last 50 million years?
A) erratic cooling
B) gradual warming
C) steady state
D) rapid cooling
E) stepwise warming

4. The first appearance of persistent glacial ice:

A) occurred 1.8 Myr ago.
B) occurred in Arctic and Antarctic simultaneously.
C) can be inferred from climate proxies in marine sediment cores.
D) All of the answers are correct.
E) Both A and B are correct.

5. Which of the following is a correct statement about Arctic climate in the Cenozoic?
A) There were palm-like vegetation within the Arctic circle 50 Myr ago.
B) There was tundra vegetation 2 Myr ago.
C) A continental ice sheet covers the North Pole today.
D) All of the answers are correct.
E) Both A and B are correct.

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 6. Which of the following correctly describes the relationship between mean annual
temperature and leaf shape?
A) Plants with smooth-edged leaves cause temperatures to warm.
B) As the temperature warms, there is an increase in the percentage of plants with
smooth-edged leaves.
C) Cooler temperatures result in more plants with smooth-edged leaves.
D) All of the answers are correct.
E) Both A and B are correct.

7. The modern glacial ice:

A) is more enriched in oxygen-18 than is the ocean.
B) is more depleted in oxygen-16 than is the ocean.
C) has the same oxygen-isotope signal as the ocean.
D) None of the answers is correct.
E) Both A and B are correct.

8. Assume no ice sheets existed on Earth during the time period under investigation, and
18O values measured from foraminifera shells decreased by 10/00. This result indicates
a:
A) warming of 2.1ºC in the ocean.
B) cooling of 2.1ºC in the ocean.
C) warming of 4.2ºC in the ocean.
D) cooling of 4.2ºC in the ocean.
E) cooling of 0.5ºC in the atmosphere.

9. The long-term 18O trend in benthic foraminifera indicate:

A) > 6ºC cooling of the deep waters between 50–40 Myr ago.
B) ice sheet growth after 40 Myr ago.
C) > 7ºC cooling of the deep waters after 40 Myr ago.
D) All of the answers are correct.
E) Both B and C are correct.

10. Mg/Ca ratios in foraminifera shells:

A) depend on the temperature of the sea water.
B) contradict the climate change results from 18O measurements.
C) show a large warming step after 40 Myr ago.
D) All of the answers are correct.
E) Both B and C are correct.

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11. Oceanic gateways:
A) open and close because of changes in ocean circulation.
B) are narrow passages connecting different ocean basins.
C) transport land-derived sediment to the deep sea.
D) do not exist in the modern ocean.
E) All but C are correct.

12. What tectonic changes occurred in the last 50 million years?

A) Australia and South America both rifted from Antarctica.
B) The Panama rift zone opened.
C) SE Asia subducted beneath India.
D) Saudi Arabia collided with Africa.
E) None of the above occurred.

13. A complication in assessing oceanic heat transport hypotheses is that:

A) Oceanic gateway changes occur only in the Southern Hemisphere, while climate
change is global.
B) Stepwise-climate changes are slower than gateway changes.
C) Climate scientists disagree on the relative importance of the release of latent heat
and sensible heat from the ocean to the atmosphere.
D) GCMs cannot yet simulate changes in the strength of ocean currents.
E) There are no complications; oceanic heat transport has proved to be a major drive
of climate change.

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14. Examine the following figure and determine which of the following statements is
correct.

A) The average rate of seafloor spreading slowed between 50 and 15 million years
ago, but it has since increased slightly.
B) The average rate of seafloor spreading is higher today than any time in the last 50
million years.
C) The rate of mid-plate volcanism was greater than the rate of spreading 30 million
years ago.
D) The trends in mid-plate volcanism and spreading rate since 15 million years ago
should have led to a decrease in atmospheric CO2 levels.
E) Both A and D are correct.

15. Which of the following criteria of the uplift weathering hypothesis are clearly shown in
the geologic archives of the last 50 million years?
A) The amount of high-elevation terrain in existence today must be unusually large in
comparison with that of earlier intervals.
B) This high terrain must be causing unusual amounts of rock fragmentation.
C) The exposure of fresh debris must be causing unusually high rates of chemical
weathering.
D) All of the answers are correct.
E) None of the answers is correct.

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16. The uplift history of western North America is controversial. What explanation(s) help
resolve the controversy?
A) Features resulting from glacial erosion may have been mistaken for evidence of
recent uplift.
B) Both subduction and hot spot activity could have contributed to the uplift history.
C) A positive feedback involving chemical weathering moderated the history.
D) All of the answers are correct.
E) Both A and B are correct.

17. Monsoons:
A) result from similar heating of continents and adjacent oceans.
B) cause differential heating of the land and sea.
C) promote chemical weathering of areas with steep slopes.
D) All of the answers are correct.
E) Both B and C are correct.

18. An increase in the burial of organic carbon in coastal margins:

A) should increase atmospheric CO2 levels.
B) can result from increased upwelling and biological productivity.
C) is a component of the uplift-weathering hypothesis.
D) is hypothesized to result in atmospheric warming.
E) Both A and D are correct.

19. What process could serve to moderate the global cooling in the last 50 Myr?
A) a reduction of chemical weathering on land not uplifted due to cooler, drier
conditions globally
B) an increase in freshly fragmented rock by glacial erosion
C) continental ice sheets remaining at or near their maximum extent for millions of
years
D) All of the answers are correct.
E) Both A and C are correct.

20. Tectonic-scale processes affecting climate:

A) occur at very slow rates.
B) occur on human-time scales.
C) initiate only negative feedbacks.
D) will likely be the primary driver of climate change in the next 100 years.
E) All of the answers are correct.

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21. According to the evidence of ice-rafted debris deposited in ocean sediments on the
margin of the Antarctic continent, when was the first persistent ice on Antarctica?
A) about 35 million years ago
B) about 13 million years ago
C) about 10 million years ago
D) about 7–4 million years ago
E) about 1.5 million years ago

22. What significant change in glaciation occurred at around 13 million years ago?
A) Antarctic glaciers grew substantially.
B) Glacial ice disappeared from Greenland.
C) Glaciers appeared in the high Andes.
D) Ice sheets appeared in the Northern Hemisphere.
E) None of the answers is correct.

23. Which of the following is true about the onset of glaciation in the Northern
Hemisphere?
A) Glaciers appeared in the Northern Hemisphere before they appeared in the
Southern Hemisphere.
B) Glaciers in southern Alaska did not appear until after large continental ice sheets
formed.
C) Significant glacial ice appeared on Greenland about 10 million years ago.
D) All of the answers are correct.
E) None of the answers is correct.

24. When did conifer forests of spruce and larch develop around the Arctic Ocean?
A) about 60–50 million years ago
B) about 20 million years ago
C) about 5 million years ago
D) about 2 million years ago
E) about 20,000 years ago

25. Studies of fossil leaf margins:

A) produce high-resolution records of climate in North America.
B) rely on an observed modern relationship between leaf shape and precipitation.
C) show a period of irregular, ongoing cooling in western North America over the last
55 million years.
D) Both A and B are correct.
E) All of the answers are correct.

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26. The enrichment of 18O in ocean waters as 16O is preferentially stored in snow, and ice is
an example of a process called:
A) accumulation.
B) condensation.
C) foraminifera.
D) fractionation.
E) None of the answers is correct.

27. The cooling of the deep ocean over the last 50 million years:
A) amounts to about 14°C.
B) is impossible to separate from the effects of the growth of ice sheets.
C) is studied through the geochemical analysis of benthic foraminifera.
D) Both A and C are correct.
E) None of the answers is correct.

28. The record of the Mg/Ca ratio in benthic foraminifera for the last 50 million years:
A) agrees in all details with other indices of past climate.
B) indicates large steps in cooling near 35, 13, and 3 million years ago.
C) is an indicator of changes in continental temperatures.
D) shows a slow warming of ocean temperatures.
E) None of the answers is correct.

29. When did Australia separate from Antarctica?

A) about 50 million years ago
B) about 37 to 33 million years ago
C) about 25 to 20 million years ago
D) about 13 million years ago
E) about 2 million years ago

30. The Drake's Passage gateway hypothesis:

A) argues that more poleward heat flow occurred after the opening of the gateway.
B) is supported by sensitivity tests with climate models.
C) relies on the transport of more oceanic moisture to Antarctica to explain the growth
of ice sheets.
D) suggests that the separation of Antarctica from Australia and South America
allowed ice sheets to form on Antarctica.
E) None of the answers is correct.

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31. Which of the following is true of the gateway hypothesis involving the Isthmus of
Panama?
A) It is based on evidence for the connection of North America and South America
within the last 10 million years.
B) It relies on the addition of ocean heat to the high latitudes of the Atlantic Ocean to
trigger the growth of ice sheets.
C) Its role for the ocean in glacial inception is opposed to the role proposed by the
Drake's Passage gateway hypothesis.
D) Model simulations support the idea that the closing of the isthmus increased the
salinity of northward-flowing Atlantic water.
E) All of the answers are correct.

32. What do sensitivity tests with general circulation models suggest about the relationship
between atmospheric CO2 and glaciation?
A) Antarctic ice sheets form when CO2 levels rise above 750 ppm.
B) The glaciation threshold for the Northern Hemisphere is about 280 ppm.
C) The growth of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets depends on higher CO2 values.
D) Both A and C are correct.
E) None of the answers is correct.

33. What is one major problem with model experiments linking atmospheric CO2 to
glaciation?
A) They assume that CO2 only changes in response to global volcanic activity.
B) They predict that ice sheets should have formed in the Northern Hemisphere much
earlier than they actually did.
C) They rely on a disproven link between CO2 and global temperatures.
D) They suggest that Antarctic ice could not have been present before 20 million years
ago, when evidence suggests that it formed as early as 34 million years ago.
E) All of the answers are correct.

34. What has happened to global spreading and subduction rates since about 15 million
years ago?
A) They have decreased.
B) They have increased.
C) They have remained constant.
D) They have stopped.
E) It is impossible to determine.

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35. How might changes in the kind of sediments being subducted influence atmospheric
CO2 levels?
A) Subduction of carbonate-rich sediments would increase the rate of CO2 emission
by volcanoes even if spreading rates remained constant.
B) CaCO3-poor sediments subduct at a faster rate, leading to a basin-wide increase in
the volcanic emission of CO2.
C) CaCO3-rich sediments melt at higher temperatures than other sediments, slowing
the rate of CO2 emissions.
D) Both A and C are correct.
E) All of the answers are correct.

36. What is responsible for the influx of sediment to the Indian Ocean over the last 40
million years?
A) creation of steep terrain along the southern Himalayan margin of the Tibetan
Plateau
B) creation of the powerful South Asian monsoon by the Tibetan Plateau
C) increase in Indian Ocean plankton productivity by greater ocean salinity
D) ongoing volcanic activity in the region of the Deccan Traps of India
E) Both A and B are correct.

37. How many major continental collisions have occurred over the last 250 million years?
A) one
B) at least three
C) seven
D) at least nine
E) impossible to tell

38. Where on Earth is the annual yield of suspended sediments highest?

A) Northern Eurasia
B) the Andes
C) the Himalayas
D) Both B and C are correct.
E) All of the answers are correct.

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39. What is the main source of scientific disagreement about the history of high terrain in
western North America?
A) if there was an inland sea in the Rocky Mountains region from 100 to 70 million
years ago or not
B) whether or not subduction along the coast built mountains before 30 million years
ago
C) whether uplift or the present mountains in the west began 20 million years ago or
much earlier
D) All of the answers are correct.
E) None of the answers is correct.

40. How would a 50-fold increase in weathering over 1% of Earth's land surface change the
global chemical weathering rate?
A) It would be 50 times faster.
B) It would be 50% faster.
C) It would be 1% faster.
D) It would have little impact.
E) None of the answers is correct.

41. Ferns and trees disappeared from Antarctica after 40 million years ago in response to
cooling climate and the spread of ice.
A) True
B) False

42. Shells of foraminifera become more enriched in 18O when climate cools.
A) True
B) False

43. Estimates of atmospheric CO2 levels over the last 50 million years show a major
decrease after 10 million years ago.
A) True
B) False

44. The increase in glacial erosion that would accompany uplift constitutes a strong
negative feedback on chemical weathering.
A) True
B) False

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45. The Monterey hypothesis suggests that organic carbon burial and subsequent subduction
led to an increase in atmospheric CO2 levels.
A) True
B) False

46. Describe the evidence for cooling over the last 50 million years provided by records of
ice and vegetation. What does the evidence show about differences between the
Northern and Southern Hemispheres?

47. How do global climate changes influence the oxygen isotope composition of
foraminifera? What does the oxygen isotope record show about climate changes over
the last 50 million years?

48. Describe how the opening of Drake's Passage has been used to explain the onset of
global cooling over the last 50 million years. What do computer simulations suggest
about this explanation?

49. Explain how spreading rates could act as the major influence on global temperatures
over long time scales. What is one major shortcoming of this hypothesis?

50. Evaluate predictions made by the uplift weathering hypothesis in light of available
evidence.

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Answer Key
1. E
2. B
3. A
4. C
5. E
6. B
7. E
8. C
9. D
10. A
11. B
12. A
13. C
14. A
15. A
16. E
17. C
18. B
19. E
20. A
21. A
22. A
23. E
24. B
25. C
26. D
27. D
28. B
29. B
30. D
31. E
32. B
33. B
34. A
35. A
36. E
37. A
38. D
39. C
40. B
41. A
42. A
43. B
44. B

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45. B
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.

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