Plate tectonics
A) moves continents at the rate of about 1 meter per day.
B) is the cause of most short-term climate changes.
C) cannot explain why today's equatorial regions can have evidence of past glaciation.
D) can alter the climates of continents by moving them north or south.
E) all of the above
Question 2Earth's precession
A) means that Polaris is always the North Star.
B) is responsible for changes in Earth's eccentricity.
C) can slowly change the climate difference between summer and winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
D) has the same time period as changes in obliquity.
E) all of the above
Question 3The tilt of Earth's axis to the plane of its orbit around the Sun
A) stays the same.
B) varies about 2.5 degrees.
C) is currently about 3 degrees.
D) goes through one cycle of change about every 1.1 million years.
E) has a major effect on Earth's eccentricity.
Question 4Milankovitch cycles include Earth's
A) obliquity.
B) orbital eccentricity.
C) precession.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above
Question 5The weak Sun paradox concerns
A) why solar output is currently so low.
B) how life evolved on Earth, given that the Sun does not put out as much energy as many other stars.
C) why the temperature of the Earth was as high as it was during the Earth's first billion years.
D) the impact of the Maunder Minimum on current climate.
E) none of the above
Question 6The Maunder Minimum
A) occurred during the Little Ice Age.
B) saw high levels of sunspots.
C) is a consequence of the weak Sun paradox.
D) caused a significant change in the eccentricity of Earth's orbit.
E) has been deduced by examining ice-core samples from Greenland.
Question 7The peak of sunspot cycles
A) brings a cooler global climate.
B) occurred at least 20 times during the Maunder Minimum.
C) corresponds with a slight increase in solar energy output.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above