Exam 3 (Thursday, June 17, 11:30) - Covers Lectures (5/27-6/15), Chapters 5, 6 & 13 in text
Flood Science and How Rivers Work
- River basin anatomy, drainage basins, river cross sections, floodplains, etc.
- What happens when it rains, surface water vs. groundwater
- What factors influence infiltration vs. runoff - and how this effects flooding
- Factors that effect water velocity
- Discharge and hydrographs, impacts from development on discharge and lag time
- Erosion, transport and deposition of sediment by a river (including delta formation)
- What is a flood and basic knowledge of floods in Washington
- Issues associated with the Howard Hanson Dam and Green River Flooding in WA (think of this as an example)
Flood Effects and Mitigation
- Effects of Floods (erosion, landslides, inundation, etc.)
- Flood hazard maps, flood stage, and recurrence intervals (determining the size and stage of the "hundred-year flood", etc.)
- Monitoring rivers
- Structural and non-structural solutions for preparing for flooding (including levees, dams, personal preparation, etc.)
- What to during during a flood
Landslides - What they are, how they work and what we can do about them
- What is mass wasting, driving forces vs. resisting forces
- Factors that effect slope stability (steepness, vegetation, etc.)
- What makes the slopes less stable and what impact do humans have on slope stability
- Landslide triggers - what are some and what do they do to destabilize the slope
- Seattle landslides - basic concepts, why do we have a problem with them in this area
- Anatomy of a landslide
- Different types of mass wasting - how do we name them, what are the differences, etc.
- Basic concepts around snow avalanches
- Landslide mitigation- how do we understand where slides might occur in the future, what are some short-term warning signs
- What can we do to stabilize slopes
Impacts (I will update this section based on what we have time to cover in the last lecture)
- Mass extinctions - 5 major events and some potential causes
- Extinction of the dinosaurs (65myrs ago)- what happened , how do we know, what did it do
- What is out there in our solar system, and in particular, what is out there that might hit us
- What is the fate of"small" objects in the solar system
- Asteroids vs. comets
- Meteorites - basic terminology
- What are the basic kinds of meteorites and what are some characteristics of meteorites
- How do craters form and what the different types of craters, what is an airburst
- What are some examples of large impacts in Earth history
- What are the effects of a large impact
- What are the odds we will be hit by a large object
- What are we doing to monitor for large objects (NEO) and what could we do about a potential hazard
- Torino Impact Hazard Scale
General Concepts from the Whole Quarter
- Difference between hazards, disasters and catastrophes
- General steps for dealing with any potential hazard (know the science, monitor, prepare, etc.)
- Basic preparation you can take for any type of hazard
- What disaster kits are and what goes in them
- What you can do to help your family and community prepare for disasters
- Concept of social justice issues surrounding natural disasters
- Basic summary comments from the last lecture
Current Events
- What are some of the big events that have been going on (think Twitter) - including the oil spill
Basic concepts of how disasters end up in our stories and pop culture (monster movies, etc.) - just the basic concepts from the "monster lecture"
Please bring a scantron sheet to the exam for multiple choice questions.
Exam 2 (Thursday, May 27) - Covers Lectures (4/29-5/25) plus Chapters 2, 3, 8, 9, 11 and guest lecture on storms
Earthquakes - Basic Science
- What is an earthquake and the elastic rebound theory
- Stress and deformation
- Faults - types, definitions, where they occur, etc.
- Fault activity
- Seismic Waves - types and differences
- Seismograms finding the location of quakes
- Magnitude and Intensity scales
- Factors that influence shaking
- Earthquakes and plate tectonics
- Intraplate quakes - what causes them, examples, etc.
- Earthquakes is Washington - types, hazards, history, Seattle Fault, 1700 Cascadia quake, etc.
- Examples of other famous historic quakes
- Basic primary and secondary effects of earthquakes - seiches, liquefaction, etc.
- Basic info on recent quake events
Tsunami
- What are they and what causes them? Why are they different from regular waves?
- Basic wave terminology and motion
- How do quakes create tsunami?
- Examples, including basic knowledge of 2004 Indonesian quake
- Examples of other things that can create tsunami
- Tsunami mitigation - what can society do / what can you do?
Earthquakes - Mitigation
- Long term forecasting, paleoseismicity, etc
- Short term prediction, dilatancy, animal behavior, etc.
- Land use planning, building codes - what works and what doesn't
- Retrofitting - structural and nonstructural
- Insurance?, personal preparation and what do do during the quake
Atmosphere Basics and How Hurricanes Work
- Why is atmosphere important
- Atmospheric layers and composition
- Weather vs. climate
- Basics of Heat in the Atmosphere
- Atmospheric energy budget and the greenhouse effect
- Convection and wind
- Basics of air pressure and relationship to winds and heat
- Humidity and condensation (where and why does it happen, etc.)
- Concept of latent heat
- How heat, air pressure and moisture relate to storms/hurricanes
- What are hurricanes and conditions needed for their formation
- How hurricanes grow from tropical depressions
- Saffir-Simpson Scale of Hurricane Intensity and hurricane naming
- Hurricanes and global warming
- Basic concepts from Hurricane Katrina film
Hurricanes - Hazards and Mitigation
- Know the different types of hurricane hazards (winds, storm surge, etc.) and what kind of problems they pose
- Far reaching and long term impacts of hurricanes
- Concept of social justice issues surrounding hurricanes and other disasters
- Preparing for hurricanes and severe storms
- Forecasting hurricanes and evacuation
- What to do during and after the storm
Tornadoes and Washington Storms
- Basic concepts from Kent Short's guest lecture (causes of tornadoes, types of wind storms in WA, etc.)
Current Events
- What are some of the big events that have been going on (think Twitter)
Please bring a scantron sheet to the exam for multiple choice questions.
Exam 1 (Thursday, April 29) - Covers Lecture, Earth Week (lecture and readings), and Chapters 1 and 4 in text
Introduction / Risk and Policy
- Hazard vs. Disaster vs. Catastrophe - what makes them different
- Types of hazards
- Acceptable Risk - what effects it, etc.
- Probability x Consequences
- Mitigation - what is it and what does it involve?
- General steps for dealing with any potential hazard (know the science, monitor, prepare, etc.)
- Prediction vs. Forecasting
- Stages of recovery
Plate Tectonics
- Wegener's original evidence for "Continental Drift" & Hess' hypothesis of Sea Floor Spreading
- What is Plate Tectonics (Definition, etc)
- Layers of the Earth
- Hot spots and measuring the speed of plates
- Types of plate boundaries and what happens at each
- Know some examples of recent current events (twiiter, etc.)
Volcanoes and Magma - Basic Science
- What volcanoes are made of (silicate minerals and igneous rocks, etc.)
- Difference between mafic and felsic magma (composition, temperature, viscosity, gas content, etc.)
- What controls melting of rock
- Where melting happens (where does magma for and why), including concept of partial melting
- Relationship of plate tectonics to magma formation
- Basic volcano terminology and how an eruption works
- Types of eruptions and VEI scale
- Volcanic products (details about lava flows, rocks, gases, pyroclastics, etc.)
- Types of volcanoes
- Yellowstone - basic concepts, what is happening now, etc.
Volcanoes - Hazards and Mitigation
- Types of volcanic hazards (lahar, pyroclastic flows, etc.)
- Long-term hazards (climate change, famine, etc.)
- What is happening in Iceland this month - basic concepts (think of this as an example)
- Preparing for eruptions - understanding history of a specific volcano
- Volcano hazard maps
- Volcano monitoring - methods and what we monitor
- Warning systems and what to do during an eruption
Earth Week - Basics on Famine/Hunger and Climate Change
- Famine (from reading) - what are some causes, examples, characteristics and what can be done
- Hunger in Bellevue - Know basic, general comcepts from lecture and the concept of "food deserts"
- Climate Change - Know basic concepts from lecture and reading - what is it, what are the general effects, challenges of facing climate cahnge, importance of language (what we call it), etc.
Please bring a scantron sheet to the exam for multiple choice questions.
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Wednesday, June 9, 2010
