Assignment Question, Prompt, And Instructions
CLEANED assignment question/prompt and instructions
Assume that the average person consumes 100 liters of water per day (Ld-1).
A backyard pool may contain 13,000 gallons of water. How many swimming pools of this size could you fill up with the water required to sustain the world’s population for one year?
Go to Crane Creek, anywhere from the SUB bridge to the Babcock Street bridge. Record the time and date; if you have access to a GPS receiver, record the position and time (x,y,z,t). Make the necessary measurements to calculate the stream discharge in m3/day. How does your answer compare with that of the USGS (search for the website)?
The Caspian Sea is the lake with the largest surface area on Earth. How does the surface area of the Caspian Sea compare to the surface area of your home state or country (choose one)?
Evaporation from the ocean surface to the atmosphere is about 1.25 m/yr. If 10% is returned by rivers and 5% by groundwater, how much precipitation (km3) falls over the ocean per year?
The Amazon River discharges 6300 km3/yr. The average concentration of suspended particulate matter in the water is 0.19 g/L. How many long tons of geosphere particulate material are discharged by the Amazon River each year? What is the difference between a short ton, a long ton, and a metric tonne?
At any given time, about 5% of the ocean surface experiences upwelling. If there are 2×104 copepods/m3 in upwelling areas, and 1.2×10−2 copepods/L in other areas, and a copepod weighs 60 milligrams, calculate the total mass (kg) of the copepod biosphere. Assume they all live in the upper 100 meters.
If all sunlight from the cosmosphere heats the ocean according to (1−A)Q/4 = T4, calculate the average global sea surface temperature. Express this in Celsius degrees. How does this value compare to the observed average global SST?
If Earth were the size of a 1.2 meter diameter globe, what would be the average thickness of the ocean on that globe? Provide an example of something with the same thickness as you calculated.
Global sea level is rising about 3 mm/yr. How many km3 of continental ice would have to melt in one century to supply the freshwater needed to account for this rate of sea level rise? Where on Earth would most of this ice-melt come from?
The Florida Current volume transport through the Straits of Florida is about 25×106 m3/s. A “big gulp” is 64 oz. How many “big gulps” would the entire 7.1 billion human population need to drink in order to consume one second’s worth of Florida Current volume transport?
Using the hydrostatic equation, calculate the total pressure (p) on a diver’s ear under Z= –32.8 feet of sea water. Show that the MKS units of pressure are N·m−2 = Pa.
Using the geostrophic equation, where the Coriolis parameter f=1.4584×10−4 sin θ (s−1), and ρ is sea water density (kg·m−3), show that the velocity u in MKS units is m·s−1. Then, at a latitude of θ = 43.28934ºN, calculate the surface velocity across the Gulf Stream if the ship's captain says ΔY = 50 nautical miles, and the sea surface height decreases one meter from south to north. Since ΔY is oriented north-south, determine which way the current is flowing.
Choose one of the following essays to complete:
Option 1: Search the Internet for SECOORA Strategic Priorities Plan, and identify the “four themes”.
Option 2: Search for Florida Ocean Alliance and find the Final Report titled “Florida's Oceans and Coasts: An Economic and Cluster Analysis”.
For the selected report, include the URL where you found it, identify the author(s), and the endorsing organization. Evaluate what the sponsors’ perspectives on hydrosphere issues reveal and suggest one question for the authors and one policy change they should consider. Write your detailed answer as a properly formatted, fully developed essay.
All sources used in your answers or calculations MUST be cited, with complete references provided.