Answer to Question 1
B
Answer to Question 2
Currents in the atmosphere and ocean are moving vast amounts of heat from the tropics toward the poles. Water's high heat capacity makes it an ideal fluid to equalize the polar-tropical heat imbalance. Ocean currents and atmospheric weather result from the response of water and air to unequal solar heating. Ocean currents carry heat from the tropics (where incoming energy exceeds outgoing) to the polar regions (where outgoing energy exceeds incoming). The amount of heat transferred in this way is astonishing. For example, outbound water in the warm Gulf Stream (a large northward-flowing ocean current just offshore of the eastern United States) is about 10C (18F) warmer than inbound water coming from the central eastern Atlantic to replace it, meaning that about 10 million calories are transported per cubic meter. Since the flow rate of the Gulf Stream is about 55 million cubic meters per second, some 550 trillion calories are being transported northward in the western North Atlantic each second. Nearly half of these calories reach the high latitudes about 40 N. This warmth has a dramatic moderating influence on the winter climate of northwestern Europe.
As impressive as the figures are for ocean currents, the amount of heat transported by water vapor in the atmosphere is even greater. About 1 meter (3.3 feet) of water evaporates each year from the surface of the ocean, a volume of water equivalent to 334,000 cubic kilometers (80,000 cubic miles).
The Sun is the nearest star to Earth.
The Tilt of Earth’s Axis
Fossil remains of anatomically modern humans from the Czech Republic and from China (center crania)
Earth’s Major Lithospheric Plates
The Oceans of Earth
A spaceship leaves Earth at a steady forward speed of 70% the speed of light. How fast relative ...