51. Planet Earth Museum Paper
American Museum of Natural History @ West 79th Street and Central Park West – Admission Charge is a suggested fee so you can pay as the spirit moves you. Hours 10 AM to 5:30PM Seven Days – Closed Xmas and Thanksgiving day – web site www. amnh.org
View the Exhibits and Panels and answer the following questions as a seperate submission.
Gottesman Hall of pLanet Earth – First Floor
Exhibit : SPECIAL PLANET
What makes the Earth habitable?
Look at sample of coal – what type is it and where is it from?
Look at sample of oil shale – how was it formed and where is it from?
Exhibit: EARTH CYCLES
Describe and illustrate the Carbon Cycle
The coal sample shown contains metamorphosed organic matter and what other material?
What is the role of photosynthesis in the Carbon Cycle
Exhibit: MISSING CARBON
Where is the unaccounted for CO2 after combustion of fossil fuels?
Exhibit: HOW HAS THE EARTH EVOLVED
See Panel on “Oldest Rocks & Minerals on Earth – How do we determine the age of rocks?
Which element is critical for measurement?
What does the presence of “banded iron formations” indicate?
See Panel on “An Evolving Atmosphere” – What is the relationship between the end of banded Iron bes and buildup of oxygen in atmosphere?
See Panel “Icebox or Hothouse” – There is evidence of periodic Ice Ages in the early Earth but they were not lengthy as in the recent past – what is one possible reason?
Exhibit: HOW DE WE READ THE ROCKS
See Panel on “The present is the key to the past”- what does this mean?
See Panel on “Taking Time Precisely”- what is the “half-life: of carbon?
Exhibit: WHAT CAUSES CLIMATE AND CLIMATE CHANGE
See Panel on “The World Oceans”- how do changes in ocean circulation affect climate?
See Panel on “Climate System”- what is the impact of volcanic eruption(s) on climate?
See Panel on “Polar Ice andClimate” – if Antarctic ice melted, what is the impact on sea level?
See Panel on “Atmospheric Layers…”- what are the four distinct layers of the atmosphere?
Exhibit: HOW CLIMATE HAS CHANGED
See Panel on “Ice ages and Earth’s Orbit”- what are the three cycles described by M.Milankovic that influence glacial periods?
See Panel on “CO2 & Global Warming” – what is relationship of CO2 to global warming?
See Panel on “How Climate is Recorded” – which parameters are measured?
See Panel on “Evidence of Ice Ages”- how ling has the present Ice Age persisted?
See Panel on “Rapid Change in Climate”- describe the warming and then onset of extreme cold of Younger Dryas period.
Exhibit: View MONITOR of GREENLAND ICE CORE
What is the relation between air pollution and CO2 for the past 40 Years?
If present levels of CO2 are continued, how much will global temp, expect to increase by 2050?
A warm period occurred from 2700 to 900 years ago – what is the evidence for this?
Some 900 to 500 years ago, what climatic event occurred?
What happened to Viking settlements outside of Scandinavia some 500-100 years before present?
Has warming in the past 100-200 years been gradual
For your own edification, I suggest you take some time to view the Exhibit READING THE ROCKS and focus on the panels: “Deciphering the Grand Canyon”- as to the age of the rocks within the Canyon and how ling it has taken to sculpt the Canyon..
Hall of Biodiversity-First Floor
Panel -”What are Values & Benefits of Biodiversity” – what are the essential goods all of us rely on?
Panel – “Extinction & Biodiversity Loss” – compare present-day extinction rates and end of dinosaurs.
Panel – “Global Environmental Change” – name three (3) effects of energy consumption (fossil fuels).
Panel – “Deforestation” – a) Why have forests been cut down – purposes?
b) What happens to biodiversity when forests are cut down?
Panel – “Transforming the Biosphere” – Why is this period called the “Sixth Extinction” and why is it different than the other five extinctions that have occurred over Geologic Time?
Panel – “Tundra” – What threats does the tundra face today?
Panel – “tropical Forests” – Forests are a “sing” (or repository) for which gas?
– At present rates of cutting, tropical rain forets will be gone by —–?