Q: Two scientist, Pete and Gill, studied the Earth's crust and geology. Pete studied earthquakes, while Gill studied mantles and volcanos. Which person studied more about sediments lying on top of the subducting plate? Hint: Mantle melting can come about three ways: (1) when the temperature rises, (2) if the pressure lowers (which lowers the melting point), and (3) if water is added, which lowers the melting point. Two of these (1 and 3) might explain why there are volcanoes at convergent plate boundaries the temperature of the subducting plate increases as it sinks into the hot mantle (1). Sediments lying on top of the subducting plate contain water. As the sediments subduct, the water rises into the overlying mantle material. This lowers the melting temperature of the mantle (3). When the mantle above the subducting plate melts, volcanoes form above it. This leads to volcanoes in an island arc or continental arc.
A: Gill

Q: Ricky, an entomologist, is observing an ant colony in his back yard. After some observation, he discovers that all the ants travel down one of two distinct paths in order to find food to bring back to the colony. After taking some measurements, Ricky sees that path A is approximately 100 meters in length, and path B is approximately 150 meters in length. Ricky is now trying to make some scientific conclusions based on these observations. Which path will have higher pheromone density? Hint: In the natural world, ants of some species (initially) wander randomly, and upon finding food return to their colony while laying down pheromone trails. If other ants find such a path, they are likely not to keep travelling at random, but instead to follow the trail, returning and reinforcing it if they eventually find food (see Ant communication). Over time, however, the pheromone trail starts to evaporate, thus reducing its attractive strength. The more time it takes for an ant to travel down the path and back again, the more time the pheromones have to evaporate. A short path, by comparison, gets marched over more frequently, and thus the pheromone density becomes higher on shorter paths than longer ones. Pheromone evaporation also has the advantage of avoiding the convergence to a locally optimal solution. If there were no evaporation at all, the paths chosen by the first ants would tend to be excessively attractive to the following ones. In that case, the exploration of the solution space would be constrained. The influence of pheromone evaporation in real ant systems is unclear, but it is very important in artificial systems.[8]
A: path A

Q: Mike was reading about climate change. The author compared two different time periods, era A and era B. Era A was set in the present day. But era B was set in the year 2040. Mike was surprised to find how Arctic area would change in the coming years. In which time less fresh meltwater would enter the north Atlantic, era A or era B? Hint: Reduction of the area of Arctic sea ice reduces the planet's average albedo, possibly resulting in global warming in a positive feedback mechanism. Research shows that the Arctic may become ice free in the summer for the first time in human history within by 2040. Estimates vary for when the last time the Arctic was ice free: 65 million years ago when fossils indicate that plants existed there to as few as 5,500 years ago; ice and ocean cores going back 8000 years to the last warm period or 125,000 during the last intraglacial period.Warming temperatures in the Arctic may cause large amounts of fresh meltwater to enter the north Atlantic, possibly disrupting global ocean current patterns. Potentially severe changes in the Earth's climate might then ensue.As the extent of sea ice diminishes and sea level rises, the effect of storms such as the Great Arctic Cyclone of 2012 on open water increases, as does possible salt-water damage to vegetation on shore at locations such as the Mackenzie's river delta as stronger storm surges become more likely.Global warming has increased encounters between polar bears and humans. Reduced sea ice due to melting is causing polar bears to search for new sources of food. Beginning in December 2018 and coming to an apex in February 2019, a mass invasion of polar bears into the archipelago of Novaya Zemlya caused local authorities to declare a state of emergency. Dozens of polar bears were seen entering homes and public buildings and inhabited areas.
A: era A

Q: Rob is an environmental scientist. He is looking at two samples of soil, sample A and sample B. Sample A is from Amazon Rain-forest, where they get one of the highest rainfall in the world. Sample B is from the Atacama Desert, where they get one of the lowest rainfall in the world. He needs to determine the properties of these samples. Which sample would show increased rate of weathering, sample A or sample B? Hint: Rainfall in an area is important because it influences the rate of weathering. More rain means that more rainwater passes through the soil. The rainwater reacts chemically with the particles. The top layers of soil are in contact with the freshest water, so reactions are greatest there. High rainfall increases the amount of rock that experiences chemical reactions. High rainfall may also carry material away. This means that new surfaces are exposed. This increases the rate of weathering.
A:
sample A