Name: Period: Date:

Graph Interpretation

Graph #1

1. Create a title for this graph.

2. What is the independent variable?

3. What are the dependent variables?

4. What unit is World Fuel Consumption measured in?

5. What unit is Global Change in Temperature measured in?

6. Answer the following questions according to the graph:

a. What year was the global change in temperature the greatest?

b. What year was the world fuel consumption equal to 10,000 million tons?

c. What was the global change in temperature in 1920 (include units)?

7. Based on the data in the graph, what is the correlation (relationship) between global change in

temperature and world fuel consumption?

8. Can we rightfully say that world fuel consumption causes the global change in temperature? Explain

your answer.

Name: Period: Date:

Graph #2

Tree rings give us recent climate data, but some factors that cause climate change operate at longer time scales. For example, glaciers advance and retreat over tens of thousands of years. Carbon dioxide concentrations and the amount of sunlight both affect the volume of ice that is in a glacier. Glaciers will have more ice when we have a cool summer and warm winter. Glaciers will have less ice when we have warm summers and cool winters. The graphs above compare the amount of ice, CO2 concentrations and amount of solar insolation over the past 160,000 years.

1. Look at the last ice age, 20,000 years ago. Was the insolation relatively high or relatively low at that time?

2. How could the CO2 concentrations 20,000 years ago contribute to cooler global temperatures?

3. What was the CO2 concentration 135,000 years ago? Did the CO2 concentration have any effect on the amount of ice at that time?

Name: Period: Date:

Graph #3

Background Information:

Hot spots are stationary plumes of rising heat and magma coming up from the mantle. As the plate

moves over the fixed hot spot, a trail of volcanic material is left behind on the surface. The hot spot that is

currently beneath the Yellowstone area has caused widespread outpourings of basalt that has buried about

200,000 square miles under layers of lava flows that are a half-mile or more thick.

The map below shows the outlines and ages of several calderas (volcanic eruption centers) created as a result

of volcanic activity over the last 16 million years as the North American Plate moved over the Yellowstone Hot

Spot. Points A and B represent locations within the calderas. These volcanic tracks show the direction the plate

has moved over time and can be used to determine the rate of plate movement.

1. Does the age of the volcanic calderas increase or decrease as you move from point A to B?

2. Based on the age pattern of the calderas shown on the map, in which compass direction has the North

American Plate moved during the last 16 million years?

Name: Period: Date:

3. Calculate, in miles per million years, the rate at which the North American Plate has moved over the

Yellowstone Hot Spot between point A and Point B. Show your work.

The Hawaiian Islands are also being created by a hot spot similar to the one beneath Yellowstone. Diagram 1 is

a map showing the location and age of some of the Hawaiian Islands. Diagram 2 is a cross-section of the area

that shows the stationary hot spot and the islands that formed as a result of the rising magma.

Diagram 1 Diagram 2

1. Which of the Hawaiian Islands has the greatest probability of a volcanic eruption?

a. Kauai b. Oahu c. Maui d. Hawaii

2. Where do you expect the next island to form?

a. Northwest of Kauai c. northeast of Hawaii

b. Southeast of Hawaii d. between Hawaii and Maui

3. Which of the following graphs best represents the ages of the Hawaiian Islands, comparing them from

point A to point B? Explain why.

Name: Period: Date: