Chapter 13 Flashcards
What is the continuous movement of water from the ocean to the atmosphere to the land and back to the ocean?
Water cycle
What is the gently sloping section of the continental margin located between the shoreline and the continental slope?
Continental Shelf
What is the steeply inclined section of the continental margin located between the continental rise and the continental shelf?
Continental Slope
What is the gently sloping section of the continental margin located between the continental slope and the abyssal plain
Continental Rise
What is a large, flat, almost level area of the deep-ocean basin?
Abyssal plain
What is a long, undersea mountain chain that forms along the floor of the major oceans?
Mid-ocean ridge
What is a long, narrow valley that forms as tectonic plates separate?
Rift Valley
What is a submerged mountain on the ocean floor that is at least 1,000 m high and that has a volcanic origin?
Seamount
What is a steep, long depression in the deep-sea floor that runs parallel to a chain of volcanic islands or a continental margin?
Ocean trench
What is the mass of mostly microscopic organisms that float or drift freely in freshwater and marine environments?
Plankton
What are all organisms that swim actively in open water, independent of currents?
Nekton
What are the organisms that live at the bottom of the sea or ocean?
Benthos
What is the region near the bottom of a pond, lake or ocean?
Benthic environment
What is in the ocean, the zone near the surface or at middle depths, beyond the sublittoral zone and above the abyssal zone?
Pelagic environment
What is a process of removing salt from ocean water?
Desalination
