Chemical and Physical Features Of The World Ocean Flashcards
Water molecules
-Are made of one oxygen and two hydrogens
- hydrogen bonds for between water molecules because of weak electrical charges
Elements
Are pure substances made up a single type of atoms
Molecules
Are a combination of two or more atoms
States of water
-Solid
- evaporation: liquid phase to gaseous phase
- gas
Ice is lees dense than liquid water
Water and heat
Water has a high heat capacity which allows water to absorb a lot of heat
Evaporative cooling
Is how perspiration keep us cool
Water as a solvent
-Water is often called universal solvent
-water is especially good at dissolving salts, made up of particles with opposite electrical charges.
Seawater
-Properties of sea water come from the nature of pure water and the dissolved substances.
-Particles in sea water can come from weathering of rocks, or from earth’s interior via hydrothermal vents at the mid-ocean ridges
Salt and salinity
-6 ions make up 99% of the dissolved material in sea water
-chlorine (55%) and sodium (30%) make sea water tests like table salt.
Salanity
Is the amount of dissolved salt in the water
Rule of constant proportion
The relative percentage of various ions in seawater is always the same
How is water remove?
Water is remove by evaporation and freezing and added to precipitation
Sea water density
-Density (mass/volume) depends on the temperature and salinity.
-It gets denser as it gets saltier and colder.
Dissolve gasses
-ocean atmosphere gas exchange is when gas dissolves into the water or released into the air.
-Oxygen, Carbon dioxide, Nitrogen.
-Gasses dissolve better in cold water.
-Carbon dioxide makes up
80% of dissolved gasses in ocean.
Transparency
-sunlight can penetrate the water, some colors can be seen deeper than others.
Red disappears first and blue light travels the deepest. Okay
Pressure
-Organism in land are under 1 atmosphere of pressure, the weight of the air above them
-Water is much denser than air, marine organism are under much more pressure.
-Every 10 m another 1 atmosphere is added
The Coriolis effect
Is the tendency of objects moving large distances on Earth’s surface to bend ti the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left on the southern hemisphere
Trade winds
-Winds are driven by heat energy from the sun
-Warm air at the equator rises
Air from higher latitudes rushes in to replace air, causing trade winds
-Winds are bent by the
Coriolis effect.
-Trade winds over ocean are the most stable winds
Westerlies
Are at middle latitude and blow in opposite direction of trade winds.
Polar easterlies
Are most variable winds.
Surface currents
•All major surface currents are driven by wind.
•Coriolis effect causes each layer of water to be pushed at an angle causing Ekman spiral
• Bulk of water moves at 90 degrees to wind direction
• Surface currents combine into huge circular gyres
Westerns sides of currents carry warmer water, eastern sides are cold currents.
Three layered ocean
•The ocean is stratified, layered, based on density of the water
• Surface layer is mixed by wind, waves, and currents.
•Intermediate layer has a permanent thermocline, a transition between warm and cold water.
•Open ocean only, continental shelf is too shallow
•Deep layer is cold, less than 4 C (39 F)
Stability and overturn
• Stability of a water column depends on the density difference between surface layer and lower layers.
•Downwelling, is when surface water sinks and mixes with deep water
• Mostly in polar and temperate waters in winter.
•Mixing is important for productivity of temperate and polar waters.
The great ocean conveyor
•For surface water to sink all the way to the bottom it must be cold and very salty.
• Atlantic near Greenland, Antarctic Water eventually rises and circulates back to the Atlantic.
• Circulation is called Great Ocean.
Conveyor
