ocean

Question 1

Pacific ocean

Answer 1

largest and deepest ocean on Earth.

Question 2

Atlantic ocean

Answer 2

second-largest of the world’s five oceans.

Question 3

Indian ocean

Answer 3

third-largest of the world’s five oceanic divisions.

Question 4

Arctic ocean

Answer 4

smallest and shallowest of the world’s five major oceans.

Question 5

Southern ocean

Answer 5

world’s newest ocean.

Question 6

Salinity

Answer 6

the concentrations of salts in water or soils.

Question 7

surface zone

Answer 7

sunlight zone and extends from the surface to 200 meters (660 feet).

Question 8

Thermocline

Answer 8

a steep temperature gradient in a body of water such as a lake, marked by a layer above and below which the water is at different temperatures.

Question 9

deep zone

Answer 9

extending or situated relatively far down from a surface.

Question 10

water cycle

Answer 10

the cycle of processes by which water circulates between the earth’s oceans, atmosphere, and land, involving precipitation as rain and snow, drainage in streams and rivers, and return to the atmosphere by evaporation and transpiration.

Question 11

Evaporation

Answer 11

the process of turning from liquid into vapor.

Question 12

Condensation

Answer 12

is the change of the state of matter from the gas phase into the liquid phase.

Question 13

Precipitation

Answer 13

any liquid or frozen water that forms in the atmosphere and falls back to the earth.

Question 14

continental shelf

Answer 14

is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea.

Question 15

continental slope

Answer 15

the slope between the outer edge of the continental shelf and the deep ocean floor.

Question 16

continental rise

Answer 16

a wide, gentle incline from a deep ocean plain (abyssal plain) to a continental slope.

Question 17

abyssal plain

Answer 17

the largest habitat on earth.

Question 18

mid-ocean ridge

Answer 18

a continuous range of underwater volcanoes.

Question 19

rift valley

Answer 19

a lowland region that forms where Earth’s tectonic plates move apart, or rift.

Question 20

Seamount

Answer 20

underwater mountains that rise hundreds or thousands of feet from the seafloor.

Question 21

ocean trench

Answer 21

prominent, long, narrow topographic depressions of the ocean floor.

Question 22

Plankton

Answer 22

usually microscopic, often less than one inch in length, but they also include larger species like some crustaceans and jellyfish.

Question 23

Nekton

Answer 23

living organisms that are able to swim and move independently of currents.

Question 24

Benthos

Answer 24

organisms living on the bottom or associated with substrata.

Question 25

desalination

Answer 25

the process by which the dissolved mineral salts in water are removed.