Ocean and Ice Flashcards
How much of the worlds water, do the Ice caps and ocean account for?
Ocean = 96.5% Ice Caps = 1.9% So a combined amount of 98.4%
What is the water stored in ice caps called?
Cryosphere
What is saline water very good at doing?
Absorbing electromagnetic radiation.
Why do we know more about he surface of the moon and planets than we do about the bottom of the ocean?
Saline waters are very good at absorbing electromagnetic radiation. Electro magnetic pulses are used to penetrate and map underlying layers. Thus, ocean waters inhibit EM pulse.
In 1521 how did Ferdinand Magellan measure the depth of the ocean?
He stopped his ship, and with a weight attached tot he end of a wheel of rope, lowered it into the ocean until it hit the bottom. The rope did not hit the bottom, thus he knew the ocean was deeper than his 400 fathoms of rope (~730 m) – so he concluded that his ship was over the greatest depths in the oceans!
What is the scientific name for the red squiggles on this graph?
These are depth measurements and are called bathymetry
What is the average salinity densirtt of the ocean?
34.482
Define stratified.
Stratification, is when a body of water is cooled over a long period of time, such that the cool surface waters do not fall to the bottom any longer, because of increased densitiy due to temperatures around 3.99 celsius.
What is the wind mixed layer? Further more, what is beneath it?
The wind mixed layer, is a vertical layer of ocean where the temperature, salinity and density, is very consistant for up to 200 metres in some places. This consistancy is due to dominant factors such as turbulant surface winds that mix the contents.
Beneath the mixed layer is the permanent thermocline.
What is the continental shelf?
the marine floor (coast) of any terrain
What is the abyssal plain and continental slope?
The abyssal plain is the is where the continental shelf ends. It is a much deeper section of ocean floor.
Between the the section inbetween continental shelf and abyssal plain is the continental slope.
What is the difference between glaciated and glacerised?
Glaciated are areas of the Earth that were previously covered by glaciers.
Glacerised are areas of Earth that are covered by glaviers
What are parts of the cryosphere?
Sea ice, Ice shelf, permafrost, glaciers, snow, ice bergs, ice sheets
What is the importance of the crysophere with regards to water supply?
three-quarters of the water resources used in the American West derive from snow melt.
What does Mass Balance mean, with regards to the Cryosphere?
Glaciers are sensitive environmental indicators and thus their surface mass is monitored with regards to changing accumulation and ablation.
What is w.e, and what are its units?
It is a standard unit used when discussing depths of snow or ice by comparing the two like for like with regards to their water content.
Their units are usually: m w.e y-1
What are some of the processess of acumulation?
- Snow fall (which is dependant on temperature),
- Humidity
- The movement of air massess
- Avalanching
- Snow Drifting
- Condensation
- Rain
- Freezing of Meltwater
- Freezing of seawater
What are some of the processess of ablation?
- Melting from solar radiation
- The calving of icebergs from ice masses
- Snow blowing or evaporation play a minor part
Define periglacial and where does it occur most often?
Environments that are strongley affected by short-term subsurface freezing (freezing soils, ground frost) and where the mean annual air temperature (MAAT) is less than 3 °C.
It most often occurs in the northern hemisphere
Define permafrost
Permafrost is frozen ground. To be defined as such, it must stay below 0c for atleast 2 years.
Define
What exist above and below the permafrost, and are very important to the hydrology of it?
Taliks
Permafrost is mostly restricted to the uppper 50m of land. But what also determines the growth of ice?
The porositiy of the soil affects how the ground freezes. The ice will form in larger pores first, and at lower temperatures, smaller pores.
What happens to water when it freezes? Apart from it turning solid.
It increases in volume - about 9%
‘Frost shattering’ is an important pereglacial process. What is the name of the fragments it creates, and what is the definition of pereglacial?
Frost shattering creates Felsenmeers, and pereglacial is defined as ‘ topsoil that has been frozen and where the annual mean temperaute is 3c’
What is the hydrology of the permafrost environment?
The permafrost environment changes dramatically depending on the season. 80 - 90% of its run-off can be attributed to 10 days in the summer/spring months, completely transforming the landscape, and causing floods.
What are the three types of snow avalanche? And describe them.
- Powder Avalanches
Made up of freshly fallen snow that is airborn. - Slab Avalanches
Made up of either dry or moist slabs of snow that travel furhter distances than powder avalanches. - Slush Avalanches
A very moisture-laden mixture of snow and surface water that flows down the mountain due to an impermeable ground layer.
