Ocean Vocabulary Flashcards
The earth’s largest ocean.
Pacific Ocean
The earth’s second largest ocean.
Atlantic Ocean
The earth’s third largest ocean.
Indian Ocean
It is the smallest and shallowest of the world’s five major oceanic divisions.
Arctic Ocean
Generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica.
Southern Ocean
A measure of the amount of dissolved salts in a given amount of liquid.
Salinity
Scientists have divided the ocean into five main layers. These layers, known as “zones”, extend from the surface to the most extreme depths where light can no longer penetrate.
Surface Zone
A thin but distinct layer in a large body of fluid.
Thermocline
The deeper parts of the sea.
Deep Zone
The continuous movement of water from the ocean to the atmosphere to the land and back to the ocean.
Water Cycle
A type of vaporization of a liquid.
Evaporation
The change of state from a gas to a liquid.
Condensation
Any form of water that falls to the earths surface from the clouds.
Precipitation
The gently sloping section of the continental margin located between the shoreline and the continental slope.
Continental Shelf
The steeply inclined section of the continental margin located between the continental rise and the continental shelf.
Continental Slope
The Continental Divide of the Americas is the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas.
Continental Divide
A large, flat, almost level area of the deep-ocean basin.
Abyssal Plain
A long, undersea mountain chain that forms along the floor of the major oceans.
Mid-Ocean Ridge
A long, narrow valley that forms as tectonic plates separate.
Rift Valley
A submerged mountain on the ocean floor that is at least 1000 m high and that has a volcanic origin.
Sea Mount
A steep and long depression in the deep sea floor that runs parallel to a chain of volcanic islands or a continental margin.
Ocean Trench
The mass of mostly microscopic organisms that float or drift freely in freshwater and marine environments.
Plankton
All organisms that swim actively in open water, independent of currents.
Nekton
The flora and fauna found on the bottom, or in the bottom sediments, of a sea, lake, or other body of water.
Benthos
The process of removing dissolved salts from water, thus producing fresh water from seawater or brackish water.
Desalination
