Oceanography And Climate Flashcards
Name the earths oceans. Which is the smallest ? Largest?
Indian, pacific, Atlantic, Arctic
Largest- pacific
Smallest- Arctic
What are the major characteristics associated with water
Salinity, temperature, density, surface tension
What is salinity? Why is salinity of water so important?
Amount of salt composed in h20
Affects living things
How does the atmosphere impact ocean water with respect to temperature
When temperature goes down, salinity goes up
How have scientists come to know so much about the ocean floor?
Satellites, sonar
Continental margin
Slope, rise
Deep ocean basin
Oceanic crust (abyssal plain)
Trench
Long crack along ocean floor
Abyssal plain
Large flat areas
Continental slope
Part where floor plunges steeply
Continental shelf
Flat part covered by shallow h20
What is a feature found within the deep ocean basin
Abyssal plain
What are the characteristics of the sunlight zone? Why is this zone deeper than sunlight reaches
Warm, top layer, surface currents, mix of warm and cold h20
How do waves change shape as they near the shore, why?
Slows down and builds up, surface currents
Describe how waves are formed on the surface of the ocean
Wind + moon
What factors cause the tides in ocean water
Sun + moon
What is the difference between a tide and current
Tide- daily changes in the level of ocean water
Current- streamlike movements of water
What is the difference between surface currents and deep currents
Surface- horizontal, Streamlike movements that occur at or near the surface of the ocean
Deep- streamlike movements located below the surface
What occurs in upwelling
Cold h20 goes to surface nutrients
Wha are some of the effects of upwelling
Support the growth of phytoplankton and zooplankton
Warm and cold water currents
Warm- create warmer climates
Cold- affect the climate of the land near where they flow
What is the impact of warm water currents and cold water currents on land
Cold- keeps the climate along West Coast cooler
Warm- mild climate
How do you ocean currents flow of the equator? Poles?
Warm near the equator cold near the poles
What is the Coriolis effect
The apparent curbing of moving objects from a straight path to the earths rotation
North movement
Clockwise
Southern movement
Counterclockwise
What is Èl niño
Periodic change in the location of warm and cool surface Waters in the Pacific ocean, surface water temperatures along the coast of South America rise, alters the weather patterns enough to cause disasters
