Oceanogroahy Flashcards
Would you expect warm or cold weather at a low-pressure point?
Warm and wet meaning less dense equals a lower pressure.
Would you expect warm or cold weather at a high-pressure point?
Cold means denser equals a higher pressure.
What is a common current system in all large ocean basins?
Gyros
Geostrophic flow?
When the forces working on the fluid is weaker then the force of the rotation of the earth and makes the Coriolis the determining factor for the direction of the motion.
What is the net transport of water due to wind in the northern hemisphere?
90 degrees to the right
What is the net transport of water due to wind in the southern hemisphere?
90 degrees to the left
What is the movement of water at right angles called?
Ekman transport
How is upwelling caused by the Ekman transport?
When wind blowing along the shore is deflected at a 90-degree angle the water is moving away offshore and causing water to be replaced by upwelling of deeper ocean water that also brings nutrients to the surface, high productivity zones.
How is downwelling caused by the Ekman transport?
If the wind is blowing along the shore in the opposite direction the wind is deflected at a 90-degrees angle pushing the water towards the shore and therefore causing downwelling as the water piles up… making them less productive.
What are the three wind directions at the global latitudes from the equator to poles horizontally?
Easterly, the westerly, easterly, wind is always defined as where it blows from.
What happens at the equator due to the wind?
Piling up, upwelling at the equator due to easterly winds in opposite directions, just as along the coasts bringing nutrients and primary productivity.
What is another cause at the equator by the wind?
Gyros
What are the three different cells called from the equator to the pole?
Hadley, Ferrel and Polar (had will ferrel a polo on?)
What direction do these move in?
The wind moves vertically, due to heating and cooling causing density difference and therefore sinking.
Zonal or meridional what’s the difference?
Zonal is east-west and meridional is north-south.
What units is used for
????
What’s the grounding line?
The boundary between the ice sheet shelves and contact with the ground.
Starting from ice sheet out to open water, what sediments can be expected?
Subglacial till, glaciomarine sediments (after the grounding line), ice-rafted debris, open marine sediments.
How can glaciomarine debris be identified?
By fine graning towards the open water, stratification, increase of diatoms and forams.
Are diatoms and radiolarians calcite or siliceous?
Siliceous
Are foraminifera and coccolithophores calcite or siliceous? And who is the primary producer vs. consumer?
Calcite, forams are consumers and coccolithophores are primary producers.
What does ice-rafted debris contain?
Coarse glacial debris deposited in finer sediment environment
What sediment expected for open marine sediments? And rich in what plankton/benthic?
Clays and muds, rich in diatoms which are siliceous…
What sediment is expected for open marine sediments? And rich in what plankton/benthic?
Clays and muds, rich in diatoms which are siliceous…
What are some glacial landforms on continental shelves?
Lineations, meltwater channels, trough mouths fan and canyons, grounding zone wedges and moraines, plough marks (chaotic pattern compared to lineations).
What is the role of continental shelf research?
Changes in the terrestrial environment (since large input of terrestrial sediment from rivers etc.), where, when and how ice sheets deliverd sediment to the ocean, inetraction between ice amrgin and ocean margins
What unit should sedimentation rate be given in?
cm/kyr
What are the heat fluxes at the earth surface?
Longwave RADIATION, shortwaves RADIATION, latent heat flux EVAPORATION, sensible-heat flux DIFFERENCE in air/sea or air/land
What’s latent heat flux?
EVAPORATION - Latent heat flux is the flux of energy from the Earth’s surface to the atmosphere
Does short wave or long wave have higher frequency / more or less energy?
Short wave have a higher frequency and higher energy/warmer, longwave have lower frequency and less enegy/cooler.
Hydrostatic balance? And what units is it given in?
AT REST. When only gravity is working on the water column. N/m2
What unit for pressure force?
kg/m3
