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Oceanography
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| salinity | amount of solid material (like salt) dissolved in water |
| deep ocean trench | place on the seafloor where one plate is subducting beneath another and a long narrow depression forms |
| mid-ocean ridge | a chain of underwater mountains |
| upwelling | the rising of cold water from deeper layers to replace warmer surface water that has been moved away; brings nutrients to the ocean surface |
| abyssal plains | deep, extremely flat features |
| density | a measure of the amount of matter in a given space |
| continental shelf | part of the ocean next to the continent that is shallow and fairly flat |
| continental slope | part of the ocean next to the continental shelf where the seafloor drops off at a steep slope |
| current | a mass of water is moved by wind or density differences to another part of the ocean |
| El Nino | periodic warming of the ocean that occurs in the central and eastern Pacific; can change the weather in many parts of the world |
| thermocline | layer of the ocean around 300 to 1000 meters deep where there is a rapid change in temperature with depth; creates a barrier for many marine life forms |
| Pacific | this is Earth's largest ocean |
| Arctic | this is the smallest, most shallow ocean |
| continental rise | Gradual incline between ocean basin and continental slope |
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