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Oceanography
Chap 9
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Acoustical Tomography | A technique for studying ocen structure that depends on pulses of low frequency sound to sense differences in water temperature, salinity, and movement beneath the surface |
| Antarctic Bottom water | The densest ocean water formed primarily in Antartica's Weddell Sea during Southern Hemisphere winters |
| Antarctic Circumpolar | The current driven by powerful westerly winds north of Antarctica. The largest of all ocean currents, it continues permanently eastward without changing directions |
| Caballing | Mixing of tow water masses of identical densities but different temperatures and salinities, such that the resulting mixture is denser than its components |
| Coastal Upwelling | Upwelling adjacent to a coast, usually induced by wind |
| Contour Current | A bottom current made up of dense water that flows around (rather than over) seabed projections |
| Convergence Zone | The line along which waters of different density converge. Convergence zones form the boundaries of tropical, subtropical, temperate, and polar zones. |
| Countercurrent | A surfaec current flowing in the opposite direction from an adjacent surface current. |
| Current | Mass flow of water |
| Downwelling | Circulation pattern in which surface water moves vertically downward |
| Eastern Boundary Current | Weak, cold, diffuse, slow-moving current at the eastern boundary of an ocean (off the west coast of a continent) |
| Eddy | A circular movement of water usually formed where currents pass obstructions, or between two adjacent currents flowing in opposite directions, or along the edge of a permanent current |
| Ekman spiral | Starting with the topmost layer of water which is driven by wind, each layer slides horizontally over the one beneath it with each lower layer moving at an angle slightly to the right of the one above and slower than the one above because of friction loss |
| Ekman transport | The net motion of the water down to about 100 metters; in theory the direction of the Ekman transport is 90degrees to the right of the wind direction in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern |
| El Nino | A southward-flowing nutrient-poor current of warm water off the coast of western South America, caused by a breakdown of trade-wind circulation |
| ENSO | Acronym for the coupled phenomena of El Nino and the Southern Oscillation |
| Equatorial Upwelling | Upwelling in which water moving westward on either side of the geographical equator tends to be deflected slighlty poleward and replaced by deep water often rich in nutrients |
| Geostrophic gyre | Gyres in balance between the pressure gradient and the Coriolis effect |
| Gulf Strean | The strong western boundary current of the North Atlantic, off the Atlantic coast of the United States |
| Gyre | Circuit of mid-latitude currents around the periphery of an ocean basin. Most oceanographers recognize five gyres plus the Antarctic Circumpolar Current |
| Langmuir circulation | Shallow, wind-driven circulation of water in horizontal, spiral bands. |
| La Nina | An event during which normal tropical Pacific atmosphere and oceanic circulation strengthens and the surface temperature of the eastern South Pacific drops below average values; usually occurs at the end of an ENSO event |
| North Atlantic Deep Water | Cold, dense water formed in the Arctic that flows onto the floor of the North Atlantic ocean |
| Southern Oscillation | A reversal of airflow between normally low atmospheric pressure over the western Pacific and normally high pressure over the eastern Pacific: The cause of El Nino |
| Surface Current | Water flowing horizontally in the uppermost 400 meters |
| Sverdrup (sv) | A unit of volume transport named in honor of oceanographer Harald U. Sverdrup: 1 million cubic meters of wter flowingpast a fixed point each second |
| Temperature-salinity (T-S) diagram | A graph showing the relationship of temperature and salinity |
| Thermohaline circulation | Water circulation produced by differences in temperature and/or salinity ( and therefore density) |
| Transverse current | East-to-west of west-to-east current linking the eastern and western boundary currents. An example is the North Equatorial Current |
| Undercurrent | A current flowing beneath a surface surrent, usually in the opposite direction |
| Upwelling | Circulation pattern in which deep, cold, usually nutrient laden water moves up toward the surface. Upwelling can be cause by winds blowing parallel to shore or offshore |
| Western boundary current | Strong, warm, concentrated, fast-moving current at the western boundary of an ocean (0ff the east coast of a continent) |
| Westward Intensification | The increase in speed of geostophic currents as the pass along the western boundary of an ocean basin |
| West Wind Drift (Antarctic Circumpolar Current) | Current driven by powerful westerly winds north of Antarctica. The largest of all ocean currents, it continues permanently eastward without changing direction |
| Wind-induced vertical circulation | Vertical movement in surface water (upwelling or downwelling) caused by wind |
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lenelcorrea
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