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Oceanography Exam 1
Physical Oceanography
Question | Answer |
---|---|
Age of the earth? | 4.6 Billion Years |
What is the Nebular Hypothesis? | A sun exploded, blowing out gas & dust, thus creating the solar system. |
What is Nuclear Fusion? | Gravity pulls particles together after the sun explodes, heats them up and collects in the center. |
What is the Giant Impact Hypothesis? | A Mars-sized body collided with Earth and created our moon. |
How long ago did life begin on Earth? | 3.7 Billion years ago. |
What did Earth's early atmosphere include? | Nitrogen, ammonia, water, carbon dioxide, and methane. |
Who is James Cook? | The Father of Oceanography |
Who is Eratosthenes? | Developed the first system of latitude and longitude. |
What does latitude measure? | North & South |
What does longitude measure? | East & West |
Who is Matthew Fontaine Maury? | First "Full-Time" Oceanographer |
Who is John Harrison? | Created the Number 4 Chronometer |
Who is Fridtjof Nansen? | First professor of Oceanography Captained the Fram Proved there was no northern continent |
Who are Thomson & Murray? | Captained the Challenger Expedition |
Who is Ferdinand Magellan? | First "Around the World" voyage |
What is JOIDES? | Joint Oceanographic Institute for Deep Earth Sampling |
What is the Library of Alexandria? | World's first University Held written knowledge of all kinds |
What is the total water on Earth? | 97.5% Salt Water 2.5% Fresh Water |
What is the Deepest point in the ocean? | Mariana Trench |
How deep is the Challenger Deep? | 36,163 ft |
What is the mean land elevation? | 2,800 ft |
What is the mean depth of the sea? | 12,500 ft |
What are the three main layers of the earth based on composition? | Crust, Mantle, Core |
What are the five layers of the earth based on physical properties? | Lithosphere, Asthenosphere, Mesosphere, Outer Core, Inner Core |
Original Lines of Evidence of Continental Drift? | Pangea ( fit of the continents ) same extinct species of plants/animals on separate continents same types of rock on separate continents past glaciation |
Modern lines of evidence of continental drift? | Seismic Activity Magnetic Structural: ridges & trenches Presence of hot spots Age of the seafloor |
Convergent Plate Boundaries? | Plates coming together |
Convergent - Ocean v Continental Example | Andes Mountains |
Convergent - Ocean v Ocean Example | Japan |
Convergent - Continental v Continental Example | Himalayas |
Divergent Plate Boundaries? | Plates pulling apart |
Divergent - Continental v Continental Example | East African Rift Valley |
Divergent - Ocean v Ocean Example | Mid-Atlantic Ridge |
Transform Plate Boundaries? | Plates sliding past each other |
Transform Example | San Andreas Fault |
What is the Wilson Cycle? | Explains the opening and closing of ocean basins |
Stages of the Wilson Cycle? | Embryonic - East African Rift Valley Juvenile - Red Sea Mature - Atlantic Ocean Declining - Pacific Ocean Terminal - Mediterranean Sea Suturing - Himalayas |
How old is the oldest ocean crust? | 180 million years |
Where is the oldest ocean crust located? | western Pacific |
What is the most important driver of plate tectonics? | Convection |
What was the vessels name that traveled to the Challenger Deep? | Trieste |
Who traveled to the Challenger Deep? | Walsh and Piccard |
Florida Coast is shaped by? | Underwater Currents |
Oregon Coast is shaped by? | Major river & Subduction |
Texas coast is shaped by? | Salt Domes |
What creates Submarine Canyons? | Underwater landslides & lower sea levels |
What are Turbidites? | turbid flows of sediment |
What are turbidites triggered by? | earthquakes storms volcanoes |
What are Guyots? | flat top seamounts that break sea level |
What are Seamounts? | non-flat top that never breaks sea level |
Ichnology | The study of tracks, trails, and burrows (both modern and ancient). |
How do we sample ocean floor sediments? | Clam Shell Scoop, Core Sample, Piston Core, Drill into the sea floor, Seismic Stratigraphy, Submarines, Divers |
What are the states of Matter | Solid, Liquid, Gas |
Irving Langmuir | Described plasma as a state of matter |
Heat | Energy produced by the vibration of atoms/molecules |
Temperature | The measure of how rapidly the molecules of a substance are vibrating |
Calorie | Energy necessary to raise 1 gram of water 1 degree celsius |
Heat Capacity | A measure of the heat required to raise temp of 1 gram of a substance by 1 degree celsius |
What is Refraction? | The bending of energy as it goes from one medium to another. |
What is the Electromagnetic Spectrum? | How we break up different energies |
Below ______m ocean water is about the _______ | 2000 ; same |
As salinity increases, density ______ | increases |
As temperature decreases, density _______ | increases |
Photic Zone | 100-600m in clear water |
Aphotic Zone | no light > 600m |
pH scale | measure of acidity |
pH of salt water | 7.8 - 8.3 |
the bicarbonate ion keeps the pH of the oceans _______ | constant |
Equinox | 3/20, 9/22, 923 |
Solstice | 6/21, 6/22, 12/21, 12/22 |
What causes the seasons? | tilt of earth's axis |
Heat is transferred by? | Conduction Radiation Convection |
What is Convection? | hot matter moves from one location to another. |
Coriolis Effect | an effect where a mass moving in a rotating system experiences a force acting perpendicular to the direction of motion and to the axis of rotation. |
ITCZ | Intertropical Convergence Zone |
Vilhelm Bjerknes | Named storm systems "fronts". |
Antoine-laurent Lavoisier | "discovered" water |
Where do salts in the sea come from? | Runoff from land Excess Volatiles Hydrothermal Vents @ Mid-Ocean Ridges |
Forchhammers Principle of Constant Properties | the proportions of the major salts in seawater stay about the same everywhere. |
How do we measure salinity? | Chemically Electric Salinometer Optical Salinometer Evaporation of water from a sample of seawater |
How do hurricanes cause the most damage? | Wind Rain Storm Surge Tornado |
El Nino | A period of climate change Trade winds slack and reverse direction |
What happens in SoCal during El Nino? | Rain & Flooding |
What happens in South America during El Nino? | Torrential Rainfall & Flooding |
What happens in Asia during El Nino? | Drought |
La Nina | trade winds become stronger than normal |
What happens during a La Nina? | Upwelling in South America East Pacific Countries experience intense droughts Number of Hurricanes increases |
Ocean Gyres | Rotates the ocean basins; North Atlantic South Atlantic North Pacific South Pacific Indian West Wind Drift |
Ekman Spiral | Shows direction of wind driven water motion and how it curves/varies with depth. |
Currents in Atlantic Ocean | Gulf Stream N. Atlantic Current Canary Current N. Equatorial Current Labrador Current |
Currents in Pacific Ocean | Kuroshio N. Pacific California N. Equatorial Alaska |
Western Boundary Current | Warm, Swift, Large, Narrow, Deep Gulf Stream, Kuroshio |
Eastern Boundary Current | Cold, Slow, Small, Shallow, Broad California, Canary |
CCD | The level below which calcium carbonate is dissolved (~4500m) |
Langmuir Circulation | consists of a series of shallow, slow, counter-rotating vortices at the ocean's surface aligned with the wind. These circulations are developed when wind blows steadily over the sea surface. |
Windrows | "lines of foam" air passing over water parts and then converges |
Thermohaline Circulation | Currents below the pycnocline Is responsible for overall global circulation of oceans |
Global Conveyer Model | Moving water & heat around earth's surface |
Surface Water | Surface to 660ft |
Central Water | 660ft ---> bottom of Thermocline |
Intermediate Water | Bottom of Thermocline ---> ~5000ft |
Deep Water | 5000ft ---> ~13000ft |
Bottom Water | 13000ft ---> Seafloor |
Caballing | two water masses with equal density combine to create a third water mass with a higher density |
Specific Water Masses | Antarctic Bottom Water North Atlantic Deep Water Antarctic Intermediate Water Mediterranean Water Pacific Deep Water |
How do we measure currents? | Drogue Garbage floating in the ocean SOFAR floats Ekman Flow meter Through-Hull Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler Slocum Glider Acoustical Tomography |
What makes waves? | Wind Earthquakes Landslides Gravity |
Deep Water Waves | depth greater than half the wave length |
Transitional Waves | depth less than L/2 but greater than L/20 |
Shallow Waves | depth less than L/20 |
Swell | waves that have traveled out of the area where they were created |
Tsunami's are formed from: | earthquakes and underwater landslides |
Causes of Tsunami's | Earthquakes Meteorites Volcanoes Rockslides/Landslides |
Lisbon, Portugal 1755 | first time an earthquake and tsunami were associated with each other |
Chile 1960 | 9.6 earthquake - largest recorded |
Indonesia 2004 | 9.0 earthquake |
Maelstrom | Zone of rough water that circulates |
Spring Tides | Highest high tide and lowest low tide |
Neap Tides | weakest tides (first quarter moon) |
Semidiurnal tides | 2 equal high tides and 2 equal low tides over 24 hours |
Diurnal tides | 1 high tide and 1 low tide over 24 hours |
Mixed tides | 2 unequal high tides and 2 unequal low tides over 24 hours |
Amphidromic Points | points of canceling tides due to the coriolis effect. |
Bay of Fundy Gulf of California | Macrotidal Regime |
Beaches | the steeper the angle of the beach, the coarser the material on the beach |
Rillmarks | water draining back to the sea from beach face |
Ripples | flowing water |
Swash marks | pattern of 'v' shapes on the beach face due to sorting of grains with different densities. |
2 types of coastlines | emergent (erosional) submergent (depositional) |
Emergent Coastlines | sea cliffs sea caves sea arch sea stack exposed beach headland wave-cut platform |
Submergent Coastlines | bay sandspit barrier island lagoon bay mouth bar |
Wave Dominated Delta | Nile delta |
River Dominated Delta | Mississippi River |
Tide Dominated Delta | Colorado River, Ganges River |
Diatoms | produce ~80% of the air we breathe |
Sources of CO2 | burning & decaying of biomass respiration weathering of carbonate rock volcanic activity burning of fossil fuels |
Sinks of CO2 | burial of biomass photosynthesis deposition of carbonate sediments weathering of granite CO2 dissolves in seawater |