Oceanography T/F Test 2

False

The high rate of evaporation in the subtropics makes the surface water denser than the water below and so it sinks.

False

The latent heat of melting is greater than the latent heat of freezing, because melting requires heat, whereas freezing releases heat

True

The latent heat of melting is less than the latent heat of vaporization.

True

The length of daylight is shorter in the ocean than on land.

True

The maximum depth of penetration of light in pure water is 200 meters, but it is shallower in the ocean, especially near land.

True

The maximum salinity possible under normal conditions is about 72o/oo.

False

The oxygen minimum zone is located at the bottom for most of the ocean

False

The principle of constant proportions implies that the amount of salt in the sea never changes.

True

The pycnocline does not exist in the polar regions

False

The saturation value is a set amount of gas that water can hold and can not be exceeded.

False

The term "iceberg" refers to large pieces of pack ice as well as free-floating land ice.

True

The three major gasses dissolved in the ocean are oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen

True

There is no thermocline in polar waters

True

Thermometers only measure sensible heat, not latent heat.

False

To go from undersaturate to saturated conditions can only be achieved if more gas is added to the water.

False

Tropical seas display the greatest surface temperature variation over the course of the year.

True

Variation in the depth to the SOFAR Channel is more likely caused by variation in temperature than variations in salinity and pressure.

True

Velocity of sound increases as temperature, pressure, depth and salinity increase.

False

Water at the bottom of the ocean is usually anoxic.

True

Water at the sea surface is usually saturated in oxygen and carbon dioxide.

False

Water becomes less structured as it cools and the more structured as ice forms.

True

Water has a high heat capacity because of the energy needed to pull water molecules apart.

True

Water is the only abundant, natural substance that will dissolve salts.

True

Water is usually saturated with the major gasses at the surface.

False

Water vapor will become structured if it is not disturbed by air movement

True

When atoms chemically react, only the electrons are involved

False

When sea ice is melted it produces normal salinity sea water.

True

Atoms in a salt are held together by ionic bonding.

False

Because of strong hydrogen bonding, water freezes at a higher temperature than expected

False

Because water is a polar molecule it is attracted to the North and South Poles

False

Beer froths when salt is poured into it because salt contains gas that escapes as the salt dissolves.

True

Below a given temperature, salt can no longer cause ice to melt.

True

Chemical reactions only involve the electrons, not the protons or neutrons.

True

Colours of light differ in wavelength, energy and absorption coefficient

False

Condensation occurs because the hydrogen bonds pull the water molecules closer together to form structured water.

True

Deep water extends to the surface in the polar regions.

False

Deep water in the temperate latitudes displays seasonal variation.

True

Deep-water sediments in tropical Pacific Ocean are rich in calcareous ooze because so much calcareous material sinks to the bottom and dissolves that the water is saturated in carbon dioxide and the ooze is stable.

False

Electron orbits can accommodate an unlimited number of electrons

False

For fresh water to freeze, the entire water mass must first reach 0oC, the freezing point of water.

False

Fringe ice is another name for an ice shelf.

True

Fringe ice is the only form of sea ice that usually contains sediment.

False

Growling in icebergs is caused by the underwater reflection of noise from near-by ship engines.

True

How much of an iceberg rises above the water depends in part on the iceberg's sediment content.

False

Hydrogen bonding in water molecules causes the molecules to align and form pentagons.

False

Hydrogen bonding is responsible for water's high heat capacity, higher and lower than expected boiling and freezing points, ability to form acids and bases and its ability to dissolve salts.

True

Hydrogen bonds are not important in water vapor.

False

Ice breakers are ships with blades on the front that cut passages through ice.

True

Ice breakers can only make a path through sea ice

True

Ice breakers tend to be more stable when surrounded by ice than when on the open sea

False

Ice floats because it is saturated with dissolved gas because its temperature is so low.

True

Ice formation increases the salinity of the water below the ice.

True

If a red and orange disk is lowered into the sea, its colour first changes to black and yellow and finally becomes all black near the base of the photic zone.

False

If the sun ceased to shine, the ocean would become a solid block of ice everywhere.

True

In active production of CaCO3, organisms expend energy to form the CaCO3, but in passive production of CaCO3 they do not.

True

In both the air and the sea, the farther a sound travels the weaker (less loud) it becomes.

False

In ice all water molecules are rigidly held in pentagons and this makes ice less dense than water

True

In polar waters no sound velocity maximum should exist because no thermocline is present

False

In some parts of the ocean the deep water is less dense than the surface water because of higher salinity at the surface.

False

In structured water all of the water molecules are firmly held in place by bonding.

False

In terms of density, the deep zone in the ocean lies below the surface zone everywhere.

False

In the tropics the pycnocline results mainly because of higher temperature and lower salinity, but in the subtropics it is mainly produced by higher salinity.

False

Lowest open ocean salinities occur in the tropics and polar regions because of rainfall and ice formation respectively

False

Sonar is based upon the principle of sound refraction.

False

Sonar is based upon the refraction of sound waves off the surface of an object or the bottom.

True

Sound and light both travel in the form of waves.

True

Sound travels as a series of elastic compressions and expansions as particles vibrate parallel to the direction the sound travels.

False

Sound velocity decreases as depth and salinity increase and temperature decreases because all of these brings water molecules closer together

False

Sound waves reflect into regions where the wave speed is slower.

True

Steam and ice display a greater change in sensible heat for each calorie added than does water

True

Stramatolites are mounds of passively produced carbonate sediments formed by algae.

True

Structured water is destroyed by high pressure, high temperature and high salinity.

True

Surface water and pycnocline extend to their deepest at about 30o north and south latitude.

True

Surface water temperature is more variable than deep water temperature.

False

Table salt will dissolve in non-polar fluids such as gasoline

False

Tabular bergs can form from an ice shelf or as fringe ice.

True

The SOFAR Channel is always deeper than the shadow zone in the ocean.

True

The SOFAR channel exists because in the deep ocean, temperature eventually becomes almost constant, but pressure continues to increase with depth.

True

The angle between hydrogen atoms in dihydrogen oxide is larger for ice than for water.

True

The angle between the hydrogen atoms decreases to 105o as ice melts.

False

The colour an object appears is the colour that is absorbed by the object

True

The colour an object appears is the wavelength of light that is either transmitted or reflected

False

The deep ocean is saturated in CO2 and that is why oxygen concentrations are low at the bottom.

False

The deepest part of the pycnocline in the ocean is at the equator.

False

The dysphotic zone is the upper part of the aphotic zone, just below the euphotic zone.

True

Maximum depth of light penetration in water is a function of turbidity, surface conditions, angle of incidence and atmospheric conditions.

True

As sound travels through water, its energy is gradually converted into heat

False

As wave length increases, depth of penetration decreases.

True

At temperatures below -25oC, salt can not melt ice.

True

Atoms become more symmetrical when the electron orbits are either filled or emptied.

True

A change of 100m in depth alters the speed of sound more than a change of 1o/oo in salinity.

False

A saw-like attachment on the front of an icebreaker cuts through the ice to create a path for the ship.

True

A unit change in temperature exerts a greater influence on sound velocity than a unite change of salinity or a change of 100 meters in depth.

True

Adding salt to structured water typically destroys its structure.

True

All icebergs begin on land as parts of glaciers and migrate to the coast where they then break free and become icebergs.

False

Among the unique properties of water is a lower than expected boiling point and a higher than expected freezing point

False

An ice shelf can be either a massive growth of fringe ice or an extension of a glacier over the sea.

False

Artificial light sources will not produce light in the aphotic zone because no light can penetrate there.

False

As heat is added, the temperature of water changes more rapidly than does that of ice or water vapor

False

As pressure, depth and temperature increase and salinity decreases water can hold more dissolved gas

True

As salinity increases, the boiling point increases, freezing point decreases, density increases and saturation value for gases decreases.

False

As sea water freezes, the salts are concentrated into the center of the hexagonal water molecules.

False

Mixing an acid and a base produces a buffer

False

More energy is required in melting than is released in freezing for the same volume of water.

False

Most of a piece of free-floating land ice lies below the water surface, but most of a piece of sea ice rises above water surface.

True

Most of the ocean is composed of cold and dense deep water.

True

Newly formed sea ice frequently contains some liquid salt water within it.

True

Normal marine salinity varies between 33 to 37o/oo.

False

Ocean salinity has been gradually increasing because each year rivers add salt to the sea.

True

Ocean salinity in the tropics and temperate regions is less than that is the subtropics and polar regions

True

Ocean temperature generally decreases with depth and latitude.

True

Only the North Atlantic Ocean routinely has icebergs as a shipping hazards.

False

Ooids are small spheres of passively formed calcite produced by algae

False

Oxygen content of sea water gradually declines from the surface and is at its lowest at the ocean bottom.

True

Pack ice gradually develops from pancake ice and is at least a year old.

True

Polar seas can become isothermal from surface to bottom, but tropical seas never do.

False

Pure water can neutralize acids and bases

True

Pure water reaches its greatest density at 4oC

True

Pure water reaches its maximum density at 4oC and for water to freeze under normal conditions the entire body must reach 4oC before any of it will freeze.

True

Rate of respiration and bacterial decay decreases as temperature decreases

False

Residence times are longer for those materials readily used by organisms.

False

Salinity increases with depth throughout the ocean

True

Salinity is always greater than chlorinity

True

Salinity is always greater than chlorinity in the ocean

True

Salinity is more variable at the surface than at the bottom.

False

Salinity tends to vary greatly within the deep ocean.

True

Salt raises the boiling point and lowers the freezing point of water.

False

Salts increase the rate of evaporation of sea water.

False

Saturation value increases as salinity increases, pressure decreases and temperature increases

False

Sea ice is important in ice rafting of sediments

True

Sea surface condition, height of the sun in the sky, clearness of the atmosphere and turbidity of the water determine depth of light penetration in the sea.

True

Sea surface temperature is strongly related to latitude and time of year.

True

Sea water tends to sink before it can freeze because of its high salinity.