Chp. 15 - Ocean Waters: The Blue of the Blue Marble

What prevents the individual water masses from becoming one single water mass?

A heterogeneous makeup

The interior of the North Pacific Gyre has collected vast quantities of floating plastic garbage and chemical sludge referred to as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. What impacts might this phenomenon have on the overall health of the ocean?

All of these answer choices are true (it might become a part of our food web; it might be difficult to clean up; consumers might mistake plastic for food and ingest the plastic)

Which part of the visible spectrum does not get absorbed by water efficiently, thereby making it the color that can penetrate the deepest?

Blue

Where do the deep ocean currents rise to the surface?

Equator

Imagine you are an oceanographer mapping the sea surface temperature variations throughout the Atlantic Ocean for the Northern Hemisphere. What phenomenon best explains the difference in sea surface temperatures of two coastal cities located at the same latitude located on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean?

Gulf stream

What are the major surface currents on Earth that display a circlelike path and follow the ocean basin margins?

Gyres

What would happen to the continents if sea level were to rise significantly?

Ocean water may submerge large areas of continents, forming epicontinental seas.

Which of the following accounts for the largest amount of biomass in our oceans?

Plankton

What caused the shapes and positions of today's ocean basins to differ from their appearance in the past?

Plate tectonics

Which of the following briefly summarizes the food web and its group of organisms associated by feeding relationships?

Primary producers are organisms that survive by extracting nutrients from nonliving energy sources

A person is able to float more easily in the Red Sea than if they were floating in the Black Sea because the _____________.

Red Sea has a higher density than the Black Sea

Which of the following provides the largest tide-generating force?

The Moon

Why are waves larger during storms?

The larger wind speeds create more shear

Which of the following would be an area of the ocean with the LEAST dense water?

The mouth of the Amazon River

Organisms that live on, just above, or just below the seafloor are known as benthos. The varied nature of benthos organisms can be explained by _____________.

all of the following: depth, salinity, sunlight penetration, density, and distance from coastal runoff

If two wind-driven waves moving from different directions came together in such a way that the wave crests overlap to form a single crest, what would happen to the size of the waves? The newly formed wave would ___________.

become larger than that of the two original waves

Phytoplankton _________ and zooplankton __________.

carry out photosynthesis; ingest other organisms

Two negative ions that are found in seawater are ____________.

chloride and sulfate

Surface currents flow __________ in the Northern Hemisphere and __________ in the Southern Hemisphere.

clockwise; counterclockwise

Thermohaline circulation carries ___________ water from the poles to the equator, where the water becomes ____________.

cold; warm

The shallowest portions of an ocean found along the margins of continents are the ________.

continental shelves

A streamlike flow of the ocean eater is referred to as _________, and the development of local undulations produce _________.

currents; waves

The density of seawater increases as temperature _________ and salinity __________.

decreases; increases

Oceanographers distinguish between the different oceanic zones by using _________.

depth and distance from shore

According to this map, upwelling currents are most likely found at the __________.

equator

Ripples are the result of ___________.

frictional drag

The presence of abundant phytoplankton which contain __________ chlorophyll can make water appear ___________.

green; greenish

The Ekman transport causes a slow drift of water to the center of the ocean. As a result of this converging flow, sea level in the center of the ocean becomes slightly __________ than at the ocean's margins.

higher

The water mass located on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean would be expected to have __________ density and ____________ temperature.

higher; lower

As a wave passes through the open ocean, the water molecules move ________.

in a circular path

Major oceanic surface currents travel ____________.

in a similar direction to the prevailing winds as a result of the Coriolis effect

According to researchers, the recent rise in sea level can be explained primarily by a(n) ___________.

increase in seawater temperature

The early maps of the continental shorelines are distorted from what they really look like because early ocean navigators _______________.

knew how to find latitude but not longitude

Compared with the sea surface salinity of the tropical latitudes, the sea surface salinity of the polar latitudes is _____________ saline.

less

Oceanographers distinguish between aphotic and photic zone based on __________.

light penetration

The sea surface salinity is _____________ at the mouth of the Amazon River and _____________ in the Great Salt Lake, Utah.

low; high

According to the different categories of ocean life, an organism that can actively swim in the open ocean against currents is called __________.

nekton

What affect would the Coriolis effect have on the Space Station? The space station would _____________.

not be affected because it is not in Earth's atmosphere

Autotrophs need ________ in order to survive.

nutrients

The prevailing global wind patterns influence __________.

ocean currents

A wave will disturb the water to a depth equal to ___________.

one-half of its wavelength

The ________ is the rapid change in seawater density from less dense water above to more dense water below, whereas the ________ is the gradual boundary between warmer water above and colder water below.

pynocline; thermocline

Imagine a person is sailing across the Pacific Ocean and the deck of the boat is suddenly swamped by a wave twice as high as the waves have been during this entire journey. They have encountered a __________ wave.

rogue

When oceanographers discuss the elevation of the boundary between ocean water and the air above, they are referring to the __________.

sea level

By the beginning of the 17th century, ocean voyages had helped map the basic layout of the ________.

shorelines

The size of open ocean waves generated by the wind depend on the wind ___________, the ____________ of the wind, and the duration of the wind blowing.

strength; fetch

Marine biologists distinguish between the photic and aphotic zones because within the aphotic zone, __________, whereas in the photic zone, __________.

sunlight does not penetrate; water is lit by sunlight

The Coriolis effect causes the apparent deflection of currents as a result of ____________.

the rotations of Earth

Waves are created by ___________.

wind