Oceanus Midterm
The Universe has been expanding about _____.
14 billion years
America first appeared by name on a map in ______.
1507
Hawaii was populated by the Polynesians sometime around _____.
1780
The Earth's atmosphere is now about _____% oxygen
21
It takes about _____ years for Arctic surface waters to transit the Atlantic to Antarctica.
250
Earth is covered by about _____ water
70%
The _____ were the first civilization to go beyond the sight of land and into the Atlantic ocean.
Greeks
James Cook discovered _____.
New Zealand and Hawaii
In the deep, dark sea, _____ is very important for communication
bioluminescence
Our solar system was formed by _____.
coalescing of dust grains into larger and larger pieces
The Andes Mountains are the result of a _____ boundary.
convergent
The "conveyor belt" theory of oceanic circulation states that a major driver is _____.
cooling at the poles
After a water mass delivers heat to a region, it _____.
cools , sinks and recirculates
If the Earth's magnetic field reached zero, we would be at greater risk from _____.
cosmic rays
The second strongest currents in the oceans are _____ currents.
equatorial
If spreading centers are creating new seafloor in the center of the ocean basins, then the oldest sediment and rocks will be found on the seafloor ____
farthest from the spreading center
Sound waves travel ______ in _____ water than in _____ water.
faster, fresh, salt
The prevailing winds in the continental United States are typically _____.
from west to east
For deep ocean currents, the primary driving force is _____.
gravity
Satellite altimeters collect very accurate measurements of the _____ of the sea surface
height
A major climatic threat to coral reefs are _____.
hurricanes
Climatic scientists think that the _____, caused by Man, may be an important part of climate change
increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide
The presence of salt _____ the density of water.
increases
According to the climatic record in sediments, right now we are in a climatic regime that _____.
is in a set of values never seen before
The origin of the most abundant marine sediments is ______.
land
The main factor controlling seasonal productivity in the Antarctic is _____.
light
The deep ocean floor comprises _____ of the Earth's surface area
more than half
If the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic were slowed down or stopped by ice melting at the poles, Europe would probably have _____.
much cooler temperatures
Ocean currents are important for delivering _____, especially along coastlines
nutrients
Photosynthesis is important because that's where _____ comes from
oxygen
What caused the depletion of iron from the oceans 2 billion years ago
oxygen production by plants
The surface of the ocean is important because that's where _____ takes place.
photosynthesis
The theory of plate tectonics proposes that the _____ float on the Earth's _____.
plates, asthenosphere
Which color of light is most absorbed by seawater
red
The presence of abundant liquid water on other planets in our solar system _____.
remains in question
Corals are very similar to _____.
sea anemones
The most common location for hydrothermal vents is near areas of _____.
seafloor spreading
The continental rise is formed by _____ moving down the slope or through submarine canyons
sediments
Deep sea current circulation is a _____ process than surface current circulation.
slower
Wegener's idea was that all the Earth's landmasses had once been a _____ called _____.
supercontinent, Pangea
Water circulation driven by differences in temperature and salinity is called _____ circulation.
thermohaline
New satellites allow the measurement of sea surface _____ with _____.
topography, radar
There are basically _____ types of earthquakes.
two
Recent measurements shown the European and North American plates to be moving apart at about ____ per year.
two centimeters
Another important factor explaining high productivity in Polar Regions is _____.
upwelling of nutrients
Hurricanes get their energy from _____.
warm water
Normally, during non- El Niño years, there's a pool of _____ water in the _____ Pacific
warm, western
The strongest currents in the oceans are _____ currents
western boundary
Earth holds the solar system as the ______ planet.
wettest
The first explorations dedicated exclusively to marine sciences were carried out on the _____.
Challenger Expedition
What is the name of the effect that causes air masses to appear to turn from their initial course
Coriolis
A big push for oceanographic research after World War Two was due to our wartime lack of knowledge to support _____.
amphibious landings
When two pieces of lithosphere collide and grind against each other at a subduction zone, pent up strain energy can be suddenly released as ____.
an earthquake
Atmospheric circulation comes from _____ of heat at the equator and _____ at the poles.
an excess, a deficit
The most violent earthquakes occur _____.
at subduction zones
Oceans are _____ of years old
billions
