Oceanography Final Exam
Why is latent heat of vaporization of water higher than other substances?
because it has to break hydrogen bonds.
Strong heating in the INtertropical Convergence zone means..
causes surface air to expand and rise. Success of tropical rainforests when produces moisture and rain.
Convert a salinity of 35 "strange doohicky symbol" to regular %.
35 strange symbol means 35 parts per thousand, which is the same as 3.5%.
Which is true: long wavelength deepwater waves travel slower than shorter wavelength waves,
, shorter wavelength deepwater waves travel slower than longer wavelength waves
What is the current concentration of CO2 in the atm?
400 ppm
How much lower, on average, was global sea level during the peak of last ice age 18,000 years ago?
410 feet below current sea level
What is the residence time of a molecule of water in the ocean? What does this mean?
4100 years. A water molecule, on average, will spend 4100 years in the ocean before it is removed by evaporation or subduction.
Does the salinity, density, temperature graph imply that if the temperature of seawater changes, the salinity will also?
NO, because Temperature and Salinity are independent of each other.
Is a high pressure belt a region of clear skies or clouds and rain?
clear skies
What are conservative constituents?
constituents of seawater that occur in constant proportion or change very slowly through time. Long residence times
What are non conservative constituents?
constituents tied to biological or seasonal cycles or short geological cycles. Short residence times.
What is the mechanism of heat transfer called in which a fluid circulates because parts of the fluid are warmer than other parts, and the warm parts rise while the cooler parts sink?
convection
Water vapor condenses when air _____ (describe a temperature change). This temperature change happens because the air _________ (rises or sinks).
cools, and rises.
What were the long barrier islands during the last ice age when sea level was so much lower?
crests of glacier age, dune fields.
Major wind and pressure systems and weather at...30-60 degrees N and S
Prevailing westerlies Surface winds: SW in N. Hemishpere, NW in South Hemi
The amount of a gas that can be dissolved in the ocean ______ if temperature increases.
decreases
High pressure means...
decreasing sinking air which heats up, molecules speed up and bump into each other.
What drives thermohaline currents?
density differences in ocean
During which season is there typically more sand on a beach? Why is there less sand on the beach during the opposite season?
Summer has more sand on the beach because the wave energy is more gentle. less sand on the beach in Winter because the wave energy is stronger, so more sand is removed to offshore bars, and exposing the basement rock.
What is the foreshore?
The foreshore is seaward of the berm crest, and is the active zone of the beach, washed by waves during the daily rise/fall of tides/
Define halocline
The halocline is the layer of ocean where salinity of seawater changes the greatest in the shortest range of depth.
What does it mean for the ocean to be in a steady state with respect to dissolved ions?
The input of new ions from rivers and hydrothermal activity at ocean ridges and the removal of ions to make shells and by evaporation-precipitation are balanced so that the amount of ions in the ocean remains the same over time.
Major wind and pressure systems and weather at...Equator.
0 degrees region, Doldrums, ITCZ equatorial low. Pressure= low Surface winds= light variable winds Weather= precipitation in all seasons, breeding fround gor hurricanes and low sea surface salinity because of rainfall.
What are the percentages of carbonic acid, bicarbonate ions, and carbonate ions in seawater with a pH of 9?
0% carbonic acid, 50% bicarbonate ions, 50% carbonate ions
What are the three reasons why global sea level changes over time?
1. Amount of water in ocean basin can vary. EX: Sea level is lower during periods of global glaciation (ice ages) because there is less water in ocean. It is higher during warm periods, when the glaciers are smaller. Volcanic outgassing can also add water to the ocean and raise sea level. 2. The volume of the ocean's "container" may vary. EX: increased rates of sea floor spreading are associated with the expansion in volume of the ocean ridges. The expansion displaces the water, which climbs higher on the edges of continents. Sediments from rapid erosion, decreases the volume of ocean basins and raise sea level. 3. Water itself may occupy more or less volume. EX: as it's temperature varies. Global warming makes sea water expand and it occupies more volume which raises sea level.
If it weren't for water on Earth, our poles would be even colder and the equator even hotter. What are two ways that water reduces the temperature difference between the poles and the equator, and of these two, which is more important?
1. Atmosphere transfers water vapor from evaporation rain occurs to cool, warmed by condesation= 2/3 poleward transfer of heat. 2. Ocean currents carry heat tropics to polar 1/3
What is the typical ocean salinity? and what temperature does it freeze at?
35 parts per thousands (3.5 %) -1.91C (28.6F)
What constituent of sea water has the longest residence time?
1. Chloride 2. Sodium and so on.
What are four ways that estuaries can form?
1. Drowned river mouths 2. Fjords= drowning of glacially scoured valleys 3. bar-built= enclosure by bars 4. Tectonic activity= ex: San Francisco Bay
What properties of water cause the ocean to moderate our climate?
1. High heat capacity: takes longer to heat up, more energy stored. 2. High latent heats: the heat thermal E required to separate water molecules and turn them from liquid to a gas.
What are three non-biological processes that wear down rocky coastlines?
1. Hydraulic pressure from crashing wave 2. abrasion 3. dissolution.
Where do bicarbonate ions come from?
1. Most CO2 is dissolved in sea water from atmosphere. 2. Rain drops on dissolving feldspar--chemically weathered releases bicarbonate.
List the three most abundant gases in Earth's lower atmosphere.
1. N2 2. O2 3. Argon
What are the seven most abundant ions in sea water?
1. Na 2. Cl 3. Mg 4. SO4 5. Ca 6. K 7. HCO3
If you dissolved a small sea shell in a large pot of black coffee with a pH of 4.5, would the coffee end up with any carbonate ions in it? 2. What would become of the carbonate ions produced by the dissolution of the CaCO3? 3. If you added a lot of crushed sea shell to your pot of black coffee how would this change its pH?
1. No, the coffee would not end up with any carbonate ions in it. 2. The carbonate ions would combine with H+ ions in the coffee to make carbonic acid and bicarbonate. 3. Most (>90%) would end up as carbonic acid. If you added enough crushed sea shells, you would increase the pH (make the coffee less acidic).
What are the two sources of oxygen in the surface layer of the ocean?
1. Photosynthesizers 2. The atmosphere
Why is the connection between the ocean and the atmosphere so important?
1. The winds of the atmosphere=ocean currents 2. exchange of gases between the atm and ocean.
What two factors affect the density of sea water and in what way?
1. salinity= as salinity increases, density increases 2. temperature= as temperature increases, density decreases
What are the causes in local changes in sea level?
1. the tectonic motions and isostatic adjustment can change the height and shape of a coast. Coasts can experience uplift as lithospheric plates converge or can be weighed down by masses of ice during a period of widespread glaciation. The continents slowly rise. 2. Wind and currents, seiches, storm surges, an El Nino or La Nina event and other effects of water in motion can force water against the shore or draw it away.
What two factors govern Global circulation?
1. uneven solar heating 2. Earth's rotation
How many more H+ ions does water with a pH of 6 have than water with a pH of 7?
10 times as many.
Nuclear and solar energy are alternatives to burning fossil fuels as a means of generating electricity. What percentage of U.S. electricity production is currently generated by the combination of nuclear and solar energy?
20%
How fast are sea cliffs retreating along the Santa Barbara-Goleta coast?
20-30cm/ year
In 2009 how many tons of excess carbon dioxide was emitted into Earth's atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels?
30 billion tons (in ONE year!) Note that there are different ways of accounting for carbon. Sometime people measure just carbon (C); sometimes people measure carbon dioxide (CO2). Because carbon dioxide contains two additional atoms than just plain carbon, it is heavier. Therefore, if you count carbon dioxide, you'll always get a bigger number than if you just count carbon. For example, if I tell you in class that sometime in 2013 or 2014 the world passed the mark of emitting 10 billion tonnes (metric tonnes) of C in a single year, this would be equivalent to more than 30 billion tonnes of of CO2.
Average salinity of Earth's ocean?
35 o/oo, or 35 g per kg of sea water
What is the maximum ratio of wavelength to wave height that can occur in a wind wave? At this point the wave will break (form a whitecap) and wind energy is dissipated as heat.
7:1
What percentage of the salt in seawater is NaCl?
85%
Major wind and pressure systems and weather at poles
90 N and S Pressure=High
The north pole is
90 degrees N latitude
Ekman transport is a strange concept. What is the theoretical net (average) direction of Ekman transport relative to the direction of the wind in the northern hemisphere? In actuality it is less than / greater than this (choose one). Why?
90 degrees off the direction of wind (off to the right in the N hem and to the left in the S hem It is actually less than this, for geostrophic gyres anyway, because the pressure gradient force steers the currents back in the other direction slightly.
what would you estimate to be the average period of wind waves out at sea? Describe the frequency of such waves in number of wave crestons that would pass per minute (go back to p. 284 to see how frequency relates to wave period). Note that the horizontal scale is logarithmic, so to read the peak of the wind wave curve (which is really the mode, not the mean, but it's pretty close to the mean), you should interpolate between 1 sec and 10 sec using a scale like this (on the left):
: Average period: around 2 or 3 seconds. This would correspond to from 20 to 30 waves per minute (Frequency is the inverse of period, or 1/T, so a period of 2 seconds, which could be written 1/30 of a minute, corresponds to a frequency of 30 per minute.)
What is an estuary?
A body of water partially surrounded by land, where freshwater from land mixes with sea water.
What substance has a higher heat capacity than water?
Ammonia at 1.13 calories/gram/C
What is an ionic bond?
An attraction of molecules of opposite charges
What is an ebb current? In which direction does the ebb current flow under the Golden Gate Bridge, east to west or west to east?
An ebb current is a tide-going-out current. east to W. (Note also that a flood current is a tide-coming-in current)
Are coastal areas typically highly productive or not? I told you before that the Sargasso Sea, the center of the North Atlantic, is an "ocean desert" in terms of life. Is this statement borne out by the data shown in this map?
Areas of high productivity correspond to areas of upwelling. Yes, the Sargasso Sea is a desert of life--productivity there is very low (center of North Atlantic gyre).
What is the relationship of density and temp for pure water?
As the density of water increases as its temperature drops along the line. As the temperature approaches, 3 degrees C, (32 F), the density increase slows, reaching a maximum at point of 1g/cm3 at 3.98C (39.16 F). AS the water continues to cool, it's framework of hydrogen bonds becomes more rigid, which causes the liquid to expand slightly because the molecules are held slightly farther apart. So water becomes slightly less dense as cooling continues, until 0C, 32F is reached. Where water begins to freeze to change state by crystallizing to ice.
What causes waves to refract as in Fig. 10.20? Refraction only occurs when the waves approach the shore at an angle.
As the part of an approaching wave closest to shore reaches water depth less than half its wavelength it will start to slow down and will lag behind the part of the same wave that has not yet reached such shallow depth. This causes the crest of the wave to bend. The direction of wave travel is always perpendicular to the wave crest, so the direction of wave travel bends, too.
What scientists do?
Ask questions about the natural world and use observation and reason to figure out answers
By far the largest reservoir of carbon on Earth is in limestone rock ("...but a small percentage (<1%) reaches the sediment and is buried" and turns into limestone.) I added the bold words to a sentence from your textbook to clarify this. How does CO2 get from the atmosphere to limestone rock and then back up to the atmosphere? This is sometimes referred to as the "slow carbon cycle"
Atm CO2 → carbonate → CaCO3 (calcium carbonate plankton shells) → calcium carbonate sediment in the seabed (calcareous ooze, or, on the continental shelf, coral and macro shells) → limestone → (by uplift and weathering) → atmospheric CO2.
Why does air cool off as it rises?
Because as it rises it is subjected to less and less pressure, and it expands. Expanding air cools off.
Why are water's boiling and melting points so important?
Because it allows water to exist as a liquid on most of Earth.
Why is water so good at dissolving salts?
Because it is polar and NaCl with H2O breaks apart the Na+ and Cl- ions to dissolve well in water.
Why is heat capacity important?
Because it prevents extreme range in Earth's temperatures
Why is the ocean's dissolving ability for great quantities so important?
Because it's important to chemical, physical and biological processes
Why does CO2 increase with depth?
Because of cellular respiration for organisms that need energy.
Why is latent heat of vaporization so important?
Because of the role it plays in the transfer of heat in and between ocean and atm
Why is latent heat so useful in moderating climate?
Because the latent heat of melting ice=water. Solar E goes into melting ice instead of changing water temperature.
Garrison explains that you should think of tides as Earth rotating underneath a bulge produced mainly be the Earth-moon gravitational attraction. If this is the case, and Earth rotates once every 24 hours, why don't we experience high and low tides at the same time every day?
Because the moon changes position by 1/28 of a full earth rotation every day.
What are the four elements that make up 99% of the mass of living things (section 13.6)?
C, H, O, N
Which gas is depleted (experiences its lowest concentration) in the upper few hundred meters of the ocean and why?
CO2 because of the photic zone near the surface has photosynthesizers and consumers that use up the CO2.
What happens to CO2 when dissolved in ocean, chemically?
CO2+H2O----> H2CO3 (Carbonic Acid) ----> dissociation----> H+ and HCO3- (Bicarbonate) ----> dissociation----> H+ and CO3- (Carbonate)
What is the formula for photosynthesis?
CO2+H2O---sunlight--->Glucose +O2
Which gas, nitrogen, oxygen or CO2 is there a lot more of in the ocean than in the atmosphere? Where does a lot of this gas end up that keeps it from returning to the atmosphere?
CO2. Ends up living in photosynthesizers, and makes calcium carbonate shells.
Which positive ion is removed from seawater by shell-building?
Calcium
Boundary currents can have a profound effect on the climate of the coasts they are near. Label the edges of the two northern hemisphere continents you drew on your globe "warmer" and "cooler." What is the name of the boundary current that flows off the coast of California, and in which direction does it move?
California current. Northwest to southeast
Where do Potassium (K) ions come from?
Chemical weathering of rocks on continents and also ADDED at Ocean ridges by hydrothermal activity.
Where do Calcium ions come from? How are they removed?
Chemical weathering of rocks on continents and also ADDED at Ocean ridges by hydrothermal activity. Removed by shell building plankton shells, sea shells, coral that turn it back into rocks.
Where do the chloride ions come from?
Chloride ions come from hydrothermal vents and volcanic activity on the seafloor.
Name an ion dissolved in sea water that comes from volcanic eruptions either on land or at ocean ridges.
Cl, SO4
How do beach cliffs erode?
Cliff retreat: 1. Rode base of cliff (from wave cut notch) from * abrasion *dissolution *hydraulic action: water hits crack in cliff and it pressures air in crack which creates compressed air and forces rock apart. 2. Landsliding
What are coastal cells?
Coastal cells are natural sectors of coastline in which sand input and sand outflow are balanced. Bounded by submarine canyons that conduct sediments to the deep sea.
Which of the following two plankton are single cell algae (photosynthesizers; also known as phytoplankton?
Coccolithophores and diatoms
Is wave energy concentrated at headlands or the quiet beaches in the coves in between headlands? What effect does this concentration of wave energy have on the shape of rocky coastlines over time?
Concentrated at the headlands. This causes rocky coastlines to be smoothed over time.
In what plate tectonic setting are humongous bodies of intrusive granitic igneous rock called batholiths formed?
Continental arcs
What is air circulation driven by differences in temperature called?
Convection
What are biologically formed reefs made out of?
Coral
What is the name given to the "force" that causes air to be deflected toward the right in the northern hemisphere relative to the land or sea underneath it?
Coriolis "force." Because it is not really a force, it is more commonly called an effect.
According to terminology of the trophic pyramid, what are cows and antelope? What organism shown in Fig. 13.14 is an example of something that fills this role in the ocean?
Cows and antelope are primary consumers. Krill are like the cows and antelope of the ocean.
Describe how carbon moves through the microbial loop. There is one sentence on p. 382 that describes it all, but it leaves the loop open ended, beginning with DOC and ending with fish. Close the loop. In other words, how does carbon get from fish back to DOC?
DOC → bacteria → protozoans → zooplankton → fish → (by peeing and pooping) DOC again
How does the density of water change as temperature increases?
Density decreases as temperature increases
How does the density of water change as salinity increases?
Density increases as salinity increases
Where does most of the sand on most of the world's beaches come from? Hint most of dominant mineral in most beach sand is quartz?
Eroding hills and mountains; it gets transported to the ocean by rivers.
On a warm summer day imagine the sun's rays beaming down on a barren desert landscape and the sea. Both receive the same amount of heat, but the temperature of the land rises faster. Part of the reason is that rock and soil have a much lower heat capacity than water. But another part of the reason is that the heat hitting the water is split into doing two different things: part of it goes into raising the temperature of the water, and part of it goes into doing something else. What else besides raising water's temperature is the heat from the sun doing?
Evaporating water. The heat is transferred to latent heat of vaporization of the water.
True or False: Off the coast of Main is Depositional coastline
False. It is Erosional because of uplift from melting of the great ice sheet.
True or False. The latent heat of evaporation is not the same for sea water and fresh water.
False. It is the same for both. Salts are left behind as seawater evaporates.
Which of the three kinds of reefs described surround many of the Hawaiian islands?
Fringing reefs
What are fringing reefs?
Fringing reefs cling to the margin of land.
Suppose you were comparing the top 5cm of granite bedrock to the top 5cm of a very still lake on a windless night. Both start off at the same temperature at the end of the day, and assume that both lose heat at the same rate through the night. Which will be colder in the morning?
Granite bedrock. Water loses same amount of heat as it, but it's temperature will also drop. Granite= lower heat capacity.
What size particles makes up steep beaches?
Gravel. Steeper the beach, the larger the gravel class (pebbles, cobbles, or boulders)
What are water molecules in hot water doing differently than water molecules in cold water?
HOT: water molecules vibrate more rapidly, it's measured in how many there are and how fast they are moving.
What properties of water cause Earth's ocean to be a liquid?
High boiling point= polar
Major wind and pressure systems and weather at...30 degrees N and S
Horse latitudes, sub tropical high. Pressure= High Surface winds= light variable winds.
What else,, besides river input from the continents, volcanic eruptions and removal of ions by shell-building, is important in explaining the proportions of ions in the sea water?
Hydrothermal activity of ocean ridges.
What is the range of temperatures in the ocean surface?
IN the poles: -2C (29F) where sea ice forms to about 32C(90F) in the tropics.
What and where is the Sargasso Sea? Some people call it an ocean desert. Why would they call it that?
In the middle of the North Atlantic. Biological productivity is very low--no upwelling of nutrients.
Give one place you would expect ocean salinity to be low and why:
In tropics/ equator and around continents because of more precipitation and river beds out of continents into ocean.
Low pressure means...
Increasing rising air, which cools off, slowed molecules =cold temperatures.
What is the backshore?
Inland of the berm crest, relatively inactive portion of the beach with wind blown dunes and grasses
What does the ITCZ stand for, and what is it that converges?
Intertropical Convergence Zone. Winds (air) converge.
Aside from the fact the the high-pressure, cold water of the deep ocean can hold a lot of dissolved CO2, why is there actually more CO2 dissolved at depth in the ocean than at shallower levels?
It builds up slightly from respiration of consumers that live in the deep.
Since the Industrial Revolution, 90% of the heat of global warming has been stored in the ocean. What property of water (besides its having more mass than air) allows it to contain so much heat without a great change in temperature compared to other substances?
It has a high heat capacity. Latent heat of fusion.
How is global climate change changing the ocean's salinity (in other words, describe the change), and why (give a reason for the change)?
It has caused the tropical ocean surface to become saltier and the polar surface oceans to become less salty. This is occurring because of the increase in the pace of the hydrologic cycle: more water evaporates in the topics, and more fresh water rains down or is carried off the continents by rivers in the polar latitudes
What is meant by some water being "more productive" than other ocean water?
It has more photosynthesizing life in it.
What is the sofar layer?
It is a layer that refracts sound so that sound stays within the layer; this causes sound to be able to travel great distances within this layer.
How is anthropogenic (human-caused) increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration affecting ocean pH (in which direction is it changing pH?), and how might this affect the level of the CCD?
It is lowering the pH so the ocean is more acidic which raises the level of the CCD.
Why is the lithosphere important?
It is the layer out of which Earth's tectonic plates are made.
Why relative sea level of the coast around the Mesa in SB keeps dropping over tens of thousands of years.
It is the uplift of land along earthquake faults that bound the Mesa.
How does adding salt to water change its freezing point? (What is the freezing point of typical-salinity sea water?)
It lowers it. Adding 35 g of salt to 1kg of water (giving the water a salinity of 35 parts per thousand, which is typical for the ocean) will lower the freezing point to almost -2°C (Fig. 6.10)
How does salt change the rate of evaporation of water?
It lowers the rate of evaporation.
How does the total mass of life produced in the ocean compare to the mass of just carbon?
It's about ten times as great
Here is a question to test the limits of your understanding of residence time (important concept: see glossary and p. 206--I've asked you about this before!): Based on the last three paragraphs of section 14.1, would you say the residence time of carbon is greater in marine biomass or in land biomass?
It's greater in terrestrial biomass. There is about the same amount of carbon fixed in the ocean as on land, but there is much less primary producer biomass in the ocean, so C must cycle through it faster. You can estimate it from the information given in the book and the equation for residence time given on the top of p. 206. Note that the mass of C in primary producers is about one tenth the total mass of primary producers (see p. 395), so to calculate residence time I divided total biomass by 10. For the ocean, the residence time of C in primary producers would be about 0.150 billion metric tons / 50 billion metric tons per year = 0.003 years, or about one day. Looks like phytoplankton don't last long! For land, the residence time of C in primary producers would be about 80 billion metric tons / 60 billion metric tons per year = 1.33 years.
i told you in class that in some parts of the world ocean primary productivity is as high as 450g of carbon per square meter per year. This is about as high as it gets. How does this productivity compare to a field of alfalfa?
It's still a lot less (one third to one fourth as much)
What is that loss of heat called, without temperature change, of changing states of water from liquid to ice?
Latent heat of fusion. The abrupt decrease in density with freezing is the latent heat of fusion .
One gram of water vapor at 20C has a lot more heat (thermal E) than 1g of liquid at the same temperature. What is this additional heat called?
Latent heat of vaporization.
What is the opposite loss of heat (without changing temperature) called, with the process of melting ice?
Latent heat of vaporization. Produces a change in state, but not temp change.
What part of Earth receives less solar energy than it radiates back out to space?
Latitudes higher than this receive less solar energy than they radiate back out to space.
Why does the ocean contain less Calcium and silica (SiO2) in proportion to other ions than river water?
Less Calcium and silica because it's used to build shells or hard parts of organisms like coral and phytoplankton.
What is the movement of sand caused by longshore current called?
Longshore drift.
Where do the lowest ocean salinities occur? Can you suggest a reason for this?
Lowest= Next to the continents. River runoff.
What are mangrove coasts?
Mangroves are trees that can grow in salt water. Florida.
Name an ion dissolved in sea water that comes from chemical weathering of continental rocks and is transported to the ocean by rivers.
Na, Ca, Mg, HCO3, K
Chlorine atoms have 17 protons. Chloride ions are made by the addition of one electron to a chlorine atom. What is the charge of this chloride ion?
Negative.
Erosional Coasts:
New coasts in which the dominant processes are those that remove coastal material
In which direction is the longshore drift most of the time along most of the California coast?
North to South
What are the levels of oxygen not on the surface but after 2000 meters deep.
O2 levels are slightly higher as you go deeper because of fewer consumers of the O2. Less consumers because fever energy source for them.
What harm might be done by humans emitting carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels?
Ocean pH will be lowered (ocean will become more acidic), which would interfere with the building of calcareous shells and other hard parts by coral, plankton, and other organisms
Give an example of a situation in which you could keep adding heat to something without changing its temperature.
Ocean: you can add heat to water @ sea level @100c temp will stay same but liquid will boil to water vapor.
What letter corresponds to a transform plate boundary?
Off coast of South America under mid atlantic ridge
Which gas is abundant in the upper few hundred meters of the ocean and why?
Oxygen is highest on surface because of phytoplankton through photosynthesis AND interraction with atmosphere. But then low at 1km deep cuz zooplankton and other animals use up that O2
When a tsunami gets close to shore, what property of the wave stays the same? What decreases? What increases? (Note that the same is true of ocean swell approaching and breaking on a beach.)
Period stays the same, wavelength decreases, and wave height increases (pp. 308 and also p. 289)
Major wind and pressure systems and weather at...60 degrees-90 N and S
Polar easterlies Northeast in N. Hemi Southeast in S Hemi
Major wind and pressure systems and weather at... 60 N and S
Polar front, Pressure= Low
What is the name of the process by which light and sound (and even ocean swell) change direction as they move from water in which they move slower into water in which they move faster (or visa versa)?
REFRACTION
Where does Magnesium ions come from?
REMOVED at ocean ridges from hydrothermal activity and from chemical weathering of mafic rocks on continents.
What is a likely origin of submarine canyons that occur on the shallower parts of continental shelves in water no more than 400 feet deep?
River valley erosion when sea level was a lot lower during last ice age
Does most of the sand along California beaches come from rivers or from erosion of beach cliffs?
Rivers. SB beach is made out of quartz and feldspar that come from the Santa Ynez Mountains. Not the tiny particles of the beach cliff. HOWEVER: this is counter intuitive in cases with a lot of sea cliff erosion.
What technique or tool have scientists used to probe Earth's interior such as discovering Earth's layers?
Seismic waves from large earthquakes
Name a chemical substance that is important in shell-building and which is not expressed as an ion when listed as one of the dissolved solid constituents in sea water?
SiO2
Where do the sodium ions in the ocean come from?
Sodium comes from weathering of rocks on the continents. Travels through rivers
Answer this with a compass direction. Because of the Coriolis effect, surface winds in the northern hemisphere moving from the west to the east will appear to veer toward the ____________ (remember to answer with N, S, E, or W).
South
Briefly explain spring and neap tides.
Spring tides occur when the tidal bulge from the moon lines up with the tidal bulge from the sun (Earth-moon-sun all in a line), creating a large tidal range. Neap tides occur when the tidal bulge from the moon is 90 degrees off the tidal bulge of the sun (moon is 90 degrees off the Earth-sun line), creating small tidal ranges.
What happens to tidal extremes when the water in a narrow bay slosh in and out (seiches or resonates) at the same frequency as lunar tidal forcing? Give an example. The tidal extremes become enormous.
The Bay of Fundy is a good example.
According to the first paragraph of section 13.5, what distinguishes life from non-life? What is the dominant ultimate source of this "stuff" that life needs?
The ability to reproduce and to capture, store, and transmit energy. The sun is the ultimate source of energy.
What is residence time?
The average amount of time and sea water constituent spends in the ocean. Restime= quantity/ flow rate. Larger the quantity the larger the res time.
What is the beach scarp?
The beach scarp is the base of the berm where a vertical wall is carved by wave action at high tide--to low tide where the offshore zone begins.
What is refraction?
The bending of waves, not parallel to the coast.
What is the berm crest?
The berm crest is the highest point on a beach. It corresponds to the shoreward limit of wave action during the most recent high tides.
What are hydrogen bonds?
The bonds that hold water molecules together.
What curve does the Coriolis Effect deflect in the North Hemisphere?
The curve is to the right, clockwise from the expected path S.H= to the left, counterclockwise.
What explains the most extreme spring tides? (Why would some spring tides be more extreme than at other times?)
The lining up of spring tides with times when either or both the moon or/and the sun are closest to Earth.
Why doesn't the part of Earth that receives more than it radiates out keep heating up, and why doesn't the part of Earth that receives less than it radiates out keep cooling off?
The low latitudes don't keep heating up and the poles don't keep cooling off because heat is transferred from the tropics to the poles
What part of Earth receives more solar energy than it radiates back out to space?
The low latitudes, between about 35°N and 35°S receives more solar energy than it radiates back out to space
What ion is removed from seawater by the circulation of sea water at ocean ridges between sea and oceanic crust? and which ion is added in it's place?
The magnesium and sulfate ions are removed and the calcium and potassium ends up being added.
What is longshore drift?
The movement of sediment (usually sand) along the coast, driven by wave action.
What is the stratosphere?
The next layer above the troposphere. Jet air fly in lower part, colder as you go up.
What is the explanation of waves coming in sets? Surfers refer to this phenomenon as surf beat. Make sure in your answer that you explain that it is constructive or destructive interference that produces the largest waves in the set.
The ocean is full of waves with different wavelengths constantly interfering. If there are two prominent wavelengths of waves approaching shore, then sometimes they will constructively interfere, producing the largest waves in the set, and sometimes they will destructively interfere (trough of one wave lines up with the crest of another), producing smaller waves.
What is the photic zone? Compare/contrast the average (typical) thickness of the photic zone and the surface zone (or mixed layer).
The photic zone is the zone of light within the ocean; it is within the surface zone (mixed layer). It is typically about 100 m thick, and the surface layer is typically about 150 m thick, so the photic zone typically lies within the surface layer.
Which civilization made maps out of shells and sticks to depict ocean currents and winds leading to various islands and figured out how to predict the location of a distant island?
The polynesians
Define pycnocline
The pycnoline is the layer of the ocean where density of seawater changes the greatest in the shortest range of depth.
What is the longshore current?
The surf zone current that transports the sediments.
How does temp change within the troposphere as altitude increases?
The temperature decreases with increasing altitude.
What is thermal inertia?
The tendency of a substance to resist a change in temperature with the gain or loss of heat E
Define thermocline
The thermocline is the layer of ocean where temp of seawater changes the greatest in the shortest range of depth.
There is a rapid change in temp with depth between about 500 and 1000 m. What is this called?
The thermocline.
What are the third and fourth most abundant ions in seawater after Cl- and Na+?
The third most abundant ion in the sea is sulfate (SO4-2), and the fourth is Mg+2.
Where do the highest ocean salinities occur?
They occur in the upper kilometer of the ocean in equatorial to mid-latitudes.
If air temperature were to decrease such that however much water vapor is in the air can no longer exist stably in the air, what will begin to happen? For example, 20°C air can hold 15g of water vapor, but 0°C air can hold only about 5g of water vapor. If air at 20°C that contains as much water as it can--15g (such air would have a relative humidity of 100%)--what would happen to some of the water vapor in the air as the air cools off to 0°C and can no longer hold as much?
The water vapor will condense to form tiny water droplets. This is how clouds and fog forms
In which direction do the prevailing winds blow between 30° latitude and about 60° latitude? (Note that your answer is the same for both the N and S hemispheres.) What are these winds called?
The winds blow from west to east (southwest to northeast in Fig. 8.15). These winds are called the westerlies.
What caused the Japan tsunami and the Sumatra tsunami? Give an explanation that actually explains what creates the tsunami. Don't just write "an earthquake."
These tsunami were created by faults that slipped within the deep ocean. Fault slippage raised part of the sea floor relative to the other.
Why do 250,000 Laysan albatross chicks die a year?
They are fed plastic bits that their parents find out in the ocean garbage patches.
Why are the poles colder than the tropics?
They both get the same amount of sunlight, but it's spread over a larger area, not hit directly in the poles.
How do the hydrogen bonds of water molecules make water different from hydrogen sulfide at room temperature and pressure?
They hold water molecules tighter together. It's harder to break the water apart.
10g of water vapor at room temperature has more heat than 10g of liquid water at the same temperature. This additional heat is not "temperature heat" because the temperatures are the same. What is this additional heat called? How could one get that heat out of the water vapor?
This non-temperature kind of heat is called latent heat of vaporization. You can get it out of the water vapor by condensing it.
Give two reasons why the equilibrium model of tides does not satisfactorily explain the world's tides.
Tidal bulges are shallow-water waves in Earth's oceans; the continents get in the way.
Which way does the Corriolois effect causes wind to rear in the N. Hemisphere?
To the right
Major wind and pressure systems and weather at... 0-30 degrees N and S
Tradewinds (Easterlies). Pressure= N/A Surface Winds= Northeast in N. Hemisphere, SOutheast in S. Hemisphere. Summer, wet, winter dry.
At what latitudes is the difference in temperature between the surface water and deep water the greatest, and what does this prevent from happening there?
Tropical latitudes. A great temperature difference prevents mixing of the surface layer with the deep ocean.
True or False. O2 dissolves in water and fish and non photosynthesizing organisms rely on it.
True
True or False. Sea water evaporates more SLOWLY than freshwater under identical circumstances because the dissolved salts tend to attract and hold water molecules.
True
True or false CO2 is very soluble in water
True
True or false. AS salinity increases, the freezing point of water decreases, the salts act as a sort of antifreeze.
True
True or false. Circulation of sea water at ocean ridges causes an exchange of ions between the sea and oceanic crust.
True
True or false. Dissolved salts distrupt the webwork of hydrogen bonding in water.
True
True or false. Sea ice forms at a lower temp than ice in freshwater lakes.
True
True or false. Seawater is about 96.5% pure water and 3.5% dissolved solids and gases
True
True or false. The ocean's thermal inertia is much greater than the land's.
True
True or false. The temperature of maximum density moves toward the freezing point as salinity increases.
True
True or false: About 36% of the gas dissolved in the ocean is oxygen.
True
True or false: wind is the horizontal movement of air from high pressure ---> low pressure.
True
True or False. water evaporates faster in the ocean than on land.
True.
True or false: Ice is less dense than liquid form
True.
Why is oxygen concentration in seawater higher at 4000 m deep than at 2000 m deep?
Two main reasons: there are much fewer organisms that use oxygen at the ocean's great depths; and the deep waters of the ocean come ultimately from sinking of surface water in polar latitudes
How is most (⅔) of the heat moved?
Two thirds of this heat is transferred by winds that blow water vapor from south to north carrying latent heat of vaporization.
Give a typical wavelength, wave speed in the deep ocean, and wave period of a typical tsunami.
Typical wavelength: 200km (125 miles) (p. 307). Wave speed in the deep ocean: over 450mph. Period: 5-20 minutes (p. 308)
What are tidal extremes like at amphidromic points?
Very low to non-existent
Where do sulfate ions come from?
Volcanic eruptions (land and undersea) also REMOVED at ocean ridges
What causes coral bleaching? Why is this likely to become a greater problem through this century?
Warming of the water. Global climate change is causing warming of the earth's surface and the oceans, too.
If you are a submarine hiding in the shadow zone, where are you in relation to the sofar layer?
You are way above it. You are just barely deeper than the high sound velocity peak; the sofar layer is within the minimum sound velocity region.
How is most of the heat on Earth transferred from the tropics to the poles?
Water vapor transported.
The mesa has about four of those funny benches that look like they are cut into the hillside. SBCC is sitting on the lowest one. What are these benches called?
Wave cut terraces= uplifted wave cut platforms.
Wave energy and tidal energy could both potentially be exploited as a renewable source of electricity generation. Which of these two is actually being done successfully? How much of the world's energy needs could potentially be satisfied by this energy source?
Wave energy--not yet. Tidal energy--yes. It could possibly satisfy not more than 1% of global energy needs.
How deep would the water be where a 6 ft. high wave breaks? (not where it reaches that critical ratio in which is begins to break, but the depth where the break actually occurs) What about the wave in the figure at the chapter opener, p. 283 (Portugal)?
Waves break about when the water depth is 4/3 the wave height, which would be 8 feet of water in this case. The wave on p. 283 was 100 feet high, so the water where it started to break would have been about 133 feet deep.
When do barrier islands form?
When sediments accumulated on submerged rises parallel to the shoreline.
What are drumlins and moraines?
When the glaciers that covered the poleward parts of continents during the last ice age deposited great quantities of sediments and rocks near their outter margins. When the glaciers retreated, the y left streamlined hills known as drumlins. and hills and ridges of sediments called moraines.
Whitecaps that are forming directly underneath strong winds in the Santa Barbara Channel and smooth ocean swell that enters the channel after being caused by storm winds farther out to sea can be classified as two different types of waves. Which classification applies to whitecaps ("chop") and which applies to the smooth ocean swell I described?
Whitecaps are forced waves; smooth ocean swell is made of free waves.
How does the amount of water vapor that can exist in air change with increasing air temperature?
With increasing temperature air can hold more water.
Suppose you had an accurate timepiece clock and set it to 12 noon when the sun was highest in the sky in London. You set sail and several days later you observe that according to your clock, the sun is highest overhead at 1:34pm. What does the info enable you to determine?
Your new longitude
What is a nutrient?
a compound required for the production of organic matter
Imagine some sea grass growing on the ocean bottom. How deep would the top tips of the sea grass have to be in order to not be noticeably swayed back and forth by ocean swell passing in the water above it? (Your answer will not be a number but a formula relating the depth to some geometric dimension of the ocean swell.)
a depth equal to half the wavelength
What are atolls?
a ring shaped island of coral reefs and coral debris enclosing, or almost enclosing a shallow low lagoon from which no land protrudes.
Humans are emitting trillions of tons (literally) of CO2 by the combustion of fossil fuels into the atmosphere each year. How much of this ends up dissolving into the ocean?
about 25%
About how much weaker is the effect of the sun on Earth's tides compared to the influence of the moon?
about half (46%)
If tides were completely explained by the equilibrium theory of tides, what is the maximum tidal range theoretically predicted for lunar tides?
about half a meter
Give one place you would expect ocean salinity to be high and why:
above equator. middle of atlantic ocean. Mediterranean sea. Because there is more evaporation than precipitation.
How does air move vertically at about 60 degrees N and S latitude?
air rises and cools
How does air move vertically at the equator?
air rises and cools
How does air move vertically at about 25-30 degrees N and S latitude
air sinks and warms
how does air move vertically at the poles?
air sinks and warms
What is a berm?
an accumulation of sediment that runs parallel to shore and marks the normal limit of sand deposition by wave action.
What is a bay mouth bar?
an extended sand spit when it almost completely blocks off a bay.
What causes a pressure gradient in the ocean's surface water?
an increase in elevation of the water surface. The 2m bulge in the center of some ocean gyres, for example, creates a pressure gradient outwards from the center that tends to steer currents away from the center of the bulge. A pressure gradient is really a fancy phrase for "an uphill slope." It's not any more complex than that.
What is marine pollution?
any human-made substance that changes the quality of water or otherwise affects the environment
How is heat energy transferred from where the heat energy is stored to the upper troposphere, the top of the hurricane?
as latent heat of vaporization
What is an "a" word synonymous with primary producers?
autotroph; heterotrophs
Which two plankton that you know sometimes have a difficult time growing because there sometimes isn't enough of what is required for them to build their shells? (The book doesn't list these plankton; it just mentions that something they need to build their shells are commonly "also in short supply."
diatoms and radiolarians; these both make silica shells.
Suppose an ocean basin has a resonant frequency of one oscillation per day (water naturally sloshes back and forth in it in a natural cycle of one slosh per day). Then what kind of tide would coasts along this ocean basin experience, diurnal, semidiurnal, or mixed?
diurnal
Waves don't carry water from one side of the ocean to the other; they carry ______.
energy
Whereas ocean swell and tsunamis are free waves, tides are not. Instead, they are classified as __ waves because the force that causes them acts continuously.
forced
What is a baymouth bar?
forms when a sand spit closes off a bay by attaching to a headland adjacent to the bay.
What is a sand spit?
forms where the longshore current slows as it clears a headland and approaches a quiet bay.
Where do hurricanes draw their energy as they grow? (Not where do they ultimately get their energy from, but where do they most directly take it from?)
from the ocean surface which is warmer.
Wind causes water to mound up, forming a wave crest. If it weren't for some restoring force, the water would continue to rise out of the water as the wind blows. What is the restoring force for wind waves?
gravity
Lots of H+ ions means
highly acidic, lower pH
What kind of bond needs to be broken to evaporate water?
hydrogen bonds
Where to floating plastics tend to accumulate in the oceans? What is one of the names of such an accumulation in the North Pacific that is the size of Texas?
in the centers of gyres. The Eastern Garbage Patch (and other names as on the bottom of p. 526).
The amount of solids that can be dissolved in the ocean ______ if temperature increases.
increases
where has 35% of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity over the last 200 years gone? What is the effect this continued process is projected to have on ocean pH by 2100?
into the ocean. Lower pH from about 8.0 to 7.7.
How does salt change the freezing point of water?
it lowers it.
What is the movement of water parallel to the beach by waves approaching at na angle called?
longshore current
What will adding more CO2 to the oceans do to the ocean pH?
lower it, makes it more acidic.
How is productivity in the ocean measured? I don't mean by what process to scientists determine it, but in what kind of units is productivity reported?
mass of carbon per area per time, such as grams of C per square meter of ocean per year
In the spring and summer the Arctic Ocean doesn't increase in temperature very much because the solar energy is doing something else besides raising the temperature of the sea. What is the solar energy doing?
melting ice
Look at one of the figures in the chapter to answer this one: are tides along the California coast diurnal, semidiurnal, or mixed?
mixed
Active Coasts
near the edge of moving continental plates EX: pacific NW Coast N. America.
Passive Coasts
near trailing edges EX: East Coast of N. America
What is the name and the chemical formula of the molecular ion that is the useful form of nitrogen to primary producers? What is the name and the chemical formula of the molecular ion that is the useful form of phosphorous to primary producers?
nitrate, NO3- phosphate, PO4-3.
What are the three "bottleneck" nutrients
nitrogen, phosphorous, iron
Ocean waves are not longitudinal waves (like sound or earthquake P waves) or transverse waves (like the electromagnetic waves we call light or earthquake S waves). Instead, they are ___________ waves.
orbital
By what process do primary producers capture and store this "stuff"?
photosynthesis
Make a list of the three categories of primary producers (beginning of section 14.1) with their percent of the total ocean's productivity listed next to each.
phytoplankton 90-96% seaweed 2-5% chemosynthesizers 2-5%
Which color of light is absorbed the fastest by water?
red
What is the process called in which waves change direction when there is a change in speed?
refraction
What are the two most voluminous sources of marine pollution?
runoff from land, and emission to the atmosphere
What would you call rocky projections sticking up from the ground
sea stacks
What are barrier reefs?
separated from land by a lagoon.
Depositional coasts:
steady or growing because of their rate of sediment accumulation or action of living organisms=more likely to have wide sandy beaches.
As you learned in the previous chapter, wind causes ocean currents. What phenomenon (some kind of "drift") accounts for this movement?
stokes drift
What are longshore bars?
submerged or exposed accumulations of sand.
The bottleneck nutrients you answered in the previous question are common limiting factors. Consider, though, that diatom blooms occur in the Arctic and Antarctic seas in their respective hemisphere's spring seasons. What limiting factor would be actually limiting before the spring but would start to become abundant in the spring in these parts of the world?
sunlight
What are doldrums?
the calm equatorial areas where the surface winds of the two hadley cells converge, the low
When a storm generates waves far out at sea, both long wavelength and short wavelength waves are formed. Which will get to the Santa Barbara coast first?
the long wavelength waves--they travel faster.
If you put two identical pots of water on two stove burners, one containing room-temperature water and the other room-temperature gasoline, and turned both on to medium, which would hit 80C first and why?
the room temperature gasoline. Because, water has a higher heat capacity and gasoline, lower, so it takes longer to heat water up. Heat capacity= measure of heat required to raise temp of 1 gram of substance by 1C
What is the top layer of the ocean called, and why do the salinity and temperature within that zone change little with depth? How thick is this zone typically?
the surface layer. T and S change little with depth because in this layer the ocean is "well mixed," which just means that it is stirred up by waves and surface ocean currents. This layer is typically 150 m thick.
In which direction do the prevailing winds blow at the equator? What are these winds called?
the trade winds go east
What is the lowest layer of atmosphere called?
the troposphere
Which way does the Corriolois effect causes wind to rear in the S. Hemisphere?
to the left
The air that sinks at the northern desert latitudes will spread out over Earth's surface, and some of it will head toward the equator. Because of the "force" you answered in the previous question, this air will be deflected to the right. In which direction will it be moving by the time it gets to the equator?
toward the west. Note that in the southern hemisphere the deflection will be to the left, and this will also cause winds blowing toward the equator to be deflected so that they are heading to the west
In which layer of Earth's atmosphere does our weather occur?
troposphere because of convection.
T or F: more nutrient-rich is the water over the continental slope, closer to the coast?
true
Surface currents affect what part of the ocean, the water above the pycnocline, the water within the pycnocline, or the water below the pycnocline? What is this layer of water called? (That second question is a review question--the answer is in a previous chapter.)
water above the pycnocline. This layer is the mixed layer or the surface zone.
What are the four greenhouse gases listed on p. 533?
water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and chlorofluorocarbons
What is the flat surface at the base of the sea cliffs called:
wave cut platform
What drives (causes) surface currents?
wind
What provides the disturbing force for capillary waves and wind waves?
wind (friction between the wind and the water)
What are the three factors that influence how high waves formed by wind will get?
wind duration, speed, and fetch
