GY 102 Practice Test

After water itself, what are the primary elements that occur in sea water?

A) chlorine and sodium

Which of the following occurs when the Sun, Moon, and Earth are in alignment (i.e., in opposition or conjunction)?

A) maximum tidal ranges occur

Waves in shallow water that "feel bottom" are ____ and more ____ spaced than the swell they are related to.

A) taller; closely

Which of the following is true of waves that travel in wave trains?

A) they are produced by storm centers and generating regions far distant from the shore where they may break

Which of the following is not true of tides?

A) they are produced solely by the gravitational pull of the Sun

The coastal environment is considered to extend seaward

A) usually to depths of 60 m (200 ft), where storm waves can no longer move sediments

The present ocean salinity on Earth was achieved approximately

B) one billion years ago

Which of the following cannot be considered an efflux of material from the ocean water?

B) runoff

Approximately what percentage of the population of the United States lives in a coastal area?

C) 1/2

Which of the following is true regarding mean sea level?

C) it is calculated based on average tidal levels recorded hourly at a given site over a period of many years

Which of the following is incorrectly matched?

C) spring tides - high tides only

In deep water, a wave is not really migrating but is transferring energy through the water in simple cyclic undulations. These are called

C) waves of transition

Which of the following is true of the ocean deep zone?

D all of the above .... A) temperatures remain approximately 4 degrees C (39 degrees F) within most of this layer B) the water in this zone does not freeze because of the intense pressure exerted by the weight of overlying water C) the water in this zone does not freeze because of it's salinity

The average salinity of sea water may be expressed as

D) All the above ..... A) 3.5 percent, or 35 parts per thousand B) 35, 000 parts per million C) 35 grams per killogram

Dangerous "sleeper waves" result from

D) constructive, in-phase interference

Brackish water would most likely occur

D) in a deltaic swamp

The fact that the mixing zone in the ocean constitutes a ____ percentage of the total ocean volume means that wastes dumped int0 the ocean will be ____ diluted.

D) small; slowly

Regular patterns of smooth, rounded waves are called

D) swells

The littoral zone extends inland to

D) the highest water line that occurs during a storm

The coast extends inland

E) from the high tide level to the first major landform change