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.