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Earth Science > Unit 2B > Flashcards

Unit 2B Flashcards

1
Q

Differences between freshwater and saltwater

A

saltwater is denser than pure water

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2
Q

What is salinity measured in?

A

Parts per thousand

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3
Q

Average salinity of world’s oceans

A

35 ppt

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4
Q

What are the layers of the ocean?

A

Surface-mixed zone (0-200m) Waters in this zone are warm and less dense with low salinity (2% of the ocean water).
Transition zone (200-1000m) Temperature in this zone decreases from the surface-mixed zone, while salinity and density increase (18% of ocean water).
Deep zone (> 1,000 m): Water in this zone is the coldest, saltiest, and densest in the oceans (80% of ocean water).

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5
Q

What causes surface currents?

A

Differences in temperature of the surface waters

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6
Q

What causes deep ocean currents?

A

Warm surface waters cool, forming currents deep in the ocean

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7
Q

What do the layers of the ocean cause?

A

Distribution of marine life

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8
Q

https://static.k12.com/calms_media/media/1030500_1031000/1030702/2/096699868af0cf4c4f688fd44bab65b4dc97b2f6/VHS_ERT_09_01_109_mmap.jpg

A
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9
Q

What percent of seawater is water, and what else is in it?

A

96.5%; elements and dissolved gases

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10
Q

How do we know the composition of seawater?

A

Oceanographers directly sample water at various locations and depths

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11
Q

The major elements of seawater exist as what?

A

Salts of chlorine and sulfur

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12
Q

What adds/removes salts to seawater?

A

Weathering, erosion, and volcanic activity
Evaporation, chemical precipitation; biological precipitaiton

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13
Q

Temperature, salinity, and density varies with latitude and depth; thermocline is a zone of rapid temperature change between the warm surface waters an the cooler deep waters halocline is rapid vertical change in salinity pcynocline is a zone of rapid vertical change in density

A
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14
Q

What is thermohaline circulation

A

Deep-sea currents that occur because of the differences between the salinity and temperature characteristics of water masses

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15
Q

Sound changes with depth; high speed, then slows with lower temperature, then increases again

A
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16
Q

What causes waves in water, and what does that do?

A

Wind blowing across the water’s surface; it creates currents

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17
Q

What is a gyre?

A

A circular rotation of wind or water that rotates because of Coriolis

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18
Q

What do waves and current action do to coastal zones?

A

They build and erode them

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19
Q

What are longshore currents, and what do they do?

A

Longshore currents are when waves strike a shore at an angle, they get filled up with sediments which they then deposit off the coast as barrier islands.

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20
Q

Coriolis effect deflects water from shore, causing upwelling

A
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21
Q

What causes tides?

A

The Moon’s Gravity

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22
Q

Difference between spring tide and neap tide.

A

Springe tide is sun and moon are aligned, neap is sun and moon bulges are prependicular

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23
Q

What combine to make surface currents move what way compared to wind direction?

A

Wind, friction, coriolis; coriolis rotates a bit to eventually perpendicular, Ekman spiral

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24
Q

Wind patterns accumulate water in the middle of the oceans

A
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25
Q

Downwelling and upwelling caused by winds and continents

A
26
Q

Up until the latter part of the nineteenth century, little was known about the ocean floor. People thought it was flat and featureless. Few technologies were available to map the ocean floor.

In the 1870s, the British ship HMS Challenger conducted a 1,000-day investigation of the world’s oceans as it sailed around the world. One of the tasks of Challenger was to determine the depths of the oceans. This information could then be used to make a crude map of the ocean floor.

Challenger’s crew dropped lead weights attached to rope to make soundings of the water’s depth. When the weight reached the floor, the crew measured the length of the rope to determine the depth of the sea bottom.

A
27
Q

Sonar —Sound waves are used to reflect off the seafloor.
Seismic reflections—High-energy sound waves are used, which reflect off various portions of the seafloor.
Radar altimetry—Radar data from satellites assists in mapping changes in the surface of the ocean, which indicate the topography of the seafloor.

A
28
Q

How is ocean depth measured?

A

Sonar —Sound waves are used to reflect off the seafloor.
Seismic reflections—High-energy sound waves are used, which reflect off various portions of the seafloor.
Radar altimetry—Radar data from satellites assists in mapping changes in the surface of the ocean, which indicate the topography of the seafloor.

29
Q

How does Sonar work?

A

In sonar, special equipment aboard a ship produces and projects a sound wave directly at the seafloor beneath it. The sound wave bounces off the seafloor and returns to the ship. The equipment measures the time it takes for the echo to return.

30
Q

How does seismic reflections work?

A

High-energy sound waves penetrate and bounce off layers of the ocean bottom. A receiver picks up the reflected sound waves. As in sonar, a depth profile is produced. The difference is that in seismic reflection, multiple layers (sediments, bedrock, and so on) of the ocean bottom can be differentiated.

31
Q

How does radar altimetry work?

A

Ocean floor can cause dips and bumps in surface water. In radar altimetry, a satellite bounces radar waves off the ocean surface to determine the distance between the satellite and the surface. As the satellite travels in orbit overhead, it records the variation in distance between it and the ocean surface. These variations translate to variations in the topography of the ocean floor.

32
Q

What is bathymetry?

A

the study and measurement of underwater depth

33
Q

What are the three general regions of ocean floor?

A

Continental margins are the regions directly near the edges of each continent.
Ocean ridges are the mountainous regions running down the middle of the oceans.
The ocean basin floor is the region between the continental margins and ocean ridges.

34
Q

Parts of continental margins?

A

Shelf, slope, rise, ocean basin floor

35
Q

What cause submarine canyons and sediment fans?

A

Rivers flowing erode sediment, then deposit it as a sediment fan

36
Q

What are guyots? Abyssal plains? Atolls?

A

Flat-topped undersea volcanoes or mountains that are isolated
extensive flat plains covered with sediments
a coral reef that originally formed around the edges of a volcanic island; when the island eroded or sank into the sea, the corals continued to grow up to the surface

37
Q

Ways marine environment is divided.

A

Coast - land influenced by ocean
Ocean - the ocean
Benthic zone - ocean bottom and water directly above
Pelagic zone - open ocean

38
Q

What is nekton?

A

Free-swimming animals

39
Q

What factors influence life in marine environment?

A

Temperature
Salinity
Availability of light
Oxygen

40
Q

Difference between eurythermic and stenothermic living beings.

A

Eurythermic is tolerant to temperature change
Stenothermic is intolerant to temperature change

41
Q

Living beings that are tolerant to temperature change are called what? Intolerant?

A

Eurythermic; Stenothermic

42
Q

Tolerant to stuff is called what? Intolerant?

A

Eury, steno

43
Q

Organisms that live in the open ocean are eury or stenohaline?

A

Stenohaline

44
Q

Oxygen varies with depth.

An important component of seawater is the amount of oxygen dissolved in it. High oxygen levels can support many living organisms, while low levels support few. Oxygen concentration varies with depth.

Surface waters—Mixing with the atmosphere produces well oxygenated water (0–150 m deep).
Thermocline—This barrier to the mixing of the deep ocean and the upper waters is where the oxygen content is somewhat decreased.
Deep oxygenated water—The oxygen levels increase somewhat because cold, dense, oxygen-rich water from the surface sinks (thermohaline circulation).
Anaerobic—This zone exists in the sediments of the ocean bottom.

A
45
Q

In which order are these, and give information.
Bathyal, Intertidal, Sublittoral, Abyssal, Supralittoral
Neritic, Oceanic

A

Supralittoral - Coast; place where tides don’t reach
Intertidal - Place where tides go up and down; exposed to both air and water
Sublittoral - Past intertidal before continental shelf
Bathyal - Slope and rise of continental shelf
Abyssal - Deep-ocean plains
Neritic covers first three, Oceanic covers rest

46
Q

Epipelagic and pelagic and photic and aphotic zone depths?

A

Epipelagic/photic: 0-200; lots of life
Aphotic: >200; less life since no plants
Pelagic: all of the open water of the ocean

47
Q

Order the pelagic layers?

A

Epipelagic
Mesopelagic
Bathypelagic
Hadalpelagic

48
Q

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y9DwWNKhzbNhSSFICdp0JmL2JM9O5BiDM2Sdc1uzjlU/edit

A
49
Q

What questions must someone consider in the study of a marine organism?

A

What are the environmental conditions like, such as temperature and salinity of seawater?
Are the environmental conditions constant or do they change?
How does the organism get energy—that is, how does it get its food?
Is it eaten by other organisms? If so, how does it protect itself?
How does it reproduce in the environment?

50
Q

Rocky shores and beaches are brutal and changing environments; what are the three things that can affect life here? How do animals deal with these?

A

Water levels go up and down, exposing animals to air: Fish swim in and out with the tide; mole crabs burrow in the sand of a beach; barnacles close up their shells
Little food is available: Crabs scavenge material that washes ashore; barnacles filter food particles from the water
Waves pound the shore: Seaweed and barnacles have a glue that attaches them to the rocks; mole crabs quickly burrow as the waves go out

51
Q

Water level and salinity fluctuate in a salt marsh; what are the three things that can affect life here? How do animals deal with these?

A

Water level goes up and down, exposing animals to air: Fish swim with the tide; fiddler crabs burrow; oysters close their shells
Salinity changes as freshwater mixes with saltwater: Plants and animals excrete salt when necessary
Food is abundant: Oysters filter feed; fiddler crabs and snails feed on organic material; blue crabs hunt for fish and oysters

52
Q

In the sublittoral zone, there is abundant life and sunlight, and thus plants; and there are corals

A
53
Q

What is constant in the abyssal zone? How do animals feed? Characteristics of animals here?

A

Dark, salinity constant, cold
Constant rain of organic material, or detritus and bacteria in the mud
Worms burrow as they eat bacteria; sea cucumbers filter feed the detritus suspended in the water; starfish feed on bacteria and on the filter feeders
Thin skins to obtain oxygen by diffusion and tubelike body shapes for burrowing

54
Q

Hydrothermal vent ecosystems have what? Characteristics of animals that live here?

A

Water is laden with minerals; there is no light and water is warm
Bacteria that are chemosynthetic; tube worms and giant oysters have these bacteria in their tissues; crabs and fish feed on the tube worms and giant oysters

55
Q

Pelagic zone has plenty of sunlight and constant temperatures and salinity

A

Phytoplankton make food by photosynthesis; they are eaten by zooplankton The plankton are small and float in the sea. Other plants such as algae and animals such as jellyfish have gas bags in their tissues to float in the sea. Fish have internal gas-filled swim bladders to float and change their buoyancies. Nearly all fish have thin, flat, streamlined shapes and fins to move through the water with little resistance. Marine mammals, such as dolphins, feed on the fish that live in this area.

56
Q

Deep ocean is dark, cold, high-pressure, constant.

A

Most fish here are blind, but some can see; some attract prey or mates using bioluminescence; marine mammals such as whales can be found here

57
Q

Where are most ocean resources located?

A

From 12 to 200 nautical miles from shore, on the continental shelf

58
Q

What does EEZ stand for? Where does it extend?

A

Exclusive Economic Zone
200 miles from shore

59
Q

What resources can be found in the ocean?

A

Fossil fuels (Oil, natural gas, methane gas hydrate)
Kinetic energy (From the water or wind)
Minerals (dissolved in seawater, buried in ocean sediments, nodules)
Sand and gravel (on continental shelf, for construction)
Food (commercial fishing (with sonar and satellite imagery) and aquafarming)
Fresh water (via desalination)
Recreational sites (swimming, sport fishing, boating, and sailing; scuba diving)

60
Q

Where are the most resources found in the ocean?

A

Continental shelf

Earth Science (10 decks)

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