ocean

Question 1

Pacific ocean

Answer 1

It contains more than half of the free water on Earth

Question 2

Atlantic ocean

Answer 2

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest ocean on Earth, accounting for one fifth of the Earth’s surface

Question 3

Indian ocean

Answer 3

It has no separate source of bottom water

Question 4

Arctic ocean

Answer 4

The Arctic is one of the most stark and beautiful places on Earth

Question 5

Southern ocean

Answer 5

The Southern Ocean is the world’s fourth-largest ocean

Question 6

Salinity

Answer 6

the concentrations of salts in water or soils

Question 7

surface zone

Answer 7

This surface layer is also called the sunlight zone and extends from the surface to 200 meters

Question 8

Thermocline

Answer 8

a steep temperature gradient in a body of water such as a lake, marked by a layer above and below which the water is at different temperatures

Question 9

deep zone

Answer 9

The oceanic zone is typically defined as the area of the ocean lying beyond the continental shelf, but operationally is often referred to as beginning where the water depths drop to below 200 meters

Question 10

water cycle

Answer 10

The water cycle, also known as the hydrologic cycle or the hydrological cycle, is a biogeochemical cycle that describes the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth

Question 11

Evaporation

Answer 11

Evaporation is a type of vaporization that occurs on the surface of a liquid as it changes into the gas phase

Question 12

Condensation

Answer 12

Condensation is the change of the state of matter from the gas phase into the liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization

Question 13

Precipitation

Answer 13

precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds

Question 14

continental shelf

Answer 14

A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea

Question 15

continental slope

Answer 15

the slope between the outer edge of the continental shelf and the deep ocean floor

Question 16

continental rise

Answer 16

The continental rise is a low-relief zone of accumulated sediments that lies between the continental slope and the abyssal plain. It is a major part of the continental margin, covering around 10% of the ocean floor.

Question 17

abyssal plain

Answer 17

Lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid-ocean ridge, abyssal plains cover more than 50% of the Earth’s surface

Question 18

mid-ocean ridge

Answer 18

The massive mid-ocean ridge system is a continuous range of underwater volcanoes that wraps around the globe like seams on a baseball

Question 19

rift valley

Answer 19

A rift valley is a lowland region that forms where Earth’s tectonic plates move apart, or rift

Question 20

Seamount

Answer 20

Seamounts are underwater mountains that rise hundreds or thousands of feet from the seafloor

Question 21

Plankton

Answer 21

Plankton are usually microscopic, often less than one inch in length, but they also include larger species like some crustaceans and jellyfish.

Question 22

ocean trench

Answer 22

Oceanic trenches are prominent, long, narrow topographic depressions of the ocean floor. They are typically 50 to 100 kilometers wide and 3 to 4 km below the level of the surrounding oceanic floor

Question 23

Nekton

Answer 23

Nekton or necton refers to the actively swimming aquatic organisms in a body of water

Question 24

Benthos

Answer 24

Benthos refers to organisms living on the bottom or associated with substrata. Terms synonymous with benthic algae are Periphyton and Aufwuchs

Question 25

desalination

Answer 25

Desalination is the process by which the dissolved mineral salts in water are removed.