What kind of geological formations will you see where continental crust and oceanic crust collide?
Subduction - volcanoes, mountains, a trench
Name the 4 major Ocean basins of the world.
A)Pacific, B)Atlantic, E)Indian, D)Artic
Where is the moon in relation to the earth and the sun during a neap tide?
Not aligned, perpendicular to the line between the sun and earth. quarter moon
What is the definition of a wave?
A disturbance that propagates in a medium
Describe the differences between Continental Crust and Oceanic Crust.
1. Continental crust is thicker than Oceanic crust. 2. Oceanic crust is more dense than continental. 3. Oceanic is basalt, Continental is granite
What causes the parallel lines of magnetic reversals on the ocean floor?
sea floor spreading
What makes water different than other substances? What unusual characteristics does it have because of this?
1. Hydrogen bonding- Less dense as a solid, high specific heat, high surface tension which causes higher boiling and lower freezing
What is the Coriolis effect?
The way in which the rotation of the earth bends the path of the wind and resulting sea currents
What is specific heat? Name one substance with a high specific heat and one with a low specific heat.
the energy required to raise the temperature of one gram of a given substance by one degree Celsius.
What can reduce the amount of light available to marine organisms?
silt or debris suspended in the water,(silt, algae, overgrowth of microscopic organisms)
What are Gyres?
largely mostly circular systems of surface currents driven by the wind.
What is subduction?
The downward movement of one plate into the mantle when two plates collide.
What are we talking about when we say "salts"?
any chemical compound formed from the reaction of an acid with a base, with all or part of the hydrogen of the acid replaced by a metal or other cation.
Where do you find the most marine life and why?
The continental shelf, because sunlight reaches to the bottom there
What is a spring tide and what causes it?
A tide with a higher high tide and lower low tide. Caused by the earth sun and moon being in a line
What is the costal water warmer on the east coast of the United States that they costal water at the same latitude on the west coast?
The surface currents on the east coast bring up warm waters from near the equator. On the west coast they are brought down from colder northern water.
Why are deep sea organisms hard to study?
The pressure is very high in that environment.
What causes currents in the ocean?
The wind