Ocean Topography and Composition
What travels faster, sound in water or sound in air?
Sound in water
Which ocean area includes underwater and above water conditions?
Intertidal zone
What is an unusually high tide caused by the sun and moon working together on the water?
Spring tide
Where on the wave is the crest?
The top
Which area of the ocean is made up of piles of sediment from the continental shelf?
Continental rise
What fine organic matter is the only food for organisms in the abyssal zone?
What is an unusually low tide caused by the sun and moon working against each other?
Neap tide
Which are bigger, solar or lunar tides?
Lunar tides
How much of the earth's surface is covered by oceans?
71%
Photic - areas from the surface down to 100-200 m, far away from the shoreline
Aphotic - from 200 to 3000-4000 m in depth
List three currents that are related to changes in density?
Density current
Thermohaline current
Turbidity current
In which direction do longshore currents travel?
Parallel to the shore.
Where are submarine canyons often found in?
The continental slope
Describe the role of nitrogen and of carbon in life.
Carbon - makes up all living things
Nitrogen - used for cellular processes and building cells
What are three positives of tidal dams?
"Clean"
Renewable
More reliable than wind
What is a wavelength?
The distance between two of the same point on a wave (ex. crest to crest)
What is the berm?
The area where only the highest points of the wave can reach.
What is the difference between benthic and pelagic organisms?
Benthic are bottom dwelling
Pelagic do not live on the bottom of the ocean floor
What are three negatives of tidal dams?
Very expensive
Usually not a lot of water moved by tides
Interfering with local ecology
What is a wave's period?
The time between one wave crest and the next as they pass through a stationary point.