Ocean Zones & Features
This zone gets enough sunlight for photosynthesis.
What is the photic zone?
The average sea level measured over many years used as zero elevation.
What is mean sea level?
The most common mineral in Earth’s crust.
What is quartz?
The study of fossils.
What is paleontology?
Water and carbon dioxide combine to form this acid.
What is carbonic acid?
These two ocean zones receive no sunlight.
What are the aphotic and deep zones?
This increases as you move toward the ocean in an estuary.
What is salinity?
This is how a mineral breaks along smooth planes.
What is cleavage?
A fossil made from tracks or burrows.
What is a trace fossil?
Water plays a role in both of these types of weathering.
What are mechanical and chemical weathering?
A submerged mountain rising from the ocean floor.
What is a seamount?
These are the differences between shore, beach, and shoreline.
What are definitions of coastal features? (Host can prompt for explanation)
These are minerals that can conduct electricity well.
What are metals (like copper or silver)?
Fossil fuels are best defined as this.
What are fuels formed from ancient organic matter?
Poor farming practices can turn land into this.
What is infertile or desert-like land?
Organisms that live attached to the ocean floor belong to this group.
What are benthic organisms?
A factor affecting how fast sound travels in seawater.
What is temperature, pressure, or salinity?
A rock that is a useful source of iron.
What is hematite (or iron ore)?
The fossil fuel that is NOT a fluid.
What is coal?
This type of scientist studies soil.
What is a soil scientist?
Organisms that float or swim freely and are not attached to the ocean floor.
What are nekton or plankton?
Three processes that remove minerals from seawater.
What are precipitation, biological processes, and sedimentation?
This unit measures the mass of gemstones.
What is a carat?
This process creates petrified wood.
What is mineral replacement (petrification)?
The breakdown of organisms that usually removes remains quickly.
What is decay (decomposition)?