Distribution of Water on Earth
Features on the Ocean Floor
Ocean Zones
Ocean Life
Ocean Trivia
100
Where 97% of Earth's water is located.
What are oceans?
100
Formed where two oceanic plates diverge and the basaltic magma oozes out to form new ocean crust; also the longest mountain chains on Earth, though they are underwater.
What are mid-ocean ridges?
100
Part of the ocean with extremely high pressure, darkness, near freezing temperatures, and a variety of unique lifeforms that are adapted to those conditions.
What is the deep ocean (deep sea)?
100
Usually small creatures. They can be plant-like (algae or phyto-) or animal-like (zoo-). These move be drifting with the ocean currents.
What are plankton?
100
Term for using sound waves sent out through water and reflect back to communicate and/or to locate objects. It is used by both living things (such as dolphins and bats) and ships.
What is SONAR (sound navigation ranging) or echolocation?
200
The % of Earth's water that is freshwater.
What is 3%?
200
The deepest places on the ocean floor, formed at a subduction zone where an oceanic plate is sinking below a less dense plate.
What are trenches (or deep-sea trenches)?
200
Area where freshwater mixes with saltwater. This could occur at the mouth of a river, a bay, an inlet, a sound, a lagoon, a salt marsh. Many species spend time here.
What is an estuary?
200
Name given to the creatures that inhabit salty ocean water.
What is marine (marine organisms)?
200
Direction that ocean currents turn in the Northern Hemisphere (above the equator).
What is clockwise?
300
Where most of Earth's freshwater is found.
What is ice caps (and/or glaciers)?
300
Name given to the gently-sloping edge of a continent that is underwater but not extremely deep. This could also be called the neritic zone and where light can reach the bottom in most places.
What is the continental shelf?
300
Area along a shoreline where the waves are always pounding in and there are about 2 high tides and 2 low tides everyday.
What is the intertidal zone?
300
Creatures in the ocean that are free-swimming, meaning they can swim on their own. Examples: shark, tuna, seahorse, ray, sardines, etc.
What are nekton?
300
Where most of the world's food, oil, oxygen, weather, and minerals come from.
What is the ocean?
400
North Carolina's largest source of water used in the home for cleaning, cooking, etc.
What is groundwater?
400
The broad "plains" of the ocean floor that cover the majority of its area where sediment and remains of marine creatures have settled.
What is the abyssal plain?
400
A giant living organism on the ocean floor that is made up of polyp creatures with small tentaclesfrom Phylum Cnidaria (with stinging cells) that secrete a rocky-like substance (limestone) and live attached on top of that. Within these polyps are algae that produce food through photosynthesis. A great many species live around these.
What is a coral reef?
400
Creatures that live attached to the seafloor. Many are filter-feeders, which means they catch food from the water that flows by them or pumped through them. Examples would be sponges, sea lilies, corals, starfish, clams, etc.
What are benthos (benthic organisms)?
400
The large, warm ocean current that begin off the southeast coast of Florida and flows northward and across the Atlantic Ocean. It makes the climate of Northern Europe much warmer and wetter than it "should" really be.
What is the Gulf Stream?
500
An underground body of water.
What is an aquifer?
500
Deep-sea features where hot material escapes from inside Earth onto the ocean floor. This brings certain elements, compounds, and nutrients that support an entire ecosystem of life on the deep-sea floor?
What are hydrothermal vents?
500
The area of ocean above the continental shelf that is, for the most part, shallow enough to where light can reach the bottom. Because of this, producers like seaweed and algae can produce lots of food to support an abundance of life.
What is the neritic zone?
500
Term given to the light produced by living organisms that inhabit the dark depths of the deep ocean. These lights can be different colors and can be used to attract prey, communicate, elude predators, etc.
What is bioluminescence?
500
Term for when an offshore wind pushes away warmer ocean water from near the surface and allows colder, nutrient-rich water from the deep to come up. Many fish and other life flock to these areas to feed on these nutrients.
What is upwelling?
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