Ocean Floor
The continuous chain of volcanic submarine mountains that extends around Earth.
Mid-ocean Ridge
A wave moving through water less than 1/20th of its wavelength
Shallow-water wave
Rotating storm that is generated over warm waters in the tropics.
Cyclonic Storm
A virus that infects bacteria.
Bacteriophage
Organisms that drift in the water column (cannot swim against a current)
Planktonic
The boundary between two plates that move past each other on Earth’s surface.
Shear Boundary
A tidal pattern with one high and one low tide each day
Diurnal
The tendency of objects moving large distances on Earth’s surface to bend to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern.
Coriolis Effect
The siliceous, box-like cell wall of diatoms
Frustule
An organism that retains some metabolic heat, which raises its body temperature.
Endotherm
Magnetic band in the sea floor that run parallel to the mid-ocean ridge.
Magnetic Anomaly
The tide with the smallest tidal range. Occurs near when the moon is in quarter.
Neap Tide
A large, nearly circular system of wind-driven surface currents that center around latitude 30° in both hemispheres.
Gyre
The organism that results from the symbiosis of a fungus and an autotroph like a green alga.
Lichen
An organism that controls its internal salt concentration.
Osmoregulator
The process by which new sea floor is formed as it moves away from spreading centers in mid-ocean ridges.
Sea-floor Spreading
When the crests or troughs of two waves sync up, causing much larger waves.
Wave Reinforcement
The net movement of water 90° away from wind direction.
Ekman Transport
A photosynthetic organism that lives on algae or plants.
Epiphyte
An organism that allows its internal salt concentration to change with the salinity of the surrounding water.
Osmoconformer
The dark-colored rock that forms the sea floor, or oceanic crust.
Basalt
A wave that does not progress in a particular direction, but rather form around a node.
Standing Wave
Ocean circulation driven by differences in water density, due to variations in water temperature and salinity, rather than by the wind or tides.
Thermohaline Circulation
The calcium carbonate “shell” of marine protozoans such as foraminiferans.
Test
An organism whose body temperature varies with that of its surroundings
Poikilotherm