Vocabulary
What is the imaginary line that divides Earth into northern and southern hemispheres (halves)?
Equator
What is the warmest part of the Earth?
The equator
Where is air usually warmest?
Near the equator.
The amount of matter in a certain space is called...
...density.
How can energy be destroyed?
It can't.
What are winds that move in one direction and are strong enough to push ocean currents?
Prevailing winds
Where does the Earth receive its energy?
What do you call the less powerful winds that don't travel as far as prevailing winds?
Local winds
How does dense water act in the ocean?
It is heavier, so it sinks.
What does it mean for the air temperature and water temperature to have reached equilibrium?
What is the distance of a place north or south of Earth’s equator?
Latitude
From where does the air receive its energy?
From Earth's surface (including water and land).
Out of water, air and land, what takes the longest to heat up?
Water
What is the term for the pattern of surface and deep-ocean currents on the Earth?
What's the name of the bird that lives its whole life during summer, flying from one pole to the other?
The arctic tern
What is a giant pattern of moving water that spans whole oceans and moves water from place to place in a circle?
Gyre
Why are Seattle's summers colder and its winters warmer than a place like Minneapolis, which is at a similar latitude?
Seattle's climate is stabilized by the ocean nearby.
A cold wind blows over warm water. Will the wind or the water's temperature change the most and why?
The wind, because water holds on to energy longer.
What determines the direction of ocean currents?
Prevailing winds and the position of continents.
How often does El Nino happen?
Every 2 to 7 years.
What is the name of a climate pattern where water near the equator gets hotter than usual and affects the weather around the world?
El Nino.
Because the ocean currents that surround Seattle ultimately come from the North Pole.
What causes wind?
Describe how water moves from the equator to the North Pole and from the North Pole to the equator.
Warm water at the equator rises to the surface and is pushed up to the North Pole, where it becomes cold and dense, sinking to the bottom and slowly returning to the equator.
What is the term "trade winds" another name for?