Currents
Waves
Tides
Tsunamis
Hurricanes
100
A horizontal movement of ocean water caused by the wind blowing over the surface of the ocean.
What is a surface current?
100
The highest point of a wave
What is the crest?
100
The highest point that can be reached on a daily basis at one particular location
What is a high tide?
100
The most common seismic cause of tsunamis
What are earthquakes?
100
The center of a hurricane; often the calmest part of a hurricane.
What is the eye of the hurricane?
200
The rising of cold, nutrient-rich water to replace warmer surface water blown away by the wind.
What is upwelling?
200
The movement of air from areas of high pressure to low pressure; caused by heat from the sun; is the cause of waves and currents
What is wind?
200
The celestial object that has the greatest affect on tides
What is the moon?
200
The average tallest wave height of a tsunami
What is 100 feet?
200
A rating of hurricanes from 1 to 5 based on their severity or their maximum sustained winds.
What is the Saffir-Simpson scale?
300
A rush of water that flows rapidly back to the sea through a narrow opening; can drag a person under
What is a rip current?
300
The horizontal distance from one crest to the next crest
What is wavelength?
300
When tides are at their lowest/weakest due to the sun and moon being at right angles to each other
What is a neap tide?
300
This part of a tsunami wave continues to move at 500-600 mph, causing the water to pile up as it reaches shore.
What is the back of a wave?
300
A local rise in sea level near the shore that is caused by strong winds from a storm, such as those from a hurricane; causes water to move both horizontally and vertically.
What is a storm surge?
400
A water current that travels near parallel to the shoreline
What is a longshore current?
400
The vertical distance between the crest and trough of a wave
What is wave height / wave amplitude?
400
The two phases of the moon that cause spring tides; when the sun and moon are aligned
What is the full and new moons?
400
The plate boundary that causes most tsunami-generating earthquakes; when two plates collide and one plate is forced below the other plate.
What is a subduction boundary?
400
A barrier that protects a shoreline from the full impact of waves, especially in the case of an oncoming hurricane.
What is a breakwater?
500
A transition layer in a large body of water between warmer mixed water at the surface and colder deeper layer that does not get mixed.
What is a thermocline?
500
The bending of waves as they enter shallow water; the bending of waves due to the changing of depths
What is refraction?
500
The water level rise during a storm due to the combination of storm surge and the astronomical tide
What is the storm tide?
500
The location of the largest tsunami wave recorded in human history.
What is Lituya Bay, AK?
500
The rotation of the Earth causing winds and water to move in a general clockwise (to the right) direction in the N. Hemisphere and a general counterclockwise (to the left) direction in the S. Hemisphere.
What is the Coriolis effect?