Energy Inputs
BONUS POINT: What is the cycling called?
Pressure:
Cool dense air - high pressure
Warm, less dense air - low pressure
BONUS: Convection currents
What is an eddy?
BONUS POINT: What is the difference between a warm core ring and a cold core ring.
A circular movement of water formed
along the edge of a permanent current
BONUS:
Warm core ring
1. Rotates clockwise
2. Found on the landward side of the current
Cold core ring (cyclonic eddy)
1. Rotates counterclockwise
2. Forms on the ocean side of the current
What is the main driver of waves?
BONUS POINT: What is the percentage of energy that drives it?
Wind driven, but it is the energy from the wind, not the wind itself
2% of energy is transferred onto the oceans surface.
What 3 factors affect wave height?
1. Wind speed
2. Duration of the wind
3. Fetch- the distance the wind blows
What is a tide? What drives tides?
Tides are very long and regular shallow-water waves. Driven by gravitational force of the Sun, Earth, and Moon
What is albedo?
The fraction of incident electromagnetic radiation reflected by a surface.
What are the two main drivers of ocean currents?
BONUS: Which one is only 10% of how ocean currents are moved?
1.Wind driven – mainly moves water horizontally……down to 1 km *10% of ocean current movement
2.Density or gravity driven - moves water vertically – mixes water masses!
What is wave period?
What is wave frequency?
Wave period- The time it takes for a full wave – or wavelength to pass a fixed position
Wave frequency- Number of waves passing a fixed location per unit time.
What are the 3 ways we categorize waves by depth and wavelength?
1. Deep water (Water depth is greater than wave base (>1/2L))
2. Shallow water (Water depth is small compared to wavelength (≤1/20 ))
2. Transitional waves (Characteristics of both deep and shallow-water waves, Depth is greater than 1/20 wavelength but less than ½ wavelength)
How does the movement of orbital circling change with tides? What do we call these currents?
It grows longer, more lateral.
Ebb (Away from landmass)
Flood (In to landmass)
What makes up 78.1% of dry air composition?
BONUS POINT: What makes up 20.9%?
Nitrogen
BONUS: Oxygen
What is the main driver of deep ocean currents?
Thermohaline circulation- driven by temperature and salinity (A Density Difference!)
What are longitudinal waves?
What are transverse waves?
BONUS POINT: What happens when both happen at the same time?
Longitudinal- Push-pull waves, Particles move back and forth in direction of energy transmission
Transverse - Side to side waves, Particles move at right angles to direction of energy transmission (up down)
BONUS POINT: Circular orbital motion
What is a fully devloped sea?
Maximum wave height, wavelength for
particular fetch, speed, and duration of winds
at equilibrium conditions → they lose energy
through breaking as fast as they gain energy
from the wind
What is the equation for gravity?
Gravity = Mass of body * Gravitational Constant / Distance between two bodies
What is the Coriolis effect?
The changes in speed with latitude causes moving objects to follow curved paths
Note:
In Northern Hemisphere, curvature is to right
In Southern Hemisphere, curvature is to left
What is Ekman spiral & transport?
The speed and direction of flow of surface waters at various depths, transport is the overall movement
What is wave base?
What controls it?
The maximum water depth orbital motion reaches beneath a wave. (equal to one half of the wavelength)
Wavelength (the longer the wave the deeper the wave base)
What happens to waves as they approach shore?
Wave speed decreases
Wavelength decreases
Wave height increases
Wave steepness increases
Waves break
What is semidiurnal in tides?
What is diurnal?
What controls them?
Semidiurnal - When we get 2 low tides and 2 high tides daily
Diurnal - One low tide, one high tide a day.
The moons daily pull on water, creating a bulge on the closest and furthest side of the earth.
What are the two sources of energy that drives mantle convection and plate motion?
Primordial heat
– heat left over heat from the formation of the earth
- heat flow at the core of the earth is thought to
be left over from Earth formation (~4.6 Ga)
Radiogenic Heat – heat produced in the earth by radioactive decay,
- largely Uranium, Thorium, and Potassium
What are the differences between Western boundary currents and Eastern boundary currents?
Western Boundary currents –narrow (<100 km), deep (up to 2km), fast (hundreds of km per
day) – moving warm water to the poles
Eastern Boundary currents –wide ( >1000 km), shallow (0.5 km), slow (tens of km per day)
– moving cool water to the equator…
What is the 1/7th rule?
If the ratio of wave height to wavelength
exceeds 1/7 – the wave breaks
What are the 3 types of breaker?
BONUS POINT: What determines them?
1. Spilling breaker (Water slides down front slope of wave, energy expended over long distances)
2. Plunging breaker (Curling crest, energy expended over shorter distance)
3. Surging breaker (Breaks upon hitting shore. shortest energy distance)
BONUS: Steepness of the sea floor.
What are the two solar tides?
What drives them?
Happen Monthly, increases and decreases in tidal range
Spring - Largest tidal range, new or full moon
Neap - Smallest tidal range, quarter moons
Driven by moons distance to Earth, and some additional gravitational pull from the sun in Spring tides.