Vocabulary
The highest point of a wave
What is the crest?
The percent of all water that is ocean
What is 97%
Continuous flow of water in one direction
What are currents?
Two causes of a tsunami?
What are earthquakes and volcanic eruptions?
The continental shelf, slope, and rise make this up
What is the continental margin?
The measure of dissolved salt in a liquid
What is salinity?
Small ripples in the water, caused by wind
What are capillary waves?
These form high and low tides
What are ocean bulges?
The distance crest to surrounding water level
What is amplitude?
These two factors affect ocean water density
What are temperature and salinity?
This margin features wide shelves, gradual slope, large plains, and rare volcanoes and earthquakes
What is the Atlantic Ocean margin?
The rapid flow back to the ocean
What is undertow?
Three major events in ocean exploration history
An underwater expanse of nearly flat land
What is the abyssal plain?
These use CO2 and nitrogen to create food that is cycled through the ocean
What are phytoplankton?
Two renewable resources that are alternatives to oil and natural gas
What are wind power, tidal power, or OTEC?
The warm surface current found in the Atlantic Ocean
What is the Gulf Stream?
The curving of moving objects from a straight path, caused by Earth’s rotation
What is the Coriolis Effect?
This is when cold, salty water sinks warm and less salty water rises
What is thermohaline?
The three layers of the ocean
What are the euphotic, dysphotic, and aphotic zones?
The tide that occurs when the sun and moon are aligned with a wide tidal range
What is spring tide?