Composition & Structure
The presence of this compound makes ocean water different than fresh water.
What is salt?
A name for the global ocean circulation that includes the two main drivers of that circulation, temperature and salinity.
What is thermohaline circulation?
This is the primary cause of surface waves?
What is wind?
The movement of water parallel to a shoreline produced by the approach of waves at an angle to the shore.
What is a longshore current?
A hurricane is a ____ pressure system.
What is low?
The deepest zone of the ocean.
What is the Abyssal Zone?
Small fast currents found on the western side of ocean basins.
What are western boundary currents?
The distance between two identical points on successive waves, for example crest to crest, or trough to trough.
What is wavelength?
When waves converge and produce a narrow strong flow of water away from the shore.
What is a rip current?
The name for hurricanes that occur in the Pacific?
What is Typhoon?
Temperature is fairly constant in the upper 100-200 m in this layer.
What is the mixed layer?
The process where water comes up from depth.
What is upwelling?
There are 2 of these higher tides each month even though they are named for a season.
What are spring tides?
An island made of sand deposited just offshore. They typically migrate in the direction of the longshore current over time.
What is a barrier island?
The direction of circulation of a hurricane.
What is counterclockwise?
Below the mixed layer, this is defined by a rapid decline in temperature over a fairly narrow increase in depth.
What is thermocline?
Large-scale circular patterns of surface circulation.
What are gyres?
Unlike surface waves, these waves move water in the whole depth of the ocean and can do immense damage when they come to shore.
What are tsunamis?
Seawater of low salinity; part fresh water, part seawater, typical of estuaries.
What is brackish water?
The minimum sustained wind speed of a hurricane.
What is 74 mph?
The region where enough light can penetrate to support photosynthesis.
What is the Photic Zone?
This force, due to Earth’s rotation and curvature, causes winds and currents to turn to the right in northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern hemisphere.
What is the Coriolis force?
This is the name for the tidal condition where there are two high and two low tides each day of roughly equivalent amplitude.
What are semidiurnal tides?
The Chesapeake Bay is this type of Estuary.
What is a drowned river valley?
The feature of the ocean strengthens hurricanes.
What is high water temperature?