The change in the direction of winds and currents caused by the rotation of Earth.
What is Coriolis effect?
100
The highest part of a wave.
What is a crest?
100
the deep area that is formed when an ocean plate collides with a continental plate and is forced to bend steeply down beneath the continental plate.
What is a trench?
100
Tiny animals that eat other types of plankton for food.
What is zooplankton?
200
Precipitation that falls to land and flows into streams, creeks, and rivers and eventually into the ocean.
What is run-off?
200
A large amount of ocean water that moves in a particular direction.
What is Ocean current?
200
The crest of a wave that topples forward, collapsing onshore.
What is a breaker?
200
The undersea mountain chains that are formed when magma oozes up and solidifies between tectonic plates that are moving apart.
What is an ocean current?
200
An area of wetlands that builds up where a river meets the ocean.
What is an estuary?
300
All of the water on Earth including that in the atmosphere and lithosphere.
What is hydrosphere?
300
Part of the ocean below the surface where the temperature drops sharply with depth.
What is thermocline?
300
Indented areas of coastland or areas in the coastline that are in between headlands.
What are bays?
300
The submerged area of the continents , beyond the continental shelf, that drops steeply down to the ocean basin.
What is continental slope?
300
Microscopic plant-like organisms that are a major source of food for many species of fish.
What is phytoplankton?
400
The evaporation of water into a gas into the atmosphere and the precipitation of water in the air as it falls back to Earth in the form of rain or snow.
What is the water cycle?
400
Vertical movement of water from the ocean floor, often caused by wind blowing surface water away from shore.
What is upwelling?
400
the difference between high tide and low tide.
What is tidal range?
400
The submerged, or underwater, part of the edge of the continents that slopes gradually away from land before dropping steeply downward.
What is Continental shelf?
400
Light produced by chemical reactions in the bodies of some living marine organisms.
What is biolumenescence?
500
The area of land from which water drains into a certain body of water.
What is drainage basin?
500
A movement or flow of water along the sea floor caused by sinking of dense water.
What is density current?
500
A long smooth wave that moves steadily without breaking.
What is a swell?
500
The wide open regions of the ocean floor between the continents and the mountain ranges at the center of the ocean.
What is abyssal plain?
500
Organisms that are sensitive to pollution or other environmental changes; monitoring the number of these organisms help scientists to gather info about the health of an ecosystem.