GESC 320 THE OCEANS

WINTER SEMESTER 2000

Lecture: Monday, 5:30 - 8:00 PM, Mark Jefferson 103

Dr. Michael D. Bradley

Office: Strong 225

Phone: 487-8592

email: michael.bradley@emich.edu

Office Hours: Mon - Wed - Fri: 10:00 - 11:00 AM & 12:00 - 1:00 PM, Wed: 2:00 - 3:00 PM, and by appointment

 EXAM 1 STUDY GUIDE

Define oceanography
What percent of the Earth's surface is covered by water? By land?
What is the name of the deepest spot on the earth?
Who made the first known calculation of the Earth's circumference? Approximately what year was the calculation made? What distance in kilometers did he calculate? How does his number compare with the number we use today?
Who invented the self-contained underwater breathing apparatus?
Name the largest ocean. Name the smallest ocean (as discussed in class).
In terms of plate tectonics what are mid-ocean ridges? Ocean trenches?
What is a hypsographic curve?
What is the average elevation of the continents in meters?
What is the average depth of the oceans in meters?
Name the highest mountain on earth as measured from sea level.
What is bathymetry?
What is a bathymetric chart?
What is SONAR and how can it be used to create a bathymetric chart?
Are continental margins wider in the Atlantic or Pacific ocean? Why?
Are islands more abundant in the Atlantic or Pacific ocean? Why?
What does the Emperor Seamount chain have in common with the Hawaiian Island chain?
The boundary between the Atlantic and Indian oceans is drawn long what longitude?
List the 3 types of marginal ocean basins discussed in class. Give examples of each.
What is the average slope (in degrees) of the continental shelf.
What is the average slope (in degrees) of the continental slope?
What is the shelf break?
What are submarine canyons? Where are they located?
At what average water depth does the shelf break occur?
What is the continental rise? What is the average slope of the continental rise? Is the slope steeper on the landward or seaward side or the continental rise?
What are the abyssal plains? What is the average slope (in degrees) of the abyssal plains? What is the average water depth of the abyssal plains?
The Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Indus rivers discharge into what ocean?
Define isostasy.
Who proposed the theory of continental drift?
What is the theory of continental drift?
List at least 3 lines of evidence to support the theory of continental drift.
Who proposed the theory of sea-floor spreading?
What is the theory of sea-floor spreading?
It is possible to determine the latitude and longitude at which a basalt solidified even if it has moved thousands of miles from its original position over millions of years. How is this done?
What is meant when we say the Earth experiences magnetic polarity reversals?
How can magnetic polarity reversals be used to support the theory of sea-floor spreading?
What are divergent plate margins? Give an example of a divergent plate margin.
What are convergent plate margins? Give an example of a convergent plate margin.
List the 2 mechanisms discussed in class by which sediments form.
If most sedimentary rocks exposed on the continents today were originally deposited in the oceans, how did they end up on the continents? List two reasons discussed in class.
List the 3 criteria, discussed in class, by which sediments are classified.
What are neritic deposits?
What are pelagic deposits?
What are terrigenous clastic sediments? Biogenic sediments? Authigenic sediments? Cosmogenous sediments? Volcanogenic sediments?
Know the Wentworth scale particle size range for boulders, cobbles, pebbles, granules, sands, silts, and clays.
What is sorting? Rounding?
What is the continental margin? What is the most common type of sediment on the continental margin?
Where does most of the deposits on the continental margin come from?
In what areas would we expect biogenic sediments to dominate over siliciclastic sediments?
Coral reefs form in what latitudes?
What are typical sedimentation rates of the deep ocean? Continental margins? Major river deltas?
What are deep-sea fans? How do they form?
What is ice-rafting?
If I saw a boulder in fine abyssal plain muds at a high latitude what is a likely origin for the boulder?
What is red clay? Where does it form?
What is ooze?
What is the difference between calcareous ooze and siliceous ooze? What rock results from each?
Define atom, molecule, proton, neutron, electron, ion, cation, anion, isotope.
In terms of freedom of atom movement define solid, liquid, and gas.
Define heat, calorie, and temperature.
What is meant by the statement that water molecules are dipolar?
Since water is electrically neutral, why is water a powerful solvent?
At what temperature does water reach its maximum density?
Why does ice float?
What is a solute?
What are the 2 most common solutes in seawater?
List the 6 most common solutes in seawater.
What are trace elements (define as # parts per billion).

 EXAM 2 STUDY GUIDE

What is the average salinity (in parts per mill) of the Earth's oceans
What is the principle of constant composition?
What effect does salinity have on the freezing point of water?
List the 3 controls on the density of seawater.
Compare the salinity of the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean. Why is there a difference?
What is the "surface-mixed layer" of the oceans. How is it different from other layers?
What is the pynocline?
What is the hydrologic cycle?
At what distance from the surface of the earth do we consider to be the boundary between the atmosphere and outer space?
Is this boundary sharp or gradational?.
What percent of the atmosphere is nitrogen? Oxygen? Argon? Carbon dioxide? Water vapor?.
Name the 4 layers of the atmosphere.
Define the 4 layers of the atmosphere in terms of changing temperature with altitude.
Is humid air more or less dense than dry air? Will humid air tend to rise or sink?
What is standard atmospheric pressure in pounds/square inch and inches of mercury?
What causes atmospheric pressure? Does pressure increase or decrease with altitude? Why?
Does air tend to rise or sink at the equator? Why?
Does air tend to rise of sink at the poles? Why?
What is the Coriolis effect? In which direction will air be deflected in each hemisphere?
Is the Coriolis effect stronger at the poles or the equator? Why?
What is the Intertropical convergence Zone?
What is a Hadley cell?
Does air tend to rise or fall at 30 degrees latitude?
Does falling air tend to make deserts or high precipitation areas?
What are the Trade Winds? Which direction does the wind blow? Why?
Does the equatorial regions have higher or lower oceanic salinities? Why?
What is a Ferrel cell?
What is a polar cell?
Does oceanic salinities tend to be higher or lower at 30 degree latitude? Why?
Does oceanic salinities tend to be higher or lower at 60 degree latitude? Why?
Does oceanic salinities tend to be higher or lower at 90 degree latitude? Why?
In regards to convection are the oceans more or less stable than the atmosphere? Why?
What drives near surface ocean currents?
What drives deep ocean circulation?
What are the two primary factors that influence ocean water density.
What is thermohaline circulation?
What is a gyre?
What are transverse currents?
In what direction does Western-Boundary Currents flow?
In what direction does Eastern-Boundary Currents flow?
What is the Ekman spiral?
What is upwelling? Why is there upwelling along the California coast?
Would upwelling increase or decrease fish populations? Why?
What is a water mass? How do they differ from other water masses?
Are deep water temperatures and salinities in different oceans similar or very different?
Is they are similar does that imply deep ocean circulation between ocean basins? Why?
Give the depth range in meters for intermediate, deep, and bottom waters.
What is thermohaline circulation?
What is the typical velocity (in kilometers per day) of a deep ocean current?
What is the North Atlantic Deep Water? Why does it form? What connection does it have with the Gulf Stream?
What role does sea-ice play in the formation of the Antarctic Bottom Water?
Is the Mediterranean Outflow Water more or less dense than Atlantic Ocean water? Why?
What is thermohaline circulation?
What is the global conveyor belt? Is it presently active or inactive? Was it active or inactive 15,000 years ago?
What are the consequences of the Gulf Stream become inactive?
How are waves classified?
What are wind-generated waves?
What is a tsunami. How are they generated?
What is a seiche?
What is wave height? Wave length? Wave period? Wave steepness?
What are capillary waves? Under what conditions do they form?
What are gravity waves? Under what conditions do they form?
List the 4 principle factors discussed in class that determine the size of waves.
Explain this statement in terms of the motion of water molecules "a wave may travel from one side of the ocean to the other, but the water goes nowhere"
What is wave base? Given a wavelength be prepared to calculate wave base.
Define shallow water waves in terms of wavelengths.
What is the difference between a plunging and spilling breaker in terms of ocean floor topography?
Discuss the process of wave refraction.
What are longshore currents? Discuss the process of how they form.
What is a storm surge?
What is high tide? Low tide? Spring tide? Neap tide? How often does each occur? Be able to state the relative positions of the sun, earth, and moon for each tide.
What is tidal range?
Why is the period of the lunar semi-diurnal tide 12 hr 25 min?

 EXAM 3 STUDY GUIDE

Define coast, coastline, coastal zone, shore, backshore, nearshore.
Define swash zone, surf zone, breaker zone, offshore, shoreline, beach.
How do rivers effect salinity?.
How does typical coastal salinity compare with the deep ocean..
Give an example of how warm temperatures can affect salinity.
Given an example of how cold temperatures can affect salinity.
Discuss wave refraction, reflection, and diffraction.
Discuss what happens as a wave approaches a shore.
What is the relation between water depth, wave height, and when a wave will break.
What is uprush and backwash?
What is longshore drift and why does it occur?
What are rip currents and why do they occur?
What are longshore bars? Why do they form?
Where is the longshore trough located?
What is the low tide terrace?
What is a berm? How do they form? Compare the winter berm to the summer berm.
What would be the typical slope and firmness of a beach consisting of fine grained angular sand?
What would be the typical slope and firmness of a beach consisting of coarse grained rounded sand?
What is the major source of sand for most beaches?
What are spits, tombolos, and barrier islands?
In class we discussed 3 mechanisms in which sea cliff erode. List and describe each of the three.
What is a wave-cut platform and how does it form?
List the 4 types of beaches we discussed in class and describe under what conditions they occur.
Define estuary.
List the 4 majors classes of estuaries and discuss how each type forms.
List the 3 zones of an estuary discussed in class. What kind of water occurs in each?
List the 5 factors discussed in class that effect the degree of mixing between fresh and salt water in an estuary.
Why doesn’t salt and fresh water readily mix?
List the 4 types of estuaries based up type of mixing and briefly describe each.
State the 1979 U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service definition of a wetland.
List the 3 attributes discuss in class used to define a wetland.
What is the difference between a marsh and a swamp?
What is the difference between salt marshes, brackish marshes, and tidal fresh marshes?
Why are wetlands common in estuaries? What process forms them?
What are lagoons?
What are deltas? Why do they form?
What is ecology?
What are the physical and biological environment?
Which are the two fundamental divisions of the marine environment?
What are the neritic and oceanic zones?
Subdivision of both pelagic and benthic environments are based on depth. Cite a couple of reasons why that makes sense.
What are the photic, dysphotic and aphotic zones? Why are they important?
Why is the epipelagic zone (upper 200m of the ocean) the habitat for the vast majority of marine plants and animals?
Similarly, why is the total population of animals living at greater depths so limited?
What is the cell?
What is cell composition?
What is the average dimension of cells?
How many cell types have been recognized?
What is the difference between prokaryote and eukaryote cells?
What is the highest organizational group in the taxonomic classification of organisms?
Identify the five kingdoms of organisms. Briefly describe the basic features of each.
What is the fundamental (lowest) organizational group? What is the essential feature of all individuals of that group?
In approximate terms, about how many marine species have been recognized? What percentage lives in the open ocean?
What are the two fundamental lifestyles of organisms in the oceans?
How do nekton and plankton differ in their mobility?
What are phytoplankton, zooplankton and bacterioplankton?
Distinguish between epifaunal and infaunal benthic animals.
What are the basic needs of all marine organisms?
The density of plankton and nekton is slightly greater than the density of sea water. Is that a problem? If so, explain.
Identify and describe briefly three types of adaptations of plankton and nekton to retard sinking.
Why does the small size of phytoplankton decrease their rate of sinking in sea water?
Why is the small size of phytoplankton a real advantage in nutrient-poor surface waters of the ocean? Keep in mind that nutritional needs are directly related to the size of an organism, and that the ability of a "plant" to satisfy those needs is directly related to the surface area of the organism.

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 This page was last updated on March 23rd, 2000

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