EAOS111 Flashcards

Flashcards for vocabulary review of Earth and Ocean Science lecture notes.

Ekman transport

The net movement of water at a 90-degree angle from the wind direction.

Gyres

Large-scale movement of water in the world’s oceans primarily driven by the major surface wind systems.

Westward intensification

The strength of the Coriolis effect varying with latitude.

Denitrification

Bacterial process that converts nitrate to dinitrogen gas (N2).

Marine snow

Transfer of particulate carbon from the surface ocean to depth.

Nitrogen fixation

Carried out by cyanobacteria.

HNLC

High Nutrient Low Chlorophyll

What type of displacement occurs at segment 2?

Convergent

Cretaceous (~100 million years ago)

Continental rift started to form between Zealandia and the rest of the supercontinent Gondwana

oxidation

When pyrite (FeS2) undergoes chemical weathering

Hydrolysis

When feldspar undergoes chemical weathering, what type of reaction is occurring?

El Nino

The periodic warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean.

La Nina Events

The trade winds strengthen, Water in the western Pacific is warmer, Coastal and equatorial upwelling are stronger.

Spring Tides

Tides that occur when Earth, the moon and the sun are aligned in space.

Surface Tension

Water has high surface tension and capillarity as it is strongly cohesive and strongly adhesive

Seawater composition

There are about 3.5% salt in seawater.

Major seawater components

Na, Cl, Mg, S, Ca, K comprise major elements in seawater.

Photic Zone

The top 40 to 100 m of the ocean is where most of the light and most of the life are.

Meandering River

A single sinuous channel that migrates laterally over time.

At what minimum flow velocity (in cm/s) would you expect gravel particles 2 mm in diameter to be eroded from the riverbed, according to the Hjulström curve?

20 to 30 cm/s

Primordial Hydrogen

all of the element hydrogen was made in the Big Bang

Habitable Zone Parameters

The habitable zone around a star is determined by its size and temperature.

Geosphere

Largest carbon reservoir on Earth.

Isotope Fractionation

Isotope fractionation is used in marine sediments to record past climate.

What defines the ocean residence time of an element

The average time an element spends in seawater before it is removed to the sediment.

When is aluminum most commonly used?

To remove the influence of lithogenic minerals from the geochemical records of marine sediment.

Marine Sedimentary Timeline

A timescale assigned to marine sedimentary records of past climates using radiocarbon dating, Milankovitch orbital forcing theory, and magnetostratigraphy.

What acoustic tool is used to seismically image up to 200 meters below the seafloor?

boomer

From where is more than 90% of the world's rare earth elements processed and refined?

China

Why is copper mining likely to be important for the world’s future energy needs?

We will need a lot more copper for transmitting electricity.

Microplastics

Shows some of the earliest evidence of human activities preserved globally in the sedimentary record

Why the Anthropocene is suggested for the most recent geological epoch

The widespread geological effects of humanity are now identifiable in most present- day geological settings.