Exam 1 OCEAN 100

What is science?

Science demands evidence and testability and explains and predicts natural phenomena

What are the steps of the scientific method?

Observation → Question → Hypothesis → Test hypothesis → Conclusion

What is a scientific theory?

Structure of ideas that explains a large, diverse number of facts/observations

Where do observations come from?

The environment/nature

What are scientific theories supported by?

Evidence

What does evidence point to?

Conclusions

What does it mean that scientific theories are parsimonious?

the simplest explanation is often correct

What are 4 examples of scientific theories in detail?

geology overarching theory is plate tectonics

biology overarching theory is evolution

physics overarching theory is laws of gravity, motion, etc.

astronomy overarching theory is big bang theory

What is a hypothesis?

Idea proposed to explain one or more facts; must be testable and potentially false

What is the basis of science?

Observations

What are the 7 fields of Oceanography

Physics

Geology

Biology

Chemistry

Geography

Astronomy

Engineering

What are the Earth’s 4 spheres?

Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Biosphere, Lithosphere

What is the Atmosphere?

Air around the planet

What is the hydrosphere?

All water on Earth

What is the Biosphere?

All life on Earth

What is the Lithosphere sphere of the Earth?

Outer rocky layer of the Earth

What is a block diagram?

3-dimensional view of the Earth

What is a map view?

View of Earth from above, birds-eye

What is a cross-sectional view?

View of Earth from inside, as if Earth was cut along a vertical plane

What are map projections?

Method used to flatten the curved, 3-D surface of the Earth which distorts the size of objects in latitude from the Equator to the Poles

What is a Mercator map projection?

Flat representation of the round Earth that greatly exaggerates the size of landmasses near the poles

What is an example of the Mercator map with Greenland and South America?

Greenland looks bigger than South America in the Mercator map, but in reality the area is about 20% that of South America

What are the 5 oceans?

Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Antartic

What percent of Earth’s surface is oceans?

71%

What percent of all water on Earth comes from the Ocean?

97%

What is a trench?

a long, narrow, and very deep depression in the ocean floor.

What is the deepest trench?

Mariana trench

Where is the Mariana Trench?

The west-pacific ocean

Which part of the ocean contains the deepest trenches?

West-Pacific Ocean

Why is the West- Pacific Ocean the deepest ocean?

The western Pacific Ocean is the deepest ocean because its oceanic crust is very old and dense. As the crust gets older, it cools and becomes denser, causing it to sink lower into the mantle. Gravity pulls the dense, sinking crust downward, creating deeper ocean basins.

What is the shallowest ocean?

Arctic Ocean

Why is the Arctic Ocean the shallowest ocean?

the Arctic has lots of shallow continental shelf → less deep ocean basin → shallowest average depth.

What is the average temperature of the ocean?

4 degrees celsius

What are the 4 most abundant elements in the ocean?

Hydrogen, Oxygen, Chlorine (Cl), and Sodium (Na)

What do the elements hydrogen and oxygen make in the ocean?

Water

What do the elements chlorine and sodium create in the ocean?

Salt

How did the Earth originate?

From a supernova explosion

What is a supernova explosion?

Great explosion of a star that creates planets and solar systems

What is a galaxy?

Collection of stars

How old is the Earth?

4.6 billion years old

What does a supernova’s next stage?

Solar nebula

What does the Earth condense out of?

Solar Nebula

What is a solar nebula?

A solar nebula is a huge cloud of gas and dust in space that collapsed under gravity and eventually formed our Sun and planets about 4.6 billion years ago.

What is the solar disk model?

A gas of cloud and dust collapsed because of gravity → the cloud started spinning and flattened into a disk → the sun formed in the center → gravity pulled leftover dust and rocks in the disk and it clumped together to form the planets

What happened 65 million years ago?

Mass extinction of dinosaurs from asteroid

What is density?

$$\frac{Mass}{Volume}$$

What was the Earth 4.5 billion years ago?

Completely molten

Which layers of the Earth are the least dense?

On the surface

What are the denser metals in the Earth’s layers and where are they located?

Iron and Nickel, located in the core

What are the lighter material(s) in the Earth’s layer and where is it located?

Silicate rocks, to the surface of the Earth’s layers

Which layers of the Earth are solid rock?

All of the layers except the outer core

What are the five layers of the Earth?

Lithosphere, Asthenosphere, Mesosphere, Outer core, Inner Core

When something is more dense, is it more or less likely to sink?

More likely

When something is less dense, is it more or less likely to sink?

Less likely

What is the lithosphere?

Top layer of the Earth that includes the crust and the uppermost mantle and is made of brittle plates

What is the lithosphere composed of?

Solid rock made mostly of silicate materials

How thick is the lithosphere?

about 100 km thick

What is the Asthenosphere?

Second layer that consists of the upper mantle and is made of weak hot rock

How thick is the asthenosphere?

about 600 km thick?

What does it mean that the rock in the Asthenosphere are ductile?

They have the potential to molt since it is hot enough