EOS Test 2

solar radiation at poles

outgoing radiation greater than incoming radiation

Pycnocline

density slope

What are the global factors that change salinity: factors of addition and factors of removal

Dissolved components: addition
stream
Dissolved components: removal
convection currents at MORs \
Biosphere

Where on Earth is the max vs. min effect?

(Coriolis effect) max effect: poles. Min(zero) effect: equator

What is the ITCZ? Is it a zone of high or low pressure? Where is it positioned on Earth on average versus changes seasonally?

ITCZ: moves the following area of greatest insolation and oceanic warming(meteorological equator)Low pressure? moves down in the winter

What drives the flow of surface currents vs. deep currents?

Surface currents are a wind driven current while deep currents are density driven

How do we measure ocean currents?

Floating devices(GPS) measure velocity of flowing water

What is unique about the Antarctic circumpolar current?

Dominated by gyre circulations. Sargasso Sea: the water that circulates around the north Atlantic gyres center of rotation

What are the dominant features of surface circulation in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico?

Warm waters, gulf stream

How is bathymetry measured?

Early soundings, weight at the end of a line

What was significant about the HMS Challenger expedition and when did it occur?

(1872-1876) 127,500 km voyage, measured deepest place on Earth in 1875

What is the physics behind echo soundings? How does it scale up to map the sub-sea-floor with seismic reflection surveys?

High energy sound emission bounces back up to record data. Can ever go through sediment

What is the average depth of the shelf break? How does that relate to sea level change during the quaternary?

About 135 m depth. Continental shelved were exposed land during glaciations(quaternary)

How are continental shelves different on active margins?

On active, tectonic activity creates high degree of relief in the form of islands, shallow banks and deep basins aka 'continental borderland'

What current flows parallel to the continental rise?

Contour current

How do submarine canyons form? What is the name of the sedimentary deposit at their base? How do these sedimentary deposits form?

Sedimentary material is transported through canyon, eroding in transit, producing sedimentary deposit fan aka 'submarine fan'

Describe sedimentation on the abyssal plain

Became flat by the sedimentary particles out of suspension over long periods of time

What is the difference between a seamount, abyssal hill, or guyot?

Mountains\>1000m\=seamount
anything smaller are abyssal hills
flat topped seamounts\= table mount(guyots)

How do volcanic island arcs form and in what plate tectonic setting?

Deep linear scars in the ocean floor caused by convergence plate boundaries (oceanic

What is a MOR and What plate tectonic are they found?

Mid Ocean Ridges: continuous looking mountain ranges that extends through all ocean basins
Volcanic (basalt) oceanic crust(divergent) center is spreading and called rift valley

What are pillow basalts, their texture and chemistry, and where do they form?

Pillow basalts are created when erupting lava at spreading centers is instantly quenched into solid state by seawater, can be found in rock outcrops

What is chemically and biologically interesting about hydrothermal vents? How do they form?

Dark color metals Cu, Zn, Fe, Ni
known for fostering unusual deep sea ecosystems without sunlight as they H2S gas metabolize
created by return of hot seawater from shallow subsurface from localized geothermal heating

What is the difference between sediment and a sedimentary rock?

Sediment: unconsolidated particles of materials (weathering, erosion)
Sedimentary rocks: consolidated particles

What is the difference between a bedding plane and sedimentary bed?

Bedding plane: nearly flat surface of deposition separating two layers of rock
Layers of sedimentary rocks that are distinctly different from overlying and underlying subsequent beds

What is the field of paleoceanography and paleoclimatology?

Paleoceanography: filed in oceanography that uses sediment to unlock changes in the earth through time
Paleoclimatology: the study of ancient climates on earth

How does thickness of sediment vary in the global oceans? What is the major control on sediment thickness?

River and continental flux most important in terms of supply
as sediment accumulates it preserves the materials and evidence of conditions in the overlying water column

When one refers to a depositional environment what does this mean?

A place on the Earths surface which is physically, chemically, biologically distinct from adjacent terrains

How is marine sediment collected?

Sediment dredges & grabs
Sediment cores
Deep & offshore drilling (R/V Resolution)
Offshore Drilling
Coastal & inshore waters

What is the difference between lithogenous, hydrogenous and biogenous sediment?

Lithogenous\= Rock, pelagic, ocean, neritic, SiO2
Biogenous\=Living, pelagic, SiO2,CaCO3
Hydrogenous\=Evaporates

What is the chemistry, primary sources, and delivery mechanisms of lithogenous sediment to the worlds oceans?

Derived from preexisting rock material (SiO2) from erosion, volcanic eruptions, wind blown dust
nertic, pelagic or ocean deposits

What is the chemistry, primary sources and delivery mechanisms of hydrogenous sediment to the worlds oceans?

Manganese nodules
Fe

What is the chemistry, primary sources and delivery mechanisms of biogenous sediment to the worlds oceans?

derived from the hard parts of once living organisms\
pelagic deposits
SiO2, CaCo3

What is the calcium compensation depth? How does it impact marine sedimentation?

The point below the oceans conditions cause rapid dissolution on CaCo3 mean 4.5km range 3.5 to 6 km
warm shallow seawater saturated with calcium carbonate

What is the order of minerals produced when a unit volume of seawater evaporates?

Calcite. Gypsum, Halite, K & Mg salts

What is the difference between turbidity and contour currents? What drives their flow, what is the name of their sedimentary deposit?

Turbidity: masses of sediment laden water flowing downhill under gravitational forcing, submarine canyons
Contour: flow parallel to the bathymetric lines typically on the continental slope, contourite

What is unique about the water molecule in terms of polarity? What is a hydrogen bond and how does that influence the physical properties of water?

Polarity creates exceptional ability to dissolve materials
Hydrogen bonds are weaker than covalent bonds but strong enough to generate surface tension

What is the difference of heat, temperature, heat capacity, and specific heat? What are their units

Heat: energy transferred from one body to another calories/grams
Temperature: direct measure of average kinetic energy of molecules Celsius
Heat capacity: heat required to raise temp by 1 centigrade
Specific heat: The heat capacity per unit mass of a body for comparison between materials cal/gram/degree/celcius

What is latent heat? How does it fuel the intensification of hurricanes?

Latent\=hidden
when water changes state heat is released or absorbed
lets hurricanes fuel themselves

What are the global effects of the heat capacity of the oceans?

properties of water regulate temperature
increase solar radiation at equator vs. poles
evaporation transfers heat from ocean to land, carried to high latitudes
precipitation at higher latitudes releases waters latent heat of condensation

How does the density of water change as it cools from 16 c to 4 c? What happens to the density when the temp goes from 4 to 0c? What happens to the volume of water when it freezes and what causes this molecular level?

As water cools to 4c thermal contraction from decreased molecular motion
below 4c water density decreases (crystallizes)

What is the definition of salinity and what does it exclude? What are the common ways to measure salinity?

Salinity: total amount of solid material dissolved in eater including dissolved gasses but excluding organic substances
excludes: organic substances held in suspension & dissolved organic substances
evaporate seawater, principle of constant proportions and oceanography instruments

What is the numerical range of salinity in the global surface oceans, and average deep

sea salinity value?

What is the difference between halocline, thermocline and pycnocline?

Thermocline: heat slope
Pycnocline: density slope
Halocline: rapid changing salinity with depth

What is the average PH of the surface ocean in the upper ~300m? What is the average PH of the ocean in the deep sea?

Average PH\=8.1
Deep sea\=7.6ish

What does the problem of ocean acidification refer to?

Too much additional of CO2 to the surface cause increased acidity at the surface

What are the 3 specific basic relationship for how temperature, salinity and pressure are related

Temp up\= Density down
Salinity up\= Density up
Pressure up\= Density up

How does temperature and density vary with latitude, and more specifically, compare and contrast temperature and density variability at high latitude versus low latitudes?

Low latitude high density/drop temp
High latitude same density/heat (high density)

What is the difference between a high pressure zone and low pressure zone, How do these terms apply to the ITCZ versus subtropical high pressure in the 3 cell model of Earths atmospheric circulation?

Warm air is less denes so it rises creates low cool air more dense creates high pressure
hot air from ITCZ then cooler in subtropical

Describe the lower 3 layers of the atmosphere. What layer is the main layer for weather activity? What boundary defines the top of hurricanes?

Troposphere(weather), stratosphere, ozone layer, upper atmosphere

How does solar radiation vary by latitude? What is meant by the concept solar footprint?

Lower latitudes(tropics) receive higher than poles
equal energy but greater surface area high latitudes 'solar footprint'

What drives the changes in the seasons between the northern and southern hemisphere?

Global tilt
vernal equinox
summer solstice
autumnal equinox
winter solstice

How and when did Earths atmosphere and oceans from?

oxygenation of the atmosphere, photochemical dissociation, photosynthesis 2.5 Ga

What are the 3 main atmospheres in Earths history? When did oxygen arrive in the atmosphere and what is the main sedimentary rock evidence for this event?

Archean atmosphere (water, CO, Ch, N)
Nitrogen dominated
modern atmosphere 2.5
Haden, archean, proter.???
banded iron rock formations

What is albedo? What is the albedo of snow versus blacktop?

albedo is the percentage of incidence radiation that is referred back to space
snow\=80

What is the Coriolis effect? How does it impact the path of a moving body in the northern versus southern hemisphere?

Changes the intended path of moving body (curved path)
northern path to right
southern path to left

Where are the major desert areas on earth? Why are these latitudinally positioned at ~30 degrees?

30N, 30S
Rain shadow effect

What is the difference between the trade wind and the easterlies?

Trade winds: move from subtropical high pressure belts towards the ITCZ
Westerlies: some air that descends at subtropical highs deflect northward to high latitudes

How and why does land and sea breezes develop?

Seabreeze: rising air during afternoon over a heated terrestrial surface pulls air towards the land from ocean
Land breeze: at night land cools quicker so high density and sinks and wind blows from land to ocean

What is the difference between a tropical depression, tropical storm and tropical cyclone? What is the difference between a tropical cyclone, typhoon, cyclone, hurricane?

Tropical cyclone: 1 min average wind at 10 m 7118 km/hr North Atlantic
Topical storm: system of strong thunderstorms winds 62

Where do hurricanes track in the Atlantic most commonly?

over Caribbean / Florida

What is the Saffir Simpson scale, and what does it refer to?

Hurricane intensity and classification

What are the meteorological factors that promote hurricane development and intensification? How does ENSO impact hurricane activity?

Release of latent heat of condensation & released as water condenses to form clouds
rotation develops and it fuels itself
warm \> 26.5 deep seawater
low vertical wind shear
preexisting weather disturbance
warmer it gets ENSO\= more intense

How is hurricane activity likely to change this century from atmospheric CO2 loading from humans?

Hurricane frequency will go down, intensity will increase, rain will increase

What is the standard unit of measurement for global transport of ocean currents?

Sverdrup (Sv) 1,000,000 m3/s

What are the main components of surface ocean currents? What DEFINES THE BOUNDARY OF THE SUBTROIPICAL GYRES?

Wind driven currents moved by major wind belts
subtropical gyres bounded by 4 currents (equation, western, northern, southern, eastern)

What is the Ekman spiral vs. Ekman transport? How are why does Ekman transport vary in the northern vs southern hemisphere?

Ekman spiral describes speed and direction of flow of surface water at various depth.
all layers combined to create an average movement called Ekman transport
in northern Coriolis effect causes water to move in 45 degree to right of wind

What is subtropical convergence and how does it develop? How does it intensify western boundary currents?

Ekman transport defines surface water to right in northern hemisphere so clockwise rotation develops
subtropical convergence forms closer to faster, deeper, narrower western boundary

What is a geostrophic current?

Surface water in subtropical; convergence flows downhill, counted by Coriolis effect

What is upwelling? Where does it commonly occur? What is the impact of upwelling on biosphere?

The upward movement of cold deep nutrient rich water to the surface. commonly at the equator especially in pacific
caused by surface current divergence

What is downwelling and where does it commonly occur?

The downward movement of surface water to deep ocean
north Atlantic, gulf stream, many more pile up under Greenland

How does seasonal migration of the ITCZ impact surface ocean circulation in the Indian Ocean?

Change the location of primary heating ITCZ follows primary area of heating

What is the impact on the primary productivity in the Indian Ocean in response to seasonal variability yin ocean and atmospheric dynamics in the Indian Ocean?

content heating reverses wind direction at low and high altitudes
massive increase in productivity
Somali current brings Africa cool waters
upwelling brings nutrients up

Who is Wallace Broecker and what did he contribute to oceanography that change the scientific wold in 1991?

Broecker, Ws. 1991. The great ocean conveyor. oceanography 97(2). 79

what is thermohaline ciruclation?How does it Powerades deepwater currents?

Thin, of aquarium experiment were high density cold water is denser and sits

What are the primary categories fo deepwater and where do they form on Earth?

AABW

What are the 5 main oceans on Earth?

Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Southern

What is storm surge? What part of a hurricane creates the most damaging storm surge in the northern hemisphere? why does this differ between hemispheres?

Storm surge: abnormal rise of water generated by storm over and above predicted astronomical tides

What is an over wash deposit? How can over wash deposits be leveraged in the sedimentary record to understand long term hurricane activity?What are we learning about the Earths system potential to ternate more intense hurricane activity?

Over

arctic ocean

* smallest
* shallowest

atlantic ocean

* 1/2 size of Pacific
* not as deep as Pacific

pacific ocean

* largest
* deepest
* 1/3 of Earth’s surface

indian ocean

* similar depth as Atlantic but smaller

southern ocean

* defined by currents
* portions of pacific, atlantic, and indian oceans

geographic features of passive margins

continental shelf, continental slope, continental rise, abyssal plain

geographic features of active margins

Continental shelf, continental slope, oceanic trench

passive margin plate tectonic settings

at interior of plates, not near any active boundaries

active margin plate tectonic settings

near lithospheric plate tectonic boundaries

average depth of shelf break

135 km

shelf break relation to sea-level change during the Quaternary

where the sea level dropped to during the glacial period

formation of submarine canyons

V-shaped valleys have sedimentary materials transported through the canyon, eroding in transit, and creating a sedimentary deposit on the continental rise & abyss

pillow basalts

* Erupting lava that is instantly quenched by seawater


* are formed at seafloor spreading centers
* composed of Fe, Ni, Cu, and Zn

why hydrothermal vents are chemically interesting

They are made of high concentrations of dark colored metal sulfides (Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn)

why hydrothermal vents are biologically interesting

they foster unusual ecosystems of organisms who can survive with the chemical/ thermo combo of hydrothermal vents instead of sunligh

hydrothermal vent formation

returning of hot sea water that has circulator through the shallow subsurface & emerged through the seafloor

major control of sediment thickness

rivers and continental flux

thickest sediment location in ocean

continental shelves near mouths of rivers

thinnest sediment location in ocean

at MORs where ocean floor is young

example of depositonal environments

reefs vs beach

depositional environment

A physically, biologically, chemically distinct place

how marine sediments are collected

Dredges and grabs, cores, deep and offshore drilling, other ships like piston, gravity, and box cores