Essentials of Oceanography - Review Flashcards

Flashcards for reviewing key vocabulary and concepts from the Essentials of Oceanography textbook, focusing on ocean characteristics, historical exploration, scientific method, and Earth's structure and processes.

Oceanography

Scientific study of all aspects of the marine environment including the water, life, and Earth beneath it.

Pacific Ocean

World's largest ocean, covering more than half of Earth's surface.

Atlantic Ocean

Second-largest ocean, separating the Old World from the New World.

Indian Ocean

Smaller than the Atlantic, located mostly in the Southern Hemisphere.

Arctic Ocean

Smallest and shallowest ocean, with a permanent layer of sea ice.

Southern Ocean (Antarctic Ocean)

Defined by the Antarctic Convergence, encompassing portions of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans south of 50 degrees south latitude.

Challenger Deep

Deepest part of the ocean, located in the Mariana Trench.

Polynesians

Early Pacific navigators who demonstrated remarkable navigation skills to travel over vast expanses of open ocean.

Easter Island

The name of the most easterly island in Polynesia.

Phoenicians

First humans from the Western Hemisphere known to have developed the art of navigation.

Captain James Cook

English navigator who undertook three voyages of scientific discovery.

Scientific Method

Formalized way scientists discover underlying patterns in the natural world and then to use this knowledge to make predictions about what should or should not be expected to happen given a certain set of circumstances.

Hypothesis

Also known as an educated guess, it is a tentative, testable statement about the general nature of the phenomena observed.

Theory

A well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world that can incorporate facts, laws, logical inferences, and tested hypotheses.

Nebular Hypothesis

Posits that all bodies in the solar system formed from an enormous cloud composed mostly of hydrogen and helium, with only a small percentage of heavier elements.

Density

Mass per unit volume; a measure of how heavy something is for its size.

Density Stratification

Process by which elements were able to segregate according to their densities.

Lithosphere

Earth's cool, rigid, outermost layer made up of the crust and the topmost portion of the mantle.

Plastic layer of the upper mantle that is capable of flow.

Asthenosphere

Basalt

Oceanic crust is primarily made out of _.

Granite

Continental crust is primarily made of __.

Outgassing

Early process by which atmospheric gases, including water vapor, were expelled from inside Earth.

Heterotrophs

Primitive cells that depend upon an external food supply.

Autotrophs

Term for self-nourishing cells that can manufacture their own food supply.

Chemosynthesis

Cells that derive energy from inorganic compounds at deep-water hydrothermal vents.

Photosynthesis

Cells that capture the Sun's energy through cellular photosynthesis.

Respiration

Process by how plants and animals release energy from the food they eat.

Radiometric age dating

Age-dating technique that measures the half-life decay of radioactive substance within the makeup of rock to determine its age

Average Ocean Depth

The average depth of the ocean is approximately 3,682 meters (12,080 feet).

Continental Shelf

A relatively shallow extension of the continent that is submerged.

Continental Slope

The transition between the continent and the deep-ocean floor.

Continental Rise

A gently sloping or nearly flat surface at the base of the continental slope.

Abyssal Plains

Flat depositional surfaces formed of sediments covering roughly half of the deep-ocean floor.

Seamounts

Volcanic peaks rising from the deep-ocean floor.

Trench

A long, narrow, and deep depression on the ocean floor with relatively steep sides, typically formed by the subduction of one tectonic plate under another.

Mid-Ocean Ridge

A continuous elevated zone on the floor of all major ocean basins, created by upwelling of magma.

Wave Refraction

The bending of waves as they approach a coastline.

Wave Height

The vertical distance between a crest and a trough.

Wavelength

The horizontal distance between two successive crests or troughs.

Wave Period

The time it takes for two successive crests or troughs to pass a point.

Circular Orbital Motion

Waves in which water particles move in closed circles as the wave passes.

Longshore Transport

The transport of sediment along the coast, driven by wave action.

Breakwater

A wall built out into the ocean to protect a coastline or harbor.

Groin

Structures built perpendicular to the coastline, often in pairs, to trap sand and widen a beach.

Jetty

A structure extending out to sea to protect a harbor entrance.

Tombolo

A depositional feature that connects an island or sea stack to the mainland.

Spit

A ridge of sand that connects to the mainland at one end and curves into a bay.

Barrier Island

An island parallel to the mainland, separated by a lagoon.

Estuary

A semi-enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea.

Lagoon

A shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by barrier islands or reefs.

Emergent Coastline

A coastline that is experiencing a relative fall in sea level.

Submergent Coastline

A coastline that is experiencing a relative rise in sea level.

Beach

An accumulation of sediment found along the shore of a lake or ocean.

Fjord

A long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs, typically formed by submergence of a glaciated valley.

Sea Stack

A steep and often isolated column of rock in the sea near a coast, formed by wave erosion.

Headland

A coastal landform, usually high and with a steep slope, that extends into a body of water.

Baymouth Bar

A sandbar that completely crosses the mouth of a bay, sealing it off from the open ocean.

Delta

A landform made of sediment that is deposited where a river flows into an ocean or lake

Salinity

The amount of dissolved salts in seawater, typically expressed in parts per thousand ‰.

Halocline

A layer in the ocean where the rate of change in salinity with depth is greatest.

Thermocline

A layer in the ocean where the rate of change in temperature with depth is greatest

Pycnocline

A layer in the ocean where the rate of change in density with depth is greatest.

Ocean Gyre

A circular-moving loop of water. It can be warm or cold.

Gulf Stream

An ocean current that moves warm water from the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea up the eastern coastline of the United States and on to Western Europe.

Thermohaline Circulation

The flow of ocean water caused by changes in density, which is controlled by temperature and salinity.

Upwelling

Upwelling is the process where deep, cold water rises toward the surface. It is caused by winds blowing along the surface of the ocean near a coastline

Downwelling

Downwelling is the process where warm water sinks downward. It is caused by winds blowing along the surface of the ocean near a coastline

El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)

Periodic changes in sea surface temperature and reversing trade winds across the equatorial Pacific Ocean

Cultural Hearth

A regional area that is in danger of losing its cultural identity.

Bioaccumulation

The term for the increase of the concentration of a substance in an organism or tissue.

Biomagnification

The increased concentration of toxic chemicals in the tissues of organisms at higher levels in the food web.

Carbon Sequestration

The process by which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and stored in the ocean.

Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)

A naturally occurring group of lipophilic chemical compounds such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organochlorine pesticides (DDT, DDE, DDD), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and dioxins (PCDDs, PCDFs).

Ocean Acidification

The term for the change in pH of the ocean caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Global Warming

An increase in the temperature of the Earth's climate system and its related effects.

Climate Change

The long-term heating of Earth's climate system observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth's atmosphere.

Coral Extraction

The removal of coral from a coral reef. This can happen naturally (coral bleaching) or be man-made.