First Semester Study Guide

A “mystery” in our understanding of plate tectonics has been the nature of the power source capable of moving the plates and the continents embedded within them. Evidence indicates the power source to be:

Convection currents within Earth’s asthenosphere in the mantle are moving the plates.

If two oceanic plates collide at a relatively fast speed, and none is much older and denser than the other, what will probably happen?

A trench will form and large earthquakes will occur.

Land-based evidence for plate tectonic can be seen in:

The distribution of fossils of flora and fauna in different continents.

The correlation of rocks in now widely separated continents.

The paleomagnetic stripes seen on both side of the mid-ocean ridge.

The youngest seafloor rocks are found:

Near the rift valleys of the mid-ocean ridges.

New crust is being generated:

In the rift valleys of the mid-ocean ridges.

The mid-ocean ridges are recognized as:

Divergent plate boundaries.

The origin of deltas is related to:

River deposition of sediments eroded from continents.

The landscape of the seafloor would best be described as:

Containing ridges, trenches, volcanoes, abyssal plains, and rift valleys.

The average salinity of the world’s ocean is closest to which of the following:

3\.4 0/00

Other than the hydrogen and oxygen atoms themselves, the two most abundant elements (ions) dissolved in seawater are:

Sodium and chloride

The amount of oxygen (gas) that seawater can hold in solution will be greater:

In colder water

The Coriolis effect causes water currents ( and other objects in motion ) in the northern hemisphere to deflect off course:

To the right from point of origin

Salinity will …………………………………………… the solubility of gasses

Decrease

The most dense water in ocean currents is the:

Coldest and highest in salinity

A spring tide only occurs during the spring and summer months in each hemisphere.

False

The primary force(s) that cause(s) tides in the sea is (are)

The gravitational attraction of Earth, Moon & the Sun

When the Sun and Moon are aligned with Earth, the

Highest high and lowest low tides will occur.

A tide pattern of 2 high and two low tides each day describes a 

Semidiurnal tide

Ocean salinity is usually expressed in

Parts per thousand

Which of the following is NOT a process that decreases the salinity of seawater?

Evaporation

The highest salinity would be found in which of the following areas?

An area with high rates of evaporation

What is density?

Mass per unit volume

The units in the density measurement are:

grams/centimeter cubed.

Which of the following can cause an increase in the density of ocean water?

A decrease in temperature and an increase in salinity

What are the three main layers of Earth? 

Crust, mantle, and core

Deep ocean trenches are associated with ………………

Subduction zones in convergent boundaries

What type of plate boundary is illustrated below?

Convergent

The Himalayas Mountains in South Asia are an example of what type of plate boundary?

Convergent continental-continental

Volcanic island formation is associated with what type of plate boundary?

Convergent oceanic-oceanic boundary

The thermal convection that drives the plate motion is caused by:

Different densities caused by temperature differences

When a tsunami reaches shore,

The wave height is increased by entry into shallow water.

Steep, narrow, rocky shores are the most  exposed to:

High wave energy

What type of sediment makes up an estuary?

Silt

Tsunamis can be caused by

An underwater earthquake at a convergent plate boundary or a volcano as they displace water.

The …………………………………….. Zone is the area of a coast between the highest high water mark and the lowest low water mark (tide)

Littoral

At …………………………………………. the slow movement of water will allow for fine particles to settle and make it muddy.

Estuaries

An experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of temperature on the growth of Isochrysis (single-celled marine algae).  In this experiment, vultures of Isochrysis were grown in test tubes containing a culture solution of magnesium and phosphorus.  All tubes were illuminated with fluorescent lights and incubated at a range of temperatures from 14 celsius to 34 celsius.  Suggest a reason for why the cultures were illuminated during the experiment.

To allow for light necessary in photosynthesis

There must be 3 to 5 repeats/trials of experiments in order to:

Ensure validity

A ………………………………………. Is a variable that could affect the dependent variable.  It is not what is being tested. These are the variables that must be controlled in a lab situation.  In the field they are measured and recorded if they can’t be controlled.

Confounding variable

………………………………… data is numerical data that give the quantity, amount or range of a variable when checking the dependent variable.

Quantitative

The smallest daily tidal range occurs during which type of tide?

Neap tide

Which part of the ocean is the deepest?

Trenches

The asthenosphere has the consistency of chocolate pudding as it consists of molten rock.

True

New ocean crust and therefore seafloor spreading occur at the following boundary:

Divergent

Calculate the mean of the following 3 trials:  5m,10m, and 6 meters:

7 meters

Some examples of dependent variables are:

Amount of organisms, grams, centimeters, of time

Microscopes, tape measure, eyes, quadrat, grids, scales, are used to measure:

Dependent variable

Salinity is the measure of:

The quantity of dissolved salts/ions in ocean water, represented by parts per thousand, ppt, or 0/00.

Run-off is:

The flow of water from land to the ocean, caused by any form of precipitation.

Earth’s lithosphere  is broken into large slabs called tectonic plates.

True

The oxygen minimum layer in the ocean is the layer  where……

The concentration of dissolved oxygen is at its lowest, typically found between 200m. and 1,000m.

Halocline is a:

Layer of water below the surface or mixing layer where a rapid increase in salinity can be measured as depth increases.

Thermocline is:

The layer in the ocean in which the temperature decreases drastically with depth.

The one variable in an experiment that is tested or changed is the…

Independent variable

The duration of an experiment using microscopic algae in a laboratory based experiment would be of….

1 week or less

Which type of thermometer will give more precise measurements?

Digital

When measuring light intensity in a lab based experiment, different distances from the light source is the:

Independent variable

A drawing of a biological specimen must be:

Large, drawn in pencil, using a single unbroken line with no shading.

What is the typical amount of time between a high tide and the next high tide?

Approximately every 12.5 hours

Which one is an ocean current that is driven by differences in temperature and salinity?

Surface currents

The abyssal plains got formed at…

Divergent boundaries where the upwelling of magma erupts to the surface as lava, cools down and solidifies, making new seafloor and eventually gets coerced in sediments.

Rain dissolving calcium in rocks is an example of:

Chemical weathering

A shore that is very exposed to waves and wind and gets formed from weathering is a………..

Rocky shore

An example of a muddy shore is ……….

An estuary found by the intracoastal

Shores formed where the sedimentation rate is higher than the erosion rate, the topography is flat, and the sediment is very fine:

Muddy shores

The approximate amount of days between a New Moon and a Full Moon:

14 days

These ocean currents are driven by strong winds (Trade Winds) blowing from the East to the West in the Pacific Ocean - happen near the equator - causing the surface waters to move to the West, deflecting deep, cold, nutrient rich waters to move up to the surface layer of the sea:

Upwelling

What type of boundary do we have at b?

Divergent

Causes for higher D.O. (Dissolved oxygen) are:

Photosynthesis of producers and mixing with the atmosphere

What environmental factors increase gas solubility in ocean waters:

Decreasing water temperature and increasing water depth.

What are the three salts found in abundance in seawater?

Sodium chloride, magnesium sulfate, and calcium carbonate.

Sea ice is less dense than seawater so it floats. Why this is important to organisms living in these areas:

Provides an area for mammals, birds to rest on.

Acts as a thermal insulator and stops the water column from freezing.

Substrate for ice algae to grow un underside.

Which statement best describes the formation of a hydrogen bond?:

An oxygen atom becomes slightly negative, a hydrogen atom becomes slightly positive, positive and negative charges attract forming electrostatic forces.

Explain how a global conveyor belt forms?’

Ocean water gets heated at the equator - Warm water of the Gulf Stream travels to the Arctic.- Sea ice formation in the Arctic leaves sea water saltier - Water cools and sinks due to higher density - Sinking water moves south to Antarctica - Water separately travels to Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean warming up and rising to the surface - Water travels back to the Atlantic Ocean.

……………………………………….. brings about more kinetic energy to both solutes and solvent having more energy and causing the solubility of salts/ions to increase.

Higher temperatures

Processes that increase salinity are…………

Evaporation, formation of sea ice & wind

How are atoms in the water molecule bonded with each other?

Covalent

How are water MOLECULES attracted to each other?

Through electrostatic forces

Hydrogen bonds

The salinity of ocean water affects the freezing point in this manner………….

Reduces the freezing point….so ocean water freezes at temperatures of less that 0 degrees Celsius.

Salts have ………………………………………… bonding.

Ionic

A pH of 3.0 would represent …

An acidic solution

Which of the layers of the ocean has the greatest density?

Deep ocean layer

Which factor does NOT affect the tidal range besides the gravitational pull of Moon, Earth & Sun?

Density of the water

A benefit of ocean currents besides carrying nutrients, moving sediments, transporting organisms (Nemo) they carry heat from the equator( 0 latitude) to higher latitudes. 

True

Which one is NOT a type of erosion?

Tree roots

Which of the following shores has a gradual slope?

Sandy

The Marianas Trench is found in the Atlantic Ocean.

False

Indicate which of the following are ways to check the pH of a solution:

Litmus indicator, pH probe, universal (pH) indicator

Which one of the following is NOT an effect brought about by the EL Nino Effect - ENSO:

Rain in Australia

Particles will settle according to size and density.

True

The type of shore will depend on the geology of the land.

True

An appropriate range of time to carry a lab based experiment is anywhere from 96 hours to 30 days.

True

The following controls would need to be carefully monitored in a lab-based experiment:  salinity, intensity of light, pH, carbon dioxide concentration and temperature, as long as they are not the independent variables.

True

Anomalous results in an experiment can only be found in the mean column of the table of results.

False

The average temperature of mineralized, pressurized water coming out at a hydrothermal vent is 200 C.

False

When working with living organisms one needs to work ethically to avoid hurting them during the investigation.

True

When working with hot equipment it is not important to take care to avoid burns.

False

Tables for data collection to be used in an experiment should be drawn after the experiment takes place.

False

An experiment may use more than one table to record the data.’

False

A table drawn for recording data needs to have a border all around it.

True