Midterm Exam Review

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts from the lecture notes focused on oceanography, geology, and atmospheric science.

Oceans

Cover approximately 70% of Earth's surface.

Galaxy

The Milky Way is the galaxy that contains our solar system.

Satellite altimetry

A method of measuring ocean depth by bouncing radar off the ocean surface from an orbiter.

Solar nebula hypothesis

The theory suggesting that our solar system condensed from a spinning disk of material.

Eustatic sea level

Refers to the global sea level changes due to factors like glacial melting and thermal expansion.

Uniformitarianism

The assumption that physical laws have remained constant over geological time.

Estuaries

Closed inlets where seawater and freshwater mix.

Deltas

Accumulations of sediment at river mouths.

Terrigenous sediments

The most abundant marine sediment category near continents.

Pangaea

The last supercontinent that existed around 200 million years ago.

Half-life

The time it takes for half of the radioactive atoms in a sample to decay.

Subduction

The process of sinking old oceanic crust back into the mantle.

Hydrogen and helium

The two most abundant chemical elements in the universe.

Mariana Trench

The deepest ocean location.

Pycnocline

An ocean layer where density changes dramatically with depth.

Thermocline

A type of pycnocline controlled primarily by temperature.

Phytoplankton

Major primary producers in the global ocean.

Coriolis effect

The effect that causes moving masses to be deflected to the left in the Southern Hemisphere and right in the Northern Hemisphere.

Tsunamis

Waves that travel as long-period shallow-water waves.

Eutrophication

The excess nutrients in water bodies leading to algal blooms.

Aquaculture

The breeding, rearing, and harvesting of aquatic animals and plants.