EMES Final Exam Review

What percentage of Earth’s surface is covered by oceans?

71 %

The average depth of the oceans is about:

4 km

The average thickness of the atmosphere is:

100 km

Order the gases in the list below from most abundant to least abundant in the present-day atmosphere: oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen

nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide

The concentration of CO2 was approximately _____ prior to the industrial revolution

290 ppm

We use latitude and longitude to determine position on Earth. What is another name given to a latitude of 0 degrees?

Equator

The distance equal to 1 degree of longitude:

Decreases from the equator to the pole

Maps of Earth’s surface are distorted in what ways: don’t preserve, relative distances, don’t preserve relative areas, don’t preserve directions, all of the above?

All of the above

Vertical exaggeration in displays of ocean data:

makes vertical changes appear steeper than they actually are

Express 1,000,000,000 in scientific notation

10^9

Express 0.000006 in scientific notation

10^-6

Early Earth, soon after formation was:

Hot like a molten surface

Approximately how long ago did life first begin on Earth?

3.6 billion years ago

The first forms of life on Earth were:

chemosynthetic

Which form of -synthesis produces oxygen?

Photosynthetic

The peak of the last glacial maximum was approximately how many years ago?

20,000 years

How much cooler than present were average global temperatures during the last glacial maximum?

10*C

Is CO2 concentration in the atmosphere higher or lower during a glacial maximum?

Lower

What are two aspects of the ocean surface that make it difficult to work upon?

waves, sea sickness, ice, wind

Why can’t we see very far in water?

Because water absorbs light energy much better than air

Atmospheric pressure:

Decreases exponentially with height

Pressure in the ocean:

Increases linearly with depth

Name two of the primary subdisciplines of oceanography:

geological, chemical, physical, biological

What is the common way at present to measure ocean bathymetry from a ship/boat?

Sonar

Name a device used to recover a sediment sample from the seafloor.

Grab sampler, box core, gravity core, piston core

The water column:

Is the water from the ocean surface to the seafloor

What is the name of the device we discussed used to collect discrete samples of water from a specific depth?

Niskin bottle

What vertical thickness of seawater equals the pressure of the atmosphere?

10 meters

What is fouling?

Biological growth on equipment

A CTD collects which types of information?

Water temperature, water depth, electrical conductivity

Provide a reason it is difficult to collect samples of the biology of the ocean:

Widely dispersed, big range of sizes, swim away, delicate, pressure effect on deep sea organisms

Which of the following devices include a human operator inside of it?

A submersible

Name a method used to measure ocean currents

Drifter

Considering the Earth to be composed of 3 layer, differentiated by their chemical composition, what is the name given to the innermost layer?

Core

The physical state of the asthenosphere is:

Plastic

Name the two types of crust on Earth surface

Oceanic and continental

The lithosphere is composed of the crust and the _____

Upper mantle

What force causes fluids to be layered from the densest below to the lightest on top?

Gravity, pressure gradient

What is a typical thickness of crust beneath the oceans?

7 km

When two oceanic lithospheric plates collide, what determines which plate subducts?

Density of crust

What relative plate motion and types of crust at the boundary give rise to a coastal mountain range?

Convergent and ocean - continental

What relative plate motion and types of crust at the boundary give rise to a mid ocean ridge?

Divergent and ocean - ocean

Based on isostacy, what fraction of a floating solid with a density of 0.9 g/cm³ would be above the surface of a fluid of density 1 g/cm³

0.1

Geologically, a hot spot is:

A region of much greater heat flow from the mantle towards the surface

Name a hot spot.

Hawaii, Galapagos, Iceland

Is the west coast of South American an active or passive margin?

Active

Sea level was more than 100 m lower around the globe during the last Ice Age. Was it a eustatic or isostatic change in sea level?

Eustatic

What type of chemical bond holds most salt molecules together?

Ionic

Which of the following chemical bonds is the strongest?

Covalent

The latent heat of fusion is:

The energy required to convert ice to liquid water

What type of intermolecular bond gives water it’s amazing dissolving power?

Hydrogen

What is the typical concentration of salts in seawater?

35 psu

What is the most common ion in seawater?

Chlorine

An increase of salinity will cause what type of change in the density of seawater?

Increase

A decrease in pressure will cause what type of change in density of seawater?

Decrease

What is the temperature of maximum density of fresh water?

4*C

Does the freezing point of seawater increase or decrease as salinity increases?

Decrease

Does cold water hold more or less dissolved gasses than warm water?

More

Which color(s) of visible sunlight penetrate the deepest in pure seawater?

Blue/green

What is the smallest size of sediment particle we discussed?

Clay/mud

Does well sorted sediment have a narrow or broad ranges of particle sizes?

Narrow

Most lithogenous sediments entering the ocean are presently derived from areas with:

Steep topography

Name a mechanism that transports lithogenous sediments resulting in well-sorted sediment.

Rivers, wind

Name a mechanism that transports lithogenous sediments, which results in poorly-sorted sediment.

Glaciers, landslides

Which two types of molecules are dominant in biogenous sediments?

Calcium carbonate, silicate

Which molecule tends to dissolve most readily in the deep ocean?

Calcium carbonate

What type of sediment is associated with hydrothermal vents?

Hydrogenous

Do locations on the seafloor with abundant manganese nodules have low or high sedimentation rates?

Low

Evaporite deposits form:

When dissolved substances precipitate out of solution

What is the typical sedimentation rate in the open ocean distant from the continents?

1 cm/1000 years

Ocean sediment thickness is greatest:

Near coastlines on passive margins

Why do we find calcareous sediments on the mid-Atlantic Ridge but not in the abyssal plains near Bermuda?

Depth

The troposphere is typically ____ thick?

10 km

The troposphere is thickest at which latitude?

Equator (0*)

What happens if the water vapor concentration in air exceeds the saturation vapor pressure?

It condenses

Warm air can hold ____ water vapor than cold air.

More

Water vapor is ____ dense than the primary components of air.

less

Surface air pressure is ____ under warm rising air.

low

Surface air pressure is ____ under cool sinking air.

high

Persistent cloudiness is associated with regions of warm rising air. Name one of the major atmospheric features where persistent cloudiness is observed.

ITCZ, Polar front

The Coriolis effect deflects flow to the ____ in the northern hemisphere.

right

What name is given to the east-to-west winds that are found within 30 degrees of the equator?

Trade winds

At what latitudes would you expect to find deserts?

30 N, 30 S

Deserts are found at those latitudes because:

Air is sinking

What percentage of solar radiation impinging on Earth reaches the ocean surface?

50 %

The primary process that carries heat from the oceans back into the atmosphere is:

Evaporative heat flux

What are two types of basic weather patters?

Cyclonic and anti-cyclonic

Extra-tropical cyclones typically form:

At the polar fronts

Why don’t tropical cyclones form in the tropical south Atlantic or tropical southeast Pacific oceans?

Water is too cold

At what latitude are sub polar gyres found?

60 N

In the sub-tropical gyres the surface water:

Temperatures are high and nutrient concentrations are low

In sub-polar gyres the surface water:

Temperatures are low and nutrient concentrations are high

What is the Warm Pool?

The region of warmest surface water

Where is the Warm Pool found?

Western equatorial Pacific

Ekman transport associated with the Westerlies over the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is in which geographic direction?

North

Wind-driven currents typically extend in the ocean:

1000 m

Geostrophic currents flow _____ to contours of sea surface height.

parallel

Along the California coast, winds parallel to the coasts, blowing toward the equator, would cause _____ in the coastal ocean.

upwelling

Where are the two locations on Earth where deep and bottom waters are formed?

North Atlantic and near Antarctica

The water column where deep waters form is expected to be _____ stratified.

weakly