Download Oceanography Study Set: Tides, Coasts, and Marine Terms and more Exams Advanced Education in PDF only on Docsity!
EVSC 2050 Test 3 Study Set
Apogee - Answer The point in an orbit most distant from the body being orbited; the highest point
Perigee - Answer The point in the orbit of the moon when it is nearest the earth; the closest or lowest point.
Ebb Tide - Answer Falling tide; the period of the tide between high water and the next low water.
Flood Tide - Answer Rising tide; the period of the tide between low water and the next high water.
Amphidromic Point - Answer Point from which cotidal lines radiate on a chart; the nodial, or low amplitude, point for a rotary tide.
Cotidal Lines - Answer Lines on a chart making the location of the tide crest at stated time intervals.
Corange Line - Answer In a rotary tide, lines of equal tidal range about the amphidromic point.
Slack Water - Answer State of a tidal current when its velocity is near zero; occurs when the tidal current changes direction.
Syzygy - Answer the straight line configuration of 3 celestial bodies (as the sun and earth and moon) in a gravitational system
Spring Tide - Answer Tide occurring near the times of the new and full Moon, when the range of the tide is greatest.
Neap Tide - Answer Tide occurring near the times of the first and last quarters of the Moon, when the range of the tide is least.
Equilibrium Theory of Tides - Answer Theoretical tide formed by the tide-producing forces of the Moon and Sun on a non-rotating, water-covered Earth.
Dynamic Theory of Tides - Answer State in which the sums of all charges are balanced and there is no net charge.
Diurnal Tides - Answer Tide with one high water and one low water each tidal day.
Semi-diurnal Tides - Answer Tide with two high waters and two low waters each day.
Mixed Diurnal Tide - Answer Type of tide in which large inequalities between the two high waters and the two low waters occur in a tidal day.
Lunar Day - Answer The period of time taken for the moon to make one full rotation on its
axis.
Lunar Month - Answer Time required for the Moon to pass from one new Moon to another new Moon.
Solar Day - Answer Time period determined by one rotation of Earth relative to the Sun
Primary Coast - Answer Coastline shaped primarily by terrestrial processes rather than marine processes.
Secondary Coast - Answer Coastline shaped primarily by marine forces or marine organisms.
Eustatic - Answer Global change in sea level that affects all the world's coastlines
Fjord - Answer Narrow, deep, steep-walled inlet formed by the submergence of a mountainous coast or by the entrance of the ocean into a deeply excavated glacial trough after the melting of the glacier. A deep, small-surface-area estuary with moderately high river input and little tidal mixing.
Sill - Answer Shallow area that separates two basins from one another or a coastal bay from the adjacent ocean.
Ria - Answer A primary coast formed when rising sea level, caused by the melting of glaciers and ice sheets following the last ice age, flooded coastal river valleys.
Drowned River Valley - Answer A valley drowned by rising sea levels or, inland, the construction of a dam.
Delta - Answer Area of unconsolidated sediment deposits, usually triangular in outline, formed at the mouth of a river.
Lava Coast - Answer A primary coast formed by active volcanism producing lava flows that extend to the sea.
Dune Coast - Answer A primary coast formed by the deposition of sand in dunes by the wind.
Fault Coast - Answer A primary coast formed by tectonic activity and faulting.
Sea Stacks - Answer Isolated masses of rock rising from the sea near a headland from which it has been separated by erosion.
Barrier Islands - Answer Deposits of sand, parallel to shore and raised above sea level; may support vegetation and animal life.
Sand Spit - Answer Low tongue of land, or a relatively long, narrow shoal extending from the shore.
Sand Hooks - Answer Spit turned landward at its outer end.
island or to the mainland.
Jetties - Answer Structures located to influence currents or to protect the entrance to a harbor or rive from waves.
Breakwaters - Answer Structures protecting a shore area, harbor, anchorage, or basin from waves.
Groins - Answer Protective structures for the shore, usually built perpendicular to the shoreline; used to trap littoral drift or to retard erosion of the shore; a type of jetty.
Salt Wedge Estuary - Answer Intrusion of salt water which moves upstream on high tide and seaward on low tide.
Well-mixed Estuary - Answer Estuary in which there is strong wind-drive and tidal mixing. The salinity of the water in the estuary is relatively constant with depth and decreases from the ocean to the river.
Partially Mixed Estuary - Answer Estuary in which there is a strong net seaward flow of fresh water at the surface and a strong inward flow of seawater at depth.
Water Budget - Answer Balance between the rates of water added and lost in an area.
Salt budget - Answer Balance between the rates of salt addition to and removal from a body of water.
Flushing Time - Answer Length of time required for an estuary to exchange its water with the open ocean.
Euryhaline - Answer Able to tolerate wide ranges of salinity
Stenohaline - Answer Referring to organisms that cannot tolerate substantial changes in external osmolarity or salt ranges.
Phragmites - Answer Reeds of marshes and riversides in tropical or temperate regions.
Spartina - Answer Tall grass that grows in salt marsh
Zooplankton - Answer Tiny floating organisms that are either small animals or protozoa.
Phytoplankton - Answer Microscopic algal and photosynthetic forms of plankton.
Bacterioplankton - Answer Plankton composed of the domains Bacteria and Achaea
Benthic - Answer of the sea floor, or pertaining to organisms living on or in the sea floor.
Nekton - Answer Pelagic animals that are active swimmers; for example, adult squid, fish, and marine mammals.
Swim Bladder - Answer an air-filled sac near the spinal column in many fishes that helps maintain buoyancy
Hypotonic - Answer describes a solution whose solute concentration is lower than the solute concentration inside a cell
Hypertonic - Answer describes a solution whose solute concentration is higher than the solute concentration inside a cell
Osmosis - Answer Tendency of water to diffuse through a semipermeable membrane to make the concentration of water on one side of the membrane equal to that on the other side.
Phototactic - Answer An organism that moves in response to stimulus light
Abyssal - Answer Pertaining to the great depths of the ocean below approximately 4000 m
Hadal - Answer Pertaining to the greatest depths of the ocean
Pelagic - Answer The area of the ocean past the continental shelf, with areas of open water often reaching to very great depths
Littoral - Answer Area of the shore between mean high water and mean low water; the intertidal zone.
Supralittoral - Answer Benthic zone above the high-tide level that is moistened by waves, spray, and extremly high tides
Neritic - Answer Shallow-water marine environment extending from low water to the edge of the continental shelf.
Intertidal - Answer The littoral region that is above the low-water mark and below the high water mark.
Primary production - Answer Amount of living matter, or biomass, that is produced by photosynthetic or chemosynthetic organisms, usually measured in grams of carbon per volume of seawater.
Gross primary production - Answer The amount of light energy that is converted to chemical energy by photosynthesis per unit time.
Net primary production - Answer The gross primary production of an ecosystem minus
the energy used by the producers for respiration.
Respiration - Answer Metabolic process by which food or food-storage molecules yield th energy on which all living cells depend.
Compensation depth - Answer Depth at which there is a balance between the oxygen produced by algae through photosynthesis and that consumed through respiration
Bloom - Answer High concentration of phytoplankton in an area, caused by increased reproduction; often causes discoloration of water.
Oxygen Minimum Zone - Answer Layer containing the least amount of oxygen, located at boundary between intermediate and deep zone
Trophic Efficiency - Answer The percentage of production transferred from one trophic level to the next.
