Oceans Study Questions
1. The most abundant elemental constituent of the Earth is Iron
2. The oldest fossils are apparently Cyano-Bacterria in the Apex Chert of Australia and are 3.5 billion years
old.
3. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is an example of a divergent boundary
4. The plastic layer found at depths of approximately 100 kms to 300 ms in the Earth is called the
Atmosphere.
5. At the present time, juvenile water (new water) is being added to the oceans primarily from de-gassing
of the Earth’s atmosphere.
6. Based upon radioactive dating of the Earth’s rocks, the present accepted age of the earth is 4.6 billion
years old.
7. Matthew Fontaive Maury is one of the greatest early oceanographers who was an American who, in his
capacity as head of the U.S. Navy Depot of Charts and Instruments organized a world-wide
oceanographic data collection system that is still in operation today.
8. Earth’s internal, thermal energy is the source of energy which drives mantle convective flows and plate
movements.
9. The greatest concentration of marine life is found associated with waters of coastal upwelling.
10. The conversion of the homogenous-proto-earth to the highly differentiated Earth of today occurred in
the first billion years of Earth’s history.
11. New Oceanic crust is formed via volcanic activity at a divergent plate boundary.
12. HMS Challenger sailed from Portsmouth, England on her epic voyage in 1872.
13. The currently held scientific theory of the origin of the solar system is the nebular (condensation)
Hypothesis.
14. Oxygen in the Ocean has been derived primarily from photosynthesis.
15. The primary elements that constitute Earth (90%) are Iron, Oxygen, Silicon, and Magnesium.
Test 2
1. Slow moving currents of enormous bodies of water that take on their density characteristics at the sea
surface are called Thermohaline
2. The principle ion in sea water, constituting approximately 55% of all sea salts is Cl-
3. The average salinity in the open ocean in parts/thousand is 33-37 0/00
4. Coriolis effect causes a deflection of oceanic currents in the Northern Hemisphere to the right
5. When waves reach shallow water they become shorter and higher
6. The water that covers most of the bottom of the world’s ocean is called Antarctic Bottom Water
7. The movement of water within the surf zone that parallels the shore is called a longshore current
8. At a salinity of 34% the temperature of maximum density is lower than the freezing point
9. The massive transportation of shallow water sediments into deep oceanic environments is associated with
turbidity currents
