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The effect of Earth's rotation on the direction of winds and currents.
Coriolis effect
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An abnormal climate event that occurs every two to seven years in the Pacific Ocean, causing changes in winds, currents, and weather patterns for one to two years.
El Nino
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The number of waves that pass a specific point in a given amount of time.
frequency
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A wall made of rocks or concrete that is build outward from a beach to reduce erosion.
groin
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The movement of sand along a beach.
longshore drift
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A rush of water that flows rapidly back to sea through a narrow opening in a sandbar.
rip current
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The total amount of dissolved salts in a water sample.
salinity
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The daily rise and fall of Earth's waters on its coastlines.
tides
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A giant wave usually caused by an earthquake beneath the ocean floor.
tsunami
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The movement of cold water upward from the deep ocean that is caused by wind.
upwelling
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The movement of energy through a body of water.
wave
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The vertical distance from the crest of a wave to the trough.
wave height
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The horizontal distance between two wave crests.
wavelength
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How do water particles move as a wave passes by?
In a circular motion
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Tides are caused by the interaction of Earth, moon, and the sun due to their pull of gravity. This causes two "tidal bulges". Earth's rotation through the tidal bulges cause most coastlines to have ____ high and ____ low tides a day.
2
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Be able to label the characteristics of a wave.
See p. 96 at the top and be able to label the words in the boxes there.
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How do most waves form?
Most waves form when winds blowing across the water's surface transmit their energy to the water.
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Explain what happens to a wave as it reaches the shore.
The bottoms of the waves begin to touch the sloping ocean floor. Friction between the ocean floor and water causes the waves to slow down. As the speed decreases the shape changes. Near the shore, wave height increases and wavelength decreases. When the wave reaches a certain height, the crest topples and the waves breaks on the shore forming a surf.
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What causes tides to occur?
The suns gravitational pull on earth's surface.
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What is a spring tide?
When the sun and moon are lined up and their gravitational pull is at its greatest. The difference between the heights of high a low tide are at their greatest. (See diagram on p. 105)
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What is a neap tide?
When the moon and sun pull at right angles to each other. This creates a tide with the least difference between low and high tide. (see diagram on p. 105)
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What are the gases found in the ocean that organisms living there need?
carbon dioxide and oxygen
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How does ocean temperature, pressure, density and light change as you go deeper into the ocean?
The water temperature decreases, the water pressure increases, the density increases, and the light appears yellowish, then blue-green, as the water absorbs the red light.
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While the surface currents on the top of the ocean are affected by wind, as you get deeper they are affected more by currents. In the Northern hemisphere ocean currents curve to the right because of...
the Coriolis Effect
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