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Assignment Problem: Introduction to Oceanography

Question 1: What is the main motor of surface ocean currents?

a) The Coriolis Effect

b) Earth's rotation to the east

c) The subduction of oceanic plates under continental plates.

d) Surface winds.

e) Density differences between different water bodies

Question 2: Which of the following is a typical characteristic of an upwelling area?

a) Surface seawater converges.

b) Cooler surface water is replaced with warmer water from greater depths.

c) Increased surface ocean nutrient availability.

d) Low biological productivity.

e) The thermo cline is pushed deep into the water column.

Question 3: What is the thermo cline?

a) The depth range in the surface ocean where density increases most rapidly.

b) The depth range in the deep ocean where salinity increases most rapidly.

c) The depth range in the surface ocean where temperature decreases most rapidly.

d) The depth range in the ocean where pressure increases most rapidly.

e) An ocean layer of constant temperature.

Question 4: In which of the following would you expect to see the densest surface water?

a) North Pacific, because waters there are very cold

b) Equatorial Atlantic, because it is much narrower than the equatorial Pacific

c) Northern Indian Ocean, because the summer monsoon leaves a lot of salt behind

d) North Atlantic, because surface water there is both salty and cold

e) Mouth of the Amazon, because seawater mixes with river water

Question 5: What drives deep ocean circulation?

a) Relative differences in density, caused by cool temperatures and/or high salinity.

b) The Ekman Spiral.

c) Earth's rotation (i.e., the Coriolis Effect).

d) Downwelling of warm waters in the subtropical gyres.

e) The direction and fetch of atmospheric winds.

Question 6: Which of the following is TRUE about waves?

a) Because tsunamis originate far offshore, they are deep water waves.

b) Tidal waves are deep water waves.

c) Shallow water waves occur in waters that are shallower than half the wavelength.

d) Waves are considered to be shallow water waves if they are under 6 ft in height.

e) Tidal waves are wind driven.

Question 7: If the moon were closer to the earth, the tides would be:

a) More extreme.

b) Less extreme.

c) There would be no change in tidal frequency or amplitude.

d) All tides would be semidiurnal.

e) There would be no tides.

Question 8: Water is a very special molecule and has certain qualities that allowed the evolution of oceans and life on Earth. Which one of the following statements MISREPRESENTS a characteristic of water?

a) Water molecules are polar.

b) Water has a very high heat capacity.

c) Water is a poor solvent.

d) Water forms weak electrostatic bonds with other water molecules.

e) The amount of heat required to melt ice and evaporate water is large.

Question 9: Scientists discover a previously unknown element. When measured in the ocean, the element shows almost zero concentration in the sunlit surface ocean, highest concentration directly below the sunlit surface layer (~200-500m depth), and intermediate-to-high concentrations in the deep ocean. This element is most likely a _________.

a) Radioactive element which decays in the deep ocean.

b) Non-reactive major element in seawater.

c) Adsorbed particle whose concentration is not directly affected by biological activity.

d) Nutrient utilized by photosynthesis in the surface ocean and returned to the ocean by respiration in the intermediate and deep ocean.

e) Gas produced by photosynthesis and utilized by respiration.

Question 10: Gases exchange with the atmosphere at the sea surface and are transported to the deep ocean by ocean circulation. Which of the following statements is FALSE?

a) Nitrogen and oxygen are inert gases and their concentration in the surface ocean depends predominantly on their partial pressure in the atmosphere.

b) Oxygen undergoes chemical reactions with seawater and the concentration therefore decreases with water depth.

c) Dissolving CO2 makes seawater more acidic.

d) CO2 reacts with the water and the amount of carbon dissolved in seawater is therefore ~50 times larger than there is CO2 in the atmosphere.