Oceanography Flashcard
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How was the age of the earth convincingly determined?
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radioactive dating
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if earth were homogeneous what would the waves generated from an earthquake do?
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travel in random straight lines
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which elements is not commonly found in the earths crust?
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iron
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on which layer do both types of crust rest?
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lithosphere
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how do we know earth must have a liquid layer in its interior?
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only p waves travel through the middle of the earth
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when a mountain first begins to erode, will the heights of the mountain change significantly?
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the height of the mountain will remain the same because of isostacy
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why was the theory of continental drift not accepted although there was plenty of evidence?
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he offered faulty reasons why the continents drifted
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what happens to the age of oceanic crust as you move away from the mid ocean ridge?
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they get older
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rounded to the nearest hundred million years, how old is the oldest oceanic crust
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200 million years
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about how many times has the entire sea floor of the planet been recycled in its history?
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10
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how do we know earth is broken up into plates
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earthquake distribution
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what was not used as evidence to support continental drift?
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volcano distributions and earthquake patterns
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which country ruled the oceans from 1588-1914
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England
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why did it take people so long for the modern theory of plate tectonics to evolve?
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people needed to see what the bottom of the ocean looked like
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how much water on earth lies within all living things
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.8% of .4% of 2.5% of 100%
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what is the purpose of science
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to establish laws of nature
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which sea creature has copper based blood that scientists have used to ensure that medical devices are completely sterile?
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horseshoe crab
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which other solar system bodies are suspected of having oceans beneath their surfaces?
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Europa
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which creature figured out how to take poison CO2 coming out of volcanoes and turned them into O2 to produce 50% of oxygen in every breath you take?
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Algae
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What percentage of the oxygen in every breadth comes from marine plants called phytoplankton
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50
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what percentage of commercially harvested fish are fished beyond the limit the oceans can sustain?
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70
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which culture is given credit for discovering science
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greeks
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who was the first serious oceanographic researcher
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cook
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what percentage of US foreign trade uses the oceans for transport?
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95%
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how many feet deep are the oceans
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12,000
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how much of marine life have human discovered
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1%
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oceanography as a modern science is dated from
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the challenger expedition
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what percentage of the human population lives within 60 miles of the oceans?
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70%
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in what year is the world expected to gain a new ocean as the arctic melts
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2050
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what is the azoic hypothesis?
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there is no life in the oceans beyond a certain depth
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what are the two things that one needs to measure before estimating the sea floor topography using altimetry
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distance of satellite above sea floor and height of satellite comapared to a reference ellipsoid
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why are there more abyssal plains in the Atlantic than Pacific oceans?
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trenches in the pacific act as giant particle interceptors
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Black hydrothermal vents are formed in the presence of
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zinc
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White hydrothermal vents and formed when
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iron precipitates
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faster spreading rates in the pacific create
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valleys in the mid ocean ridge
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what factor largely determines the size of the submarine fan that is created by turbidity currents?
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size of the adjacent river
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what has caused the sea level to have risen over 300 ft over geologic time?
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ice ages
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In which oceanographic province is 90% of all marine life found?
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continental shelf
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what force lies at the root of what creates the hypsographic curve?
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earths hot core
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If there were no plate tectonics what would a hyposgraphic curve look like?
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straight line
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abyssal plain
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underwater plain on the deep ocean floor, usually found at depths between 3000 and 6000 m. Lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid-ocean ridge,
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turbidity current
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A turbidity current is a current of rapidly moving, sediment-laden water moving down a slope through water, or another fluid.
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Submarine Fan
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accumulation of land-derived sediment on the deep seafloor
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Which type of bonds connect hydrogen atoms to oxygen atoms within the water molecule
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covalent bonds
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Electrons within the water molecule spend most of their time
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on the Oxygen atom
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Which property of water explains its unusually high melting and freezing points for its mass
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Hydrogen bonding
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Which compounds would NOT dissolve in water?
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oil and gasoline
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What process is happening when Solid CO2 (dry ice) is brought to room temperature?
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sublimation
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why is ice is so good at cooling drinks?
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high latent heat
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In which physical state does matter "conform to the shape of the container"
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liquid
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Low lying fog banks over oceans are likely caused by?
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warm currents and cold air
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Which property of water moderates earths climate and prevents us from turning into Venus
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High heat capacity
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If water freezes at O degrees celsius why is there water in the liquid state at both poles?
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because the oceans are salty
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What causes land temperatures to have large day-night differences but the oceans do not?
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Rocks have low heat capacities
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what percentage of carbon dioxide from the atmospher ends up in the oceans?
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30-40%
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What happens to the pH as you increase the alkalinity?
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goes up
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H2O + CO2 ???
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carbonic acid
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the rapid changes in pH are similar to what happened in Earth ______ millions of years ago
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50-60
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what happened to many of Earths ecosystems during the period of rapid pH change
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Many ecosystems went extinct
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how does ocean acidification destroy coral reefs?
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decreases carbonate ions that corals need to make their shells
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what is an excess of CO2 in fishes blood called?
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hypercapnia
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acidification interferes with echolocation
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true
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The Oceans cover about ______% of the Earths surface:
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75
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___% of water on planet Earth is freshwater?
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2.5
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Which European culture landed in America in 995 A.D
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vikings
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The principal source of information about the structure of Earth comes from:
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earthquakes
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The first person to make systematic measurements of temperature and depth of the Oceans was:
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cook
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The correct ordering for the layering of earth according to its chemical properties is:
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Crust, mantle, outer core, inner core
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The most common feature of a convergent plate boundary is a:
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trench
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The age of the Earth is
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4.5 billion years old
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The difference between a hypothesis and conjecture is:
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A hypothesis must be testable
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When ProtoEarth was forming there was a cloud of debris around it. What removed this cloud?
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The Solar wind
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The Earths core is hot because of
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Heat emitted from certain elements such as U during radioactive decay
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The principal of isostasy explains
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Why mountains penetrate deeper into the earth Why oceans are deeper than continents Why most of the mass of an iceberg lies below water how old mountain ranges can still exist despite the force of erosion
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The origin of the Earths atmosphere is
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Hydrothermal vents
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Life could not exist on land before there was an ozone layer to filter out harmful UV
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plants
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Why was Wegeners Theory of continental drift not accepted?
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Wegeners thought that plates moved because of the moon and spinning Earth. Wegener himself was skeptical as to its truth
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how are magnetic field lines oriented on Earth
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Parralel at the equator and perpendicular at the poles
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What observation was the nail in the coffin that proved new ocean crust is created at spreading centers?
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Magnetization of rocks at spreading centers
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Subducting lithospheric slabs can descend to which region of Earth?
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Inner core
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Why are there 3 types of convergent plate boundaries?
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Because there are 3 types of crust
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Old lithosphere is destroyed in association with:
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deep-sea trenches
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The correct order for the scientific method of inquiry is:
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observation, fact, hypothesis, theory, law
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Two plates, which are composed of oceanic crust, collide. Which of the two will most likely be subducted?
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the older, denser of the two
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Powerful earthquakes are associated with:
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subduction zones
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Which reservoir is the largest supply of freshwater on Earth?
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glaciers
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in which plate boundary is crust beither created nor destroyed?
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transform
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In the Wilson Cycle, the Atlantic Ocean would be an example of which stage?
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mature
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which is a plausible reason why the east african rift valley stopped rifting
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mantle convection suddenly changed
