Lecture Questions
Please study
 Lecture Notes
 Chapters 1-6
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NEED SCANTRON
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ALSO STUDY QUESTIONS FOR TEXT. THEY ARE NOW LINKED
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TEST WILL BE ABOUT 50% FROM LECTURE AND 50% FROM BOOK
Ocean History
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
What are the subdisciplines of oceanography? Describe each.
Give some examples on how the ocean impacts us.
Why should we care about the oceans?
How did early voyages contribute to the science of oceanography today, i.e. Polynesia, China, Vikings?
What was the 1st “pure” scientific exploration? List some of the things that they discovered and its
importance.
Ocean facts
1. How much of Earth’s surface is covered by water?
2. How much of all water is ocean water?
3. What is the average depth of the Pacific Ocean? Atlantic Ocean?
4. What is the average salinity of the ocean?
5. What is the hydrologic cycle.
6. Describe how the hydrologic cycle.
Earth’s Structure
1. What is the lithosphere?
2. What layers compose the lithosphere
3. Why is the outer molten and the inner core solid.
4. Know differences between oceanic versus continental crust – composition, density.
5. What is basalt? Composition?
6. What is granite? Composition?
7. What are silicates?
8. Make a drawing of the lithosphere and the uppermantle
9. What is the importance of a partially-molten asthenosphere in which the lithospheric plates sit on top of?
Plate Tectonics
2. List 4 lines of evidence that supports continental drift. Explain how each supports the idea that the
continents were moving.
3. Why was the Continental Drift Model not accepted?
4. Why was Continental Drift reexamined in the 1960’s?
5. What are the supporting evidence of Seafloor Spreading? Make a sketch like the one we made in class
showing how seafloor spreading operates.
6. Label the drawing with important features and list the compositions of the oceanic and continental
crust.
7. Briefly describe the idea behind Seafloor Spreading.
8. Describe how earthquakes, volcanoes, age of seafloor, paleomagnetism help support the idea of plate
boundaries.
9. What was the mechanism that provided the driving force to move lithospheric plates?
10. Who introduced the Theory of Plate Tectonics?
11. What are the Principles of Plate Tectonics?
12. Describes the three types of plate boundaries and give an example of each?
13. Give examples of the 3 different types of convergent boundaries.
14. Is the San Andreas fault a right lateral or left lateral fault?
15. How do you distinguish between a right lateral and left lateral fault.
Continental Margins and Ocean Basins
1. The continental margins are made up of three parts. What are they?
2. What is the continental shelf composed of? What is the slope of the shelf?
3. Where does the boundary of continental crust and oceanic crust occur?
4. What is the boundary between the continental shelf and continental slope?
5. What are the 2 origins of submarine canyons?
6. What is a turbidity current?
7. What is graded bedding and how does it form?
8. What are the 2 types of continental margins?
9. What are the characteristics of a passive continental margin?
10. What are the characteristics of an active continental margin?
11. Continental shelves have different widths, explain these differences with regards to type of margin.
12. Where does the ocean basin begin?
13. What type of plate boundary is associated with deep ocean trenches?
14. What is the deepest trench? The longest?
15. What are 2 differences between ridges and rises?
16. What are seamounts?
17. How are guyots formed?
18. Describe how coral reefs form into atolls.
Ocean Sediments
1. What are the 4 types of ocean sediments?
2. How do terrigenous sediments form and how are they transported to the deep ocean?
3. What type of sediment is found in the deepest regions of the oceans?
4. How do clays get to the deep regions of the ocean
5. What is a biogenous ooze?
6. What 2 compositions make up biogenous oozes?
7. Give a “phytoplankton” and “zooplankton” example for both calcareous and siliceous oozes.
8. What is the Carbonate Compensation Depth (CCD)?
9. Be able to describe why calcareous oozes (CaCO3) are not found in the deepest ocean bottom.
10. Explain how CO2 content changes with temperature and pressure.
11. How does increasing CO2 content impact calcareous sediments.
12. At what depths is CaCO3 found in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans?
13. Siliceous oozes are found in areas of upwelling. Where does upwelling occur on a global scale?
14. Why are siliceous oozes found in upwelling areas.
15. Where are radiolarian oozes found? Diatom oozes?
16. How do hydrogenous sediments form?
17. Give two examples of hydrogenous oozes
18. Be able to describe the formation of the cosmogenous sediments – microtektites – form.
Properties of Water
1. What atoms make up the water molecule?
2. What type of bond is found between the Hydrogen (H+) ions to the Oxygen (O-) ion?
3. What type of bond is found between water molecules?
4. What is the angle between the H-O-H of a liquid water molecule?
5. What does “polarity” mean?
6. What is the difference between “heat” and “temperature”?
7. What is Latent heat of fusion? Latent heat of vaporization?
8. What is heat capacity? Does water have a high or low heat capacity? What does this mean?
9. On hot days, why is the ocean cooler than the land
10. What would happen to earth’s temperature in the winter and summer if there were no oceans on our
plante
11. What is viscosity? Does water have high or low viscosity?
12. How does temperature and salinity influence viscosity
13. What causes surface tension? What factors affect surface tension?
14. Why does ice float? Explain in terms of water’s molecular structure (105º to 109º angle) and density.
15. What 2 properties affects water’s density?
16. Describe water’s changes in density (whether it increases of decreases) as the temperature decreases
from 10ºC to 4ºC, from 4ºC to 0ºC, 0ºC (liquid) to 0ºC (solid). (See Figure 7.8 in textbook)
17. Be able to explain why the ocean is blue with regards to absorption and scattering of wavelengths.
18. What is refraction?