Team Name: ____________________________
Team Number: _______
Dynamic Planet
Oceanography
Science Olympiad: Division B
Cobra Invitational - 2015
Station 1
1. What is the primary source for salts in the oceans?
2. Which of the following has the highest salinity?
a. Brackish Water
b. Brine Water
c. Saline Water
d. Fresh Water
3. What is the chemical formula for the most abundant salt found in seawater?
4. Using the image below:
a. Are ocean waters more dense at low or high temperatures?
b. Explain.
c. Compare the surface densities of the waters of the eastern coast of the United States, and
Northern Africa.
d. Explain why they’re different.
5. Which areas of the world do ocean waters have the highest salinity?
6. Which areas of the world do ocean waters have the lowest salinity?
7. Explain what causes the differences in ocean salinity. (2 points)
Station 2
Identify whether the following factors are “inputs”, or “outputs”, when considering the global
oceanic heat budget:
8. Solar radiation: _____________________________
9. Long wave back radiation: ________________________
10. Evaporative heat transfer: ______________________
11. Condensation: ____________________________
12. Which takes less energy to heat, air or water? __________________________
13. Which term is defined as: the amount of heat per unit mass required to raise the
temperature of a substance by one degree Celsius. ____________________________
14. Identify the material that has:
a. The lowest specific heat
b. The highest specific heat
c. What is the unit for specific heat?
15. How much energy is required to heat 75 gram of water by 3 oC? (Show your work)
16. How much energy is required to heat 75 gram of dry air by 3 oC? (Show your work)
Station 3
17. Identify the 3 density layers of the ocean in the diagram below.
A. ____________________
B. ____________________
C. ____________________
18. List two factors that can increase water density:
1. _____________________________
2. _____________________________
19. The ocean layer where temperature changes most rapidly with depth is called the
____________________.
20. If you consider the ocean to have many different layers of water, where would you
expect to find warm water heated by the sun:
a. Near the ocean floor
b. Near the ocean surface
c. In a layer called the thermocline
d. Between 500 – 1,000 meters
21. Which of the following best describes water beneath the thermocline:
a. Highly variable in temperature
b. Warmer than most surface waters
c. Relatively uniform and cold in temperature
d. Variable by latitude.
Station 4
22. Graph the data below and identify the thermocline. (5 points)
23. A pycnocline refers to a significant change in:
a. Density
b. Temperature
c. Salinity
d. Turbidity
24. If all else is equal, increasing the salinity of a seawater sample will also increase its:
a. Temperature
b. Pressure
c. Density
d. Turbidity
25. In which oceanic layer is most of Earth’s water located? ______________________
26. Which of the following represents the ocean layer which has the most rapid change
of salinity with depth?
a. Salinicline
b. Pycnocline
c. Thermocline
d. Halocline
Station 5
27. Identify
features A - E
diagram
topographic
in the
below.
28. Identify
plate
colored red in
below.
the type of
boundary
the image
29. How
type of
form?
does this
boundary
Station 6
30. Using the tectonic plate diagram below, infer what will eventually happen to the Phillipine
Plate over time.
31. Which type of plate boundaries are found near the Phillipine Plate..
32. What color are the oldest parts of the ocean floor in the image below?
33. What color are the youngest parts of the ocean floor in the image below?
34. Approximately how old is the ocean floor off the eastern coast of the United States?
Station 7
35. What is the most
see?
common type of reef that we
36. Identify the type of
reef.
37. What does the image below show is happening to the pH of the ocean’s surface waters?
What does that mean?
38. What may happen with the formation of barrier reefs if the pH trend represented in the
image above continues? Why would this happen?
Station 8
39. What
height as it
happens to a waves
approaches shore?
40.
41. Label the
parts of the wave.
42. Ocean
beach at a rate
waves are hitting a
of 7.5 Hz.
a. What is
waves?
the period of the
b. Calculate the speed of the waves if the distance between wave crests is 4.3 meters.
Station 9
43. What causes gyres to form?
44. Use the image below to describe the surface current off the coast of California.
45. Why is the California current this temperature?
46. Describe the difference between surface current temperatures in lower and higher
latitudes. What causes these differences?
Station 10
47. List 3 types of Coastal Currents.
48. Which type of coastal current can be exceptionally dangerous.
49. The image below shows a weather pattern that when it happens prevents upwelling along
the western coast of South America? How do scientists know upwelling is not happening
from this image? What is this weather pattern called?
Station 11
50. Identify the phase of the moon, and the type of tides you would expect during this phase.
51. Identify the phase of the moon, and the type of tides you would expect during this phase.
52. What is the difference between high tide and low tide called?
53. Where in the world are the greatest difference between high and low tide recorded?
Station 12
54. Identify the coastal feature.
55. Identify the coastal feature. How does it form?
56. What is the sinking of the Earth’s surface in response to geologic or man-made causes
called? _____________________________
57. What is subduction, and what does it create?
Station 13
58. Identify the tool.
59. Identify the tool. What is it used for?
60. Identify the tool. What is it used for?
61. Identify the tool. What is it used for?
Station 14
(Tie Breaker)
62. What is buoyancy?
63. What is the density of fresh water?
64. What is the average density of saltwater?
65. How does a submarine overcome bouyancy?
66. How does a submarine return to the surface?
67. Calculate the buoyant force for a toy boat that has a volume of 4200 mL in saltwater.
68. Calculate the buoyant force for a toy boat that has a volume of 4200 mL in fresh water.
Multiple Choice
____69.
The energy that drives surface ocean currents comes from ____.
a. salinity variations
b. temperature differences
c. wind
d. wave action
____ 70. Ocean currents that move toward the poles are ____.
a. warm
b. warm in the Northern Hemisphere and cold in the Southern Hemisphere
c. cold
d. cold in the Northern Hemisphere and warm in the Southern Hemisphere
____ 71 . What is true about an ocean current that is moving toward the equator?
a. It is warm.
b. It is cold.
c. It is fast.
d. It is slow.
____ 72. The Gulf Stream affects the climate of ____.
a. California
b. Alaska
c. Great Britain
d. Africa
____ 73. The influence of cold currents is mostly felt in the ____.
a. middle latitudes during winter
b. higher latitudes during winter
c. higher latitudes during spring
d. tropics
____ 74. What causes surface ocean currents to be deflected?
a. deep currents
b. Earth’s revolution
c. the Coriolis effect
d. global winds
____ 75. Which process does NOT decrease the salinity of water?
a. runoff from land
b. precipitation
c. formation of sea ice
d. melting of sea ice
____ 76. Which of the following can cause an increase in the density of ocean water?
a. a decrease in temperature
b. a decrease in ocean circulation
c. an increase in salinity
d. both a and c
e. all the above
____ 77. According to the conveyor belt model of ocean circulation, what happens when water
reaches the poles?
a. The salinity of the water increases.
b. The density of the water decreases.
c. The salinity of the water decreases.
d. The temperature of the water increases.
____ 78. Which of the following causes gyres to form?
a. deep currents
b. the Equatorial Countercurrent
c. the Coriolis effect
d. West Wind Drift
____ 79. The curving of the path of ocean currents and wind belts is called
a. tidal oscillation.
b. refraction.
c. the Gulf Stream.
d. the Coriolis effect.
____ 80. Deep currents are caused by
a. differences in density of ocean water.
b. the Coriolis effect.
c. global wind belts.
d. continental barriers.
____ 84. Two climates that are at the same latitude may be different because of ____.
a. bodies of water
b. Earth’s magnetic field
c. distance from the poles
d. soil type
____ 85. How would the climate of a coastal city differ from that of a city at the same latitude
located farther inland?
a. The coastal city would have cooler summers.
b. The coastal city would have hotter summers.
c. The coastal city would have colder winters.
d. They are at the same latitude so their climates would not differ.
____ 86. The temperature of a body of water influences ____.
a. the temperature of the air above it
b. the formation of deserts
c. global warming
d. vegetation patterns
____ 87. What is the driving force for surface ocean currents?
a. density layering
b. the Coriolis effect
c. global winds
d. salt concentration
____ 88. Ocean surface currents are created by
a. differences in water temperature.
b. friction with winds.
c. differences in water density.
d. salinity variations.
____ 89. The ocean layer of rapid temperature change with depth is known as the ____.
a. trophic level
b. mixed zone
c. deep zone
d. thermocline
____ 90. In addition to salinity, what factor affects the density of seawater?
a. depth
b. temperature
b. latitude
d. salt content
____ 92. Most ocean water is located in which zone?
a. mixed zone
b. surface zone
c. transition zone
d. deep zone