First Semester Marine Science Study Guide
1. Name two ways Polynesians navigated in discovering over 10,000 islands in the South
Pacific.
2. Why did Columbus think he had sailed around the world to the orient when it actually
was the Americas?
3. Name the first and longer purely scientific voyage of the oceans in the late 19th century.
4. What is name of the oceanographic institute in Massachusetts that operated the famous
Alvin manned submersible?
5. What is the name of the oceanographic institute in California that operated Flip, a sound
research vessel?
6. What was the name of the scientist and raft that set sail from S. America in an effort
to support a theory that ancient S. Americans could have drifted with the currents and
populated the Polynesian Islands?
7. What are deep water deep measurements called?
8. Name a famous oceanographer that introduced the ocean world to 1970’s TV audience
for the first time.
9. How was radiometric dating used as evidence of the theory of Sea Floor Spreading in
the Atlantic?
10. What is the theory of Plate Tectonics?
11. What causes tectonic plates on the lithosphere to move over time?
12. Describe the major structures that can form at a convergent boundary?
13. Where is a rift valley found?
14. Where is the major divergent boundary found in the world?
15. Where is the major convergent boundary found in the world?
16. What two major factors “set the ocean in motion”?
17. What causes tsunamis?
18. What effect does the Coriolis Effect have on wind and ocean currents in the Northern
hemisphere?
19. What is a major ocean resource that upwelling bring to the ocean surface?
20. How do wind and water currents moderate world temperatures?
21. What direction do cold and salty bottom ocean currents generally flow on Earth?
22. What direction do warm surface currents generally flow on Earth?
23. What can be said about the pH of the oceans?
24. What does water having a high heat capacity do for the temperature of the oceans?
25. What two major factors makes water more dense and cause it to sink?
26. How does sound travel in water compared to air?
27. What do mammals use echolocation for?
28. What is the most productive and diverse part of the oceans and why?
29. What organism is the most suited to be an extremophile?
30. What kind algae is a dinoflagellate that releases toxins?
31. What algae and protist have shells made of silicates that has added to rock sediment on
the ocean floor over the Earth’s history?
32. What are the primary pigments of macro-algae, seaweed?
33. What structure holds kelp algae up toward the light at the surface of the ocean?
34. What is the major functions of estuaries in the coastal marine environment?
35. What class do sponges belong to?
How does water circulate through a sponges body?
36. What class to corals, sea anemones, and jellyfish belong to?
Name a major characteristic of this class.
37. What class do clams and oysters belong to?
38. What class do starfish and sea urchins belong to?
Name the major parts of a starfish.
What kind of body symmetry do starfish have?
39. What class do lobster and shrimp belong to?
What are the major characteristics of this class?
What is the name of the material their shells made of?