Earth Science 11 Learning Guide – Unit 8
Name: _______________
8.1 Ocean Water and Its Composition
1. What percentage of the Earth’s surface is covered by oceans? How does
the depth of the ocean compare to the height of the highest mountains on
land?
2. What is salinity? How is it measured? What conditions change the
salinity of the ocean?
3. What is the most common ions found in seawater?
4. Where are the oceans the warmest?
5. How do the ocean temperatures change with depth. Give the name of
each layer.
6. Why is the mixed layer of the oceans important?
8.2 Ocean Currents
1. What causes ocean currents
2. Describe the movement of water in the Mediterranean and Caribbean
Seas.
3. Describe the movement of water in the Arctic and Southern Oceans.
4. Why are the vertical movements of ocean water important?
5. What is upwelling? Why is it important?
6. Describe cold and warm ocean currents.
7. Name several ocean currents? Why are they important? What is the
Sargasso Sea?
8.3 The Ocean Floor
1. How is the ocean floor studied?
2. What is the abyssal plain?
3. Describe the two types of continental margins? How do they form?
4. What is the continental shelf?
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5. What is the continental slope?
6. How do passive and active margins differ?
7. How are deep submarine canyons formed on the continental margins?
8. What are abyssal fans and how do they form?
9. What is an abyssal hill? How dies it form?
10. What are seamounts? How do they form?
11. What is a guyot?
12. How do reefs and atolls form?
13. How and where are midocean ridges formed?
8.4 The Hydrologic Cycle
1. What is the hydrologic cycle? What drives it?
2. How are clouds formed?
3. What happens to water in the soil?
4. Where does most of the precipitation and evaporation take place?
5. What are the five main processes involved in the hydrologic cycle?
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