Flashcards: Oceanography

El Niño /ɛl ˈniːnjoʊ/ (Spanish pronunciation: [el ˈniɲo]) is the warm phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (commonly called ENSO) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific (between approximately the International Date Line and 120°W), including off the Pacific coast of South America.

Sea ice arises as seawater freezes.

A hydrothermal vent is a fissure in a planet's surface from which geothermally heated water issues.

An iceberg or ice mountain is a large piece of freshwater ice that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open water.

An ocean current is a continuous, directed movement of seawater generated by forces acting upon this mean flow, such as breaking waves, wind, the Coriolis effect, cabbeling, temperature and salinity differences, while tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon.

Any water in a sea or lake that is neither close to the bottom nor near the shore can be said to be in the pelagic zone.

Sea level is generally used to refer to mean sea level (MSL), an average level for the surface of one or more of Earth's oceans from which heights such as elevations may be measured.

Sea level rise has been estimated to be on average between +2.

Seawater, or salt water, is water from a sea or ocean.

A storm surge is a coastal flood or tsunami-like phenomenon of rising water commonly associated with low pressure weather systems (such as tropical cyclones and strong extratropical cyclones), the severity of which is affected by the shallowness and orientation of the water body relative to storm path, and the timing of tides.

World Oceans Day is celebrated every 8 June.

Benthos is the community of organisms that live on, in, or near the seabed, also known as the benthic zone.

The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, or ocean floor) is the bottom of the ocean.

The World Ocean or global ocean (colloquially the sea or the ocean) is the interconnected system of Earth's oceanic waters, and comprises the bulk of the hydrosphere, covering almost 72% of Earth's surface, with a total volume of 1.

The littoral zone is the part of a sea, lake or river that is close to the shore.

A seiche (/ˈseɪʃ/ SAYSH) is a standing wave in an enclosed or partially enclosed body of water.

Pelagic fish live in the pelagic zone of ocean or lake waters – being neither close to the bottom nor near the shore – in contrast with demersal fish, which do live on or near the bottom, and reef fish, which are associated with coral reefs.

Camp Barneo (Russian: Лагерь Бaрнео) is a private Russian temporary ice base established annually since 2002 on an ice floe relatively close to the North Pole used largely for tourist excursion purposes.

Phytoplankton /ˌfaɪtoʊˈplæŋktən/ are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of oceans, seas and freshwater basin ecosystems.

Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water (see also soil salinity).

Thermohaline circulation (THC) is a part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes.

Ichthyoplankton (from Greek: ἰχθύς, ikhthus, "fish"; and πλαγκτός, planktos, "drifter") are the eggs and larvae of fish.

Marine geology or geological oceanography is the study of the history and structure of the ocean floor.

An ophiolite (pronunciation: /ˈɒfiəlaɪt/) is a section of the Earth's oceanic crust and the underlying upper mantle that has been uplifted and exposed above sea level and often emplaced onto continental crustal rocks.

Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics (GLOBEC) is the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) core project responsible for understanding how global change will affect the abundance, diversity and productivity of marine populations.

The Ekman layer is the layer in a fluid where there is a force balance between pressure gradient force, Coriolis force and turbulent drag.

Initiated in 1947, the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO), formerly known as the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography, is a scientific society with the goal of Advancing the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography.

Station P is an ocean measurement site, located at 50 degrees north latitude, 145 degrees west longitude (water depth, 4220 meters).

Silicic acid /sɪˈlɪsɪk ˌæsɪd/ is a chemical compound.

The Observatoire océanologique de Banyuls-sur-Mer, also known as the Laboratoire Arago, is a marine station located in Banyuls-sur-Mer (Pyrénées-Orientales) on the Mediterranean coast of France.

Sea surface temperature (SST) is the water temperature close to the ocean's surface.

Oceanic anoxic events or anoxic events (anoxia conditions) refer to intervals in the Earth's past where portions of oceans become depleted in oxygen (O2) at depths over a large geographic area.

A marine chemist is an environmental, occupational safety and health professional who is a trained professional who is responsible for ensuring that repair and construction of marine vessels can be made in safety whenever those repairs might result in fire, explosion, or exposure to toxic vapors or chemicals.

The ocean surface has highs and lows, similar to the hills and valleys of Earth's land surface depicted on a topographic map.

A shutdown or slowdown of the thermohaline circulation is an effect of global warming on a major ocean circulation.