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Problem 1
What property of water does pH measure? (one or two-word answer)
What is the typical pH of seawater? What is the typical pH of freshwater?
A fluid that has a pH of 4 is ________ times more _____ than a fluid with a pH of 8.
a
b
c
d
e
f
2 acidic
2 alkaline
40 acidic
40 alkaline
10000 acidic
10000 alkaline
Problem 2
Place a letter next to the currents listed below, indicating their location on the
accompanying map.
Agulhas Current
Alaskan Stream
Gulf Stream
Kuroshio
Labrador Current
Oyashio
The strongest currents tend to occur on the (eastern or western) boundary of the ocean
basins.
The dominant driving force for these currents is what? (one word answer)
These currents are all example of what?
Ekman currents
Thermohaline currents
Geostrophic currents
Longshore currents
Equatorial currents
Problem 3
On the accompanying map,
Mark one major feature in both the Pacific basin and Atlantic basin that is associated with
“diverging oceanic plates”.
Mark one major feature in the Pacific basin that is associated with “converging oceanic
and continental plates”.
Mark one major feature in the Pacific basin that is associated with “transform faults”.
Problem 4
Label the type of reef/island formation shown in the figure:
Top:
Middle:
Bottom:
What animal or plant is responsible for the underwater part of these formations?
(one word answer)
What geologic process is responsible for the above-water part of these formations?
(one word answer)
Problem 5
Wave gauges were used to measure the wave activity at three different points.
- In the midst of a storm in the open ocean.
- 500 km from the storm
- 1000 km from the storm
Label the above locations with the letter of the corresponding graph.
In graph A, what is the approximate period of the wave? (one significant digit)
In graph A, what is the approximate wave height? (one significant digit)
(Hand-sketched graph not included)
Problem 6
If all the ice floating in the ocean melted due to global warming, then mean sea level
around the world would:
-
Rise by 10’s of meters
rise by several meters
stay about the same
lower by several meters
lower by 10’s of meters
What are the primary two factors associated with sea level rise?
Problem 7
Describe the differences and similarities of ocean gyres and ocean eddies.
Answers
1: Acidity or alkalinity (the concentration of H+ ions); 8 pH for seawater; 7 pH for pure
water; 10000 times more acidic (pH is a logarithmic scale)
2:
F: Agulhas Current
C: Alaskan Stream
D: Gulf Stream
A: Kuroshio
E: Labrador Current
B: Oyashio
Western; wind; geostrophic currents
3:
e.g.: Pacific: East Pacific Rise; Atlantic: Mid-Atlantic Ridge (plus a few others)
e.g.: West coast of South America (plus many others)
e.g.: western California (plus many others)
4: top: fringing reef; middle: atoll; bottom: barrier reef; coral; volcanoes or vulcanism or
volcanism
5: midst: B (lots of irregular wiggles/seas)
500km: C (shorter period waves/swell)
1000km A (longer period waves/swell)
Period is about 7 or 8 seconds
Height is about 10 meters (twice the “amplitude” which is 5m)
6: - stay about the same. (If land-locked ice – glaciers, ice sheets, etc – were to melt,
then the ocean would rise 10’s of meters)
mass and heat (mass meaning “more water”, heat causing thermal expansion making the
ocean less dense and hence occupying more space)
7: Gyres and eddies both circulate laterally, spinning either clockwise or
counterclockwise
Gyres are basin-scale features (1000’s of km); eddies are smaller-scale features (10km to
100km)
Gyres are wind-forced; eddies occur as instabilities of the gyre-scale currents
Gyres tend to be “permanent” meaning you can always find them there; eddies ten to be
“transient” meaning they are only sometimes found (they come and go)