100 Cards in this Set
| Front | Back |
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Black Smokers
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-hydrothermal vents
-develop temps of 400 degrees
-teeming with life forms such as oysters and crabs
-exist for a short time and then collapse
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the landscape of the seafloor can be best described as...
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huge abyssal plains with ridges, hills, and seamounts
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Hydrothermal vents that support biological communities exist because of primary productivity in the form of ____________
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chemosynthesis
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At an ocean to ocean plate boundary, which plate will be subducted ?
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the older plate, because it is usually cooler
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Which plate is subducted when an oceanic plate converges with a continental plate ?
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oceanic plate
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Turbidity current
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A fast dense current of water that carries sediments offshore.
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where do submarine canyons occur?
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at the junction between the continental shelf and the continental slope.
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The Continental Shelf
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gently sloping platform with a variable landscape
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The great heaps of unconsolidated sediment at the base of the continental slope are known as?
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the continental rise
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The leading edge of a moving continental crustal plate is most likely to exhibit features associated with...?
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frequent earthquake activity
active continental margins
widespread volcanism
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Active margin
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The continental margin near an area of lithospheric plate convergence
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continental margin
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the submerged outer edge of a continent which includes the continental shelf and the continental slope
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Guyot
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-flat-topped seamounts eroded by wave action
-submerged inactive volcano
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island arc
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A curving chain of volcanic islands and seamounts almost always found paralleling the concave of a trench.
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oceanic ridge
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A mountainous chain of young, basaltic rock at an active spreading center of an ocean
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Passive margin
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the continental margin near an area of lithospheric plate divergence
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If oceans were absent on our Planet and instead just consisted of landmasses, what would happen to the surface temperature?
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they would be more extreme
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Where is most water stored on our planet?
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oceans
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when temperature increases, what happens to the density of water?
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it will decrease
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What happens to pH levels in regions where there is more carbon dioxide present ?
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The pH level decreases in these regions and waters become more acidic.
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the lower the pH level, the....
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more acidic it is
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what is the hydrological cycle powered by?
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solar radiation
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pycnocline
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the zone that isolates surface water from the denser layer below
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which of the following substances has the highest heat capacity (salt, sand, rock, or water)?
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water
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the aphotic zone
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the dark ocean below the depth to which light can penetrate.
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The zone of the ocean below the pycnocline in which there is little additional change of density with increasing depth is known as the
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deep zone
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halocine
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The zone of the ocean in which salinity increases rapidly with depth
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Photic Zone
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the thin film of lighted water at the top of the world ocean
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principle of constant proportions
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The principle that proportions of major conservative elements in seawater remain nearly constant is known as the
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the middle zone of the ocean in which density increases rapidly with depth; temperatures fall and rise in this zone.
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pycnocline
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hydrothermal vents are associated with....?
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seafloor spreading
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Why does the Mid-Atlantic Ridge have a steeper profile than the East Pacific Rise?
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The plates are moving more slowly
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the process by which organisms get their energy in order to survive
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chemosynthesis
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Organisms around hydrothermal vents are the same in the Pacific as in the Atlantic, true or false
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FALSE
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Why are hydrothermal vents so much smaller on land than in the ocean?
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erosion by wind and water
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Transform faults only occur on the edges of ocean basins, true or false?
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FALSE
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Corialis effect
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objects are deflected to the right in the northern hemisphere.
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Air masses move ____ at the boundary of circulation cells?
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vertically
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doldrums
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The area of surface winds where the two Hadley cells meet
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atmospheric cells that converge at the equator
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hadley cells
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___________ moves farther away from the equator during the Northern summer that the Southern one due to the north-heavy arrangement of the continents.
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The intertropical convergence zone, ( ITZC )
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Warm air _____ and cool air ____
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Warm air _____ and cool air ____
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Why do we have seasons on earth?
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The earths' orbital tilt relative to the plane of its orbit around the sun
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gyre
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a system of four currents completing a flow circuit around the periphery of an ocean basin
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The Earth's rotation influences currents by a "force" known as
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Coriolis Effect
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Currents tend to move in large ____ patterns in the northern hemisphere
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clockwise
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The only ocean current that continues in an uninterrupted circle around the circumference of the Earth without encountering land is the:
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Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
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North Atlantic Deep Water generally moves ____ than the surface currents above, and flows in ____ direction as the Gulf Stream.
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slower; the opposite
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The largest of the western boundary currents is the:
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gulf stream
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downwelling
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One source of dissolved gases and nutrients to deep waters
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is ekman spiral influened by coriolis?
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no
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The Canary Current is....?
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a shallow cold water current
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a surface current that connects eastern-boundary and western-boundary currents.
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A transverse current
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El nino effect
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when offshore winds blow warm surface area water away from shore. results in:
-an increase in ocean surface temperature in the eastern pacific
-increase in rainfall in west coastal countries or states of the American continents and
-An often catastrophic decrease in the commercial fish…
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If you were sailing from Europe to the Americas and you wanted to take advantage of the prevailing winds, you would choose to sail with the
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trade winds
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When viewed from above, tropical cyclones rotate_________in the SOUTHERN hemisphere.
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clockwise
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Which of the following storm systems is NOT a tropical storm?
(hurricane, typhoon, cyclone, nor'eastern)
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Nor'eastern
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salinity
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total amount of dissolved solids in the ocean
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what are the two most abundant elements dissolved in seawater?
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sodium and chloride
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what happens when carbon dioxide enters the ocean?
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it forms carbonic acid
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the % of gases in the atmosphere are the same as the % of these gases in the ocean, true or flase
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FALSE
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what moves the water evaporated from the oceans surface?
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wind
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what occurs at the boundaries of circulation cells?
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winds more vertically where the boundaries meet
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how many atmospheric cells are there in the northern hemisphere?
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3 (hadley ferrel and pollar)
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which cell is the closest to the equator?
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Hadley cell
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Monsoon
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a pattern of wind circulation that changes with the seasons
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horse latitudes
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between hadley and ferrel cells, sinking air
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deflection of path of moving objects
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coriolis effect
*to the right in the northern hem
*to the left in the southern
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bathymetry
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the study of the ocean floor contours
|
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advances in bathymetry
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-echo sounding
-multibeam systems
-satellite altimetry
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satellite altimetry
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measures the sea surface height from orbit using radar pulses
|
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3 differences between active and passive margins
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active: converging plates, high volcanic activity, pacific-type margins
passive: diverging plates, low volcanic activity, atlantic-type margins
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continental shelf is shaped by
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1. tectonics
2. ocean currents
3. sea level
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continental slope
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Transition between continental shelf and and the deepocean
floor
bottom of the slope is the true edge of the continent
|
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shelf break
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abrupt transition from continental shelf to continental slope
|
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where do submarine canyons form?
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at the junction between continental shelf and continental slope
|
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when do continental rises form
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when sediments accumulate
|
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Abyssal plains
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Flat, cold, sediment-covered ocean floor between continental rise and the oceanic ridge
|
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Abyssal Hills
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Small sediment-covered extinct volcanoes or rock
intrusions; we think they are associated with
seafloor spreading
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ice age
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time in the past when continental glaciers covered large parts of earths surface
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what percent of precipitation from the hydrological cycle falls back into the ocean?
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~80%
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what holds water molecules together?
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hydrogen bonds: when the positive end of one water molecule bonds to the negative end of another
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when water freezes does it become more or less dense?
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LESS
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three density zones that the ocean is stratified in to?
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pycnocline
thermocline
halocline
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what travels farther in the ocean, sound or light?
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sound
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does sounds travel faster in water or air?
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water
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what happens when water freezes or thaws
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water radiates heat as it freezes and absorbs heat as it thaws
ex:ice cream cooler always so hot
|
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chemical bond
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the force that holds two atoms together
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thermocline, halocline, pycnocline
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thermocline = stratification based on temperature
halocline = stratification based on salt content
pycnocline = stratification based on density
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polar molecule
|
molecule that is slightly negative on one end and slightly positive at the other
|
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What can water do because it is polar?
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act as a solvent
|
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ionic bond
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chemical bonds formed by opposite charges of ions attracting each other
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difference between weather and climate?
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weather is the state of the atmosphere at a specific time and place
climate is the long-term statistical sum of weather
|
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what is the atmosphere mostly composed of?
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Nitrogen, oxygen, and water vapor
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is humid air more or less dense than dry air?
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less dense bc water vapor molecules weigh less than nitrogen and hydrogen molecules
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heating of the earth near the equator vs near the poles?
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equator: more heat absorbed than radiated back into space
poles: opposite than ^
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amount of nitrogen and oxygen in atmosphere vs ocean
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atmosphere: 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen
ocean: 48% nitrogen, 36% oxygen
more nitrogen in atmosphere, more oxygen in ocean
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Two factors governing global air
circulation
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-Uneven solar heating
-Circulation cells on a rotating
sphere ( Coriolis effect)
|
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directions of Cyclones in the Northern andSouthern Hemispheres
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NH: counterclockwise
SH: clockwise
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how do hurricanes form?
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warm moist air rises, it cools, forms clouds, creates area of LOW pressure over ocean, tropical depression forms bringing thunder and wind. when winds exceed 119km its a hurricane
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NR 150:Exam one