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62 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Of the atmospheric gases, which one has the greatest concentration?
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Nitrogen
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Of the atmospheric gases, which one shows the greatest increase in concentration from atmosphere to sea (in other words, which one has the greatest solubility in sea water)?
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Carbon Dioxide
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Of the atmospheric gases, which one has the greatest heat capacity?
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Water(H20)
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which is the lightest atmospheric gas (discount argon, helium, methane, and other trace gases)?
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Water if vapor, hydrogen if not.
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Can cool air be less dense than warm air?
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Cold air is usually denser but if water if moist.
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Under normal atmospheric conditions, as you go up in elevations from the Earth's surface to the troposhere what happens to temperature?
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The temperature decreases because the sun is heating and bouncing off the surface of the earth.
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Season are caused by the?
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The tilt of the Earth.
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What is the tilt of the Earth's axis?
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23.45 degrees
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Looking toward the equator from the north pole, in which direction does the Earth turn?
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Counter clockwise
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Earth rotates at
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1675 km/hour
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What are the Earth's main atmospheric circulation cells, as named from the equator northward are
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Hadley, Ferrel, and polar
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North of the equator, the Coriolis effect causes deflection of air and water masses to veer to the
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West
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From what general direction would you expect wind on the Hawaiian Islands to be coming from?
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West
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What are the trade winds
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Easterlies in the Hadley cell
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What are the Doldrums?
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Areas of little wind by the equator
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Distinguish between the meteorological and geographical equators?
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The meteorological equator is five degrees north of the geographical equator.
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The term Tropical Cyclone is synonymous with
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Hurricane
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In the northern hemisphere, the winds within tropical storm rotate in what direction?
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Counter clockwise
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Hurricanes always originate in
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water with surface temperature above 26 degrees Celsius. This is because the water needs to be warm enough for condensation to occur.
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The system off boundary currents and transverse currents that make a circuit around the periphery of an ocean basin are called
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gyres
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According to the order of principals principle, the principle source of energy of circulation of the atmosphere and the surface of the oceans is
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wind
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Friction between the atmosphere and hydrosphere causes
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pressure gradients
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The one major ocean current that flows unimpeded across lines of longitude is the
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West wind drift/antarctic circumpolar current
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Major Eastern boundary currents of the world
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Canary current, Benguela Current, California Current, West Australian Current, Peru or Humboldt current
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Major Western boundary currents of the world
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Japan or Kuroshio, Brazil, Agulhas, East Australian
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The fastest, deepest, and relatively warmest ocean currents tend to be
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western boundary currents
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The marine layer of fog that rolls into San Francisco is caused by
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cool air from the ocean condensing and being trapped under a layer of warm air
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Some examples of undercurrents and counter currents are
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the Pacific Equatorial undercurrent or the Cromwell current
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The densest ocean water is transported by what type of ocean current?
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Eastern Boundary currents
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What does ENSO
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El Nino Southern Oscillation
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What happens during an El Nino event that is different from typical ocean circulation?
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Warm water that would normally flow westward backs up and flows eastward causing the Peru current to stop upwelling
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Which surface ocean current carries the greatest volume of water past a single point in a given unit of time?
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Western Wind drift (Antarctic Circumpolar Current)
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What are the units and values of a sverdrup?
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Sverdrups express volume transport in the oceans currents.
1 sverdrup= 1 million cubic meters per second |
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In oceanography, what is typically measured in sverdrups?
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Volume transport in ocean currents
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Upwelling along the California coast is caused by
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wind
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Thermohaline circulation is largely due to a difference in density of water masses caused by a difference in salinity or a change in
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temperature as the current changes latitude
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Disturbing forces
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changes in atmospheric pressure, storm surge, tsunami, faulting of sea floor, volcanic eruption, landslide, gravitational attraction, rotation of Earth
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Restoring forces
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cohesion of water molecules, gravity
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Given the wavelengths of waves rank them from shortest to longest
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capillary, wind waves, seismic sea waves, tidal wave
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The orbits of deep-water, transitional, and shallow-water waves change their shape due to
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depth
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Deep water waves are defined as
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waves moving through water deeper than 1/2 their wave length
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Transitional waves are defined as
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waves deeper than 1/20 their wave length
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Shallow water waves
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waves in water shallower than 1/20 their wave length
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Wave crest-to-crest distance is known as
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wavelength
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Wave period
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the time it takes for one wave to move a distance of one wave length
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Wave frequency
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the number of waves passing a fixed point per second
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The longer the wave length the greater the
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period
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The restoring force for all ocean waves longer than 1/73cm is
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gravity
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What factors contribute to full development of wind waves
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wind strength, wind duration, and fetch
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What happens to waves as they move away from their zone of disturbance
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They are gradually flattened due to restoring forces
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The group velocity of a wave train is the velocity at which the wave energy propagates. How does this relate to individual wave velocity?
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The velocity of a wave train is 1/2 that of an individual wave.
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Individual wave velocity is defined as
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The speed proportional to the wavelength in deep water. It is a function of speed.
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Waves feel the bottom at
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1/2 their wavelength
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Waves approaching shore will break when the water depth is
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3:4 the height of the water depth
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Bottom contour has what affect on breaker shape?
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It can make the waves lose energy and make breakers smaller or even flat
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A rip current is
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a strong channel of water flowing seaward from the shore
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What types of waves have the longest wavelengths?
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Tidal Waves
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How do spring tides differ from neap tides?
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Spring tides are during the full of new moon and neap tides are during the quarter phases of the moon
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Tsunami have extremely long wavelengths that are generally only detectable when
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they enter shallow water
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The tides at any given locality on Earth result from the interaction of
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the sun, moon, and earth
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A tidal pattern with 2 high tides and 2 low tides within a 24 hour (plus 50 minutes) period is called
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semi diurnal
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What factors affect the height and intensity of tides?
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the gravitational pull of the sun and the moon.
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