Exam 16: Oceans and Coastlines

Explain how longshore current and beach drift are related.

The two most common ions dissolved in seawater are ____.

In the mid-1700s, Benjamin Franklin helped chart a surface current called the ____, which carried ships from North America to England more quickly.

Describe the process of ocean acidification.

The ____ portion of a beach lies between mean high and low tides.

A long, low-lying sandy island that extends parallel to the shoreline is called a(n) ____.

Most wave erosion occurs by abrasion with the silt, sand, and gravel that waves carry.

Most of the photosynthesis and nutrient consumption in the ocean is conducted by ____.

What drives surface currents and deep-sea currents?

As you move downward from the surface of the ocean, the movement of water becomes less affected by wind and more affected by the Coriolis effect.

A tidal bulge can always be found ____.

What causes the tides?

Coral reefs thrive over a wide temperature range.

In recent years, increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide has caused seawater to become more acidic.

The deflection of currents caused by Earth's rotation is called the _______________.

The _______________ is the distance between successive wave crests (or troughs).

An ocean wave moves along the sea surface, but the water in the wave travels in circular paths.

The difference between high and low tide in an area is strongly affected by ____.

Tiny marine animals that live mostly within a few meters of the sea surface and feed on photosynthetic plankton are called ____.

One factor that controls the size of a wave is the distance that the wind has traveled, called ____.