Exam 15: The Dynamic Ocean

Elevated wave-cut platforms in Southern California are evidence that this coastal area is emergent.

sea stack bar tombolo barrier island

Horn Island is a small island about 10 km offshore from Biloxi,Mississippi,that is about 20 km long and 1 km wide.What are features like Horn Island called?

The movement of water within the surf zone that parallels the shore is termed ________.

Waves begin to "feel bottom" when the depth of water is ________.

What type of current is illustrated in the diagram below?

When you are swimming in the surf and ride a wave into the limit of the wave washup,you are deposited on the shoreline.

You are body surfing in modest waves that are breaking just offshore.A particularly big one catches you off guard,flips you over and over,and deposits you on the shore.As you lie there in the sand,you think,hey,I just landed on ________.

The height,length,and period of a wave depend upon ________.

Erosional retreat of a(n)________ leads to enlargement and extension of a wave-cut platform in the inland direction.

wave height wave period wave refraction fetch

The Gulf Coast lacks barrier islands.

The horizontal distance separating successive wave crests is called the wave period.

The rising of cold water from deeper layers to replace warmer surface water is called ________.

Large circular-moving currents of water within an ocean basin are called ________.

If you go to a beach in the continental United States and you are standing on a long,flat strand of sand,and you look away from the open ocean and see only a few low sand dunes and then a large,open waterway,where are you?

You have a fancy beach house in the east coast of Florida.The main wave source is to the northeast.Your neighbor to the south of you is having problems with beach erosion and storm waves often come under his house.So he decides to build a groin and he tells you it is for the benefit of the neighborhood.What should you respond to his comment?

Construction of a seawall produces an effect analogous to what kind of natural coastal feature?

Rocks and sand on beaches become rounded rapidly because ________.

Which of the following is designed to prevent or retard shoreline erosion?