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49 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What are ocean currents?
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Masses of ocean water that flow from one place to another.
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How do surface currents develop?
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From friction between the ocean and the wind that blows across its surface.
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What are gyres?
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huge circular-moving current systems.
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What are the 5 main gyres?
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North Pacific, South Pacific, North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Indian ocean.
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The center of each gyre coincides w/ the subptropics at 30 degrees north and south latitude. So what are they called?
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Suptropical Gyres
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What is the Coriolis effect?
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Deflection is tot he right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.
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What is upwelling?
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The rising of cold water from deeper layers to replace warmer surface water.
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What is thermohaline circulation?
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Movements of ocean water caused by density difference brought about by variations in temperature and salinity.
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What is the still water level?
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Halfway between the crests and the troughs. Level the water would be if there were no waves.
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What is wave height?
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The vertical distance between trough and crest.
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What is wavelength?
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The horizontal distance between successive crests (or troughs)
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What is the wave period?
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The time it takes one wavelength to pass a fixed position.
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The height, length, and period of a wave is achieved by what 3 factors?
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1) wind speed
2) length of time the wind has blown 3) fetch |
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What is fetch?
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the distance that the wind has traveled across open water.
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What is surf?
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The turbulent water created by breaking waves.
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What is wave base?
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When the movement of water particles eventually becomes negligible as it gets at great depth.
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What is abrasion?
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The sawing and grinding action of the water.
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What is wave refraction?
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The bending of waves.
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What is beach drift?
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The transport of sediment in a zigzag pattern along a beach caused by the uprush of water from obliquely breaking waves.
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What are longshore currents?
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A nearshore current that flows parallel to the shore.
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What are features called that owe their origin primarily to the work of erosion called?
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erosional features
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What are depositional features?
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produced by deposits of sediment
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What are wave-cut cliffs?
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A seawater-facing cliff along a steep shoreline formed by wave erosion at its base and mass wasting.
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What are wave-cut platforms?
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A bench or shelf in the bedrock at sea level, cut by wave erosion.
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What is a marine terrace?
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A wave-cut platform that has been exposed above sea level.
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What is a sea arch?
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When two caves on opposite sides of a headland unite.
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What is a sea stack?
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When a sea arch eventually falls in leaving an isolated remnant.
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What is a spit?
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An elongated ridge of sand that projects from the land into the mouth of an adjacent bay.
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What is a baymouth bar?
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A sandbar that completely crosses a bay, sealing it off from the open ocean.
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What is a tombolo?
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A ridge of sand that connects an island to the mainland or to another island.
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What is a barrier island?
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A low, elongated ridge of sand that parallels the coast.
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Interactions among different processes and the relative importance of each process depend on local factors. name 5 of them.
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1. proximity of a coast to sediment laden rivers
2. the degree of tectonic activity 3. topography and composition of land 4. prevailing winds and weather patterns 5. configuration of coastline and nearshore areas. |
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What is hard stabilization?
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Structures built to protect a coast from erosion or to prevent the movement of sand along a beach.
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What is a groin?
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A barrier built to a right angle to the beach to trap sand that is moving parallel to the shore.
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What is a breakwater?
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A structure protecting a near shore area from breaking waves.
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What is a seawall?
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A barrier constructed to prevent waves from reaching the area behind the wall. Its purpose is to defend property from the force of breaking waves.
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What is beach nourishment?
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When large quantities of sand is added to the beach system to offset the losses caused by wave erosion.
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What are emergent costs?
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They develop either because an area experiences uplift or as a result of a drop in sea level.
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What are submergent cost.
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They are created when sea level rises or the land adjacent to the sea subsides.
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What are estuaries?
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A funnel-shaped inlet of the sea that formed when a rise in sea level or subsidence of land cause the mouth of a river to be flooded.
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What are tides?
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The daily changes in the elevation of the ocean surface.
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What are spring tides?
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The highest tidal range. Occurs near the new and full moons.
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What are neap tides?
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The lowest tidal range, occurring near the times of the 1st and 3rd quarters of the moon.
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What is a diurnal tidal pattern?
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A tidal pattern exhibiting one high tide and one low tide during a tidal day.
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What is a semidiurnal tidal pattern?
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A tidal pattern exhibiting two high tides and two low tidds per tidal day with small inequalities between successive high and low tides.
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What is a mixed tidal pattern?
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A tidal pattern exhibiting two high tides and two low tides per tidal day w/ a large inequality in high water heights, low water heights, or both.
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What is the tidal current?
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The horizontal flow of water accompanying the rise and fall of the tides.
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What are tidal flats?
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A marshy, muddy area that is covered and uncovered by the rise and fall of the tide.
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What are tidal deltas?
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A delta-like feature created when a rapidly moving tidal current emerges from a narrow inlet and slows, depositing its load of sediment.
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