Essential Skills:Semester 1 – Water and Ocean Mechanics

  1. Be able to explain water’s unique properties: How water molecules bond to each other, what makes water a polar molecule, and the structure of water molecules.
  1. Be able to explain the difference in the inorganic chemistry of seawater and freshwater. Explain why the sea is salty and where the salts come from.
  2. Be able to explain how the phases of water change as it transforms from a solid to a liquid.
  3. Be able to explain the components of the atmosphere, their locations and why most of the atmosphere is located in the lower two levels.
  4. Be able to describe the process of convection and how it relates to airflow.
  5. Be able to explain what causes the Coriolis effect, and describe the airflow patterns that characterize the six global cells.
  6. Be able to explain the components of ocean gyres and the surface currents that create them.
  7. Be able to explain how the ocean conveyor belt works and the location for the formation of the deep currents..
  8. Be able to explain how waves form and the characteristics of deepwater and shallow-water waves.
  9. Be able to explain how a warm-phase ENSO event occurs and the environmental changes it causes.

Review Questions

  1. What are the bonds that hold water molecules together? What are the bonds that hold oxygen and hydrogen molecules together to form a water molecule?
  1. What is a polar molecule?
  1. Sketch a water molecule and show where the covalent bonds are located. Sketch three water molecules and show where the hydrogen bonds occur.
  1. Define the following:
  1. Adhesion-
  2. Cohesion-
  3. Viscosity-
  4. Surface Tension-
  1. The ocean is very important part of the carbon cycle. What waste product is dissolved in tremendous amounts in the ocean? Where do all of the salts in the ocean come from?
  1. As water is freezing into ice, what happens to the temperature of the water and ice mixture?
  1. Define density. What happens to the density of water as it nears freezing? What happens to the density of water as it begins to actually turn into a solid? Are there many other substances that do this? Sketch the graph of water phase changes.
  1. When salt is added to water, what happens to the freezing point of the water and the melting point of the water?
  1. List the components that make up air and diagram the atmosphere layers, labeling each one and its approximate location. Explain why most of the atmosphere is in the lower two layers.
  1. What process adds water vapor to the air? What process removes water vapor from the air?
  1. What would happen if the heat coming in from the sun and being reradiated into space were imbalanced?
  1. What causes convection? Draw a picture to illustrate convection.
  1. What is the Coriolis effect? What causes the Coriolis effect? How does the Coriolis effect influence the wind?
  1. Where are the trade winds found and explain what causes them?Where are the westerlies found and what causes them?
  1. Describe and then draw the general circulation pattern in all of the atmospheric circulation cells.
  1. Explain what forces are responsible for currents.
  1. Explain what a gyre is and how it is made up of geostrophic currents.
  1. How many major ocean gyres are there and where are they found?
  1. What makes coastal upwellings and downwellings occur? What biological effects do they have?
  1. What role do currents play in transporting heat? Why is this important? Describe the basics of what happens when a warm-phase ENSO occurs?
  1. Where do the distinct deep-water masses form? How do they tie into the ocean conveyerbelt? Why is the ocean conveyor belt important?
  1. What three factors are responsible for creating the maximum size of a wind wave?