1. Oceans
S6E3. Students will recognize the significant role of water in earth processes.
a. Explain that a large portion of the Earth’s surface is water, consisting of oceans, rivers, lakes, underground water, and ice.
c. Describe the composition, location, and subsurface topography of the world’s oceans.
d. Explain the causes of waves, currents, and tides.

2. Oceans
S6E5. Students will investigate the scientific view of how the earth’s surface is formed.
f. Explain the effects of physical processes (plate tectonics, erosion, deposition, volcanic eruption, gravity) on geological features including oceans (composition, currents, and tides).

3. How are geological features that exist on land similar to those on the ocean floor?
Terms to know:
Sonar—sound navigation and ranging; system that uses sound waves to measure distances; has enabled scientists to map much of the ocean floor
Continental shelf—gently sloping shallow area of the ocean floor extending outward from the edge of a continent

4. How are geological features that exist on land similar to those on the ocean floor?
Terms to know:
Continental slope—steep incline extending beyond the continental shelf to the deep ocean floor
Abyssal plain—smooth, nearly flat region of the ocean floor
Mid-ocean ridge—underwater mountain range that winds through the oceans

5. How are geological features that exist on land similar to those on the ocean floor?
Terms to know:
Trench—deep, steep-sided canyon in the ocean floor
You should remember mid-ocean ridges and trenches from our study of plate tectonics. How are these two features related?

6. How are geological features that exist on land similar to those on the ocean floor?
Terms to know:
Intertidal zone—the part of the ocean between the highest high-tide line to the lowest low-tide line
Neritic zone—the part of the ocean extending from the lowest low-tide line out to the edge of the continental shelf
Open-ocean zone—the deepest, darkest part of the ocean beyond the continental shelf

7. How are geological features that exist on land similar to those on the ocean floor?
Questions to consider:
Why has the deep ocean floor been explored only recently?
Which statements are true about the ocean floor? Which are false?
It is flat and sandy
It is rocky and uneven
It has the biggest mountains on Earth.
It has deep canyons.

8. How are geological features that exist on land similar to those on the ocean floor?
Questions to consider:
What are the three zones which make up the open-ocean zone?
Surface zone
Transition zone
Deep zone

9. What’s in the ocean water?
It’s salty
Table salt, or sodium chloride, NaCl, is the most common salt, but other salts include magnesium chloride, magnesium sulfate, calcium sulfate, calcium carbonate and others

10. What’s in the ocean water?
Salinity—total amount of dissolved salt in a sample of water
On average, kg of ocean water contains about 35 grams of salt—we say 35 ppt (parts per thousand)

11. What’s in the ocean water?
Factors affecting salinity

12. What’s in the ocean water?
Effects of salinity
Increases density

13. What’s in the ocean water?
Effects of salinity
Lowers the freezing point of water

14. What’s in the ocean water?
Temperature variations
Sun warms the ocean water at the surface
Surface temperatures are warmer near the equator and lower as we move away from the equator
Deeper in the ocean, the temperature decreases
Cold water is denser than warm water

15. What’s in the ocean water?
Gases in the ocean
Gases are dissolved in ocean water
Ocean organisms need oxygen and carbon dioxide
Surface water has more oxygen because of photosynthesis, which cannot occur in deeper water
Cold water dissolves more oxygen
Deeper water contains more carbon dioxide

16. What’s in the ocean water?
Changes with depth
Temperature decreases as you go deeper in the ocean; average temperature in the deep zone is 3.5 °C
Pressure increases with depth

17. Why does a sailboat
move in the ocean?

18. Why does a sailboat
move in the ocean?
Energy from
wind transfers
to the boat

19. In the same way, energy from wind transfers to the ocean’s
surface, creating waves.
Famous image from woodblock print—ukioy-e print—Great Wave of Kanagawa—Mt. Fuji in background

20. Which has more energy— a strong wind or a gentle breeze?
Famous image from woodblock print—ukioy-e print—Great Wave of Kanagawa—Mt. Fuji in background

21. Distance over which it blows
Size of Waves
Strength of the wind
Length of time wind blows
Distance over which it blows
Waves move energy—
not water

22. Parts of a Wave Crest—the highest point of a wave
Trough—the lowest point of a wave

23. Parts of a Wave Wave height—the distance from the crest to the trough
Wavelength—the distance between crests

24. Parts of a Wave
Frequency—the number of waves that pass a point in a certain amount of time

25. As waves approach shore,
the wave height increases and the wave-length decreases. The energy causes the water to push up on beach, but gravity pulls it back to sea.

26. Tsunami

27. Tsunami Caused by Underwater earthquake Landslide Underwater volcano
Most common in the Pacific Ocean

29. Effects of Waves
Longshore drift—the movement of sand along a beach.

30. Effects of Waves

31. What causes tides?
Tides—the daily rise and fall of Earth’s waters on its coastlines
High tide—when the water reaches its highest point
Low tide—when the water reaches its lowest point

32. What causes tides?
Tides occur regularly—two high tides and two low tides each day (about every 25 hours)
Each high tide occurs about every 12 ½ hours; each low tide occurs about ½ way between
Tides occur in a cycle—high tide then low tide then high tide…

33. What causes tides?
Tides are caused by the gravity of the moon pulling on Earth’s waters

34. What causes tides?
The moon’s gravity causes a tidal bulge of water on the side of Earth closest to the moon; the waters on the other side are “left behind” and create a second bulge

35. What causes tides? The sun is also involved in tides
Two special tides occur each month because of the sun’s gravity
Spring tides and neap tides

36. What causes tides?
Spring tide—the greatest difference between high and low tide
High tides are their highest; low tides are their lowest

37. What causes tides? Spring tides
The sun’s gravity combines with the moon’s gravity
Occur at new moon and full moon
Sun, Earth and moon are in a straight line

38. What causes tides?
Neap tide—the least difference between high and low tide
High tides are lower than usual; low tides are higher than

39. What causes tides? Neap tides
The sun’s gravity competes with the moon’s gravity
Occur at 1st and 3rd quarter moons
Sun, Earth and moon are at right angles

40. What causes currents?
Currents—large streams of moving water that flow through the oceans
Types of currents
Tidal
Surface
Deep

41. What causes currents?
Surface currents—affect water to a depth of several hundred meters
Driven mainly by winds
Move in a circular pattern

42. What causes currents?
Why do currents move in a circular pattern?

43. What causes currents? Why do currents move in a circular pattern?
The Coriolis effect—the effect of Earth’s rotation on the direction of winds and currents
Does the Coriolis effect work the same all over the Earth?

44. What causes currents?
Does the Coriolis effect work the same all over the Earth?
Currents in the Northern Hemisphere curve to the right, or clockwise
Currents in the Southern Hemisphere curve to the left, or counterclockwise

45. What causes currents?
Surface currents warm or cool the air above them, influencing the climate of the land near the coast
Currents affect climate by moving cold and warm water around the globe

46. What causes currents?
The Gulf Stream is the largest and most powerful surface current in the North Atlantic Ocean. It carries more water than the Mississippi!

47. What causes currents?
Does the Gulf Stream carry warm water or cold water?
(hint: look at where it originates)

48. What causes currents?
The warm waters of the Gulf Stream bring a mild climate even to areas near the Arctic, such as Norway

49. What causes currents?
The Gulf Stream is a warm water current, originating in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico
Currents which flow from waters near the equator toward the poles are warm currents
Currents which carry water from the poles toward the equator are cold currents

50. Can you tell which currents are cold currents and which are warm currents?
Notice the Coriolis Effect—which curve right and which curve left?

51. What causes currents?
El Niño is abnormal climate event that occurs every 2 to 7 years in the Pacific Ocean
Unusual pattern of winds in the western Pacific pushes a huge amount of water toward the South American coast
Unusual weather patterns around the world

52. What causes currents?
Deep currents move water at greater depths, even along the ocean floor
Move much more slowly than surface currents
Also called thermohaline currents

53. What causes currents? Deep currents, or thermohaline currents
Caused by differences in density, due to temperature and salinity variations
What factors affect ocean water temperatures?
What factors affect salinity?

54. What causes currents?
Factors affecting salinity

55. What causes currents?
Deep currents move and mix water around the world. They carry cold water from the poles toward the equator.

56. What causes currents?
Upwelling—the upward movement of cold water from the ocean depths to replace warm surface water moved away by winds
Bring up ocean organisms, minerals, and other nutrients from the deep
Without upwelling, surface waters would have little nutrients

57. Scientists have used accidents to track currents
In 1992, a cargo ship lost several containers during a violent storm in the Pacific

58. Scientists have used accidents to track currents
One of the containers broke apart—it was carrying thousands of toy ducks!

59. What have I learned about the ocean?
Subsurface topography (features of the ocean floor
Salinity and factors affecting it
Causes of ocean waves and parts of a wave
Causes of tides and how special tides occur
Causes of currents, surface and deep, and how they affect climate