Geology of the Oceans
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Course Introduction
Geology of the Oceans explores the physical and chemical properties, structure, and dynamic processes of the ocean basins. The course examines the formation and evolution of the ocean floor through plate tectonics, volcanic activity, and sedimentation. Students learn about mid-ocean ridges, deep-sea trenches, seafloor spreading, and the interplay between marine geology and oceanic ecosystems. Emphasis is placed on modern methods of seafloor exploration, geological sampling techniques, and the role of oceans in Earths climate system and geologic history.
Recommended Textbook Oceanography 8th Edition by Tom S. Garrison
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Chapter 1: The Origin of the Ocean
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Q1) Amino acids, sugars, proteins, and nucleotides are considered the building blocks of life.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q2) What created Earth's moon?
A) The expulsion of rocky mantle after a collision with a planetary body
B) The initial big bang expansion event
C) The formation of a new star
D) The collision between two older moons
Answer: A
Q3) What planet is an example that others planets besides Earth have a plethora of water?
A) Mars
B) Jupiter
C) Saturn
D) Neptune
Answer: B
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Chapter 2: A History of Marine Science
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Q1) What country was the first to found an oceanographic institution to meet some of the demands associated with scientific oceanography?
A) United States
B) England
C) Japan
D) Monaco
Answer: D
Q2) Who set out to explore worldwide wind and current patterns for commercial and naval purposes?
A) Charles Wilkes
B) Benjamin Franklin
C) Tim Folger
D) Matthew Maury
Answer: D
Q3) What is the possible cause for the Renaissance in Europe?
A) The start of exploring for commerce
B) The reestablishment of information from Alexandria
C) The need to come together for protection
D) Climate change
Answer: C
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Chapter 3: Earth Structure and Plate Tectonics
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Q1) What did Harry Hess and Robert Dietz suggest the cause of the continents moving was?
A) Convection currents
B) Radioactive decay
C) Conduction
D) Gravity
Answer: A
Q2) The sustained heat within the Earth's interior is attributed to:
A) Radioactive Decay
B) Conduction
C) Convection
D) Isostatic Equilibrium
Answer: A
Q3) What features did Dr. Ballard not encounter during his National Geographic exploration to the mid-ocean ridge?
A) the rift valley
B) faults and fractures
C) lava flow
D) tube worms
Answer: D
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Chapter 4: Ocean Basins
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Q1) Satellites use ____ to calculate the depths of the ocean.
A) variations in elevation of surface water
B) multibeam echo sounding
C) radiometrics
D) variations in ocean density
Q2) Who led the earliest bathymetric studies?
A) Captain James Cook
B) Posidonius
C) Scientists of the HMS Challenger
D) Aristotle
Q3) What offsets the mid-Atlantic ridge's movement at fairly regular intervals?
A) Hydrothermal vents
B) Cooling lithosphere
C) Transform faults
D) Seamounts
Q4) What is the origin of most abyssal plain sediments?
A) Deep-ocean basalt
B) Biological activity
C) New crust development
D) Erosion from the continent
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Chapter 5: Ocean Sediments
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Q1) What is the distribution of neritic sediments, by size, from the shoreline outward towards the deep ocean? What facilitates the movement of each size of sediment?
Q2) What is one reason diatomaceous earth is economically valued?
A) It can be used as a fossil fuel alternative.
B) It can be used for various filtration systems.
C) It can be broken up for gravel and used as building materials.
D) It demonstrates the presence of "marine snow."
Q3) Which statement describes turbidites?
A) They are graded layers of terrigenous sand mixed with finer pelagic sediments.
B) They are propelled into position by gravity rather than water currents.
C) They are composed of distinct layers that represent various turbidity current events.
D) All of these choices are true about turbidites.
Q4) What is an example of terrigenous sediment?
A) Diatomaceous earth
B) Manganese nodules
C) Oolite sand
D) Quartz
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Chapter 6: Water and Ocean Structure
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Q1) The liquid state of water is more efficient in the organization of water molecules than solid ice.
A)True
B)False
Q2) How does the absorption of light provide heat energy in the ocean?
A) The addition of light increases the heat capacity of molecules.
B) The light makes water molecules vibrate and then the electromagnetic energy is converted to heat energy.
C) The light energy is absorbed by photosynthetic organisms which convert it to heat energy.
D) Tiny suspended particles absorb heat and transfer it to the ocean.
Q3) Heat and temperature are synonymous terms.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Explain how light and sound waves behave in seawater. What kind of effects do they have on inhabitants of the ocean?
Q5) Explain how hydrogen bonds form in water. How do these bonds influence properties of water? How might the phase of water (liquid, solid, or gas) change the interaction of hydrogen bonds?
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Chapter 7: Ocean Chemistry
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Q1) The dissolved salts in seawater increases the freezing point, explaining the formation of sea ice.
A)True
B)False
Q2) A higher level of pH is associated with more hydrogen ions.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What is the term for ocean components not accounted for by the weathering of continents?
A) Conservative constituents
B) Excess volatiles
C) Nonconservative constituents
D) Trace elements
Q4) Marine animals are unable to break down water molecules to acquire oxygen, but marine plants can produce enough carbon dioxide to support its own metabolism.
A)True
B)False
Q5) How do ions alter the properties of seawater in comparison to freshwater properties?
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Chapter 8: Circulation of the Atmosphere
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Q1) How do seasons affect the surface winds?
A) During the northern summer, the surface winds shift to the south.
B) During the northern winter, the surface winds shift to the south.
C) During the northern winter, the surface winds shift to the north.
D) Surface winds are not affected by seasons
Q2) Extratropical cyclones move eastward because they are rooted in the westerly winds.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Humid air is more dense than dry air at the same temperature.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The intertropical convergence zone coincides with Earth's meteorological equator which is different than the 0° latitude line.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What are the characteristics of tropical cyclones and extratropical cyclones? Compare and contrast these two kinds of large storms.
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Chapter 9: Circulation of the Ocean
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Q1) What direction would a gyre in the Southern Hemisphere flow towards?
A) Left
B) Right
C) Towards the equator
D) Poleward
Q2) What is a characteristic of Antarctic Bottom Water?
A) Extreme density
B) The water moves south towards Antarctica along the seafloor
C) Fast moving
D) Most is produced near the Mediterranean and joins the deep bottom layer
Q3) What is not a characteristic of an El Niño Southern Oscillation (ESNO)?
A) High pressure area shifts to the western Pacific
B) Trade winds across the Pacific weaken or reverse directions
C) Equatorial currents stop
D) Trade winds across the Pacific strengthen
Q4) What is an El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event? La Niña? How are they connected to each other?
Q5) What is the global conveyer belt referring to? How does this thermohaline flow transport heat throughout the world ocean? Include aspects of upwelling and downwelling.
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Chapter 10: Waves
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Q1) What is an ice quake?
A) The force of that creates a wave
B) Ice that is smashed and ground together to form pressure ridges
C) The force that determines a wave's size
D) An ice shear zone where waves collide
Q2) The water mass moving through a seismic sea wave can reach speeds of 760 kilometers per hour.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What causes ocean waves to form?
A) Energy from the wavelength
B) Energy from the disturbing force
C) Energy from the restoring force
D) Energy from the Stokes drift
Q4) What can not initiate a seiche?
A) Tides
B) Storm surge
C) Seabed displacement
D) Internal waves
Q5) How do wave trains travel? How do they interact with each other?
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Tides
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Q1) What are the different types of tidal patterns? What can influence the tidal pattern of a coastline?
Q2) A diurnal tidal pattern is easily explained by the natural tendency for water to rock at a specific frequency when in an enclosed basin.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What organism uses the tides, specifically high spring tides, to time their breeding behaviors?
A) Fiddle crabs
B) Grunion
C) Hantzchia
D) Sand crabs
Q4) What is the reference level to which a tidal height is compared to?
A) Datum
B) Amphidromic point
C) Tidal range
D) Bore point
Q5) What is the difference between a solar and lunar day? Which is longer? Why?
Q6) What are spring tides and neap tides? What tidal behaviors occur with each?
Page 13
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Chapter 12: Coasts
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Q1) Where does most of the sediment on the Pacific coast originate from?
A) Granite rock
B) Biological productivity
C) Basalt Rock
D) Lava
Q2) What is not true of the backshore?
A) It is a relatively inactive zone.
B) It extends to the farthest point that sediment reaches.
C) It extends slightly seaward of the berm crest.
D) It can include dunes and grasses.
Q3) Coastal cells in southern California are smaller due to the location on an active, leading edge of a continent.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Where is the seaward limit of a beach?
A) Longshore bars
B) Berms
C) Where the longshore drift is the strongest
D) Where the sediment stops moving onshore or offshore
Q5) How do sediments move along a beach?
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Chapter 13: Life in the Ocean
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Q1) Although ectotherms can tolerate large ranges in external temperature, they are unable to sustain large fluctuations in their internal temperatures.
A)True
B)False
Q2) There is a much faster nutrient cycling rate on land from producers to consumers than in the ocean.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Archaea may be more closely related to Eukarya than Bacteria.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Why is iron not abundant in the ocean?
A) It is trapped in the Earth's crust.
B) It is held in sediments.
C) It is nearly insoluble in oxygenated water.
D) It is not very reactive.
Q5) Linnaeus was the first to start classifying organisms. A)True B)False
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Chapter 14: Plankton, Algae, and Plants
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Q1) Dinoflagellates have a deeper compensation depth than diatoms.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What research vessel carried out the first large-scale plankton study?
A) Meteor
B) HMS Challenger
C) HMS Beagle
D) HMS Discovery
Q3) Where is phytoplankton the most productive?
A) Tropical latitudes
B) Temperate latitudes
C) North polar latitudes
D) Equator
Q4) What is included in a quantitative analysis of plankton?
A) An estimation of plankton in a volume of water
B) An estimation of salt concentration in the water
C) The behavior of plankton
D) The amount of sunlight used by plankton
Q5) What are the disadvantages of using biomass as a means to calculate primary productivity? What are some other means used to measure this productivity?
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Marine Animals
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Q1) What animal is responsible for building tropical reefs? What is the term for this behavior? What kind of symbiosis occurs within the tissues of these organisms?
Q2) What characteristics have made arthropods the most successful phylum? How do these animals grow? Can you think of any disadvantage of growing this way?
Q3) What order has the most living bony fish species?
A) Chondrichthyes
B) Osteichthyes
C) Teleostei
D) Coelacanths
Q4) What adaptation have only toothed whales developed for prey detection?
A) Ability to generate internal body heat
B) Bradycardia
C) Advanced gas exchange system
D) Echolocation
Q5) Which is not a characteristic of an arthropod?
A) Exoskeleton
B) Articulation of appendages
C) Striated muscle
D) Central nervous system
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Chapter 16: Marine Communities
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Q1) If an animal is tightly attached to the rocks during intense wave activity, it is said to be:
A) sessile.
B) motile.
C) desiccated.
D) benthic
Q2) What impact does environmental resistance have on a population? What kind of population distribution patterns occur in communities?
Q3) What community has the highest biomass per unit of surface area?
A) Rocky intertidal
B) Estuary
C) Sandy beach
D) Deep ocean
Q4) The usual rigors of the intertidal zone are less severe in the sandy intertidal than the rocky intertidal.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What are the types of symbiotic relationships that organisms exhibit? Give examples of each.
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Chapter 17: Marine Resources
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Q1) Public attention focused on unconventional energy sources in the 1970s because of advancements in technology.
A)True
B)False
Q2) How is petroleum formed in the ocean? How is it found and extracted when it is deep in the ocean?
Q3) How much of the world's crude oil is found on the seafloor?
A) 25%
B) 35%
C) 45%
D) 55%
Q4) How is freshwater obtained as a marine resource?
A) Potability
B) Evaporation
C) Desalination
D) Reverse osmosis
Q5) Ships are responsible for transporting almost all the world's crude oil production.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 18: The Ocean and The Environment
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Q1) The sun's radiance usually has a ____ variation.
A) 1%
B) 10%
C) 20%
D) 40%
Q2) What has been attributed to the deadly viral epidemic among dolphins in the western Mediterranean?
A) DDT
B) Refined oil spills
C) PCBs
D) CFCs
Q3) Human demands and pressures have surpassed Earth's ability to regenerate resources.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Where is the most invaded region in terms of exotic species?
A) Los Angeles Harbor
B) China
C) San Francisco Bay
D) Japan
Page 20
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