Marine Science Test Questions
Course Introduction
Marine Science is an interdisciplinary field that explores the biological, chemical, physical, and geological aspects of the Earth's oceans and seas. This course delves into the structure and function of marine ecosystems, the diversity of marine organisms, and the dynamic processes that shape ocean environments. Students will gain an understanding of ocean currents, tides, and waves, as well as the impacts of human activities on marine systems. The course emphasizes scientific methods, fieldwork, and laboratory techniques used in studying marine environments and fosters an appreciation for the complexity and importance of our planets oceans.
Recommended Textbook
Oceanography 8th Edition by Tom S. Garrison
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Page 2
Chapter 1: The Origin of the Ocean
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Sample Questions
Q1) High levels of ____ could indicate life on other planets.
A) free nitrogen
B) carbon dioxide
C) free oxygen
D) bound nitrogen
Answer: C
Q2) Since the formation of our ocean, Earth has made approximately ____ orbits around the galaxy.
A) 20
B) 42
C) 230
D) 280
Answer: A
Q3) Which is not necessarily a characteristic of a red giant?
A) The engulfing of inner planets
B) The expansion of atmosphere
C) Becoming a supernova
D) Materials sent into space from shattering
Answer: C
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Page 3
Chapter 2: A History of Marine Science
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Q1) Where was the first "zero longitude" line?
A) Athens
B) Rome
C) Alexandria
D) Greenwich
Answer: B
Q2) What vessel is attributed to being able to descend into the Challenger Deep?
A) Glomar Challenger
B) Trieste
C) Meteor
D) HMS Challenger II
Answer: B
Q3) What stimulated the new field of science called oceanography?
A) The results of the HMS Beagle expedition
B) The naturalist Alexander Agassiz
C) Samples and information from the Challenger expedition
D) The United States Exploring Expedition's discovery of new species
Answer: C
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4
Chapter 3: Earth Structure and Plate Tectonics
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Q1) What is the name given to Earth's cool, rigid outer layer based on physical properties?
A) Asthenosphere
B) Core
C) Lithosphere
D) Troposphere
Answer: C
Q2) Paleomagnetism was the confirmation needed to show historical plate movements.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) What substance was able to show previous orientations of Earth's magnetic field?
A) Magma
B) Basalt
C) Magnetite
D) Magnesium
Answer: C
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Page 5
Chapter 4: Ocean Basins
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Sample Questions
Q1) Only temperature and salinity have an effect on the speed of sound.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What is not thought to have an effect on the formation of submarine canyons?
A) The sea level
B) Turbidity currents
C) Earthquakes
D) Geothermal heating
Q3) What is not a general characteristic of an active margin?
A) A broad shelf
B) Faulting and volcanism
C) Varied topography
D) Little sedimentation
Q4) Hydrothermal vents are only found in the depths of the ocean.
A)True
B)False
Q5) The weight of ice atop a continent can depress the depth of the shelf break.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 5: Ocean Sediments
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Sample Questions
Q1) Approximately how much of the world's estimated oil and gas reserves can be found within the sediments of the continental margins?
A) One-third
B) One-half
C) Two-thirds
D) Three-quarters
Q2) Paleoceanography analyzes layered sedimentary deposits to trace distinctive layers while establishing the ages of these deposits.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Most near shore sediments smell of hydrogen sulfide due to high levels of decomposing organic matter.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Both basalt and granite are examples igneous rocks.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 6: Water and Ocean Structure
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Q1) What is the structure of carbon dioxide an example of?
A) An element
B) An atom
C) A compound
D) A polar molecule
Q2) What is thermal inertia?
A) The increase of heat energy
B) The propensity for a substance to resist temperature changes
C) The properties that moderate changes in temperature
D) The amount of heat energy needed to raise the temperature of one gram of a substance by 1° Celsius
Q3) The same amount of heat energy is needed for latent heat of fusion as the latent heat of vaporization.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Which is not a characteristic of thermoclines?
A) Tropical thermoclines are deeper than those at higher latitudes.
B) Thermoclines are not identical in form.
C) Polar waters tend to lack thermoclines.
D) Thermoclines are more abrupt in the high latitudes.
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Chapter 7: Ocean Chemistry
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Q1) The level of ____ increases with depth which is a factor in the calcium carbonate compensation depth.
A) Nitrogen
B) Oxygen
C) Carbon Dioxide
D) Ammonia
Q2) 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
Q3) What is Forchhammer's principle? Give examples of the evidence which allowed Georg Forchhammer to develop this principle. How do residence times provide a foundation for this principle?
Q4) What is the approximate mixing time of the ocean?
A) 160 years
B) 1,600 years
C) 16,000 years
D)1.6 million years
Page 9
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Chapter 8: Circulation of the Atmosphere
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Sample Questions
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) Climate is the state of the atmosphere at a particular time while weather is more a statistical view of an area.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Why is there a difference in the heat budget at various latitudes despite the Earth as a whole having a balanced heat budget? What happens at polar and tropical latitudes?
Q4) Higher than normal sea-surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico in 2005 led NOAA meteorologists to forecast high storm activity in the Atlantic.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Cyclones are rotating high pressure systems in which winds converge and ascend.
A)True
B)False
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Page 10
Chapter 9: Circulation of the Ocean
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Q1) What maintains the permanent thermocline found at all low and mid-latitudes?
A) Continual upwelling
B) Warm water currents
C) Density stratification
D) Downwelling
Q2) What is La Niña?
A) A warmer than normal circulation event
B) A circulation due to density and salinity
C) A colder than normal circulation event
D) The result of volcanic eruptions
Q3) What prevents North Atlantic Deep Water from moving on a large scale like the Antarctic Bottom Water?
A) The density of the water
B) The topography of the basin
C) The composition of the sediments
D) The salinity of the water
Q4) Thousands of lost shoes in the Pacific helped oceanographers refine circulation models.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 10: Waves
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Q1) The tsunami that struck northern Japan in March 2011 began when a rupture along a submarine fault uplifted the sea surface by as much as 6 meters.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What type of wave is categorized as a deep-water wave?
A) Capillary wave
B) Seiche wave
C) Tsunami wave
D) Tides
Q3) What drives a storm surge ashore?
A) Frontal storms
B) Wind
C) Gravity
D) Currents
Q4) How do wave trains travel? How do they interact with each other?
Q5) What occurs as a tsunami's circumference expands?
A) The wave height increases
B) The energy dissipates
C) The period increases
D) The period decreases.
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Chapter 11: Tides
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Q1) When do tidal currents reach their maximum velocity?
A) Midway between slack water and high tide
B) During the period of slack water
C) Midway between high and low tide
D) Midway between low tide and slack water
Q2) What is an ebb current?
A) The rise in sea level as a tide crest approaches
B) The rise in sea level as a tide trough approaches
C) The fall in sea level as a tide trough approaches
D) The fall in sea level as a tide crest approaches
Q3) What is one of the newest techniques employed to measure tides?
A) Using simple drogues
B) Using pressure-sensing transducers
C) Using drift bottles
D) Using variations in Earth's magnetic field
Q4) What is the tidal datum in reference to in regions with semidiurnal mixed tides?
A) Mean lower low water
B) Mean low water
C) Tidal range
D) Mean tide
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Chapter 12: Coasts
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Q1) What are some of the functions of an estuary? Can you hypothesize why it is important to save for animals? What about for humans?
Q2) How do sediments move along a beach?
Q3) What is the rate of shore erosion dependent upon?
A) The amount of biological activity
B) The amount of global tectonic activity
C) Exposure to wave activity
D) The amount of sediment accumulation
Q4) What are the most common, large-scale features on a depositional coast?
A) Barrier islands
B) Moraines
C) Sand spits
D) Deltas
Q5) Most tropical beaches undergo seasonal transformations.
A)True
B)False
Q6) The accumulation and distribution of a layer of sediment protects depositional beaches from rapid erosion.
A)True
B)False
Page 14
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Chapter 13: Life in the Ocean
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Q1) What traps light energy in primary producers?
A) Photosynthetic
B) Thylakoid
C) Chlorophyll
D) Biomass
Q2) How are the levels of carbon dioxide linked to the photic and aphotic zones? How does this relate to the temperature of the water?
Q3) Some ____ are considered to be extremophiles.
A) Eukarya
B) Archaea
C) Plantae
D) Animalia
Q4) Which community has the highest level of net primary production?
A) Rain forests
B) Kelp forests
C) Coral reefs
D) Open ocean
Q5) Living organisms represent the flow of energy towards decreasing order or chaos.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 14: Plankton, Algae, and Plants
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Q1) Seaweed derived materials are found in a large variety of commercial materials including adhesives, salad dressing, and ice cream.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What do researchers use to directly measure the rate of productivity?
A) Carbon-12
B) Biomass
C) Carbon-14
D) Chloroplasts
Q3) A highly biological productive ocean surface appears chalky; what plankton is likely successful here?
A) Diatoms
B) Dinoflagellates
C) Coccolithophores
D) Isopods
Q4) Coccolithophores are able to utilize more frequencies of light so they can be deeper in the euphotic zone and need less light.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 15: Marine Animals
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Q1) What is considered the most advanced animal phyla?
A) Chordata
B) Echinodermata
C) Mollusca
D) Arthropoda
Q2) The symmetry in worms represents the transition from simple to advanced organisms.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What makes up the greatest biomass of any species on Earth?
A) King crab
B) Krill
C) Squid
D) Coral
Q4) What is the most effective anti-drag body plan?
A) Torpedolike
B) Horizontally compressed
C) Vertically compressed
D) Disk-shaped
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Chapter 16: Marine Communities
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Q1) What is water called when it is a mixture of both freshwater and seawater?
A) Estuarine water
B) Brackish water
C) Productive water
D) Semidiurnal water
Q2) What is a niche?
A) An organism's physical location in a community
B) The amount of different species in a community
C) An organism's occupation in a community
D) The number of populations in a community
Q3) What is a community?
A) A group of organisms of the same species
B) A group of interacting organisms of different species
C) The number of different species in an area
D) The largest marine ecosystem
Q4) Which is not a characteristic of deep water animals?
A) Deep water organisms tend to move slowly.
B) Deep water organisms require little food to survive.
C) Deep water organisms tend to have a long life span.
D) Deep water organisms have a high metabolic rate.
18
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Chapter 17: Marine Resources
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Q1) What did the United States Exclusive Economic Zone exclude from the original 1982 United Nations Treaty?
A) The claim of territorial waters
B) The protection of the ocean
C) The sharing of high seas resources
D) The prevention of pollution
Q2) Most of the exploitable oil fields are not easily accessible anymore.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Many harvested marine animals are sustainable because they are being caught below the maximum sustainable yield.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The single largest sand mining operation is in Alaska.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Aquaculture produces very little of the amount, perhaps ten percent, of fish consumed by humans.
A)True
B)False
Page 19
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Chapter 18: The Ocean and The Environment
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Q1) What is the greenhouse effect? What are the gases involved in this process? What are some of the events that could happen if global warming progresses?
Q2) Which habitat is the most impacted by pollutants?
A) Estuaries
B) Intertidal zones
C) Deep-water zones
D) Coral reefs
Q3) What determines an organism's response to a particular pollutant?
A) The quantity of the pollutant
B) The toxicity of the pollutant
C) The persistence of the pollutant
D) All of these choices
Q4) How do the insoluble components of oil affect the ocean?
A) Prevent free diffusion of gas
B) Clog feeding structures
C) Decrease the amount of light penetrating the surface
D) All of these choices
Q5) Spills of refined oil are generally larger than those of crude oil.
A)True
B)False
20
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