Ocean and Coastal Processes
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Course Introduction
This course explores the dynamic physical, chemical, and biological processes that shape ocean and coastal environments. Students will examine the interactions between the atmosphere and ocean, the mechanics of waves and tides, sediment transport, coastal erosion, and the impact of human activities on coastal systems. Emphasis is placed on understanding the principles that govern coastal morphology and the implications for environmental management and climate change adaptation. Through lectures, case studies, and practical exercises, students will develop a comprehensive understanding of the processes influencing ocean and coastal areas, preparing them for further study or careers in marine science, environmental policy, or coastal engineering.
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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Q1) The scientific method is characterized as:
A) an orderly process in which theories are proved to be absolutely true.
B) an orderly process in which a test simplifies an observation in nature by controlling the conditions in which they are made.
C) an orderly process in which theories are verified or rejected.
D) a testable speculation or explanation of a theory.
Answer: C
Q2) A marine scientist is studying the amount of dissolved oxygen in a particular area. They are attempting to connect the data with the type of organisms found in that area. What kind of marine scientist might they be classified as?
A) Physical oceanographer
B) Chemical oceanographer
C) Marine biologist
D) Marine geologist
Answer: B
Q3) Water in its liquid state is common in our solar system.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
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Chapter 2: A History of Marine Science
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Q1) Who led a fleet of at least 317 during the dark ages?
A) Bjarni Herjulfsson
B) Prince Henry
C) Admiral Zheng He
D) Christopher Columbus
Answer: C
Q2) What kind of information can be determined about the ocean with the use of satellites?
A) The height of the sea surface
B) The temperature of the sea surface
C) The amount of plankton productivity
D) All of these choices
Answer: D
Q3) The Norwegian Vikings began looking westward after French, Irish, and British strengthened their defenses against their raids.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
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Chapter 3: Earth Structure and Plate Tectonics
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Q1) Hot spots always occur at plate boundaries.
A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q2) What is paleomagnetism? Why have magnetometers shown symmetrical bands of magnetism strength at varying locations?
Answer: Answer should include:
Paleomagnetism is the study of fossil magnetic fields. It uses the magnetite in magma to determine the direction of the magnetic field and even the orientation of the continents at various times in history.
Paleomagnetism can show the alterations between weak and strong bands of magnetism. This suggests the orientation of the magnetic pole has shifted numerous times.
Magnetometers measure the amount and direction of residual magnetic fields.
Some bands add to Earth's present magnetism while others have weakened it. Information can be found in the section The Confirmation of Plate Tectonics.
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Chapter 4: Ocean Basins
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Q1) How long is it estimated to take the ocean's volume of water to circulate through the oceanic crust at spreading centers?
A) 1 million years
B) 10 million years
C) 100 million years
D) 1 billion years
Q2) Which is not a major factor in the width of a continental shelf?
A) The proximity to a plate boundary
B) The speed of ocean currents
C) Natural dams that allow sediment accumulation
D) The number of rivers depositing new sediments
Q3) A continental margin facing a spreading ridge is considered ____ and ____.
A) a passive margin; converging
B) a passive margin; diverging
C) an active margin; diverging
D) an active margin; converging
Q4) Active margins tend to be narrow in comparison to broad passive margins.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 5: Ocean Sediments
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Q1) Both basalt and granite are examples igneous rocks.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What characterizes deep ocean sediments?
A) The sediments are well-sorted due to high energy fluctuations
B) The sediments are well-sorted due to low energy fluctuations
C) The sediments are poorly sorted due to high energy fluctuations
D) The sediments are poorly sorted due to low energy fluctuations
Q3) Define well-sorted and poorly sorted sediments. What is expected on the deep ocean floor? Which is found close to shore? Include information about the energy associated with each and the avenues of transportation of these sediments.
Q4) The compression of small biological particles into fecal pellets increases the rate at which they sink to the bottom.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Lithification is a process that is often pressure induced.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 6: Water and Ocean Structure
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Q1) What allows water to be a polar molecule?
A) Hydrogen bonds
B) Adhesion
C) Surface tension
D) The angular shape of the molecule
Q2) Sound and light waves bend because they travel at different speeds in different media.
A)True
B)False
Q3) As pure water approaches its freezing point, the density decreases. Why does this happen?
A) The water compresses into ice.
B) The hydrogen bonds become rigid, allowing it to expand slightly.
C) The hydrogen bonds break as the molecules compress.
D) Ice takes up a smaller surface area than liquid water.
Q4) 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?
Q5) Explain how light and sound waves behave in seawater. What kind of effects do they have on inhabitants of the ocean?
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Chapter 7: Ocean Chemistry
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Q1) 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
Q2) What is the general behavior of pH in seawater? What affect can pH levels at various depths?
Q3) Sodium and chloride are considered are considered to be nonconservative constituents which have long residence times in the ocean.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The Ocean is becoming more acidic as it absorbs additional _________from the atmosphere.
A) carbon dioxide
B) ozone
C) oxygen
D) pollution
Q5) What is the difference between major constituents, minor constituents, and trace elements? What are some examples of each?
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Chapter 8: Circulation of the Atmosphere
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Q1) Cyclones are rotating high pressure systems in which winds converge and ascend.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What is the Coriolis effect? What impact does it have on global circulation? Be specific.
Q3) 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
Q4) The weak Coriolis effect at the equator does not allow tropical cyclones to form.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Which is not an example of a tropical cyclone?
A) Hurricane
B) Nor'easter
C) Willi-willi
D) Typhoon
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Chapter 9: Circulation of the Ocean
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Q1) What is the behavior of the Ekman spiral? What occurs when the friction depth is reached?
Q2) What is not a characteristic of western boundary currents?
A) They move warm water poleward.
B) They are fast moving currents.
C) They are deep currents.
D) They are broad currents.
Q3) What is used to visualize ocean layering?
A) A caballing chart
B) A circulation histogram
C) A layering table
D) A temperature-salinity diagram
Q4) The Antarctic Bottom Water in the Pacific retains its characteristics for up to 1,600 years.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What are the three types of geostrophic currents? What are their characteristics? Give at least one example of each type of current.
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Chapter 10: Waves
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Q1) What happens when a tsunami approaches the shore?
A) Its velocity drops rapidly.
B) Its period remains the same.
C) Its wave height increases
D) All of these choices
Q2) What is a characteristic of a tsunami?
A) Deep-water waves
B) Long wavelengths
C) Standing waves in the open ocean
D) Oscillations near coastal areas
Q3) When does a wave begin to interact with its bottom?
A) When the bottom is deeper than ½ the wavelength
B) When the bottom is shallower than ½ the wavelength
C) When the bottom is deeper than twice the wavelength
D) When the bottom is shallower than twice the wavelength
Q4) What kind of waves occur at the boundary between two fluid media?
A) Seiche waves
B) Orbital waves
C) Transitional waves
D) Tidal waves
Page 12
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Chapter 11: Tides
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Q1) Where was the first tidal powered energy station positioned?
A) The estuary in the Rance River, France
B) The mouth of the Annapolis River, Nova Scotia
C) The Bay of Fundy, between Main and New Brunswick, Canada
D) Bristol, England
Q2) Why is the same side of the moon always facing Earth?
A) The gravitational pull
B) The inertia of Earth
C) The length of a solar day in comparison to a lunar day
D) The tidal friction locked the moon's rotation to that of Earth
Q3) A tidal wave moves north in the Northern Hemisphere and south in the Southern Hemisphere.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Who came up with the dynamic theory of tides?
A) Isaac Newton
B) Pierre-Simon Laplace
C) Galileo
D) Pytheas
Q5) 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 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
Q2) Low-energy coastlines are commonly found in areas along eastern edges of continents.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What marks the limit of rapid marine erosion?
A) Sea cliffs
B) Wave-cut platforms
C) Sea caves
D) Blowholes
Q4) Salt wedge estuaries form their circulation pattern due to the rapid river outflow mixing with ocean water.
A)True
B)False
Q5) Describe the three types of reefs that are formed. Can you hypothesize why they are important?
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Chapter 13: Life in the Ocean
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Q1) There is a much faster nutrient cycling rate on land from producers to consumers than in the ocean.
A)True
B)False
Q2) What is an advantage of using scientific names?
A) There is only one name per species.
B) They are universal to all languages.
C) They can indicate the relatedness of organisms.
D) All of these choices
Q3) All life on Earth is fundamentally the same.
A)True
B)False
Q4) Taxonomy is the study of biological classification schemes.
A)True
B)False
Q5) What kind of metabolic rate do humans have?
A) Endothermic
B) Exothermic
C) Ectothermic
D) Hyperthermic
Page 15
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Chapter 14: Plankton, Algae, and Plants
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Q1) What Zooplankton is considered a keystone species?
A) Ctenophores
B) Meroplankton
C) Pteropods
D) Krill
Q2) Measuring biomass is not efficient in calculating primary productivity because dense areas can have lower productivity.
A)True
B)False
Q3) What planktonic group accounts for 80% of all photosynthesis in the tropics?
A) Picoplankton
B) Nanoplankton
C) Microplankton
D) Mesoplankton
Q4) What is created due to the decomposition of falling biological debris and zooplankton activity?
A) Bioluminescence
B) Oxygen minimum zone
C) Compensation depth
D) Disphotic zone
Page 16
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Chapter 15: Marine Animals
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Q1) Platyhelminthes were the first organisms to have:
A) fully developed brain.
B) notochord.
C) central nervous system.
D) eyes
Q2) The vertebrates' skull made the evolution of intelligence feasible.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which animal is considered to be a suspension feeder?
A) Fish
B) Sea stars
C) Sponges
D) Conches
Q4) What phylum contains sea jellies?
A) Porifera
B) Cnidaria
C) Echinodermata
D) Platyhelminthes
Q5) What is the difference between invertebrate and vertebrate chordates? What organism has characteristics of both?
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Chapter 16: Marine Communities
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Q1) Which distribution is the rarest found in communities?
A) Random distribution
B) Uniform distribution
C) Clumped distribution
D) Normal distribution
Q2) What is environmental resistance?
A) The decline in population growth
B) The effect of limiting factors on the environment
C) The maximum population growth in an environment
D) The movement of one population against another
Q3) What is the study of the balance between environmental factors and organisms in a community?
A) Ecology
B) Biodiversity
C) Niche
D) Ecosystem
Q4) What challenges are faced by coral reefs today? What is the advantage of living in the tropical ocean which contains few nutrients? Hint: include reference to the National Geographic segment about the Southern Line Islands
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Chapter 17: Marine Resources
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Q1) How is freshwater obtained as a marine resource?
A) Potability
B) Evaporation
C) Desalination
D) Reverse osmosis
Q2) What is the largest known reservoir of hydrocarbons on Earth?
A) Oil
B) Methane hydrate
C) Coal
D) Natural gas
Q3) Why does oil seep to the surface from its source rock?
A) Capillary actions
B) Convection
C) Oil is less dense than surrounding sediments
D) Porosity is higher at the surface
Q4) How much of the world's table salt is produced by the evaporation of seawater?
A) One quarter
B) One third
C) One half
D) Three-quarters
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Chapter 18: The Ocean and The Environment
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Q1) 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
Q2) Why is the ozone layer important?
A) It insulates Earth.
B) It increases the temperature.
C) It protects Earth from ultraviolet rays.
D) It stabilizes the atmospheric layers.
Q3) Which habitat is the most impacted by pollutants?
A) Estuaries
B) Intertidal zones
C) Deep-water zones
D) Coral reefs
Q4) 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?
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