Chapter 18: Ocean Motion --- Vocabulary :)
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Created by:
Sleeperman54 on March 1, 2011
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12 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 basin | low area on Earth in which an ocean formed when the area filled with water from torriental rains |
| salinity | a measure of the amount of salts dissolved in seawater |
| surface current | wind-powered ocean current that moves water horizontally, parallel to Earth's surface, and moves only the upper few hundred meters of seawater |
| Coriolis effect | causes moving air and water to turn left in the southern hemisphere and turn right in the northern hemisphere due to Earth's rotation |
| upwelling | vertical circulation in the ocean that brings deep, cold water to the ocean surface |
| density current | circulation pattern in the ocean that forms when a mass of more dense seawater sinks beneath less dense water |
| wave | rythmic movement that carries energy through matter or space; can be described by its crest, trough, wavelength, and wave height |
| crest | highest point of a wave |
| trough | lowest point of a wave |
| breaker | collapsing ocean wave that forms in shallow watter and breaks onto the shore |
| tide | daily rise and fall in sealevel caused, for the most part, by the interaction of gravity in the Earth-Moon system |
| tidal range | the difference between the level of the ocean at high tide and the level at low tide |
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