Oceanography Terms
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44 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Intertidal | The shallow zone of the ocean where land meets water, which is alternately covered or exposed by the tied |
| Sublittoral | Benthic zone from the low-tide line to the seaward edge of the continental shelf; the subtidal zone. |
| Bathyal | Pertaining to ocean depths between approximately 1000 and 4000 meters. |
| Abyssal | benthic environment between 4000 m and 6000 m depth |
| Hadal | of or pertaining to the greatest ocean depths, below approximately 20,000 ft. |
| Plankton | the aggregate of small plant and animal organisms that float or drift in great numbers in fresh or salt water |
| Nekton | the aggregate of actively swimming animals in a body of water ranging from microscopic organisms to whales |
| Benthos | organisms (plants and animals) that live at or near the bottom of a sea |
| Abyssal Hill | A hill on the slope of a mid-ocean ridge about 100m high and lineated parallel to the ridge crest, formed by faulting of the basaltic oceanic crust as it moves out of the rift valley |
| Abyssal Plain | very level area of the deep-ocean floor, usually lying at the foot of the continental rise |
| Mid-Ocean Ridge | an undersea mountain chain where new ocean floor is produced; a divergent plate boundary |
| Rift Valley | A deep valley that forms where two plates move apart. |
| Ocean Trench | A steep, long depression in the deep-sea floor that runs parallel to a chain of volcanic islands or a continental margin |
| Continental Slope | the steep gradient that leads to the deep-ocean floor and marks the seaward edge of the continental shelf |
| Continental Shelf | a gently sloping, shallow area of the ocean floor that extends outward from the edge of a continent |
| Continental Rise | the gently sloping section of the continental margin located between the continental slope and the abyssal plain |
| Guyot | A large, flat-topped seamount resulting from erosion of an island volcano when it was above sea level. |
| Seamount | a huge, underwater volcanic mountain that may emerge from the ocean surface as an island |
| Atoll | an island consisting of a circular coral reef surrounding a lagoon |
| Sea Cliff | Steep slope produced when waves erode and undercut rock. |
| Sea Cave | formed as wave action hollows out the cliff |
| Sea Arch | Formed when sea caves on either side of a headland join. |
| Sea Stack | column of rock remaining after the collapse of a sea arch |
| Wave-Cut Terrace | A level surface formed by wave erosion of coastal bedrock beneath the surf zone. May be visible at low tide. |
| Wave-Built Terrace | An extension to a wave-cut terrace formed by erosional material deposited offshore |
| Beach | an area of sand sloping down to the water of a sea or lake |
| Berm | a narrow ledge or shelf typically at the top or bottom of a slope |
| Coral Reefs | Prominent oceanic features composed of hard, limy skeletons produced by coral animals; usually formed along edges of shallow, submerged ocean banks or along shelves in warm, shallow, tropical seas |
| Barrier Island | Low, narrow, sand islands that form offshore from a coastline |
| Sand Bar | A long underwater ridge formed by sand deposited offshore |
| Submergent Coastline | A landform formed when sea level rises or when land sinks |
| Emergent Coastline | Coastline that results from either a drop of sea level or an uplifting of the land |
| Lagoon | shallow body of water or lake near a sea; lake separated from a sea by sandbars or coral reefs |
| Spit | a narrow strip of land that juts out into the sea |
| Tombolo | a ridge of sand that connects an island to the mainland or to another island |
| Density | mass divided by volume |
| Temperature | the degree of hotness or coldness of a body or environment (corresponding to its molecular activity) |
| Thermocline | In water, a distinctive temperature transition zone that separates an upper layer that is mixed by wind (the epilimnion) and a colder, deep layer that is not mixed (the hypolimnion) |
| Salinity | a measure of the amount of dissolved salts and other solids in a given amount of liquid |
| Tsunamis | A giant wave caused by an earthquake on the ocean floor |
| Currents | water that moves in a certain direction; the river like flow of water in the oceans |
| El Nino | (oceanography) a warm ocean current that flows along the equator from the date line and south off the coast of Ecuador at Christmas time |
| La Nina | a cooling of the ocean surface off the western coast of South America, occurring periodically every 4 to 12 years and affecting Pacific and other weather patterns. |
| Sonar | a measuring instrument that sends out an acoustic pulse in water and measures distances in terms of the time for the echo of the pulse to return |
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