Flashcards: Vocabulary #16: Science Chapter 5
About these flashcards
Created by:
flyparsons on February 13, 2012
Log in to favorite or report as inappropriate.All 19 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 ocean current | a movement of ocean water that follows a regular pattern... 2) stream of either cold or warm water that moves in a definite direction through an ocean... |
| surface current | a horizontal movement of ocean water that is caused by wind and that occurs at or near the ocean's surface |
| Coriolis effect | The apparent curving of the path of a moving object from an otherwise straight path due to the earth's rotation |
| deep current | a streamlike movement of ocean water far below the surface |
| upwelling | the movement of deep, cold, and nutrient-rich water to the surface |
| El Nino | a change in the water temperature in the Pacific Ocean that produces a warm current... 2) a climate variation that takes place in the tropical Pacific about every three to seven years, for a duration of about one year... |
| La Nina | a change in the eastern Pacific Ocean in which the surface water temperature becomes unusually cool |
| wave | the movement of energy through a body of water with a crest and a trough. |
| wavelength | the distance between the crests of waves, such as those of the ocean. |
| wave height | the vertical distance from the crest of a wave to the trough. |
| wave period | time required for a complete wavelength to pass a given point. |
| crest | the highest point of a wave. |
| trough | the lowest point of a wave. |
| undertow | a subsurface current that is near shore and that pulls objects out to sea. |
| longshore current | a water current that travels near and parallel to the shoreline. |
| whitecap | the bubbles in the crest of a breaking wave. |
| swell | one of a group of long ocean waves that have steadily traveled a great distance from their point of generation. |
| tsunami | A giant ocean wave that forms after a volcanic eruption, submarine earthquake, or landslide. |
| storm surge | a local rise in sea level near the shore that is caused by strong winds from a storm, such as those from a hurricane |