GEOS 305

Oceanography

Exam Review

Scroll Down For Reviews for Exam 2 and the Final

EXAM 1 - THURSDAY Oct. 4th

FORMAT

3 to 4 short essay and problem solving questions
10 to 15 short answer questions

TOPICS

Origins
Plate Tectonics
Feature of the Sea Floor
Sediments on the Sea Floor
Physical and Chemical Properties of Water
Ocean Structure
The Atmosphere

Figure - The Ocean as a biogeochemical system figure

REVIEW QUESTIONS

What are the 4 major parts of the Earth System? Also, give an example of how they interact.
What are the 3 major oceans, which is the largest, and which is the smallest?
What is the difference between continental drift and plate tectonics?
Draw a simple sketch showing the cross section of a typical passive continental margin.
What is the CCD, and why are calcareous oozes more common in the Atlantic than the Pacific?

Where does the salt in the oceans come from, and why does the salinity remain stable?

What is the evidence for the big bang?
Where did the material in the nebula that eventually became our solar system come from?
Why is the earth layered internally?
Where did the water in the early ocean come from?
How do we know that the earth is 4.6 billion years old?
What is the geologic time scale?
Why is liquid water so abundant on earth but not on the other planets in our solar system?
How is water distributed throughout the Earth system?
How do we know so much about the internal properties and structure of Earth?
How was the process of sea floor spreading discovered?
What are the three types of plate boundaries? At which type is new oceanic crust created, and at which type is it destroyed?
Where would you find the youngest rocks (crustal rocks – not sedimentary) on the ocean floor, where would you find the oldest, and why?
What are the mechanisms that cause the tectonic plates to move?
What is the difference between and active and passive continental margin?
Where do mid ocean ridges form on the ocean floor, and where do trench form?
How do sediments form, what controls the rate at which they form, how are they transported, and what is the most common place that they are deposited?
What is the difference between terrigenous and biogenic sediment?
Why does the sized of sediment decrease as you go out on the continental shelf?
How doe carbonate shelves differ from continental shelves with mostly terrigenous sediment?
How does carbonate sediment get distributed across the continental shelf?
How do terrigneous sediments get to the continental rise?
Why are there canyons on the continental shelf?
Why is the bulk of the pelagic clay on the ocean floor centered just north and south of the tropics?
Why is a large percentage of the terrigenous sediments in the western pacific volcanogenic?
Why is the sediment just of the continental shelf around Antarctica so poorly sorted?
Why do oozes match what is living in the water column so well?
If a large percentage of the skeletons of diatoms and radiolarions dissolve before they reach the ocean floor how do siliceous oozes form?

What is the structure of a water molecule and what are some of its special properties?
How are water molecules bonded together in liquid water and what are some of the properties of liquid water because of these bonds?
Water has a high heat capacity. What does that mean?
How far does light penetrate into the ocean, what is this region called, and what colors penetrate farther than others?
Why is seawater buffered, how does the carbonate buffer work, and what does this mean in terms of the chemical stability of the ocean?
Salinity fluctuates at the surface of the oceans, but is very stable in the deep ocean. Where is salinity highest at the surface, and where is it lowest? Why does this surface pattern exist?
In seawater, what is the difference between those constituents that are considered conservative and those that are classified as non-conservative?

Why is concentration of O2 high but CO2 low in the upper 100 m of the ocean?
Why does O2 reach a minimum between 200 and 800 m in the ocean?
Why are the oceans stratified?
Why are the surface temperatures of the oceans highest near the equator but lowest near the poles?
Why are surface waters in the oceans less dense than water in the deep ocean?
Why is there circulation in the atmosphere and what is this type of circulation called?
Why are there six circulation cells (3 in the northern hemisphere and 3 in the southern hemisphere) instead of just two?
What causes the Coriolis effect?
Why is atmospheric pressure low at the equator but high at the horse latitudes?
Why do weather patterns track from west to east across North America?
Why do hurricanes track from east to west across the Atlantic?
Why are there high pressure centers over the Atlantic and Pacific during the summer, whereas there is a low pressure center over the North American continent? Why is this pattern reversed during the winter? What does this doe for the climate in North America?

Where does the energy in a Huricane come from and how does it get into the storm system?

Why has damage from huricanes along the eastern seaboard and the GOM gotten worse lately?

Why do the hypocenters of earthquakes get deeper as you go toward the continent along some plate boundaries, and what type of plate boundary could this be?

Sparse, shallow earthquakes that often occur as bands along the seafloor are associated with what type of boundary?

Do mountains occur randomly on the continents, or do they occur in some sort of pattern? If so, Why?

What are some of the major features on the ocean floor, and what are the boundary types responsible for them?

Where are most active volcanoes on earth located?

If there is a divergent plate boundary on the eastern edge of the South American plate, and a convergent boundart along its western margin, which direction is the South American plate likely to move?
check back again as I will be adding questions until .........Wed. Oct. 2
e-mail me leonardk@mnstate.edu if you have any problems

EXAM 2 - Thursday NOV. 29th

FORMAT

3 to 4 short essay and problem solving questions
10 to 15 short answer questions

TOPICS

REVIEW QUESTIONS

What is the generating force for surface currents, and what is Eckman Transport?
Why is the landward side of a coastal mountain range do much dryer than the ocean side of the range?
How is a year with an El Nino event different from a normal year in the equatorial pacific?
What causes monsoonal seasonal patterns in places like India, southeast Asia, and northern Australia?
Why are the western boundary currents so much stronger than the other parts of a gyre?
How is seasonal coastal upwelling different from equatorial upwelling?
What causes deep water currents to move?
What is the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt, how does it influence climate, and what could happen if it stops functioning?
What are the possible causes for geologic ice ages, and what causes variations in ice volume during an ice age?
What are capillary waves, and how do they contribute to the formation of a water wave?
What factors determine how large a wave will be?
What are the mechanisms for the daily, monthly, and yearly tidal signals?
What are the major differences between a primary and secondary coastline? Also, even though sediment arrives in an ocean basin in a localized area, how does it get distributed around the coastline?
Why can’t organisms that are adapted for living in the saline waters of the ocean tolerate fresh water?
What is the Ocean Conveyor Belt?
What are the parts of a wave, and how do the water molecules in a wave move?
What happens when a wave breaks?
What is a progressive water wave, and how do they form?
Even though light is a controlling factor on primary productivity, why are plankton blooms so much larger in high- and mid-latitude oceans than in the tropics?
Why does it take so many primary producers to produce even small growth in top consumers?
List a few of the organisms that are primary producers, primary consumers, consumers, and top consumers.
What is a food web?
Are the zooplankton evenly distributed throughout the ocean? Why or why not?
What are the major types of reefs, and how are they different?
Why do the shapes of corals vary across the zones of a reef, and in which zone is coral growth the most active?
What do corals need to survive, and why?
What are the major parts of a reef system?
Where does the energy found in living systems on earth ultimately come from, and how is this energy transformed into a form that is usable by living things?
How is the primary productivity in a reef system different from the rest of the ocean?
How are autotrophs and heterotrophs different?
Why are phosphorous and nitrogen called limiting elements, wheras carbon is not? Also, what happens if there is too much of these elements?
How does primary productivity on land differ from primary productivity in the oceans?
How is the lifestyle of the zooplankton adapted to phytoplankton, and what is the most abundant phytoplankton group?
Although they mostly reproduce sexually, why do diatoms have a sexual phase?
What are some of the unusual characteristics of the dinoflagellates, and how can blooms of this phytoplankton be harmful to the environment?

check back again as I will be adding questions until .........Wed. Nov. 27th
e-mail me leonardk@mnstate.edu if you have any problems

G305 Oceanography

Final Exam - Tuesday, December 18th, 3:00 pm

FORMAT - will include new material (since the last exam), plus comprehensive material

3 to 4 short essay and problem solving questions
10 to 15 short answer questions

TOPICS

New Material

Nekton

REVIEW QUESTIONS (check the review questions above for comprehensive material - hint: focus on the major topics)

What are the requirements of a productive fishery?

What degrades a fishery?

Where do developing countries get most of their protein, and how does this relate to overfishing?

Is petroleum a completely foreign substance in the ocean, and why are oil spills so damaging to the environments in which they occur?

Why do fish school?
What are the differences between the locomotion of the squid and fish?
What are some of the modification that marine organisms have for staying in the water column?
Why do most marine mammals have more myoglobin in their blood than we do?
How do the sensory organs of the shark compare to those of the other fish?
How are the fish with white muscle tissue different from those with red muscle tissue?
Why do deep sea bony fish have large mouths, small bodies, exandable stomachs, and slow metabolisms?
Why are sea snakes so venomous?
How is locomotion in the cetaceans different from locomotion in fish?
What are the two major groups of whales and how are they different?
Why have the populations of the great whales been depleted or severely depleted since the late 1800's?

check back again as I will be adding questions
e-mail me leonardk@mnstate.edu if you have any problems