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Chapter 15
Oceans and Tides
29
Geology
Undergraduate 2
03/14/2011

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Term
Bathymetry
Definition
Variation in depth of the ocean floor.
Term
Abyssal Plain
Definition
A vast, nearly horizontal plain of the ocean floor at least 4.5km below the ocean floor.
Term
Submarine Canyon
Definition
Relatively narrow and deep valleys that cut into continental shelves and slopes.
Term
Seamounts
Definition
Volcanoes that lie below sea level.
Term
Currents
Definition
Ocean waters flows and circulates at velocities of up to several kilometers an hour in fairly well-defined streams called currents.
Term
Tide
Definition
Twice daily rise and fall of the sea level.
Term
Tide Generating Force
Definition
gravitational attraction of the sun and the moon, and in part to centrifugal force produced by the revolution of the Earth-Moon system around its center mass.
Term
Wavelength
Definition
The horizontal difference between two adjacent wave troughs or two adjacent crests.
Term
Amplitude
Definition
The height of a wave from crest to trough.
Term
Crest
Definition
The top of a wave
Term
Trough
Definition
The bottom of a wave.
Term
Wave Base
Definition
The depth, approximately equal in distance to half a wavelength in a body of water, beneath which there is no wave movement.
Term
Wave Refraction
Definition
Waves bend as they approach the shore.
Term
Longshore Current
Definition
Causes swimmers floating in the water just offshore to gradually drift in a direction parallel to the beach.
Term
Gyre
Definition
Any large system of rotating surface ocean currents, particularly those involved with large wind movements.
Term
Longshore Drift
Definition
Carries the beach sediment at an angle down the beach.
Term
Sand Spit
Definition
Where the coastline indents landward, long shore drift stretches beaches out into open water. Some sandspits grow across the opening of a bay to form a baymouth bar.
Term
Offshore Bar
Definition
The scouring action of waves piles sand up in a narrow ridge away from the shore.
Term
Barrier Islands
Definition
In regions with an abundant sand supply, offshore bars rise above the mean high-water level to become a barrier island.
Term
Lagoon
Definition
The lower area between a barrier island and the mainland forms a quiet-water lagoon, a body of shallow seawater separated from the open ocean.
Term
Tidal Flats
Definition
regions of mud and silt exposed or nearly exposed at low tide but totally submerged at high tide, develop in regions protected from large wave action.
Term
Wave Cut Notch
Definition
The combined effects of shattering, wedging and abrading, together called wave erosion, gradually undercut a cliff face and make a wave cut notch.
Term
Wave Cut Bench
Definition
Wave erosion cuts away at a rocky coat, so that the cliff gradually makes its way inland. Such cliff retreat eventually leaves behind a wave cut bench, or platform, which becomes visible at low tide.
Term
Fjords
Definition
Flooded glacial cut valleys.
Term
Headland
Definition
A point of land, usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends out into a body of water.
Term
Marine Terrace
Definition
Any relatively flat, horizontal, or gently inclined geomorphic of marine origin.
Term
Fetch
Definition
Distance wind travels.
Term
Formation of Surf
Definition
When the depth is ½ the wavelength, surf forms. The bottom of the surf has friction, which slows the bottom of the wave. The top of the wave however keeps moving fast creating surf.
Term
What happens in longshore transport of sediment?
Definition
Sediment moves up the beach at an angle and reenters the ocean going straight down the beach.
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