Physical Geography

~Oceans~

At the end of the this unit you will have an understanding of the following concepts and material:

Click here to go to the Book Work section

1.    Features of the Ocean Floor

Use the Internet (Google) or any available text book(s) to find out what the following terms mean.  Create a cross-sectional diagram that illustrates these features:

2.    Waves

Click here to open the separate page on waves.

3.    Tsunamis

Click here to go to the page on tsunamis.  You task will be to create your own webpage on this topic.

4.    Tides

Tides are mighty tricky things to get your head around!  Here's a question often ignored even in university level courses:  If the moon causes the high tide, why are there two high tides on the earth at any given time? For the answer to this and many other burning questions about tides, click here to download a PowerPoint show.

5.    Ocean Water

Ocean water is obviously much different than the stuff we are used to.  There are several general areas, including chemistry, density, temperature, and optics.  There are also acoustics and pressure to consider.  Click here for the separate page.

6.    Ocean Currents

Click here for some basics on the movement of currents.  There is also a link from this page to page on the Coriolis force, which is the next section of this unit.

7.    Coriolis Force

Now, here is a challenge!  Click here.

8.    Coral Atolls.

No study of oceans would be complete without a look at coral atolls.  Click here.

9.    El Nino

Check this page out http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/eln/home.rxml

Media Corner!

QuickTime Movies
- Waves and Currents
- How Coves are formed (this is an .avi file - Windows Media Player)

Flash
- Beach Drift - Coastal Sediment and Transport
- Creation of Cliffs and Coastlines (this is an .html page with animated .gifs)
- Cliff Erosion
- Coastal Stabilization Structures
- Constructive and Destructive Waves
- More on Longshore Drift
- Ocean Current Patterns - Global
- Ocean Current Patterns - Satellite
- Sanddunes
- Spits
- Spits and Salt Marshes
- Transgression and Regression of shorelines
- Water Wave circulation
- Wave Motion and refraction of water waves


Book Work - Chapter 11 "Water in Oceans and Seas" pages 170-182

  1. Do the Case Study "Tsunami in Southeast Asia" pages 174-174 - UPDATE TO DEC. 2004!
    Answer #1,2,3
  2. Do #1,2,3,4,5,6,10,12,17,19 on pages 183-184

Click here for the test review page.


 
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