Ocean Environment

Ocean Environment


     The sea is the most obvious feature of the earth's surface.

Approximately seventy percent of this surface is covered by water, in one way or

another.  Beneath this water are the familiar sands of the beaches, bottoms of

bays, and the inshore ocean.  Farther offshore this water covers an amazing

submarine topography of underwater canyons, trenches, mountains, and plains.

Unlike the continents, which are physically separated from one another, the

oceans are continuous and interconnected.  Since the "world ocean is

continuous"(M.J. Keen) it has similar characteristics throughout.  In the early

1870s oceanographers collected seawater samples from all of the seas of the

world at a variety of depths. When analyzed, the samples were found to have

quite similar characteristics.  These findings convinced many that a method of

study was needed.  The study of oceans was named oceanography.

     Density, salinity, and temperature are very important concepts in the

study of oceanography.  The salinity and temperature of the water influence its

density, and the differences in density are the major factor in understanding

the formation of currents and the positions of water masses in the sea.  In

addition, temperature and salinity play major roles in influencing the

distribution of plants and animals.

     The sediments of the sea floor may be divided into lithogenous,

hydrogenous, biogenous, and cosmogenous sediments.  Lithogenous sediments are

the major sediments on the ocean floor.  They are derived from the chemical and

mechanical weathering of rocks.  Biogenous sediments are composed primarily of

the protective outter covering of small marine animals and plants.  If these

remains comprise at least thirty percent of the sediment it is called an "ooze".

"Oozes" were named for the types of organisms that formed them.  Hydrogenous

sediments form as a result of the chemical reactions that occur in the seawater.

These reactions result in the formation of small particles, which are deposited

on the sea floor.  Currents move these particles and cause them to collide with

the other particles.  If many of these collisions occur they may form nodules.

Nodules are found on some portions of the deep-sea floor.  The sediment type

frequently determines the type of organisms that will be found in that specific

area.

     "Waves are variable and transitory features of the sea's surface."

(Sandra Smith)  All waves, from the smallest ripple to the most destructive

tsunami, have common characteristics.  They all have crests, troughs, wave

heights, lengths, and periods.  Also, water particles that make up the waves all

move in identical orbital patterns.  The orbital pattern is up and forward in

the crest and down and back in the trough.  It is only when the wave becomes

unstable that the orbital motion is destroyed.  The water particles then begin

to move at the same speed as the moving wave form.

     Breaking waves release a tremendous amount of stored energy on a beach

face.  This energy moves the sand about and changes the configuration of the

bottom.  As the bottom configuration is changed by the waves, it changes the

characteristics of incoming waves.  This interaction between the waves and the

bottom results in the beach face having an everlasting wave pattern.

     Everything in the universe is composed of extremely small paritcles

called atoms, which are often bonded together to form molecules.  Molecules are

formed as the result fo the transfer of electrons between atoms.  The complete

loss and gain of electrons results in the formation of ionic molecules, which

have completely positive and negative vegions.  Unequal sharing of electrons, on

the other hand, characterizes the polar covalent molecules, which have only

partially positive and negative regions.  The equal sharing of electrons result

in the formation of nonpolar covalent molecules, which do not develop charged

regions.

     Due to the development of charges on ionic and polar molecules,

intermolecular attractive forces form between the
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