EPSS 15: Oceanography

FINAL EXAM Questions

David Jewitt. The exam will consist largely of a random subset of the following questions, will be closed book, no electronics, no talking, no telepathy, channeling of the dead or mysticism of any kind. I will add a few extra questions between now and the exam. The final exam will be held on Wednesday, June 10, 2015, 11:30am-2:30pm, in Ackerman Grand Ballroom. Thanks - Dave

Question 1) At one scale height, the pressure of the atmosphere is roughly half its surface value. What is the pressure at 4 scale heights, relative to the surface value?

a) the sameb) 1/4c) (1/2) * 4 = 2d) 1/32e) 1/16

Question 2)The mass of water in the oceans divided by the mass of earth is about

a) 0.03%b) 0.3%c) 3%d) 30%e) none of the above

Question 3)When plates collide, the outcome

a) depends on the thicknesses of the two platesb) sometimes results in the plates sticking togetherc) can cause earthquakes and volcanosd) sometimes builds a mountain rangee) all of the above

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Question 4)You are given a map of the Earth and asked to locate a likely collision between two continental plates. Would you look for

a) a subduction zoneb) a mountain rangec) an islandd) a deep ocean trenche) b and c

Question 5)

The Earths plates move at a speed near

a) 0.1 - 1 mm /yrb) 1 - 10 mm /yrc) 1 - 10 cm/yrd) 10 - 100 cm/yre) 100 - 1000 cm/yr

Question 6)

Roughly X% of ocean oil pollution is unconnected with human activities. What is X?

a) 100%b) 50%c) 10% d) 1% e) 0.5%

Question 7)

The depth of the thermocline is affected most by

a) the time of dayb) the salinity of the waterc) the Coriolis forced) the latitudee) c and d

Question 8)Why are the high salinity regions of the Earths oceans found mostly at low latitudes?

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a) most rivers occur at low latitudes and rivers are sources of saltb) high latitude water is diluted by melting polar icec) ocean currents move salty water equatorwardd) higher temperatures encourage evaporation at low latitudese) b and d

Question 9)

The diagram shows how the temperature of water (y-axis) changes as energy is added (x-axis).

What is happening to the water molecules at A in the diagram?

a) The water molecules are vibrating more and more as energy is addedb) Hydrogen bonds between molecules are breaking as energy is addedc) Hydrogen bonds between molecules are forming as energy is addedd) a and be) a and c

Question 10)

Suppose that the rotation of the Earth speeds up from once per 24 hours to once per 12 hours. Would the Coriolis force?....

a) deflect objects moving in the Northern hemisphere to the rightb) deflect objects moving in the Northern hemisphere to the leftc) be strongerd) be weakere) a and c

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Question 11)

In the Gaia Hypothesis

a) Life completely controls the temperature of the surface environmentb) The surface environment controls lifec) There is feedback between life and the environment to make the latter suitable for the formerd) Life developed on all planets but could survive only on Earthe) None of the above

Question 12)

What is the largest possible crest-to-trough height of a wave that has a wavelength of 70 meters?

a) 1 metersb) 5 metersc) 10 metersd) 15 meterse) 20 meters

Question 13)

Waves break in shallow water because

a) they hit rocks b) constructive interference between independent waves destroys themc) they speed up in shallow water and cannot tolerate the high speedsd) they slow down in shallow water and their lost kinetic energy becomes potential " energye) none of the above

Question 14)

Two waves having trough to peak heights 4 meters and 4 meters interfere. What will be the maximum and minimum wave heights of the two combined?

a) 16 and 8 meters b) 12 and 4metersc) 8 and 0 metersd) 16 and 0 meters

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e) 0 and 4 meters

Question 15)

With its natural greenhouse the Earth is about X degrees hotter than it would otherwise be. What is X?

a) -13 degrees Cb) 273 Kc) 13 degrees Cd) 30 degrees Ce) 300 degrees K

Question 19)Evidence for the existence of oceans on other worlds includes

a) Dry river channels on Europab) Apparent icebergs on Enceladusc) Outgassing through cracks on Europad) Magnetic evidence for a conducting layer on Europae) All of the above

Question 20)The main greenhouse gases are

a) Nitrogenb) Waterc) Water and Nitrogend) Methane, carbon dioxide and watere) Methane, carbon dioxide and oxygen

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Question 21)The small wiggles on the Keeling Curve are caused by

1) Atmospheric storm systems2) Death of carbonate-shelled organisms in the acidified ocean3) Seasonal variations in plant growth4) Cyclic variations in outgassing of CO2 from volcanos5) 3 and 4

Question 22)

Water is a polar molecule because

a) It is frozen at the Earths polesb) It is strongly affected by the Earths magnetic field, especially near the polesc) The O and H ends of the molecule have different charge, allowing the O of one molecule to attract the H of a nearby molecule d) When the hydrogen bond breaks it releases energye) The hydrogen bonds allow water to be relatively difficult to freeze or boil

Question 23)

The scale height (effective thickness) of the atmosphere is about

a) 100 mb) 1 kmc) 10 kmd) 100 kme) None of the above

Question 24)The barycenter of the Earth-Moon system is

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a) where a line drawn between the Earth center and the Moon center intersects the surface of the Earthb) where a line drawn between the Earth center and the Moon center intersects the surface of the Moonc) inside the Earthd) outside the Earthe) b and c

Question 25)A bird eats a fish. What is the difference in trophic levels between the consumer and the consumed?

a) 0b) 1c) 2d) 3e) 4

Question 25)

Oceanographically important properties of water that result from its dense network of hydrogen bonds are

a) ice floats in waterb) water is made of two of the most abundant elementsc) water has large latent heatsd) water has no smelle) a and c

Question 26) The orbit period of the Moon is roughly

a) a dayb) a weekc) a monthd) a yeare) none of the above

Question 27) A longshore bar isa) a place to buy beer near the beachb) a ridge of sand on the beach caused by winter storm waves

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c) a ridge of sand blocking the estuary of a riverd) an artificial construction to reduce wave damage to the beache) an underwater ridge of sand close to the shore and parallel to it

Question 29) A drift net isa) an elongated, bag-shaped net designed to catch fish in an end pouchb) a net like a draw-string bagc) a net whose anchor or connecting rope has broken d) a fence-like net that floats freely in the watere) an old fishing device rejected because of its inefficiency

Question 30)The tragedy of the commons isa) a product of modern technologyb) a sad story about a farmc) unregulated over-use of a public resource for private gaind) unavoidablee) a and c

Question 31)Using the tides to obtain energy isa) a good idea because it is relatively pollution-freeb) not sufficient to power civilizationc) practically inexhaustible d) already done in some placese) all of the above

Question 32)The snow line isa) the distance from the Sun inside which comets likely formedb) the distance from the Sun inside which water is stable as icec) the distance from the Sun outside which asteroids likely formedd) the distance from the Sun inside which asteroids likely formede) none of the above

Question 33)Which of these is true? Sand moves southwards along the west coast of the US becausea) the prevailing deep ocean current near the coast is to the southb) the wind blows north-to-south most of the yearc) there are more storms in the north than the south and so more waves from the northd) the statement is not true: sand does not move from north to south

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e) none of the above

Question 34)

The euphotic zone isa) the region of the ocean in which photosynthesis is possibleb) the distance over which water (and ice) starts to look bluec) the region of the ocean in which sunlight can be detectedd) the dark region of the ocean e) the bottom layer of the ocean, adjacent to the seabed

Question 35)

Effects of the Moon include

a) an increase in the length of the year (the time taken to orbit the Sun)b) shortening of the length of the dayc) an increase in the crime rated) an increase in the rate of mental illnesse) none of the above

Question 36)Water is blue becausea) It reflects the skyb) It is colored by photosynthetic bacteria (so-called blue-green bacteria)c) Red light light is preferentially absorbed, leaving only blue lightd) Our eyes are most sensitive to the blue region of the spectrume) a and c

Question 37)

What happened at ~2.5 billion years in this plot?

a) photosynthetic bacteria suddenly increased their activityb) a supercontinent broke up through the action of plate tectonicsc) the Earths atmosphere thickened due to the impact of either a comet or an asteroidd) the Sun changed its output of energye) all of the above

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Question 38) Most sand is produced bya) parrotfishb) cliff erosionc) corals and shellsd) glacial erosion of rocke) rivers

Question 39)

This organism is most likely to be a

a) cyanobacteriab) dinoflagellatec) diatomd) artificiale) none of the above

Question 40)Which is the most accurate statement?

Osmosis isa) The diffusion of small molecules of a gas into larger molecules of another gas

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b) The diffusion of large molecules of a gas into small molecules of another gasc) The diffusion of one gas into another gasd) The preferential diffusion of small molecules across a membrane e) The preferential diffusion of large molecules across a membrane

Question 41)Desalination of sea water is a poor source of drinking water because

a) too many fish are killed in the extraction pumpsb) very pure water tastes badc) even without salt, seawater is contaminated with pollutants and bacteriad) it is very expensive e) most world populations live too far from the sea

Question 42)Which of these is true? Primary productivity isa) generally higher in warm water than coldb) highest in the euphotic zone c) lowest in the euphotic zoned) highest in the benthic zonee) all of the above

Question 43)Roughly what fraction of the carbon-rich material produced in surface ocean waters reaches the bottom of the ocean?

a) 0.0%b) 0.03%c) 0.3%d) 3%e) 30%

Question 44)In shallow watera) waves bend away from the coast line because they are refractedb) waves bend towards the coast line because they are refractedc) waves slow downd) a and ce) b and c

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Question 45)Blue-green bacteria area) blue b) red c) blue-greend) greene) all of the above

Question 46)

Feature A is a

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a) longshore barb) barrier islandc) sandspit d) bay barriere) tombolo

Question 47)

The time taken for floating debris to cross the ~10,000 km wide Pacific Ocean is about

a) 1 monthb) 10 monthsc) 2 yearsd) 5 years e) 10 years

Question 48)

This is the US coast north of Atlantic City. Feature A is most likely to be

a) longshore barb) barrier islandc) sandspit d) bay barriere) tombolo

Question 49)

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Experiments show that it takes 10 tons of iron sulphide to produce a phytoplankton bloom covering 10,000 km2 of the ocean. If the Pacific is a circle with a radius of 5000 km, about how many tons of iron sulphide would be needed for a geoengineering project to cause an ocean-wide bloom?

a) 7,000b) 70,000c) 170,000d) 1.7x106 e) 1.7x107

Question 50)Suppose that 1) there are 100,000 sperm whales and that 2) they each live for 100 years and that 3) when they die, they fall and are consumed by benthic organisms within 10 years of death. How many sperm whale bodies should be found on the ocean floor at any one time?

a) 10b) 100c) 1,000d) 10,000 e) 100,000

Question 50)The mammalian diving reflex protects against drowning by

a) slowing down the heart to reduce oxygen consumptionb) speeding up the heart to send more blood to the lungs, where oxygen is extractedc) sending blood preferentially to the brain and heartd) filling interior void spaces with fluide) a c and d

Question 51)From the trophic triangle estimate the mass of phytoplankton needed to support a 10 ton (104 kg) whale.

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a) 107 kgb) 108 kgc) 109 kgd) 1010 kge) 1011 kg

Question 52)Which of these is an example illustrating the tragedy of the commons?a) factory pollution of a river leading to an algal bloom that kills the fishb) fishing north Atlantic cod to near extinctionc) two countries fighting for ownership of an otherwise useless island in order to gain access to the fishing and mineral rights surrounding the islandd) the addition of fluorine to drinking water to decrease the incidence of tooth decaye) a and b

Question 53)

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What kind of camouflage is this fish using?

a) Razzle-dazzleb) Blending-inc) Mimicryd) a and be) b and c

Question 54) Melting of the polar ice would cause the oceans to rise by roughlya) 10 mb) 100 mc) 300 md) 1 kme) 3 km

Question 55)Most deep-ocean hotspots are powered by

a) serpentinization

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b) tidal heatingc) chemical heatingd) escaping volcanic heate) frictional heating

Question 56)This is the phase diagram of water. Which processes occur in moving from A to B to C?

a) Boiling then freezingb) Sublimating then meltingc) Condensing d) Condensing then evaporatinge) Condensing then freezing

Question 57)In the water phase diagram, which processes occur in moving from C to D to B?

a) Freezing then evaporatingb) Evaporating then meltingc) Melting d) Condensing then sublimatinge) Sublimating then condensing

Question 58)A Hadley Cell is

a) an isolation room where they keep Bradley Manningb) a circulation pattern caused by the Coriolis forcec) a circulation pattern caused by non-uniform heating and convectiond) a result of thermal expansione) c and d

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Question 59)

The human diving record is 100 meters. The pressure on the body at this depth owing to the weight of the water above (unit units of the atmospheric pressure = 1 bar) is

a) 10 barb) 100 barc) 1000 bard) 10000 bare) None of the above

Question 60)Tides cause

a) the Moon to approach the Earth by about 40 cm/yrb) the Earths rotation to speed upc) the Moon to move away from the Earth by about 40 cm/yrd) the Earths rotation to slow downe) c and d

Question 61)Which is true?

Spring tidesa) Occur each spring because the Sun is closest thenb) Occur each spring because the Moon is closest thenc) Occur only in the Springd) Do not occur in the Springe) Occur every month, whether it is Spring or not

Question 62)Which is the best answer?

The thickness of the euphotic zone is abouta) 10 metersb) 100 metersc) 1000 metersd) 4000 meterse) 6000 meters

Question 63)

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Which of these is true? Algal blooms are bad for fish becausea) they can produce poisonous waste-productsb) they deplete oxygen water when they die and decayc) they block sunlight and hence inhibit photosynthesis by other organismsd) a and be) a, b and c

Question 64)

The fraction of CO2 in the atmosphere is about

a) 30%b) 3%c) 0.3%d) 0.03%e) 0.003%

Question 65)Two ships off the coast of Peru fire their guns at each other. No matter how precisely the guns are aimed, the gunners notice that their shells always strike to the left of the intended target point. Possible reasons include

a) they forgot Coriolis forceb) random aiming errorsc) wave motions cause the guns to drift off targetd) they corrected for Coriolis force in the wrong directione) a and d

Question 66)Red light is absorbed by water more strongly than blue light. At the bottom of the photic zone, which of the following will be true

a) a blue object will appear brightb) a red object will appear darkc) a blue object will appear darkd) a red object will appear brighte) a and b

Question 67)The hagfish is the only animal that has X but not Y. What are X and Y?

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Answer X Y

a) tail spine

b) spine brain

c) spine tail

d) skull spine

e) jaw tongue

Question 68)The pressure experienced 3000 m beneath the waves is approximatelya) 3x atmospheric pressureb) 30x atmospheric pressurec) 300x atmospheric pressured) 3000x atmospheric pressuree) none of the above

Question 69)Whales migrate in latitude a) To give birth in cold water environmentsb) To give birth in warm water environmentsc) To eat in cold water environmentsd) To eat in warm water environmentse) b) and c)

Question 70) Which of these is true?a) Most beached whales are baleen whalesb) Whales are warm-bloodedc) Some whales can dive to over 8000 md) There are no fossil whalese) All of the above

Question 71)The speed of a shallow-water wavea) increases with depthb) is independent of depthc) decreases with depth

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d) increases with wavelengthe) decreases with wavelength

Question 72) In general, the largest ocean waves are found near Antarctica becausea) The winds are strongest thereb) The ocean is deepest therec) There are few mountains or land-masses to block the windsd) The Coriolis force has maximum effect at the largest latitudese) a and c

Question 73) Organisms that produce their own fooda) are mostly photosyntheticb) are called hemotrophsc) are called autotrophsd) are called heterotrophse) a and c

Question 74) Which processes increase the salinity of sea water?a) evaporationb) formation of sea icec) rainfalld) melting of sea icee) a and b

Question 75)Shallow water waves on two different beaches, A and B, travel at 3 and 6 meters per second, respectively. What are the approximate water depths on the two beaches, A then B?

a) 4 and 8 metersb) 8 and 4 metersc) 1 and 4 metersd) 1 and 2 meterse) 1 and 3 meters

Question 76) The open-ocean speed of a tsunami wave is roughlya) 10 m/s

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b) 30 m/sc) 90 m/sd) 300 m/se) 9000 m/s

Question 77)A whale with two blow holes is a) likely to be a deep-diverb) likely to be cold-bloodedc) likely to eat krilld) likely to have echo-locatione) a) and d)

Question 78)Neap tides occura) about once a dayb) about once a monthc) about twice a dayd) about twice a monthe) whenever the Sun, Earth and Moon are aligned

Question 79)A rock collected 500 km from a mid-oceanic ridge is found to be 10 million years old. What is the rate of plate motion?a) 5 mm/yrb) 5 cm/yrc) 50 cm/yrd) 5 m/yre) 50 m/yr

Question 80)Possible evidence for life on Mars includes

a) The equatorial surface temperature is close to the minimum needed for liquid waterb) There is geological evidence for the past presence of liquid water on Marsc) Methane has been detected in the atmosphered) Green patches near the equatore) c and d

Question 81)The dominant source of internal heat for icy bodies like Europa and Enceladus is

a) Radioactivity from unstable elements in the rocky componentb) Sunlightc) Tidal heatingd) Chemical energy

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e) Internal electrical currents

Question 82) A river meanders because

a) water flows faster on the inside edge of a bend and sweeps away sediment thereb) water flows slower on the inside edge of a bend and sweeps away sediment therec) water flows faster on the inside edge of a bend and drops more sediment thered) water flows slower on the inside edge of a bend and drops less sediment theree) none of the above

Question 83)

Science is a style of thought based most strongly on

a) Hypothesesb) Observationsc) Theoriesd) Beliefe) The word of authority

Question 84)

The salinity of the oceans is roughly

a) 0.03%b) 0.3%c) 3%d) 30%e) none of the above: all oceans are different

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