Dynamic Planet B/C

[Giantpants]

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1. This small snow dune thing
2. Accumulation to ablation
3. Precipitation, wind-blown snow, and avalanching

Looks good. Your turn!

[Sapphire]

1. Water that freezes at sea level is less dense. Why?
2. What is the earliest known ice age?
3. The last ice age ended how many years ago?

[SciolyMaster]

Ok time to revive this thread for the new topic, oceanography!

1. What is a salt-wedge estuary, and where do they typically form? Give an example of one.

2. Which two forces balance each other in geostrophic flow? How does this affect the shape of the sea surface?

3. What is a thermocline? Where would you expect to find one that is stable year-round? Where would you find one that varies throughout the year?

4. If a tsunami with a period of 2 seconds is moving through water with a depth of 4000 m, what is its wavelength? Assume that g = 10 m/s^2.

[Umaroth]

Ok time to revive this thread for the new topic, oceanography!

1. What is a salt-wedge estuary, and where do they typically form? Give an example of one.

2. Which two forces balance each other in geostrophic flow? How does this affect the shape of the sea surface?

3. What is a thermocline? Where would you expect to find one that is stable year-round? Where would you find one that varies throughout the year?

4. If a tsunami with a period of 2 seconds is moving through water with a depth of 4000 m, what is its wavelength? Assume that g = 10 m/s^2.

In the car right now and I don't have access to my notes, so I may be wrong on some things. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Click to Show Answer

1. A salt wedge estuary is an estuary where the salt water is held back by a strong flow of fresh water. There is a sharp boundary between the fresh water and the salt water. The salt water makes a wedge shape beneath the fresh water.
2. The two forces balancing each other are the pressure gradient force (PGF) and the Coriolis force. This causes water to flow around the perimeter of the gyre, pushing water into the middle of the gyre and forming a little "hill" around the middle of the gyre, typically skewed towards the western boundary current because it is faster and has carries more water than the easterly boundary current. 
3. The thermocline is a layer of the ocean's water that has a steep temperature difference. I believe you'd expect a perennially stable thermocline in the tropics, a varied thermocline in the temperate latitudes, and a nonexistent thermocline near the poles. 
4. C=sqrt(gd) C=L/p
sqrt(gd)*p=L
L=sqrt(10 m/s^2 * 4000 m) * 2 s = 200 m

[SciolyMaster]

Ok time to revive this thread for the new topic, oceanography!

1. What is a salt-wedge estuary, and where do they typically form? Give an example of one.

2. Which two forces balance each other in geostrophic flow? How does this affect the shape of the sea surface?

3. What is a thermocline? Where would you expect to find one that is stable year-round? Where would you find one that varies throughout the year?

4. If a tsunami with a period of 2 seconds is moving through water with a depth of 4000 m, what is its wavelength? Assume that g = 10 m/s^2.

In the car right now and I don't have access to my notes, so I may be wrong on some things. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Click to Show Answer

1. A salt wedge estuary is an estuary where the salt water is held back by a strong flow of fresh water. There is a sharp boundary between the fresh water and the salt water. The salt water makes a wedge shape beneath the fresh water.
2. The two forces balancing each other are the pressure gradient force (PGF) and the Coriolis force. This causes water to flow around the perimeter of the gyre, pushing water into the middle of the gyre and forming a little "hill" around the middle of the gyre, typically skewed towards the western boundary current because it is faster and has carries more water than the easterly boundary current. 
3. The thermocline is a layer of the ocean's water that has a steep temperature difference. I believe you'd expect a perennially stable thermocline in the tropics, a varied thermocline in the temperate latitudes, and a nonexistent thermocline near the poles. 
4. C=sqrt(gd) C=L/p
sqrt(gd)*p=L
L=sqrt(10 m/s^2 * 4000 m) * 2 s = 200 m

On #1, I was specifically asking for the name of a real-life salt wedge estuary...
Other than that it's all correct, well done! Your turn.

[Umaroth]

Ok time to revive this thread for the new topic, oceanography!

1. What is a salt-wedge estuary, and where do they typically form? Give an example of one.

2. Which two forces balance each other in geostrophic flow? How does this affect the shape of the sea surface?

3. What is a thermocline? Where would you expect to find one that is stable year-round? Where would you find one that varies throughout the year?

4. If a tsunami with a period of 2 seconds is moving through water with a depth of 4000 m, what is its wavelength? Assume that g = 10 m/s^2.

In the car right now and I don't have access to my notes, so I may be wrong on some things. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Click to Show Answer

1. A salt wedge estuary is an estuary where the salt water is held back by a strong flow of fresh water. There is a sharp boundary between the fresh water and the salt water. The salt water makes a wedge shape beneath the fresh water.
2. The two forces balancing each other are the pressure gradient force (PGF) and the Coriolis force. This causes water to flow around the perimeter of the gyre, pushing water into the middle of the gyre and forming a little "hill" around the middle of the gyre, typically skewed towards the western boundary current because it is faster and has carries more water than the easterly boundary current. 
3. The thermocline is a layer of the ocean's water that has a steep temperature difference. I believe you'd expect a perennially stable thermocline in the tropics, a varied thermocline in the temperate latitudes, and a nonexistent thermocline near the poles. 
4. C=sqrt(gd) C=L/p
sqrt(gd)*p=L
L=sqrt(10 m/s^2 * 4000 m) * 2 s = 200 m

On #1, I was specifically asking for the name of a real-life salt wedge estuary...
Other than that it's all correct, well done! Your turn.

Ah yes, I forgot that part, I believe one example would be the mouth of the Mississippi River?

1. Explain how coral bleaching occurs and some consequences of the destruction of reefs on the coastal topography.
2. With a hot spot being analogous to a pen and the lithosphere analogous to a paper, what is one way that the formation of an island chain like the Hawaiian islands different from drawing a picture?
3. What is the name of the process that causes a small net movement of water in waves, and explain how it works.

[JoeyC]

Click to Show Answer

1. Temperatures warm up and hermatypic coral must release their symbiotic dinoflagellates, zooxanthellae, causing starvation and eventually death. EDIT : whoops, almost forgot, the destruction of a reef will result in the loss of wave shielding, causing increased beach erosion (that is, after the dead coral stops being deposited)
2. Unlike drawing a picture, where the paper is stationary and the pen is being moved, hot spots have the pen stationary while the paper is being moved.
3. By this I believe you mean Stokes drift, where in due to energy in the lower cycles of wave moment being lesser due to added frictional force compared to the energy in the top cycles, the water in the top cycles moves a bit faster than the energy in the lower cycles, causing some water to move forward.

EDIT: the hide thing is something I'm getting the hang of... still

[Pastaman202]

Click to Show Answer

1. Temperatures warm up and hermatypic coral must release their symbiotic dinoflagellates, zooxanthellae, causing starvation and eventually death.
2. Unlike drawing a picture, where the paper is stationary and the pen is being moved, hot spots have the pen stationary while the paper is being moved.
3. By this I believe you mean Stokes drift, where in due to energy in the lower cycles of wave moment being lesser due to added frictional force compared to the energy in the top cycles, the water in the top cycles moves a bit faster than the energy in the lower cycles, causing some water to move forward.

EDIT: the hide thing is something I'm getting the hang of... still

I aspire to one day be good enough to do question marathon questions before the rules come out.

[Umaroth]

Click to Show Answer

1. Temperatures warm up and hermatypic coral must release their symbiotic dinoflagellates, zooxanthellae, causing starvation and eventually death. EDIT : whoops, almost forgot, the destruction of a reef will result in the loss of wave shielding, causing increased beach erosion (that is, after the dead coral stops being deposited)
2. Unlike drawing a picture, where the paper is stationary and the pen is being moved, hot spots have the pen stationary while the paper is being moved.
3. By this I believe you mean Stokes drift, where in due to energy in the lower cycles of wave moment being lesser due to added frictional force compared to the energy in the top cycles, the water in the top cycles moves a bit faster than the energy in the lower cycles, causing some water to move forward.

EDIT: the hide thing is something I'm getting the hang of... still

Your turn!

[JoeyC]

1.) How is equatorial upwelling caused?
2,) What is Ekman flow?
3.) Name 3 types of deep or bottom water