The Surface Water &Global Temperature

Thermal Inertia: San Francisco and Norfolk, Virginia are on the same latitude meaning they are the same distance from the equator. However San Francisco is warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer than Norfolk, Virginia is because of the air. The air in San Francisco has moved over the ocean, while Norfolk is over land.

Temperatures moderated on water take much longer than air to heat up and longer to cool. Therefore, on hot days, water (oceans,lakes, rivers) absorbs heat keeping the air somewhat cooler. When air gets cool, water slowly releases heat to the atmosphere raising the air temperature.

The Chemistry of Water

Water molecules are bonded because each hydrogen nucleus is bound to the central atom  by a pair of electrons that are shared between, and chemists call this a covalent chemical bond (shared electron pair)


The positive charge forms where the hydrogen ends and the negative charge forms at the oxygen end of the water molecule.

The chemistry of water that allows an insect to walk on water is called surface tension

What's unique about water is that it is able to change from a liquid to a solid, and form liquid to gas.

Sediment Cores & History

The author of this article is Alyson Santoro, and she is studying the microbes in the nitrogen cycle.

The technique that she uses is called a multicore, in which they drop a multibeam and get samples out of it.

The samples get pushed into the coldaun-measure and oxygen concentration at different depths in the core and then take samples of carbon hydrogen.

The name of the research vessel is the RSS Melville

Economic Importance of Marine Sediments

Bellwork questions:

Some products that come from sediments are toothpaste, paint, swimming pool filters, and building materials for roads and structures.

1/3 of the worlds energy comes from sediments (oil & gas)


Sand and Gravel is extremely important because they are valued at more than $510 Million!

Webquest Questions

Sediments are classified by two groups, either clastic or chemical. Then from there it differentiates between the type of rock, texture, composition and type.

There are four types of sediments. Lithogenous, Biogenous, Hydrogenous, and Cosmogenous. 

Lithogenous- derived from rock, which is also pelagic so it settles away from the water column and will be most prevalent away from land
Biogenous- A sediment consisting of the shells and skeletons of dead organisms. (Calcium carbonate)
Hydrogenous- are formed by precipitation of minerals from the ocean’s water or can be formed as a new mineral
Cosmogenous- extraterrestrial in nature and are generally like miniature meteorites. These sediments are the remains of impacts of large bodies of space material (such as comets and asteroids). 

Marine Sediments by tianna.brown12 on GoAnimate

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Abyssal Plains & Hills

The definition of an abyssal plain is an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor.

Abyssal plains are usually found at depths between 3000 and 6000. Lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid-ocean ridge,

 Abyssal plains cover more than 50% of the Earth’s surface.

 They are among the flattest, smoothest and least explored regions

Adaptations of Sea Caves

1. Some typical adaptation for these animals are lack of pigmentation, reduction in the size of eyes or absence of eyes altogether, development of sensory mechanisms that do not depend on light for detecting food or predators.

 2. Oxygen is not plentiful in the caves because photosynthesis does not exist because of the lack of light; as well as low water circulation, yet the creatures still adapt.

3. Adaptations occur because they happen at random events and if there's an advantage the organisms is more likely to survive and reproduce than other organisms

4. This happens because anchialine caves tend to be oxygen depleted because no photosynthesis does not occur.

Essential Questions: Sea Floor NOAA

The NOAA stands for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and they map, protect, and manage the waters while updating older nautical charts

The sonar echo allows the ship to collect information from the sea floors by emitting 3500 pings; however the intensity of the sonar echo can tell if the sea floor is hard, soft, sandy, coral, or other soft plants.

The R.O.V helps the scientist by understanding the sonar data, by sending videos and still images which eventually all is combined.

These studies are important to society because we need to know what lies beneath our ocean floor, as well as methods of preservation.