| A | B |
|---|
| ocean | a body of salt water occupying 70% of the Earth's surface |
| sodium chloride | the scientific name for the mineral "salt" |
| salinity | concentration of dissolved salts in a sample of water |
| evaporation rate | the speed of the process of liquid turning into gas |
| runoff | precipitation draining from the land into a body of water |
| continental shelf | area along the edge of the continents; shallow, submerged area by the shorline |
| continental slope | steeply dropping part of the ocean floor |
| continental rise | thick layers of sediment found between the continental slope and the ocean floor |
| abyssal plains | the flat ocean floor |
| ridge | a chain of underwater mountains |
| trench | a deep spot in the ocean; an underwater canyon |
| wave | an up-and-down movement of surface water |
| crest | the top of a wave |
| trough | the bottom of a wave |
| wave height | the distance from the top (or bottom) of a wave to the level ocean surface |
| wavelength | the distance between two successive waves |
| currents | a stream of water that flows like a river through the ocean |
| upwelling | the movement of nutrient-rich deep seawater to the ocean's surface |
| tides | the repeated rises and falls in the level of the ocean |
| benthos | the plant and animal organisms that live on the seafloor |
| nekton | the vertebrates and invertebrates that swim in the ocean |
| plankton | the small organisms that float along on the ocean currents |
| phytoplankton | small, photosynthetic organisms in water ecosystems (plant-like plankton) |
| zooplankton | small, consumer organisms in water ecosystems (animal-like plankton) |
| desalination | the process of removing salt from seawater |
| water pressure | the weight of the water pressing on an object |
