| A | B |
|---|
| surface ocean currents | wind driven currents that move at the ocean surface, often for long distances |
| gyres | large rotating ocean current systems |
| deep ocean currents | density and temperature driven currents that move slowly within the oceans |
| thermohaline currents | deep ocean currents |
| salinity | a term that describes the saltiness of water |
| haline | salt |
| phytoplankton | tiny, single celled organisms that live in oceans and product oxygen in the atmosphere |
| The Gulf Stream | a surface ocean current that transports a lot of water past Cape Hatteral. |
| The Coriolis Effect | the bending of currents of air or water due to the Earth's rotation |
| upwelling | slow-moving deep ocean currents move to the surface in an upward motion |
| continental margin | the region around continents that includes the continental shelf and continental slope |
| continental shelf | shallow extensions of the continent covered by a hundred or so meters of ocean water |
| continental slope | the area where the sea floor slopes toward the deep ocean floor |
| continental rise | made of sediments that have washed down from the continental shelf and slope |
| barrier island | a low sandy island that lies parallel to the shoreline |
| bank | a low flat region on the continental shelf |
| abyssal plain | the true ocean floor |
| seamount | a steep sided mountain that rises from the ocean floor |
| guyot | a seamount that has eroded so that it has a flat top and is underwater |
| mid-ocean ridges | places where two tectonic plates are separating and new ocean crust is being made |
