| A | B |
|---|
| ocean | A vast body of salt water that separates the continents. |
| sea | large section of ocean mostly surrounded by land or islands. |
| sea level | Level of sea's surface at a particular place and time, changes with the tides |
| mean sea level | Calculated average height of high and low tides in a particular location. |
| shore | Strip of land that separates the coastal region from the ocean bounded by the lowest and highest reaches of sea level. |
| beach | Strip along the coast that is influenced and shaped by sea level and wave action; Includes: berm, shore, longshore bars |
| continental shelf | Shallow, submerged edge of land extending from the beach offshore. |
| continental slope | Steeper incline from the lip of the continental shelf into the deep ocean basin. |
| submarine canyon | Complex underwater erosional feature often found in a continental slope. |
| continental rise | Thick deposit of loose sediments that creates a transition from the continental slope to the deep, relatively flat ocean floor. |
| abyssal plain | Relatively flat, deep sea floor of an ocean basin. |
| mid-ocean ridge | Submerged mountain system uplifted by rising mantle rock at a divergent boundary between oceanic tectonic plates. |
| seamount | Submerged mountain. |
| oceanic trench | Relatively narrow and deep troughs in the ocean floor found in subduction zones adjacent to convergent plate boundaries. |
| island arc | Long, curved string of volcanic islands formed from submarine volcanoes along converging tectonic plates |
| coral reef | Massive underwater geologic feature that formed in relatively shallow tropical waters from coral polyp secretions. |
| atoll | Ring of low coral islands and reefs surrounding a central lagoon. |
| salinity | Amount of dissolved salts in the ocean or lake water. |
| benthic organism | Animal or plant that lives on the ocean bottom or is anchored to it. |
| pelagic organism | Animals and plants that drift with ocean currents or are active swimmers. |
| carbon cycle | Flow of carbon and its conmpounds from atmosphere to ocean, to land, to rocks and sediments in upper lithosphere and earth's deep interior. |
| nitrogen cycle | Flow of the element nitrogen and its compounds among the nitrogen reservoirs in the atmosphere, ocean, and soil. |
