Geosystems: An Introduction to Physical Geography, 9e (Christopherson)
Chapter 16 The Oceans, Coastal Processes, and Wind Processes
16.1 Multiple Choice Questions
1) Approximately what percentage of the world’s population lives near the ocean?
A) 33%
B) 25%
C) 40%
D) 70%
2) Approximately what percentage of the United State’s population live in coastal areas?
A) 10%
B) 25%
C) 50%
D) 65%
3) What is the difference between an ocean and a sea?
A) The term sea is used to describe the global, interconnected water body covering 70% of the
Earth’s surface, whereas oceans refer to the individual basins within this global sea.
B) An ocean is a vast body of water encompassing 70% of the Earth, whereas a sea refers
specifically to a large, inland, saline body of water.
C) Seas are generally smaller than an ocean and tend to be associated with land masses, whether
partially enclosed by land or large, inland, saline water bodies.
D) There is no difference, just a different term for the same physical feature.
4) Which of the following is true about seawater?
A) Seawater is pure water (H20).
B) Seawater is a solution.
C) The chemical composition of seawater has great spatial variability.
D) The salinity of seawater is negligible.
5) Which of the following affect the chemical composition of seawater?
A) the atmosphere
B) sediments
C) marine organisms
D) minerals
E) the chemical composition of water is affected by the atmosphere, marine organisms, minerals,
and ocean sediments.
6) Which of the following is true of the chemical composition of seawater?
A) Eighteen elements account for 75% of the dissolved waters in seawater.
B) Seawater contains dissolved gases, suspended and dissolved organic matter, and many trace
elements.
C) Seawater is very heterogeneous, varying across the vast oceans of the world.
D) Samples of ancient seawater suggest a great deal of chemical variation over the Earth’s
history.
7) The worldwide average salinity of seawater is
A) 5‰.
B) 35‰.
C) 55‰.
D) 75‰.
8) Worldwide salinty varies between ________ and ________.
A) 5‰; 10‰
B) 34‰; 37‰
C) 47‰; 51‰
D) 65‰; 67‰
9) In which of the following region would you expect to have the highest levels of seawater
sality?
A) equatorial oceans
B) subtropical oceans
C) polar oceans.
D) midlatitude oceans.
10) Seawater with less than 35‰ is termed
A) brackish.
B) brine.
C) metahaline.
D) freshwater.
11) Seawater that exceeds the 35‰ average is termed
A) brackish.
B) brine.
C) mesohaline.
D) freshwater.
12) Areas with heavy freshwater runoff and low evaporation will have ________ average
salinity.
A) higher than
B) lower than
C) approximately the
13) Brine water may results from
A) the influx of river water into the ocean.
B) stagnation of water in a floodplain swamp.
C) high evapotranspiration rates.
D) heavy rainfall and low temperatures.
14)
Within the mixing zone and thermocline, average temperature and salinity
A) decrease with depth.
B) increase with depth.
C) remain fairly constant with depth.
D) decrease within the mixing zone, but increase the thermocline.
15)
Within the deep cold zone, average temperature and salinity
A) decrease with depth.
B) increase with depth.
C) remain fairly constant with depth.
D) decrease within the mixing zone, but increase the thermocline.
16) On average, ocean water is
A) very acidic (low pH).
B) very basic (high pH).
C) neutral.
D) mildly acid (a pH slightly less than 7).
17) Which of the following is true of the Earth’s coastlines?
A) Most of the Earth’s coastlines are relatively young and undergoing continuous change.
B) The Earth’s coastlines are among the oldest landforms on the planet.
C) There are few inputs that directly affect the Earth’s coastlines beyond tidal action.
D) The Earth’s coastline show a remarkable degree of similarity across the planet.
18) A general term for the coastal area and shallow offshow environment is
A) shoreline.
B) coast.
C) coastline.
D) littoral zone.
19) Which of the following is incorrect regarding the littoral zone?
A) It spans both land and water.
B) Landward, it extends to the highest waterline reached on shore during a storm.
C) In general usage, it only includes the foreshore area of coastal environments.
D) Seaward it extends to where water is too deep for storm waves to move sediments.
20) The coast extends inland
A) to the foreshore dune.
B) to the backshore dune.
C) to the trough between the primary and secondary dune.
D) to the highest water line that occurs during a storm.
E) from the high tide level to the first major landform change.
21) Which of the following is correct regarding mean sea level?
A) A consistent value has yet to be determined due to all the variables involved in producing the
tides.
B) It is at the same level along the entire North American coast.
C) It is calculated based on average tidal levels recorded hourly at a given site over a period of
many years.
D) It has very little variability across all ocean basins and, therefore, is treated as an absolute
value.
22) Regular patterns of smooth, rounded waves are called
A) breakers.
B) wave ripples.
C) wave trains.
D) swells.
23) Which of the following is not correct regarding tides?
A) They are produced solely by the gravitational pull of the Sun.
B) They are complex twice daily oscillations in sea level.
C) They are influenced by the size, depth, and topography of ocean basins.
D) They are influenced by shoreline configuration and latitude.
24) Which of the following occurs when the Sun, Moon, and Earth are in alignment (i.e., in
opposition or conjunction)?
A) maximum tidal ranges occur
B) neap tides occur
C) a lower tidal range occurs
D) ebb tides occur
25) High tides are known as ________ whereas low tides are kown as ________.
A) flood tides; ebb tides
B) ebb tides; flood tides
C) spring tides; neap tides
D) neap tides; spring tides
26) When the Sun and Moon are on the same side Earth or on opposite sides of earth, the
________ occurs and results in the ________ tidal range between low and high tides.
A) spring tides; lowest
B) spring tides; greatest
C) neap tides; lowest
D) neap tides; greatest
27) When the Sun and Moon are neither in conjunction or opposition, the ________ occurs and
results in the ________ tidal range between low and high tides.
A) spring tides; lowest
B) spring tides; greatest
C) neap tides; lowest
D) neap tides; greatest
28) Which of the following is correct regarding waves that travel in wave trains?
A) They are produced by storm centers and generating regions far distant from the shore where
they may break.
B) They usually form relatively close to the affected coastline.
C) They experience refraction by the deep seafloor.
D) They are called breakers as they travel in the open sea.
29) In deep water, a wave is not really migrating but is transferring energy through the water in
simple cyclic undulations. These are called
A) waves of translation.
B) swells.
C) waves of transition.
D) tidal waves.
30) When the height of a wave exceeds its vertical stability, the wave is called a
A) rip current.
B) wave of transition.
C) breaker.
D) tidal wave.
31) As a wave approaches the shoreline and enters shallower water, energy and water move
forward causing the water to rise and cascade down from the wave crest as a breaker. These
waves are called
A) waves of translation.
B) swells.
C) waves of transition.
D) tidal waves.
32) Wave action works to straighten a coast as wave energy focuses around headlands and tends
to disperse energy in coves and bays in a process called
A) longshore current.
B) breakers.
C) wave refraction.
D) tidal bore.
33) A longshore current involves all of the following except
A) effective wind direction.
B) effective wave direction.
C) waves of transition.
D) transportation of large amounts of sand and coastal materials.
34) Particles of sand, gravels, and shells that move along the shore form the
A) breakers.
B) longshore current.
C) beach drift.
D) translation effects.
35) An earthquake, a submarine landslide, or an eruption of an undersea volcano is capable of
producing a
A) tsunami.
B) tidal wave.
C) slow-moving giant swell.
D) wave in the open ocean of great height.
36) In the movie The Poseidon Adventure, a cruise ship is overturned by a tsunami while at sea.
This plot is not valid because
A) tsunamis do not have the energy to overturn a ship of that size.
B) tsunamis do not occur in the open ocean.
C) tsunamis do not form high waves while in the open ocean.
D) the tsunami in the movie didn’t occur in a tectonically active area.
37) The height of a tsunami grows as it approaches a coastline primarily because
A) its energy level increases.
B) its wavelength shortens.
C) the height of the surf is added to the height of the tsunami.
D) trick question—the height of a tsunami remains constant from the time of its origin.
38) Undercutting action of the sea results in
A) barrier splits.
B) sea cliffs.
C) lagoons.
D) tombolos.
39) Which of the following is not an example of an erosional coastal landform?
A) sea arch
B) tombolo
C) wave-cut platform
D) notched cliff
40) A wave-cut platform is the erosional remnant of a
A) barrier island.
B) spit.
C) tombolo.
D) cliff.
41) A terrace is
A) an uplifted sea stack.
B) an uplifted wave-cut platform.
C) an erosional surface created by a massive tsunami.
D) an uplifted foreshore dune.
42) Which of the following is not an example of a depositional coastal landform?
A) wave-built terrace
B) barrier spit
C) bay barrier
D) wave-cut platform
43) Material deposited in a long ridge extending out from a coast is called a
A) barrier island.
B) lagoon.
C) barrier spit.
D) tombolo.
44) If the material deposited in a long ridge extending out from a coast grows to completely cut
off the bay from an ocean, it become a
A) barrier spit.
B) lagoon.
C) tombolo.
D) baymouth bar.
45) A shallow saltwater body cut off from the ocean by a bay barrier is known as a
A) barrier spit.
B) lagoon.
C) tombolo.
D) baymouth bar.
46) A ________ is deposited sediment that connects a shoreline with an offshore island.
A) barrier spit
B) lagoon
C) tombolo
D) baymouth bar
47) Beaches are
A) places where sediment is stable and unchanging.
B) permanent coastal features.
C) places along the coast where sediment is in motion.
D) always composed of sand.
48) On average, the beach zone spans the area
A) between high and low spring tides.
B) from several meters above high tide to several meters below low tide.
C) between high and low neap tides.
D) from the high tide line during a spring tide to the low tide line during a neap tide.
49) The artificial replacement of sand along a beach is called
A) groins.
B) beach nourishment.
C) jetties.
D) breakwater.
50) Which of the following is not a “hard” shoreline protection measure?
A) groins.
B) beach nourishment.
C) jetties.
D) breakwater.
51)
These features, here from Lake Michigan, disrupt sediment movement along a coast.
A) breakwaters
B) groins
C) jetties
D) tombolos
52)
These features block material from entering a harbor.
A) breakwaters
B) groins
C) jetties
D) tombolos
53)
These features create zones of still water near coastlines.
A) breakwaters
B) groins
C) jetties
D) tombolos