Chapter 1

Question 1

Define Science:

Answer 1

is a systematic
process of understanding and
explaining the natural world

Question 2

Scientists

Answer 2

assume the natural
world behaves in a consistent
and predictable manner and is
comprehensible

Question 3

Scientist cont.

Answer 3

• Physical processes operating today were the
  same in the past
• Scientists can discover these processes
• These processes can be used to predict future
  events

Question 4

What do scientist use to DO science?

Answer 4

The scientific method

Question 5

What are the different steps on the Scientific Method?

Answer 5

-make observations of the
natural world 
- formulate hypotheses to
explain how and why the
natural world works
collect, analyze, and classify
facts and data and conduct
experiments using an orderly
and logical process to test
hypotheses
-accept, reject, or modify
hypotheses

Question 6

Define Scientific Hypothesis:

Answer 6

-A scientific Hypothesis is a
tentative, untested, inferred
idea used to explain observed
natural phenomena 
-Educated Guess

Question 7

What is an example of a scientific hypothesis?

Answer 7

The Nebular Hypothesis

Question 8

Define Scientific Theory:

Answer 8

-A scientific Theory is an
objective, well tested, widely
accepted coherent hypothesis
that is supported by a large
body of factual evidence and
experimental testing
- Explain natural phenomena
- The Big Bang Theory

Question 9

What is a Theory?

Answer 9

*The word “Theory” has different meanings to different people
*To most people a “Theory” commonly means a speculative or
colloquial view of something
*The media uses the term Theory in place of Hypothesis
*This leads to the widespread belief that scientific theories are little
more than unsubstantiated wild guesses

Question 10

Scientific Laws

Answer 10

• Based on hypotheses
• Can usually be expressed mathematically
• Describes natural phenomena

Question 11

Define Oceanography;

Answer 11

• an interdisciplinary science that
  influences the entire planet and
  covers a wide range of topics

Question 12

Characteristics of the ocean:

Answer 12

• The Earth has one big ocean with many features
• The ocean and life in the ocean shape the features of Earth
• The ocean is a major influence on weather and climate
• The ocean made Earth habitable
• The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems
• The ocean and humans are inextricably interconnected
• The ocean is largely unexplored

Question 13

Ocean Exploration History:

Answer 13

- January 23, 1960
The Bathyscaphe Trieste
35,814 feet
Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard
- March 26, 2012
The DEEPSEA CHALLENGE
35,576 feet
James Cameron

Question 14

How deep is the Mariana Trench?

Answer 14

36,070 feet deep

Question 15

Ocean Facts:

Answer 15

• There are 5 Oceans and many Seas
• 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water
• 97% of all water on Earth’s surface is contained in
  the ocean
• More water is trapped within the Earth than exists
  in the ocean and atmosphere
• The average ocean depth is 12,451 feet
• There are 329 million cubic miles of water
• On a planetary scale the ocean is insignificant

Question 16

The four principal ocean basins (plus an additional ocean) on Earth are the _______.

Answer 16

1. Atlantic Ocean
2. Pacific Ocean
3. Indian Ocean
4. Southern Ocean
5. Arctic Ocean

Question 17

The largest of the ocean basins, which currently covers more than half of the ocean surface, is the_____.

Answer 17

Pacific Ocean

Question 18

The average depth of the world’s oceans is approximately ______.

Answer 18

3,682 meters (12,080 feet)

Question 19

The sun and the rest of the solar system formed about 5 billion years ago from a huge cloud of dust and gas called a ____

Answer 19

Nebula

Question 20

Which of the following statements regarding continental and oceanic crust is TRUE?

Answer 20

Continental crust is thicker and less dense than oceanic crust

Question 21

Earth’s primordial atmosphere most likely included _____.

Answer 21

Carbon Dioxide, Water Vapor, Sulfur Dioxide and methane

Question 22

Current scientific knowledge indicates that the most likely origin of most of Earth’s oceans was due to ____

Answer 22

Water vapor released from volcanic outgassing

Question 23

(Age) Earth is about _____

Answer 23

4.6 billion years old.

Question 24

Students sometimes ask…. Have humans ever explored the deepest ocean trenches? Could anything live there?

Answer 24

• Yes
• It was first done in January 1960, by US Navy Lt. Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard.
• Went down to the bottom of the challenger deep region of the mariana trench in the trieste.
• A deep diving bathyscaphe (bathos=depth, scaphe=small ship)
• 9906 meters (32,500) heard loud cracking
• unnoticed 7.6 centimeter (3 inch) plexiglass viewing port cracked
• Reached the bottom at 10,912 (35,800 feet) which is a record depth for human descent
• Small organisms: a flatfish, shrimp, and some jellies

Question 25

Students sometimes ask... How do we know about the internal structure of Earth?

Answer 25

- Humans have never actually seen the earth's crust, however the internal structure of earth is being analyze by earthquakes that sends seismic waves through the deep interior of our planet. - Seismic waves- change their speed and are bent and reflected as they move through zones having different properties. - seismic waves travel slowly through areas of hotter rock and speed up through colder rock - repeated analysis allowed researchers to construct a detailed three dimensional mode of earth's interior. - reveals the inner working of our planet.

Question 26

Students sometimes ask... Have the oceans always been salty? Are the oceans growing more or less salty through time?

Answer 26

- Likely that oceans have always been salty - water comes in contact w/ rocks of earth's crust, some of the minerals dissolve - new minerals are forming on the sea floor at the same rate as dissolved materials are added - salt content of the ocean is in a "steady state," meaning that it is not increasing or decreasing. - Study the proportion of water vapor to chloride ion, in ancient marine rocks. - Chloride ion is produced by out gassing and it forms part of the most common salts in the ocean - the oceans salinity has been relatively constant through time.