Topography and positions of ocean floor features

Shaping of the ocean floor by plate tectonics.

Features of spreading: ridges and fracture zones, abyssal plains.

Features of convergence: trenches and active continental margins, 

Characteristics and global occurrence of different sediment types.

Sources for sediment: lithogenous, biogenous, hydrogenous, cosmogenous. 

Mechanisms for sediment transport: rivers, ice rafting, winds, volcanoes. 

Controls on patterns of sediment deposition.

Sources, sinks and controls on glacial sediments and wind-blown dusts. 

Factors affecting particle sizes, sorting, graded bedding, rates of deposition.

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Continental margins: dimensions of shelf, break, slope, rise and canyons

Scale and depth of abyssal plains and their features 

plateaux, seamounts, guyots, reefs and atolls

Mid-ocean ridges: depths, fracture zones, lateral ridges and rises

Biogenous oozes: calcareous (carbonate) and siliceous (silica)

calcareous from coccolithophores (plants), foraminifera (animals) 

siliceous from diatoms (plants) and radiolaria (animals)

Dissolution of carbonate in deep ocean; silica dissolves slowly

Hydrogenous sediments: slow-growing Mn nodules, evaporites

Cosmogenous sediments: Fe-rich tektites, glassy sperules

Lithogenous sediments: 

weathering and alteration of rock fragments, transported to ocean

Sizes (gravel, sand, silt, clay) and settling rates of sediment particles.

Sorting (well or poorly sorted) dependent on size distribution.

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• The chemistry of the water molecule, its structure (water & ice) and bonding. 
• The role of hydrogen bonds in governing the behavior of water.
• The unique characteristics of water's physical properites (polarity, density, cohesion, surface tension, viscosity, incompressibility and solvent power).
• The formation and breaking of H-bonds associated with changes in state, namely evaporation (condensation) and melting (freezing).
• Density control on ocean vertical structure and circulation.
• Relationship of density to temperature and salinity.
• Characteristics of ocean layers: surface, pycnocline, deep ocean
• Relationships between energy & temperature, between latent & sensible heat.
• The transmission of energy as heat by conduction, convection, or radiation.
• The penetration of visual light in the ocean and the velocity of sound. 
• The seasonal build-up of sea ice at high latitudes and the formation of fog.

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• Types and strengths of bonds: covalent, ionic, H-bonds, van der Waals.
• Energy (defined as calories) involved in changes of state: 
• intra-molecular (sensible heat)
• inter-molecular (H-bonds, latent heat)
• Sea surface temperatures show strong latitudinal gradients 
• Seasonal temperature changes: greatest at mid/high latitudes, land > ocean 
• Layered structure of the ocean
• surface (mixed layer) <100m, 2%, 
• pycnocline 100m-1km, 18%, 
• deep ocean >1km, 80%; 
• Changes in density associated with temperature increase/decrease.
• maximum at 4°C, ice less dense than water
• Heat capacity: role of evaporation in regulation of Earth's temperature.
• Absortion and scattering of light in water.
• Penetration of different wavelengths of light (Secchi disk).
• Behavior of sound in water: sofar channel at ~1km.
• Sea ice build-up (slush, pancakes, floes) and fast ice. 
• Castle and tabular bergs from valley glaciers and ice sheets, respectively.
• Measurement by CTD (conductivity-temperature-depth) sensors, expendable bathythermographs (XBT)
  

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