Water and Seawater

Water and Seawater

Chapter 3

Water Molecules

Water has three states

ICE

GAS

WATER

Ice Floats

Water carries heat energy

Water is a powerful solvent.

Seawater

Oceans pick up dissolved solids from a variety of sources

A Niskin Bottle in action

Seawater sampling

Red Sea

Elevated Salinity

Atlantic Ocean at mouth of Amazon River

Baltic Sea

Low Salinities

Temperature, Salinity and Density

String of water bottles

A rosette of sampling bottles and other instruments

Water Column profile for temperature

19th Century Oceanography

Chart from HMS Challenger Expedition

Satellite Imagery

Ocean surface temperatures – easier than taking millions of Niskin samples (assuming you have satellite).

Seawater and Dissolved Gases

Oxygen

Carbon dioxide

Nitrogen

Pressure and water depth

Density and Ocean Layering

Water Column Profiles

Temperature profiles vary with latitude

Thermohaline Circulation

Three-layered ocean

Solar energy generate movement of air masses

Hadley Cells

Prevailing winds

Major oceanic surface currents

Thermohaline Circulation

Wave Structure

Wave structure

Tides

Tides

Grunion (Leuresthes tenuis)

Tides

Two forces pull at the water

Tides

Tides

The Earth rotates through the bulges generated by centrifugal and gravitational forces

Tides Semidiurnal

Mixed SemidiurnalTides

DiurnalTides

Tides