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The entire ocean, containing 97% of Earth's water, spans 70.8% of Earth's surface, [8] making it Earth's global ocean or world ocean. [ 23 ] [ 25 ] This makes Earth, along with its vibrant hydrosphere a "water world" [ 43 ] [ 44 ] or " ocean world ", [ 45 ] [ 46 ] particularly in Earth's early history when the ocean is thought to have possibly ...
The average density at the surface is 1.025 kg/L. Seawater is denser than both fresh water and pure water (density 1.0 kg/L at 4 °C (39 °F)) because the dissolved salts increase the mass by a larger proportion than the volume. The freezing point of seawater decreases as salt concentration increases.
Ocean stratification is the natural separation of an ocean's water into horizontal layers by density. This is generally stable stratification, because warm water floats on top of cold water, and heating is mostly from the sun, which reinforces that arrangement. Stratification is reduced by wind-forced mechanical mixing, but reinforced by ...
The unusual density curve and lower density of ice than of water is essential for much of the life on earth—if water were most dense at the freezing point, then in winter the cooling at the surface would lead to convective mixing.
It occurs in all water bodies where there is stable density variation with depth. Stratification is a barrier to the vertical mixing of water, which affects the exchange of heat, carbon, oxygen and nutrients. [1] Wind-driven upwelling and downwelling of open water can induce mixing of different layers through the stratification, and force the ...
The neutral density ( ) or empirical neutral density is a density variable used in oceanography, introduced in 1997 by David R. Jackett and Trevor McDougall. [1] It is a function of the three state variables (salinity, temperature, and pressure) and the geographical location (longitude and latitude). It has the typical units of density (M/V).
An oceanographic water mass is an identifiable body of water with a common formation history which has physical properties distinct from surrounding water. Properties include temperature, salinity, chemical - isotopic ratios, and other physical quantities which are conservative flow tracers. Water mass is also identified by its non-conservative ...
The depth was estimated from a conversion of pressure measured and calculations based on the water density from sea surface to seabed. [23] This was followed by the uncrewed ROVs KaikÅ in 1996 and Nereus in 2009. The first three expeditions directly measured very similar depths of 10,902 to 10,916 m (35,768 to 35,814 ft; 5,961 to 5,969 fathoms).