Term
| What is a tide? What is the equation for the force of a tide? What causes tides? |
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Definition
Periodic short-term change in the height of the ocean surface at a particular place, generated by long-wavelength progressive waves that are caused by the interaction between force and inertia. Movement of the earth beneath tide crests results in falling of sea level.
F=G(m1m2)/r^2
Force is equal to gravity X (mass of first object x mass of second object)/radius between the two objects
They are caused by the earth's rotation (and position in relation to the moon and sun) |
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Term
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Definition
| 24 hours and 54 minutes (the time it takes for the earth to line up with the moon again) |
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Term
| What causes "high tide" and "low tide" ? |
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Definition
| Centripetal force pushes water out toward one side and the pull of the moon toward the other side. |
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Term
| What happens to tides during a new moon? |
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Definition
| Every 28 days, the sun and moon are lined up on one side of the earth and they pul together, creating SPRING TIDES. These have the greatest highs and the greatest lows. |
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Term
| Where is the sun during a full moon? |
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Definition
| on the opposite side of the earth as the moon. |
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Term
| What are intermediate, or "neap" tides? |
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Definition
| intermediate tidal heights (neither the sun, earth nor moon are lined up) causing weaker tides. |
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Term
| What is a "semi-diurnal" tide? |
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Definition
| Semi-Daily or "perfect" tide. in any “tidal day” we would have two highs and two lows that are approximately equal. We have this along the Atlantic coast of the US and the European coast. |
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Term
| What is a "diurnal" tide? Where do we see this located? |
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Definition
| ONe high and one low per day. Gulf Coast, Texas, and Alabama for example. |
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Term
| What is a "mixed semi-diurnal" tide? |
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Definition
Two highs and two lows that are unequal. Has to do with the size of the pacific and the way the waves are washing back and forth.
We see these on the California/Pacific coast |
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Term
| How do tide tables/gauges work? |
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Definition
| Tide tables use average of lower low water and that becomes “0” on tide gauges. |
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Term
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
| When water is going back out |
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Term
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Definition
| When the tide is trying to get up into the large river it will be held awhile until it overcomes the river and moves back up the river (some can go dozens of miles) |
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Term
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Definition
| A couple of times a year we get tides that are even higher than typical tides (some in December and January) |
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Term
| What shape is the orbit around the earth? What is a perigree king tide? What is an apogee king tide? |
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Definition
Elliptical, not circular.
Perigree: moon closest
Apogee: moon farthest away |
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Term
| What is a perihelion king tide? Aphelion? |
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Definition
Perihelion: closest to the sun (usually January)
Aphelion: farther from the sun (usually July) |
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Term
| What conditions would make tidal power feasible? |
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Definition
| Large volume of salt water, a large tidal range, a restricted entrance, and close to the people that it will be powering. |
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Term
| What conditions make hydrokinetic power feasible? |
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Definition
| An area where currents are really high (such as Florida currents) |
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Term
| What are the results of the SF tide gauge? |
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Definition
Water has gone up 8 inches over the last century (2mm per year)
High tides are higher
Waves come in further inland
More storm damage
SF airport would be covered with a 16 in sea level rise. |
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Term
| How much did sea level rise in Juneau Alaska over the last 100 years? |
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Definition
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Term
| How much does sea level rise per year in Grand Isle, Louisiana? |
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Definition
| about 9mm per year. Land is sinking. New Orleans does not have a bright future. |
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Term
| What are the attributes of a "leading edge" coastline? Which coast line has these attributes? |
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Definition
Also called collision/convergent/active margin
Coastal cliffs, Uplifted terraces, Narrow continental shelf, mountains (some volcanic), seismic activity, small drainages/steep, coarse sediment, high yield (very erodible) --> tons per square mile per year.
West Coast |
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Term
| What is a trailing edge? Which coast has these attributes? |
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Definition
Also referred to as Passive/Divergent margin
Coastal Plain, Wide SHelf, No mountains/earth quakes, no volcanoes, depositional features, large, low gradients
East Coast |
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Term
| What factors effect coastal variation? |
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Definition
Tectonic history (leading edge/trailing/marginal)
Sea-Level History (relative to land)
Rock type (important in determining how resistant that coastline is to wave attacks) - somewhere like Monterey Peninsula is granite and does not erode very quickly (thus can resist wave attacks)
Structure (things like bedding) - also determines resistance to coastline.
Wave Energy
Sediment Supply
Littoral Drift
Presence/Absence of a Beach
CLimate & Weathering
Organic Activity
Human Activity we have added sand and mined sand which can have a profound effect) |
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Term
| What is "jointing" in coast line structure? |
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Definition
| Rocks are stressed and they break or crack. |
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Term
| What is the "purisima formation" in coast line structure? |
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Definition
| Lots of sea shells and fossils, extends from west cliff down Rio Del Mar |
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Term
| Most cliffs/bays are oriented along... |
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Definition
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Term
| As we go up the North Coast we have Santa Cruz Mudstone, which has "sedimentary intrusions". What are those? |
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Definition
In deposits, under mudstone sand was saturated with water/oil.
Sandstone is squeezed out of the deposits.
Biggest sandstone intrusions int he world are right here on our coast.
Sand is weaker than surrounding mudstone so often waves will attack that. |
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Term
| How does the presence or absence of a beach effect the coastline? |
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Definition
Wide sandy beaches end up with dunes and wave will not be attacking the cliff directly.
Example: lighthouse point to Monterey peninsula is a wide sandy beach so waves don't get back to the back of the cliff.
The monterey bay peninsula and further waves are attacking cliffs and eroding them from the back. |
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Term
| Tropical climate mangroves _______ the coastline. |
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Definition
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Term
| How long is the California coast? |
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Definition
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Term
| What are the two large categories of landforms on the California coast? How much (%) of our coast do each of these take up? |
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Definition
Sea Cliffs (790 miles or 72%): high relief mountains (140 miles or 13%) and low cliffs (650 miles or 59%).
and
Coastal Lowlands (310 miles or 28%): wide beaches, dunes, estuaries, lagoons. Ex: SF bay, Inner Monterey Bay, and much of Southern California |
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Term
| Why is the coast considered an "economic engine" |
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Definition
$46 billion a year from coastal environment (ports and harbors)
$23 billion a year from coastal tourism and recreation
Less than 5% = oil/gas industries. |
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Term
What are the most common minerals on our coast?
hint: there are two categories (light and heavy) |
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Definition
Light minerals: Quarts, Feldspar, also most common minerals in granite and sandstone.
Heavy minerals: Iron & Magnesium. Give it black or green or pink color. |
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Term
| Beach sand is in constant motion, driven two directions by wave action. What are the two directions? |
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Definition
On shore and off shore: waves wash up sand at some angle (not quite parallel to the sand after refraction) and follows saw tooth in and out pattern.
Along shore: long shore current / littoral drift - driven dominantly by waves form the northwest. Moves north to south. |
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Term
| What happens to beach sand during summer months? |
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Definition
Low waves wash up on the beach and build up wide summer berm (terrace formed by wave action along the backshore of a beach). The beach is wide and higher and there is not a lot of wave energy.
Low wave heights, long wavelengths, low steepness (H/L), long periods
Steep foreshore, broad berm/wide beach. |
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Term
| What happens to the beach during winter months? |
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Definition
Tend to get large, more energetic, steeper waves.
Stir up more sand but does not have a chance to settle out because the next wave approaches. |
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Term
| Does the total amount of sand in summer and winter differ? |
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Definition
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Term
| What determines the slope of the beach? |
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Definition
Grain size:
Very fine sand - perfectly flat (1-2 degrees)
Very coarse sand - steeper (5-10 degrees)
Pebbles and Cobbles - much steeper (15-20 degrees)
Rip Rap (rock down along west cliff) - stack up to angle of repose (up to 30 degrees or steeper) |
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Term
| What are Littoral budgets? |
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Definition
Sediment on beaches. Along any particular stretch of coast, one of the following conditions exist:
accretion predominates: sand supply is greater than losses and beach is building out.
Stability or equilibrium: sand supply is equal to sand loss (most of SC)
Erosion: sand losses exceed sand supply |
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Term
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Definition
Sources of beach sand
Along shore transport of sand is littoral drift
Sinks for sand
FIrst defined in southern California after canyons we have rocky headland / no sand |
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Term
| What are sources of beach sand? |
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Definition
River or stream input
Sea cliff or bluff erosion
Littoral transport form upcoast
ONshore transport from continental shelf
Beach nourishment
Biogeneous deposition (Reefs |
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Term
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Definition
| terrace formed by wave action along the backshore of a beach |
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Term
| What do dams do in terms of sand transport? |
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Definition
They form COMPLETE barriers to sand transport.
Also reduce flood flows |
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Term
| In CAlifornia in the last century, how many major dams, reservoirs, and debris basins were built? |
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Definition
| 480 major dams and reservoirs and nearly 200 debris basins. All of these trap sand that would have normally flowed to the shoreline. |
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Term
| What is beach nourishment? What is the problem? |
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Definition
Bringing in sand to the beaches. Multi-million dollar enterprise in the east coast. Barrier islands start way out at the shelf and as sea level rose they migrate toward where they are today.
Problem: we build on the barrier island.
Pour hundreds of millions of dollars in sand to save the beaches
Argument is that beach nourishment is "preserving our infrastructure" |
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Term
| What is SAMDAG / San Diego Association of Government? What are the concerns? |
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Definition
Spent 17 1/2 million dollars dredging up 2 million cubic yards of sand from off shore. Spread it out on 12 different northern san diego county beaches and started monitoring them.
In most cases within a year or a year and a half all the sand was gone again.
Went out again this time with a hopper dredge and blew stuff out onto the shoreline (cost 28 1/2 million dollars.
Concerns: environmental impact. cost - who pays for it? |
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Term
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Definition
| trap sand, hold it in place, make a beach, widen a beach. |
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Term
|
Definition
They are always built in pairs (SC harbor has two)
Extend out across the beach and go into the harbor (lower and upper)
Designed to contain and protect the entrance so boats could go in and out.
Also trap sand, widen beach, and leads to a loss of sand down coast (hence, sand being trapped at Seabright - huge beach) |
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Term
|
Definition
Provide an area for boats.
Detached break water - separated from the shoreline - as waves come in they can not get over the break water and boats anchor behind it.
Caused who area behind to fill up with sand due to a lack of waves. |
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Term
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Definition
| Protect the coast directly |
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Term
| Where is it smart to build a harbor? Why? |
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Definition
Harbors at the up coast or in the middle of two cells have not had problems.
Wherever we built harbors in the middle or down coast of littoral cells we have to dredge them. |
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Term
| What are the hazards of beach front construction? |
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Definition
Public policy Issue
Vulnerable to high tides and storm waves
Sometimes try to move things back instead of protecting.
There are obvious hazards in building on sand dunes
Ex: Monterey Bay Hotel (base of dunes eroding back at 2-3 feet per year, at some point it will become a peninsula, then an island.
Ex: Ocean Harbor House Condominiums - initially 88 apartment complexes, retreating at 1-2 feet per year. City of monterey demanded that emergency riprap be removed from beach. Led to property owners installing 50 feet deep concrete pier foundation system. In el nino winter of '97-'98, front units were threatened as dune erosion continued. |
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Term
| What are glacial erratics? |
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Definition
| BIg chunks of rocks in places that don't belong. Geological evidence for past climate change and ice age in huge boulder left behind by glaciers in places like farm lands of the mid-west. |
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Term
| What are the natural causes of climate change? |
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Definition
Changes in solar energy production (measurements of solar energy output, including sunspot cycles (11 year cycle)
Volcanic Eruptions (large eruptions ash and gas high into the atmosphere but cooling effect is small and short-lived)
Movement of earth's tectonic plates.
Variations in earth's orbit around sun. |
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Term
| What does variation in Earth's orbit determine? |
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Definition
| How much sunlight we receive and how warm or cool the earth is at any given time. |
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Term
| What are the three orbital cycles of the earth? |
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Definition
Shape of orbit (100,000 years)
Tilt of axis of rotation (41,000 years)
Wobble of Earth's axis (26,000 years) |
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Term
| Climate changes are recorded in...? |
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Definition
Deep-sea sediment ores
Ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica
Glacial deposits such as erratics. |
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Term
| How many years has deep sea drilling been underway for? |
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Definition
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Term
| Ice coring in Greenland has now reached a depth of...? |
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Definition
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Term
| What is the "Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum"? |
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Definition
| 56 million years gao all the ice melted and sea level was 220 feet higher than today - very very warm time. |
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Term
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Definition
Move the coast back, build a line in the sand, add more sand to the beach.
Expensive and short lived (littoral drift). Unless impounded it is not going to stay there. |
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Term
| What was a solution for re-establishign equilibrium and retturning sand to a littoral system? |
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Definition
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Term
| What are the effects of the Santa Cruz Harbor? |
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Definition
Upcoast accretion
Regular dredging
Downcoast sand loss and bluff erosion
Loss of beach at Capitola |
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Term
| What happened with the Santa Barbara littoral cell? |
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Definition
1928 SB decided they wanted a harbor, a lot of erosion down coast and wave energy but no sand.
NOw they have a building on old ocean floor that has been backed up by sand behind the harbor. |
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Term
| What happened with the Santa Monica and San Pedro littoral cells? |
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Definition
Sand comes down the coast to Rodondo King Canyon.
Built Redondo harbor in a perfect place where they don't have to dredge (just down coast / between two cells works!) |
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Term
| What happens during El Nino? |
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Definition
Wind slows down. Pressure reverses and water flows back across hitting the coast of South America.
Warm water moves in, upwelling stops. Fish and birds go away.
Happens around December/January
Sends warmer water up the coast of north America and we get species of fish we have never seen before.
Drought in Australia, Africa, and Indonesia while we are flooding. |
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Term
| What happens in Greenland during ENSO? |
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Definition
Undergoes seasonal melting, which isn't included in IPCC (intergovernmental panel on climate change) estimates but could raise sea level up by 24 feet.
Weren't including original ice melt or permafrost (conservative)
Greenland itself melting completely would raise sea level 24 feet but Antarctica would raise 200 feet. |
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Term
| Continuing an accelerated sea level rise will bring which two coastal problems? |
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Definition
Depending on topography:
Inundation (covering with water) or Cliff Retreat |
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Term
| 18,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age, sea level was about ____ feet lower than today. Location of the shoreline is constantly ____ |
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Definition
| 350 feet, but we did not have development. Shoreline is constantly changing. |
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Term
| THere are now ____ (#) people living within 3 feet of sea level? |
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Definition
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Term
| How does climate change effect the ocean? |
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Definition
Changes surface water temp
Changes ocean circulation/patterns/mixing and nutrient distribution, and biological reproductivity).
Increases or decreases volume of sea ice and albedo |
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Term
| What are Milankovitch Cycles? |
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Definition
Earth's wobble on it's axis. 20,000 year cycle
Tilt (40,000 years)
Eccentrity
Orbit
Ever since we have had an earth and a sun we have had these cycles. |
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Term
| What is "Albedo-Reflectivity" |
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Definition
| Cause ice to retract, ocean is exposed, more heat (warmer) |
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Term
|
Definition
Part of Milankovitch Cycles
Underlies 25% of the earth's surface. Beaneath surface all the pores/spaces are filled with ice (Frozen soil/rock). In there is a lot of methane, carbon dioxide, and other things. During a warm period permafrost thaws and more methane and carbon dioxide are released (greenhouse gasses) |
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Term
| Causes of sea level rise? |
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Definition
Glacial melt
Plate tectonics
Tides
Hurricanes
Tsunamis
El Ninos
NOT the most pressing concern |
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Term
| What percent of of the atmosphere is nitrogen? oxygen? what is the other 1%? |
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Definition
78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen = 99%
1%= water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide |
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Term
| Where do green house gases come from? What percentages? |
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Definition
Transport 14%
Industry 16.8%
Power Production 21.3%
Waste Disposal 3.4% (A lot of methane)
Land Use 10% (biomass burning, forest fires, agriculture burning)
Residential/Commercial 10.3%
Fossil Fuel Retrieval/Drilling/Pumping/Processing/Transportation/Distribution 11.3% |
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Term
|
Definition
| Drill down and pump water under pressure opening up cracks and oil and gas flow out. Lessens our depnedence on foreign oil but we are still burning fossil fuelds and more methane is getting out. People are worried about their ground contamination. |
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Term
| In the last 150 years or so, how much has methane gone up? carbon dioxide? nitrous oxide? |
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Definition
Methane: 43%
Carbon Dioxide: 40%
Nitrous Oxide: 17%
Methane soaks up 25% more heat than carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide is 200x more important |
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Term
HOw much carbon dioxide is produced per hour? How much goes into the ocean? (in tons per hour)
What does this do to the ocean? |
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Definition
3,245,000 T/Hour
3% into the ocean. Makes the ocean more acidic and becomes a buffer (if ocean didn't absorb it it would be in the atmosphere)
50 X more in ocean than atmosphere so if ocean burps (like it has in the past) it will have an effect on climate change. |
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Term
| How long is the California coast? How much of that is bluffs, cliffs and mountains? How much is dunes/lowlands/estuaries/wide sandy beaches? |
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Definition
1100 miles
800 miles bluffs/cliffs/mountains
300 miles dunes/lowlands/estuaries/beaches |
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Term
|
Definition
Hydraulic Impact: wave breaking on the cliff.
Abrasion: grinding sand/pebbles back and forth across the platform
Chemical Weathering: salt/seawater is corrosive material.
Biological Activity
Human Activity |
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Term
| What variables Effect Erosion? |
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Definition
Rock Type
Structural Weaknesses
Wave exposure
Beach
Tidal Range
Storm Frequency (big events)
Climate (Freezing and thawing breaks down rocks)
Human Activity |
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Term
|
Definition
| Determined from historic stereo aerial photographs or old maps |
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Term
| What are short term options along the shoreline? |
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Definition
Planned or unplanned relocation/retreat
ARmor/protection
Sand replenishment or nourishment |
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Term
| What are seawalls made of? |
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Definition
|
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Term
|
Definition
putting large rocks stacked on the beach (absorb wave energy, harder/more resistant than sand dunes)
Revetment: more engineered
Rocks can be 2-500 dollars a piece |
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Term
| How much of the California coast is armored today? How much of an increase is that since 1971? |
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Definition
10% of 1100 miles of coast is armored. 400% increase since 1971.
33% of shoreline of California's 4 southern counties now armored |
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Term
| How much does armoring cost? |
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Definition
| $3000-8000/ft or $15-40 million per mile. |
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Term
| What is armoring built to protect? |
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Definition
Cliffs or bluffs, not beaches.
Not permanent solution and its effectiveness is dependent upon resistance to overtopping, outflanking, battering, and undermining (logs break through boards and waves come in under and take sand out from behind) |
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Term
| What are the impacts of seawalls? |
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Definition
Access restriction - vertical and lateral
Visual impacts
Reduction of sand supply from cliffs
Placement losses (rocks take oer beach with placement of rip rap)
Passive erosion (results from rising sea level and shoreline erosion coming up against a fixed barrier. MAssive beaches will be lost if there is a retaining structure behind the beach.
Active erosion |
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Term
| What mineral resources are there from the sea? |
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Definition
Deposits on the sea floor, thermal vents/ridges (zinc, iron, copper, silver, chromium, gold, platinum), nodules/crusts (nickel, cobalt, manganese), sea floor sedimentary rocks (oil and gas)
Non-renewable. |
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Term
|
Definition
Not much change in sources since 1950-2010
Gas amount has gone way up
Had coal way before we had oil, horribly dirty. Gone down 38%
Today 83% comes from fossil fuels
A little less than 10% nuclear energy.
8% renewable energy.
We use about 21 million barrels/day in the US, 52% is imported. $100 a barrel to import. World uses 80 million barrels/day. We use 23% with 4% of population.
Bulk comes from Mexico, Venezuela, and Canada. |
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Term
All of the energy we use is basically derived from the ___
what happens to that energy? |
|
Definition
sun! nuclear is the only source of fuel that is not solar dependent.
30% reflected in the atmosphere
47% stored as heat
23% mechanical (Freezing or evaporation)
0.02% goes into photosynthesis
In the ocean solar radiation produces |
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Term
| How do phytoplankton/algae and photosynthesis create oil and gas? |
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Definition
| lots settle to the sea floor, accumulate organic matter and it gets buried, pressure and temperature increase with burial, becomes oil and gas |
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Term
| Oil companies looking for oil need: |
|
Definition
Source of organic matter (marine plankton)
Source rock (to form in)
Reservoir rock (for storage) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The amount of voids in something (a source rock for oil), a very clean sand could have 30% of that space available for oil/water. |
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|
Term
| What is permeability? in terms of oil. |
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Definition
|
|
Term
| Why is there so much oil in the middle east? |
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Definition
| In the Jurassic period (150 mya) a cross section from Africa to Eurasia on the equator (the Tethys sea). It was tropical with tons of productivity. Thousands of feet of sand filled with oil under pressure. So now Saudi Arabia and the middle east have 2/3 of the world's oil trapped in anticlines. |
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Term
| Drilling and Production of Oil |
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Definition
30% of oil comes from offshore today. Began with slant drilling, then piers, then island, then offshore platforms.
25,000 wells offshore of 70 different countries
840 total offshore rigs, 710 under contract
drilling to depths of 7500 feet beneath seafloor in water depths of 10,000 feet |
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Term
| 87% of the energy we use is from fossil fuels but it is not sustainable. What percent of that is renewable energy? What kinds of renewable energy? |
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Definition
| 7% is renewable, of that: 1% solar, 5% geothermal, 7% wind, 34% hydropower, 53% biomass |
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Term
| What are the arguments against wind turbines? |
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Definition
Drive tourists away, industrialize, change seafloor from soft bottom to hard structure, bats would run into it, damage to submerged vegetation, threats to navigation aircraft, changes in sediment.
In order for this to be economical, we may have to subsidize them. |
|
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Term
|
Definition
| how much can the coastal ocean assimilate |
|
|
Term
| What do we need to monitor in terms of marine pollution? |
|
Definition
currents and circulation (what happens one place effects other places)
mixing or dilution: concentrations
acute vs. chronic effects
biological magnification (expanding in concentration as it goes up the food chain)
Cumulative or synergistic events |
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Term
| What happened with biological magnification and DDT? |
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Definition
DDT became world wide pesticide, huge impact on malaria.
Stimulates liver to produce enzymes which break down hormones necessary for healthy egg shell production.
Most recognizable effects are in marine birds at the top of the food chain
For several years in 1960s no young pelicans were born
Outlawed in 1972 |
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Term
| What are the different levels of biological impacts? (marine pollution) |
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Definition
Biochemical or cellular level (minutes to hours) --> cell walls broke down
Organismal level (hours to months) --> effects whole animal
Population Dynamics (months to years) --> entire population
Community dynamics or structure (years to decades)
Global impacts (decades) --> ocean acidification |
|
|
Term
| Types of marine pollutants |
|
Definition
Oil Pollution
Domestic waste/sewage (liquid waste, plastic in the ocean, garbage)
Industrial and agricultural waste and runoff (industry, fertilizers, pesticides) |
|
|
Term
| Where marine pollution comes from (percentages)? |
|
Definition
50% municipal and industrial (land based runoff)
24% transportation and shipping (a lot could be oil)
13% atmosphere (anything we put in the air that comes down into the ocean)
11% natural sources
2% offshore production |
|
|
Term
| Where does US Oil Pollution come from? (percentages) |
|
Definition
63% natural seepage form seafloor
22% industrial and municipal run-off
13% offshore operations |
|
|
Term
| What happened in the Torrey Canyon 1969 oil spill? |
|
Definition
Spill off the coast of England, Saudi Arabian crude oil, Ship owned by one American oil company but chartered by a second oil company, registered in Liberia, Italian crew, German captain, taking oil to England.
Who is responsible?
Tried to hit it with flame throwers to get it to burn but it just cooked everything on surface
Tried chemical dispersants which did more damage than the oil
ON shore tried to sop it up with hay
Didn't learn very much, damaged coast of France and England. |
|
|
Term
| What happened at Platform A in Santa Barbara Channel? |
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Definition
17,000 Barrels spilled.
Set up platform in an anticline and started drilling. Inner three miles under state patrol, beyond three miles is federal
Pressure is thousands per square inch (REALLY wants to come out)
Knew there was oil already seeping out of seafloor so they decided to go in.
Used short casing to save money and put 50 tubes in each direction.
o Decided there were too many rock chips and tried to pull of the drill string and ended up pulling up the mud with the drill string. Pretty soon pipe is getting blown out of the hole. Fuel line broke and all of the sudden gas and oil is boiling up on the seafloor. |
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Term
| What happened in the EXXON Valdez Alaska oil spill? |
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Definition
260,000 barrels spilled, which was 22% of the cargo. Ranked only as 53rd largest spill.
"the worst drunk driving accident in history"
5 billion dollar lawsuit |
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Term
| What happened in the BP Horizon April 2010 oil spill? |
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Definition
5,000,000 barrels and 11 deaths.
Drilled in very deep water (5,000 feet), Initial estimates were about 5,000 barrels a day- it was more like 75,000 a day. |
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Term
| Four major constituents of liquid waste? |
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Definition
Oxidizable organics (requires oxygen). Would take O2 out of the water that organisms need.
Nutrients (nitrates, phosphates, iron, silicate). Not a problem if diluted but leads to plant growth.
Toxic substances - heavy metals, organic compounds.
Virus and Bacteria - water born diseases that tend to be pretty low in a pop like ours. We do have things like hepatitis. Anywhere else is poleo and typhoid. We measure for coliform bacteria as it is an indicator of contamination from domestic sewage. |
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Term
| What happens in "primary" waste treatment? |
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Definition
• Involves one process of settling: sewage that comes in goes through a couple of grinders and goes into a big tank. After 2-4 hours anything that floats get scraped off, the things that settle get scraped, those go into the sludge digestor → ultimately spread it out over the land, use in pastures, take it and put it in the ocean, convert it to fertilizer that is packaged.
AFter that liquid chlorinated and pumped into the receiving water body.
Would not drink after just this stage |
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Term
| What happens in "Secondary" water treatment? |
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Definition
Take primary water and goes through second process of "bio-oxidation"
Trickling filter: huge big tanks filled with rocks covered with algae and microorganisms, sprinkle over these rocks. Slowly break down organic matter and compounds.
Outdoor oxidation ponds (algae does the same thing)
Repeats settling process, chlorinate again, and goes into body of water. |
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Term
| What happens in "tertiary" processing of waste? |
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Definition
Coagulation (add aluminum solfate) causes particles of dirt to coagulate
Settling - remove solids
Neutralizing pH - add carbon dioxide
Filtration - gravel and sand and charcoal
Chlorinate
Out the city! |
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