How Do Temperature and Salinity Affect Mixing in the Oceans?

Name ______

Hour _____ Date ______

How Do Temperature and Salinity Affect Mixing in the Oceans?

Page One

1. What is salinity a measure of?

2. What is the average salinity of seawater?

3. How is “permill” different than percent?

Page Two

4. Describe some of the general patterns you observe for temperature and salinity.

5. Describe the location of at least three places in the world’s oceans that have high temperatures but low salinity.

6. What do you think might cause low salinity in these areas of warm ocean water?

Page Three

7. Explain why freshwater is less dense than seawater.

8. Explain why warmer water is less dense than cold water.

9. Explain how mixing occurs within the ocean, in relation to density differences.

Use the graph to answer the following questions.

10. If seawater is 20° C and has a salinity of 36 % , what is it’s density?

11. If seawater has a density of 1.027 g/ml, with a water temperature just above freezing, what range of salinity would you expect to find?

Page Four

12. Complete the following graph:

13. What do you think is responsible for the unusually low salinity of these warm waters?

Page Five

14. Complete the following graph:

15. Predict what would happen to water that moves from the Mediterranean Sea into the Atlantic Ocean.

Page Six

16. Complete the following graph:

17. Predict what would happen to water that moves from the Caribbean Sea into the Pacific Ocean.

18. Find waters near Antarctica with the combination of the lowest sea temperatures and highest salinity. Extrapolate (extend the information on the graph) to determine the approximate density of these waters.

19. At what level in the ocean will these waters move away from Antarctica?