1. Give the concentration of seawater with a salinity of 3.45 percent in the following units :
(a) in parts per thousand
(b) in parts per million
(c) in grams per kilogram
(d) in kilograms per ton
2. What is the salinity of seawater with a chlorinity of 19.10‰?
3. Study the isohalines on the map in Figure 3-2 and answer the following
questions.
(a) How does salinity vary from the equator to polar legions in Pacific Ocean?
(Give exact values and general latitudinal zones.)
(b) Which of the two oceans shown is saltier and by what amount?
How may we explain this condition?
(Hint : relate to the major wind belts.)
(c) Explain the tongue of low-salinity water extending from Baffin Bay west of Greenland to the eastern coast of Canada.
(Remember that it is summer time in the Northern Hemisphere)
4. Recall that residence time, R, is the mean length of time a given element remains in the ocean. It is equal to the total amount of substance, C, divided by the rate of influx or addition, A(R=C/A). The following table gives the total amounts of water, salt, and sodium in the oceans, and the totals contributed each year by the river.
Using these figures, give the residence time for each of following.
(a) Water years
(b) Dissolved salt years
(c) Sodium years
5. (a) A series of stations of the California coast have been plotted on the chart in Figure 3-3. Contour the values of the salinity at intervals of 0.5‰(that is, at 32, 32.5, 33, and so on). Shade in the areas in which the salinity is greater than 33.80‰. A regional trend of slightly greater salinity to the south is present though not well defined. This variation is probably due to the wetter climate farther north and to the evaporation rates that increase as one goes southward along the coast.
(b) Briefly explain the high-salinity station (34.00‰) near the San Francisco Bay, shown in Figure 3-3.
<!-- -->
