Chemical and physical properties of sea water

This week in marine biology class, we talked about water and its physical and chemical properties. We learned that water is most dense at cold temperatures, and that cold air sinks and hot air rises. Air pressure is higher at lower sea levels, and when the pressure is strong enough, it could kill. When water condensates, energy is released, and when water evaporates, energy is being absorbed. A water molecule has a positive hydrogen end, and a negative oxygen end. Since the oxygen molecule is stronger and has more electrons, it pulls all the electrons towards it making the water molecule polar because the share of electrons is uneven. Sea water has many other components in it like salt and other elements so sea water has a salinity level. Sea waters get either heated or cooled depending on the type of wind that flows by it. Different winds carry water and air to different areas at different temperatures making all sea water different in some way.

The Sea Floor

This week in Marine Biology class, we learned about the sea floor and other things related to the sea floor. The sea floor is made of basalt, and the continental crust is made of granite. I learned about continental drift, which is a theory that all of the continents used to be linked together because each continent moves very slowly each year. Alfred Wegener came up with this theory but no one believed him. When all of the continents were together, it formed a super continent called Pangaea. I also learned about divergent, convergent, and transform boundaries that occur between tectonic plates. Each different boundary causes a different thing, either an earthquake, a volcano, or a new piece of land. On Earth, there is 71% water and only 29% land. There is a vast amount of sea floor to explore and it will be a long time until mankind knows all about it.