Oceanography

the study of the oceans, including tides, currents, the water and the sea floors.

Taken from Dictionary of Science

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Oceanography (compound of the Greek words ωκεανός meaning "ocean" and γράφω meaning "to write"), also called oceanology or marine science, is the branch of Earth science that studies the ocean. It covers a wide range of topics, including marine organisms and ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics; plate tectonics and the geology of the sea floor; and fluxes of various chemical substances and physical properties within the ocean and across its boundaries. These diverse topics reflect multiple disciplines that oceanographers blend to further knowledge of the world ocean and understanding of processes within it: biology, chemistry, geology, meteorology, and physics.

Taken from Wikipedia

Land And Sea Breezes

air circulation along coasts during summer, developed when the overall pressure gradient is at its lowest. During the day, the Sun warms the land more than the adjacent sea and so the air above the land becomes warmer and thus rises. This produces a convective motion with the cooler air for the sea moving onto the land. At night the situation is reversed because the sea is warmer than the land.

Taken from Dictionary of Science

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A sea-breeze (or onshore breeze) is a wind from the sea that develops over land near coasts. It is formed by increasing temperature differences between the land and water which create a pressure minimum over the land due to its relative warmth and forces higher pressure, cooler air from the sea to move inland. Generally, air temperature gets cooler relative to nearby locations as one moves closer to a large body of water.

At night, the land cools off quicker than the ocean due to differences in their specific heat values, which forces the dying of the daytime sea breeze. If the land cools below that of the adjacent sea surface temperature, the pressure over the water will be lower than that of the land, setting up a land breeze as long as the environmental surface wind pattern is not strong enough to oppose it. If there is sufficient moisture and instability available, the land breeze can cause showers or even thunderstorms, over the water. Overnight thunderstorm development offshore due to the land breeze can be a good predictor for the activity on land the following day, as long as there are no expected changes to the weather pattern over the following 12–24 hours. This is mainly because the strength of the land breeze is weaker than the sea breeze. The land breeze will die once the land warms up again the next morning.

Taken from Wikipedia

Habitat

the place where a plant or animal normally lives, specified by particular features e.g. rivers, ponds, sea shore.

Taken from Dictionary of Science

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A habitat (which is Latin for "it inhabits") is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular animal or plant species. It is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds (influences and is utilized by) a species population.

Taken from Wikipedia

Iceberg

a large lump of ice which has broken off from a GLACIER or ice sheet and is floating in the sea. Icebergs can be carried long distances before they finally melt.

Taken from Dictionary of Science

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An iceberg is a large piece of ice from freshwater that has broken off from a snow-formed glacier or ice shelf and is floating in open water. It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice. Alternatively, it may come to rest on the seabed in shallower water, causing ice scour (also known as ice gouging) or becoming an ice island.

Taken from Wikipedia

Sabkha

a flat, coastal belt situated between desert dunes and a lagoon or the sea. It is a site for the formation of evaporite deposits, notably CARBONATES and sulphates. It is named after the Trucial Coast in the Persian Gulf, sabkha being the Arabic word for salt flat.

Taken from Dictionary of Science

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Sabkha is a transliteration of the Arabic word for a salt flat. Sabkhas are supratidal, forming along arid coastlines and are characterized by evaporite-carbonate deposits with some siliciclastics. Sabkhas form subareal, prograding and shoaling-upward sequences that have an average thickness of a meter or less. The accepted type locality is along the coast of the Persian Gulf in the United Arab Emirates. This article outlines research into the evolution, hydrocarbon potential, climate, and dynamic nature of these deposits.

Taken from Wikipedia