Acoustic:
Pertaining
to sound.
Bathymetric map: A chart of ocean
floor depths, similar to topographic maps on land.
Caldera: A depression formed at the summit
of a volcano caused by collapse when magma is removed from the reservoir
below.
Chemosynthesis: The process by which
microbes mediate chemical reactions to produce into energy. In contrast
to photosynthesis, because chemosynthesis does not require sunlight.
Contour profile: A cross-section
of topography along a given line.
Degree: A unit of angular distance. There
are 360 degrees in a circle (as on a compass).
Deposit feeder: Animals that consume
small pieces of plant and animal material that settle to the ocean floor
from the water column.
Epicenter: The point on the Earth's surface
from which earthquake waves seem to radiate, located directly above the
true center of the earthquake at depth.
Earthquake swarm: A sequence of
many small earthquakes (10's to 1000's), all of similar size (<M4)
and within a relatively short period of time (hours to weeks). Earthquake
swarms are often recorded during volcanic activity.
Hydrophone: An instrument used to record
sound under water.
Hydrothermal vent: A hot spring
on the seafloor.
Latitude: Angular distance on the Earth's
surface measured north or south of the Equator.
Lava: Molten rock after it has erupted from
a volcano onto the Earth's surface.
Longitude: Angular distance on the surface
of the Earth measured east or west from the prime meridian at Greenwich,
England.
Magma:
Molten
rock that is underground before it has erupted onto the Earth's surface.
Microbes: Single-celled living organisms,
such as bacteria and archaea.
Mid-ocean ridge: A type of tectonic
plate boundary where two tectonic plates are moving apart (also called
a "spreading center"). Volcanic activity creates a ridge at
the boundary.
Minute: A unit of angular distance that is
one-sixtieth of a degree.
Observatory: A site for long-term scientific
observations.
ROPOS: The name of the remotely operated vehicle
usually used at NeMO. ROPOS stands for Remotely Operated Platform for
Ocean Science.
Rumbleometer: (pronounced rum-ble-om'-i-ter)
A seafloor instrument that measures temperature and pressure (among
other things) to help monitor submarine volcanoes.
Seamount: An undersea mountain rising over
1000 meters above the surrounding seafloor.
Seismometer: An instrument that detects
ground movement from earthquakes.
Sessile: Permanently attached at the base;
fixed in one place and unable to move around.
Spreading center: See mid-ocean
ridge
Subduction zone: A type of tectonic
plate boundary where two tectonic plates are converging (moving toward
each other) and one plate is forced under the other.
Sulfide chimney: Formations made
of sulfide minerals deposited directly from hydrothermal vent fluid at
high-temperature seafloor hot springs.
Symbiotic: The relationship of different
organisms in a close association that is mutually beneficial. Many vent
animals have symbiotic relationships with chemosynthetic microbes.
Tectonic plates: Large intact pieces
of the Earth's outer rocky layer that move in relation to one another.
Most of the Earth's earthquakes and volcanoes are located near plate boundaries.
Transform fault: A type of tectonic
plate boundary where one plate slides past another.
Triangulation: Method of finding a
position with distances or angles from known points.
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