Engineering Sciences
GATE XE Ocean Sciences PYQs
Build your understanding with focused practice from past exam papers.
Questions 71–80 of 100. Imported answers require independent review unless marked reviewed.
Question 20
Open questionXE-HNAT2 marksNeeds review
Mₓ and Mᵧ represent the ocean mass transport in the x and y directions, respectively. Lₓ and Lᵧ are the corresponding east-west and north-south length scales. For a typical equatorial ocean gyre, if the ratio of zonal to meridional mass transport ≈ 10, then Lₓ ≈ ______ Lᵧ.
Log in to check the answer
You can attempt this question now. Sign in to view the answer key, explanations and discussion.Log in to check answerQuestion 3
Open questionXE-HMCQ1 markNeeds review
Oxygen minimum zones in the ocean are formed in the layers where
Your answerChoose one option.
Log in to check the answer
You can attempt this question now. Sign in to view the answer key, explanations and discussion.Log in to check answerQuestion 4
Open questionXE-HMCQ1 markNeeds review
Water level in an estuary rises and falls in response to tidal forces. Assume that the only tidal period in an estuary is 12 hours. The speed of the ebb current in that estuary would be maximum
Your answerChoose one option.
Log in to check the answer
You can attempt this question now. Sign in to view the answer key, explanations and discussion.Log in to check answerQuestion 5
Open questionXE-HMCQ1 markNeeds review
The most abundant ions in seawater are
Your answerChoose one option.
Log in to check the answer
You can attempt this question now. Sign in to view the answer key, explanations and discussion.Log in to check answerQuestion 16
Open questionXE-HNAT2 marksNeeds review
It rains 10 cm in a day over an ocean with a mixed layer depth of 5 m and initial salinity 30 g kg
. The rain water uniformly mixes with the existing mixed layer water. The final salinity after the rain is ________ g kg
. (Round off to one decimal place.)Log in to check the answer
You can attempt this question now. Sign in to view the answer key, explanations and discussion.Log in to check answerQuestion 19
Open questionXE-HNAT2 marksNeeds review
A column of seawater from surface to 1000 m depth is initially at rest at the equator. The column is moved to 30°N with no change in column depth. In the absence of friction, the vertical component of relative vorticity of the water in the column at 30°N is ________ ×10
s
. (Round off to one decimal place.)Log in to check the answer
You can attempt this question now. Sign in to view the answer key, explanations and discussion.Log in to check answerQuestion 20
Open questionXE-HNAT2 marksNeeds review
Consider two north-south (i.e. meridional) sections A and B in the ocean, separated by 100 km; section B is to the east of section A (as shown in figure below). The steady northward wind stress at A and B are 0.1 N/m
and 0.2 N/m
, respectively; zonal wind stress is zero everywhere. Density of seawater is 1000 kg m
. At 30°N, the vertical velocity at the base of the Ekman layer is ________ meters per day. (Round off to one decimal place.) 
Log in to check the answer
You can attempt this question now. Sign in to view the answer key, explanations and discussion.Log in to check answerQuestion 21
Open questionXE-HNAT2 marksNeeds review
A tsunami is a long gravity wave, i.e. its wavelength is much larger than the depth of the ocean. A tsunami moves from point A to point B (see figure below); water depth at A is 2000 m, and water depth at B is 500 m. Assume no frictional losses. By energy conservation,
is constant, where
is group speed and
is the total (potential plus kinetic) energy density of the wave field. If the amplitude of the tsunami at point A is 1 m, its amplitude at B is ________ m. (Round off to two decimal places.) 
Log in to check the answer
You can attempt this question now. Sign in to view the answer key, explanations and discussion.Log in to check answerQuestion 22
Open questionXE-HNAT2 marksNeeds review
At mid-latitudes, long Rossby waves obey the dispersion relation
, where
is frequency,
is zonal wavenumber,
is rate of change of Coriolis parameter with northward distance (units m
s
), and
is Rossby radius. If
= 100 km, the speed of the long Rossby wave at 45°N is ________ m s
. (Round off to two decimal places.)
Take radius of the earth as 6400 km.Log in to check the answer
You can attempt this question now. Sign in to view the answer key, explanations and discussion.Log in to check answerQuestion 5
Open questionXE-HMCQ1 markNeeds review
Atmospheric vertical profile of temperature is measured by radiosonde. Equivalent instruments for measuring ocean temperature profile among the following are:
(P) drifting buoy (Q) ARGO float (R) current mooring (S) XBT
Your answerChoose one option.
Log in to check the answer
You can attempt this question now. Sign in to view the answer key, explanations and discussion.Log in to check answer