Question

Where would the surface ocean water be densest?

a. in the bay of bengal

b. in the gulf of mexico

c. east of brazil

d. in the pacific, east of japan

e. in the norwegian sea

Answer 1

Answer: Norwegian Sea

Reason: Density depends on two factors

a) Salinity: Density increases with an increase in salinity. Salinity increases with increases with increasing evaporation. Evaporation is high in the equatorial region, due to high solar radiations. Hence, in equatorial regions salinity is high and so is the density.

b) Temperature: Lesser the seawater temperature more will be the density. The temperature will be lesser in polar regions and greater in equatorial regions. Hence, density will be higher in polar regions.

The Gulf of Mexico, the bay of Bengal, pacific ocean east of Japan lie along the tropic of cancer hence both the above factors will not contribute much to density. ocean east of Brazil, it lies along equator while the norwegian sea is in the polar region, of which as the temperature factors supersede the salinity factor, the norwegian sea is densest.