Glossary

Here are words you'll discover when using Message in a Bottle:

Air density:

The moisture in the air.

Breakwater:

A manmade structure that goes out from the shore into the water.

Crest:

A wave's highest point.

Drift bottle:

A bottle that is launched into the ocean in order to study currents. The finder returns the drift bottle and provides information on the date and location of its discovery.

Ebb:

An outgoing tide.

Estuary:

This body of water connects the ocean to one or more rivers or steams. At the river's wide mouth, fresh water empties into the salty ocean.

Fetch:

A large distance of open water.

Fossil fuels:

Fuels, such as coal and oil, created from the remains of million-year-old plants and animals.

Greenhouse effect:

Natural process of the sun's energy entering earth's atmosphere. A portion is returned back to space while another portion is reflected back to earth, so heat is trapped.

Greenhouse gases:

Earth's atmospheric gases including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor, which undergo the greenhouse effect.

Global warming:

An increase in temperature that happens when there is a large amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

High tide:

When the water level is highest due to the moon's pull.

Hurricane:

A towering column of fast moving air that is formed when a cold Arctic air mass moves south and meets a warm Tropical air mass moving north.

Lake:

A large, still body of water without an outlet.

Mouth:

The lower end of a river.

Neap tide:

The lowest tides. They happen when the sun and moon are at the right angles to one another.

Nor'easter:

A storm that forms when two dissimilar air masses meet.

Offshore wind:

Wind that blows away from the coast.

River:

A large, moving stream that starts at a high point and ends at a mouth.

Rogue wave:

A large, spontaneous wave that occurs far from the shoreline.

Spring tide:

The highest tides. The occur when the moon and sun are lined up with one another and with the earth.

Swell:

A smooth, more stable wave.

Surface drifter:

A device used to measure the direction of currents. A satellite tracks the locations of the surface drifter.

Tide:

The rise and fall of the ocean water.

Tornado at sea:

When a column of water is dragged upwards from the sea's surface and combines with condensed water in moist air.

Trough:

The lowest point of a wave.

Tsunami:

A big wave with destructive power, moving at a fast speed and a large height.

Tube:

The tunnel formed by a breaking wave.

Water cycle:

The natural recycling of water. The ocean evaporates into the air and comes back down to earth as rain and snow.

Waterway:

A connector between bodies of water.