Water Freeze

reLiquid molecules in particular like to stick together. Because they're always moving and moving quickly, they don't stick together well enough to become solid, but they stick together enough to remain together as a fluid. When liquid molecules are cooled enough, they start to line up and stick together into low-energy arrangements. They find ways in which they fit together well. The molecules form themselves into crystals, becoming solid, although they probably won't stick together right away. They have to line up in an appropriate pattern before they can become large crystals and before all of the liquid can become frozen solid. At this point, the liquid is frozen. An example of this is when the temperature is cold enough for water to freeze, but not all of the water freezes right away. You'll find pieces of ice floating in the cold water. As the liquid water molecules find ways to attach to the pieces of ice, the ice chunks become larger. Eventually, if the temperature stays at or below the freezing point, all of the water will freeze.

 Read more at : 

 http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4600114_water-freeze_.html. 

 http://www.iapws.org/faq1/freeze.htm

Water on the Move The Ebbs and Flows of the Sea

The gravitational attraction between the Earth, sun, and moon. It was not until Sir Isaac Newton (who lived from 1642-1727) discovered the law of gravity that the effect of the sun and the moon on the tides was fully understood. All surfaces of the Earth are pulled toward the moon and sun. This force has little effect on land masses, but it does have a very great and obvious effect on the water of the Earth's oceans. Twice each month the tidal range reaches a maximum and these large tides are called the spring tides. Halfway through the monthly cycle the range is much smaller, and these weak tides are called neap tides.

Neap tide: the sun and moon are at right angles to the EarthAs the moon rotates around the Earth, it pulls the water on the nearest side of the Earth outward into a bulge. A similar bulge on the opposite side of the Earth is caused by the water being thrown outward by the planet's spin. These two bulges travel around the globe, producing two high tides each day. During time of the new moon and full moon, when the sun and moon are in a straight line, their gravitational pulls combine and produce spring tides; at this time the high tides are very high and the low tides are very low. When sun and moon are at right angles from the Earth, during the quarter phases of the moon, the gravitational pull on the oceans is less producing a smaller difference between high and low tide known as a neap tide.

Some locations have much bigger tides than others. Tidal ranges are usually small in the middle of the ocean but can be very large where tidal waters are funneled into a bay or river estuary. Hawaii has hardly any tidal range at all while the water in the Bay of Fundy, in Canada, has a range of about 40 feet : Read more at :

http://science.yourdictionary.com/neap-tide 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide

CONTINENTAL DRIFT

The face of the Earth is always changing and throughout geologic history oceans have been created and destroyed. Modern geologic evidence indicates that the ocean bottom is moving at a rate from about one-half to six inches a year through a process called plate tectonics.

CONTINENTAL DRIFT Pangaea broke up with part of the continent drifting north and part south. 1) The northern part split to form the North Atlantic Ocean 208-146 million years ago (mya). 2) The South Atlantic and Indian oceans began to form 146-65 mya. 3) The continents continue to drift. Today the oceans are still changing shape; the Atlantic Ocean gets wider by a few inches each year.

Roughly 200 million years ago the Earth's surface was very different from the familiar pattern of land we know today. All of the land masses were grouped together into one vast supercontinent called Pangaea. The rest of the globe was covered by a single great ocean known as Panthalassa.

Slowly, over millions of years, the great land mass split apart. The pieces began to move over the Earth's surface driven by slowly churning currents in the molten rocks beneath the Earth's hard outer layers. The gigantic plates on the Earth's crust move like a conveyor belt. As new areas of ocean floor form at mid-ocean ridges, old areas are dragged down, or subducted, into the Earth's mantle, which explains why the older rocks cannot be found.

By about 35 million years ago the pattern of land and sea was very much like it is today. But the continents are still moving and as the Atlantic and Indian oceans continue to get wider by a few inches every year, the Pacific is slowly shrinking. At the northeast corner of Africa we can see the start of a new ocean. For the last 25 million years, the Red Sea has been widening. If it continues at the same rate, in 200 million years it will be as wide as the Atlantic is today.

If you look down at our planet from outer space, most of what you see is water; 71% of the planet's surface is covered by ocean and it is because of this that the Earth is sometimes called "the water planet". Only about three-tenths of our globe is covered with land.

The ocean wraps the globe and is divided into four major regions: the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean and the Arctic Ocean. Some scientists consider the waters around Antarctica to be a separate, fifth ocean as well. These oceans, although distinct in some ways, are all interconnected; the same water is circulated throughout them all.

If all the continents were crammed into one corner of the Earth, the vast extent of the world ocean could easily be seen. In reality, of course, the continents are not bunched together as shown in the figure to the right, but instead are spread out over the entire Earth's surface. Most oceanographers, however, believe that a long time ago in the Earth's geologic history all of the continents were once grouped closely together in much the same manner.