what is the annual teperature range for open water?

Question

biotic factors

Answer 1

G'day Christopher V,

Thank you for your question.

The freezing point of water is below 0 degrees and the boiling point is 100 degrees. This is assuming 1 atmosphere of pressure. On top of Mount Everest the pressure is about 260 mbar (26 kPa) so the boiling point of water is 69 °C.

A simple but environmentally important and unique property of water is that its common solid form, ice, floats on its liquid form. This solid phase is not as dense as liquid water, due to the geometry of the strong hydrogen bonds which are formed only at lower temperatures. For almost all other substances and for all other 11 uncommon phases, the solid form is denser than the liquid form. Fresh water at standard atmospheric pressure is most dense at 3.98 °C, and will sink by convection as it cools to that temperature, and if it becomes colder it will rise instead. This reversal will cause deep water to remain warmer than shallower freezing water, so that ice in a body of water will form first at the surface and progress downward, while the majority of the water underneath will hold a constant 4 °C. This effectively insulates a lake floor from the cold. Almost all other chemicals are denser as solids than they are as liquids, and freeze from the bottom up.

I have attached sources for your reference.

Regards

Answer 2

That depends greatly on where you are located. The annual temperature range for open water in the Caribbean is a lot different from the range in the North Atlantic. Where I live the temperature range 20 miles offshore is greatly different from the range 50 miles offshore, because 50 miles offshore you would enter the Gulf Stream, an ocean current which is considerably warmer than the waters it is flowing through.