Question

Give reasons for the following:

Land is heated and cooled faster than the sea.

Answer 1

Sunlight falls on both land and water. Land surfaces are opaque and darker and absorb most of the light and surface heats up whereas water reflects most of the sunlight falling on it back to the atmosphere. That is why land surfaces heat up faster than water. During summers land is much warmer than water. Also rougher and dryer materials absorb more radiations than wetter ones. The land has a smaller heat capacity than water i.e land needs less heat to raise its temperature
Water has a high specific heat capacity and it has to lose more energy than land to decrease its temperature. Also, water retains heat for a longer period of time.