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Earth Science Oceanography “Water World”
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Oceanography “The application of science to the study of phenomena in the oceans”. Oceanography is a broad Science
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4 Disciplines Geological Oceanography –Structure of the sea floor Chemical Oceanography –Chemical composition and properties of seawater Physical Oceanography –Waves, tides, currents Biological Oceanography –Oceanic life forms
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Why Study Oceanography? Oceans comprise 71% of the Earth’s surface Oceans contain 97.2% of the water on or near the Earth’s surface Source of Food Transportation and Travel Weather Shoreline –Interface between land and ocean
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CLIMATE
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WEATHER
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Shoreline – Waves Baby
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Food & Marine Life
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The 5 Oceans Pacific Ocean –Largest and deepest ocean –Mariana Trench: 11 km., 36,000 ft. (Mt. Everest 29,000 ft.) Atlantic Ocean –About ½ the size of the Pacific Indian Ocean –Southern hemisphere Arctic Ocean –¼ as deep, much smaller, sea ice Southern Ocean –South of 50 deg. South latitude
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“Just the Facts…” Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii, measures ~10,600 m from the ocean floor, making it the tallest mountain on the planet (surpassing even Mt. Everest). If the Earth’s contours were leveled to a smooth ball, the ocean would cover it to a depth of 2686 m.
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“Just the Facts…” The ocean contains some 5 trillion tons of salts –If dried and spread evenly, that mass would cover the entire planet to a depth of 45 m. On a planetary scale the ocean is insignificant. –Its average depth is a tiny fraction of the Earth’s radius.
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Historical Review of Oceanography Roots traced to ocean exploration. Describing the oceans
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Herodotus (ca 450 BCE) Where is …. ?
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Historical Review of Oceanography The 18th century was marked by –Improvements in navigation and mapping –Accumulation of data for charts Temperature, currents
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In the United States, Benjamin Franklin (1769-1770) published the first chart of the Gulf Stream Historical Review of Oceanography (Cont.)
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In Britain, James Cook (1768-1779) –Constructed charts of coastlines especially for the South Pacific –Secondary discovery the Hawaiian Islands Historical Review of Oceanography (Cont.)
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In the 19th century curiosity about the oceans increased and voyages for scientific purposes were initiated
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Charles Darwin: British naturalist –Voyage of the Beagle (1831-1836), studied geology and biology of the South American coastline Developed theory of organic evolution based on natural selection Published On the Origin of the Species (1859)
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The Voyage of the HMS Beagle Charles Darwin Route of the HMS Beagle
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C. Wyville Thompson: British explorer –Directed the Challenger Expedition (1872-1876) First major scientific expedition Globe-encircling voyage Chemical, physical, and biological measurements and collections Historical Review of Oceanography (Cont.)
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The Challenger Expedition
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What is Oceanography Today?
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Geological Oceanography (Marine Geology) Study of rocks and sediments & processes responsible for their formation.
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Marine Geophysics Study of rock structure in the ocean basin, properties of rocks such as magnetism, occurrence of earthquakes.
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Physical Oceanography How and why ocean currents flow, air-sea interactions such as the generation of waves by the wind.
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Chemical Oceanography Composition of sea water and the processes controlling and altering its composition, including marine pollution.
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Biological Oceanography (Marine Biology) Organisms that live in the oceans and their relationships to the environment.
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Ocean Engineering Design and installation of oceanographic instrumentation and vehicles
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Summary: What is Oceanography? Broad science focused on the oceans –Geology/geophysics, chemistry, physics, biology, engineering Highly interdisciplinary Also highly collaborative We are still exploring (!) but … Feeds also into ocean policy, management, and conservation
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