GEOL 4060/5060: Oceanography
Spring 2009Lecturers: Dr Chris Jenkins ([email protected])Tech Asst: Mr Evan Anderson ([email protected])Where: ESCI 265:
When: Lect: 14:00 -14:50 Monday; Lab: 15:00 - 16:50 MondayLect 14:00 - 15:50 Friday
LEARNING MATERIALS :
Instead of making certain textbooks recommended or required, we will use the library resources and the web. This allows us to be more up-to-date with the science.
General background text …(0) Oceanography: An Invitation to Marine Science: T. Garrison, Cengage Learning, Belmont, CA, 8th Edition, 605pp
Specific texts…(1) Waves, Tides and Shallow-Water Processes: J. Wright, A. Colling, & D. Park: Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford UK, 1999, 2nd Edition, 227 pp. (abbr. WT below)
(2) Ocean Circulation: A. Colling: Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford UK, 1999, 2nd
Edition, 286 pp. (abbr. OC below)
(3) Seawater: Its composition, properties and behavior: J. Wright & A. Colling: Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford UK, 1999, 2nd Edition, 227 pp. (abbr. SW below)
(4) Web and other resources as given from time to time.
Career Options:
• Fisheries: Management, Aquaculture, Business
• Petroleum Industry: Ever deeper/more difficult oil, understanding margins, DOE, BOEM
• Environmental Protection, Regulation and Restoration: EPA, MMB, DOJ, NOAA
• Meteorology: NOAA, NASA
• Defense: ONR, NOO, NRL
• Mapping: USGS, cable routes, satellites
• Ocean Engineering: platforms, shipping, energy, habitat
Major project
EIS project
RequirementsStep 1: Define the project (use existing as template)
Step 2: Define the region (lecturer will help with this)
Step 3: The EISWave climate, currentsTemperatures, densities
Seafloor typesSpill, nutrient impacts
Noise, artificial substratesPost-project clean-up
Step 4: Assessment and public release
Data SourcesProjects and settingsDatabases:
World Ocean AtlasusSEABED and EssentialFishHabitat (EFH) mappingsWAM ETOPO2, GTOPO30Others
We will look into these during the lab sessions
The Blue Marble
Major events in Earth’s development
Favored theory is that the first genetic material is RNA, being more chemically stable and be the early form of the ribosome.Hyrdothermal vents today, formed in the deep ocean provide reaction-encouraging energy and short amino-acid chainsImpact craters are ideal places to get life going: the heat generated leads to local hydrothermal springs, and their cooling over time could allow individual molecules to get together in complex chains
The four principal oceansPacificAtlanticIndianArctic
Plus:Southern or Antarctic Ocean
Oceans are interconnected (“world ocean”)Their huge size and volume (97% of Earth’s water) act as a reservoir
Comparing depth of the oceans to elevation on land
End