Lecture 1- Intro to Oceanography

Question 1

What is planet ocean?

Answer 1

• Most prominent feature
• covers 70.8% of earths surface
• Origin and development of life on earth is connected to the ocean
• Long history on earth

Question 2

How much of earths surface is covered by ocean?

Answer 2

70.8%

Question 3

What are the 6 main reasons why studying the ocean is hard?

Answer 3

1. Inaccessibility
2. Pressure
3. “Seeing”through the ocean water
4. Conductivity/corrosion/fouling
5. Wave motion
6. Logistics

Question 4

Why does inaccessibility make studying the ocean difficult?

Answer 4

• Cant breathe water
• Average ocean depth from sea level is 3682m(max 11022m) and average hight of land is 840m (max 8850) therefor most of the ocean is as hard to access as the tallest mountains on land
• tools used to collect samples and ships are slow
• ships and equipment are also very expensive

Question 5

Why is pressure a factor in making studying the ocean difficult?

Answer 5

• Ocean pressure increases approx. 1 atmosphere per 10 meters in depth decreased, therefor at 100m in death the pressure is 11 times more then it was at surface level
• Instruments needed to survive this pressure are very expensive

Question 6

Why is it difficult to study the ocean because of how we see in it?

Answer 6

• water is an efficiant absorber of electromagnetic tradiation including light so most of the ocean cannot be seen optically

Question 7

What are the 3 levels of how distance effects sunlight traveling through the ocean? And what are there features?

Answer 7

• Sea level to 200m- Sunlight(eurphotic) zone sunlight rarely goes past this point
• 200m-1000m- twilight(dysphotic) zone sunlight here rapidlt decreases with depth and photosynthesis is impossible
  -1000m and lower- midnight(aphotic) zone this zone is bathed in darkness

Question 8

What are some logistics that make studying the ocean hard?

Answer 8

• Bad weather
• Broken equipment

Question 9

Why is wave motion a aspect that can make studing the ocean difficult?

Answer 9

• Ocean surface is dynamic
• rapidly changing conditions
• heavy equipment
• seasickness

Question 10

What is oceanography?

Answer 10

• The study of ALL aspects of the marine environment
• an interdisciplinary science

Question 11

What are the 6 sciences that make up oceanography?

Answer 11

1. Geology
2. Geography
3. Astronomy
4. Physics
5. Chemistry
6. Biology

Question 12

What are examples of things studied in physical oceanography?

Answer 12

Waves, currents, tides, ocean-atmosphere interactions, transmission of light/sound, etc.

Question 13

What are examples of things studied in chemical oceanography?

Answer 13

effects of pollution, chemical properties and composition of seawater, etc.

Question 14

What are examples of things studied in biological oceanography?

Answer 14

oceanic life, adaptations to environments, oceanic relationships, etc.

Question 15

Why do we study oceanography?

Answer 15

• about half of the population lives within 10’s of km of a ocean
• food source
• navigation
• influence on climate and weather

Question 16

What % of people live close to an ocean?

Answer 16

50%

Question 17

How do we study oceans?

Answer 17

Theory, observations, and numerical models

• None are sufficient alone

Question 18

Why are numerical models not sufficient alone when studying the ocean?

Answer 18

• they are just a approx of real world
• cannot replicate small scale processes

Question 19

Why are observations of th eocean alone not enough to study it?

Answer 19

• They are too sparse in time and space
• cannot represent the entire ocean

Question 20

Why are theories not enough alone to study the ocean?

Answer 20

• They are oversimplified because ocean processes are non-linear

Question 21

Depending on what we want to study we decide…

Answer 21

• What we measure
• How we measure
• geographical areas of interest
• different processes and scales of interest