WHY STUDY OCEANOGRAPHY

1
WHY STUDY OCEANOGRAPHY?

• A Few Answers

2
Why Study Oceanography?

• Oceans are still a frontier
• Much research needed
• Compare to surface of Moon
• Major food source
• Nova Scotia Fisheries 7 000 jobs,
• 400 M wages, 400 M product value
• Recreation (especially coastal regions)
• Mineral sources
• Sand gravel
• Manganese nodules
• Other minerals
• Energy source (ca. 30 of oil gas offshore
  drilling production from manmade platforms)
  (40 for USA)

3
Why Study Oceanography?

• Canadian Offshore Petroleum Resources
• Scotian Shelf (gas oil)
• Venture gas discovered 1979
• Producing today, pipline system
• Cohasset oil production 1992
• Grand Banks (oil)
• Hibernia giant oil field 1979
• Production began in 1998!
• Beaufort Sea (oil)
• Amauligak giant oil field 1986
• Labrador Shelf (gas known severe
  iceberg/climate problems)
• Baffin Island Shelf (reasonable hope for oil/gas)
• Canadian Arctic islands (oil gas known
  climate factor)
• British Columbia Shelf (hopes)

4
Why Study Oceanography?

• Discovery of plate tectonics in ocean basins has
• revolutionized our view of Planet Earth
• Oceans greatly influence our weather climate
  because of high heat capacity of water
• Transportation still an important means of
  human travel

5
Why Study Oceanography?

• About 90 of intercontinental trade is by marine
  shipping
• For example, chart below shows the major crude
  oil sea distribution routes

Oil Tanker
6
Why Study Oceanography?

• 71 of Earths surface is covered by the oceans
• Pollution (waste disposal problems abuse)
• Communication (e. g., undersea cables)
• Hazards (coastal, shelf, open ocean, deep-sea)
• Military uses (e. g., national defense)
• Coastal Zone
• Environmentally diverse
• Multiple use management
• Erosion and pollution control problems
• Overpopulated
• Salt source (evaporation)
• Water source (desalination)

7
Why Study Oceanography?

• Source of water for Earths water cycle
• Oceans are the destination of continental water
  ( sediment) runoff.

8
Why Study Oceanography?

• Destination of continental sediments
• ca. 90 of all sediments are marine
• Continental shelves 15
• Continental slopes 40
• Continental rises 25
• Sediment transport agents
• Ice (glaciers), wind (dunes), water (rivers,
  marginal seas)
• Sea-level changes (due to ice ages)

9
Why Study Oceanography?

• Major role in geologic history of Earth
• Continental drift, seafloor spreading, magmatic
  arcs
• Canada borders three oceans
• Atlantic
• Pacific
• Arctic
• Canada Has the Longest Coastline
• Atlantic
• 45,000 km long 19 of Canadian coastline
• Pacific
• 26,000 km long 11 of Canadian coastline
• Arctic
• 173,000 km long 71 of Canadian coastline

71
11
19
10
Why Study Oceanography?

• Political and legal problems
• NS NF are in a dispute over their offshore
  boundary
• Canadas 200 nt mile fishing zone declared in
  1977
• Not all countries signed 1982 Law of the Sea
  Treaty
• USA-Canada Eastern boundary dispute
• Gulf of Maine-Georges Bank
• Alaska-BC offshore boundary
• NW passage
• Smuggling along remote coasts
• Arctic sovereignty (ownership?)
• France-Canada
• Grand Banks dispute

11
END OF FILE