Introduction to Oceanography

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Introduction to Oceanography
http//www.mohave.edu/pages/595.asp
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Oceanography

• The study of Earths oceans
• The First Oceanographers
• Ocean farers people who depended on the ocean
  for survival (food, travel, etc.)
• Polynesians, Phoenicians
• Learned about the surface ocean

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/300px-Hawaiiancanoe.jpg
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Studying the Oceans

• One of the youngest sciences
• Began with Matthew Fontaine Maury
• 1825 Entered the Navy
• 1842 Head of the Dept. of Charts and
• Instruments
• 1844 First Superintendent of the
• Naval Observatory
• 1844 Wrote Charts of the Winds
• and Currents
• 1854 Wrote The Physical Geography of the Sea
• 1861 Resigned the U.S. Navy and entered the CSA
  Navy
• 1868 Professor of meteorology at VMI

http//www.history.navy.mil/pics/mauryglobe.jpg
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Studying the Oceans

• Deep ocean study began in 1872
• British expedition of the HMS Challenger
• Ocean currents
• Water temperature
• Water chemistry
• Ocean sediments
• Topography of the seafloor
• Marine life
• Used nets, dredges, trawls, and
• weighted line

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http//www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/03m
ountains/background/challenger/media/route.html
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Studying the Oceans

• Sonar sound navigation and ranging
• Used later on expeditions like the German Meteor
• 1925-1927 Made 13 Atlantic crossings to map
  ocean floor
• Refined during World War II for submarine
  detection
• After WWII, new technology used to map entire
  ocean floor

• Ship sends sound waves to bottom and they bounce
  back
• Velocity of sound in water 1500 m/s
• Use time from when waves leave ship to when they
  return to calculate depth
• Depth time x 1500 m/s
• 2

http//www.divediscover.whoi.edu/images/sonar_mult
ibeam_top.gif
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Studying the Oceans

• Modern study of the oceans
• Satellites
• Side-scan sonar

• Submersibles
• Deep-ocean drilling

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es/SS0100_oceanDrilling1.jpg
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One Big Ocean

• All oceans on Earth are connected
• What happens in one area can affect another
• Geographers have divided the one ocean into 5
  major oceans, many seas, bays and gulfs
• Major Oceans basaltic crust (dense)
• Pacific largest, deepest ? getting smaller
• Atlantic smaller, shallower ? getting bigger
• Indian
• Arctic
• Antarctic circles the globe
• Seas, Bays, Gulfs
• Partially land-locked
• Mediterranean, Caribbean

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Titanic

• Named for the Titans, giant parents of the Roman
  gods
• Called unsinkable
• Built by the White Star Line in Belfast, Ireland
• Could carry 3,547 passengers and crew

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Titanic

• Maiden voyage Southampton, England to New York
  City
• Captain Edward Smith
• 2,340 passengers and crew on board
• 20 lifeboats on board fit 1,178 passengers
• Ship had space for 32 lifeboats
• Morning of April 15, 1912
• Hit an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland,
  Canada
• Took approximately 2 hours, 40 minutes to sink
• Closest ship, Californian, did not respond
• Carpathia responded
• 705 survivors
• 1523 dead
• 306 bodies recovered

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JPG
http//www.immigrantships.net/newcompass/ship_imag
es/c_e/carpathia.jpg
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Finding the Titanic

• Located on Sept. 1, 1985
• Expedition led by Dr. Robert Ballard
• Found at 41N, 49W
• Returned later to explore the site with
  submersibles
• Alvin manned
• Jason unmanned robotic

http//oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/technology/subs/alvi
n/media/alvin1_600.html
http//www.frc.ri.cmu.edu/hagen/samplers/text/JJ_
Sampler.html