Oceanography H. P. Lovecraft once said “Ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time.” (Lovecraft, n.d., Ocean Quotes). Extracting information from times past is what some are researching today. The oceans are vast and mysterious but with the advent of new technology many unmanned submersibles are being built and used to find out more on the mysteries of the ocean. A brief introduction to what oceanography encompasses along with a little history information will be set forth. Then looking at a few ways research is being conducted. Then moving into mentioning who is supporting ocean research and then discussing a few examples of past and present oceanic research. One example has a futurist appeal. Lastly, providing closing thoughts on why studying the ocean is important to us.
What is Oceanography? “Oceanography is an interdisciplinary science that draws on the methods and knowledge of geology, chemistry, physics, and biology to study all aspects of the world oceans.” (Lutgens, Tarbuck, and Tasa, 2014, p 296). Oceanography can be split into four areas of study, biological, physical, geological, and chemical, which can
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At these vents organisms feed and live off of the chemicals that are expelled instead of feeding on rays of the sun (Shugart, 2013). Wally, part of NEPTUNEs entourage, lives amid the bubbles of the sea floor and helps to monitor the deposits (Shugart, 2013). The bubbles originate from the methane deposits that lie in the sea floor where most deposits are frozen or crystalline due to temperature and pressure (Shugart, 2013). If mining these methane deposits, hydrothermal vents are magnets to deep sea creatures, will this diverse group of marine life be put in danger? It would be interesting to see the results of a study on this subject if it is ever
understanding of how the oceans work. The hope is that as a result, we will
In February of 2010, a woman named Dawn Brancheau died while working as an animal trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. There has been a large amount of debate about the circumstances surrounding her death—some say she slipped and fell, while others say that she was dragged in by one of the orcas, Tilikum. The controversy over her tragic death brought this question to the surface: should parks like SeaWorld be closed down for safety reasons? While this argument has been going on for a long time, the death of Brancheau spurred a wave of debates about whether the park should be allowed to remain open. On one side, people believe the parks should be shut down and the animals should be released from captivity in an effort to protect the animals and the humans. On the other side of the argument, people believe the parks should be kept open because of the benefits they offer to the world in education and conservation. In light of SeaWorld’s recent transitions, I believe the park should remain open to the public.
I’m applying to SEA Semester, because I love the ocean. It’s been my dream from a young age to learn to sail and live on a ship. I’m from Aroostook County in Northern Maine, which is five hours away from the ocean. Every summer my parents would make sure I got to the ocean at least once, and I’ve romanticized it since I can remember. Since coming to Bowdoin, I’ve always spent my weekends biking and driving to the ocean, because it’s become a place for me to think clearly and escape the fast-paced life of a college student. The ocean has developed into my happy place, which is why I want to study it and understand how humans are impacting it. I want my undergraduate studies to give me the knowledge needed to protect our oceans in the future, and to be able to conduct research to expand our knowledge of the ocean. To be able to live on a tall ship and continue my studies of the ocean is my dream.
The historical fictional novel, Salt to the Sea, by Ruta Sepetys, takes four main characters, Florian, Joana, Alfred, and Emilia, on one shocking adventure to get onto the ship, the Wilhelm Gustloff, to escape the war that’s hunting them throughout Germany. They encounter death, happiness, and tragedy, which brings them closer. Their lives intervene as they learn to forget their past and get a fresh start. One theme that is learned by the characters is that honesty bonds people together and builds trust, while lies ruin that trust.
Marine biology is the study of marine life in salt water ecosystems. It can also be described as observing how marine species interact with one another. Certain species of underwater plants can affect the environment in which they are put in. Some branches of marine biology study the affects of said plants. There are many branches of marine biology. Many people tend to study dolphins or sharks, since those are the most known marine animal. Only 30% of the world's oceans have been explored. This means that by being a marine biologists, I can have the chance to explore parts of the world that have never been seen before. Not many people are willing to go through the dark places of the oceans. This is what I want to do, because I would be the first one to see what is hidden behind the veil of darkness.
Of all the debris that we dump into the ocean, 75% of it is made of plastic. And each year more than 8 million tons of plastic ends up in the oceans. And this number is bound to grow in the coming years due to our growing dependence of plastic goods.
There is a massive accumulation of waste in the Atlantic ocean, and over 80% of this waste is plastic. Consequently, this plastic waste also gets onto our beaches, potentially closing them. Marine mammals get tangled in or ingest these plastics, causing them to die prematurely. Fish in the ocean absorb the chemicals that plastics release into the ocean, and humans eat these contaminated fish, obtaining pollution into the human food chain, too. The greatest ecological and environmental problem is plastic pollution in the Atlantic Ocean because it pollutes the beaches, releases chemicals and toxins into the water which enters the human food chain, and kills marine animals.
At first glance it seems that from the title, The Drowned World, is just another attempt by JG Ballard to publish a book that uses scientific reasoning to validate the impending doom and failure of man-kind to deal with climatic change. The title also suggests that the world has already succumbed to the fate of a disaster and has been flooded. Moreover, there are many visual clues suggesting the author’s approach to climate change falls in the genre of cli-fi. For instance, one of the clues is the book’s outer cover. It is filled with luscious green fauna and larger than life iguanas, which suggests that the author has taken a more scientific, yet descriptive and narrative approach to describe the apocalypse and its post-apocalyptic era.
Oceans are extremely important, especially since 72% of the Earth's surface is oceans (Frank 12). Not to mention all the other resources that they provide the world with. According to Mary Kate Frank, author of "Saving the World's Oceans", she says, "humans couldn't live on Earth without the ocean" (14). She goes on to say that oceans produce more than half of the Earth's oxygen and provides much of food (14). The oceans also regulate the climate, and gives energy in forms of wave, wind, and tidal power (14). In addition, the oceans contribute to the world's economy by holding more than 90% of world trade (14). "The ocean is the trading route for the planet", is what the NOAA says about the oceans connection to trade. By sea a bunch of different products are traded and collected amount of about $352 billion by U.S. GDP (NOAA). Moreover, Frank says that even though the oceans play an essential role in all these areas, "the most important things the waters offer . . . is their wealth of biodiversity" (14). According to Frank and scientists, "with nearly every deep-sea voyage, scientists find new species" and "as much as 95% of the ocean remains unexplored" (14). All this biodiversity, which some is yet to be discovered, is a key part for many studies and
“The sandy beach is a harsh, constantly changing environment,” explained by the UKMCS (2). This is the ocean is constantly moving because of the wind in the earth’s atmosphere (Crawford 4). Along the edge of most coastlines, a commonly found zone is an estuary (Marine Conservation Society (UK) SouthEast 1). This is where brackish waters, an area where freshwater is released and mixed with the ocean’s salt water, is created (1). However, even though there are small amounts of freshwater added, this does not change that the salinity of the ocean is remarkably high.
Did you know that more than 90 percent of all organisms that have ever lived on Earth are extinct? According to Pandey, the author of Humans Pushing Marine Life toward ‘Major Extinction’, nearly 10,000 species go extinct each year, and this rate is estimated to be 1,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate (1). Human beings are causing irreversible damage to the oceans and their wildlife, which is being led by two major reasons: Commercial fishing or over-fishing, which damaged the marine environment and caused a loss in the marine life diversity, and pollution, which is a primary way of the extinction causes that drastically modifies the marine life habitat. As a result of the commercial fishing and pollution, many of the marine species will start disappearing of the oceans. Briggs emphasizes that over-fishing “has induced population collapses in many species. So instead of having less than a hundred species at risk, as was the case some 30-40 years ago, there are now a thousand or more (10).”
When people think of geology, they usually think of rocks and fossils. However, geology is actually a very large field of study. The knowledge of geologists ranges from rocks and fossils to the moon and other planets (Hammonds 7-8). Geologists use a variety of subjects in their work, but the sciences and math are the most important. Some of the sciences geologists study are physics and chemistry (12). English is also a subject that geologists use when communicating with other scientists, the media, and the public (12) . Because of these tasks, it is important for geologists to have a wide knowledge of these different subjects.
There are about 70% of our earth is covered by water, and people just know a little part of it now. Underwater tourism is an excitement and adventure, and it is also a special tourism concept. The undersea world attracts people to explore the mysterious of the ocean, and the underwater tourism is growing very fast basic on the new technology. Travelers can join this tourism by many different methods, such as underwater restaurant, underwater hotel and underwater activity. There are many travelers will try to have the experience of underwater tourism and spend a lots of many for that. Travelers
The ocean can serve man purposes things for many different people; as a school, a home, a park...
One particularly interesting sea creature is the whale shark, formally known as Rhincondon typus it was first discovered in 1828 by Andrew Smith (Rowat 2012). This large fish is found globally in warm tropical oceans and prefers to stay within 200 meters of the ocean’s surface in waters ranging from 4.2 to 28.7 degrees Celsius (Stevens 2006). This creature can be found all across the globe in any warm tropical seas. Aggregations of whale sharks have been seen off the coast of Australia at times, although it is primarily a creature of solitude. Whale sharks are filter feeders that consume plankton as well as small fish and are harmless to humans. The whale shark is a species with a fascinating ecology, life history, behavior, anatomy