GEOL 4060/5060: Oceanography

Spring 2009Lecturers: Dr Chris Jenkins (chris.jenkins@colorado.edu)Tech Asst: Mr Evan Anderson (Evan.P.Anderson@colorado.edu)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