Introduction to Oceanography class and syllabus

1. Introduction to Oceanography class and syllabus http://oceanography.asu.edu/

2. Oceans cover 71% of the Earth’s surface. Oceans contain 95% of Earth’s water. Why care about the ocean? Earth is called ‘the blue planet’ more appropriate name would be ‘Oceanus’, instead of ‘Earth’ Present and past climate would be profoundly different without the oceans. Oceans affect our weather (even in the desert) and moderate temperature. Life as we know it on earth has evolved from the oceans (3 billion years in the oceans before venturing on land) and internal liquids in organisms are still largely saline.

3. The ocean supplies…. …about one-third of natural gas and petroleum …about 16% of protein, and …about 70% of our oxygen …but also absorbs one-third of anthropogenic CO2, one of the most important greenhouse gases …it boarders most of the world’s largest cities, 75% of all Americans live within 50 miles from a coast Ocean provides major transportation and shipping routes and recreational sites.

4. What is Oceanography (I.e. Marine Science)? Combination of various disciplines composed of all branches of natural science, that aim at the investigation of oceanic properties and processes. Oceanographers are the scientists that study the ocean. They come from all disciplines and often work together to study large-scale processes in the ocean.

5. Meteorology Marine Engineers Marine Biology/ Biological Oceanography Oceanography Marine Physics/ Physical Oceanography Marine Geology/ Geological Oceanography Paleoceanography Marine Chemistry/ Chemical Oceanography

6. Scientific notation and SI units

7. Longitude and Latitude

8. Fig. 1-2. Earth’s ocean.

9. How do scientists work? The scientific method Observations Testing (Lab, field…) results presented at meetings, research papers, scrutinized by peers... Hypotheses =tentative explanations If accepted... Theory, Model = accepted explanation of natural phenomenon, can be used as predictive tool Law = verbal or mathematical statement of a well established explanation of a natural phenomenon (e.g. gravity) Scientists are working to make observations (working descriptively) or test hypotheses to explain observations. The process never ends: theories can be revoked any time if they are not in accordance with new observations (similarity of scientists and detectives..).