DOCUMENT RESUME ED 043 501 SE 009 343 TTTLE High School Oceanography. INSTITUTION Falmouth Public Schools, Mass. SPONS AGPNCY Bureau of Elementary and Secondary Education (DHFW/OF) ,Washington, D.C. PUB DATE Jul 70 NOTE 240p. EDRS PRICt FDRS Price MP -81.00 HC-$12.10 DESCRIPTORS *Course Content, *Curriculum, Geology, *Instructional Materials, Marine Rioloov, *Oceanology, Phycal Sciences, Resource Materials, *Secondary School Science TDPNTIFItRS ESFA Title III ABSTRACT This book is a compilation of a series of papers designed to aid high school teachers in organizing a course in oceanography for high school students. It consists of twel7p papers, with references, covering each of the following: (1) Introduction to Oceanography.(2) Geology of the Ocean, (3) The Continental Shelves, (ft) Physical Properties of Sea Water,(e) Waves and Tides, (f) Oceanic Circulation,(7) Air-Sea Interaction, (P) Sea Ice, (9) Chemical Oceanography, (10) Marine Biology,(11) The Origin and Development of Life in the Sea, and (12) Aquaculture, Its Status and Potential. The topics sugoeste0 are intended to give a balanced ,:overage to the sublect matter of oceanography and provide for a one semester course. It is suggested that the topics be presented with as much laboratory and field work as possible. This work was prepared under an PSt% Title III contract. (NB) Title III Public Law 89-10 ESEA Project 1 HIGH SCHOOL OCEANOGRAPHY I S 111119411 Of Mittm. 11K111011Witt 010 OfItutirCm ImStOCum111 PAS 11t1 t10100ocli WC lit IS MIMI 110mMt MS01 01 Wit It1)01 *Ms lit6 il. P) Of Vim 01 C1stiOtS SIM 10 1011HISSI11t t#ItiS111 OMR 011C CO Mita 10k1)01 tot MKT. Oceanographic Education Center Box 585 Falmouth, Nassachueetti 02541 , , James C. Kinney, Director July, 1970 The Oceanographic Education Center ie a Title III Public Law 89-10 ESEA Projaat-iireoted by the Town of Falmouth Public Schools in cooperation with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the U. S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, and the Marine Flulostcra Laboratory. The work presented or reported herein was performed pursuant to a Grant from the U. S. Office or Education, Department of Health, Educationl'and Welfare, Powover, the opinions expressed herein do not necessarily refleot the position or yoliey.of the U. S. Office'of Education, and no official endorsement by the U. S. Office of Educa- tion 6houle be infokrid. ' PREFACE. The Oceanographic Education Conner has ccmpiled this sories of papers to aid teachers in organising a course in oceanography for high school students. The topics included are intended to give a balanced coverage of the subject matter of oceanography and, used in connection with the references, the book contains enough material for a one semester course.Topics have been salootod fron those listed in Oceanographic Curriculum Sor digh Scloolas 9p.14int, written by R. V. Taber, L. R. LaPorte, and E. C. Scith of tho National Oceanographic, Data Center and published by the U. S. Naval Oceanograltio Office in 1968, and the content of eueh paper is based on the outline given therein. In presenting the course, to high school students, the teacher should make every attempt to include as much laboratory and field work as possible. Although we know of no high school oceanography laboratory manual, we have found that exercises from courses in biology, phys!.cs, chemistry, and earth science can often be adapted to the purpooes An idea of how this can be done might be obtained from reading the ex- ercises contained in jakteggupljamktComm. La ihfii,gbn,ShAdo. which is also published by the Oceanographic Education Center. iii CONTENTS PRE `ACE iii I. INTRODdCTION T1 OCEANOGRAPHY - Susan Hubbard Definition of Oceanography: Its Ea'rly Beginnings, 1 Phases in Oceanography, 5 Present Status of Oceanography in the United States, 10 Conolueiont :review of Course Material, 12 GEOLOGY OF THE OCEANS - Geoffre:t Thompson 15 Introduction, 15 Surface Features of the Ocean Floor, 17 Rocks of the Sea Floor, 21 The Earth's Crust Beneath the Sea, 30 The Origin and Permanency of Ocean Basins, 31 Tools and Techniques of the Marine Geologist, 34 3. THE CONTINErTAL SHELVD3 . Or EMERY 47 4. PHYSICAL PROPERTIES or SEA WATER - Redwood Wright 63 5. WAVES AND TIDES - Andrew Vasteno 77 Waves, 77 Tides, 03 6. OCEANIC CIRCULATION - Lynn Forbes 93 Causes and General Description, 93 Strface Currents, 96 Measuring Currents, 102 7. AIRCLA INTERACTION Peter H. Saunders 109 Heat Balance of Planet Earth, 109 Heat Exchange at the Ocean Surface, 110 The Water Balance of the Ocean°, 112 Exohnre of Clasen, 113 Wave Breaking and Bubble Bursting, 114 Hurricanes, 115 Methoda Employed in Invoatigation, 116 8. SEA ICE - William G. Metcalf 119 Forward, 119 Sea Ica, 122 9. CHEMICAL OGEANO0aAPHY Palph T. Vawaro 135 :rr.troduction; 135 Tho Omieral Importance of Water, 136 Geochentoal Origins of SoaWater, 137 Theron]. Proportiou of Vetter and Seawater, 138 The Major Constitrenta of Seawater, 140 Colligative Properties of Seawater, 142 The Latent Beate of Molting and Evaporation, 143 Pressure in the Sea; 144 Color, Tranopareacy, and Light Pecetrat!.11,40, The Minor Constituents of Seawater, 145 10. FAMINE BIOLOOY Ridhatd t. Barber 149 rood Chain or Energy *epics of the Sea) 149 Verticol Migration and Bioluminescence, 159 Marino Microbiology, 163 11. THE anon AND DEVELOkiNT OF LIFE IN TH3 SEA Richard T. Barber 169 11;o Origin of Life, 169 The Development of Life in the Seas, 173 vi 12. AQUACULTURE, ITS STATUS AND POTENTIAL J. 11. Ryther and Cb C. Hatthiessen 183 Production in Aquatic Areas, 186 Constraints upon Aquaculture, 187 Problems in Culturing,188 Milkfish, 189 Lobsters, 190 Sythetio Food, 190 The Future of Aquaculture, 192 Neu Program, 196 APPENDIX 199 Suppleuentary Films, 199 Distributors' Addresses, 2U7 vii 1. INTRODUCTION TO OCHANOGRAPHY by Susan Hubbard Ycoda Hole, Massachusetts I. Every advance in our knowledge of the sea sakes the in- teiddiiiidencemors and more apparent. It is not likely that . weshall soon see any general abandonment of this concept of oceanography as a mother seisms, the branches of whiob, 'though necessarily attacked by different dieoiplines, are intertwined too closely to be ,torn apart. HenryB. Bigelow Definition of Oceanography Its Rarly Beginnings In its broadest sense oceanography ielhe scientific 'Audi of the ooeano and of the 71 percent of the earth's surface that lion beneath them. It is composed of several disoiplines including physics, chemistry, geology, and biology which, in close cooperation with one another, seek to describe, interpret, and predict the complex processes that occur- within the Doane.' Oceanography does not have the characteristics of a universal- scion°e at'does physics, whose laws are true in all places at all times. Rafti, it is more olOaeltallied to the earth sciences; and.its lewi like generalities apply to a specific body of water at a particular tine. The interconnecting body of water, or World Ooean, that covers so much of the earth has been divided, for convenience' sake, into three, four, or five oceans, depending on the system of names popular at the went. to addition to these open-ooeaftareas, which Latitude the $tlantio, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic, oceanography fa also concerned with smaller, adjoining bodies of water such as seas, gulf*, 'Ws, straits, fjords, and estuaries. In the study of this vast amount of water, covering 120 million square miles, biological oceanographers concern themselves with plant and animal life in the sea; geological oceanographers consider the structure and formation of ocean basins and sediments; physical oceano- graphers study the physical proportiea of sea water, waves, tides, the distribution and oiroulation of witer:aaaS0001 and chemical oceanographers study the sea as a solution containing traces of all naturally ocourrring elements. The relationships between there disciplines are not static and their changing patternS refleot the wide variety of problems considered by oceanographers. What combina4ong of talents tomorrow's problems will encourage are hard to predict, but it seems probable that some form of cooperation will continue as long ae'the study of the changing sea con- tinues. Our understanding of the oceans has usually been acquired by a long and costly procedure which begins with a cruise on which a (Teat deal of date are collected. Later this information is processed and analysed and certain regularities may become apparent, as well as certain notable exceptions. It is interesting to note that the time and effort involved in publishing scientific reports are great in proportion to that expended on the cruise itself. The results from the well-known ghsllenger Expe dition (9810-1816) were not completed until 1895 and studies are still being made on the collections. As analysis of the data collected at sea proceeds, hypotheses are advanced that try to explain why things exist as they do, Host often the learning process stops here and the tentative hypothesis decided upon stands until another expedition brings back data which suggest eh alter' nate explanation.' -theories concerning coral reefs, for example, have had a particularly oolorfol, and at tiles unstable, history.Charles Darwin's theory of subsidence,. or of slowly sinking volcanic islands around Whose periphery coral reefs grow, was proposed in the mid-1800's and based on observations made by Darwin aboard the surveying ship Beagle. Several decades later, . 2 " scientists aboard the'Challenger, expressed doubt that all the reefs they had observed could be explained by Darwin's theory.Further investigations by the noted American naturalist Alexander Agassis led him to propound a very different theory which involved the elevation rathpr than the sinking of &eland areas. Opinion seesawed back and forth between conflicting theories until the 1940's when deep holes drilled into Einiwetok in the Marshall Islanaa (in conjunction with nuclear weapons teats there) penetrated a coral capping more than'4f,000 feet thick before hitting volcanic rock.