Course
Description and Objectives:
Students should leave this course with a thorough understanding of
the ocean and of the many roles it plays in shaping the surface of
our planet. We will discuss the challenges and rewards of
oceanographic research. We will explore the origin and history of
the oceans, the tectonic forces that shape the ocean basins, and the
rocks and minerals that make up the ocean floor. We will examine
the living organisms of the oceanic world, and we will study the
ocean’s control of global and regional climate. We will also
explore human exploitation of marine resources and the dangers we
may cause the world and ourselves.
Laboratories:
There will be weekly laboratory sessions in which we
expand upon lecture topics and allow you to try your hand at
geologic and oceanographic research. There will be a variety of
types of activities, including working with rock samples and
specimens, conducting chemical analyses, working with maps and
computers, running simulations, and analyzing data. Each lab
will weigh equally toward your final grade unless otherwise
specified. Weekly lab assignments are due at the beginning of
the following lab; i.e., the lab you are given on a Monday is
due at the beginning of lab the following Monday.
Late Work:
Work will be accepted after the due date for up to 10
days. For each day or portion of a day the work is late, a
penalty of 5% of the student’s grade will be assessed, to a
maximum penalty of 50%. No late work will be accepted after 10
days except in emergency circumstances (major health problems or
the equivalent). Note that it is ALWAYS better to turn in what
you have than not to turn anything in at all. I’m generous with
partial credit, but I have to give you zero credit if I’ve got
zero to work with.
Text:
Introductory Oceanography, 10th edition,
Thurman and Burton,
Ó
2001, Prentice Hall Publishing Company, 554 pp. Other readings
may be assigned as needed. You may be able to get by with a 9th
edition, which may also be considerably cheaper; the book
doesn’t change too much between editions. The chapter numbers
are somewhat different, however; make sure you’re reading the
right material.
Exams:
There will be two hour exams and one final exam in this course.
The final exam will cover all course topics but will emphasize
the final section of the course after the second exam. Exams are
based more on lectures and discussions than on reading, but the
reading serves as an important supplement and expansion on the
course materials.
Attendance:
The lectures cover the things I think are most important, and
want you to learn. Missing one means you miss a major part of
the course. If you miss more than four lectures, you may be
asked to drop the class.
Grading:
Grades in this course will be determined as follows. Grading
will be on a straight scale with a supporting curve. For
example, a student who scores 85% of the total available points
is guaranteed a B. However, if that student is in the top 15%
of the class, she will get an A- or A instead.
|
Item Weight
|
|
First exam..................... 15% |
|
Second exam................ 15% |
|
Final exam.................... 20% |
|
Labs.............................. 40% |
|
Class participation........ 10% |
|
|
Grade
|
%
Range
|
Minimum
% of class
|
|
A
|
90-100
|
15
|
|
B
|
80-89
|
35
|
|
C
|
70-79
|
35
|
|
D
|
60-69
|
10
|
|
F |
<60 |
-- |
|
Pop Quizzes:
There will occasionally be quizzes on subjects from lectures or
reading taken in the first few minutes of class in place of
roll-call attendance. Good performance on these quizzes will
improve your final grade. Poor performance or missing the quizzes
may hurt your class participation grade.
Workload:
Guilford College
expects average students to work three hours per week (including
class time) for each credit hour. This is a four-credit course.
So, for a C+/B- grade, this comes out to about 12 hours of work per
week for a typical student, about six and a half of which are
outside of class (reading, working on labs, researching, reviewing
with others). You won’t always
work exactly 12 hours every week, and the different course
activities may not take you the same amount of time as they do other
students. However, an example of the breakdown could be something
like this:
|
Item |
Time |
|
Class meetings |
2.5 hours |
|
Lab meeting |
3 hours |
|
Reading and study |
3 hours |
|
Completing lab assignments |
3 hours |
|
Reviewing for tests |
0.5 hours |
Guilford
Honor Code:
Guilford’s
Honor Code, “I have been honest and I have observed no dishonesty,”
applies to all of your work for this class. For the purposes of
this class, this means that all work you turn in must be your own
unless I explicitly state that you're allowed to turn in work as a
group. With the exception of quizzes and exams, you may consult with
others and work with others in doing your work. It is acceptable to
work in groups; it is not acceptable merely to copy answers or
solutions. Under no circumstances are you to turn in someone else's
work, in full or in part, as your own. Violations of the honor code
will be referred to the Judicial Board or other appropriate college
unit. At a minimum, a violation will result in zero credit and, at
the instructor’s option, a failing grade in the course. |
|
Lecture topics for First Exam
(Book Chapters 1-5)
|
|
Lecture topics for Second Exam
(Book Chapters 6-11 plus parts of 12 and 13)
- Light absorption in seawater (blue and some green penetrate, red and violet absorbed rapidly)
- Ocean structure
- Seawater
- Heating and cooling of water
- Atmospheric and oceanic circulation and climate
- Differential heating of poles and equator
- Vertical movement of air (high and low pressure, deserts and rainy areas)
- Horizontal movement of air (winds and wind bands)
- Coriolis effect (from rotation of Earth)
- Surface currents and gyres (big circular current patterns)
- Temperature and speed of ocean currents (western
intensification)
- Waves
- Tides
- Two theories:
- Equilibrium theory -- Tides are primarily caused by bulges in the ocean surface created by the sun and moon. Each of these creates one bulge on the side facing it and one bulge on the opposite side. As the earth spins, different spots enter the area of the bulge and experience high tides.
- Dynamic theory -- This theory covers the features of tides not explained by the equilibrium theory. The dynamic theory corrects for the fact that tides occur within ocean basins and are affected by land and the ocean floor.
- Tides are caused about 2/3 by the moon, 1/3 by the sun
- At low latitudes tides are semi-diurnal (two high and two low tides per day)
- At high latitudes tides are diurnal (one high and one low tide per day)
- In between, tides are mixed, with one high high tide, one low high tide, one high low tide, and one low low tide
- When sun, earth, and moon are in alignment (syzygy) the tidal range is greatest. This condition is called a
spring tide.
- When the sun and moon create bulges perpendicular to each other, the tidal range is smallest. This is a
neap tide.
- Coastal erosion and engineering
- Longshore current (waves break at an angle and run back straight, so zig-zag path means water is along the coastline)
- Longshore transport (longshore currents also move sand and other sediments with them)
- Coastal construction (especially groins) can be harmful if longshore transport isn't taken into account
- Harbor construction can fail to protect ships if wave behavior (reflection, diffraction) is not considered
- Marine biology and ecosystems
- Photosynthesis and chemosynthesis
-
Oxygenation and Banded Iron Formations (BIFs)
-
Autotrophy vs. heterotrophy
- Coral and reef communities - symbiotic algae, temperature requirements,
growth forms, etc.
- Photosynthesis vs. Chemosynthesis
- Q10 rule (10°C change = double metabolic rate)
- Living in marine environment - evolution of marine species
- Benefits
- Support
- Waste removal
- Readily available water
- Food floats by (filter feeding)
- Drawbacks
- Cold temperature
- Salinity (particularly for spawning fish or in estuaries)
- Lack of light
|
|
Additional Lecture topics for Final Exam
(Book Chapters 12-18)
NOTE: Final exam is CUMULATIVE! You need to know the earlier stuff too.
- Plankton, Nekton, Benthos
- Food chains/webs, upwelling
- Nutrients and the Redfield Ratio
- Bermuda Triangle - many possible causes
- Bad luck - it's a stormy, highly traveled area
- Compass confusion - it's one of the few places where magnetic north is the same as true north
- Methane bubbles - there are lots of frozen methane deposits underwater which can melt, leading to bubbles in the water which can make the water less dense). This could also affect planes.
- Whales - evolution, adaptation, and human hunting (click
for lecture notes) (click for
slides)
- Law of the Sea and Fisheries (click
for slide show)
- Additional Topics
- Greenhouse Effect - incoming sunlight hits Earth and is re-radiated as heat; this heat gets trapped by carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and other gases which are transparent to sunlight
- Global warming is bad for some people (e.g. coastal regions) but good for others (e.g. Siberians)
- Earth's heat balance (incoming light vs. heat emission)
- Carbon dioxide
- Methane
- Positive feedback (e.g. albedo, clathrates)
- Negative feedback (e.g. evaporation and clouds)
- Ozone loss (ozone = O3) and ultraviolet radiation (incoming UV light is normally blocked by the ozone layer, but chlorofluorocarbons have been destroying ozone, allowing damaging UV light to reach the surface of the Earth)
- More UV light is bad for all living things, because it causes genetic damage (which can lead to cancer in complex organisms)
- Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)
- Ozone dynamics (absorbs ultraviolet light)
- Ozone holes over poles
Click
Here for the answers to Problem Set II
|
|