Chapter 1 - Oceans of Planet Earth

Notes for Chapter 1:
Geographic and Geologic Features of the World's Oceans

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or Lecture Notes by Chapter
or ahead to Chapter 2

I. Introduction to Course
II. Studying effectively

Selected Excerpts from Course Introduction:
        Clicking on web links is "optional" but they will help illustrate
            points made in lecture and by the author of MLATS
        The web is very visual, links will help you visualize
        Certain plants or animals will be a Featured Organism
        Certain places of special interest are a Featured Locality
        Each chapter starts with an interesting Case History (read it)
        Review questions will be interjected in notes (RQ)

III. Oceans of Planet Earth

        Case History: Europa
        RQ1.1: Where is the largest known ocean in the solar
            system?

      Dividing up the oceans
            The ocean can be divided by latitude
            Study Table 1.1 (an ocean map is here)

RQ1.2: Which are the two deepest and two shallowest
ocean regions?

Oceans by latitude zone, N to S

    RQ1.3: What are the latitudes for each of the following
            8 ocean zones?
    RQ1.4: What are some generalities that can be used to
            characterize each?

                1. Arctic Ocean
                    Note important definitions of
                 plankton, nekton, and benthic organisms

                In lecture I emphasized the life cycle of a sea urchin
                Click to view a Gallery of Echinoderm Larvae
                or a more general Gallery of Marine Larvae

RQ1.5: What is the distinction between the above terms?

2. Best-known latitudes
especially northern Atlantic Ocean

Featured Organism p. 4: Stellar's sea cow

3. Inland Seas, Historic Shores

                        Featured Organism p. 5, p. 6 (Fig. 1.3):
                          Caspian seal (see here for recent die-offs)
                        Featured Organism p. 5: Giant squid
                        Featured Locality   p. 5: Delaware Bay
                        Featured Locality   p. 6 (Fig. 1.2):
                          George's Bank

4. Warm Ocean Deserts

RQ1.6: What is a gyre, where are the two largest ones, and
why are they referred to as deserts?

Featured Organism p. 7: Sargassum
Featured Locality p. 7: Cariaco Basin

5. Line of Life

RQ1.7: Why are the coral reefs of the Philippines and vicinities
so spectacular in their diversity of organisms?

Featured Locality p. 8: Philippine Coral Reefs
Links: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5

6. Living Relicts

                        Featured Organism p. 9:
                          Maldive coconut (coco de mer)
                        Featured Organism p. 9: Coelacanth
                        Featured Locality   p. 9:
                          Shark Bay, Australia (living stromatolites)
                                        Links: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8

7. Unknown Oceans

                        Featured Organism p. 9:
                          Mocha Dick "The Whale"
                        Featured Locality   p. 9:
                          Videos of "Roaring Forties"
                                and Cape Horn (Requires RealPlayer)

8. The Great Southern Ocean
View satellite Images or narrated movie of Antarctica and vicinity

RQ1.8: What is the significance of the Antarctic
Convergence (Fig. 1.6)?

                        Featured Organism p. 10: Antarctic skua
    Featured Organism p. 10: Antarctic penguins
          Links: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6
Visit animated penguin
source: Partytown Penguins

Featured Organisms p. 10:
Baleen whales and krill

IV. Ocean Floor

RQ1.9: Why is "continental drift" a less accurate phrase
than "plate tectonics"?

RQ1.10: What are "plates" and what happens at their edges?
At the "spreading center" edge? At the "trench" edge?

Some useful links on plate tectonics (click Back button to return)

Featured Locality p. 12, Fig. 1.8:
Mid-Atlantic Ridge More Links 1 - 2 - 3 - 4

        Updates on Jan. 25, 2001 M7.9 Earthquake in India
        and Feb. 28, 2001 M6.8 Earthquake in Olympia, Washington
         and June 23, 2001 8.3 Earthquake in Peru
         and Nov. 14, 2001 M7.9 Earthquake in China
        Prof. Ee was near the summit of Mt. Etna the day before
            the June 13, 2001 eruptions, kicking off a spectacular month!
            Links: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8

RQ1.11: Order these in the order they occur in time:
a) barrier reef; b) atoll; c) fringing reef

      Charles Darwin is rightfully the most famous biologist but he
            also made extremely important contributions in geology
     including his publication of a theory on how coral atolls form

RQ1.12: Where is the ocean the most productive, and why?

Cool current images from space of
primary productivity in the sea

Seafloor map of Monterey Bay Submarine Canyon

Monterey Bay Aquarium's
Mysteries of the Deep On-line Exhibit

RQ1.13: Why do deepsea mountains have a "snow line"?

        RQ1.14: If a foram skeleton drifting downward would
                take 400 days, by itself, to sink a typical ocean
                depth of 4 km, how do they often make it to the
                bottom much faster?

RQ1.15: What are deep sea organisms feeding on?

Featured Organism p. 15 (see p. 142-143):
foram, Globigerina

Featured Organism p. 15 (see p. 114, Tab. 5.1):
copepod

V. Planetary Features that affect Ocean Life

Divide the ocean by:

            Proximity (closeness) to shore (neritic vs. oceanic)
            Depth (epi- meso- bathy- abysso- or hadopelagic)
            Seafloor zones (supralittoral or "splash" zone, intertidal,
                    sublittoral or "subtidal", bathyal zone, abyssal zone,
                    hadal)

RQ1.16: What does "deep sea" refer to?

            Earth tilt regions: 23.5°N to 23.5°S = tropics,
                23.5 to 66.5° N or S = temperate;
                66.5° to 90° N or S = polar)

Latitude regions: low, mid, high (30° latitude division)

        RQ1.17: Where is Fullerton with respect to these last two
                divisions? How often (if ever) is the sun directly
                overhead in Fullerton? Why is the daylength =
                nightlength everwhere on earth about March 21 and
                September 21?

        RQ1.18: Where was "southern California" 65 mya, relative
                to the place presently at this same latitude and longitude
                on Earth today? How about 150 mya?

            View animation of plate tectonics in the last 200 my
                (click on Reload to repeat)
                  View excellent lecture notes on the ocean floor here or plate tectonics here: 1 - 2 - 3

RQ1.19: What important events of earth history, over the
last 21 my, account for the present "ice age" we live in?

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