Chapter 1: Knowing the Ocean World
An Ocean World • Ocean creatures provide 2% of humanity’s food • 1/3 of the world’s petroleum and natural gas are pumped from beneath the ocean floor • ~ 71% world is covered by water • Ocean – vast body of saline water that occupies the depressions of the earth’s surface • 97% of the water on or near the earth’s surface is contained in the ocean; less than 3% is held in land ice, groundwater, and freshwater lakes and rivers • [pic]
Marine Science, Oceanography, and the Nature of Science
OCEANOGRAPHY – PROCESS OF DISCOVERING UNIFYING PRINCIPLES IN DATA OBTAINED FROM THE OCEAN, ITS ASSOCIATED LIFE FORMS, AND THE BORDERING LANDS. It draws on several different principles... • Marine geology – the study of the earth’s crust and compositions • Physical oceanography – the study of waves and currents, climate predictions • Marine biology – study of nature and distribution of marine organisms • Chemical oceanography – the study of the gasses and solids dissolved in the ocean • Marine engineering – the design and construction of structures used in or on the ocean
SCIENCE – SYSTEMATIC PROCESS OF ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT THE OBSERVABLE WORLD BY GATHERING AND STUDYING DATA… • Curiosity – a question arises about an event or situation • Observations • Hypothesis – a tentative explanation is proposed • Experiments – test are undertaken in nature/laboratory • Theory – explanation for observers that is accepted by most researchers • Law – principles explaining events in nature that have been observed to occur with unvarying uniformity under the same conditions
Early Voyaging and Discovery
- Voyaging – traveling on the ocean for a specific purpose • Chinese – engineered an extensive system of inland waterways (commerce) o Invented the central rudder, water tight compartments, and sails on multiple masts