CORE 022: Introduction to Oceanography
Syllabus

The topic list for this project is: marine geology, ocean chemistry, ocean physics, oceanic flows and waves, and marine life and marine ecology.

Prerequisite: CORE 013 or 015, and 018, 020, or 021

Instructor: George E. Hrabovsky, george@madscitech.org, 608-276-6832.

Task #1: Start and keep a notebook for your study. This should be bound and have at least 300 sheets. You may need more than one notebook of this size. Smaller notebooks than 300-sheets can be used, but the total number of sheets should be at least 300. Each set of 300 pages started and completed is worth a point towards your final total of 4. To begin your notebook you will need a list of topics. The one listed below is only one possible choice. This choice is the default. Any choice other than this one must be approved by your instructor.

Procedure for the Course

If a topic from the list below is underscored that means there is some resource material for it. If there is no resource material for it then you must develop that for yourself.

It is expected that you will develop one or more questions for each topic. Questions can be of the form who, what, when, where, why, and how.

Once you have written down a set of questions for a topic, you either answer each of these qurestions or you explain how you attempted to answer the question and failed. Don't be alarmed; even some elementary questions resist answering. You can learn a lot just by making the effort.

The next step is to ask a set of new questions based on your previous attempts at answering your first set of questions (this can include those questions you were unable to answer before). Answer each of those questions as best you can and create another set of questions for each answer. Answer each of those to the best of your ability and ask another set of questios for each, but do not answer them right away. If you are really interested in one or more of these questions attempt to answer them in a, "topic of personal interest," session; or you may answer them in a personal research project.

Wherever possible give at least three examples of any definition, principle, or procedure.

This course will require three pages of notes for each topic to fill a 300 page notebook.

  1. The nature of oceanography
  2. Field oceanography
  3. Experimental oceanography
  4. Theoretical oceanography
  5. Computational oceanography
  6. The structure of the earth
  7. The sea floor
  8. The mid-ocean ridge
  9. Plate tectonics
  10. Hydrothermal vents
  11. Deep ocean basins
  12. Ocean plateaus
  13. Continental margins
  14. Trenches
  15. Sediments
  16. Fossils
  17. Topic of Personal Interest (including but not limited to polarity reversals sea floor spreading, marien magnetic anomalies, the paleogeographic method, fracture zones, marginal seas, ocean formation)
  18. Topic of Personal Interest.
  19. Topic of Personal Interest.
  20. Review of topics to date
  21. Properties of seawater
  22. Salinity
  23. Major ions
  24. Gas exchange
  25. Trace elements
  26. Biochemistry of seawater
  27. Mass balance
  28. Chemical equilibrium
  29. The carbon pump
  30. Acid-base chemistry
  31. Redox chemistry
  32. Marine chemistry in Mathematica
  33. Topic of Personal Interest (including but not limited to ion activity, ion complexes, solubility, the correlation of gas exchange rates and wind speed, nutrient cycles, scavenged elements, dissolved organic matter, transport-reaction models, conductivity)
  34. Topic of Personal Interest.
  35. Topic of Personal Interest.
  36. Review of topics 21-35
  37. Review of topics to date
  38. Ocean heat budget
  39. Ocean mass budget
  40. Thermal properties of oceans
  41. Ocean density
  42. Mixed layer
  43. Pressure
  44. Tides
  45. Convection
  46. Ocean electrodynamics
  47. Ocean optics
  48. Oceam-atmosphere interactions
  49. Ocean-climate interactions
  50. Ocean physics in Mathematica
  51. Topic of Personal Interest (including but not limited to thermoclines, wind systems, wind stress, fluxes, heat transport, solar constant, potential temperature)
  52. Topic of Personal Interest.
  53. Topic of Personal Interest.
  54. Review of topics 38-53
  55. Review of topics to date
  56. Ocean dynamics
  57. Oceanic flows
  58. Momentum equation
  59. Continuity equation
  60. Solving the equations of motion
  61. Viscosity
  62. Turbulence
  63. Stability
  64. Mixing
  65. Ocean circulations
  66. Ekman layer
  67. Ekman mass transport
  68. Hydrothermal circulation
  69. Geostrophic currents
  70. Wind-drive circulations
  71. Vorticity
  72. Deep circulation
  73. Equatorial processes
  74. Ocean waves
  75. Long waves
  76. Coastal processes
  77. Oceanic flows and waves in Mathematica
  78. Topic of Personal Interest (including but not limited to surface currents, the Boussinesque approximation, compressibility, Reynold's stress, Richardson number, Ekman number, coastal upwelling, el nino and la nina)
  79. Topic of Personal Interest.
  80. Topic of Personal Interest.
  81. Review of topics 56-80
  82. Review of topics to date
  83. Phytoplankton
  84. Zooplankton
  85. Marine microbiology
  86. Marine botany
  87. Fish
  88. Marine mammals
  89. Other marine animals
  90. Marine ecosystems
  91. Biogeochemical nutrient cycles
  92. Marine populations
  93. Marine communities
  94. Primary and secondary production
  95. Marine biology in Mathematica
  96. Topic of Personal Interest (including but not limited to effects of salinity, algal blooms, ecology of zooplankton, food chains, food webs)
  97. Topic of Personal Interest.
  98. Topic of Personal Interest.
  99. Review of topics 83-98
  100. Review of topics to date

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