Oceanography 10, T.

James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-1

Introduction to Oceanography
In this reading assignment, you will explore the benefits that we derive from studying the ocean,
and learn about some of the basic concepts in oceanography. In addition, I try to mention many
of the subjects that we will cover later in the semester, so it is also an introduction to what this
course will cover. Welcome aboard!
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
A HISTORY OF OCEANOGRAPHY Administration (NOAA), in 2008 at least 28 million
jobs in the United States were related directly or
Human Use of the Ocean indirectly to the ocean, which was about 1 in 6 jobs!

Humans began using the ocean long before there was a formal science of oceanography. In early
times, the ocean was used mainly for food. We eat fish, shrimp, clams, squid, seaweed, and
much more. About 1/6th of our protein comes from the ocean, closer to 1/3rd if you include all
the small fish that are ground up into fish meal and fed to cattle, chicken, pigs, etc. to make them
grow faster. (Isn’t modern agribusiness great?) Another important use is transportation: it is
much easier and cheaper to move goods and people over the ocean than over land. This was
obviously true in the past when the seas were ruled by sailing ships which relied on the free
power supplied by the wind. It remains true even today: huge cargo ships cross the ocean with
objects made in places like China to stock the shelves of Wal-Mart and other stores. If trans-
porting goods across the ocean was expensive, then these items would cost a lot more. Today,
food and transportation are still important uses of the ocean, but they are joined by a third major
use: energy; about 1/3 rd of the world’s oil and natural gas is pumped out of the ocean floor.

Using the Ocean. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

There are about 3,000 huge cargo ships in the world; many of them can carry 4,000 huge cargo
containers. These cargo ships carry about 80% of the world’s commercial goods at one point or
another. As global trade continues to expand and developing countries’ economies grow rapidly, many
more of these ships will be needed. About 40% of all the goods imported into the United States –
worth $200 billion – come through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Taken together, they are
one of the largest ports in the world (in the top 10). Port activity contributes $39 billion in wages and
taxes to the local economy, and is related to about 800,000 local jobs (about 1 in 8). Many more port-
related jobs will be added throughout the United States as ports continue to expand and grow – but jobs
in Los Angeles may decline after 2014 when the Panama Canal expansion will be completed, allowing
the largest ships to go from Asia to the east coast of the United States more quickly. It is my
understanding that Los Angeles can compete on both price and speed, because shipping cargo to Los
Angeles and then taking it by train could be faster than using the canal – but only if Los Angeles
upgrades its truck and train system. Doing so could also improve traffic, but would hurt some
homeowners and businesses.
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-2

The Beginnings of the Science of Oceanography

People have studied the ocean for a long time. However, until the end of the 19th century and the
beginning of the 20th century, most people were interested in studying a particular aspect of the
ocean. For example, some people were interested in ocean life, often for food. Others were
interested in how the ocean produces weather conditions like storms. Some wanted to know
about ocean currents and winds so that they could travel more quickly and safely. A little over a
century ago, ocean scientists began to recognize that all these different aspects of the ocean are
tied together; to understand one aspect of the ocean, you must understand many aspects of the
ocean that may seem unrelated. For example, ocean currents (physics) can control where life
(biology) is abundant in the ocean, because they carry special chemicals (chemistry) necessary to
sustain plant-like plankton away from places where they are washed into the ocean from rich
soils on land (geology). Instead of being biologists, chemists, geologist, physicists, etc. who
studied the ocean, they began to found institutions where they would learn about one another’s
fields and work together: they became oceanographers.

The beginning of oceanography is typically dated to the “Challenger Expedition” of 1872-1876.

The Challenger went all the way around the world, surveying the life, sediments, water
chemistry, winds, currents, etc. of all the of the world’s oceans (except the Arctic). Its work was
funded by the British Navy. At that time, the British Empire controlled much of the world
(India, South Africa, Australia, Canada, etc.); it was said that “The Sun never sets on the British
Empire.” Great Britain, an island nation, greatly valued information about the ocean, because
they needed to dominate the seas to maintain and protect their empire.

The Challenger. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Most people know “Atlantis,” “Challenger,” “Columbia,” “Discovery,” “Endeavor,” etc.

as the names of our space shuttles. The shuttles are named for famous oceanographic ships.

At this time, most scientific research was funded by private individuals or foundations. To be a
scientist, you needed to be independently wealthy or gain employment in an institution that was
interested in the same research you were. The first oceanographic institutions were founded in
the early 20th century by wealthy benefactors. For example, the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography in San Diego, one of the top oceanography research centers in the world (if not
the best), was funded in its early days by the wealthy Scripps family.
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-3

Oceanography at War

During World War I, the federal government began funding some science, but it preferred to
work through industry rather than directly employing scientists. To save money after the war,
the government abandoned many of the military research projects that it had started 1. The
philosophy at the time was that since people could make money from scientific research, those
people should pay for the research, not the government.

Scientific research proved to be even more valuable during World War II than World War I.
Perhaps the most famous example is the Manhattan Project which developed the first atomic
bombs. Developing and maintaining a lead in the application of RADAR to find enemy ships
and planes was probably even more important. Knowledge about the oceans was so highly
valued that a recently published introductory textbook (“The Oceans”) was “classified” by the
federal government. Oceanographers participated in the war effort in a variety of ways.
Knowledge of ocean currents helped transport troops and supplies quickly and conserve limited
fuel. Knowledge of the weather, waves, and tides was used to determine the best time for beach
landings like those on “D-Day2” (e.g., the beginning of the movie Saving Private Ryan).
Knowledge of ocean water’s physical and chemical properties was used to develop improved
SONAR and other technologies to find and destroy enemy submarines and protect our own. This
was particularly important early in the war during the “Battle of Atlantic:” once the United States
entered the war (and even somewhat before), we shipped supplies to England as quickly as
possible. We needed England to resist the Germans until we could build enough machines and
train enough troops to enter the war in
Europe. German U-boats (submarines) Believe it or not, our strategy at the beginning of the war
was to produce more, cheap ships than the Germans could
sank large number of quickly-produced
sink. At the end of the war, a larger percentage of our
“liberty ships” (like the SS Lane Victory men died serving in the merchant marine (on cargo ships)
that you can visit down in San Pedro) than in any other service, including the marines – who ran
trying to cross the Atlantic. up beaches towards German and Japanese machine guns!

D-Day (Public Domain)

1
It was, after all, “the war to end all wars.” The navy and other organizations who recognized the valuable
contributions of scientists often tried to help keep the research moving forward in small ways where they could.
2
During World War II, Germany conquered all of Europe. D-day was the allied invasion that began the liberation
of the conquered European countries.
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-4

D-Day (Public Domain)

Oceanography after World War II

After the war, the United States government

decided that science was too valuable to
leave to the private sector to develop alone.
It had to fund research for its own needs and
to keep United States at the forefront
technology. Given the traditional reluctance
to fund science, this was a hard battle to win
in the United States Congress. Vannevar
Bush was one of the key people who got U.S. Convoy during the “Battle of the Atlantic”
President Roosevelt to put money into (Public Domain)
scientific research during the war, and he
oversaw U.S. research and development
during the war. He led the charge to
convince Congress that scientific research
was essential to the future of the United
States. His case, presented in the now
famous “Science: The Endless Frontier,” German U-Boat (Submarine) (Public Domain)
eventually won the day in Congress, and led to
the government-supported science programs that
we have today.

Early government funding of research in all

areas was modeled after the successful
institutions developed between the Navy
(through the Office of Naval Research, ONR)
and oceanographers. You might expect that
scientists would be happy to accept government
money, but the reality is more complex. In
science, you get ahead in your career by
discovering new things and publishing your
work. By displaying your talents, you are able
to get good positions in universities or institutes, Tanker Hit by a German Torpedo (Public Domain)
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-5

and attract funding and better equipment. In addition, sharing scientific research helps other
people develop new ideas, moving the field forward faster. The government, though, often
wants to tell scientists what to research (not always what scientists think they should be doing)
and to keep the research secret (in some cases). Scientists were also worried that the government
might suddenly stop funding research as it did after World War I, and that it would be too late to
go back to their private funding sources. The oceanographic community and ONR were
particularly successful in balancing the concerns of the scientists with those of the navy, leading
to a successful and much imitated partnership.

Most of the research and development done in the United States is still funded by private
industry. The federal government only funds about 1/3 of the nation’s research. It mainly
focuses on “basic” research (on “how things work”), often leaving “applied” research to the
private sector. However, about 2/3 of the citations in patents are for “basic” research funded
by the government, showing how the open sharing of information can spur innovation.

Following World War II, submarine detection and camouflage continued to be an important area
of research. During the “Cold War” with the Soviet Union, each side could wipe out the other
side using nuclear weapons, but neither side would attack the other, because they would be
wiped out as well. This was called the “MAD” policy (“mutually assured destruction,” not
“mother’s against drunk driving”). The only way to win a nuclear war is with a sneak attack that
takes out the other side’s nuclear weapons before they can launch. Nuclear submarines armed
with nuclear missiles can prowl underneath the ocean, undetectable for long periods of time,
without needing to refuel. Keeping our submarines hidden was a top priority, because the Soviet
Union knew that it could not attack us without being annihilated out by our submarines.

As time passed and the Cold War waned, though, civilian A fishery is any animal population
government agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric which we “harvest.” So, you can
Administration (NOAA) and the National Science Foundation talk about a shrimp fishery or
(NSF) funded a larger and larger proportion of oceanographic clam fishery even though shrimp
research. These agencies fund research on finding and exploiting and clams are not fish.
mineral resources like oil and natural gas or monitoring and preserving living resources like
fisheries. They also fund studies of ocean pollution, looking for ways to prevent beach closures
and seafood-poisoning that hurt coastal communities. Most people in the United States live near
the ocean 3 (more than 50% live in counties next to the ocean), so the agencies conduct research
on how to mitigate natural disasters that strike the coast like hurricanes and tsunami, and
promote sustainable coastal development. They also fund work on how the ocean affects
weather and climate (e.g., El Niño), particularly important for the nation’s farmers and for those
threatened by natural disasters like droughts, floods, snow storms, and wildfires.
Oceanographic research is only a very small part of the government’s research budget.
The vast majority of government-funded research involves defense and human health.

3
This is pretty normal: over half the world’s population lives in a narrow strip of land (say, within 60 miles) of a
large body of water, and most of the rest lives only a little farther inland.
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-6

Modern Topics of Oceanographic Research

Hurricane (NASA) Oil Rig (NASA)

Beach Closure Sign Seafood Counter at a Grocery Store

Sign by a Storm Drain Fishermen & a Shark (NOAA)

Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-7

ABOUT THE OCEAN AND OCEANOGRAPHY

Oceanography: A “Young” Science

Oceanography is still a relatively “young” science. Discoveries over the last half century (e.g.,
the development of plate tectonics, food chains based on chemicals seeping out of the sea floor)
have led to major revisions and additions to our knowledge. We still know next to nothing about
bacteria, fungi, and viruses in ocean water and most deep-sea life. I expect that there will be big
discoveries in our lifetime, and that some parts of future editions of our textbook will be very
different than those found in our textbook today.

Oceanography: An Interdisciplinary Science

To truly understand the ocean, you must understand processes and concepts from many scientific
fields: biology, chemistry, geology, physics, astronomy, and more. For this reason, we call
oceanography an “interdisciplinary” science, one in which scientists with many different
specialties must work together. For example, the life at the bottom of the ocean food chain
(biology) depends upon nutrients (chemicals) which are often brought up to the surface of the
ocean by waves and ocean currents (physics). We can study how the amount of life (biology)
changed in the past by studying their remains (“fossils”) on the ocean floor (geology). Thus, in
this class, you can expect to learn a little bit about many different areas of science.

Oceanography: A Science of Maps

Diagrams and pictures are commonly used to present and summarize information in science.
Oceanography is a science that uses a lot of pictures, particularly maps. When you first look at a
diagram or picture, the first thing that you should do is to determine its “point-of-view.” The
two most common are:
• “bird’s-eye view:” also known as “view from above,” “map view,” or “planview”
• “side view:” also known as a “cross section” or “profile”
In this class, I will try to make the point-of-view of my diagrams clearer by adding a “fish” to
each picture as shown below. In the picture on the left, you see the “top” of the fish (a “bird’s-
eye view”), and in the picture on the right, you see the “side” of the fish (a “side view). This
may not seem important for many of the pictures in your lecture notes, but when we sketch
pictures in class, you may find that your pictures look like a bunch of squiggly lines unless you
understand the point of view. Also, I encourage you to include a “fish” in your drawings in labs
and on exams to
help me
understand what Bird's-Eye-View Side-View
you are trying to Land
express.
Ocean Land
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-8

It is very important that you are familiar with the continents, the oceans, the locations of the
Equator and the Poles, and the 4 directions on a map. Please memorize these features. Otherwise
you will have difficulty understanding the lectures and reading assignments.

Note that there are 5 oceans labeled on the map below. The southern parts of the Atlantic,
Pacific, and Indian Oceans have a lot in common, so oceanographers often talk about this region
as the “Southern Ocean” or the “Antarctic Ocean.” It is often difficult to determine exactly
where one ocean ends and another begins; the lines we draw are somewhat arbitrary.

Arctic Arctic

Asia
North Europe
America

ic
nt
la
c

At
c ifi

Africa
Pa

Equator

an
Australia

di
South

In
America Australia

Southern or Antarctic

Antarctica Antarctica

North
90 N Pole
o

60o N North
30o N

0o Equator West East

30o S

60o S South
90o S
South
Pole
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-9

Plankton
Plankton are the most common kind of life in the ocean. Most plankton are tiny (microscopic)
animals and algae (plant-like organisms), but plankton can be quite large. For example, jellyfish
are plankton, and can have tentacles over 100-feet long. The key characteristics that make
organisms “plankton” are:
• Plankton are floaters: they try to float, or at least sink very slow through ocean water
• Plankton are drifters: they cannot swim or swim poorly, so ocean currents and waves push
them around, and they cannot do anything about it. “Plankton”
Note that many plankton can swim; means
however, plankton are not very strong swimmers. “wanderers.”
Plankton are important in the ocean, because they are at the bottom of most ocean food chains.
(In other words, they are food for many ocean animals.) There are two major categories of
plankton, phytoplankton and zooplankton. Phytoplankton are algae; like plants, they make their
own food using the energy of the sun. Zooplankton are animals.

Phytoplankton and Photosynthesis

Phytoplankton are tiny (one-celled) algae: plant-like organisms that use sunlight as an energy
source to make their own food in a process called photosynthesis (“making with light”). When
they carry out photosynthesis, they use large amounts of water and the gas carbon dioxide – both
abundant in ocean water – to make carbohydrates (“food” molecules):
Sunlight + Water + Carbon Dioxide Carbohydrates + Oxygen
("Sugars")
Phytoplankton also need small amounts of nutrients 4,
molecules that they use to build their bodies (e.g., shells) or In photosynthesis, the carbon in
molecular “tools” that are needed to carry out photosynthesis. the carbon dioxide is combined
Nutrients are not used up in the process. (A spatula is a tool with water to create a carbo-
that can be used to make a hamburger, but a spatula is not hydrate (“hydro” means water).
part of the hamburger, the food. It can be re-used again and The oxygen in the carbon
again to make more hamburgers.) Examples of nutrients dioxide is simply released.
include nitrates, phosphates, and silica.
There are many different kinds of phytoplankton. Some have calcium carbonate shells (e.g.,
coccolithophores), some have silica shells (e.g., diatoms), and some do not have hard shells.
Some phytoplankton can even swim (e.g., dinoflagellates). Silica dissolves more rapidly in
warm water than cold water, so silica-shelled phytoplankton tend to prefer living in colder
surface water. Calcium-carbonate dissolves more rapidly in cold, carbon-dioxide-rich water
(more acidic), so calcium-carbonate-shelled phytoplankton tend to prefer living in warmer
surface water 5.

4
Another word for nutrients is “minerals;” however, they are not “vitamins.”
5
There are many examples of calcium-carbonate-shelled phytoplankton and zooplankton who live in cold water,
and silica-shelled phytoplankton and zooplankton who live in warm water, so this is not an absolute rule.
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-10

Coccolithophore (Calcium Carbonate Shell) Diatoms (Silica Shells) (Public Domain)

Courtesy of Dr. Markus Geisen, Public Domain

Sunlight and nutrients are the hardest things for phytoplankton to obtain in most of the ocean, so
wherever there are both sunlight and nutrients, phytoplankton will be abundant. Most nutrients
enter the ocean when nutrients in soil are washed off of the land and into the ocean by rain, so
most phytoplankton live near the coasts. Animals will be attracted there too, because
phytoplankton are at the bottom of the ocean food
chain. In other words, animals in the ocean eat Think of nutrients as “fertilizing” the
phytoplankton or they eat other animals which eat phytoplankton. Nutrients are not “food” or
phytoplankton. The phytoplankton make their own “eaten” by phytoplankton. (Phytoplankton
food, so we call them “primary producers:” they make their own food.) As you will observe
make (“produce”) organic material from inorganic under the microscope, phytoplankton have
no tentacles, arms, or other structures with
material (carbon dioxide, water). This is the first or
which to grab the extremely tiny nutrients.
“primary” step in the food chain. Animals are Instead they rely upon chance: the nutrients
secondary, tertiary, etc. producers depending upon drift into their bodies through the holes in
their level in the food chain. They make the organic their shells or cell walls.
material of their bodies from organic material that
they eat.

Why Phytoplankton Are Important

Big ocean predators like sharks, tuna, dolphins, seals, and so on eat small fish and other small
animals which eat zooplankton. Zooplankton eat phytoplankton. If the population of
phytoplankton drops, zooplankton starve and die, and so do the animals who eat the zooplankton.
Without phytoplankton, ocean animals would have little food, and there would be fewer fish and
other animals for us to catch and eat. Oceanographers can observe where phytoplankton are
common in the ocean using satellites (they typically make the water “greener”), and predict
where lots of fish and other animals will be found.

As part of photosynthesis, phytoplankton add oxygen to ocean water. A lot of this oxygen leaks
from the ocean into the atmosphere. At least half of the oxygen that you and I breathe was
produced by phytoplankton. In addition, phytoplankton remove carbon dioxide from ocean
water to carry out photosynthesis and make their shells (e.g., calcium carbonate). Humans have
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-11

added large amounts of carbon dioxide to

the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels like
oil and natural gas, increasing it by over
Simplified
33%. Carbon dioxide is a “greenhouse Ocean
gas:” it absorbs infrared “light” (“heat”) Food Chain
radiated to outer space by the Earth,
“trapping it” and thus warming the world.
This “greenhouse effect” actually is a
good thing, because it keeps our planet
from becoming a giant ball of ice.
However, by adding so much extra
“greenhouse gas” to the atmosphere,
humans are likely to have caused the big fish
(usually fast) warming over the past
century. A large amount of the carbon
dioxide that we add to the atmosphere
leaks into the ocean where it no longer
adds to the greenhouse effect. By
removing it from ocean water,
phytoplankton create more “space” in the
ocean water, allowing the ocean to absorb small fish
more carbon dioxide. Most phytoplankton
bodies end up being eaten or decomposed
and their carbon is released back into the
ocean water, but a few become part of the
sediments on the bottom of the ocean; this
permanently removes the carbon from the
zooplankton
ocean-atmosphere system and thus “cleans
up” some of our carbon dioxide pollution.

Finally, over vast amounts of time, the

phytoplankton bodies in the sediments can
become fossil fuels like oil and natural
gas. Diatoms in particular are thought to
contribute, because they contain a drop of
oil in their bodies, a way for them to store
food and lower their density so that they
can float in the sunlit waters at the surface
of the ocean. So, you may be “burning”
some phytoplankton when you drive your phytoplankton
car. Don’t forget to say “thank you.”

Each step in a food chain is

a different “trophic level.” Photographs Courtesy of
the National Oceanic and
Phytoplankton are at level 1 (the first step), Atmospheric Administration,
zooplankton are at level 2, Department of Commerce
small fish are at level 3,
and larger fish are at level 4.
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-12

Zooplankton

Zooplankton are animal plankton. (Think about it: if you are going to the “zoo,” what are you
going to see?) Examples that you might have heard of include jellyfish and krill. A vast number
of worms, snails, slugs, crustaceans (like crabs), and many more kinds of animals are
zooplankton. Animals carry out the opposite of photosynthesis, a process that we call
“respiration.” When animals respire (“breathe”), they combine oxygen with food
(carbohydrates), which liberates energy from the carbohydrates that they use to fuel their bodies.
Respiration also produces the byproducts water and carbon dioxide (which they release back into
the environment). Plants and algae also undergo respiration to utilize the food that they make,
but they tend to do more photosynthesis than respiration.

Zooplankton. Upper Left: Courtesy of Uwe Kils (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Others: National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration, Department of Commerce

Copepods are an extremely common kind of zooplankton in

the ocean. They are small, crustaceans (like crabs) who eat
the even smaller algae (phytoplankton). For this reason, I
like to call them the “cows of the sea” (they eat algae in the
ocean like cows eat grass on land). Their “antennules” can
detect both water motion and odors (they use them to
smell!). “Copepod” literally means “oar feet” in Greek.
Presumably they were named this because they have lots of
little feet (like shrimp) up and down the sides of the their
bodies, like many oars sticking out of an ancient Greek or
Roman galley. They are primarily used for eating (grabbing
food), not for swimming. Copepods have one “eye,” an
organ capable detecting light but not much else. It helps
them stay near the surface of the ocean where most of their
food lives. As you may have already guessed, the character
Sheldon J. Plankton in the series SpongeBob Squarepants is
a copepod. Copepods. National Atmospheric and Oceanic
Administration, Department of Commerce
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-13

Shells

Both phytoplankton and zooplankton often have shells. Their shells are typically made of
calcium carbonate and silica. Pure calcium carbonate is white (like our bones which are also
made of calcium), but silica (which has the same chemical composition as glass) is light-colored
as well, so it can be hard to tell them apart just by looking at them. Most large animals (animals
that you can see with your eyes, like clams) make their shells out of calcium carbonate. Colors
can be added on the surface of the shell to alter its appearance.

Bacteria

Bacteria are small, single-celled organisms 6

(even smaller than phytoplankton). Bacteria
use a huge number of chemical processes 7 to
extract the energy necessary to sustain their
lives from inorganic and organic matter,
including dead, decaying material and fecal
matter that animals cannot use as food. Most
bacteria decompose (“break down”) dead,
decaying material into carbon dioxide and
nutrients like phosphates and nitrates,
releasing them into ocean water and making Bacteria. Courtesy of Janice Haney Carr,
them available for phytoplankton to use Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
again. This is important because without
bacteria “recycling” nutrients, there would be
fewer phytoplankton in the ocean, and
therefore fewer animals as well.

6
Bacteria are single-celled organisms that do not have a “nucleus,” a structure in the cell which protects its DNA.
Instead, bacteria DNA drift within the cell, making it easier for the DNA to become damaged (mutate). This can, of
course, be very harmful, but upon occasion the mutation is useful. In essence, bacteria evolve faster than other
organisms. For this reason, you should always take ALL of the antibiotics prescribed by your doctor, even if you
start feeling better. You need to make sure that you kill ALL of the bacteria. If you only kill most of them, then the
survivors – the more resistant ones – will start breeding, helping the species evolve resistance to the antibiotics and
making antibiotics less useful in the future.
7
Each species of bacterium specializes in using one chemical process or a few. They have evolved these differences
over time.
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-14

Size and Shape of the Earth

It somewhat ironic that we call our planet

the “Earth,” given that about 70% 8 of the
surface of the Earth is covered by the ocean.
The oceans are also quite deep, about 2.5 miles
(4 kilometers), on average.

Most of the ocean bottom is pretty flat. We call

the flat parts of the continents that have been
covered by water “continental shelves 9.” At the
edge of a shelf, the bottom of the ocean plunges
downward. We call this region the “continental
slope.” At the bottom of slope, the ocean meets
the abyssal plain 10, the flat bottom of the ocean
that covers about 25% of the globe.

NASA

Land,
Continent

Continental Continental Continental Continental

Slope Shelf Shelf Slope

Abyssal Abyssal Mid-Ocean Abyssal

Plain Trench Plain Ridge Plain

The mid-ocean ridge (MOR) is a chain of underwater volcanoes that runs all the way around the
Earth. It rises 1.5 miles above the ocean floor (on average). Since the abyssal plains are about
2.5-miles-deep, the top of the mid-ocean ridge is typically about 1 mile beneath the surface of the
ocean. The ridge has a very broad slope, so it also covers a large part of the Earth’s surface
(about 23%). The ridge is not always in the middle of the ocean, and runs into land in few
places. Earthquakes and volcanoes are common along the mid-ocean ridge. I often abbreviate
its name, calling it the “MOR.” Feel free to use the abbreviation MOR instead of writing “mid-
ocean ridge” again and again. In the picture on the next page, the MOR is the thin, dark-red line.

8
70.8% to be a bit more precise
9
A “shelf” is a flat, elevated area (it is elevated high above the bottom of the ocean), like a “book shelf.”
10
“Abyss” means deep and “plains” are, of course, very flat places. “Abyss” is the Greek word from the depths of
the Earth where bad people go and which spawns bad things.
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-15

The Mid-Ocean Ridge is the thin, dark red line in the picture above. National Geophysical
Data Center, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

The deepest parts of the ocean are the ocean trenches. The deepest trench in the world is the
Mariana Trench which is over 6 miles deep. Many people expect the deepest part of the ocean to
be in the middle of the ocean, but most ocean trenches are found near land, either near the
continents 11 or next to ocean islands. For example, the Mariana Trench is found next to the
Mariana Islands. Like the mid-ocean ridge, earthquakes and volcanoes are common near the
trenches. The Mariana Islands are volcanoes that grew tall enough to poke above the surface of
the ocean. Most of the world’s trenches are near the edge of the Pacific Ocean, so volcanoes are
common along the edge
of the Pacific; this chain
of volcanoes is called
the “Ring of Fire.”

USGS

11
In this case, the continental slope plunges down into the trench,
and the abyssal plains are on the other side of the trench.
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-16

Sediments

Sediment are pieces or broken parts of various materials that cover the bottom of the ocean.
Sand, mud, soil, and dirt are good examples of sediments. The are 2 major kinds of sediments on
the ocean floor: broken pieces of rock and the remains of ocean life, especially their shells.

Bits of rock are typically washed off the land and into the ocean by rain, though sediments can
also be carried from the land into the ocean by winds. Larger rocks like boulders, cobbles, and
even gravel are too large and heavy to be carried out into the ocean, so smaller sediments like
sand, clay, and silt tend to cover the bottom of the ocean.

Shells make up most of the remains of ocean life on the sea floor, but fecal matter, mucous, and
other body parts are also found in ocean sediments. These kinds of ocean sediments can
typically be broken into 2 categories, calcareous sediments (made of calcium carbonate shells)
and siliceous sediments (made of silica shells).

Sediments are loose pieces of rock or the remains of organisms.

They settle on and cover the bottom of the ocean.

Solid Rock ("Bedrock") of the Ocean Floor:

made of igneous rock (cooled lava) or
sedimentary rock (stuck-together sediments)

Seafloor Sediments. Above Left: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Sediments Up Close: Bits of Rock (left) and Shells of Forams (right, microscopic animals or “zooplankton”).
Anne Jennings, NOAA Paleoclimatology Program, US Department of Commerce
 Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-17
High Altitude Winds
Winds and Ocean Currents
The ocean is constantly in motion because of
winds blowing across its surface. The resulting
waves stir up the surface of the ocean, helping to
bring up nutrients and to keep phytoplankton Surface Winds
(algae) from sinking too deep. Winds are powered
by the heat of the sun. If one place becomes
warmer than another, warmer, lower-density air Cold Ocean Warm
rises above the warm spot. Cooler, higher-density
air sinks over the cold spot, pushing air towards
the warm spot to replace the air that rose upwards 12. “Evaporate” means to
“transform from liquid
Winds also create ocean currents. Ocean currents are like rivers in the to gas,” not “rise.”
ocean; they carry water and everything in it (e.g., plankton) from place Please be careful how
to place. The largest, most important ocean currents flow in huge you use this word!
loops 13 around the ocean basins. These currents can have a big impact
on climate by moving warm water towards the Poles and
cold water towards the Equator. For example, warm
water evaporates more easily than cold water, so air
above warm water is more humid (contains more water
vapor). Eventually, the air cannot hold anymore water,
and the water falls out of the atmosphere as rain. Thus,
places next to warm currents, like the southeast coast of
the United States, are more humid and get more rain than
places next to cold currents, like southern California (a
desert). Ocean currents are also important because they
can bring up nutrients to the surface of the ocean,
fertilizing the phytoplankton and thus
getting the entire ocean food chain started.

Clouds produced
by water that
evaporated
from the warm
ocean by Florida.

Most of our fresh water comes from the ocean! The heat of
the Sun causes water to evaporate from the ocean. If the moist USGS
air cools, it will fall as rain. About 70% of our fresh water is
used to grow food, not for drinking, cleaning, etc.

12
This is how the large-scale wind pattern is created. Notice that the air goes all the way around in a continuous
loop called a “convection cell,” a key concept in the class that will be used to explain much more than winds.
13
We call these circular currents “gyres.” Note that even though gyres and convection cells are both loops, they are
completely different concepts. Gyres are pushed by the wind and go in a horizontal loop. The air in the convection
cells moves because of its density and goes in a vertical loop.
Oceanography 10, T. James Noyes, El Camino College 1A-18

Humans and the Ocean Groundwater: There is 40 times

more water in the ground than
In this class, we will look at the impacts that humans have on on the surface in lakes and rivers.
the oceans. For example, we have wiped out 90% of large Nearly 98% of the world’s water
fish, and coastal development continues to destroy shallow is in the oceans, though.
water environments like wetlands that are breeding grounds
for many ocean fish. We also poison the coastal environment with chemicals found in our
wastes, which can work their way back up the food chain and harm us when we eat seafood. The
nutrients in our wastes 14 (like untreated sewage and material washed down storm drains) can
over-fertilize the ocean, causing the growth of disease-causing bacteria and toxic algae which
lead to beach closures and shut down fisheries. While this can be a depressing subject, we will
also look at possible solutions to these problems and the trade-offs that they involve.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

My opinion is that we can either use the ocean as a waste dump or for recreation and food.
Either one is fine by me, but using it for both is gross.

14
Most nutrients enter the ocean naturally (are washed off the land), not added by humans.