Oceanography Final Exam

     Oceanography is the branch of science that deals with the physical and biological properties and phenomena of the sea.Oceanography was an interesting and fun class (except the lectures). It even has a historical side because it had to be explored by someone. I did a project on Christopher Columbus who is the most famous ocean explorer of all time. I also did a project on the start of scuba diving equipment. 
     Everything that we learned this semester we learned in a creative, fun and hands-on manner. Each unit that we learned had a corresponding lab in which we got to experiment with whatever topic we were learning about at that time. At the end of each week, we produced a blog to go along with what we had learned. This was fun and proved to be helpful to remember what we had learned.  Going over our knowledge at the end of each week by writing down what we learned made that information stick in our minds that much more.
     Everything we learned about was connected in one way or another. The moon and the tides, currents, heat, salinity, minerals.  
     A project I really liked was the Loggerhead Island one. I thought it was fun because we had so much flexibility in our groups. This is different from many of the labs that required us to follow directions step-by-step and not go down a different route. 

Hydrometer

Build a Hydrometer:

     We built a hydrometer using zinc balls. We had a beaker of tap water and cut the top off of a plastic dropper so that the zinc balls would fit in the dropper. We added zinc until the plastic dropper stood straight up in the water, without it touching the bottom. After it was balanced, we added zinc until it floated to the bottom of the beaker. After adding enough salt to the water, the hydrometer started to float again. We did this experiment to show how the salinity of the water affects how the properties change. In salt water, heavier items float better.

1. salinity: relating to salts, salty
2. It will float higher.
3. H2O --->H2ONaCl
4. In the ocean
5. density: mass/volume
6. When its warmer more

Tears of an Ocean Planet:

Which Way the Wind Blows

Loggerhead Island Report

1. What special considerations did you have to make for the nesting sea turtle sites located on the barrier island?
I had to be careful and build the everything away from the turtles because the lights of a building would attract them away from the ocean and kill them.

2. What special considerations had to be made when determining a good site for the proposed fishing pier?
I put the fishing pier in between the marshes on the lagoon side. Other than that, nothing.

3. What could be some of the potential problems that might arise from the proposed golf course? Propose some of the ways in which the impacts can be reduced.
It could be put too close to the turtles so we put it on the other side of the island. The golf course could be too challenging for people visiting.  

4. What are the economic benefits to the community of Loggerhead County if the development was done with the least amount of environmental impact?
A beautiful place to live where humans and the environment live in correspondence.

5. Describe three ways in which humans negatively impact coastal ecosystems such as the one you are working on with Loggerhead Barrier Island.
1. Throw their trash on the island or in the ocean.
2. Disrupt the turtle nesting sight.
3. increased fossil fuel emissions. 

6. How can maintaining natural vegetation help us to reduce the damage caused by oceanic events such as hurricanes, tsunami and continued beach erosion?
The roots hold the soil or sand together better to help erosion from happening and hold the ground together from being destroyed in a storm. There is also so much rain with a hurricane, so the natural vegetation may thrive.  

7. After listening to the other groups make their presentations, were there any ideas they had you would have used if you had though about it before-hand? You should list at least three different ideas and indicate why their idea is actually better for the environment than yours. 
At this point, I can't remember other groups presentations/ ideas. 

Sand Reflection

     Many of the sands I observed
     I noticed that some of the sands were very similar. Both Cancun and the Bahamas had white, rocky sand that was well sorted. Very small particals that were rounded. It makes sense that these sand particles are similar because of their location. the Bahamas are only seperated from Cancun by Cuba. the total distance is only a few hundred miles. Both are in the tropics. The size of the grains of sand are very similar, as I had 75 written down for how many particles would fit in a 2.5 mm box.

Cancun:

Bahamas:

A Study of Bathymetric Mapping

1. 
How can ocean floor features be measured and mapped using current acoustical technology? Sonar. we send sound waves to the ocean floor and see how long it takes them to bounce and come back. Once we have how long it took and how fast the sound waves traveled we can find the distance. How can ocean floor maps be used in the commercial, military, and/or private sectors? For commercial use, water depth, finding fish, and determining ocean sediments. In the military, every peice of the ocean floor needs to be known to the military. 

2. 
Flat Abyssal Plain: instead of being rugged, like along the mid-ocean ridges, sediments fall almost like snow, creating a flat plain on the ocean floor

ishtarc.wikispaces.com

Underwater Seamount: An underwater mountain rising from the ocean floor and having a peaked or flat-topped summit below the surface of the sea.

www.noaanews.noaa.gov

Continental Shelf: A submerged border of a continent that slopes gradually and extends to a point of steeper descent to the ocean bottom. 

Submarine Canyon: any of a class of narrow, steep-sided valleys that originate on the continental shelf and cut into continental slopes and continental rises of the oceans

Mid-Ocean Ridge: A mid-ocean ridge or mid-oceanic ridge is an underwater mountain range, formed by plate tectonics.

Island Arc System: an arc-shaped chain of islands, such as the Aleutian Islands or the Japanese Islands, usually lying at the edge of a Benioff zone, indicating volcanic activity where the oceanic lithosphere is descending into the earth's interior

3. 

Dancing of the Continents Activity

     I had previous knowledge of Pangea, without knowing the name, but I knew that all of the continents were once in a big jumble. I did not know where the continents were placed though, which I learned through this activity. I learned of how the continents moved with the theory's of Wegner, Hess, and whoever else came up with the last one.
     I assume scientists publish their findings, and if a scientists of a different nature disagrees with their findings then they show the proof to disprove it. For instance, Wegner's idea of Continental Drift was based on his scientific studying, but Hess had a different scientific expertise and had proof to disprove Wegner's theory.