![]() Oceanography is a combination of utilizing existing ideas and research and exploring new ways to preserve and explore the ocean and help explain new findings.Figuring out how human demands are affecting the quality and quantity of seawater and marine life.Finding solutions to better preserve the quality of seawater in the ocean for humans and animals.Understanding the effects of pollutants on ocean waters.Discovering more useful and efficient ways to use the earth’s natural resources.Predicting long-term weather patterns and climatic changes.Understanding the ocean helps scientists in many ways such as:.Some oceanographers study the seafloor, which involves deep drilling and seismic profiling of the crust that sits below the bottom of the ocean using sophisticated technology helps to build a profile of the layers of the earth beneath the ocean.An oceanographer might also observe the interactions between oceanic processes with things like satellites and aircraft and draw conclusions about their relationship to further understand how the ocean interacts with these things.An oceanographer, depending on the branch they study, spends a lot of time collecting samples of seawater and marine life for close study.Studies the way the ocean waters and the atmosphere interact all over the world.Examines the movement of seawater via waves, currents, and tides.Focuses on the structure, features, and evolution of the ocean basins.Examines plate tectonics and paleoceanography.Concerned with the geology of the ocean floor.A specific topic in this branch is ocean acidification and how this is changing rapidly.Also looks at the biogeochemical cycles that affect seawater and its properties.Studies the chemistry of the ocean, including the composition of seawater.Involves the study of the plants and animals of the sea as well as their life cycles and food production.Investigates the ecology of marine organisms.There are four (4) main branches of oceanography:.Other significant contributors to the study of oceans included James Clark Ross, Edward Forbes, Matthew Fontaine Maury, and many others.Later in the 1800s, Charles Darwin contributed to the expanding knowledge of oceans by writing a paper on reefs and the formation of atolls, aided by his travels in the HMS Beagle.It was James Rennell who first wrote a textbook solely on oceanography it detailed the current flows of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, aided by his documentation of his voyages around the Cape of Good Hope in 1777.By the late 18th century, explorers like James Cook and James Rennell were discovering the currents of the Pacific Ocean and were beginning to document their findings in scientific textbooks.The Gulf Stream, a warm Atlantic ocean current that travels up the east coast of the North America and across the Atlantic Ocean, was first identified by the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon (who was also the first official European to lead an expedition to Florida).This was a time when exploring the world was of paramount interest to countries in Europe so they could gain control of land and resources.During the Age of Discovery, ocean exploration was done primarily for cartographic purposes and limited in scope to only the surface and the animals brought up by fishing nets.Some of the earliest reports on the state of the Earth’s oceans were by Aristotle and Strabo who recorded their observations on the movements of the tides. ![]() Key Facts & Information HISTORY OF OCEANOGRAPHY See the fact file below for more information on the oceanography or alternatively, you can download our 21-page Oceanography worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment. The word “oceanography” comes from a compound of the Greek words “ocean” and “write.” Delving deeper into the scientific branch, there is also an area of study called paleoceanography that studies the history of the oceans in the world’s geologic past. Oceanographers examine an ocean’s ecosystem, currents, waves, plate tectonics, the geology of the sea floor, and many other scientific areas. Oceanography is a branch of Earth science that examines the physical and biological aspects of the ocean. Download the Oceanography Facts & Worksheets.
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