It's All Connected

In class we learned a lot about wind patterns and currents. Wind patterns greatly influence the currents in Oceans. The reason is because the wind pushes up against the water and constantly pushes the waves in that direction. Because of this, water is constantly moving on the Earth. For instance, Water off the shore of California is usually a lot colder because it is being pushed from up towards Alaska toward the equator. And water from the Equator is pushed either NE or it is pushed down south. It is warmer on the equator because of the angle the sun light hits it. It is stronger there than any other part of the globe. The air from towards the equator brings a lot of moisture and heat. If a hurricane were to pick up a message in a bottle off the coast it could also affect where it would end up. The warm water coming from towards the equator brings dolphins/sharks and other tropical sealife and when the water goes back out towards the equator it probably picks up a lot of human waste which is unfortunate. I am happy that there is international law over what we throw out in the ocean, because if it were only local law, we would still be getting affected by the choices of a country across the globe. We should try and dispose waste in space instead of the ocean, because the oceans are limited but as far as we know space has literally infinite space.

Which Way the Winds Blow

 

Which Way The Winds Blow

Earth, as we scientists know, is heated unevenly.  This is due to the fact that the Earth is a sphere. Also, Earth is tilted about 23 degrees.  Therefore, light rays are hitting different places at different strengths.  Near the equator, the temperature is very warm and humid, but at the poles, the weather is mostly frigid cold.  This is due to light rays.  Angled light rays are weaker rays that their paths are changed because of clouds and also being reflected off of Earth.  However, straight light rays are stronger and they make places warmer.  What I learned from the "Global Wind Patterns" activity is that light rays are affected due to clouds and the Earth reflecting light.

Earth's rotation affects the movement of air and water masses.  This happens because of the Coriolis affect.  The Coriolis affect is the deflection of moving objects.  We did an activity where we placed water on a spinner and as it spun, the water spun off the paper and made a spiral design.  It showed me that the Coriolis affect makes the water displace to different locations.

Global wind patterns are divided into several sections.  Polar easterlies are at about 60-90 degrees, and they blow irregularly from the east and the north.  Westerlies are at about 30-60 degrees and they blow from the north and from the west.  Horse Latitudes are where the westerlies meet trade winds at about 30 degrees.  This region has a lot of high pressure and it is extra dry.  Lastly, trade winds are about 30 degrees south and they blow from the northeast towards the equator.

LOGGER HEAD ISLAND REPORT

On the side of the island with the sea turtle nesting we needed to consider the precautions of the public being a disturbance, and we also needed relocate the police and fire station on one side of it and the research center on the other for patrol. We made a timer on the street lights so that they do not disturb the nesting. We placed our fishing dock on the lagoon side of the island because its calm  and peaceful over there and lots of fish will stay over there.Our golf course could be flooded by the oceanic side of the island but its close tot he lagoon as well so it may not have any issues. We placed a large netting around the sides so that the golf balls don't enter the ocean. The economic benefits are the public housing is mostly on the lagoon side away from the economic stuff. Humans negatively impact the coastal ecosystems with there rowdiness, pollution, and the electricity distributed around the streets. With healthy vegetation and economy we can severely prevent the issues of storms starting. Our stop lights were solar powered.

sand

Sand Reflection

• maui,black and yellow, magnetite pos., size 4, well rounded, well sorted, minerals
• bonaire, white, megnetite neg., size 25, angular, moderatley sorted, minerals
• virgins, white, mag neg., size 30, angular, rounded, minerals
• desert islands, orange and white, non mag, size 25, subangular, well rounded, mineral

     

  Hampton had more color of orange, yellow, and white where Maui colors where white. With the magnetite of the two only Maui was magnetic. Hampton size of the sand is medium and the size of Maui’s sand is small. The sorting of both of them was well. The composition for Hampton was mineral and the composition was mostly rocks.

A. Flat Abyssal plain- an underwater plain on the deep ocean floor, usually found at depths between 3000 and        6000 m. Lying generally between the foot of a continental rise and a mid ocean ridge. 

B. Seamount or guyot- an isolated underwater volcanic mountain.

C. Continental shelf, break, slope, rise- an underwater extension of the coastal plain. 

D. Submarine canyon- a steep-sided valley cut into the sea floor of the continental slope.

E. Mid ocean ridge- a general term for an underwater mountain system that consists of various mountain ranges.

F.Trench and island arc system- An island arc is a type of archipelago, often composed of a chain of volcanoes.

1. Our surveyed are and our topography was generally flat, other than a few rifts.

2. The advantage of remote sensing technology is that it gathers information more accurately than what we just       see.

3. Stretching the Y-axis on a graph has some advantages. One of the advantages is that it allows more objects       to fit onto the graph.

friday Oct 18 post

  Plate Tectonics is when the earths crust i broken into six large peices an more smaller ones. Scientists with diffrent discplines share information by Peer review of publications. Many will make journals to follow there research and results for further publication. They will write scientific articles and later send these to scientific journals for peer editing before they are publically displayed as a new "theory" or idea. They get a report back within a week regarding whether it is a acceptable journal display and they will report back there thoughts on it.  I learned that the Mountian range will begin to line up and all alike fossil remains will be brought together. Continental drift i when continents drift over ocean floors. Seafloor Spreading is when lava come between creases and pushes the continents apart. North and South Ameria move west and Eurasia Africa to the east. The Atlantic also will get larger and wider. 
     

we would set out from the closest port into the South Pacific on a sunday morning. It is a long trip. Our supplies would include large amountsof food,water, and safety equipment. We would also bring some of the most advanced diving equipment availible. Our goal is to get to the breeding ground by Friday. We could set up once we get there. Hopefully we would have a good amount of time for preperation. At night we would send our divers to the shallower breeding ground and oursubmarine to the deeper ones. One of our most important and effective pieces of equipment would be our cameras which have night vision and flashlights. We would continue studying them through saturday night and hopefully collect good data.

The thought of having under water observatory is very cool, but there are many essential pieces that need to be there for it to work efficiently. Under water observatories give us a chance to see things naturally and in person better than we have ever seen them before. It is important to use the time down there as well as we can because time is limited. You can only stay under water for so long. Collecting data through labs is very important because it helps us grasp an understanding for the life down there.

Why Explore the Oceans

I have learned a lot of information in Oceanography class already. The presentations that my classmates gave were very good. They showed good information and presented it well. I learned that the Phoenicians traded from the Mediterranean to England. That is a very cool fact. I had never heard about the Phoenicians before. I also did not know that the compass was so old.

I took this class because I would like to learn more about the ocean. I hope to gain more knowledge about the oceans around us, like deep ocean, currents, bays, and coral reefs. I hope to get a better understanding for how the ocean affects our lives.