p. 384 Oceans
Dr.
C's Remarkable Ocean World
Go to this site for a wide variety of information about the
oceans, including material on chemical, geological, and physical oceanography.
The site includes online courses in oceanography, a place to check on
current conditions of the world’s oceans, and many other subjects that
relate to oceanography. Explore this site to learn about everything
from the ocean’s topography to whales. Scroll down and click on Physical
Oceanography to open a subject library about this topic. Use this site
as you read through the chapter to find out more about nearly every
topic covered in Chapter 15.
Ocean
At this National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
site you can learn more about the oceans and the programs and services
provided by NOAA. Some NOAA agencies that deal with the oceans include
the National Ocean Service, National Marine Sanctuaries, CoastWatch
Great Lakes Program, National Geodetic Survey, and the National Centers
for Coastal Ocean Science. For information on specific subject areas,
go to the menu at right. For example, click on coral reefs to find out
why the protection of Coral Reefs is important.
Oceans
and Coastal Protection
Visit this Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) site to find
out how EPA protects coastal watersheds and ocean resources. Scroll
down and click on National Estuary Program, then click on about estuaries
to find out how EPA protects these valuable coastal areas. What is the
defining feature of an estuary?
Oceans
Alive! Looking at the Sea
This
site by the Boston Museum of Science contains a wealth of information on the
oceans. The graphic that shows how much of Earth’s surface is covered by the
oceans is very cool! Scroll down to see the topics covered at this site. Click
on physical features of the ocean. What is the surface area of Earth’s oceans?
What percentage of Earth’s total surface area do the oceans represent?
p. 400 Tides
Tides
Online
At this NOAA site you can find out about the tides along the
coastlines of the United States. NOAA maintains water level stations
along the Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf coasts as well as along the coasts
of the Great Lakes. You can select stations by state, region, or storm
surge mode. Click on State Maps, then click on any coastal state to
see a map of that state with the names and locations of water level
stations. Click on a station to see the tidal conditions for the current
72-hour period at that station.
Our
Restless Tides
Go
to this site to learn more about the forces that create the tides. You also
can learn about factors that influence the local height and times of the arrival
of tides. Click on introduction to learn more about how tides form.
The
Bay of Fundy’s Minas Basin: Highest Tides in the World
Visit
this site to find out more about the tides in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia,
Canada. Click on the photograph to watch the tide come in and see how high it
is. Then click on quick facts on our tides. How often do the high tides at the
Bay of Fundy occur?
p. 408 Ocean
Currents and The Endurance
Ocean
Currents
At
this Ocean Planet/Smithsonian Institution site you can find out more about global
ocean currents and how they form. What is a western boundary current? Can you
give one example of such a current that affects the United States?
Explorers:
Ernest H. Shackleton
Go
to this site for a complete biography of Antarctic explorer Ernest H. Shackleton.
As you will discover by reading the first page at this site, the voyage of the
Endurance was not Shackleton’s first trip to the Antarctic. What happened
on his first trip to the Antarctic? How close did he get to the South Pole when
he journeyed there on the Nimrod?
Dynamic
Topography of Earth’s Oceans
This
site is the place to find data from TOPEX/Poseidon, a space mission that collects
data that scientists use to map ocean topography. The data from this mission
allow mapping with sufficient accuracy to study the large scale current systems
of the world’s oceans. Click on the image in the upper left-hand corner to see
a map that was created with this new technology. The ocean data used to create
this image comes from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; the image was produced
by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Oceanography group.
