STS.467 examines the intellectual foundations of archaeology in the deep sea. The course explores the current convergence of oceanography, archaeology, and engineering which allows scientists to discover, survey, and excavate shipwrecks in deep water with robots and submarines. The course seeks to address the following questions: How are new devices best employed for archaeological work? How do new capabilities (e.g. higher frequencies, higher resolution, all digital data output) change operations plans and research designs? What new technologies will be required? Area studies focus on the Aegean in Minoan times and western Sicily during Phoenician, Greek, and Roman hegemony.

This class is designed to provide the student with a global to molecular-level perspective of organic matter cycling in the oceans and marine sediments. Topics include: Organic matter (C,N,P) composition, reactivity and budgets within, and fluxes through, major ocean reservoirs; microbial recycling pathways for organic matter; models of organic matter degradation and preservation; role of anoxia in organic matter burial; relationships between dissolved and particulate (sinking and suspended) organic matter; methods for characterization of sedimentary organic matter; and application of biological markers as tools in oceanography. Both structural and isotopic aspects are covered.

This course introduces theoretical and practical principles of design of oceanographic sensor systems. Topics include: transducer characteristics for acoustic, current, temperature, pressure, electric, magnetic, gravity, salinity, velocity, heat flow, and optical devices; limitations on these devices imposed by ocean environments; signal conditioning and recording; noise, sensitivity, and sampling limitations; and standards. Lectures by experts cover the principles of state-of-the-art systems being used in physical oceanography, geophysics, submersibles, acoustics. For lab work, day cruises in local waters allow students to prepare, deploy and analyze observations from standard oceanographic instruments.

This activity introduces students to loading and plotting data in MATLAB. Students explore scalar and vector time series and profile data commonly used in the field of Oceanography using data sets from publicly available sources or that they collected in local waters.

Join Lisa Tauxe as she describes her research into the long-term behavior of Earth's magnetic field. (42 minutes)

This resource presents a collection of essays developed from the author's experience teaching the course Fluid Dynamics of the Atmosphere and Ocean, offered to graduate students entering the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography. The collection includes the following three essays:
Essay 1: Lagrangian and Eulerian Representations of Fluid Flow (revised and expanded in 2024)

Part 1: Kinematics and the Equations of Motion
Part 2: Advection of Parcels and Fields

Essay 2: Dimensional Analysis of Models and Data Sets: Similarity Solutions and Scaling Analysis
Essay 3: A Coriolis Tutorial (revised and expanded in 2023)

Part 1: The Coriolis Force, Inertial and Geostrophic Motion
Part 2: A Rotating Shallow Water Model and Geostrophic Adjustment
Part 3: Beta Effects and Western Propagation
Part 4: Wind-Driven Ocean Circulation and the Sverdrup Relation
Part 5: On the Seasonally-Varying Circulation of the Arabian Sea

The goal of this resource is to help each student master the concepts and mathematical tools that make up the foundation of classical and geophysical fluid dynamics. These essays treat these topics in considerably greater depth than a comprehensive fluids textbook can afford, and they are accompanied by data files (MATLAB® and Fortran) to allow some application and experimentation. They should be suitable for self-study.

Scripps is home to the largest academic research fleet in the nation. Learn more about this incredibly valuable resource from Associate Director Dr. Robert Knox, head of Scripps marine operations and technical support. (58 minutes)

Introduction to Ocean Science
https://reefimages.com/oceansci.php

This book began as lecture notes for an Oregon State University course in fluid mechanics, designed for beginning graduate students in physical oceanography. Because of its fundamental nature, this course is often taken by students outside physical oceanography, e.g., atmospheric science, civil engineering, physics and mathematics.
In later courses, the student will discover esoteric fluid phenomena such as internal waves that propagate through the sky, water phase changes that govern clouds, and planetary rotation effects that control large-scale winds and ocean currents. In contrast, this course concerns phenomena that we have all been familiar with since childhood: flows you see in sinks and bathtubs, in rivers, and at the beach. In this context, we develop the mathematical techniques and scientific reasoning skills needed for higher-level courses and professional research. Prerequisites are few: basic linear algebra, differential and integral calculus and Newton’s laws of motion. As we go along we discover the need for the more advanced tools of tensor analysis.

Just as there are fronts in the atmosphere there are fronts in the ocean. Ocean fronts separate regions of warm and cool water, as well as salt and fresh water. and are often sites of robust biological productivity. Join Scripps Institutions' Dan Rudnick on an exploration of what observations teach us about the weather of the ocean. (39 minutes)

The Coriolis Effect is the deflection of moving objects when they are viewed in a rotating reference frame. In oceanography, we are most interested in how the Coriolis Effect moves winds and ocean currents on the rotating Earth. This activity is a simple demonstration for students to understand the Coriolis Effect by drawing arrows as they rotate a double-sided copy of the northern and southern hemispheres. My goal was to create something simple for students to use themselves to understand the Coriolis Effect.

Join Scripps Institution's David Hilton as takes us on a journey to Costa Rica on the first stage of research to find out if volcanoes put out as much as the earth's mantle takes back during the processes of subduction and volcanism. (28 minutes)

Students are introduced to the concept of geoengineering, "the deliberate large-scale intervention in the Earth's climate system, in order to moderate global warming" (The Royal Society). The goal is for them to leverage their acquired knowledge from previous units in physical oceanography, ocean chemistry, biodiversity, and ecosystem ecology to evaluate the validity and/or the risk of geoengineering (systems thinking). Current and future generations will be required to make informed decisions on whether they support strategies that result in irreversible changes in Earth's carbon cycle.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

This article describes the work of Hubert Staudigel and Cathy Constable, researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography who study Mt. Erebus, Antarctica's most active volcano.

Do you ever wonder what the seashore looked like 100 years ago? Many would be shocked at the changes that have occurred during the last few decades as population in coastal regions has swelled. Please join Dr. Kaustuv Roy as he explains the role humans have played in the degradation of some of our most precious coastal treasures and ponders what we can do to preserve what is close to being lost. (57 minutes)

This unit includes 10 lessons that culminate in a student created final product presentation on the factors that influence climate change through the lens of chemistry and oceanography using literacy strategies to conduct inquiry level research.

Using inquiry-based reading, student will examine an anchor text to formulate a question to guide their research and development of student driven projects. Throughout the unit, students will use a variety of texts, websites, and other resources to develop a product and presentation that exhibits their literacy and inquiry skills. Using inquiry-based reading, students will explore an anchor text and then develop their own essential and supporting questions to guide their research. Over the course of the unit, students will explore a variety of texts and grow in their knowledge of cellular organelles and in their ability to use informational text to support their inquiry and research.

Join Dan Cayan as he describes his research on the impacts of climate variability and attempts to improve climate and extended weather forecasts in the California region. (59 minutes)

Learn what nearly a century of study has taught us about Antarctica's Emperor Penguins as Scripps Institution's Gerald Kooyman shares his experiences conducting decades of research while camping on, diving under and traversing Antarctica's trackless sea ice. (29 minutes)

Journey millions of years back in time with Scripps Institutions' Dr. Richard Norris as he describes the latest findings from a recent Ocean Drilling Program Cruise.Ę(55 minutes)

Explore the kinds of sounds made by marine mammals and what we can learn about marine mammal populations from recording their sounds with Scripps Institution's John Hildebrand. (28 minutes)