Outline for class: Tuesday, 9 February
Topic: Ocean Deeps: Beyond the Edge
Class Activities:
- Preview of Exercise 2 images.
- Review of map projections: different projections causes different
amounts of distortion.
- How the speed of sound is used to calculate depth to the
seafloor (see problem 6 on page 3 of the course reader.
- Review of Exercise 1 images and text
- Review of video questions (Oceanfloor Legacy)
- EEZ stands for the Exclusive Economic Zone, which extends
for 200 nautical miles from the coastline of a country. The country
is responsible for the economic activities that occur in that
zone. Since the EEZ was established in 1983, the U.S. Geological
Survey has completed bathymetric (side-scan sonar) surveys of
much of this area.
- Class discussion about what should be done with the radioactive
barrels that were dumped in the offshore zone in the 1940s to
1970s.
- Profiles and vertical exaggeration using the example of the
continental margin west of San Francisco. Vertical exaggeration
causes slopes to look steeper than they really are.
- Primary features on the deep sea floor: mid-ocean ridges,
trenches, fracture zones, abyssal plains and hills, seamounts.
- Virtual field trip (slide show) to the mid-ocean ridge in
the submersible ALVIN.
- Question for 3x5 card: What are hydrothermal vents?