Seas and Oceans

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Before reading: discuss the following questions in groups. Do you know the answers? Where have you learned this information?

What percentage of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean? How is a person who studies seas and oceans called? What is the deepest point in the ocean and where is it located? How did salt get into the ocean? What are the 5 oceans called in English? Is the Artic Ocean closest to the North Pole? Why is ocean water saltier in warm places? How can ocean pollution be prevented?

Shykind, Edwin B., and Wehmiller, John F. "Ocean and Oceanography." Microsoft Encarta 2008

1) ____________________ Oceanography studies a great body of saline water comprising all the oceans and seas that cover nearly three-fourths of the surface of the earth, and the physical, chemical, and biological aspects of the so-called world ocean. The major goals of oceanography are to understand the geologic and geochemical processes involved in the evolution and alteration of the ocean and its basin, to evaluate the interaction of the ocean and the atmosphere and to describe how the biological productivity in the sea is controlled. 2) ____________________ The world ocean covers 71 percent of the earths surface, or about 361 million sq km. Its average depth is 5,000 m, and its total volume is about 1,347,000,000 cu km. The three major subdivisions of the world ocean are the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean, which are conventionally bounded by the continental masses. The two minor subdivisions of the world ocean are the Southern Ocean, bounded by the Antarctic Current to the north and Antarctica to the south, and the Arctic Ocean, closest to the North Pole, almost landlocked except between Greenland and Europe. In the central parts of the oceans are the midocean ridges, which are extensive mountain chains. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge extends from the Norwegian Sea through the volcanic islands of Iceland and the Azores to the South Atlantic. 3) ___________________ The structure and topography of the ocean floor are studied through the use of satellite mapping, which measures the level of the ocean surface to estimate the shape of the ocean floor; sonar, which measures the depth of the oceans; and seismic techniques, which measure the thickness of sediments of the ocean floor. Using sonar, depth measurements are made by measuring the time for a sound wave to travel from the surface of the ocean to the ocean floor, and to return. In the Western Pacific, south of Japan and north of New Guinea is the lowest elevation of the surface of the Earths crust. Known as the Mariana Trench, the trench has a maximum depth of 10,923 metres. 4) _____________________ Seawater is a dilute solution of several salts derived from weathering and erosion of continental rocks. The salinity of seawater is expressed in terms of total dissolved salts in parts per thousand parts of water. Salinity varies from nearly zero in continental waters to about 41 parts per 1,000 in the Red Sea, a region of high evaporation, and more than 150 parts per 1,000 in the Great Salt Lake. In the main ocean, salinity averages about 35 parts per 1,000, varying between 34 and 36. The temperature of surface ocean water ranges from 26C in tropical waters to -1.4C, the freezing point of seawater, in polar regions. Surface temperatures generally decrease with increasing latitude, with seasonal variations far less extreme than on land. In the upper 100 m of the sea, the water is almost as warm as at the surface. From 100 m to approximately 1,000 m, the temperature 1

drops rapidly to about 5C and below this it drops gradually about another 4 to barely above freezing. 5) ___________________ The currents of the ocean are kept in motion by prevailing winds and the rotation of the earth. The best known of these currents is probably the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic that serves to warm the climate of the eastern edge of the ocean. In regions where the prevailing winds blow offshore, such as the west coast of Mexico and the coast of Peru and Chile, surface waters move away from the continents and they are replaced by colder, deeper water. This deep water is rich in nutrients, and these regions have high biological productivity and provide excellent fishing. 6) ___________________ Offshore oil and gas wells at present supply about 17 percent of the world petroleum production. Most of these wells are in the shallow waters of the continental shelves, but deep-sea drilling techniques are expected to discover petroleum on the outer continental margins. Many geologic structures under the seafloor are reservoirs for petroleum and also contain some commercially exploitable deposits of sulfur. Oceans also hold potential as an important alternate source of energy. The thermal energy of the oceans resulting from absorption of solar heat and from ocean currents can be converted into electricitya process known as ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC). Tidal power, also called tidal energy, is another form of ocean power that converts the energy of tides into useful forms of power - mainly electricity. Although not yet widely used, tidal power has potential for future electricity generation. Tides are more predictable than wind energy and solar power. 7) ___________________ Because the sea is expected to yield still larger quantities of valuable resources in the future, and because the water itself is now being used on a small scale through desalination, the concern for preserving the integrity of the ocean has grown. The contaminative effect of increasing technological development and industrialization has been known to destroy the fragile coastal ecology by the discharge of industrial and municipal waste into the sea. The pollution of the marine environment by petroleum, chemical spillage and sewage disposal has raised worlds attention to the need for controlled use of resources and planned disposal of waste products. Other pollution concerns are the effects of insecticides and pesticides on marine fish and birds, increasing levels of lead in the surface waters, and the disposal of hot water from power plants into the sea with irreversible effects on marine life. Scientists are also increasingly concerned about warming ocean temperatures due to increased amounts of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, in the atmosphere. The phenomenon known as global warming could have a negative effect on many forms of marine life that are sensitive to ocean temperature, such as coral and plankton, and also on ocean currents due to the release of fresh water from melting polar ice caps and glaciers. 8) ____________________ In the early 21st century, scientists drew attention to another source of pollution that could have devastating effects on the oceans and marine life. British scientists with the Royal Society reported in 2005 that the release of more than 25 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air each year is turning the oceans gradually more acidic. This dramatic change in ocean chemistry worldwide is reducing the availability of the carbonates that a wide variety of marine animals, such as clams, coral, and krill, need to produce limestone skeletons. The growing acidification of the oceans may also be weakening their existing skeletons. Since these animals are at the bottom of the food chain, any loss of population would negatively affect the worlds fisheries.

Tasks I. II. The text consists of 8 paragraphs. Think of the best subheading for each of them. Answer the following questions:

1) What are the goals of oceanography? 2) How many subdivisions of the major ocean are there? Give their names in English and translate them into your language. 3) How is the depth of the ocean measured? 4) Why is seawater saline? What does the salinity depend on? 5) What does the temperature of the ocean water depend on? 6) Why do the oceans have currents? 7) What is the most known current? Where it is and what effect does it have? 8) How can people use oceans for their needs? 9) What dangers have been caused to oceans? 10) How can the acidity of oceans affect the population of marine life?

III.

Watch a movie about modern-day Robinson Crusoe: in April of 2003 Lance Milbrand travelled to Clipperton Island, a coral atoll in the Eastern Pacific on a scientific expedition. Then decide whether the statements below are true or false. BoobiesSquawkCastaway-

Here you have some difficult vocabulary: AtollPropertyCorpseEel-

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/multimedia/robinson-crusoe/?ar_a=1&ar_r=999

1) Clipperton Island is a coral atoll 700 miles off the coast of Mexico.
2) Clipperton Island is only 4 sq miles, thus is not on all the maps. 3) Lance Milbrand spent 31 day on the island. 4) His friends thought the trip to be deadly dangerous. 5) He spent all the time on the island on his own. 6) He had two tasks: shooting documentary footage and mapping the atoll for National Geographic Maps. 7) It turned out that he had not prepared enough for the trip. 8) It rained only once, thats why Lance almost ran out of water. 9) One of the most interesting animals he saw was the eel that can slither on land in order to catch his prey crabs. 10) Lance was mapping the atoll only during low tide. 11) In the end he felt that the time he had spent on the island was too long. 12) Clipperton Island had been mapped for the last time in 1935.

Here are some facts about real Robinson Crusoe: The "real" Robinson Crusoe is the title character in the 1719 novel by Daniel Defoe. Lance, the modern-day castaway, survived alone on the island for 41 days. Robinson Crusoe was shipwrecked for 28 years, although he had brief interactions with many people. Defoe was inspired to write Robinson Crusoe after hearing the story of Alexander Selkirk. Selkirk was a sailor who was stranded alone on a remote island for four years. Lance survived on Clipperton Atoll, a posession of France located hundreds of miles west of Central America. The fictional Robinson Crusoe was stranded near the Caribbean island of Trinidad. Alexander Selkirk survived on the largest island in the Juan Fernandez Archipelago, off the coast of Chile. The island is now called Robinson Crusoe Island. 3

Robinson Crusoe was wildly successful, inspiring many sequels, translations, and spinoffs. It was the most popular novel written in English until the 20th century, and has never gone out of print.

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/encyclopedia/coast/?ar_a=1#page=2

The Coast If you've ever been to the beach, you've been on a coast. The coast is the land along a sea. The boundary of a coast, where land meets water, is called the coastline. Waves, tides, and currents help create coastlines. When waves crash onto shore, they wear away or erode the land. But they also leave behind little parts of the sea, such as shells, sand dollars, seaweeds, and crabs. Sometimes these objects end up as more permanent parts of the coastline. Coastal changes can take hundreds of years. The way coasts are formed depends a lot on what kind of material is in the land and water. The harder the material in the land, the harder it is to erode. Coastlines of granite, a hard rock, stay pretty stable for centuries. Sugarloaf Mountain, on the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is made mostly of granite and quartz. It has been a landmark for centuries. The famous White Cliffs of Dover, in England, are made of calcium carbonate. This is a soft material and erodes easily. However, it exists in such great quantities that years of erosion have not made a visible impact on the coastline. The White Cliffs are a landmark of the English coast of the English Channel. The sandy coastlines of islands, on the other hand, change almost daily. The island of Mont Saint Michel is only an island when the high tide. It is part of the coast of France during low tide. Tides, the rise and fall of the ocean, affect where sediment and other objects are deposited on the coast. The water slowly rises up over the shore and then slowly falls back again, leaving material behind. In places with a large tidal range (the area between high tide and low tide,) waves deposit material such as shells and crabs farther inland. Areas with a low tidal range have smaller waves that leave material closer to shore. Waves that are really big carry a lot of energy. The larger the wave, the more energy it has, and the more sediment, or particles of rock, it will move. Coastlines with big beaches have more room for waves to spread their energy and deposits. Coastlines with small, narrow beaches have less room for waves to spread out. All the waves' energy is focused in a small place. This gives the small beaches a weathered look. Sandy beaches are washed away, and rocky coastlines are sometimes cracked by strong waves. Because coasts are dynamic, or constantly changing, they are important ecosystems. They provide unique homes for marine plants, animals, and insects. Coasts help us understand natural events, such as weather and changing sea levels. During storms, coasts are the first places to be flooded. Some coasts have coastal plains. Coastal plains are pieces 4

of flat, low-lying land that can become visible when sea levels start decreasing. Coasts, as beautiful as they tend to be, have it rough sometimes. They are affected by pollution, oil spills, and garbage from both land and sea. Pollution negatively affects the way a coast looks and is damaging to the marine life that lives there.