Oceanography is a branch of earth sciences that uses biology, chemistry, geology, meteorology, and physics to study ocean currents, marine ecosystems, storms, waves, and ocean floor features. It falls into four categories: biological, chemical, geological, and physical. Important discoveries were made in the mid-19th century, and innovative work has been done since World War II using deep-sea submersibles. Oceanography is also used in ocean engineering and may be used in the future for floating cities.
Oceanography, also called oceanology or marine science, is a huge science that is considered a branch of the earth sciences. Oceanography is an interdisciplinary science that uses knowledge of biology, chemistry, geology, meteorology and physics to analyze ocean currents, marine ecosystems, ocean storms, waves, ocean plate tectonics and ocean floor features, including exotic biomes such as cold seeps and hydrothermal vents. Modern oceanography began in the 1760s with scientifically minded explorers such as the British James Cook and the Frenchman Antoine de Bougainville, who included oceanographic observations in their travel reports.
Oceanography falls into four general categories: biological oceanography (marine oceanography), the study of marine biota and their interactions; chemical oceanography (marine chemistry), which studies the chemistry of the oceans, past and present, and how it interacts with the atmosphere and the carbon cycle; geological oceanography (marine geology), which studies the gelological composition of the ocean floor, including the movement and interaction of various oceanic tectonic plates; and physical oceanography (marine physics), studying the physics of the oceans, including the complex ways in which light, sound, and radio waves travel through the ocean. Oceanography is also heavily used in ocean engineering, commercial or scientific ventures involving the construction of oil rigs, ships, harbors and perhaps in the future, floating cities.
Many of the important initial discoveries in oceanography occurred in the mid-19th century. The first modern survey (exploration with reflective sound waves) of the ocean depths was conducted by Sir James Clark Ross. Charles Darwin, famous for inventing the theory of evolution, published some of the first papers on reefs and atolls in the 1819th century. Continental shelves, steep drops that usually occur 1830 km (80 miles) offshore around the world, were discovered in the 50’s. The presence of continental shelves was eventually used to support continental drift theories.
Some of the most innovative oceanographic work since World War II has been conducted from deep-sea submersibles, such as the famous Alvin, which has been in operation since 1964. Using these subs, oceanographers have explored the wreck of the Titanic, discovered seafloor biomes completely independent of light of the Sun, and reached the lowest point on the Earth’s surface, the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench of the western Pacific.
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