Challenger expedition 1872-1876
Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Scripps Institute of Oceanography
Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford
Friday Harbor Labs, Washington
Submersibles
R/V FLIP, floating
instrument platform
Scientific Method
• What?
• Why?
• How?
Inductive approach: from specific
observations to the general
Deductive approach: use general
principles in predicting specific
outcomes
Ocean Basin Geography
Interconnected World Ocean system
How did we get these ocean basins?
• Continental drift
– all the continents had once been joined in a
single ‘supercontinent’ called Pangaea
• Plate tectonics
• Sea floor spreading
Mid Ocean Ridge
• Continuous chain of submarine volcanic
mountains encircling the globe
– Largest geological feature on earth
– Is not static; slips and slides
Sea floor spreading
• As ridges
separate,
molten mantle
rises up through
rift
Moving plates
Collisions
• Creates trenches or
subduction zones
– Earthquakes &
volcanos
– Less dense
continental crust floats
on top; lasts forever
– Form volcanic islands
Kilauea, Hawai’i