Oceanography (OCN)
School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology
OCN 201 Science of the Sea (3) Structure,
formation, and features of ocean basins; seawater properties and
distributions; currents; waves; tides; characteristics of marine
organisms; marine ecological principles; man and the sea. Field trip
required. NS2
OCN 310 Global Environmental Change (3) Global
environmental change problems such as carbon dioxide and the greenhouse
effect, acid rain, chlorofluorocarbons and the ozone layer, global
deforestation and the effect on climate, etc. Pre: one environmentally
oriented science course. (Cross-listed as OEST 310 and MET 310)
OCN 310L Global Environmental Change Laboratory (2)
(2-hr Lab) Laboratory course to supplement OCN 310. Quantitative
aspects of global environmental change will be addressed through
problem-solving and computer modeling. A-F only. Pre: MATH 205, MATH
206, PHYS 170, PHYS 170L, CHEM 161, and CHEM 161L; or consent.
Co-requisite: 310. (Cross-listed as MET 310L and OEST 310L)
OCN 315 Modeling Natural Systems (3) Introduction
to philosophy of science for those with some background in the natural
sciences. Special emphasis on issues arising from the construction and
use of models. Pre: consent. (Cross-listed as PHIL 315)
OCN 320 Aquatic Pollution (3) Pollution of
freshwater and marine systems by human activities. Causes, consequences,
and correctives. Pre: 201 or consent.
OCN 330 Mineral and Energy Resources of the Sea (3)
Hard mineral and petroleum origins, exploration, and exploitation.
Renewable and non-renewable resources distribution. Political and
scientific constraints. Pre: 201.
OCN 331 Living Resources of the Sea (3) Marine
fisheries, aquaculture, and law of the sea. Principles of management of
renewable resources. Political and scientific constraints and
limitations. Pre: 201.
OCN 363 Earth System Science Databases (3) Combined
lecture, discussion, and laboratory course on global Earth system
databases and satellite instrumentation, including computer laboratory.
A-F only. Pre: MATH 232 or consent.
OCN 401 Biogeochemical Systems (3) Relationship
of biogeochemical cycles in the atmosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere
to global chemical cycles and planetary climatic conditions. GES degree
foundation course. A-F only. Pre: consent.
OCN 423 Marine Geology (3) Sediments,
structure, geophysics, geochemistry, and history of ocean basins and
margins. Pre: GG 201, GG 202, and GG 203; or consent. (Crosslisted as GG
423)
OCN 444 Plate Tectonics (3) (2 Lec, 1 3-hr Lab) Quantitative
geometrical analysis techniques of plate tectonics theory; instantaneous
and finite rotation poles; triple-junction analysis; plate boundary
stresses. Pre: GG 203 or consent. (Cross-listed as GG 444)
OCN 450 Aquaculture Production (3) Theory
and practice of aquaculture: reproduction, yield trials, management,
economics, and business case studies of fish, crustaceans, and molluscs.
Field classes held at commercial farm and hatchery. Repeatable. Pre:
ANSC 200 (or concurrent) and ANSC 201 (or concurrent) or BIOL 172 (or
concurrent). (Cross-listed as ANSC 450)
OCN 499 Undergraduate Thesis (3) Directed
research course in which the student carries out a scientific project of
small to moderate scope with one or more chosen advisers. The student
must complete a document in the style of a scientific journal article.
Repeatable once. Pre: consent.
OCN 620 Physical Oceanography (4) Introduction
to properties of seawater, oceanographic instruments and methods, heat
budget, general ocean circulation, regional oceanography, waves, tides,
sea level. Repeatable. Pre: MATH 206 (or concurrent), or consent.
OCN 621 Biological Oceanography (3) Factors
governing productivity, population dynamics, distribution of organisms
in major ecosystems of the ocean, emphasis on ecology of pelagic zone.
Pre: 620 or consent.
OCN 622 Geological Oceanography (3) Marine
geological processes, ocean basin structure and tectonics,
sedimentation. Pre: GG 101.
OCN 623 Chemical Oceanography (3) Chemical
processes occurring in marine waters; why they occur and how they affect
oceanic environment. Pre: CHEM 171 or equivalent.
OCN 626 Marine Microplankton Ecology (4) (3 Lec, 1
3-hr Lab) Distribution, abundance, and ecology of marine
microplankton, including bacteria, algae, and protozoans, with an
emphasis on metabolic rates and processes. Pre: consent. Spring only.
OCN 627 Ecology of Pelagic Marine Animals (4) (3
Lec, 1 3-hr Lab) Ecology of pelagic animals including feeding,
energetics, predation, and anti-predation tactics. Life-history
strategies, vertical flux of materials, population dynamics, fisheries.
Pre: consent. Spring only.
OCN 628 Benthic Biological Oceanography (4) (3 Lec,
1 3-hr Lab) Processes controlling the structure and function of
benthic communities, including organismsediment-flow interactions,
sediment geochemistry, feeding strategies, recruitment, succession, and
population interactions. Pre: consent. Spring only.
OCN 630 Physical Oceanography Lab (1) (1 3-hr Lab) Techniques
and methods of analysis. Pre: MATH 232 and consent.
OCN 631 Ocean Minerals (3) Distribution,
origin, processes of formation. Sulfides, oxides, and placer minerals.
Comparative studies of continental ore bodies. Submarine rift,
subduction, and abduction. Pre: one of 622, 623, GG 407, GG 430, or GG
603.
OCN 633 Chemical Oceanography Lab Methods (2) (1
Lec, 1 2-hr Lab) Lab and field analytical techniques. Pre: consent.
OCN 635 Isotopic Marine Geochemistry (3) Application
of stable and unstable isotope tracers in studying geochemical processes
and their rates in the sea. Pre: CHEM 161, CHEM 162, and MATH 205.
OCN 635L Radiochemical Techniques (1) (1 3-hr Lab) Radiation
detection and measurement, separation and manipulation of radionuclides,
experimental design and use of tracers. Student projects based on
individual interests. Pre: 635 (or concurrent) and consent.
OCN 638 Earth System Science and Global Change (3) Global
view of the planet and how it functions as an integrated unit.
Biogeochemical processes, dynamics, and cycles, and analysis of natural
and human-induced environmental change. Chemical history of
ocean-atmosphere-sediment system and co-evolution of the biota.
Repeatable once. Pre: BS in environmentally related science or one year
of chemistry, physics, and calculus. (Crosslisted as GG 638)
OCN 640 Advanced Physical Oceanography (3) Ocean
structure and circulation, interaction between ocean and atmosphere,
interpretation of oceanographic data, comparison of theories and
observations. Pre: 620.
OCN 641 Origin of Sedimentary Rocks (3) (2 Lec, 1
3-hr Lab) Environment of deposition and subsequent diagenesis of
modern and ancient sediments. Petrogenesis of siliciclastic, carbonate
and orthochemical rocks. Sedimentology, sedimentary petrography and
geochemistry. Repeatable. Pre: consent. (Cross-listed as GG 641)
OCN 642 Elemental Composition Changes (3) Changes
in the chemical composition of meteorites, bulk Earth, Earth’s mantle
and crust, sedimentary rocks, hydrosphere and biosphere, and underlying
principles. Pre: 623 or GG 325; or consent. (Cross-listed as GG 642)
OCN 643 Topics in Marine Geochemistry (3) Seminar
on a broad topic; discussion and critique of research papers. Repeatable
once. Pre: 623 or consent.
OCN 644 Sedimentary Geochemistry (3) Geochemical
thermodynamics and kinetics and their use in interpreting the origin of
sediments, sedimentary rocks, and natural waters over a range of
pressure-temperature conditions. Pre: CHEM 171, MATH 206, PHYS 152, and
consent. (Cross-listed as GG 644)
OCN 645 Marine Organic Geochemistry (3) Processes
responsible for cycling of organic material in marine waters and
sediments. Pre: 622, 623, and CHEM 272; or consent.
OCN 650 Math Techniques for Oceanographers (5) (3
Lec, 2 3-hr Lab) Introduction to numerical methods, data analysis,
error propagation, box models, linear and nonlinear least squares,
perturbation theory, numerical integration. Pre: MATH 232.
OCN 653 Methods in Microbiology Oceanography (3) (1
8-hr Lab) Modern methods for sampling microbial populations from the
sea and for quantifying biomass and in siturates of metabolism.
Integrated field projects, theme varies. Pre: 621 or 623, and 626; or
consent.
OCN 660 Ocean Waves I (3) Governing
hydrodynamic equations, perturbation techniques, gravity and capillary
waves, wave energy, group velocity, refraction, wave spectra, wave
generation. Pre: MATH 432 or consent.
OCN 661 Ocean Waves II (3) Baroclinic gravity
waves, inertial waves, mid-latitude Rossby waves, topographic waves,
equatorial waves. Pre: 660 or consent.
OCN 662 Marine Hydrodynamics (3) Introduction
to classical hydrodynamics and continuum mechanics. Techniques for
solution of Navier Stokes equations on various scales of oceanic motion;
potential theory, dynamic modeling, and viscous and rotational
processes. Pre: MATH 403 and MATH 404.
OCN 663 Satellite Oceanography (3) Techniques
of satellite observations of the ocean, including temperature, pigment
concentration, currents, and winds; analysis of a satellite data set as
term project. Pre 620 or consent.
OCN 664 Oceanographic Instrumentation and Technology
(3) Measurement techniques in physical
oceanography, including pressure, temperature, salinity, oxygen, optical
sensors, current meters, navigation systems, ocean acoustics, and
mooring structures. Includes a laboratory research project. Pre: 620 or
consent.
OCN 665 Small-Scale Air-Sea Interaction (3) Observations
and theory of small-scale processes which couple the atmosphere and
ocean boundary layers, including introduction to turbulence theory and
parameterization of turbulent fluxes. Pre: MATH 402 and MATH 403 (or
their equivalents) and either OCN 620 or MET 600; or consent.
(Cross-listed as MET 665)
OCN 667 Advanced Geophysical Fluid Dynamics I (3) Basic
concepts and equations to describe large-scale ocean circulation;
numerical models; boundary layers; models of wind-driven circulation of
a homogeneous ocean. Pre: 620 and 662, or consent.
OCN 668 Advanced Geophysical Fluid Dynamics II (3) Thermodynamics
of stratified fluids; convection; mixing; models of the thermohaline
circulation; the role of eddies in the large-scale ocean circulation.
Pre: 667 or consent.
OCN 672 Seminar in Tectonics (3) Evolution of
ocean basins, margins, foldbelts, and platforms, from plate tectonics
and regional synthesis of structure, petrology, geophysics, and
stratigraphy. Repeatable once. Pre: consent. (Cross-listed as GG 672)
OCN 674 Paleoceanography (V) Study of the
paloeceanographic and paleoclimate evolution of the Earth’s oceans,
atmosphere, and biosphere. Repeatable. Pre: consent. (Crosslisted as GG
674)
OCN 699 Directed Research (V) Pre: consent.
OCN 700 Thesis Research (V) Research for
master’s thesis.
OCN 735 Seminar in Oceanography (2)
OCN 750 Topics in Biological Oceanography (V) Seminar. Literature
and concepts in one of several active fields considered in detail.
Repeatable. Pre: consent.
OCN 760 Topics in Physical Oceanography (V) Near-shore
processes, advanced mathematical techniques, recent developments, etc.
Typically given by visiting professors in their specialties, or in
response to student interest.
OCN 770 Seminar in Chemical Oceanography (1)
OCN 780 Seminar (1) Oceanographic topics of
current interest.
OCN 791 Proposal Development (2) Introduction
to the organization and functioning of oceanography funding agencies,
the peer-review process, and the design and development of a research
proposal. Repeatable. CR/NC only. Pre: two of the following: 621, 626,
627 (or concurrent), or 628 (or concurrent); or consent.
OCN 800 Dissertation Research (V) Research
for doctoral dissertation.
For key to symbols and abbreviations, see the first
page of this section. |