The following outline is provided as an overview of and introduction to Oceanography.
Below is a structured list of topics on oceanography.
What type of thing is oceanography? Oceanography can be described as all of the following:
The study of the physical and biological aspects of the ocean An academic discipline – branch of knowledge that is taught and researched at the college or university level. Disciplines are defined (in part), and recognized by the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned societies and academic departments or faculties to which their practitioners belong. A scientific field (a branch of science) – widely recognized category of specialized expertise within science, and typically embodies its own terminology and nomenclature. Such a field will usually be represented by one or more scientific journals, where peer-reviewed research is published. There are several geophysics-related scientific journals. A natural science – one that seeks to elucidate the rules that govern the natural world using empirical and scientific methods. A physical science – one that studies non-living systems. An earth science – one that studies the planet Earth and its surroundings. A biological science – one that studies the effect of organisms on their physical environment.
Basic oceanography concepts, processes, theories and terminology
Accretion (coastal management) – The process of coastal sediment returning to the visible portion of a beach Acoustic seabed classification – The partitioning of a seabed acoustic image into discrete physical entities or classes Acoustical oceanography – The use of underwater sound to study the sea, its boundaries and its contents Advection – The transport of a substance by bulk motion Ageostrophy – The real condition that works against geostrophic wind or geostrophic currents in the ocean, and works against an exact balance between the Coriolis force and the pressure gradient force Astrooceanography – The study of oceans outside planet Earth Atlantic Equatorial mode – A quasiperiodic interannual climate pattern of the equatorial Atlantic Ocean Baroclinity – A measure of misalignment between the gradient of pressure and the gradient of density in a fluid Barotropic fluid – A fluid whose density is a function of pressure only Barrier layer (oceanography) – A layer of water separating the well-mixed surface layer from the thermocline Bathometer – An instrument for measuring water depth Bathymetry – The study of underwater depth of lake or ocean floors Benthic boundary layer – The layer of water directly above the sediment at the bottom of a river, lake or sea Beta plane – An approximation whereby the Coriolis parameter, ƒ, is set to vary linearly in space Biosphere – The global sum of all ecosystems on Earth Bioturbation – The reworking of soils and sediments by animals or plants Borders of the oceans – The limits of the Earth's oceanic waters Bottom water – The lowermost water mass in a water body Brunt–Väisälä frequency – The angular frequency at which a vertically displaced parcel will oscillate within a statically stable environment Cabbeling – When two separate water parcels mix to form a third which is denser and sinks below both constituents Carbonate compensation depth – Depth in the oceans below which no calcium carbonate sediment particles are preserved Chemocline – A cline caused by a strong, vertical chemistry gradient within a body of water Climate inertia – The widespread inherent characteristic of the climate to take a considerable time to respond to a changed input Cold core ring – A type of oceanic eddy, characterized as unstable, time-dependent swirling 'cells' that separate from their respective ocean current and move into water bodies with different characteristics Color of water – The variability of water colour with ambient conditions Conservative temperature – A thermodynamic property of seawater that represents the heat content Coriolis frequency – Frequency of inertial oscillation at the Earth's surface resulting from the Coriolis effect Cum sole – A Latin phrase meaning with the sun, sometimes used in meteorology and physical oceanography to refer to anticyclonic motion Currentology – A science that studies the internal movements of water masses Deep chlorophyll maximum – A subsurface maximum in the concentration of chlorophyll in the ocean or a lake. Deep sea community – Groups of organisms living deep below the sea surface sharing a habitat Deep-sea exploration – The investigation of conditions on the sea bed, for scientific or commercial purposes Density ratio – A measure of the relative contributions of temperature and salinity in determining the density gradient in a seawater column Dynamic topography – Elevation changes caused by the flow within the Earth's mantle Gas hydrate stability zone – A zone and depth of the marine environment at which methane clathrates naturally exist in the Earth's crust Ecosystem-based management – An environmental management approach that recognizes the full array of interactions within an ecosystem Ekman velocity – Wind induced part of the total horizontal velocity in the upper layer of water of the open ocean such that Coriolis force is balanced by wind force Ferromanganese nodules – The result of ion exchange reactions that precipitate ore components from the water (sedimentary) or out of the interstitial water of the sediments layers (diagenetic). Geostrophic current – An oceanic flow in which the pressure gradient force is balanced by the Coriolis effect Geostrophic wind – The theoretical wind that would result from an exact balance between the Coriolis force and the pressure gradient force Hadley cell – A global scale tropical atmospheric circulation feature Halocline – Stratification of a body of water due to salinity differences Harmful algal bloom – Population explosion of organisms that can severely lower oxygen levels in natural waters, killing marine life High-nutrient, low-chlorophyll regions – Regions of the ocean where the abundance of phytoplankton is low and fairly constant despite the availability of macronutrients Hough function – The eigenfunctions of Laplace's tidal equations which govern fluid motion on a rotating sphere Hydrometeorology – A branch of meteorology and hydrology that studies the transfer of water and energy between the land surface and the lower atmosphere Isopycnal – A line connecting points of a specific density or potential density Kolk (vortex) – An underwater vortex created when rapidly rushing water passes an underwater obstacle in boundary areas of high shear.(landform) Langmuir circulation – A series of shallow, slow, counter-rotating vortices at the ocean's surface aligned with the wind Lithogenic silica – Silica that originates from terrestrial sources of rock and soil Longshore drift – Sediment moved by the longshore current Lower shoreface – The portion of the seafloor, and the sedimentary depositional environment, that lies below the everyday wave base Lunitidal interval – The time lag from the Moon passing overhead, to the next high or low tide. Lysocline – Depth in the ocean below which the rate of dissolution of calcite increases dramatically Marine clay – A type of clay found in coastal regions around the world Marine debris – Human-created solid waste in the sea or ocean Marine energy – Energy stored in the waters of oceans Marine outfall – A pipeline or tunnel that discharges municipal or industrial wastewater, stormwater, combined sewer overflows, cooling water, or brine effluents from water desalination plants to the sea Marine pollution – Marine protected area – Protected areas of seas, oceans, estuaries or large lakes Marine sediment – Deposits of insoluble particles that have accumulated on the seafloor. Marine spatial planning – A process that brings together multiple users of the ocean – including energy, industry, government, conservation and recreation – to make informed and coordinated decisions about how to use marine resources sustainably. Marine technology – Technologies used in marine environments Maritime Continent – The region of Southeast Asia which comprises, amongst other countries, Indonesia, Philippines and Papua New Guinea Maritime geography – Mean High Water – The average of all the high water heights observed over a period of several years Mean high water spring – Average level of the spring high tides over a fairly long period of time Mean low water spring – Average level of the spring low tides over a fairly long period of time Metasilicic acid – The hypothetical chemical compound with formula H2SiO3 Metocean – The syllabic abbreviation of meteorology and (physical) oceanography. Microturbulence – Turbulence that varies over small distance scales Military meteorology – Meteorology applied to military purposes Mixed layer – A layer in which active turbulence has homogenized some range of depths. Mixing length model – A method to describe momentum transfer by turbulence Reynolds stresses within a Newtonian fluid boundary layer by means of an eddy viscosity Mode water – A type of water mass which is nearly vertically homogeneous Nepheloid layer – A layer of water in the deep ocean basin, above the ocean floor, that contains significant amounts of suspended sediment Neritic zone – The relatively shallow part of the ocean above the drop-off of the continental shelf Neutral density – A density variable used in oceanography New production – Marine biological processes using nutrients from outside the euphotic zone Ocean – A body of saline water that composes much of a planet's hydrosphere Ocean bank – A part of the sea which is shallow compared to its surrounding area Ocean color – Explanation of the colour of oceans and ocean colour radiometry Ocean Data Standards – Ocean dredging – A technique for ocean bottom sampling Ocean exploration – A part of oceanography describing the exploration of ocean surfaces Ocean heat content – Thermal energy stored in ocean water Ocean observations – List of currently feasible essential observations for climate research Ocean surface topography – The shape of the ocean surface relative to the geoid Ocean turbidity – A measure of the amount of cloudiness or haziness in sea water caused by individual particles that are too small to be seen without magnification Ocean zoning – A policy approach for environmental resource management in oceanic environments (political) Oceanic physical-biological process – Hydrodynamic and hydrostatic effects on marine organisms Ophiolite – Uplifted and exposed oceanic crust Orthosilicic acid – Chemical compound assumed present in dilute solutions of silicon dioxide in water Phycosphere – A microscale mucus region that is rich in organic matter surrounding a phytoplankton cell Pierson–Moskowitz spectrum – An empirical relationship that defines the distribution of energy with frequency within the ocean Pockmark (geology) – Craters in the seabed caused by gas and liquids erupting and streaming through the sediments Potential temperature – The temperature that a fluid would attain if adiabatically brought to a standard reference pressure Potential vorticity – A simplified approach for understanding fluid motions in a rotating system Pycnocline – Layer where the density gradient is greatest within a body of water Region of freshwater influence – Regions where rivers debouch into estuaries and coastal shelf seas where the currents patterns are governed by density differences between salt sea water and fresh river water Rossby radius of deformation – The length scale at which rotational effects become as important as buoyancy or gravity wave effects in the evolution of the flow about some disturbance