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Oceanography. A branch of science that deals with the physical and biological properties and
phenomena of the sea.
FEW FACTS
Land-29%
Oceans -71%
-139 million miles2 or 361 million km2
-1.37 billion km3 volume of water
MAJOR OCEAN BASIN
Area (m km2) Ave. depth (m)
Pacific 166 4,282
Atlantic 87 3,926
Indian 73 3,963
Arctic 14 1,205
Southern 20 4,00
FACT
➢ has 139 million miles (361 million km2) about 1.37 billion km3 volume of water.
➢ It serves as home to different species of fish, marine mammals, corals, and other organism
CHEMICAL OCEANOGRAPHY
Properties of Water
The water molecule consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. The electrons
responsible for the bonds between the atoms are not distributed equally throughout the molecule,
so that the hydrogen ends of water molecules have a slight positive charge, and the oxygen end has
a slight negative charge, making water a polar molecule. The negative oxygen side of the molecule
forms an attraction to the positive hydrogen end of a neighboring molecule. This rather weak force
of attraction is called a hydrogen bond. If not for hydrogen bonds, water would vaporize at -68o C,
meaning liquid water (and thus life) could not exist on Earth
CHARACHTERISTIC OF WATER
1. Water is the only substance to naturally exist in a solid, liquid, and gaseous form under the
normal range of temperatures and pressures found on Earth.
2. Water has a high heat capacity, which is the amount of heat that must be added to raise its
temperature. Specific heat is the heat required to raise the temperature of 1 g of a
substance by 1o C. Water has the highest specific heat of any liquid except ammonia
*Latent heat of fusion is the heat required to go from solid to liquid; 80 cal/g in the case of
ice melting to water.
* Latent heat of vaporization - heat required to evaporate liquid water into water vapor<;
540 cal/g
-Water is therefore one of the most difficult liquids to heat or cool; it can absorb
large amounts of heat without increasing its temperature.
-The high heat capacity of water helps regulate global climate, as the oceans
slowly absorb and release heat, preventing rapid swings in temperature It also means
that aquatic organisms aren’t as subjected to the same rapid temperature changes as
terrestrial organisms. A deep ocean organism may not experience more than a 0.5 C
change in temperature over its entire life, while a terrestrial species may encounter
changes of more than 20o C in a single day
3. Water dissolves more substances than any other liquid.
4. The solid phase is less dense than the liquid phase. fresh water is 1.0 g/cm3 ice is 0.92
g/cm3
5. Water has a very high surface tension, the highest of any liquid except mercury
SALINITY PATTERN
All of the salts and ions that dissolve in seawater contribute to its overall salinity. Salinity of seawater is
usually expressed as the grams of salt per kilogram (1000 g) of seawater. On average, about 35 g of salt is
present in each 1 kg of seawater, so we say that the average salinity of the ocean salinity is 35 parts per
thousand (ppt). Many different substances are dissolved in the ocean, but six ions comprise about 99.4%
of all the dissolved ions in seawater. These six major ions are:
g/kg in Seawater % of ions by weight
Chloride (Cl) 19.35 55.07%
Sodium (Na+) 10.76 30.6%
Sulfate (SO42-) 2.71 7.72%
Magnesium (Mg2+) 1.29 3.68%
Calcium (Ca2+) 0.41 1.17%
Potassium (K+) 0.39 1.1%
99.36%
Variation in Salinity
- Total salinity in the open ocean averages 33-37 ppt, but it can vary significantly in different
locations. But since the major ion proportions are constant, the regional salinity differences must
be due more to water input and removal rather than the addition or removal of ions.
- Fresh water input comes through processes like precipitation, runoff from land, and melting ice.
Fresh water removal primarily comes from evaporation and freezing (when seawater freezes, the
resulting ice is mostly fresh water and the salts are excluded, making the remaining water even
saltier).
- So, differences in rates of precipitation, evaporation, river discharge, and ice formation play a
significant role in regional salinity variations. For example, the Baltic Sea has a very low surface
salinity of around 10 ppt, because it is a mostly enclosed body of water with lots of river input.
Conversely, the Red Sea is very salty (around 40 ppt), due to the lack of precipitation and the
hot environment which leads to high levels of evaporation.
- One of the saltiest large bodies of water on Earth is the Dead Sea, between Israel and Jordan.
Salinity in the Dead Sea is around 330 ppt, which is almost ten times saltier than the ocean. This
extremely high salinity is a result of the hot, arid conditions in the Middle East that lead to high
rates of evaporation
Latitudinal Variations
- Temperature is highest at the equator, and lowest near the poles.
- Higher salinities are found at subtropical, warm latitudes with high evaporation and less
precipitation
- Lower salinities, such as those around southeast Asia
Vertical Variation
- Mixed layer
- salinity is relatively uniform (top of 200m) Halocline
- area where rapid change in salinity occur
- it represents a transition between the mixed layer and the deep ocean