Some say man’s final frontier lies not in space, but within
our oceans. For all our attempts at understanding and dominance, the
oceans, which make up over 70 percent of the Earth’s entire surface
area, remain largely unexplored. The reason for our inability to
pierce the ocean depths in more than a cursory manner can be explained by
one word — pressure. While we have been able to
overcome the vacuum of space, the crushing pressure exerted within the
depths of the oceans restricts our sojourn to the topmost layers of their
watery expanse. Only very high-tech deep submergence vehicles (DSVs) and
diving suits permit us an all-too-brief encounter with what lies within
the darkest recesses of the abyss. The irony is that, as
Earth’s most highly evolved organism, we find ourselves largely
denied the opportunity to return to the place from which modern science
believes all life on Earth derives.
Oceanography is the study of our ocean environment, just as meteorology
is the study of our atmosphere. The linkage between the two is
inescapable;
air-sea
interaction is an important area of research within both sciences.
Oceanography encompasses topics ranging from the effect of sea-surface
winds on ocean chemistry to the study of marine geology and deep-water
sediments. Between and inclusive of the upper and lower ocean regions is
a tremendously diverse biosphere and a land-sea boundary essential for its
maintenance and reproduction — these too fall within the purview of
the discipline of oceanography.
Our oceans are a key component of the planetary ecosystem; environmental
protection of these crucial assets requires that we understand them,
their interactions with the land environment on which we live, and our
effects as a species on their well-being. Damage to our oceans, which
is proceeding at an alarming rate, may very well have widespread and
irreversible consequences for all life on Earth. Can we afford to let
this happen? Central to our protection of the marine environment is our
understanding of that environment. Oceanography has become a critical
area of scientific study in the world today and will increase in its
importance as continental resources dwindle and Man focuses upon the
sea as a new source for raw material and living space.
Authored by Kenneth L. Anderson.
Original article published 26 April 2003.
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