OLD MARINE SCIENCE LINKS
(I taught Marine Science at NWHS for six years, from Aug. 2011 to June 2017. This page is a compilation of links amassed over many years and I can't bring myself to remove it from my site!)
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• US EARTHQUAKES - http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/ - Interactive earthquake map showing all earthquakes in the USA in the last week.
• Shark Identification. http://www.sharkid.com/sharkguides.html
• http://www.floodmap.net/ What will the world map look like after Antarctica melts? This interactive map will tell you. You plug in the sea level rise in meters, and have a look!
• SUPERCONTINENTS. Most people are aware of Pangaea. In Marine Science we discuss Ur, Rodinia and Pangaea (Laurasia + Gondwana) but as is the case with ANY subject you study without earning a PhD, this is an oversimplification: there are MANY other supercontinients in earth's history.
• What the heck is the BLOOP?? - Rather simply: cracking Antarctic ice.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• ARE MERMAIDS REAL? Nope. I'll re-use my own words from my own MYTHBUSTING page: Mermaids are a product of human imagination, not evolution by natural selection. Human skin, facial features (sense organs), forelimbs and hands are not at all adapted to a freshwater aquatic environment, and certainly not to a high-salt marine environment. (Yeah: Do NOT take your child to the Natural Science Center to see "real" mermaids; You'll embarrass yourself AND break your child's heart!)
• IS ATLANTIS REAL? Nope. [What follows is a precis of Brian Dunning's piece—which itself distills much writing by other scientists—and can be found at the link.] It turns out that PLATO is the accidental originator of the Atlantis myth. Writing 2400 years ago he mentions Atlantis as a hypothetical Utopia in one of his dialogues. The geologic details given by Plato in his thought experiment ("thought experiment" is the modern term for Socratic and Platonic dialogues!) do not describe ANY location or structure on earth, neither as Earth is known today, nor how we know—based on irrefutable physical evidence—that Earth existed going back hundreds of millions of years.
Archaeology doesn't help either, though it should: If Atlantean society was as rich and populous as described by Plato, artifacts from that society would litter the planet—and certainly the area of the planet where Atlantis is claimed to have been--as artifacts from all ancient, rich and populous societies do. Not a single artifact from Atlantean civilization has yet been identified. Not one coin, not one chip of pottery, no language remnants/descendants: literally nothing.
But back to geology: All attempts to explain a GEOLOGIC structure (unambiguously described by Plato as an island the size of Iceland located west of the Strait of Gibraltar) that we know from the geographical record to be not only nonexistent but "never-existent" (and that we know from its *only* source—Plato—to have been a work of philosophical allegory AS ALL HIS WORK WAS) must be regarded as hypotheses at best, as not enough evidence exists to refer to them even as theories.
And here I can't resist a direct quote from Brian Dunning: "No matter how many YouTube videos come out with some new proposed location for Atlantis, they will all continue to be provably wrong by these same measures. When Plato describes—UNAMBIGUOUSLY—an "island the size of Iceland, located just west of the mouth of the Mediterranean, with a circular canal 1,500 km in circumference" — you don't get to say you located a small circular lake in Outer Mongolia and claim success in finding Plato's fabled city."
• Why can you hear the ocean in a seashell? You can't. If you cup anything over your ear—a paper cup, YOUR OWN HAND, etc.—even if you're standing in a bone dry bedroom you will "hear the ocean." What you're hearing is an amplified version of the higher sound pitches in the room. You have effectively increased the size of your outer ear (your "sound catcher") and have simply "turned up the treble" on the sound in the room.
TEST IT:
1. Go into a PERFECTLY QUIET* room and hold a shell up to your ear. (*It must be perfectly quiet. Like an interior bathroom in the middle of the night. Any ambient noise at ALL will corrupt this experiment.) Compare what you hear there with what you hear if you...
2. Do this in a crowded and loud cafeteria or mall.
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- MarineBio.org - terrific Marine Biology resource!
• International Shark Attack File - http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/ISAF/ISAF.htm
• Marine Science Careers! Want a job in Marine Science, but not sure exactly WHAT job? 'Ave a look mate!
• Institute of Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, MS. https://imms.org/marine-mammal-rescue-and-rehabilitation/
• Interactive Tsunami Map - http://nvs.nanoos.org/TsunamiEvac
• US Tsunami Warning System: www.tsunami.gov/
• [dead link] PTWC - Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. http://ptwc.weather.gov/ (Which also covers the Caribbean Sea, but NO LONGER covers the Indian Ocean.)
• Greensboro Sciquarium at Natural Science Center - https://www.greensboroscience.org/visit/what-to-see/index.html#. Open daily, 9am - 5pm!
• Bay of Fundy Tides. Get up to the minute tide reports for almost any station on the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia.
• Steven Ward's Amazing Wave Simulations. Do not let this page's terrible HTML design (Yellow?? Really??) scare you away! There are HUNDREDS of cool wave animations here! Here are two of my favorites:
• Chicxulub tsunami. A modeling of the tsunami that resulted when the Dinosaur-Extincting asteroid hit the ocean (today the area is above sea level, the Yucatan peninsula in southern Mexico) 65 million years ago.
• La Palma (Canary Islands) Atlantic Coast Mega Tsunami. If the western slope of La Palma island slides into the Atlantic (and it will one day, though probably not this weekend) a cataclysmic splash wave tsunami will propagate throughout the Atlantic ocean and devastate the US Eastern seaboard.
• NOAA OCEAN TODAY - http://oceantoday.noaa.gov/. Comprehensive Oceanographic resource!
• Oceanography Quiz Game - http://charlesburrows.com/hangman/ocean.html - A terrific vocabulary game with an ENDLESS number of questions!
• tonmo.com - The Octopus News Magazine Online. If you like octopuses* and/or squid, check this site out. Your source for all things cephalopod! (* the oft-used "octopi" is not correct. It would be the correct pluralization if octopus was a Latin word, as are many words that end in "us." But octopus is an English word and is pluralized with a good old "es" at the end!)
* ONLINE SHARK DISSECTION: https://www.pc.maricopa.edu/Biology/ppepe/BIO145/lab04.html
(I taught Marine Science at NWHS for six years, from Aug. 2011 to June 2017. This page is a compilation of links amassed over many years and I can't bring myself to remove it from my site!)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• US EARTHQUAKES - http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/ - Interactive earthquake map showing all earthquakes in the USA in the last week.
• Shark Identification. http://www.sharkid.com/sharkguides.html
• http://www.floodmap.net/ What will the world map look like after Antarctica melts? This interactive map will tell you. You plug in the sea level rise in meters, and have a look!
• SUPERCONTINENTS. Most people are aware of Pangaea. In Marine Science we discuss Ur, Rodinia and Pangaea (Laurasia + Gondwana) but as is the case with ANY subject you study without earning a PhD, this is an oversimplification: there are MANY other supercontinients in earth's history.
• What the heck is the BLOOP?? - Rather simply: cracking Antarctic ice.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
• ARE MERMAIDS REAL? Nope. I'll re-use my own words from my own MYTHBUSTING page: Mermaids are a product of human imagination, not evolution by natural selection. Human skin, facial features (sense organs), forelimbs and hands are not at all adapted to a freshwater aquatic environment, and certainly not to a high-salt marine environment. (Yeah: Do NOT take your child to the Natural Science Center to see "real" mermaids; You'll embarrass yourself AND break your child's heart!)
• IS ATLANTIS REAL? Nope. [What follows is a precis of Brian Dunning's piece—which itself distills much writing by other scientists—and can be found at the link.] It turns out that PLATO is the accidental originator of the Atlantis myth. Writing 2400 years ago he mentions Atlantis as a hypothetical Utopia in one of his dialogues. The geologic details given by Plato in his thought experiment ("thought experiment" is the modern term for Socratic and Platonic dialogues!) do not describe ANY location or structure on earth, neither as Earth is known today, nor how we know—based on irrefutable physical evidence—that Earth existed going back hundreds of millions of years.
Archaeology doesn't help either, though it should: If Atlantean society was as rich and populous as described by Plato, artifacts from that society would litter the planet—and certainly the area of the planet where Atlantis is claimed to have been--as artifacts from all ancient, rich and populous societies do. Not a single artifact from Atlantean civilization has yet been identified. Not one coin, not one chip of pottery, no language remnants/descendants: literally nothing.
But back to geology: All attempts to explain a GEOLOGIC structure (unambiguously described by Plato as an island the size of Iceland located west of the Strait of Gibraltar) that we know from the geographical record to be not only nonexistent but "never-existent" (and that we know from its *only* source—Plato—to have been a work of philosophical allegory AS ALL HIS WORK WAS) must be regarded as hypotheses at best, as not enough evidence exists to refer to them even as theories.
And here I can't resist a direct quote from Brian Dunning: "No matter how many YouTube videos come out with some new proposed location for Atlantis, they will all continue to be provably wrong by these same measures. When Plato describes—UNAMBIGUOUSLY—an "island the size of Iceland, located just west of the mouth of the Mediterranean, with a circular canal 1,500 km in circumference" — you don't get to say you located a small circular lake in Outer Mongolia and claim success in finding Plato's fabled city."
• Why can you hear the ocean in a seashell? You can't. If you cup anything over your ear—a paper cup, YOUR OWN HAND, etc.—even if you're standing in a bone dry bedroom you will "hear the ocean." What you're hearing is an amplified version of the higher sound pitches in the room. You have effectively increased the size of your outer ear (your "sound catcher") and have simply "turned up the treble" on the sound in the room.
TEST IT:
1. Go into a PERFECTLY QUIET* room and hold a shell up to your ear. (*It must be perfectly quiet. Like an interior bathroom in the middle of the night. Any ambient noise at ALL will corrupt this experiment.) Compare what you hear there with what you hear if you...
2. Do this in a crowded and loud cafeteria or mall.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- MarineBio.org - terrific Marine Biology resource!
• International Shark Attack File - http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/ISAF/ISAF.htm
• Marine Science Careers! Want a job in Marine Science, but not sure exactly WHAT job? 'Ave a look mate!
• Institute of Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, MS. https://imms.org/marine-mammal-rescue-and-rehabilitation/
• Interactive Tsunami Map - http://nvs.nanoos.org/TsunamiEvac
• US Tsunami Warning System: www.tsunami.gov/
• [dead link] PTWC - Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. http://ptwc.weather.gov/ (Which also covers the Caribbean Sea, but NO LONGER covers the Indian Ocean.)
• Greensboro Sciquarium at Natural Science Center - https://www.greensboroscience.org/visit/what-to-see/index.html#. Open daily, 9am - 5pm!
• Bay of Fundy Tides. Get up to the minute tide reports for almost any station on the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia.
• Steven Ward's Amazing Wave Simulations. Do not let this page's terrible HTML design (Yellow?? Really??) scare you away! There are HUNDREDS of cool wave animations here! Here are two of my favorites:
• Chicxulub tsunami. A modeling of the tsunami that resulted when the Dinosaur-Extincting asteroid hit the ocean (today the area is above sea level, the Yucatan peninsula in southern Mexico) 65 million years ago.
• La Palma (Canary Islands) Atlantic Coast Mega Tsunami. If the western slope of La Palma island slides into the Atlantic (and it will one day, though probably not this weekend) a cataclysmic splash wave tsunami will propagate throughout the Atlantic ocean and devastate the US Eastern seaboard.
• NOAA OCEAN TODAY - http://oceantoday.noaa.gov/. Comprehensive Oceanographic resource!
• Oceanography Quiz Game - http://charlesburrows.com/hangman/ocean.html - A terrific vocabulary game with an ENDLESS number of questions!
• tonmo.com - The Octopus News Magazine Online. If you like octopuses* and/or squid, check this site out. Your source for all things cephalopod! (* the oft-used "octopi" is not correct. It would be the correct pluralization if octopus was a Latin word, as are many words that end in "us." But octopus is an English word and is pluralized with a good old "es" at the end!)
* ONLINE SHARK DISSECTION: https://www.pc.maricopa.edu/Biology/ppepe/BIO145/lab04.html
- Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation: http://www.guyharvey.com/ocean-conservation-2/. He's famous for his artwork and clothing line, but he's also the driving force behind significant conservation and research efforts.
- Guy Harvey Shark Videos: http://www.guyharvey.com/guy-harvey-expeditions-page/
- Guy Harvey Shark Videos: http://www.guyharvey.com/guy-harvey-expeditions-page/