Introduction to Marine Biology and Ocean Geology

Vocabulary flashcards covering the history of marine biology, early exploration, deep-sea technological developments, global ocean geography, and geological oceanography from lecture slides.

Marine Biology

A branch of oceanography involving the study of animals and plants that live in the ocean and shoreline and how they interact with the environment.

Oceanography

The science that studies the oceans along with marine organisms, ecosystem dynamics, ocean currents, plate tectonics, sea floor geology, and the ocean's chemical and physical properties.

Phoenicians

The first accomplished Western navigators who, by $2000\text{ B.C.}$ were sailing around the Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea, eastern Atlantic Ocean, and Indian Ocean.

Aristotle

Recognized as the first marine biologist; created the Ladder of Life classification scheme describing nearly $1,400$ species (almost $1,400$ of which are marine) and studied cuttlefish (Sepia) anatomy and fish gills.

James Cook

An $18\text{th}$-century explorer who led three exploratory voyages, became the first person to cross the Antarctic Circle, and mapped longitude.

Challenger Expedition (1872)

A major scientific ocean expedition that traveled $69,000\text{ nautical miles}$, collected thousands of previously unknown marine species, and published its results in $50$ volumes over $19\text{ years}$.

Anton Dohrn Zoological Station

The first Marine Biological Institute, founded in Naples in $1872$ by German Darwinist Anton Dohrn to provide permanent access to lab instruments, chemical supplies, and equipment.

Bathyscaphe Trieste

A deep-sea submersible vessel that descended into the Mariana Trench to a depth of $10,916\,m$ ($35,813\,ft$) in $1960$.

Jacques Cousteau

Co-inventor of the scuba regulator, which releases compressed air to underwater divers on demand.

Hans Hass

Inventor of the first underwater flash cameras and developer of the Drager oxygen rebreather.

Satellite Relay Data Logger (SRDL)

A technological device attached to marine animals, such as sea turtles, to track their migration routes and movement patterns via satellite monitoring.

Alfred Wegener

The German geophysicist who proposed the first detailed hypothesis of continental drift in $1912$.

Continental Drift

The theory proposing that Earth's continents were once joined in a supercontinent (Pangaea) and have moved across the globe over geological time.

SONAR

Sound Navigation and Ranging; a technology that emits sound waves in marine environments and uses reflected echoes to measure depth and create seabed maps.

Lithosphere

The rigid outer layer of the Earth consisting of the crust and the topmost part of the mantle, broken into tectonic plates.

Mohorovicic Discontinuity (Moho)

The boundary layer separating Earth's crust from the underlying mantle.

Oceanic Crust

The dark, dense, basaltic, younger, and thinner type of Earth crust underlying the ocean basins.

Continental Crust

The bright, less dense, granitic, older, and thicker type of Earth crust making up dry land masses.

Subduction

A tectonic process where one oceanic plate collides with another plate and slides beneath it into the mantle, breaking and melting to cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Island Arc

A chain of volcanic islands formed where an oceanic crust plate collides with and subducts beneath another oceanic crust plate.

Continental Shelf

The shallow, gradually sloping submerged region bordering a continent.

Submarine Canyon

A steep V-shaped valley cut into the continental shelf and slope, often ending on the deep-sea floor in a fan-shaped sediment wedge.

Pacific Ocean

The largest ocean basin, spanning $155,557,000\,km^2$ with an average depth of $4,028\,m$ ($13,215\,ft$) and maximum depth of $11,033\,m$ ($36,197\,ft$) in the Marianne trench.

Atlantic Ocean

An ocean covering $76,762,000\,km^2$ with a mean depth of $3,926\,m$ ($12,880\,ft$) and maximum depth of $8,648\,m$ ($28,372\,ft$) in the Puerto Rico trench.

Indian Ocean

An ocean covering $68,556,000\,km^2$ with a mean depth of $3,963\,m$ ($13,002\,ft$) and maximum depth of $7,725\,m$ ($25,344\,ft$) in the Java trench.

Southern Ocean

An ocean covering $20,327,000\,km^2$ surrounding Antarctica, with a mean depth of $4,000\,m$ ($13,123\,ft$) and maximum depth of $8,428\,m$ ($23,651\,ft$) in the South Sandwich Trench.

Arctic Ocean

The smallest ocean basin, spanning $14,056,000\,km^2$ with an average depth of $1,205\,m$ ($3,953\,ft$) and maximum depth of $5,450\,m$ ($17,881\,ft$) in the Litke Deep.

Tyrrhenian Submarine Volcanoes

Underwater volcanoes and seamounts located in the Tyrrhenian Sea, including Marsili, Vavilov, Magnaghi, Palinuro, Alcione, and Lametini.