Beneath the ocean waves is a vast, mysterious wilderness. The study of
the ocean is just beginning, says oceanographer Paul LeBlond.
"While we are still at the discovery stage, we are also learning to 'manage'
the ocean and predict its behavior -- a very difficult task, given the complexity
of circulation and of the marine ecosystem," says LeBlond.
Exploring this great frontier provides plenty of opportunities for travel.
In his over 35 years as an oceanographer, LeBlond has spent time in Moscow,
Marseilles and Quebec. These days, he is a professor of oceanography.
What is his specialty? Waves. LeBlond is fascinated by waves. "Breaking
waves shape the shoreline. Tsunamis [long, high waves] spread across the oceans
from sub-sea earthquakes. Tides create the ebb and flow seen on our coasts."
As you can see, there's lots to know about waves.
And waves are only one area of study open to oceanographers. There are
many more, such as mapping the ocean floor and analyzing how the movements
of the ocean affect weather patterns. Oceanographers can choose from a virtually
endless array of challenging scientific problems.
LeBlond enjoys his research work enormously. He says it can be difficult
and challenging, but it's never boring.
Other oceanographers share this kind of enthusiasm for their work.
For instance, Will Sager just can't get enough of the Shatsky Rise.
What's the Shatsky Rise? It's a volcanic plateau on the ocean floor
due east of Japan. It's under nearly 10,000 feet of salt water!
There's no way to get to it. Even a submarine can't get down
that deep. Yet there is something compelling about it that keeps drawing Sager
back. He has spent a lot of time trying to map the plateau using state-of-the-art
scientific equipment.
"We know more about the surface of the moon than we do about the sea floor,"
says Sager. "Only a tiny percentage of it has been mapped in detail."
Sager is fascinated by the plateau because it's an ancient volcano.
"That area...is part of the oldest section of the Pacific plate. It's
near where three plates come together -- a triple junction."
By studying its size and drilling for core samples, Sager will learn something
about the impact of volcanoes on the world's environment. He's also
hoping to gain more knowledge about the way the Earth's crust moves.
"There are a lot of inter-ocean plateaus in the Pacific, and it's still
unclear exactly how they were formed."
The Shatsky Rise has three main mountain and valley sections. The distance
from the peaks to the valley floors ranges from 2,200 to 3,000 meters, while
the rest of the ocean floor around it averages 6,000 meters deep.
He spent seven weeks one summer in a research vessel above the plateau.
After that, it was back to his lab to go through the mountain of data he collected.
He and his team also came home with rocks, soil samples and magnetic and sonar
readings.
Among his findings were fossils! They were found on top of the plateau's
southern peak. "The fossils look a lot like coral. If that's confirmed,
it makes me think that either the sea level was lower at one time, or this
ridge was an island and somehow sank," Sager says. "But that's all speculation
at the moment."
Sager's research is funded with grants he receives from government
and private agencies. Much of his time is spent applying for grants. In a
way, his ability to be a scientist depends on his ability to communicate!
This is true for other oceanographers too. Among them is oceanographer
Ed Dever of San Diego. It turns out that writing is an essential part of the
scientific process.
For example, he and a co-worker wrote a paper about the transfer of heat
to and from the ocean using data taken off the West Coast. After they were
finished, they sent it to a scientific journal for something called "peer
review." The peers are other oceanographers who will review their article
before it is published.
This is standard practice for all scholarly journals. These journals want
to make sure the information is correct before publishing it. "The editor
of the journal will send the article out to several oceanographers, who'll
read the paper and check it for content and style. The editor will tell us
the reviewer's comments and we'll act on them."
Dever studies a range of data from the ocean, including the hourly values
of air temperature, wind speed and direction, water temperature, solar radiation,
infrared radiation and relative humidity. But he doesn't have to leave
the lab to collect this data every hour. Instead, much of this data is collected
by oceanographic buoys deployed precisely for this purpose.
"I tend to work on one project for a couple weeks until I reach a logical
stopping place or decide I want a break," Dever says. Sometimes taking a break
means heading out to sea and collecting some more data himself.
"What I remember most about going to sea is seasickness and rough weather,"
jokes Dever. He recalls one afternoon that was especially rough. "Looking
out the porthole was like looking into a washing machine."
Of course, Dever has had happy experiences at sea, too. On another occasion
the crew was having problems retrieving the boat's anchor from its mooring.
"We recovered the anchor, and there was a little octopus living in it," he
says. "The cook scooped him out and cooked him for supper. It was delicious."