Oceanography - I

GEOGRAPHY

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Oceanography - I
Oceanography is a scientific discipline concerned with all aspects of the world’s oceans and seas, including
their physical and chemical properties, their origin and geologic framework, and the life forms that inhabit the
marine environment.

Source: Geography realm

Water on the Surface of the Earth

Next to air, water is the most important element required for the existence of life on earth. The distribution
of water on earth is quite uneven. About 71 percent of Earth’s surface is covered by seawater, with the
proportion of sea to land being greater in the Southern Hemisphere (4 to 1) than in the Northern
Hemisphere (1.5 to 1). The remaining is held as freshwater in glaciers and icecaps, groundwater sources,
lakes, soil moisture, atmosphere, streams and within life.

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Hydrological Cycle

 Water cycle, also called hydrologic cycle, involves the continuous circulation of water in the Earth-
atmosphere system.

 Water is a cyclic resource. It can be used and reused.

Source: Britannica

 Water also undergoes a cycle from the ocean to land and land to ocean. The hydrological cycle describes
the movement of water on, in, and above the earth.

 The water cycle has been working for billions of years and all life on earth depends on it.

 The hydrological cycle is the circulation of water within the earth’s hydrosphere in different forms i.e.
the liquid, solid and the gaseous phases.

 It also refers to the continuous exchange of water between the oceans atmosphere, land surface and
subsurface and the organisms.

 Nearly 59 per cent of the water that falls on land returns to the atmosphere through evaporation from
over the oceans as well as from other places. The remainder runs-off on the surface, infiltrates into the
ground or a part of it becomes glacier.

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 Of the many processes involved in the water cycle, the most important are evaporation, transpiration,
condensation, precipitation, and runoff.

 Although the total amount of water within the cycle remains essentially constant, its distribution among
the various processes is continually changing.

Components and Processes of the Hydrological cycle

Source: Fundamentals of Physical Geography (NCERT)

Components:
1. Water storage in the oceans- Around 97% of the world's water is stored in the oceans as saltwater. With
an overwhelming majority of water stored here, oceans can be seen as the start and end point of the
hydrologic cycle. Water from the ocean evaporates into the atmosphere, then falls back to Earth's surface as
precipitation. Most precipitation falls back into the ocean but some precipitation falls onto land.

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Source: Energy Education

2. Water storage in the atmosphere- In the atmosphere, water exists as a gas (water vapor from evapora-
tion), as a liquid (droplets of rain and liquid water that coats solid particles), and as a solid (snow and ice).

Water is present in variable amounts in the atmosphere, from 0 % to 4 % and makes up only a very small
percentage of the total water on Earth.

3. Water storage in ice and snow- The amount of water locked up in ice and snow is only about 1.7 percent
of all water on Earth, but the majority of total freshwater on Earth, about 68.7 percent, is held in ice caps and
glaciers.

4. Surface Runoff - Runoff is the quantity of water discharged in surface streams. Runoff includes not only the
waters that travel over the land surface and through channels to reach a stream but also interflow, the water
that infiltrates the soil surface and travels by means of gravity toward a stream channel (always above the
main groundwater level) and eventually empties into the channel.

Runoff also includes groundwater that is discharged into a stream.

5. Groundwater storage- Groundwater is all of the water found underneath the Earth’s surface. This water
comes mostly from rain, melted snow, and other water that seeps through soil, sand and rock. Groundwater
comprises almost 30% of the world's fresh water supply and is a significant part of the hydrologic cycle.

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Processes
1. Evaporation- Water is heated by solar radiation from the Sun. Water molecules on the surface of
oceans, rivers, lakes, ponds, and other bodies of water become energized by this. When sufficiently
energized, the water molecules are able to break free from the forces binding them together and they
evaporate, rising into the atmosphere as water vapour.

97.5% of the earth's water is contained in the ocean, so a large amount of water enters the atmosphere
through evaporation at the ocean's surface.

2. Transpiration- This is the process of water vapour being emitted by plant leaves.

3. Evapotranspiration- In practical terms, when water vapour leaves a vegetated surface it is often difficult
to distinguish between evaporation from the soil surface and transpiration from plants. Therefore, these
combined processes are commonly referred to as evapotranspiration.

4. Sublimation- When water moves directly from a solid to a gaseous state without ever entering the
liquid state. This process allows water in snow or glaciers to enter the atmosphere directly.

5. Condensation- When water vapour rises, it cools slightly and condenses. Generally, the water
condenses on dust particles in the air and becomes liquid. Sometimes the water skips the liquid phase and
turns directly into a solid - in the form of ice, hail, or snow. In the liquid form the particles collect and form
clouds.

6. Precipitation- Water falls from the sky in numerous different forms of precipitation including rain,
snow, and hail. This precipitation comes from clouds, which are free to move around the world and are
pushed by air currents. This allows water to move around the globe easily.

7. Runoff- Rain or snowmelt can move water over land and form small creeks or collect in ditches. Runoff
is the visible flow of water in rivers or creeks as water, previously stored in a basin, drains.

8. Infiltration and Percolation- When precipitation falls on the ground, some of it moves downwards into
cracks, joints, and pores in the soil. The entry of water into the subsurface is termed infiltration.

Source: Slideshare

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The process of percolation refers to the subsequent movement of water through subsurface soil pores until
it reaches the water table. At this point it becomes groundwater. This is a slow process, which is why more
water flows back to the ocean through surface runoff than groundwater discharge.

9. Groundwater Flow- Groundwater is water that is held in cracks and pore spaces below ground. This
water can be tapped by water supply wells or continue moving below the ground until it eventually returns
to the surface.

The process by which groundwater exits the ground is known as groundwater discharge. This groundwater
can either discharge directly into oceans, or more commonly, it discharges to surface water (lakes and rivers)
and then travels to the ocean as surface runoff.

Oceans
The oceans are confined to the great depressions of the earth’s outer layer. The oceans, unlike the conti-
nents, merge so naturally into one another that it is hard to demarcate them.

 The geographers have divided the oceanic part of the earth into five oceans, namely the Pacific,
the Atlantic, the Indian, Southern ocean and the Arctic.

 The various seas, bays, gulfs and other inlets are parts of these four large oceans.

Relief of the ocean floor

 A major portion of the ocean floor is found between 3-6 km below the sea level. The ‘land’ under the
waters of the oceans, that is, the ocean floor exhibits complex and varied features as those observed over
the land.

Source: esteamlearninglabs

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 The floors of the oceans are rugged with the world’s largest mountain ranges, deepest trenches and the
largest plains. These features are formed, like those of the continents, by the factors of tectonic, volcan-
ic and depositional processes.

Divisions of the Ocean Floors

The ocean floors can be divided into four major divisions:

(i) the Continental Shelf

(ii) the Continental Slope

(iii) the Deep Sea Plain

(iv) the Oceanic Deeps or Trenches.

Besides these divisions, there are also major and minor relief features in the ocean floors like ridges, hills, sea
mounts, guyots, trenches, canyons, etc.

Continental Shelf
The continental shelf is the extended margin of each continent occupied by relatively shallow seas and gulfs.
It is the shallowest part of the ocean showing an average gradient of 1° or even less. The shelf typically ends
at a very steep slope, called the shelf break.

Source: ResearchGate

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 The average width of continental shelves is about 80 km.

 The shelves are almost absent or very narrow along some of the margins like the coasts of Chile, the
west coast of Sumatra, etc.

 On the contrary, the Siberian shelf in the Arctic Ocean, the largest in the world, stretches to 1,500 km in
width.

 The depth of the shelves also varies. It may be as shallow as 30 m in some areas while in some areas it is
as deep as 600 m.

 The continental shelves are covered with variable thicknesses of sediments brought down by rivers,
glaciers, wind, from the land and distributed by waves and currents.

 Massive sedimentary deposits received over a long time by the continental shelves have become the
source of fossil fuels.

Continental Slope
 The continental slope connects the continental shelf and the ocean basins. It begins where the bottom
of the continental shelf sharply drops off into a steep slope.

 The gradient of the slope region varies between 2-5°.

 The depth of the slope region varies between 200 and 3,000 m.

 The slope boundary indicates the end of the continents.

 Canyons and trenches are observed in this region.

Deep Sea Plain (Abyssal Plain)

 Deep sea plains are gently sloping areas of the ocean basins. These are the flattest and smoothest
regions of the world.

 The depths vary between 3,000 and 6,000m.

 These plains are covered with fine-grained sediments like clay and silt.

Oceanic Deeps or Trenches

 These areas are the deepest parts of the oceans.

 The trenches are relatively steep sided, narrow basins. They are some 3-5 km deeper than the
surrounding ocean floor.

 They occur at the bases of continental slopes and along island arcs and are associated with active
volcanoes and strong earthquakes. That is why they are very significant in the study of plate movements.

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Source: Buzzle

 As many as 57 deeps have been explored so far - of which 32 are in the Pacific Ocean; 19 in the Atlantic
Ocean and 6 in the Indian Ocean.

 The Mariana Trench off the Guam Islands in the Pacific Ocean is the deepest trench with a depth of
more than 11 kilometres.

Minor Relief Features

Apart from the above mentioned major relief features of the ocean floor, some minor but significant fea-
tures predominate in different parts of the oceans.

Mid-Oceanic Ridges
 A mid-oceanic ridge is composed of two chains of mountains separated by a large depression. The
mountain ranges can have peaks as high as 2,500 m and some even reach above the ocean’s surface.

 Iceland, a part of the mid-Atlantic Ridge, is an example.

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Source: Socratic

Seamount
 It is a mountain with pointed summits, rising from the seafloor that does not reach the surface of the
ocean.

 Seamounts are volcanic in origin. These can be 3,000-4,500 m tall.

 The Emperor seamount, an extension of the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean, is a good example.

Source: Britannica

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Submarine Canyons
 These are deep valleys, some comparable to the Grand Canyon of the Colorado river. They are
sometimes found cutting across the continental shelves and slopes, often extending from the mouths of
large rivers.

 The Hudson Canyon is the best known submarine canyon in the world.

Guyots
 It is a flat topped seamount. They show evidence of gradual subsidence through stages to become flat
topped submerged mountains.

 It is estimated that more than 10,000 seamounts and guyots exist in the Pacific Ocean alone.

Atoll
 These are low islands found in the tropical oceans consisting of coral reefs surrounding a central
depression.

 It may be a part of the sea (lagoon), or sometimes form enclosing a body of fresh, brackish, or highly
saline water.

Source: National Geographic

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Temperature of the ocean water

Ocean waters get heated up by solar energy just as land. However, the process of heating and cooling of the
oceanic water is slower than land.

Generally ocean temperatures range from about -2° to 30°C. The warmest water tends to be surface water
in low latitude regions, while the surface water at the poles is obviously much colder. At equivalent
latitudes, water on the eastern side of the ocean basins is colder than the water on the western side. This
has to do with the pattern of surface currents.

Factors Affecting Temperature Distribution

The factors which affect the distribution of temperature of ocean water are:

1. Latitude - the temperature of surface water decreases from the equator towards the poles in accordance
with the amount of insolation decreasing poleward.

2. Unequal distribution of land and water - the oceans in the northern hemisphere receive more heat due
to their contact with larger extent of land than the oceans in the southern hemisphere.

3. Prevailing winds - the winds blowing from the land towards the oceans drive warm surface water away
from the coast resulting in the upwelling of cold water from below. It results in the longitudinal variation in
the temperature. Contrary to this, the onshore winds pile up warm water near the coast and this raises the
temperature.

4. Ocean currents - warm ocean currents raise the temperature in cold areas while the cold currents
decrease the temperature in warm ocean areas. The Gulf stream (warm current) raises the temperature
near the eastern coast of North America and the West Coast of Europe while the Labrador current (cold
current) lowers the temperature near the north-east coast of North America.

Horizontal and Vertical Distribution of Temperature

 The temperature-depth profile for the ocean water shows how the temperature decreases with the
increasing depth.

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Source: Weather

The profile shows a boundary region between the surface waters of the ocean and the deeper layers. The
boundary usually begins around 100 - 400 m below the sea surface and extends several hundreds of metres
downward. This boundary region, from where there is a rapid decrease of temperature, is called the
thermocline.

About 90 per cent of the total volume of water is found below the thermocline in the deep ocean. In this
zone, temperatures approach 0°C.

The temperature structure of oceans over middle and low latitudes can be described as a three-layer
system from surface to the bottom:

1. The first layer represents the top layer of warm oceanic water and it is about 500m thick with
temperatures ranging between 20° and 25°C. This layer, within the tropical region, is present
throughout the year but in mid-latitudes it develops only during summer.

2. The second layer called the thermocline layer lies below the first layer and is characterised by
rapid decrease in temperature with increasing depth. The thermocline is 500 - 1,000 m thick.

3. The third layer is very cold and extends upto the deep ocean floor. In the Arctic and Antarctic
circles, the surface water temperatures are close to 0° C and so the temperature change with the
depth is very slight. Here, only one layer of cold water exists, which extends from surface to deep
ocean floor.

 The average temperature of surface water of the oceans is about 27°C and it gradually decreases from
the equator towards the poles.

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 The rate of decrease of temperature with increasing latitude is generally 0.5°C per latitude.

 The average temperature is around 22°C at 20° latitudes, 14° C at 40° latitudes and 0° C near poles.

 The oceans in the northern hemisphere record relatively higher temperatures than in the southern
hemisphere. The highest temperature is not recorded at the equator but slightly towards north of it.

 The average annual temperatures for the northern and southern hemisphere are around 19° C and 16° C
respectively. This variation is due to the unequal distribution of land and water in the northern and
southern hemispheres.

 It is a well known fact that the maximum temperature of the oceans is always at their surfaces because
they directly receive the heat from the sun and the heat is transmitted to the lower sections of the
oceans through the process of convection.

 It results in the decrease of temperature with increasing depth, but the rate of decrease is not uniform
throughout.

 The temperature falls very rapidly up to the depth of 200 m and thereafter, the rate of decrease of
temperature is slowed down.

Source: Science Learn

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Salinity of ocean waters

All waters in nature, whether rain water or ocean water, contain dissolved mineral salts. Salinity is the term
used to define the total content of dissolved salts in seawater.

It is calculated as the amount of salt (in gm) dissolved in 1,000 gm (1 kg) of seawater. It is usually
expressed as parts per thousand (0/00) or ppt.

Salinity is an important property of seawater. Salinity of 24.7 0/00 has been considered as the upper limit to
demarcate ‘brackish water’.

Factors affecting ocean salinity

 The salinity of water in the surface layer of oceans depends mainly on evaporation and precipitation.

 Surface salinity is greatly influenced in coastal regions by the freshwater flow from rivers, and in polar
regions by the processes of freezing and thawing of ice.

 Wind also influences salinity of an area by transferring water to other areas.

 The ocean currents contribute to the salinity variations.

 Salinity, temperature and density of water are interrelated. Hence, any change in the temperature or
density influences the salinity of water in an area.

Horizontal Distribution of Salinity

 The salinity for normal open ocean ranges between 33% and 37 %.

 In the land-locked Red sea, it is as high as 41%, while in the estuaries and the Arctic, the salinity
fluctuates from 0 - 35 % seasonally.

 In hot and dry regions, where evaporation is high, the salinity sometimes reaches 70%.

 The salinity variation in the Pacific Ocean is mainly due to its shape and larger areal extent. Salinity
decreases from 35% - 31 % on the western parts of the northern hemisphere because of the influx of
melted water from the Arctic region. In the same way, after 15° - 20° south, it decreases to 33%

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 The average salinity of the Atlantic Ocean is around 36%. The highest salinity is recorded between 15°
and 20° latitudes. Maximum salinity (37 o/oo) is observed between 20° N and 30° N and 20° W - 60° W.
It gradually decreases towards the north.

 The North Sea, in spite of its location in higher latitudes, records higher salinity due to more saline
water brought by the North Atlantic Drift.

 Baltic Sea records low salinity due to the influx of river waters in large quantities.

 The Mediterranean Sea records higher salinity due to high evaporation.

 Salinity is, however, very low in Black Sea due to enormous freshwater influx by rivers.

 The average salinity of the Indian Ocean is 35 % . The low salinity trend is observed in the Bay of Bengal
due to influx of river water. On the contrary, the Arabian Sea shows higher salinity due to high
evaporation and low influx of fresh water.

Source: Quora

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Vertical Distribution of Salinity

 Salinity changes with depth, but the way it changes depends upon the location of the sea.

 Salinity at the surface increases by the loss of water to ice or evaporation, or decreased by the input of
fresh waters, such as from the rivers.

 Salinity at depth is very much fixed, because there is no way that water is ‘lost’, or the salt is ‘added.’

 There is a marked difference in the salinity between the surface zones and the deep zones of the oceans.
The lower salinity water rests above the higher salinity dense water.

 Salinity, generally, increases with depth and there is a distinct zone called the halocline, where salinity
increases sharply.

 Other factors being constant, increasing salinity of seawater causes its density to increase. High salinity
seawater, generally, sinks below the lower salinity water. This leads to stratification by salinity.

GEOGRAPHY | Oceanography - I PAGE 18