A complex set of ocean phenomena makes our planet liveable. But there are also hazards and many mysteries yet to be explored and understood.
Oceans are Vital to Life on Earth
A complex set of ocean phenomena makes our planet liveable. From the equator to the poles, the great ocean currents distribute heat, as well as mixing in freshwater, carbon dioxide, and nutrients for marine life. Fluctuations in ocean temperatures affect daily weather as well as long-term climate changes.
Oceans are Hazardous
Hazards such as underwater volcanoes, earthquakes, underwater landslides, and tsunamis can occur with the movements of tectonic plates tht underlie the oceans. Giant storms such as hurricanes are born in the oceans and can wield great destruction in coastal areas. Small changes in sea surface temperature can trigger major changes in climate cycles that cause drought and floods far inland.
Origin of Life on Earth?
The most extensive aquifer on the planet lies beneath the seafloor and is a vast and unexplored home to microbes. These microbes thrive without sunlight at extremely high temperatures and survive on chemicals dissolved out of rocks that would be toxic to most other life forms on the planet. These microbes may be the origin of life on Earth.
Understanding the Oceans
For decades scientists have used the traditional tools of oceanography: ships, satellites, isolated moorings, and battery powered instruments. Discoveries have been numerous, exciting, and valuable. But, we are at the point where the scientific questions about the oceans can no longer be answered using only these traditional tools. It is time to add new approaches that will allow us to study large volumes of the oceans, seafloor, and subseafloor 24/7/365 and to receive data continuously as events happen. [link to OOI page]
As Rachel Carson wrote:
The winds and the sea and the moving tides are what they are.
If there is a wonder, and a beauty, and majesty in them,
science will discover those qualities.
If they are not there, science cannot create them.
If there is poetry in my book about the sea
it’s not because I deliberately put it there,
it’s because no one could write truthfully about the sea
and leave out the poetry.