Debbie Schultz, age 13, of Fountain Val1ey, Calif., for her question:
What is oceanography?
The United States does not have enough trained experts in oceanography and there is plenty of work for many more. If you plan a career in this fascinating young science, you need a groundwork of courses in chemistry and physics, in biology and geology, in math and of course, in sailing.
Geography is the study of the Earth's ups and downs, its curves and corners. Oceanography is the study of the watery oceans that cover most of its surface. The salty seas link together in a world wide ocean, and its scope is immense. It covers more than 70% of our planet and this vast area holds Enough water to fill 330 million square tanks, Each a mile high and a mile wide.
It spans the globe from torrid to polar regions. Its surface is exposed to winds and weather, climate and changing seasons. Its waters merge and mingle in currents and tossing tides. Every year rivers dump into it some 6,000 cubic miles of fresh water, and millions of tons of surface water evaporate and fall again as rain. This fluid interplay is treated by the physical oceanographer.
Another branch of oceanography treats the floor of the sea. There are ooze¬ covered plains and lonely mounts, staggering cliffs and pits deep Enough to swallow Mt. Everest. There are volcanoes and earthquake faults and the Earth's most massive mountains are under the sea. Marine geologists chart the ups and downs of this underwater map and study its rocky minerals.
Marine biologists are oceanographers who specialize in teeming life that throngs in the salty seas. The ocean offers a wide range of conditions, warm or cool, light or dark, deep or shallow. Different creatures are adapted to 11ve in different places. Plants thrive in the sunlit surface and seaweeds throng in the shallow continental shelves.
Some creatures can live only under tremendous pressure in the ocean abyss, others need tidal pools and others follow the drifting pastures of floating plankton. Chemical oceanographers work with the biologists to detect the salty quality of the restless water, for this, too, affects marine life. Much of our food comes from the sea and we need to know all we can about these and other inter related branches of oceanography.
The moist air above the sea breeds storms and calms and meteorologists keep an eye on the interchange of weathery air masses between land and sea. And some oceanographers experiment in sea farming. This is man's first attempt to cultivate and control rich harvests of food that someday may be reaped from the vast and watery ocean.