Essentials of Oceanography, 13th Edition
The combination of dynamic visuals and student-friendly narrative has made Essentials of Oceanography the best-selling book—and one of the best sellers overall—in oceanography.
Features and Benefits
Reach every student by pairing this text with Mastering Oceanography
Mastering™ is the teaching and learning platform that empowers you to reach every student. By combining trusted author content with digital tools developed to engage students and emulate the office-hour experience, Mastering personalizes learning and improves results for each student. Built for, and directly tied to the text, Mastering Oceanography enables an extension of learning allowing students a platform to practice, learn, and apply outside of the classroom. Learn more about Mastering Oceanography.
Equip students to think like scientists, analyze data, and learn to think critically
- New - Process of Science features give students an understanding of how scientists think and work. This feature highlights an area of oceanographic inquiry and explicitly points out the associated background, hypothesis, methods, and results of the inquiry. Each Process of Science feature includes an assignable Mastering Oceanography coaching activity.
- New - Exploring Data feature embeds data interpretation questions directly within the figure captions of data-rich figures such as graphs and maps. An associated Exploring Data Mastering Oceanography activity is available for each chapter of the text.
- Critical Thinking Questions and Active Learning Exercises throughout the text encourage students to think deeply about and engage with chapter topics.
- SmartTables are engaging lecture videos created with information from a selected set of data in the chapter that clearly explain the relevance of each data set.
Increase Student Engagement by bringing Oceanography to Life
- Expanded - 25 New and revised SmartFigures increase the total of the popular 3- to 4-minute video lessons in which oceanography experts explain difficult concepts and data. By scanning the accompanying QR code in the text or typing in the short URL, students have a multitude of ways to learn from art and data tables, all designed to teach.
- Diving Deeper boxes highlight captivating examples and stories related to chapter topics.
- Historical Features focus on historical developments in oceanography.
- Research Methods in Oceanography help students understand how oceanographic knowledge is obtained.
- Oceans and People looks at how humans interact with the ocean.
- Focus on the Environment emphasizes environmental issues, an increasingly important component of the book.
- New - Creature Features use compelling facts about marine organisms and are written in an engaging “Who Am I?” format to draw student interest.
- Sometimes Students Ask features display common and often entertaining questions posed by real students, like “Why do my fingers get wrinkly when they are in the water for a long time?” and present the science behind the answer.
Enable students to grasp key concepts with clear, concise content
- Essential Learning Concepts: Each chapter opens with a list of learning objectives, which provide a roadmap to the chapter. Each chapter section focuses on one main essential concept.
- Concept Check questions at the end of each section are designed to let students check their understanding of the Essential Learning Concept. By stopping and answering questions, students can ensure they have a thorough understanding of key points before moving on to the next section.
- Recaps appear throughout each chapter, summarizing essential concepts. This is a great tool for directing students’ study and review.
- Essential Concepts Review conclude each chapter and simplify the study process. Also organized by section, this review highlights a key figure from the chapter and provides a summary of the chapter’s key concepts. It also includes study resources, Critical Thinking Questions, and Active Learning Exercises.
Reach every student with Mastering
Teach your course your way: Your course is unique. So whether you’d like to build your own auto-graded assignments, foster student engagement during class, or give students anytime, anywhere access, Mastering gives you the flexibility to easily create your course to fit your needs.
- With Learning Catalytics, you’ll hear from every student when it matters most. You pose a variety of questions that help students recall ideas, apply concepts, and develop critical-thinking skills. Your students respond using their own smartphones, tablets, or laptops. You can monitor responses with real-time analytics and find out what your students do — and don’t —understand. Then, you can adjust your teaching accordingly, and even facilitate peer-to-peer learning, helping students stay motivated and engaged.
- Dynamic Study Modules use the latest developments in cognitive science to help students study course topics by adapting to their performance in real time. As a result, students build the confidence they need to deepen their understanding, participate meaningfully, and perform better — in and out of class. Available on smartphones, tablets, and computers.
- Empower each learner: Each student learns at a different pace. Personalized learning, including adaptive tools and wrong-answer feedback, pinpoints the precise areas where each student needs practice and gives all students the support they need — when and where they need it — to be successful.
- New - Process of Science Coaching Activities support the text feature that highlights an area of oceanographic inquiry and explicitly points out the associated background, hypothesis, methods, and results.
- New - Exploring Data activities help students actively engage with graphs and other data-driven features and practice their data interpretation skills.
- Three-part learning path assessment in Mastering Oceanography guides students through content and improves the way they learn.
- New - Pearson eText is a simple-to-use, mobile-optimized, personalized reading experience available within Mastering. It allows students to easily highlight, take notes, and review key vocabulary all in one place—even when offline. Seamlessly integrated videos and other rich media engage students and give them access to the help they need, when they need it.
- Deliver trusted content: We partner with highly respected authors to develop interactive content and course-specific resources that keep students on track and engaged.
- Oceanography Videos feature Author Al Trujillo bringing oceanographic processes to life via lecture demonstrations and field-based segments.
- Oceanography Animations illustrate key concepts in a visually dynamic and engaging way.
- Video Field Trips give students fascinating behind-the-scenes experiences at prescribed fire burns, solar energy, and coal-fired power plants, wastewater treatment facilities, landfills, farms, and more. Each Video Field Trip includes assessment questions for easily assignable homework.
Improve student results: When you teach with Mastering, student performance often improves. That’s why instructors have chosen Mastering for over 15 years, touching the lives of over 20 million students.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction to Planet "Earth"
1.1 How Are Earth's Oceans Unique?
1.2 How Was Early Exploration of the Oceans Achieved?
1.3 What Fields of Science Does Oceanography Include?
1.4 What Is the Process of Science and the Nature of Scientific Inquiry?
1.5 How Were Earth and the Solar System Formed?
1.6 How Were Earth's Atmosphere and Oceans Formed?
1.7 Did Life Begin in the Oceans?
1.8 How Old Is Earth?
Essential Concepts Review
2. Plate Tectonics and the Ocean Floor
2.1 What Evidence Supports Continental Drift?
2.2 What Additional Observations Led to the Theory of Plate Tectonics?
2.3 What Features Occur at Plate Boundaries?
2.4 Testing the Model: Can Plate Tectonics Explain Other Features in the Ocean and on Land?
2.5 How Has Earth Changed in the Past, and How Will it Look in the Future?
Essential Concepts Review
3. Marine Provinces
3.1 What Techniques Are Used to Determine Ocean Bathymetry?
3.2 What Features Exist on Continental Margins?
3.3 What Features Exist in the Deep-Ocean Basins?
3.4 What Features Exist along the Mid-Ocean Ridge?
Essential Concepts Review
4. Marine Sediments
4.1 How Are Marine Sediments Collected, and what Historical Events Do They Reveal?
4.2 What Are the Characteristics of Lithogenous Sediment?
4.3 What Are the Characteristics of Biogenous Sediment?
4.4 What Are the Characteristics of Hydrogenous Sediment?
4.5 What Are the Characteristics of Cosmogenous Sediment?
4.6 How Are Pelagic and Neritic Deposits Distributed?
4.7 What Resources Do Marine Sediments Provide?
Essential Concepts Review
5. Water and Seawater
5.1 Why Does Water Have Such Unusual Chemical Properties?
5.2 What Important Physical Properties Does Water Possess?
5.3 Why Is Seawater Salty?
5.4 Why Does Seawater Salinity Vary?
5.5 How Does Seawater Salinity Vary at the Surface and with Depth?
5.6 How Does Seawater Density Vary with Depth?
5.7 Is the Ocean Acidic or Basic?
5.8 What Factors Control the Distribution of Carbon and Oxygen in the Ocean?
Essential Concepts Review
6. Air—Sea Interaction
6.1 What Causes Variations in Solar Radiation on Earth?
6.2 What Physical Properties Does the Atmosphere Possess?
6.3 How Does the Coriolis Effect Influence Moving Objects?
6.4 What Global Atmospheric Circulation Patterns Exist?
6.5 How Does the Ocean Influence Global Weather Phenomena and Climate Patterns?
6.6 Can Power from Wind Be Harnessed as a Source of Energy?
Essential Concepts Review
7. Ocean Circulation
7.1 How Are Ocean Currents Measured?
7.2 What Creates Ocean Surface Currents and How Are They Organized?
7.3 What Causes Upwelling and Downwelling?
7.4 What Are the Main Surface Circulation Patterns in Each Ocean Basin?
7.5 How Do Sea Ice and Icebergs Form?
7.6 How Do Deep-Ocean Currents Form?
7.7 Can Power from Currents Be Harnessed as a Source of Energy?
Essential Concepts Review
8. Waves and Water Dynamics
8.1 How Are Waves Generated, and How Do They Move?
8.2 What Characteristics Do Waves Possess?
8.3 How Do Wind-Generated Waves Develop?
8.4 How Do Waves Change in the Surf Zone?
8.5 How Are Tsunami Created?
8.6 Can Power from Waves Be Harnessed as a Source of Energy?
Essential Concepts Review
9. Tides
9.1 What Causes Ocean Tides?
9.2 How Do Tides Vary during a Monthly Tidal Cycle?
9.3 What Do Tides Look Like in the Ocean?
9.4 What Types of Tidal Patterns Exist?
9.5 What Tidal Phenomena Occur in Coastal Regions?
9.6 Can Tidal Power Be Harnessed as a Source of Energy?
Essential Concepts Review
10. Beaches, Shoreline Processes, 10 and the Coastal Ocean"
10.1 How Are Coastal Regions Defined?
10.2 How Does Sand Move on the Beach?
10.3 What Features Are Typical of Erosional and Depositional Shores?
10.4 How Do Changes in Sea Level Produce Emerging and Submerging Shorelines?
10.5 How Does Hard Stabilization Affect Coastlines?
10.6 What are the Characteristics and Types of Coastal Waters?
10.7 What Issues Face Coastal Wetlands?
Essential Concepts Review
11. Marine Pollution
11.1 What Is Pollution?
11.2 What Marine Environmental Problems Are Associated with Petroleum Pollution?
11.3 What Marine Environmental Problems Are Associated with Non-Petroleum Chemical Pollution?
11.4 What Marine Environmental Problems Are Associated with Non-point Source Pollution, Including Trash?
11.5 What Can You Do to Help Prevent Marine Pollution?
11.6 What Marine Environmental Problems Are Associated with Biological Pollution?
Essential Concepts Review
12. Marine Life and the Marine Environment
12.1 What Are Living Things, and How Are They Classified?
12.2 How Are Marine Organisms Classified?
12.3 How Many Marine Species Exist?
12.4 How Are Marine Organisms Adapted to the Physical Conditions of the Ocean?
12.5 What Are the Main Divisions of the Marine Environment?
Essential Concepts Review
13. Biological Productivity and Energy Transfer
13.1 What Is Primary Productivity?
13.2 What Kinds of Photosynthetic Marine Organisms Exist?
13.3 How Does Regional Primary Productivity Vary? 13.4 How Are Energy and Nutrients Passed Along in Marine Ecosystems?
13.5 What Issues Affect Marine Fisheries?
Essential Concepts Review
14. Animals of the Pelagic Environment
14.1 How Are Marine Organisms Able to Stay above the Ocean Floor?
14.2 What Adaptations Do Pelagic Organisms Possess for Seeking Prey?
14.3 What Adaptations Do Pelagic Organisms Possess to Avoid Becoming Prey?
14.4 What Characteristics Do Marine Mammals Possess?
Essential Concepts Review
15. Animals of the Benthic Environment
15.1 What Communities Exist along Rocky Shores? 15.2 What Communities Exist along Sediment-Covered Shores?
15.3 What Communities Exist on the Shallow Offshore Ocean Floor?
15.4 What Communities Exist on the Deep-Ocean Floor?
Essential Concepts Review
16. The Oceans and Climate Change
16.1 What Comprises Earth’s Climate System?
16.2 Earth’s Recent Climate Change: Is It Natural or Caused by Human Activities?
16.3 What Causes the Atmosphere’s Greenhouse Effect?
16.4 What Changes Are Occurring in the Oceans as a Result of Global Warming?
16.5 What Can Be Done to Reduce Greenhouse Gases?
Essential Concepts Review