Outstanding Odiorne

Temperature Changes in the Ocean

I liked that the field trip was interactive, which helped me learn better. When tide-pooling, I learned a lot about how the temperature of the water changed from Mr. Harty. I also learned this information from the lady inside of Ordione. I learned that the reason the ocean temperature changes is because of the variation of the sun. For example, in the winter time when the sun is in the Northern Hemisphere, the energy input is greatly reduce, therefore lowering the temperatures. The average temperature of the ocean surface waters is about 62.6 degrees. In addition to the temperature of the air, the local currents and wind also affect the ocean temperature. The surface water temperatures obviously change from season to season and year to year change, but the ocean as a whole has increased .1 degrees Fahrenheit in the past 50 years. This change is actually extremely significant, although it is one .1 degrees. It shows that the ocean is warming and this could be alarming and concerning.

    

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Temperatures Move Forward:Lobsters Move Backward

Traveling to Odiorne was such an eye-opening experience to the oceanic world. Pushing our nautical knowns we explored the reservatiion and examined different sea-species whether they were a plant, fish, or another creature. One of my favorite things I learned about were the changes of water tempatures of the ocean water we swim in. We learned that we are not swimming in the Atlantic Ocean when we go to the beach, but more specifically The Gulf of Maine. I now know when the best times to make a plunge into the oceanic water and when to not, as the best times are obviously in the summer, but the fall isn’t that bad either! I thought the spring would carry in warmer water than the fall but I was proved wrong. Also I enjoyed accepting knowledge about lobsters as we found a small one. Lobsters travel backwards and don’t use their legs as much as I thought they would, and now I know I’ll be thinking about it when I’m eating my next lobby.

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Effects of Sand

Sand is always moving. The beaches you might visit everyday are not perminent features. The shape and size of beaches change everyday on a small scale and somtimes drastically over a longer period of time. The changes occur becasue of various reasons but its always because of the sand moving.

In our Oceanography class we looked at different sand samples from around the United States under microscopes and noticed the many differences. Some of the differences are visable to the naked eye and some require the use of a microscope. Here is the list of traits we observed:

• Color
• Magnetite
• Size
• Texture
• Wentworth Scale
• Sorting
• Composition

A few days after doing our observations we went on a field trip to our local beach. We looked at the sand closely but it did not look any different than the sand we were used to. Although the sand varys greatly around the world, it usually doesnt look very different when the beaches are close to each other. The drastic changes can only seen if one compares sand from different areas across the world. Here is a few examples of the diversity found in beach sand colors.

source:

http://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/ASK/beacherosion.html

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