Dynamic Planet/Oceanography

Oceanography was the topic of Dynamic Planet for the 2007 and 2008 seasons.

Oceanography B
Last year, this event focused on physical and geological oceanography. Physical oceanography is primarily concerned with the ocean as a physical system in which principles like conservation of mass, energy, momentum and spin play a huge role in determining what you see. Geological oceanography looks at the rocks and sediments on the ocean bottom and margins and tries to infer how that got that way and what that tells us about the history of the earth. It is also good to know about ocean currents, the thermohaline circulation, and physical features of the ocean floor.

Reference Sheet
In 2008 you were allowed a double sided, typed (optional) reference sheet to help you and your partner. Try to include charts/diagrams and pictures that would seem beneficial to you (ex. Diagram that includes mid-ocean ridge, trenches, abyssal plane, continental drift/slope, etc.). Type small enough that you can fit more information, but not too small that you have to strain yourself to read it. Make sure you and your partner know where everything is on the sheet. Organize the data in a logical way, such as properties of oceans in one text box, sizes of famous bodies of water in another, and so on and so forth. You can write on the reference sheet if you deem it necessary. To fit more information on the sheet, you can decrease the margins of the paper.

Competitions
These will often take the form of written tests, though the exact format will vary from state to state.

Preparing for the competition
You need to have a mix of practical and theoretical skills. Practical skills should involve knowing how to read plots, particularly line plots, scatterplots, and contour plots. Theoretical skills should include an understanding of the Coriolis force, surface waves, and how the ocean interacts with the atmosphere. You should also study ocean geography.

Physical Oceanography and Weather
Resource materials WILL be permitted this year.

Physical Oceanography can cover a lot of territory... basically, you should have a firm knowledge of just about everything in the water that doesn't have to do with biology. Waves, tides, currents - these are all things probably worth studying. A few examples of terms you should understand are as follows.

-upwelling current -diurnal tide -significant wave height

Before you go crazy studying weather, make sure you know how to read a basic map. If at one place on the map, you have a stem with a flag, and the flag is at the left end of the stem, does this mean the wind is going east or west? If you have a 30 mph wind, how do you show this with the little marks on the flag? You need to know this information cold - trust me, I learned the hard way.

For division B, weather on the small scale will usually include such concepts as all types of fronts, various forms of precipitation, and basic weather prediction skills. You're on your own from here...

For division C, you need to have an idea of the convection of air on the global scale... trade winds, prevailing westerlies, polar easterlies. Of course, the layers of the atmosphere are definitely good to know. You'll want to have a basic knowledge of El Ni�o too - people who run these events like to ask questions about that.

Beyond the simple advice I've given you, there's always the technique of talking to a teacher at your school who teaches earth science or something like that. If you want, use the study sites listed below, or find your own, to help you learn about earth science. But in all honesty, if you have a few thick earth science books, and you study the sections that relate to this year's topics, that is probably the best way to use your time.

For more info, see the Oceanography notes page.

Resources
Please check out the web site at

http://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/~a1g/science_olympiad.html

It should at least get you started.