Bruce Railsback taught an Elementary Oceanography course at the University of Georgia from 1990 to 2022. This page provides links to some of the materials he generated for that course.
Suggested readings on marine geology:
Plate tectonics and earth dynamics
Plate tectonic boundaries
Plate tectonics and sinking of cooled oceanic lithosphere
(now included in the illustration of boundaries above)
Subduction and rollback
Rollback and mantle flow
Origins of Magmas I
Mid-ocean ridges
Mid-ocean ridges and their hydrothermal systems, Part I
Mid-ocean ridges and their hydrothermal systems, Part 2
The traditional hot-spot / mantle-plume model
the last three of which are part of the Dynamic Plate Tectonics website
Oceanic volcanic features: an Euler diagram
Aseismic ridges vs. chains of ocean islands and/or seamounts
Assigned readings on physical oceanography:
Why density of seawater increases with salinity
Density of seawater at the sea surface
Variation of atmospheric pressure between and within climatic belts
The Trade Winds and Westerlies wind belts
Gyres of currents
The surface currents of the oceans I: a very simple map
The surface currents of the oceans II: a less simple map
The surface currents of the oceans III: NASA imagery
The surface currents of the oceans IV: seasonal countercurrents in the eastern Pacific and Atlantic
The surface currents of the oceans V: the Atlantic Conspiracy
The surface currents of the oceans VI: the Atlantic Conspiracy enlarged
NASA animations of surface circulation
The Ekman spiral, dynamic topography, and geostrophic currents
The Ekman spiral, dynamic topography, and coastal and equatorial upwelling
Gyres of currents, and eddies
Some origins of eddies in the (northern hemisphere) oceans
Cold-core rings and warm-core rings
Gyres of currents, idealized and eddified
The thermocline
The thermocline and deep circulation of the Atlantic - schematic
The thermocline and deep circulation of the Atlantic - less schematic
Expressions for the deep circulation of the oceans
Upwelling at divergences of ocean circulation
Two styles of upwelling in the Southern Ocean
Two models of deep ocean circulation
Models of deep ocean circulation in the 2010s ENSO (El Niño) events
Shallow-water waves and deep-water waves
Suggested readings on physical oceanography:
Global climate zones: a seven-page work-up
Two optional documents linking the sections above:
A table showing the conceptual linkage of atmospheric circulation, ocean circulation, and plate tectonics.
A diagram showing the conceptual linkage of atmospheric circulation, ocean circulation, and plate tectonics.
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Assigned readings on biological oceanography:
Cycling of nitrogen as a nutrient
Cycling of phosphorous as a nutrient
Cycling of silicon as a nutrient
Cycling of iron as a nutrient
Iron as a limiting nutrient in the ocean
Mid-ocean ridges and their hydrothermal systems, Part 2
Annual ecological cycles - Part 1
Annual ecological cycles - Part 2
Suggested readings on biological oceanography:
Plankton Flashcards, a learning tool regarding marine planktic organisms
A table on marine mammals
Photosynthetic and chemosynthetic marine ecosystems:
the sea surface, hydrothermal vents, and cold seeps
Assigned readings on chemical oceanography:
The twenty-four most abundant solutes in seawater
Variation in concentration of solutes in the oceans I: Nutrients (nitrate, phosphate, silica)
Variation in concentration of solutes in the oceans Ia: Nutrients and biological productivity
Variation in concentration of solutes in the oceans II: Dissolved oxygen (O2)
Variation in concentration of solutes in the oceans III: Carbon dioxide (CO2)
Variation in concentration of solutes in the oceans IIIa: Carbon dioxide and the carbonate compensation depth (CCD)
Variation in concentration of solutes in the oceans IV: Oxidation of sinking organic particles - a summary
Variation in concentration of solutes in the oceans V: Scavenged ions
Variation in concentration of solutes in the oceans VI: The conservative solutes
A PDF file of the lecture overhead showing how residence times are calculated.
Concentrations and residence times of solutes in seawater
The four-box model of the oceans presented in lecture
The seven-box model of the oceans presented in lecture
Assigned readings for the "Three Weird Seas" lecture:
What's an ocean, and how many does Earth have?
Size and salinity of lakes, and the ocean(s) I
Size and salinity of lakes, and the ocean(s) II
The Black Sea I: Geography
The Black Sea II: A schematic cross-section
The Black Sea IIIa: Variation with depth
The Black Sea IIIb: Chemical variation with depth
Suggested reading on marine sediments:
The path from deep-sea sediments to paleoclimate records.
Assigned readings on paleoceanography:
a PDF file of a timeline of ocean history - not a reading from which exam questions will be drawn.
Possible causes of sea-level change
The path from deep-sea sediments to paleoclimate records
Oxygen Isotopes - not a reading from which exam questions will be drawn,
but a reading that will make more sense of the next item.
Oxygen isotope records of Cenozoic global cooling and glaciation
The Warm Saline Deep Water hypothesis
a PDF file of three detailed timelines
a Phanerozoic paleoenvironmental timeline
A diagram important in our lecture(s) on "Paleoceanography and the Future".
Suggested readings on paleoceanography:
Milankovitch cycles I: eccentricity
Milankovitch cycles II: tilt
Milankovitch cycles III: precession
