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Sticking
Your Toe in the Pacific Ocean
Beth
Hubbard, Oregon Coast Community College
Have you ever gone to an
Oregon beach on a sunny day? You get out of the car
and feel the sun on your face and arms. You gather
up all of your gear, blankets, ice chest, towels,
maybe a Frisbee, and head for the sand. It's so
warm that you slip off your sandals. Boy, that sand
is hot! By the time you get to the place you've
picked to spread your blanket, your feet are
burning. Run down to the water! Cool off your feet
in that water. As you run across the hot sand you
think, "What a beautiful day! We'll be able to do
some body surfing and swimming today." Finally,
you're at the wet sand. A wave flows in to meet you
and you stick your toes in the ocean. What?! This
water is freezing cold! How could it be so cold
when the weather is so beautiful?
This activity will help you
discover just why water off the Oregon coast is
usually icy cold, understand how ocean temperatures
effect life on land, and know whether or not you
should EVER expect warm water at an Oregon
beach.
Before you begin, please
print this lesson so you can follow along, answer
some questions, and record data related to ocean
temperatures as you work through this activity on
the Internet.
To begin our project, we'll
take a look at ocean temperatures around the world.
The following site is part of the information
supplied by the National Oceanographic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It may take a
few minutes to load onto your computer, but when
it's complete, you'll see a very colorful map of
the world.
So now, please click
here:
http://psbsgi1.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/PSB/EPS/SST/data/FS_km5000.gif
Look at the information
printed along the top of the map.
1. For what dates was
this map created?
____________________________
2. What colors
do you see along the Oregon and Washington
coast?
____________________________________________________________
Notice the bar just below the
map. It's a color key that shows what temperatures
the colors represent.
3. Using the
color key, what is the range of temperatures along
the Oregon and Washington coast?
____________________________________________________________
4. Using the
map, estimate how much warmer the waters off Oregon
and Washington to be than the waters off the coast
of Alaska.
____________________________________________________________
5. Again using
the map, estimate how much colder the waters off
the Oregon and Washington coast are than the waters
around Florida.
____________________________________________________________
Now, click on the "Back"
button to return to your lesson page.
The above temperatures are
recorded in Celsius degrees. Since many of us think
of Fahrenheit degrees when judging temperatures,
converting the above temperatures from Celsius to
Fahrenheit might make the measurements more
meaningful. Luckily enough, there are temperature
conversion tables on the Internet!
If you want to use one of the
Internet sites that automatically converts Celsius
to Fahrenheit, click on this link.
Convert
for me -
http://www.economatics.co.uk/sprint/conv01.htm
Or if you wish to practice using the conversion
formula yourself, here's a site that gives you the
formulas:
I'll
calculate! -
http://www.hcrhs.hunterdon.k12.nj.us/science/celcius.html
Record the temperatures
you've gathered in the chart below:
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Degrees
Celsius
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Degrees
Fahrenheit
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The range
of temperatures along Oregon and
Washington coast. (from #3 above)
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Degrees
warmer Oregon/ Washington waters than
Alaska waters.
(from#4
above)
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Degrees
colder Oregon/ Washington waters than
Florida waters.
(from #5
above)
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When you've completed the
above table, click the "Back" button to return to
your lesson page.
Now we've established that
the Pacific Ocean temperatures off the Oregon coast
are cold but could be colder! Of course, they could
also be warmer. What you've probably heard is that
recently ocean temperatures have indeed changed
from the usual temperature patterns.
The major pattern changes
we've experienced lately have been called "the
children of the tropics": El Nino and La
Nina. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration has links to interesting Internet
sites that explore these temperature irregularities
or anomalies on its La
Nina Page -
http://www.elnino.noaa.gov/lanina.html
Using the links on the La
Nina Page, see if you can find the answers to the
following questions.
6. What is La Nina?
_____________________________________________________________
7. What does La Nina
mean?
_____________________________________________________________
8. How often does La
Nina occur?
_____________________________________________________________
Now, click the "Back" button
to return to your lesson page.
Next, we'll investigate
NOAA's
El Nino Theme Page -
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/toga-tao/el-nino/nino-home.html
....and answer the following questions.
9. What is El Nino?
_____________________________________________________________
10. What does El Nino
mean?
_____________________________________________________________
11. How often does El Nino
occur?
_____________________________________________________________
Click on your "Back" button
until you return to the lesson page.
Another interesting site
that provides information about the effects of El
Nino and La Nina is the GLOBE
El Nino/La Nina Experiment
Page -
http://www.globe.gov/fsl/html/templ.cgi?ElNino&lang=en&nav=1
Using information and
links on this page, find answers to the following
questions.
12. What are some effects of
El Nino in the United States?
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
One link from this page
allows you to create a map showing predicted
differences from the normal in the sea surface
temperature. It may not help you much if you're
planning a trip to the coast to swim next month,
but it does show how the El Nino and La Nina events
can drastically change the temperatures of the
Pacific.
Click on the Globe
Visualization link above to make your own map.
Notice the choices to make before clicking on the
map. Choose "Sea Surface Temperature (Monthly)"
from the "Predicted Anomaly" pull-down menu. Make a
selection from the "Date" menu. You can also change
the map size from "small" to "large." Point to the
map near the Oregon Coast and click. Using the bar
at the bottom of the map (the temperature key), you
can see if the ocean surface will be warmer or
cooler than normal on the date you chose. You can
also click "+
zoom" or "-
zoom" to zoom in or out.
The Web site you've just seen
contains many more interesting links and oceans of
information! You may want use these sites to
consider the following questions:
- Why is predicting El Nino
and La Nina so important?
- Is there a relationship
between these events and global
warming?
- If there is a connection
to global warming, should we expect events like
El Nino and La Nina to occur more frequently and
more severely?
- When is a good time to
stick my toes in the Pacific Ocean?
Click
here for this lesson's "Notes to
Instructors"
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