Recovering an oceanographic mooring
So in my previous post we deployed a mooring (in fact, those pictures were from the deployment of several different moorings). Now how do we get such a monster back…
Tag: oceanography
Deploying an oceanographic mooring
Do you want to know the full story behind the rope in the mystery picture the other day? On the recent Håkon Mosby cruise, we did a lot of mooring…
Measuring the concentration of dissolved oxygen in sea water – Part 2 of 3 – the measuring part
So how do we actually measure dissolved oxygen concentrations from the samples we took in the last post? We are using a method called “titration” to determine the unknown concentration…
Measuring the concentration of dissolved oxygen in sea water – Part 1 of 3 – taking samples
Since my task on the recent Håkon Mosby cruise was to measure dissolved oxygen, I will give an overview over how that is done over the next couple of posts.…
Oceanographic concepts and language (part 4)
On how it always helps to speak the same mother tongue as your teacher. As you might have realized from previous discussion on the topic of oceanography and language (part…
Mediterranean outflow
Students demonstrating the mediterranean outflow in a tank. As reported earlier, students had to conduct experiments and present their results as part of CMM31. Niklas chose to demonstrate the mediterranean outflow…
Rogue waves in a bath tub
Trying to create rogue waves in the bath tub of the infamous “red house”. As a part of their projects, students in the CMM31 in Isafjördur course had to conduct…
Types of breaking waves depending on steepness of slope – small scale
Video of different types of breakers – small scale. In this recent post we talked about types of breakers depending on the steepness of the slope. But even on a…
Waves breaking depending on steepness of the slope
Waves breaking on slopes of different steepnesses. Depending on a slope’s steepness, waves can break in very different ways. On nearly horizontal beaches, spilling breakers develop. On steeper beaches, plunging…
Hydrothermal springs
Hydrothermal springs that you can visit without a deep-sea submersible. When teaching about hydrothermal springs, I usually use a video a friend of mine took of hydrothermal vents on the…
On drawing on the board by hand in real time
Drawing by hand on the board in real time rather than projecting a finished schematic? It is funny. During my undergrad, LCD projectors were just starting to arrive at the…
Why do we get an Ekman spiral?
Visualizing an Ekman spiral using a deck of cards. To state this right upfront: this post will not explain why the surface layer is moving at a 45 degree angle…
Traveling circus
Stuff that I brought to Isafjördur to teach the intro to oceanography. I’ve been a fan of minimalistic travel for a while. And apparently I was ready for a new…
Interference of waves.
Movie on wave interference – two wave fields arriving perpendicular to each other, interacting and leaving. When talking about waves, it is often difficult to explain that wave heights of…
Standing waves.
A seesaw to visualize how standing waves move in an enclosed basin. In enclosed basins, standing waves can occur. In the simplest case, they have a node in the middle…
Progressive waves on a rope
Visualization of progressive waves: wave form and energy move forward while the rope itself stays in place. When I talked about waves in GEOF130 recently, in order to explain the…
Teaching in Isafjördur
Teaching a block course at the University Centre of the Westfjords, Iceland. For those of you who were surprised that lately they didn’t recognize my students any more and the…
Dangers of blogging, or ice cubes melting in fresh water and salt water
When students have read blog posts of mine before doing experiments in class, it takes away a lot of the exploration. Since I was planning to blog about the CMM31…
Why melting sea ice does not contribute to sea level rise.
Simple experiment on why the impact of glaciers and sea ice on sea level, respectively, are not the same. It could be so simple: An ice cube sinks into water…
Measuring temperature.
Students build thermometers. As described in this post, I like to have students build “instruments” to measure the most oceanographic properties (temperature, salinity and density). I find that they appreciate oceanographic…
Measuring salinity
Students evaporate water to measure the salinity of a water sample. As described in this post, I like to have students build “instruments” to measure the most oceanographic properties (temperature, salinity…
Measuring density
Students build a device to measure density. As described in this post, I like to have students build “instruments” to measure the most oceanographic properties (temperature, salinity and density). I…
Tasting sea water reloaded
Doing the “tasting sea water” activity again with a different group of students. A very good introduction to the concept of salinity is the “tasting sea water” activity. Last time…
How a CTD works
Movie on how the most important instrument in oceanography works. On our cruise on the WHOI research vessel Knorr in 2011, Sindre Skrede (find him on twitter or vimeo for many more…
Internal waves in the atmosphere
A photo of internal waves in the atmosphere. Internal waves exist on the interface between fluids of different densities. In the ocean they are mostly observed through their surface imprint.…
Filling the tank
A movie of patterns observed in the flow when filling the tank for this experiment. Even though there are tons of scientific things to discuss with this movie, like the…
Details of lee waves in the tank.
A movie focusing on details of the lee waves in the tank. In this post, we investigated lee waves in a tank in a general way. Here, I want to…
Surface imprints of internal waves
How internal waves in the ocean can be spotted on the surface. Under certain conditions, internal waves in the ocean can be spotted at the ocean’s surface due to changes…
Internal (lee) waves in a tank.
Lee wave experiment in a large tank with a moving mountain. In this previous post, we talked about internal waves in a very simple experiment. But Geophysical Institute has a great…
Internal waves in a bottle
Internal waves are shown in simple 0.5l bottles. Waves travel on the interface between fluids of different densities and the phase speed of those waves depends on the density difference…
Ice in the ocean – my historical photos
Ice formation in the ocean – using my own photos to tell the story. Recently I talked about using my own photo to explain the generation of wind-generated waves to…
A fetching title for a fetching photo post
Using a photo from one of my research cruises to explain the formation of wind waves. Wind waves are (surprise coming up!) waves generated by wind that blows over the…
A simple DIY tidal model
Instruction for a very simple DIY tidal model. Today, we built a very simple DIY tidal model in class. It consists of two sets of tidal bulges: One locked in…
On the structure of fresh water and salt water ice
More details on the structure of fresh water and salt water ice. Fresh water and salt water ice have very different structures as I already discussed in this post. In the…
Melting ice cubes – what contexts to use this experiment in (post 4/4)
What contexts can the “ice cubes melting in fresh water and in salt water” experiment be used in? As you might have noticed, I really like the “ice cubes melting…
Melting ice cubes – one experiment, many ways (post 3/4)
Different didactical settings in which the “ice cubes melting in fresh and salt water” experiment can be used. In part 1 and 2 of this series, I showed two different…
How much salt is there in sea water?
Visualization of how much salt is actually contained in sea water. When preparing “sea water samples” for class, it is always astonishing to me how much salt I have to…
Properties of sea ice and fresh water ice
Sea ice and fresh water ice have distinctly different properties that can easily be investigated even in big class rooms. In “on how ice freezes from salt water” I talked…
Ice cubes melting in fresh water and salt water (post 2/4)
The “ice cubes melting in fresh water and salt water” experiment the way I usually use it in class. — Edit — For an updated description of this experiment please…
On how ice freezes from salt water
I’ve been wondering how to best show how sea ice freezes for quite a while. Not just that it freezes, but how brine is rejected. By comparing the structure of…
Ice cubes melting in salt water and freshwater (post 1/4)
Experiment to visualize the effects of density differences on ocean circulation. This is the first post in a series on one of my favorite in-class experiments; I have so much…
Forskningsdagene are almost upon us
Preparations for experiments to be shown at the science fair “forskningsdagene” are under preparation. Forskningsdagene, a cooperation between research institutes and schools, science centers and other educational places, will take…
Sea surface height and ocean depth
A hands-on activity in which students use real data to find similarities in the sea surface height and the ocean depth along satellite tracks. In yesterday’s GEOF130 class, we explored…
Heat capacity of air and water
Hands-on activity to better understand the concept and consequences of heat capacity. Also a great party trick. Imagine you take a balloon. Any kind of normal balloon. You blow it…
And even more on density
My favorite experiment. Quick and easy and very impressive way to illustrate the influence of temperature on water densities. Today in the “introduction to oceanography” (GEOF130) we conducted my favorite…
More on density
Extremely simple experiment to illustrate the effect of density differences. At room temperature, will coke cans float or sink in freshwater? And how about coke light? Btw, this experiment is…
How to measure temperature, salinity and density
Three in-class experiments run in parallel. Great if you want to discuss how properties are measured and what kind of difficulties you might encounter. Temperature, salinity and density are the…
Tasting sea water
Hands-on activity on sea water salinity In the first lecture of the “introduction to oceanography” GEOF130 course 2013, we investigated water samples from four different regions: The Mediterranean, the tropical…