ATOC 6020, Fall 2010 — Notes & Calendar

ATOC 6020: Oceanography Seminar

Or, The Ocean Left Colorado 60 Million Years Ago, but Oceanography Didn't! This is a weekly seminar covering topics in oceanography and ocean-focused climate science. Presentations will feature campus and Boulder scientists on notable developments in ocean science. University of Colorado graduate students can enroll in the ATOC 6020 seminar for 1 credit per semester.

Participation is not limited to enrolled students. All interested students (graduate and undergraduate), faculty, researchers, Boulder-area oceanographers, visitors, and alumni are encouraged to attend and present.

You can access the syllabus, class notes and calendar, and reading.

James Syvitski

Understudied Problems in Oceanography --- a Seafloor Perspective

Currents and wave actions are known to affect the seafloor, through eroding or depositing sediment. Often the seafloor undergoes change during large dynamical events, that include but are not limited to storm surges from tropical cyclones, river flood events generating hyperpycnal flows, density cascading generated from land-sea shelf dynamics, fluid muds generated by storm down-welling dynamics, internal tides impacted shelf-slope boundaries, alongshore and shelf resuspension transport under storm events, and sediment failure leading to transport by debris flows and turbidity currents. The talk will review these phenomena with a view to missing data and needed studies.