Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Amazon/Ocean

In the Amazon there's this cool fishy that eats wood. This fish is the only fish known to eat wood! Check er out!! Compared to the ocean the amazon has a wide variety of species of fish that haven't ever been discovered.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Low/High Tides

After learning about tidal waves and their lunar schedule it made sense why cruise ships have limited* activities and stops they make depending on the time of day. If these massive cruise ships were to blindly sail into the coasts and any given time they could find themselves in a real pickle. They benefit from having this knowledge so that they can make their drop offs of vacationers on islands at a more precise time. This allows the vacationers to plan around a time approximation so they can plan activities before they get to the island.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Blue Planet: Coasts

PUFFINS



                          These Puffins live near Iceland and breed on large cliffs along the coast. One of the most visited cliff by these birds is the Hornbjarg cliff. Over half of the world population of the Atlantic Puffin breeds in Iceland. Huge numbers of birds gather together to breed at cliffs where its less likely predators can easily prey on their young. If and when a predator does show interest in the cliff where the birds have nested, they flee in packs in hope to confuse it. 

Friday, October 7, 2011

Blue Planet: The Coral Seas

A lot of sea creatures benefit from living on other animals and vice versa. One relationship that was particularly interesting was the microscopic shrimp that lived in the tunnels inside of a particular coral. The shrimp would protect the coral by snipping at intruders and the coral would provide the shrimp with everything they would need to live without leaving its tunnels.
The shrimp are nearly transparent.
This is the Queen shrimp with all the itty babies!! 

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

World Currents

Part 1. The pressures that control the winds are caused by heat differences in the air. Water currents are directly related to the wind currents when it comes to direction of flow. The warm air is pushed upwards as the cooler air is forced down creating a circular rotation of winds. This friction is what causes the water currents.

Part 2. The shoes got interlocked in the currents that eventually traveled to the shore.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Atoms, Molecules, and Seawater Chemistry

Water in an ice-cube tray freezes into ice in a freezer due to latent heat. For this to happen there has to be a temperature change for the liquid to turn into solid or liquid into gas.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Layers of the Ocean


                 The euphotic zone in the ocean is the top section where the light    exposure is the strongest! An example of an animal that is found in this layer is the sperm whale. 
This big guy spends most of his time in the euphotic section but dives to great depths to find his dinner which is usually a giant squid.
     








           Next is the disphotic zone which starts at about 600 ft below the surface and has little light. It is also referred to as the twilight zone. No plants grow at this point in the ocean. An animal you would likely encounter at this point would be a Rattail fish. Most of the fish in this zone don't chase their food. They either stalk it or wait for it to float or swim by.



          The bottom level is the aphotic zone. At the point there is absolutely no light and water pressure can be as much as two tons per square inch. The deep sea gulper eel lives in this part of the ocean but is very rare to find. They have large enough mouths to swallow prey twice their size. This species of eel is unlike any other because of its rare mouth. To lure its prey it emits a redish glow.