MS 141: Educational Videos
The 2012 Geological Oceanography class created educational videos to teach you about how rocks rock! Check out their videos below.
Dorota Szuta and Christine Mann present
Plate Tectonics
This 8-minute long video explores the fundamental concepts behind plate tectonics. Using primarily paper-cut stop motion animation, the video starts with a brief history of the theory itself. It then segues into the actual physical processes, focusing on the tectonic motion that occurs at plate boundaries. Editing was done with Window Movie Maker Live.
Music as it played in the video:Benjamin Britten; Simple Symphony, Op. 4 - II. Playful Pizzicato,AU - Boute, Princess Music - Das Ungelernte, Dovekins - More Charlie More.
Andrea Launer and Gabi Navas Present
Pegmatites
Join Andrea and Gabi on a hike. The two find an amazing rock and recall it is a pegmatite. The students reason through how the rock was formed in a magma chamber, recalling concepts covered in their Geological Oceanography class taught by Dr. Ivano Aiello. Through this exploration, we meet Magma, a witch puppet, who is melting, crystallizing, and casting spells on rocks in her cauldron. The main topics covered are igneous rocks, cannibalism of rocks, melting rocks, partial melting, phases of rocks and phase boundaries, and fractional crystallization. The video combines a variety of media and concepts guiding viewers through an entertaining and educational journey, with a few laughs along the way.
Emily Donham and Diane Wyse Present
Where in the World is Carmen Coccolithophore? What coccolithophores can teach us about climate change.
The objective of this production is to illustrate the importance of the geologic record in furthering our understanding of earth’s climate. Specifically, still images, claymation and video footage will be used to explain how the fossils of calcifying phytoplankton, like coccolithophores, can hold valuable information about past climates. Geological oceanography techniques demonstrated in this production include shipboard multicore collection, core sectioning, and scanning electron microscopy. A discussion of alkenone unsaturation ratios is also included to describe how coccoliths in the sediment record are used in paleoceanography as a proxy for sea surface temperature to reconstruct past climate regimes.
Kelley Andrews and Paul Clerkin present
Echosounders, Submarine Canyons, and Sharks, Oh My!
This film explores the link between geology and biology. Understanding geologic features, such as the characteristics of the substrate where the continental shelf breaks to become the continental slope, can help us determine what organisms may be found in a habitat. Two students are on a geological oceanography field trip out on a boat in the Monterey Bay, where they are hoping to see a shark. They know a little bit about what type of habitat some sharks prefer, so they talk to the captain to see if they can figure out what the ocean floor looks like underneath them. Using maps of the topography of the Monterey Bay, they become curious about the Monterey submarine canyon, and discuss more about the characteristics of submarine canyons around the world.
Christina Volpi and Ashley Wheeler present
The Wonderful World of Turbidites
A turbidity current is a type gravity current that occurs in the ocean along the continental shelf and walls of the submarine canyon. They can be caused by geological disturbances such as earthquakes, submarine and terrestrial landslides, and a release of hydrocarbons from under the surface of the ocean. Turbidities are the deposits of a turbidity current. The ideal sequence of a turbidite is known as the Bouma Sequence, and consists of 5 layers denoted A through E. These powerful currents can rip up past deposits from the seafloor and erode large areas creating underwater canyons. It is important to know and understand these massive currents because of the integral part they play in the marine environment and sediment deposition in the deep sea.