Download Using NGS Maps to Study Oceans

Using NGS Maps to Study Oceans
GOAL: Present strategies to help students use NGS maps to learn about the ocean.
(To view an audio power point about this lesson, go to www.coexploration.org/ceo2006. After registering on
this site, choose “keynotes”. This lesson is from Dr. Mike Libbee‟s presentation in Week 3 and 4).
OBJECTIVES: Students will be able to use NGS maps to:
$ Describe the ocean using the 5 Themes of Geography
$ Locate ocean features relative to the United States
$ Identify information and define concepts about the ocean
MATERIALS: NGS map From Sea to Shining Sea: Exploring America’s Ocean Realms; Student Worksheets;
Student Activity Sheets (included)
PROCEDURES:
1. Review the 5 Themes of Geography with students. Using the map, ask the following questions to apply
the 5 Themes to the study of the ocean.
a. What are some of the natural characteristics of the Juan de Fuca Ridge? (Give students
worksheet #1 and have them use the text and picture of the ridge to find evidence of natural
characteristics. Sample answers:
i. Landforms – volcanic mountain range, volcanic vents forming “chimneys”
ii. Geologic plates – the Juan de Fuca and Pacific Plates
iii. Source of energy for life – sulfur rich chemicals
iv. Source of food – bacteria at the base of the food chain
v. Water features – undersea hot springs and frigid seawater
vi. Animals – red-and-white tube worms , deep sea crabs, mussels
vii. Mineral deposits – sulfur bearing mineral
b. What are some human characteristics of Dry Tortugas National Park?
Human Characteristics of the Dry Tortugas include:
i. Use of turtles as a resource
ii. Being part of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary
iii. A long history of human impact
iv. Economic use as a tourist destination
v. Fishing
c. Compare the Dry Tortugas case study with the Northwest Hawaiian Islands case study. What can
we learn from looking at their absolute and relative locations? (Latitudes are similar, and almost
tropical. Longitudes are very different, so that the Dry Tortugas are in the warm shallows of the
Gulf of Mexico, and the Hawaiian Islands are in the Pacific Ocean. The relative location with
respect to the US is very different.)
d. How have people interacted with and changed the environment of Georges Banks? Use the text
and picture of Georges Banks to answer the following:
i. How have people used Georges Banks as a resource? (fish)
ii. How have people adapted to the environment? (much better fishing equipment, etc)
iii. How have people impacted Georges Banks? (over fishing depleted the resource; new
regulations in place to restore resources)
e. Use the text and picture of the Gulf Stream to answer: How are places linked by the movement
of earth, air, water, and living things? (Many examples in text. Have students find and underline
answers)
f. Discuss the „region‟ of ocean. To some extent, oceans and continents define each other. Oceans
are the large bodies of water that separate continents. Continents are the large bodies of land that
separate oceans. Traditionally there have been 4 oceans, but one of the ocean literacy standards
says “The earth has one big ocean with many features.” Alternatively, the International
Hydrographic Organization is recommending a fifth ocean, the Southern Ocean. Source:
(https://cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/oo.html) Discuss the question: How many oceans
do we have, one, four or five?
2. The From Sea to Shining Sea map can be used to describe the relative location of many of the ocean
features closest to the United States. One of the basic ideas of remembering where things are is to develop
associations with other places. Answer the questions on Student Worksheet #2 by using the Sea to
Shining Sea map. After checking the answers (below), Activity Sheet #1 can be cut into strips for students
to play “I Have, Who Has?”
Answers to Student Worksheet #2:
1. Hudson Bay
8. Sea of Japan
2. Gulf of California
9. Hawaiian Islands
3. Caribbean Sea
10. Aleutian Islands
4. Gulf of Mexico
11. Kuroshio Current
5. Arctic Ocean
12. Subarctic Current
6. Bering Sea
13. California Current
7. Sea of Okhotsk
14. North Equatorial Current
3. National Geographic maps are a wonderful source of basic conceptual information, and provide good
brief descriptions of relevant concepts. Read the definitions found on the From Sea to Shining Sea Map
and complete the 3-part matching exercise on Student Worksheet #3 by linking terms with a definition
and a statement of significance. Answers:
Concept
Definition
Significance
Openings in the ocean floor typically at or near
a mid-ocean ridge which release hot, mineralrich water.
Develop far offshore in geologically stable
areas of low sedimentation, well beyond the
continental margins.
These may support rare and unusual forms of life.
Trenches
Formed when dense oceanic crust slides
beneath lighter oceanic crust or continental
crust.
The Mariana Trench, Earth’s deepest, plunges nearly
6.8 miles beneath the Pacific’s surface.
Seamounts
Active or extinct underwater volcanoes rising at
least 3,200 feet above the seafloor.
Like pieces of a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, Earth‟s
rocky crust is broken into tectonic plates that
move.
Those that penetrate the surface become islands, such
as the Hawaiian chain
Their slow yet rough-and-tumble jostling causes
earthquakes and volcanoes, and forges mountains,
valleys, seamounts, and deep-sea trenches.
Hot Spots
Streams of molten rock arise deep inside the
Earth and move upward through the crust to
erupt on the surface or seafloor.
As seafloor spreading moves the crust over these “hot
spots”, eruptions can create chains of seamounts and
islands.
Seafloor
Spreading
Occurs where two tectonic plates slowly
separate – by several inches a year on average.
Magma seeps into these fissures, forming new crust
and raising mid-ocean ridges.
Continental
Slopes
At their outer edges, the continental shelves
descend abruptly along the continental slopes to
the true ocean floor.
The continental slopes are riven with submarine
canyons, the work of eroding streams of muddy
water.
These often reach a depth of about 12,000 feet.
Hydrothermal
Vents
Abyssal Plains
Tectonic Plates
Submarine
Canyons
K:\MGA\NGS Maps\From Sea to Shining Sea Map\Using NGS Maps to Study Oceans.doc
These extensive, featureless regions of the deep ocean
floor constitute Earth’s flattest surfaces
Sediment ultimately seeps through and spreads out
across the vast flat abyssal plains of the ocean floor.
Student Worksheet #1
What are some of the natural characteristics of the
Juan de Fuca Ridge?
Landforms
Geologic plates
Source of energy
Source of food
Water features
Animals
Minerals
Student Worksheet #2
1. What body of water is almost completely surrounded by Canada and named for an explorer?
2. What body of water is named for a state but completely outside of the United States, and almost
completely surrounded by Mexico?
3. What body of water is southeast of the United States and a highly popular tourist destination due to many
beaches and warm climate?
4. What body of water is surrounded by the United States and Mexico and often affects the path of
hurricanes?
5. What is the coldest and most northern ocean?
6. What is west of Alaska, and south of the strait of the same name that allowed native peoples from Asia to
migrate to North America?
7. What body of water is almost entirely enclosed by the eastern end of Russia, and cut off from the Bering
Sea by a 1000 mile long peninsula?
8. What is located between our most important Asian trade partner and a peninsula inhabited by a divided
country?
9. What is our 50th state, located almost 3,000 miles from the rest of the country?
10. What is the archipelago giving Alaska the most miles of shoreline of any state in the United States?
11. What current carries warm water north toward the Bering Sea?
12. What current carries cold water east and then south past the Aleutian Trench?
13. What carries cool water and flows south along the west coast of the United States?
14. What carries warm water west in the South Pacific Ocean?
Activity Sheet #1:
I HAVE THE NORTH EQUATORIAL CURRENT.
Who has the body of water that is almost completely surrounded by Canada and named for an explorer?
I HAVE HUDSON BAY
Who has the body of water named for a state but completely outside of the United States, and almost
completely surrounded by Mexico?
I HAVE THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA
Who has the body of water that is southeast of the United States and a highly popular tourist destination
due to many beaches and warm climate?
I HAVE THE CARIBBEAN SEA
Who has the body of water surrounded by the United States and Mexico and often affecting the path of
hurricanes?
I HAVE THE GULF OF MEXICO
Who has the coldest and most northern ocean?
I HAVE THE ARCTIC OCEAN
Who has the body of water that is west of Alaska, and south of the strait of the same name that allowed
native peoples from Asia to migrate to North America?
I HAVE THE BERING SEA
Who has the body of water almost entirely enclosed by the eastern end of Russia, and cut off from the
Bering Sea by a 1000 mile long peninsula?
I HAVE THE SEA OF OKHOTSK
Who has the body of water located between our most important Asian trade partner and a peninsula
inhabited by a divided country?
I HAVE THE SEA OF JAPAN
Who has our 50th state, located 2300 miles from the rest of the country?
I HAVE THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
Who has the archipelago giving Alaska the most miles of shoreline of any state in the United States?
I HAVE THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS
Who has the current that carries warm water north toward the Bering Sea?
I HAVE THE KUROSHIO CURRENT
Who has the current that carries cold water east and then south past the Aleutian Trench?
I HAVE SUBARCTIC CURRENT
Who has the current that carries cool water and flows south along the west coast of the United States?
I HAVE CALIFORNIA CURRENT
Who has the current that carries warm water west in the South Pacific Ocean?
Student Worksheet #3
Concept
Hydrothermal
Vents
Definition
Significance
Develop far offshore in geologically
stable areas of low sedimentation, well
beyond the continental margins. .
Trenches
Those that penetrate the surface become
islands, such as the Hawaiian chain.
Like pieces of a gigantic jigsaw puzzle,
Earth‟s rocky crust is broken into
tectonic plates that move.
Hot Spots
Magma seeps into these fissures,
forming new crust and raising mid-ocean
ridges.
At their outer edges, the continental
shelves descend abruptly along the
continental slopes to the true ocean floor.
The continental slopes are riven with
submarine canyons, the work of eroding
streams of muddy water.