Kristen St. John, Caroline Robinson, Ben Suranovic, and Cari Rand, James Madison University; and Denise Bristol, Hillsborough Community College. Questions and suggestions on the exercise should be directed to Kristen St. John: stjohnke@jmu.edu
Overview: This exercise uses empirical data and Google Earth to explore the surficial distribution of marine sediments in the modern ocean. Over 2500 sites are plotted with access to original data. We recommend first completing the Primer on Google Earth to become familiar with tools in Google Earth that are used in this exercise. The Exploring Marine Sediments in Google Earth exercise has four parts:
- Stories from the Sea Floor – A Lesson on How Science Works
- A First Look at Marine Sediments
- Exploring the Distribution of Marine Sediment Types on the Sea Floor
- Refining Your Hypotheses on Biogenic Marine Sediment Distributions
Audience: Intended for use in undergraduate Oceanography, Marine Geology, Paleoceanography, and Sedimentology Courses.
Download Teaching Materials and Tips:
Google Earth Primer
Student Exercise
- Student Exercise on Exploring Marine Sediments Using Google Earth: marine sediments in GE v4.pdf
KMZ files Used in this Exercise
- First Look_v4.kmz
- Surficial-Sea-Floor-Sediment-Map-v4.kmz
- Finding the CCD.kmz
- World and Regional Sea Surface Temperature.kmz (from NASA)
- Chlorophyll.kmz (from NASA and National Geographic)
Video Links Used in this Exercise
- How Science Works video (produced by the Consortium for Ocean Leadership): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH0_xC7q9tU
- CCD video (by Minute Earth): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmpzDfrqliU
Tips for Instructors
- Instructor guide: Instructional faculty can contact Kristen St. John (stjohnke@jmu.edu) for a copy of the instructor guide
- WhatIsACore.pdf (from IODP)
- How to pull up core in GE_GSA2.pdf
- Making Big GeoData Accessible for Education_GSA2.pdf
- GSA Presentation 2014 StJohn.ppt
References and Acknowledgements:
- Data used in this exercise comes from the following research programs and databases:
- The Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP, http://www.deepseadrilling.org/about.htm): global data
- The Ocean Drilling Program (ODP, http://www-odp.tamu.edu/): global data
- The International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP, http://www.iodp.org/): global data
- The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI, http://www.whoi.edu/): North Atlantic data (global data to be added soon)
- Curators of Marine and Lacustrine Geological Samples Consortium. The Index to Marine and Lacustrine Geological Samples (IMLGS). National Geophysical Data Center, NOAA. doi:10.7289/V5H41PB8 [October 15 2014]. (http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.7289/V5H41PB8.)
- Development of this exercise is supported by the NSF-funded GEODE project.
- This exercise supplements and compliments an NSF-funded exercise on Seafloor Sediments (http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/intro/activities/29154.html , which is an open-access chapter from St. John, K., et al., (2012) Reconstructing Earth’s Climate History: Inquiry-based Exercises for Lab and Class. Wiley-Blackwell, 485p.
- Development of this exercise has greatly benefited from assistance by Cari Rand and Mladen Dordevic, James Madison University.
