Oceanology

Follow the fascinating journey of Captain Nemo and explore the ocean’s wonders, both real and imagined ... or are they? What if a sixteen-year-old assistant traveled aboard the storied Nautilus, the narwhal-shaped submarine of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea? And what if he were the sole survivor of the ill-fated voyage and went on to relay his adventures to a certain . . . Jules Verne? Find this brave young man’s own account in the lavishly illustrated Oceanology, a tale of an 1866 voyage of discovery that investigates diving bells and shipwrecks; coral reefs and ice canyons; sharks, giant octopi, and luminous sea monsters; underwater volcanoes, and even the legendary island of Atlantis.

Oceanography is the par excellence interdisciplinary science thanks to its peculiar setting within a fluid environment that makes connections extremely efficient. The oceans connections are well mirrored in the chapters of this book that share a quite explicit multidisciplinary and multi-environmental character. The book provides chapters on very different topics under very different settings, some with a focused angle, others with a broader approach, yet all sharing the idea that we need to understand the small pieces in order to put together the big picture for a much larger mechanism, the functioning of the ocean as a whole.

As one of the eighteen field-specific reports comprising the comprehensive scope of the strategic general report of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, this sub-report addresses long-range planning for developing science and technology in the field of marine science. They each craft a roadmap for their sphere of development to 2050. In their entirety, the general and sub-group reports analyze the evolution and laws governing the development of science and technology, describe the decisive impact of science and technology on the modernization process, predict that the world is on the eve of an impending S&T revolution, and call for China to be fully prepared for this new round of S&T advancement. Based on the detailed study of the demands on S&T innovation in China's modernization, the reports draw a framework for eight basic and strategic systems of socio-economic development with the support of science and technology, work out China's S&T roadmaps for the relevant eight basic and strategic systems in line with China's reality, further detail S&T initiatives of strategic importance to China's modernization, and provide S&T decision-makers with comprehensive consultations for the development of S&T innovation consistent with China's reality. Supported by illustrations and tables of data, the reports provide researchers, government officials and entrepreneurs with guidance concerning research directions, the planning process, and investment. Founded in 1949, the Chinese Academy of Sciences is the nation's highest academic institution in natural sciences. Its major responsibilities are to conduct research in basic and technological sciences, to undertake nationwide integrated surveys on natural resources and ecological environment, to provide the country with scientific data and consultations for government's decision-making, to undertake government-assigned projects with regard to key S&T problems in the process of socio-economic development, to initiate personnel training, and to promote China's high-tech enterprises through its active engagement in these areas.

This book is dedicated to the study of structure and transport of deep and bottom waters above and through underwater channels of the Atlantic Ocean. The study is based on recent observations, analysis of historical data, and literature reviews. This approach allows us to understand how water transport and water mass prop- ties have changed over the last years and decades. The focus of our study is on the propagation of bottom waters in the Atlantic Ocean based on new field data at key points. At the end of the 1920s, the first integral study of water masses and bottom topography of the Central and South Atlantic was carried out from the German - search vessel Meteor. This German Atlantic Expedition was one of the first cruises equipped with the newly developed echo sounder (fathometer): an obligatory p- requisite for the investigation of bottom morphology in the deep sea on an - erational base. The results of the expedition were published by Wüst, Defant, and colleagues in the multivolume METEOR publication series starting with the cruise report by the ship’s commander (Spiess 1928, 1932). Historically, this series of p- lications, intermittently interrupted by World War II, was the basis for many years of research into the development of modern concepts about Atlantic water masses and their circulation schemes.

Four years have elapsed since the preparation of the original Russian version of this book. This is a long time when dealing with such actively expanding fields of oceanography as research into small-scale structures and the investigation of hydro physical processes. Over this period new quick-response devices have been developed and successfully used for measurements taken in various ocean areas. Improvements in high-frequency meters used to measure hydrophysical parameters has enabled workers to obtain more accurate absolute values of the fluctuations measured by such devices. In view of this scientific progress, some of the ideas presented in this book now require additional explanation. Great care should be used in dealing with the absolute fluctuation values of hydro physical fields, since the methods used for the determination of the accuracy of the high-frequency measuring devices have been imperfect in the past. Never theless, it would appear that the results of the investigations summarized in this book have not lost their importance, and that the established laws governing small-scale pro cesses in the ocean are of a sufficiently universal nature and, as such, have not been shattered with the qualitative and quantitative advances in devices used for measurements taken in oceans. The authors feel that their work is of interest to English-speaking readers. The appearance of the English translation of the book is, to a very large extent, due to the tremendous amount of editing work brilliantly done by Prof. H. Tennekes.