GEOL3377: Monitoring the Oceans: Geohazards and Climate Change

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• The overall aim is to provide better understanding of a series of emerging themes in ocean science, related to climate change, geohazards, renewable energy or data telecommunications.
• It will also outline how new technologies are now being used to monitor the oceans in order to better understand geohazards, or monitor key processes (tipping points) for climate change.
• A mini-research project aims to provide cutting-edge skills for analysing newly-collected field monitoring data sets from the worlds oceans, whose full significance is not yet understood.

• The seabed comprises more than 70 percent of the Earth, but we have better mapping data from other planets. Yet oceans will play a key role in future climate change, and we need to understand geohazards to coastal and offshore structures, including for telecommunications and renewable energy.
• Part I: The first part is a mini research project, which will help to develop GIS and other analytical skills for field data analysis, which would be useful for a wide range of future careers. This mini-project will be based around analysis of a multi-facetted cutting-edge field data set collected recently from the seafloor, and thus link to active research within the department. A guide to different aspects of this mini-project will be provided through the practical classes, including analysis of seabed GIS data sets.
• Part II: The second part of the module comprises 10 lectures on emerging topics in ocean science, including around climate change, seabed geohazards, renewable energy and data tele-communications. The topics will be chosen to better understand how the oceans could drive future climate change, how we can monitor tipping points. Some topics provide background for a potentially wide range of future careers (e.g. offshore wind, geohazards or telecommunications). There will be directed reading associated with each of the emerging topics and lectures, which will be a key part of the overall content.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• To better understand key emerging themes in ocean science, which are linked to climate change, assessing offshore geohazards, renewable energy or data tele-communications.

Subject-specific Skills:

• To understand how seabed processes may affect future climate change & tipping points.
• To understand a range of offshore geophysical hazards and their potential impacts.
• To develop skills in GIS, including software that may be widely used in future careers.
• To develop skills in wider analysis of seabed monitoring and mapping geophysical data.

Key Skills:

• Critical Analysis
• Research capability
• Scholarship
• Practical competency
• Independent learning
• Numeracy
• GIS skills
• Literacy
• Teamwork
• Time management

• Each 3-hour session will combine a 1-hour lecture on emerging themes in ocean science, with a 2 hour practical session analysing cutting edge-field monitoring data from the seabed.
• The practical sessions (Part I) will form a mini-research-project, which will be assessed via an essay.

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