"Course No. 1730."

36 lectures on 6 discs, 30 min. per lecture.

GMD: videodisc.

Disc 1: Diving in: the ocean adventure -- Explorers, navigators, pioneering scientists -- Ocean basics and ocean basins -- Mapping the sea: soundings to satellites -- Habitats: sunlit shelves to the dark abyss -- The spreading sea floor and mid-ocean ridges -- Disc 2: The plunging sea floor and deep-sea trenches -- The formation of the earth and its ocean -- The early ocean and the origins of life -- Marine sediments: archives of the ocean -- Offshore oil and gas: resources and risks -- The enduring chemistry of seawater -- Disc 3: How the physics of water controls the ocean -- Waves: motion in the ocean -- Rogue waves and tsunami -- Tides in theory and practice -- Marine life, energy, and food webs -- Tiny plankton: the most abundant life on earth -- Disc 4: Soft-bodied life in the dark, open depths -- Swimming: the many fish in the sea -- Marine birds, reptiles, and mammals -- Whaling, fisheries, and farming the ocean -- Where sea meets the land and why coasts vary -- Where rivers meet the sea: estuaries and deltas -- Disc 5: Coastal erosion: beaches and sea cliffs -- Tidal life, sea forests, and coral reefs -- Deep bottom life and hydrothermal vents -- Trade winds: the circulation of heat and wind -- Heavy weather: storms and hurricanes -- The Gulf stream to gyres: vast surface currents -- Disc 6: Upwelling, downwelling, and El Nino -- The deepest, slowest river: Polar bottom water -- The ocean and global climate -- The warming, rising sea -- Marine pollution: the impact of toxins -- The future ocean.

Harold J. Tobin, professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

DVD.