Customer Reviews (1)

very helpful and easy to go through
I strongly recommed it.
This book is great, it helped me score an A during the course, along with its invistagation manual (AMS). the language is easy, the graphis presentations are very helpful and the pictures are very clearly printed.
Something else important is the INDEX which was the rescewer in homeworks and exams ;)
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Product Description
This book presents a program of basic studies dealing with the science of oceanography. Various characteristics of the oceans are described, including features of the oceans, life within the oceans, and different ways of studying the oceans. Each of the twelve teaching units in this book is introduced by a color transparency, which emphasizes the basic concept of the unit and presents questions for discussion. Reproducible student pages provide reinforcement and follow-up activities. The teaching guide offers descriptions of the basic concepts to be presented, background information, suggestions for enrichment activities, and a complete answer key. Recommended in Laura Berquist Earth Science Syllabus Author: Milliken Publishing Grade: 5-10 Pages: 12 Transp, 32 Repro Publisher: Milliken Publishing Company ISBN: 1-55863-058-9 ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

educational and entertaining history
I had the great pleasure of taking a special college course series in the late 1970's,taught by a wonderful guest science professor, Willard Bascom. It was the best course I ever took, even after over thirty years later.The man was brilliant, experienced, clever, humble, enthusiastic, and just loved to tell us interesting stories of the peoples and battles of ancient and modern seas.He would often recite from memory some lovely historic seafaring poetry to add to the flavor.Reading this book brought back some of those special memories of that inspiring oceanographer. Very neat man.Buy this book to learn some historical oceanography as lived and written by one its pioneers.

THIS BOOK SHOULD NOT BE OUT OF PRINT!
This is a classic book! Not only for those interested in the ocean, but for those interested in LIFE. It is amazing what Willard Bascom went through - how curiosity took him through a death sentence of cancer, how he rode waves in a style the biggest-wave surfers would never DREAM of, purely in order to measure the shoreline of the western U.S. This book is a gripper, an absolute classic. READ IT if you can find a copy!

Great book about oceans and oceanographers
A real read! Highly recommended to those interested in oceans, and tracking the career of one of the most interesting scientists around. Opportunities like this could only come during this middle part of our century, and it takes a tremendous individual to take advantage and "ride the wave."

The book is well written, easy and entertaining to read, and remarkably understated. Recommended.

Oceanographer heros fight villans and display daring do.
Oceanography grew up after World War II, and its growth is the story of Willard Bascom's career. Over a span of 40 years we find him studying waves and beaches, exploring for diamonds, measuring atomic blasts, advising the U.S. Navy on amphibious operations, salvaging ships, inventing deep-sea drilling and wet suits, fighting bureaucracies, and suing the CIA. Those of us growing up reading Scientific American in the 1950's and 1960's recall him mainly as an occasional author of articles on physical oceanography and ocean technology. Bascom's technical articles were flavored them with anecdotes, characters, and impressions of the sea. Bascom's book, The Crest of the Wave {Harper and Row) approaches oceanography from the opposite direction. It is an anecdotal account of ocean exploration and science with a little hint of technical material added. The result is a science adventure complete with heros, villians, entrepeneurship, and daring do. The heros, of course, are oceanographers, who take to the hostile sea in tiny, sometimes inadequate ships fitted with ingenious, sometimes recalcitrant devices. They are "can do guys," who fight storms and sea, finagle budgets, and finesse machinery. They mortgage their houses to start businesses and make stock deals. These are 80s-style heros living in the 1950s and 60s. The villians are drawn from the usual suspects. There is Lyndon Johnson interfering with project Mohole in the interest of Brown and Root, or the CIA stealing patents, or the Government of Bahamas trying to renege on a lease, or friends and associates corrupted by the find of a treasure galleon, or a recalcitrant bureaucracy intent on protecting its prerogatives. Daring do? What sort of daring do is found in an oceanography book? There is the usual stuff. Rescuing survivors of air crashes, scientists being swept overboard and lost, the loss of the tug Collinstar with all hands in a storm on the Skeleton Coast. There is the first deep sea drilling. Bascom was commissioned by NSF to design and prove a drill ship that could drill in water 100 times deeper than any previous holes. Using only 60% of a skimpy $2.5 million budget, Bascom managed to build CUSS I, the first ship to use dynamic positioning; and a ship John Steinbeck described as having "...the clean lines of an outhouse standing on a garbage scow." Not only did dynamic positioning work perfectly in its first deep water test, it did so in 14 foot waves, force 7 winds, and strong currents. Like the early space program, it was science working in the glare of publicity. CUSS I was the forerunner of the Glomar Challenger, which by now has drilled a hundred miles of hole in every ocean and provided us with nearly all we know about history of the ocean basins. The chapter on ocean pollution is especially appropriate in view of recent renewed concern over dumping in the ocean. It provides a highly readable account on long research into the dumping of sewage and waste in the ocean. The resulting picture is very different from that portrayed by environmentalists and the media, and shows how reasonable and worthwhile goals become captive to politics and superstition. Some material is taken from his earlier books; Waves and Beaches (1964), Deep Water, Ancient Ships (1976) and A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea (1961). However, these earlier books presented but small slices of Bascom's long and varied career: Crest of the Wave provides a panorama. Even the repeated material has additional detail added. Crest of the Wave shows, in anecdotal form, what modern science is. It is very little research and solving technical problems-- very much fighting ignorance, using diplomacy, and watching one's back side. ... Read more

Product Description
This text provides integrated coverage of oceanography's four main areas: physical, chemical, geological, and biological. Includes graphics to entice students. ... Read more

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Written by a renowned fluid dynamicist specializing in computational methods (particularly in turbulence), this introductory text addresses the subject of dynamic oceanography from a mathematical approach. The book begins with the basic equations of motion in integral form and covers such essential topics as geostropic flow, barotropic and baroclinic ocean circulations, vorticity, and the astronomical tides. Among the many appendices is one on the method of Matched Asymptotic Expansions as applied to the Gulf Stream the most modern and systematic way of looking at boundary layer problems. Problems are included at the end of each chapter. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An Admirable Work in Progress
Mellor (2008) is a textbook intended for use in college courses for upper division undergraduate and beginning graduate students.The usefulness of this book might depend on whether its users enroll in an oceanography program or in a physics department.

In oceanography programs, two common ways exist for directing an introduction to physical oceanography course.One approach does it in two courses, with description in the first semester and dynamics in the second.

Using this approach, students with almost any background including physics take the descriptive course, then those with backgrounds in physics, mathematics or engineering continue to take the dynamics course.

Mellor (2008) is not descriptive.This means Mellor (2008) could not compete with Pickard and Emery (1990).It could only fit in the second course based on dynamics.Mellor (2008) could compete with Pickard and Pond (1983).

Different users are likely to have different opinions on how well Mellor could compete with Pickard and Pond.Mellor has the advantage of having a recent publication date.It has the disadvantage of seeming unready for publication.

Someone searching on the Internet for more information on Mellor (2008) can find a single-spaced errata sheet that fills an entire page.It appears in two parts.One part bears the title Errata in First Printing and Corrected in Second Printing.The second part is longer and appears as Errata in First Printing Which Remain in Second Printing.

The first part hints at the possibility that Mellor (2008) was not ready for the first printing.The second part is longer and could turn off some prospective buyers who wonder why known errors remain in the second printing.

Mellor (2008) has a second disadvantage in competing with Pickard and Pond (1983).Mellor's book has more material at different levels of digestibility than its Pickard and Pond competitor.

Mellor (2008) also misses a chance to introduce a history of physical oceanography. This is important in Mellor's case, since it was progress in dynamics that allowed physical oceanography to flower from exploration to science.

We might expect the more specialized textbooks for small audiences to cost more than introductions.The price of Mellor (2008) suggests specialization with material above its intended level.It is about twice as expensive as Pickard and Pond (1983).

A second way of teaching introduction to physical oceanography courses brings students with backgrounds in physics, chemistry, geology and biology together in a single course.For a text to be useful in this mixed-audience course, it must include a mix of descriptive and dynamic approaches.

Mellor (2008) would not be useful in such a course because it ignores descriptive approaches.This means it cannot compete with Knauss (2005), which introduces description and dynamics in a single volume.

One might wonder if the Mellor book should remove Oceanography from its title and call itself Ocean Physics.After doing this, it would be necessary to weed out errors and smooth out differing levels of understandability before continuing.After polishing the result, it might be desirable to promote making an ocean physics course available to all undergraduate physics majors worldwide, possibly using Mellor's new Ocean Physics textbook.After taking such a course as undergraduates, new graduate students in physical oceanography would have a jump start on their careers.

To compare the Mellor book with physical oceanography textbooks, see my reviews of Introduction to Physical Oceanography by Knauss (2005), Descriptive Physical Oceanography by Pickard and Emery (1990) and Introductory Dynamical Oceanography, Second Edition by Pickard and Pond (1983).
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Customer Reviews (1)

basic science of a not well known field
In this book I learned about the pycnoclinezone
and the deep zone and thatthere was a lot less circulation than one might expect in the oceans.
Ocean currents and wind currents are very basic in navigation of the world's oceans.
The realization sets in that as big as the ocean is
humans can get it dirty with their wastes
just as they have the atmosphere with co2. ... Read more

Product Description
Modelling of marine ecosystems is a rapidly developing branch of interdisciplinary oceanographic research. Introduction to the Modelling of Marine Ecosystems is the first consistent and comprehensive introduction to the development of models of marine ecosystems. It begins with simple first steps of modelling and develops more and more complex models. This step-by-step approach to increasing the complexity of the models is intended to allow students of biological oceanography and interested scientists with only limited experience in mathematical modelling to explore the theoretical framework and familiarize oneself with the methods. The book describes how biological model components can be integrated into three dimensional circulation models and how such models can be used for 'numerical experiments'.

The book illustrates the mathematical aspects of modelling and gives application examples. The tutorial aspect of the book is supported by a set of MATLAB programs, which are provided on an accompanying CD-Rom and which can be used to reproduce many of the results presented in the book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Great book and in good shape
The best book for underwater acousticians.
The book was in good shape, with a lot of yellow marks in it. But this is the price you need to pay. ... Read more

Product Description
Combining the skills of 40 contributors from world-renowned teaching and research establishments, this richly-illustrated introduction to oceanography appeals to a wide readership without compromising standards of scientific rigor. ... Read more

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Previous Edition 0763726060 ... Read more

Product Description
In a unitary way, this monograph deals with a wide range of subjects related to the mechanics of sea waves. The book highlights recent theoretical results on the dynamics of random wind-generated waves, on long-term wave statistics, and on beach planform evolution. A fresh approach is given to more traditional concepts. For example, new evidence from a recent series of small-scale field experiments is used to introduce some crucial topics like wave forces. Also, the book gives some worked examples for the design of offshore or coastal structures.

An exciting subject dealt with in the book is the quasi-deterministic mechanics of three-dimensional wave groups in sea storms, and the loads exerted by these wave groups on offshore structures.

The text is intended for researchers and graduate students in ocean engineering, but may also be understood by undergraduates. The more complex concepts are explained with examples or more extensive case studies.

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Product Description
This book unifies and enhances the accessibility of contemporary scholarly research on advances in coastal modeling.A comprehensive spectrum of innovative models addresses the wide diversity and multifaceted aspects of coastal research on the complex natural processes, dynamics, interactions and responses of the coastal supersystem and its associated subsystems.

The twenty-one chapters, contributed by internationally recognized coastal experts from fourteen countries, provide invaluable insights on the recent advances and present state-of-the-art knowledge on coastal models which are essential for not only illuminating the governing coastal process and various characteristics, but also for understanding and predicting the dynamics at work in the coastal system.

One of the unique strengths of the book is the impressive and encompassing presentation of current functional and operational coastal models for all those concerned with and interested in the modeling of seas, oceans and coasts. In addition to chapters modeling the dynamic natural processes of waves, currents, circulatory flows and sediment transport there are also chapters that focus on the modeling of beaches, shorelines, tidal basins and shore platforms.

The substantial scope of the book is further strengthened with chapters concentrating on the effects of coastal structures on nearshore flows, coastal water quality, coastal pollution, coastal ecological modeling, statistical data modeling, and coupling of coastal models with geographical information systems.


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