General Oceanography

Ocean World TAMU Online Oceanography Site
Our Ocean Planet, TAMU online oceanography textbook
Oceanography Bookmarks, excellent collection of online topics from the author of Our Ocean Planet
Oceanography Glossary, terms defined
What is oceanography?, Major fields of oceanography defined

Plate Tectonics

USGS: This Dynamic Earth, Excellent overview and graphics of the concepts and development of plate tectonics.
USGS Real Time Earthquake Maps, Worldwide, interactive maps of current activity.
Plate tectonics & seafloor spreading: Maps and Graphics

The Ocean Floor

Dive & Discover: Mid-Ocean Ridges, Abundant information and interactive activities based on actual expeditions.
Dive & Discover: Hydrothermal Vents, More of above, focused on vents.
Exploring the Ocean Basins with Satellite Altimetry, Very high resolution seafloor maps and info on how they are produced.
Lava Types at Mid-Ocean Ridges, Examples of seafloor lava from Lamont Doherty Earth Institute.

Marine Sediments

What's in marine sediment?, Microscopic look at the organisms and minerals, Natl Geophysical Data Center
A Library of Mud, [VIDEO] Inside the Deep Sea Sample Repository at Lamont Doherty Earth Institute
Scientist at Work: Collecting Marine Sediments, Blogs from the field published by New York Times
Ocean Floor Sediments: Window into Climate Future, How ocean sediments tell us about the distant past, Scientific American
Seafloor sediments illuminate 53 million years of climate history, National Science Foundation

Water, Seawater and Ice

Water Facts, Abundant factoids from the USGS
The Briny Deep, Video, audio, and graphics all about Seawater by USGS scientists.
Simulation of Sea Surface Salinity, Spectacular video of ocean salinity over one year, GFDL
Water and Ice, Many excellent 3-D JAVA applets of water and ice molecules in action
The Chemistry of Water, Natl Science Foundation (nice graphics of molecular interaction)
Properties of Water, Excellent animation & explation of water's polarity & related properties.
Brinicles: Ice fingers of death, Amazing footage of ice fingers forming from brine under an Antarctic ice shelf, BBC

Atmosphere-Ocean Interaction

NASA: Ocean and Climate, Links between the atmosphere, ocean, global heat balance.
NASA Hurricane Formation Video, Excellent explanation, full of NASA simulation graphics
Earth's Climate Machine, Global heat transfer by ocean and atmosphere currents, UCSD
Latent Heat, illustration from NASA's Ocean and Climate.
Coriolis Effect Video, BBC asks scientists to explain
Coriolis Effect Animation, the classic merry-go-round demo
Coriolis Effect Demonstrations, and more in-depth explanation.
Global Wind Circulation, Natl Weather Service Online School For Weather
The Jet Stream, NWS Online School For Weather
Tropical Hurricane Formation, NWS Online School for Weather
Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)), NWS Online School for Weather
El Niño-Southern Oscillation, NWS Online School for Weather (excellent presentation)

Ocean Circulation

Currents Tutorial, NOAA Ocean Service Education (excellent and comprehensive)
Global Sea Surface Temperature Simulation, showing ocean currents around the globe, GFDL
NOAA Education: Ocean Currents, Nice collection of tutorials, video, real-time data.
Thermohaline Circulation & Deep Ocean Currents
Perpetual Ocean Amazing video of global currents by NASA visualization studio
NASA: Thermohaline Circulation Video flythrough of deep water currents

Climate Change

Climate Change & the Ocean: A Journey Through the Science Special section with questions for students.
Climate Change in Pictures and Data: Just the Facts
NOAA: Climate.gov

Waves

NOAA: Ocean Waves A full and complete tutorial.
Wave Heights around the World Fantastic global and local maps from La Jolla Surfing website.
Mavericks: The Science of Big Waves Video on how the giant surfing waves occur
NOAA: Tsunamis All about the earthquake-driven waves
NOAA: Japan Tsunami Part 1 Conditions for destruction
NOAA: Japan Tsunami Part 2 Propagation of the wave
NOAA: Japan Tsunami Part 2 Warning systems

Tides

NOAA Tides Tutorial
NOAA: Our Restless Tides Detailed explanation of astronomical factors
Balance of forces creating tides Figure from NOAA: Our Restless Tides
NOAA: Sea Level Trends

Biological Productivity

Marine Food Webs OceanWorld Online Textbook
Marine Nutrient Cycling A pretty good graphic
Pelagic, Benthic & Microbial Food Chains

Marine Mammals

Monterey Bay Aquarium Marine Animal Guide Great descriptions and photos, including California species.
Quick Course on Fish Biology All about fish.
Sea Otters
Sea Otters, Urchins & Kelp Forest Ecosystems
Mysticeti: Baleen Whales Largest animals on the planet

Marine Pollution

PCB's and High Orca Infant Mortality: 50% of Orca's first born die from pollutants outlawed in the 1980's
Plastics in the Ocean The plight of the Albatross

Animations for Intro Oceanography Students