General Education requirement: 2A - Natural World

Natural Hazards & the Ocean is primarily a descriptive course that is intended to educate students about the roles of the oceans in such natural hazards as hurricanes, earthquakes, global warming, and tsunamis. The course will address student curiosity about these ocean-related hazards, by presenting a conceptual understanding of the relevant underlying ocean-atmosphere, and earth-mediated mechanisms. The students will be presented in lecture and through their readings about how the application of the scientific method (a) overturned historical Misunderstandings of Earth geology; (b) explains the far-reaching effects of ocean storm-generated waves; (c) relates deep ocean earthquakes to tsunamis; and (d) relates how dust from the North African deserts is related to hurricane generation.