What does the ocean mean to you?

Hello MOOCers!

Just a few short days until we get started with “Exploring our Oceans”, the course is ready, the mentors and educators are excited and we cannot wait to get stuck into what promises to be an exciting course. Last time (our first run was in February) we asked staff at NOC (The National Oceanography Centre) and students on the course to share a picture with the rest of the course that shows what the ocean means to you.

This was one of our most popular activities, and we had over 1000 images uploaded to twitter and Padlet, and using these images we created this mosaic of the world (full size zoomable version here):

 

We are going to run the same activity this time, during the first week of the course (next week) we will be asking students to share a photo on Padlet (you do not need to create an account for this, full instructions in week 1). In the meantime, our course team, staff and students at NOC will be sharing a few of their images on Twitter (@UoSOceans or #FLoceans), we would love to see your images as well, so send us a tweet or post a link below and we will be capturing all your shared images for a new mosaic at the end of week 2.

Here is mine, taken from my most recent ocean based adventure on Svalbard, we spent a week in a field centre only accessible by boat, and the weather turned so bad, we had to abandon our attempt to leave by open ribs, and return to base camp (actually a very lovely hotel/remote university classroom at Isfjord Radio). Fortunately, the Norwegian Coastguard were in the area, and offered to pick us up, along with some tourists who had come for a day trip. As we were returning to Longyearbyen, we passed through the fjord and captured this shot of the snow mountains bathed in alpine glow, a result of the low angle of elevation the sun reaches this far north. This part of the world is one of the great unknowns in understanding our climate, and the role of the oceans in regulating it. The poles are prone to very rapid change, and the effects of anthropogenic warming are far more pronounced here than at lower latitudes. So for me, this photo captures a particularly exciting field expedition, some very good luck for us that the coastguard were available, and a very beautiful meeting of the oceans and the ice, an essential part of my PhD!

Looking forward to seeing your images!

@GeoMillie