Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description

The Deep Seafloor

Instructor(s): Margaret (Meg) Estapa, Geosciences

Exploration of early assumptions and oceanographic ideas about the deep sea. The deep seafloor is the least accessible of Earth’s environments.  Its dark, cold, high-pressure expanses remain mostly unexplored by humans even as we map the surfaces of other planets in detail. Students will examine the 20th century technological developments that allowed remote and in-person observations of the bottom of the ocean, and the resulting paradigm shifts in the fields of biology and geology.  We will explore ideas stemming from deep-sea discoveries including the theory of plate tectonics, hypotheses about the origins and limits of life on Earth, and the ethical questions surrounding human exploitation of Earth’s last frontier.

 

Course Offered:

• Fall 2019