PREFACE 



This glossary attempts to provide the 

 U.S. Fleet; Naval shore facilities, lab- 

 oratories, planning staffs, and instruc- 

 tional components; other governmental 

 agencies concerned with the marine en- 

 vironment ; foreign hydrographic/ocean- 

 ographic activities; merchant marine; 

 ocean engineering industry; and the 

 oceanographic community in general 

 with definitions of technical terms used 

 in oceanography and allied marine 

 sciences. 



As the field of oceanography encom- 

 passes practically all of the scientific 

 disciplines, the compilers of this glos- 

 sary recognized from the outset that, 

 within the prescribed framework of 

 time, manpower, and funds, this publi- 

 cation could not possibly include the 

 entire complex lexicon which has evolved 

 from the marine sciences over the past 

 few decades. For the most part, the 

 terms and definitions cited here repre- 

 sent current and, in some places, past 

 usage in the marine aspects of physics, 

 chemistry, biology, geology, geophysics, 

 geography, mathematics, and meteorol- 

 ogy, particularly in the manner that 

 these terms are used in the U.S. Naval 

 Oceanographic Office research, opera- 

 tions, and publications. 



The selection of terms for inclusion, 

 together with their definitions, was left 

 to the discretion of the several subject 

 specialists employed at this Office who 

 contributed the bulk of this volume. 

 Generally, terms and their definitions 

 were selected from existing sources or 

 publications dealing with specific aspects 

 of oceanography, as well as the few 

 available related glossaries. Some terms 

 in borderline subject areas were included 

 arbitrarily, and the tendency here was 

 probably toward overinclusion. In ad- 



dition to compilation, review, consolida- 

 tion, and design of format by the editing 

 committee, another substantive review of 

 the entire manuscript was performed by 

 the various components of this Office, 

 among whom draft copies were circu- 

 lated. 



In order that this glossary may serve 

 the user with minimum effort of his 

 part, the terms are arranged alphabeti- 

 cally and followed immediately by a 

 definition or a reference to the preferred 

 synonym. In some entries the user is 

 referred to a related term whose defini- 

 tion contains an explanation of the term 

 in question. Synon3ans, symbols, and 

 scientific names are italicized. An aster- 

 isk indicates a copyrighted name. Nearly 

 all terms are singular nouns; verbs and 

 adjectives have been kept to a minimiun. 

 Also, mathematical equations have been 

 kept to a minimum and, where possible, 

 stated in sentence form. Where a term 

 has more than one definition, each defi- 

 nition is numbered, the first definition 

 representing the term's applicability to 

 oceanography or its use in this Office; 

 otherwise, the sequence is arbitrary. As 

 a further aid to the user, some words 

 (in boldface type) within a definition 

 indicate an internal cross reference 

 whereby the user can go to a term de- 

 fined elsewhere in this glossary. Every 

 effort was made to keep the definitions 

 as uncomplicated as possible, since this 

 glossary is not intended to be "encyclo- 

 pedic." Illustrations have been used 

 sparingly and confined to the simplest 

 fonns of representation. 



Although the references used in pre- 

 paring this glossary represent only a 

 small portion of the extensive literature 

 devoted to the marine sciences, the List 

 of Sources can serve the user by: 1) 



