Oceanography is the interdisciplinary study of the global oceans -- from shallow coastal areas to the deepest ocean trenches, from the tropics to the polar seas. It is usually divided into four sub-disciplines:

Physical Oceanography – the study of waves, currents, tides, and ocean energy.

Geological Oceanography – the study of the sediments, rocks, and structure of the seafloor and coastal margins.

Chemical Oceanography – the study of the composition and properties of seawater and how it is affected by physical mixing processes and interactions with the seafloor, the atmosphere, and ocean life.

Biological Oceanography – the study of marine organisms and their interactions with the ocean environment.

All of these sub-disciplines are highly interrelated, as well as being closely aligned to other fields such as meteorology/atmospheric science, geophysics, and ocean engineering. As you might expect, biological oceanography shares many aspects with marine biology, but is generally more focused on the interactions of specific parameters within the marine environment -- paying particular attention to the affects of chemical, physical, or geographic properties of the ocean -- and marine organism distribution and/or the patterns of biological populations in the sea. HPU’s oceanography program includes all of the sub-disciplines of oceanography.