How far do you live from the waves? Are you steps away from sea spray or a mile high, perched on arid plains? Whether you’re a fisherman pulling your living from the salty depths or a stock broker in a land-locked city, chances are that the ocean impacts your life in some way.
In recognition of the importance of the oceans and in exploration of the ways that they impact our lives comes the webinar series “Blue Marvel—Ocean Mysteries.” Beginning in October, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) will release a webinar series through the NSF-funded Ocean Research Collaboration Network. Each webinar will discuss a different aspect of the ocean and how that aspect impacts human life.
The webinar will incorporate a variety of scientific approaches to studying the oceans, including research or other input from engineers, chemists, microbiologists, archaeologists and others.
The first webinar in the series, “Oceans, Climate and Human Health: the cholera paradigm,” will be hosted at 10 a.m. (EDT) Oct.16 by Dr. Rita Colwell, chief scientist at Canon U.S. Life Sciences and an international authority on infectious diseases and their role in Earth systems.

A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency scientist collects data near the U.S. Virgin Islands. Image Credit: EPA

Webinars will continue on the first Tuesday of each following month, with the exception of December 2012. An end date has not been set.
Each webinar will be hosted by a figure notable in the field of ocean exploration or oceanic research. So far, topics include discussion of the oceans and health, life on the ocean bottom and genetics of ocean creatures.
Although most of us live on land, the majority of Earth’s surface is covered by water, and more than 96 percent of that water is contained in the oceans. They are a source of food, recreation, power, and sometimes destruction. Currents may carry anything from migrant species to garbage or pollution thousands of miles across the globe. Oceans create a physical connection between otherwise distant countries. Yet in spite of the crucial role they play in human lives, much about oceans still remains mysterious.
More information is available at www.oceanmysteries.net.