Our knowledge and understanding of ocean dynamics is far from complete, but is expanding thanks in great part to new developments in mathematics. Some of the most important oceanographic discoveries have been made as a result of an integrated, multidisciplinary approach. The deepest understanding and the most interesting results almost always evolve from the interplay between theory and observation. A substantial body of theory to aid in the interpretation of observations has been developed, yet the ocean offers continually new data to challenge existing ideas—modern fieldwork is much more than cataloguing oceanic features, being designed as much to test theoretical hypotheses as it is to detect new phenomena.

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