12.801 "The General Circulation of the Ocean" is offered each Spring by Prof. John Marshall. In this class the fundamental principles of geophysical fluid dynamics are applied to the ocean to understand and describe its global circulation patterns. Students will become familiar with geostrophic dynamics, planetary geostrophy, Ekman pumping, wind and thermally driven ocean circulation, thermocline theory, western-boundary current dynamics, abyssal circulation, mixing, dynamics of circumpolar jets, baroclinic instability, geostrophic turbulence and eddy-mean flow interaction.