Unit 5 - 1
History of
Oceanography
The Phoenicians
• Were the first western seafaring culture from
about 1200 to 146 B.C.
• They voyaged and traded throughout the
Mediterranean and along the Atlantic to the
British Islands and around Africa.
Eratosthenes
• He mapped the known world
around 200 B.C. and
calculated the circumference
of the earth to within 200 km
of the correct figure!
• Developed the system of
latitude and longitude still
used today
• Despite the myths about
Columbus, people have
known the earth was round
for over 2000 years.
A third century B.C. chart
showing the system of latitude &
longitude developed by
Eratosthenes.
Diagrams
showing the
calculation of
lines of latitude
& longitude.
© 2002 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc.
Ptolemy
• Egyptian/Greek scientist created the first comprehensive atlas
of the known world around 150 A.D
• Listed more than 8,000 known places by latitude and
longitude
• but miscalculated the circumference of the earth as 29,000
km (correct value is 40,067 km)
Voyages Of The Polynesian Peoples
The Polynesian
colonizations are an
example of knowledge of
oceans & marine science
used to colonize a vast
number of islands
beginning before 1500
B.C.
“Red Arrows” indicate
the direction & order of
settlement.
© 2002 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc.
Vikings
• The Vikings, Scandinavian adventurers, used fast & stable
ships to explore (and pillage) places as far away as Kiev,
Constantinople, Iceland, Greenland, & Newfoundland.
• Leaf Ericson first discovered America in 985
Chinese Contributions
Chinese navigators set out in the 1400s to explore the Indian
Ocean, Indonesia, Africa & the Atlantic. Their ships were laden with
gifts designed to show China’s wealth & degree of civilization. The
Chinese invented:
• The central rudder
• Water-tight compartments
• Sails on multiple masts
The Age Of Discovery
Europeans explored the world by sea during the Renaissance.
 Competition between Portugal and Spain to reach the Indies led to great
voyages of discovery
 Christopher Columbus - Although he never saw the mainland of North
America, his stories inspired other explorers to follow.
 Ferdinand Magellan –Although Magellan died en route, the small surviving
portion of his crew circumnavigated the globe.
Sir Isaac Newton
• Developed the Universal Law of Gravitation in 1687
which explained the movement of the tides
Captain James Cook
 Verified calculations of planetary orbits
 Mapped Hawaii, New Zealand & the Great Barrier Reef, Tonga & Easter
Islands
 Initiated friendly relations with many native populations
 Sampled marine life, land plants & animals and recorded data about the
ocean floor & geological formations
Ben Franklin: Gulf Stream
• noticed travel
time to Europe
took less time than
the return
• collected info
from many
sailing ships
• created first chart
of the Gulf Stream
and improved
navigation
between the US
and Europe.
HMS Challenger
•
•
•
•
British ship 1872-1876
First true oceanographic voyage
Seawater chemistry
More 4700 marine organisms
collected
Fridtjof Nansen
• Norwegian Scientist and explorer (1861-1930)
• Froze his specially designed round-bottom vessel Fram into
polar ice to test his ideas about ice drift
• drifted with the polar ice for 35 months, tried but failed to
reach the North Pole
USS Albatross
• American ship built in 1882 was the first ship built
specifically for marine research
• Contained specialized deep sea trawling
equipment that could catch as many specimens in
one tow as the Challenger caught in 3 years.
The Meteor
• 1925-1927 German scientific and mapping
expedition
• First use of the echo sounder (sonar) to map the sea
floor
• Although sent for science, was also an attempt by
the German government to find an affordable way
to separate gold from seawater
The Bathyscaphe Trieste
• Reached the deepest part of the ocean
(Challenger Deep) in 1960 with the Swiss scientist
Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don
Walsh.
• No one had been back since until James Cameron
did it in 2012
Jacques Cousteau
• French Naval officer who invented SCUBA in the 1940s and led
French commando expeditions during WWII
• Prolific explorer, author, and film maker.
• Traveled the word exploring aboard his ship Calypso
Robert Ballard
• American Oceanographer and
Explorer
• Discovered deep ocean vents
in 1977 on ALVIN
• Found sunk nuclear subs USS
Thresher and USS Scorpion on
secret mission for the Navy who
financed his Titanic expedition
• Has found more famous deep
shipwrecks than any other
explorer
Sylvia Earle
• American oceanographer has lead more than 60
expeditions worldwide
• Designed and built many deep sea submersibles
• Former chief scientist of NOAA and current Explorer
in Residence for National Geographic