History of Aquatic Science
This unit will give an introduction
to the history of oceanic
exploration and the major events &
discoveries that shaped the course
of Aquatic Science.
On the following slides, the green
sections are the most important.
Underline words = vocabulary!
Aquatic Science
 What is Aquatic Science?
 The study of all water environments, and the plants,
animals, and organisms that live in them.
http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/news/pulauhantu/images/LIT0007%20blog.jpg
Background
 About ¾ of our Earth is
water; without water,
life on Earth as we
know it would not
exist.
 The ocean is one of our
last frontiers – the last
places to discover.
 Since the beginning of
time human kind has
required water for
survival.
http://watserv1.uwaterloo.ca/~saibaba/Boy%20Drinking%20Water.jpg
The Ocean
 Through the study of the world’s oceans, we:
 Enjoy recreation
 Explore aquatic animals & plants
 Find food
 Get our weather systems
 Learn the history of the planet
 Mine for minerals, oil & building materials
 Trade between countries
 Transport goods and people
Areas of Study in Aquatic
Science
 Physical: currents, tides, waves, pressure,
temperature, depth, density, as relating to
weather phenomenon
 Geological: history of the Earth, seafloor
features, sediments, changes over time
 Chemical: evolution and composition of
seawater, its influences on animal and plant life,
and impact of water pollution on the
environment
 Biological: plants, animals and their ecosystems
(life cycles, food chains, and environments)
Oceanography
 What is oceanography?
 A multiscience field
encompassing geology,
geophysics, chemistry,
physics, meteorology,
and biology as they
pertain to marine
ecosystems.
http://library.humboldt.edu/~rls/kelp.jpg
Marine Biology
 Marine Biology – the study of marine
organisms, their behaviors, and interactions
with the environment.
Aquaculture
 Aquaculture – the management of fisheries
and hatcheries, where fish eggs are incubated
and hatched.
Setting up Your Timeline
 Take a sheet of legal sized paper.
 Fold the sheet along the Y axis (skinny) and cut
along the fold.
 Tape the two ends of the paper together to make
one long strip for the timeline.
 Use the meter stick/ruler to draw a line down
the center of the paper.
 Create a key in the lower left hand corner:
1 cm = 100 years
Egyptian Technology
 The Egyptians established sea trade throughout
the Indian Ocean as early as 2300 B.C.
 1938 - 1756
B.C. a canal
was built,
the Isthmus
of Suez, to
navigate
ships across
land.
 The canal
operated
until 775
A.D.
http://search.eb.com.ezproxy.uhd.edu/eb/article-22787
The
Phoenicians
 Phoenicians: (from
the Middle East)
Sailed around
Africa in 590 B.C.
A stone carving from
the 1st century AD
shows the kind of ship
that the Phoenicians
used on the
Mediterranean Sea.
The Granger
Collection, New York
Image
http://search.eb.com.ezproxy.uhd.edu/eb/art-2116/Phoenician-colonization-in-the-Mediterranean
The Greeks
 Herodotus (a Greek): published an accurate map
(see below) of the Mediterranean region, 450 B.C.
 Greeks: Developed trade routes throughout the
Mediterranean and expanded their empire under
Alexander the Great, 336 B.C.
http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/Ancientimages/109.JPEG
Amazing Math!
Eratosthenes knew that at noon on the
summer solstice the Sun is directly
overhead at Syene (a city)….He also
knew the distance between Syene and
Alexandria (another city), which,
combined with his measurement of the
solar angle a between the Sun and the
vertical, enabled him to calculate Earth's
circumference.
From Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
 200 B.C. – the Greek
Eratosthenes
mathematically
calculated the
circumference of the
Earth to be 40,000
km.
 The circumference
is 40,032 km.
 2,200 years ago his
math was good
enough to be off
only 32 km!
http://search.eb.com.ezproxy.uhd.edu/eb/art-12539/Alateen-rigged-ship-used-by-Arab-merchants
The Arabs
 200 B.C Islamic and Arab Merchants: traded
throughout the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans.
 They are believed to have invented the lateen sail,
the triangular sail important in early navigation.
In the Middle Ages
 900 A.D. The Vikings crossed the North
Atlantic to colonize Iceland, Greenland, and
Newfoundland using the North Star to
determine latitude.
Exhumed Viking ship;
Viking Ship Museum,
Oslo, Norway. Image
th
th
15 and 16 Centuries
 Chinese: Sailed to influence and impress their
neighbors.
 1492 Columbus: Sailing for Spain, sailed the
Atlantic and “discovered” the America’s.
 1497 Vasco da Gama: Sailing for Portugal, sailed
around Africa from Portugal to India to establish
trade routes.
 Europeans searched for the Northwest passage
through northern Canada to trade with Asia; and
explored the Artic.
Around the World in…
http://www.solarnavigator.net/history/explorers_history/ferdinand_mag
ellan_charcoal_fur_robe.jpg
 1519 - Portuguese
explorer Ferdinand
Magellan was on the 1st
European expedition to
circumnavigate (travel all
around) the world.
 237 men began the
voyage; only 18 returned.
 Magellan actually died
before the journey was
finished, but his crew
returned in 1522.
Benjamin Franklin
 1762- The
American Ben
Franklin created a
chart of the Gulf
Stream.
 The Gulf Stream
gives the US its
warm climate,
bringing warm
water north from
the equator.
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/library/readings/hires/gulf_stream_map.jpg
Harrison &
Cook
http://www.captaincookwhitby.co.uk/captainjamescookportrait.jpg
 1728 - Device invented
by John Harrison (a
carpenter) who was
paid by the British
government; a
chronometer is a
device that calculates
longitude.
 1768 - The English
explorer Captain
James Cook made 3
voyages to chart the
Pacific Ocean.
 He was the first to use
a chronometer for
navigation.
Charles Darwin
 In 1831 Charles
Darwin took his
voyage on the ship
the HMS Beagle
which led to his book
“The Origin of
Species” and the
theories of evolution.
http://uk.gizmodo.com/charles_darwin_l.jpg
Matthew Maury
 U.S. Navy’s Lt. Matthew
Maury, called the Father
of Modern
Oceanography, made
charts and sailing
directions and wrote the
first book of
oceanography in 1855.
 A Monument in
Richmond, VA named
him “Pathfinder of the
Seas”.
http://www.18thmass.com/blog/media/2/20070417Richmond%20-%20Matthew%20Maury.jpg
The Challenger
 From 1872 to 1876,
the ship HMS
Challenger
Expedition led by
Sir Charles Wyville
Thomson gathered
more data in its time
than all other data
to date.
http://www.zamboanga.com/history/histor8.jpg
 It was this voyage that discovered the world’s
deepest ocean trench, the Marianas Trench, now
sometimes called the Challenger Deep.
th
20 Century
 1898 – The world wars were
the catalyst for US
oceanographic research;
invention of the 1st gas
engine & battery powered
submarine bought by US
government in 1900.
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/05arctic/background/plan/media/global_explor
er_rov_600.jpg
 Development of technology including electronic
equipment, deep sea drilling programs, (1916)
SONAR, use of GPS (global positioning system)
and satellites.
The Meteor
 The Meteor Expedition:
mapped the ocean floor
and features.
 1925-1927 - The German
Meteor expedition surveys
the South Atlantic with
echo-sounding equipment
http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/history/quotes/tech/media/echo_600.jpg
The Trieste
 On January 23, 1960,
the bathyscaph (small
submarine) Trieste
reached the greatest
oceanic depth existing
on our planet.
 Don Walsh and
Jacques Picard (US
navy) piloted the
Trieste to the deepest
part of the trench
(35,797ft > 6.5miles) .
http://www.strange-mecha.com/ship/Bathyscaphe/trieste.jpg
Alvin
 Designed by
Woods Hole
Oceanographic
Institute and
built in 1962,
Alvin has
traveled around
the world
completing
4,162 dives.
http://www.oar.noaa.gov/spotlite/archive/images/oceandumping_alvin.jpg
 Alvin has mechanical arms and in 1966 helped to locate a
H-bomb that was lost in the Mediterranean Sea.
 In 1979, Alvin and its crew discovered black smokers on
the sea floor.
The Glomar Challenger
http://www.pixel
graphicsinc.com
/images/Glomar.
jpg
 1968 – The Glomar Challenger, a drilling
vessel that proved seafloor spreading and
changes in the earth’s climate by taking core
samples from the sea floor.
View from Space
 1985 – JASON, a satellite found and
documented the wreck of the Titanic.
http://topexwww.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/images/OS
TM-200707.jpg
The Japanese
 1989 - Japan launched the Shinkai 6500 which
can carry a crew up to 21,414 ft deep into the
ocean (a world record).
http://www.sstg.org/images/shinkai.jpg
st
21 Century
 In 2006, a Chinese mineral company (COMRA)
designed a craft to reach 23,000 ft.
http://interridge.whoi.edu/files/interridge/comra_celebrate.png
How do we study the ocean?
 Types of Research Vessels:
- Submersibles – small underwater vehicles
- ROV – remotely operated vehicle
- Bathysphere – is lowered by a cable from a ship
- Drilling ships – which take sediment cores
- Floating and Fixed platforms (FLIP – floating
instrument platform) to gather data like
temperature, salinity, density, and weather
patterns
Other Research Instruments
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2005/images/side-scan-sonar-rude2.jpg
 Airplanes
 Satellites –
SEASAT: 1st
satellite
dedicated to
ocean studies
 Echosounding
 Underwater
cameras
 Side scan sonar
– great for
sunken ships
In Conclusion
http://www.cliffshade.com/colorado/images/earth_west.jpg
 The ocean represents the Earth’s last frontier for
exploration and the key to understanding the
future of our planet.
 The human race depends on the life and
sustainability of the ocean for economic,
biological, and environmental stability.
 The world of Aquatic science is ever reaching for
new discoveries in this blue realm.