Topic 1 The History of Oceanography

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Topic 1The History of Oceanography

• GEOL 2503
• Introduction to Oceanography

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Early Evidence of Humansand the Sea

• By 5000 BC
• copper fishhooks
• Middens
• Egyptian drawings of fishnets
• By 1500 BC
• Phoenicians sailed out of Mediterranean Sea to
  Britain

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Polynesians

• Began migration from Asia 20,000 years ago
• Were sailing to mid-Pacific islands by 2,500
  years ago

Things were happening in the Pacific early on!
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Polynesian double-hulled voyaging canoein use
about 4,000 years ago. By 1500 B.C., the
Polynesians began to explore extensively to the
east and colonizing the Hawaiian Islands around
450-600 A.D.
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Ancient Greeks

• Called Mediterranean Sea Thalassa
• Known lands surrounded by Oceanus, an endlessly
  circling river
• Beyond Oceanus was monsters, whirlpools, edge of
  earth

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Pytheas

• 350-300 BC
• sailed to England, Norway, Germany
• navigated by sun, stars, wind
• recognized relationship between moon and tides

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Eratosthenes (264-194 BC)
Calculated circumference of Earth at 25,000 miles
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Ptolemy (127-51 AD)

• Produced first world atlas
• Incorrectly accepted 18,000 miles as Earths
  circumference. Over 1000 years later this lead to
  Columbuss belief that he had reached India

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Vikings

• Colonized Iceland and Greenland
• Knowledge of navigation increased
• Made it to Mediterranean by 455 AD
• Oceanic voyages by 8th century
• Little Ice Age drove them from North America

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Vikings Route to the North America, island
hopping along the way. From the Viking Voyage
web site http//www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/voyage/
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Norse ship, circa 1200 AD
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Time Line of Little Ice Age and Impact on Voyages
WARM
COLD
The Medieval warm period was a time of
exploration for the Vikings. With the onset of
the Little Ice Age exploration became treacherous
and fewer voyages were completed.
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Early Compass

• The Chinese invented the first compass about 1000
  AD.
• This compass consisted of a bowl of water with a
  magnetized needle floating on top, pointing to
  the poles.

www.computersmiths.com
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European Great Age of Discovery
Spain Christopher Columbus Ferdinand
Magellan Amerigo Vespucci Vasco Balboa Juan Ponce
de Leon
England Francis Drake Henry Hudson
Portugal Vasco da Gama Prince Henry Bartholomeu
Dias
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Prince Henry, the Navigator
(b. 1394 - d. 1460)
Prince Henry of Portugal Opened first school of
navigation in 1416
Sent several expeditions down the west coast of
Africa. He establish trade routes to India and
the East. He spread Christianity to other
countries.
http//www.mariner.org/age/biohist.htmlprincehenr
y
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Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus (1455-1506) Four voyages
across Atlantic Ocean Thought he had found Asia
Ptolomeys mistake mislead him
http//www.nmm.ac.uk/education/fact_files/fact_col
umbus.html
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Columbus's Ships
Ships of Columbuss day average around 4 knots.
Top speed for these vessels averaged 8 knots.They
usually covered 90-100 miles in one day.
Replicas of the Pinta and Santa Maria, built for
the 1992 quincentennial. Notice the tiny sail on
the Santa Maria.
http//www1.minn.net/keithp/ships.htmps
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Amerigo Vespucci 1454-1512

• Spanish merchant and explorer
• Prepared maps and routes to the New World
• Voyages led to Argentina and Patagonia
• Accepted South America as a new continent, not
  Asia, thus America is named for him.
• The New world was named after him in 1507 by
  Martin Waldseemuller, a German mapmaker

http//oz.plymouth.edu/lts/wilderness/explorers.h
tml
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Crossed Isthmus of Panama to Pacific Ocean
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• Juan Ponce de Leon (1460-1521)
• Searching for fountain of youth
• Sailing down the coast of Florida, caught in
  Florida Current and pulled northward
• Ascribed this to the devil, but his records
  became the first description of ocean currents
• Discovered Florida

Juan Ponce de Leon
http//library.thinkquest.org/J002678F/ponce_de_le
on.htm
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Juan Ponce de Leons Sailing Route
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Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521)

• Rounded South America in 1520 to Pacific
• Killed in the Philippines
• One of his three ships made it across Indian
  Ocean and around Cape of Good Hope back to
  Atlantic Ocean
• First voyage to circumnavigate the globe
• Crew was forced to eat shoe leather and rats to
  avoid starvation

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Magellan himself didnt make it, but his
expedition was the first to circumnavigate the
globe
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Sir Francis Drake and the Circumnavigation
Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596)
On September 26, 1580, Sir Francis Drake became
the second man to sail around the world. He was
the first Englishman to complete the
circumnavigation.
http//www.springfield.k12.il.us/schools/springfie
ld/eliz/SirFrancisDrake.html
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Sir Francis Drakes ShipGolden Hinde

Courtesy of http//mmbc.bc.ca/source/schoolnet/exp
loration/images/boatchart/goldenhind.jpg
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Henry Hudson
1575? -1611)
He went on four voyages between 1607 and
1611 1st Voyage to find the NW passage to the
Far East (for trade with China and Japan)
by going across the North Pole 2nd Search for
NW passage by way over Russia 3rd Search for
western passage across North America 4th Final
voyage searched for NW Passage through theArctic.
http//www.newnetherland.org/ship.htm
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Henry Hudsons ShipHalf Moon
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Henry Hudson (1570-1611)
Died in Hudson Bay Searching for northwest
passage
http//www.mariner.org/age/images/hudson.gif
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Captain James Cook (1728-1779)

• 3 Pacific voyages 1761-1779
• Sailed around Antarctica
• Last large land mass was studied and outlined
• Killed in Hawaii 1779

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HMS Resolution
www.hawaiianeyes.com
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Ben Franklin (1706-1790)
--Made first map of Gulf Stream1769 --Worked
with Capt. Timothy Folger, but Franklin gets
credit --Reduced sailing times to Europe
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Sextant

• 18th century instrument
• Replaced the astrolabe
• stars, moons, and planets angles of elevations
  find longitude

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Nautilis

• Robert Fulton designed the first usable
  submarine in 1800

Commissioned by Napoleon
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U.S. Ex. Ex.

• Perhaps the least known investigation
• Official name The United States South Seas
  Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842
• Charles Wilkes (1798-1877) leader
• See the Smithsonian Institution website
• http//www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/usexex/
• See http//www.history.navy.mil/index.html for a
  lot of general information

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Also known as Wilkes Expedition

• Traveled over 80,000 miles
• Confirmed the existence of a continental landmass
  in the Antarctic Ocean (Cook?)
• Collected thousands of plant and animal specimens
• Charted much of the Pacific
• Helped sealing and whaling industries in the
  northeast.

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Ex. Ex. Flagship USS Vincennes
Built in 1826, 127 feet in length, crew of
190. http//www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h66
000/h66524k.jpg
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Vincennes in Disappointment Bay, Antarctica
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Wilkes Land is named in honor of Charles Wilkes,
whose surveying determined that Antarctica is a
continent.
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Map of the Hawaiian Islands by James Dana
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The expedition reports comprise 20 volumes and 11
atlases, published between 1844 and 1874.
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Examples of scientific sketches from Ex. Ex.
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Matthew Maury (1806-1873)

• Officer in charge of the U.S. Navys Depot of
  Charts and Instruments
• Assembled wind and current charts as well as maps
  of ocean temperature and depth
• Wrote the first significant book of oceanography,
  The Physical Geography of the Sea in 1855
• Stimulated interest in oceanography

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Commander Matthew Fontaine Maury, USN (1806-1873)
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Maury charted several islands and compiled
bathymetric data
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Atlantic Ocean temperatures map from Maurys book
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Charles Darwin (1809-1882),

• Voyage of the Beagle (1831-1836)
• Studies led to theory of evolution
• Theory of formation of atolls is big contribution
  to oceanography
• His work led directly to the Challenger Expedition

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Charles Darwin was the first to realize how
atolls form
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The Challenger Expedition (1872-1876)

• First true oceanographic research voyage (no
  military or colonization overtones)
• HMS Challenger was a converted warship
• Chemists, biologists, physicists
• Sailed to most parts of global ocean
• Over 300 sampling stops
• Reports in over 50 volumes took 20 years to write

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Wyville Thomson (1830-1882)

• Scientific Director of Challenger expedition
• Prof. of Natural History Edinburgh Univ.
• Studied life/topography of sea for cable laying
• wrote The Depths of the Sea 1873
• first book on sea bottom composition
• John Murray, geologist, was assistant

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Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930)

• Norwegian explorer
• and oceanographer
• Interested in currents
• in polar seas
• Froze his ship (Fram) into Arctic ice pack
• Wanted to drift to the North Pole
• Drifted from 1893-1896
• Proved Arctic Ocean was a deep basin

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USS Albatross (1882)
First ship constructed specifically for
oceanographic research Launched by the U.S.
Bureau of Fisheries vessel in 1882.
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HMS Titanic

• Terrible disaster but some good resulted
• Led to founding the North Atlantic Ice Patrol
• Plot position of icebergs, studied currents of
  high latitude oceans

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HMS Titanic 1912
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Titanic Underwater
http//titanic.eb.com/
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Dr. Robert Ballard of the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Institution found Titanic in 1985,
in 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) of water.
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North Atlantic Ice Patrol

• Response to Titanic disaster
• Ship observations originally, now from aircraft
• Now International Ice Patrol

http//www.uscg.mil/lantarea/iip/home.html
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Sound waves are released to the bottom and the
time of return is measured then halved. First
used on German ship Meteor 1925-1927.
.
.
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Precision depth recorder (PDR) profile
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PDR trace from off the Bahamas
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Bathyscaphe Trieste (1958-1963)

• In October 1959, Trieste participated in Project
  "Nekton
• She conducted a series of very deep dives in the
  Marianas Trench.
• On 23 January 1960, she reached a record depth of
  35,800 feet in the Challenger Deep, off Guam, the
  deepest point in any of the World's oceans.

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The Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench is the
deepest spot in the world.
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Trieste Photos and Diagram

• From the Naval Historical Center
• http//www.history.navy.mil/index.html

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International Geophysical Year (IGY)

• July 1957-December 1958
• International project of Earth and space study by
  67 nations
• Highlights
• launching of artificial satellites
• soundings of the ocean floor, which contributed
  to the theory of plate tectonics.

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Modern Oceanography

• In the 20th Century oceanography changed from
  descriptive to quantitative
• World War II ushered in many technological
  advances such as radar, sonar, and wave detectors
• Year of the Ocean (1998)
• http//www.yoto98.noaa.gov/

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Alvin can dive to 4,000 meters
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Inside Alvin with Dr. Conrad Neumann of the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Recovery of Alvin
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The Mitsubishi-built Shinkai 6500 can dive to
6,500 meters
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Dr. Robert Ballards ROV (remotely operated
vehicle), like that used to find the Titanic
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The JOIDES Resolution used for the Ocean Drilling
Project (ODP).
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Woods Hole, MA
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Scripps Institute of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA