History of Oceanography

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Last Updated 2013

Oceanography History

~ 3,000 years ago people started to ask questions about the large bodies of water surrounding them!!

~ 130 years ago modern oceanography born British and European expeditions launched to

explore the sea floor British 1872 – 1876 Challenger Expedition

WWII U.S. Navy

Fighting Advantages to knowing sea floor/submarine warfare

Library of Alexandria Eratosthenes of Cryene: 1st to estimate

circumference of the Earth Cartographer/Charts

Circumference of the Earth

Atlantic Exploring

Egypt, Phoenicia and Crete Mapping of coast lines

Cartography Migration due to trade of Mediterranean

2,900 years ago Greeks explore beyond Straights of Gibraltar

– Though Atlantic was a Big River, “Oceanus”• Greek word “okeano”, which means river• Alexander the Great, 325 B.C.

Polynesian

Migration started 30,000 years ago

~500 AD: Polynesians (s.pacific islanders) who populate ~10,000 islands colonize Hawaii Religious / Political

tension/ Food/ Natural Disasters

Polynesian Canoe

Colonized much of South Pacific

Chinese ~ 1000 AD

Chinese Compass

Originally used for land tripslater used in marine navigation

Water tight compartments Central rudder on boat Sails with masts

Venetian blinds

Developed a way to determine latitude based on stars Used incense to determine Longitude

Magnetic Pointer: Spoon is Magnetite

Chinese Junk Vessel

Common Sailing Vessel in China 10th Century

Expeditions 1400’s to early 1500’s not a lot of

Navigation????? European Age of Discovery

1492: Columbus – Looking for a route to India for trade finds the “new world”

Finds Native Americans who have been here for over 11,000 years

1522: Magellan – Looking for trade to the Orient, circumnavigated the globe

Only 34 – 260 people survived the journey 1772 – James Cook Accurate maps of the Philippines

Columbus

Magellan

Cook

Columbus Lands in the Caribbean

1728 – John Harrison, made the first chronometer, spring clock, time method for determining longitude

1840 – Matthew Maury- US Navy, made a chart of the Earth’s winds and currents, making traveling the open ocean much more efficient, father of physical oceanography

Harrison and Chronometer

Maury

Matthew Maury and Oceanography

                                       

         Harrison's Marine

Chronometer, 1762

The Challenger Expedition1872 – 1876

Expedition of Ocean Features Temperature Chemistry Currents Marine Life Geology of the sea floor

243 crewman, 6 scientists, 4 years, 362 sampling stations, 133 dredges, 4,700 new species found

1872 – Challenger Expedition: 1stst expedition devoted to marine science Charles Thomson/John Maury

Coined phrase “Oceanography”

Samples for scientific testing 50 volume set

Benjamin Franklin: Gulf Stream

Late 1700’s Documented ocean currents off the US

east coast Gulf Stream

– Fast moving current– Warm surface water– From Florida up north and across the Atlantic – “River in the ocean”

• Winds• Rotation of the planet• Colder currents around and below stream

– Moving as fast as 5 knotsBen Franklin, the Fahrenheit Scale, and Versailles

First U.S. Navy Submarine

Purchased From John P. Holland in 1900 for $160,000, 45 HP engine, went a speed of 6 knots, commission the USS Holland (SS-1) October 12, 1900

USS Monitor: Science of the Deep

Vocab Terms Cartographer- Chart makers Charts- Geographic representations that

depict water and water related information Library of Alexandria- Egypt 3rd Century

B.C., founded by Alexander the great- 1st Marine Science, 1st higher education

Eratosthenes of Cyrene- 1st to calculate the circumference of the Earth

Latitude- Parallel to the equator Longitude- Line the run pole to pole

Polynesian- Eastern Pacific Islanders Vikings- Norway and Sweden, mainly

people from northern Europe Chris Columbus- Accidental discovery

of the America’s James Cook- British explorer Ferdinand Magellan- Portugal, 1st

voyage around the world – trading with orient, accidental discovery

Chronometer- Clock not governed by pendulum, which would be useless on a rolling ship, but by a spring escapement

Soundings- Depth measurements

Review Questions What features would be most useful to include in a

nautical chart? why? What were the stimuli to Polynesian colonization?

How were the long voyages accomplished? How ere Polynesian voyages different from (and similar to) those of the Vikings?

What were the main stimuli to European voyages of exploration during the Age of Discovery? Why did it end?

What were the oceanographic contributions of Prince Henry the Navigator, Benjamin Franklin, Matthew Maury, and Charles Darwin?

How can you find your approximate latitude and longitude at sea?

What were the goals and results of the United States Exploring Expedition? What U.S. institution greatly benefited from its efforts?

What was the first purely scientific oceanographic expedition, and what were some of its accomplishments? What contributions did the earlier, hybrid expeditions make?

Critical Thinking How could you convince a 10 – y.o. that Earth is

round? What evidence would a child offer that it’s flat? How can you counter those objections?

How did the Library of Alexandria contribute to the development of marine science? What happened to most of the information accumulated there? Why do you suppose the residents of Alexandria became hostile to the librarians and the many achievements of the library.

How did Eratosthenes calculate the approximate size of Earth? Which of his assumptions was the “shakiest?”

If Columbus did not discover North America, then who did?

Maori canoes.. IRC. 2005.unitedstreaming. 17 September 2008<http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/>

Junk, Chinese. Library of Congress. 2008.unitedstreaming. 17 September 2008<http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/>

Greatest Inventions with Bill Nye: Exploration from Sea to Space. Discovery Education. 2007.unitedstreaming. 18 September 2008<http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/>