History of Ocean Exploration A timeline of contributions

Something to consider… Think back to the beginning of humanity. Think of all possible reasons why humans would start exploring the oceans (Think about why we do so today).

~25,000 yrs ago - Polynesians Polynesians began colonizing Pacific (Samoa, Hawaii…) by knowledge of waves, bird flight, stars, smell of water, temp, salinity, color, and marine life Photos courtesy of the Polynesian Culture Center

~1000 BC – Greeks Homer and Plato mention sponge fisherman diving up to 100 feet for sponges How? –With “skandaloptera” –Oil in their ears Image courtesy of Sandra Hendrikse and André Merks

~300 BC - Greeks inverted kettles trapped air to dive for sponges Alexander the Great Diving Photo courtesy of NOAA

~300 BC - Aristotle 1 st marine biologist “Father of natural history” He identified a variety of marine species such as crustaceans, echinoderms, mollusks, fish and mammals Identified differences between oviparous and viviparous The School of Athens by Raffaello Sanzio 1509, showing Plato (left) and Aristotle (right)

~200 BC – More Greeks Eratosthenes, greek astronomer, used distance between Alexandria and Syene and angles of shadows to determine the circumference of the earth His calculation: 40,000 km Actual: 40,032 km Courtesy of NOAA Ocean Education Service

A.D. Viking Exploration m ships of oak powered by sails and oars First to use the North Star to determine latitude Explored and colonized Greenland and Iceland Leif Erikson reached North America 500 years before Columbus and establishes what is today Newfoundland

~ Renaissance 1492 Columbus “discovers” America 1519 Ferdinand Magellan is the first to circumnavigate the world and contributed to charting the oceans Map courtesy of Encyclopedia Britannica

1690 – Edmund Halley (U.K.) diving bell takes divers 50 feet underwater Suggested that the age of the oceans could be determined by the rate at which rivers carry salt to the ocean Photo courtesy of National Maritime Museum, London

Mid-1700’s: Captain James Cook / Benjamin Franklin Cook: Observations led to the discovery that vitamin C prevents scurvy and mapped islands in the South Pacific. Franklin: noticed that mail delivery from Europe to the colonies took longer than mail from the colonies to Europe. Learned of a water current that moved up the coast from the Gulf of Mexico (Gulf Stream).

1800 – Robert Fulton (U.S.) Submarine Nautilus tested in France Propelled by a handcranked screw propeller His rudder system is still in use today Photo courtesy of National Maritime Museum, London

– Voyage of the Beagle Naturalist Charles Darwin sailed around the world on HMS Beagle Spent 8 years working on barnacles which brought about his theory of evolution by natural selection and his book the Origin of Species Map courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

– Challenger expedition 1 st expedition to collect oceanic species from around the world Beginning of modern oceanography Map courtesy of TAMU

Challenger contributions Water samples Sediment samples Recorded temperature and pressure at varying depths Discovered, described and catalogued 4,700 new species of marine organisms Collected data on tides, currents, and wave action Director: Sir Charles Thompson “ founder of oceanography”

1914 – Reginald Fessenden (Canada) First acoustic exploration of the sea floor Allowed submarines and boats to detect icebergs Titanic sank in 1912; which spurred this research Lead to development of sonar

1930 – Barton and Beebe (U.S.) Otis Barton designed the bathysphere, and with naturalist Dr. William Beebe dove 1428 feet near Bermuda Photo courtesy of Wildlife Conservation Society

1943 – Jacques-Yves Cousteau (France) Cousteau improved the aqualung and invented modern scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) Marine conservationist Photo courtesy of NOAA

1960 – Jacques Piccard (Switzerland) Piccard designed the bathyscaphe Trieste, and with Lt. Don Walsh, reached the deepest point in the ocean, 35,800 feet in the Mariana Trench Photo courtesy of National Maritime Museum, London Map courtesy of NOAA

1977 – Alvin Built in 1964 Discovery of hydrothermal vents in Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

1979 – Dr. Sylvia Earle (U.S.) Dr. Earle, in a JIM suit, rides the submersible Star II to the seafloor near Oahu, Hawaii New record: 1250 feet deep for 2 ½ hours Photo courtesy of Al Giddings Images, Inc

1985 – DeepRover This single person submersible was launched, diving 3280 feet Photo courtesy of Marine Technology Society

1999 – DeepWorker Can remain submerged for 12 hours at 2000 ft Single person submersible allows for exploration of U.S. National Marine Sanctuaries

Robert “Bob” Ballard Most remembered for his discoveries of old ship wrecks of the RMS Titanic, Battleship Bismarck, USS Yorktown and most recently John F. Kennedy’s PT109. He is a former commander in the US Navy and is currently a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island

Today - Marine labs Scripps Institution of Oceanography –La Jolla, CA (1912) – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution –Woods Hole, MA (1930) – -Virginia Institute of Marine Science -Gloucester Point, VA (1940) - Harte Research Institute –Corpus Christi, TX (2000) –

Bob Ballard Under water discovery Video After watching the video, you and a partner will answer the following questions; will be turned in; read the questions now so you can think about them throughout the video –Why do you think we haven’t explored the oceans more in depth? –What is the importance of exploring the oceans? –In what way(s) do you think we’ve made a sufficient progress throughout history of ocean exploration?