Course overview History of Oceanography Introduction Course overview History of Oceanography
Interdisciplinary Biology Chemistry Physics Geology Geography Political Science Mathematics Computer Science
History of Oceanography Early Age of Discovery Science and the Oceans Modern Oceanography Different motivations at different times
Early history Reasons: trade, fishing, defense Self centered view of Earth Examples
Early history (2) Difficult to navigate without shorelines Phoenicians (approx. 1000 BC) Polynesians (300-600 AD most important)
Early history (3) Greeks (approx. 500 BC) Erasthosthenes (working in Egypt) – circumference of earth Pliny the Elder – phases of moon and tides Ptolemy (approx. 150 AD) – vast ocean, used lat and long Middle Ages: very little exploration except Vikings (approx. 1000 AD) Arabs
Age of Discovery (1) Travel for economic, political and religious reasons Portugal: Prince Henry Dias (1497) Vasco Da Gama (1498)
Age of Discovery (2) Spain Columbus (1492) Vespucci (~1500) Balboa (1513) Magellan (1522)
Age of Discovery (3) Discovery with some science James Cook (1768-1780) Endeavour, Resolution, Adventure Ben Franklin (1769) Matthew F. Maury (early 1800s)
Purely scientific Challenger Expedition (1872-1876) Extremely significant
More for science Voyages of Nansen aboard Fram (end of 1800s) Meteor expedition (1925-27)
Modern Oceanography (20th century) International Interdisciplinary Scientific Complex instruments “Modern” technology
Modern Oceanography US funding – NSF, ONR, NOAA Oceanographic institutes Drill ships, satellites, for example International cooperation