1. Introduction to Oceanography
MBARI Scripps
Moss Landing San Diego

2. The Science or Study of the Oceans
Oceanography
The Science or Study of the Oceans
Geological Oceanography
Physical Oceanography
Chemical Oceanography
Biological Oceanography

3. Geological Oceanography
Study of earth at edge of ocean
Formation processes (seafloor)
Sediments
Rocks & minerals
Geothermal vents

4. Physical Oceanography
How & why oceans move
Weather
Heat transfer
Water cycles
Waves, tides, currents
Temperature

5. Chemical Oceanography
Composition & history of seawater
Seawater processes & interactions
Salinity
Dissolved gases
Nutrients

6. Biological Oceanography
Living organisms
Organisms relationships with each other and their environment

7. Marine Sediments (geological)
created by
Living Organisms (biological)
That are influenced by
Nutrients (chemical)
and
Currents & Temperature (physical)

8. History of Oceanography

9. Early Times Paleolithic and Neolithic periods The Egyptians
Hunting and food gathering:
Ohlone Indians on Central Coast of California
The Egyptians
Offshore fishing
Exploration- reed boats
The Phoenicians
Trade
Navy

10. Early Explorers and Traders
Ancient Civilizations (1500 BC – 500 AD)
Interest in oceans driven by need to food and trading
Egyptians - shipbuilding and coastal piloting
Phoenicians – North Africa, excellent sailors; explored the Mediterranean, traded with Britain,
May have circumnavigated Africa around 600 BC
Arabs explored the Indian Ocean
Polynesians – explored Pacific Ocean

11. From the ninth to sixth centuries B. C
From the ninth to sixth centuries B.C. they dominated the Mediterranean Sea, establishing emporiums and colonies from Cyprus in the east to the Aegean Sea, Italy, North Africa, and Spain in the west.

13. Pharos Lighthouse at Alexandria
One of seven wonders of the ancient world
Recently found by marine archeologists

14. Ancient Classical Knowledge
Greeks: an intellectual curiosity about the oceans
Aristotle (~350 BC)
Treatise on marine organisms,
observations of water cycle (hydrologic cycle)
Library of Alexandria founded in 3rd century BC.
housed “world’s knowledge”
Eratosthenes (~ 200 BC):
• 2nd librarian at Alexandria
• Calculated earth’s circumference
• Invented latitude and longitude lines

15. Eratosthenes

16. Possible origin of “Atlantis” as volcanic eruption and tsunamis destroyed Minoan civilization near Crete
Fresco from the Palace of King Minos 1500BC

18. The Polynesians: Explorers of the Pacific Ocean
Polynesian Double-Hulled Canoe

19. Dual hulled boats
carried 100 people
Skilled navigation
􀂃 wave action
􀂃 bird flight
􀂃 stars
􀂃 atmospheric conditions
Polynesian double hull canoe

20. Polynesian Sailing Canoes

22. Polynesian Stick Map

23. Migration routes of the Polynesians

24. Goal: Water Person Hawaiian Style
Hawaiians invented surfing

25. Easter Island: deforested
Civilization collapses

26. Fear of intellectual inquiry Much information lost
Middle (Dark) Ages
400s – 1400s in Europe
Extreme superstition
Fear of intellectual inquiry
Much information lost
Map of Europe 600 AD

27. The Middle Ages Vikings Arabs China Europe
Improvements in shipbuilding
Trade and colonization
Arabs
Description of currents associated with seasonal monsoon
Trade routes to China
Preserved Greek and Roman knowledge
China
Compass
Trade routes to Persian Gulf
Europe
Increased knowledge of navigation
Tide tables

28. In 1405, Chinese sent 62 ships to explore the Indian and Pacific Oceans

30. Vikings Age of Exploration 800-1066 AD
Leif Erickson
Discovered North America 500 years before Columbus

31. Viking Long Boat

32. Fig. 1.5

33. Modern day Vikings

34. Vikings where did they go?
Vikings view of their Inuit Neighbors

35. Ptolemy’s Map of the World 150AD

36. Ptolemy’s Map
Fig. 1.4
Still in use 1500 AD

37. Age of Exploration

38. Voyages of Discovery Early Chinese Europe
Exploration of the Pacific and Indian Oceans
Europe
Prince Henry the Navigator
Naval observatory
Vasco da Gama
Christopher Columbus
Ferdinand Magellan
Sir Martin Frobisher
Francis Drake

39. Fifteenth century routes of Bartholomew Diaz, Vasco da Gama, and Christopher Columbus

40. Columbus: Hero or ?
“Gold is most excellent; gold constitutes treasure; and he who has it does all he wants in the world, and can even lift souls up to Paradise.”
– Christopher Columbus, 1503 letter to the king and queen of Spain.

41. Navigational Chart of northern Europe from Johannes van Keulen’s Sea Atlas of 1682-1684

42. Sixteenth Century circumnavigation routes of Ferdinand Magellan and Sir Francis Drake

43. Sir Francis Drake
Great Explorer or Sea Devil?

45. The Importance of Charts and Navigational Information
Trade, travel, and exploration
First hydrographic offices
France, 1720
Britain, 1795
Relationship between time and longitude
John Harrison; first chronometer

46. The Importance of Charts and Navigational Information
Voyages of James Cook
Benjamin Franklin
Chart of Gulf Stream
National and commercial interests
U.S. Survey of the Coast set up in 1830 (now known as the U.S. Naval Oceanographic Office)

47. James Cook (1728 – 1779)
3 major voyages mapped South Pacific, coasts of New Zealand, Australia and N America, “discovered” Hawaiian Islands

48. Cook’s Voyages

49. Ben Franklin’s Gulf Stream Map

50. Why did Benjamin Franklin make his map?
First Postmaster General of U.S., he wanted to speed the mails across the Atlantic.
“Dost thou love life?
Then do not squander time,
for that's the stuff life is made of.”
“You may delay but time will not.”
Benjamin Franklin

51. Franklin’s map and satellite photo of Gulf Stream
“You may delay but time will not.”
Benjamin Franklin

52. 1860 Gulf Stream Map 1860 Gulf Stream Map 1860 Gulf Stream Map

53. What’s at the bottom of the Sea?

54. Ocean Science Begins Botanists and naturalists
Collect, describe, and classify organisms
Theory of atoll formation (Charles Darwin)
Investigations of microscopic drifting plants and animals (plankton)
Scientific interest based on practical reasons
Navigation, tide prediction, and safety
Importance of government support
Laying of transatlantic telegraph cables

55. H.M.S. Beagle

56. Voyage of the Beagle,

60. 1847 Maury First “true” oceanographer
1847: U.S. Navy Lieutenant Matthew F. Maury
produced first bathymetric, wind and current chart
of the North Atlantic.

61. The Challenger Expedition
Comprehensive scientific expedition
Naval corvette refitted with laboratories, winches, and sounding scope
Circumnavigation
361 sounding stations
Collected deep-sea water samples
Investigated deep-water motion
Temperature measurements at all depths
Thousands of biological and sea-bottom samples

62. Fig. 1.15 Challenger Expedition
Analysis and compilation of data continued for 20 years
Began oceanography as a modern science
Prestige stimulated expeditions by other nations

63. Voyage of the Challenger, 1872-1876

65. Challenger Expedition

66. Exploratory Science Fridtjof Nansen
Voyage of the Fram
Nansen bottle
International scientific cooperation
Motivated by fluctuations in commercial fish
Antarctic exploration
Amundsen, Scott, Shackleton
Arctic exploration
Admiral Peary, Nansen

68. Early Oceanographers
Harsh conditions and slow work compared to today

69. Oceanography in the Twentieth Century
Support by wealthy individuals
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Rapid advances during World War II
Office of Naval Research (ONR) and National Science Foundation (NSF) funding
International Geophysical Year (IGY) cooperation
Satellites
Deep Sea Drilling Program
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

70. Bathyscaphe Trieste

72. False color images of plankton concentrations on Tasmania, Australia
Yellow and red: high concentrations
Green and blue: low concentrations
Dark blue and purple: very low concentrations

73. Glomar Challenger Deep Sea Drilling Project Ship (1968 to 1983)
Howard Hughes’ ship

74. JOIDES Resolution (1985 to present) Ocean Drilling Program drill ship

75. Offshore Drilling Platform

76. MBARI Scripps
Moss Landing San Diego

77. Most famous oceanographer today: Robert Ballard
Play movie
Found Titanic, Lusitania, Bismarck, PT 109, Black Sea Flood

78. Marcia McNutt, MBARI

79. Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997) invented SCUBA during World War II

80. Jacques Cousteau (1910-1997) Most famous oceanographer of the 20th century
If we go on the way we have, the fault is our greed... if we are not willing [to change], we will disappear from the face of the globe, to be replaced by the insect. ~ Jacques Cousteau

81. Doc Ricketts

82. The Recent Past, the Present, and the Future of Oceanography
Earth is a complex of systems and subsystems
Cross disciplinary research
Integrated approach
Large scale oceanographic programs
Climate: WOCE, JGOFS, GOALS,
Structure and history of the Earth: ODP, RIDGE
Satellites; TOPEX/Poseidon, Jason-1
Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS)
Project NEPTUNE

83. The future? ROVs and satellites

85. This image of the Pacific Ocean was produced using sea-surface height measurements taken by the U.S.-French Jason satellite. The image is based on the average of 10 days of data centered on Feb. 12, 2007, compared to the long-term average of observations from 1993 through In this image, places where the Pacific sea surface height is higher (warmer) than normal are yellow and red, and places where the sea surface is lower (cooler) than normal are blue and purple. Green shows where conditions are near normal. Sea-surface height is an indicator of the heat content of the upper ocean.

86. ROV has an unexpected visitor,
a Sperm Whale

87. Nuclear Missile Submarine
Naval Postgraduate School
Monterey, California

88. Our little Blue Marble

90. Summary Summary Oceanography, a multidisciplinary field
Geology, geophysics, chemistry, physics, meteorology, biology
Early explorers and traders
National and commercial interests
Beginning of ocean science (19th century)
20th century
Role of private institutions
Role of large-scale government funding and international cooperation

92. Sunset