1. History of Ocean Exploration
A timeline of contributions

2. 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).

3. ~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

4. ~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

5. ~300 BC - Greeks inverted kettles trapped air to dive for sponges
-these kettles can be thought of as the first submersibles
-submersibles differ from submarines in that they need a vessel to reach their point of study; they typically are not stand-alone vehicles like submarines
Alexander the Great Diving Photo courtesy of NOAA

6. ~300 BC - Aristotle 1st 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)

7. ~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

8. 800-1000 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

9. ~1400-1600 - 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

10. 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

11. 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).

12. 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

13. – 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

14. 1872-1876 – Challenger expedition
1st expedition to collect oceanic species from around the world
Beginning of modern oceanography
Map courtesy of TAMU

15. 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”

16. 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

17. 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

18. 1943 – Jacques-Yves Cousteau (France)
Photo courtesy of NOAA
Cousteau improved the aqualung and invented modern scuba (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus)
Marine conservationist

19. 1960 – Jacques Piccard (Switzerland)
Map courtesy of NOAA
Photo courtesy of National Maritime Museum, London
Piccard designed the bathyscaphe Trieste, and with Lt. Don Walsh, reached the deepest point in the ocean, 35,800 feet in the Mariana Trench

20. 1977 – Alvin Built in 1964 Discovery of hydrothermal vents in 1977
Photo courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute

21. 1979 – Dr. Sylvia Earle (U.S.)
Photo courtesy of Al Giddings Images, Inc
Dr. Earle, in a JIM suit, rides the submersible Star II to the seafloor near Oahu, Hawaii
New record: feet deep for 2 ½ hours
Photo courtesy of Al Giddings Images, Inc

22. 1985 – DeepRover
This single person submersible was launched, diving 3280 feet
Photo courtesy of Marine Technology Society

23. 1999 – DeepWorker Can remain submerged for 12 hours at 2000 ft
Single person submersible allows for exploration of U.S. National Marine Sanctuaries

24. 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

25. 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)

26. 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?
Teacher complete this after students have finished the gallery walk