1. History of Oceanography
Unit 5 - 1
History of Oceanography

2. The Phoenicians
Were the first western seafaring culture from about 1200 to 146 B.C.
They voyaged and traded throughout the Mediterranean and along the Atlantic to the British Islands and around Africa.

3. Eratosthenes
He mapped the known world around 200 B.C. and calculated the circumference of the earth to within 200 km of the correct figure!
Developed the system of latitude and longitude still used today
Despite the myths about Columbus, people have known the earth was round for over 2000 years.

4. A third century B.C. chart showing the system of latitude & longitude developed by Eratosthenes.
Diagrams showing the calculation of lines of latitude & longitude.
© 2002 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc.

5. Ptolemy
Egyptian/Greek scientist created the first comprehensive atlas of the known world around 150 A.D
Listed more than 8,000 known places by latitude and longitude
but miscalculated the circumference of the earth as 29,000 km (correct value is 40,067 km)

6. Voyages Of The Polynesian Peoples
The Polynesian colonizations are an example of knowledge of oceans & marine science used to colonize a vast number of islands beginning before 1500 B.C.
“Red Arrows” indicate the direction & order of settlement.
© 2002 Brooks/Cole, a division of Thomson Learning, Inc.

7. Vikings
The Vikings, Scandinavian adventurers, used fast & stable ships to explore (and pillage) places as far away as Kiev, Constantinople, Iceland, Greenland, & Newfoundland.
Leaf Ericson first discovered America in 985

8. Chinese Contributions
Chinese navigators set out in the 1400s to explore the Indian Ocean, Indonesia, Africa & the Atlantic. Their ships were laden with gifts designed to show China’s wealth & degree of civilization. The Chinese invented:
The central rudder
Water-tight compartments
Sails on multiple masts

9. The Age Of Discovery
Europeans explored the world by sea during the Renaissance.
 Competition between Portugal and Spain to reach the Indies led to great voyages of discovery
 Christopher Columbus - Although he never saw the mainland of North America, his stories inspired other explorers to follow.
 Ferdinand Magellan –Although Magellan died en route, the small surviving portion of his crew circumnavigated the globe.

10. Sir Isaac Newton
Developed the Universal Law of Gravitation in 1687 which explained the movement of the tides

11. Captain James Cook  Verified calculations of planetary orbits
 Mapped Hawaii, New Zealand & the Great Barrier Reef, Tonga & Easter Islands
 Initiated friendly relations with many native populations
 Sampled marine life, land plants & animals and recorded data about the ocean floor & geological formations

12. Ben Franklin: Gulf Stream
noticed travel time to Europe took less time than the return
collected info from many sailing ships
created first chart of the Gulf Stream and improved navigation between the US and Europe.

13. HMS Challenger British ship 1872-1876 First true oceanographic voyage
Seawater chemistry
More 4700 marine organisms collected

14. Fridtjof Nansen Norwegian Scientist and explorer (1861-1930)
Froze his specially designed round-bottom vessel Fram into polar ice to test his ideas about ice drift
drifted with the polar ice for 35 months, tried but failed to reach the North Pole

15. USS Albatross
American ship built in 1882 was the first ship built specifically for marine research
Contained specialized deep sea trawling equipment that could catch as many specimens in one tow as the Challenger caught in 3 years.

16. The Meteor 1925-1927 German scientific and mapping expedition
First use of the echo sounder (sonar) to map the sea floor
Although sent for science, was also an attempt by the German government to find an affordable way to separate gold from seawater

17. The Bathyscaphe Trieste
Reached the deepest part of the ocean (Challenger Deep) in 1960 with the Swiss scientist Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh.
No one had been back since until James Cameron did it in 2012

18. Jacques Cousteau
French Naval officer who invented SCUBA in the 1940s and led French commando expeditions during WWII
Prolific explorer, author, and film maker.
Traveled the word exploring aboard his ship Calypso

19. Robert Ballard American Oceanographer and Explorer
Discovered deep ocean vents in 1977 on ALVIN
Found sunk nuclear subs USS Thresher and USS Scorpion on secret mission for the Navy who financed his Titanic expedition
Has found more famous deep shipwrecks than any other explorer

20. Sylvia Earle
American oceanographer has lead more than 60 expeditions worldwide
Designed and built many deep sea submersibles
Former chief scientist of NOAA and current Explorer in Residence for National Geographic