II. Gaining knowledge of the oceans
- Early explorers
- ~1500 B.C. - the Phoenicians
- Greeks
- Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
- Eratosthenes (235-192 B.C.)
- Pliny the elder (23-79 A.D.)
- Ptolemy (127-151 A.D.)
- The Chinese
- Chinese navigators set out in the 1400s to explore
the Indian Ocean, Indonesia, Africa and the Atlantic.
Their ships were laden with gifts designed to show China’s
wealth and degree of civilization. The Chinese invented:
- The central rudder
- Water-tight compartments
- Sails on multiple masts
- Europeans
- Prince Henry the navigator
- Third son of the royal family of Portugal, established
a center at Sagres for the study of marine science
and navigation.
- Columbus
- "Discovered" North America while trying
to find a western route to Asia
- Amerigo Vespucci (1454-1512)
- Italian navigator who explored the northern shore
of South America during 4 voyages. The American
continent was named in his honor in 1507.
- Ponce de Leon (1460-1521)
- Spanish explorer, born in san servos, León.
In 1493 he accompanied Christopher Columbus on his
second voyage to America.
- Ferdinand Magellan (1480- 1521)
- Born in Oporto, Portugal, was the initiator and
leader of the first expedition to circumnavigate
the globe, in 1519-22, compared to Columbus's voyage
of 8,000 miles over the relatively quiet Atlantic,
Magellan's expedition of 42,000 miles--22,000 of
them over waters no white man had ever seen--was
an achievement without parallel in an era of fragile
wooden ships.
- James Cook
- Conducted the first real scientific oceanographic
voyages. During his voyages, he and his crew took
samples of marine life, land plants and animals,
the ocean floor, and geologic formations and recorded
all of the information in logbooks.
- John Murray (1841- 1914) and the HMS Challenger
- John Murray set sail on the first expedition
devoted solely to marine science and coined the
word "oceanography".
- Twentieth century explorations
- Polar Explorations
- Meteor Expedition (1925) - first use of an echo sounder
- U.S.S. Atlantis (1931) - first research ship built
specifically for ocean studies.
- HMS Challenger (1951) - Discovered the deepest part
of the ocean's deepest trenches.
- Glomar Challenger (1968) - First deep-sea drilling
vessel - led to the JOIDES Resolution and eventually
the Deep Sea Drilling Program.
- Oceanographic Institutions
- Musée Oceanographique and Jacques Cousteau
- Japan Marine Science and Technology Center (JAMSTEC)
- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
- Scripps Institution of Oceanography
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA)
- Satellite Oceanography
- SEASAT - first oceanographic satellite
- TOPEX/Poseidon
I. Oceanography
| II. Gaining knowledge of the oceans
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