History of ocean History of ocean

discovery:discovery:

From the first ships to

oceanography from space

Peopling of the Pacific Islands- Voyages of the Oceanian

Peoples*Asia (Lapita People, 1500 BC)

*North and South America ?

Thor Heyerdahl

1947

Cpt J.C. Voss

1928

Brown: Micronesia

Red: Melanesia

Green: Polynesia

500 AD

400 AD

Polynesian Polynesian colonizationscolonizations::

New Guinea

Fig. 1-5

Meanwhile in the Mediterranean…Phoenicians…2000BC…MedOc, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, South

Africa

Greeks…250 BC…Great Britain, Ireland

Romans …around C..colonizing British Isles

The world according to Herodotus 450 BC

!Alexandria, the site of the first scientific library and university, founded 3rd

century BC by Alexander the Great and was a warehouse of knowledge

!greatest accumulation of ancient writings (scrolls), traders contributed to and

consulted the collections

!600 yr long greatest repository of wisdom, site of information exchange and

research

!Last librarian was Hypatia, first woman scientist and philosopher

!She was murdered and library was burned down 415 AD. 700,000 irreplaceable

scrolls were lost.

Ca. 1000 AD, Vikings

reach the New World

banished from Iceland, founded colonies on Greenland

Established the first settlement in North America (Vinland, today's

Newfoundland, Canada)

Fig. 1-9

European exploration in the Age of Discovery(1492-1522)

!Prince Henry the navigator, had fleets of navigators collect data and make charts

!Christopher Columbus, Hispaniola (San Salvador), 1492

!John Cabot, North America, 1497

!Vasco da Gama, India, 1498

!Ferdinand Magellan, first known circumnavigation, 1519-1521

First chart of

the

Gulf Stream

made by

Benjamin

Franklin(1777), after

observations of

his nephew Tim

Folger, a

Nantucket

whaling

captain.

Benjamin Franklin and the Gulf Stream

Fig. 1-15

Mathew Maury,

“father” of

Oceanography

“Physical

Geography of

the Seas”

(1855)

"Cook’s 3 voyages: First voyages where systematic observation of

surface currents, winds, subsurface temperature, sampling of

sediment and coral reefs was conducted

Voyaging for ScienceVoyaging for Science

"He could accurately determine longitude with a newly

invented Chronometer (Fig. 1-13).

DarwinDarwin’’s voyage aboard HMS Beagle.s voyage aboard HMS Beagle.

Sailing as a naturalist aboard HMS Beagle,

Charles Darwin gathered the evidence that enabled him to develop his theory

of evolution through natural selection.

The Challenger Expedition (1872-1876), the first oceanographic

Expedition (directed by Wyville Thompson).4717 new species, 492 deep-sea soundings (Mariana Trench!), 263 water temps

The voyage of H.M.S. Challenger

The voyage of the Fram, 1893-1896 (Oslo-Spitzbergen)by Fritof Nansen

Fig. 1-15

Polar Oceanography begins with the voyage of the

Fram

20th century oceanographyInstitutionalization of Oceanography: Scripps Institute of Oceanography,

La Jolla, CA

Kiel (Germany) Institute for Marine Research

!For example, the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP)

= International program supported by

US, Japan, Russia, Germany, France

!First Deep-Sea Drilling Ship

Glomar Challenger 1968-1983.

!Sampled the ocean floor up to a mile deep.

Samples gave the ultimate

confirmation of Plate Tectonics.

Large-scale and international oceanographic research

The physical dimensions of the ship are remarkable. Fitted with a derrick standing 61.5

m (202 ft) above the water line, the 143 m (469 ft) long ship is 21 m (68.9 ft) wide.

During a leg, the crew positions the ship over the drill site using 12 computer-

controlled thrusters as well as the main propulsion system. The rig can suspend as

much as 9,150 m (30,020 ft) of drill pipe to an ocean depth as great as 8,235 m (27,018

ft).

1983-recent drill ship JOIDES Resolution

(Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep-Earth Sampling)

http://www-

odp.tamu.edu/resolutn.html

The satellite age of oceanography:

!1978: NASA’s SEASAT,

first oceanographic satellite,

Sea-surface temperature

!1978-1986: Numbus-7 carries

Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS):

Ocean color

!1985-present: AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometers )

on board the NOAA -7, -9, -11 and -14 polar orbiting satellites

Sea-surface temperature

http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/sst/

!1992: TOPEX/Poseidon:

Radars on board determine

Sea surface height within 1 cm

http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/

!1997: SeaWIFS sensors

aboard Sea Star spacecraft, Ocean color

http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEAWIFS/

!1999-present: AQUA/TERRA satellites carry MODIS (Moderate

Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), Ocean color

http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/MODIS/