Starter 9-18-13 Reflection: In your opinion, what do you think was the most significant historical contribution to aquatic science? Discuss your reasoning.

Starter 9-18-13Reflection: In your opinion, what do you think was the most significant historical

contribution to aquatic science? Discuss your

reasoning.

Aquatic Science Historical Events Over time, in aquatic science, different explorers and expeditions have led to

land and animal discoveries that have changed science

SOOOO….starting from oldest expedition to most recent…

Captain James Cook and the Endeavor Expedition occurred in 1768-1771

The principal objective of this first voyage was to observe the transit of Venus, that is, the passage of the planet across the face of the sun as viewed from the earth. Knowledge of the precise times taken for the transit as observed from different points on the earth's surface would enable astronomers to calculate, amongst other things, the distance between the earth and the sun.

Captain James Cook and the Endeavor So purpose: South Pacific exploring and gather astronomical data

Impact: First to accurately measure latitude and longitude (among other things)

Charles Darwin and the Beagle Occurred 1831-1836

Darwin was invited by Capt. Robert Fitz-Roy (1805-65) to be unpaid naturalist aboard the H. M. S. Beagle, about to begin a five year circumnavigation of the globe. Darwin's main research was done during visits to South America and to the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador.

Charles Darwin and the Beagle Purpose: Explore the globe

Impact: Theory of evolution, origin of atolls hypothesis; interest in the ocean

Huxley and Forbes From 1845-1850

Huxley was made assistant surgeon to HMS Rattlesnake and embarked on a journey to discover and survey New Guinea and Australia

Huxley devoted his time to studying marine invertebrates on the ship;

Purpose: Study biology of oceans

Huxley and Forbes Impact: First geological/biological oceanographers; created a considerable

interest in the study of oceans from future explorers

Matthew Fontaine Maury and the US Navy Occurred in 1855

Upon being hired by the US Navy, Maury tagged along to explore the ocean

As a career Naval officer, Matthew Fontaine Maury developed a uniform methodology for recording ocean winds and currents. His analysis of these patterns allowed shippers to take advantage of air and water flow, decreasing trans-Atlantic travel time by days or even weeks. In his 1855 treatise The Physical Geography of the Seas and Its Meteorology, he wrote, "Our planet is invested with two great oceans; one visible, the other invisible; one underfoot, the other overhead; one entirely envelopes it, the other covers about two thirds of its surface".

Matthew Fontaine Maury and the US Navy His standardized system for logging winds and currents was adopted by

navies and merchant marine fleets worldwide, and he also charted the migratory patterns of whales, leading to a much more efficient whale harvest.

Impact: Established relationship between currents and oceanic weather; created FIRST bathymetric map

Sir Thomson and the Challenger This went on from 1872-1876

Thomson’s interest in this question led him to embark upon a series of crucial deep-sea dredging voyages that culminated in the classic Challenger expedition of 1872–1876.

Sir Thomson and the Challenger Once at sea the staff of the Challenger began the arduous tasks of sounding,

dredging, and taking serial temperatures and water samples. Their dredging confirmed that marine life exists at depths approaching three thousand fathoms. They also discovered nodules of almost pure manganese peroxide on the seafloor. As they dredged and sounded in deeper water, they discovered that a clay bottom is characteristic of great depths. The material of the ocean floor is the residue of a chemical process that removes the carbonate of lime from the calcareous skeletons of foraminifers, mollusks, and other species.

Sir Thomson and the Challenger Impact: advanced the systematic study of the oceans; significant

contributions to oceanography; created much interest in the field

Fridtjof Nansen and Fram From 1893-1896

Nansen first began to consider the possibility of reaching the North Pole by using the natural drift of the polar ice

Previous expeditions, he argued, had approached the North Pole from the west, and had failed because they were working against the prevailing east-west current. The secret of success was to work with this current

Fridtjof Nansen Purpose: To explore the North Polar area

Impact: Showed the North Pole was not a continent but rather an ocean covered with moving ice

The Meteor (German) From 1925-1927

Purpose was to explore the South Atlantic- collect data day and night including weather conditions and seasons

The most important innovation was the use of an echo sounder. An echo sounder is a device that bounces sound waves off of the ocean floor to study the depth and contours of the seafloor. With this device, they were able to map the seafloor which was the main purpose of this expedition

The Meteor (German) One of the most important discoveries made was that the ocean floor is not smooth. They found that it had many depths and that there were bumps, ridges, and trenches in the ocean. The significance of these discoveries changed our minds about the ocean floor being flat and it lead to more discoveries such as ridges, trenches, and mountains.

Submarine Warfare Occurred during World War II from 1939-1945

Battle of the Atlantic

In World War II, submarine warfare was split into two main areas - the Atlantic and the Pacific. Although the war still waged in Africa, the Mediterranean Sea was also a very active area for submarine operations. This was particularly true for the British and French as well as the Germans.

Submarine Warfare Purpose: Enhance knowledge of the sea while protecting country’s military

Impact: Showed all parts of the ocean could be explored (regardless of depths) – Artic Ocean and deep-sea trench

Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and Glomar Challenger During 1960s and 1970s

The Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) was the first of three international scientific ocean drilling programs that have operated over more than 40 years.

June 24, 1966, that the Prime Contract between the National Science Foundation (NSF) and The Regents, University of California was signed. This contract began Phase I of the DSDP

Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) and Glomar ChallengerOver the next 30 months, Phase II consisted of

drilling and coring in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans as well as the Mediterranean and Red seas. Phase II ended on August 11, 1972.

Result: Information gained was extremely valuable; gave composition of ocean floor and discovery of salt domes

SEASAT Occurred in 1978 and lasted 3 months

SEASAT was the first Earth-orbiting satellite designed for remote sensing of the Earth's oceans and had onboard the first spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR). SEASAT was launched on June 28, 1978 into a nearly circular 800 km orbit with an inclination of 108 degrees. Fourteen Earth orbits were completed each day

SEASAT Purpose: Use of the first satellite for oceanography purposes

Impact: Collected data in a few hours that would take surface vessels years

Robert Ballard and Le Suroit Occurred in 1985

In the summer of 1985, Robert Ballard was aboard the French research ship Le Suroît which was using the revolutionary new side scan sonar to search for Titanic's wreck.

Spent 10 days in the area where the Titanic supposedly sank, however the ship was needed elsewhere and Ballard had to end his expedition

Robert Ballard continued Purpose: Try and discovery the Titanic wreck

Impact: Use of the ROV(new type of scanning sonar) and was able to scope different depths of the ocean near the supposed Titanic wreckage

World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) From 1990-2002

Aimed to establish the role of the world ocean in the Earth’s climate system. WOCE’s field phase was from 1990-1998 and was followed by an analysis and modeling phase that ran until 2002

World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) Purpose: Study role of the oceans in the earth’s climate and to obtain a

baseline dataset against which future change would be assessed

Impact: Understanding the ocean and its role in climate