History of oceanography: origin and development

History of Oceanography: Origin
and Development
Department of Fisheries Management
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural
University, Gazipur-1706
Shoaibe Hossain Talukder Shefat
Faculty of Fisheries
Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet-3100

 Rise of Oceanographic Institutions
 Development of Modern Oceanography
 Oceanography from the 1880s to the 1930s
 Voyaging in Eighteenth Century
 Voyaging in Seventeenth Century
 The Age of European Discovery
 Voyages of the Oceanian Peoples
 Voyaging in Alexandrium Period
 Early Voyaging and Discovery
 Why to Study Oceanographic History?
 Oceanography
Contents

 Study of the ocean (sea)
 Includes ecosystem dynamics
 Ocean currents, tides and waves
 Plate tectonics and ocean floor geology
 Physical and chemical properties of the ocean
Oceanography

Why to Study Oceanographic History?
 To Understand how and why people apply marine sciences
today.
 To know Oceanography’s history is about people, not just
oceans and test tubes.
shoaibe58sau@gmail.com

Early Voyaging and Discovery
 History of marine science is associated with the history of
voyaging.
 Ocean transportation offers people the benefits of
mobility and greater access to food supplies.
 Voyaging means traveling on the ocean for a specific
purpose.
 The first direct evidence of voyaging comes from records
of trade in the Mediterranean Sea.

 Greek seafarers noticed a current running from north to
south beyond Gibraltar.
 Greeks began ocean exploration in the Atlantic Ocean
around 700-900 B.C.
 They decided that this great mass of water is part of an
immense flowing river.
 The Greek name for this river was okeanos. Our word
“ocean” is derived from oceanus, a Latin variant of that
root.

 Mediterranean traders first developed charts of journeys
which evolved into the science of cartography.
 Charts are graphic representations of water and related
information.
 Maps primarily represent land information.
 Phoenician sailors were also very much at home in this
“river,” but like the Greeks, they rarely ventured out of
sight of land.

 Early mariners began to record information to make their
voyages easier and safer- location of rocks, landmarks,
sailing times and direction of currents etc.
 The Chinese began to engineer an extensive system of
inland Waterways connected with the Pacific Ocean, to
make long-distance transport.
 All these early travelers were skilled at telling direction by
the stars and by the position of the rising or setting sun.

 Marine science, the organized study of the ocean, began
with the technical studies of voyagers.
 Progress in applied marine science began at the “Library
of Alexandria” in Egypt.
 Library of Alexandria was really a university (first
university in the world) in Egypt (by Alexander the
Great).
Voyaging for Science (Alexandrium Period)

 Eratosthenes of Cyrene, a Greek astronomer, philosopher
and poet first calculated the circumference (~40,000 km) of
Earth.
 The Greek Pythagoreans had realized Earth was spherical
by the sixth century b.c.e., but Eratosthenes was the first to
estimate its true size.
 Demonstrated knowledge of geometry and that earth
wasn't flat.
 Divided the earth into 360° north-south and east-west and
invented Latitude and longitude.
Voyaging for Science (Alexandrium Period)

Voyages of the Oceanian Peoples
 The Oceanian Peoples made impressive travels in small boats.
 Polynesian Diaspora from Philippines to Micronesia (north) and
Melanesia (south) all the way to Easter Island off S.A.
 Meanwhile, Viking (fast, strong and stable ship) made it from
Scandonavia to Africa and the Arabian Penninsula. Again made
it to North America about 860 A.D.
 The Polynesians are one of four cultures that inhabited some
10,000 islands scattered across nearly 26 million square
kilometers of open Pacific Ocean.

 By 1086, the Chinese philosopher Shen Kuo had deduced that
Earth was of great age and shaped by sedimentary deposit, rock
formation, uplift and erosion over great spans of time.
 Admiral Zheng commanded a voyage including 317 ships and
37,000 men and explored Indian Ocean to Africa.
The Age of European Discovery

 Prince Henry, (Son of Portugal royal family) established a
center at Sagres for the study of marine science and navigation
“. . . through all the watery roads.”
 Henry’s explorers pushed south into the unknown and opened
the west coast of Africa to commerce.
 He sent out small, maneuverable ships designed for voyages of
discovery and manned by well-trained crews.
 His mariners used the compass—an instrument (invented in
China in the fourth century b.c.e.) that points to a magnetic
pole.

 1480 to 1520 - Europeans (re)discovered the Americans and
first sailed the Pacific, Indian, and Southern Oceans.
 A master mariner, Christopher Columbus “discovered” the
New World quite by accident.
 Native Americans had been living on the continent for
about 11,000 years.
 The Norwegian Vikings had made about two dozen visits to a
functioning colony on the continent 500 years before his
noisy arrival

 Prince Henry of Portugal founded the first school for
navigation and sent ships to explore western Africa in (1420).
 Europeans discovered the Americans and first sailed the Pacific,
Indian, and Southern Oceans (1480-1520).
 Charts were drawn as early as 1507 included the New World
from that Ferdinand Magellan get inspired to open a trade
route.
 The Magellan expedition’s return to Spain in 1522 marks the
end of the European Age of Discovery

Voyaging for Science in the Seventeenth Century
 Franklin measured water temperatures and first
explained the Gulf Stream's cause.
 Franklin and T. Folger printed the first map of the Gulf
Stream in 1769-1770.
 Captain James Cook made three voyages of scientific
discovery in (1768-79)
 Conveyed members of the Royal Society to observe the
transit of Venus in front of the sun.

Voyaging for Science in the Seventeenth Century
 Determined the outline of Pacific Ocean and discovered
New Zealand, Australia, Hawaiian Islands.
 Measured surface ocean conditions and made first
accurate map of ocean using chronometer.
 Sir James Ross successfully collected deep water sample
from 2000first meters using various device.
 Fridtjof Nansen invented a deep water sampling container
still used called Nansen bottle.

 Alexander Marcet (1819) showed that average salinity
of sea water behaves differently from fresh water.
 James Rennell wrote the first scientific textbook on
current of Indian and Atlantic ocean (18th-19th century).
 Sir James Clark Ross took the first modern sounding in
deep sea in 1840.
 The First Scientific Expedition towards Galapagos
Island was made by HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin
(1831-36).
Voyaging for Science in the Eighteenth Century

 Charles Darwin published a paper "Structure and
Distribution of Coral Reefs“ in (1842).
 Charles Darwin made a voyage to South America and pacific
islands and first contributor to marine biology by “Natural
Selection”.
 Robert Fitz Roy published a report on the three voyages of
the Beagle.
 Edward Forbes undertook dredging in the Aegean Sea and
founded marine ecology (1841–1842).

 M. F. Maury, the first superintendent of the United States
Naval Observatory (1842–1861) studied marine
meteorology, navigation and charted prevailing winds and
currents.
 “Physical Geography of the Sea” by M. F. Maury (1855)
was the first textbook of oceanography
 Oceanographic observations were sent to Maury, then he
and his colleagues would evaluate the information and gave
the results.

 The First modern deep-ocean scientific expedition (The HMS
Challenger expedition) was made in (1872-76 ).
 Charles Thomson invented “Oceanography”, the
science of oceans.
 Measured conditions of Deep Ocean (chemistry,
temperature, biology, bottom sediment).
 Measured depth of ocean in several hundred
locations with Deep Ocean sounding (cannonballs
and ropes).

 Manganese nodules were discovered.
 They made a hypothesis that-
“There would be no life below ~550 m because of lack of
light and high pressure”.
 Finally it has been proved “Wrong”!

Oceanography from the 1880s to the 1930s
Marine sciences developed through several local, national
and international agencies (1880s-1930s)
 First oceanographic ship, the "Albatros" was built
in 1882.
 Murray’s Scottish Marine station was established in
1880s for scientific research.
 “North Atlantic Expedition” by Sir John Murray and
Johan Hjort(1910) was the most ambitious research
 The classic book The Depths of the Ocean was written in
1912.

Oceanography from the 1880s to the 1930s
 The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (The
First Oceanographic Organization) was established in 1902.
 The first acoustic measurement of sea depth was made in 1914
 General Bathymetric Chart of the ocean was made by Prince
Albert of Monaco(1921).
 Fridtjof Nansen (1893) obtain first oceanographic,
meteorological and astronomical data from the Arctic Ice
 The Meteor" expedition gathered 70,000 ocean depth
measurements using an echo sounder from the Mid Atlantic
Ridge (1925-1927).

Development of Modern Oceanography
 Sverdrup and Fleming (1942) published "The Ocean"
 Maurice Ewing and Bruce Heezen (1953) identified the Great
Global Rift along the Mid Atlantic Ridge.
 The nuclear submarine Nautilus made the first journey under
the ice to the North Pole in 1958.
 The nuclear submarine Nautilus made the first journey under
the ice to the North Pole in 1958.

 The Ocean Drilling Project started in 1966.
 “Encyclopedia of Oceanography” was published by Rhodes
Fairbridge (1966).
 The U.S. Congress created a National Council for Marine
Resources and Engineering Development in 1966.
 "The Sea" (covering physical oceanography, seawater and
geology) was Published in 1962.

 The World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE)
started in 1990 and continued until 2002.
 Geo-sat seafloor mapping data became available in 1995.
 Deep sea vents were iscovered by John Corlis and Robert
Ballard in 1977.
 The application of large scale computers started from
1970s to allow numerical predictions of ocean conditions.

Rise of Oceanographic Institutions
 Prince Albert I of Monaco
 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (MIT)
 Scrips Institution of Oceanography
 Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
 NASA (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena)

Thanks
for Your Patience
Contact for Details: shoaibe58sau@gmail.com

History of oceanography: origin and development

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