Into the Wide Blue Yonder HISTORY OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

Transcription

1 Into the Wide Blue Yonder HISTORY OF OCEAN EXPLORATION

2 3 MAIN REASONS FOR SEAFARING Food Trade Discovery of new land

3 ANCIENT SEAFARING Biblically Noah s Ark and similar stories of floods: Not really out to Sea 1 st Recorded 3200 BCE Egyptian reed boats to Phoenicia for Trade 1 st Exploration 2750 BCE Egyptians to southern tip of Arabian Peninsula Phoenicians established trade routes in Mediterranean and as far north as Great Britain. All routes within sight of land.

4 ANCIENT SEAFARING CONT. Polynesians BCE Traveled thousands of miles across Pacific Ocean Settled most habitable islands of the Pacific including Hawaii Used basic maps made from sticks, shells, ropes, knots & rocks.

5 TOOLS OF ANCIENT SEAFARING Reference points on land Use sun, constellations, stars Cloud patterns that develop near islands and coastlines Shore birds

6 ANCIENT GREEK MATHEMATICIANS Developed knowledge lost during middle ages Knew Earth was round not flat. Calculated Circumference of the Earth Developed sophisticated maps with latitude and longitude Ptolemy developed coordinate system still used today.

7 PTOLEMY Astronomer, mathematician, geographer circa AD First map of a spherical earth projected on to a FLAT map Introduced latitude and longitude

8 LATITUDE LONGITUDE Easy to figure out while at sea, even long ago Not so much

9 Latitude: Measures the angular distance north or south of the equator expressed in degrees Longitude: Measures the angular distance east or west expressed in degrees.

10 Equator Great Circle 1/2way between North and South Poles 0⁰ latitude Circles are different sizes Circles Never intersect & run parallel to each other 90⁰ N 0⁰ 90⁰ S

11 Prime Meridian Great Circle Passes through Greenwich England 0⁰ longitude Circles are equal sizes Each intersect at Poles West East

12 Latitude TRAVELING sextant - used to AT SEA calculate the degree of difference between observer and equator (incredible accuracy) Longitude Longitude is the degree of difference between an observer and the prime meridian How do you do that?????

13 CHRONOMETERS You needed a clock to determine longitude 1 hour from the prime meridian = 15 1 = 30 nautical miles Not so simple really Degree lengths along meridian aren t constant (earth is not a perfect sphere: 69 miles/degree at equator 17 miles/degree at 80 N 0 at the poles

14 IMAGINE 1714 Clocks? nope England offers 20,000 pounds John Harrison 1726 the first semiaccurate regulators 1759 H4 is completed (it s a clock) Weighs 3 lbs 5 diameter

15 Earth s diameter at equator 24,902 miles Earth s diameter at poles 24,818 miles Distance on Earth s surface for 1⁰ of latitude OR longitude ~ 70 miles A FEW FACTS

16 END OF PART I

17 MIDDLE AGES 500 TO 1500 AD Suppression of science and geography caused loss of knowledge Vikings 790 to 1100 AD Explored from central Asia west to New Foundland, Canada and throughout Europe to North Africa Chinese developed magnetic compass; two technological innovations of ships: central rudders and watertight compartments

18 3 motives EUROPEAN VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY AD Economics Politics Religion Asia to the East Prince Henry Western Africa Bartholomeu Dias Cape of Good Hope (1487) Vasco de Gama Through Cape to India (1497)

19 EUROPEAN VOYAGES OF DISCOVERY AD Asia to the West Christopher Columbus (1492) - Landed on Caribbean Islands Vespucci First to recognize South America as new continent ( ) Vasco Nunez de Balboa 1 st European to sail in Pacific; Crossed over Panama Peninsula (1513) Ferdinand Magellan Circumnavigated globe Left: 5 ships, 200 men (some say 270) Returned: 1 ship, 18 men, no Magellan

20 AGE OF EXPLORATION ( ) James Cook- 1 st major expedition launched with Science and Exploration as only goal Chronometer Developed by John Harrison Clock not affected by motion of sea Determined longitude accurately Discovered New Zealand and Australia 3 rd Voyage discovered Hawaii

21 AGE OF EXPLORATION ( ) Charles Wilkes Early U.S. expedition Proved existence of Antartica Matthew Maury Father of Physical Oceanography Knowledge of prevailing winds and surface currents Produced 1 st modern oceanography textbook

22 AGE OF EXPLORATION ( ) Charles Darwin Gathered scientific data aboard HMS Beagle Later wrote The Origin of Species describing evolution through natural selection Challenger Expedition ( ) 1 st expedition devoted specifically to marine science Discovered Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Marianas Trench Most new species ever discovered on one expedition until deep-sea vents in 1970s

23 MODERN OCEANOGRAPHY Mapping sea floor using echo-sounding Meteor, Atlantis, and Challenger II

24 DEVELOPMENT OF SUBMERSIBLES AND SELF-CONTAINED DIVING Bathyscaphe Trieste 1 st and only manned submersible to bottom of Challenger Deep Research Submersibles allow for direct observations of abyssal plain and limited specimen collecting Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnon develop SCUBA that allows direct manipulation during underwater research (limited depth)

25 ROV, AUV, ELECTRONIC NAVIGATION, AND SATELLITES Remotely Operated Vehicles Tethered/unmanned Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Untethered/Computer controlled LORAN and GPS Allow for accurate coordinate measurements Satellites track large scale weather and ocean phenomena

26 SOMEONE ASKED: HOW MANY GALLONS OF WATER ARE IN THE OCEAN? The Oceans have around 1.3 billion cubic kilometers of water SO You tell me. You may not ask Siri, Cortana, or Google 1 cubic kilometer of water =1 trillion liters of water Therefore - ~ 1,300,000,000,000,000,000,000 liters of water (1.3 sextillion liters) Gallons? liters = 1 gallon =343,423,668,428,484,681,262 gallons = 343 quintillion gallons or billion BILLION gallons. That's a lot of water.

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