OCEAN EXPLORATION

OCEAN
- from Greek word, Okeans,
which means, the sea of classical
antiquity
- is a body of saline water that
composes much of a planets
hydrosphere.
- covers 71% of the earths surface.
- it is divided into five major
divisions, namely;
Pacific ,
Atlantic , Indian ,
Antarctic(southern), and Arctic .

SOME STATISTICS FOR THE WORLD OCEAN

Area : 361,100,100 square kilometers

Mass : 1.41 billion billion metric tons
Volume :1,370,000,000 cubic
kilometers
Average Depth : 3,796 meters
Average Temperature : 3.9
Average Salinity:
34,482grams\kilogram
Average Elevation : 840 meters
Age: About 4 billion years

How this information came up ?

It is by means of
An OCEAN EXPLORATION!

Ocean
exploration
is
a
part
of
oceanography describing the exploration
of ocean surfaces. =Notable explorations
were undertaken by the Greeks, the
Egyptians,
the
Polynesians,
the
Phoenicians, Phytheas, Herodotus, the
Vikings, and the Portuguese.
=Scientific investigations began with
early scientists such as James Cook,
Charles Darwin, and Edmund Halley.
=Ocean exploration itself coincided with
the developments in shipbuilding, diving,
navigation,
depth,
measurement,

Late BC 1 BC
Early exploration
4000-3000 Egyptian Voyage

- The earliest recorded sea voyage was undertaken by ancient

Egyptians around 3200BC.
2000-1000 First Sea Routes

-The Polynesians were the first known

people to undertake regular, long-distance
voyages. They built elaborate canoes
(like the replicas at left) to carry
supplies and developed a navigational
system based on the position of the stars.

1800 BC -Basic measuring of the depths is

done in Egypt.
1500 BC -Middle Eastern peoples explored the
Indian Ocean.
600 BC -Phoenicians developed sea routes
around the entire Mediterranean and into the
Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Going around
Africa they reached England by sailing along
the western European coast. Although they
understood celestial navigation, they probably
stayed within sight of land whenever possible.
500-200 BC -Greeks developed trade routes
in the Mediterranean using the length of the
day (corrected for the time of the year) to
estimate latitude.

 450 BC -Herodotus publishes a map of the

Mediterranean region.

325 BC -Pytheas, a Greek astronomer

and geographer, sailed north out of

the Mediterranean, reaching
England and possibly even Iceland
and Norway. He also developed the
use of sightings on the North Star
to determine latitude.

240 BC -Eratosthenes of Alexandria, Egypt

determines fairly accurately the circumference of

the Earth using angles of shadows in Syene and
Alexandria.

From age of exploration to present

150 AD Ptolemy produces a map of the Roman

world, including lines of latitude and longitude, the

continents of Asia, Europe, and Africa and the
surrounding oceans.

900-1430 - Vikings explore and colonize Iceland,

Greenland, Newfoundland.

1002 - Leif Erikson reaches North America 500

years before Columbus.

1405-1433 -

Chinese send seven

voyages to extend Chinese influence and impress their neighbor
states. These expensive voyages
are ended after a short time.

 1492-1504 - Christopher Columbus reaches

America looking for a sea route to the Indies;

discovering various lands and islands and
establishing a colony on Hispaniola
1498 - Vasco da Gama sails around Africa from
Portugal reaching India and establishing trade
routes

 1499-1504 - Amerigo Vespucci explores New

World
1519-1522 - Ferdinand Magellan's ships
circumnavigate the world.

 1620 - Dutch physician Cornelis Drebbel builds the

world's first submarine and makes several trips in the

River Thames near London at a depth of about 12 or
15 feet.

1698-1700 - Edmund Halley made probably the first

primarily scientific voyage to study the variation of the
magnetic compass, sailing as far as 52 deg S. in the
Atlantic Ocean. On a previous expedition to St. Helena,
he made an important contribution to knowledge of the
trade winds.

 1768-1780 - James Cook explores the southern

parts of the oceans looking for the southern

continent. He was the first to use a marine
chronometer to determine longitude.

1785 - Benjamin Franklin writes Sundry Marine

Observations on improvements to ships and the

Gulf Stream.

 1831-1836 - Charles Darwin sails on the Beagle,

exploring the Galapagos and many other areas. It

is this work which led him to develop the
concepts of natural selection and evolution.

 1860 - First chart of the Gulf Stream published by

the U.S. Coast Survey.

1872-1876 - H.M.S. Challenger travels around the

world on a scientific mission taking sediment

samples, water samples, soundings, and
collecting many biological specimens.
1960 - Bathyscaphe Trieste dives to what was
believed to be the deepest point in the Mariana
Trench. A depth of 10,915 meters was observed.

1969 - The Ben Franklin (PX-15) drifts submerged

for 30 days in the Gulf Stream.

1985 The remains of Titanic that sank in

1912 was discovered in Atlantic ocean.

Nowadays ,too many to list, the great

increase in the exploration of oceanography

and marine science in general stemmed in
large part from the industrial revolution with
the evolution of scientific and technological
advancements.