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History of marine science - Coggle Diagram
History of marine science
Navigators and European travelers who added to the documented record of marine science
European, British and American colonisers mapped and documented most of the world; and
recorded which people or resources could easily be exploited and extracted for profit. These include the European navigators such as Da Gama; Dias; Magellan; Cooke and Columbus.
James Cooke
Was the first to apply principles of scientific investigation to the ocean. He made astronomical observations and applied his knowledge of longitude and latitude to determine locations. He drew maps of South Pacific islands which were so accurate it was used for navigation in the region until the second world war
John Harrison
Invention of the H4 timekeeper, which allowed navigators to calculate longitude accurately
Benjamin Franklin
Scientific contributions related to current. He pointed out it takes more time for cargo vessel to travel from Europe to America than it took for the same vessel to travel eastwards from America to Europe. Documenting findings from vessels such s whalers he drew fairly accurate map of Gulf stream current in west of Atlantic basin , which was earliest record of ocean current map
Matthew Maury
U.S navel officer had interests in how winds and ocean current could increase efficiencies of commercial and naval shipping travel on the route between Europe and North America. After being crippled bi stagecoach accident position U.S navy depot of charts and instruments, built on work of Franklin studied records of many different ship logs, grouping data of current/ temperature and wind direction was first to produce map of planetary surface winds and currents
1831 expedition on HMS Beagle with purpose of mapping coastline of South America and collecting biological specimens. Charles Darwin ships naturalist, collection and observations of South American animals and plants American led to major contribution to biological science
Enormous amount of valuable marine science research was conducted on HMS challenger between December 1872 and February 1876, under leadership of Charles Thompson.
Guns and spars were removed from the ship to increase space for equipment such as microscopes, chemical apparatus,
trawl nets, alcohol to preserve samples, sampling bottles and rope. A steam engine was installed on the deck to drive a dredger.
To save on fuel the Challenger was powered by sail. It was redesigned into a laboratory ship and 4 717
new species were described and catalogued by staff biologists. One of the adaptations to the Challenger was a platform on the
deck which housed the steam-powered winch. The dredging
apparatus was used to collect thousands of sediment and water samples.
An extremely useful database developed with records of water temperature;
water pressure at varying depths; tide heights, wave action and the movement of currents and tide waters.
Meteorological records were also collected.
Edward Forbes, a student under Darwin, had been adamant life did not exist at depths to where light did not penetrate because he
thought the water pressure was too high. In the early 1900s a rope with a weight
on its end was used to measure the ocean depths at various localities. Wax was
secured to the weight to collect grains of sediment for analysis. This was a clumsy method as the rope stretched and was
pulled by the currents thus preventing accurate measurement of depth, and the amount of sediment collected was very small.
In 1894, the Nansen water-sampling bottle was designed by Norwegian polar traveller and scientist
Fridtjof Nansen. This device collects water samples from
different depths in the water column. This was further developed by Shale Nisken in 1966 to produce the Nisken bottle.
Technological facilitation of collecting ocean data
Over the past 100 years technological development has resulted in significant progress
in the amount of information which we have at our disposal as marine
scientists. These include the invention of sonar, scuba, submersibles, buoys, ocean
gliders, ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) and satellites. As with many fields of science;
improved technology and electronic advancements have increased the
enormous volumes and reliability of data. Sample sizes are larger,
GPS-determined locations are more accurately recorded, satellite images provide more accurate
maps and faster downloading of information. Millions of points
of data can be downloaded about the seafloor using sonar and/or satellite imagery. Ships such as
the SA Agulhas II traveling to polar regions can function as ice breakers, keeping scientists and Marine Sciences technicians relatively safe.