History of Oceanography and The Water Planet

MSCI 230

Primary Uses of the Ocean in the Early Times

Food, Trade, and Transportation

Shell Middens

ancient refuse heaps consisting primarily of discarded mollusc shells, bones, and cultural artifacts deposited by early coastal civilizations

Primary Uses of the Ocean in the Middle Times

Exploration, Trade, and Colonization

Primary Uses of the Ocean in the Modern Day (19th century onwards)

Scientific Study, Engineering

The Challenger Expedition

A pioneering 4-year British scientific voyage that circumnavigated the globe to study the deep sea, effectively launching modern oceanography. Discovered 4,700+ new species. Did deep-sea soundings to find depth of oceans - challenger deep.

Challenger Deep

the deepest known point in Earth's oceans, located at the southern end of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific, southwest of Guam

Catalyst for Modern Oceanography

World War II acted as a major catalyst for modern oceanography by transitioning it from a small, academic pursuit into a massive, well-funded, and technologically advanced, interdisciplinary field. The urgent military necessity for submarine warfare, underwater communication, and amphibious landings forced rapid, large-scale investigation into the ocean's physical, chemical, and geological properties.

Big Bang

14 billion years ago. Describes the universe expanding from an initial hot, dense state.

Age of the Earth

4.5-4.6 billion years ago

Hypothesis of Water On Earth

1 - Volcanic Activity; 2 - Formed as a Wet Planet; 3 - Brought by Comets and Asteroids

Reservoir

a key storage component in the global water cycle, holding water for varying durations

Fluxes

represent the continuous, dynamic movement of water between storage reservoirs

Water Distribution

Ocean - 97%; Glaciers - 2.1%; Ground and Surface - 0.9%

Residence Time

The average length of time that a water molecule spends in any one reservoir. Large reservoirs tend to have a large residence time and small with small.

Distribution of Water and Continents

More ocean than land in both hemispheres. More land in northern hemisphere than in southern.

Hypsographic Curve

a graph plotting the distribution of Earth's surface area (x-axis) at various elevations or depths (y-axis), using sea level as the datum

Average Depth of Ocean

4,000m

Ocean Size (L→S)

Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, Arctic