-
150
Ptolemy 150 B.C.
Ptolemy introduces latitude and longitude to the world map; he was the first to place a grid system on a map and use the same grid system for the entire planet. -
240
Erestothenes 240 B.C.
Erestothenes determines the surface of the earth -
325
Pytheas 325 B.C.
Discovers arctic ocean -
Jan 4, 1350
Ferdinand Magellan
the Portuguese navigator. Magellan was the first European explorer to cross the Pacific Ocean and the first to sail around the world. -
Period: Jan 4, 1420 to Jan 4, 1446
Henry The Navigator
Sent explorers to find new lands, people, and wealth -
Benjamin Franklin discovers Gulf stream
He contributed to oceanography in the mid- to late 1700s by making and compiling good observations of ocean currents off the US East Coast. -
Period: to
James Cook
James Cook contributed to oceanography by helping find many known islands, such as Hawaii,the Cook Islands,and many more. -
Sonar
Echo sounders were first used for oceanographic studies during the epic German expedition exploring the South Atlantic in the mid-1920s aboard the Meteor. -
CHarles Darwin
Darwin publishes The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, in which he suggests that coral atolls are the final stage in the subsidence and erosion of volcanic islands -
American naval officer and oceanographer Matthew Maury
Wrote the first textbook on Modern Oceanography -
Period: to
Challenger Expedition
They conducted 492 deep sea soundings, 133 bottom dredges, 151 open water trawls, 263 serial water temperature observations, and discovered about 4,700 new species of marine life. -
Sir William Thomson
Sir William Thomson invents an operational wireline sounding machine. Modifications of this machine ultimately replace hemp-rope sounding methods. The wireline machines are faster to operate and significantly more accurate. -
Period: to
FIrst modern bathymetric map
Accurate, high-density soundings taken by the Coast Survey Steamer Blake in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea lead to the first modern bathymetric map. -
Jacques Cousteau
Cousteau traveled to Canada to make two films on the Saint Lawrence River and the Great Lakes -
Bathysphere
A bathysphere is a spherical deep-sea submersible which is unpowered and is lowered into the ocean on a cable.
