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100
Polynesians migrate to the South Pacific (2500 B.C)
Polynesians migrated to the South Pacific in 2500 BCE and then continued to explore all the islands in the area. They used ingenious methods such as star structures and stick and shell charts to navigate and be able to return to various islands. -
100
Polynesians settle on Hawaiian Islands (600-400 B.C)
After many years of migration and exploration, the Polynesians finally settled on the Hawaiian Islands from 600-400 B.C. -
100
Pytheas (350-300 B.C)
Pytheas conducted the earliest reccorded voyage from the Mediterranean to England. He is also thought to have created the first theory about the moon and tides. -
Jan 1, 1400
Chinese explore the Indian Ocean, Indonesia, Africa, and the Atlantic (1400s)
In the 1400s, the Chinese explored the the Indian Ocean, Indonesia, Africa, and the Atlantic Ocean to see what the rest of the world had to offer. Upon realizing that no nation was advanced as they were, the Chinese returned to China and did not do an major exploration or voyages to other countries for a long time. -
Period: Jan 1, 1519 to Jan 1, 1522
Magellan's Expedition
Ferdinand Magellan was the explorer to organize the expedition that resulted in the first circumnavigation of the Earth. Dying on the way, the trip was completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano. -
Period: to
James Cook
James Cook was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy. He is most notable for doing calculations of planetary orbits, charting New Zealand, the Great Barrier Reef, Tonga, and the Easter Islands, sampling marine life, land plants, and animals, recording data about the ocean floor and geological formations and using Harrison's Chronometer on many of his voyages. -
Alfred Wegener proposes the idea of continetal drift
Alfred Wegner advanced the theory of continental drift in 1912, which hypothesized that the continents were slowly drifting around the Earth. His hypothesis was controversial and not widely accepted until the 1950s, when numerous discoveries such aprovided strong support for plate tectonics. -
Echo Sounder developed
World War I accelerates oceanic acoustic research as both the U.S. Navy and the Army Coast Artillery develop research programs to devise means to detect enemy submarines. -
First icebreaker created
When the first icebreaker was created in 1921, ships were able to go farther into the arctic ocean, gaining explorers more access to the area. -
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was established
In 1930, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was establised by the Rockerfeller Foundation after it was decided that the oceanographic activities of the East Coast needed to be strengthened and that a well-equipped oceanographic institution was needed. -
End of World War II
After World War II the world of oceanogprahy had made many great technological advancements. There were numerous new, highly sophisticated instruments such as radar, improved sonar, automated wave detectors, temperature-depth recorders. -
International Geophysical Year (1957-1958)
The International Geophysical Year involved 67 nations and was an effort to explore the sea floor and the geophysical properties connected to the ocean. Many special research vessels and submersibles were created and government spending for ocean research increased. -
Bathyscaph Trieste dives to the deepest point in the ocean
In 1960, two scientstis, Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh were the first two humans to ever go to the deepest part of the ocean. -
Global Degreation
In the 1970s as more and more research was being conducted in oceans and information about the ocean was greatly increasing, the phenomeon of global degradation began to become an important issue. -
Hydrothermal vents discovered
In 1977 Hydrothermal vents were discovered by scientists in the deep sea submersible Alvin near the Galapagos Islands. It was an enormous discovery because such abundant ecosystems were not thought to be able to survive at such depths. -
GEOSAT Lauches
The GEOSAT (GEOdetic SATellite) was a U.S. Navy Earth observation satellite, launched on March 12, 1985. Its purpose was to monitor sea level topography, productivity surface winds and waves, and abrupt changes in salinity and temperature in oceans.
