Showing posts with label oceanography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oceanography. Show all posts

March 5 - Happy Birthday, Sir Charles Wyville Thomson

   Posted on March 5, 2022


This is an update of my post published on March 5, 2011:



For a long time, people only knew about the first few fathoms of the ocean. After all, they had no submarines or deep-sea submersibles. They didn't even have any good way of estimating the depth of the ocean floor, except in the shallowest parts near land. Folks just had a pretty strong feeling that the ocean was pretty darned deep!

Most people thought that the deep sea was an “abiotic zone.” That means no life. After all, scientists reasoned, life depends on sunlight and green plants converting that sunlight into food (sugars).

Well, Charles Thomson, a Scottish zoologist who was born on this date in 1830, helped to first prove that there is life far down, deep, in the ocean. He explored the deep sea by dredging the sea off the Norwegian coasts, proving that all sorts of animal life existed down to depths of 650 fathoms (1200 m). He also found that temperatures down in the briny deep varied quite a lot—it had been assumed that they would have been constant. The varying temperatures proved that there existed oceanic circulation with sinking water, deep-water currents, upwelling, and shallow-water currents.



Because of the interest in Thomson's findings, the Royal Navy specially outfitted H.M.S. Challenger to do an oceanographic study. The ship's guns were removed, and the number of spars were reduced. With the room afforded by these alterations, laboratories, extra cabins, and a dredging platform were installed. The ship was loaded with, not just food and water, but also specimen jars filled with alcohol. Chemical apparatus, microscopes, thermometers, dredging and trawling equipment, and sounding devices were installed aboard—some of the equipment newly invented just for this first true oceanographic expedition.


During the course of four and a half years, Challenger spent 713 days at sea and traveled almost 69 thousand nautical miles (127,580 km). During the 133 bottom dredges and 151 open water trawls, Thomson and his staff discovered about 4,700 new species of marine life!


Explore some more


Since Thomson's time, we've been able to explore deeper and deeper oceans. Watch this video about amazing deep-sea creatures we've found. And then check out this short snippet about life at the deep-sea vents.










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August 30 - Happy Birthday, Sylvia Earle

Posted on August 30, 2021


This is an update of my post published on August 30, 2010: 


In red: Sylvia Earle

Although my last name is Earle, too, this well-
respected oceanographer is not a relation of mine.
(I wish she was!)


The oceanographer Sylvia Earle became famous in the 1970s as she led a group of five female aquanauts 50 feet deep into the ocean to live for two weeks in a small underwater home during Mission 6 of the Tektite II project.




After that well-publicized mission, Earle continued to do scientific research - but she also used her fame to become a public speaker, writer, and film producer as she advocated more research on oceans and ocean life, and as she urged people to be more environmentally conscious.


Some of the highlights of Earle's career include being chief scientist for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence.



Sylvia Earle is sometimes called “Her Deepness” or “The Sturgeon General.”


Learn more about the oceans.

  • Here are some ideas for young children.
  • Here are some games and puzzles for older kids.
  • Check out the website of the organization Earle headed (NOAA) for information about the ocean and photo galleries about the ocean.




Also on this date:




















Anniversary of the discovery of Franz Josef Land (Arctic Ocean islands)



 (Dates vary)





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January 23 – Anniversary of a Record-Setting Dive

Posted on January 23, 2016


On this date in 1960, humans set a depth record by using the bathyscaphe USS Trieste to descend to 35,797 feet (almost 11 thousand meters!) in the Pacific Ocean.

U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard went to the bottom of “Challenger Deep,” the deepest part of the deepest trench in the ocean. It took them nearly five hours to get there, and the two men spent twenty minutes down there at the bottommost part of the ocean.


Fifty years later, in 2010, Don Walsh was amazed that nobody had ever repeated the feat of going to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. He pointed out that almost a thousand people have been to the top of Everest, hundreds of people have been in outer space, and twelve people have walked on the moon (and even more people have been out as far as the moon, without actually landing on it).

But in fifty years, it was still just two guys who had been to the bottom of the ocean. Nobody else had even attempted it!

Now, though, there has been a third person who's done the deed: In 2012 James Cameron, the movie director of smash hits Titanic and Avatar, partnered with National Geographic to take a submersible down to bottom of the Mariana Trench. 

When he arrived at the bottom, he typed out the words “All systems OK.”

I guess in those 52 years, technology had improved; Cameron's trip took about two and a half hours to reach the bottom. He was able to spend three hours collecting samples for biologists and geologists to study, and the sub had sophisticated 3-D cameras employed. The ascent took a bit less time than the descent had. (By the way, the submarine had the ability to sustain life for 56 hours, so there was plenty of air and power to spare!)

Did you know...?

  • The Trieste encountered a bit of a problem: At a depth of about 30,000 feet, one of the outer Plexiglas window panes cracked, and the entire vessel shook. Yi-i-ikes! Walsh explained that, since the window was not on a pressure boundary, they thought it was all right to carry on to the bottom.

  • What do you do at the bottom of the ocean? The Trieste crew saw a glimpse of some fish, probably sole, flounder, or halibut, and discovered that the bottom was made up of diatomaceous ooze. They couldn't see a lot, because their ship had kicked up a lot of stuff (sand? ooze?). They ate chocolate bars, because their trip had already taken a long time, and they still had more than three hours to go back to the surface.

  • Even though the journey was a project of the U.S. Navy, the submersible was designed by Swiss designer Auguste Piccard (father of the aquanaut Jacques Piccard), and it was built by an Italian company.

  • Even though the feat got little attention, compared to ascents to Everest, treks to the North and South Poles, and journeys into space, Star Trek did pay homage to Trieste. First, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the ship's captain Jean-Luc Picard was said to have been named after either Auguste or Jacques Piccard. Second, one of the starships was called the U.S.S. Trieste.

  • Some may wonder why a movie director is daring to go to the bottommost point of the ocean. Actually, James Cameron was quite the ocean explorer. He had been interested in oceanography since he was a child, and he has made over 70 deep-sea submersible dives. Actually, 33 of those dives were to the wreckage of the Titanic, the subject of one of Cameron's hits!


Also on this date:





































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