Intro and Ocean Exploration Flashcards
who were the first to navigate the Pacific Ocean?
Polynesian explorers who used the stars and currents
- used currents bc the wind is consistent meaning currents were also consistent
who made the first map we know of?
Ptolemy
- made lines of longitude and latitude on maps
- equator was 0 latitude and Canary Islands was the meridian for longitude
what is longitude- how to determine?
how much W or E
- accurate knowledge of time travelled - 1/2 degree longitude = 2 min
what is latitude - how to determine?
how much N or S
- 1 degree latitude = 60 min = 60 nautical miles
- 1 min = 60 secs = 1 nautical mile
sighting of sun or stars - 1 degree latitude = 60 min
why was it difficult for early explorers to determine longitude?
lack of visible reference points in the sky or land - no physical or consistent reference point
what is the Azoic theory, who created it?
no life is deeper than 300 fathoms
- Edward Forbes
- first major marine scientific hypothesis
who disapproved the Azoic theory, what was the discovery?
Michael Sars
- describes species that were found deeper than 300 fathoms in Norway’s fjords
what hypothesis did Darwin create about coral reefs?
theory of coral reef subsidence
- reefs as a balance of growth of reef and sinking of seafloor
- starts out as a rocky isalnd that sinks creating a barrier reef and eventually fully sinks creating an atoll
what is the deepest part of the world’s oceans?
Mariann’s Trench - 8200m
what was Haeckel’s Bathybius theory?
life arose from primordial slime in the ocean - the slime was actually a product of an inorganic chemical process
what is Ocean Network Canada?
- company located in Victoria that runs the Cable Undersea Observatory that uses 6 stations connected by cable to allow for communication b/w stations that collect diff types of data from the ocean floor and connected to a power source on land
what are some locations that have old fossils?
Mystic Beach - Victoria
Kagbeni Jonsom, Nepal
Burgess Pass - AB
what is the oldest biological event?
first unicellular eukaryotes - stromatolites 1.8 bya
Cambrian Explosion fossils (5)
first multicellular animals
- Rugose corals found in Cambrian Explosion- horn corals, Devonian period, growth lines that show each stage shows extant coral represented
- Wiwaxia - found in the Middle/Early Cambrian during intermediate stages of evolution, related to worms/snails
- Marrella
- Halucigenia- spikes for protection not locomotion
- Anomalocaris - misidentified at first but more complex than originally thought
what are Ediacara fossils?
first multicellular animals
