Lecture 2 - History

Question 1

In the 1800s, interest in oceanography was driven by what?

Answer 1

US - practical navigation

England - Marine bio (gov supported scientific expeditions)

Question 2

Misconceptions about the deep sea (4)

Answer 2

Seawater was densest at 4*C (like freshwater)
Deep sea is static, no currents
Stagnant environment, no food, no O2
No life could exist in the deep sea

Question 3

Sir Charles Lyell

Answer 3

(1830s)
Geology - argued world was formed by erosion, sedimentation, tension, compression
Paleontoogy/strata
Deep sea - looked for ancient forms to understand ancient habitats

Question 4

Fathoms =

Answer 4

6ft

Question 5

Problem with how depth used to be measured

Answer 5

lead or sounding lines (weighted rope) = slow, gives single point

Question 6

Edward Forbes

Answer 6

(1840) studied “Azoic Zone”

Question 7

James Clark Ross

Answer 7

(1839-1843)
Antarctic Expedition EREBUS and TERROR to survey the earth’s magnetic field
Found worms at 1000fm, lost collections due to bad preservation
Measured temp - appeared isothermal at 4*C due to thermometers unprotected against pressure

Question 8

By 1850s…

Answer 8

increased sampling down to 500 fm showing organisms
“Azoic zone” pushed down to 500 fm
Occasional animals from deeper but ignored
submarine telegraph cables

Question 9

Darwin’s Origin of species

Answer 9

(1859) Ancient animals: “living fossils”, “missing links”

Question 10

Michael Sars

Answer 10

(1866) collected stalked crinoids at 300-400m, similar to primitive crinoids = supports living fossils inhabited depths

Question 11

Thomas Huxley

Answer 11

(1860s) Bathybius haekelii (primordial slime, photoplasm)
explanation for deep sea food problems
Hypothesized as original life form with more evolved forms at progressively shallower depths

Question 12

C. Wyville Thomson and W. B. Carpenter

Answer 12

(1868) Expedition to find out what lived in the abyss, how they were distributed, how they related to ancient fossils
LIGHTNING - found 0*C and animals with well develop eyes (not ancient) at 1200 m, zonation of species, body types
PORCUPINE/SHEARWATER - dredged at 4500 m abundant life

Question 13

Louis Agassiz

Answer 13

(1868/9) antievoluntionist

Question 14

Challenger expedition

Answer 14

(1873) Red Clay and annelids sampling at 3150 fathoms
Distribution of living things has no depth limit
Bathybius discovered to be calcium sulfate precipitate (had to retract previous finding)

Found manganese nodules
Found Challenger Deep of Marianas Trench (10911 m)
Discovered mid-Atlantic ridge

Question 15

Vettor Pisani

Answer 15

(1880s) used closing nets to show existence of midwater fauna

Question 16

Dana-Johannes Schimdt

Answer 16

(1922) found spawning grounds of eels in the Sargasso Sea

Question 17

Discovery

Answer 17

(1925) Alister Hardy - plankton wheel

Question 18

Sonic depth finders

Answer 18

(1920s) developed for submarine detection in WWI, replaced lead lines

Question 19

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI)

Answer 19

Set up in 1930

Question 20

Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO)

Answer 20

William Ritter (1892)
E. W. and Ellen Scripps (1905)
UC in 1912
IO in 1925

Question 21

Challenger II

Answer 21

(1951) Found deepest spot in Challenger deep of Marianas Trench