Oceanography

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Thermohaline circulation
Oceanography (from the Ancient Greek ὠκεανός "ocean" and γράφω "write"),
also known as oceanology, is the scientific study of the ocean. It is an
important Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics,
including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid
dynamics; plate tectonics and the geology of the sea floor; and fluxes of various
chemical substances and physical properties within the ocean and across its
boundaries. These diverse topics reflect multiple disciplines that oceanographers
utilize to glean further knowledge of the world ocean,
including astronomy, biology, chemistry, climatology, geography, geology, hydrolog
y, meteorology and physics. Paleoceanography studies the history of the oceans in
the geologic past. An oceanographer is a person who studies many matters
concerned with oceans including marine geology, physics, chemistry and biology.

Contents

• 1History
o 1.1Early history
o 1.2Modern oceanography
• 2Branches
o 2.1Biological oceanography
o 2.2Chemical oceanography
▪ 2.2.1Ocean acidification
o 2.3Geological oceanography
o 2.4Physical oceanography
 ▪ 2.4.1Seismic Oceanography
▪ 2.4.2Ocean currents
▪ 2.4.3Ocean heat content
o 2.5Paleoceanography
• 3Oceanographic institutions
• 4Related disciplines
• 5See also
• 6References
o 6.1Sources
• 7External links

History[edit]

Map of the Gulf Stream by Benjamin Franklin, 1769–1770. Courtesy of

Early history[edit]
Humans first acquired knowledge of the waves and currents of
the seas and oceans in pre-historic times. Observations on tides were recorded
by Aristotle and Strabo in 384-322 BC.[1] Early exploration of the oceans was
primarily for cartography and mainly limited to its surfaces and of the animals that
fishermen brought up in nets, though depth soundings by lead line were taken.
The Portuguese campaign of Atlantic navigation is the earliest example of a
systematic scientific large project, sustained over many decades, studying the
currents and winds of the Atlantic.
The work of Pedro Nunes (1502-1578), one of the great mathematicians, is
remembered in the navigation context for the determination of the loxodromic
curve: the shortest course between two points on the surface of a sphere
represented onto a two-dimensional map.[2][3] When he published his "Treatise of
the Sphere" (1537)(mostly a commentated translation of earlier work by others) he
included a treatise on geometrical and astronomic methods of navigation. There he
states clearly that Portuguese navigations were not an adventurous endeavour:
"nam se fezeram indo a acertar: mas partiam os nossos mareantes muy ensinados
e prouidos de estromentos e regras de astrologia e geometria que sam as cousas
que os cosmographos ham dadar apercebidas (...) e leuaua cartas muy
particularmente rumadas e na ja as de que os antigos vsauam" (were not done by
chance: but our seafarers departed well taught and provided with instruments and
rules of astrology (astronomy) and geometry which were matters the
cosmographers would provide (...) and they took charts with exact routes and no
longer those used by the ancient).[4]
His credibility rests on being personally involved in the instruction of pilots and
senior seafarers from 1527 onwards by Royal appointment, along with his
recognised competence as mathematician and astronomer. [2] The main problem in
navigating back from the south of the Canary Islands (or south of Boujdour) by sail
alone, is due to the change in the regime of winds and currents: the North Atlantic
gyre and the Equatorial counter current [5] will push south along the northwest
bulge of Africa, while the uncertain winds where the Northeast trades meet the
Southeast trades (the doldrums) [6] leave a sailing ship to the mercy of the currents.
Together, prevalent current and wind make northwards progress very difficult or
impossible. It was to overcome this problem, and clear the passage to India around
Africa as a viable maritime trade route, that a systematic plan of exploration was
devised by the Portuguese. The return route from regions south of the Canaries
became the 'volta do largo' or 'volta do mar'. The 'rediscovery' of the Azores
islands in 1427 is merely a reflection of the heightened strategic importance of the
islands, now sitting on the return route from the western coast of Africa
(sequentially called 'volta de Guiné' and 'volta da Mina'); and the references to
the Sargasso Sea (also called at the time 'Mar da Baga'), to the west of the Azores,
in 1436, reveals the western extent of the return route.[7] This is necessary, under
sail, to make use of the southeasterly and northeasterly winds away from the
western coast of Africa, up to the northern latitudes where the westerly winds will
bring the seafarers towards the western coasts of Europe. [8]
The secrecy involving the Portuguese navigations, with the death penalty for the
leaking of maps and routes, concentrated all sensitive records in the Royal
Archives, completely destroyed by the Lisbon earthquake of 1775. However, the
systematic nature of the Portuguese campaign, mapping the currents and winds of
the Atlantic, is demonstrated by the understanding of the seasonal variations, with
expeditions setting sail at different times of the year taking different routes to take
account of seasonal predominate winds. This happens from as early as late 15th
century and early 16th: Bartolomeu Dias followed the African coast on his way
south in August 1487, while Vasco da Gama would take an open sea route from
the latitude of Sierra Leone, spending 3 months in the open sea of the South
Atlantic to profit from the southwards deflection of the southwesterly on the
Brazilian side (and the Brazilian current going southward) - Gama departed on July
1497); and Pedro Alvares Cabral, departing March 1500) took an even larger arch
to the west, from the latitude of Cape Verde, thus avoiding the summer monsoon
(which would have blocked the route taken by Gama at the time he set
sail).[9] Furthermore, there were systematic expeditions pushing into the western
Northern Atlantic (Teive, 1454; Vogado, 1462; Teles, 1474; Ulmo, 1486).[10] The
documents relating to the supplying of ships, and the ordering of sun declination
tables for the southern Atlantic for as early as 1493–1496,[11] all suggest a well
planned and systematic activity happening during the decade long period
between Bartolomeu Dias finding the southern tip of Africa, and Gama's departure;
additionally, there are indications of further travels by Bartolomeu Dias in the
area.[7] The most significant consequence of this systematised knowledge was the
negotiation of the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, moving the line of demarcation 270
leagues to the west (from 100 to 370 leagues west of the Azores), bringing what is
now Brazil into the Portuguese area of domination. The knowledge gathered from
open sea exploration allowed for the well documented extended periods of sail
without sight of land, not by accident but as pre-determined planned route; for
example, 30 days for Bartolomeu Dias culminating on Mossel Bay, the 3 months
Gama spend on the Southern Atlantic to use the Brazil current (southward), or the
29 days Cabral took from Cape Verde up to landing in Monte Pascoal, Brazil.
The Danish expedition to Arabia 1761-67 can be said to be the world's first
oceanographic expedition, as the ship Grønland had on board a group of
scientists, including naturalist Peter Forsskål, who was assigned an explicit task by
the king, Frederik V, to study and describe the marine life in the open sea,
including finding the cause of mareel, or milky seas. For this purpose the
expedition was equipped with nets and scrapers, specifically designed to collect
samples from the open waters and the bottom at great depth.[12]
Although Juan Ponce de León in 1513 first identified the Gulf Stream, and the
current was well known to mariners, Benjamin Franklin made the first scientific
study of it and gave it its name. Franklin measured water temperatures during
several Atlantic crossings and correctly explained the Gulf Stream's cause.
Franklin and Timothy Folger printed the first map of the Gulf Stream in 1769–
1770.[13][14]

1799 map of the currents in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, by James Rennell
Information on the currents of the Pacific Ocean was gathered by explorers of the
late 18th century, including James Cook and Louis Antoine de Bougainville. James
Rennell wrote the first scientific textbooks on oceanography, detailing the current
flows of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. During a voyage around the Cape of Good
Hope in 1777, he mapped "the banks and currents at the Lagullas". He was also
the first to understand the nature of the intermittent current near the Isles of Scilly,
(now known as Rennell's Current).[15]
Sir James Clark Ross took the first modern sounding in deep sea in 1840,
and Charles Darwin published a paper on reefs and the formation of atolls as a
result of the second voyage of HMS Beagle in 1831–1836. Robert
FitzRoy published a four-volume report of Beagle's three voyages. In 1841–
1842 Edward Forbes undertook dredging in the Aegean Sea that founded marine
ecology.
The first superintendent of the United States Naval Observatory (1842–
1861), Matthew Fontaine Maury devoted his time to the study of marine
meteorology, navigation, and charting prevailing winds and currents. His 1855
textbook Physical Geography of the Sea was one of the first comprehensive
oceanography studies. Many nations sent oceanographic observations to Maury at
the Naval Observatory, where he and his colleagues evaluated the information and
distributed the results worldwide.[16]