OCNG 251 502 504 Brooks Spring 13 Topical Study Guide for Exam 1 Chapters 1 4 Trujillo and Thurman Ch 1 History of Ocean Exploration and Ocean Science The early voyages Polynesian exploration Micronesia small islands Melanesia black islands Polynesia many islands Discoveries of the Greeks and Romans Mediterranean view of the World o Cover the largest area o Large distances separate islands o Triangular shaped groups of islands that is more than 1600 km from the next nearest island o Exploration Started in Southeast Asia traveled to Fiji Tonga and Samoa Then went to Marquesas which appears to have been the starting point for Pacific voyages including the Hawaiian Islands Genetic evidence shows Polynesians were probably on Easter Islands as well o Thor Heyerdahl proposed South Americans may have reached the South Pacific Islands before the Polynesians but this theory isn t supported by genetic evidence There is little evidence of human travel farther into the Pacific Ocean before 1100 B C Probably used canoes or balsa rafts to travel Phoenicians were the first people to develop the art of navigation from the Western Hemisphere o They lived at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea Present day Egypt Syria Lebanon and Israel o They made the first recorded circumnavigation of Africa in 590 B C o Also said as far north as the British Isles Greek Astronomer Pytheas sailed north using a simple method for determining latitude o Measured the angle between and observer s line of sight to the North Star and line of sight to the Northern Horizon Library of Alexandria was one of the key repositories of scientific knowledge at the time and was located in Alexandria Egypt Founded by Alexander the Great o o Was soon the intellectual capital of the world and housed much research o As early as 450 B C the Greek scholars here found evidence that the Earth was round o Eratosthenes was the second librarian at the Library of Alexandria Used the shadow of a stick in a hole in the ground and geometry to determine the Earth s circumference estimated 40 000 km o Claudius Ptolemy was an Egyptian Greek that produced a map of the world in about 150 A D that represented the extent of Roman knowledge at the time Had flawed calculations so he determined Earth s circumference to be 29 000 km which caused Christopher Columbus to believe he had landed in parts of Asia rather than North America The Dark Middle Ages and the loss of knowledge Library of Alexandria was destroyed in 450 A D o Some knowledge was retained by the Arabs who controlled northern Africa and Spain o The Arabs used this knowledge to become the dominant navigators in the Mediterranean Sea and to trade with East Africa India and southeast Asia o They learned how to take advantage of seasonal patterns of monsoon winds Christianity was on the rise in Europe and suppressed the scientific knowledge gained by previous civilizations o As a result knowledge of the Western world degenerated so they called this era the European exploration Vikings to Columbus to Nansen Beagle Challenger and Fram dark ages Vikings had excellent ships and good navigation skills so they actively explored the Atlantic Ocean o o Erik The Red Thorvaldson discovered Greenland and brought the first wave of In the late 10th century the Vikings colonized Iceland Viking colonists to Greenland in 985 o Bjarni Herjolfsson sailed from Iceland to join the colonists but sailed too far and found Newfoundland then returned to Greenland o Lief Eriksson sailed to North America from Greenland and named the land Vinland for its grapes Age of Discovery routes by sea o 30 year period from 1492 to 1522 when the Europeans explored the continents of North and south America and the globe was circumnavigated for the first time o The capture of Constantinople led the Western world to search for new Eastern trade Prince Henry the Navigator led an exploration effort outside of Europe and established a marine institution at Sagres to improve Portuguese navigation skills Christopher Columbus was financed by Spanish monarchs to find a new route to the East Indies across the Atlantic Ocean o His first voyage was in 1492 o Made landfall after two months o Made three more trips across the Atlantic o Never actually set foot on the continent John Cabot landed somewhere on the northeast coast of North America in 1497 Ferdinand Magellan made a circumnavigation in 1519 o He crossed the Atlantic Ocean sailed down around South America into the Pacific where it is now named the Strait of Magellan o He was killed in the Philippines on March 15 1521 by the inhabitants of these islands Beginning of Voyaging for Science o The Challenger was the first ship used solely for scientific research used by Britain o James Cook Took three voyages with the ships Endeavour Resolution and Adventure between 1768 and 1779 Searched for continent of Antarctica on three voyages mapped unknown islands searched for a Northwest Passage killed by Hawaiians Initiated systematic samplings of water temperature winds and currents soundings depth measurements and collected data on coral reefs Determination of latitude and longitude where on Earth are we Latitude is determined by using a sextant which measures the angle between the horizon and the North Star Polaris Longitude is a bit more complicated and is determined by using a chronometer and knowing the amount of time you have traveled For every hour of travel you have gone 15 degrees from the starting point o The Prime Meridian is in Greenwich England o 180 degrees on the other side of the planet is The International Date Line 1 Degree of arc 60 minutes of arc 1 Minute of arc 60 seconds of arc Ch 1 Origins of Universe Earth Oceans and Life Scientific Method Observations Hypothesis o Occurrences we can measure with our senses o If an observation is repeatedly confirmed it is said to be scientific fact o An informed or educated guess o A tentative testable statement about the general nature of the phenomena observed o An initial idea of how or why things happen in nature Testing Theory o o An understanding that develops from extensive observation experimentation and If a hypothesis is successful in predicting a phenomena then it is called a theory The Nebular Hypothesis and the formation of our Solar System reflection Nebula o A cloud of gas and space dust Nebular Hypothesis o All bodies in the solar system formed from an enormous cloud composed mostly of hydrogen and helium with only a