-
The Nautilus
Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat, builds an early submarine called The Nautilus. -
Finding Deep Sea Life
Charles Wyville Thomson finds sea life at 4,389 meters shattering previous theories that the sea was lifeless below 549 meters. -
First Acoustic Exploration of the Seas
Reginald Fessenden uses an oscillator to bounce a signal simultaneously off an iceberg and the seafloor. -
The Creation of the Aqua-Lung
Jacques Cousteau and Emile Gagnan modify a demand breathing regulator to engineer the Aqua-Lung, forever changing the course of human interaction with the sea. -
Deepest Ocean Dive
The deepest ocean dive takes place during this year and ocean laboratories evolve. -
Deep Sea Drilling Program
The Deep Sea Drilling Program, a cooperative project involving universities and other research institutions, begins to sample the earth's crust beneath the sea. -
Discovery of Hydrothermal Vents
Hydrothermal vents are discovered, along with an ecosystem that survives without the energy of the sun, by a team led by Robert Ballard. -
The Coastal Zone Color Scanner
The Coastal Zone Color Scanner launched and showed biological oceanographers the patterns, variability, complexity, and coherence of ocean biology for the first time. -
First Successful Solo Dive to the Mariana Trench
National Geographic Explorer James Cameron successfully travels to the bottom of the deepest known point in the ocean. -
Seabed 2030
An international scientific team announces a plan that aims to map the entire floor of the Earth's oceans by 2030.
