Oceanography Timeline

By acoleman03
  • 600 BCE

    First sea routes

    In search of tin and other resources, the ancient Phoenicians develop sea routes around the Mediterranean and into the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. They make it as far as Africa by 590 B.C. They also reach England by sailing along the western European coast.
  • 1492

    Christopher Columbus

    The Spanish explorer Christopher Columbus sets out on his historic voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a passage to China and India. Instead, he discovers North and South America, which eventually leads to European colonization of these newly discovered continents.

  • first submarine

    Dutch physician Cornelis Drebbel builds the world's first submarine. The boat is made of wood reinforced with iron and covered with leather. Inside, 12 oarsmen are seated six on each side. They row with oars that stick out the sides through tight-fitting leather sleeves to keep the water out. Drebbel makes several trips in his submarine in the Thames River near London at a depth of about 12 to 15 feet.

  • diving bell

    The English astronomer Edmund Halley develops a diving bell in which the atmosphere in the bell can be replenished by sending weighted barrels of air down from the surface.

  • first diving suit

    German mechanic Karl Heinrich Klingert creates a device that is the first to be called a "diving suit”. It consists of a jacket and trousers made of waterproof leather, a helmet with a porthole, and a metal front. It is linked to a turret with an air reservoir. The reservoir cannot replenish itself, so the suit has a limited dive time duration.

  • first military sub

    The French Navy launches the Gymnote. It is the first electrically powered and fully functional military submarine. The steel-hulled craft is powered by a 204-cell battery. It completes over 2,000 successful dives before being scrapped for its limited range.

  • titanic

    On April 15, 1912, The White Star Liner Titanic sinks after striking an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean. Over 1500 passengers lose their lives during one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history. This tragedy leads to a concerted effort to devise an acoustic means of discovering objects in the water ahead of a moving vessel.

  • models of the ocean

    Dugdale and Goerig establish a link between physical and biological oceanography by determining that mathematical formulas can predict nutrient levels in the ocean. Ocean modeling the creation of models of the ocean based on calculated projections is born.

  • deep sea drilling

    The Deep Sea Drilling Program, a cooperative project involving universities and other research institutions, begins to sample the earth's crust beneath the sea. The drillship Glomar Challenger is used for the sampling.

  • NOPP is born

    The National Oceanographic Partnership Program (NOPP) creates Ocean US in 2000, dedicated to developing an integrated ocean observing system (IOOS) within the next decade. It will allow for improved weather forecasting via ocean data, and, among other things, the restoration and preservation of marine ecosystems.