institutions). This entry leans heavily on the “Introduction” of Seibold and Berger (1993).
Another trade of the marine geosciences is the fact that
technical new, sometimes dramatic developments, often
driven by the military, have resulted in new discoveries.
We will address some of these in due course. They include
the developments of echo sounders, sensitive magnetometers, deep-diving research submarines, deep-sea drilling,
ROVs and AUVs, and remote sensing, to name a few.
The history of the marine geosciences is also closely
linked to the evolution of suitable and dedicated research
vessels. Most of the vessels deployed during the early
years of ocean exploration were former war or cargo ships,
converted as good as possible into carriers of scientific
instrumentation and/or laboratories; hence, they were a
compromise between research needs and possibilities.
The honor to have actually envisioned the first dedicated
ocean research vessel falls on Fridtjof Nansen with the
Fram, used for his famous crossing of the ice-infested Arctic Ocean (1893–1896) when he detected that it was a
deep-sea basin (Nansen, 1904). It was the first of three
ships (the other ones were the Norwegian Maud and the
German Gauss) specially constructed and equipped to sail
into ice-covered waters, and hence they represented the
first generation of dedicated polar research vessels.
Despite the great importance of the polar seas for ocean
and atmosphere dynamics, strangely enough it should take
another seven decades until the next generation of dedicated polar research vessels would be built (the Swedish
Oden, the German Polarstern, and the USCG Cutter
Healy).
Modern, dedicated research vessels suited for marine
geosciences came essentially into service only after the
middle of last century. Famous ocean research institutions
such as Woods Hole, Lamont, or Scripps in the USA and
similar institutions in other countries essentially started
their work on the oceans with vessels which had been built
for completely different purposes. Only when the needs
for having access to modern and well-equipped laboratories at sea, for deploying heavy seismic gear, for sampling
long stratigraphic sections of deep ocean crust and sediment cover, as well as for deploying scientific deep-diving
submarines entered the marine geosciences, highly specialized vessels were constructed. The development probably culminated when the Deep Sea Drilling Project was
founded in 1968 (with the GLOMAR Challenger as its
drilling platform), which developed into the International
Phase of Ocean Drilling in 1985 (which used the JOIDES
Resolution as its main tool) and which in 2003 then widened its scope (IODP, “Integrated Ocean Drilling Program,” since 2013 “International Ocean Discovery
Program”) by employing in addition to JOIDES Resolution the Japanese Chikyu with its capability for riser drilling (since 2005) as well as the MSPs (Mission Specific
Platforms, since 2004) of ECORD (European Consortium
for Ocean Research Drilling, cf. Kiyoshi, this volume for
further details). No question, this development will continue into the future, because marine geosciences have
entered the stage of “big science” requiring state-of-theart, very expensive instruments which then mostly have
to be operated through international cooperation.
Pioneers of marine geosciences: identifying the
basic questions and the phase of big national
expeditions
Marine geology is a young offshoot of geology, a branch
of science which begins with James Hutton (1726–1797)
and his Theory of the Earth (Edinburgh, 1795). Among
other things, Hutton studied marine rocks on land.
Changes of sea-level (“encroachment of the ocean” and
“the placing of materials accumulated at the bottom of
the sea in the atmosphere above the surface of the sea”)
were a central tenet of his “Theory.” Thus, the question
of what happens at the bottom of the sea was raised at
the beginning of systematic geologic investigations. This
question had to be attacked if the marine deposits on land
were to be understood. Hutton was not alone in these concerns. A few years before the Theory of the Earth
appeared, the great chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier
(1743–1794) distinguished two kinds of marine sedimentary layers: those that are formed in the open sea at great
depth, which he called pelagic beds, and those formed
along the coast, which he termed littoral beds. “Great
depth” for Lavoisier was everything beyond wave base.
Lavoisier supposed that sediment particles would settle
quietly in deep water, and reworking would be much less
in evidence here than near the shore.
Soon true expeditions to explore the oceans were
mounted, with initiators from many nations. The first
global scientific expedition (1803–1806) of the Russian
Admiral A. J. Krusenstern discovered that the deep oceans
were cold all over (Krusenstern, 1819). One of the most
famous ones was the cruise of HMS Beagle
(1831–1836) which transported Charles Darwin around
the world (Darwin et al., 1839). Later followed the expedition of HMS Beacon into the Mediterranean and several
others. Even though ocean exploration extends into the
nineteenth century or even before, geoscientific information about the ocean floors was first limited to water
depths (probed by sounding wires at specific locations),
seafloor geomorphology, seafloor deposits, as well as
rocks. Interest in the properties of the global seafloors
arose in North America (Maury, 1855). These basically
national efforts culminated in the British circumglobal
expedition on HMS Challenger. The seafloor itself
became the focus of attention, not for the sake of the clues
it would yield for the purposes of land geology but for the
clues it contained for its own evolution and its role in the
history of Earth. The new emphasis is first evident in
the works of the Scotsman, John Murray, naturalist on
the HMS Challenger Expedition (1872–1876). This expedition, led by the biologist Charles Wyville Thomson
(1830–1882), marked the beginning of modern oceanography. It established the general morphology of the deepsea floor and the types of sediments covering it. Murray
438
MARINE GEOSCIENCES: A SHORT, ECCLECTIC AND WEIGHTED HISTORIC ACCOUNT
Another trade of the marine geosciences is the fact that
technical new, sometimes dramatic developments, often
driven by the military, have resulted in new discoveries.
We will address some of these in due course. They include
the developments of echo sounders, sensitive magnetometers, deep-diving research submarines, deep-sea drilling,
ROVs and AUVs, and remote sensing, to name a few.
The history of the marine geosciences is also closely
linked to the evolution of suitable and dedicated research
vessels. Most of the vessels deployed during the early
years of ocean exploration were former war or cargo ships,
converted as good as possible into carriers of scientific
instrumentation and/or laboratories; hence, they were a
compromise between research needs and possibilities.
The honor to have actually envisioned the first dedicated
ocean research vessel falls on Fridtjof Nansen with the
Fram, used for his famous crossing of the ice-infested Arctic Ocean (1893–1896) when he detected that it was a
deep-sea basin (Nansen, 1904). It was the first of three
ships (the other ones were the Norwegian Maud and the
German Gauss) specially constructed and equipped to sail
into ice-covered waters, and hence they represented the
first generation of dedicated polar research vessels.
Despite the great importance of the polar seas for ocean
and atmosphere dynamics, strangely enough it should take
another seven decades until the next generation of dedicated polar research vessels would be built (the Swedish
Oden, the German Polarstern, and the USCG Cutter
Healy).
Modern, dedicated research vessels suited for marine
geosciences came essentially into service only after the
middle of last century. Famous ocean research institutions
such as Woods Hole, Lamont, or Scripps in the USA and
similar institutions in other countries essentially started
their work on the oceans with vessels which had been built
for completely different purposes. Only when the needs
for having access to modern and well-equipped laboratories at sea, for deploying heavy seismic gear, for sampling
long stratigraphic sections of deep ocean crust and sediment cover, as well as for deploying scientific deep-diving
submarines entered the marine geosciences, highly specialized vessels were constructed. The development probably culminated when the Deep Sea Drilling Project was
founded in 1968 (with the GLOMAR Challenger as its
drilling platform), which developed into the International
Phase of Ocean Drilling in 1985 (which used the JOIDES
Resolution as its main tool) and which in 2003 then widened its scope (IODP, “Integrated Ocean Drilling Program,” since 2013 “International Ocean Discovery
Program”) by employing in addition to JOIDES Resolution the Japanese Chikyu with its capability for riser drilling (since 2005) as well as the MSPs (Mission Specific
Platforms, since 2004) of ECORD (European Consortium
for Ocean Research Drilling, cf. Kiyoshi, this volume for
further details). No question, this development will continue into the future, because marine geosciences have
entered the stage of “big science” requiring state-of-theart, very expensive instruments which then mostly have
to be operated through international cooperation.
Pioneers of marine geosciences: identifying the
basic questions and the phase of big national
expeditions
Marine geology is a young offshoot of geology, a branch
of science which begins with James Hutton (1726–1797)
and his Theory of the Earth (Edinburgh, 1795). Among
other things, Hutton studied marine rocks on land.
Changes of sea-level (“encroachment of the ocean” and
“the placing of materials accumulated at the bottom of
the sea in the atmosphere above the surface of the sea”)
were a central tenet of his “Theory.” Thus, the question
of what happens at the bottom of the sea was raised at
the beginning of systematic geologic investigations. This
question had to be attacked if the marine deposits on land
were to be understood. Hutton was not alone in these concerns. A few years before the Theory of the Earth
appeared, the great chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier
(1743–1794) distinguished two kinds of marine sedimentary layers: those that are formed in the open sea at great
depth, which he called pelagic beds, and those formed
along the coast, which he termed littoral beds. “Great
depth” for Lavoisier was everything beyond wave base.
Lavoisier supposed that sediment particles would settle
quietly in deep water, and reworking would be much less
in evidence here than near the shore.
Soon true expeditions to explore the oceans were
mounted, with initiators from many nations. The first
global scientific expedition (1803–1806) of the Russian
Admiral A. J. Krusenstern discovered that the deep oceans
were cold all over (Krusenstern, 1819). One of the most
famous ones was the cruise of HMS Beagle
(1831–1836) which transported Charles Darwin around
the world (Darwin et al., 1839). Later followed the expedition of HMS Beacon into the Mediterranean and several
others. Even though ocean exploration extends into the
nineteenth century or even before, geoscientific information about the ocean floors was first limited to water
depths (probed by sounding wires at specific locations),
seafloor geomorphology, seafloor deposits, as well as
rocks. Interest in the properties of the global seafloors
arose in North America (Maury, 1855). These basically
national efforts culminated in the British circumglobal
expedition on HMS Challenger. The seafloor itself
became the focus of attention, not for the sake of the clues
it would yield for the purposes of land geology but for the
clues it contained for its own evolution and its role in the
history of Earth. The new emphasis is first evident in
the works of the Scotsman, John Murray, naturalist on
the HMS Challenger Expedition (1872–1876). This expedition, led by the biologist Charles Wyville Thomson
(1830–1882), marked the beginning of modern oceanography. It established the general morphology of the deepsea floor and the types of sediments covering it. Murray
438
MARINE GEOSCIENCES: A SHORT, ECCLECTIC AND WEIGHTED HISTORIC ACCOUNT