Twentieth-century Marine Science: Decade by Decade

i Twentieth-Century Science

| Marine Science

Decade by Decade

i Twentieth-Century Science

| Marine Science

Decade by Decade

Christina Reed Set Editor: William J. Cannon

MARINE SCIENCE: Decade by Decade Copyright © 2009 by Christina Reed All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For information contact: Facts On File, Inc. An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Reed, Christina. Marine science : decade by decade / author, Christina Reed. p. cm. — (Twentieth-century science) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8160-5534-0 ISBN-10: 0-8160-5534-3 1. Oceanography—History—Juvenile literature. 2. Marine biology— History—Juvenile literature. 3. Marine sciences—History—Juvenile literature. 4. Marine scientists—Biography—Juvenile literature. I. Title. GC29.R44 2009 551.4609'04—dc22 2008016790 Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales Department in New York at (212) 967-8800 or (800) 322-8755. You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com Text design by Dorothy M. Preston and Kerry Casey Cover design by Dorothy M. Preston and Salvatore Luongo Illustrations by Bobbi McCutcheon Photo research by Elizabeth H. Oakes Printed in the United States of America Bang FOF 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is printed on acid-free paper.

To those who look out far and those who look in deep who see the ocean and the land and find the truth in each

Contents Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xvii 1. 1901–1910: Surveying the Seas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Milestones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Exploring .the .Polar .Oceans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 International .Council .for .the .Exploration .of .the .Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 Setting .Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 Coriolis and the Oceans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Scripps .Institution .of .Oceanography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Scientist of the Decade: Prince Albert I of Monaco (1848–1922) . . . . . . . . . . .28 Further .Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 2. 1911–1920: Ocean Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 Milestones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 The .Sinking .of .the .Titanic .and .the .Rise .of .Sonar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 Panama .Canal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 Scientist of the Decade: Henry Bryant Bigelow (1879–1967) . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 Further .Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 3. 1921–1930: Food Webs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Milestones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52 Defining .Oceanography .and .the .Birth .of .WHOI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 An Unsolved Mystery: Where Do Baby Eels Come From? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56

Meteor .Expedition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 Scientist of the Decade: Sir Alister Clavering Hardy (1896–1985) . . . . . . . . .62 Further .Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66 4. 1931–1940: Unexpected Surprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69 Milestones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70 Voyage .of .the .Nautilus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 Scuba .and .Deep-Sea .Diving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 Coelacanth .Swims .out .of .Extinction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82 Scientist of the Decade: Harald Sverdrup (1888–1957) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85 Further .Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90 5. 1941–1950: Oceanographers Go to War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95 Milestones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .96 Early .Investigations .into .El .Niño . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .97 Women .at .Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104 Maria Klenova (1898–1976): The Mother of Marine Geology . . . . . . . . . . .104 Scientist of the Decade: Lieutenant Mary Sears, U .S .N .R . (W) (1905–1997) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108 Further .Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .112 6. 1951–1960: Mapping the Deep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117 The .Deepest .Dive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117 Milestones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .118 A .Rift .Valley .through .the .Seafloor’s .Mountain .Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .133 The .Keeling .Curve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .142 The Wet Suit: A Novel Concept for Staying Warm in Cold Water . . . . . . . .144

Scientist of the Decade: Roger Revelle (1909–1991) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145 Further .Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .148 7. 1961–1970: The Golden Years of Oceanography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153 Exploration .Vessels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .153 Milestones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154 Project .Mohole . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .159 The .Origin .of .Oceanic .Crust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163 Shark .Lady: .Eugenie .Clark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .168 Scientist of the Decade: Henry Stommel (1920–1992) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .170 Further .Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .174 8. 1971–1980: International Decade of Ocean Exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .177 The .Practical .Salinity .Scale .of .1978 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .178 Milestones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .178 The Global Oceanographic Expedition of the Warship Vitiaz . . . . . . . . . . . . .185 Red .Sea .Anomalies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .186 An .Oasis .of .Life .in .the .Deep-Sea .Desert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .189 Scientist of the Decade: Edward Goldberg (1921–2008) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .201 Further .Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .204 9. 1981–1990: Oil in the Seas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .211 Oil .Spills .and .the .Lingering .Effects .of .the .Exxon Valdez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .212 Milestones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .212 Iron .Fertilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .223 Scientist of the Decade: Wallace “Wally” S . Broecker (b . 1931) . . . . . . . . . . .227 Further .Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .230

10. 1991–2000: Ocean and Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .233 Milestones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .234 Antarctica’s .Melting .Ice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .235 Law .of .the .Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .240 Scientist of the Decade: Rita R . Colwell (b . 1934) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .243 Further .Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .246 11. Conclusion: Into the Twenty-first Century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 Awards of Merit in Marine Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 Further Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279

Preface The . 20th . century . witnessed . an . explosive . growth . in . science . and . . technology—more . scientists . are . alive . today . than . have . lived . during . the . entire .course .of .earlier .human .history . .New .inventions .including .spaceships, . computer . chips, . lasers, . and . recombinant . deoxyribonucleic . acid . (DNA) .have .opened .pathways .to .new .fields .such .as .space .science, .biotechnology, .and .nanotechnology . .Modern .seismographs .and .submarines . have . given . earth . and . ocean . scientists . insights . into . the . planet’s . deepest . and . darkest . secrets . . Decades . of . weather . science, . aided . by . satellite . observations . and . computer . modeling, . now . produce . long-term, . global . forecasts .with .high .probabilities .(not .certainties) .of .being .correct . .At .the . start .of .the .century, .science .and .technology .had .little .impact .on .the .daily . lives .of .most .people . .This .had .changed .radically .by .the .year .2000 . . The . purpose . of . Twentieth-Century . Science, . a . new . seven-volume . book . set, . is . to . provide . students, . teachers, . and . the . general . public . with . an .accessible .and .highly .readable .source .for .understanding .how .science . developed, .decade .by .decade, .during .the .century .and .hints .about .where . it .will .go .during .the .early .decades .of .the .21st .century . . .Just .as .an .educated .and .well-informed .person .should .have .exposure .to .great .literature, . art, .and .music .and .an .appreciation .for .history, .business, .and .economics, . so .too .should .that .person .appreciate .how .science .works .and .how .it .has . become .so .much .a .part .of .our .daily .lives . Students .are .usually .taught .science .from .the .perspective .of .what .is .currently .known . .In .one .sense, .this .is .quite .understandable—there .is .a .great . deal .of .information .to .master . .However, .very .often .a .student .(or .teacher) . may . ask . questions . such . as . “How . did . they . know . that?” . or . “Why . didn’t . they .know .that?” .This .is .where .some .historical .perspective .makes .for .fascinating .reading . .It .gives .a .feeling .for .the .dynamic .aspect .of .science . .Some . of .what .students .are .taught .today .will .change .in .20 .years . .It .also .provides . a .sense .of .humility .as .one .sees .how .brilliantly .scientists .coped .earlier .with . less .funding, .cruder .tools, .and .less .sophisticated .theories . Science . is . distinguished . from . other . equally . worthy . and . challenging . human .endeavors .by .its .means .of .investigation—the .scientific .method— typically .described .as . .a) .observations .b) .hypothesis xi

xii Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science .c) .experimentation .with .controls .d) .results, .and . e) conclusions .concerning .whether .or .not .the .results .and .data . from .the .experiments .invalidate .or .support .the .hypothesis . . In . practice, . the . scientific . process . is . not . quite . so . “linear .” . Many . related . experiments .may .also .be .explored .to .test .the .hypothesis . .Once .a .body .of . scientific .evidence .has .been .collected .and .checked, .the .scientist .submits . a .paper .reporting .the .new .work .to .a .peer-reviewed .journal . .An .impartial . editor .will .send .the .work .to .at .least .two .reviewers .(“referees”) .who .are . experts . in . that . particular . field, . and . they . will . recommend . to . the . editor . whether .the .paper .should .be .accepted, .modified, .or .rejected . .Since .expert . reviewers .are .sometimes .the .author’s .competitors, .high .ethical .standards . and .confidentiality .must .be .the .rule .during .the .review .process . . . If .a .hypothesis .cannot .be .tested .and .potentially .disproved .by .experiment . or .mathematical .equations .it .is .not .scientific . .While, .in .principle, .one .experiment .can .invalidate .a .hypothesis, .no .number .of .validating .experiments .can . absolutely .prove .a .hypothesis .to .be .“the .truth .” . .However, .if .repeated .testing, .using .varied .and .challenging .experiments .by .diverse .scientists, .continues .to .validate .a .hypothesis, .it .starts .to .assume .the .status .of .a .widely .accepted . theory . .The .best .friend .a .theory .can .have .is .an .outstanding .scientist .who . doubts .it .and .subjects .it .to .rigorous .and .honest .testing . .If .it .survives .these . challenges .and .makes .a .convert .of .the .skeptical .scientist, .then .the .theory .is . strengthened .significantly . . .Such .testing .also .weeds .out .hypotheses .and .theories .that .are .weak . .Continued .validation .of .an .important .theory .may .give . it .the .stature .of .a .law, .even .though .it .is .still .called .a .theory . .Some .theories . when .developed .can .revolutionize .a .field’s .entire .framework—these .are .considered .“paradigms” .(pronounced .“paradimes”) . . .Atomic .theory .is .a .paradigm . .Advanced .about .200 .years .ago, .it .is .fundamental .to .understanding .the . nature .of .matter . .Other .such .paradigms .include .evolution; .the .“big .bang” . theory; .the .modern .theory .of .plate .tectonics, .which .explains .the .origin .of . mountains, .volcanoes, .and .earthquakes; .quantum .theory; .and .relativity . Science . is . a . collective . enterprise . with . the . need . for . free . exchange . of . information . and . cooperation . . While . it . is . true . that . scientists . have . strong . competitive . urges, . the . latter . half . of . the . 20th . century . witnessed . science’s . becoming .increasingly .interdisciplinary . .Ever .more .complex .problems, .with . increasing .uncertainty, .were .tackled .and .yet .often .eluded .precise .solution . . During . the . 20th . century, . science . found . cures . for . tuberculosis . and . polio, . and . yet . fears . of . the . “dark . side” . of . science . (e .g ., . atomic . weapons) . began . to . mount . . Skepticism . over . the . benefits . of . science . and . its . applications . started . to . emerge . in . the . latter . part . of . the . 20th . century . even . as . its . daily . and . positive . impact . upon . our . lives . increased . . Many . scientists . were . sensitive .to .these .issues .as .well . .After .atomic .bombs .devastated .Hiroshima . and . Nagasaki, . some . distinguished . physicists . moved . into . the . life . sciences . and .others .started .a .magazine, .now .nearly .60 .years .old, .The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, .dedicated .to .eliminating .the .nuclear .threat .and .promoting .

Preface peace . . In . 1975, . shortly . after . molecular . biologists . developed . recombinant . deoxyribonucleic . acid . (DNA), . they . held . a . conference . at . Asilomar, . California, . and . imposed . voluntary . limits . on . certain . experiments . . They . encouraged . adoption . of . regulations . in . this . revolutionary . new . field . . We . are . in . an . era . when . there . are . repeated . and . forceful . attempts . to . blur . the . boundaries .between .religious .faith .and .science . .One .argument .is .that .fairness .demands .equal .time .for .all .“theories” .(scientific .or .not) . .In .all .times, . but .especially .in .these .times, .scientists .must .strive .to .communicate .to .the . public .what .science .is .and .how .it .works, .what .is .good .science, .what .is .bad . science, .and .what .is .not .science . .Only .then .can .we .educate .future .generations .of .informed .citizens .and .inspire .the .scientists .of .the .future . . The .seven .volumes .of .Twentieth-Century .Science .deal .with .the .following . core . areas . of . science: . biology, . chemistry, . Earth . science, . marine . science, . physics, . space . and . astronomy, . and . weather . and . climate . . Each . volume . contains . a . glossary . . Each . chapter . within . each . volume . contains . the .following .elements: .• . background .and .perspective .for .the .science .it .develops, . decade .by .decade, .as .well .as .insights .about .many .of .the . major .scientists .contributing .during .each .decade .• . black-and-white .line .drawings .and .photographs .• . a .chronological .“time .line” .of .notable .events .during .each . decade • . brief .biographical .sketches .of .pioneering .individuals, . including .discussion .of .their .impacts .on .science .and .the . society .at .large .• . a .list .of .accessible .sources .for .Additional .Reading While .all .of .the .scientists .profiled .are .distinguished, .we .do .not .mean .to . imply . that . they . are . necessarily . “the . greatest . scientists . of . the . decade .” . They .have .been .chosen .to .represent .the .science .of .the .decade .because .of . their .outstanding .accomplishments . . .Some .of .these .scientists .were .born . to .wealthy .and .distinguished .families, .while .others .were .born .to .middle- . and .working-class .families .or .into .poor .families . .In .a .century .marked .by . two .world .wars, .the .cold .war, .countless .other .wars .large .and .small, .and . unimaginable . genocide, . many . scientists . were . forced . to . flee . their . countries .of .birth . .Fortunately, .the .century .has .also .witnessed .greater .access .to . the .scientific .and .engineering .professions .for .women .and .people .of .color, . and .ideally .all .barriers .will .disappear .during .the .21st .century . The .authors .of .this .set .hope .that .readers .appreciate .the .development . of .the .sciences .during .the .last .century .and .the .advancements .occurring . rapidly .now .in .the .21st .century . .The .history .teaches .new .explorers .of .the . world .the .benefits .of .making .careful .observations, .of .pursuing .paths .and . ideas . that . others . have . neglected . or . have . not . ventured . to . tread, . and . of . always .questioning .the .world .around .them . .Curiosity .is .one .of .our .most . fundamental .human .instincts . .Science, .whether .done .as .a .career .or .as .a . hobby, .is .after .all, .an .intensely .human .endeavor . .

xiii

Acknowledgments Despite .my .own .seasickness .issues, .I .have .always .loved .the .ocean . .I .grew . up . much . like . Sylvia . Earle . did, . exploring . tide . pools; . only . mine . were . along .the .Pacific .coast . .The .mysteries .beneath .the .sea .drew .me .into .the . field .of .oceanography .at .the .University .of .Washington .in .Seattle, .where . I .had .the .distinct .pleasure .of .working .with .John .Baross, .John .Delaney, . Deborah . Kelley, . Roy . Carpenter, . Jody . Deming, . Bruce . Frost, . Marvin . Lilley, .Russell .McDuff, .and .Dean .McManus . .I .would .like .to .thank .the . School .of .Oceanography .for .providing .an .excellent .undergraduate .education . .The .Friday .Harbor .Laboratories .on .San .Juan .Island .are .like .none . other .in .the .nation . My .first .major .oceanographic .expedition .came .after .my .first .year .at . Columbia .University, .when .I .traveled .for .a .month .with .the .late .Gerard . Bond . to . the . North . Atlantic, . where . I . first . crossed . the . Arctic . Circle . . Peter .deMenocal .of .Columbia .and .Dan .McCorkle .of .the .Woods .Hole . Oceanographic .Institution .(WHOI) .made .that .expedition .on .the .Knorr . a .fun .and .memorable .adventure . .After .three .weeks .I .finally .gained .my . sea .legs, .and .it .was .on .this .expedition .where .I .saw .the .setting .sun .turn . green, .then .blue, .indigo, .and .violet! .Two .other .amazing .oceanographers . I .would .like .to .thank .whom .I .have .had .the .honor .of .working .with .and . learning . from . while . cruising . around . the . Galápagos . Islands . as . part . of . a . Dive . and . Discover . expedition . are . WHOI . marine . geophysicst . Dan . Fornari .and .marine .geochemist .Mark .Kurz . Though . I . have . not . had . a . chance . to . go . to . sea . with . Wally . Broecker, . he . is . one . of . my . favorite . oceanographers, . both . for . his . wisdom . and . his . sense .of .humor, .and .I .am .delighted .to .have .the .chance .to .include .him .as . a .notable .marine .scientist .in .this .book . .Rita .Colwell .is .another .notable . marine .scientist .I .have .profiled .in .this .book .and .someone .I .am .honored . to .have .gotten .to .know .over .the .course .of .my .work .as .a .science .writer . . I . would . also . like . to . thank . Anatoly . Sagalevitch, . pilot . of . the . Mir 1 . submersible . . On . both . my . dives . to . Menez . Gwen . and . Lost . City . in . 2003, . Sagalevitch .navigated .the .submersible .under .challenging .circumstances . and .succeeded .in .fulfilling .a .difficult .mission .from .more .than .3,280 .feet . (1,000 .m) .deep . .Marine .scientists .and .ocean .explorers .such .as .these .are . leading . us . into . the . 21st . century . with . the . work . they . have . done . in . the . 20th .century . xv

xvi Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science I .am .extremely .grateful .to .editor .Frank .K . .Darmstadt, .without .whom . this . project . would . not . have . happened, . and . to . Bill . Cannon . for . originally .asking .me .to .join .the .team .of .science .history .writers .for .this .series . . Thanks .as .well .go .to .art .directors .Bobbi .McCutcheon .and .Beth .Oakes . and .the .rest .of .the .Facts .On .File .staff—especially .Alana .Braithwaite, .who . put . all . of . the . manuscript . elements . together—who . saw . this . project . to . completion . .I .would .like .to .specifically .thank .the .following .for .their .time . in .answering .questions .and/or .providing .feedback .for .this .book: .Pamela . Clapp, .Shelley .Dawicki, .Peter .Weiss, .Vicky .Cullen, .Shana .Pimley, .David . Hanych, .Bruce .Malfait, .and .Peter .Wille . I .would .also .like .to .thank .the .many .friends .who .supported .and .encouraged .me .during .this .endeavor, .with .special .gratitude .to: .Harvey .Leifert, . Rick . Lovett, . Stephen . Tobey, . Jessica . Gorman . and . Sam . Mir, . Arthur . Edelstein, . Josh . Fischman . and . Huichong . Chang, . and . Patt . and . Dan . Crane . . Also . I . would . like . to . give . big . hugs . to . Bob, . April, . and . my . niece . Hana; . to . my . grandparents, . Merwin . and . Violet . Speer . and . Claire . Reed; . and .especially .to .my .parents . .Thank .you .so .much .for .all .your .love .and . support .

Introduction Many . marine . scientists . over . the . centuries . first . became . enthralled . with . the .field .as .young .explorers .investigating .coastal .beaches .and .tide .pools . or .sailing .out .over .the .unknown .ocean .and .wondering .what .was .down . there . .Asking .questions .is .the .first .step .to .becoming .a .scientist . .During . ISBN the . 20th . century, . marine . scientists . were . asking . more . questions . than . FOF most . .Unlike .other .fields .with .their .long .history .of .established .doctrine . 20CS Marine Science that .often .requires .a .new .generation’s .perspective .or .iconoclastic .minds . to .revaluate .and .change, .everything .about .the .ocean .at .the .turn .of .the . 1.eps 20th .century .was .up .for .debate: .from .the .influence .of .the .wind .on .surface . AI 10 currents . to . the . abundance . of . deep-sea . life . . Every . expedition brought . Finals 12/05/07 forth .a .new .discovery, .and .as .technology .advanced, .that .trend .continued . into .the .21st .century . Many . of . the . great . discoveries . in . biology, . physics, . chemistry, . and . geology . occurred . while . studying . marine . life, . ocean . dynamics, . and . the . seafloor . .For .example, .more .than .50 .scientists .who .have .worked .or .studied .at .the .Marine .Biological .Laboratory .in .Woods .Hole, .Massachusetts, . have . gone . on . to . win . a . Nobel . Prize . . Even . some . of . the . earliest, . most . fundamental .discoveries .about .how .life .develops .came .from .studying .one . of .the .intertidal .zone’s .most .voracious .creatures: .the .sea .urchin . .In .1875 . German .embryologist .Oskar .Hertwig .was .using .sea .urchins .to .try .and . determine .the .process .of .fertilization, .because .their .eggs .are .transparent . and .easily .accessible . .He .saw .that .the .egg .cell .started .with .one .nucleus, . but .after .it .was .covered .in .spermatozoa .the .egg .would .end .up .with .two .

FERTILIZATION

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xvii

Marine Science Fertilizatio

In marine invertebrate eggs, following contact with a sperm cell, a fertilization membrane forms, preventing additional sperm from penetrating the egg.

xviii Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science nuclei . .He .realized .that .it .only .took .one .sperm .to .successfully .fertilize .an . egg—an .early .clue .that .the .sex .cells, .the .sperm .and .egg, .carried .half .the . genetic . chromosomes . as . normal . cells . in . the . body . (except . for . blood . cells, . which .have .no .nuclei .and .therefore .no .chromosomes) . In .1887 .German .biologist .August .Weismann .predicted .that .at .some . point . a . developing . organism . undergoing . cell . division . signaled . the . sex . cells . to . divide . differently . from . other . cells . . This . process, . called . meiosis, happens .in .humans .during .puberty . .Sex .cells .in .humans .carry .23 .chromosomes . . In . the . nucleus . of . an . egg, . one . of . those . 23 . chromosomes, . the . sex-determining . chromosome, . is . always . an . X . chromosome . . In . the . nucleus .of .each .sperm, .the .sex-determining .chromosome .is .either .an .X . chromosome .or .a .Y .chromosome . .During .fertilization, .when .the .sperm . and .egg .mix .their .chromosomes .together, .the .resulting .fertilized .cell .carries .a .genetic .hodgepodge .of .46 .chromosomes, .including .either .an .XX . or .an .XY .chromosome .pair . .In .either .case .the .first .X .chromosome .comes . from .the .mother .and .the .second .chromosome, .either .an .X .or .a .Y, .comes . from .the .father . .The .knowledge .from .the .reproductive .stages .of .the .sea . urchin . ultimately . led . to . technologies . that . aid . in . human . reproduction, . such .as .test .tube .fertilization . The .early .studies .on .sea .urchins .exemplify .how .scientists .focusing .on . a .single .marine .organism .can .advance .medical .understanding .in .several . ways . .In .the .late .1800s, .German .biologist .Hans .Driesch .set .up .a .marine . laboratory .where .he .could .watch .the .embryological .development .of .sea . urchins . .He .waited .until .after .a .fertilized .cell .started .to .divide, .a .process . called .mitosis . .When .the .embryo .had .divided .into .two .cells, .he .split .the . cells . apart . and . allowed . them . to . continue . cellular . division . independent . of . each . other . . To . his . amazement, . they . both . grew . into . healthy . adults . . It . was . the . first . discovery . that . cell . differentiation—the . rules . regulating . what .cells .turn .into .limbs .or .muscle .tissue .or .organs .or .even .the .nervous . system—does .not .happen .at .the .moment .of .conception .but .much .later . in .the .embryonic .development . .Today .scientists .call .these .undifferentiated .cells .stem .cells . .Bone .marrow .transplants .of .blood .stem .cells .have been . done . since . the . 1950s . to . help . treat . leukemia . patients . . Stem . cell . researchers .are .now .searching .for .ways .to .help .control .other .cancers .and . neurological .diseases .in .humans . Societal .ties .in .the .20th .century .to .early .marine .science .even .extended . into . space . . The . NASA . Space . Shuttle . orbiters—Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, .and .Endeavour—were .all .named .after .seagoing .research . vessels . .The .Columbia, .which .operated .from .1979 .until .its .deadly .explosion . in . 2003, . was . named . after . a . sailing . sloop . that . left . Boston . in . 1792 . under .the .helm .of .Captain .Robert .Gray .to .explore .the .Columbia .River . . Discovery, . which . first . flew . in . 1984, . was . named . for . two . famous . sailing . ships: . the . vessel . Henry . Hudson . used . in . 1610 . to . 1611 . in . his . search . for . the . Northwest . Passage . and . the . aptly . named . ship . the . 18th-century . British .explorer .James .Cook .on .which .he .explored .the .Hawaiian .Islands . of . the . Pacific . . The . namesake . of . the . Atlantis, . launched . in . 1985, . was . a .

Introduction

xix

CLEAVAGE

Until blastula forms Fertilized egg

2-cell stage

4-cell stage

8-cell stage

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steel-hulled, .two-masted .ketch .that .was .the .Woods .Hole .Oceanographic . Institute’s .first .research .vessel .and .sailed .more .than .700,000 .miles .between . 1931 .and .1966 . .Built .to .replace .the .Challenger, .the .Endeavour .was .named . the .vessel .on .which .Cook .made .his .maiden .voyage .to .the .South .Pacific, . in .1768 . .Cook .returned .from .his .first .expedition .having .documented .the . passage .of .Venus .between .the .Earth .and .the .Sun .and .having .surveyed .the . Great .Barrier .Reef .of .Australia .and .part .of .the .New .Zealand .coast . .The . Challenger, .the .workhorse .of .the .shuttle .fleet .from .1983 .until .its .devastating .loss .in .1986, .was .named .after .the .British .HMS .Challenger .that .explored . more .than .68,000 .nautical .miles .of .the .world’s .oceans .from .1872 .to .1876 . and .raised .oceanographic .research .expeditions .to .a .new .standard . The . voyage . of . the . HMS . Challenger . is . referred . to . often . in . Marine Science . . All . but . two . of . the . 17 . guns . on . the . Royal . Navy . warship . were . removed . to . convert . the . 200-foot . steam . corvette . into . an . at-sea . laboratory . . The . three-masted, . square-rigged . wooden . vessel . carried . a . crew . of . 216, .as .well .as .six .marine .scientists .led .by .C . .Wyville .Thomson .and .21 . naval .officers .under .the .direction .of .Captain .George .Nares, .for .the .first . three .years, .and .Captain .Frank .Thomson, .in .1875 .for .the .remainder .of . the .expedition . .For .various .reasons—including .death, .illness, .and .desertion—only .144 .of .the .crew .stayed .with .the .ship .the .entire .1,000 .days .it . was .at .sea . .Throughout .the .voyage, .the .crew .would .often .switch .from .sail . to . steam, . turning . on . the . 1,200 . horsepower . engine . to . allow . the . marine . scientists .to .stop .and .dredge .for .samples .and .take .a .sounding .of .the .depth . of .the .seafloor . .They .analyzed .362 .oceanographic .stations .this .way, .also testing . for . water . chemistry, . temperature, . and . current . speed . and . direction . .Their .diligence .to .stop .and .sample .during .the .long .journey .between . ports .revealed .numerous .marine .species .living .far .from .the .reaches .of .the . Sun, .as .well .as .topographical .discoveries .of .deep-sea .trenches .and .underwater .mountains . .The .Challenger .expedition .resulted .in .29,500-pages .of . scientific .observations .that .took .23 .years .to .complete . .Scientific .illustrations .and .photographs .from .the .expedition .provided .a .visual .guide .of .the . details .from .the .famous .voyage . Jules .Verne’s .science .fiction .of .the .19th .century, .with .its .submersible . dives, . underwater . breathing . apparatuses, . and . deep-sea . creatures, . also .

Rapid cell divisions occur following fertilization, converting a single fertilized egg into a ball of many cells, called a blastula. During the early cleavage stages of cellular division, the cells are undifferentiated, and splitting them apart can lead to the growth of two healthy adult organisms.

FPO

xx Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science helped . to . inspire . marine . curiosity . among . scientists . and . nonscientists . alike . .Twentieth-century .oceanographers .tested .the .boundaries .of .human . endurance, . determined . fundamental . properties . about . how . the . planet . operates, .and .even .attempted .to .answer .questions .that .would .have .been . considered .outrageous .in .an .earlier .century . .The .discovery .of .hydrothermal .vents .in .the .1970s, .for .example, .redefined .the .nature .of .life . .Today . science . fiction . writers . can . easily . imagine . chemosynthetic . communities . thriving .on .the .ocean .floor .of .Jupiter’s .moon .Europa . The .field .of .marine .science .encompasses .any .study .on .the .flora, .fauna, . or . environment . that . make . up . or . interact . with . the . marine . ecosystem— which . spans . across . wetlands, . coastlines, . estuaries, . seas, . and . the . ocean . . That . includes . any . study . related . to . the . geologic, . ice, . or . atmospheric . boundaries .that .define .the .shape .of .the .Earth’s .most .common .surface; .the . ocean .covers .71 .percent .of .the .planet . .Often .the .terms .marine science .and . oceanography .are .used .interchangeably . .But .one .of .the .curious .divisions .in . the .field .that .a .student .interested .in .pursuing .a .career .in .this .field .should . know .is .the .difference .between .marine .biology .and .biological .oceanography . .Though .they .both .examine .life .in .the .ocean, .courses .in .marine .biology . tend . to . cover . coastal . and . coral . reef . communities . and . macrofauna, . such .as .marine .mammals, .fish, .and .waterfowl . .Biological .oceanography, . on .the .other .hand, .tends .to .focus .on .the .microfauna, .such .as .phytoplankton .and .zooplankton .in .the .surface .waters .and .chemosynthetic .microbes . that .are .the .base .of .the .food .cycle .for .life .at .hydrothermal .vents . .Students . interested .in .pursuing .specific .courses—for .example, .in .coral .reef .ecosystems, .or .the .biology .of .open-water .megafauna, .such .as .sharks, .dolphins, . and . whales, . might . do . well . to . check . their . senior . year . in . high . school . to . make .sure .such .instruction .is .available .before .deciding .which .college .to . attend . . Often . certain . studies . are . reserved . for . the . graduate . level . . Some . of .the .universities .in .the .United .States .offering .a .bachelor .of .science .in . oceanography .or .other .marine-related .subject .include .the .following: • . University .of .Washington .in .Seattle • . University .of .Connecticut .at .Avery .Point • . Florida .Institute .of .Technology .in .Melbourne • . University .of .Miami’s .Rosenstiel .School .of .Marine .and . Atmospheric .Science on .Florida’s .Virginia .Key • . University .of .Maine .in .Orono • . University .of .South .Carolina .in .Columbia This .book .chronicles .decade .by .decade .some .of .the .salient .developments .in .the .field .of .marine .science .during .the .20th .century, .as .well .as . many .details .that .are .sometimes .harder .to .find .in .a .more .general .history . of .oceanography . .Terms .in .italic .can .be .found .in .the .glossary .in .the .back . of .the .book . .Several .books .listed .as .recommended .reading .provide .additional . detail . on . the . history . of . specific . marine . laboratories, . discoveries, .

Introduction and .expeditions . .The .field .of .marine .science .owes .much .of .its .development .to .the .sailors .and .explorers .who .ventured .out .to .sea . .Their .observations .formed .the .backbone .of .marine .science .inquiry . .In .later .decades, . the .advent .of .scuba .diving .provided .a .new .means .of .observing .the .underwater . world . . Marine . biologists . and . geologic . oceanographers, . to . name . just . two . branches . of . the . field, . quickly . adapted . scuba . diving . into . their . methodology . . Marine . scientists . in . the . 20th . century . explored . the . poles, . mapped .the .seafloor, .dove .to .where .no .one .else .had .gone, .and .identified . sea .creatures .no .one .else .had .seen—activities .that .continue .to .shape .the . field .of .marine .science .in .the .21st .century . .Throughout .this .book .are .stories .of .the .successes, .rescues, .and .failures .that .come .with .exploration .into . unknown .regions . .Because .there .is .so .much .of .the .marine .environment . left . unexplored, . the . history . of . the . field . is . relevant . to . any . new . scientist . looking .to .get .wet . The . marine . scientists . of . the . 20th . century . did . not . necessarily . have . an .educational .background .in .oceanography . .Instead, .they .applied .their . skills . to . the . study . of . the . ocean . and . became . oceanographers . through . experience . .Some .marine .explorers .who .contributed .to .the .development . of . the field . of . oceanography . included . civilian . and . military . men . and . women .with .strong .leadership .skills, .an .eye .for .innovations .and .daring . operations .of .discovery, .and .a .desire .to .better .understand .the .seas . .The . relationship . between . marine . scientists . and . the . world’s . naval . fleets . has . always . been . close . . Whether . on . expeditions . of . discovery, . defense, . or . attack, . navy . vessels . have . traditionally . found . marine . scientists . useful . to . have .on .board . .In .return, .marine .scientists .have .found .navy .vessels .useful .for .deploying .instruments, .both .navy-owned .and .scientist-owned .and . operated, .and .having .the .latest .advanced .navigational .technology . .Aboard . a .navy .research .vessel, .the .navy .crew .operates .the .vessel .and .the .scientists . direct .and .conduct .the .research . Marine .scientists .at .the .start .of .the .20th .century .were .often .involved . in .learning .more .about .the .ocean .as .a .means .to .an .end: .advancing .navigation, . developing . more . efficient . fishing . methods, . understanding . the . development . of . fish . stocks, . exploring . the . unknown . . The . concern . then . as .it .is .now .was .overfishing; .little .was .known .about .the .biology .of .commercial .fish .or .how .severe .the .impact .an .increase .in .human .consumption . would .have . With .the .advancement .of .sonar .and .submarines .came .a .more .applied . focus .on .the .world’s .seas .to .meet .wartime .needs . .During .World .War .II, . geophysicist . Walter . Munk . and . Norwegian . oceanographer . and . meteorologist . Harald . Sverdrup—then . director . of . the . Scripps . Institution . of . Oceanography . in . La . Jolla, . California—developed . a . method . to . predict . surf .conditions .on .beaches . .Lieutenant .Mary .Sears .used .this .information . to .help .direct .the .location .and .timing .of .amphibious .landings . As . dynamic . oceanography . developed, . marine . scientists . came . to . the . field . with . the . goal . of . understanding . the . integrated . processes . involved . in .the .oceans .rather .than .using .the .oceans .as .a .means .of .learning .more .

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xxii Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science about .a .process . .For .example, .instead .of .using .sea .urchins .to .understand . processes .in .biology, .biologists .adapted .processes .typically .used .in .understanding . forest . ecosystems . and . applied . them . to . sea . urchins . and . their . intertidal .environment . .The .result .was .a .new .understanding .in .the .1960s . of . the . importance . of . natural . predators, . in . this . case . sea . otters . and . sea . stars, .on .keeping .sea .urchins .from .destroying .a .kelp .forest . The .importance .of .predators .was .underestimated .for .much .of .the .century, .especially .with .sharks . .In .the .21st .century, .marine .scientists .determined .that .the .loss .of .top .predatory .sharks .in .the .northwest .Atlantic .had . had .a .cascading .effect .through .the .food web, .causing .a .decline .in .scallops, . clams, .oysters, .and .other .shellfish .populations . .Since .1972, .populations . of .blacktip .sharks .have .declined .by .93 .percent; .tiger .sharks .by .97 .percent; . sandbar .sharks .by .87 .percent; .scalloped .hammerheads .by .98 .percent; .and . bull, .dusky, .and .smooth .hammerhead .sharks .by .99 .percent .or .more . One . of . the . most . important . questions . that . oceanographer . Henry . Bryant .Bigelow .(1879–1967) .proposed .to .the .marine .science .community . was .not .“What .do .we .know .about .the .ocean?” .but .rather .“What .don’t . we . know? . And . how . do . we . find . out?” . As . the . 21st . century . continues . to . struggle . with . some . of . the . same . questions . regarding . overfishing, . ocean . circulation, .and .climate .that .were .asked .throughout .the .20th .century, .the . search .techniques .for .finding .the .answers .are .now .more .refined, .precise, . and .distributed .ocean-wide . .The .answers .are .coming .in .and .being .communicated .rapidly .to .a .global .community . .For .the .21st .century .the .question .is .not .so .much .“What .don’t .we .know?” .as .“What .do .we .do .with .the . information .we .have?”

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1

1901 –1910: Surveying the Seas

Introduction Marine scientists at the beginning of the 20th century wanted to know: What exactly lives in the ocean? And what can be done to curtail the effects of overfishing? Refrigeration in the mid-19th century, coupled with cross-country transportation by train, had created an economic boom out of the fishing industry. Fresh fish had been a strictly coastal

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Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge in 1907 (George Nelson, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science commodity until that time. Anything more than a day’s journey inland necessitated smoking or canning the fish. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea was established to help understand the effects of fishing on marine populations. First, however, marine scientists needed to gain a better understanding of what lived in the ocean and what kind of natural pressures and ocean dynamics marine life encountered on a regular basis. That search has carried on to this day as humans continue to contribute in both large and small ways to modifications in the ocean and atmospheric systems. This chapter focuses on the early discoveries made in the field of marine science during the first decade of the 20th century and the ocean explorers involved in setting the course for the future of the field throughout the century. In 1903 the United States established the country’s first national wildlife refuge. Though restricted from oil drilling, marine wildlife sanctuaries still allow for extraction of many species.

Fred M. Chamberlain, scientific assistant and naturalist for the U.S. Fish  Commission, participates in an expedition aboard the steamer Albatross to  investigate Alaskan salmon fisheries Geophysicist Erich von  Drygalski (1865–1949)  and Captain Hans Ruser  lead Germany’s 1901–03  South Polar Expedition  aboard the Gauss to the  South Polar Sea

August 6, Captain Robert  Falcon Scott and his crew  depart for Antarctica  aboard the Discovery for  the start of the 1901–04  British National Antarctic  Expedition

January 3, the British National Antarctic Expedition  reaches the Ross Ice Shelf. During the course of  their exploration of the Antarctic coast, the team  discovers King Edward VII Land and determines the  location of the south magnetic pole American zoologist Caswell Grave (1870–1944) becomes director (190–06) of the newly constructed laboratory of the U.S.  Fish Commission in Beaufort, North Carolina. The Beaufort  laboratory is the nation’s second oldest federal fisheries lab after  the one built in 1885 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Later, as  shellfish commissioner of Maryland from 1906 to 191, Grave  is recognized as the country’s foremost expert on culturing oysters. However, in 1944 his colleague S. O. Mast will lament that  the oyster industry frequently disregarded Grave’s advice

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1902

April 9–13, in Nancy, France, the Congress of Learned Societies  holds its 39th annual session. French oceanographer Julien Thoulet  (1843–1936) presents lithological maps of the French coast and  of the Azores off Portugal. French hydrographical engineer JeanJacques-Anatole Bouquet de la Grye (187–1909) argues that wind  was a strong influence on the floats (bottles) that Prince Albert I of  Monaco deployed during expeditions on board l’Hirondelle and  the Princess Alice to monitor surface currents. The relationship  between wind and surface currents is still undetermined

Oceanographer William Speirs  Bruce (1867–191) leads the  190–04 Scottish Antarctic  Expedition aboard the Scotia— formerly the Hekla, an Arctic  Danish-Norwegian whaling  vessel, which Bruce has retrofitted and renamed for the expedition to the Southern Ocean

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Chapter 1 | 1901–1910    3 Like the rivers that feed into the ocean, however, the course of marine science has many curves. In 1903, the United States established the country’s first national wildlife refuge, protecting land for the waterfowl on Pelican Island, Florida. A dichotomy has since developed between protected national parks on land and their marine equivalent. The terms marine sanctuary, marine reserve, and marine protected area have different meanings, none of which specifically defines an area protected against such threats as fishing or urban runoff. Marine scientists in the 21st century are still asking the questions posed during the first decade of the 20th century, only now the population of the world has increased to 6.68 billion people as of July 2008—more than four times what it was in 1900. Overfishing is no longer a local concern among fisheries biologists but a global threat to food security. What lived in the ocean during the first decade of the 20th century is different than what survives there still.

The U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Bureaus of Lighthouses,  Navigation and Standards, and the Steamboat Inspection Service, all  previously part of the Treasury Department, are transferred to the new  Department of Commerce and Labor (renamed as the Department of  Congress in 1913). The previously unaffiliated U.S. Fish Commission  is renamed the Bureau of Fisheries and is placed under the authority  of the new department secretary, George B. Cortelyou The Marine Biological Association of  San Diego is formed with the mandate  of establishing a permanent marine biological station in La Jolla, California

Alexander Agassiz (1835–1910)  undertakes his second cruise with the  steamer Albatross, traveling to the south  central Pacific. Agassiz paid the Bureau  of Fisheries the coal bills for the ship in  exchange for determining the itinerary  and the option to keep any marine animals caught during the expedition for  his collection at Harvard’s Museum of  Comparative Zoology

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1903 Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen  and his crew begin their voyage west  through the Canadian Arctic’s Northwest  Passage aboard the ship Gjøa President Theodore Roosevelt signs an executive order  withdrawing Florida’s Pelican Island from public lands  and reserving it as a bird sanctuary, creating what is  later recognized as the first National Wildlife Refuge

1904

Robert Falcon Scott’s ship the Discovery  is freed from the Antarctic ice in which  it had become trapped in 190 German engineer Hermann AnschützKaempfe (187–1931) patents his design  of a gyrocompass for use in submarines

    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

Exploring the Polar Oceans Though some of the men died and not all the ships returned, the first decade of the 20th century saw several expeditions to Antarctica and the first through the Northwest Passage in the Arctic. The expeditions, considered reasonably successful, all traveled by sea, providing plenty of opportunities for advancement in the field of marine science. It may seem odd to think of conducting scientific experiments while trying to survive a winter storm or navigate a steam-and-sail ship through sea ice, but for many of the polar explorers, often scientists in their early 20s and 30s, the search for understanding how nature worked went hand in hand with facing the most formidable natural environments. Of course, living to tell about it was always of foremost importance. In late 1901, three expeditions—from Sweden, Germany, and Britain— traveled south to different points around the Antarctic continent. To get there they first had to cross through the Roaring Forties of the southern ocean, where at 40° south latitude no landmass stands in the way of the wind as it blows around Antarctica. Swedish geologist Otto Nordenskjöld (1869–1928) and Captain Carl Anton Larsen took an international con-

Scottish physiologist John S. Haldane (1860–1936) studies the effect of breathing from air tubes while diving with  underwater dive helmets and concludes that buildup of toxic  carbon dioxide levels, or “the bends,” can be prevented by  slowing the ascent when closer to the surface. Divers will  rely on his decompression tables from 1907 to 1956 Antarctic whaling begins with the establishment  of a whaling station on South Georgia Island

Italian airship designer Enrico Forlanini (188– 1930) builds the first successful hydrofoil German engineer E. Otto Schlick (180–1913)  experiments with gyroscopic stabilizers on board  the torpedo boat Sea-bar. In 1908 the British  steamer RMS Lochiel is equipped with stabilizers

Milestones



1905 The U.S. Bureau of Fisheries is given authority to administer  the laws and regulations governing Alaskan salmon fisheries.  In 1908 this jurisdiction is extended to the Alaskan fur-seal  service and by the end of the decade to all fur-bearing animals and fisheries in the Alaskan Territory Using the Galilee (1905–09) and the Carnegie (1909–29),  the Carnegie Institute of Washington begins extensive  investigations of Earth’s magnetic field over the ocean

1906



German scientists on the SMS Planet investigate  the chemical, physical, and biological properties  of the Indian and Southern Atlantic Oceans Congress passes President Theodore Roosevelt’s  plan to build a battleship a year for the U.S. Navy The International Wireless Congress held in Berlin  in 1906 changes the distress signal for wireless  telegraph communications from CQD to SOS

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Chapter 1 | 1901–1910    5 tingent, including an American artist and an Argentinean naval officer, Lieutenant J. M. Sobral, on the Antarctic to the Antarctic Peninsula, where Nordenskjöld and a team of five, including Sobral, remained on Snow Hill Island to look for fossils and explore the terrain. Larsen and the rest of the crew overwintered with the ship in the Falkland Islands. Germany’s South Polar Expedition involved geophysicist Erich von Drygalski and Captain Hans Ruser, who overwintered their ship, the Gauss, in the ice pack off of what they named Kaiser Wihelm II Land. The British expedition left under the leadership of Robert Falcon Scott (1868–1912) aboard the Discovery with Ernest Shackleton (1874–1922), and they intentionally set their ship in the ice for the winter in McMurdo Sound. The Antarctic sank during its return to meet Nordenskjöld, Sobral, and the rest of the winter science party in February 1903. Encountering difficulties with the pack ice, on December 29, 1902, Larsen set a depot at Hope Bay and sent geologist Gunnar Andersson and two men to walk 200 miles (322 km) to Nordenskjöld’s winter quarters. The ship continued to struggle against the ice until the ice won, cracking the hull and flooding the ship. The remaining crew of about 20 watched from the ice as the ship slowly sank beneath the frozen surface of the sea. They

Ernest Shackleton  and his team reach  the magnetic  South Pole during their 1907–09  expedition

Roald Amundsen  and most of his crew  successfully complete the first sailing  expedition through  the Northwest  Passage

Danish biologist Johannes Schmidt  (1877–1903) scours the Atlantic  Ocean for eels in order to locate  their spawning regions. He provides  transatlantic shipping companies with  plankton nets to help him with his  extensive, long-term survey

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1907

1908

Otto Krümmel (1851–191) publishes the first of  two volumes for a new edition of Handbuch der Ozeanographie (Handbook of oceanography), which  G. von Boguslawski had originally published in 1884 American inventor Elmer Sperry (1860–1930)  begins designing ways to improve on Schlick’s  gyrostabilizers. In 1910 he establishes the Sperry  Gyroscope Company in Brooklyn, New York

1910 British oceanographer Sir John Murray  (1841–1914) and Norwegian fisheries biologist Johan Hjort (1869–1943)  lead a four-month expedition aboard  the Norwegian research vessel Michael Sars surveying the Atlantic Ocean

6    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science dragged and rowed their whaleboat loaded with gear from ice floe to ice floe until after 14 days they reached Paulet Island. Meanwhile, Andersson and his men became lost on their journey to Nordenskjöld’s winter quarters on Snow Hill Island and returned to Hope Bay for the winter. On September 29, 1903, they left their camp to try again. On October 12 Andersson and his men were crossing the sea ice around Vega Island as Nordenskjöld and one of the scientists were coming at them from the other direction. Both teams at first mistook the other for marine life, until they looked at each other with their field glasses (early binoculars). Nordenskjöld thought the three men were large penguins, while Andersson and his men were wondering what the two seals they were seeing were doing standing upright. By the end of October the sea ice was breaking, and Captain Larsen and a small crew rowed from Paulet Island for five days to Hope Bay, where they found a note from Andersson. On November 7 an Argentinean rescue ship, the navy corvette Uruguay, found two members of Nordenskjöld’s original winter science team camping on Seymour Island. The Argentineans followed the scientists back to Andersson, Nordenskjöld, Sobral, and the others now at Snow Hill quarters. Not long after they arrived—indeed, just as they were about to break down the camp and start a search for the Antarctic—Larsen reached the island with the news that except for the death of one man during the winter, the rest of the crew from the ship were back on Paulet Island. Rescue ships and relief ships were often part of the contingency plans for overwintering Antarctic expeditions. Raising the funds to support both the expedition and the rescue often proved daunting. In the case of the British Discovery expedition, after the ship was locked in sea ice for the winter, the crew could not get it out the following summer. The Morning came by McMurdo Sound in January 1903 as scheduled to check on the Discovery and found the ship stuck fast behind 8 miles (13 km) of sea ice. A sledge party delivered letters and news to Scott’s crew. During the spring and summer, the crew had set new records for inland Antarctic exploration. They had laid depots along the way for the big push that Scott, Shackleton, and the ship’s surgeon and artist, Edward Adrian Wilson, would endure. The three returned on February 3 after a 93-day, 960-mile (1,545-km) sledge into the interior of Antarctica, farther than anyone else had ever managed. Wilson had come down with snow blindness and Shackleton with crippling scurvy. Most of their sledge dogs had died. As the summer ended and the sea ice began to grow again, now threatening to enclose the Morning as well, several of the crew from Scott’s party who

(opposite page) The Antarctic Convergence (also known as the Antarctic Polar Front) is an oceanographic boundary layer where surface temperatures drop 2–3°. This distinguishing feature of the Southern Ocean was first discovered in 1901 during Germany’s Antarctic expedition.

N F CS Marine Science Chapter 1 | 1901–1910    7 ps 10 als 12/05/07wanted to return to civilization or had suffered from scurvy over the year left on the Morning, including Shackleton. Despite his recovery back on the Discovery, Shackleton was still too weak to stay another winter. The Morning returned again in midsummer, reaching the edge of the ice in McMurdo Sound on January 5, 1904. This time the British government

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8    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

Oceanographer William Speirs Bruce photographed the Scottish Antarctic Expedition of 1902–04. This stereo glassplate negative taken on August 8, 1903, shows an Adélie penguin beside the SY Scotia, which was beset in ice at Scotia Bay, Laurie Island, in the South Orkney Islands over the winter of 1903. (NAHSTE. Glasgow University Archive Services)

had sent a second “relief” ship to accompany the Morning and make certain that the Discovery crew came home. The men who had spent two winters on the ice with Discovery saw the sails on the Terra Nova and doubled their efforts to free their ship and set her sailing under her own power. They did not want to be seen as needing rescue. Of the three expeditions that set sail across the Southern Ocean in late 1901, the Gauss was the only one that had a rounded hull. The British had built the Discovery with a reinforced hull, but one also less prone to rolling in ocean swells. Despite this, the crew still got seasick on their journey to New Zealand after being ice-locked for two and a half years, and it took another two months to repair the ice damage before the Discovery could return to England. The Gauss, however, was modeled after Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen’s Arctic research vessel Fram—built with a round hull to withstand the pressure of being trapped in sea ice. Erich von Drygalski worked for the Institut für Meereskunde (Institute of Oceanography) at the University of Berlin, and he took a very scientific approach to the expedition. Right from the start, the crew began collecting regular seawater samples and temperature measurements to see how the temperature of the ocean changed as they approached the Antarctic continent. The result was the first indication that the ocean’s physical properties could act as effectively as a wall or a landmass could, in terms of isolating regional waters from each other. The Antarctic Convergence (also known as the Antarctic Polar Front) is a sharply defined temperature boundary. Sailors crossing the zone southward can expect a drop in temperature from 5.4°F to 1.8°F (-14.8°C to -16.8°C) in the winter and from 10.8°F to 7.2°F (-11.8°C to -13.8°C) in the summer. The actual location of the boundary shifts seasonally and is formed where the northward-moving cold intermediate waters of the Antarctic Ocean sink below the warmer sub-Antarctic waters.

Chapter 1 | 1901–1910    9 When the Gauss became trapped in the ice at Kaiser Wihelm II Land, Drygalski kept the sledging parties from traveling across the ice until it had thickened. He focused the scientists aboard the ship on drilling through the ice and collecting rocks and mud from the seafloor. They used a hydrogen balloon to ascend 1,600 feet (490 m) above the ship and conduct meteorological studies. The expedition stayed relatively close to the ship, adventuring some 50 miles to the nearest mountain, which they named Gaussberg. Yet they still collected enough scientific observations to fill some 20 volumes of reports. The following summer, when the Gauss was still trapped, Drygalski noticed puddles in areas where soot from the steamship’s exhaust fell on the ice. He reasoned that the black soot absorbed the heat of the sun and ordered his men to make a trail of soot and garbage over the ice toward open water. The ice along the surface of the path slowly melted into a shallow channel. On February 8, 1903, the thick ice under the channel cracked open, and the German expedition was free to return home. They had managed the entire expedition on their own, without loss of life, and left the ice pack unscathed. Along with the three expeditions that had started in 1901—the Gauss, Discovery, and Antarctic—and the relief and rescue ships that came in 1903—Morning, Terra Nova, and Uruguay—the Scottish Scotia, under oceanographer William Speirs Bruce, began exploring the Antarctic seas in 1903, and the French Français (previously named Belgica), under the leadership of Jean-Baptiste Charcot (1867–1936), arrived in January 1904. Like Drygalski, Bruce had a greater passion for the science awaiting discovery in Antarctica than for the sensational goal of reaching the South Pole. When Scott asked Bruce to join the crew aboard the Discovery as a naturalist, Bruce turned him down, preferring to lead his own scientific expedition instead. He brought with him 25 scientists with interests in zoology, botany, taxidermy, meteorology, and geology. During the expedition they took numerous soundings to map the bathymetry of the seafloor and conducted detailed surveys of the wildlife, focusing much of their work on the penguins at Laurie Island in the South Orkneys. A team of Scottish and Argentinean scientists stayed over the winter in a meteorological station they built mostly from stone near Scotia Bay. The Omond House—named after meteorologist Robert Omond, the first superintendent of the Ben Nevis Observatory, where Bruce would later train in polar weather—took a severe beating during a storm in April 1903. The team survived and was rescued by the Uruguay on December 31, 1903. Argentina rebuilt and expanded the meteorological station and renamed the new structure Orcadas. The Antarctic observatory became the first permanently inhabited station in Antarctica. On the other side of the world, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (1872–1928) and his crew aboard the sailing sloop Gjøa began their 1903 voyage west through the Canadian Arctic’s Northwest Passage. The long-sought northern route was theoretically considered possible based

10    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

Frontispiece portrait of Roald Amundsen (1872–1928) (NOAA)

on the numerous expeditions of the mid-19th century, many of which had been looking to collect the reward for rescuing Sir John Franklin’s expedition of 1845. Franklin had taken more than 100 men and two steamships to finish mapping the Northwest Passage, but they were last seen in July of that year. More ships and crew venturing the passage from

Chapter 1 | 1901–1910    11 both the Atlantic and Pacific sides were lost in the attempts to rescue Franklin. The end result was a dismal story of doom for Franklin and his crew and many others, but a much better navigational understanding of the Arctic. The passage clearly existed; crossing it from one end to the other, however, seemed an impossible goal. Amundsen thought differently at the age of 16. His hero Fridtjof Nansen (1861–1930) had returned from a cross-country ski expedition over Greenland’s ice cap on May 30, 1889, and Amundsen had joined the crowd to welcome him home. He later wrote: “That day I wondered with throbbing pulses amid the bunting and the cheers, and all my boyhood’s dreams re-awoke to tempestuous life. For the first time something in my secret thoughts whispered clearly and tremulously: If you could make the Northwest Passage!” He went on to study medicine at Christiania University, but after Nansen left in 1893 to lock the Fram in the Arctic sea ice and sledge north across the ice, Amundsen began his own polar conditioning. He signed up as a seaman on a seal hunt aboard the Magdalena. In 1896 Nansen returned, having skied with Hjalmar Johansen closer to the North Pole than anyone had gone before them, and the Fram, finally released from the ice, returned with a chart of the polar current and sea ice circulation. The next year Amundsen joined the Belgian Antarctic Expedition on the Belgica, where he met the American doctor Frederick Cook (1865–1940), an Arctic explorer with Robert Edwin Peary (1856–1920). Cook and Peary had lived among the Inuit and had learned the best methods for staying warm. Amundsen learned from Cook to wear sealskin lined with caribou fur instead of heavy canvas and wool. Cook in turned learned that snowshoes were no match against Norwegian skis for cross-country travel. When the Belgica became ice-locked over winter in March 1898, many of the crew came down with scurvy. Their rations of bottled lime juice were not enough to prevent the disease, for boiling the limes as part of the bottling process removed most of the essential vitamin C. Cook did not know about vitamin C—the term vitamine would not be coined until 1912. He did speculate, however, that supplementing the crew’s diet with fresh penguin meat would ward off the disease, because the Inuit ate raw seal meat and few if any fruits or vegetables, and they did not suffer scurvy. Though one crew member died, the rest soon The Robert Peary sledge party posing with flags at the North recovered under Cook’s care. Pole, April 7, 1909 (Archival Research Catalog)

1    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science NORTHWEST PASSAGE Amundsen’s route To

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From 1903 to 1906, the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his crew aboard the Gjøa became the first to successfully navigate a sea passage from Baffin Bay to the Bering Strait.

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During the expedition the Belgica crew charted the position of the south magnetic pole, and Amundsen learned how important an accurate position of the north magnetic pole would be for navigation. Sir James Clark Ross had measured it in 1831, and Amundsen considered he had two options to find out whether the magnetic pole had moved since then: Either travel to where Ross had gone and measure the magnetic pole from there, or follow the north magnetic pole to its source. On his return to Norway, Amundsen worked with Georg von Neumayer, director of the German Marine Observatory (Deutsche Seewarte) and expert on terrestrial magnetism, to help him write a proposal for his journey through the Northwest Passage and hunt for the north magnetic pole. “What, then, has not been accomplished with large vessels and main force, I will attempt with a small vessel and patience,” Amundsen wrote in 1902. He then personally presented his plan to Nansen, who approved. Amundsen raised funds and purchased the 75-foot sailing sloop Gjøa, which had a small 13-hp engine. In 1903, Amundsen set sail west across the Arctic with his crew of six: First Lieutenant Godfred Hansen, a Danish navigator, astronomer, geologist, and photographer; Skipper and harpoonist Anton Lund; mete-

FPO

Chapter 1  Chapter 1 | |Section 1901–1910 0    13 orologist and first engineer Peder Ristvedt; Arctic explorer and second mate Helmer Hansen; Arctic explorer and cook Adolf Henrik Lindström, who was Otto Sverdrup’s cook on board the Fram during its second expedition; and the youngest onboard, second engineer Gustav Juel Wiik, 25, who had served as a gunner in the Norwegian navy and had studied terrestrial magnetism at the Magnetic Observatory in Potsdam. Amundsen lost two men during the voyage. Wiik died in March 1906 at King Point after six days of suffering from typical appendicitis, which Amundsen mistook as pleurisy, a lung disease, and tried to treat with medicine and a mustard plaster over Wiik’s swollen side. The other death came much more quickly and happened during a duck-hunting expedition. An Inuit friend named Manni, who had joined the crew, fell out of the small rowboat he was standing in to hunt, a method that had successfully brought down many ducks. The crew did not notice he had fallen overboard until he was gone from sight. As Amundsen and his crew completed the Northwest Passage, another first caught his attention: the race to the North Pole. Cook and Peary— who had explored parts of the Arctic together with Peary’s wife Josephine, the first African American Arctic explorer Matthew Hensen (1866–1955), and several Inuit companions back in 1891—were now competing against each other in a race to the North Pole. Peary had made several attempts since his first effort to reach the pole in 1898, each time using Fort Conger on Ellesmere Island as his base and traveling with Hensen and groups of Inuit from Greenland, who helped set up the depots along the way. In 1900 Peary lost eight toes to frostbite, and his wife traveled with their daughter, who was born in Greenland during an Arctic expedition in 1893, back to Greenland to bring Peary home to New York. He tried again in 1902, 1906, and 1908. On April 1, 1909, Hensen, Peary, and four Inuit had a sprint of 25 miles (40 km) from their last depot to reach the North Pole. It took them 19 days and 468 miles (780 km) to travel back to their launching party on the Roosevelt. Captain Robert Bartlett had navigated the Roosevelt to the northern end of Ellesmere Island. After Peary and his team returned, they headed south again. From Greenland, Peary wired the New York Times saying that they had made it to the pole on April 6, only to learn the Cook had just arrived in Denmark after a year of Arctic exploration. Cook claimed to have reached the North Pole

Robert Peary at the North Pole (Archival Research Catalog)

14    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science on April 21, 1908, after traveling with two Inuit and 26 dogs from Axel Heiberg Island off of Canada. It had then taken them a year’s journey to reach Scandinavia and make the announcement of their success. The two counterclaims to the North Pole caused an immediate uproar that to this day remains suspect to those supporters of the opposite claim. The news broke just as Amundsen was putting together his crew for a North Pole attempt using the Fram. As a result of the fracas, on June 7, 1910, when the polar community—indeed, all but his second in command Kristian, Prestrud—was expecting Amundsen to travel north, he steered the Fram to the south. He informed his surprised crew of his intention to reach the South Pole and gave them the option to leave in Madeira, but none did. They would be racing to lay claim to the pole against British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and his team. Once more two exceptional leaders in the polar exploration community were racing for a pole, only this time the competition was friendlier and the trail well documented along the way. When Amundsen and his team of five men and 16 dogs reached the South Pole on December 14, 1911, after traveling over previously unmapped terrain, they erected a tent that they left behind with a letter announcing their victory. Scott and his men arrived without dogs, hauling their own sleds, on January 17, 1912. They had come from the opposite direction over an already partially mapped route, but died on their return journey. “We took risks, we knew we took them; things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint, but bow to the will of Providence, determined still to do our best to the last,” wrote Scott in his diary. His final words: “Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale, but surely, surely, a great rich country like ours will see that those who are dependent on us are properly provided for.”

International Council for the Exploration of the Sea Swedish ocean explorer Otto Pettersson (1848–1941) had a goal to map the waters around Scandinavia. He was resourceful and determined. Even in the middle of winter, Pettersson would have five ships out at the same time, investigating different regions of the Baltic Sea. Vessels would depart from various ports with predetermined cruise tracks and target specific stations to conduct experiments, such as measuring water temperature at different depths. By combining the information that the ships and their science teams attained, Pettersson learned how the currents in the area interacted. His knowledge of chemistry and physics allowed him to study how the seas changed with the seasons and with

Chapter 1 | 1901–1910    15 depth. He could see the bigger picture of what was happening, but only for where and when the ships were out at sea. He longed for more ships and more time. Pettersson also knew that the information he could obtain with a larger fleet of ships collaborating on oceanographic research would help in understanding what had become a crisis in northern Europe: overfishing. By the mid-19th century, with the technical advances in refrigeration and the invention of ice-making machines, fishermen could sell and transport frozen seafood to cities far from the coast via the railroads. Fishermen savvy to the natural rise and fall of fish populations due to changes in oceanic conditions had begun to wonder if fishing itself could significantly influence fish populations. In 1854 John Cleghorn of Wick, Scotland, introduced the term overfishing to the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS). With fishermen in the Atlantic catching more herring and cod to meet their countries’ increasing demand for fish, was it possible they could overfish the ocean’s supply? The question had the fishing industry very nervous. Within a decade, Norway and Great Britain were employing marine biologists to study it. But by the 1880s, an increasing number of fishermen in the North Sea had become downright ruthless in their strategies to compete with each other. The practice of cutting and fouling other boats’ trawl nets had become so common that the governments of the countries around the sea decided to intervene. In 1882 Britain, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden (and Norway, which was part of Sweden from 1814 to 1905) established the North Sea Convention. Any fishing boats that wanted to fish the crowded North Sea had to follow the rules of the convention. Boats had to have registration papers from their government, and fishing was first-come, first-to-catch; arriving boats were warned not to cut or foul nets or lines already in the water, or they risked losing their registration. After all the countries had signed the convention, only Sweden opted not to ratify it. Still, the convention set the stage for the international cooperation that Pettersson would need. A decade later, at a Scandinavian Naturalists Association (Skandinaviske naturforskere i selskap) meeting in Copenhagen in July 1892, Pettersson presented the idea of multiple Swedish and Danish research ships working together to study the North Sea. Denmark and Sweden planned to begin their first joint cruise on May 1, 1893. Pettersson also presented the idea of joint oceanographic research expeditions in Edinburgh during a meeting of the BAAS. Scotsman John Murray, who had sailed on the famous Challenger expedition around the world in 1872–76, convinced Scotland to join. By August 1893 Pettersson had both Scotland and Germany contributing to the investigation, and Norway had joined by November. The ships covered various stations in the Baltic Sea, the northern North Sea, and parts of the North Atlantic. The success of the international oceanographic scientific investigations eventually led to a second joint investigation in 1899. This time

16    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

In 1910 the British oceanographer Sir John Murray (1841–1914), pictured here, and Norwegian fisheries biologist Johan Hjort (1869–1943) led a fourmonth expedition surveying the Atlantic Ocean aboard the Norwegian research vessel Michael Sars in 1910. (NOAA)

Britain was interested in participating, and the German marine scientists convinced the other countries involved of the need to include France and Belgium as well. The collaboration of these European nations led to the formation of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in 1902. The same countries that had originally worked to bring peace to the fisheries in the North Sea were now agreed that further pursuits in science were needed to keep the industry in business. International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) began as a way for countries to collaborate in their mutual desires to understand marine processes, fisheries habitat and biology, and the effects of human

Chapter 1 | 1901–1910    17 actions on the ocean and its resources. A fleet of 17 boats contributed to the council’s first year of operation. The science teams conducted temperature and salinity profiles, drawing up maps of deepwater and shallow currents. They collected plankton studies to determine what the fish were eating and trawled for commercial fish at different seasons to study the animals’ life history. Through ICES, scientists acted as neutral parties to recommend to their governments the best means for managing fish stocks. Their early recommendations included transplanting small fish to underpopulated regions and establishing size limits on the fish captured that would allow the small fish to grow to a marketable size. They suggested using only trawl nets that had holes big enough to allow the small fish to escape. Such action was unheard-of in other less-fished regions of the world. Indeed, well into the 20th century, fisheries science would continue to work on finding fish populations and improving catch capacities. Michael Sars (1805–69) wrote a book in 1829 about marine As the issue of overfishing traveled beyond the animals and their environment. A Norwegian oceanographic North Atlantic, ICES grew to become a model research vessel was named in his honor. (Wikipedia) for marine science, fisheries assessment studies, and international collaboration. Despite hardships during both world wars, more than a century later the council is still conducting the work it began. ICES now includes 20 member countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany,

Oyster shells from Hampton, Virginia, ca. 1915. Oyster harvests from Chesapeake Bay are now only 4 percent of what they were at the beginning of the 20th century. (Census of Marine Life)

18    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

A postcard of abalone shells in Santa Barbara, California, ca. 1920 (Census of Marine Life)

Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Population growth has increased the demand for seafood around the world, and advanced technologies have enabled fisheries to meet that demand. Scientific understanding has helped to prevent some fish stocks from crashing under this stress, but it has not been enough. In northeastern Canada, the volume of cod around the banks of Nova Scotia today is only 4 percent of what it used to be prior to the 1850s. As salmon, tuna, and other commercial fish stocks have come under the threat of overfishing in the 20th and early 21st centuries, marine science continues to play a critical role in understanding how to balance society’s wants with the impact of human seafood consumption on the marine environment.

Setting Standards The 1902 organized International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) needed to establish a place where the different countries could obtain the necessary equipment for their cruises. Its Central Laboratory would provide every ship with state-of-the-art equipment, certified to operate exactly the same and ensuring a baseline for comparison. When the ships returned to port, the Central Laboratory would collect the results and make them available for other scientists. Norway, then part of Sweden, agreed to support the Central Laboratory for five years

Chapter 1 | 1901–1910    19 in Christiania. The only stipulation was that its heroic arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen serve as the laboratory’s director. In 1893 Nansen and his crew had taken the sturdy, round-hulled Fram to the Arctic, where they purposefully allowed the ship to drift with the sea ice. The voyage across the Arctic Ocean, the first of its kind, took three years. On March 14, 1895, Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen (1867–1913) left the ship in an attempt to reach the North Pole on foot. From 84°4' north latitude, they sledged across the ice with 28 dogs and a sailboat constructed from two kayaks. Together they set the world record at the time for the highest latitude ever reached, 86°14' N. The Fram and the rest of its crew drifted as far north as 85°59' N. In less than a month, Nansen and Johansen had traveled 135 miles (217 km). Now they needed to reach land before they ran out of food. Traveling southwest, they reached the northern islands of Zemlya Frantsa-Iosifa (Franz Josef Land), where they lived on walrus blubber and polar bear meat through the winter. In May 1896 they left their snow, stone, and moss hut and traveled for a month across the icy northern islands until they found the wintering expedition party of British explorer Frederick Jackson (1860–1938), who told them they had been traveling across the islands of Franz Josef Land and helped them return to Norway. Nansen directed the Central Laboratory from 1902 to 1906. During this time he supported Norway’s political independence from Sweden, campaigning to maintain the monarchy with Prince Carl of Denmark as king. Norway won its independence on June 7, 1905. The country voted to continue as a monarchy, strongly influenced by Nansen, who according to reports was the popular choice for president under republican rule. Nansen left the Central Laboratory in 1906 to serve for two years as the Norwegian ambassador to London, where he worked closely with King Edward VII. After World War I, Nansen ably used his political influence for humanitarian causes. His successes with the League of Nations—sending home Russian prisoners of war and working as the high commissioner for refugees, supplying millions of starving Russians food and aid during postwar famine—earned him the 1922 Nobel Peace Prize. During the Central Laboratory’s existence, Martin Knudsen (1871– 1949), a Danish delegate to the Stockholm conference in 1899, made one of the most important contributions to marine science. The laboratory was set up to distribute the typical instruments needed for at-sea research, including water bottles, deep-ocean thermometers, plankton nets, and glassware and equipment for analyzing dissolved gasses and measuring the amount of salt or salinity in seawater. The specific volume and density of seawater depend on pressure, temperature, and salinity. But determining salinity measurements and the subtle changes of chemical concentrations in seawater from varying regions had proved vexing. Originally scientists were asked to send the Central Laboratory three

0    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science water samples from every cruise. These samples were tested to determine their chemical composition through a process called titration. Not every ship, however, followed through with providing all three samples; some could barely afford to take one sample. Knudsen, thankfully, had a different approach. The son of a farmer, Knudsen had studied physics and gone to sea in the summers of 1896 and 1897 on expeditions to the Faeroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland. He knew the difficulties of conducting chemical experiments at sea. Salinity is measured in parts per thousand (ppt) and is typically between 32 and 37 grams of salt per kilogram of seawater (salinity is as high as 38 ppt in the Mediterranean and 40 ppt in the Red Sea). To obtain a direct measurement of salinity requires evaporating a known volume of seawater and measuring the amount of salt left behind. Even in calm seas, such an experiment could only happen where the weather was dry enough to allow for evaporation. So most marine scientists, especially in the rainy north Atlantic, relied on indirect measurements. Still, if the seas were too rough, they would have to store as much seawater as they could and test for salinity and other chemical concentrations back home. The traditional laboratory method for determining salinity at the time involved taking a volume of seawater and carefully titrating, or measuring the exact volume drop by drop, of silver nitrate (AgNO3) needed to precipitate the chlorine salt out of the solution. (The transition is made visually easier when an addition of chromate ion [CrO42-] is put in the solution of seawater. Once the silver and chlorine combined to form the solid silver chloride [AgCl], the chromate reacts with any additionally free silver molecules and turns the clear water orange.) Chlorine is the most abundant inorganic element in the ocean, followed closely by sodium. However, comparing the North Sea with the Baltic Sea was impossible if the titration instruments on the ships were calibrated differently, with no reference for comparison. During his expeditions at sea, Knudsen developed the idea of producing a standard water sample with a known salinity. This standard could be used to ensure that everyone’s titration methods were calibrated the same. By 1902 Knudsen was the key source of standard seawater samples for Danish oceanographers. He had also experimentally determined a relationship between salinity (s) and chlorine (Cl) such that s = .030 + 1.805 Cl. Using this equation, he produced a set of hydrographic tables mariners could use in conjunction with the standard to evaluate seawater throughout a cruise. Already aware of the International Council’s goals, Knudsen took the initiative of preparing standards for the Central Laboratory before it was organized enough to distribute them. By August 1902 he had shipped samples to Russia, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Germany, in addition to Denmark. It was not long before the laboratory asked Knudsen to prepare another batch. Once the laboratory was ready, assistants used Knudsen’s samples for comparison to check their own standards.

Chapter 1 | 1901–1910    21

A 270-lb (122-kg) halibut caught off Provincetown, Massachusetts, ca. 1910. Halibut have virtually disappeared from the North Atlantic due to overfishing; any that are caught are much, much smaller than shown on this postcard. (Census of Marine Life)

For years, marine scientists relied on the Central Laboratory for seawater samples and at-sea research instruments. Then in 1906 Director Nansen left to take a position as ambassador for the newly independent

    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

Coriolis and the Oceans Try  throwing  a  ball  from  a  spinning  merry-goround to someone standing just beyond the ride.  The ball always travels in an arc rather than either  a  straight  radial  line  from  the  carousel’s  center  or  tangential  to  it.  To  compensate,  the  thrower  must  release  the  ball  while  still  approaching  the  catcher—but  not  too  soon.  Gaspard-Gustave  de  Coriolis  (179–1843),  a  French  mathematician,  worked  out  the  physics  of  this  phenomenon  in  1835. The  acceleration  of  the  ball  or  any  object  in motion on a rotating body is the combination  of two important forces, which Coriolis examined  using waterwheels. The  total  centrifugal  force  moves  the  object  in  the  direction  perpendicular  to  the  tangent  of  the  movement, along the radius of curvature. To understand the transfer of energy from one waterwheel to  the next, Coriolis broke the centrifugal force down  into two parts: one force directed straight out from  the center of rotation (largely the force a passenger  feels when a car makes a sharp right or left turn),  and  another  force,  now  called  the  Coriolis  force,  that is perpendicular to the relative motion of the  moving object in the rotating system. When  it  comes  to  rotating  systems  such  as  the merry-go-round, a car, an ice skater turning a  pirouette, and the waterwheel, the Coriolis force  is a negligible contribution to the total centrifugal  force.  But  try  traveling  in  a  straight  line  on  our  spinning  Earth,  and  the  effects  of  the  Coriolis  force  become  more  apparent.  History  is  full  of  irony, however, for Coriolis himself never considered this broader application of his equations, for  which the Coriolis force is now best known. Because  Earth  spins  eastward  on  its  axis,  the  Coriolis  force  changes  the  motion  of  an  object 

to  the  right  in  the  Northern  Hemisphere  and  to  the  left  in  the  Southern  Hemisphere.  The  force  explains  why  hurricanes  spin  clockwise  and  cyclones  spin  counterclockwise.  Because  the  centrifugal  force  of  the  spinning  Earth  created  a  globe  with  an  ellipsoid  rather  than  a  spherical  shape,  objects  in  motion  closer  to  the  equator  show  greater  deviation  traveling  in  the  north  or  south  direction  than  if  they  are  moving  east  or  west, and vice versa for objects moving near the  poles.  Today’s  airplane  pilots  and  ship  captains  apply the Coriolis force when calculating the most  efficient route. Coriolis force even applies to baseball: If a pitcher in the United States throws a ball  that takes four seconds to travel 38 feet (100 m)  to the hitter, that ball will deviate 0.6 inches (1.5  cm) to the right. But  the  importance  of  the  Coriolis  force  on  the  ocean  was  not  recognized  until  the  turn  of  the  0th  century.  Norway’s  Fridtjof  Nansen,  who  intentionally  allowed  his  ship  the  Fram  to  become locked in the Arctic sea ice to drift with  the  currents,  paid  close  attention  to  the  icebergs  around  him.  He  noticed  that  icebergs  drifted  0°–40° to the right of the wind. He worked out  that  the  important  forces  acting  on  the  icebergs  must  be  the  wind,  the  water,  and  the  Coriolis  force. However, he wondered how important the  Coriolis force was on the interaction between the  wind  and  the  water  and  asked Vilhelm  Bjerknes  (186–1951)  at  the  University  of  Stockholm  to  have one of his students investigate. Bjerknes turned to Vagn Walfrid Ekman (1874– 1954),  a  graduate  student  at  the  university  from  Sweden.  In  his  190  doctoral  thesis,  Ekman  presented  the  calculations  for  determining  the 

country of Norway. However, he did not approach the Norwegian government to extend the original five-year funding for the laboratory. The International Council spent the laboratory’s final year completing outstanding projects and recording its work for posterity; then the council closed its laboratory doors in late 1908. Although the Council’s

Chapter 1 | 1901–1910    3

EKMAN SPIRAL IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE n

tio

c ire

d d 45°

in W

0

Surface current is 45

° to right of wind

Depth in feet

100 200 300 Ekman transport

400

Water column

500

The change in direction with depth results in the majority of the water Mass moving at a 90° angle to the right of the prevailing winds © Infobase Publishing

Note: Divide feet by 3.281 to obtain meters

Current direction with depth as predicted by a 32-foot-per-second (10 m-per-second) wind traveling 35° N at the surface.

direction  of  the  currents  with  depth,  based  on  a  known wind speed at the surface and the impact  of the Coriolis force throughout the water column.  He considered the ocean as a layered body, with  each  layer  impacted  by  the  layer  above  it.  With  each deeper layer in the water, the wind’s effect at  the surface is reduced, and the ocean slows down  in  response.  But  as  the  currents  slow  down,  the 

Coriolis force increases its influence on the direction the currents travel, such that the lowest layers  are rotated 90° and more to the surface currents,  but traveling much slower. Ekman’s theory proved  a fundamental part of understanding oceanic circulation  patterns  and  predicted  that  the  majority  of  water  currents  at  depth  moved  at  a  90°  angle  to the wind.

laboratory work had shifted away from Norway, other options existed. Knudsen distributed water sample standards from the council’s central bureau in Copenhagen. Well into the 1970s, oceanographers around the world continued to use standard seawater derived from Knudsen’s original samples.

FPO

4    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

Scripps Institution of Oceanography As Otto Pettersson was laying the groundwork for international marine research in the North Atlantic region, marine zoologists in California were taking a close look at the Pacific. In 1892 Stanford University established a permanent laboratory on the Monterey Peninsula. Next to this, with only a $200 budget, William Emerson Ritter (1856–1944), then head of the zoology department at the University of California, Berkeley, set up a portable laboratory made of canvas and wood for his students to spend a summer investigating the tides pools. They worked side by side with the Stanford students collecting local invertebrates, fish, and other marine species. The following year Ritter moved his seaside laboratory south to Avalon Bay on Santa Catalina Island, a short ferry ride from Los Angeles. At the end of the summer, the students folded up the tent and stored it in a church basement for their return the following year. When Ritter and his wife took a sabbatical to Europe, three of his students went back to Catalina on their own. The talk of establishing a permanent laboratory encouraged others in the University of California’s zoology department to lead collecting excursions with students up and down the coastline. They were on the lookout for the perfect site: someplace away from sewer lines and their abundant bacteria that would influence chemical and biological studies; someplace with a rich diversity of species and ideal weather conditions that would allow for collecting at sea throughout the year, and someplace where the seafloor depth dropped off quickly so that they could study the change in oceanic conditions and animals at depth without having to travel far from shore. In 1899 Ritter was asked to join railroad magnate E. H. Harriman’s excursion to Alaska for two months. Harriman’s doctors had told the railroad giant to take some time off. Harriman asked 40 scientists, artists, and writers to join him and his doctors, pastor, family, and guests on board a chartered steamer. During the cruise Ritter surveyed the waters of Puget Sound and the coast of Canada and brought back a diverse collection of marine invertebrates. In December 1900, he again asked the president of the university for funding, this time for a permanent laboratory. Southern California seemed best. In 1901 and 1902, summer sessions took place in San Pedro Bay, Los Angeles, but the university was hesitant to contribute funding and instead turned to alumni and supporters in the Los Angeles region. In spring 1901 Los Angeles residents raised $1,800 for the laboratory. The university eventually chipped in as well, and for the first time, students paid $10 for tuition and $5 as a laboratory fee to take formal classes with their instructors during the summer. The money was enough to rent and reconstruct a bathhouse and a small building on a stretch of sand between San Pedro Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Ritter was also able to rent a 40-foot launch called the Elsie. The four instructors during

Chapter 1 | 1901–1910    5 the summer included Ritter; Frank Bancroft and Harry B. Torrey, both former students; and zoologist Charles A. Kofoid (1865–1947), who had come to Berkeley in 1900 from the University of Illinois. At Ritter’s request, Kofoid piloted the Elsie 200 miles (322 km) south to San Diego to visit Dr. Fred Baker, a medical doctor whom Ritter had met through his wife while honeymooning in San Diego in 1891. Ritter and his wife, Dr. Mary Bennett, a physician, had stayed at the Hotel del Coronado and spent at least one day during their honeymoon collecting blind goby fish around the rocks below Point Loma. Baker and his wife, Dr. Charlotte Baker, also a medical doctor, lived in Roseville on Point Loma and had taken an interest in the biological research Mary Bennett had helped her new husband conduct during their honeymoon. When Kofoid made his visit, Fred Baker, himself an avid shell collector, had Kofoid speak about marine exploration to a group of leading businessmen. According to Baker, Kofoid spoke of the ideals for a permanent biological station on the Pacific Coast that would “equal and surpass the greatest one in the world located at Naples. There are to be very extensive Aquraia and this element will make it a show place for the visiting public.” He envisioned the station’s ability to maintain a research vessel large enough to fish, dredge, and measure the depths, or sound, any portion of the Pacific. Baker suggested San Diego would be the best place for such a station. In 1902 he invited Ritter to move the station from Los Angeles to San Diego. When Ritter tried to make the best of what little funding he could find for a station in Los Angeles, the summer classes were held on the beach since there was no money for a boat. When Baker again made his offer to fund the station in San Diego for the summer of 1903, Ritter accepted. San Diego proved financially lucrative for the biologists. The Chamber of Commerce for the growing city of 17,000 people created a specific Marine Laboratory Committee to raise funds. Baker began asking for money from those influential businessmen who had heard Kofoid speak at their club meeting. Baker later approached the newspaper publisher Edward Willis Scripps, or E. W. as he was called, who donated $500 and recommended Baker also speak to his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. Miss Scripps contributed $100 to the cause and soon arranged with her sister Virginia to visit Ritter in Berkeley and learn of the marine research the station anticipated accomplishing. The Scripps family would become the laboratory’s most influential supporters. During the first summer, the scientists had at their disposal a modified boathouse for the laboratory from the Hotel del Coronado and a rented schooner, the Lura, operated by Manuel Cabral, whom Baker considered to be the best Portuguese fisherman in San Diego. At the end of the summer, Ritter returned to Berkeley and reported to the University’s president. “I am not going to report now that San Diego is unquestionably the best place on Earth for such an institution,” he said. “I am simply going to say that it is undoubtedly an excellent place from several points

6    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science of view—one of the best.” At the end of September 1903, Ritter returned to southern California to formalize the Marine Biological Association of San Diego. Its purpose was to fund and establish a San Diego marine laboratory affiliated with the University of California. E. W. Scripps and the committee elected businessman Homer Peters as president; Ritter worked as the scientific director; Ellen Scripps held the vice presidency; Julias Wangenheim, president of the National Bank of Commerce of San Diego, served as treasurer; and Fred Baker accepted the role of secretary. Homer Peters, E. W. Scripps, and Ellen Scripps each agreed to fund the biological station $1,500 a year for three years. After another season of working out of the Hotel del Coronado’s boathouse, the scientists were eager for a place built specifically to meet their needs. The boathouse, which was attached to a pier, shook with the crashing waves underneath and made fine microscopic work exceedingly difficult. Although the scientists envisioned a facility that architects estimated would cost $50,000, they could not build such a station on land they did not own. In April 1905, the city granted the association use of five acres of parkland on Alligator Head in La Jolla, a village of 1,300 people living 14 miles north of San Diego. The La Jolla Improvement Society raised nearly $1,000 to have the association build a small wooden laboratory on Alligator Head, and it was dubbed the “Little Green Laboratory at the Cove.” In January 1906, Ellen Scripps made sure the goals of the association and the laboratory would continue with a promise of $50,000. But not until 1907 would the laboratory obtain land of its own. That year, while the Marine Biological Association of San Diego was trying to negotiate for the five acres of land on Alligator Head, E. W. Scripps convinced them to reconsider and purchase 170 acres of undeveloped land along the coast just two miles north. The city put the land up for auction on Saturday, August 10. After advertising with the community of La Jolla of its intent, the association managed the only bid—purchasing the whole lot, worth an estimated $30,000–$50,000, for only $1,000. Only 11 days later, the Little Green Laboratory at the Cove christened its first boat built specifically for marine research: the Alexander Agassiz, named after the one of the most prestigious oceanographers of the time. In March 1905 Agassiz had visited the Scripps family at their Miramir Ranch. He learned of the biological station in San Diego from Kofoid, who had accompanied Agassiz on his six-month South Sea Expedition of 1904–05 aboard the Albatross. Impressed with the station’s scientific merits, Agassiz donated books and scientific equipment worth up to $2,000. The following summer, Ellen Scripps supported building a new boat for the station after the loss of the Loma, a yacht that E. W. had donated to the station in early 1904. The Loma had proven her worth for only two seasons as retrofitting her for research took almost year; she had run aground near the lighthouse on Point Loma in July 1906. After desperate attempts to move her, Cabral and the scientists had clambered over the

Chapter 1 | 1901–1910    7 slippery rocks and, in bucket-brigade-style, emptied the little yacht of all her equipment and gear—hoisting the goods by rope up a 30-foot cliff. Of the $50,000 Ellen Scripps had promised to the station, $16,000 of it went to building the 85-foot Alexander Agassiz, a modified scow with a 26-foot beam. But like the station itself, the Alexander Agassiz had a few mishaps at the start. She was late to her original launch date by almost a week, disappointing the large crowd that had arrived on August 16 to see her christened. When the actual day came she became stuck in the sand and needed assistance from a launch to make it into deeper waters. During the following summers the pretty sailing boat grew into her role as a working vessel. The original engines, still under warranty, were replaced with 30-hp twin standard engines. Her mainmast was shortened to lighten her 40-ton build and reduce her rolling motion at sea. In summer 1908, during his sabbatical to Europe, Kofoid was granted $800 to spend on equipment for the new boat. He visited laboratories in Naples, Liverpool, and Bergen—and managed to make one of the last orders for equipment at the International Council’s soon-to-close Central Laboratory. Up until the mid-20th century, mariners wanting to measure the depth of the seafloor took a sounding, which required spooling a line with a weight over the side of the ship. When the sounding line hit bottom, presumably the length of the line in the water equaled the depth of the ocean. But surface and deepwater currents would move the boat or the line away from a perpendicular angle to the seafloor. The Central Laboratory provided heavier cable for sounding lines, and although it was considered an improvement, with great distances the tremendous weight of the cable underwater made it difficult to determine when it touched the bottom. Kofoid found the Central Laboratory to be “cheap, quick and exceedingly accurate.” He purchased the sounding cable and took notes on how various research vessels arranged their rigging and equipment to science’s best advantage. Unfortunately, he wrote to Ritter, the Central Laboratory could no longer certify his thermometers, and he would have to pay extra for the certification at Germany’s governmental bureau of physical standards. Finally, with new equipment, a new boat, and a new building being built on the newly bought lot, the San Diego Marine Biological Station had landed a home in La Jolla in 1909. All it needed was to evolve from a summer seaside station to a year-round institute. Ellen Scripps changed her will early that year in order to bequeath $150,000 to the University of California to carry on the work of its marine scientists at the Marine Biological Station under Ritter’s direction. In June 1909 Ritter and his wife moved from Berkeley to La Jolla, where they could watch the construction of the institution continue. Kofoid took Ritter’s place as head of Berkeley’s zoology department. With help, the annual budget for the seaside biological station had grown to $6,000 in 1908, with assets worth about $70,000—an impressive leap from the $200 in the summer of 1892. Once the laboratory had moved to its new headquarters, the association

28    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

Scientist of the Decade: Prince Albert I of Monaco (1848–1922) Seen  from  the  Mediterranean,  the  Oceanographic  Museum of Monaco rises above the sea cliffs with  the  architectural  beauty  of  a  finely  sculpted  statue  emerging  from  an  unfinished  base.  Constructed  between  1899  and  1910,  the  museum  houses  the  vast collection of its founder, Prince Albert Grimaldi  I  of  Monaco.  Born  in  188,  Prince  Albert  had  a  passion  for  science. As  a  boy,  with  his  grandfather  Florestan  I,  he  explored  the  honeycomb  of  caves  in the Red Rocks, or Baoussé-Roussé, that overlook  the sea at the base of the French-Italian Alps. Inside  the caves are masterpieces of Quaternary art, mural  paintings, and engravings. The two studied the cave  art and speculated about the lives of the artists and  who  they  might  have  been.  After  the  death  of  his  grandfather in 1856, Albert learned of the discovery  of  the  human  skeleton  Homo neanderthalis  found  in  the  Feldhofer  Cave  in  the  Neander Valley,  near  Dusseldorf,  Germany.  He  would  return  again  to  the  caves  for  the  purpose  of  anthropological  studies  after  learning  in  1908  of  French  paleontologist  Marcellin  Boule’s  description  of  a  more  complete  Neanderthal  skeleton  found  in  France  as  having  rudimentary  intellectual  abilities.  Albert  organized  the  Anthropological  Museum  of  Monaco  and  the  Institute of Human Paleontology. But history knows  him better for his investigations of life in the ocean. At  18  the  crown  prince  of  Monaco  joined  the  Oceanographer Albert I, prince of Monaco (Hulton Archive/ Spanish  navy,  where  he  earned  the  nickname  Getty Images) Albert the Navigator. After three years he resigned  with the rank of lieutenant to take an English bride,  Lady Marie-Victoire de Douglas-Hamilton, daugh- the  Sovereign  Prince.  France  had  bestowed  the  ter of the 11th duke of Hamilton and Brandon. She  same title on his father in 1861 during a treaty writgave birth to their son, Prince Louis II, in 1870, and  ten to honor Monaco’s autonomy. The principality  soon afterward she ran away with the child, making  had  been  usurped  during  the  French  Revolution,  the marriage void. Albert later married the popular  and its cities of Menton and Roquebrune returned  American  Alice  Heine,  a  native  of  New  Orleans  to  France  after  decades  of  independent  secession  and the widowed duchess of Richelieu. under Sardinian (Italy) protection. Monaco is now  Prince Albert’s research interests kept him away  the second smallest independent state (after Vatican  at sea for weeks at a time. From 1886 to near the  City). With 1.95 square kilometers of hilly land, it is  time  of  his  death,  the  prince  sponsored  more  about half the size of New York City’s Central Park.  than 20 expeditions. His first ship, the Hirondelle  In 1863 Charles III had reinvented the principality’s  (1886–88),  investigated  the  waters  around  the  economic  strengths  by  building  the  district  of  Azores Islands in the Atlantic. Monte Carlo and its now-famous casino. With the death of his father, Prince Charles III,  Albert  relied  on  science  to  raise  the  principalin 1889, Albert was named Most Serene Highness  ity’s  stature.  “I  have  cultivated  science  because 

Chapter 1 | 1901–1910    29

it  diffuses  knowledge,  and  knowledge  engenders  justice,” he said. With this in mind, he also founded  the International Institute of Peace in 1903, with the  task of “studying the means of resolving disagreements between nations by arbitration, propagating  attachment  to  methods  of  harmonious  agreement  and removing hatred from the hearts of people.” A  walk  through  the  Oceanographic  Museum  today  reveals some of the animals that Albert found and  preserved  in  collection  jars.  To  accompany  the  museum and aquarium, Albert also established an  institute in Paris to teach oceanography. In 1900 Prince Albert published the second volume of his monograph detailing the seven cruises  of the Princess Alice from 1891 to 1897. This ship  sailed the western Mediterranean off the coasts of  France and Morocco and cruised the eastern North  Atlantic using the latest research equipment to capture deepwater species off the Canaries and around  the Azores up to 30° west longitude. Marine biologist Louis Joubin wrote in his report on the results  of the Princess Alice expeditions: “The total results  are  interesting  and  I  do  not  think  I  stretch  the  truth in saying that the cephalopods caught by the  Princess Alice can be compared without prejudice  in importance to the specimens caught during the  memorable expedition of the Challenger.” One of the more fascinating creatures the crew  caught  was  an  animal  that  today  is  nicknamed  the  “Dumbo”  octopus  for  the  appendages  that  protrude from its head like oversized ears to help  it  “fly”  through  the  water  column.  During  the  first  seven  cruises,  the  Princess Alice  caught  one  of  these  species  of  Grimpoteuthis,  then  called  Cirroteuthis umbellate,  and  another  cephalopod,  Eledonella diaphana,  at  the  astonishing  depth  of  1,30  feet  (,360  m).  They  also  looked  in  the  belly of many predator animals such as tuna fish,  dolphins, and sperm whale and found they dined  on  a  variety  of  cephalopods.  Half-digested  in  the  belly of sperm whales, were creatures akin to Jules  Verne’s  sea  monster  in  his  1870  science  fiction  novel  Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea.  Verne had adapted marine science fact to fiction.  The giant squid Architeuthis was first identified as  a marine invertebrate in 1857. Yet, with all of these animals found dead, either  washed ashore, in nets or in the bellies of sperm  whales,  their  identification  left  room  for  doubt. 

Boldly  attaching  names  to  unknowns,  between  1857 and 1899 marine scientists named eight different genres of giant squid. Joubin named one of  the giant creatures Dubioteuthis physeteris. Other  cephalopods discovered during the voyages were  named  in  honor  of  the  Grimaldi  family,  which  can  date  its  origins  in  Monaco  back  to  1297.  Some  of  the  specimens  named  in  1900  included  Chiroteuthis grimaldi, Lepidoteuthis grimaldi, Grimalditeuthis richardi  as  well  as  Tremoctopus hirondellei, and Octopus alberti. Albert  continued  his  oceanographic  research  and gave presentations on his findings at scientific  conventions,  including  the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science.  He  chaired  a  commission in 1903 and again in 1910 that produced a  bathymetric map of the ocean for the International  Geographic Congress. The first commission, which  met  on  April  15  and  16,  1903,  in  Wiesbaden,  Germany,  set  international  standards  for  naming  geologic  features  on  the  seafloor.  Since  the  16th  century, navigational charts passed down from captain to captain had identified various depths of the  ocean floor with contour lines derived from soundings taken during each voyage. Access to the charts  became  more  common  following  M.  F.  Maury’s  1853  publication  of  the  North  Atlantic  bathymetry  chart.  The  Seventh  International  Geographic  Congress  held  in  Berlin  in  1899  had  nominated  the commission chaired by Prince Albert with the  responsibility  of  publishing  a  general  bathymetric  chart  that  consolidated  the  global  collection  of  soundings  and  the  terminology  used  in  mapping  the ocean floor. The commission relied heavily on  the  work  of  French  oceanographer  Julien Thoulet  and printed its first chart in 1905. For his work Prince Albert I earned a seat in the  Academy  of  Sciences.  In  1918  he  was  awarded  the Alexander Agassiz Medal for his original contributions to the science of oceanography. Princess Alice II  continued  to  make  expeditions  through  1910,  when  the  museum  opened,  and  was  followed  in  1911  with  another  expedition  on  the  Hirondelle II. During these later voyages the ships  traveled north as far as Spitzbergen in Norwegian  waters  and  westward  to  the  Sargasso  Sea.  The  research results from these cruises filled the third  volume  of  the  monograph,  which  Prince  Albert  published in 1920. He died on June 26, 1922.

30    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science gave the Little Green Laboratory at the Cove back to the La Jolla Park Commission. On July 1, 1912, the Marine Biological Association of San Diego sold the deed for the station to the Regents of the University of California for $10. In honor of the contributions made by Ellen and E. W. Scripps, the university renamed the San Diego Marine Biological Station the Scripps Institution for Biological Research of the University of California. In 1925 the institution would change its name again, this time to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Further Reading Amundsen, Roald. “Expedition to the North Magnetic Pole.” Geographical Journal 20, no. 6 (December 1902): 627–629. Amundsen proposes his expedition through the Northwest Passage. ———. The North West Passage. London: A. Constable and Co., Ltd., 1908. In this two-volume book, Amundsen tells of the voyage of exploration on board the ship Gjøa from 1903 to 1907. The book also has a supplement by First Lieutenant Hansen, vice commander of the expedition. California Seafood Council. “A Brief Historical Overview.” This Web site provides a brief history describing how American immigrants impacted the state’s fishing industry. Available online. URL: http://ca-seafood. ucdavis.edu/facts/indhist.htm. Accessed on January 8, 2008. Daly, R. A. “Expeditions to Iceland, Greenland, and Labrador.” Science 13, no. 318 (February 1, 1901): 192. A note announcing an expedition for the summer exploring the geology of the North Atlantic islands. ———. “Notes on Oceanography.” Science 13, no. 337 (June 14, 1901): 951. Notes on the upcoming oceanographic museum in Monaco as well as discussion on the possible cause of current directions at the mouths of rivers. Froidevaux, Henri. “M. Froidevaux’s Paris Letter.” Bulletin of the American Geographical Society 33, no. 3 (1901): 281–288. A brief report on the 39th annual session of the Congress of Learned Societies held in Nancy, France, April 9–13, 1901. Graves, Caswell. Investigations for the Promotion of the Oyster Industry of North Carolina. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1904. Available online. URL: http://books.google.com/books?id=9WouAAAAI AAJ&dq=caswe ll+grave. Accessed on January 15, 2008. Helland-Hansen, Björn, and Fridtjof Nansen. The Norwegian Sea: Its Physical Oceanography Based upon the Norwegian Researches, 1900–1904. Report on Norwegian Fishery and Marine Investigations 2, no. 2. Kristiania: Het Mallingske, 1909. Much of the book focuses on the findings of the Michael Sars expeditions of 1900–1904. Hjort, Johan. “The Michael Sars North Atlantic Deep-Sea Expedition, 1910.” Geographical Journal 37, no. 4 (April 1911): 349–377 and 500– 520. Hjort’s report of the 1910 expedition in the North Atlantic funded by Sir John Murray.

Chapter 1 | 1901–1910    31 Kurlansky, Mark. Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World. New York: Walker and Co., 1997. This book takes a look at the historical significance of cod. Mast, S. O. “Obituary: Caswell Grave.” Science 99, no. 2566 (1944): 174. In this obituary, S. O. Mast of the Johns Hopkins University discusses the life and career of Caswell Grave. Mill, Hugh Robert. “Obituary: H. S. H. The Prince of Monaco.” Geographical Journal 60, no. 3. (September 1922): 235–237. This obituary briefly discusses the scientific accomplishments of Prince Albert I of Monaco. National Geophysical Data Center. “General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO).” This Web site provides public bathymetry data sets of the world’s oceans as well internationally accepted nomenclature for undersea features. Available online. URL: http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/ mgg/gebco/. Accessed on February 1, 2008. Northeast Fisheries Science Center. “Historical Highlights 1900s.” A time line of historic events during the 20th century, starting from the 1900s. Available online. URL: http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/history/ timeline/1900.html. Accessed on January 15, 2008. Perrson, Anders. “How Do We Understand the Coriolis Force?” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 79, no. 7 (July 1998): 1,373–1,385. This report includes a brief history on the development of understanding the Coriolis force. Raitt, Helen, and Beatrice Moulton. Scripps Institution of Oceanography: First Fifty Years. Los Angeles: Ward Ritchie Press, 1967. This book tells the story of how the Scripps Institution of Oceanography became established and the scientists and benefactors who made it happen. Rozwadowski, Helen M. The Sea Knows No Boundaries: A Century of Marine Science under ICES. Copenhagen: International Council for the Exploration of the Sea in association with University of Washington Press, Seattle 2002. This book details the history of the International Council of the Exploration of the Sea.

i



1911–1920: ocean Challenges

Introduction The teen years of the 20th century found marine scientists developing technological advancements as part of the Great War effort to explore the ocean for enemy submarines and make the seas a safer and more efficient medium for transportation. The development of sonar brought with it the dual capabilities of detecting icebergs coming down Iceberg Alley on the west coast of Greenland into the northern Atlantic trade routes, and detecting submarines once the war started. The completion of the Panama Canal came just in time to give the United States a naval advantage in routing ships between the Pacific and Atlantic. The joining of two oceans proved a migratory route for more than just ships, however, as some marine species tolerant to freshwater crossed the split in the isthmus. For example, previously seen only in the Pacific Ocean, the Goby fish Gobiosoma (Garmannia) nudum crossed the Panama Canal and was discovered in the Atlantic in 1962. In the other direction went the Opossum pipefish, Microphis brachyurus lineatus. For most marine organisms, however, the series of freshwater lakes built above sea level proved an effective barrier. The concern of biological cross-contamination of marine invasive organisms became a serious issue in the 1960s when talks ensued over expanding and deepening the canal. The issue remains a concern. In the second decade of the 20th century, as the United States was splitting continents to connect oceans, in Germany the Arctic explorer and meteorologist Alfred Wegener (1880–1930) was connecting the fit of the continents during the Cretaceous period. Wegener’s theory of continental drift would arrive, like the first ship through the Panama Canal, with little fanfare. He was pitching an old idea in a new way, however. The significance of his model—that the continents on Earth not only moved to their current location over millions of years but were ever so slowly still in motion—would ultimately revolutionize some of the most basic concepts in the field of Earth science. It would come at a high cost: personally for Wegener, in the form 33

34    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science of verbal attacks against him from American geologists; professionally for scientists in America, where continental drift became an anathema rather than a curiosity; and economically for oceanographers, who in the 1950s and 1960s, after extensive ship time investigating the seafloor, would settle the debate with the modified and more detailed picture provided by the theory of plate tectonics. Wegener’s story is covered in more detail in the accompanying book to this series, Earth Science: Decade by Decade. For this chapter the scientist of the decade representing the field of marine science is Henry Bryant Bigelow—a sailor who, despite an unfortunate tendency to get seasick, conducted one of the world’s first exhaustive oceanographic surveys of regional population dynamics. Bigelow stood at the helm of USS Grampus in the biting winds of the Gulf of Maine with a dedication to the ocean that marine scientists, especially those still earning their sea legs, strive to emulate even today.

German explorer Wilhelm Filchner (1877–1957)  leads a team of scientists on board the Deutschland  on Germany’s second Antarctic expedition. Although  they do not succeed in making their goal of a transAntarctic crossing, they learn a great deal about the  physical and biological properties of the waters in  the South Atlantic and Weddell Sea

German meteorologist Alfred Lothar Wegener proposes  his unified theory of continental drift and the supercontinent of Pangaea. His theory, which opposes the sinking  of continents, is based on fossil and glacial evidence Nils Gustaf Dalén (1869–1937) of Sweden wins the  Nobel Prize in physics for his invention of automatic  regulators for use in conjunction with gas accumulators for illuminating lighthouses and buoys

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1911 Eugene Ely, flying a Curtiss Pusher,  becomes the first to land an airplane  on a ship when he touches down on  the USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco Roald Amundsen and his team reach  the South Pole a few weeks before  Robert Scott’s team. Amundsen  returns to Norway safely, but the  English Scott’s team perishes

1912 April 15, the Titanic sinks Sir John Murray and Johan Hjort in their book The Depths of the Ocean about the North Atlantic Michael Sars expedition of 1910 also describe the deepwater site “Challenger  Deep” near Guam in the Pacific that was named after the  187–76 Challenger expedition, which first sounded the  area in 1875. In November 1899, the USS Nero sounded  the Challenger Deep to a depth 31,614 feet (9,636 m)

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Chapter  | 1911–1920    35 (opposite page) German meteorologist Alfred Wegener was responsible for igniting geologic debate against the established theory that the continents permanently maintained their current positions when he published his research on the formation of ocean basins and the likelihood of continental drift. (Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research)

The Sinking of the Titanic and the Rise of Sonar When the “unsinkable” Titanic struck an iceberg on the night of April 14, 1912, during her maiden voyage across the Atlantic to New York Harbor, the resulting disaster brought about international concern for marine safety. Within a month of the ship’s sinking, the United States had two of its navy vessels patrolling the waters of the North Atlantic shipping routes for ice and communicating any visible hazards to nearby ships, using Morse code across wireless telegraphs. But certainly such dangers would be better avoided if there were a way for ships to identify icebergs at night or beyond the binocular-aided view of the horizon. On a clear, calm day at sea, a sailor situated 50 feet above the surface can see about 8 nautical miles away with the naked eye. Sailing ships under full sail can easily cover that distance in about an hour and steam engines in

French physicist Paul Langévin (187–1946) and  Russian engineer Constantin Chilowsky (1880–1958)  in Switzerland, develop a high frequency ultrasonic  echo-sounding device, called a hydrophone, for  detecting submerged ice and submarines

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1913

Captain Robert Abram Bartlett’s ship, the Karluk  is crushed in the Arctic ice near Wrangel Island.  The Canadian navigator sleds to Siberia to find  help and returns in September 1914 to rescue  the surviving crew members

1914

The Panama Canal opens on August 15

36    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science about half that time. Visually searching for icebergs was a full-time job. But with icebergs hiding most of their mass underwater, a better way of detecting such an obstacle would be to devise a means to “see” beneath the surface. Marine engineers began experimenting with sending sound underwater to try and identify how far an obstacle was based on a return echo. No one knew that dolphins had already perfected the technique. Even in regard to bats, their ability to emit short wave-length sounds and navigate by “sound pictures” was first introduced as a hypothesis in 1920. Experiments as early as 1906 had shown they were not relying on keen eyesight or touch to navigate in the dark. In 1944 Zoologist Donald Griffin of Harvard first coined the term echolocation in describing acoustic methods of orientation. In 1952 oceanographers W. N. Kellogg and Robert Kohler of Florida State University found that porpoises sped up their locomotion in response to underwater pulses of low and high frequency sound waves like horses “going from a trot to a gallop.” They hypothesized in the journal Science that “porpoises may not only hear frequencies as high as 50,000 cps, but that they may also produce or emit ultrasonic vibrations. The inference seems inescapable that the porpoise, like the bat, may orient itself with respect to objects in the environment by echolocation—that is, by the reflection of its own sound waves.”

Alfred Wegener publishes Die Entstehung der kontinente und ozeane (The Origin of Continents  and Oceans). In it he gives several  lines of evidence for his 191 proposal of continental drift

Roald Amundsen returns to the Arctic to commence an eight-year polar drift over the North  Pole. He intentionally traps his ship the Maud  in Arctic ice, but the expedition ends after six  years without ever crossing the North Pole

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1915

1917 Sperry inboard gyroscopic  stabilizers are available

1918 Japanese inventor Ohgushi  patents the first self-contained  diving tank using compressed  air and a regulator with a  one-way valve that a diver can  trigger to release air by squeezing the valve with his teeth.  Frenchman Yves Le Prieur’s  diving “lung” follows in 196

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Chapter  | 1911–1920    37 Historically sound had already helped sailors avoid collisions. As early as 1902, stationary lightships along the American coastline warned oncoming boats of nearby shoals with underwater bells. Mariners knew from an 1826 experiment in Lake Geneva that sound traveled nearly five times faster in water than in air. In that experiment, French mathematician Charles Sturm had rung a church bell underwater at the same time that he ignited a flare. On another boat across the lake, his friend, Swiss physicist Daniel Colladon, had a stopwatch and listened for the bell using an ear trumpet dipped into the lake. The two calculated the speed of sound at 1,435 meters per second in water that was 35°F (1.8°C). Given that speed, it seemed a straightforward approach to calculate the distance sound took to reach an object and ricochet back to the source. Oceanographers had yet to learn the effect that the changing properties of water—such as salinity, temperature, and depth would have on the speed of sound. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea had advanced a method for calculating water density based on temperature and salinity records; they used this to predict currents. It would not be until 1919 that German physicist Hugo Lichte (1891–1963) would identify how horizontal temperature layers in seawater influenced the range of underwater sound signals. In the meantime, technical advances began to shape the instruments that would transmit and receive sound waves underwater.

Danish biologist Johannes Schmidt begins the Dana I and Dana II expeditions to collect deepwater organisms and determines the Sargasso Sea is the likeliest  breeding location for the freshwater eel

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1919

German scientist Hugo Lichte (1891–1963)  advances the understanding of underwater  acoustics through his theory that sound waves  moving through water refract either downward  or upward when they encounter changes in  temperature, salinity, and pressure

1920

The first underwater color photographs  are taken using artificial light

The U.S. Navy tests helium gas  for use in diving

38    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science SPEED OF SOUND UNDER WATER feet/meters

Speed increases

0

Depth

3,281 feet (1,000 m)

Minimum speed of sound

Increasing temperature Sound channel

6,562 feet (2,000 m)

Source of sound

9,843 feet (3,000 m) 13,125 feet (4,000 m) Increasing pressure 16,405 feet (5,000 m)

13,125 feet (4,000 m)

9,843 feet (3,000 m)

6,562 feet (2,000 m)

3,281 feet (1,000 m)

16,405 feet (5,000 m)

Speed of sound in feet (meters) per second

The speed of sound through the ocean depends on the water’s temperature, salinity, and pressure. Sound travels about four times faster through water than through air. The speed of sound underwater varies between 4,593 feet per second and 5,151 feet per second (1,400–1,570 m/s).

© Infobase Publishing

Five days after the Titanic disaster, meteorologist Lewis F. Richardson filed a patent in Britain to find icebergs using airborne echo ranging. He quickly followed this patent with one on May 10 for echo ranging through water. But it was Canadian engineer Reginald A. Fessenden (1866–1932) who would conduct the first successful test of an echo sounder underwater and patent the device in the United States. Fessenden had a natural curiosity toward science. He worked for two years in Thomas Edison’s laboratory and was adept at creating inventions to help with sound and light transmission. While others still favored Morse code, Fessenden embraced a future of wireless voice communication. But despite his successful transmissions—most notably a Christmas eve performance in 1906, during which wireless operators of several ships in the Atlantic heard Fessenden transmit a recording of George Handel’s “Largo” on an Ediphone, play “Oh Holy Night” on the violin, and read from the Bible before wishing them a Merry Christmas—he failed to inspire financial support. He joined Boston’s Submarine Signal Company and applied his knowledge of wireless communication to underwater problems such as iceberg and submarine detection and communication between submarines. He also built an electric oscillator that emitted low-frequency sound waves. With this he included a transducer that could receive sound signals much like a telephone receiver. On April 27, 1914, though seasick, Fessenden detected an iceberg about 11 nautical miles (20 km) away.

FPO

Chapter  | 1911–1920    39 Before the echo returned, however, his colleagues on the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Miami noted during the experiment that within two seconds of the outgoing sound pulse an echo from the sea floor had already reached the ship. With the onset of World War I, interest in echo sounding switched from iceberg detection to submarine detection. The British, American, and French allies labeled the technique ASDIC (for Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee). But tracking and pinpointing the exact location from which a sound source rebounded proved frustratingly difficult without the knowledge of ocean properties on sound. Fessenden concentrated his efforts in 1915 on a device that used sound waves to detect the ocean’s depth. The Fessenden oscillator, as his echo sounder was called, proved an early version of the Fathometer—a type of echo sounder also used to measure water depth that was invented by American engineer and physicist Herbert Grove Dorsey for the Submarine Signal Corporation and trademarked in 1928. Besides avoiding icebergs and detecting submarines, there was an oceanographic and navigational need for quickly determining the depth of the seafloor, especially in the polar regions. Though frozen in what was thought a safe over-winter site, a storm set adrift the Karluk on September 21, 1913, leaving its Canadian expedition leader, Vilhjalmur Stefansson (1879–1962), behind on the shore. He had been hoping to use the vessel as part of a three-ship effort to search for what he thought was a northern continent in the Arctic Ocean. He dispatched the news from Point Barrow, Alaska: “When the storm cleared on the 24th the ice had gone and the Karluk with it.” In his letter he added that, “it was the purpose to have the Karluk give her summers as far as possible to the

Titanic discovery. On September 1, 1985, sonar coupled with towed video cameras helped oceanographers aboard the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution ship Knorr locate the wreck of the Titanic. This photo shows scientists from the Institute for Exploration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) exploring the wreck remotely from the control room aboard the NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown. (NOAA)

40    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science exploration of the unknown region; sledge journeys were to be made in winter over the sea ice in search for new land and to take soundings and carry out such other oceanographical work as was possible.” Though stuck in a two-mile square (5 km2) ice floe, the crew was under the able command of Captain Robert Abram Bartlett (1875–1946), Admiral Robert Peary’s captain of the Roosevelt during Peary’s race to the North Pole. Bartlett continued the oceanographic research, taking soundings under the ice using wire and dredging for sedimentary samples of the seafloor. When the crew pulled up boxes of soft mud and sand and sea stars accompanied by other species of sea life from 7,000 feet (about 2,000 m), they were finding some of the first examples of deep-sea marine biology taken from as far north as the 73rd parallel. But they were clearly in oceanic depths and far beyond the continental shelf. They drifted with the wind until reaching shallower depths again in November. Bartlett ordered the crew to unload 250 sacks of coal and 100 cases of biscuit (the principal food source for the crew) from the 247-ton wooden ship and store the goods on the ice. At 3:00 in the morning on January 10, 1914, the ice floe cracked and shifted. That night a storm blew in, and a corner of the ice struck the ship, causing a leak in the engine room. In the dark, the crew placed everything they thought they would need 100 yards from the ship in a house made of boxes. The stores included pemmican, milk, tea, clothing, ammunition, guns, oil, canvas, and at least two stoves. The crew of 25 included five Inuit, one of whom was a woman traveling with her child. She set about preparing the box house for the rest of the crew. An ice-house was built beside it, and the crew remained on what they called Camp Shipwreck until mid-February. At that time, a scouting party with Bartlett reached Wrangell Island, and the surviving crew made camp on land while Bartlett sledged some 100 miles (about 160 km) south to Siberia for help. He met up with a whaling ship that took him to Alaska, where he launched a rescue. On September 7, 1914, the U.S. cutter Bear, in addition to two schooners rescued the surviving members of the expedition from Wrangell Island, where three died. The Bear also sought for the missing eight on Herald Island but could only reach within 12 miles (19 km), due to the surrounding ice, and found no signs of life. In 1916, Bartlett and one of the survivors, Ralph Hale, published a book, The Last Voyage of the Karluk, that detailed the story of the expedition, which was also closely followed throughout its saga in the pages of the New York Times. While the allied forces were experimenting with sound to detect German U-boats, the Germans were doing the same to also detect dangerous icebergs and allied submarines. On February 13, 1916, the physicist Alexander Behm, who had struggled with horizontal sound waves to work on iceberg detection, succeeded in measuring the depth of the shallow Kiel Fjord by carefully measuring the time of return echoes from small explosive devices. His experiment showed that even a muddy seafloor could produce echoes. When Hugo Lichte, also in Kiel,

Chapter  | 1911–1920    41

Survivors of the SS Karluk, Stefansson expedition, aboard the USRC Bear, 1914 (Photo by Lomen Brothers, Archives University of Alaska, Fairbanks)

Germany, reported on the refracted nature of sound through a stratified ocean in 1919, he opened the doors to the field of ocean acoustic physics. But the science behind how salinity, temperature, and depth change the speed of sound underwater remained secret from the French, British, and American scientists. In 1923, Hugo and his colleagues filed U.S. patents on their underwater sound signaling devices and receivers, though they remained silent on the critical aspect of how variations in ocean properties affected them. It would be decades and another world war before the Allied scientists independently came to similar understandings of underwater acoustic properties.

Panama Canal After the construction of the Suez Canal, which bisected Egypt and connected the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea, Ferdinand de Lesseps of France turned his attention to creating a link between oceans. A longsought goal dating back to the 16th century was to find a way other than around the tip of South America to sail from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The narrow landmass in Central America held great promise. With the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, de Lesseps had confidence that a similar canal could be built through Central America, easing commerce and trade among nations. An international committee with the Geographical Society of Paris chose to build through Panama, and digging began in 1880. But the cost of the project both in lives and money exceeded all expectations. The living conditions built to support the labor force put the men and their families directly in the path of mosquitoes capable of transmitting yellow fever and malaria. Not until 1900 would the American doctor Walter Reed, working in Cuba, show that mosquitoes transmitted disease. Pans of water used to trap insects had been breeding them under patients’ beds. The canal’s financial costs rose during the French construction, in part because of de Lesseps’s insistence that the canal be built at sea level.

20CS Marine Science 18.eps AI 10 Finals 12/05/07 4    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Atlantic Ocean Caribbean Sea

PANAMA CANAL Limon ` Bay

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Gatun ` Dam

Colon ` Cristobal `

NORTH AMERICA

Gatun ` locks

Atlantic Ocean

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Gatun ` Lake

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Gatun ` Lake

SOUTH AMERICA

Pedro Miguel lock

Miraflores L. Miraflores locks

PANAMA

Panama City

Panama Canal zone 0

20 miles

0

32 km

N Gulf of Panama Pacific Ocean

Gaillard cut

Gatun ` locks

Atlantic Ocean (Limon ` Bay)

Gatun ` Lake

Pedro Miguel lock Miraflores Lake Miraflores locks

85 feet (26 m) Level of the Atlantic

© Infobase Publishing

Pacific Ocean (Gulf of Panama)

Chapter  | 1911–1920    43 (opposite page) Map of the Panama Canal Zone, showing the levels of the canal (Based on Ulrich Keller, ed., The Building of the Panama Canal in Historic Photographs, Dover Publications, Inc., 1983. Source: J. and M. Biesanz, The People of Panama. New York: Columbia University Press, 1955)

For the project to succeed, the canal would have to be built in a series of freshwater locks and pools, rising to an elevation of 170 feet (52 m). Originally designed for engineering considerations, the freshwater lakes prevented most marine species from using the Panama Canal. In the Suez Canal, which was slightly higher on the Red Sea side, for several decades a series of natural hypersaline lakes killed most species traveling from the Red Sea through the canal to the Mediterranean. Starting in the late 1920s, however, the canal water had mixed with the lakes to the point that their salinity was substantially decreased. Hundreds of Red Sea species have since invaded the Mediterranean Sea, a human-made phenomena termed Lessepsian migration. Ultimately, de Lesseps lost his financial support to build the Panama Canal in Suez fashion. Construction continued off and on with limited means before the French finally offered to sell all of their equipment and the right to the canal to the United States for $40 million, the same price the Americans had quoted the French earlier in negotiations. Though tempted to build a new route through Nicaragua, the U.S. Congress voted to purchase the French assets in Panama. Their decision may have been strongly influenced by a stamp depicting an eruption of Nicaragua’s Momotombo Volcano, even though the volcano was a hundred miles from the proposed canal route. Former French director of the Panama project Philippe Bunau-Varilla worked with a lobbyist in New York who found the erroneous stamp (the volcano was dormant at the time) and mailed a copy to every senator. In 1903, backed by the USS Nashville off its coast, Panama declared its independence from Colombia. The United States continued to control the canal until December 31, 1999. President Theodore Roosevelt saw the Panama Canal as a means for the United States to improve its naval presence on both oceans. He followed the doctrine of Thayer Mahan, who concluded in his 1890 book Influence of Sea Power upon History that whoever ruled the seas ruled the land. England, predictably, favored the book, and Japanese military colleges taught it as required reading. Roosevelt, then 31 years old and not yet president, wrote a positive review of Mahan’s work in the Atlantic Monthly. When the United States agreed to take over the French assets in Panama, it was with the interests of a naval power in mind. In 1906 Congress passed Roosevelt’s decree to build a battleship a year. Many of the battleships fought through World War II with marine geologists and other oceanographers on board as officers in the Navy.

44    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science But the U.S. government–financed construction in Panama was not without setbacks. The Panama railroad allowed for steam shovels and plows to dig out most of the excavation, but landslides were notorious for destroying the tracks. In the case of what is called the Cucaracha Slide, on October 11, 1913, the railway network had already been removed to prepare the lock for flooding. After the landslide, men worked together in a six-tiered fashion, with the lowest tier of men knee-deep in water shoveling mud up to the higher tiers. Eventually, with patience, they widened the canal for the water to flow through it again. Americans entered the canal with the goal of completion in 1914, a challenge they met successfully. From the first shovel of dirt to the last, the workers, mostly Jamaican, Spanish, or Italian, excavated 232 million cubic yards. The commission spent $352 million, and 5,609 people died, primarily from yellow fever and malaria. In 1913 the United States invited a number of countries to sail a celebratory fleet of international navy vessels from Hampton Roads, Va., on the Chesapeake Bay, across the Atlantic, through the canal, and up to San Francisco. The plan was to sail the ships across the canal in 1915 and return via the same route a few months later. Sweden’s Otto Pettersson, founder of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, suggested the diplomatic expedition would make for a perfect oceanographic investigation. He recommended equipping the ships with scientific instruments. Prince Albert of Monaco agreed to lead the expedition on board the Hirondelle and helped Pettersson convince seven of the invited countries to take water samples and hydrographic

The first ship to transit the Panama Canal was the SS Ancon on August 15, 1914, just as World War I was erupting in Europe. (U.S. Navy)

Chapter 2 | 1911–1920    5

Scientist of the Decade: Henry Bryant Bigelow (1879–1967) When Henry Bryant Bigelow first took the helm  of  the  90-foot  schooner  Grampus  in  1908,  he  was on the lookout for jellyfish. A recent graduate  from  Harvard,  he  was  working  under  the  guidance  of  Alexander  Agassiz.  Bigelow  first  sailed  with  Agassiz  in  1901  on  an  expedition  to  coral  atolls  around  the  Maldive  Islands  in  the  Indian  Ocean.  Still  a  graduate  student  at  the  time,  Bigelow  had  heard  Agassiz  was  planning  the  expedition  and  introduced  himself,  hoping  his  skills  as  an  invertebrate  zoologist 

Henry Bryant Bigelow, professor at Harvard University, on the deck of the USS Grampus during the explorations in the Gulf of Maine (1912–14) conducted for the Bureau of Fisheries (NOAA)

would  prove  useful  to  the  director  of  Harvard’s  Museum of Comparative Zoology. He later wrote  that  “while  I  hadn’t  the  least  idea  where  the  Maldive  Islands  were,  I  decided  I’d  like  to  go  along  too!”  Although  Agassiz  had  the  crew  do  the collecting, the sailors handed Bigelow all the  gelatinous  animals  they  found.  If  it  was  gooey,  he  got  it.  During  the  winters,  Bigelow  would  sort  through  the  bottles  of  preserved  cnidarians—the  phylum  containing  hydras,  jellyfish,  and  sea  anemones—caught  during  these  trips  and  write  reports  describing  the  species.  When  Agassiz  recommended  Bigelow  put  together  his  own  collecting  trip  to  bring  back  animals  from  the  Gulf  Stream,  the  young  biologist  jumped  at  the chance. The Bureau of Fisheries lent Bigelow  the Grampus. Collecting was difficult, though, as  the boat had a tendency to lurch and roll even in  calm weather. Still, Bigelow returned with a new  species  of  jellyfish  and  a  fantastic  haul  of  hundreds of pounds of salps, ring-shaped transparent  animals that connect to each other to form long  gelatinous and iridescent tubes. Collecting  expeditions  came  to  a  halt  for  Bigelow  after  Agassiz’s  sudden  death  on  March  27, 1910, while on a voyage home from London.  Bigelow  kept  close  to  the  Harvard  museum.  It  took  him  a  full  year  to  finish  describing  the  abundant  diversity  of  cnidarians  and  other  aquatic  creatures  he  and  his  mentor  had  found  in the decade they had worked together. In 1873  Agassiz had visited the Challenger crew in Halifax  and  had  shown  them  some  interesting  aspects  about  their  echinoderm  (sea  urchins,  crinoids,  and  starfish  for  example)  and  annelid  (worm)  collection.  Sir  John  Murray  and  Agassiz  had  remained  scientific  comrades  ever  since. When  Murray met Bigelow, the Scotsman urged his fellow oceanographer to get back out on the water.  (continues)

6    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

(continued) Bigelow  returned  to  the  Grampus  in  1912  with  a new mission: to understand and record everything  there  was  to  know  about  the  Gulf  of  Maine. Oceanic  expeditions  of  the  19th  century  focused  on  collecting  and  comparing  biological  and  geological  discoveries  about  the  world’s  oceans.  Bigelow  followed  the  lead  the  ICES  was  setting for the 20th century in the North Sea and  looked for interactions. Agassiz had taught him he 

Henry Bigelow spent much of his early work identifying species of medusae, such as these illustrated. Because of their complex lifestyle, the planktonic stage is the most common trait among jellyfish. (Marine Biological Laboratory)

should not assume that what works for one coral  reef applies for every coral reef in the ocean. This  observational  approach  to  learning  allowed  for  surprises  and  better  understanding  of  oceanic  features  as  dynamic  environments.  Coastal  communities, too, would benefit from this method of  study as the importance of their near-shore waters  was made clear. Bigelow  did  not  have  a  fleet;  he  accomplished  his  work  sailing  one  boat  at  a  time.  His  colleague  William  W.  Welsh  (1878–1921)  helped him on these expeditions. Bigelow sailed  the Grampus every summer from 1912 to 1917,  despite  being  seasick  on  the  schooner.  He  traveled  more  than  2,000  miles  between  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,  and  Chesapeake  Bay,  and  in  the  winter  he  relied  on  the  fisheries  steamer  Blue Wing to conduct his work. He began by not only  identifying every fish he found, but also describing its habits, feeding grounds, larval stage, and  more.  He  examined  the  plankton  and  observed  how  the  circulation  and  characteristics  of  the  water  affected  both  microscopic  and  macroscopic life in the sea. The  outbreak  of  World  War  I  in  191  put  a  limit  on  how  much  Bigelow  could  accomplish  for  a  time.  He  learned  of  the  Great  War  when  he  brought  the  Grampus  into  port  in  Halifax.  The  shipbuilding  town  later  became  a  central  location for naval troops on their way across the  Atlantic.  Bigelow  had  hoped  to  continue  along  the  Canadian  coastline  with  his  investigation,  but authorities told him he would have to keep  the boat in territorial waters. Bigelow described  the  Gulf  of  Maine  as  the  area  that  “covers  the  oceanic bight from Nantucket Shoals and Cape  Cod  on  the  west,  to  Cape  Sable  on  the  east.  Thus  it  includes  the  shore  lines  of  northern  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  Maine,  and  parts  of  New  Brunswick  and  of  Nova  Scotia.”  He  kept  his  studies  between  65°  and  70°  west  longitude,  noting:  “The  Gulf  of  Maine  has  a  natural  seaward  rim  formed  by  Nantucket  Shoals, by Georges Bank, and by Browns Bank.” 

Chapter 2 | 1911–1920    7

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The Gulf of Maine connects the New England states of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine as well as the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia with 36,000 square miles (93,240 km2) of ocean, 7,500 miles (12,070 km) of shoreline, and roughly 5,000 islands.

He  also  only  investigated  fish  species  caught  from a maximum depth of 150 fathoms, or 900  feet  (275  m),  “because  this  will  include  all  of  the species that are likely to be caught by commercial  fishermen  but  will  exclude  almost  the  entire category of the so-called ‘deep-sea’ fishes,  which  are  numerous  in  the  basin  of  the  open  Atlantic.” After  a  brief  military  service  in  1918  to  help  navigate army troops across the ocean, Bigelow  returned  to  the  Gulf  of  Maine.  The  U.S.  Navy  had  bought  and  sold  the  Grampus,  and  the 

Bureau  of  Fisheries  lent  Bigelow  two  steamboats,  Halcyon  and  Fish Hawk,  to  continue  his  work. Already well familiar with the slimy habits  of  hagfish  and  the  secret  lives  of  the  valuable  schools of flounder, haddock, and cod, Bigelow  focused  more  on  the  water’s  physical  aspects.  He  wrote  messages  with  his  address  in  1,500  bottles  and  sent  them  adrift  for  fishermen  and  beachcombers  to  find  later.  He  concluded  from  this  experiment  that  the  waters  in  the  Gulf  of 

FPO

(continues)

8    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

(continued) Maine traveled mostly counterclockwise. He then  applied  the  Scandinavian  dynamic  method  of  current  prediction  using  water  density  inferred  from  temperature  and  salinity  measurements.  Theoretically,  because  cold  saltwater  is  denser  than  warm  freshwater,  slight  variations  between  temperature  and  salinity  would  generate  currents  as  the  colder,  saltier  water  sinks  below  the  warmer,  less  salty  water.  Bigelow’s  charts—what  he  often  called  his  weather  maps  for  the  gulf  waters—showed  where  low-density  and  highdensity currents flowed. The  Bureau  of  Fisheries  published  Bigelow’s  Fishes of the Gulf of Maine in 1925, coauthored  with  Welsh  (who  had  died  in  1921).  Bigelow’s  other Gulf of Maine studies soon followed, with  a book on plankton in 1926 and one on physical 

oceanography in 1927. In 1958 Bigelow worked  with William C. Schroeder to write a revision of  Fishes of the Gulf of Maine.  In  2002  the  book  was published for the public online (see the Web  site in further reading, opposite). Fishermen still  carry  copies  of  Bigelow’s  treatise  with  them  out  to sea. After Bigelow’s death in 1967, he was remembered for his determination and contributions to  marine  science.  “Until  Bigelow  started,  there was virtually no knowledge of the biology of the  off-shore waters, and for one man to have made  such  a  clear  and  complete  job  of  a  relatively  large  area,  which  has  a  wide  mouth  open  to  the ocean, was a monumental job of which any  man could be proud even if he had done nothing  else in his whole life,” wrote Michael Graham in  an appreciation in 1968. Henry Bigelow thus contributed much to the history of marine science.

measurements during the procession. In July 1914 the navigator prince sailed the Hirondelle to Kiel, Germany, where he assembled the members of the expedition for a final conference. “Then came the war,” wrote Pettersson. The Panama Canal celebrated its inaugural opening on August 15, 1914, without international fanfare. World War I had begun a few days earlier. The newspaper Canal Record reported that the SS Ancon completed the trip from “the ship’s berth at dock 9, Cristobal, to the end of the dredged channel, five miles out in the Bay of Panama, was made in approximately nine hours and 40 minutes.” In the 1920s the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey experimented with measuring the velocity of sound in seawater using acoustic soundings. Their ship, the Guide, crossed the Panama Canal in 1923 and compared wireline depth recordings with those taken using a Hayes echo sounder, designed by Harvey Hayes of the U.S. Navy. From the Gulf of Mexico to the west coast of Mexico and the North Pacific, the Guide tracked depths ranging between 100 and 4,617 fathoms (183 to 8,444 m). The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that “this work laid the basis for early work in determining accurate values for the velocity of sound in seawater. Over the next few years, virtually every U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey ship was outfitted with the new echo-sounding

Chapter   Chapter 1 ||Section 1911–1920 0    49 technology.” The United States controlled the canal until December 31, 1999.

Further Reading Arber, Agnes. Water Plants: A Study of Aquatic Angiosperms. 1920. Reprint, New York: Hafner Pub. Co., 1963. Arber’s book on water plants is a classic in the field and was republished throughout the century. Bartlett, Robert, and Ralph T. Hale. The Last Voyage of the Karluk. Toronto: McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart, 1916. This book narrates the survival of the Karluk crew in the Arctic. Bigelow, Henry. Fishes of the Gulf of Maine. This book was published online in 2002. URL: http://www.gma.org/fogm/Default.htm. Accessed on November 12, 2007. Bjørnø, Leif. “Features of Underwater Acoustics from Aristotle to Our Time.” Acoustical Physics 49, no. 1 (January 2003): 24–30. A history of underwater acoustics. Clymer, Adam. Drawing the Line at the Big Ditch: The Panama Canal Treaties and the Rise of the Right. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2008. This book discusses the political ramifications of the Panama Canal in the United States. Hardy, A. C. “Johan Hjort: 1869–1948.” Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society 7, no. 19 (November 1950): 167–181. Hardy provides an extensive description of the life and career of oceanographer and marine biologist Johan Hjort. Keller, Ulrich, ed. The Building of the Panama Canal in Historic Photographs. New York: Dover Publications, 1983. This picture book shows the construction process as well as the wide discrepancies in living conditions for laborers and management. Lansing, Alfred. Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1959. This best seller during its time recounts the story of Shackleton’s 1914 expedition and was recently republished in 1999. McCullough, David. The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1978. This book provides an in-depth description of the political and physical processes of building the Panama Canal. Murray, John (Sir). “Alexander Agassiz: His Life and Scientific Work.” This Web page provides the biography Sir John Murray wrote about Alexander Agassiz and first published in Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, vol. LIV, no. 3 (March 1911). Available online. URL: http://www.history.noaa.gov/giants/ag.html. Accessed on December 5, 2007. Murray, John, and Johan Hjort. The Depths of the Ocean: A general account of the modern science of oceanography based largely on the scientific researches of the Norwegian steamer Michael Sars in the North Atlantic, by Sir John

50    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Murray and Dr. Johan Hjort, with contributions from Professor A. Appellüf, Professor H. H. Gran, and Dr. B. Helland-Hansen. London: Macmillan, 1912. A report of the 1910 Michael Sars expedition. Nobelprize.org. “The Nobel Prize in Physics 1912: Nils Gustaf Dalén” This Web site provides details on the 1912 winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, Nils Gustaf Dalén, who won for helping to illuminate lighthouses and buoys. Available online. URL: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_ prizes/physics/laureates/1912/index.html. Accessed on March 15, 2008. Russell, E. S., and H. G. Maurice. “Obituaries: Prof Johan Hjort, For Mem R.S.” Nature 162, no. 4,124 (1948): 764–766. Two memorial essays on Hjort. Tyler-Lewis, Kelly. The Lost Men: The Harrowing Saga of Shackleton’s Ross Sea Party. New York: Viking Adult, 2006. Following her Emmy-winning work on the PBS/NOVA documentary “Shackleton’s Voyage of Endurance,” Tyler-Lewis focused on the less well-known sage of the men who succeeded during their part of the 1914–17 trans-Antarctic mission but died as a result.

Marine Science Food Web.eps

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Sir Alister Clavering Hardy studied the life cycle and feeding habits of North Sea herring and diagramed the first food web showing the fish’s eating habits and its interconnectedness with other animals and plants. (Based on A. C. Hardy, “The Herring in Relation to its Animate Environment. Part 1. The Food and Feeding Habits of the Herring with Special Reference to the East Coast of England,” Fishery Investigations Service, II VII [3], 1924, 53.)

52    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Using diagrams to illustrate food webs helps to demystify the illusion of a simple chain between predators and their prey and shows the complexity inherent in an ecosystem. The scientist of the decade for this chapter, Sir Alister Hardy, was a master at identifying food webs in the marine system. Such diagrams allow for a better understanding of how fisheries’ depletion of certain food sources, such as herring, can have a cascading effect on multiple species. The term ecosystem was first coined in the 1930s when British natural historian Sir Arthur G. Tansley (1871–1955) asked a young botanist at Oxford, A. Roy Clapham (1904–90), for a word that took into consideration both the physical and the biological components of an environment. In 1935 Tansley published a 23-page discussion on the use of terms describing the dynamic relationships between animals and their environment and heralded the term ecosystem as the best descriptor. Food webs such as Hardy’s became a standard tool among ecologists. It is still a primary requirement in getting to know an ecosystem under observation. From penguins to polar bears and everything in between the Antarctic and Arctic Seas, knowing who eats what, when, and where is critical in understanding how the ocean operates. Coupled with the food webs of the sea are the properties of the ocean—for example, its temperature, salinity, depth, carbon dioxide levels, oxygen levels, iron, and other nutrients—

British navy captain H. P.  Douglas devises the Douglas  scale to measure the height  of waves and sea swells

The Great Barrier  Reef Committee in  Australia is formed

German oceanographer Georg Wüst leads a  research team to the South Atlantic Ocean  aboard the R/V Meteor, 1925–27. Alfred  Merz, named director of the Institute für  Meereskunde in 1920, dies during the expedition. C. Richter & Wiese in Berlin construct  a deep-sea thermometer for the expedition

Milestones



1921

Fridtjof Nansen starts an international  relief organization for which he wins  the Nobel Peace Prize in 1938

1922

1925

The start of the Discovery Investigations around the  South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands begins  with the launch of the first ship the RRS Discovery  on October 5, 1925, to determine the effects of  the whaling industry on whale populations and to  survey the region. Two other ships join the investigation: the RRS William Scoresby in 1926 and the  RRS Discovery II in 1929, both of which continued  expeditions into the Antarctic seas until 1951

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Chapter 3 | 1921–1930    53

In 1922 Australia formed a committee to protect the Great Barrier Reef. (Great Barrier Reef Helicopter Group)

Charles Elton (1900–91) publishes Animal Ecology and applies  the term niche for use in ecology  to describe an environment for  which one species has an adaptive advantage over another

Sir Alister Hardy  founds a zoological  department at the  University of Hull  in England

November 18, an earthquake (magnitude  7.) strikes the coast of Grand Banks,  Newfoundland, in Canada. The resulting tsunami kills 9 people. Twelve telegraph cables  across the Atlantic are also destroyed from  what marine geologists in 195 determined  was a submarine landslide, or turbidity current

MileStoneS

1927 British inventor Joseph Peress  develops the first successful  armored diving suit, later  called a Jim suit after one of  the divers who wore it Norwegian scientists Haakon  Mosby (1903–89) and Gunner  Isachsen lead an Antarctic expedition aboard the Norwegia

1928 Danish biologist  Johannes Schmidt  leads the Carlsberg  Foundation  Oceanographical  Expedition on the  Dana

1929 Albert Defant  (1884–1974)  publishes  Dynamische Ozeanographie  (Dynamic  oceanography)

1930

January 6, the Woods Hole  Oceanographic Institution  (WHOI) is incorporated based  on the recommendation of the  National Academy of Sciences  Committee on Oceanography.  Henry Bryant Bigelow is  named director and Frank Lillie  becomes president of the board

5    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science that impact marine life in every possible way: from feeding habits to breeding cycles, from where they live to why they die. During the 1920s, oceanographers examined what they knew about the ocean and, more importantly, what they did not know and still had yet to learn. As difficult as it is to postulate on the unknown, a major component of oceanographic research became broadening the field to incorporate all of the properties that act on the ocean as a whole. At this time oceanographers were a distinct group of biologists, physicists, chemists, and geologists, each coming to the ocean to study the ways that their science operated in this marine system. In order to view the ocean as a cohesive unit, it was time to start sharing. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI; incorporated in 1930) was built as a means to integrate the field more fully and provide an East Coast counterpart to the Scripps Oceanographic Institution. With the Meteor expedition in 1925 marine scientists from varying disciplines worked together through hurricane weather to investigate the ocean.

Defining Oceanography and the Birth of WHOI During World War I, the U.S. Navy’s use for oceanographic knowledge led the government to launch the Naval Research Laboratory in Anacostia, Maryland. Built in 1923, the laboratory symbolized a new governmental interest in supporting oceanography. Increased philanthropic funding for natural sciences also emerged in the 1920s, with several million dollars provided by the Rockefeller Foundation. Before becoming director of the Scripps Institution for Biological Research in 1924, Thomas Wayland Vaughan (1870–1952) made an agreement with the University of California. The Texan had worked for the U.S. Geological Survey after graduating from Harvard and recognized the importance of broadening the scope of laboratory in both its research and its name. That is why in 1925 the biological station became the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. That same year, Frank R. Lillie (1870–1947), the director of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, set in motion the idea of building a private oceanographic institution on the East Coast. The Rockefeller Foundation agreed to aid both institutions, and Wickliffe Rose, president of the foundation’s general education board, traveled 6,000 miles in July 1925 to visit research stations throughout the United States and Canada. He declared, “The only way mankind will find peace and contentment will be for men and women to determine and understand the nature of life.” Such knowledge, he said, “could be learned from the skies through the Palomar telescope, or from the seas in marine biological research institutes.” In 1926 John D. Rockefeller provided a grant to the American Petroleum Institute for a five-year study on marine sediments collected

Chapter 3 | 1921–1930    55 during various expeditions. The grant was to help the oil industry, from which Rockefeller had made his wealth, by examining how oil-bearing sediments are formed, potentially aiding geologists in locating new petroleum deposits. Parker Trask of the U.S. Geological Survey took up the study, investigating sediment collected from the HMS Challenger expedition (1872–76), the International Ice Patrol, the Bureau of Fisheries, the Finnish Hydrographic Service, and the Hudson Bay Company, as well as a dozen more sources. Vaughan began fund-raising for the $120,000 he needed to add a new laboratory to Scripps. But the institution did not wait for the building to take on additional studies such as investigating marine sediments, ocean chemistry, and marine bacteria. To obtain their data, the Scripps oceanographers joined other scientists from the California State Game and Fish Commission, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, and the Naval Hydrographic Office on their expeditions. They also navigated the coastal waters with their own ship, a 64-foot (19.5-m) purse seiner renamed Scripps that was freshly painted with a blue hull and gold stripes to match the University of California colors. On the East Coast, the National Academy of Sciences formed a committee to provide advice and recommendations to Congress and began earnestly considering how the United States compared to the rest of the world in its oceanographic endeavors. Lillie chaired the Committee on Oceanography, which included Vaughan; John C. Merriam, president of Carnegie Corporation; William Bowie, chief of the division of geodesy at the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey; E. G. Conklin, professor of zoology at Princeton University and president of the Bermuda Biological Station for Research, Inc.; and B. M. Duggar, professor of plant physiology at the University of Wisconsin and head of the MBL’s department of botany. The group expanded to include committee advisers Harald U. Sverdrup from Norway and A. G. Huntsman, director of the St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Marine Biological Station. In 1928 the Rockefeller Foundation made $75,000 available to the committee and its advisers to cover travel and other expenses. The committee in turn hired Henry Bigelow at $7,500 a year to investigate the nature of oceanography and the role an institution should have in conducting this science. Bigelow worked closely with committee members, and meetings at Woods Hole often involved scientists at the Bureau of Fisheries and researchers visiting the MBL from across the country. Members of the committee also met with Charles Francis Adams, secretary of the navy, who had a strong interest in seeing the institution built. Both he and, 40 years later, his son would serve on the institution’s board. Vaughan’s comments to Bigelow during this process had a profound effect on his final report. Bigelow had written to Vaughan on January 17, 1928. In a response written nine days later, Vaughan replied, “From the last paragraph in your letter it appears to me that you are still looking on oceanography as an adjunct to biology. I would rather turn it around and

S Marine Science ps 0 ls 12/05/0756    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science An Unsolved Mystery: Where Do Baby Eels Come From? rad

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(opposite page) American and European eels begin their life cycles in the Sargasso Sea and travel with the currents produced in the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic Ocean.

In  198  Johannes  Schmidt  (1877–1933)  published  the  results  of  his  last  expedition  aboard  the Dana to the Sargasso Sea, where after nearly  0  years  of  searching  for  the  spawning  grounds  of eels, he found juveniles. At the turn of the 0th  century, eels were a popular food dish and could  be  found  as  small  juveniles  that  were  as  clear  as glass, navigating their way upstream in rivers  across  Europe  and  North  America. The  animals  would  wriggle  their  way  over  grassy  wetlands  and  dig  under  the  sediment  on  the  bottom  of  shallow  sandy  creeks  where  they  made  their  home  in  ponds  near  the  source  of  the  streams.  They  lived  for  10–14  years  in  the  freshwater  environment, growing up to about 30 inches (80  cm)  and  developing  color  pigmentation  turning  from  silver  blue  to  gold.  When  they  were  fully  grown,  they  made  their  way  back  to  the  ocean,  where  they  were  fished  for  food  before  they 

reproduced.  No  one  knew  where  they  went  to  breed or die. Schmidt proposed the Sargasso Sea as a breeding  ground,  based  on  the  size  of  the  juveniles  he  found  there  and  developed  a  map  of  eel  migration. Later studies determined genetic differences between the North American eel, Anguilla rostrata, and the European eel, A. anguilla, but to  this day no one has yet to see them spawn in the  wild, and throughout the 0th century their river  populations have dwindled. In  006  Katsumi  Tsukamoto  of  the  Ocean  Research  Institute  at  the  University  of Tokyo  pinpointed the location of the spawning grounds for  the  Japanese  eel,  A. japonica.  He  and  his  team  genetically  identified  newly  hatched  larvae  that  they  collected  from  the  Suruga  seamount  in  the  Philippine Sea. “The restricted size of this spawning area ensures that the eel larvae enter a particular  current  that  transports  them  to  the  freshwater  areas in east Asia where they mature, and it also  prevents  them  from  being  carried  southwards  away from their species range by a different local  current,” he reported in the journal Nature.

look on marine biology as an adjunct to oceanography. You have been [led] to study the ocean primarily from a biological motive, whereas my motive was primarily a geological one. Since I am in the oceanographic game I should combat the consideration of the sea as an adjunct to geology no matter how important geology may be. . . . I think that the ocean should be studied as a thing for itself and as one of the most important parts of the earth.” Back at Woods Hole, Frank Lillie presented the results of the committee and Bigelow’s work to the National Academy of Science (NAS) on November 18, 1929, as a “Report on the Scope, Problems, and Economic Importance of Oceanography, on the Present Situation in America, and on the Handicaps to Development, with Suggested Remedies.” Published in 1931, the report by Bigelow is titled simply “Oceanography.” At the top of the list of remedies was to build an oceanographic institution on the Atlantic shoreline and support the existing laboratories in La Jolla, Seattle, and Bermuda. The NAS endorsed the report, and the Rockefeller Foundation’s General Education Board, now under the leadership of Max Mason, designated $3 million to the building of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), incorporated on January 1930. In

58    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science addition, Vaughan received $40,000 from the foundation to pay for the construction of Ritter Hall, built in 1932; the other two-thirds of the funds came from Ellen Scripps and the state legislature. The foundation also gave $265,000 to the University of Washington for a laboratory and boat for its oceanographic research, $245,000 to help the Bermuda biological station expand, and $24,000 to two marine stations in France. The board of trustees of WHOI elected Frank Lillie as president. Despite a dislike for administrative duties, Henry Bigelow accepted the position of director of the institution. At first WHOI operated only in the summer, leaving Bigelow free to work on his Gulf of Maine studies and other interests for most of the year. Winters in Woods Hole drove most of the staff and researchers to warmer climates. One of the primary goals for the new institution and for the reinvigorated science of oceanography in America was to continue with expeditions out to sea. Knowing full well the difficulties of handling a boat in the North Atlantic, Bigelow passed up cheaper options and, with the support of the trustees, turned to a shipbuilder in Denmark to construct the largest steel-hulled ketch in the world for $175,000. The sailboat and research vessel Atlantis had an auxiliary engine, two masts, two laboratories, two winches, and quarters for six scientists and 17 crew.

Meteor Expedition In 1909 Björn Helland-Hansen and Fridtjof Nansen published a report on the Norwegian Sea, writing: “There is an interplay of many different forces, producing an extremely variegated picture; the sea in motion is a far more complex thing than has hitherto been supposed.” Temperature measurements from various expeditions had revealed the ocean to have a complicated current pattern. From a global perspective, scientists in the mid-19th century had generally favored a two-cycle system of convection, with the cold water from the poles sinking and traveling toward the equator, while at the surface the warm water from the equator traveled toward the poles. Twentieth-century oceanographers began to piece together the mysterious relationships between different water masses by using current meters to measure the velocity of water at the surface and comparing the results with density measurements. Thermohaline circulation (which depends on the combined effects of salinity and temperature) was very different from the circulation of surface currents due to wind. German physical oceanographer Alfred Merz (1880–1925) of the Oceanographic Institute at the University of Berlin wanted to know what happened to the ocean’s circulation patterns in deep water. In 1921, with the assistance of Georg Wüst (1890–1977), he searched through the reports of the Challenger, National, Fram, Princess Alice, Michael Sars, Armauer Hansen, and other expeditions for temperature and salinity observations. Merz then drew up a diagram of Atlantic circulation,

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charting what he and Wüst had determined were four distinctly different water masses: warm surface currents, an intermediate layer of cool water from Antarctica, cold Atlantic deep water, and even colder Atlantic bottom water. But most of the expeditions and therefore the data had come from the North Atlantic. To verify their discovery’s application throughout the Atlantic Ocean, Merz and Wüst planned another expedition out to sea—this time to the South Atlantic. On April 16, 1925, the two set out with eight other scientists, Captain Fritz Spiess, and 120 crewmen on the “Deutsche Atlantische Expedition” aboard the steamer Meteor. Their goal was to meticulously profile the water’s properties from different depths. Originally the Meteor was to serve as a gunboat, but after the war the German navy agreed to finish building all 216 feet of her for a new purpose as a research vessel. With a beam of only 33 feet, however, she “rolled like a log,” wrote Susan Schlee in A History of Oceanography (1975). Still, the Meteor had the most modern oceanographic equipment of the time with: two new echo sounders,

Georg Wüst with the Heezen/ Tharp Physiographic Diagram of the South Atlantic Ocean, ca. early 1960s (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at the Earth Institute at Columbia University)

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ISBN FOF 20CS Marine Science 30.eps AI 10 Finals 12/05/07 Developed in 1923, radio acoustic ranging combined velocity of sound in water with radio to obtain a fix. (Adapted from NOAA Photo Library)

two types of thermometers, current meters, plankton nets, deep-sea anchoring gear, all the latest instruments, and the necessary chemicals for analyzing seawater. They also had some of the earliest gravity cores: hollow pipes with weights that would fall to the seafloor on a line and sample a core of the sediment. Besides Merz and Wüst, the scientists included three other physical oceanographers, two meteorologists, a chemist, a geologist, and a biologist. The team tested their equipment en route from Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea to Buenos Aires, Argentina. The meteorologists flew kites 10,000 feet in the air and released balloons to drift up to 90,000 feet in the air before they were lost to sight. Every two to three miles along the route, the team would take acoustic soundings of the ocean floor. Once out of Buenos Aires, the expedition began its water-collecting endeavors and ocean-profiling mission in earnest, despite the foul weather of the Roaring Forties—the name of the 40° South latitudes where storms roll over the ocean, meeting little resistance from land-

RADIO ACOUSTIC RANGING (R.A.R.) Sound wave has not yet arrived at station 2 hydrophone

Sound wave just arriving at station 1 hydrophone R.A.R. station 1 Sound w ave fr o travels a way a m explo t abo ut 0 sion (1.3 km .8 ) per seco mile nd

Instant return of radio signal

Bomb Survey ship sounding with fathometer and pinpointing position using R.A.R.

© Infobase Publishing

Chapter 3 | 1921–1930    61 masses. But within six days the crew had to turn the boat around and head back to port: Merz had come down with a lung ailment he had suffered from before and needed medical treatment. After leaving him in Buenos Aires, the ship set out again only to encounter a hurricane as they passed midway between Argentina and Cape Town, South Africa, forcing them south toward Gough Island. Still, they profiled the topography of the seafloor along the way and took frequent water samples and temperature readings. With this information and with wind speed measurements, they calculated the water density and then determined the direction and velocity of the water’s flow. They used Vagn Walfrid Ekman’s geostrophic spiral and transport equations relating to the Coriolis force, and allowed for the different water masses to travel faster down slopes than along abyssal plains. They verified their calculations with direct measurements of current speeds when the weather permitted time for the ship to anchor and deploy current meters over the side. At one point along the more northerly return route, the boat laid anchor for more than 40 hours in water 2,000 fathoms (4,000 m) deep, taking current meter readings at a variety of depths. But the up-and-down motion of the ship, even at anchor, introduced errors into the accuracy of the velocities on the order of about 15 percent. On August 25, during the return, a message came across the wireless telegraph saying that Merz had died. The scientists and crew decided Merz would have wished for them to continue the expedition; therefore, under the continuing command of Captain Spiess—who was then given the authority of chief scientist—the Meteor sailed on for another two years. She completed 13 profiles across the Atlantic Ocean before returning north from the coast of South Africa to Germany in 1927. With more than 9,000 temperature and salinity measurements and 33,000 duplicated echo-sounding readings over 67,000 miles, the Meteor expedition established a new precedent for conducting physical studies in oceanography. The results of the cruise showed the predictions of Merz and Wüst held true for the western basin of the Atlantic, with variations in temperature and salinity, or thermohaline circulation, distinguishing tongues of water masses—surface, intermediate, deep, and bottom water—flowing around the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a submarine mountain chain, first discovered during the Challenger cruises of the 19th century in the North Atlantic, that runs from Iceland to about the Antarctic Circle. Also once back in port, the scientists from the Meteor cruise turned their core samples over to geologist Wolfgang Schott. Taking the three- to four-foot-long cores and splitting them open lengthwise, he discovered in some samples two distinct layers of deep-sea ooze, one on top of the other. The ooze included the detritus material of dead plants called plankton that had sunk to the bottom from the surface; the different layers were made of plankton that survived in very different climatic situations. Found in warm water near the equator, the top layer predictably contained warm-water species. But cold-water species

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Scientist of the Decade: Sir Alister Clavering Hardy (1896–1985) When  in  the  late  19th  century  the  European  whaling industry began to see a depletion of their  oil  resources  in  the  North  Atlantic,  it  turned  to  the  Southern  Ocean  for  its  catch.  Seals  on  the  beaches  of  South  Georgia  Island  near Antarctica  had already proven easy targets for harvesting oil.  With  its  abundance  of  ice  for  fresh  water  in  the  summer,  South  Georgia  also  provided  20th-century whalers a necessary processing ingredient to  turn whale blubber into oil that could be shipped  back to the consumer nations. When Norwegian  captain Carl Larsen established a whaling station  on the island in 190, he ushered in a new era in  industrial whaling exploitation. The  modern-day  method  of  hunting  with  steamboats  and  harpoon  guns,  employed  by  countries around the world, decimated the southern right whale and humpback population in less  than  two  decades.  During  the  austral-summer  season  between  1915  and  1916,  hunters  killed  11,792  whales  off  South  Georgia  Island.  World  War  I  contributed  to  the  surge  of  whaling  in  the  Southern Ocean, as nitroglycerine was a needed  by-product used to make explosives. By 1919 the  impact of the industry on the whale population in  the  south  showed  its  toll. A  decline  in  the  number  of  whales  being  caught  prompted  the  British  government  to  enforce  prohibitions  on  whalers  from  shooting  whales  with  calves  nearby  or  the  young whales themselves. The practice, common  in the 19th century, had proved effective in luring  the bigger, more financially lucrative older whale  closer  to  the  harpoon.  Even  after  taking  a  hit,  rather than trying to escape, mother whales would  inevitably die trying to save their calves, continuing  to  nudge  the  injured  or  dead  young  to  the  surface to breathe. The government restriction was  made to help the population of the depleting stock  remain a productive resource. For this purpose the  government also imposed a tax on whale oil. The  money  collected  from  this  tax  financed  the  Discovery  Investigations,  which  began  in 

1925 to survey South Georgia and the Southern  Ocean  and  determine  the  factors  that  influence  whale  populations,  including  their  feeding  habits, breeding regions, and migration. Because the  blue,  fin,  and  humpback  whales  around  South  Georgia  are  baleen,  or  toothless,  whales  that  feed on krill, much of the work focused on these  crustaceans  as  well  as  other  zooplankton  and  the small plants of phytoplankton. The investigations  began  aboard  the  Scottish  Dundee  whaler  RRS  Discovery  in  1925  and  continued  with  the  RRS  Discovery II  and  the  RRS  William Scoresby  through  1951.  Irish-born  entomologist  and  marine  biologist  Stanley  Kemp  (1882–195)  led  the 1925–27 Discovery and 1929–31 Discovery II  expeditions  and  served  as  the  director  of  research  for  the  Discovery  Investigations  from  192 to 1936. Other  members  of  the  science  team  for  the  Discovery  Investigations  included  marine  biologists Neil Alison Mackintosh and Francis Charles  Fraser, physical oceanographer (Sir) George E. R.  Deacon, and biological oceanographer James W.  S.  Marr,  who  had  sailed  with  Ernest  Shackleton  and was an authority on krill. Commander Joseph  Russell  Stenhouse  captained  the  Discovery,  the  same ship Captain Robert Falcon Scott had taken  to Antarctica, once it was again made seaworthy.  Also  on  the  two-year  expedition  around  South  Georgia  and  the  Falkland  Islands  was  Alister  C.  Hardy,  who  sailed  as  chief  zoologist  and  assistant  science  director  to  Kemp. Afterwards,  when  Hardy accepted a professorship at the University  of Hull in the United Kingdom, Sir Sidney Harmer  in a discussion on the first Discovery Investigation  cruise  remarked,  “I  regard  his  acceptance  of  the  new  post  as  a  disaster  to  the  expedition.  If  he  had done nothing else but invent his continuous  plankton-recorder  his  services  would  have  been  very material. Just think of the difference between  taking  a  laborious  series  of  samples  from  stormy  seas—under  the  greatest  possible  difficulties—of 

Chapter 3 | 1921–1930    63

Sir Alister Hardy with bicycle and net by the Oxford Canal (The Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science)

the  plankton,  and  having  a  machine  which  will  keep  an  automatic  record  of  what  is  happening  along  the  whole  track  without  personal  supervision.  That  in  itself  is  a  great  service.  But  Mr.  Hardy  has  been  extremely  helpful  in  all  sorts  of  other  ways.  His  ingenuity  in  devising  improvement  in  methods  of  research  and  his  knowledge  of  plankton  conditions,  and  so  on,  have  been  invaluable.” Hardy  was  19  years  old  when  in  1915  he  joined  the  Northern  Cyclist  Battalion  to  help  protect  England  during  World  War  I.  He  returned  to  Oxford  to  continue  his  studies  in  1919,  and  he  spent  summers  conducting  research  at  the  Zoological  Station  in  Naples.  In  August  1921  Hardy  was  given  a  job  at  the  Fisheries  Laboratory  in  Lowestoft.  An  artist,  he  quickly saw the green color of plankton caught  in  his  tow  nets  and  correlated  the  hue  to  the  greenish tints he saw in the ocean. Recognizing 

that  different  species  of  plankton  colored  the  ocean  different hues, Hardy often hitched rides  in seaplanes to gain an aerial perspective of his  subject. The color of the ocean was an indicator  to  both  the  type  and  the  amount  of  planktonic  life that could be found there. Clear blue water  has  little  plankton,  whereas  deep-green  seas  are  rich  with  microbial  plant  and  animal  life.  Hardy’s  early  work  led  eventually  to  the  modern-day use of satellite images to study biomass  populations in the ocean. For  the  Discovery  expedition,  Hardy  invented  the  Continuous  Plankton  Recorder.  This  device,  with  its  roll  of  silk  to  trap  the  plankton  instead  of  a  collecting  jar,  is  still  used  today  to  identify  the amount of species of plankton in an area for  miles at a time without stopping. By 192, Hardy  had worked out a detailed diagram of the marine  plankton community, showing the particular food  menu  for  herring  at  different  ages  in  their  life  cycle—an  underwater  guide  to  who  was  eating  who or what. In 1927, Hardy’s herring guide was  one  of  the  diagrams  Charles  Elton  cited  in  his  book  Animal Ecology.  “Extremely  little  work  has  been done so far on food-cycles, and the number  of examples which have been worked out in even  the roughest way can be counted on the fingers of  one hand,” Elton wrote. The  Discovery  expedition  helped  further  the  understanding of food webs. Hardy was knighted  in 1957 for his work in marine sciences, and the  Sir  Alister  Hardy  Foundation  for  Ocean  Science  has run a long-term plankton survey in the North  Atlantic  and  North  Sea  using  the  Continuous  Plankton Recorder, or tow net, since 1931. In  1967  Hardy  recalled  his  days  with  the  Discovery  expedition  in  a  book  entitled  Great Waters. In it he wrote about the use of the tow net  for investigating life in the ocean: This device, the tow-net which we shall so often be using, is a conical bag net, something like a butterfly (continues)

6    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

(continued) net but made of silk gauze; in its simplest form it has bridles attached in front for towing it through the water, and a small collecting jar at its other end. If it is made of very finest gauze and drawn through the sea near the surface in spring or summer, the little jar may soon be found to contain a thick green sediment; under the microscope this becomes a glistening galaxy of beautiful green and yellow shapes. The plants of the open sea are individually invisible to the unaided eye, but what they lack in size they make up in number, and may often give the sea a greenish tinge. The reason why they are so small is because they absorb their required phosphates, nitrates, etc., through their surfaces, and the smaller a body is, the larger is its surface in proportion to its mass: when as often happens there is a shortage of these substances, only the smaller forms can get sufficient amounts to survive. The sea is a vast culture medium of the substances that plants require, including oxygen and carbon-dioxide dissolved into it from the atmosphere; just as these ideal conditions are spread through the water, so is the plant life itself, spread as a fine aquatic dust of living specks, but only for as deep as there is sufficient light penetrating from above. Upon this diffuse vegetation feed hosts of tiny animals of many different kinds, also scattered in their millions through the water. Small shrimp-like crustaceans predominate, many of them smaller than a pin’s

head, swarming in the sea as insects do on land, but in addition there are tiny jellyfish, little worm-like forms, miniature snails which keep themselves up by beating wing-like fins, and hordes of other exquisite and fantastic creatures familiar only to the specialist. Not all of these feed directly on the plants; some are carnivorous and prey upon the vegetarians. So numerous may these little animals be that a tow-net in only five or ten minutes may yield a catch of many thousands. Although  whaling  continued  off  of  South  Georgia  until  1983,  the  Discovery  expedition  was  the  first  to  investigate  the  unsustainable  aspects  of  this  industry.  The  crew  studied  738  whales  between  February  1925  and  June  1926  and  found  that  26  percent  of  the  fin  whales  and  58  percent  of  the  blue  whales  killed  had  not  yet  reached  sexual  maturity.  Although  large,  the  whales  were  being  killed  while  still  very  young  and  before  they  could  contribute  to  helping  the  whale population increase. On its Web site today,  the  Natural  Environmental  Research  Council  of  the  British  Antarctic  Survey  explains  that  “during the industrial whaling era between 1920 and  1983  over  7  million  tonnes  of  whales  involving  121,000 individual animals were rendered down  in  the  shore  stations  at  South  Georgia. This  was  done with little regard to the sustainability of the  process and there is little doubt that this systematic exploitation did huge damage not just to the  whale  populations  but  also  to  the  ecosystem  of  which they were a part.” Sir  Harmer  added  in  his  discussion  on  the  first  reports  from  the  Discovery I and II  and  William Scoresby  expeditions  that  “I  think,  if  any  ordinary  person  were  asked  what  was  the  general  character  of  the  investigations  to  be  undertaken  by  an  expedition  concerned  with  the  whaling  industry,  he  would  have  a  vague  idea of going out in a whaling ship to see how 

Chapter 3 | 1921–1930    65

whales are caught, and perhaps returning to the  whaling station to see how they are cut up and  oil  and  guano  prepared.  Mr.  Hardy  has  very  lucidly explained that the Discovery Expedition  was planned on a much wider scale. It is necessary  to  take  in  practically  the  whole  science  of  oceanography.  Mr.  Hardy  has  referred  to  the  paramount  importance  of  the  plankton  as  the  ultimate  source  of  food  not  only  of  fishes  but  even  of  the  greatest  marine  animals,  probably  the greatest that ever inhabited the Earth.” The importance of krill to the food web was  recognized  by  the  U.S.  government  in  2003,  when  California  became  the  first  state  to  ban  krill  fishing  in  order  to  help  protect  the  “tiny  shrimp-like  creature  that  is  an  important  food  source  for  most  marine  life  including  salmon,  whales,  and  sea  birds.”  Hardy  was  an  early  advocate for such protections. He lamented the  state of the whaling industry at the time, and it  was  not  until  1986,  a  year  after  his  death,  that  the  International  Whaling  Commission  established  a  moratorium  on  commercial  whaling.  Hardy wrote in 1928 in “The Work of the Royal  Research  Ship  Discovery  in  the  Dependencies  of  the  Falkland  Islands”  for  the  Geographical Journal, that “It is now no longer a question of ‘if  the northern ocean should be cleared of whales  then we might visit the other hemisphere;’ man  has  ‘cleared’  the  northern  seas  and  is  visiting  the  other  hemisphere.  Who  will  doubt  that,  if  he  does  not  regulate  his  industry,  he  will  clear  these  waters  too?”  In  his  report,  he  provided  an  accurate  depiction  of  the  marine  life  in  the  ocean that derived its energy from the Sun, even  in parts of the ocean’s greatest depths: I have attempted to portray the economy of marine life in as simple a form as possible. The sun’s rays penetrate into the upper layers of the water; oxygen and carbon dioxide are dissolved from the atmosphere and mineral salts are brought in from

the land by rivers. These are ideal conditions for plant life; the sea is one great culture medium. Just as the agents favouring life are scattered through the medium, so is life itself; it is scattered as a fine aquatic dust of microscopic single-celled plants in untold billions. Upon these plants feed a host of more or less microscopic animals in which all the large groups in the animal kingdom are represented-if not in adult life then in their younger stages. By far the most important of these animals are the small crustacea; the ocean teems with them, they are the ‘insects’ of the sea. Pelagic fish, such as the herring, pilchard, and mackerel, and the great whalebone whales, with which this expedition is primarily concerned, feed directly upon these plankton animals. From this planktonic world there falls to the sea-bottom a never-ending rain of dead and dying material, which feeds the life of the depths; on the sea-bottom are “forests” of plantlike animals, which, rooted to the ground, stretch out their arms and tentacles umbrella-like to catch this rain of falling food. Upon these, again, feed the creeping animals and the bottom-living fishes. Then comes man sweeping the bottom with his trawl, catching the herring and mackerel in miles of drifting net and with powerful ship and explosive shell shooting the great whales for their oil. Out of the North Sea alone about one and a half million tons of fish are taken every year, and from the Dependencies of the Falkland Islands between a quarter and half a million barrels of oil.

66    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science were buried below—indicating an older layer deposited during an ice age when even the tropics had cooled. This discovery gave scientists an exciting new method for determining when and how far ice over the oceans had advanced and retreated during the earth’s past climatic shifts. Indeed, marine geologists suggested that if such cores could penetrate some 50 feet of seafloor sediments, then they could obtain an uninterrupted record of Earth’s climatic history dating back millions of years. To that end, many new designs of gravity and other coring methods emerged. Indeed, seafloor coring became a new means of investigating many aspects of Earth and marine science. But an uninterrupted record, even in cores 70 feet long, proved elusive—an indication that the seafloor itself still held many secrets.

Further Reading Bigelow, Henry B. “Report on the Scope, Problems, and Economic Importance of Oceanography, on the Present Situation in America, and on the Handicaps to Development, with Suggested Remedies.” Report submitted to the National Academy of Sciences from the NAS Committee on Oceanography (November 18, 1929): National Academy of Sciences Archives, Washington, DC. This report discusses the findings of the committee on oceanography. Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences. “Henry Bryant Bigelow 1879– 1967.” This Web site provides a biography of Bigelow and describes his work and his contributions to the development and leadership of WHOI. The laboratory founded in 1974 focuses on the biological productivity of marine food webs. Available online. URL: http://www. bigelow.org/about/henry-bryant-bigelow.php. Accessed on March 25, 2008. British Antarctic Survey. “Sustainability of the Southern Ocean Biological Resources.” This Web site describes the historical exploitation of the Southern Ocean. Available online. URL: http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/ Key_Topics/Southern_Ocean_Exploitation/index.html. Accessed on February 1, 2008. Carroll, Paul. “Ice and Isolation: The Discovery and Exploration of South Georgia.” This Web page expands on a PBS documentary about the history of South Georgia Island. Available online. URL: http://www.pbs. org/edens/southgeorgia/unique.html. Accessed on March 15, 2008. Defant, Albert. Dynamische ozeanographie (Dynamic oceanography). Berlin: Julius Spring, 1929. Norwegian oceanographer Harald Sverdrup and Swedish geophysicist Folke Bergsten, among others, gave this book high praise for reviewing the state of science in oceanography. Much of the book focuses on physical processes of the ocean, such as the Ekman transport, and gives tribute to the work of Swedish and Norwegian oceanographers.

Chapter 3 | 1921–1930    67 Elton, Charles. Animal Ecology. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, Ltd., 1927. This book discusses the use of the term niche in qualifying how certain species gain an adaptive advantage over others. Hardy, Alister (Sir). Great Waters: A Voyage of Natural History to Study Whales, Plankton and the Waters of the Southern Ocean in the Old Royal Research Ship Discovery, etc. London: Collins, 1967. Hardy published his diary of the first Discovery expedition, providing additional analysis and postexpedition comments about the experience. Lovett, Richard. “The Wave from Nowhere.” New Scientist (February 24, 2007): 52–53. This report discusses the history of the 1929 Grand Banks tsunami. A discussion of the accompanying photo is available online. URL: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19325950.700-ship-offools/html. Accessed on March 30, 2008. Mill, Hugh Robert. “Merz and the Meteor Expedition.” Geographical Journal 68, no. 1 (July 1926): 73–77. A report on the death of Alfred Merz. Seiwell, H. R., H. C. Stetson, C. Iselin, and Mary Sears. “Reviews of the Reports of the Meteor Expedition.” Geographical Review 26, no. 3 (July 1936): 513–515. Reviews of the findings from the 1925–27 expedition. Tansley, A. G. “The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts and Terms.” Ecology 16, no. 3 (July 1935): 284–307. The first time the word ecosystem is used in the scientific literature. Tsukamoto, Katsumi. “Discovery of the Spawning Area for Japanese Eel.” Nature 356 (April 30, 1992): 789–791. The first identification of an eel breeding ground. Willis, A. J. “The Ecosystem: An Evolving Concept Viewed Historically.” Functional Ecology 11, no. 2 (1997): 268–271. A historical review of the term ecosystem.

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1931–1940: Unexpected surprises

Introduction During this decade of oceanographic exploration, scientists were stunned to discover beneath the seas a living species of a fish they thought had gone extinct 70 million years ago. The coelacanth is living proof that the ocean has amazing mysteries unknown to the above-surface world. Early in the decade, polar explorers ventured for the first time beneath the Arctic ice with a submarine, sharing the experience through national news coverage and photographing the blue ice-covered Arctic Ocean for the world to see. Technological advances in the field included the first bathythermograph, invented by engineer Athelstan Spilhaus (1911–98), a South African graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1932 the Nobel Prize in chemistry went to American chemist Irving Langmuir (1881–1957). Working with chemist Katharine B. Blodgett (1898– 1979), he discovered that the adsorption of gas on surfaces is limited to the first molecular layer of the gas, like a chess set that can only retain one gas particle per square. Previously, chemists had postulated that the boundary surface would contain a progressively denser form of the adsorbing gas. Blodgett, who measured the thickness of the walls of soap bubbles and correlated the variations to changes in their color, experimented with single-molecule thick layers, called monolayers, of oil on water. Their discovery applies to air-sea interactions: Rough seas with their greater surface area adsorb more gas molecules than calm seas. Langmuir is also known 69

Expendable bathythermograph made by Sippican Corporation. Upon descent, these instruments pay out a copper wire that has varying conductivity as the temperature changes. Depth is determined as a function of the rate of descent of the instrument. Ships use these while underway to determine the temperature profile of the water column and corresponding velocity profile. (NOAA and Oceanographic Museum of Monaco)

70    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

Irving Langmuir was the first industrial scientist and the second American scientist to win a Nobel Prize, receiving the award in 1932 for his work in chemistry. (E. F. Smith Collection, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania)

among oceanographic students for developing his circulation cell theory for why bubbles and debris on the surface of a calm lake or sea will form lines running parallel to the direction of the wind. In calm waters with light winds, the shear stress over the surface of the water can form circulation cells that collect bubbles, seaweeds, and floating debris in lines parallel to the direction of the wind. Following the 1932 Nobel Prize, in 1934 the award in chemistry again went to a scientist who would influence the field of marine science. Harold Clayton Urey discovered numerous isotopes and was at the forefront of atomic testing. Oceanographers later in the century, such as Wally Broecker at the Lamont Geological Observatory and Claudia Benitez-Nelson at the University of South Carolina, would use radioisotopes as a means of monitoring ocean circulation. Taking into consideration the applications of multiple aspects of ocean systems—geology, physics, chemistry, and biology—and how they apply together in ocean processes is called dynamic

To help the oyster industry, biologist Victor  Loosanoff (1899–1987) studies shellfish  reproduction and life cycles in the newly  built Milford Laboratory on the shore of  Long Island Sound, Connecticut

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1931 The International Council for  Scientific Unions (ICSU) is  founded as a nongovernmental  organization combining the  International Association of  Academies (IAA, 1899–1914)  and the International Research  Council (IRC, 1919–31)

1932 American chemist Irving  Langmuir is awarded the 193  Nobel Prize in chemistry for his  discovery that the adsorption of  gas on surfaces is limited to the  first molecular layer of the gas

1933

March , an earthquake  (recognized today as having had a magnitude of  8.4) strikes Sanriku, Japan;  ,990 people die, many  from a resulting tsunami

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Chapter 4 | 1931–1940    71 LANGMUIR’S CIRCULATION CELLS Surface

Wind direction

Surface material

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In calm waters with light winds the shear stress over the surface of the water can form circulation cells that collect bubbles, seaweeds, and floating debris in lines parallel to the direction of the wind.

August 18, American naturalist William  Beebe and engineer Otis Barton set a  world record for their descent to 3,08  feet (93 m) in their tethered bathysphere off the coast of Nonsuch Island,  Bermuda, in the Atlantic Ocean

On September 1, Norwegian oceanographer Harald  Sverdrup becomes the third director of the Scripps  Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.  The Scripps curriculum becomes a model for oceanographic institutions across the United States

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1934 American oceanographer Alfred C.  Redfield (1890–1983) publishes his  discovery that plankton and seawater  share similar chemical properties.  The general chemical relationship  between carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in the ocean—106:16:1—will  become known as the Redfield ratio

1936 November 13, the 64-foot (19.5-m) research  vessel Scripps explodes and burns in San  Diego Harbor, killing the cook, Henry Ball,  and severely injuring Captain Murdock Ross

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7    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science oceanography. The scientist of the decade in this chapter is an explorer who ushered in a new era of dynamic oceanography: Norwegian oceanographer and polar explorer Harald Sverdrup.

Voyage of the Nautilus In August 1931 Harald Sverdrup joined Australian polar explorer Sir George Hubert Wilkins aboard an old U.S. Navy submarine renamed the Nautilus. Lincoln Ellesworth—the same man who had financed and participated in the Arctic flights with Roald Amundsen, successfully flying over the North Pole in 1926—funded the submarine expedition with $70,000 on the expectation it would travel under the Arctic ice to the North Pole. In 1930 money allotted to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for annual operating expenses was used to update the Nautilus with equipment. Nonetheless, the Nautilus did not meet expectations. In 1946 Frederick C. Whitney wrote that Sverdrup “didn’t mind living aboard a submarine, but not that submarine. He had expected to find a perfect machine for the business, but instead was greeted with an ex-naval vessel, the ‘0-12,’ which had laid a number of years idle in Philadelphia.” Built for war in 1918, the submarine was due to be scrapped in 1930 under the terms of

May 9, the low-lying Rabaul caldera (volcanic crater)  on New Britain, Papua New Guinea, erupts, continuing  until June  and causing new island formation, a tsunami,  fatalities, evacuation, pyroclastic flows, and lahars during  its production of 0.07 cubic miles (0.31 km3) of tephra

Fishermen near the mouth of a river off the east coast  of South Africa catch a coelacanth (pronounced seela-kanth) in their trawl net. The lobe-finned fish of the  Devonian seas was thought to have gone extinct as  it disappeared from the fossil record 65 million years  ago at the end of the Cretaceous period

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1937 A graduate student at MIT,  South African engineer  Athelstan Spilhaus invents  the bathythermograph to  measure the temperature  of seawater at different  depths, which became an  essential tool for tracking  German submarines during World War II

Robert Paine Scripps, son  of E. W. Scripps, gives the  Scripps Institution a 104foot (3-m) auxiliary schooner, named E. W. Scripps.  The sailing ship allows the  institution to undertake  lengthy cruises away from  the California coastline

1938

Seismologists Beno  Gutenberg and Charles  Richter report the deepest  earthquake shock on record  to date: it occurred in 1934  at a depth of about 447  miles (70 km) beneath the  seafloor in the Flores Sea  off southern Indonesia

The Nobel Peace  Prize is given  to the Nansen  International Office  for Refugees, an  international relief  organization that  Fridtjof Nansen  established in 191

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Chapter 4 | 1931–1940    73 the London Naval Treaty to limit submarine warfare. Wilkins chartered the submarine for five years at a cost of $1 a year, under the stipulation from the U.S. Shipping Board that the submarine only be used for science. At the suggestion of the 0-12’s original designer, naval architect Simon Lake, the submarine was renamed the Nautilus, a shelled marine cephalopod, to capitalize on the name of the famous research submarine in Jules Verne’s novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Jean Jules Verne, grandson of Jules Verne, was present at the christening of the Nautilus. (Because of Prohibition, Suzanne Wilkins poured a silver bucket of cracked ice over the prow instead of the traditional champagne.) On June 4, 1931, the Nautilus left New London, Connecticut, for Bergen, Norway, with a new Fathometer, an ice drill, and a specialized pressure hold with a hatch through which instruments in the forward compartment could be lowered directly into the ocean from inside the submarine. The air pressure inside the compartment could be raised to meet the force of the water pushing on the sub. When the hatch opened, the scientists could access the ocean with all their usual gear—water bottles, reversing thermometers, bottom samplers, and plankton nets—without flooding the sub. Sverdrup would lead the small science team, with Floyd Soule of the Carnegie Institute operating the Fathometer. (Soule had participated on the last cruise of the Carnegie in 1929, and when that

July 1, the Bureau of Fisheries is  transferred from the Department of  Commerce to the Department of the  Interior. A year later the bureau is reestablished as the Fish and Wildlife Service

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1939 American chemists Alfred O. Nier  (1911–94) and Earl A. Gulbransen  (1909–9) report natural variations in  the isotopes of carbon. A year later Nier  introduces the first mass spectrometer  used for “routine isotope abundance  measurements.” Geochemists will later  use the stable isotopes of carbon to  study fossil bones, teeth, and rocks

1940 Norwegian-Canadian Henry Larsen (1899–1964) captains  the St. Roch east through the Northwest Passage, backtracking along Amundsen’s route with the Gjøa. After 8 months,  the schooner reaches Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the ship  is retrofitted with a deckhouse and a 300 horse-power  engine. In summer 1944, Larsen sails the St. Roch along a  more northerly route through the Lancaster Sound, a route  no vessel had yet succeeded in crossing. Larsen managed  the new route in record-setting 88 days, also becoming the  first ship to sail the Northwest Passage in both directions

74    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science ship exploded in the harbor at Apia, Samoa, he dived into the water to save Captain James Percy Ault.) The Nautilus did not make it to Norway directly as both her starboard and port engines soon failed. The captain sent out an SOS on June 14 that the battleship USS Wyoming answered, towing the broken submarine to Ireland. A tug then took her to England for a month’s worth of repairs. The Nautilus finally made it to Bergen on August 5, 1931. By the time the expedition reached Norway’s northern islands of Svalbard, only three weeks remained of the Arctic summer. They made a brief stop at Spitzbergen, the largest island in the archipelago, and then headed for the floating polar ice cap, staying on the surface to vent air. The ice cap was smaller than usual, and rough waters made for a long five-day voyage to reach the edge of the pack ice. On August 23 they were only 600 miles (965.6 km) from the North Pole and ready to descend. “The ice floes at the edge of the pack rose and fell, and the Nautilus, like a plane racing its engines prior to takeoff, whirred and buzzed as batteries were tested, the ballast system checked, and her diving rudders waggled to and fro. Only then was it discovered that the submarine had lost a diving rudder and would not be able to cruise beneath the ice,” wrote Susan Schlee in her 1973 book A History of Oceanography. Dumbstruck by the series of mechanical failures the expedition had encountered, Wilkins came close to blaming the carefully chosen 18-member crew of sabotage. They remained next to the ice while Commander Sloan Danenhower worked on overcoming the problem. Occasionally the scientists and crew left the submarine to take magnetic readings from the ice floes and stretch their legs. Sloan mapped the topographical depth of the seafloor, noting that they were crossing over the Spitsbergen-Greenland ridge, following in the long-since-vanished wake that Fridtjof Nansen had left with the Fram. Using the diving chamber, Sverdrup succeeded in taking bathymetric data, gravity measurements, and core samples. The scientific team filled their nets with plankton and took salinity and temperature readings from the various water depths they could reach with their line. On August 31 Danenhower put his solution to the test. He trimmed the bow down two degrees and pushed the submarine under a three-foot-thick ice floe. “The noise of the ice scraping along the top of the vessel was terrifying. It sounded as though the whole superstructure was being demolished,” wrote Wilkins. When the crew tried to use the ice drill to form a ventilation hole through the ice, the shaft failed and broke off a block of ice that remained attached to the sub as it backed out from under the ice and returned to the surface. With many of the scientific goals completed, despite not continuing under the ice to reach the North Pole, the expedition returned to Norway. The submarine could not travel any more leagues. On November 31, 1931, Sverdrup sent Wilkins a radiogram that the Nautilus had been scuttled four miles (6.4 km) off the coast of Bergen in 200 fathoms (366 m) of water. But it was to have a notable successor when the world’s first

Chapter 4 | 1931–1940    75 nuclear-powered vessel, the USS Nautilus, passed under the North Pole in 1958.

Scuba and Deep-Sea Diving Underwater diving operations during the late 19th century and early 1900s often involved the serious risk of what was called compressed air illness, or the “bends,” as decompression sickness is still known among divers today. The problem can result when air pressure changes rapidly from high to low. When divers (or miners in pressurized mines or astronauts in pressurized spacesuits) breathe compressed air, the nitrogen gas is dissolved into their Track of the Nautilus (SSN-571) during her 1958 bodies. At lower pressures the gas that was once submerged cruise under the Arctic ice (U.S. Navy Arctic dissolved comes out of solution and then leaves Submarine Laboratory) the body through the lungs during exhalation. If a diver ascends too quickly (coming back up to sea level too fast or going to higher elevations too soon The Nautilus (SSN-571) after diving, such as getting on an airplane where the cabins are usually entering New York Harbor, pressurized to altitudes of 8,000 feet [2,400 m]), the nitrogen gas forms August 25, 1958, after her bubbles in the body that are too large to escape through the lungs; the transpolar voyage under the bubbles accumulate in the blood and bodily liquids, in the joints, and Arctic ice (U.S. Navy Arctic under the skin—and can cause headaches, joint pain, and itching. A high Submarine Laboratory)

76    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science concentration of bubbles in the body can lead to paralysis and death. A recompression chamber provides a safe means of forcing the gas back into solution and then slowly and carefully bringing the diver back to normal atmospheric pressure. During World War I, British divers salvaging gold from the wreck of the Laurentic relied heavily on the use of a recompression chamber. In 1917 the ship had struck a German minefield

During the 1970s, a OneAtmosphere Armored Dive Suit called a JIM suit was commonly used in shallow and mid-water operations. Sylvia Earle in 1979 set a women’s depth record when she dove in the suit down to 1,250 feet (381 m) deep, earning her the nickname “her deepness.” (OMADS, NOAA)

Chapter 4 | 1931–1940    77 and sunk with 5 million pounds’ worth of bullion in 120 feet (37 m) of water off the Irish coast. The recovery took several years and required the use of underwater explosions that the divers set themselves. In the mid-19th century, diving bells, or caissons, were built to allow salvage divers and bridge construction crews to spend multiple hours underwater at depths of around 100–300 feet (30–90 m). The dangerous, experimental work tested the limits of the human body. Though air-filled diving containers date back to the time of Alexander the Great in 330 b.c.e., a “typical” mid-19th century caisson operation involved about 60 men working in four-hour shifts, with three to four men per diving bell. Typically 20–25 percent of the crew would suffer from decompression sickness, and one or two would die from it. As long as the air inside was kept at a slightly higher pressure than the water pressure at depth outside, the diving bell would stay dry. That corresponded to roughly 1 atmosphere (+15 pounds per square inch) of pressure for every 33 feet (10 m) of depth. Rules of operations in 1854 generally held that time for compression should take 15 minutes, work underwater should last four hours (divers breathed from an air hose attached to a dive helmet and wore full-body leather and metal-hinged suits with a one-way valve to release excess air), and decompression should take 30 minutes when working at 100 feet (30 m). The effects of compression were always nominal; it was after decompression that the divers would complain of pain, fall sick, or die—sometimes immediately after decompression and sometimes hours later. A bridge across the Mississippi in St. Louis involved 600 divers; 14 died and 119 fell sick after decompression. In one case reported in 1903, a glass cupped over the knee of a diver suffering from the bends would not stay adhered to the knee “owing to the gas set free in the subcutaneous tissues.” Decompression sickness was considered an occupational disease, and in 1911, six states—California, Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Wisconsin—mandated that physicians report any cases of the illness, along with anthrax, lead, phosphorus, arsenic and mercury poisoning. In 1908, British Royal Navy doctors John Scott Haldane (1860–1936) and Arthur E. Boycott, together with Captain Guybon C. C. Damant, who would later lead the Laurentic salvage operation, tested goats in a compressed air chamber for the British Admiralty and found that the best way to minimize the bends was to regulate decompression in stages. They drew up tables indicating how long decompression should last, based on the maximum depth of the dive and, importantly, the time spent at that depth. Haldane’s 15-year-old son, John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (1892–1964), who was proficient in mathematics and could perform the computation to determine his needed decompression times, helped confirm their findings by doing two test dives in a loch on the west coast of Scotland. By 1934, however, many countries were still operating under labor laws that regulated decompression time based on depth alone. The

78    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science British and the U.S. navies were the first to switch to decompression tables and shorter shifts at depth. That whales did not suffer the bends seemed an evolutionary marvel in the 1930s. In 1865 French inventors Benoît Rouquayrol (1826–75) and Auguste Denayrouse (1837–83) considered the idea of an emergency reserve of air and built the first demand valve regulator. At the time, only dive bells were strong enough to contain enough compressed air for an extended dive, but divers could carry Rouquayrol and Denayrouse’s “self-contained” reserve of emergency air on their back, giving them one extra breath if their surface or bell supply air failed. Jules Verne (1828–1905), in his 1869 novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, accurately described the apparatus that the French inventors had designed. In 1918 the Japanese inventor Ohgushi used an on-demand valve that was squeezed by the diver’s teeth to control the air supply through a regulator, which was attached to a cylinder of compressed air that the diver wore on his back. Verne also described the use of potash (an impure form of potassium carbonate) as a possible chemical means for scrubbing carbonic acid (carbon dioxide) from old air in the submarine. The first successful rebreather using this method had been invented in 1879 when Henry Albert Fleuss (1851–1933), an English merchant seaman, built a regulator that captured exhaled air and recycled it through potash into a tank that carried compressed oxygen. The invention worked famously in 39 feet (12 m) of water when English diver Alexander Lambert used the device for an hour and a half in 1880 to work in the flooded Severn Tunnel. In 1926 French captain Yves le Prieur (1885–1963) used a steel tank for holding compressed air on a diver’s back, but the regulator he used was a free-flowing tap rather than an on-demand apparatus, and it had to be turned on and off by hand. In 1939 the salvage work of the submarine USS Squalus was the first major open-ocean test of a dive operation using a mix of helium and oxygen instead of air. An American combat swimmer with the U.S. Army Medical Corps in World War II, Christian Lambertsen (b. 1917) developed the oxygen rebreathing equipment (Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit), which was soon dubbed a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, or scuba. In 1930, French commander Louis de Carlieu developed a new version of the swim fins. In 1932, Owen Churchill (1896–1985), the American swimmer and Olympic sailor, patented a new type of swim fin made of vulcanized rubber. In 1943, Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910–97) and Émile Gagnan (1900–79) introduced an on-demand valve that could be accessed just by inhaling. With tanks on their backs and swim fins on their feet, divers went from weighted walkers to horizontal swimmers. Cousteau and Gagnan’s work also publicized scuba as a tool for shallow-water spearfishing and later as an underwater sport for anyone interested in, for example, seeing a coral reef from a fisheye perspective.

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Despite these advancements, decompression sickness is still an issue for underwater swimmers who take air in during their dive, even at shallower depths—whether the air is compressed inside a container or from the surface through a hose. Those who stay underwater for an extended period of time and ascend faster than excess nitrogen can leave through the lungs risk decompression sickness. The compression of the air at depth occurs even inside the lungs, as does decompression during ascent. The air in a diver’s tank and buoyancy control (BC) vest also expands as the water pressure drops, increasing the diver’s

As director of tropical research for the New York Zoological Society, William Beebe traveled extensively to identify species and collect specimens.

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80    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science buoyancy and speed of ascent. Scuba divers vent air from their BC to control their ascent. If a Scuba diver incurs an emergency and runs out of air at 30 feet (9 m), she or he can theoretically continue exhaling while slowly swimming all the way to the surface, without needing to take another breath. American naturalist Charles William “Will” Beebe (1877–1962) began helmet diving in 1925. His early forays under the surface were fairly shallow. His specialty was birds, and he was the curator of ornithology at the New York Zoological Society. Beebe’s interests shifted to tropical islands in 1916 when he began working in the jungles of Kartabo, British Guiana, as the director of the tropical research station there for the New York Zoological Society (NYZS). During the station’s first seven years, Beebe led five expeditions, conducting a total of 32 months of research with 28 scientists from America, England, Scotland, and France, as well as 246 visitors. In 1939 a limited number of men and women with independent biological research projects paid $750 to travel from New York to live and work in Kartabo during the summer. In 1923 Beebe toured the Galápagos Islands aboard the yacht Noma with 12 other people, including historian Ruth Rose and science illustrator Isabel Cooper. Rose wrote two chapters in the 1924 book Galapagos, which chronicled their expedition, and Cooper provided 24 color illustrations for the book, detailing the scarlet rock and purple box crabs, eels, fish, invertebrates, and the claws and tail on a giant iguana, as well as the features of other curious island denizens. When Beebe returned to the Galápagos early in 1925, it was on the converted freighter Arcturus. He noted in the journal Science in 1926 that during their expedition the Humboldt Current was “so weakened in movement and negligible in temperature that it was practically absent for many miles in all directions about the Archipelago.” In 1928—the honorary president of the New York Zoological Society, Henry Fairfield Osborn, secured Nonsuch Island in Bermuda as the site of a marine zoological station for the NYZS. The island had formerly been occupied by a Bermuda health and quarantine station. Osborn put Beebe in charge of examining shallow-water and deepwater animals off the island’s coast. The Bermuda government converted the buildings into laboratories and even moved the wreck of a tug from one harbor to another in order to provide the marine scientists with a protective breakwater barrier at their study site during rough seas. For the shallow-water species, Beebe and his assistants dived with helmets and air hoses to make their observations and collect specimens for the saltwater aquariums. For the mid-water and deepwater specimens, they used trawls and dredges to haul up organisms from the seafloor. It was during this time that Beebe began contemplating a better method for making deep-sea observations. He began working with engineer and diver Otis Barton (1899–1992) to build a tethered two-person spherical diving tank, called a bathysphere, with a watertight quartz window

Chapter 4 | 1931–1940    81 for observing life in the deep sea. Five miles south of Nonsuch Island, at 32°16' north latitude and 64°39' west longitude, the bathysphere descended 15 times over the summer of 1930. Ichthyologist and fish osteology expert Gloria Hollister (1900–88) dived with general assistant John Tee-Van inside the bathysphere on its eighth dive on June 11, Hollister’s birthday. They descended to 410 feet (125 m). The bathysphere was lowered to the seafloor via a cable attached to a motor wheel on a barge. When Beebe and Barton were in the bathysphere, Hollister communicated with Barton using a telephone line in the cable. She relayed the underwater observations to Tee-Van and the other member of their science team, biologist Jocelyn Crane (1909–98). Crane, also a bathysphere diver, would become director of the NYZS’s tropical research department in 1963. (Her expertise on fiddler crabs and crustacean biology led to her 1975 monograph Fiddler Crabs of the World, the most comprehensive book on the fiddler crab ever published.) Inside the bathysphere the occupants watched as the spectrum of light faded out of sight. They correlated the missing wavelengths recorded on the spectroscope with how the colors on known species of fish changed

Naturalist and explorer William Beebe and members of his party stand by his bathysphere on the SS Monarch on December 7, 1932, as they return to New York from the coast of Bermuda, where they had studied ocean depths. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

8    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science with depth. First to go was red, with blue lingering down to about 700 feet in the clear Bermuda waters. Violet penetrated the deepest of the spectrum before the last rays of visible light disappeared and the water turned as black as night. A searchlight on the bathysphere illuminated the fish and shrimp that passed in front of the window or stopped to feed on their bait. In 1932 Beebe and Barton made a record-setting descent to 3,028 feet (923 m). Their telephone observations with Hollister are published in Beebe’s 1934 book about the dive Half-Mile Down. That same year Hollister dived in the bathysphere to 1,208 feet (368 m).

Coelacanth Swims out of Extinction On December 22, 1938, where the mouth of the Chalumna River empties into the Indian Ocean off the coast of East London, South Africa, Captain Hendrik Goosen (1904–90) and his crew on the trawler Nerine hauled in their net from a depth of 40 fathoms (73 m). Caught in the trawl was a fish like none they had ever seen. Snapping blindly in the morning summer sun at the captain’s fingers as he released it from the netting onto the deck was a silvery blue, strangely scaled, speckled-white fish with paddle-like fins and a jaw full of teeth. The five-foot (1.52-m) seadog of a fish weighed 127 pounds (58 kg). Goosen was tempted to throw the impressive creature back into the ocean, but he knew there was one person he had to share it with. When the Nerine pulled into port that morning, the captain asked the dock manager of the fleet to call the curator of the local natural history museum and have her come take a look at their bycatch. Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer (1907–2004), curator of the East London Museum, was always on the lookout for new specimens to display. In 1931 the mayor of the city, working in collaboration with the museum’s board members, hired the 24-year-old naturalist to run the newly built museum on a salary of £2 a month. Courtenay-Latimer had started her job by burning the museum’s six stuffed birds because they were full of parasites. She then used family heirlooms as the nexus of the museum’s opening exhibit—prominently showing a dodo egg that had belonged to her great-aunt Lavinia as well as 19th-century beadwork her mother had collected. She spent weekends beachcombing the South African shores and soon had dioramas displaying shells, butterflies, moths, bird’s eggs, and wildflowers. Since Courtenay-Latimer’s first meeting with Goosen during an expedition to Bird Island in November 1936, the trawler captain had helped her amass a diverse collection of starfish, seaweeds, sponges, and various fish, including many sharks. When the manager of the fleet called at 10:00 a.m. three days before Christmas in 1938, Courtenay-Latimer was in the middle of assembling a fossil from Tarkastad. The inner heartland of the Eastern Cape provides a rich assemblage of late Paleozoic to middle Mesozoic fauna. In 1935 Courtenay-Latimer and her friend Eric Wilson had excavated

Chapter 4 | 1931–1940    83 what was at the time one of the world’s most complete fossil skeletons of Kannemeyeria simocephalus, a piglike herbivorous reptile commonly called a dicynodont that had lived during the Triassic period. She had become quite proud of the little museum, and although she wanted to finish her work on the fossil now on her desk, she also wanted to show her appreciation to Goosen and his crew and wish the fishermen a happy holiday season. She and her assistant, Enoch, caught a taxi and arrived at the quayside to examine the pile of fish and other marine organisms Goosen had left on the deck of the Narine. With her wet hands deep in marine ooze, Courtenay-Latimer found buried under a slimy coating of sea life the “most beautiful fish I had ever seen.” The paddle-like pectoral fins extended away from its body on stubby limbs. The otherwise U-shaped tail ended with a slight extension through the middle of the caudal fin, forming a slightly Y-shaped “puppy dog tail.” Fresh from the ocean, the silver-blue-green color of the iridescent scales glimmered in the sun. She recognized the ganoid scales on the fish and was confused. Unlike ordinary fish scales—which are thin, fanlike, and overlapping—ganoid scales are thick, rhombus-shaped, and layered across the skin of the fish like a brick wall. When she was growing up, there had been a day when her teacher at school was instructing the class on fossil fish, but young Courtenay-Latimer’s attention had wandered and Sister Camilla had her write 25 times: A ganoid fish is a fossil fish. In a 1998 interview with science writer Samantha Weinberg, Courtenay-Latimer recalled her early confusion over the living ganoid fish: “I was so near to classifying it as a ganoid fish, but I thought it couldn’t be a fossil fish because it was alive.” She would soon learn that some highly specialized species of fish, such as gars and sturgeon fish, still plied the world’s waterways with ganoid scales on their bodies—living relics from medieval times still wearing their protective suits of armor. The ganoid scales combined with the unique lobate fins provided the clues that this was a living species of a type of fossil fish that existed as far back as 410 million years ago. Having slipped the fish into a sack and carried it back to the taxi, Courtenay-Latimer assured the driver that it would not be a stinky problem in the trunk of his car as the dead fish was still very fresh. Back at the museum she carefully examined the fish and drew a sketch of its body. She observed what was not there as much as what was—noting, for example, that no blood or discharge emerged from the fish during this time. She checked her reference books on South African fishes, and none of the descriptions matched. Come noon, she had a harder time convincing the museum’s chair of the fish’s importance. He dismissed her find and declared the fish a common rock cod. Courtenay-Latimer needed an ichthyologist to help her prove her case. In the meantime, she needed to find a way to keep the fish from rotting.

84    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science She and Enoch loaded the fish onto a small handcart and pushed it to the hospital mortuary in the hope of keeping the fish in their large freezer. The mortuary refused, and the cold-storage depot, the only other place in town with large-capacity refrigeration, was concerned the fish would give off noxious gasses. As the afternoon wore on, the fish’s color dulled to gray. Courtenay-Latimer’s last resort was the town taxidermist, who helped her with the fish. Together with the assistant, they diluted what little formalin she could obtain from a chemist friend who worked for the hospital, and wrapped the fish in newspapers saturated with the solution. She walked home, where her mother gave her a bed sheet to wrap around the formalin-soaked, newspaper-covered fish. With the fish neatly wrapped, Courtenay-Latimer called James Leonard Brierley Smith (1897–1968), a senior lecturer in chemistry at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, who also worked as an honorary curator in ichthyology for small museums along the coast. When he did not return her call by the next day, she wrote him a letter with a sketch of the fish. After a few days, she still had not received word from Smith, and the fish had started to leak several ounces of oil into the sheet. Courtenay-Latimer went ahead and asked the taxidermist to skin and gut the fish. Smith, who had been away in Johannesburg, finally received her letter on January 3. He quickly wired her a telegram to “save viscera . . . fish interesting.” His message arrived too late; only the skin and a few bones remained. Still, it was enough. When Smith saw the fish in East London on February 16, he immediately recognized it as a coelacanth, but not from pictures in a modern fish book. Scientists had thought the last living species of coelacanth had gone extinct 70 million years ago. The coelacanth was a famous paleontological taxon that had thrived during the Devonian and Triassic periods, with various species adapting to both freshwater and marine environments. “There was not a shadow of doubt,” he reported. “Scale by scale, bone by bone, fin by fin, it was a true coelacanth. It could have been one of those creatures of 200 million years ago come alive again.” The coelacanth was for the 20th century what the discovery of living lungfish was to the world in the 19th century. An evolutionary link to the amphibious tetropods, lungfish had evolved lungs to breathe air and would drown if they had to rely solely on their gills to supply their bodies with oxygen. As with the lungfish, the coelacanth was a highly unusual fish species that had survived for millions of years, unknown to scientists. Smith named the species, trawled from mouth of the Chalumna River and rescued for science by a young curator, Latimeria chalumnae. Renowned vertebrate paleontologist David Meredith Seares Watson of University College in London consulted with fossil fish experts Sir Arthur Smith Woodward (1864–1944) and Errol Ivor White (1901–85), and ichthyologist J. R. Norman of the British Museum during a meeting of the Linnaean Society. Their confirmation of the discovery elevated the

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Scientist of the Decade: Harald Sverdrup (1888–1957) Harald  Sverdrup  was  30  years  old  when  he  left  Norway with Roald Amundsen to go adrift in the  Arctic  ice  aboard  the  Maud.  The  goal  was  the  same  as  Fridtjof  Nansen’s  when  he  and  his  crew  set sail in 1893 for three years in the round-hulled  Fram. When the ice pressed in on the sides of the  ship, instead of crushing the hull, the ice pushed  the  rounded-bottom  up  to  rest  on  top  of  the  ice  and drift with it. In both cases the expedition leaders hoped to drift with the ice to the North Pole. Coincidently,  Sverdrup’s  third  cousin  (his  great-grandfather’s  brother’s  great-grandson),  Otto  Neumann Sverdrup (185–1930), was ship inspector in charge of the Fram’s original rigging. He had  captained  the  ship  on  her  first Arctic  voyage  and  led the expedition home after Nansen and Hjalmar  Johansen  left  to  try  and  reach  the  North  Pole  on  skis. From 1898 to 1902 Otto Sverdrup sailed the  Fram  77,000  square  miles  (200,000  km2)  around  the islands northwest of Greenland. After  Amundsen  led  the  Fram’s  third  expedition,  to  the  South  Pole  instead  of  the  North  Pole  as  originally  intended,  the  ship  was  laid  up  for  repair. Although Robert Peary and Frederick Cook  had  already  claimed  to  have  reached  the  North  Pole, and Amundsen was successful in leading his  men across Antarctica to become the first to reach  the  South  Pole,  the  Norwegian  explorer  of  the  Northwest Passage had his heart set on the Arctic  and still wanted the Fram to try again for the North  Pole. In 1913 Amundsen invited Harald Sverdrup  along  as  an  assistant  to  the  chief  scientist  on  the  Northeast  Passage  expedition,  but  war  delayed  them,  and  the  Fram  remained  high  and  dry.  Amundsen then raised funds to build a new ship. At that time, Sverdrup was working with meteorologist  Vilhelm  Bjerknes  (1862–1951),  director  of  the  new  Geophysical  Institute  in  Leipzig,  Germany.  Sverdrup  had  first  met  Bjerknes  at  the  University of Kristiania (now Oslo). After completing his compulsory year of military service at the  Norwegian Academy of War in 1908, finishing top 

in  athletics,  Sverdrup  focused  on  his  passion  for  science. He enrolled in the department of physical  geography  and  astronomy,  and  his  courses  covered geophysics, meteorology, oceanography, and  terrestrial magnetism. In 1911 Bjerknes, one of the  world’s foremost meteorologists, offered Sverdrup  a highly coveted assistantship. Early in the century  his  theories  on  numerical  forecasting  had  earned  Bjerknes  a  grant  from  the  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington that would continue annually for the  rest  of  his  career.  Three  of  his  “Carnegie  assistants” had recently published a book with him on dynamic  meteorology  and  hydrography. The  next  year, when Bjerknes left to lead the new institute at  the University of Leipzig, Sverdrup followed. Despite  wartime  shortages  of  food  and  labor,  especially  in  Germany,  Sverdrup  finished  his  doctorate on North Atlantic trade winds the same  year,  1917,  that  Amundsen  launched  the  120foot  (36.5-m),  three-masted  wooden  schooner  Maud,  a  replica  of  the  ice-worthy  Fram.  Again  Amundsen invited Sverdrup to join the Northeast  Passage expedition, this time to lead the crew as  chief  scientist.  “The  perils  from  submarine  warfare at its crisis delayed the start until July 1918,  when Amundsen  took  advantage  of  a  report  that  the  German  submarines  operating  in  the  Arctic  had  temporarily  returned  to  their  bases,”  the  Geographical Journal  reported  in  1928. The  10men  expedition  aboard  the  Maud  thought  that  their  ice-bound  journey  would,  like  Nansen’s,  take three or perhaps four years. They were beset  in  sea  ice  at  Cape  Chelyuskin  on  September  18,  sooner  than  they  anticipated. The  first  long  winter  came  with  many  struggles,  especially  for  the  expedition leader. Amundsen broke his arm, was  mauled  by  a  polar  bear,  and  fell  ill  from  carbon monoxide poisoning in a research tent. Sverdrup  made full  use  of  his  military  physical  endurance training. As  chief  scientist,  he  took  advantage  of  (continues)

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(continued) every learning opportunity the long Arctic ordeal  afforded  him. Years  later,  after  winning  the  1938  Agassiz Medal for contributions to oceanographic  research, Sverdrup said: On the Maud we started new investigations, we built new instruments, and I spent considerable time in theoretical studies of tidal currents. Although there were periods when I was so completely absorbed in the work that weeks and months passed quickly, there were other periods when I wondered and worried for fear I had made some elementary mistake, for fear the new investigations were suffering from systematic errors, for fear our new instruments did not perform as they should or that my theories were unsound. In such periods there was no one to consult, no literature to look up. Thinking back now I find myself again walking the deck of our vessel, turning the questions over in my mind, trying to find some flaw in my reasoning. In the end I always had to tell myself that, right or wrong, I was doing my best and would have to go on doing so, hoping that I was on the right track. During the second winter the Maud was 1,000  miles from Anadyr, Russia. Amundsen sent a small  party out with telegrams to send home to Norway  and  suggested  Sverdrup  spend  the  time  with  an  encampment  of  nomadic  reindeer  herders  in  Siberia.  Sverdrup  spent  nearly  eight  months  with  the Chuckchi natives, learning their language and  customs and taking magnetic observations around  the  surrounding  icy  landscape.  By  summer  1920  the expedition had completed its journey through  the Northeast Passage and arrived in Nome, Alaska,  for  repairs.  Down  to  a  crew  of  four,  Amundsen  took  the  ship  north  again,  and  they  spent  a  third  winter in the Bering Strait. When the ice gave way  in summer 1921, damage to the Maud’s propeller 

forced  the  expedition  south  to  Seattle,  where  the  ship spent 10 months undergoing repairs. Amundsen  left  for  Norway  to  secure  further  funds  for  the  expedition,  while  Sverdrup  worked  as a research fellow at the Carnegie Institution in  Washington.  Amundsen  returned  briefly  in  summer 1922 before beginning a new endeavor to fly  across the North Pole in an airplane. He left Oscar  Wisting,  a  cohort  on  the  South  Pole  expedition,  in  charge  to  captain  the  Maud.  Sverdrup  sought  to  find  a  current  suitable  for  navigating  across  the North Pole, but the Beaufort Gyre, a circular  surface current, stymied their efforts, and the ship  returned  to  Nome  in August  1925.  Shortly  afterward  she  was  sold  to  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  to pay off debts. Sverdrup  stayed  in  the  United  States  to  visit  geologist  Thomas  Wayland  Vaughan,  director  of  the  Scripps  Institution  of  Oceanography  in 

Norwegian oceanographer and meteorologist Harald Sverdrup was the chief scientist during the seven-year Arctic expedition aboard the Maud. He led the first test of a submarine to travel under the Arctic ice. During World War II he directed the Scripps Research Institute in California. (American Geophysical Union, courtesy of AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives)

Chapter  | 1931–1940    87

La  Jolla,  California.  Vaughan  was  immediately  impressed  with  Sverdrup’s  oceanographic  research in the Arctic. On December 25, 1925,  Sverdrup  finally  returned  to  Norway,  where  he  took  over  from  Bjerknes  as  chair  of  meteorology  at  the  Geophysical  Institute  in  Bergen.  In  1917  oceanographers  Fridtjof  Nansen  and  Bjørn  Helland-Hansen  had  made  a  professorship  available  for  Bjerknes  at  a  new  geophysics  institute  at  the  Bergen  Museum  in  Bergen, Norway. Bjerknes’s approach to meteorology became known as the “Bergen School of  Meteorology.” In 1926 Bjerknes returned to the  University  of  Oslo  (formerly  Kristiana)  as  chair  of  the  Department  of  Applied  Mechanics  and  Mathematical Physics. Two  years  later,  on  June  8,  1928,  Sverdrup  married  Gudrun  Bronn  in  Oslo,  and  he  subsequently  adopted  her  daughter  Anna  Margrethe.  Later  that  month  the  American  R/V  Carnegie,  on  her  seventh  cruise,  pulled  into  the  wharf  in  Hamburg,  Germany,  to  refuel  and  take  on  oceanographic  equipment  borrowed  from  the  Meteor  which  profiled  water  depths  throughout  the  Atlantic  ocean  from  1925  to  1927. The  Carnegie  spent  two  weeks  in  port,  giving  the  American  scientists  a  chance  to  visit  with  the  crew  of  the  Meteor  and  tour  the  Institute  of  Oceanography in Berlin. Sverdrup, the “consulting oceanographer” for the Carnegie, traveled to  Hamburg to give Captain James Percy Ault a new  plankton pump. On November 29, 1929, during  a  refueling  stop  in  Apia,  Samoa,  while  loading  the  last  of  150  gasoline  barrels  into  Carnegie’s  tanks, a spark set off a round of explosions that  riddled the ship and sent Captain Ault flying into  the harbor. Rescued in a state of shock with what  seemed  like  minor  injuries,  he  died  on  the  way  to the hospital. Sverdrup  returned  to  Washington,  D.C.,  in  1930 to work on the oceanographic data Ault and  his  crew  had  collected  prior  to  the  tragic  end  of  the  expedition.  He  then  went  back  to  Norway,  having turned down two offers to continue to stay  in the United States, one with the Department of 

Terrestrial  Magnetism  at  the  Carnegie  Institution  and the other an offer from Henry Bryant Bigelow  to  work  as  the  chief  physical  oceanographer  of  the  Woods  Hole  Oceanographic  Institution,  which was about to be established with significant  funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and the  Carnegie  Institution.  In  1931  Sverdrup  accepted  a research professorship at the newly established  Christian  Michelsens  Institute,  where  he  continued  to  analyze  data  from  the  Maud  expedition,  breaking  for  a  few  weeks  in  August  to  venture  on  the  Nautilus.  In  summer  193  he  traveled  to  Spitsbergen  with  glaciologist  Hans  W.  Ahlmann  (1889–197)  to  study  meteorological  conditions  related  to  boundary  layer  processes  over  the  Arctic snowfields. Then,  in  1936,  the  Arctic  explorer  and  Norwegian  oceanographer  headed  west.  “I  used  to  say  [while  on  the  Maud]  that  I  should  like  an  opportunity  to  do  oceanographic  work  in  the  Pacific  Ocean,”  he  noted.  Sverdrup  was  about  to  turn  the  Scripps  Institution  from  a  struggling  coastal  marine  laboratory  into  a  center  for  dynamic  oceanography.  Vaughan  was  retiring  from his position as director and intended to move  to  Washington,  D.C.,  as  soon  as  he  completed  his  research  on  fossil  foraminifera  from Trinidad.  He  chose  Sverdrup  to  succeed  him  specifically  because  of  the  Norwegian’s  extensive  oceanographic  experience.  Sverdrup  moved  with  his  family  to  the  small  scientific  village  in  La  Jolla  on September 1, 1936. Two months into the job,  on  November  13,  an  explosion  in  the  galley  of  the  Scripps  burned  the  65-foot  (20-m)  research  vessel  where  she  was  berthed  at  the  San  Diego  Yacht  Club  in  San  Diego  Bay. With  a  promise  of  $50,000  from  Robert  P.  Scripps,  Sverdrup  spent  the  winter  searching  for  a  new  vessel  for  the  oceanographic  institution,  one  capable  of  traveling far beyond the coastline. In  April  1937  a  100-foot  sailing  schooner  named  Serena  was  up  for  sale  and  the  son  of  E.  W.  Scripps  purchased  it  for  the  institution.  The  (continues)

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Foraminifera: Ammonia parkisonia. These scanning electron microscope photomicrographs were taken from ongoing 21stcentury studies of fresh sediment and water samples from Baffin Bay and Corpus Christi Bay. (Texas A&M Chemistry Department)

(continued) ship had been built in 192 as a racing and pleasure  craft  with  teakwood  and  mahogany. The  La  Jolla  faculty  changed  her  name  to  E. W. Scripps.  Under full sail in a stiff Santa Ana wind, she could  cruise  up  to  speeds  of  12  knots.  The  two  100foot  (30-m)  masts  were  trimmed  to  88  feet  (27  m), and two winches and diesel fuel tanks were  installed;  the  luxury  staterooms  were  converted  to laboratories. For six months each year from 1938 to 191,  Sverdrup  focused  on  studying  the  California  Current—setting  current  meters  and  taking  plankton  catches,  core  samples,  temperature  recordings,  and  oxygen  and  phosphate  analyses  at  0  stations  along  the  coast.  Scientists  at  Scripps  worked  with  the  U.S.  Bureau  of  Fisheries,  the  Geological  Society  of  America,  the  Coast  Guard,  the  U.S.  Navy,  the  California  Fish  and  Game  Commission,  and  the  U.S.  Fish  and  Wildlife  Service.  With  the  E. W. Scripps  the  oceanographers  also  explored  the  Gulf  of  California  on  expeditions  to  the  Sea  of  Cortez.  Their  research  helped  track  offshore  weather 

patterns,  locate  sardine  spawning  locations,  and  track  the  variations  in  current  speed  with  depth, reporting a fast deepwater current along  the  bottom  off  of  San  Pedro.  They  discovered  rough topography along the bottom of the Gulf  of California and seawater that turned from clear  to red as it developed large plankton blooms in  nutrient-rich waters that supported an abundant  diversity  of  marine  life.  In  190  Sverdrup  concluded that “we are only crossing the threshold  to the ocean world.” In  192  Sverdrup  published  The Oceans,  about  the  dynamic  processes  and  interactions  between marine geology, marine biology, meteorology,  chemistry,  and  physical  oceanography.  His  book,  written  in  collaboration  with  Harald  Ulrik,  Martin  Wiggo  Johnson,  and  Richard  Howell Fleming, set the standard for coursework  throughout the United States. During the war, it  was considered material too sensitive to be published outside of the United States and Canada.  Despite  his  contributions,  however,  security  clearance  during  the  war  was  an  issue  for  both  Sverdrup  and  his  student,  Austrian-born  Walter  Munk,  a  graduate  of  the  California  Institute  of  Technology. In 1939, during Munk’s first summer  at Scripps, he applied for American citizenship;  Austria  had  been  annexed  that  year  by  Nazi  Germany. There  was  no  going  home.  Sverdrup experienced  the  same  situation  in  190  when  Germany  invaded  Norway.  In  June  of  that  year,  Sverdrup  and  his  family  applied  for  American  citizenship.  But  on  March  1,  192,  the  U.S.  secretary  of  the  navy  pulled  Sverdrup’s  security  clearance  and  denied  him  access  to  the  Point  Loma  Laboratory,  where  he  had  been  heading  the  oceanographic  division  of  the  University  of  California  Division  of  War  Research  since  July  191.  The  concern  was  whether  Sverdrup  was  sympathetic  to  the  Nazi  movement,  based  on  comments  collected  from  faculty  not  closely  associated with him. On  July  21,  192,  Munk  began  working  for  the  army  air  force  at  the  Pentagon  in  Washington,  D.C.,  assembling  the  data  needed 

Chapter  | 1931–1940    89

to move from forecasting expected winter wave  height  and  wind  speed  off  the  California  coast,  which was one of the studies Sverdrup had been  working  on  in  Point  Loma—to  predicting  wave  height  on  November  8,  192,  for  the  coast  of  Casablanca. During  World  War  II,  the  U.S.  military  relied  heavily on the expertise of oceanographers to take  what they knew of the oceans and the coastlines  and provide strategic and tactical intelligence that  could  be  applied  to  combat  operations.  Scripps  became a leader in this effort, to the point that the  regents of the University of California considered  wartime  operations  the  sole  reason  for  financing  the institution. Another  of  Sverdrup’s  important  contributions  to  oceanography  was  his  conclusion  that  the  north-south  transport  of  an  ocean  current  was  proportional  to  the  curl  of  the  wind  stress.  This  took  Ekman’s  equation  for  mass  transport  to  another  level  and  simplified  the  mathematic  approach  oceanographers  took  to  determining  the  volume  of  water  that  currents  transported.  The  term  sverdrup  in  oceanography,  abbreviated  “Sv,”  is  named  after  him  and  used  to  represent  the  volume  of  water  a  current  transports  each  second  (1  Sv  =  106  m3  s-1).  One  sverdrup  is  roughly  the  equivalent  of  26  million  U.S.  gallons  per  second,  or  5  million  average-sized  bathtubs per second. Sverdrup’s  transport  equations  published  in  197 were quickly followed by Henry Stommel’s  198 calculations showing why western boundary  currents  formed  in  Northern  Hemisphere  ocean  gyres  based  on  the  latitudinal  variation  of  the  Coriolis  force.  Munk  combined  the  findings  of  Sverdrup  and Stommel  with Carl-Gustav  Rossby’s  1936  work.  Rossby  (1898–1957),  at  the  time  of  the  Woods  Hole  Oceanographic  Institution,  studied  the  frictional  force  between  air and water and its significance on lateral eddy  viscosity. Munk then proposed in 1950 a new set  of equations to determine ocean circulation in a  basin.  The  friction  between  currents  played  an  important  role  in  determining  the  total  motion, 

The Scripps research vessel E. W. Scripps, pictured here in 1939, was originally a luxury yacht named Serena when Robert Scripps purchased the 104-foot auxiliary schooner in 1937 from Hollywood actor Lewis Stone. The ship was refitted for laboratory work at a cost of $50,000. (Scripps Institution of Oceanography Archives)

as  did  the  curl  of  the  wind  stress  and  width  of  the basin. Munk’s equations calculated a flow of  36 Sv for the Gulf Stream. The work of Sverdrup,  Stommel, and Munk are often cited as the founding ideas underpinning the modern understanding of physical oceanography. Today the transport  of the Gulf Stream between Florida and Cuba is  known to average around 31 Sv. In  198,  Sverdrup  and  his  wife,  Gudrun,  and  their  daughter,  Anna,  returned  to  Norway. There  Sverdrup resumed polar exploration as director of  the Norwegian Polar Institute in Oslo. He led the  Norwegian  committee  organizing  the  199–52  Antarctic  expeditions  that  involved  a  team  of  Norwegian,  British,  and  Swedish  scientists.  His  international leadership reached also to the shores  of India, where Sverdrup helped with a Norwegian  relief program to strengthen Indian fisheries. With  his  wartime  experience  and  extensive  network  of colleagues in the United States and the Soviet  Union, he made it a personal mission to do everything he could to help mediate cold war tensions  between scientists.

90    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science status of the coelacanth to the celebrated zoological find of the century. For the next 14 years Courtenay-Latimer’s specimen would be the only known one of its kind.

Further Reading Beebe, William. Galapagos: World’s End. New York and London: Knickerbocker Press, 1924. A book on the animals of the Galápagos Islands. ———. “A Note on the Humboldt Current and Sargasso Sea.” Science, New Series 63, no. 1621 (January 22, 1926): 91–92. A possible observation of an El Niño event. Beebe, William, Otis Barton, Jocelyn Crane, Gloria Hollister, and John Tee-Van. Half Mile Down. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1934. From the preface: “This is the third volume to be published dealing with oceanographic researches on the life of the waters about Nonsuch, Bermuda. . . . These studies have been carried on by Dr. William Beebe and his staff, Mr. John Tee-Van, Miss Gloria Hollister and Miss Jocelyn Crane, of the Department of Tropical Research of the Zoological Society. . . . The present volume describes the various descents made by Dr. Beebe and Mr. Barton in the steel ball known as the bathysphere.” Berra, Tim M. “Gloria Hollister: 1900–1988.” Copeia 1988, no. 4. (December 28, 1988): 1113. An obituary on Hollister, with a photo of her talking into a headset with the underwater bathysphere. Boycott, G. W. M. “Prevention of Compressed Air Illness: Obsolete Statutory Regulations as an Obstacle to Progress.” Journal of Hygiene 35, no. 3 (August 1935): 318–321. A discussion on the importance of decompression tables. Churcher, Charles S. “Letters: Coelacanth Catches.” Science 278, no. 5337 (October 17, 1997): 369–373. This letter to the editor comments on the history of the 1938 coelacanth discovery. Crane, Jocelyn. Fiddler Crabs of the World. Ocypodidae: Genus Uca. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1975. A massive compilation about the Uca. du Toit, Alex L. Our Wandering Continents: An Hypothesis of Continental Drifting. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1937. A South African geologist, du Toit provides details geological observations favoring the argument for continental drift, but puts forth the hypothesis that instead of a single supercontinent, Pangea, the Tethys Ocean separated a former northern continent, Laurasia, and a southern continent, Gondwanaland. Goldschmidt, Victor Moritz. “The Principles of Distribution of Chemical Elements in Minerals and Rocks.” Journal of the Chemical Society (1937): 655–673. In this report, geochemist Victor Goldschmidt estimates the chemical composition of the Earth’s crust.

Chapter  | 1931–1940    91 Gould, Carol Grant. The Remarkable Life of William Beebe: Explorer and Naturalist. Washington, D.C.: Island Press/Shearwater Books, 2004. A biography of Beebe including references to his early letters. Hamlin, Jerome F. “The Fish Out of Time.” A Web site on coelacanths. Available online. URL: http://www.dinofish.com/. Accessed on August 21, 2007. Hill, Leonard, and J. J. R. Macleod. “Caisson Illness and Diver’s Palsy. An Experimental Study.” Journal of Hygiene 3, no. 4 (October 1903): 401–445. A meta-analysis of historical cases involving decompression sickness. Huxley, Thomas H. “Preliminary Essay upon the Systematic Arrangement of the Fishes of the Devonian Epoch.” Memoirs Geological Survey of the United Kingdom (December 10, 1861): 421–460. This report discusses the taxonomy of fossil coelacanth fishes. Macan, T. T. “A Collection of Insects and Arachnids Made on Board H.E.M.S. Mabahiss during the John Murray Expedition 1933–34.” Proceedings of the Royal Entomological Society of London (A) 14 (1937): 77–79. This reports on invertebrate species collected during the oceanographic expedition. Monro, C. C. A. “The John Murray Expedition 1933–34.” Scientific Reports, Zoology 4, no. 8 (1937): 243–321. This report summaries the scientific findings of the expedition. ———. “Polychaeta.” British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition Reports, 1929–1931 Series B4, no. 4 (1939): 87–156. A discussion of the worms found in the Antarctic Ocean. Morcos, S. A. “Four Egyptian Officers of the Mabahiss: Ahmed Badr, First Officer, Ahmed Sarwat, Second Officer, Mahmoud Muktar, Second Engineer, and Edward Morcos, Third Engineer,” in Deep Sea Challenge: The John Murray/Mabahiss Expedition to the Indian Ocean 1933–34, edited by A. L. Rice. Paris: UNESCO, 1986, 291–298. This article appears on pages 303–310 in the Arabic edition of the book published in 1988. Nasht, Simon. The Last Explorer: Hubert Wilkins, Hero of the Great Age of Polar Exploration. New York: Arcade Publishing, 2006. The book chronicles the biography of the captain of the failed Nautilus expedition of 1931. Nobelprize.org. “The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1932: Irving Langmuir.” This Web site provides details on the 1932 winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry, who won for his work on monolayer surfaces. Available online. URL: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/ 1932/index.html. Accessed on March 15, 2008. ———. “The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1934: Harold Clayton Urey.” This Web site provides details on the 1934 winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, who won for his discovery of heavy hydrogen. Available online. URL: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/ 1934/index.html. Accessed on March 15, 2008.

9    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science ———. “The Nobel Peace Prize 1938.” This Web site provides details on the Nansen International Office for Refugees. Available online. URL: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1938/index.html. Accessed on March 15, 2008. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. The NOAA Diving Manual: Diving for Science and Technology. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA, Office of Undersea Research, 1991. A historical reference on SCUBA diving. NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Science Center: Milford Laboratory. This laboratory’s headquarters in Connecticut are today part of the NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. Available online. URL: http://mi.nefsc.noaa.gov/. NOVA. “Ancient Creature of the Deep.” This Web site reports on the discovery and anatomy of the coelacanth. Available online. URL: http:// www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/fish/. Accessed on August 21, 2007. Ohio State University Libraries. “Under the North Pole: The Voyage of the Nautilus” This digital exhibit marks the 75th anniversary of WilkinsEllsworth Trans-Arctic Submarine Expedition. Available online. URL: http://library.osu.edu/sites/exhibits/nautilus/index.html. Accessed on September 9, 2007. Osborn, Henry Fairfield. “A New Method of Deep Sea Observation at First Hand.” Science, New Series 72, no. 1854 (July 11, 1930): 27–28. A report on the use of the bathysphere. Royal Geographical Society, The (with the Institute of British Geographers). “Obituary: Captain Roald Amundsen.” Geographical Journal 72, no. 4 (October 1928): 397–399. The British society of explorers regrets Amundsen’s decision to retract his honorary membership and heralds the achievements of the famous Norwegian polar explorer. Sewell, R. Seymour, and J. Stanley Gardiner. “The John Murray Expedition to the Indian Ocean.” Geographical Journal 84, no. 2 (August 1934): 135– 139 and 154–156. Gardiner provides an abstract of Colonel R. Seymour Sewell’s reports to the Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers. Smith, J. L. B. Old Fourlegs: The Story of the Coelacanth. London: Longmans, 1956. Smith tells the story of the discovery and his part in identifying the first known living coelacanth and its impact on evolutionary science. Stiassny, Melanie L. J., Lynne R. Parenti, and G. David Johnson, eds. Interrelationships of Fishes. San Diego, Calif.: Academic Press, 1996. A chapter on sarcopterygians by Richard Cloutier and P. E. Ahlberg demonstrates that tetrapods are most closely related to the osteolepiforms, not the dipnoiforms, but that lungfishes, not the coelacanth, are the closest living relatives of tetrapods. Also showing that lungfish are closer to tetropods than coelacanths was Axel Meyer of the University of Konstanz in Germany and Allan Wilson at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1990. S. Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist

Chapter 4 | 1931–1940    93 at Pennsylvania State University in University Park came to a similar conclusion. Sverdrup, Harald Ulrik, Martin Wiggo Johnson, and Richard Howell Fleming. The Oceans: Their Physics, Chemistry, and General Biology. New York: Prentice Hall, 1942. This book introduces the modern era of dynamic oceanography. Walker, Sally M. Fossil Fish Found Alive: Discovering the Coelacanth. Minneapolis, Minn.: Carolrhoda Books, 2002. This recent book on the coelacanth portrays the scientific importance of the fish’s discovery. Watson, D. M. S. “Croonian Lecture: The Evolution and Origin of the Amphibia.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Containing Papers of a Biological Character 214 (1926): 189–257. An early discussion on coelacanth fossils prior to the discovery of the living species. Weinberg, Samantha. A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth. London: Fourth Estate, 1999. This recent book on the coelacanth tells of the scientific adventures and misadventures since the fish’s first discovery. Whitney, Frederick C. “Sverdrup of Scripps.” La Jollan 1, no. 8 (December 4, 1946): 18. This article focuses on Harald Sverdrup toward the end of his tenure as director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

i

5

1941–1950: Oceanographers Go to War

Introduction The demand for oceanographic intelligence grew during the 1940s with the onset of World War II. Underwater divers Jacques-Yves Cousteau (1910–97) and Émile Gagnan (1900–79) fascinated the world with their

Marine explorer and filmmaker Jacques-Yves Cousteau (right) with two colleagues (SIO Archives/UCSD)

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96    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science ability to breathe underwater and explore the marine environment directly with their invention of the Cousteau-Gagnan regulator, or AquaLung, as it was commonly called. Amphibious operations incorporated underwater swimmers equipped with suits and self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba) gear to neutralize the threat of offshore mines. During the war many oceanographers joined the navy or worked on research that could aid military operations. The number of job opportunities for marine scientists flourished during this time. And since most oceanographers came to the field with a background in another science—such as biology, zoology, physics, chemistry, or more recently even geology—cross-disciplinary investigations influenced the growth of the field. The global demand for marine specialists also provided unique employment opportunities for women such as Mary Sears, this chapter’s scientist of the decade, whose expertise in plankton took her to Peru for six months to study the effects of El Niño. After her return to the United States, she joined the navy and took charge of the oceanographic intelligence reports during the war for both the army and navy. In 2000 the U.S. Navy commemorated her influence on amphibious landing opera-

Oceanographers Harald Sverdrup, Martin  W. Johnson, and Richard H. Fleming  publish the first English-language textbook on oceanography: The Oceans

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1943

French marine explorer Jacques-Yves  Cousteau and engineer Émile Gagnan  invent the Aqua-Lung, with its automatic demand valve system, later  known as a self-contained underwater  breathing apparatus (scuba) regulator

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Chapter 5 | 1941–1950    97 tions with the naming of the 329-feet (100-m) oceanographic survey ship USNS Mary Sears.

Early Investigations into El Niño In 1939 German-born marine biologist Erwin Schweigger, working with the Peruvian Guano Administration Company (Compañía Administradora del Guano), began a long-term initiative to collect and compile sea-surface temperature and weather observations from Peruvian vessels. The country’s anchovy fishing fleet was on the watch for a warm-water intrusion called El Niño. Normally the western margins of continents are teaming with life because of the Ekman transport of currents: The trade winds drive the warm, nutrient-consumed surface water away from shore, making way for deep, cold, nutrient-rich waters to rise to the surface. As ornithologist Robert Cushman Murphy (1887– 1973) of the American Museum of Natural History wrote in 1923, the steeper the coastal slope the cooler the surface temperature, “for the narrower and more concentrated is the belt of upwelling bottom water.” The thermocline under such conditions is then very close to the surface,

Allied forces destroy the Deutsche Seewarte, German’s  naval institute founded in 1875. The institute in  Hamburg—along with Hamburg’s 1868 North German  Marine Observatory, Norddeutsche Seewarte, which the  German Reich had bought—was one of the first to publish maps of the oceans showing surface currents and  shipping routes. The first director of Deutsche Seewarte,  Georg von Neumayer, had helped to initiate the  International Polar Year of 1882–83 and later participated  in the 1900–05 International Antarctic Project

April 1, an earthquake of magnitude 8.1 strikes Unimak  Island, Alaska, and 165 people die from the resulting  tsunami: five in a lighthouse on Unimak Island, when  they are hit by a 115-foot (35-m) wave; 159 in Hilo,  Hawaii; and one person in California. The tsunami,  which causes an estimated $26 million in property damage on Hilo, provides the catalyst for the Seismic Sea  Wave Warning System, established on August 12, 1948,  and later called the Pacific Tsunami Warning System

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1945

1946

Between June 30, 1946, and August 18, 1958, the United  States conducts 67 nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands.  The United States had evacuated the people living on  Bikini atoll to the smaller uninhabited Rongerik atoll  125 miles (200 km) east and downwind of the radiation  fallout from tests on Bikini. Inhabitants of Enewetak atoll  are moved to Ujelang atoll on December 1947. The total  yield, including the 15-megaton Bravo bomb, comes to  108 megatons—the equivalent of 7,000 Hiroshima bombs

December 2, the  International Whaling  Commission (IWC) is  founded to globally  manage whale stocks  and govern the whaling  industry

98    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science close enough for phytoplankton to take advantage of the combination of abundant nutrients and sunlight. Off the coast of South America, the cold deep water comes from the Humboldt Current, a northerly branch of the Pacific Antarctic drift. Phytoplankton blooms provide food for zooplankton such as copepods, which provide food for anchovies, which are then eaten by a myriad of marine wildlife. For the Peruvians the most important of the top anchovy predators are the country’s guano birds: the Peruvian Booby (Sula variegata), the Peruvian Pelican (Pelecanus thagus), and the Guanay Cormorant (Phalacrocorax bouganvillii). A variety of seabirds and bats produce a white, phosphorus- and nitrogen-rich waste product called guano that cakes the grounds where they roost. Peru’s guano birds rely on a diet of anchovies and can dive as deep as 50 feet (15 m) to feed on the fish. During the 19th century the world’s agricultural industry sought guano as a key ingredient for fertilizer. The nesting grounds of guano birds (and even some bat caves, most notably the Eckert James River Bat Cave in Texas) were mined for their guano and sold to farmers

Thor Heyerdahl (1914–2002) sails across  the Pacific Ocean on the Kon Tiki balsa raft  to prove Polynesians might have migrated  from South America. He succeeds in navigating from Peru to Tuamotu Islands

The United Nations International Maritime  Organization is adopted and ratified in  1958 to increase shipping trade and end  discrimination. Later the organization’s  greatest concerns will include improving  marine safety and reducing marine pollution

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1947

American geophysicist William Maurice “Doc” Ewing  (1906–74) of Columbia University sails the Atlantic  on a two-month expedition over the Atlantic Ocean.  Cores of the seafloor reveal modern plankton deposits  sitting on top of fossil marine shells from the Eocene  period. The missing layers indicate unknown disturbances occurring on the seafloor. His oceanographic  investigation provides the impetus for Columbia  University to build a new geological observatory

1948

Russian oceanographer Maria Klenova publishes  the leading Russian textbook, Geologiya Moray  (Geology of the sea), on methods and observations in the field of marine geology Balloonist Auguste Piccard (1884–1962) tests his subsea  dirigible, the bathyscaphe FNRS2, with Max Cosyno. They  reach a record-setting depth of 13,287 feet (4,050 m)

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Chapter 5 | 1941–1950    99 around the world. At the time there were no radiocarbon methods to provide an estimate of how many years’ worth of guano the industry was harvesting annually. As the century progressed, it became obvious that the industry was reaping more than the animals were able to supply. Managing the guano reserves became a concern. The guano industry was desperate for scientific information, and the importance of the industry to the world’s economy made even ad hoc information news worthy. American ornithologist Robert Ridgeway (1850–1929), bird curator of the U.S. National Museum (Smithsonian Institution) in Washington, D.C., published the following in the journal Science in June 1893: The following particulars, recently given me by a friend who, years ago, was a sailor, and whom I know to be a man of the strictest veracity, may be of interest as possibly throwing some light on the age of guano deposits. In the year 1840 his vessel loaded with guano on the island of Ichabo, on the east coast of Africa. During the excavations which

American seismologist Hugo Benioff (1899–1968) identifies deep  earthquakes occurring along ocean trenches and extending beneath  South America and volcanic islands in the South Pacific. In the 1920s  and 1930s, Japanese seismologist Kiyoo Wadati (1902–95) had  independently identified similar faults extending under Japan. Later  recognized for its role in the process of plate tectonics, the WadatiBenioff zone delineates the top of the lithosphere during subduction April 13, an earthquake of magnitude 7.1  strikes Puget Sound, Washington. Eight  people die, and the quake causes an estimated $25 million in property damage

August 15, an earthquake of magnitude 8.6 strikes Assam, India, and  Tibet; 1,526 people die. The quake  causes an estimated US$25 million  in property damage. In 1955 Anders  Kvale will coin the seismic term  seiche to describe oscillations of  lake levels in Norway and England  caused by the Assam earthquake

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1949 Columbia University establishes the Lamont  Geological Observatory on the former estate of  Thomas W. Lamont in Palisades, New York, overlooking the Hudson River. Oceanographer Maurice “Doc”  Ewing takes charge as the observatory’s first director The United States establishes the Gulf States Marine  Fisheries Commission for the Gulf of Mexico, the  International Convention for the Northwest Atlantic  Fisheries Commission, and the Inter-American  Tropical Tuna Commission for the Eastern Pacific

1950

Denmark’s Galathea  expedition begins  its circumnavigation  around the globe

The Society of Economic  Paleontologists and Mineralogists  holds a symposium in Chicago on  turbidity currents. Marine geologists Francis Shepard, Philip Henry  Kuenen, and Henry William Menard  discuss the properties of high-density currents on the seafloor as a  means for transporting sediments

100    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science were necessary, the crew exhumed the body of a Portuguese sailor, who, according to the head-board, on which his name and date of burial had been carved with a knife, had been interred fifty-two years previously. The top of this head-board projected two feet above the original surface, but had been covered by exactly seven feet of subsequent deposit of guano. Between 1875 and 1910, Peru’s multibillion-dollar guano industry depleted its reserves and saw only a 0.24 percent yearly return in fresh guano. In 1908 the country established the Peruvian Guano Administration Company to protect the three species of guano birds. They immediately embarked on learning more about the birds’ habitat. The warm-water invasion of El Niño (meaning the “[Christ] Child” in Spanish) occurred off the South American coast every few years around Christmas and had “long been an object of interest to navigators and other observers in Peru,” wrote Murphy in 1923. The warm water did not bring with it the same nutrient load as the colder waters; as a result, there were fewer phytoplankton, zooplankton, fewer fish, and even fewer birds. The phenomenon was a lead story in the first volume of the Geographical Society of Lima’s Boletín in 1892. At the same time that Murphy was investigating the Peruvian fisheries, British physicist Sir Gilbert Thomas Walker (1868–1958) was on the other side of the Pacific working on forecasting monsoon seasons in India. Without the rains, the crops failed; the drought years brought with them notorious famines. In 1924, Walker coined the term Southern Oscillation to describe the periodicity in the monsoon season. Nearly half a century later, meteorologists found that what was described as a periodic warm-water current off the coast of Peru was in fact part of a Pacific-wide oceanic response to atmospheric changes and dubbed it the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The easterly trade winds that blow toward the western Pacific and pile up warm, wet air over Indonesia weaken during an El Niño year, when sea surface temperatures increase. The weaker winds allow the warm air to pile up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean rather than over Indonesia. The Pacific Ocean responds as though someone standing on one side of a seesaw has walked over to the middle: the thermocline, which is deeper near Indonesia and closer to the surface near Peru, levels out like a balanced seesaw. The upwelling of nutrients off the coast of Peru then occurs in deeper water—too deep to support surface-dwelling phytoplankton. The reduction of available nutrients to the primary producers causes a domino effect through the food chain. Schweigger had also documented a relationship between wind direction and guano production. “A small change in the westerly direction causes a considerable fall in production,” Deacon wrote in his 1943 review. “Now that the old deep beds of guano, which covered the islands lying off the coast like the icecaps of low Antarctic islands, have been mostly removed, the production depends on the cleaning off, every few years, of the large deposits

Chapter 5 | 1941–1950    101

Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania. During El Niño years, the change in rainfall patterns can bring drought to the western and south Pacific. (Steve Barrett)

left by the innumerable Boobies, Cormorants, and Pelicans which still frequent the islands. An artificial ecological balance is maintained, but it is sensitive to fluctuations in the numbers of nests, in the time spent on the nests, and to the general well-being of the birds. The oceanographical factors which influence the abundance and distribution of the small fish on which the birds mainly feed are of some importance, and meteorological factors have several direct and indirect influences.” Peruvians had associated the warm-water El Niño with excessive rainfall and loss of fish and bird populations. The current was known to occur two or three times every 30–40 years. Murphy recorded the extent of temperature changes from El Niño in January 1921. The Peruvian vessels that started recording sea temperature in 1939 caught the onset of El Niño in 1941. Schweigger concluded that the warm water was the result of overdevelopment in exceptional years of normal water circulation. In 1941 American oceanographer Mary Sears was on one of the vessels in Pisco Bay conducting plankton tows and cataloging the damaging effect of El Niño to the plankton population. The rainfall and change in winds kept the warm water along the coast instead of pushing it toward the equator. This kept the thermocline too deep for phytoplankton to take advantage of the cold-water nutrients; the plants could still photosynthesize at the surface, but like crops on land without fertilizer, their blooms withered. Zooplankton feed on the phytoplankton at night and migrate to deeper waters during the day. The nightly migration of copepods in lakes and marine waters had held scientists’ curiosity since the 1870s. In the 1930s oceanographers investigated the relationship between copepods and diatoms at sea, concentrating their plankton tows in regions where the ecosystem was tied to economic affairs, such as off the coast

102    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

This image shows the sea waters that were above average height during the El Niño of 1997–98. The Kelvin wave is the dark and light band along the equator. The white V-shaped wedge shows the area where sea-level height rose 4.7–11.8 inches (12–30 cm) above normal, and temperatures rose two to three degrees above normal.

of Woods Hole, in the Gulf of Maine, and in the South Georgia whaling grounds near Antarctica. Off the coast of Peru, the anchovies followed the copepods. During El Niño years, the guano birds struggle with challenging weather conditions and reduced food supplies of anchovies, which migrate deeper than the energy-depleted birds can dive. In the 1940s, with overharvesting and climate change, the Peruvian economy was seeing the end of its international guano trade. The country’s focus after World War II turned to modernizing its fisheries of anchovies and keeping its limited supply of guano for domestic use. Bird populations were recovering when El Niño returned to Peru in December 1957 and devastated both anchovy and seabird populations over the summer. The 1957–58 El Niño spurred international attention to oceanographic and meteorological correlations across the entire equatorial Pacific Ocean. In the 1980s oceanographers were able to successfully predict the onset of the 1982–83 El Niño, and they have since identified the cooler shift as La Niña. The El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, refers to the combination of ocean and atmospheric changes occurring at the same time.

Chapter 5 | 1941–1950    103 ~ EL NINO ~ El Nino

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During El Niño years (top), the trade winds slacken. Warm, nutrient-poor water pools off the coast of Peru, capping over the upwelling cold water, and bringing rain and flooding to the region. Indonesia and Australia struggle with droughts. During non–El Niño years (bottom), the trade winds push warm surface water over to the West Pacific. Upwelling of cool, nutrient-rich waters support primary productivity and anchovy populations important to Peruvian fisheries.

FPO

104    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

Women at Sea American captains and the principal investigators leading scientific expeditions, especially during and after World War II, rarely granted women permission to board a ship until after the 1960s. Other countries around the world had fewer reservations accepting women scientists and women leaders on their vessels. In 1953, Woods Hole director Rear Admiral Edward Hanson Smith wrote that despite Mary Sears’s significant contributions to oceanography, “present conditions do not permit her to carry out her work at sea in person except through engagements with foreign agencies.” What exactly were the conditions Smith was referring to that prevented women from going out to sea on American vessels, boats equipped for research work? The ships’ physical conditions were not the problem, although they were frequently cited as such. As Sears said, “If they say there weren’t facilities for women on our boats, they should have seen the facilities for anyone [on the fishing boats in Peru].”

Maria Klenova (1898–1976): The Mother of Marine Geology Russian  marine  geologist  Maria  (sometimes  spelled  Mariya)  Vasil’yevna  Klenova  should  be  recognized as one of the most proficient and creative oceanographers of her time. She participated  in numerous expeditions sponsored by the USSR  Academy  of  Sciences,  beginning  in  1925,  and  established  herself  as  one  of  the  primary  leaders  in the field of marine geology. In 1925, Klenova joined a select team of oceanographers working for the Floating Marine Institute,  which was a set of six laboratories—specializing in  hydrology,  meteorology,  geology,  ocean  analysis,  and plankton and benthic studies—built on board  the R/V Persey. The Persey completed 84 research  expeditions  between  1923  and  1941.  Klenova  conducted  sediment  surveys  in  the  northern  seas  and  around  the  archipelagos  of  Novaya  Zemlya,  Spitsbergen,  and  Franz  Josef  Land.  She  was  the  principal  investigator  during  the  Persey’s  expedition  to  the  Barents  Sea.  Her  1933  trade  maps  of  various seafloor sediments, their size, and mineral  content showed distinguishing geologic characteristics between the Barents Sea’s abyssal plain and 

that of the continental shelf—research still relevant  today  as  countries  claim  territorial  rights  further  and further away from the shoreline. In  1937,  Klenova  identified  and  named  the  Barents abyssal plain, located north of the Barents  Sea (85° N, 40° E), after the Dutch polar explorer  Willem  Barents  who  died  in  1597  on  his  third  expedition  to  find  the  Northeast  Passage.  Klenova’s research into the geology of the ocean  took  her  across  the  Atlantic,  near  the  shores  of  Antarctica,  and  to  the  Caspian  and  White  Seas.  Her book Geologiya Moray (Geology of the sea),  published  in  1948,  was  the  second  textbook  dedicated  to  the  subject  of  marine  geology.  (The  first book dedicated to the geology of the seafloor  was written by Hiroshi Niino [1905–73] and published in Japan in 1944.) Klenova’s book received  significant  attention  from Western  marine  geologists in the postwar era. The Klenova Valley north  of  Greenland  and  the  Klenova  Seamount  about  280  miles  (450  km)  east  of  Salvador,  Brazil,  (13°01.5' S, 34°15' W), are named in her honor,  as is a crater on Venus.

Chapter 5 | 1941–1950    105 The philosophy had no substantive reasoning and was enforced only to satisfy the whims and superstitions of the male authorities. According to Scripps historian Elizabeth Noble Shor, in a note to Carl Eckart in 1949, Scripps scientist Roger Revelle wrote, “it is necessary to consider each situation on its merits and to think up reasons whenever possible to discourage women from participating in the work at sea. . . . An unwritten policy which does not prohibit but subtly discourages their presence will best achieve our dubious ends.” Revelle did not even make an exception for his wife. In November 1940 Captain Earle D. Hammond of the E. W. Scripps, a yacht previously used to entertain actors and actresses and renovated with diesel tanks and laboratory rooms, refused to allow Ellen Revelle and Elizabeth Shepard on board. They had driven down from La Jolla with Claude ZoBell and Carl Johnson to Guaymas, Mexico, where the ship was in port, to meet their husbands. The women reportedly had to wait on the dock while their male colleagues boarded the ship. Roger Revelle, or perhaps an incident that occurred earlier that year, may have influenced the captain’s decision, which was at odds with his previous courtesy. On March 20 the 104-foot schooner was docked at a pier in San Diego Bay in preparation for a 10-day survey of the waters between the Channel Islands and San Diego. When Emmy Tibby and Grace “Peter” Sargent dropped off their husbands, the women were given a brief tour and treated to breakfast in the mess hall. Richard Tibby had been surprised by his wife’s request to board the ship. “You know women are bad luck on board ship,” he told her. Unfortunately, that misguided superstition was coincidently strengthened to the embarrassment of Captain Hammond, who, after the women departed, ran the ship aground at 7:33 a.m. on a muddy shoal in the San Diego Yacht Club entrance channel. With the help of a tugboat, the captain finally freed the schooner from the mud during the next high tide at 7:21 p.m. Scripps director Harald Sverdrup explained in the San Diego Tribune-Sun that the mishap probably resulted because mud and silt stirred up during dredging operations at Dutch Flats had settled in the channel. In 1951, Revelle took over from Sverdrup as director of Scripps and on a case-by-case basis began allowing women on overnight expeditions lasting up to two weeks. That same year oceanographer Grace Pikford (1902–86) of the Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory, affiliated with Yale University in Connecticut, joined the Danish Galathea expedition for an extended leg to study the deep-sea cephalopod Vampyroteuthis infernalis. She sailed with the crew for three months, collecting specimens of the unique squidlike octopus, or octopus-like squid, from the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Siam, and the South China Sea. The captain of the Galathea made a point of hosting a party for the Scripps oceanographers when the ship came to port in San Diego. The next year Revelle invited Rachel Carson, author of the 1951 best seller The Sea Around Us, to join the Capricorn Expedition to the South Pacific, a cruise scheduled to last five months on the Spencer F. Baird.

106    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Carson declined. In December 1952 writer and designer Helen Raitt unexpectedly found herself traveling with the crew instead. She had flown to the Fiji Islands with a camera, a portable typewriter, and the primary intent of visiting her husband, a Scripps geophysicist, when the ship came to port in Suva. To pay her way, she documented underwater swimmers in the South Pacific for the National Research Council. From Suva, Fiji, the Baird headed to Tonga, where the crew measured the depth of the Tonga trench to be about 35,000 feet (10,700 m) deep, the second deepest trench in the world after the Mariana Trench. Revelle decided to invite Raitt onto the Baird for the remainder of the cruise, which lasted until February 21, 1953. She wrote about her experience in her 1956 book Exploring the Deep Pacific. Perhaps because she was not an oceanographer herself, Raitt had misgivings about joining the cruise. “I had said that I did not believe women should travel on oceanographic ships,” she wrote, but she was unable to give her hosts on the islands an explanation as to why that was the case. Despite having been aboard the Galathea when the ship was in California, she never once mentioned Grace Pikford’s role during the Danish expedition. In her book Raitt seems unaware of the women who had gone to sea before her—let alone those who had led scientific expeditions at sea, even American ones. “If I traveled on the Baird now, I would be the experiment. My whole sex would be on trial,” Raitt wrote. Her greatly exaggerated sense of historical significance could be forgiven as a consequence of the pressure at Scripps and other American marine laboratories against allowing women at sea. This was not always the case. Raitt was not, as some biographers claim, the first woman to take part in an extended American oceanographic expedition. In 1871–72, Elizabeth Cabot Cary Agassiz worked with her husband, Louis Agassiz, aboard the U.S. Coast Survey’s three-masted, iron-hulled steamer Hassler. Commander Philip C. Johnson’s wife also accompanied the expedition. Equipped with advanced technology in deep-sea dredging, the expedition followed both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the Americas—spending considerable time exploring the Magellan Strait. The iron steamer left Boston on December 4, 1871, and reached San Francisco in August 1872. A half-century later, on his expeditions to the Sargasso Sea and the Galápagos in the 1920s as well as on diving expeditions on board the bathysphere, William Beebe worked with women artists and scientists whose expertise in ichthyology and marine biology were essential to the investigations, including Gloria Hollister and Jocelyn Crane. Beginning in 1936, world-class angler Helen Lerner and her husband, New York department store magnate and big-game fisherman Michael Lerner, financed studies on marlin, tuna, swordfish, and shark biology with the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). (opposite page) As the Gulf Stream meanders like a river through the Atlantic Ocean, eddies form, creating variations in sea-surface temperature.

AI 10 Finals 12/05/07

Chapter 5 | 1941–1950    107

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108    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

Scientist of the Decade: Lieutenant Mary Sears, U.S.N.R. (W) (1905–1997) It  took  two  days  for  the  news  to  reach  plankton  specialist  Mary  Sears:  Japan  had  bombed  Pearl  Harbor. The American oceanographer was aboard  the Peruvian trawler Guano, examining the change  in plankton populations during the 1941 El Niño.  The war had made her “a little nervous” going out  to sea in the Pacific. “Theoretically, the Japanese  subs were off the Peruvian coast,” she recalled in  a September 29, 1989, interview at Woods Hole,  Massachusetts.  She  did  not  want  the  boat  to  be  mistaken  for  an American  trawler  and  urged  the  fishermen  to  fly  the  Peruvian  flag  at  night.  She  alternated  between  overnight  expeditions  and  day  trips  out  on  another  fishing  boat  the  Guano  Company owned. The  experience  had  its  challenges  for  Sears,  both personal and professional. The overnight vessel had bunks crawling with bedbugs, and the day  vessel did not have a head, as bathrooms on boats  are  called.  Neither  boat  was  properly  equipped  for  plankton  tows.  Sears  brought  her  own  winch  to  haul  up  her  plankton  nets. The  fishermen  on  board  did  their  best  to  help,  but  Sears  did  not  speak  any  Spanish  and  William  Reed,  the  man  hired to join their team as a translator, spoke very  little English. When the towline on one of her two  nets  broke,  Sears  ended  up  jumping  overboard.  “I  didn’t  think  anyone  of  them  could  swim,  so  I  dove  overboard  without  thinking,”  she  said.  Reed  followed  her  into  the  water,  and  the  two  “both  got  the  man  back.” The  Guano  Company  reported  that  Sears  had  fallen  overboard  during  the accident, but Sears said that her going into the  water “wasn’t an accident at all.” The typewritten  transcript from 1989 has some grammatical errors  elsewhere  in  the  interview,  making  it  difficult  to  determine if Sears was rescuing one of the fishermen  or  acting  on  her  own  to  retrieve  the  main  line attached to the net. In either case it was the  only  at-sea  expedition  Sears  had  during  a  career  that established oceanography as a field of interest  within the U.S. Navy.

Sears  had  graduated  magna  cum  laude  from  Radcliffe  College  in  1927  and  started  working  as  Henry  Bryant  Bigelow’s  assistant  at  Harvard’s  Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology.  After  the  Woods  Hole  Oceanographic  Institution  (WHOI)  was  founded,  Sears  alternated  between  spending  summers  in  Woods  Hole  and  winters  in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts.  She  graduated  from  Radcliffe with a Ph.D. in zoology in 1933, around  the time that the herring fishery was failing in the  North Atlantic. Sears was soon recognized as a leading expert  on plankton. Her studies often focused on identifying  indicator  species,  which  could  help  determine  the  health  of  the  food  web,  based  on  their  population  density.  In  1936  Sears  published  a  review of the plankton studies conducted during  the German Meteor expedition. In 1940 she was  the lead author on a report about the annual fluctuations in the abundance of marine zooplankton.  She  worked  closely  with  Bigelow  and  the  U.S.  Bureau  of  Fisheries  during  a  four-year  survey  of  zooplankton along the coast of the Gulf of Maine,  between Cape Cod and Chesapeake Bay. Plankton  specialist Charles Fish at the University of Rhode  Island recommended her for the Peruvian expedition in 1941. After her at-sea expedition aboard the Guano,  Sears returned to Woods Hole and found that the  war had mobilized the focus of the oceanographic  institution.  Bigelow—who  in  1940  had  passed  the  job  of  director  to  Columbus  Iselin,  the  first  captain of the Atlantis—and the rest of the marine  scientists  at  the  institution  were  now  concentrating  their  research  on  solving  the  multitude  of  problems that confronted submarines, ships, and  sailors. Sears was put in charge of consolidating a  decade  of  research  on  antifouling  methods  for  a  bibliography on marine fouling. The accumulation  of  marine  organisms,  namely  barnacles,  on  the  bottom of a boat can significantly slow the vessel’s  top cruising speed. In warm-water regions such as 

Chapter 5 | 1941–1950    109

the  South  Pacific,  marine  organisms  accumulate  rapidly unless thwarted by chemicals in paints or  scraped off the hull—a time-consuming job often  done by hand. In August 1942, the U.S. Navy began recruiting  women  to  join  its  new  WAVES  (Women  Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) division.  Not  since  1919  had  women  served  in  the  navy,  and  legislation  since  that  time  had  to  be  rewritten  to  accept  women  for  service  again.  Within  a  year  27,000  women  had  joined;  Sears  was  one  of  them.  Most  of  the  women  were  placed  in  clerical  and  administrative  jobs,  but  many  found  work  in  aviation,  medicine,  communications,  intelligence,  science,  technology,  and  the  Judge  Advocate  General  Corps.  With  recommendations  from  Columbus  Iselin  and  Roger  Revelle,  by  then  a  navy  lieutenant,  Sears  obtained  a  waiver  for  her  medical  disability  (arthritis), and after a few weeks of officer training  she  was  commissioned  as  a  junior-grade  lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. In  April  1943  Sears  began  juggling  a  number  of  duties.  She  was  assigned  to  the  Joint  Meteorological  Committee  of  the  Joint  Chiefs  of  Staff,  appointed  secretary  to  the  Joint  Subcommittee  on  Oceanography,  and  put  in  charge  of  oceanographic  intelligence  at  the  Hydrographic  Office  in  Washington,  D.C.  By  June that year, the army and navy were centralizing  their  requests  for  oceanographic  intelligence  through  Sears.  She  worked  closely  with  Revelle,  who  was  directing  the  oceanographic  research  section  within  the  navy’s  Bureau  of  Ships.  He  coordinated  the  navy’s  contract  work  with  marine  labs  across  the  country  as  well  as  with  the  University  of  California’s  Division  of  War  Research  in  San  Diego.  On  the  occasion  of  WHOI’s  50th  anniversary  in  1980,  Revelle  remarked:  “Because  the  Federal  Government  has  very  little  memory,  it  is  generally  forgotten  that  the  first  Oceanographer  of  the  Navy  in  modern  times  was  a  short,  rather  shy  and  prim  WAVE  Lieutenant,  j.g.  . . . They  underestimated 

the  powerful  natural  force  that  is  Mary  Sears.  That  tiny  Oceanographic  Unit  soon  became  a  Division,  and  finally  the  entire  Hydrographic  Office  evolved  into  the  Naval  Oceanographic  Office, headed by an admiral with the proud title  of Oceanographer of the Navy.” Navy  historian  Kathleen  Williams  wrote  in  a  July  2004  letter  for  the  U.S.  Naval  Academy  Leadership  Project  that  “as  the  head  of  the  Oceanographic  Unit,  Sears’s  most  critical  task  was to provide intelligence reports for both longrange strategic, and immediate tactical, planning  for  amphibious  operations  in  the  Pacific.”  Sears  directed a staff of 15 people, including U.S. Army  Air  Forces  captain  Fenner  Chance,  whom  Sears  knew  from  his  time  as  curator  of  crustaceans  at  Harvard’s  Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology.  At  least two of the 12 women on her staff were civilians:  oceanographer  Dora  Henry,  an  expert  on  barnacles,  and  oceanographic  research  librarian  Mary Grier—both from the marine science laboratory at the University of Washington in Seattle.  With  Sears  in  charge,  the  Oceanographic  Unit  developed an extended network of contacts in the  military  and  marine  sciences.  She  and  her  team  scoured  the  scientific  literature  for  information  that  would  help  the  war  effort.  From  the  Scripps  Institution  of  Oceanography  the  team  learned  of  the  latest  methods  for  forecasting  sea  swell  and  surf  conditions.  They  analyzed  studies  from  the  Naval  Research  Laboratory  on  how  changes  in  ocean salinity, due to freshwater sources such as  rivers, affect radio acoustic ranging during coastal  hydrographic surveys. Submarine surveys provided  data on water temperature and pressure at depth.  Sears and her team also kept track of reports from  underwater demolition teams, U.S. Marine Corps  reconnaissance  companies,  and  even  merchant  captains at sea. Reconnaissance photographs from  the navy’s Photographic Interpretation Center routinely crossed their desks. Much of this information  was classified for American eyes only, but some of  (continues)

110    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

(continued)  the military’s best information on the South Pacific  came from Japanese oceanographers. Both the Allied and Axis powers relied heavily  on the prewar data Japanese oceanographers had  published.  Prior  to  the  war,  Japan  had  launched  more than 90 vessels to survey the Pacific Ocean.  During  the  invasion  on  the  Kwajalein  atoll  in  the  Marshall  Islands,  the  U.S.  Fourth  Marine  Division  on  Namur  (Kwajalein)  obtained  classified  Japanese  air  charts  and  tide  tables  from  the  Japanese Hydrographic Office, which they sent to  Sears and her team. She had the confiscated tide  tables compared with earlier reports the Japanese  had published before the war. By relying on multiple sources of information, confirming the accuracy of the observations, and comparing any new  information  she  obtained  with  older  published  accounts in the scientific literature, Sears ensured  she  could  defend  to  the  highest  command  every  intelligence report that left her office. She had to:  Her reports were directly influencing the course of  the war, especially in the Pacific arena. The  regularly  shallow  surf  along  the  western  coast of Luzon in the Philippines made the western part of the horseshoe-shaped Lingayen Gulf on  the  island  vulnerable  to  attack. As  the American  fleet of battleships stormed the sea on January 1,  1945, the Japanese military prepared for battle by  fortifying  the  western  flank  of  the  gulf.  Japanese  bombers  attacked  the  American  fleet  of  battleships  as  they  neared  Luzon  on  January  4  and  5.  One kamikaze pilot intentionally crashed into the  escort carrier Ommaney Bay, destroying the ship  in the explosion. Instead of heading west into the  gulf, however, the USS Pennsylvania led the USS  Colorado, USS Louisville, USS Portland, and USS  Columbia  on  an  attack  along  the  gulf’s  eastern  opening,  striking  targets  on  Santiago  Island  and  providing cover for an amphibious landing. Sears  and  her  team  had  reported  that  the  eastern  gulf  would have surf with waves less than six feet high  during  the  operation,  making  the  less-fortified 

eastern shore the best location for an attack from  behind the Imperial Japanese Army’s stronghold. The relatively quick defeat of the Japanese army  on Luzon was followed by a two-month engagement  on  the  volcanic  soils  of  Iwo  Jima,  where  the  Japanese  had  built  extensive  underground  bunkers and both sides suffered heavy casualties.  With Iwo Jima, the Allied forces had the Japanese  on the defensive. In March the United States, with  the support of a small contingent from the British  Pacific Fleet, took the battle to Japan’s backyard in  the Battle of Okinawa, the last amphibious assault  of  World  War  II.  Okinawa,  the  largest  of  the  Ryukyu  Islands,  had  more  than  150,000  indigenous civilians on the island. The Imperial Japanese  Army provided Okinawan civilians with hand grenades and the directive to commit suicide rather  than  be  captured  by American  forces.  Sears  and  her team at the Oceanographic Unit identified the  Hagushi beaches on the western coast as logistically the most feasible for an amphibious landing,  based  on  currents  and  surf  conditions  around  Okinawa. Sears reported that her work, an analysis of strategically significant coastal waters, “got  easier and easier as we approached the Japanese  home islands . . . because we were able to use the  very  complete  and  excellent  data  published  by  Japanese scientists before Pearl Harbor.” The U.S. Army also favored the Hagushi beaches  as a landing site on Okinawa, and the commander  in chief of the Pacific Ocean Area saw the tactical  advantage. The landing day was planned for April  1, 1945, with the second Marine Division to feign  a  landing  on  Okinawa’s  southeast  coast  on  the  same  day. The  battle  to  take  Okinawa  began  on  March  26  with  a  week  of  aerial  attacks  and  sea  skirmishes.  On  March  29,  underwater  demolition teams swam through the surf to disable 200  Japanese  underwater  mines  located  off  the  coast  of  Hagushi.  U.S.  Army  reports  published  three  years later described the scene on April 1. At 0530, twenty minutes before dawn, the fire support force of 10 battleships, 9 cruisers, 23 destroyers, and

Chapter 5 | 1941–1950    111

177 gunboats began the pre-H-Hour bombardment of the beaches. They fired 44,825 rounds of 5-inch or larger shells, 33,000 rockets, and 22,500 mortar shells. This was the heaviest concentration of naval gunfire ever to support a landing of troops. About seventy miles east of Okinawa, Task Force 58 was deployed to furnish air support and to intercept attacks from Kyushu. In addition, support carriers had arrived with troop convoys. At 0745 carrier planes struck the beaches and near-by trenches with napalm. A rising tide lapped the metal hulls of the amphibious vehicles that in wave after wave rode over the  coral reef and onto the beaches at 8:30 a.m. Quickly the smoke and dust that had shrouded the landing area lifted, and it became possible for the troops to see the nature of the country directly before them. They were on a beach which was generally about twenty yards in depth and which was separated by a 10-foot sea wall from the country beyond. There were few shell holes on the beach itself, but naval gunfire had blown large holes in the sea wall at frequent intervals to provide adequate passageways. Except at the cliff-bordered Bishi River mouth, in the center of the landing area, the ground rose gradually to an elevation of about fifty feet. There was only sparse natural vegetation, but from the sea wall to the top of the rise the coastal ground was well cultivated. In the background, along the horizon, hills showed through the screen of artillery smoke. Farther inland, in many places, towns and villages could be seen burning and the smoke rising above them in slender and twisted spires. These evidences of devastation,

however, made less impression upon the men than did the generally peaceful and idyllic nature of the country, enhanced by the pleasant warmth, the unexpected quiet, and the absence of any sign of human life. The landing at Hagushi allowed the U.S. army  to invade through the middle of Okinawa, dividing the Japanese troops in the north from those in  the south. With the middle ground now the front  lines  for  the  infantry,  the  battle  continued  with  heavy  losses  on  both  sides,  ending  on  June  22  after  83  days.  During  the  last  two  weeks  of  the  war, thousands of Japanese and Okinawans committed  suicide  rather  than  surrender,  including  General  Mitsuru  Ushijima  (1887–1945)  and  his  chief of staff, General Isamu Cho (1895–1945). Sears  retired  from  the  Oceanographic  Unit  in  1946  with  the  rank  of  lieutenant  commander.  Admiral Chester Nimitz, chief of naval operations,  heralded  her  work  as  providing  “critically  valuable  information  for  use  in  combat  operations.”  Sears  returned  to  plankton  studies  after  the  war,  but  she  remained  active  in  the  naval  reserve  for  17  years,  commanding  the  local  Naval  Reserve  Research  Company  in  Woods  Hole.  In  October  1953  she  published  the  first  issue  of  Deep Sea Research. As  editor  she  made  the  final  decisions  on  the  journal’s  content,  and  she  also  became  a  strong  force  in  guiding  the  direction  of  postwar oceanographic research. Roger Revelle commented  at  the  1980  celebration  of WHOI’s  50th  anniversary  that  Sears,  then  75,  provided  “the  conscience  of  oceanography. . . .  [She]  initiated  and  maintained  an  uncompromising  standard  of  excellence  in  scientific  publications  about  the  oceans   . .  [and]  played  a  major  role  in  creating  the  present  world  community  of  oceanographers  from numerous countries and almost as many specialties.” In October 2000 the U.S. Navy named a  new member of its fleet the USNS Mary Sears. The  vessel  is  a  sixth  Pathfinder-class  oceanographic  survey  ship  and  the  first  navy  research  vessel  named for a woman.

112    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science German-born ichthyologist Francesca Raimonde La Monte (1895– 1982), associate curator of Living and Extinct Fishes at the American Museum, led the scientific investigation on several of the Lerner expeditions, including Cape Breton in 1936 and 1938, Bimini in 1937, and off the coast of Peru and Chile in 1940. La Monte dissected the specimens of swordfish the team harpooned off Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. She noted that the fish were “swimming lazily, resting at the surface, commonly with the dorsal fin and the upper lobe of the caudal projecting above the water.” La Monte examined their stomach contents, weighed reproductive and other internal organs, and concluded that the 250–500pound swordfish digested their meals at the surface after gorging on herring and the occasional squid or dogfish. During the month-long summer expedition, all of the swordfish caught had inactive gonads—indicating that the fish were only feeding around Cape Breton and spawning elsewhere at another time. The larvae of swordfish drift with the current. “The scarcity off our coast of small swordfish of only a few pounds weight, such as occur in the Mediterranean, indicates that there is no nursery ground in the western side of the Gulf Stream drift, as there should be if the species spawned in the Western Atlantic,” La Monte wrote in a 1937 report she coauthored with John Nichols, also with the AMNH. La Monte was responsible for the museum’s life-history exhibits on swordfish, eels, salmon, as well as other fishes. She conducted her own fieldwork fishing off the coast of South Carolina, Florida, Hawaii, Brazil, and the Isle of Shoals. In 1943, the Lerners established an international record-keeping association of ocean fish, the International Game Fish Association, and recruited La Monte as secretary; author and big-game fisherman Ernest Hemingway as vice president; and William King Gregory, director of ichthyology and comparative anatomy at the AMNH, as president.

Further Reading Appleman, Roy E., et al. “Okinawa: The Last Battle.” U.S. Army Center of Military History. Originally published through the U.S. Army in 1948, this report documents the American invasion on Okinawa during World War II. Available online. URL: http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/ wwii/okinawa/. Accessed on October 26, 2007. Clarke, George L. “The Relation Between Diatoms and Copepods as a Factor in the Productivity of the Sea.” Quarterly Review of Biology 14, no. 1 (March 1939): 60–64. This report summarizes the studies done on the relationship between phytoplankton and the diurnal migration of the nocturnal grazing zooplankton. Hilchey, T. “Mary Sears, 92, Oceanographic Editor and Scientist at Woods Hole.” New York Times, 10 September 1997, A26. An obituary of Mary Sears published in the New York Times.

Chapter 5 | 1941–1950    113 Iselin, Columbus O’Donnell, and Maurice Ewing. Sound Transmission in Sea Water: A Preliminary Report. Woods Hole, Mass.: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for the National Defense Research Committee, 1941. This report details the “afternoon effect” of warm sea-surface temperatures on the transmission of sound, the results of extensive bathythermograph studies, and a summary of what was yet unknown in the field of submarine acoustics. Jahncke, Jaime. “Trends on Peruvian Guano-Producing Seabirds.” This Web site on Peruvian seabirds provides a brief note on the history of the Guano Administration Company and unpublished research on the history of the seabird populations. Available online. URL: http://www.imarpe. gob.pe/aves/Aves.html. Accessed on December 12, 2007. Johnson, Martin W. “Sound as a Tool in Marine Ecology.” Journal of Marine Research 7, no. 3 (November 1948): 443–458. This report discusses the sounds that marine organisms make underwater. Johnson, Martin W., F. Alton Everest, and Robert W. Young. “The Role of Snapping Shrimp . . . in the Production of Underwater Sound in the Sea.” Biological Bulletin 93, no. 2 (1947): 122–138. Johnson identifies snapping shrimp as the source of the mysterious crackle heard on ships and in submarines. Klenova, M. V. Geologiya Moray (Geology of the sea). Moscow: Gos. Uchebno-pedagog, 1948. Maria Klenova wrote the first textbook on the methods and observations in the field of marine geology. Milliman, J. D. “Mary Sears—An Appreciation.” Deep Sea Research 32, no. 7A (1985): 749–751. This appreciation of Mary Sears contributed to the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Murphy, Robert Cushman. “The Oceanography of the Peruvian Littoral with Reference to the Abundance and Distribution of Marine Life.” Geographical Review 13, no. 1 (January 1923): 64–85. Murphy reviews what is known of the extraordinary Peruvian warm-water current called El Niño, which was first described to scientists in 1892 in the first volume of the Geographical Society of Lima’s Boletín. Nichols, John Treadwell, and Francesca Raimonde LaMonte. “Notes on Swordfish at Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.” American Museum Novitates no. 901 (January 11, 1937). This seven-page pamphlet describes the July 28–August 25, 1936, expedition with Helen and Michael Lerner. Niino, Hiroshi. Umi no chigaku (ocean geography). Tokyo: Tennensha, Sho¯wa, 1944. This was the first book dedicated to the subject of submarine geology. Raven, H. C., and Francesca Raimonde La Monte. “Notes on the Alimentary Tract of the Swordfish (Xiphias Gladius).” American Museum Novitates no. 902 (January 11, 1937). A picture in this 16-page pamphlet on the biology of the swordfish shows La Monte with a swordfish caught off Louisburg, Nova Scotia. Revelle, R. “How Mary Sears changed the United States Navy.” Deep Sea Research 32, no. 7A (1985): 753–754. Roger Revelle details the work of

114    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Mary Sears with WAVES as part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Ridgeway, Robert. “Age of Guano Deposits.” Science NS-21, no. 543 (June 30, 1893): 360. The Smithsonian ornithologist retells a story passed on by a sailor friend that indicates guano deposits off the coast of Africa had an accumulation rate of about 2 inches (5 cm) a year off the coast of Africa during the mid-19th century. Schweigger, Erwin. Pesquería y Oceanografía del Perz y Proposiciones para su Desarrollo Futuro. Lima: Compañía Administradora del Guano, 1943. This book provides new observations confirming previous conclusions about the invasion of warm water that damages the marine ecosystem, today known as El Niño Southern Oscillation. An English review of the book is available in Geographical Journal 104, no. 1/2 (July–August 1944): 57–58. Sears, Mary. “Notes on the Peruvian Coastal Current. 1. An Introduction to the Ecology of Pisco Bay.” Deep Sea Research 1 (1954): 141–169. Sears describes Peru’s El Niño of 1941. ———. Oceanographic Index. Subject Compilation, 1946–1971. 4 vols. and supp. Boston, Mass.: G.K. Hall, 1972. A compilation of oceanographic subjects. See, T. J. J. “The Cause of Earthquakes, Mountain Formation and Kindred Phenomena Connected with the Physics of the Earth.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 45, no. 184 (October–December 1906): 274–414. At the time of this writing, See was a professor of mathematics in the U.S. Navy in charge of the naval observatory at Mare Island, California. Sverdrup, H. U., Martin W. Johnson, and Richard H. Fleming. The Oceans, Their Physics, Chemistry, and General Biology. New York: Prentice Hall, 1942. The first English-language textbook dedicated to oceanography. Swallow, M. “Tribute to Mary Sears.” Deep Sea Research 32, no. 7A (1985): 745–747. This tribute to Mary Sears was written as part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. University of Washington. “1946 Aleutian Tsunami.” This Web site tells of the deadly tsunami that devastated Hilo, Hawaii, killed five in a lighthouse in Alaska and one person in California. Available online. URL: http://www.geophys.washington.edu/tsunami/general/historic/ aleutian46.html. Accessed on February 28, 2007. Weir, Gary E. An Ocean in Common: American Naval Officers, Scientists, and the Ocean Environment. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2001. This book examines the military history of oceanography and includes discussion of the significant contributions from Mary Sears and Elizabeth Bunce. Williams, Kathleen Broome. “From Civilian Planktonologist to Navy Oceanographer: Mary Sears in World War II,” in The Machine in Neptune’s Garden: Historical Perspectives on Technology and the Marine

Chapter 5 | 1941–1950    115 Environment, edited by Helen M. Rozwadowski and David K. van Keuren, 243–272. Sagamore Beach, Mass.: Science History Publications, 2004. This chapter discusses the importance of women scientists during World War II, with particular emphasis on the military career of Mary Sears. The book compiles papers presented during the Third Maury Conference on the History of Oceanography held in Monterey, California, 2001. ———. “Mary Sears: Intellectual Analysis,” in Leadership Embodied: The Secrets to Success of the Most Effective Navy and Marine Corps Leaders, edited by Lt. Col. Joseph J. Thomas, 92–95. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2005. This chapter discusses the contributions Mary Sears made to naval operations during the Second World War.

i

6

1951–1960: Mapping the Deep

Introduction The tethered bathysphere of the 1930s gave way to the bathyscaphe of the 1950s, and with the new mode of autonomous deep-sea diving came a test of human capability. How deep could humans possibly go? How deep was really necessary? The Swiss oceanic engineer Jacques Piccard (1922–2008) would test the limits piloting the Trieste submersible. Later in life he would continue to encourage human exploration of the ocean by designing civilian submarines and submersibles for scientists and tourists. Seeing firsthand what happens deep beneath the surface of the ocean was a new experience for most marine scientists in the 1950s. Scuba diving and the invention of the wet suit helped make shallow investigations possible. Mapping the deep became the mission of two marine geologists at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory: Marie Tharp (1920–2006) and Bruce Heezen (1924–77). Using the raw data from multiple expeditions, Tharp’s careful analysis of the echo-sounding results helped revolutionize how the seafloor was viewed. During this time, scientist of the decade Roger Revelle took charge as director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He recruited geochemist and oceanographer Charles David Keeling (1928–2005) to study carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, increased the number of ships at the university, and directed the scientists toward deep-ocean investigations.

The Deepest Dive The lighter-than-air-balloon expeditions of Swiss physicist Auguste Piccard (1884–1962) buoyed atmospheric studies to great heights. On May 27, 1931, Piccard and his assistant, Paul Kipfer, at the University of Brussels set a height record of 51,200 feet (15,605 m), or 9.6 miles (15.6 km). Contrary to news reports covering the event that day, they lived to tell about it, though few expected they would; oxygen deprivation was by then a well-known danger for balloonists who, whether by intent or by accident, flew higher than 30,000 feet (9,000 m), or 5.68 miles (9.1 km). 117

118    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science In 1927 aeronaut Captain Hawthorne C. Gray of the U.S. Army Air Corps had reached the stratosphere three times using an open-basket, lighter-than-air balloon. The first flight took him to 29,000 feet (8,839 m). On the second flight he reached 42,000 feet (13,222 m) but parachuted out of the basket to survive. He reached 42,000 feet (13,222 m) again in November and died; his body was still in the basket when the balloon touched down. At 10,000 feet (3,048 m) the human brain begins to struggle with the atmosphere’s 10 percent loss of oxygen. The results include slower reaction times, impaired judgment, and fatigue. To compensate for the loss of oxygen, the heart pumps faster and a person’s breathing rate increases. The American Heart Association recommends taking two days to reach 8,000 feet (2,438 m) and another day for each additional 1,000–2,000 feet (305–610 m). Climbers typically rest at a base camp to acclimate to a higher elevation’s lower oxygen level. On the southeast ridge of Mount Everest, for example, the base camp is located in Nepal at 17,600 ft (5,360 m). At 18,000 feet (5,486 m) the atmosphere has 30 percent less oxygen than at sea level, and a person not adapted to low oxygen levels can lose consciousness in 30 minutes. A balloonist can lose consciousness in less than a minute at 30,000 feet (9,144 m). Most successful climbers of Mount Everest, which has a snow-pack height of

American geophysicist Marie Tharp identifies a  valley in the middle of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Rachel Carson publishes The Sea around Us

British geophysicist Edward C. Bullard publishes a  description and the results of an instrument probe to  measure the Earth’s heat flow through the seafloor in  the Atlantic Ocean. The device uses an O-ring as a seal

MilestOnes

1951

1952

American soil microbiologist and marine bacteriologist  Selman Abraham Waksman  (1888–1973) is awarded the  Nobel Prize in physiology or  medicine for his discovery of  streptomycin, the first antibiotic  effective against tuberculosis

After 14 years of  searching, a second  living coelacanth is  found

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Chapter 6 | 1951–1960    119 29,029 feet (8,848 m), rely on bottled oxygen, though some have managed the climb without it. To ensure survival while conducting atmospheric tests on cosmic rays in the stratosphere, Auguste Piccard designed a spherical seven-foot (2.1-m) pressurized aluminum gondola. The oxygenated capsule was attached to a 500,000-cubic-foot (14,160 m3) under-inflated hydrogenfilled balloon. When tethered to the ground, the balloon looked like a rounded exclamation point. As the balloon ascended, the hydrogen expanded five times its volume, pushing the balloon into a perfect sphere. Extra oxygen and carbon dioxide absorbers (lithium hydroxide LiOH) kept the air inside the two-person gondola breathable for up to 24 hours. Glass portholes on the gondola allowed the crew to see out at the world below them. Named the FNRS after the funding institute (Fonds National pour la Recherche Scientifique, or Belgian National Funds for Scientific Research), the balloon first launched at 3:57 a.m. on May 27, a few minutes early. The tether lines holding the balloon were released prematurely and without warning. One line tangled with the pull rope for the hydrogen release valve. Piccard and Kipfor found themselves rapidly ascending through Earth’s atmosphere at a rate of 1,785 feet per minute. They immediately had to plug a leak in the aluminum hull with wax to

American geophysicists Bruce Heezen and  Marie Tharp present evidence of a network  of oceanic ridges and rifts that extend around  the globe for 45,000 miles (72,400 km)

Underwater television is successfully used to study fish life  100 feet (30.5 m) below the surface of a Canadian lake and at a  similar depth on the ocean floor

MilestOnes

1953 Sea level is found to have risen  5 inches (12.7 cm) since 1895,  due largely to melting polar ice Preliminary studies of the formation of fog droplets indicate  that the nuclei may be partly  made of tiny crystals of salt  evaporated from the ocean

1955

1956

Australian electrical engineers Bruce Hamon and Neil Brown  (1927–2005) invent an instrument to measure, in situ and in real  time, salinity, temperature, and depth of the ocean. To measure  salinity, Hamon and Brown of the Commonwealth Scientific and  Research Organisation (CSIRO) develop an inductive salinometer  to measure the water’s conductivity level and from that deduce  salinity. Their invention of the CTD (conductivity, temperature,  depth) for measuring conductivity and temperature as a function  of the ocean’s depth becomes a standard tool in oceanography

120    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science stop the oxygen from escaping. In less than a half-hour they had reached 50,000 feet (15,240 m). They then had to wait until sunset for the night air to cool the hydrogen enough to elongate the balloon again, stretch the pull rope, and trip the hydrogen release valve so they could descend. They landed on top of a glacier in the Tyrolean Alps of Austria. The next day a contingent of 20 soldiers and 20 local laborers greeted them and carried the balloon to the village. Their mission was a success, and Piccard went on to conduct a number of stratospheric flights reaching as high as 55,800 feet (17,000 m). Belgian “Tintin” cartoonist Hergi modeled his Professor Cuthbert Calculus on Piccard. In 1937 King Leopold III of Belgium asked Piccard what he would do for his next adventure, and the experimental scientist did not hesitate. Since 1905, when he had read about the German Valdivia expedition to study the depths of the ocean, Piccard had always wanted to build a deepwater submersible that could achieve depths beyond that of even military submarines. He wanted to see the creatures living in the ocean

March 9, earthquakes of magnitude 8.6 and 7.1 strike  Andreanof Islands and Fox Islands, Alaska; no fatalities reported. The resulting tsunami causes an estimated $5 million in  property damage to Oahu and Kauai Islands of Hawaii and  minor damage to San Diego Bay, California. Mount Vsevidof on  Umnak Island, Alaska, erupts after being dormant for 200 years

MilestOnes

1957

The International Geophysical Year (IGY) begins on July 1.  Sixty-seven countries participate in a coordinated study of Earth  sciences, including geomagnetism, the physics of the ionosphere, oceanography, Antarctic exploration, seismology, and  meteorological research. IGY continues to the end of 1958

1958 The nuclear-powered American  submarine USS Nautilus travels  under the ice to become the first  submarine to reach the North Pole

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Chapter 6 | 1951–1960    121 depths with his own eyes. Many of the deep-sea creatures the Valdivia dredged from the seafloor had died during the ascent to the surface. The gelatinous animals were completely unrecognizable. Piccard designed a deep-sea vehicle consisting of a steel sphere with viewports attached to an underwater balloon filled with gasoline. He called it a bathyscaphe, Greek for “deep boat.” Unfortunately, he did not have the funds or the material to build it, but by the time he described his idea to the king, he knew it could be done. On June 6, 1930, Otis Barton and William Beebe had dived to 803 feet (245 m) in Barton’s bathysphere, a tethered steel diving tank with a 3inch-thick (7.6-cm) viewport made of fused quartz. Four years later they made a record-setting dive to more than half a mile (0.8 km) deep off the Bermuda coast. Unlike Otis Barton’s bathysphere, Piccard’s bathyscaphe would not be tethered to a surface ship, and instead of glass, the deepdiving submersible would use a new type of material for its viewports. Plexiglass had made its industrial debut in the early 1930s; the acrylic

The Intergovernmental Oceanographic  Commission of the United Nations  Educational, Scientific, and Cultural  Organization (UNESCO) launches the  International Indian Ocean Expedition

May 22, an earthquake of magnitude 9.5 strikes Chile; 5,700 people  die. Designated the largest earthquake in the world, it leaves 3,000  injured and 2 million people homeless. The resulting tsunami travels  west and north, causing $500,000 in damage to the West Coast of the  United States. In Hawaii the wave kills 61 people and causes $75 million in property damage. In Japan it kills 138 people and causes $50  million in property damage, and in the Philippines it kills 32 people After two years, the National Academy of Sciences’ committee  on oceanography chaired by Harrison Brown publishes the report  “Oceanography 1960,” identifying important questions in the field  that need investigation and advocating a 10-year program of largescale expansion of scientific research and teaching about the ocean

MilestOnes

1959 A group within the  National Academy of  Sciences requests funds  of $2.5 million to begin  Project Mohole, a plan to  drill through the Earth’s  crust to the Mohorovicic  seismic discontinuity

1960 American geophysicist Harry  Hess develops the theory of  seafloor spreading (the term  will be coined by Robert Dietz  in 1961) in which molten material wells up along the midoceanic ridges, as the seafloor  spreads out from the ridges.  The flow is part of the process  known as continental drift

January 23, Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard and  U.S. Navy lieutenant Don  Walsh descend to the bottom of Challenger Deep  in the Mariana Trench off  the Pacific island of Guam  in the bathyscaphe Trieste,  setting a new record of  35,813 feet (10,916 m)

In February the  USS Triton, a  nuclear-powered  submarine under  the command of  Edward Beach,  Jr., circumnavigates the world  in 84 days without surfacing

122    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science material was stronger than glass and half the weight. With funding from the FNRS, Piccard started work on building the first bathyscaphe. The University of Brussels built a high-pressure testing facility, and Piccard tested various designs for cabin structure, porthole construction, and watertight cable connections. Anything outside the submersible that the pilot wanted to control had to have a cable threaded through the sphere’s structural steel bubble. The bathyscaphe would descend and rise using an ancient Archimedean principle: An object that floats in a gas or liquid is buoyed up by as much force as is equivalent to the weight of the fluid or gas the object displaces. The pressurized gondola or cabin on the bathyscaphe was attached to a gasoline-filled, blimplike, thin steel float. A deck on top of the float allowed the crew access to the cabin via a long chamber, like a manhole, that passed through the float and into the sphere. Since gasoline is lighter than water (which is why oil creates a skim on the water’s surface when spilled), the bathyscaphe would be buoyant and use weights of iron shot for ballast to descend. Access holes in the bottom of the steel float would allow seawater to flow in and out as needed in order to maintain ambient pressure at depth. The propulsion engines and external batteries were immersed in oil so they could work under the changing ambient pressure of the sea without contact with the corrosive, slightly acidic seawater. When the crew wanted to ascend to the surface, they pulled a lever to allow the iron to spill out of the bathyscaphe and onto the seafloor. They did not want to loose all of their ballast, however; some was still needed for a smooth ascent. If the bathyscaphe rose too quickly, eddies in its wake would rock the submersible into a zigzag path—rising as a tennis ball would when released from the bottom of a pool. Still, in case of emergency, the batteries could be jettisoned as well as the ballast tanks. If the bathyscaphe lost power, the electromagnets holding the ballast tanks would release the iron automatically—better to rise with turbulence than stay stranded on the seafloor. In 1948 Piccard and his team, which included his son Jacques, steamed through the North Sea on the cargo ship Scaldis, accompanied by the French navy’s oceanographic and diving vessel Élie Monnier with Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Frederick Duma, and Phillippe Tailliez, to test the bathyscaphe off the coast of Dakar. A piloted shallow (14 fathoms) dive proved successful, but the depth was one Cousteau and his fellow “Aqua-Lungers” could manage. The next test was unmanned: Nobody dared venture on board the FNRS-2, as the bathyscaphe was called, during the deep-sea test for fear it might not return. The ballast would be released by automatic pilot working on a timer. From the deck of the Scaldis, Piccard and Captain La Force watched as the bathyscaphe disappeared quietly beneath the surface. The ship’s captain, a World War II veteran, turned to Piccard. “During the war I saw several ships go down just like that. Not one ever came back to the surface.”

Chapter 6 | 1951–1960    123 “The FNRS-2 is not like any other ship, capitaine,” Piccard replied. “This one will return.” When the sphere broke the surface again after venturing 4,500 feet (1,372 m) in 29 minutes, the antenna was broken and one of the viewports had sprung a leak. The concept was proven physically possible, and those who witnessed the first deployments agreed the potential was worthy of the project’s continuation. For the rest of the decade, however, the bathyscaphe remained grounded until the Belgian funding agents, FNRS, agreed to hand over the FNRS-2’s cabin and 9 million French francs to the French navy. The French agreed to keep Auguste Piccard on as a consultant and renamed the vessel the FNRS-3. In December 1951 Jacques Piccard, with some Swiss funds already in hand, began inquiring as to the possibility of building a new bathyscaphe in the coastal city of Trieste, Italy. The idea was met with immediate success. A petroleum company donated the needed 28,000 gallons of gasoline, and the Italian navy agreed to coordinate ship logistics for diving in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Auguste Piccard arrived in January 1952, and by the end of the year the father-and-son team had a new cylindrical steel float to hold the gasoline; by spring 1953 they also had a new cabin. Jacques Piccard reported in his 1961 book Seven Miles Down, “The cabin was a

Trieste II, a bathyscaphe developed by the U.S. Navy in the 1960s, ballasted and prepared to dive (OAR/ National Undersea Research Program (NURP)

124    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science veritable gem of the Umbrium industry in central Italy.” Rather than cast steel, as was the first bathyscaphe cabin, this new sphere, named Trieste, was made of forged steel and then machined to completion. The blackand-white float for the gasoline had 12 partitions and was designed for easy towing in calm seas at speeds up to 8 knots. Should the sea surface become rough during a dive, Trieste could still safely ride out 30-foot (9-m) waves. Each dive of 5,000 feet (1,524 m) cost about $1,000, wrote Jacques Piccard. That price did not include the cost of the escort ship and tug, which the Italian navy supplied gratis. Nor did it cover the cost of the $12,000 silver-zinc batteries, which needed replacement in 1955. Ballast in the 1950s cost $300 a ton, and each dive dribbled out a total of two tons of iron onto the seafloor. While the propulsion engines controlled lateral direction, slight changes to the vertical during the dive cost about $50 worth of gasoline that was jettisoned from a separate maneuvering tank apart from the main float. The rest of Trieste’s dive budget covered the cost of the topside crew and assorted supplies, including silica gel, carbon dioxide scrubbers, compressed air, and oxygen. The Italian Olympic Committee donated funds on Auguste Piccard’s principle that “exploration is the sport of scientists.” Marine scientists also found the bathyscaphe a useful new way to explore the Mediterranean. Jacques Piccard gave many marine scientists their first look at their field site. When one biologist had to cancel his dive at the last minute, Marie-Claude, Jacques Piccard’s wife, agreed to take the observation seat during the dive. Hers was one of eight dives in 1954 to 500 feet (150 m) in the Gulf of Naples, and with that descent she became the world’s deepest-diving woman. In 1955, while Trieste was waiting for new batteries, Jacques Piccard made the acquaintance of American geochemist Robert Dietz (1914–95). The World War II pilot had joined the Navy Electronics Laboratory in San Diego and had established the Sea Floor Studies Section. He and Piccard met at an exhibition at the Royal Society of Arts in London on “underwater television devices.” Essentially underwater video, the new technology had been used to identify the remains of the submarine Affray in the Hurd Deep of the English Channel, in addition to helping to salvage the British jet Yoke Peter from 80 fathoms of water off Elba. During the exhibition, Sir Robert H. Davis spoke about his book Deep Diving and Submarine Operations, and Jacques Piccard also gave a brief talk. When Piccard learned of Dietz’s interest in the bathyscaphe, he invited him to Italy to see the dry-docked Trieste. Piccard’s shop at the war-scarred Navalmeccanica shipyard in Castellammare di Stabia showcased the oceanographic engineer’s wildest inventions. On the wall were a pair of 10-foot-long (3 m) aluminum water skis with one-way skins, like cross-country snow skis designed for walking on water. “It would save a lot of time if I could just ski out to the Trieste when she is moored away from the quay instead of having to be rowed over in a skiff each time,” Piccard explained, but the walking water

Chapter 6 | 1951–1960    125 skis were a work in progress. At 6 feet, 7 inches tall, Piccard had failed miserably at the task. However, once inside Trieste’s cabin, with its diameter of 6 feet, 6 inches, his tall frame seemed to contort with ease. He was the master of this vessel to innerspace. Nothing was labeled. He wore two watches in case one should break during a dive. As Dietz recounted, “The bathyscaphe is a creature tied to the clock. The complex formulas governing its rate of descent and ascent all have the vital ingredient of time. To err on a time schedule was to court disaster. Then there is the matter of dropping the ballast, exactly 22 pounds of it each second. It is a strange anomaly that time should be so crucial for this craft designed to descend into the timeless deep-sea realm.” What the father and son team had accomplished astonished Dietz. On July 3, 1957, he had a chance to finally dive with Jacques Piccard off Capri Island to 3,600 feet (1,100 m). “Over the past decade,” Dietz wrote in the forward to Seven Miles Down, “the two most powerful nations on Earth have spent billions of dollars for rocketry, hoping eventually to send a man to the moon for direct observation. In contrast, two citizens of landlocked Switzerland with only private assistance succeeded in building a vehicle to take man to the deepest hole in the ocean.” Dietz was fascinated with the seafloor’s geologic properties. He and his team of underwater swimmers had made extensive use of the GagnanCousteau Aqua-Lungs to make their geologic maps of the seafloor off the coast of California, a boon for oil industries. During his fellowship at the University of Tokyo as a Fullbright scholar in 1953, he poured over Japanese bathymetric charts of the Pacific Basin from the Japanese Hydrographic Office, the same type of charts Mary Sears had coveted for amphibious operations during the war. Dietz was looking for the structures that remained well below the surface—for example, the HawaiianEmperor seamount chain and the Mariana Trench. He also investigated the 1952 Myojin-sho eruption that had been heard all the way across the Pacific on the underwater hydrophones in the Navy’s SOFAR (sound fixing and ranging) system at Point Sur and Point Arena, California. The eruption had begun on September 17, 1952, with the underwater volcano breaching the surface and sinking back into the sea on September 24 destroying the Japanese survey ship Kaiyo Maru (5) and killing all 31 people on board investigating the eruption. Over the course of 10 days, the sound of more than 100 explosions had traveled the length of the ocean, following a “sound channel” just beyond the depth where cold temperatures bring the velocity of sound to a minimum and where the pressure of the ocean takes over, accelerating the sound as it travels deeper. With the Trieste and funding from the Office of Naval Research, Dietz wondered what they might find in the deepest reaches of the ocean. In 1874 the HMS Challenger, on its round-the-world oceanographic expedition, found the Mariana Trench had a depth of 26,850 feet (about 4,475 fathoms, or 8,184 m). The depth was recorded using the process of sounding—simply, the length it took for a weighted hemp rope to reach

126    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science bottom. Sir John Murray was on the expedition, but in a 1909 report he referred to the deepest sounding ever taken as having come from the 1899 cruise of the USS Nero, which found the “Challenger Deep,” reaching 5,269 fathoms or 31,614 feet (9,635 m), near Guam. But deeper depths found at other trenches off Japan and New Zealand took attention away from the Mariana Trench. Jacques Piccard envisioned someday diving the Mindanao Deep off the Philippines. Then, on June 14, 1951, the survey ship HMS Challenger (II), under the command of G. S. Ritchie, brought the world’s focus back to the Mariana Trench. When the ship’s researchers lost track of the bottom using high-frequency sounding, they switched to blasting TNT and measuring the sound of the blast as it reflected off the seafloor, using lowfrequency echo sounding. They also compared their results to soundings made with weighted wire that was allowed to spool over the stern of the ship until it hit the seafloor and stopped. The crew took efforts to minimize the tendency for the wire to drift by maneuvering the ship’s stern. Incorporating the wire’s tendency to stretch under its own weight, as well as the angle of drift, the scientists calculated a wire sounding depth of 5,954 fathoms (about 35,724 feet, or 10,888 m). The equation for determining depth using an echo sounder is D = ½VT, where T is the time it takes for sound to travel to the seafloor and back; V is the velocity of sound through water (about 4,620 feet [1,500 m] per second in seawater, depending on density, temperature, and salinity); and D is the distance to the seafloor. When the crew blasted a sounding profile across the width of the Mariana Trench, they found the greatest depth reached 5,960 fathoms (about 35,760 feet, or 10,900 m) at 11°19' north latitude, 142°15' east longitude. With the U.S. Navy interested in purchasing the Trieste, Dietz codenamed the Challenger Deep operation “Project Nekton.” He saw the bathyscaphe as having joined the ranks of the ocean’s free-swimming creatures, the nekton of the sea. (The term nekton was coined in late 19th century to contrast with the ocean’s drifting plankton population of organisms. Marine biologists have since learned that some plankton can be quite mobile. Zooplankton—the animals of the plankton world, including microscopic larvae of invertebrates and marine fish—not only conduct daily vertical migrations but can also swim horizontally against currents and interact with eddies to stay near their birthplace or find new homes.) The Trieste made her last dive off Castellammare on October 25, 1957. In late 1958, after journeying through the Panama Canal on board the USS Antares, the Trieste arrived in San Diego. Now navies of the United States and France both had bathyscaphes capable of in situ marine observations. In 1954, using the FNRS-3, French pilot Georges Houot (1913–77) and engineer Pierre-Henri Willm (b. 1926) broke Otis Barton’s latest and deepest bathysphere record with a dive that took the original bathyscaphe to a depth of 13,287 feet (4,050 m).

AI 10 Finals 12/05/07 Chapter 6 | 1951–1960    127 MARIANA TRENCH 30°N ASIA

Pacific

Ocean

20°N

Indian Ocean AUSTRALIA

MARIANA ISLANDS

MARSHALL ISLANDS 10°N

Mariana Trench

GUAM

Challenger Deep PHILIPPINES Pacific Ocean Celebes Sea

INDONESIA

PAPUA Banda Sea

N

equator

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

SOLOMON ISLANDS

The scientists at the Navy Electronics Laboratory (NEL) in San Diego were well-suited for the Trieste. They had worked on the nuclear submarine Nautilus during its journey from Alaska to Spitsbergen in 1931 and handled operations during the USS Skate’s polar cruise, which surfaced in ice-free leads in March 1959. When visibility was poor, NEL scuba divers listened to acoustic locator devices they designed to help them find objects underwater. Their mentality toward tackling a problem matched that of the Piccards. As Dietz explained, “If you wish to go somewhere and learn something, you build a device to do it.” As a fun experiment, Dietz attached a plastic crate with six eggs packed in cotton to the outside of the Trieste. He wanted to test the permeability of the eggshells, a natural analogue to the bathyscaphe’s thin, perforated steel float. True enough, the eggs reached a depth of 700 fathoms and returned without a crack. The gasoline inside the float was another matter. In the colder, lesssaline waters of the Pacific Ocean, less ballast was needed than in the

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© Infobase Publishing

On January 23, 1960, Jacques Piccard and navy lieutenant Donald Walsh descended in the Trieste to the deepest known point on Earth: Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. They reached 35,810 feet (10,915 m).

FPO

128    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Mediterranean Sea. With greater depth, however, the compression of the gasoline might reduce its volume to the point of no longer being able to keep the bathyscaphe buoyant—especially when a stronger, thicker sphere for the cabin was attached. The float was cut open and welded with additional sections to fit 6,000 more gallons. In September 1959 Piccard and Lieutenant Lawrence Shumaker tested the new sphere in San Diego Harbor, diving a mere 62 feet (19 m). Piccard made one more dive with the Trieste for scientific observations with biologist Andreas Rechnitzer a few days later, diving to 590 feet (180 m). By October 5 the Trieste was aboard the SS Santa Mariana en route to Guam and the Mariana Trench. Once in the harbor at Guam, the Trieste would have to be towed to get to deep water. On November 15 the team headed out to open water aboard the destroyer USS Lewis, with the Wandank towing Trieste through the warm waves. By 10:10 a.m. they had detangled the towline, and though wet from spray during the climb into Trieste, Piccard and Rechnitzer began their descent. They hit bottom exactly three hours later, stirring up a cloud of sediment at 18,150 feet (5,530 m). They spent only 10 minutes making observations before beginning their ascent. The last half hour of the dive took them from 7,200 feet (2,195 m) deep to 328 feet (100 m) below the surface. Piccard had not vented enough gasoline to keep the sub in check; Trieste was running a sprinter’s pace. When they hit the surface, two explosions rocked the submersible. The men quickly threw open the cabin’s hatch, shimmied up the chamber, and stood topside in the sun, surveying the body of their vehicle. When they brought her back to port, it became apparent that the cabin had split, slightly, down the middle. The epoxy glue that held one of her seams in place had burst, probably from a bubble that had expanded during the fast ascent. Piccard considered the incident a minor accident. He was a pilot who often patched small leaks by diving deeper, contending that “water pressure is sufficient to hold the sphere together.” Still, some additional glue and seals would be needed before the Trieste was ready to dive again. After a quick dive in Apra Harbor on December 14 and a deeper test on December 18 with Lieutenant Don Walsh (b. 1931), they waited until after the new year to push the bathyscaphe to the limits. First they dove into Nero Deep, a gully in the Mariana Trench 70 miles (113 km) from Guam that the USS Nero had sounded in 1899 while surveying the seafloor for the purpose of laying a telegraph cable between the United States and the Philippine Islands. On January 8, 1960, Piccard and Walsh took Trieste down to 23,000 feet (7,025 m). Along the way they kept in communication with the surface ship via the UQC, submarine-speak for underwater telephone. Developed by the U.S. Navy after World War II, the UQC uses a crystal transmitter to send voices through the water acoustically. The speaker initiating a call signals a tone pitched near high C and begins talking. The telephone converts the speaker’s voice into higher frequencies that carry through the water. The receiver

Chapter 6 | 1951–1960    129 hears the message as though the person on the other end had just sucked on a helium balloon and was communicating via a tin can. At 20,000 feet (6,096 m) the Trieste occupants could still make out the messages, but to be safe Walsh also relied on simple tonal communication. Two tones meant everything was okay; four tones meant they were on the bottom. They had to stop at 19,500 feet (5,943 m) when they heard two implosions, but the bathyscaphe’s equilibrium was still intact, and Piccard made the decision to continue. After another implosion, the echo sounder alerted them to the seafloor, but not soon enough, and Piccard quickly began jettisoning iron ballast. The sub slowed to a stop some 50 feet off the bottom and began to rise. They could just barely see the reflection of their lights on the seafloor as they started their ascent. Piccard tried to release some gasoline to return and investigate the bottom, but the release valve on the maneuvering tank had broken in the rough sea during the tow at the surface, and the tank was slowly bleeding out its supply. They released more ballast and ascended at a rate of about three feet per second. On January 22, after a few days’ effort, the USS Wandank completed the 200-mile (322-km) tow of the Trieste from Guam to the waters overlying the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. The escort ship USS Lewis, a navy destroyer, plowed the heavy seas by her side. Starting from the known position of 11°19' N and 142°15' E, scientists on the Lewis blasted the waters all night with TNT, searching via echo sounder for Challenger Deep. The HMS Challenger had reported that the deepest part of the Mariana Trench was a little more than a mile wide (1.6 km). Just before sunrise, chief scientist Andreas Rechnitzer found a 1-mile-wide, 4-milelong (6.4 km) stretch of the trench where the echo from the blast took 14.3 seconds to return to the ship, indicating a depth of about 5,950 fathoms (35,700 feet, or 10,881 m). He sent flares over the fantail, and the Wandank closed in on the spot. In the 25-foot (7.6-m) seas, Lieutenant Shumaker, Piccard, and the Trieste’s surface technician, Giuseppe Buono, guided an inflatable dinghy over to the bathyscaphe. By the time Buono and Piccard clambered onto the rolling deck of the Trieste, they were soaked. A 26-foot (8-m) fiberglass-hulled motor whaleboat brought Walsh over from the Lewis. He jumped on the deck “in good Navy style” and held onto the railing as the whaleboat quickly maneuvered away from the bathyscaphe. “What do you think, Jacques?” he asked. The Trieste had taken a beating during the tow from Guam: The wireless telephone used to communicate at the surface had washed away, the tachometer to measure their diving rate was broken, and the vertical current meter was dangling by a few wires and knocking about with every wave that washed over the deck. Inside the sphere everything was in order. The depth gauge worked, and Piccard had his watches so he could still monitor their rate of descent. He engaged the electromagnets to hold the ballast of iron shot pellets and removed the pins that had been holding them in place mechanically. During the impending dive,

130    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science whenever he turned off the electromagnetic current for a second, 25 pounds of iron shot would spill out of the ballast tank. In 15 minutes Piccard and Walsh completed their surface checks, bade Buono arrivederci, and secured the hatch. If anything went wrong while they were at the surface, Piccard could signal Buono by rotating the topside propellers. Inside the sphere, they opened the oxygen valves and checked the air purification system. From the deck, Buono flooded the water ballast tanks in the float, including the chamber leading from the deck to the observation cabin, and then jumped on the rubber raft with Shumaker. By 8:23 a.m. Piccard and Walsh could tell they had left the choppy surface and were on their way. At a depth of 340 feet (103 m), they hit the cold, dense water that marked the thermocline, and the Trieste bounced back upward several yards as though it had landed on a trampoline. As Piccard and Walsh vented gasoline to proceed, they encountered temperature stratification again at 370 feet (113 m), 420 feet (128 m), and 515 feet (157 m). “Never before in all my 65 dives had I encountered so many strong thermal barriers,” Piccard wrote. As they passed 800 feet (243 m) at 9 a.m., the morning light faded, and the ocean turned a dark twilight blue. At 1,000 feet (305 m), Piccard turned on the forward searchlight and watched as they plunged through the snowflakes of plankton. From inside the submersible it looked like the tiny life forms were streaming upward past the viewport. Walsh reached the USS Lewis on the underwater telephone to let them know they were all right. They continued their descent at a rate of 3 feet per second, near terminal velocity. An hour into the dive, they had reached 2,400 feet (732 m). At this point there was little they had to do but monitor their descent. They dimmed the cabin lights so they could see better into the perpetual night of the abyssal zone. Then changed into dry clothes and ate part of their “lunch,” which consisted only of American Hershey chocolate bars. (During the Nero Deep dive, lunch had been Swiss Nestlé bars.) The first trickle of water came minutes later at 4,200 feet (1,280 m) from a cable lead-through in the cabin, but as the depth increased, the pressure sealed the leak tight. At 9:37 a.m. the USS Wandank reached the Trieste on the underwater telephone. Piccard and Walsh were missing a rainstorm at the surface. After passing the depth of their last dive, they heard a barely audible call come in on the underwater telephone. Walsh responded with two signal tones indicating “all’s well.” Right on schedule at 11:30 a.m., they reached 27,000 feet (8,230 m). Piccard had already dropped six tons of ballast to keep their descent rate steady. At 29,150 feet, they were deeper than Mount Everest is tall. By noon they had reached 31,000 feet. Anticipating the rush of the seafloor, Piccard slowed their descent to two feet (0.6 m) per second and then to one foot (0.3 m) per second and turned on the echo sounder. They waited for an echo from the seafloor and instead saw a smudge on the graph as the sound from the machine

Chapter 6 | 1951–1960    131 reflected off the shots of iron ballast that were sinking fast below them. They had just confirmed that the echo sounder was working when an explosion rocked Trieste. Not knowing what had caused it, they turned off the underwater telephone and listened to the electronic humming and hiss of the oxygen. Their descent remained the same, and they continued to search for the bottom. At 12:56 p.m. the chirp of the echo sounder bounced back to Trieste, and Walsh watched as the needle scratched out

Marine geologist Henry William Menard (1920–86) was an early contributor to the understanding of highdensity turbidity currents along the seafloor as a means of transporting sediment. (Scripps Institution of Oceanography Archives, Michael Sars)

132    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science a black shadow on the graphing paper indicating the seafloor was 42 fathoms (252 feet, or 77 m) below them. Exactly 10 minutes later, at a depth of 5,967 fathoms (35,800 feet, or 10,912 m), they finally reached the seafloor. Dietz had explained to Piccard that the seventh ship of the Royal Navy with the name HMS Challenger had surveyed the seafloor near their dive site in 1951. “It was diatomaceous ooze, composed almost entirely of siliceous remains of tropical diatom Ethmodiscus rex. These diatoms live in the surface water and their dead husks settle to the bottom. This would provide a firm bottom for landing, Piccard recalled.” Dietz had also warned Piccard that “there was an outside chance that the bottom sediment would be a flocculent and unconsolidated ‘soup’ of recently deposited turbidity current beds.” As they approached the seafloor, Piccard wondered, “Could we sink and disappear into this material before being aware that we had contacted the bottom? Russian scientists aboard the Vityaz (Vitiaz) reportedly had tried many times, unsuccessfully, to lower a camera and snap pictures in the trenches. But each time blank negatives came up. It appeared that the camera had entered a thick, soupy bottom before finally being triggered.” Peering out through their viewports, Walsh and Piccard could see part of their guide rope, the line that on the surface attaches to the towline, coiled messily in the ivory-colored diatomaceous ooze beneath them. They had stirred up only a light cloud of sediment from the flat bottom. A bony flatfish, its two eyes peering up from the top of its head, swam slowly out of the light from the Trieste. A bright red shrimp remained in view. The animals seemed oblivious to the more than 16,000 pounds per square inch of water pressing down on their bodies. The water temperature outside was actually warmer here than it had been higher up in the water column. After crossing the thermocline, the water had reached its coldest temperature, 34.5°F (1.4°C), at a depth of 2,000 fathoms (12,000 feet, or 3,658 m). During the rest of the dive the surrounding seawater had warmed ever so slightly, such that on the bottom the temperature was 36.5°F (2.4°C). Inside the sphere the air was a chilly 50°F (10°C). The heat from the exothermic reaction of the carbon dioxide scrubbers made useful body warmers, and Walsh and Piccard both placed a canister under their sweaters. Though their depth gauge read 6,300 fathoms (37,800 feet, or 11,521 m), it had been calibrated in Switzerland for freshwater pressures; it was recalibrated after the dive at the Naval Weapons Plant in Washington, D.C. John Knauss of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and John Lyman of the National Science Foundation worked with other oceanographers to correct for salinity, compressibility, temperature, and gravity. Originally, the Trieste divers had planned to spend a half hour on the bottom. Walsh keyed the UQC underwater telephone four times to signal their safe landing. “Wandank, Wandank,” Walsh said. “This is the Trieste. We are at the bottom of the Challenger Deep at 6,300 fathoms. Over.”

Chapter 6 | 1951–1960    133 Piccard thought it a matter of routine and assumed they were far beyond the range of voice communication. But then a response came: “Trieste Trieste, this is the Wandank. I hear you faint but clear. Will you repeat your depth? Over.” They had not only managed to succeed in diving to the ocean’s greatest depth but had also communicated with the surface. As they began to investigate their environment, Walsh saw that the plastic window inside the flooded chamber they had used to crawl into the observational cabin had cracked, causing the earlier explosion. Worried about what this might mean in terms of their getting out of the Trieste, they began their ascent after only 20 minutes of bottom time. They wanted as much daylight as possible to deal with the situation. During the ascent their speed increased from 1.5 feet (0.5 m) per second at 30,000 feet (9,144 m) to 5 feet (1.5 m) per second at 3,000 feet (914 m), thankfully without any oscillation. But they had difficulty communicating with the surface on the underwater telephone to tell them of their concern. They arrived in the rocking swell at 4:56 p.m. and slowly bled air into the chamber to clear out the water that Buono had flooded it with that morning. The window held, and they scrambled out the hatch to the deck and the warm tropic air. Jets flew overhead as the rubber raft from the Wandank arrived carrying photojournalists. They towed the Trieste back to Guam, and Walsh and Piccard flew back to the United States on a navy plane. President Dwight D. Eisenhower presented Piccard with the U.S. Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award and Lieutenant Walsh with the Legion of Merit medal. Piccard and Walsh were the first and last people ever to descend to that depth. Only autonomous (unmanned) vehicles have since explored the depths of Challenger Deep. The Trieste remained in the service of the U.S. Navy through the cold war. In the 1960s a new crew of Trieste pilots took the bathyscaphe on missions to examine sunken submarines, including the wrecks of the nuclear submarines USS Thresher and USS Scorpion.

A Rift Valley through the Seafloor’s Mountain Range Part of the difficulty in submersible diving and submarine expeditions in the 1950s as well as now has been knowing the position of the submerged vessel in relation to geologic formations on the seafloor. The U.S. Navy nuclear submarine San Francisco, traveling at a speed of 30 knots, crashed into an underwater mountain on January 8, 2005, injuring 60 crewmen and killing one after he was flung 20 feet through the submarine when it instantaneously decelerated to 4 knots during the collision, as reported by the New York Times. The navy later specified that the location of the impact occurred at 7°44.7' north latitude and 147°11.6' east longitude, some 435 miles (700 km) southeast of Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. A Google Map search of the longitude and

Finals 12/05/07 134    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science SEA-SURFACE ELEVATION BY RADAR ALTIMETRY

A)

NORTH AMERICA

ASIA

AFRICA SOUTH AMERICA AUSTRALIA

B) Radar altimeter

Sea-surface topography Geoid

Sea-surface height

Seafloor

Geoid height

Ocean Crust

© Infobase Publishing

Measuring sea-surface elevation is one method for detecting underwater features and gyres.

latitude shows the collision occurred in an area surrounded by the volcanic islands of western Micronesia. The charts the captain was using dated back to 1989, and though the global positioning system (GPS) could help them track their location at the surface, it could not triangulate a position underwater.

FPO

Chapter 6 | 1951–1960 Chapter 1 |     135

Satellite data of gravity anomalies, water color, and sea-surface height have become the primary means of globally measuring where ocean water is pushed up from guyots, underwater volcanoes, mountains, ridges and the effect of gyres—and where it drops down over trenches and valleys, for example. Gyres such as the Gulf Stream are especially interesting oceanographic features that reveal new information about the ocean on a regular basis. Mapping the water masses circulating below the surface and above the seafloor had been a priority during the two world wars as part of the global hunt for submarines. In 1950 Scripps oceanographer Walter SBN Munk (b. 1917) calculated the effects of wind-driven circulation on mass transport along the western boundary current of the Gulf Stream. Thirty OF years after the Meteor expedition, German physical oceanographer Georg 0CS Marine Science Wüst provided calculated evidence of the existence of Henry Stommel’s 3.eps predicted deepwater boundary current along the western boundary of the I 10 Atlantic. British physical oceanographer John Crossley Swallow (1923– 94) at the National Institute of Oceanography, in Wormley, England, inals 12/05/07 wanted to test Stommel’s theory. In 1957, he collaborated with physical oceanographer L. Valentine Worthington (1920–95) of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to take a series of direct measurements off the eastern coast of the United States. They used neutrally buoyant floats that Swallow had tested in 1955 over the Iberian Abyssal Plain off the coast of Portugal. The floats emitted an acoustic signal that the ship tracked using passive sonar. Swallow and Worthington’s work in the

On a hypothetical, nonrotating Marine Science Gyre Earth without any landforms, wind stress over a single ocean basin would theoretically create a uniform ocean circulation pattern on the surface that would flow clockwise or counterclockwise, depending on the wind stress. The Coriolis effect as a result of Earth’s eastwardly rotation causes gyres to form in both hemispheres, with the northern hemisphere ocean gyre rotating clockwise and forming a western boundary current. In the southern hemisphere the gyre rotates counterclockwise and forms an eastern boundary current. Landmasses complicate the shape of the boundary currents.

GYRE CONFIGURATIONS Flow for a nonrotational earth

Flow for a rotational earth

Wind stress

Wind stress

© Infobase Publishing

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136    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

ISBN FOF Atlantic indicated Stommel was correct. In 1958 Stommel modeled how 20CS Marine Science density differences in the water would drive thermohaline circulation. By 1960 the work of Wally Broecker (b. 1931), Robert Gerard, Maurice 54.eps “Doc” Ewing (1906–74), and Bruce Heezen at the Lamont Geological AI 10 Observatory (Columbia University), using radiocarbon isotopes, had Finals 12/05/07 determined that the deep water in the North Atlantic took 650 years to

circulate, and the Pacific and Indian Ocean deep water took 800 years. This was a far cry from the 20 years that Sir George E. R. Deacon of the Royal Geographical Society had estimated for deepwater replacement back in 1931. In the 1950s, mapping the ocean for submarine travel was perhaps akin to how mapping atmospheric circulation for air travel on

ACTIVE v. PASSIVE SONAR A)

B)

A whale’s song is transmitted and heard by a submarine using passive sonar.

C)

Passive sonar uses electronics to receive sound waves.

This type of sonar is harmless to marine animals.

D) Active sonar both sends and receives sound transmissions.

Passive sonar (top) detects underwater sound waves. Active sonar seeks out underwater objects such as other submarines using sound waves.

During active sonar, the submarine transmits a sound that pings the whale or any other underwater object.

© Infobase Publishing

That signal bounces back to the submarine and is recorded along with any sound from the whale itself. This type of sonar is controversial because of the various sensitivities of different marine animals to different frequencies of sound.

Chapter 6 | 1951–1960    137 Mars might be considered today. Understanding the residence time, bathymetry, density, and surface circulation can help in producing models of how the circulation should theoretically flow. Still, there were and are surprises. Townsend “Townie” Cromwell (1922–58) discovered the Cromwell Current, an unpredicted equatorial undercurrent in the Pacific Ocean. In 2004 oceanographers from Japan and South Korea collaborated for the first time in partnership with the U.S. Navy and discovered a cold-water eddy spiraling through the middle of the Sea of Japan, or the East Sea as it is called in Korea. The best way to ensure accuracy is to take direct observations of the region. More precise measurements of bathymetry come from at-sea observations taken vessel-by-vessel using echo sounders, single or multibeam, or side-scan sonar. Planes equipped with laser remote sensing systems such as light detection and ranging (LIDAR) can document the intricate changes that occur along coastlines, showing, for example, the effects of dredging or where storm surges have piled up sediments to form sand bars, a potential hazard for surfers. When underwater, submersible divers traveling at much slower speeds can usually rely on visual clues to help them avoid obstacles. Submarines must rely on sonar. The captain of the submarine San Francisco was criticized for traveling at 30 knots, but the old charts indicated his route at a depth of 500 feet (152.4 m) was clear of any obstacles for at least three miles (4.8 km). After the collision, researchers looking through satellite imagery of the region found a 1999 Landsat image showing a volcanic rise in the area that came up to about 100 feet (30.5 m) of the surface. The first global map of the seafloor came out in 1977 and was completed by oceanographer Marie Tharp, who began working on the single-point echo-sounding data back in 1952. Doc Ewing had hired Tharp as a research assistant in 1948, a year before establishing

The Heezen/Tharp World Ocean Floor Map of 1977 was the world’s first global map of the seafloor. (The Earth Institute at Columbia University)

138    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Geologist and oceanographic cartographer Marie Tharp in her office at Columbia University’s Lamont Geological Laboratory. This 1962 photograph shows six original profiles Tharp plotted in 1952 that correlated with deep soundings and shallowfocus earthquakes and led to the discovery of the world-encircling Rift Valley. Tharp is shown working on her physiographic Diagram of the North Atlantic with crow quill pen and India ink. A painted relief globe is also on display. (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University)

Columbia University’s Lamont Geological Observatory, now renamed the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Tharp came to Columbia with two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree in geology from the University of Michigan. At about the same time, Ewing was taking Bruce Heezen, an undergraduate geology major at Iowa State University, out

Maurice “Doc” Ewing (pictured) and Bruce Heezen deduced that the 1929 earthquake on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland caused the turbidity current that broke 12 telegraph cables crossing the Atlantic. The Grand Banks tsunami from the quake killed 29 people and caused $400,000 in damage. (LamontDoherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, courtesy AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives)

Chapter 6 | 1951–1960    139

Lamont Geological Observatory’s first research ship, Vema (pictured here), sailed a million miles while transecting the world’s oceans under Maurice Ewing’s “a corea-day” directive, as did Lamont’s R/V Robert Conrad. (Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences, University of Kiel)

to sea as a technician on the Atlantis I to study the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the Northern Atlantic Ocean. The ridge was first found back in the days of Matthew Fontaine Maury (1806–73), director of the U.S. Naval Depot of Charts and Instruments. Maury had identified the feature in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean on the basis of about 200 lead-laden hemp-line soundings, and he named it the Dolphin Rise on his charts in 1854. In 1872 the British survey ship HMS Challenger, using similar lead-weighted hemp lines, confirmed that the rise existed and also continued into the Southern Atlantic Ocean. But neither could identify whether the rise was made of steepsloped mountains or was a continuous flat plateau. The first use of echo sounding to map the rise came during the German Meteor expedition of 1925–27. Using a stopwatch to time how long it took an acoustic signal to bounce back to the ship, the crew determined that the Mid-Atlantic Ridge was a mountainous region in the middle of the ocean. According to Tharp, when Ewing invited Heezen out to help echosound the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR), he said, “Young man, would you like to go on an expedition to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge? There are some mountains out there and we don’t know which way they run.” In 1952, after several cruises at sea, Heezen turned to Tharp to help him put together a profile of the seafloor. She spent six weeks “plotting, matching, and gluing” data from eight cruises to piece together six transatlantic profiles. The profiles ran from Martha’s Vineyard to the Strait of Gibraltar; from Chesapeake Bay to the Western Sahara of Africa; from the Lesser Antilles

140    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science of the Caribbean to Dakkar, Senegal; and from Recife, Brazil to Freetown, Sierra Leone. In every profile the Mid-Atlantic Ridge stood out as a rough underwater mountain range. In the middle of the mountain range, Tharp found another surprising feature: a mid-Atlantic rift valley. In the October 1986 issue of Natural History, Tharp recalled her discovery: “Besides the general similarity in the shape of the ridge in each profile, I was struck by the fact that the only prominent matchup apparent when I compared the profiles was a V-shaped indentation located in the center of each. The individual mountains didn’t match up, but the cleft did, especially in the three top, or northernmost, profiles of the North Atlantic. Thus it seemed to me that the V-shaped indentations represented cross sections of a valley that cut into the ridge at its crest and continued along its axis.”

Lamont marine geologist Bruce Heezen, who worked with Marie Tharp in mapping the ocean floor (U.S. Navy)

Chapter 6 | 1951–1960    141 At first Heezen was incredulous. One of the major controversies among American geologists at the time was the theory of continental drift; few supported the idea in 1952. According to Tharp, when Heezen saw the profiles, “he groaned and said, ‘It cannot be. It looks too much like continental drift.’ ” She was devastated: “This was just about the worst thing he could have said, since at the time, he and almost everyone else at Lamont, and in the United States, thought continental drift was impossible. North American earth scientists considered it to be almost a form of scientific heresy, and to suggest that someone believed in it was comparable to saying there must be something wrong with him or her.” As the data continued to come in, the evidence increasingly pointed to a rifting of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, with fresh mantle material pushing the ridge open and apart along the valley. British geologist Arthur Holmes (1890–1965) had proposed that convection cells in the mantle split the seafloor apart along its ridges, with down-welling, or subduction of the seafloor, occurring along ocean trenches such as at the Mariana Trench. His 1944 book Principles of Physical Geology concluded with a chapter on continental drift. In their 1941 book Seismicity of the Earth, German seismologist Beno Gutenberg (1889–1960) and American seismologist and physicist Charles F. Richter (1900–85) had noted that an active belt of shallow earthquakes corresponded with the location of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Tharp and Heezen saw that the earthquakes ran right down the middle, down Tharp’s valley. When they investigated the earthquake data further, they found the seismologists had been recording earthquakes extending into the Arctic Ocean, beyond where oceanographers had taken soundings or accurately mapped the seafloor bathymetry. Gutenberg and Richter had also discussed the earthquakes associated with other ridges: the Albatross Plateau in the eastern Pacific and the Carlsberg Ridge in the Indian Ocean, from where earthquakes continued up the Gulf of Aden and across the East African Rift Valley. This convinced Heezen that perhaps the ridges were part of a global network, like the seams on a baseball. It took him another eight months before he was willing to consider the world was rifting apart at its seams. For a geologist, part of the reasoning process comes from visual clues obtained from the rocks and topographical features themselves. For Heezen the Rift Valley in Africa provided the analogue he needed to consider the marine rift valley down the Mid-Atlantic Ridge as something more than a possible artifact of the North Atlantic ridge topography. He was willing to concede that perhaps it could be linked to continental drift. He had Tharp profile the East African Rift Valley the same way she had profiled the Atlantic Ocean. When they added in the locations of the earthquake epicenters, they saw the same results: earthquakes dotting the valley, but not going beyond the valley walls. Heezen was hooked. In 1956 Tharp and Heezen completed their first diagram of the North Atlantic. The rest of the ocean was a blank, and “like cartographers of old, we put a large legend in the space where we had no data. I

142    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science also wanted to include mermaids and shipwrecks, but Bruce would have none of it,” Tharp wrote. As they continued to work on the first global bathymetric map of the seafloor, Tharp was ecstatic. “I had a blank canvas to fill with extraordinary possibilities, a fascinating jigsaw puzzle to piece together,” she reported in an oral history interview in 1999 during Lamont-Doherty’s 50th anniversary. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime—a once-in-the-history-of-the-world—opportunity for anyone, but especially for a woman in the [1950s].” In 1957 Ewing announced the results of their investigation, confirming the existence of a continuous undersea rift valley that extended 45,000 miles around the world and averaged 20 miles wide and 1.5 miles deep. A Science News Letter from February 16, 1957, reported that Ewing had described some of the mountains along either side of the rift valley as reaching a height of about 12,000 feet (3,660 m) and 75 miles (120.7 km) wide, but still 3,600–7,200 feet (1,100–2,200 m) below sea level. Tharp and Heezen continued to collaborate on mapping the rest of the bathymetry of the seafloor beyond the ridges all the way back to the coasts. They completed the North Atlantic in 1959, the South Atlantic in 1961, and the Indian Ocean in 1964. During this time Tharp made several expeditions out to sea, sailing aboard the U.S. Navy ship Kane and the research vessel Eastward, and joining British colleagues on expeditions as well. She was at sea when Heezen died in 1977 of a heart attack aboard the navy’s nuclear submarine NR-1. When she returned to Lamont, she finished the map they had been working on together for more than two decades. Later that year the Office of Naval Research published the World Ocean Floor, an iconic map that hangs in oceanographic classrooms around the world.

The Keeling Curve Since the turn of the 20th century, scientists suspected that burning fossil fuels would contribute to a rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Though earlier in the century this was thought to be a benefit to agriculture, by mid-century the concern had arisen as to whether the oceans and forests could fully absorb the added carbon or if it would accumulate in the atmosphere and create a greenhouse effect that would warm the planet in a way that might be detrimental to life. Oceanographer Roger Revelle was one of the mid-century scientists to question the benefits of a greenhouse effect and scientifically question how much CO2 humans were adding to the atmosphere. Revelle is frequently heralded for his decision as director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography to recruit chemist Charles David Keeling in 1956 and establish long-term monitoring of the background levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. Though he almost chose a career in music as an accomplished pianist and singer, as a postdoctoral student Keeling had developed a new method for accurately measuring carbon dioxide in the air. He had discovered during a

4,022 km

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Scotia plate

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AFRICA Somali plate

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AUSTRALIA Australian plate

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Eurasian plate

Colliding together at convergent boundaries, spreading apart at divergent boundaries, or sliding past each other along transform faults, the plates of the world are in constant motion—moving on average at about the same speed as a human fingernail grows.

2,500 miles

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144    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

The Wet Suit: A Novel Concept for Staying Warm in Cold Water In  1943  Canadian  engineer  Émile  Gagnan  and  French spearfisher and navy captain Jacques-Yves  Cousteau  invented  a  regulator  that  would  allow  underwater  swimmers  to  draw  air  from  a  hose  attached to a pressurized tank on their back without the air free-flowing between breaths. In 1949  the  self-contained  underwater  breathing  apparatus  (scuba),  or  Aqua-Lung  as  Cousteau  called  it,  was  introduced  to  the  United  States  through  Rene’s  Sporting  Goods  in  Westwood,  California.  By 1950 Scripps oceanographer Conrad “Connie”  Limbaugh  (1924–60)  and  his  graduate  students  were strapping the tanks on their backs, a weight  belt around their waists, and diving into the cold  California  Current  with  fins,  a  faceplate,  and  mouth  regulator,  wearing  long  johns  or  air  force  survival suits and greasing their skin to try and stay  warm as they counted kelp beds. During this time the U.S. military’s underwater  demolition  teams,  or  underwater  swimmers  as  they were later more broadly termed, were transitioning from their heavy, full-body metal or rubber  suits  with  air  pumped  into  their  dive  helmets  to  the Aqua-Lung, which provided freedom from the  umbilical air-hose pump at the surface. However,  without the dive helmet and heavy suit, which still 

served  a  purpose  for  certain  types  of  dives,  the  frogmen (as they were also called) needed a lighter suit that could insulate and protect them from  potential underwater blasts. In spring 1951, at the  University of California, Berkeley, physicist Hugh  Bradner  (1915–2008)  worked  with  colleagues  at  the  radiation  laboratory  to  test  different  fabrics  and materials for just this purpose. Bradner determined that blast resistance and thermal insulation  could be possible using neoprene, which trapped  air  within  the  pore  structure  of  the  material  and  gave  the  divers  the  benefit  of  added  buoyancy.  Because  of  the  air  layer  built  into  the  suit,  cold  water could flow next to the diver’s skin, and the  diver would still stay warm. Limbaugh  and  his  team  at  Scripps  tested  the  first models and soon incorporated Bradner’s wet  suit as part of their equipment during their scuba  training  classes  at  the  La  Jolla  Beach  and Tennis  Club.  Though  Bradner  did  not  sell  or  patent  his  invention,  as  he  considered  it  a  military  design  rather than something divers and surfers would find  useful, he did make custom suits for his daughter  and those at Scripps, where he joined the faculty  in  1961  and  became  a  professor  emeritus  at  the  Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics.

season of fieldwork that air samples in areas far from cities and forests or other sources, or sinks, of CO2 all had the same concentration of the gas: 310 parts per million. He began discussing his work with Harry Wexler of the U.S. Weather Bureau, the precursor agency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The bureau had a new station on Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, and Keeling was interested in setting up a monitoring lab there. Revelle encouraged Keeling to move his work from the California Institute of Technology to Scripps, and to monitor the CO2 levels on a decadal basis. Upon relocating to Scripps, Keeling set up an observation post at Mauna Loa and began testing the air in March 1958 during the International Geophysical Year. That first year the data showed a drop in CO2 starting in May that continued through the summer as vegetation in the Northern Hemisphere was taking the gas out of the atmosphere. During the autumn the level of CO2 shot back up.

Chapter 6 | 1951–1960    145

Scientist of the Decade: Roger Revelle (1909–1991) Roger Revelle has been called a “president’s scientist” because of his influence on world leaders.  His  work  focused  on  the  global  understanding  of  connections  between  people  and  their  environment,  especially  the  oceans  and  climate.  He  served with the U.S. Navy Reserves during World  War II and became head of the geophysics branch  in the Office of Naval Research. After the war he  led the oceanographic study on the atomic bomb  dropped  at  Bikini  atoll  and  followed  the  path  of  radionuclides  through  the  marine  environment.  He  was  the  director  of  Scripps  Institution  of  Oceanography  from  July  1951  to  1961.  During  this time he convinced the University of California  Board  of  Regents  to  build  a  San  Diego  campus  next to Scripps in La Jolla rather than downtown  San  Diego.  In  1961,  after  he  was  passed  over  for  the  post  of  chancellor  at  the  University  of  California,  San  Diego  (UCSD),  Revelle  moved  back  to  Washington,  D.C.,  where  he  become  the  nation’s  first  science  adviser  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  then  Stewart  Udall,  who  served  during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.  Three years later Revelle led Harvard’s Center for  Population Studies. His work took him to Pakistan  to establish well-water supplies and to Nepal and  India  to  develop  projects  promoting  agricultural  improvement and education. Revelle  was  born  in  Seattle,  Washington,  but  grew  up  in  Pasadena,  California.  At  age  16  he  studied  journalism  at  Pomona  College  and  soon  switched  his  attention  to  geology.  During  this  time  he  also  courted  Ellen  Virginia  Clark,  who  was  attending  the  nearby  Scripps  College,  a  women’s  institution  in  Claremont,  California.  In  1930  Revelle,  then  21,  moved  to  northern  California  to  attend  graduate  school  at  the  University  of  California,  Berkeley,  where  geologist  George  Louderback  (1874–1957)  introduced  him to the geologic structure of marine sediments  and  the  contemporary  debates  over  the  history  of  the  seafloor.  Within  a  year  Louderback  was  recommending  Revelle  as  a  research  assistant  to 

seaphysicist  John  Fleming  (1877–1956),  director  of  the  Department  of  Terrestrial  Magnetism  at  the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and to T.  Wayland Vaughan, director of Scripps. They both  were interested in having a graduate student study  sediment  cores  that  the  crew  aboard  the  sailing  research  vessel  Carnegie  had  collected  from  the  seafloor  during  a  recent  cruise.  Revelle  secured  the research position at Scripps in 1931 and continued his studies there on a stipend of $1,200 a  year. That  same  year  he  married  Ellen  Clark,  the  grandniece  of  E. W.  Scripps  and  Ellen  Browning Scripps—benefactors  of  the  institution  Revelle  would dedicate most of his life to developing. By  the  time  Revelle  graduated  from  Scripps  with his Ph.D. in oceanography in 1936, he had  spent  several  week-long  expeditions  aboard  the  retired purse-seine fishing vessel renamed Scripps  that the institution used to conduct studies of the  coastal  islands  near  southern  California.  “Her  single crew member was an ex-locomotive engineer  who  apparently  believed  that  the  best  way  to keep a boat in good shape was to cover it with  grease like a steam engine,” reported Revelle. In  1935 he had conducted a longer expedition with  the U.S. Navy on board the USS Bushnell to take  water samples along a section from the Aleutians  to Pearl Harbor. The crew impressed Revelle, and  he signed up to join the U.S. Navy Reserve. His  accumulating  experiences  were  setting  Revelle  up  to  become  a  global  leader  in  the  field  of  oceanography. After  graduation,  Revelle  left  La  Jolla  to  live  in Bergen, Norway, for a year working as a postdoctoral  fellow  at  the  Geophysical  Institute  with  Bjorn  Helland-Hansen.  On  his  way  to  Bergen, Revelle gave a presentation at the Association of  Physical  Oceanography  and  International  Union  of  Geodesy  and  Geophysics  (IUGG)  meeting  in  Edinburgh,  Scotland.  There  he  met  Jacob  Bjerknes, Columbus O’Donnell Iselin, Carl-Gustaf  (continues)

146    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

Roger Revelle with a Nansen bottle on the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Pier in La Jolla, California (SIO Archives/ UCSD)

(continued) Rossby,  Seymour  Sewell,  and  Joseph  Proudman  and  learned  about  work  in  the  field  of  international  scientific  affairs  through  the  International  Council of Scientific Unions and the United Nations  Educational,  Scientific  and  Cultural  Organization   (UNESCO). Columbus Iselin, captain of the Atlantis  out  of  the Woods  Hole  Oceanographic  Institution  (WHOI)  in  Massachusetts,  wrote  to  WHOI  director  Henry  Bryant  Bigelow  after  meeting  Revelle  at  the  conference  in  Edinburgh.  “This  fellow  Revelle  has turned out to be the find of the century. He is  extremely well trained, especially in chemistry and 

geology. He knows enough about the circulation to  be able to make a dull sounding paper into something of broad application,” Iselin wrote. “He is by  far the star performer of the oceanography section.” Revelle returned to La Jolla in 1937 and taught  marine geology at Scripps and physical oceanography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Six  months before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S.  Navy called Revelle to active duty. His knowledge  of  physical  oceanography  made  him  a  valuable  asset  in  researching  radar  propagation  and  sonar  performance  for  the  navy.  In  Washington,  D.C.,  he  also  worked  as  a  scientific  liaison,  formulating  an  applied  research  agenda  for  the  Bureau  of  Ships  that  focused  on  wartime  needs.  After  the  war  he  was  given  the  oceanographic  lead  in  the  military command of Joint Task Force One, which  supervised  the  first  postwar  atomic  tests  in  the  Marshall Islands, a mission codenamed Operation  Crossroads. Revelle organized the study of the diffusion of radionuclides and their impact on marine  life after two nuclear bombs were detonated in the  Bikini atoll, one dropped from a B-29 bomber and  the other detonated in the ocean, during the summer  of  1946.  With  him  were  Scripps  oceanographers Walter Munk, Martin Johnson (1893–1984),  and Marston Sargent (1906–86). The  1950s  are  considered  the  golden  years  in  Revelle’s  life  and  at  Scripps.  Though  he  did  not  take  over  as  director  as  quickly  as  he  or  retiring  director  Harald  Sverdrup  would  have  liked,  Revelle  did  take  charge  of  expanding  the  institution’s  focus  to  the  deep  Pacific  and  organizing  a  holistic  approach  to  oceanography  and  fisheries  science.  He  started  with  sardines. The  California  State  Legislature  wanted  to  know  why  sardines  were disappearing off the coast of California and  wrecking the economy of the fishing industry; they  gave  Scripps  a  grant  to  research  the  problem. As  the U.S. Navy had been borrowing the Scripps vessel since 1941, Revelle organized three new ships  for the institution: Horizon, a 143-foot (44-m) navy  tug; Crest, a 136-foot (41-m) harbor minesweeper;  and Paolina-T, an 80-foot (24-m) purse seiner.

Chapter 6 | 1951–1960    147

The  1947  Marine  Life  Research  Program  took  an environmental approach to fisheries science and  melded physical, biological, and chemical oceanography with marine biology. Revelle had the program  conduct  surveys  every  month  up  and  down  the  California Current, which ran from the mouth of the  Columbia  River  down  to  Baja  California,  Mexico,  and  covered  roughly  670,000  square  miles  (1.7  million km2) of the western Pacific Ocean, extending  out  400  miles  (644  km)  from  the  shore. They  learned  much  about  the  dynamics  of  the  current  and its inhabitants, though not necessarily the reason for the demise of the sardines, and set the stage  for future studies on the effects of El Niño and the  Southern Oscillation (ENSO) of the Pacific Ocean. In  summer  1950  Revelle  led  an  expedition,  called  MidPac,  to  the  equatorial  waters  of  the  central  Pacific  Ocean,  followed  by  the  Capricorn  Expedition  to  the  South  Pacific.  The  Mid-Pacific  expedition  was  a  joint  effort  with  the  U.S.  Navy  Electronics Laboratory in San Diego, lead by Robert  Dietz,  head  of  the  Sea  Floor  Studies  Section,  and  the first Scripps venture to the deep Pacific waters.  Bill Menard (1920–86) and Edwin Hamilton (1914– 98) also of the Navy Electronics Laboratory contributed to the study of the submarine mountain range  that  extends  about  3,000  miles  (5,000  km)  across  the  Pacific  from  the  Hawaiian  Ridge  to  Marcus  Island  northeast  of  Guam.  Also  on  board  the  expedition  was  Revelle’s  graduate  student  Arthur  E.  Maxwell  and  British  geophysicist  (Sir)  Edward  Crisp  Bullard  (1907–80),  director  of  the  National  Physical Laboratory in the United Kingdom. Bullard  had recommended Revelle for the Scripps directorship  when  the  president  of  the  University,  Robert  Gordon  Sproul,  first  offered  it  to  him  over  early  objections  from  some  of  the  faculty  at  Scripps  to  having Revelle as director. The cruise raised a number of questions about the heat flow of the oceanic  crust that ultimately would be answered by the plate  tectonic theory of the Earth. “In those heady days of  the 1950s one could hardly go to sea without making an important, unanticipated discovery,” Revelle  reported.  His  international  collaborations  con-

vinced him of the importance of the establishment  of  the  International  Oceanographic  Commission  (IOC) in UNESCO in 1956 and of the International  Geophysical Year  in  1957.  In  1958  he  served  as  the  first  president  of  the  Scientific  Committee  on  Ocean  Research,  and  in  1959  he  was  president  of  the  first  International  Oceanographic  Congress  at  the  United  Nations  in  New  York  City.  During  these two years he helped organize the launch of  the  International  Indian  Ocean  Expedition,  which  lasted  from  1960  to  1965  and  brought  together  a  thousand scientists from 54 countries. In 1957, as Charles David Keeling was setting  up  his  work  at  Scripps  and  Mauna  Loa,  Revelle  and  Hans  Suess  called  the  addition  of  carbon  dioxide into the atmosphere a “great geophysical  experiment” that was being conducted regardless  of any scientific oversight. They called on scientists  to monitor the sources and sinks of carbon and the  changes  to  the  planet’s  polar  ice,  sea  level,  and  atmospheric  temperatures.  Later  as  the  political  turmoil  over  curtailing  carbon  dioxide  unfolded,  Revelle  rephrased  his  words,  calling  the  added  source of carbon to the atmosphere from burning  fossil fuels “a global economic experiment.” After their move to the East Coast in the 1960s,  Roger  and  Ellen  Revelle  returned  to  La  Jolla  in  1978. There Roger taught science and public policy at UCSD until his death in 1991. In 2007 Ellen  gave  $2.5  million  as  a  gift  to  UCSD  to  establish  the Roger Revelle Chair in Environmental Science  at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Revelle  was  honored  in  a  number  of  ways  as  well.  In  1990  President  George  H.  W.  Bush  presented him with the country’s highest honor for a  scientist, the National Medal of Science. The medal  citation summarized the history of Revelle’s varied  career, lauding him “for his pioneering work in the  areas of carbon dioxide and climate modification,  oceanographic exploration presaging plate tectonics,  and  the  biological  effects  of  radiation  in  the  marine environment, and studies of human population  growth  and  global  food  supplies.”  Revelle  College at UCSD is named after him.

148    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Fascinated, Keeling continued to monitor the atmosphere regularly. The next year the cycle occurred again, only this time the rise in CO2 reached a level that was slightly higher than the previous year. Over time the land plants could not decrease the levels to the lows they had reached in previous years. The “Keeling Curve” provided the first direct measurements showing that carbon dioxide had seasonal variability in the atmosphere and was rising steadily each year. The curve, which rose faster toward the end of the 20th century, showed a direct correlation with the estimate that 57 percent of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning remains in the atmosphere. After Keeling’s death in 2005, Scripps director Charles F. Kennel lauded his work for providing a paradigm shift in science: There are three occasions when dedication to scientific measurements has changed all of science. Tycho Brahe’s observations of planets laid the foundation for Sir Isaac Newton’s theory of gravitation. Albert Michelson’s measurements of the speed of light laid the foundation for Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. Charles David Keeling’s measurements of the global accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere set the stage for today’s profound concerns about climate change. They are the single most important environmental data set taken in the 20th century. Dave Keeling was living proof that a scientist could, by sticking close to his bench, change the world.

Further Reading British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council. “The Antarctic Treaty:” Background Information. A detailed Web site on the history of the Antarctic Treaty, including a list of the countries that have ratified the agreement. Available online. URL: http://www.antarctica. ac.uk/About_Antarctica/Treaty/index.html. Accessed on April 24, 2006. Bullard, Edward C. “The Flow of Heat through the Floor of the Atlantic Ocean.” Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A222 (1954): 408–429. A description of the first marine geological instrument equipped with an O-ring and used to measure seafloor temperatures. Carson, Rachel. The Sea around Us. New York: Oxford University Press, 1951. This book discusses the field of oceanography and the influence of the oceans on society. “Confirm Existence of Long Undersea Crack.” Science News-Letter 71, no. 7 (February 16, 1957): 99. This news article reports on the announcement of the confirmation of the mid-ocean rift valleys. Drew, Christopher. “Submarine Crash Shows Navy Had Gaps in Mapping System,” New York Times, 15 January 2005. This report discusses the collision of the San Francisco. Available online. URL: http://www.nytimes. com/2005/01/15/national/15submarine.html. Accessed on March 14, 2008.

Chapter 6 | 1951–1960    149 Earth Institute News Archive. “Navy’s Newest Ocean Survey Ship Will Offer Public Tours August 3 for Lamont Community August 4 & 5 at Intrepid Pier.” A news release on the new ship named after Bruce Heezen and a brief biography. Available online. URL: http://www.earth institute.columbia.edu/news/story7_1.html. Accessed on March 15, 2008. Eklund, Carl R., and Joan Beckman. Antarctica: Polar Research and Discovery during the International Geophysical Year. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1963. In a 1965 review, M. L. Wolbarsht writes: “This book, revised by Joan Beckman after Carl Eklund’s death, is a well-written, simple introduction to all aspects of the Antarctic. It describes earlier exploration; the fauna of the ice and the sea; geology; meteorology; and how research in the Antarctic casts light on many varied problems, such as the shape of the Earth, the origin of the Aurora and cosmic rays.” Glasgow Digital Library. “British Transantarctic Expedition 1957–58. Sir Vivian Fuchs.” Map and pictures from Sir Vivian Fuchs’s expedition. Part of the Voyage of the Scotia Glasgow Digital Library files. Available online. URL: http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/scotia/gooant/gooant0206.htm. Accessed on April 24, 2006. Gutenberg, Beno, and Charles F. Richter. Seismicity of the Earth. Geological Society of America Special Papers no. 34, 1941. Gutenberg and Richter’s report on the distribution of earthquakes provides an early map of plate tectonic activity. Heezen, Bruce C., and Maurice Ewing. “Turbidity Currents and Submarine Slumps, and the 1929 Grand Banks Earthquake.” American Journal of Science 250 (December 1952): 849–873. The first report indicating that the 1929 earthquake on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland caused a turbidity current that broke 12 telegraph cables crossing the Atlantic. Holmes, Arthur. Principles of Physical Geology. London; New York: T. Nelson and Sons, 1944. A classic in the field of Earth sciences that also provides a discussion on convection currents in the mantle as a mechanism for continental drift. Kostel, Ken. “Marie Tharp, Pioneering Mapmaker of the Ocean Floor.” An obituary of Tharp written for the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Available online. URL: http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news/2006/08_ 23_06.htm. Accessed on March 15, 2008. Kuenen, Philip Henry, and Henry William Menard. “Turbidity Currents, Graded and Non-Graded Deposits.” Journal of Sedimentary Research 22, no. 2 (June 1952): 83–96. An examination of turbidity currents. Malone, Thomas F., Edward D. Goldberg, and Walter H. Munk. “Roger Randall Dougan Revelle: March 7, 1909–July 15, 1991.” National Academy Press Biographical Memoirs 75 (1998). This biography is available as a pdf online. URL: http://www.nap.edu/html/biomems/rrevelle.html. Accessed on March 12, 2008.

150    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Mills, Eric L. “A Review of Roger: A Biography of Roger Revelle by Judith Morgan and Neil Morgan.” Isis 88, no. 4 (December 1997): 732–733. A review of a short book about Roger Revelle. Murray, John (Sir), and G. W. Lee. “The Depth and Marine Deposits of the Pacific. As Reviewed by Léon W. Collet.” Geographical Journal 36, no. 2 (August 1910): 215–217. This review of Murray and Lee’s report discusses the Challenger Deep as the deepest point known on Earth at the time. Nobelprize.org. “Selman A. Waksman: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1952.” This Web site provides a biography of the winner of the 1952 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Available online. URL: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1952/waksmanbio.html. Accessed on March 15, 2008. PBS. “Savage Seas.” This 1999 Web site includes a description of the Trieste and the dive into Challenger Deep. Available online. URL: http://www. pbs.org/wnet/savageseas/. Accessed on November 20, 2007. Piccard, Jacques, and Robert S. Dietz. Seven Miles Down: The Story of the Bathyscaph Trieste. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1961. This book describes the Trieste dives from 1948 to 1960, culminating with the dive to the bottom of Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. Rainey, Carolyn. “Wet Suit Pursuit: Hugh Bradner’s Development of the First Wet Suit.” Archives of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego La Jolla, CA 92093-0219 (November 1998): SIO Reference Number 98-16. This article describes the history of the neoprene wet suit. Available online. URL: http://www. divinghistory.com/id32.html. Accessed on March 13, 2008. Reed, Christina. “Splash of Cold Water.” Scientific American (May 2004): 32–34. A news report on the discovery of an eddy in the middle of the sea between Japan and Korea. Scripps CO2 Program. “CO2 Concentration at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii.” This Web site discusses the science that Charles David Keeling started in monitoring carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Available online. URL: http://scrippsco2.ucsd.edu/home/index.php. Accessed on March 13, 2008. Shor, Elizabeth N. “Scripps in the 1950s: A Decade of Bluewater Oceanography.” Journal of San Diego History 29, no. 4 (Fall 1983). This article focuses on the work at Scripps during Roger Revelle’s time as director. Available online. URL: http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/ 83fall/scripps.htm. Accessed on March 13, 2008. Siple, Paul. 90° South: The Story of the American South Pole Conquest. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1959. Siple worked as the stationmaster of the South Pole Amundsen-Scott base during the International Geophysical Year. Tharp, Marie, and Henry Frankel. “Mappers of the Deep.” Natural History (October 1986): 49–62. This article details the discovery of the MidAtlantic Rift Valley.

Chapter 6 | 1951–1960    151 U.S. Geological Survey. “Historic Earthquakes: Chile 1960.” This Web site provides information and links to articles about the largest earthquake of the 20th century. Available online. URL: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ regional/world/events/1960_05_22.php. Accessed on February 28, 2007. Wilson, John Tuzo. I.G.Y.: The Year of the New Moons. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1961. Canadian geophysicist John Tuzo Wilson was president of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics during the International Geophysical Year, and in this book he discusses his expeditions to Romania, the Soviet Union, and China and the efforts to bridge science in countries that were in conflict politically.

i

7

1961–1970: the Golden Years of Oceanography

Introduction The 1960s were a tumultuous and exciting time, often referred to as the “Golden Years” in oceanography as observational data and theories began to find common ground. The upheaval of plate tectonics in the Earth sciences came as a direct result of oceanographic research. Investigating the seafloor became a priority and obtained strong financial support from the National Science Foundation and the coalition of federal agencies in 1970 under the umbrella of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Marine scientists established new methodologies and developed new tools for investigating the oceanic environment, including several types of underwater habitats. Leading the focus on ocean circulation was this chapter’s scientist of the decade, Henry Stommel of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

Exploration Vessels In 1964, four years after the success of the Trieste in the Mariana Trench, the U.S. Navy built a three-person deepsubmergence vehicle, named Alvin after WHOI’s engineer and geophysicist Allyn Vine (1914–94). Alvin was built to reach depths of 14,764 feet (4,500 m) and explore the seafloor for six to 10 hours at a time, with emergency life support for 72 hours. Having the capability to explore the seafloor habitat with human eyes also led to 153

The logo of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (established in 1970) (NOAA)

154    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

Launching the remote-operated vehicle CURV III during the rescue operation in August 1973 after the minisub Pisces III sank off the coast of Ireland with two men still on board (U.S. Navy)

the development of the French submersible Nautile, capable of taking three people down to depths of 20,000 feet (6,000 m). Russia matched that capability and then doubled their operation with two submersibles, Mir I and Mir II, that both deployed from the same support vessel, the Akademik Mstislav Keldysh. The Japanese in 1989 presented their deep-sea diving submersible, Shinkai 6500, which with access to water depths of 21,325 feet (6,500 m) is currently the world’s deepest human-occupied diving vessel. On January 17, 1966, the midair collision of a B-52 bomber and its refueling plane from the Gibraltar air base sent four hydrogen bombs parachuting down from the sky over Palomares, Spain. No nuclear explosion occurred, but two of the bombs broke open in con-

Rachel Carson publishes  Silent Spring U.S. researchers establish the  Arctic Research Lab Ice Station II  (Arliss II), a drifting sea ice station

The U.S. Navy establishes  a marine mammal facility  at Point Mugu, California

British geophysicists Fred Vine and Drummond  Matthews discover that rock layers with particular magnetic orientations, indicating reversals of  the earth’s magnetic field, are symmetrical about  the mid-oceanic ridge, indicating that new crust  is created at the ridge. Vine and Matthews show  that the residual magnetism of the floor of the  Indian Ocean changes polarity in a periodic fashion, convincing evidence that seafloor spreading  has occurred. Canadian oceanographer Lawrence  Morley (b. 1920) has also worked on this issue

MilestOnes

1961 The International Oceanographic  Data and Information Exchange  (IODE) is established as part  of the Intergovernmental  Oceanographic Commission

1962 Harry Hess (1906–69) formally  proposes seafloor spreading, the  idea that the ocean crust is like  a giant conveyor belt produced  by volcanism at the mid-ocean  ridges, pushed or pulled away  from the ridge axis, and eventually plunging down into the  deep-sea trenches where it is  recycled back into the mantle

1963

\

Chapter 7 | 1961–1970    155 ventional bomb-type explosions, spilling plutonium oxide particles over tomato farms. One of the bombs went missing off the coast for 80 days. John Craven (b. 1924), chief scientist on the U.S. Navy’s searchand-recovery team, brought a group of deep-sea diving crews and their equipment to the Gulf of Cádiz and the Mediterranean. He employed a Bayesian search strategy to find the bomb, dividing the map of the Spanish coast into square grids and assigning a probability to each grid that he then updated as the search progressed. Alvin located the lost hydrogen bomb on March 17. Retrieving the bomb was another matter. On April 7 a cable-controlled underwater recovery vehicle (CURV), operated from a vessel at the surface, brought the bomb and its parachute up out of the muddy Mediterranean seafloor off the coast of Garrucha, Spain. The bomb was dented but otherwise intact. In October 1968, during an expedition to search for submerged whales, Alvin sank as it was preparing for a dive. A support cable broke between its tender ship Lulu, a catamaran built from surplus Navy minesweeping pontoons, and the cradle Alvin sat in between dives. The crew scrambled out of the hatch, and seawater filled the inside of Alvin, sending

NASA launches the Gemini space program, establishing space photography as an important tool for oceanography, geology, and meteorology

The deep-sea, threemanned submersible  Alvin is commissioned at the Woods  Hole Oceanographic  Institution

Scientists at the University of Auckland’s  Leigh Laboratory begin looking for special  protection for the coastal waters near their  lab to use the area as an experimental  control. Marine ecologist Bill Ballantine  leads the way to establish no-take marine  reserves around New Zealand

The U.S. Navy’s Sealab II succeeds in having a dolphin work  untethered in open waters off La  Jolla, California, carrying tools  and equipment from the sea  surface to scuba divers located  at a depth of 200 feet (60 m)

Milestones

1964

March 28, an earthquake of  magnitude 9.2 strikes Prince  William Sound, Alaska;  125 people die, most from  the resulting tsunami. The  quake and tsunami cause an  estimated $311 million in  property damage

1965 Canadian geologist John Tuzo Wilson publishes A New Class of Faults and Their Bearing on Continental Drift. He formulates the theory of plate  tectonics to explain continental drift and seafloor spreading. He shows  that faults perpendicular to the mid-ocean rifts develop as the seafloor  spreads and calls the connecting faults “transform faults.” He suggests that  the mid-ocean ridges, deep-sea trenches, and the faults that connect them  combine to divide the Earth’s outer layer into rigid, independent plates French marine biologist Jacques-Yves Cousteau heads the  Conshelf Saturation Dive Program, which sends six divers  328 feet (100 m) down in the Mediterranean for 22 days

156    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science it to a bottom depth of 5,000 feet (1,500 m). Nearly a year later, Alvin was finally recovered, and amazingly so were the bologna sandwiches that Alvin pilot Ed Bland had left behind in the sub. WHOI marine biologist Cindy L. Van Dover, later an Alvin pilot herself, conducted a controlled experiment and found white bread and bologna preserved in brine water at the same salinity as the ocean remained edible, “albeit soggy and salty,” for at least nine months under normal refrigeration at 1 atmosphere of pressure. But that little to no creatures had nibbled on the wax-paperwrapped sandwiches or the apples in the sub during the 11 months it was underwater intrigued microbial scientists, stimulating examination of the deep sea’s low-oxygen environment. For longer, shallower excursions involving the study of particular regions, ocean explorers including Jacques Cousteau and marine scientists including Sylvia Earle (b. 1935) lived for weeks at a time in underwater habitats. The aquanauts, as they were called—a term coined in reference to their astronaut-like roles of exploring “inner space”—had everything they needed, including the marine environment around them, either through hatches and air-locked pressurized compartments,

U.S. Navy and Scripps oceanographers use a  cable-controlled underwater recovery vehicle,  CURV, to recover an atomic bomb off Palomares,  Spain. The mission brings international attention  to ROVs (remotely operated vehicles)

The U.S. survey ship Glomar Challenger starts drilling cores in  the seafloor as part of the Deep Sea  Drilling Project. Capable of drilling  in water up to 6,000 meter deep, it  can return core samples from 750  meters below the seafloor

The United States establishes the Cape Cod  National Seashore, with boundaries set to  extend a quarter of a mile from the mean low  tide mark into the sea. The total area of the park  is 43,570 acres, with 16,000 acres underwater

Milestones



1966

Construction begins on the underwater research  habitat Hydrolab in Salt River Canyon, Saint  Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. The Perry Foundation  funds the underwater laboratory, which will serve  scientists from 1970 to 1985, until its replacement with the Aquarius laboratory. Hydrolab is  now on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s  National History Museum in Washington The Professional Association of Diving Instructors  (PADI) is established to teach and certify scuba divers

1967 Geophysicist Lynn Sykes  (b. 1937) uses firstmotion seismic studies  to establish that midocean ridges form with  offsets rather than being  offset later, a major  advance in understanding the formation of the  ocean basins

1968 French geophysicist Xavier Le  Pichon (b. 1937), working at  the Lamont-Doherty Geological  Observatory in New York,  describes the motions of Earth’s six  largest plates using poles of rotation derived from the patterns of  magnetic anomalies and fracture  zones about mid-ocean ridges

\

Chapter 7 | 1961–1970    157 or “moon pools,” built into the floor of the labs; as long as the air pressure inside matched the seawater pressure at that depth, the moon pools kept the water from flooding the habitat. Using scuba equipment, the aquanauts explored the realm surrounding their underwater habitat, collecting specimens and peering through the windows of their underwater human terrariums. Jacques Cousteau developed the first underwater habitat, Conshelf I (Continental Shelf Station), in 1962 for deployment 33 feet (10 m) deep off the coast of France. After a week of breathing helium and oxygen, two divers, Albert Falco and Claude Wesly, were the first to experiment with oxygen saturation, breathing an oxygen-rich mix of gases as a means to purge the helium from their bodies before undergoing decompression as they returned to the surface. They survived without getting the bends, and the era of underwater habitats began. The U.S. Navy built Sealab I in 1964 for use off the coast of Bermuda and Sealab II in 1965 for use off the coast of La Jolla, California. The navy also trained dolphins to deliver equipment to the aquanauts stationed in the labs, as part of its Navy Marine Mammal Program. Sylvia Earle led the first all-women’s

The Joint Oceanographic Institutions Deep  Earth Sampling (JOIDES) project begins  making boreholes in the ocean floor. It  confirms the theory of seafloor spreading  and that the oceanic crust everywhere is  less than 200 million years old

Marine biologist Sylvia Earle leads an all-female crew living  inside an enclosed habitat off the coast of the Virgin Islands  in the Caribbean Sea. The five aquanauts on project Tektite  II spend two weeks examining life on the seafloor

MilestOnes

1969 Divers off the coast of Lundy Island in the Bristol  Channel, England, discover warm-water species  at the northerly limit of their temperature range.  A marine nature reserve is established around  the island in 1986, but fishing is still allowed.  In 2003, part of the reserve is protected as the  United Kingdom’s only No-Take Zone

1970 The United States establishes the  Environmental Protection Agency The U.S Department of Commerce establishes the National  Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Included  in the NOAA are the National Ocean Service, the National  Weather Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the  National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service,  and the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

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Oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle speaks during Ocean Week on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on June 6, 2002. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

aquanaut expedition, called Tektite II, for two weeks in 1970 off the coast of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea. Other underwater habitats included NOAA’s Hydrolab and Aquarius. In a roundabout way of exploring surface currents, winds, and whether ancient cultures from Egypt had explored the Americas, Norwegian natu-

Chapter 7 | 1961–1970    159

Sealab II, an underwater habitat used by the U.S. Navy to advance deep-sea diving and submarine rescue operations (U.S. Navy)

ralist Thor Heyerdahl (1914–2002) sailed across the Atlantic Ocean on a papyrus vessel named Ra II. His first attempt on the Ra I had failed when the boat broke in heavy seas and sharks prevented him from fixing the vessel; an escort ship rescued him and his crew. Heyerdahl was already famous for his 101-day adventure in 1947 aboard the Kon-Tiki, a raft made of balsa logs, during which he sailed across the Pacific from Peru to Tahiti. The Ra II set sail from Safi, Morocco, on May 17, 1970, and succeeded in reaching Bridgetown, Barbados, after 57 days on the Atlantic Ocean.

Project Mohole In the history of oceanography, Project Mohole is widely recognized as the greatest financial fiasco of the 20th century. After eight years and $57 million invested in drilling a hole through the Earth’s crust, the project was aborted while still in the testing phase. Less well known is how the project spurred the engineering of a dynamic positioning system to keep the drill ship on station. The project started as a way to investigate a physical mystery of the Earth that was tantalizingly out of

Ra II. Thor Heyerdahl built this 45-foot-long copy of an ancient Egyptian papyrus vessel in 1969. The following year he completed his transatlantic crossing in 57 days (4,000 miles). (Kon Tiki Museum)

160    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science reach. The Mohorovicic seismic discontinuity, or Moho for short—named after Croatian seismologist Andrija Mohorovicˇic´ (1857–1936), who discovered it in 1909—marks the boundary between the mantle and the crust. The depth of the boundary varies, but it can always be found by the way seismic waves change velocity as they pass through it, similar to the way change in the speed of light bends the visual appearance of a straw in a glass of water. The Moho is as close as three miles (5 km) beneath the oceanic crust. Under the continents the Moho is a distant 15–37 miles (25–60 km). Geophysicists wanted to know what was happening at this boundary. Perhaps they could dig their way there? Scripps oceanographer Walter Munk and others, including Princeton University geologist Harry Hess and Scripps director Roger Revelle, took the question seriously enough to submit a proposal in 1957 to the National Science Foundation (NSF). The oceanographers were part of an informal social Walter Munk in scuba gear, Scripps Institution of science network called the American Miscellaneous Oceanography Capricorn Expedition, ca. 1952 Society (AMSOC). The group gathered at the (Capricorn Negative No. 1382, Scripps Institution of homes of members or at the Cosmos Club in Oceanography Archives) Washington, D.C., to discuss ideas for proposals that stretched the imagination. Originally AMSOC had started in 1952 when geophysicists Gordon Lill and Carl Alexis of the Office of Naval Research began categorizing proposals that did not fit into an already existing scientific category as “precarious miscellany.” AMSOC asked for $30,000 in order to explore the feasibility of drilling a hole to the Moho. They received $15,000 after affiliating themselves as an official study unit of the National Research Council’s Division of Earth Sciences at the National Academy of Sciences and obtaining a vote of confidence from the American Geophysical Union. Marine engineer Willard Bascom (1916–2000) took charge of leading what he called Project Mohole. With the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik during the International Geophysical Year and announcement of its own plans to start drilling a hole to the mantle, suddenly Project Mohole became embroiled in an Earth sciences version of the space race. Industry and Congress rallied to provide support. To reach the Moho, the scientists decided to go through the seafloor. They would need an oil rig to drill that kind of depth, rather than a gravity corer or piston corer that cuts into the sediments after free-falling through the ocean. The drill would dig through the crust and pull the pipe for the core deeper into sediment. To succeed they would need to keep the pipe steady over the drill hole. The deeper the water and the longer the core, the greater the chance that the pipe

Chapter 7 | 1961–1970    161 would break should the ship drift. In the Gulf of Mexico, oil companies were using steel platforms anchored to the shallow bottom. In the deeper waters of the Pacific, companies were still experimenting with different designs for drill ships. They cut moon pools into the hulls of barges and topped them with a drill rig. The industry ship CUSS-1—named for the consortium Conoco, Union Oil Co. of California (Unocal), Superior, and Shell—had explored coastal waters for oil trapped in the continental shelf and had a depth range of almost 1,000 feet (300 m). In a 1961 article for Life magazine, author John Steinbeck wrote that the drill ship had “the sleek race lines of an outhouse standing on a garbage scow.” Bascom, an engineer at Scripps before he became director of Project Mohole for the National Academies in 1954, designed a dynamic positioning system for CUSS-1 to keep the drill ship on station. His plan called for four 200-hp outboard motors positioned on the corners of the hull. A joystick on the ship’s bridge allowed the captain to point the ship in any direction. The cost of retrofitting the ship with this dynamic positioning system came to $1.5 million. In March 1961 the CUSS-1 began drilling off the coast of La Jolla, California, in the San Diego Trough—the same region where the Trieste had tested its cold-water diving capabilities. The continental shelf had sloughed off a thick sediment layer, and the drill sank into 1,035 feet (315 m) of mud in 3,111 feet (948 m) of water. Buoyed by success and looking for a test of the drill’s hard rock and deeper water potential, the team tugged the drill ship 40 miles off the coast of the volcanic island of Guadalupe, Mexico. The Scripps research vessels Horizon, Spencer F. Baird, and Orca acted as escorts. On hand to help were Roger Revelle, Walter Munk, Gordon Lill, and Sir Edward Bullard. William Riedel (b. 1927) of Scripps served as the scientific program leader. “In waves up to 14 feet high and wind gusts up to 20 knots, CUSS-1 held its position while scientists held their breath,” wrote Elizabeth N. Shor in her 1978 book Scripps Institution of Oceanography: Probing the Oceans, 1936 to 1976. On April 2, 1961, the team succeeded in drilling 601 feet (183 m) into oceanic crust that was 11,700 feet (3,566 m) underwater. When the marine geologists investigated the core, they found a sediment layer from the Miocene age that stopped after 557 feet (170 m) and turned to basaltic basement rock. Bascom had put “a string of drill pipe two miles down to the floor of the open Pacific and brought up the first rock cores,” wrote Steinbeck in his April 1961 report for Life magazine. He described the The Deep Sea Drilling Project to collect cores from core as “stark blue and very hard with extrusions of the ocean basins began in 1968 with the Glomar crystals exuding in lines—beautiful under a magnifyChallenger. Based out of the Scripps Institution of ing glass. The scientists are guarding the core like Oceanography in La Jolla, California, Global Marine, tigers. . . . We figure this core cost about $5,000 a Inc., conducted the drilling operations. (NOAA)

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JOIDES (Joint Oceanographic Institutions Deep Earth Sampling) Resolution drill ship, the successor to the Glomar Challenger (NASA, photo by Herbert Cypionka)

pound.” Shor reported that President John F. Kennedy telegrammed the National Academy of Sciences with congratulations, calling the project “a remarkable achievement and an historic landmark in our scientific and engineering progress.” The Guadalupe core was as close as Project Moho would go to its destination. Upon the success of the first test, the NSF allowed bidders to submit proposals for a bigger, better drilling ship. Instead of frugally choosing the lowest bid or hiring experienced shipbuilders or oil companies familiar with drilling, the committee that controlled the NSF’s budget awarded the bid to the Texas-based engineering and construction firm of Brown and Root, a recent acquisition of the Halliburton Company, despite a low evaluation score during the first round of bidding. In prominent journals, scientists and business journalists questioned the political motivations behind the Texan committee members in charge of the budget, namely Houston congressman Albert Thomas and then Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. By this time Willard Bascom had moved on to other projects. In 1963 he published his book Waves and Beaches: The Dynamics of the Ocean Surface, and his focus shifted to fighting marine pollution along the California coast. In 1966, after the death of Congressman Thomas. Congress put a stop to the financial bleeding that Project Mohole had become. In his defense, Bascom wrote in 1984 that “out of the first drilling for the Mohole Project came the proven ability to drill, core, and log at least 600 feet into soft sediments and basalt under 12,000 feet of water.” Though his original, long-term goal of sampling the Moho had

Chapter 7 | 1961–1970    163 been unreachable, he reminded critics of the project that “when we began in 1961, the deepest water in which anyone had ever drilled was less than 400 feet; the gurus of drilling at the Houston Petroleum Club shook their heads in disbelief that one could ever drill in oceanic depths.” During this period, Russia identified a site for its Superdeep borehole on the Kola Peninsula, and drilling began in 1970. After nearly two decades of drilling, the Russians reached a record 40,229 feet (12,262 m). Though neither of these projects succeeded in reaching the Moho, mantle rock has been uplifted onto the continents in the form of ophiolites and drilling in shallow tectonic rift zones has revealed serpentinized mantle rock. Strangely, though, the Moho is present even at depths where altered mantle rocks are close to the seafloor. In the book 50 Years of Ocean Discovery, Edward L. Winterer of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography asks, “What is the nature of this seismic discontinuity? Is it an original petrologic boundary, a tectonic boundary, or a level in the lithosphere marking the downward limit of alteration by circulating seawater? Or any of these depending on where you are?” At the close of the 20th century, the Moho was still a mystery.

The Origin of Oceanic Crust The International Geophysical Year (IGY; July 1, 1957–December 31, 1958)—which actually lasted longer than a year, with projects starting in 1956 and continuing through 1959—had been hugely successful in advancing the understanding of Earth processes. The 1960s continued the trend of incorporating international collaboration into fieldwork on a global scale with oceanographers leading the way. The United States’ National Science Foundation (NSF) spent $12.691 million over six years from 1962 to 1967 to fund research in the Indian Ocean during the International Indian Ocean Expedition (1961–67). The Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution both received more than $4 million in NSF grants. Scripps Institution of Oceanography received $1.265 million for research, and $912,000 in NSF grant money went to the University of Hawaii. The rest of the NSF funding for Indian Ocean expeditions went to several government agencies and other academic institutions. Most of the money was spent on ship operation costs. During IGY, the national funding agency had allocated less than 5 percent to oceanography. The International Indian Ocean Expedition established a formal shift within the NSF and the field of Earth science toward advanced oceanographic expeditions as a means for better understanding the geosciences. Several ships participated in the International Indian Ocean Expedition. Aboard the HMS Owen, British marine geophysicist Drummond “Drum” Hoyle Matthews (1931–97) investigated the geologic nature of the seafloor. When he began his Ph.D. work on the subject in Cambridge in 1958—under the guidance of his mentor, Maurice Hill (1919–66)—many

164    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science geologists considered the seafloor a muddy basin of marine deposition layered on top of an extension of continental crust. Maurice “Doc” Ewing at Lamont had told Matthews at the first International Congress on Oceanography in 1959 that he should expect to find the seafloor made of continental (sedimentary) rocks. Part of the difficulty in understanding the seafloor was in obtaining accurate observations. Dredges kept pulling up igneous basalts all over the ocean floor, and Matthews’s 1961 dissertation showed his surveys were no exception. Still, finding the entire seafloor was underlain with basaltic rocks was not enough to turn permanency-supporting geologists like Ewing into supporters of continental drift. More evidence was needed. Starting on October 11, 1961, Hill and Matthews worked together with only a few other oceanographers on the Owen. They brought with them Hill’s homemade proton magnetometer, an echo sounder that Tony (later Sir Anthony) Laughton had built, and an Askania gravimeter bought in 1960. The three instruments were “thoroughly unreliable, and broke down every few hours,” reported Robert White in a biography of Matthews. Their work aboard the Owen, a naval hydrographic frigate and former World War II minesweeper, was not easy, as White explained: The contrast between the orderly and regulated operations expected by the naval officers and the messy, fraught work of the scientists often led to strained relationships aboard the ship. In addition to keeping round-the-clock watches, the three or four scientists on board fought a perpetual battle to repair equipment and to coax it into working. It was exhausting: often they worked under conditions of appalling heat and humidity, and rarely had an uninterrupted night’s sleep. On average they had to haul in the 800-metre [2,625 feet] magnetometer cables, leaking electronics, poor connectors, insufficient spares and “dripping sweat into the electronics as I tried to work on it.” On January 19, 1962, the instruments finally succeeded in recording their first continuous 24 hours of data. Matthews left the expedition in Bombay and met the ship in Aden some six months later. During this second leg of the expedition, one of the surveys crossed over the Carlsberg Ridge, a mountain range with a central rift valley between India and the Seychelles. The captain of the Owen used celestial navigation and eight moored radar transponders to provide the scientists with a precise location that correlated the seafloor’s magnetic geologic signature within a mile or two (1.6–3 km). By the 1990s GPS satellites and geosynchronous stabilizers on a ship would give captains control of the ship’s position to within feet or meters. In 1963, however, the resolution of a mile on the seafloor was “one of the first and one of the best such detailed surveys undertaken in the deep ocean,” White wrote. Matthews’s new graduate student, Fred Vine (b. 1939), analyzed the magnetic data from the Carlsberg Ridge survey using a three-

Chapter 7 | 1961–1970    165 dimensional computer program installed into the Edsac-2 computer at Cambridge. He calculated the magnetization of a seamount in the area with the help of Sir Edward (Teddy) Bullard, running the computer once a week for many hours at night. They concluded the seamount showed reversed magnetization. Geologists had determined that Earth’s magnetic field had frequently reversed at times in the past—most recently about 780,000 years ago during the Quaternary Epoch. The magnetic north pole during this time drifted into the Southern Hemisphere; vice versa for the magnetic south pole. By 1961 Robert Dietz had coined the phrase “spreading of the sea floor,” and the earlier convection theories of Arthur Holmes in the 1940s and Harry Hess in 1960 had encouraged many geophysicists to consider the seafloor as an extension of the mantle that was being uplifted along the ridges and down-welling, or subducting, in the deeper trenches. The seismic activity of the rift valleys, which Marie Tharp had identified, seemed to correspond with an active tectonic spreading zone. Between 1955 and 1956, during 12 cruises on board the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey ship Pioneer, British geophysicist Ronald Mason of the Imperial College in England and marine engineer Arthur Raff (1917–99) of Scripps Institution of Oceanography towed a magnetometer to determine weak and strong regions of magnetism off the coast of the Pacific Northwest from 40 degrees North to 52 degrees North. They published a map of their zebra-striped magnetic patterns in the Geological Society of America Bulletin in 1961. They had identified the patterns as falling on both sides of fault lines and proposed that the significance of this would be an important advancement in geophysics, perhaps relating to continental drift, but they were befuddled as to why the patterns existed the way they did. Vine and Matthews went one step further with their magnetic data. They published a model in the journal Nature in 1963 that estimated 50 percent of the ocean crust was reversely magnetized. “If spreading of the ocean floor occurs, blocks of alternating normal and reversely magnetized material would drift away from the centre of the ridge and parallel to the crest of it,” they wrote. That same year both Nature and the Journal of Geophysical Research declined to publish a similar proposal from Lawrence Morley of the Canadian Geological Survey indicating the significance of the magnetic stripes they had found. Finally, in 1968, the International Deep Sea Drilling Project confirmed Morley’s discovery and the Vine-Matthews hypothesis. Continental drift, renamed seafloor spreading, and soon dubbed as the theory of plate tectonics, had brought about a paradigm shift in the field of Earth sciences. John Tuzo Wilson (1908–93), also in the journal Nature in 1963, revealed a model for making island chains such as the Hawaiian Islands that required the seafloor to drift over a volcanic hot spot. Once the volcanoes were formed on the seafloor, they moved with

166    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science the oceanic crust, drifting away from the source of upwelling magma where a new volcano would emerge. Wilson followed his island hot-spot theory with a new model that introduced the term transform faults into the geologic literature in 1965. “Continental drift” was not an accurate description of the Earth processes being discovered, for it implied the continents were moving and the seafloor was somehow static. The term seafloor spreading corrected that error, but then changed the focus away from the continents and more toward the spreading ridges and subducting trenches in the ocean. But where ridges and trenches end, they often “transform” into a strike-slip fault, marking a different type of boundary where crust is neither created nor destroyed. Wilson called these types of boundaries “transform faults,” and by sliding crustal “plates” past each other, they differed from extension or compression faults, where the plates are either pulled or pushed apart, or compacted together. In 1967, Princeton geophysicist Jason Morgan (b. 1935) was the first to demonstrate how the tectonic crustal plates, or “blocks,” as he called them at the time, would move about Earth. Morgan had seen Scripps oceanographer Bill Menard’s map of fracture zones in the Pacific and immediately saw the fractures as forming a concentric circle around a pole. At the last minute he changed the topic of a talk he was scheduled to give at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union from the convective processes in the formation of the Puerto Rico ocean trench to the motion of rigid-body blocks of lithosphere across a sphere. Menard chaired the session, and French marine geologist Xavier Le Pichon (b. 1937) of the Lamont Geological Observatory was in the audience. British geophysicist Dan McKenzie (b. 1942), working at that time at Scripps, had skipped the talk, thinking it was still about ocean trenches. But McKenzie was then independent of Morgan, working on the same problem of tectonic motion with Scripps geophysicist Robert Parker (b. 1942). The two also concluded that the crust moved as rigid plates and published their report on the movement of the Pacific plate relative to the North American plate, “an example of tectonics on a sphere,” in the journal Nature on December 30, 1967. The following year, 1968, saw the development of plate tectonics as the new model for planetary processes on Earth. In the late 1960s Wilson developed a model for how plate tectonics has opened and closed ocean basins throughout geologic time and built active volcanic as well as passive mountain belts. The Wilson Cycle, as it has been called, is seen in its variant stages around the world: at the young rift valleys of Africa, along the expanding Atlantic Ocean, at the trenches of the sinking Pacific seafloor, on the volcanic islands of the Philippines, and in the uplift of the Himalayas. Curiously, the 1970s’ focus as the International Decade of Ocean Exploration came about as the result of a U.S. congressional order rather than as an imperative from the scientists, as had been the case with IGY

Finals 12/05/07 Chapter 7 | 1961–1970    167 WILSON CYCLE Embryonic stage

1 2 3

1. Rift valley 2. Continental lithosphere (continental crust and upper solid mantle) 3. Asthenosphere (semifluid upper mantle)

1

Juvenile stage 1. Seawater enters as rift valley deepens 2. Seafloor spreading; oceanic lithosphere is laid down; land masses move apart 3. Rising magma

2 3

Mature stage 1

2

3

1. Continental margin 2. Mid-ocean ridge 3. Well-established ocean basin

Declining stage

1

1. Oceanic crust slides under continental crust; high incidence of volcanic and seismic activity 2. Lithospheric material becomes subducted into trenches

2

1

2

Terminal stage 1. Ocean shrinks, becoming sea 2. Mountains are uplifted

© Infobase Publishing

and the International Indian Ocean Expedition. The 1966 U.S. Marine Sciences Act established the National Council of Marine Resources and Engineering. The council requested that President Lyndon B. Johnson “advance marine initiatives that would contribute to cooperation with other

The evolution of ocean basins according to the Wilson Cycle

FPO

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Earth’s major tectonic and volcanic features active within the last 1 million years. Map by Paul D. Lowman, Jr. (Goddard Space Flight Center/NASA)

nations and international organizations,” reported Feenan Jennings in the National Research Council’s book 50 Years of Ocean Discovery. “Johnson’s philosophy went well beyond an abstraction of scientific interchange. It was driven by a quest for a stable, lasting peace, despite the paradox of a growing commitment to [the] Vietnam [War].” When the International Decade of Ocean Exploration was made official in October 1969, President Nixon made an initial commitment of $25 million. Between 1971 and 1980, the NSF would fund more than $200 million on oceanographic research. During that decade, oceanographers would instigate a revolution in geology with their advancements in the theory of plate tectonics.

Shark Lady: Eugenie Clark As Aya Konstantinou tells the story, her grandfather went to sea when her mother was only two years old and never came back. Konstantinou’s mom, Eugenie “Genie” Clark (b. 1922), was too young at the time to understand. But perhaps, says Konstantinou, the mystery of what happened is part of why her mother was so drawn to stories of ocean exploration and understanding one of the sea’s top predators.

Chapter 7 | 1961–1970    169 When Clark was nine years old, her mother, a small Japanese woman who worked at a cigar and magazine stand in the lobby of the New York Athletic Club in Manhattan, took her to see the nearby aquarium in Battery Park. Standing in front of the glass peering through the murky green waters, young Clark was mesmerized by the sight of the shark swimming around the tank. “I leaned forward as close as I could get to the glass and pretended I was on the bottom of the sea with it,” Clark later said. Growing up, she read all of the exploits of famed American naturalist William Beebe, who in the 1930s used a tethered bathysphere with Otis Barton to make what were then the world’s deepest dives underwater. Beebe influenced many soon-to-be marine explorers who were growing up in the 1930s and 1940s. When Clark announced to her family her life’s ambitions to “be like William Beebe,” they were initially confused, thinking she meant to work as his secretary. Clark made it clear that she had different ambitions in mind. She went to college, where she studied biology, zoology, and chemistry and obtained her Ph.D. in zoology from New York University in 1950. Her early work focused on small freshwater surface-feeding fish and tropical bony fishes. She conducted research across the country at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1946 and at the Marine Biological Station in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, during the summer of 1948. In 1947, as a member of the New York Zoological Society, she wrote a report on the swell shark, a type of shark that can inflate its stomach. Her first oceanographic expedition took her to the Philippines as a chemist in 1947 with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. During this time she had her first experience diving with sharks. In 1949 she traveled to Micronesia on a Pacific Science Board scholarship to spear and study poisonous triggerfish. Afterward she traveled on a Fulbright scholarship to Egypt, where she dived in the Red Sea. She chronicled her experience in her first autobiography, Lady with a Spear, published in 1953. By 1955, Clark and her family had moved to Cape Haze, Florida, where she converted a one-room cabin near a dock and borrowed a boat to start training high school students, teachers, and undergraduate students about marine biology. She worked closely with the nearby Bass Biological Laboratory and with her mentor, Charles Breder, Jr., who ran a field station in Lee County, Florida, for the American Museum of Natural History. Clark also recruited shark fisherman Beryl Chadwick to work as her assistant. That first year she began studying the learning behavior and memory of lemon sharks by training them to strike a target and then testing them again two months later. The lab grew quickly and in 1960 moved to a larger facility in Sarasota, Florida. In 1965, after Clark moved to New York, Sylvia Earle stepped in as interim director of the lab, followed by Breder in 1966. It was turned over in 1967 to retiring transportation executive and sports fisherman William Mote, who served as president until 1978.

170    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

Scientist of the Decade: Henry Stommel (1920–1992) When  Henry  Stommel  proposed  an  ocean-wide  monitoring  network  to  Wally  Broecker  of  the  Lamont Geological Observatory and Ed Goldberg  of  the  University  of  California,  San  Diego,  in  the  late  1960s,  the  two  scientists  were  stunned.  Stommel  was  suggesting  a  project  that  went  beyond  what  either  of  them  had  imagined—and  these  were  imaginative  men.  Stommel  wanted  a  line  of  monitoring  stations  stretching  across  the  Atlantic.  As  highway  engineers  can  monitor  the  movements  of  cars  on  a  freeway  with  a  series  of  toll  stations,  Stommel  wanted  to  monitor  the  currents  of  the  ocean  using  radiocarbon  measurements.  Up  until  then  the  geochemistry  community  had  only  taken  scattered  measurements.  Even  Stommel  had  focused  much  of  his  work  on  the  western  current  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  like  concentrating  on  the  most  widely  known  region of freeway congestion. It was time to map  the whole Atlantic, deepwater currents included,  and  obtain  a  big-picture  perspective.  In  1957  and 1958, Stommel had proposed a theory about  the  general  circulation  of  the  ocean.  Broecker  had found a way to test it. In 1960 and 1961 he  and  others  had  published  seminal  work  on  the  application of radiocarbon measurements to track  the  age  of  various  ocean  currents.  But  a  line  of  stations  would  cost  millions.  Stommel  replied  that  the  information  would  be  worth  the  price.  The  result  of  his  prodding  was  the  launch  of  the  Geochemical Ocean Section Study (GEOSECS). At  the  time,  oceanographers  were  still  concentrating their studies in one of four disciplines:  biology,  geology,  chemistry,  or  physics,  all  of  which  relied  heavily  on  mathematics.  Stommel,  “probably the most original and important physical oceanographer of all time,” wrote oceanographer  Carl  Wunsch,  sought  to  bring  together  the  different  disciplines  through  the  study  of  ocean  circulation.  To  the  field  of  dynamical  oceanography,  Stommel  “contributed  and  inspired  many  of  its  most  important  ideas  over  a  forty-five-year 

period,”  according  to  Wunsch.  “Hank,  as  many  called  him,  was  known  throughout  the  world  oceanographic  community  not  only  as  a  superb  scientist but also as a raconteur, explosives amateur,  printer,  painter,  gentleman  farmer,  fiction  writer,  and  host  with  a  puckish  sense  of  humor  and booming laugh.” During  World  War  II,  Stommel  stayed  at Yale  University,  where  he  had  earned  his  bachelor’s  degree,  to  teach  analytic  geometry  and  celestial  navigation to military officers in the U.S. Navy. In  1944  he  joined  the Woods  Hole  Oceanographic  Institution (WHOI), working briefly with Maurice  “Doc”  Ewing  on  acoustics  and  antisubmarine  warfare before exploring other aspects of physical  oceanography.  He  worked  closely  with  meteorologist  Carl-Gustaf  Rossby,  biochemist  Jeffries  Wyman  (1901–95),  and  geophysicist  J.  Lamar  Worzel  (1919–2009),  and  in  1948  he  published  his first breakthrough paper on ocean circulation,  describing  the  westward  intensification  of  winddriven  ocean  currents.  Using  fluid  dynamics,  wind  patterns,  and  the  Coriolis  force,  Stommel  neatly  explained  why  the  clockwise  current  of  the  Gulf  Stream  existed  in  the  Atlantic  and  was  strongest  along  the  western  side  of  the  ocean  by  the  eastern  coast  of  North  America.  Until  that  time  physical  oceanographers  had  been  mystified  by  why  great  ocean  currents  driven  by  permanent wind patterns did not intensify in correlation with the wind. Stommel showed through calculations  and  various  models  that  in  fact  the  rotating Earth was piling up the currents, because  the Coriolis force varied with latitude. His model  predicted  not  only  the  faster  flow  but  also  the  variations  seen  in  sea-surface  height.  The  Gulf  Stream  digs  into  the Atlantic  like  a  river  flowing  near  the  banks  of  an  island  of  water  that  makes  up  the  Sargasso  Sea.  The  theory  also  explained  the Kuroshio Current off Japan and predicted the  (continues)

Chapter 7 | 1961–1970    171

Physical oceanographer Henry Melson Stommel determined that the rotation and curvature of the Earth produced intense currents on the western sides of all ocean gyres. He also investigated the formation of deep flows in the ocean caused by changes in density due to cooling and evaporation at the sea surface. (AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives)

172    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

(continued) existence of other strong western-margin currents  in  the  Northern  Hemisphere  and  eastern-margin  currents  between  landmasses  in  the  Southern  Hemisphere. He theorized the importance of the  thermocline in moderating the convective circulation of deep-ocean waters, and in the early 1960s,  he  examined  the  balance  of  forces  that  directed  the  flow  of  the  Antarctic  Circumpolar  Current.  Some of his experiments were quite simple. In  1948,  Stommel  and  mathematician  and  psychologist  Lewis  Fry  Richardson  (1881–1953)  used  cut-up  parsnips  and  buckets  of  salty  water  to demonstrate lateral or sideways mixing due to  variations in temperature and salinity. Richardson’s  studies  on  turbulence  led  to  his  famous  rhyme:  “Big  whirls  have  little  whirls  that  feed  on  their  velocity,  and  little  whirls  have  lesser  whirls  and  so  on  to  viscosity.” WHOI  engineer  Doug Webb  (b.  1929)  and  oceanographer Thomas  Rossby  (b.  1937) of the University of Rhode Island modernized  the  experiment.  They  developed  a  soundpulsing  instrument  that  could  float  at  a  predetermined depth and be tracked acoustically through  the SOFAR (sound fixing and ranging) channel— where  the  velocity  of  sound  reaches  a  minimum  due  to  the  cooling  temperatures  and  begins  to  increase with depth. Stommel and John Swallow  of  the  UK’s  National  Institute  of  Oceanography  led  physical  oceanographers  in  the  use  of  neutrally buoyant floats for monitoring circulation. In  1989  Russ  Davis  (b.  1941)  at  Scripps  had  given  Webb the idea to build buoyancy-controlled floats  that could change their volume by pumping water  in to sink or out to return to the surface and trans-

mit  their  data  via  satellite,  eliminating  the  need  to  track  the  floats  acoustically.  Stommel  further  suggested  converting  the  floats  to  autonomous  winged gliders that could make use of the ocean’s  temperature gradient to power the change in volume.  From  parsnips  to  autonomous  underwater  vehicles, Stommel had a significant influence on  the direction of physical oceanography. Today’s  autonomous  ocean  gliders  contain  a  miniaturized version of an instrument common on  oceanographic expeditions: the CTD (conductivity temperature depth). Stommel embraced the use  of Australian engineer Bruce Hamon and physical  oceanographer  Neil  Brown’s  instrument,  which  recorded salinity, temperature, and depth profiles  (now called CTD as the salinity measurements are  based  on  the  conductivity  of  seawater).  In  1965  Stommel collaborated with Soviet marine scientist  Konstanin  Federov  (1927–88)  during  an  expedition  aboard  the  Atlantis II  to  survey  Australia’s  northwest  coast  using  three  of  the  new  profiling  instruments. At the time Federov was working for  the  United  Nations  Educational,  Scientific,  and  Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, and the  expedition  took  place  during  his  vacation  time.  Using  the  new  electronic  CTD  probes,  Stommel  and  Federov  established  a  new  field  in  oceanography  dedicated  to  small-scale  interactions  of  temperature and salinity with depth. In 1929 German oceanographer Albert Defant  discussed  what  was  known  of  the  thermohaline  circulation in deep waters using isohaline maps— salinity  profiles  of  the  ocean  with  depth—taken  during  the  1925–27  German  Meteor  expedition.  At  the  time  the  pervading  opinion  was  that  currents  slowed  with  depth.  Even  as  late  as  1954 

Clark, meanwhile, joined the University of Maryland, where she began teaching about ecology and life in the oceans, specializing in marine vertebrates and ichthyology. One of her most popular courses was titled “Sea Monsters and Deep Sea Sharks.” In 1974 she learned that sharks avoided the milky, soaplike substance released from the Moses Sole fish (Pardachirus marmoratus). Commercially developing the chemical, how-

Chapter 7 | 1961–1970    173

Harold  Sverdrup  calculated  that  any  movement  of  bottom  water  must  be  so  slow  as  to  be  negligible.  (Turbidity  currents,  the  avalanches  of  the  seafloor with the cutting power of rivers to chisel  out submarine canyons from the continental shelf  and  snap  cables,  were  considered  a  completely  separate entity.) In 1956 Stommel was the first to  suggest “that there should be a deep current along  the  western  boundary  of  the Atlantic,  associated  with  an  internal  thermohaline  mode  of  circulation, in the opposite direction to the Gulf Stream,”  wrote John C. Swallow and Valentine Worthington  in 1957. Stommel’s Swallow’s floats confirmed the  deep current’s existence in the ocean. In  1961  German  oceanographer  Klaus Wyrtki  (b.  1925),  who  in  1958  left  a  three-year  post  as  head  of  the  Institute  of  Marine  Research  in  Djakarta,  Indonesia,  to  work  in  Australia,  published  a  report  on  thermohaline  circulation.  Trained  under  Georg  Wüst,  Wyrtki  also  looked  for  global  interactions.  His  findings  supported  Stommel’s theory and Swallow and Worthington’s  data. The  paper  is  considered  a  classic  in  physical  oceanography.  Wyrtki  modeled  an  ocean  that  received  heat  at  the  surface  in  low  latitudes  near the equator and underwent cooling near the  poles. Instead of focusing on wind as the driving  force of surface currents, he showed that a simple  change in heat set up a convection cell within the  ocean.  Convection  currents  are  found  wherever  temperature gradients exist because increasing the  temperature of a fluid or gas causes it to increase  in  volume  and  become  more  buoyant.  Cooling  causes  a  decrease  in  volume;  cold  water,  like  cold air, is denser and sinks. (Ice floats, however,  because the hydrogen and oxygen atoms solidify 

in  a  way  that  maximizes  the  volume  between  water  molecules.  Unlike  most  molecules,  when  in  motion  as  a  liquid,  water  molecules  interact  more closely, making the fluid denser than either  its solid or gaseous state.) Wyrtki showed that cold  water would sink in high latitudes and gradually  flow  back  toward  equatorial  waters  where  they  would rise to form the cool waters that define the  thermocline.  As  the  cold  waters  near  the  poles  sank,  the  warm  surface  waters  near  the  equator  would  flow  in  to  replace  the  sinking  water. The  depth of the thermocline would be greatest closer  to  the  equator  and  become  shallower  as  surface  waters cooled to the point of sinking. Investigating  the  microscale  features  of  the  ocean  revealed  that  tongues  of  salty  water  also  drove convection patterns in the ocean by increasing  the  water’s  density.  In  areas  of  high  precipitation, the surface waters are less salty than in  regions where evaporation dominates. In the high  latitudes the surface seawater freezes to form ice,  ejecting the salt in briny droplets that have a lower  freezing  point  than  freshwater.  The  brine  mixes  back with the seawater, and since the polar regions  tend to have some of the lowest salinity levels, this  additional solution of salt has a significant impact  on  the  water’s  density,  surprisingly  more  so  at  times than the temperature of the water. Stommel’s  persistent  questioning  and  discussions  influenced  how  scientists  approached  long-held  assumptions.  By  1969,  wrote Wunsch,  “gradually  seeping  into  the  oceanographic  consciousness was the realization that the ocean was  highly time-dependent and probably turbulent—a  picture at odds with the prevailing mind-set of a  steady, essentially slow, laminar flow.”

ever, proved difficult, and soapy substitutes only worked if applied directly to the shark’s mouth. In 2002 Clark warned that currently there was no universal shark repellant, and that attempts that seem to work on one species do not cross over as effective means of repelling other species. Clark’s research and lifelong dedication to exploration and shark physiology helped attract attention to the role of sharks in the marine

174    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science environment. Shark experts have since deduced that the top predators help improve species diversity among coral reefs, a surprising turnaround from previous assumptions. In the 21st century, a great deal of attention has been paid to the decline of shark species and the harvesting of sharks for their fins for use in shark fin soup. One of the significant concerns among marine biologists today is the regulation of shark hunting. Often countries will limit the catch by weight rather than by the number of fins caught. When the fish are brought on board the hunting vessels, the fins are cut off and the rest of the shark is tossed back over the side of the ship still alive to die at sea. During this process the fins are often shredded or ripped to pieces and piled together, making it nearly impossible under current standards to count how many sharks are being caught this way. In 2004, the journal Science reported that Costa Rican conservationist and biologist Randall Arauz received the $108,000 Whitley Gold Award from the Royal Geographical Society in London in April for his efforts to protect sea turtles and sharks in the eastern Pacific. Arauz directed the nonprofit group PRETOMA (Programa Restauracion de Tortugas Marinas) in San Jose and worked as a tour guide to raise money to help with conservation efforts. The fins from sharks in the Pacific can “fetch up to $160 a kilogram in Asian markets for shark fin soup,” reported the journal.

Further Reading Barboza, David. “Waiter, There’s a Celebrity in My Shark Fin Soup,” New York Times, Week in Review 13 August 2006. This news story covers NBA star Yao Ming’s declaration never to eat shark fin soup. Available online. URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/weekinreview/13barboza. html. Accessed on April 2, 2008. Bascom, Willard. Waves and Beaches: The Dynamics of the Ocean Surface. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books, 1964. This book explores the interactions of the land and sea. Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Boston: Houghton Mifflin; Cambridge, Mass.: Riverside Press, 1962. This book ignited the environmental movement. Clark, Eugenie. “Early Determination of a Dream,” in Adventurous Dreams, Adventurous Lives, edited by Jason Schoonover, 144–146. Vancouver: Rocky Mountain Books, 2007. This book provides a collection of brief autobiographical essays from various explorers. ———. Lady with a Spear. New York: Harper Bros., 1953. An early autobiography. ———. “Notes on the Inflating Power of the Swell Shark, Cephaloscyllium uter.” Copeia 1947, no. 4 (December 30, 1947): 278–280. An early report on a species of shark that can inflate its stomach. Greenberg, Daniel S. “Mohole: The Project That Went Awry.” Science 143 (January 10, 1964): 115–119. In the first of his three-part series, Science

Chapter 7 | 1961–1970    175 news editor Daniel Greenberg evaluates the Mohole Project. Between 1962 and 1970, Greenberg wrote 27 articles that referred to the project. Heezen, Bruce C., and Maurice Ewing. “Turbidity Currents and Submarine Slumps, and the 1929 Grand Banks Earthquake.” American Journal of Science 250 (December 1952): 849–873. This report discusses the significance of missing sedimentary layers in cores samples taken in the Atlantic. Hess, Harry. “History of Ocean Basins,” in Petrologic Studies: A Volume in Honor of A. F. Buddington, edited by A. E. J. Engel, Harold L. James, and B. F. Leonard, 599–620. Boulder, Colo.: Geological Society of America, 1962. This report is Hess’s official declaration of seafloor spreading. Schempf, F. Jay. “Working ‘the Float’: Bottom Rigs Sufficient for Gulf in Early Days, but West Coast Needed ‘Floaters.’ ” Offshore 67, no. 9 (September 01, 2007). This Web article describes the history of the CUSS-1 and other early drilling vessels. Available online. URL: http://www.offshore-mag.com/articles/article_display.cfm?ARTICLE_ ID=307365. Accessed on December 5, 2007. Science News. “Second Time Success.” Science News 98, no. 3/4 (July 25, 1970): 61. A report on the success of the Ra II expedition. Shor, Elizabeth Noble. Scripps Institution of Oceanography: Probing the Oceans 1936 to 1976. San Diego, California: Tofua Press, 1978. This book investigates the global expeditions of oceanographers at Scripps. Solow, Herbert. “How NSF Got Lost in Mohole.” Fortune (March–May 1963): 138–141, 198–199, 203–204, 208–209. This series of news articles investigates the financial aspects of the Mohole Project. Steinbeck, John. “High Drama of Bold Thrust Through Ocean Floor,” Life 50, no. 15 (April 14, 1961): 111. A short review of Project Mohole. Stommel, Henry. “The Gulf Stream: A Brief History of the Ideas Concerning Its Cause.” Scientific Monthly 70, no. 4 (April 1950): 242–253. This report documents the history of ideas as to the physical explanations for the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic Ocean from its earliest description in 1513 by Ponce de Leon to Stommel’s incorporation of the Coriolis force. ———. “The Slocum mission.” Oceanography 2 (1989): 22–25. In this article Stommel suggests the use of autonomous vehicles to roam the oceans collecting data. ———. “The Westward Intensification of Wind-Driven Ocean Currents.” Transactions of the American Geophysical Union 29 (1948): 202–206. Stommel’s first seminal paper on ocean circulation. U.S. Geological Survey. “Historic Earthquakes: Prince William Sound, Alaska 1964.” This Web site provides information and links to articles about the great earthquake and ensuing tsunami. Available online. URL: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/events/1964_03_28.php. Accessed on February 28, 2007. Vine, Fred J., and Drummond H. Matthews. “Magnetic Anomalies over Oceanic Ridges.” Nature 199 (September 7, 1963): 947–949. One of the

176    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science first reports of direct evidence from the seafloor supporting the theory of continental drift and plate tectonics. White, Robert S. Drummond Hoyle Matthews. 5 February 1931–20 July 1997. Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 45 (November 1999): 276–294. A biography on Matthews, including a feature on his Antarctic expedition and work on plate tectonics. Wilson, John Tuzo. “A New Class of Faults and Their Bearing on Continental Drift.” Nature 207 (July 24, 1965): 343–347. Wilson introduces the concept of transform faults. Wunsch, Carl. “Henry Stommel: September 27, 1920–January 17, 1992.” National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs 72 (1997). This biography is available online. URL: http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/ biomems/hstommel.html. Accessed on April 2, 2008. Wyrtki, Klaus. “The Oxygen Minima in Relation to Ocean Circulation.” Deep Sea Research 9, (1962): 11–23. This report describes the effects of organism on oxygen levels below the thermocline. ———. “The Thermohaline Circulation in Relation to General Circulation in the Oceans.” Deep-Sea Research 8, no. 1 (1961): 36–64. This is the first report characterizing the effects of thermohaline on ocean circulation at depths.

i

8

1971–1980: international Decade of Ocean exploration

Introduction After oceanographers introduced the modern concept of plate tectonics for the field of Earth science during the 1960s, they spent the following decade exploring the details of the process on the ocean floor. They employed bathyscaphes and smaller submersibles at every opportunity. As Apollo astronauts were picking up rocks from the Moon, marine geologists were reaching out with manipulator arms to remotely retrieve pieces of basalt from the seafloor. Just as oceanographers began to see a match between their models and their observations, an expedition to the Pacific Ocean’s black abyss revealed a new surprise. Hot springs along the volcanic desert of the ocean floor provided a niche for an ecosystem based on chemical energy rather than solar energy. The discovery highlighted the fact that oceanographers were still at the dawn of exploration when it came to the mysteries of the seafloor.

Amberjack milling about the USS Monitor (NOAA)

177

178    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Humans were reaching the deepest, darkest corners of the planet, and in doing so scientists realized there were significant ramifications. The ocean was not immune to the effects of chemical spills, trash, sewage, industry, and nuclear fallout. Marine expeditions around the world were seeing similar results everywhere they went. In 1975 the United States established its first marine sanctuary, one intended to protect a Civil War gunship, the USS Monitor. One of the marine scientists of the 20th century who helped unite oceanographers in their efforts to investigate marine pollution was chemist Edward Goldberg of the University of California, San Diego. By monitoring the situation and speaking out during this decade, he helped take the first step toward recognizing the problem that marine pollution posed for the ocean.

The Practical Salinity Scale of 1978 Several factors drive the circulation of the ocean—namely, solar energy and the rotation of the Earth, which leads to wind, and variations in the salinity and temperature of seawater. Besides salinity and temperature, the density of a current also changes with pressure; the deeper the water, the denser it becomes. Whereas temperature and pressure, or

New Zealand passes its Marine Reserve Act

The United States passes the Coastal Zone  Management Act; Marine Mammal Protection  Act; the Clean Water Act; and the Marine  Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act, recognizing humanity’s negative impact on marine  life through oil spills and unregulated harvesting

MilestOnes

1971 Greenpeace begins its environmental campaign  with a small boat of volunteers and journalists  sailing into Amchitka, an island north of Alaska,  to protest underground nuclear tests

1972 UNOLS (University-National Oceanographic  Laboratory Systems) is established with an academic  research fleet of 27 vessels for use among 57 academic institutions and laboratories in the United States NASA launches the first of a series of Landsat  satellites, which are dedicated to surveying  Earth’s resources from space

\

Chapter 8 | 1971–1980    179 depth, are measured directly, as is wind and the Earth’s rotation, salinity is not. Evaporating a filtered kilogram of seawater to see how many grams of salt it contains might seem the obvious method, and indeed this has been frequently tried and tested with less than satisfying results. Heating the water causes some volatile salts to vaporize, and those that precipitate out absorb humidity directly from the air—making it difficult at sea to obtain an accurate weight of salt. For over a century, marine scientists have instead been titrating seawater with various reactants. In 1865, after 20 years of chemical analysis of more than 100 seawater samples, Georg Forchhammer (1794–1865), the world’s first marine geochemist, identified 27 different elements. He concluded that all salts in the ocean were in constant proportion with each other and coined the term salinity to describe seawater’s saltiness. He recognized that some salts played a more important role in determining salinity than others. “It is well known that sodium in combination with chlorine forms the most important salt in seawater; next to chlorine, oxygen, and hydrogen, sodium is the most abundant element in seawater,” he wrote. After chlorine and sodium, he listed sulphuric acid, soda, potash, lime, and magnesia as “substances, which, in respect of quantity, play the principal part in the constitution of seawater. . . . [T]hose which occur in less, but still determinable

With only a few minutes of  air remaining, the U.S. Navy  uses CURV (cable-controlled  underwater recovery vehicle)  to rescue pilots of the sunken  submersible Pisces off the  coast of Ireland

United States establishes the first  marine sanctuary, USS Monitor  National Marine Sanctuary, to protect  the wreck of the Civil War gunship 16  miles off the North Carolina coast

A diver donning the armored 1-atmosphere Jim suit descends to 1,444 feet  (440 m) off the coast of Spain to recover a television cable, setting a record  for the deepest dive by one person

MilestOnes

1973 After Arab nations embargo oil  shipments to Western nations  supporting Israel, President  Richard M. Nixon approves the  building of the Trans-Alaska  Pipeline. The oil pipeline will  be completed in 1977, running  north to south across Alaska  from Prudhoe Bay, North  Slope, to Port Valdez

1975

Australia’s Parliament establishes the  Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act

1976

With the Magnuson-Stevens  Fisheries Conservation and  Management Act, the United  States increases federal fishery jurisdiction from 12 to  200 nautical miles (22 to 370  km) from the shore as its new  exclusive economic zone (EEZ)

180    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science quantity are silica, phosphoric acid, carbonic acid, and oxide of iron. All the numerous other elements occur in so small a proportion, that they have no influence whatever on the analytical determination of the salinity of seawater, though, on account of the immense quantity of seawater, they are by no means indifferent, when we consider the chemical changes of the surface of the Earth which the ocean has occasioned, or is still producing.” Forchhammer’s measurements were done in parts per thousand (ppt, or ‰, with two zeros in the denominator; percent, %, is parts per hundred). For every 1,000 parts of seawater, he would add up all the salts and divide that number by the amount of chlorine. In this manner he determined the variations to seawater salinities around the world for various regions of the ocean. The North Atlantic Ocean, for example—specifically the region north of the equator to 30° north latitude—had an average salinity of 36.253 ppt with a minimum of 34.283 ppt and a maximum of 37.908 ppt. The chlorinity ranged from 19.014 ppt to 20.898 ppt, with an average of 20.034 ppt. Forchhammer noted that the maximum salinity for the region was found off the western coast of North Africa and matched, not coincidently, the average salinity of the Mediterranean. He warned, however, that the constant proportions of salt applied readily to ocean waters,

American microbiologist Carl Woese and researcher  George E. Fox at the University of Illinois discover and  identify Archaea as a separate domain from eukaryotes  and Bacteria, based on archaeans’ different 16S rRNA  sequences, restructuring the evolutionary tree of life American oceanographer Rita Colwell (b. 1934)  becomes the first director of the Maryland Sea Grant  at the University of Maryland, College Park

MilestOnes

1977 German marine geochemist Egon Degens establishes the  Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment/ United Nations Environment Programme (SCOPE/UNEP)  International Carbon Unit, dealing with the cycles of  biogeochemical elements, especially carbon Marine geologists in the Woods Hole Oceanographic  Institution’s deep-sea submersible vehicle Alvin discover a host of strange life forms near undersea hot  springs heated by ocean-ridge volcanism

1978 June 28, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in  California launches the first oceanographic  satellite, Seasat. The satellite is the first  remote-sensing oceanographic satellite with  synthetic aperture radar (SAR) measuring the  temperature of the sea surface, wind and  wave movements, ocean currents, and icebergs. The Seasat SAR will operate for 105  days until a short circuit ends the mission

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Chapter 8 | 1971–1980    181 but not to areas of low salinity where freshwater sources dominated. In areas near shores, in the bays of the sea, at the mouth of great rivers, or anywhere where “the influence of the land is prevailing,” the water had “its own peculiar character expressed by the different proportions of its most prevalent acids and bases”—an idea that before Forchhammer was thought to also apply to the ocean. Forchhammer’s method allowed for salinity calculations of ocean water that were based only on measurements of chlorine. Once marine scientists had determined the chlorine content of their seawater sample, they could refer to Forchhammer’s table of coefficients for the region of the ocean they were in and calculate the salinity. For the North Atlantic region mentioned above, for example, Forchhammer calculated the coefficient to be 1.81, such that: Sppt = 1.81 Clppt. Each region had a slightly different coefficient, and globally they ranged from 1.791 in the Atlantic to 2.654 in the Caspian Sea. Since the 16th century, marine scientists had been testing the concentration of chlorine in the sea using a solution of silver nitrate, which forms a white precipitate when added to halogen salt solutions. The process was refined many ways after chlorine was recognized as the dominant ion in the ocean, but most titration methods involved adding too much silver

Oceanographic engineers across the United States advance methods in  the late 1970s and early 1980s for measuring surface currents from moving ships using high-frequency sound in a narrow beam and measuring  the shift in frequency (Doppler shift) of the return sound as it scatters off  of irregularities in the water. The hull-mounted Acoustic Doppler Current  Profiler becomes a standard shipboard instrument in the 1990s, used in  combination with the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites

MilestOnes

1979 During the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Rise  Expedition to the East Pacific, Fred Spiess (1919– 2006) and others are the first to discover black smokers: hydrothermal vent chimneys on the seafloor that  emit dark, sulfur-rich plumes Drilling off the shore of Brunei leads to a “blowout” of water that will take decades and 20 relief  wells before the human-made eruption is stopped

1980 The University of Washington (UW) in  Seattle and the National Oceanic and  Atmospheric Association (NOAA) establish the Joint Institute for the Study of  Atmosphere and the Ocean (JISAO)

182    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science nitrate to make sure all chlorides had precipitated out and then backtracking with additional titrations to determine how much excess silver was put into the original water sample. The Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition of 1876–78 relied on a one-step titration method, called the Mohr method. The German pharmacist Friedrich Mohr (1806–79) added a dilute amount of potassium chromate to the seawater sample he wanted to test. He then added the silver nitrate solution drop-by-drop to his seawater, and as soon as the last silver chloride had precipitated out, the silver would start bonding with the chromate ion and form a reddish precipitate of silver chromate, which immediately turned the seawater sample pink. The Norwegian expedition may have been one of the only expeditions prior to the 20th century to rely on Mohr’s titration method at sea. When the German chemist Wilhelm Dittmar (1833–92) analyzed the water samples from the Challenger expedition (1872–76), he used the multiple-step titration method. In 1902, the Danish physicist Martin Knudsen (1871–1949) redefined the extent to which salinity was proportional to the seawater’s chlorine content, using methods then available for atomic weight analysis. By measuring the salts in units of mass (moles) per kilogram of solution, Knudsen and his colleagues could free the equation from changes in temperature and pressure that had necessitated Forchhammer’s extensive tables and variation to the coefficient relating salinity to chlorinity. In the end, Knudsen added 0.03 ppt to the equation and set the coefficient for all ocean water to 1.805 (see chapter 1). Knudsen’s Standard Seawater Service provided reference samples of seawater with known chlorinity concentrations of 19.38 ppt (with an accuracy of +/- 0.001 ppt) that marine scientists could take with them out to sea. This was doubly helpful for calibrating the titration methods and maintaining a consistent frame of reference for comparison. Because silver nitrate is sensitive to light, it must be kept in the dark and in a brown-glass bottle to minimize its exposure. Nevertheless, after a week at sea the solution must be recalibrated to determine how much silver nitrate is being used. Consistency was therefore important. Knowledge of atomic weights was bound to continue improving, so beginning in 1903 the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea had scientists calibrate their results to the 1902 tables Knudsen produced using the Copenhagen Normal Water as the standard. With only minor changes made to improve the ease and speed of sampling, the Mohr-Knudsen method remained unchallenged until the 1930s. During that decade oceanographers began calculating the salinity of water samples brought on board the ship using a new device that measured the electrical conductivity of seawater as it flowed past two electrodes. Instead of measuring one salt—chlorine, or more specifically chloride ions, using silver nitrate titrations—the salinometer, as the instrument was called, measured the total sum of ions in the seawater sample. The method revolutionized onboard chemical analysis of sea-

Chapter 8 | 1971–1980    183 water. By measuring the strength of the electrical current through the seawater sample, the scientists could determine the sample’s relative salinity level by comparing it to the conductivity of a water sample at the same temperature whose salinity was already determined. In practice, this meant heating a glass cylinder of the seawater sample and a glass cylinder of the Copenhagen standard to the same temperature and then testing the conductivity of each. (Pure freshwater made in a laboratory using distillation methods will have a difficult time conducting electricity because it lacks the conductive ions needed for the electrical current to pass. Freshwater that pure, however, does not exist in nature, although melting snow, especially in remote locations, comes close. Bottled drinking water often has ions added; without them the body would have a difficult time absorbing the water into its cells to stay hydrated.) When marine scientists first switched to measuring electrical conductivity of seawater, they continued to titrate their seawater samples for comparison. After the introduction of salinometers with modern electronics in the mid-1950s, calculating salinity became even more precise. Salinometers could now electronically keep track of the differences in temperature between the seawater sample brought to the surface and the Copenhagen Standard used to calibrate the machines. The improved accuracy resulted in salinities on the order of parts per million (ppm) rather than parts per thousand. A flurry of debate arose in the marine community as to the accuracy of the Knudsen equation. The International Oceanographic Tables that resulted redefined the coefficient of chlorinity to salinity (such that S = 1.80655 Cl; the equivalent to S=35 ppt using Knudsen’s equation) and equated the new relationship to terms of conductivity ratios for temperatures above 50°F (10°C). Before the reports were even published, however, a new problem emerged that would force chlorinity to finally take a back seat and allow conductivity to drive the salinity part of the density question. (Remember the whole point to learning salinity was to help determine the density of a current.) The introduction of conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) instruments in 1955 provided a way of recording all three measurements in situ. The three-in-one instrument was essentially a rosette of Nansen bottles attached to a cable, but now each bottle could record its measurements electronically and either communicate that information to the ship or store the readings digitally. Bringing back the water samples allowed the oceanographers to calibrate the in situ readings with the Copenhagen standard using an onboard salinometer. However, the temperature at depth was often well below the temperature range of 50°F (10°C). In 1966, after comparing water samples from around the world, Neil L. Brown and Bjarne Allentoft of the U.S. Office of Naval Research came to the conclusion that it was perfectly reasonable to assume any water with a salinity of 35 ppt had the same conductivity ratio as 35 ppt Copenhagen water, regardless of temperature. For more than a decade theirs were the only tables for calculating in situ salinities at low temperatures, and the

184    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science results did not exactly match up with the International Tables based on chlorinity. During this period of transition (between 1940 and 1977), “a very real confusion existed . . . in the comparison of salinity data between major world oceanographic institutes. It was shown that even internal consistency was lacking for salinities from colder waters,” wrote Edward Lewis in the Journal of Oceanic Engineering in 1980. During the 1960s, the University of Liverpool conducted an ion analysis of all the major ions of more than 1 ppm, testing more than 100 seawater samples. In descending order of concentration, they found 11 major ions: chloride (Cl-), sodium (Na+), sulfate (SO4=), magnesium (Mg++), calcium (Ca++), potassium (K+), bicarbonate (HCO3-), bromine (Br-), boron (in the form B[OH]3), strontium (Sr++), and fluorine (F-). Of these, the following have constant ratios to chlorine and to each other: sodium, sulfate, potassium, bromine, boron, and fluorine. If one changes, they all change in proportional amounts. Two alone make up more than 86 percent of all the salt in the ocean: sodium and chloride (dissociated NaCl: the negative oxygen side of the water molecule attracts the positively charged sodium). On average, at the surface of the ocean, 1 kilogram of seawater with a salinity of 35 ppt or 35.000 ppm contains about 10.781 grams of sodium and about 19.353 grams of chlorine. The Practical Salinity Scale introduced in 1978 redefined salinity to reflect the importance of measuring the conductivity of seawater. As Brown and Allentoft had concluded, the new definition was based on the understanding that all seawater samples with the same conductivity ratio have the same salinity. In 1975 the organization responsible for distributing standard seawater samples moved out from under the guidance of the International Council for Exploration of the Seas (ICES) in Copenhagen to the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences in England under the guidance of the International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans (IAPSO). After 1975 the Copenhagen standard for seawater was referred to simply as standard seawater or normal seawater—but it has always been made from filtered North Atlantic Ocean water, diluted with distilled water. After 1978, instead of calibrating the standard to a specific chlorinity, the standard seawater was recalibrated against a new electrical conductivity standard. To keep the old and new salinity scales consistent, the conductivity standard was made by evaporating and mixing distilled water with a specified solution of potassium chloride (KCl) until at 590°F (15°C) it had the same conductivity ratio as surface seawater (water pressure equals zero) from the North Atlantic, with a practical salinity of 35 ppt (the equivalent to 19.374 ppt chlorinity using the old equations for salinity). The Joint Panel on Oceanographic Tables and Standards recommended that marine scientists continue to purchase seawater standards from the IAPSO Standard Seawater Service rather than make their own potassium chloride solutions for calibration. This method has continued to be the standard practice ever since.

Chapter 8 | 1971–1980    185

The Global Oceanographic Expedition of the Warship Vitiaz In  1886,  Captain  Stepan  Osipovich  Makaroff  (1849–1904)  took  command  of  Russia’s  corvette  Vitiaz  (also  spelled  Vityaz),  a  265-foot  (80.8-m)  steam-driven  screw  and  three-masted  steel  warship  launched  in  1884. The  ship  could  travel  at  speeds of up to 14.6 knots and had an armament  that  included  four  torpedo  tubes  and  several  hand-cranked, single-barrel antitorpedo guns. For  four years Makaroff and his crew of 25 officers and  345 sailors circumnavigated the globe conducting  extensive  oceanographic  research.  They  set  sail  from Kronstadt, Russia, in the Gulf of Finland off  the  coast  of  St.  Petersburg  and  navigated  across  the Atlantic to the shores of South America. Along  the way they took regular measurements of salinity,  temperature,  and  depth.  They  crossed  into  the  Pacific  Ocean  through  the  Strait  of  Magellan  and in April 1887 moored in Vladivostok, Russia,  along the Sea of Japan. They spent the rest of the  year surveying the North Pacific. In late 1888, Makaroff turned the ship toward  its  westward  journey  home.  In  December  he  sailed through the South China Sea, crossing from  Vietnam  to  Singapore.  Before  he  had  left  on  the  Vitiaz  expedition,  Makaroff  had  studied  reports  from  other  Russian  expeditions  to  various  seas  around the world. Along the route to Singapore he  compared his crew’s hydrographic data with that  collected  under  the  command  of  Captain  Otto  von  Kotzebue  (1787–1846)  on  the  sailing  sloop  Enterprise 63 years earlier. The two data sets from  the  same  region  coincided  despite  the  lengthy  time interval. Makaroff’s  excitement  grew  as  he  crossed  the  Indian Ocean and entered the Gulf of Aden. Since  the beginning of the journey, he had been looking  forward to the crossing at Bab el Mandeb Strait in  the northern Gulf of Aden and sailing up the Red  Sea.  With  the  winter  monsoon  winds  blowing  his ship northward, along the way he would test  one  of  the  hypotheses  of  Russia’s  leading  climatologists  and  geographers  at  the  time, Alexander  Ivanovich  Voeikov  or  (Voyeykov/[1842–1916];  in 1917, the main geophysical observatory in St. 

Petersburg was named in Voeikov’s honor). Better  known for identifying the arid effects of deforestation  on  climate, Voeikov  had  also  hypothesized  that  a  persistent  warm  bottom  current  existed  in  the Red Sea and emptied into the Indian Ocean,  while at the same time the Indian Ocean flowed  into the Red Sea at the surface. Such double currents were a regular phenomenon in the Straits of  Bosphorus, Gibraltar, Formosa, and La Pérouse. In  1881  Makaroff  had  designed  a  current  meter  that  rang  a  bell  with  every  revolution  of  its  propeller,  and  during  the  Vitiaz  expedition  he  would  listen  and  count  the  revolutions  to  measure the flow rate at various depths. Despite  strong  winds  that  made  observations  difficult,  Makaroff  and  his  crew  confirmed  the  opposing  undercurrent  at  Bab  el  Mandeb.  They  continued  sailing  up  the  middle  of  the  Red  Sea  until  they were in line with the sacred city of Mecca.  The  Vitiaz  water  samples  located  at  21°  N,  38°  E  reached  a  depth  of  2,000  feet  (600  m)  and  recorded temperatures of 70.88°F (21.6°C), with  salinity  levels  of  40.4  parts  per  thousand  (ppt).  Compared  to  the  rest  of  the  world’s  inlets  and  ocean  waters,  the  salinity  levels  were  extraordinary.  Compared  to  the  surface  waters  of  the  Red  Sea,  however,  the  findings  did  not  strike  oceanographers  as  unusual.  Surface  waters  are  typically warmer and fresher than deeper waters  as  the  sun  heats  the  surface  and  precipitation  dilutes the top layer of seawater. The cooler, saltier water layer sinks to the depth appropriate to  its density. The Red Sea has a surface temperature  that hovers around 86°F (30°C) and a salinity of  38 ppt. Little did Makaroff know that north of his  sampling  site,  in  even  deeper  waters,  were  hot  brine  pools  with  temperatures  hotter  than  any  marine  thermometer  could  then  read  and  with  salinities  so  high  it  would  seem  improbable  for  life to survive. From  the  Red  Sea,  the  Vitiaz  crossed  the  20-year-old  Suez  Canal  and  spent  the  summer  (continues)

186    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

(continued) navigating  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  After  crossing  the Strait of Gibraltar, the oceanographic warship  headed  north  along  the  Atlantic  coastline  to  the  Baltic  Sea  and  returned  to  Kronstadt,  Russia,  in  the Gulf of Finland. Already famous nationally for  his  earlier  efforts  attacking Turkish  vessels  during  the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, Makaroff returned  home to a hero’s welcome. In 1890, at age 41, he  became Russia’s youngest admiral. His round-theworld  expedition  with  the  Vitiaz  had  converted  the  warship  into  an  internationally  recognized 

research  vessel.  During  the  construction  of  the  Oceanographic  Museum  of  Monaco,  the  name  Vitiaz was embossed on the facade along with the  names of 19 other famous oceanographic vessels. Makaroff  published  his  hydrographic  studies  in 1894 in a two-volume set titled Vitiaz and the Pacific Ocean.  He  said  of  the  expedition  and  of  the Russian sailors who had conducted scientific  studies  on  warships  before  him:  “Let’s  hope  that  the  work  of  these  explorers  will  be  a  great  gift  from grandfathers to their grandchildren and that  future generations will see it as a great example of  their commitment to science.”

Red Sea Anomalies Ocean expeditions to the Red Sea during the late 19th century sampled the water column down to about 6,600 feet (2,000 m), and all returned with similar reports. Once below the influence of the surface, the Red Sea had a remarkably uniform water mass with maximum salinity measurements of 40–40.6 parts per thousand (ppt) and a temperature that was consistently within a tenth of a degree of 70.7°F (21.5°C). Oceanographers observed that during the summer the monsoon winds blew from the north and emptied the sea of about 2 feet (0.6 m) of water. They noted that evaporation reduces the sea level of the Red Sea even further by about 6.5 feet (2 m). The high salinity of the sea was, they determined, inevitably due to the loss of freshwater coupled with a lack of freshwater sources; a similar situation occurs to less of an extent in the Mediterranean and in the Persian Gulf. The saltier water sinks and circulates under the surface layer, but the details of the circulation remained a curiosity even into the 21st century. In letters to the editor of Nature in 1899, Russian captain Stepan Makaroff and Rear Admiral Sir William Wharton of the British Hydrographic Office debated the importance of density versus wind in forming undercurrents that flowed in the opposite direction of the surface. “The evaporation of water from the Mediterranean is greater than the quantity supplied by rivers and rains. For this reason, the water becomes more dense, settles down, and goes back to the Atlantic by the under current,” wrote Makaroff, adding, “I ought to mention that the influence of the rotation of the Earth on the direction and velocity of the currents cannot be over-estimated.” When he did not mention the

Chapter 8 | 1971–1980    187 importance of wind, he drew the ire of Rear Admiral Wharton, to which Makaroff replied: “Nobody can deny that the wind has a great influence upon the movement of surface water; but I hope that Admiral Wharton will agree with me that difference of specific gravity has also some influence upon the circulation of water in the seas generally and in the straits particularly.” In 2004, French marine chemists investigating the distribution of helium isotopes described the deep thermohaline circulation of the Red Sea as “comparable to that of a miniature world ocean.” The deep water of the Red Sea, as Makaroff determined, exits along the bottom of the Bab el Mandeb Strait, but as Wharton stressed, the seasonal winds and tides complicate the picture. Today oceanographers understand that the Indian Ocean water flows into the Red Sea through the Gulf of Aden along the surface when the winds are from the south during the winter, and as intermediate water when the winds are from the north and the surface and deep water flow south. Between monsoon seasons the direction of the surface flow shifts unpredictably, depending on the evaporation rate and the strength and timing of the changing monsoons. While other ships may use the Red Sea solely as a passage to or from the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean, such is the draw of the curious circulation that whenever oceanographers cross from one end to the other, they go out of their way to stop and collect water samples. In 1948, the Swedish research vessel Albatross noted an unusually high salinity of 45 ppt and a temperature reading of 76.1°F (24.5°C) for water from a depth of 6,332 feet (1,930 m). They recorded their location (21°10' N, 38°09' E) and continued on their journey. In 1958, during the International Geophysical Year, the R/V Atlantis passed through the Red Sea and found a salinity of 42.5 ppt and a temperature upward of 77°F (25°C) from a depth of 6,280 feet (1,914 m) located at 21°22.5' N, 38°05' E. Marine scientists Conrad Neumann and C. Dana Densmore circulated an unpublished manuscript within the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) that included mention of the anomaly and caught the attention of oceanographer Arthur “Rocky” Miller (1915–2005). In July 1963 the new WHOI vessel Atlantis II was scheduled to pass through the Red Sea on its way to join the International Indian Ocean Expedition. Miller oversaw the ship’s salinity profile through the Red Sea and made sure the cruise stopped specifically where the Atlantis had found the anomalous temperature and salinity readings. He was not disappointed. The Atlantis II found temperatures of 78°F (25.76°C) at a depth of 6,335–6,489 feet (1,931–1,978 m), water 3.5 degrees warmer than the water above it. The salinity levels reached 43.18 ppt, 2.4 parts higher than the surrounding water. His report to Nature in 1964 drew the marine scientific community’s attention. Because the findings were so specific in location, Miller concluded the ships had found an anomaly in the already warm, highly saline deep current of the Red Sea. In the same issue British oceanographer Henry Charnock speculated that the

188    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science explanation involved a spillover of the deep current from one basin to another following the topography of the seafloor. Charnock posited that perhaps the density current became trapped, allowing for an accumulation of heat and salt. As these reports were being published, the 295-foot (90-m) long British research vessel R.R.S. Discovery, launched in 1962, was surveying the region off the coast of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. For the first time the results were beyond what anyone thought possible. The salinity came back as a skyrocketing 273 ppt, based on conductivity measurements. The thermometers hit their maximum levels, indicating temperatures of over 111°F (44°C). Statistics from the German Meteor expedition of 1925–27 confirmed their findings. Something else besides convective circulation (the cooling and sinking of salty water) was driving these anomalies. “Preliminary estimates of sulphate, magnesium, and calcium, and of the chlorinity: conductivity ratio, suggest that this water is not just concentrated seawater,” reported the British oceanographers John Crossley Swallow and Jim Crease of the National Institute of Oceanography in the journal Nature on January 9, 1965. “Speculating on the origin of the abnormal water, it seems unlikely that it can have been formed by evaporation in a shallow sea, as suggested by Charnock for the previously reported abnormal water.” They proposed the water was the result of salt deposits and the heat affiliated with tectonic activity. Later that year, during a return expedition to core the seafloor, Miller and colleagues from WHOI, including Egon Degens (1928–89), C. Dana Densmore and others referred to the Red Sea brines as the Atlantis II Deep and the Discovery Deep. They found the two hot brine reservoirs rich in iron and other metals. Other deep sites from the Red Sea contained only carbonate sediments. They concluded that the brines and the high metal concentrations in the sediments underlying the brines had to have a common origin since “any theory of origin of one must explain the other.” In 1966, the R/V Chain found a third brine pool, Chain Deep. The ship set out to take core samples of the seafloor and came back with sediment too hot to touch. On board were several marine geologists and geochemists from Woods Hole, including David Ross (b. 1936), Susan Kadar, Peter G. Brewer, T. R. S. Wilson, James W. Murray, Captain Robert “Munnsie” Guy Munns (1922–98), and C. Dana Densmore. Donning thick gloves, the marine geologists split the cores in half and found a variety of minerals—copper, iron, manganese, zinc; the hues of blue, red, white, and green amazed the geologists. David Ross and Egon Degens compared the results with the new understanding of plate tectonics. The Red Sea was recognized as a rift zone, with young hot crust pushing its way up to the surface. Degens and Ross speculated that the high-temperature, metal-rich brines or “hot springs” were not unique to the Red Sea and could be found in other rifting zones or spreading ridges. This was good news for marine geologists. In 1967 Arab nations protesting Western support of Israel began an embargo on exporting oil.

Chapter 8 | 1971–1980    189 Research vessels in the Red Sea were looked at with suspicion, particularly any in the Gulf of Aqaba, whose waters lap the coastlines of Egypt, Israel, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. With political tensions growing in the Middle East during the 1970s, finding a less-hostile location for scientific research seemed prudent. The search for temperature and salinity anomalies was now coupled with the search for mineral deposits. Though scientists were finding metal-rich sediments along spreading ridges in every ocean, the trail grew strangely cold, literally. The Deep Sea Drilling Project, supported by the National Science Foundation and under the direction of the Joint Oceanographic Institutions for Deep Earth Sampling (JOIDES), had discovered sediments rich in iron, manganese, nickel, zinc, copper, cobalt, lead, silver, and other metals. But the observed temperature did not meet expectations. In 1972 marine geophysicist and chemist Clive Lister (1936–95) of the University of Washington considered the nature of underwater volcanoes at spreading ridges and proposed that the seawater was circulating through the porous basaltic lava rocks and cooling down the seafloor. This process of deep-sea hydrothermal circulation would also result in an exchange of minerals between the fluid and the sediment. He designed a heat-flow instrument to attach to cores in order to determine the in situ temperature and conductivity of the oceanic crust. “He predicted the occurrence of hydrothermal vents at mid-ocean ridge axes, and it was on a cruise to the Galápagos Spreading center to prove him wrong that [we] found the first oceanic thermal plume,” wrote John G. Sclater in 1996, who was on board the 1972 survey of the Galápagos Spreading Ridge. The plate tectonics to the northwest of the Galápagos Islands form a triple junction with the Pacific plate traveling west, the Cocos plate traveling northeast, and the Nazca plate traveling southeast through the path of the Galápagos hot spot, which forms the famous volcanic islands. The Galápagos rift zone lies between the Cocos and Nazca plate, and like the islands, the deep-sea hot springs would yield an evolutionary discovery that would revolutionize concepts in biology and cause an effect that would ripple through all fields of science.

An Oasis of Life in the Deep-Sea Desert In their search for hydrothermal vents, marine scientists focused on spreading ridges and volcanic hot spots. They sent temperature probes into soft sediment-laden regions of the seafloor and collected sediment cores near ridge crests where their instruments would be near the volcanic activity but not probing hard rocks. The hard pillow basalts of lava (pillow lava) were examined using chain-linked, steel-toothed dredge nets attached to a cable that spooled off a drum in the interior of the ship and over the stern with a large winch called an A-frame. The chemists surveyed the waters with CTD casts, hunting for mineral-enriched, hightemperature plumes. The rocks and sediment that came back from the

190    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science spreading centers and volcanic hot spots were enriched with minerals and volcanic detritus. By the mid-1970s, marine scientists had gained an upper hand on understanding the process of hydrothermal circulation. Though the process had its own implications among terrestrial geochemists and volcanologists—Yellowstone and Mount Pelée, for example, were known for their hydrothermal activity—the ocean equivalent was a new consideration: Cold seawater percolating through hot, young oceanic crust became superheated from the mantle plume below the crust. The water became saturated in dissolved minerals, which changed its composition. Like a pot of boiling water, convection drove the hydrothermal fluid back to the surface where, in contact with the cold seawater, the minerals precipitated out of solution and then accumulated on the seafloor. Perhaps not surprisingly, the new model created more questions than answers. In 1973, the presence of rust-colored goethite minerals on some of the Apollo moon rocks led some chemists to question if lunar hydrothermal activity had once been possible. In 1975, the Viking landers found mafic clays on Mars, spurring the debate over the influence and presence of water on that planet. Deep-sea drilling along the eastern equatorial Pacific seafloor in 1971 brought back iron-rich sediments chemically similar to the sediments found on the crest of the East Pacific Rise, furthering evidence that the seafloor had moved away from the site of its original formation. A year later, Ken Macdonald (b. 1947), a WHOI graduate student, began monitoring for seismic activity around the Galápagos Islands from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s R/V Thomas Washington. The expedition was part of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration, and its equipment included a deep-sea sonar and camera system called Deep Tow, which communicated its findings in real time back to the ship via acoustic telemetry. Deep Tow detected a slight increase in temperature to the south of the Galápagos volcanic rift valley as it passed over and imaged hills of accumulated sediments 60–150 feet (18–45 m) in diameter and 15–75 feet (4.5–23 m) high. The tectonic activity in the area was amazing. Using sonobuoys originally designed in World War II to listen for submarines, Macdonald monitored as many as 80 microearthquakes an hour for days. Though small seismically, the earthquakes sounded like cannon fire underwater. At one point after an extensive set of seismic explosions, a school of deepwater fish floated to the surface, dead. With that the suspected hydrothermal vents below acquired an allegedly murderous reputation. Elsewhere, marine geologists continued to search for clues and develop their understanding of hydrothermal circulation through the seafloor. Scripps researchers in 1975 collected barite-opal rocks of suspected hydrothermal origin from a basin northeast of Australia. A year earlier French and American oceanographers took several ships to the Portuguese islands of the Azores to study the seafloor around the vol-

Chapter 8 | 1971–1980    191

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution completed construction of the Alvin submersible in 1964. The untethered three-manned submersible is seen here preparing for a dive into Oceanographer Canyon on the southern edge of Georges Bank off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. (NOAA/Department of Commerce)

canic islands and the canyons that cut the rift valley to the east of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. They used the Alvin submersible from Woods Hole and the French bathyscaphe Archimède to survey the region’s geology. By geologically investigating the spreading zone with their own eyes, much as a geologist would walk the terrain he or she was interested in mapping,

192    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science they literally connected the dots they had made previously on their maps. Yet they did not find a single hydrothermal vent. Some began to wonder if underwater hot springs actually existed. In 1976, Deep Tow surveyed the Galápagos Rift again, this time working from R/V Melville. The expedition captured two intriguing images, both of which could plausibly have resulted from human activities. The first set of photos taken over a fissure showed white and yellow spheres on the seafloor. Although Deep Tow detected a slight rise in temperature in the area, the scientists were surveying the same region photographed in 1972 using black-and-white film. When biologists at Woods Hole saw the pictures, they discounted the idea that the spheres were biological and concluded that the previous expedition had probably dumped photo chemicals used in developing the black-and-white film. Suspicions grew aboard the Melville when they discovered two piles of white clamshells and beer cans not far from the fissure. Were these the remnants of an onboard party or the consequences of a hot bath from the exposed fissure? Marine geologist Kathleen Crane (b. 1951), who was searching for hot springs based on temperature anomalies for her Ph.D thesis at Scripps, nicknamed the sites “Clambake I” and “Clambake II.” She and fellow geologist Bob Truesdale deployed a transponder on each site so that the next expedition could investigate the suspected hydrothermal vents with the Alvin submersible. On February 8, 1977, the R/V Knorr crossed through the Panama Canal escorting the smaller ship Lulu, which carried Alvin into the Pacific. The search for deep-sea hot springs had intrigued marine geologists and geochemists for a decade; the possible relation between hydrothermal vents and the death of the fish and clams in the Galápagos, however, had failed to raise more than an eyebrow. No one thought to invite a biologist on board. Oceanographers Richard Von Herzen and Robert Ballard (b. 1942) of WHOI organized the submersible operation with Jack Corliss (b. 1936) of Oregon State University. With them were 30 marine geoscientists, including Corliss’s graduate student Debra Stakes and former adviser from Scripps Jerry van Andel (b. 1923), who had recently accepted a position at Stanford; Jack Daymond and Louis Gordon, also from Oregon State University; Dave Williams of the U.S. Geologic Survey; John Edmond and Tanya Atwater (b. 1942) of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); and graduate student Kathleen Crane of Scripps, who brought her maps and photos from the 1976 Melville cruise. Science journalist David Perlman (b. 1918) of the San Francisco Chronicle and photojournalist Emory Kristof of National Geographic tagged along to see what the Alvin crew would find on this voyage to the Galápagos Rift zone. On February 15, the Knorr team busily started photographing the Clambake I dive site 8,250 feet (2,500 m) below, using additional transponders as locating beacons and the more robust, closer-range camera system called ANGUS. (Acoustically Navigated Geological

Chapter 8 | 1971–1980    193 Underwater Survey). ANGUS was a camera system with sonar and temperature sensors enclosed in a steel cage with the motto: “Takes a licken’ but keeps on clicken.” The camera automatically snapped a picture every 10 seconds until it ran out of film about 12 hours later. To keep the pictures in focus, teams took shifts keeping ANGUS 15 feet (4.5 m) above the seafloor for 7.25 miles (16 km). One person kept an eye on the topography of the seafloor. That person relayed the change in the terrain’s height to the ship’s winch operator, who then reeled the cable towing ANGUS in or out. Someone else kept an eye on the temperature readings coming in from ANGUS, and another scientist stayed in radio communication with the crew on the ship’s bridge. The Knorr headed against a 1.5-knot surface current, but as bottom currents sent ANGUS off-course, the ship changed its direction to compensate. Near midnight the temperature of the seawater surrounding ANGUS spiked briefly before returning to a consistent 35.6°F (2°C). The next morning the crew hauled in ANGUS, and the scientists developed the 400-foot (122-m) roll of color film. Out of more than 3,000 pictures of cold and barren seafloor, the 13 taken during the spike in temperature showed a tight conglomeration of hundreds of large white clams and brown mussels still alive and filter-feeding—“thriving as if they were in an environment no more hostile than a sunny mudflat on the New England coast,” Ballard later recalled. “We couldn’t help but wonder what these large clams were doing in such numbers at that depth, in that eternal darkness.” Sunrise broke on the morning of February 17 with Alvin pilot Jack Donnelly (1930–99) preparing the submersible for the expedition’s first dive. The three-person submersible had room for one pilot and two science observers. Jack Corliss and Jerry van Andel crouched on the floor, peering out the viewports on either side of Donnelly as they descended for an hour and a half to the seafloor, where a jumble of fresh, black, basaltic lava glistened with bits of obsidian glass, free of any sediment cover. Before they even arrived at Clambake I, however, the geologists found themselves staring in wonder at the sheetlike flows of lava where they thought they would find rounded pillow basalt. This was a very fast-spreading ridge, and instead of oozing out like toothpaste snaking its way along the seafloor and hardening as it went, the lava had rushed out as though emerging from an open spigot on a faucet, then cooled into frozen puddles, pools, and lakes. In some areas the lava lakes had drained back into the Earth, leaving a crusty ring. Using the same three acoustic transponders deployed for triangulating the location of ANGUS Donnelly navigated Alvin toward the appropriate coordinates of the temperature spike. They could see the water around them start to shimmer like the air above an asphalt street on a hot summer day. Warm water was pouring out of the cracks in the rocks. The cold, deep ocean had turned a balmy 53.6°F (12°C). With the

194    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

Hydrothermal deep-sea vent. In life without photosynthesis, tubeworms feed off of microbes in their guts using chemosynthesis. The ecosystem derives energy from minerals at a black smoker. (NOAA/ Department of Commerce)

ANGUS pictures it had been hard to determine size. Now, in the center of the hydrothermal vent field, they saw that the clams, measuring a foot (30 cm) or more in length, were larger than dinner plates. A blue cloud of minerals precipitated out of the hydrothermal fluid as it cooled and hung like a fog over the flourishing shellfish beds. Small white crabs and a purple octopus stealthily made their way across the tops of the shellfish, causing a rippling of shells around them to clam up. Donnelly reached out with Alvin’s manipulator arm and collected a clam. He turned on a pump and with a long hose vacuumed up a sample of the hazy blue water. Once Alvin was back on board the Lulu, the geochemists did not need an in-depth analysis to tell them that hydrogen sulfide dominated the water sample. As soon as the sample container was open, the stink of rotten eggs wafted across the deck of the ship. When they cracked open the clams in the lab, any thought of a clambake party with the newly discovered species was quickly dispelled. The blood-red flesh reeked of sulfur. MIT geochemist John Edmond (1944–2001) analyzed the water

Chapter 8 | 1971–1980    195 samples and estimated the starting temperature for these hot-water seeps was between 660°F to 750°F (350°C to 400°C). With ANGUS trolling for temperature spikes and now also curious sea creatures, the expedition continued to survey the area, pinpointing a location of interest and sending two scientists down with one of the Alvin pilots to witness firsthand what was happening at these hydrothermal vent oases. They found a handful of sites where life had taken advantage of the chemical bathwater seeping up through the seafloor. Each site hosted a different community of species. At Clambake II the bivalves were all dead, their empty white shells scattered like fallen dominoes across the black basalt. Clinging with delicate fibers to the lava rocks at the site named “Dandelion Patch,” were yellow-tufted creatures that looked as though a gardener had dug up a patch of dandelions and dropped them on the seafloor with their roots still intact. The geologists dubbed the strangest and most diverse site the “Garden of Eden,” where bouquets of white stalklike tubes bloomed blood-red worms. The stalk of a plucked tubeworm brought back to the surface from the site stretched 6.6 feet (2 m) long. Kathleen Crane went down with National Geographic photographer Emory Kristof and pilot Dudley Foster and collected bacterial slime coating the rocks. Although fascinated by the deep-sea life, the geologists were poor communicators for the task, and the news media did the job of announcing their discovery for them. “They have found rich clusters of living organisms basking in the warmth of the geysers—clams, mussels, shrimp, sponges, crabs, and even fish whose obviously functioning eyes pose a major mystery,” wrote David Perlman for the San Francisco Chronicle. He typed his story on his portable typewriter and had the radio operator for the Knorr fax it to the public relations staff at Woods Hole in

Red tubeworms inside their white shells are dominant members of the hydrothermal vent communities in the Pacific Ocean. (NOAA)

196    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

Earth Science Black Smoker.eps

Massachusetts using the ship’s “Xerox telecopier,” which communicated via the ship’s single-sideband radio. From WHOI the story was sent by Western Union to California. Two years later, in spring 1979, Ballard returned to the Galápagos Rift with the Lulu, the Alvin, and 15 marine biologists. Fred Grassle of WHOI led the biological survey team. The expedition had discovered a new site that they named “Rose Garden,” where the tubeworms, Riftia pachyptila, grew almost 10 feet (3 m) tall. The blood coloring the tissues of the tubeworms and the giant white clams, Calyptogena magnifica, was rich in hemoglobin. As with humans, the red hemoglobin molecule transports oxygen. The clams and tubeworms were catering

SBN OF 0CS Marine Science 1.eps AI 10 inals 12/05/07

HYDROTHERMAL VENT DYNAMICS 4,000 feet (1,200 m)

Fractures in basalt admit seawater Ridge

Plume 35.69°F Ridge

Basalt D i ffu

se f

5,000 feet (1,500 m)

Basalt

low Sp

di rea

ng

Diffuse flow

Depth

Seawater 35°F

750°F Magma

A xi

s

2,200°F

© Infobase Publishing

Note: Subtract 32 from °F then divide by 1.8 to obtain °C

Chapter 8 | 1971–1980    197 to an internal community of hydrogen sulfide-oxidizing bacteria that lived inside them. Instead of filtering organic food particles such as planktonic diatoms from the water column and doing the digestion themselves, the clams were filtering hydrogen sulfide from the hydrothermal fluid to feed their internal bacteria living inside them. The tubeworms did the same using microscopic tentacles attached to flaps on the end of their bodies that protruded out of the tubes and into the vent fluid. The tubeworms had no mouth, no anus, no eyes, no digestive tract. The bacteria did all the work of providing the energy. The ambient seawater provided the necessary dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide needed for the bacteria to oxidize the hydrogen sulfide from the hydrothermal fluid and produce organic carbon that the animals used to build their tissues. This deep-sea chemosynthetic ecosystem could survive without sunlight or any need for photosynthesis. The biologists were stunned. “We were struck by the thought, and its fundamental implications, that here solar energy, which is so prevalent in running life on our planet, appears to be largely replaced by terrestrial energy—chemolithoautotrophic bacteria taking over the role of green plants. This was a powerful new concept and, in my mind, one of the major biological discoveries of the 20th century,” wrote WHOI marine biologist Holger W. Jannasch (1927–98) in a report published in the Annual Review of Microbiology. The mussels (Mytilidae), tubeworms, and clams adhered to the rocks with strong byssal threads. Sometimes it was easier to pick up a rock than try to separate the organism from it, such as with the sea anemones (Actinarians) and spirals of spaghetti-like worms (Enteropneust). Limpets (Archaeogastropoda) stuck to the sides of the fissures, basking directly in the 62.6°F (17°C) heat. The biologists identified two species of crabs, galatheid (Munidopsis) and brachyuran (Bythograea thermydron). The dandelion-like organisms (Rhodaliid siphonophores) exploded during their trip to the surface in Alvin’s collection box, but the team still identified them as a new species of jellyfish, a type of siphonophore related to the Portuguese man-of-war. The rootlike tethers on the rocks kept a gas-filled chamber from drifting away with the current. The bobbing bubble had a sprout of tentacles—each, dissection revealed, with its own purpose: reproduction, prey capture, and digestion, for example.

(opposite page) Cool seawater percolates through the cracks in the seafloor. As ocean water sinks deeper into the crust, magma along spreading ridges heats the water, which dissolves minerals from the crust into the hydrothermal solution. The hot water rises by convection back to the seafloor surface, where the minerals in the hydrothermal solution now in contact with cold seawater precipitate out of solution and form mineral deposits that build chimneys on the seafloor. The chimneys can range from as tall as buildings to as short as tree stumps.

198    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science In an essay on the history of WHOI’s deep-submergence program, Ballard later recalled: As our time on the rift went on, we collected new species of leeches, worms, barnacles, and whelks. We even took away some 200 strains of bacteria, which were brought alive to Woods Hole for whatever clues they might offer to the basis of this remarkable

On July 30, 1997, at a meeting of the National Geographic Society, Robert Ballard, president of the Institute for Exploration in Mystic, Connecticut, announced the discovery of eight sunken ships in the Mediterranean Sea. The discovery was the largest concentration of ancient shipwrecks found in the deep sea. More than 100 artifacts were recovered from the wrecks. (Laura Camden, REUTERS/ Getty Images)

2/05/07 Chapter 8 | 1971–1980    199 HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS IN THE UNITED STATES

pre-1972

AK HI

ASP (Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning) Pfiesteria complex NSP (Neurotoxic Shellfish Poisoning) Ciguatera PSP (Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning) Brown tide Macroalgae proliferation Cyanobacteria Fish, bird, mammal, and submerged aquatic vegetation kills

1972–Present

AK HI

© Infobase Publishing

Source: Don Anderson,WHOI/NOAA

Major harmful algal bloom events in the coastal United States (NOAA COP/National HAB office-WHOI)

FPO

AI 10 Finals 12/05/07 200    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science PRESENT-DAY GLOBAL HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOMS Arctic Ocean GREENLAND

NORTH AMERICA

Pacific Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

EUROPE

ASIA

Atlantic Ocean

Pacific Ocean AFRICA

SOUTH AMERICA

equator Indian Ocean AUSTRALIA

0

2,500 miles

0

4,022 km

N

Southern Ocean

Southern Ocean ANTARCTICA

NSP (Neurotoxic Shellfish Poisoning)

ASP (Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning)

DSP (Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning)

AZP (Azaspiracid Shellfish Poisoning)

PSP (Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning)

CFP (Ciguatera Fish Poisoning)

Fish, bird, mammal, and submerged aquatic vegetation kills © Infobase Publishing

Major harmful algal bloom (HAB) events around the world (NOAA COP/National HAB office-WHOI)

Source: Don Anderson,WHOI/NOAA

food chain. Throughout our observations—whether they involved the humblest microorganisms or the most extravagantly sized and colored worms and bivalves—we were tantalized by the thought that surely such phenomena could not have been confined by evolution only to this obscure stretch of the Galápagos Rift. At how many other places on the bottom of the oceans do such communities thrive, and how many other yet-unknown species draw life from the interplay of seawater with the steaming, mineral-rich depths of Earth’s developing crust? A few weeks later, in April 1979, the Lulu carried Alvin 1,800 miles (2,900 km) north toward Baja California, Mexico. At 21° north latitude, the biologists rendezvoused with Scripps geologists Fred Spiess (1919–2006) and Ken Macdonald, who were leading the American half of a joint U.S.-French expedition to survey the spreading ridge along the East Pacific Rise. A year earlier the French had dived on the site

FPO

Chapter 8 | 1971–1980    201

Scientist of the Decade: Edward Goldberg (1921–2008) Marine  chemist  Ed  Goldberg  of  the  Scripps  Institution  of  Oceanography  brought  oceanographers to a consensus on the importance of studying  the  effects  of  human  pollution  in  the  marine  environment. He alone was given the task of presenting a report on the health of the oceans to the  Intergovernmental  Oceanographic  Commission,  part  of  the  United  Nations  Educational,  Scientific  and  Cultural  Organization  (UNESCO).  Today  a  committee  would  be  given  that  kind  of  job,  says  marine  chemist  John  Farrington  of  the  Woods  Hole Oceanographic Institution. Goldberg’s report  became a book, The Health of the Oceans (1976),  published  in  Paris  through  the  UNESCO  press.  The  book,  introduced  policy  makers  to  a  decade  of  research  on  the  levels  of  human-made  contaminants  in  the  ocean.  In  it  Goldberg  discussed  such  issues  as  DDT  (dichloro-dipheryl-trichloroethane)  residues,  petroleum  hydrocarbons,  PCBs  (polychlorinated  biphenyls),  methyl  mercury,  and  radionuclides. Herbert  L.  Volchok  (1927–87)  of  the  U.S.  Atomic  Energy  Commission  (AEC)  and  Wally  Broecker  of  the  Lamont  Geological  Observatory  were among the many scientists leading the way  in quantifying the levels of strontium-90 and other  radionuclides in the ocean during the late 1950s  and  1960s.  As  oceanographers  were  measuring  the  level  of  strontium-90  in  fishing  waters,  AEC  scientists  Willard  Libby  (1908–80)  of  the  University of Chicago and geochemist J. Laurence  Kulp  (1921–2006)  and  Arthur  R.  Schulert  of  Lamont were leading Project Sunshine to measure  strontium-90  in  cow’s  milk  and  in  the  bones  of  stillborn babies and adult cadavers. They reported  their  findings  in  Science,  and  the  editors  made  note  of  the  grave  unknowns  and  implications.  “Radiation  from  fallout  inevitably  contaminates  the  food  supply. At  present  the  contamination  is  negligible,  but  the  maximum  tolerable  level  of  radioactivity  in  food  is  not  known,”  wrote  the  news editors of Science in June 1956. “Improved 

techniques  for  monitoring  world-wide  fallout  should  be  developed.  Any  large  increase  in  the  release of strontium-90 might be a matter for serious concern,” they warned. (In the 1990s, declassification  of  internal  memos  revealed  that  many  of the bodies for testing were collected by doctors  from morgues without the consent of relatives, an  issue that Libby, Kulp, and others involved in the  project recognized early on as controversial.) After  years  of  negotiations,  the  Soviet  Union,  United  States,  and  United  Kingdom  signed  and  ratified the Limited Test Ban Treaty of 1963 to stop  their  nuclear  testing  in  the  atmosphere,  underwater, and in space, although they pointedly did  not limit underground testing at the time. During  the  1960s,  by  evaluating  the  chemical  signature  in  the  ocean  and  atmosphere,  specifically  plutonium  isotopes,  Ed  Goldberg  helped  provide  a  means for identifying “who did what, when, and  where,”  says  emeritus  marine  geologist  Kathe  Bertine (b. 1944) of San Diego State University. In  order to enforce the Limited Test Ban Treaty, it was  important  to  verify  compliance  and  differentiate  between  countries  still  conducting  tests.  France  and China did not sign that first treaty. The second  round of efforts to end nuclear testing resulted in  the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT),  a  ban  that  called  for  the  elimination  of  all  testing. Though 141 countries have since signed and  ratified  the  CTBT,  the  treaty  will  not  enter  into  force  until  all  44  of  the  original  signatory  states  have  ratified  the  treaty.  As  of  2008  the  holdouts  preventing enforcement include the United States,  China, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea. Evaluating the onslaught of radionuclides from  nuclear fallout marked the beginning of the new  environmental  science  movement.  Bertine  notes  that  after  marine  biologist  Rachel  Carson  raised  the public alarm on DDT in her 1961 book Silent Spring,  Goldberg  was  instrumental  in  getting  the  (continues)

202    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

(continued) Monsanto  Corporation  to  release  information  on  its  production  levels  of  the  pesticide.  Carson  had  shown  that  when  DDT  was  released  from  airplanes (which it was by the thousands of tons),  less than half of the sprayed pesticide landed on its  intended target; the rest hung in the air and mixed  with  atmospheric  particles.  In  1968  Goldberg  aided  oceanographers  in  investigating  the  influx  of DDT to the Atlantic Ocean from airborne dust.  They  knew  from  1966  studies  that  winds  could  blow  pesticide-laden  dust  from  Texas  and  have  it  land  on  homes  in  Ohio.  The  oceanographers  hypothesized  that  the  wind  played  a  similar  role  in  feeding  pesticides  to  marine  organisms. Their  report—by Robert W. Risebrough (b. 1935) of the  Institute  of  Marine  Resources  at  Berkeley,  with  R. J. Huggett, J. J. Griffin, and Goldberg as coauthors from Scripps—detailed various methods for  measuring  airborne  chemicals.  Besides  DDT,  the  oceanographers  were  concerned  with  tracking  the  deposition  of  a  variety  of  chemicals,  including  PCBs,  which  they  defined  as  “industrial  pollutants  widely  dispersed  in  marine  ecosystems.”  Comparing  what  was  found  in  the  ocean  with  what  was  coming  from  the  outflow  from  rivers  left  room  for  winds  to  act  as  a  dispersant.  “We  must conclude that the atmosphere can transport  significant  quantities  of  pesticides  to  the  openocean ecosystem,” the marine chemists conclud-

ed. PCBs, they explained, are “toxic compounds  widely  used  in  industry  in  the  manufacture  of  plastics, paints, and many other products, and are  components of industrial air.” Marine biochemists had compared the concentration  of  PCB  to  DDT  in  seabirds,  including  two  species  of  Pacific  shearwaters  that  nest  in Alaska,  and in petrels and resident peregrine falcons from  remote  areas  of  Baja,  California,  and  found  that  the  total  levels  were  of  the  same  order  of  magnitude.  High  concentrations  of  pesticides  were  also  found  in  skuas  from  Antarctica  and  shearwaters  from  Australia  and  New  Zealand.  Goldberg  and  his  colleagues  saw  the  data  as  a  warning:  “This  fact  suggests  that  PCB  and  pesticides  are  similarly  dispersed.  With  other  pollutants,  including  products  of  atomic  explosions,  they  are  probably  universally present in air; thus their distribution in  marine and terrestrial ecosystems remote from sites  of  application  can  be  expected  to  depend  on  the  prevailing patterns of wind circulation and the rates  of fallout.” In later decades, satellite images would  show  westerlies  blowing  dust  from  China  across  the entire Pacific Ocean and the continental United  States  and  then  dispersing  over  the Atlantic.  From  the other direction the easterlies would deposit dust  from the Sahara over coral reefs in the Caribbean. Norway and Sweden banned the use of DDT in  1970;  the  U.S.  Environmental  Protection Agency  (EPA)  followed  suit  in  1972  and  the  United  Kingdom in 1986. Though it provides an effective 

with their submersible Cyana and collected tube-shaped rock samples rich in minerals: sphalerite (zinc sulfide), iron, copper, and traces of lead and silver. Once the team on board the R/V Melville completed their broad survey of the region flying the Deep Tow in sweeps perpendicular to the axis of the rift, they switched to the closer-ranging ANGUS. Because ANGUS flew so close to the seafloor, its best route of travel was parallel to the spreading ridge along the fault scarps and fissures. With this method, the team quickly found a vent field. Dudley Foster piloted Alvin to the location on April 21. The scientific observers on board with him were Bill Normark (1943–2008) of the U.S. Geological Survey and French volcanologist Thierry Juteau. The first clue that they

Chapter 8 | 1971–1980    203

pesticide against malaria-infected mosquitoes, the  use of indoor spraying is still highly debated. The  United States banned most of the industrial use of  PCBs in 1977. Goldberg’s influence on monitoring had a wide  range. He studied the levels of lead, mercury, selenium,  and  sulfur  in  ice  cores  from  Greenland  to  test  for  anthropogenic  atmospheric  inputs  from  fossil-fuel  combustion  and  other  air  pollutants.  He was one of the early outspoken voices against  plastic  debris,  which  can  strangle  seabirds  and  block the intestines of marine animals. In the mid1970s  Goldberg  put  into  action  an  idea  oyster  expert Philip Butler of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife  Service proposed in the 1960s: to use bivalves as  sentinels  of  marine  pollution—the  “canaries  in  the coal mine” for the coast. Goldberg identified  the coast as an area accumulating a bathtub ring  of  debris,  with  society  as  the  dirty  ocean  bather,  says Farrington. In 1975, the EPA instituted Mussel  Watch,  an  estuarine  and  coastal  pollutant  monitoring  effort  that  samples  shellfish  as  a  means  to  track  contaminants  over  time.  Starting  in  1986,  the  samples  were  saved  and  the  datasets  transferred  to  the  National  Oceanic  and Atmospheric  Administration  allowing  new  concerns—such  as  increased  levels  of  polybrominated  diphenyl  ethers (PBDEs), used as a flame retardant—regarding marine pollutants to be tracked retroactively. In  1970  Goldberg  was  working  as  a  visiting  scholar  in  Brussels,  investigating  the  pollution  of 

the  North  Sea,  when  geochemist  Karl  Turekian  (b. 1927) of Yale University introduced him to his  future  second  wife,  Kathe  Bertine,  then  a  graduate student of Turekian’s who had just completed  an  expedition  with  Hank  Stommel  in  the  Pacific  Ocean.  For  her  thesis,  Bertine  was  measuring  the  levels  of  molybdenum,  chromium,  and  uranium  in  waters  and  sediment  from  Australia  to  Chile. Beginning in 1971, she and Goldberg collaborated  on  many  reports,  joining  her  talent  for  geochemistry  investigating  with  his  knowledge  of  marine  chemistry  and  their  combined  interest  in  protecting  the  ocean  from  pollutants.  Their  last  joint  report,  published  in  2000,  was  titled  “Beyond  the  Mussel Watch—New  Directions  for  Monitoring  Marine  Pollution.”  It  recommended  investigating groups of pollutants with a common  impact  on  marine  organisms  instead  of  continuing  to  seek  out  individual  chemicals.  They  also  recommended  paying  greater  attention  to  the  biodiversity  of  coastal  seafloor-dwelling  animals  that live where pollutants accumulate. Such benthic animals frequently harvested for human consumption include oysters, shrimp, octopus, crabs,  and  lobsters.  “Hopefully,  with  these  approaches,  the  scenarios  of  the  past  where  catastrophic  events  have  defined  pollution  problems  may  be  avoided:  tributyltin  on  the  maricultured  oysters  in  France  or  the  decimation  of  fish-eating  birds  which  contained  toxic  levels  of  DDT,”  wrote  Bertine and Goldberg.

were on the right track was a scattering of white galatheid crabs. As they approached the vent field, instead of flying gently over a bed of shellfish immersed in a low-hanging, blue, shimmering haze, Alvin stumbled over a 6-foot (2-m) tall sulfide-spewing chimney, toppling the structure and engulfing the submersible in a jet-black cloud of particles. The black smoker sent the temperature probe on the Alvin to its maximum reading of 91°F (32.7°C). When the team surfaced, they found the fiberglass was singed black near the lower viewports through which Normark and Jeteau had been staring throughout the adventure. Alvin engineer Jim Akens (b. 1947) examined the temperature probe and found that the acrylic plastic tip,

204    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science the same type of plastic that the viewports were made of, had also melted. The melting point for that material was 356°F (180°C). For the next dive, Akens attached a long-handled, higher-temperature probe to Alvin, and Foster used the manipulator arm to extend the probe into the cloud of black particles belching out of a smaller chimney. His science observers on this dive were Robert Ballard and Jean Francheteau. The reading came back at 662°F (350°C). Ballard wrote: “Just as the theory of plate tectonics had mobilized the Earth sciences in the early 1960s, the discovery of hydrothermal vents in the Galápagos Rift and East Pacific Rise mobilized the field of oceanography.”

Further Reading Allmendinger, R. W., and F. Riis. “The Galápagos Rift at 86°W, 1. Regional Morphological and Structural Analysis.” Journal of Geophysical Research 84 (1979): 5,379–5,389. This report discusses the geological features along the Galápagos Rift. Ballard, R. D., R. T. Holcomb, et al. “The Galápagos Rift at 86°W: 3. Sheet Flows, Collapse Pits, and Lava Lakes of the Rift Valley.” Journal of Geophysical Research 84 (1979): 5,407–5,422. This report discusses the geological features along the Galápagos Rift. Berg, C. J., and R. D. Turner. “Description of Living Specimens of Calyptogena magnifica Boss and Turner with Notes on Their Distribution and Ecology.” Malacologia 20 (1980): 183–185. This report discusses the biology of giant clams. Bertine, Kathe K., and Edward D. Goldberg. “Fossil Fuel Combustion and the Major Sedimentary Cycle.” Science 173, no. 3993 (July 16, 1971): 233–235. From the abstract: “The combustion of the fossil fuels coal, oil, and lignite potentially can mobilize many elements into the atmosphere at rates, in general, less than but comparable to their rates of flow through natural waters during the weathering cycle.” Bolger, G. W., P. R. Betzer, et al. “Hydrothermally Derived Manganese Suspended over the Galápagos Spreading Center.” Deep-Sea Research 25 (1978): 721–733. Much of the blue color that spewed from the hydrothermal vents in the Galápagos Rift was manganese. Boss, K. J., and R. D. Turner. The Giant White Clam from the Galápagos Rift, Calyptogena magnifica Species Novum. Malacologia 20, 1 (1980): 161–194. This report discusses the biology of giant clams. Brewer, P. G., T. R. S. Wilson, J. W. Murray, R. G. Munns, and C. D. Densmore. “Hydrographic Observations on the Red Sea Brines Indicate a Marked Increase in Temperature.” Nature 231 (May 7, 1971): 37–38. This report discuses the findings of the R/V Chain’s return to the Red Sea. Charnock, H. “Anomalous Bottom Water in the Red Sea.” Nature 203 (August 8, 1964): 591. This report speculates that the explanation for deepwater brine pools is wind- and density-driven.

Chapter 8 | 1971–1980    205 Corliss, J. B. J. Dymond, et al. “Submarine Thermal Springs on the Galápagos Rift.” Science 203 (1979): 1,073–1,083. This report examines the chemistry of underwater hot springs. Corliss, J. B., M. Lyle, and J. Dymond. “The Chemistry of Hydrothermal Mounds near the Galápagos Rift.” Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 40 (1978): 12–24. This report examines the chemistry of underwater hot springs. Crane, Kathleen. “Structure and Tectonogenesis of the Galápagos Inner Rift, 86°10' W.” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 86 (1978): 715–730. This report discusses the tectonics of the Galápagos spreading ridge. Crane, Kathleen, and R. D. Ballard. “The Galápagos Rift at 86° W: Structure and Morphology of Hydrothermal Fields and Their Relationship to the Volcanic and Tectonic Processes of the Rift Valley.” Journal of Geophysical Research 85, B3 (1980): 1,443–1,454. This report discusses the tectonics of the Galápagos spreading ridge. Degens, Egon T., and David Ross. Hot Brines and Recent Heavy Metal Deposits in the Red Sea. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1969. This book discusses the discoveries of the R/V Chain and recent expeditions to the Red Sea. Detrick, R. S., D. L. Williams, et al. “The Galápagos Spreading Center: Bottom-water Temperatures and Significance of Geothermal Heating.” Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 38 (1974): 627–637. This report discusses high-temperature anomalies along the spreading ridge. Doel, Ronald E. “Constituting the Postwar Earth Sciences: The Military’s Influence on the Environmental Sciences in the USA after 1945.” Social Studies of Science 33, no. 5 (October 2003): 635–666. This report discusses the growth of the Earth sciences during the cold war. Edmond, J. M., C. Measures, et al. “Ridge Crest Hydrothermal Activity and the Balances of the Major and Minor Elements in the Ocean: The Galápagos Data.” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 46 (1979): 1–18. This report discusses the geochemical nature of hydrothermal vents. Forchhammer, Georg. “On the Composition of Sea-Water in the Different Parts of the Ocean.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London 155 (1865): 203–262. The first quantitative chemical analysis of seawater from around the world. Goldberg, Ed D. The Health of the Oceans. Paris: UNESCO Press, 1976. This book discusses the role of human-made contaminants in the ocean and was provided to policy makers at the United Nations. Goldberg, Ed D., and Kathe K. Bertine. “Beyond the Mussel Watch— ——New Directions for Monitoring Marine Pollution.” Science of the Total Environment 247, no. 2 (March 20, 2000): 165–174. Goldberg and Bertine provide recommendation for future monitoring efforts. Grassle, J. F., C. J. Berg, et al. “Galápagos ‘79: Initial Findings of a DeepSea Biological Quest.” Oceanus 22, 2 (1979): 1–10. This preliminary report discusses the biology of the hydrothermal vent community.

206    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Humes, A. G., and M. Dojiri. “A Siphonostome Copepod Associated with a Vestimentiferan from the Galápagos Rift and the East Pacific Rise.” Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 93, 3 (1980): 697–707. This report describes the biology of the hydrothermal vent community focusing on the fauna associated with the tubeworms. Jean-Baptiste, Philippe, Elise Fourré, N. Metzl, J. F. Ternon, and A. Poisson. “Red Sea Deep Water Circulation and Ventilation Rate Deduced from the 3He and 14C Tracer Fields.” Journal of Marine Systems 48, no. 1–4 (July 2004): 37–50. The authors track the circulation of the Red Sea using common hydrothermal isotopes. Jenkins, W. J., J. M. Edmond, et al. “Excess 3He and 4He in Galápagos submarine hydrothermal waters.” Nature 272 (1978): 156–158. This report examines the abundance of hydrothermal helium isotopes along spreading ridge. Jones, Everett N., and David G. Browning. “Cold Water Layer in the Southern Red Sea.” Limnology and Oceanography 16, no. 3 (May 1971): 503–509. This report describes the currents through the Bab el Mandeb Strait. Jones, M. L. “Riftia pachyptila, New Genus, New Species: The Vestimentiferan Worm from the Galápagos Rift Geothermal Vents (Pogonophora).” Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 93, 4 (1980): 1,295–1,313. This report identifies a new species of tubeworm. Karl, D. M., C. O. Wirsen, et al. “Deep-Sea Primary Productivity at the Galápagos Hydrothermal Vents.” Science 207 (1980): 1,345–1,347. This report identifies the bacteria as the primary producers in the chemosynthetic food web. Klinkhammer, G., M. Bender, et al. “Hydrothermal Manganese in the Galápagos Rift.” Nature 269 (1977): 319–320. This report discusses the geochemistry of the spreading ridge. Lewis, E. “The Practical Salinity Scale 1978 and Its Antecedents.” IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering 5, no. 1 (January 1980): 3–8. This report discusses the history of methods for determining salinity. Lister, Clive R. B. “On the Thermal Balance of a Mid-Ocean Ridge.” Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 26 (1972): 515–535. The first hydrothermal circulation model demonstrating the difference between observed and expected heat flow along spreading ridges. Lonsdale, P. “Abyssal Pahoehoe with Lava Coils at the Galápagos Rift.” Geology 5 (1977): 147–152. This report identifies the sheetlike lava fields along the fast spreading ridge found during the 1976 expedition at the Galápagos Rift. ———. “Clustering of Suspension-Feeding Macrobenthos near Abyssal Hydrothermal Vents at Oceanic Spreading Centers.” Deep-Sea Research 24 (1977): 857–863. This report describes the clams found during the 1976 expedition at the Galápagos Rift. Lutz, R. A., D. Jablonski, et al. “Larval Dispersal of a Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vent Bivalve from the Galápagos Rift.” Marine Biology 57

Chapter 8 | 1971–1980    207 (1980): 127–133. This report discusses the reproduction and dispersal of clams in vent communities. Macdonald, K. C., and J. D. Mudie. “Microearthquakes on the Galápagos Spreading Centre and the Seismicity of Fast-Spreading Ridges.” Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 36 (1974): 245–257. This report discusses the seismic activity at the Galápagos spreading ridge. Makaroff, Stepan. “The Cause of Undercurrents.” Nature 60, no. 1562 (October 5, 1899): 544–545. Makaroff provides a rebuttal to the criticism from Rear Admiral Wharton in regard to the importance of density in driving current circulation. ———. “Investigations of Double Currents in the Bosphorus and Elsewhere.” Nature 60, no. 1550 (July 13, 1899): 261–263. Makaroff reports his theories on the nature of double currents and suggests changes for improving navigational safety. ———. The Ship Vitiaz and the Pacific Ocean. (in Russian) St. Petersburg: 1893. Hydrologic observations made by the officers of the corvette Vitiaz during a voyage around the world. Miller, Arthur. “High Salinity in Sea Water.” Nature 203 (August 8, 1964): 590–591. Miller reports the anomalously high temperature and salinity measurements at depth in the Red Sea during the Atlantis II expedition in July 1963. Miller, Arthur, C. D. Densmore, E. T. Degens, J. C. Hathaway, F. T. Manheim, P. F. McFarlin, R. Pocklington, and A. Jokela. “Hot Brines and Recent Iron Deposits in Deeps of the Red Sea.” Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 30, no. 3 (March 1966): 341–350. This report, written during the Atlantis II expedition in 1966, provides a history of warmwater deeps found in the Red Sea. Nadezhdin, Fedor. “Corvette Vityaz.” This Web site provides a history of Captain Stepan Makarov’s expedition with the Vityaz. Available online (in Russian). URL: http://www.warships.ru/ships/vityaz/Vityaz2.htm. Accessed on January 5, 2008. Natland, J. H., B. Rosendahl, et al. “Galápagos Hydrothermal Mounds: Stratigraphy and Chemistry Revealed by Deep-Sea Drilling.” Science 204 (1979): 613–616. This report discuses the geochemical results of cores from the spreading ridge in the Galápagos Rift. Noshkin, Victor E. “Ratios of Niobium-95 to Zirconium-95 in OverOcean Fallout.” Nature 219 (September 21, 1968): 1,241–1,243. The ratios of these two radionuclides contained mixtures of fallout from two sources: the Lob Nor Chinese test on December 24, 1967, and an earlier test, which must have been the Chinese megaton explosion of June 17, 1967. “Public Health: Rules Given for Safe Use of DDT.” Science News Letter 59, no. 12 (March 24, 1951): 184. This letter says that despite some human deaths from the poison, DDT is “not likely” to harm complex organisms such as human beings.

208    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Risebrough, R. W., and Brock de Lappe. “Accumulation of Polychlorinate Biphenyls in Ecosystems.” Environmental Health Perspectives 1 (April 1972): 39–45. This report discusses the ubiquity of PCBs in the environment and their history. Risebrough, R. W., R. J. Huggett, J. J. Griffin, and Ed Goldberg. “Pesticides: Transatlantic Movements in the Northeast Trades.” Science 159 (March 15, 1968): 1,233–1,236. This report discusses the potential for wind-driven pesticides to account for contamination in marine organisms. Ross, D. A., and J. M. Hunt. “Third Brine Pool in the Red Sea.” Nature 213 (February 18, 1967): 687–688. This report discusses the discovery of Chain Deep during the R/V Chain expedition of 1966. Science editorial staff. “News of Science: Biological Effects of Atomic Radiation.” Science 123 (June 22, 1956): 1,110–1,111. This news report discusses the monitoring efforts for and effects of radiation. Sclater, J. G., and K. D. Klitgord. “A Detailed Heat Flow, Topographic, and Magnetic Survey across the Galápagos Spreading Center at 86°W.” Journal of Geophysical Research 78 (1973): 6,951–6,975. This report discusses the findings of the geologic survey at the Galápagos Rift. Swallow, J. C., and J. Crease. “Hot Salty Water at the Bottom of the Red Sea.” Nature 205, (January 9, 1965): 165–166. This report describes the discovery of the hot brine later called Discovery Deep. Tomczak, Matthias. “Salinity Calculator.” This Web site provides conversions. Available online. URL: http://www.es.flinders.edu.au/~mattom/ Utilities/salcon.html. Accessed on March 15, 2007. Turekian, K. K., J. K. Cochran, et al. “Growth Rates of a Clam from the Galápagos Rise Hot Spring Field using Natural Nucleotide Ratios.” Nature 280 (1979): 385–387. This report examines the biology of the giant clams. U.S. Department of Energy. “OpenNet.” This Web site contains memorandums on radiation fallout studies done under Project Sunshine during the 1950s. https://www.osti.gov/opennet/index.jsp. Accessed on December 21, 2007. Van Andel, T. H., and R. D. Ballard. “The Galápagos Rift at 86°W: 2. Volcanism, Structure, and Evolution of the Rift Valley.” Journal of Geophysical Research 84, B10 (1979): 5,390–5,406. This report discusses the tectonics of the spreading ridge at the Galápagos Rift. Volchok, H. L., Wallace S. Broecker, and Gregory G. Rocco. “Strontium90 Fallout: Comparison of Rates over Ocean and Land.” Science 152. no. 3722 (April 29, 1966): 639–640. This report finds that the rates of fallout are similar. Wharton, William (Sir). “Undercurrents.” Nature 60, no. 1553 (August 3, 1899): 316. In this letter to the editor, Rear Admiral Wharton criticizes Admiral Stepan Makaroff for arguing that density is the primary cause of opposing currents. Wharton holds that wind is the primary cause.

Chapter 8 | 1971–1980    209 Williams, A. B. A New Crab Family from the Vicinity of Submarine Thermal Vents on the Galápagos Rift (Crustacea: Decapoda: Brachyura). Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 93, 2 (1980): 443–472. This report identifies the crab at the spreading ridge. Williams, D. L., K. Green, et al. “The Hydrothermal Mounds of the Galápagos Rift: Observations with DSRV Alvin and Detailed Heat Flow Studies.” Journal of Geophysical Research 84 (1979): 7,467–7,484. A report on the discoveries found during the deep-sea research vessel Alvin’s survey of the spreading ridge. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “The Discovery of Hydrothermal Vents.” This Web site celebrates the 25th anniversary of the discovery of vent creatures along the Galápagos ridge. Available online. URL: http:// www.divediscover.whoi.edu/ventcd/index.html. Accessed on November 12, 2007.

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9

1981–1990: Oil in the seas

Introduction The impact humans have on the ocean begins inland, far from the coast. Driving and other uses of fossil fuels, overfertilization of golf courses and farms, consumption of overseas goods, land-based runoff, and eating seafood—all are activities that have an influence on marine waters. Agricultural runoff such as fertilizers and pesticides enter the water cycle via rivers and streams, which pick up urban effluents as they pass through coastal cities on their way to the ocean. Finding sustainable ways of meeting societal needs often begins with the consumer, and in the 1980s many consumers began to challenge industrial practices. Marine scientists provided the data. They tracked down invasive species in bays and harbors and determined the source was the ballast water in shipping. Discoveries of aquatic invaders in the 1980s included the European zebra mussel in the Great Lakes, a toxic Japanese dinoflagellate in Australia, and a carnivorous North American comb jellyfish in the Black Sea. “These three introductions alone have cost many millions of dollars in remedial action; have had deep and broad ecological repercussions; and have focused government, public, and scientific attention on the role of shipping as a dispersal vector for nonindigenous aquatic organisms,” wrote the National Research Council’s Committee on Ships’ Ballast Operations in the 1996 book Stemming the Tide. Commercial shipping of goods also includes oil, and after several widely publicized accidents, the oil industry in the 1980s began cleaning up its act. Today the biggest source of anthropogenic oil pollution into the ocean is from consumers through their day-to-day oil and fossil-fuel consumption habits. Over the last century these habits have also contributed to a significant rise in atmospheric carbon. The concern over the rise in carbon led one marine biochemist, John Martin, to propose a geoengineering method of increasing the ocean’s carbon sink. His proposal shocked the public for its boldness, but it was the biological hypothesis behind his iron fertilization plan that first shocked marine biologists. Today, as commercial enterprises consider iron fertilization as a means of 211

212    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science reducing carbon credits, scientists are no longer debating the importance of iron to phytoplankton growth, but rather the type of iron, how it is distributed, the larger effects of phytoplankton blooms on the environment, and if and where increasing such blooms might yield a significant carbon sink that would last longer than the lifespan of a diatom (about six days). With the rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the ocean’s circulation of heat dictates which areas in the world’s warming climate will experience drought and which areas will experience more floods. As this chapter’s scientist of the decade, Wally Broecker, says, the world can expect “warm areas to get warmer and wet areas to get wetter.”

Oil Spills and the Lingering Effects of the Exxon Valdez In 1973, during the ship-building boom of the 1970s, the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships adopted international maritime regulations in an effort to reduce and prevent oil spills from tankers. The maritime community was playing catch-up in their efforts to rein in the environmental hazards of a petroleum-based society.

The U.K. Parliament  amends the Wildlife  and Countryside Act  to include marine  reserve provisions

The U.S. government establishes the  Coastal Barriers Resources Act (CBRA) to  restrict financial support of coastal barriers that might damage property, fish,  wildlife, and other natural resources A record-breaking El Niño brings international attention to what was previously considered a local phenomenon

The World Court establishes a new  international boundary between  Canada and the United States in  Georges Bank. The Hague Line  limits U.S. fishing fleets to a  smaller area of U.S. waters

MilestOnes

1981

1982 The International Whaling Commission (IWC) calls for  a “pause” on all commercial whaling, beginning in  1985. The reason cited for the moratorium is a lack of  scientific understanding of the various whale stocks, a  necessary element to setting sustainable catch limits.  Smaller species of whales, cetaceans such as dolphins  and porpoises, remain in legal limbo regarding their  inclusion in the IWC regulations

1984

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Chapter 9 | 1981–1990    213 “Although international conventions met in 1924 and again in 1954 to regulate or prevent pollution of the sea by oil, it is still a problem,” wrote the 1967 Committee on Conservation for the American Ornithologists’ Union. Their report followed the disaster of the Torrey Canyon oil spill, which was, they said, “among the biggest in recent years to prove that oil and waterbirds do not mix.” Their glib one-paragraph discussion of the problem in a 10-page report on the status of the world’s endangered birds may well have been the ornithological understatement of the century. The Torrey Canyon ranks seventh among the world’s largest accidental oil spills since 1967, when, after the disaster, governments and environmental watch groups began earnestly keeping track. The Torrey Canyon “gave its name to a new kind of maritime disaster,” reported John Walsh for the journal Science in 1968. The ship ran aground on Seven Stones Reef near the southwest tip of England on March 18, 1967, carrying approximately 27 million gallons (880,000 barrels) of crude Kuwaiti oil. It took a week for the winds and tides to carry the first oil slick to shore. About half of the cargo reached the coasts of Britain and France, contaminating more than 140 miles (225 km). A Dutch salvage expert died during an explosion in the engine room on March 21. The rest of the casualties that followed were mostly diving birds: 20,000 guillemots

Oceanographers locate the  wreck of the Titanic about  95 miles (153 km) south of  Newfoundland, Canada, using  a camera attached to a remoteoperated vehicle (ROV)

May 7, an earthquake of magnitude 7.9 strikes the  Andreanof Islands of Alaska; there are no fatalities.  Moderate structural damage on Adak Island is caused,  and a small tsunami is recorded across the Pacific

MilestOnes

1985

1986 The National Oceanic and Atmospheric  Association (NOAA) begins the Beaufort  Sea Mesoscale Project to investigate ocean  circulation over the Beaufort Sea Shelf and  ocean-atmospheric interactions

214    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science and 5,000 razorbills. The gulls avoided the oil, but cormorants and shags continued to try to feed from the oil-covered waters along the English Channel. The British breeding grounds of the auks and puffins became toxic. Despite the country’s love of birds, ornithologists and volunteers failed in their efforts to properly handle and clean 8,000 rescued waterfowl; only about 1 percent made it back into the wild. Within four hours of the oil tanker’s collision with the shallow reef, the Royal Navy had ships en route to the scene. Improvising on methods used for harbor spills, the navy attacked the oil around the wreck with half a million gallons of detergent in an effort to emulsify and disperse

Albert Semtner (b. 1941) of the Naval Postgraduate  School in Monterey, California, and Robert  Chervin (b. 1944) of the National Center for  Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, publish the first computer simulation of general ocean  circulation from a global eddy-resolving model

The Monterey Bay Aquarium  Research Institute (MBARI) is  founded as a private nonprofit  oceanographic center by technology pioneer David Packard  with a mission to develop better instruments, systems, and  methods for ocean science  and technology

San Diego University  establishes the Center  for Hydro-Optics and  Remote Sensing The Oceanography  Society, a nonprofit organization,  is established in  Washington

The NASA Earth System Science Committee headed  by Francis Bretherton outlines how all Earth systems  are interconnected, thus breaking down the barriers  separating the traditional sciences of astrophysics,  ecology, geology, meteorology, and oceanography The United States, Denmark, Canada, Norway, and  France form CEAREX (Coordinated Eastern Arctic  Experiment). The countries will gather data on wind  profiles, humidity, sea ice, acoustic measurements,  hydrographic features, biophysical attributes, and the  bathymetry of the Greenland and Norwegian Seas The World Conservation Union (formerly the  International Union for the Conservation of Nature and  Natural Resources) adopts the definition of a marine  protected area as “any area of intertidal or subtidal terrain, together with its overlying waters and associated  flora, fauna, and historical and cultural features, which  has been reserved by law or other effective means to  protect part or all of the enclosed environment”

MilestOnes

1987 New Zealand establishes the  Department of Conservation  and begins increasing the  number of marine reserves,  up from the two established  in the last 10 years The University of Buenos Aires in Argentina  establishes the Center for Sea and  Atmospheric Research, or CIMA (Centro de  Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmósfera)

1988 On San Salvador Island in the South China Sea, 150 miles  from Manila, a nongovernmental organization (NGO), Haribon  Foundation, begins a community marine conservation project in the  village of Masinloc, Zambales. The NGO hires a Filipino community  organizer who has previously worked with Peace Corp volunteers to  introduce the project to the community and government. Educational  presentations and a visit to a municipal reserve park on Apo Island  are arranged. At community meetings the residents and fishermen  propose a 314-acre marine reserve. The mayor and municipal council  will pass the proposal in July 1989, and all but 31 residents of the villages on the 939-acre island will accept and sign the ordinance

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Chapter 9 | 1981–1990    215 the oil. On March 25 British troops began pouring another 2 million gallons (10,000 tons) of detergent undiluted onto the Cornish beaches as the oil slick washed ashore. In order to form a stable emulsion of oil and water, the detergent contained a mix of chemicals, including a surfactant, an organic solvent containing aromatic hydrocarbons (in chemistry the term organic refers to carbon compounds) and a stabilizer. The navy had determined that for harbor spills, detergents with the most aromatic hydrocarbons were the best emulsifiers, and “also the most toxic to flora and fauna,” Walsh wrote. The toxicity was quickly disregarded as the crisis unfolded under the pressure to “save the beaches.” One assumption

The international nonprofit association  Alliance for Marine Remote Sensing (AMRS)  is established in Bedford, Nova Scotia March 24, the Exxon Valdez crashes  into Bligh Reef, spilling 11 million  gallons (355,000 barrels) of crude oil  into Prince William Sound, Alaska

Oceanographer John Martin of the Moss Landing  Marine Laboratory in California hypothesizes that  fertilizing certain areas of the ocean with iron,  which he identifies as a limiting nutrient, will result  in increased population-blooms of phytoplankton

MilestOnes

1989

1990 The U.S. federal Oil Pollution Act (OPA 90) calls  for the oil industry to convert their fleets of oil  tankers from single hulls to double hulls by 2010 The United States establishes the Florida Keys  National Marine Sanctuary, a multiple-use zone  of 2,800 square nautical miles (9,604 sq. km) Boston works to clean up Massachusetts Bay

20CS Marine Science 85.eps AI 10 216    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Finals 12/05/07 INVASIVE SPECIES FROM BALLAST TANKS

Unloading cargo

Cargo hold empty

Taking on ballast water at source brings aboard local organisms

Full ballast during voyage carries organisms to new location

Cargo hold full

Loading cargo

Empty ballast during return voyage, leaving invasive organisms behind

Discharging ballast water at destination introduces organisms into new location

SHIPPING ROUTES Arctic Ocean

more heavily traveled less heavily traveled

GREENLAND Atlantic Ocean

NORTH AMERICA

EUROPE Black Sea Caspian Sea

Pacific Ocean

ASIA

Pacific Ocean

AFRICA SOUTH AMERICA Atlantic Ocean

Indian Ocean

N Southern Ocean © Infobase Publishing

ANTARCTICA

AUSTRALIA

0

2,500 miles

0

4,022 km

held that the aromatic hydrocarbons evaporated quickly and would not be as bad as crude-oil-covered beaches. Later studies would show that a dose of detergent of less than 10 parts per million was acutely toxic to marine life, more so than the oil itself.

FPO

Chapter 9 | 1981–1990    217 (opposite page) Regulations that ban ships from unloading ballast water in ports and harbors help prevent the spread of invasive species. Enforcing such regulations are difficult. Ships need ballast when their cargo holds are empty to prevent from rolling over in high seas. Emptying the ballast while still in the open ocean or exchanging the previously collected ballast water with seawater can help prevent invasive species, especially freshwater species, from establishing new territory in another harbor where there may be no predators to keep the invasive species in check.

As the slick drifted south, the French worried about their oyster beds off the coast between Trebeurden and Ile de Brehat and chose to do nothing rather than to contaminate the beds with the toxic detergent. For the rest of their coastline along the English Channel and parts off the Bay of Biscay, the French attacked the oil with natural chalk containing stearic acid. They dusted the calm surface waters along the coast with 3,000 tons of chalk, which mixed with the floating oil and caused it to sink into the sediments. On March 26 an attempt to tow the Torrey Canyon off the rocks cracked the hull releasing the remainder of its cargo, which under a northerly wind began drifting south across the Bay of Biscay. The British government authorities debated their options. They considered pumping out the remaining oil, but in the end they decided to bomb the ship with napalm and burn the oil. On March 28–30, British jets dropped napalm bombs and fueled the flames with sodium chlorate and aviation fuel. The emergency unfolded under intense public scrutiny. Newspapers around the world reported the story as front-page news. Color television had yet to become common in Europe. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) televised the crisis in black and white and communicated the ongoing decisions over the airwaves. On February 5, 2008, the BBC reported one man’s surprise at finding a tape recording from 1967 he had made while listening in on a broadcast using a short-wave radio. Graham Goodchild’s historical find may be one of the only remaining known audio files of the disaster. The brief online video report shows historical footage of the Torrey Canyon before and after the Royal Navy bombed the tanker to set the remaining oil on fire. Much of the blame for the accidental spill fell on the shoulders of the ship’s captain, who was deemed negligent in his navigation of the giant tanker. But the extent of the disaster was directly proportional to the size of the ship and its ability to carry an extensive cargo of oil. The captain had underestimated the tanker’s maneuverability. In his own defense he told news reporters that he could have saved the ship (which had been in operation since 1959) if he had had 30 seconds more maneuvering time. Legislation quickly followed the disaster and took two years to settle. In November 1969 the company owners of the Torrey Canyon agreed to pay $7.2 million to cover the damage done to British and French beaches. By that time marine scientists were well acquainted with the biological effects of large oil spills. Marine biologist Wheeler J. North (1922–2002) of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography had studied the

218    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

Marine Science Ocea

ecological effects of the Tampico Maru, which had crashed in 1957 on a ISBN remote cove along northern Baja, California. The 1.8 million gallons FOF (58,320 barrels or 8,000 tons) of diesel fuel was left untreated to leak out 20CS Marine Science of the ship. North found the kelp forest along the rocky coast flourished 85A.eps because all the herbivores—namely the urchins, snails, limpets, and AI 10 bryozoans—had died. During World War II German U-boats sank a number of tankers Finals 12/05/07 off the eastern coast of the United States. Larger oil tankers became the standard after the war as society’s demand for petroleum grew. The English Channel and the Iberian Peninsula had a long history of oil spills from smaller tankers and ships, as did many parts of the world’s coastal

SOURCES OF OIL IN THE OCEAN Extraction of petroleum 2.9% Jettisoned fuel from aircraft 0.6% Runoff from land sources 11.0%

Natural oil seepage from seafloor 47.4% Spills from oceanic transportation 9.8% Air pollution 4.2% Ships and land sources are the dominant human-produced oil pollutants contaminating the ocean.

Normal operation of oceanic transportation 24.1% © Infobase Publishing

Chapter 9 | 1981–1990    219 waters. The Torrey Canyon disaster stood out specifically because of the amount of oil spilled and the resulting environmental consequences and mitigation done to contain, collect, disperse, or destroy it. In 1978 the disaster of the Amoco Cadiz in the same region, this time closer to France off the coast of Brittany, put nearly twice as much oil into the ocean. The supertanker had been built in 1974 and carried approximately 50 million gallons (1.6 million barrels or 223,000 tonnes) of light Iranian and Arabian crude oil coupled with about 900,000 gallons (29,000 barrels or 4,000 tonnes) of bunker fuel. On July 22, 1979, the New York Times—citing an oil spill intelligence report published by the Center for Short-Lived Phenomena in Cambridge, Massachusetts—reported that nine of the world’s top 10 largest oil spills had involved tankers. The New York Times article came out just days after two supertankers collided in the Caribbean Sea. The Atlantic Empress, a supertanker built in 1974, collided with the Aegean Captain in heavy rains during the night of July 19, 1979, killing 26 sailors. The crew on the Aegean Captain kept the ship from burning despite the blow to the bow, and the supertanker was safely towed to shore, leaking only some of its cargo along the way. The burning Atlantic Empress, carrying an estimated 65 million gallons (287,000 tonnes) of crude oil, was towed further away from shore, trailing a wake of flames. On July 23 an explosion ruptured the rear hull of the supertanker, and by August 2 the burning wreck was listing too far to tow any further. The tugboat released the towrope, and the supertanker sank under a cloud of black smoke. The oil spill from the Atlantic Empress holds the world record for an oil tanker accident. The correlation between the size of an oil spill and what that means in terms of effects on marine ecology varies, depending on the circumstances and type of spill, and is often underreported. The Center of Documentation, Research, and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution, established in France after the Amoco Cadiz oil spill, states on its Web site in regard to the Atlantic Empress: “Nobody will ever know what was burned and what was dispersed by the sea. No significant shore pollution was recorded on the nearest islands. No impact study was carried out, either by the surrounding countries, or the international community, as awareness regarding marine pollution was less developed then than it is today. Furthermore, at that time all eyes were turned towards another disaster, the explosion of the Ixtoc I drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico.” The Ixtoc I was the exception to the list of top 10 major oil spills before the Atlantic Empress disaster. On June 3, 1979, a blowout of the exploratory oil well Ixtoc I ignited a fire that destroyed the drilling platform. Located 600 miles (966 km) off the coast of Texas in the Gulf of Mexico, the blowout well gushed oil into the gulf at a rate of 930,000 gallons (30,000 barrels) a day. Blowout control experts mapped the wreckage along the seafloor using remotely operated vehicles and the submersible Pioneer 1. First mud and then steel, iron, and lead balls were dropped into

220    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science the well to block the flow. Two relief wells were drilled on either side of the blowout to reduce pressure. The rate dropped to 310,000 gallons (10,000 barrels) a day. Divers finally managed to cap the well on March 23, 1980, after an estimated 109 million gallons (3,522,400 barrels) of oil had escaped from the oceanic crust. Overall, the decade of the 1970s was the worst one of the century in terms of both frequency and quantity of oil spilled. Between 1971 and 1980, a total of 236 oil spills greater than 158,410 gallons (5,110 barrels or 700 tonnes) occurred. Of the less extensive spills recorded during that decade—those that spilled at least 1,584 gallons (51.1 barrels or 7 tonnes)—a total of 582 spills occurred, according to the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited (ITOPF). The 818 spills during that decade poured more than 679 million gallons (22 million barrels or 3 million tonnes) of oil into coastal waters. In 1983 the Castillo de Bellver, in operation since 1978, caught fire off the coast of Saldanha Bay, South Africa, with more oil aboard than had been on the Amoco Cadiz. For a day black rain fell on villages and farms east of the fire. Little was done in terms of environmental mitigation as the winds shifted after the first day and sent the surface slick out to sea. The ship sank. During a winter storm in the North Atlantic in 1988, all 27 crewmen of the Odyssey went missing after the ship broke in two, caught fire, and slowly sank 700 nautical miles off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. The tanker, built in 1971, was carrying about 31 million gallons (1 million barrels or 132,000 tonnes) of oil, more than the Torrey Canyon. The rough weather, strong waves, and fire dissipated the oil slick, which measured 3 miles (4.8 km) wide and 10 miles (16 km) long, before it could reach England. Despite the headline examples, for the most part captains were gaining better control of the new fleet of supertankers, and regulations during the 1970s to internationalize shipbuilding codes began to take effect in the 1980s. Both the frequency and the quantity of oil spills fell between 1981 and 1990 to a total of 449 major oil spills divided into 94 catastrophic events (greater than 700 tonnes of oil) and at least 355 other noted oil spills (between 7 and 700 tonnes). The total contribution of oil from these spills into coastal waters was about 233 million gallons (7.5 million barrels or 1 million tonnes). Attention to emergency preparedness in the 1980s also put pressure on oil tankers to carry equipment such as booms and skimmers that could help quickly contain a spill. Tanker owners, however, noted such measures were not practical in rough seas and stressed the importance of having emergency response teams ready to protect sensitive areas along the coast. As part of this preparedness, the United States and other countries passed legislation outlining when and where detergents, or chemical dispersants as they are also called, could be used to treat a spill and who should be included in making the final decision to do so. Today in the

Chapter 9 | 1981–1990    221

United States, the U.S. Coast Guard is granted preapproval from local regions to use dispersants in certain areas, such as more than 3 nautical miles from shore. Dispersants emulsify the oil and cause it to break up off the surface and sink into the water column and/or seafloor sediments. The toxicity of the chemicals to coral reefs and other marine biota closer to shore means the use of dispersants is decided on a case-by-case basis. On March 24, 1989, when the captain of the Exxon Valdez, which was carrying 53 million gallons (1.7 million barrels) of Prudhoe Bay crude oil, ran the supertanker aground on Bligh Reef, 10.9 million gallons (351,613 barrels) spilled into Prince William Sound, Alaska. The oil washed over 1,100 miles (1,770 km) of Alaskan shoreline, making it the largest oil spill in U.S. waters. The efforts made to clean the spill involved 11,000 people, 1,400 vessels, and 85 aircraft and lasted from April to September 1989 and then continued during the summers of 1990 and 1991. Exxon, which later merged with Mobil, paid $3.4 billion in cleanup costs. However, the amount of money owed to those whose lives were affected by the spill has been debated in the courts for the last 19 years. In 1994 a jury decided the company should pay $5 billion in damages. With nearly 33,000 plaintiffs on the case, mostly Alaskan fishermen, that award would have been the equivalent to $151,000 to each plaintiff. Later that year, a federal appeal reduced the amount owed to $2.5 billion,

Oiled sea otter at a rehabilitation center in Valdez, Alaska, after the Exxon Valdez oil spill (© Greenpeace/ Merjenburgh)

222    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science which ExxonMobil argued was still too much. Nonetheless, in 2007 the company’s annual profit was $40.6 billion. The legal battle over how much Exxon should pay for the mess finally reached the Supreme Court in February 2008. Justice Samuel Alito, who owns Exxon stock, recused himself from the trial; the remaining judges split on the decision, a 4-4 tie. Unlike in lower courts, there is no stand-in judge to take the seat of a Supreme Court justice who has recused himself. Therefore, in the event of a tie, the lower court’s decision stands as final. The action of the Supreme Court on June 25, 2008, capped punitive damages at $507.5 million. Exxon filed an appeal to oppose paying the interest, an additional $488 million since 1994. Between 1991 and 2000, the oil industry reported 68 catastrophic spills and 248 additional oil spills from tankers. The reported 316 spills added 247 million gallons (8 million barrels or 1.1 million tonnes) of oil to coastal waters. This made for a slight reduction in the number of spills since the 1980s, but a slight increase in the quantity of oil spilled. According to the National Academies book Oil in the Sea, volume 3, published in 2003, 27 percent of the world’s tankers at sea in 1999 were built between 1975 and 1979, while 9 percent were 25 years or older. Twentytwo percent of the world’s tankers at sea in 1999 were built during the 1980s, while 44 percent were built during the 1990s. The trend indicates that the problems from the single-hulled supertankers of the 1970s led to a reduction in their numbers during the 1980s. In 1990, in response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill, the U.S. Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act (OPA 90), mandating that all new tankers be built with double rather than single hulls. The ruling imposed heavier fines on accidents from single tankers to back up the regulation. The act also mandated that by 2010 the United States would no longer allow single-hulled tank vessels of 5,000 gross tons or more to enter American waters. The act had international consequences in reducing both the number of accidental oil spills and the amount spilled in any given incident. As of 2008 the numbers so far this century include 25 catastrophic oil spills and 102 additional spills, adding an estimated 40.1 million gallons (1.3 million barrels or 177,000 tonnes) of oil to the world’s waterways. After natural seeps, the largest contribution of petroleum hydrocarbons to the marine environment during the 1990s did not come from transportation spills, but rather from the societal consumption of oil: land-based runoff, nonpoint source spills, municipal wastewater discharges, and deposits from the air that fall into waterways as the result of burning of fossil fuels. The contribution to North American marine waters between 1990 and 1999 was on average about 2.1 million gallons (about 66,430 barrels or 9,100 tonnes) of petroleum a year due to transportation spills, including tankers, pipelines, and coastal facilities. During the same period, consumers contributed on average 19 million gallons (about 613,200 barrels or 84,000 tonnes) into North American marine waters each year. Worldwide, transportation of oil during the 1990s contributed on aver-

Chapter 9 | 1981–1990    223 age 34 million gallons (about 1.1 million barrels or 150,000 tonnes) a year, while the consumption of petroleum contributed on average 108.6 million gallons (about 3.5 million barrels or 480,000 tonnes) a year.

Iron Fertilization Chemical analysis of ice cores shows that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels hovered around 275–280 parts per million (ppm) for several thousand years before the start of the Industrial Revolution. Since 1800 atmospheric carbon dioxide has risen to 386 ppm as of 2008. Going back further in the ice records, the rise and fall of carbon dioxide levels have fluctuated between 180 and up to 300 ppm as ice ages have come and gone about every 20,000 years, 41,000 years, and 100,000 years, depending on the wobble of the Earth’s axis, its rotational tilt, and the eccentricity of its orbit. The last time the Earth saw carbon dioxide levels as high as 300 ppm was about 340,000 years ago. During the 21st century the general public has begun to assess ways of reducing individual carbon footprints on the planet by, for example, increasing consumer pressure on industry to switch to renewable resources such as wind, water, and solar energy; choosing to use alternative means of transportation other than planes and cars whenever possible; carpooling and driving vehicles that produce less carbon emissions and travel further on less fuel; switching to cloth or canvas bags instead of using paper or plastic at grocery stores; using less electricity; buying local fruits and vegetables; and planting more trees. Forests, for example, are carbon sinks, meaning they help remove carbon from the atmosphere. Phytoplankton also take up carbon dioxide to grow, providing a similar carbon sink for the ocean. When zooplankton eat phytoplankton (or the phytoplankton die and decompose), the carbon dioxide is respired (or released) back into the ocean, where it mixes as a gas in the surface waters and returns to the atmosphere. Some of the carbon sinks to deeper waters in the form of detritus, or planktonic snowfall, made of dead organisms and fecal pellets. This material serves as food for the abyssal shrimp, fish, and other creatures living in the mid- and deepsea currents, which can carry carbon waste for 100–1,000 years before the natural circulation of the ocean returns it to the surface. The tiny fraction of carbon that settles onto the seafloor after millions of years becomes incorporated into rocks or turned into hydrocarbons. Beginning in the 1990s, marine and geoscientists began experimenting with carbon sequestration methods to increase the fraction of carbon that reaches the seafloor and gets locked into geologic history. One idea was iron fertilization of the ocean’s surface waters to increase populations of phytoplankton. Oceanographer John Martin (1935–93), of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratory in California, acquired extensive media attention in the 1990s with the radical notion that depositing a huge amount of iron onto the Southern Ocean could be used as a geoengineering

224    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

By tracking the color of the ocean from space, a satellite equipped with the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) recorded this iron-fertilized phytoplankton bloom (bottom center), which occurred during the Subarctic Ecosystem Response to Iron (SERIES) experiment on July 29, 2002. (NASA)

method of reducing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In a seminar with marine scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, he famously quipped with a smile, “Give me half a tanker of iron, and I’ll give you an ice age.” Though he was joking at the time, Martin was also aware of the significant increase in iron dust in ice cores dating back 500,000 years that correlated with the timing of the ice ages and low levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The source of this dust, its mode of transportation, and whether the dust was the result of the glacial period or the cause were all unknown. Indeed, whether or not iron was a limiting nutrient in the ocean was also unknown at the time, though Martin had proposed his “iron hypothesis” in 1990, stating that some regions of the ocean were depleted in iron, and adding iron to the sea surface in those areas would result in a phytoplankton bloom. His hypothesis followed a decade of research on a basic question marine biochemists had been asking themselves for 50 years: “Why do excess plant nutrients persist in the surface ocean in certain regions such as the Antarctic, equatorial Pacific, and Northeast Pacific?” In other words, what was holding the phytoplankton back from using up all the available nutrients? Oceanographers in the 1970s considered phosphorus and nitrogen as fertilizers for the ocean. Areas with more of these nonmetallic elements should produce more phytoplankton, more zooplankton, and more fish. Why were they not doing so? Martin tested the role of trace metals on phytoplankton in the lab and determined that in

Chapter 9 | 1981–1990    225 low amounts these micronutrients limited the growth of a population. He then started work on measuring micronutrients in seawater samples. Chemical analysis of micronutrients in the ocean was still in its infancy before Martin developed the tools to track minerals such as copper, zinc, manganese, cobalt, and even iron. Iron was particularly difficult to measure in minute levels on ships, since contamination was almost impossible to prevent; the hull alone would raise the level in a sample of water taken near the ship more than 100 times. Many earlier experiments were done with copper tubing or in leaded-glass test tubes where the trace metals would leach into the samples. Martin discussed his problem of contamination with atomic geochemist Claire Patterson of the California Institute of Technology. In 1948 Patterson had struggled to build a “clean” lab without any lead contamination in order to determine the isotopic composition of primordial lead in iron meteorites. She had found plastic equipment worked best. Martin therefore cleaned his lab of all metals, glass, and steel and replaced test tubes, collection jars, funnels, and copper tubing with Teflon and plastic items in kind. The new analysis of seawater showed trace amounts of almost every element in the periodic table. Surprisingly, not all micronutrients were beneficial to phytoplankton; copper and zinc actually reduced algal growth. Martin took over as the director of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in 1975 and continued in that role for nearly the rest of his life. He began to explore phytoplankton’s ability to draw carbon from the atmosphere and measured how much detrital phytoplankton sank to the seafloor. He then turned his focus on the desolate regions of the ocean where there are high nutrient levels but low chlorophyll levels (known as HNLC zones for high nutrient, low chlorophyll). Textbooks at the time explained that the low phytoplankton growth in these HNLC regions was the result of high zooplankton consumption—that essentially the zooplankton were eating the burgeoning phytoplankton faster than they could reproduce. Martin wondered why these regions were different from areas of high nutrients and high chlorophyll levels. The phytoplankton in these HNLC zones mimicked the behavior of phytoplankton growth in low-nutrient regions, but at the time only phosphorus and nitrogen were being considered. Because of his work on trace metals, Martin knew better. He researched the literature and focused on iron as the limiting nutrient, a specSally “Penny” Chisholm of the Department of Civil and ulation that British biologist Joseph Hart had made Environmental Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute regarding these depleted chlorophyll zones back in of Technology has advocated against commercial iron the 1930s. Now, however, Martin could accurately fertilization of the oceans. (Sally Chisholm)

226    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science analyze the iron content in the seawater. He had his scientists from Moss Landing conduct onboard experiments adding iron to seawater samples and measuring the resulting phytoplankton growth. Their initial results lead to Martin’s testable iron hypothesis and his geoengineering proposal for reducing atmospheric carbon through iron fertilization. He was met with strong opposition on both counts. In order to test the iron hypothesis, Martin proposed an experiment that would sprinkle a significant amount of iron powder near the Galápagos Islands. He also proposed that several such experiments would be needed in HNLC zones before wide-scale commercialization of iron fertilization should begin. He saw iron fertilization as a method for improving the oceanic carbon sink, not as a way to avoid controlling the inputs of carbon. But in 1991, before he could begin work on the first ocean experiment to test the iron hypothesis, he began having back pains. After high school, Martin had contracted polio, which had paralyzed him for several months before he could start college and left him needing braces on his legs to help him walk. However, the medical exam revealed his back pain was not a late side effect of the polio, but rather prostate cancer. He died two years later after several rounds of chemotherapy and radiation. His friends and fellow scientists at Moss Landing went ahead with the first oceanic test of the iron hypothesis. After dumping a truckload (445 kg) of iron into a phytoplankton-free clear blue patch of the Pacific Ocean near the equator in the Galápagos waters, the researchers watched as the phytoplankton levels rose threefold. Additional experiments have shown that iron is a limiting nutrient in some parts of the world’s ocean, but as to whether adding enough iron would draw down significant amounts of carbon beyond the phytoplankton bloom is still under scientific scrutiny. In the 21st century, however, some commercial enterprises have considered using iron fertilization as a “carbon credit,” for industries interested in compensating for their carbon inputs by increasing carbon sinks. Oceanographers, however, are skeptical that iron fertilization provides the long-term sequestration that a carbon sink should if it is going to be used as a balance to carbon inputs from industry. The blooms, for example, do not wither over time and sink to the seafloor en mass and lock the carbon into the sediments. They are eaten. Presented with a buffet of phytoplankton, zooplankton populations respond quickly, consuming the plants and releasing most of the carbon back into the atmosphere. Establishing the blooms is not enough. Before companies begin paying commercial ships to seed the ocean with slurries of iron, oceanographers say they need to know how much iron they should be adding to make a bloom an effective carbon sink—essentially making the bloom so big as to make the zooplankton predation a negligible factor. Whether such action is environmentally wise, or legal, however, is complicated by the fact that the Southern Ocean, where most of the HNLC regions are located, is under Antarctic Treaty protections.

Chapter 9 | 1981–1990    227

Scientist of the Decade: Wallace “Wally” S. Broecker (b. 1931) At  the  2008  conference  on  ocean  science  in  Orlando, Wally Broecker admitted that he did not  start out as such a shining star. He was introduced  to climate studies in 1956 by Phil Orr, archaeology  curator  at  the  Santa  Barbara  Museum  who,  after  seeing  Broecker  give  his  first  public  lecture  in Los Angeles, came up to the nervous graduate  student and, according to Broecker, said, “Young  man, you know a lot about math and physics, but  you  don’t  know  anything  about  the  Earth.  If  you  come with me I’ll change your life.” Wally  Broecker  had  grown  up  in  Chicago  and  attended  Wheaton  College  before  transferring to Columbia University’s Lamont Geological  Observatory  in  1952.  He  was  a  poor  graduate  student married to Grace Carder Broecker (1930– 2007),  with  whom  he  would  eventually  raise  six  children,  and  was  struggling  to  pay  his  bills  when  he  met  Orr.  He  called  Grace  in  New York  to  see  what  she  thought  of  the  idea  of  him  joining Orr for a week to study closed basin lakes in  the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles.  “She said, ‘If it is going to change your life, then  that  is  a  good  thing.  Make  sure  you  don’t  spend  any  money,’ ”  Broecker  jokingly  recalled.  Orr  showed Broecker the importance of field studies,  observations, and doing fieldwork as a means for  understanding Earth processes. In return, Broecker  helped  Orr  by  radiocarbon-dating  the  sediments  from  the  lakes  in  order  to  determine  how  the  size of the lakes changed over time. Closed basin  lakes,  says  Broecker,  are  like  little  oceans;  some  are even salty. Because they have no outlets, their  size  is  primarily  dependent  on  how  much  water  comes  in  and  how  much  evaporates.  From  the  small continental basins to the large oceanic ones,  Broecker quickly adapted his studies to exploring  a variety of topics on how the world’s water and  ice had changed in response to climate. Always  the  skeptic,  despite  fundamentalist  schooling  at  Wheaton,  Broecker  soon  began  questioning  the  dogma  that  climate  drove  the  changes recorded in ice cores and sediments. He 

viewed the ocean as an influencing force on the  climate. In the 1980s he found that this was probably the case with a particular cold period called  the  Younger  Dryas,  which  struck  about  12,000  years  ago  after  the  Ice Age  had  ended.  Broecker  determined the underlying cause was a stop in the  North  Atlantic’s  formation  of  deepwater  circulation,  which  drives  cold  water  away  to  the  south  and  makes  room  for  warm  water  to  flow  north  along  the  surface.  His  theory  drew  global  attention to the importance of the ocean in monitoring  climate  change.  In  2002  researchers  proposed  that  the  shutdown  in  the  ocean  conveyor  during  the Younger Dryas happened after the Laurentide  ice  sheet  had  retreated  far  enough  to  allow  the  proglacial  Lake  Agassiz  to  drain  across  the  St.  Lawrence  valley  and  out  into  the  Northern  Atlantic  Ocean. The  massive  input  of  freshwater  may  have  done  the  trick  of  blocking  the  deepwater  formation.  In  1984  Broecker  brought  the  concept of ocean circulation home to the general  public  with  his  global  conveyor-belt  description  of  ocean  thermohaline  circulation  in  Natural History.  His  work  singled  out  the  impact  that  a  local event, such as the change in the circulation  of  the  North  Atlantic,  can  have  on  atmospheric  and ocean processes around the world. The issue  is one that continues to fascinate Broecker and his  colleagues well into the 21st century. By  1974  the  now-notorious  iconoclast,  curmudgeon,  and  practical  jokester  had  written  what  was  to  become  the  standard  textbook  on  chemical  oceanography.  His  findings  on  ocean  circulation  and  his  knowledge  of  the  carbon  cycle  gave  him  cause  early  on  to  worry  about  the  influence  humans  had  in  raising  the  levels  of  carbon  dioxide  in  the  atmosphere  as  well  as  their potential to change the planet’s climate. He  would later become widely known for saying that  “the climate system is an angry beast and we are  poking it with sticks.” (continues)

228    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

(continued) Since  1958  Charles  Keeling,  of  Scripps  Institution  of  Oceanography,  had  been  keeping  track of the seasonal flux and overall annual rise  of carbon dioxide each year from his observatory  at  Mauna  Loa.  Broecker  soon  became  an  active  voice in the scientific community warning against  the  increased  human  input  of  carbon  dioxide  into  the  atmosphere.  In  his  report  to  Science  in  1975,  “Climate  Change: Are We  on  the  Brink  of  a Pronounced Global Warming?,” he was particularly  concerned  over  the  public’s  complacency  and  pointed  to  a  natural  Northern  Hemisphere  cooling since 1945 that was compensating for the  CO2-induced  warming  trend.  During  the  1970s,  global  warming  was  just  entering  the  public  consciousness  as  a  concern.  Having  spent  hours 

Wally Broecker at the Moreno Glacier, an outlet glacier of the South Patagonian Ice Cap in the southern Argentine Andes (Steve Porter)

Foraminiferan shells such as this one are as big as a grain of salt. Their calcium carbonate shells provide a record that paleoceanographers can use to determine how the ocean has changed over time. (Texas A&M Department of Chemistry)

in  line  for  gas  during  the  Middle  East  embargo  of  oil  to  Western  countries,  coupled  with  an  international  concern  about  oil  spills,  the  public  already  had  easily  identifiable  reasons  to  cut  back  on  fossil-fuel  consumption.  Now  scientists  were  giving  them  a  new  reason.  Science News  reported  in  1977  that  “for  each  ton  of  fossil  fuel  burned, roughly three tons of CO2 is released into  the atmosphere.” The combustion of gas, oil, and  coal  had  already  raised  the  CO2  content  in  the  atmosphere by 12 percent. Doubling would lead  to a 5°F (2°C–3°C) rise in temperature. At  the  spring  meeting  of  the  American  Geophysical  Union  in  1977,  Broecker  warned  that humans had the power to shift the Earth’s climate into a warm period unlike any humans had  witnessed before in their evolutionary history; he  called it a superinterglacial climate. Already, within an interglacial period for the past 10,000 years,  “the addition of large quantities of CO2 will likely  push  the  Earth’s  climate  into  a  realm  considerably warmer than that experienced during the last  several  interglacials,”  Broecker  told  reporters  at  the conference. Part of the problem, he predicted,  would be the speed at which these changes would  occur. “The demise of the conditions responsible 

10 nals 12/05/07 Chapter 9 | 1981–1990    229

BROECKER’S OCEANIC CONVEYOR BELT Arctic Ocean

GREENLAND

NORTH AMERICA

Pacific Ocean

0

2,500 miles

0

4,022 km

N

Atlantic Ocean

SOUTH AMERICA

AFRICA Atlantic Ocean

Southern Ocean

ASIA

EUROPE

Indian Ocean

Pacific Ocean

AUSTRALIA

Southern Ocean

ANTARCTICA

Shallow, warm, low-saline current

Deep, cold, high-saline current

© Infobase Publishing

In the 1980s, Wally Broecker of Columbia University’s Lamont Geological Observatory identified the global ocean thermalhaline circulation as a climate regulator. The sun warms surface waters at the equator, where rains dilute salinity levels. As water cools in the Northern Hemisphere, sea ice forms, leaving the salts behind to sink in the cold dense currents. Upwelling brings the cold waters back to the surface. (Adapted from an illustration by Joe Le Monnier in Wallace S. Broecker’s “The Biggest Chill,” Natural History 96 [1987]: 74–82)

for the glacial epoch took at least several hundred  years,  and  perhaps  as  much  as  several  thousand  years,” he said. “We will load the majority of our  CO2 into the air in a single century.” In 1975 Broecker found that computer models  based on the evidence from Greenland ice cores  for cyclical air temperature variations over the last  several thousand years showed the cooling since  1945  would  “bottom  out.”  By  adding  CO2  into  the models for the future, “a dramatic warming is 

predicted  for  the  latter  two  decades  of  this  century,” he said in 1977. “Before we take the actions  which will lock us into bestowing a millennium of  warmer climate on the generations to follow, we  had best learn more than we now know about life  in this superinterglacial world. . . . [The problem]  could become the single most important environmental issue of the next 30 years.”

FPO

(continues)

230    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

(continued) In an interview at the Ocean Sciences Meeting  in  Orlando  on  March  4,  2008,  Broecker  said  of  the  1975  Science  report,  “I  was  right  for  the  wrong  reasons.”  He  explained  that  no  one  since  had seen those cycles he found in the Greenland  ice  cores  anywhere  else,  indicating  that  what  he was investigating had been the end of a brief  local  cooling  trend  in  the  Arctic.  Others  in  the  community at the time had raised this point, questioning  how  extensive  the  cooling  trend  actually  was. For example, in 1976 Paul E. Damon of the  University of Arizona and Steven M. Kunen of the  University  of  Utah  Research  Institute  argued  that  the  focus  on  the  cooling  trend  of  the  1960s  and  1970s  was  specific  to  the  Northern  Hemisphere;  the Southern Hemisphere was already showing a  warming trend during this time. During  the  2008  interview,  Broecker  also  mused about his old quote from the 1977 conference and his early concern over complacency in  regard to the issue of global warming, saying “it’s  been 30 years,” and the public and political reaction to the scientific evidence is “just now getting  serious.”  His  most  recent  book,  Fixing Climate:

What Past Climate Changes Reveal about the Current Threat—and How to Counter It,  written  with science writer Robert Kunzig, addresses the  issue  of  the  added  human-made  carbon  dioxide  in  the  atmosphere.  At  the  2008  conference  he  was adamant that iron fertilization of the ocean is  currently not an option. Broecker  is  the  recipient  of  many  awards,  including  the  National  Medal  of  Science  from  President Clinton in 1996 and the Crafoord Prize  in Geosciences from the Royal Swedish Academy  of  Sciences  in  2006.  He  has  written  400  papers  and  seven  books.  In  2001  he  and  geochemist  Elizabeth  Clark,  also  at  Lamont,  published  a  report  in  Science  showing  that  the  thickness  of  foraminifera  shells,  which  are  made  of  calcium  carbonate (CaCO3), can serve as a determination  for  how  much  carbonate  was  in  seawater  at  the  time  of  the  shells’  formation. Their  findings  have  shown  that  carbonate  varied  significantly  more  with  variations  in  depth  in  the  past  then  it  does  in  today’s  ocean.  Broecker  is  currently  examining what he calls the “mystery interval” in Earth’s  climate  history  some  14,000–18,000  years  ago,  when Antarctica  started  to  warm  up,  but  Europe  and the North Atlantic remained cold.

Further Reading Anderson, John M., et al. “Report of Committee on Conservation, 1967.” Auk 85, no. 1 (January 1968): 117–126. A report for the American Ornithologists’ Union, with a brief mention concerning oil spills. British Broadcasting Corporation. “Torrey Canyon Tape Found.” February 5, 2008. This report shows brief historical footage and an interview with Graham Goodchild, who found an audio recording he had made of the radio communication during the bombing of the oil tanker Torrey Canyon in 1967. Available online. URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ help/3681938.stm. Accessed on February 5, 2008. ———. “The Kelp Community.” The Blue Planet. An informative article on a marine ecosystem surrounding a kelp forest. Available online. URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/blueplanet/infobursts/kelp_community_ bg.shtml. Accessed on February 5, 2008.

Chapter 9 | 1981–1990    231 Broecker, W. S. “Application of Radiocarbon to Oceanography and Climate Chronology.” Ph.D. Thesis. Columbia University, New York, 1957. Wally Broecker began his career in radiocarbon measurements of the ocean. ———. “The Biggest Chill.” Natural History 96 (1987): 74–82. This article introduced thermolhaline circulation to a public audience. ———. Chemical Oceanography. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1974. Broecker’s book on ocean chemistry. ———. How to Build a Habitable Planet. Palisades, N.Y.: Eldigio Press, 1985. Broecker’s book on the evolution of the Earth and impact of climate change on the history of life. Broecker, W. S., R. D. Gerard, M. Ewing, and B. C. Heezen. “Geochemistry and Physics of Ocean Circulation,” in Oceanography, edited by Mary Sears, 301–322. Washington D.C.: American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, 1961. Broecker and his colleagues report on the structure of ocean circulation. Broecker, W. S., K. K. Turekian, and B. C. Heezen. “The Relationship of Deep Sea (Atlantic Ocean) Sedimentation Rates to Variations in Climate.” American Journal of Science 256 (1958): 503–517. A report on climate cycling recorded in marine deposits. Broecker, W. S., and T. H. Peng. Tracers in the Sea. Palisades, N.Y.: Eldigio Press, 1982. A book on radioisotopes in the ocean. ———, R. D. Gerard, M. Ewing, and B. C. Heezen. “Natural Radiocarbon in the Atlantic Ocean.” Journal of Geophysics Research 65 (1960): 2,903– 2,931. A significant paper in the field of chemical oceanography. CEDRE (Center of Documentation, Research, and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution). This Web site provides a list of oil spills around the Iberian peninsula dating back to 1950, as well as other major spills. Available online in French, English, and Spanish. URL: http:// www.cedre.fr/index_gb.html. Accessed on February 5, 2008. “Coal and the Coming (?) Superinterglacial.” Science News 111 no. 23 (June 4, 1977): 356. A news summary discussing Wally Broecker’s concern over rising CO2 in the atmosphere. Galtsoff, Paul S. “In the Wake of the Torrey Canyon.” Science 162, no. 3860 (December 20, 1968): 1,377. A review of the proceedings of a symposium in Pembroke, Wales, in February 1968 entitled The Biological Effects of Oil Pollution on Littoral Communities by editors J. D. Carthy and Don R. Arthur. ITOPF (International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited). “Major Oil Spills.” This Web site provides statistics on major accidental oil spills. Available online. URL: http://www.itopf.com/information-services/dataand-statistics/statistics/#major. Accessed on February 5, 2008. International Whaling Commission (IWE). “IWC Information.” This Web site describes the history of the IWC. Available online. URL: http:// www.iwcoffice.org/commission/iwcmain.htm#history. Accessed on April 4, 2008.

232    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Martin, J. H., K. H. Coale, K. S. Johnson, S. E. Fitzwater, et al. “Testing the Iron Hypothesis in Ecosystems of the Equatorial Pacific Ocean.” Nature 371 (1994): 123–129. The results of the first in situ ocean experiment to test the role of iron in phytoplankton growth. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “Incident Map.” This Web site provides a Google map with the locations of oil spills since 1957. Available online. URL: http://www.incidentnews.gov/map. Accessed on February 5, 2008. ———. “Incident News.” This Web site provides a list of oil spills categorized by name and by date, dating back to 1957. Available online. URL: http://www.incidentnews.gov/browse?order=date. Accessed on February 5, 2008. ———. “Oil Spill Case Histories: 1967–1991.” This document by the NOAA’s Hazardous Materials Response and Assessment Division provides summaries of major oil spills during this period. Available online. URL: http://response.restoration.noaa.gov/book_shelf/26_spilldb.pdf. Accessed on February 5, 2008. National Research Council. 50 Years of Ocean Discovery. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2000. This book discusses the history of oceanography at the National Science Foundation from 1950 to 2000. ———. Stemming the Tide: Controlling Introductions of Nonindigenous Species by Ships’ Ballast Water. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1996. This book on aquatic invasive species is available online. URL: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=5294&page=R1. Accessed on April 4, 2008. “9 of 10 Biggest Oil Spills Have Involved Tankers,” New York Times, 22 July 1979, p. 18. The news from a recent oil spill intelligence report published by the Center for Short-Lived Phenomena in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Walsh, John. “Pollution: The Wake of the Torrey Canyon.” Science 160, no. 3824 (April 12, 1968): 167–169. Walsh reports about the response to the oil spill and environmental consequences. Weier, John. “John Martin: (1935–1993).” NASA Earth Observatory: On the Shoulders of Giants. In addition to John Martin, this Web site provides biographies on several scientists who have made a tremendous impact on the world. Available online. URL: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/ Library/Giants/Martin/martin.html. Accessed on April 3, 2008.

i

10

1991–2000: ocean and Climate

Introduction In the last decade of the 20th century, oceanographers continued to make surprising discoveries about marine life and the ocean. For example, since the ban on commercial whaling in 1985, a new field of science emerged in the 1990s: the study of whale falls. The carcasses of dead whales, once harvested commercially, were now being seen in their natural environment. On the seafloor, the bodies of dead whales become food sources for a chemosynthetic ecosystem similar to the communities thriving around hydrothermal vents or cold seeps. Marine scientists began to study whether the whale falls, as the skeletons are called, provided stepping-stones between hydrothermal vents for some species common to both environments. However, they soon learned that some organisms that dominate a whale-fall community are uniquely equipped for feeding on the fallen cetaceans. Much of the decade’s focus favored climate studies and investigations regarding life in the polar seas. In 1997 marine biologists learned that penguins reduce blood flow to parts of their body in order to conserve valuable oxygen and extend the duration of their underwater foraging. Concern during the decade about the effects of the Antarctic ozone hole led some scientists to speculate that the increased number of lesions found in the DNA of fish eggs in the Southern Ocean during the austral spring of 1994 may be associated with a high incidence of ultraviolet light. Ancient climate had another twist. Much of the climate record matched precisely with the shorter Milankovitch cycles of 23,000 and 41,000 years, correlating to Earth’s axial wobble and rotational tilt or nod. But the ice ages did not follow a strict adherence to the 100,000-year schedule set by the periodic elongation of Earth’s orbit. New estimates of periodicities in climate began to emerge, with both astronomical and oceanic reasons to back up the data. But the greatest concern was the immediate change in climate, one that in 1995 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned was probably human-influenced. The dramatic 233

234    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science R/V Atlantis of the UNOLS fleet arrives in New York City in 1997. (NOAA, R. LeMoine)

breakup of the Larsen Ice Shelf in the Antarctic and calving of worldrecord setting icebergs made many wonder just how much influence humans had.

American oceanographers Russ Davis and  Doug Webb invent the autonomous, popup drifter, an underwater glider, which  continuously measures currents as it travels down to a depth of 1.2 miles (2 km)

Year-round closure of fishing  from Georges Bank off the coast  of Cape Cod (soon opened  again to scallop fishing)

MilestOnes

1992 NASA and CNES (Centre National d’Études Spatiales)  develop and launch Topex/Poseidon, a satellite that maps  ocean surface currents, waves, and tides every 10 days The University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, establishes  the Pelagic Fisheries Research Program (PFRP) to report to  the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council.  The program revises the 1976 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery  Conservation and Management Act to include migratory fish

1994

Physical oceanographer Michel Ollitrault and  colleagues at the Physical Oceanography  Laboratory in Plouzané, France, find that the  first 20 of 100 subsurface floats to monitor  Antarctic Intermediate Water in the Brazil  Basin for five years have in the first two months  encountered a strong western boundary current  along the north coast of Salvador da Bahia

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Chapter 10 | 1991–2000    235 When it came to fish stocks, many countries decided that the human influence was large enough to need tighter regulation. Iceland in particular had gone to war in order to protect its cod stocks from overfishing. The results of the battles of what became known as the Cod Wars led to international laws on managing marine resources. Funding from the U.S. Navy and the National Science Foundation continued to support the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS), established in 1971. During the 1990s UNOLS spent $200 million in upgrades to its existing fleet of research vessels and launched two new 274-foot (83.5-m) ships: the Roger Revelle in 1996 and the Atlantis in 1997. In 1998 the National Science Foundation came under the directorship of this chapter’s scientist of the decade: Rita Colwell. In combining climate studies with oceanography and microbiology, Colwell helped save a nation from the devastating effects of cholera. Her work is an example of emerging 21st-century studies that explore the ocean with an eye on bettering human health.

Antarctica’s Melting Ice At the end of the 19th century, Norwegian captain Carl Anton Larsen and his crew on the Jason were hunting whales in the Southern Ocean. After

French atomic tests continue on the  Mururoa atoll in the Pacific 108 countries including the United States adopt the  United Nations Environment Programme’s “Global  Program of Action” against pollution for the protection  of the marine environment from land-based activities

Some political parties in New  Zealand call for the Department of  Conservation to protect 10 percent  of the country’s waters by 2000

MilestOnes

1995 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)  warns that “the balance of the evidence suggests a discernible human influence” on global warming The United States amends the 1972  Marine Mammal Protection Act The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association  (NOAA) conducts the Coastal Ocean Probing Experiment  (COPE) to determine how environmental conditions affect  observations of the air-sea interface in coastal regions

1996 The Jet Propulsion Laboratory launches the  Advanced Earth Observing Satellite. It carries a scatterometer, which records more than  190,000 wind measurements and maps the  ocean’s ice-free zones every two days regardless of weather. During its 10-month lifespan,  the instrument will collect more than 100 times  the ocean wind data obtained from ship reports

236    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science surviving his 1901 Swedish Antarctic Expedition aboard the doomed Antarctic (see chapter 1), Larsen moved in November 1904 to the whaling island of South Georgia, where he set up residence in Grytviken and in 1910 became a naturalized British citizen. The Larsen Ice Shelf is named after him, but it will not survive to the 22nd century. Temperatures over Antarctica’s peninsula rose about five times faster than the global average during the second half of the 20th century. Climate models in 1978 predicted high latitudinal warming due to the increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. As glaciers around the world started to thin and retreat, the ice at the poles became the metaphorical canaries in the coal mines. Observations around the Antarctic Peninsula showed a pattern of regional atmospheric warming, coupled with a gradual retreat of the ice. In Greenland the retreating glaciers are a concern among polar scientists but a boon to farmers. During the summer months the high albedo (surface reflection) from the sun melts the surface ice, leaving clear blue pools of water that leak into crevices. The weight and warmth of the glacial meltwater, just slightly above freezing, can bore a large funnel, called a moulin, through the ice. A river of meltwater courses through the moulin down to the base of the glacier. The meltwater lubricates the glacier where the ice is over land or pours into the ocean in areas where the glacier stretches over the sea, becoming an ice shelf. In both cases the increase in meltwater speeds glacial motion, fractionation, and calving of the ice.

Wally Broecker proposes that  changes in the deep circulation of  the ocean modulate the ice ages

The United Nations declares 1998  the International Year of the Ocean

MilestOnes

1997

1998 Canada’s federal government  and the province of Quebec sign  an agreement to establish the  Saguenay-St. Lawrence Marine Park Oceanographer Rita R. Colwell is inducted as the 11th director of the National  Science Foundation on August 4

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Chapter 10 | 1991–2000    237 In 1995 part of the Larsen Ice Shelf reached a critical point. The gradual retreat turned into a fast-paced falloff. The overhanging glacier from the Antarctic Peninsula floats on the Weddell Sea, partly supported by coastal islands. The rate of retreat for the ice shelf had averaged 116 square miles (300 km2) each year since 1980. This was the yearly deficit leftover because the winter buildup, when the sun is below the horizon, could not keep up with the summer melt. Even with global warming, however, polar scientists expected the retreat and iceberg-making activity to continue to increase gradually. They did not anticipate what happened next. Over the course of three days during a summer storm in January 1995, 775 square miles (2,007 km2) of the ice shelf disintegrated. The collapse of such an extensive amount of ice in such a short period of time sent polar scientists, climate scientists, and oceanographers scrambling to reassess their models of the Earth’s cryosphere and the ocean-atmospheric interactions that affect ice building and collapse. As a result, scientists placed a greater importance on the impact of surface summer meltwater flowing through moulins. In 1995 the summer melt season in Antarctica lasted longer than 80 days, giving the pools of meltwater about 20 more days on the surface of the ice than usual. Christine Hulbe, of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, analyzed the pressure from surface water and found that water-filled crevasses as shallow as 15 feet (4.6 m) could fracture through

The submersible Alvin explores the depths of the  North Pacific Ocean off Alaska and discovers a  known species of crab thought not to live there.  Fishery scientists conclude that the crab fishery is  moving out of crabbing zones to unknown areas

MilestOnes

1999 The California legislature enacts the California  Marine Life Act, authorizing the creation of marine  protected areas (MPAs) in state waters. It defines an  MPA as: “A named, discrete geographical marine or  estuarine area seaward of the high tide line or the  mouth of a coastal river, including any area of intertidal or subtidal terrain, together with its overlying  water and associated flora and fauna that has been  designated by law, administrative action, or voter initiative to protect or conserve marine life and habitat”

2000 Netherlands and German physicists and zoologists Michel  Versluis, Barbara Schmitz, Anna von der Heydt, and Detlef  Lohse reveal that snapping shrimp (Alpheus heterochaelis)  make their loud noise by cavitating bubbles as they snap  their claws shut. During World War II, submariners were  confused by the noise, mistaking it for static or even road  traffic near the coast freeways, until in 1942 Scripps zoologist Martin Johnson identified the sound as belonging to  the snapping shrimp—opening a new field in oceanography studying the sonic habits of marine organisms

92.eps AI 10 Finals 12/05/07 238    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science LARSEN ICE SHELF Atlantic Ocean

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a 660-foot (200-m) thick ice shelf. After the first section of the Larsen Ice Shelf failed, Larsen A, all eyes turned to the remaining two sections, Larsen B and Larsen C. Because most of the ice was already floating over the Weddell Sea, a second approach examined the record of seawater temperature and found that since 1972, on average, the deepwater current of the Weddell Sea had warmed by 0.58°F (0.32°C). Like a candle

FPO

Chapter 10 | 1991–2000    239 (opposite page) Ice shelves and glaciers are accelerating their melting rates as temperatures rise in the Antarctic. In January 1995 the Larsen-A Ice Shelf collapsed, followed by the collapse of the 660–1,150-foot (200–350 m) thick Larsen-B Ice Shelf in March 2002. Glaciers along the Antarctic Peninsula have since retreated, revealing about 100 square miles (250 km2) of previously ice-covered land.

burning at both ends, the ice shelf is melting along its top and its bottom. In February 2002 the glacial ice along the peninsula could no longer hold on to the Larsen B ice shelf. As the grip on the peninsula failed, the floating ice shelf, about the size of Rhode Island or double the size of greater London, started splitting into pieces. By March 7 the 650-foot (200-m) thick section, covering a surface area of 1,250 square miles (3,250 km2), was nothing but icebergs—and relatively small ones at that. To the west, beyond the other side of the peninsula, in the Ross Sea, one of the world’s largest icebergs was still drifting after breaking free of the Ross Ice Shelf in mid-March 2000. The original iceberg, labeled B15 for being the 15th iceberg tracked in the “B” quadrant (Amundsen/ Eastern Ross Sea), had a surface area of about 4,200 square miles (11,000 km2) and measured 183 miles (295 km) long by 23 miles (37 km) wide— about the size of the island of Jamaica. Up until its breakup in 2005, after swells from a storm in Alaska reached the Antarctic coast, part of that iceberg, B15a, enjoyed a five-year run as the world’s largest free-floating object; it had a surface area of about 965 square miles (2,500 km2), with a length of 71 miles (115 km). In both cases, no change in sea level accompanied the breakup of the ice shelves, since an ice shelf is an extension of a land glacier into the sea and therefore the rise in sea level has already occurred. In the case of the

Antarctica Larsen B Ice Shelf (AirSar2004 Campaign, March 13, 2004) (NASA)

240    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Larsen Ice Shelf, its incursion into the Weddell Sea happened thousands of years ago. However, one of the concerns with melting ice shelves back to their glacial origin is that without the boundary, the glaciers will be free to push further into the sea and then raise the sea level. The Larsen C Ice Shelf is expected to collapse near the end of the 21st century. The shelf sits in the Weddell Sea, with a draft that reaches 984 feet (300 m) deep. The temperature of the seawater at that depth is 29.39°F (-1.45°C), or 1.17°F (0.65°C) higher than the pressure melting point of ice.

Law of the Sea For centuries of global exploration, on the open ocean, away from the view and cannon reach of the coast, the captain’s word was law. Here he could do as he pleased, fish where he wanted, and rule over his crew and cargo with single-handed authority (unless they mutinied against him). The “freedom of the seas” treatise set forth during the early 17th century by Dutchman Hugo de Grotius formalized the notion that the ocean was a limitless resource and under no governmental restrictions. The idea was internationally accepted only because governments could not then realistically enforce any control over the ocean. Instead, countries secured their own coasts and fishing zones as best they could, typically going out to about 3 nautical miles (5 km), though Iceland, for example, claimed at times as much as 32 nautical miles (60 km). The depletion of fish stocks during the early 20th century brought with it the realization that the ocean was not limitless. As oil drilling and underwater exploration developed, the ocean’s potential resources became national interests. At the end of World War II, countries with coastlines began taking action to extend and formalize their offshore territories. The 20th-century grab for water rights began with President Harry Truman’s proclamation in 1945 that the United States had unilateral control of the natural resources on the nation’s continental shelf. His primary concern was securing the rights to drill for oil, gas, and natural minerals. The following year Argentina claimed its continental shelf and outer coastal waters as concern grew over impinging foreign fisheries. One of the motives for mapping the seafloor during the 1940s and 1950s was to determine where the continental shelf ended and the abyssal ocean began. The findings were not always met to governmental satisfaction. On the Pacific side of South America, the continental shelf drops off very close to shore. (The understanding of plate tectonics, which explained why this was the case—the oceanic crust was submerging below the continent—was just developing.) By 1950 the governments of Chile, Peru, and Ecuador had decided their best solution was to assert a sovereign right to the waters and natural resources out to 200 nautical miles (370 km). In other locations, nations shared a continental shelf and argued over political control. The North Sea sits on the western edge of the Eurasian continent between Britain and Norway, with Denmark,

Chapter 10 | 1991–2000    241 Germany, and the Netherlands to the east. Parts of eastern Europe, as well as Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Venezuela expanded the traditional 3-mile (5-km) limit out to 12 nautical miles (22 km). The results of territorial expansions into open waters caused considerable contentions. The most famous of these was the so-called Cod Wars between Britain and Iceland. The two countries had been fishing the same North Atlantic waters with Norway, West Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands since the 1400s. Iceland declared independence from Denmark in 1944 during Nazi Germany’s occupation of Denmark. After World War II, Britain and the United States shared a military base on Iceland, at Keflavik. In 1952 Britain was importing about 25 percent of its cod from Iceland’s fishing fleet. When Iceland expanded its fishing zone from 3 to 4 nautical miles (5.6 to 7.4 km) in 1952, Britain boycotted its import of Icelandic cod in protest. Iceland, in turn, began trading with the Soviet Union. The British boycott put Iceland, then a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), in the paradoxical position of developing stronger trading ties with the Soviet bloc. Not until 1956 did Britain agree to accept Iceland’s 4-mile (7.4-km) fishing zone. Then, on September 1, 1958, Iceland expanded the zone out to 12 nautical miles (22 km) after the first United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea ended without reaching a consensus on how far out countries could restrict their fishing zones. The governments of West Germany, the Netherlands, and France protested Iceland’s declaration, but still advised their fleets to fish elsewhere instead. Britain’s trawlers ignored the ruling. Despite a second UN Conference on the Law of the Sea in 1960, the British and Icelandic war over the cod-fishing zones continued until February 1961. The Icelandic Coast Guard enforced the boundary with gunboats as the British Royal Navy sent four warships out to escort cod trawlers as they fished in the disputed waters. The biggest tactic during this time was intimidation as Icelandic gunboats threatened British trawlers and the British warships threatened the gunboats. On at least one occasion the skirmishes led to an actual collision, and at times shots were exchanged over the bows. During a 1967 speech to the United Nations, Malta’s Ambassador Arvid Pardo called for “an effective international regime over the seabed and the ocean floor beyond a clearly defined national jurisdiction. . . . It is the only alternative by which we can hope to avoid the escalating tension that will be inevitable if the present situation is allowed to continue.” A third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea was scheduled for New York in 1973, followed by another in Caracas in 1974. Iceland was asked to wait. But the lack of agreements on fishing limits or territorial sea boundaries during the previous two UN Law of the Sea conferences in 1958 and 1960 put Iceland on the defensive. Besides, individual countries had taken as long as six years to ratify the agreements that had been made at the earlier conferences. In order to protect its resources from

242    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

South Atlantic Bight EEZ, showing the Monitor National Marine Sanctuary (USGS)

overfishing, Iceland felt it had to act immediately. The country simply could not wait. The tactics between Iceland and Britain changed in 1972 when Iceland expanded its fishing rights to 50 nautical miles (92.6 km). “In late August, more than 80 British deep-sea trawlers, their names and registration numbers covered in black paint, sailed for Icelandic waters,” wrote Bruce Mitchell in an article for the Geographical Review. The Icelandic Coast Guard took to towing steel-net cutters, driving behind the British trawlers, and cutting the wires to their nets. Royal Navy frigates in turn returned to escorting the trawlers and patrolling the sealine border. On May 20, Iceland’s Prime Minister Olafur Johannesson banned British military planes from using the Keflavik air base. Six days later, one of Iceland’s coast guard vessels shot and hit a British trawler. “Both governments protested to the United Nations,” Mitchell wrote.

Chapter 10 | 1991–2000    243

Scientist of the Decade: Rita R. Colwell (b. 1934) In  the  1990s,  Rita  Colwell—a  microbiologist  WHO  actually  represent  the  tip  of  the  iceberg,  with  a  background  in  bacteriology,  genetics,  because  the  morbidity  and  mortality  caused  by  and  oceanography—was  able  to  take  her  fight  Vibrio cholerae is grossly underreported owing to  against  water-borne  infectious  diseases,  specifi- surveillance  difficulties  and  also  for  fear  of  ecocally  against  cholera,  to  a  new  level  of  scrutiny:  nomic and social consequences,” she wrote in the  space.  Satellite  imagery  of  sea-surface  tempera- February  2,  2003,  issue  of  the  Proceeding of the ture  and  height  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal  taken  from  National Academy of Science. In  1973  Colwell,  working  with  colleagues  1992 to 1995 showed an annual cycle that corresponded to cholera outbreaks in Bangladesh. After  at  the  University  of  Maryland,  College  Park,  25  years  of  study,  Colwell  and  her  colleagues  reported the link between pathogenic vibrios and  had determined that the bacteria Vibrio cholerae,  zooplankton.  A  decade  later  she  narrowed  the  which  causes  cholera  in  humans,  had  a  com(continues) mensal relationship with copepods, a type of zooplankton.  The  satellite  data  also  supported  their  hypothesis  that  cholera  outbreaks  were  linked  to  climate. With  the  rise  in  sea-surface  temperature  and  height  came  a  rise  in  cholera  outbreaks.  Bangladesh  is  one  of  the  world’s  most  low-lying  coastal  cities,  and  Colwell  correlated  the  rise  in  cholera  with  incursions  of  V. cholerae–laden  copepods  upstream  in  flooded  tidal  rivers  where  villagers collected their drinking water. If  humans  consume  an  infectious  dose  of  V. cholerae—as  can  exist,  for  example,  in  surface  waters  in  Bangladesh  following  the  spring  and  summer  phytoplankton  blooms  and  consequential  zooplankton  blooms,  the  greatest  of  which  strike  in  September  and  October—the  bacteria  line  the  intestine  and  cause  severe  diarrhea  that  can  lead  to  incapacitating  dehydration.  In  1991  outbreaks of cholera struck in 16 Latin American  countries where no previous cases of cholera had  been reported during the century. The disease put  400,000  people  in  the  hospital  and  left  4,000  dead.  In  1998  the  World  Health  Organization  (WHO) reported 293,113 cases of cholera worldwide,  with  10,586  deaths.  In  2001  the  official  numbers had dropped to 58 countries, not including Bangladesh, with a total of 184,311 cases and  2,728  deaths.  Colwell’s  work  shows  that  several  countries,  such  as  Bangladesh,  where  cholera  is  Marine microbiologist Rita Colwell served as the 11th endemic do not report the number of people with  director of the National Science Foundation, 1998–2004. the  disease  to  WHO.  “These  annual  figures  of  (Rita Colwell)

244    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

(continued) relationship even further, finding that V. cholerae  preferred living in the mouth and gut of copepods  and around their egg cases. By 1987 Colwell and  colleagues had identified several species of waterborne  pathogenic  bacteria  with  a  dormant  stage  that  could  go  undetected,  including  V. cholerae.  “In  the  mid-80s  we  were  really  convinced  that  the zooplankton correlation to vibrio was genuine  and the question was how do we measure that,”  Colwell noted in a recent interview. Satellite data  held the best promise for tracking phytoplankton  blooms,  because  the  satellites  could  look  for  changes  in  chlorophyll  levels  at  the  sea  surface.  The only problem was the cumbersome means of  analyzing the data; at the time that meant physically scouring reams of analog tape. Said Colwell:  “We  had  to  wait  until  NASA  Internet  could  help  us quickly analyze the data [with the conversion  to a digital medium] that was from 1993 to 1998.  Now  we  have  40  years  of  data  on  cholera  and  the  year-to-year  correlation  is  dramatic.  When  the  climate  is  abnormal  we  can  really  see  the  subsequent  effect  on  cholera.  When  there  is  a  late onset to the spring monsoon for example we  see a direct correlation to the cholera; the rate of  cholera infections occurs later.” Besides  monitoring  the  waters  for  algal  and  zooplankton  blooms,  Colwell  also  worked  to  find  a  simple  solution  that  those  collecting  the  drinking  water  for  the  villages—typically  the 

women—could  use  themselves  to  reduce  the  risk of infection. Though boiling the water would  kill  the  waterborne  microorganisms,  fuel  and  firewood  are  expensive  and  not  practical  in  the  poverty-stricken  villages  of  Bangladesh  where  at  times, especially following severe monsoons, the  drinking water is the same floodwater that washes  through  the  streets.  Wells  in  Bangladesh,  built  originally in the 1960s to help alleviate the problems  associated  with  drinking  untreated  surface  water, are now infamous for their levels of arsenic.  The geologists who built the wells failed to identify arsenic as a significant groundwater contaminant  in  the  soils. At  the  turn  of  the  21st  century,  WHO reported that more than 30 million people  in Bangladesh had unsafe levels of arsenic in their  local well water; 20 percent of them had returned  to drinking from lakes, ponds, and rivers. “Surface  water  from  ponds  and  rivers  is  used  by  some  villagers  as  a  source  of  drinking  water  for reasons of taste, convenience, or a local belief  that  ‘quality’  water  is  ‘natural,’  i.e.,  not  chemically  treated,”  wrote  Colwell  and  her  colleagues  in  2003.  Their  three-year  study,  funded  by  the  National Institutes of Health, tested the hypothesis  that  Colwell  had  developed  earlier  in  her  travels  to  Bangladesh:  A  simple  sari,  the  traditional  cloth  women  in  the  region  wear,  could  be  used  as a filter to remove the tiny copepods and their  bacteria-laden bodies from the water. “The study  tested  our  hypothesis  that  the  rate  of  cholera  should  go  down  if  the  plankton  were  removed 

Since both countries were members of NATO, and both were accusing the other of an act of aggression, nothing was resolved for some time. Public opinion was divided on both sides, but if Britain were to retaliate with arms and attack Iceland’s vessels, the international community would see it as a Goliath move and one that would probably force Iceland to reject NATO and embrace its Soviet trading partner as a political ally. In September 1973, after Iceland made the threat of severing all diplomatic relations with Britain, Prime Minister Edward Heath invited Johannesson to London and agreed to a two-year commitment that

Chapter 10 | 1991–2000    245

from the drinking water,” Colwell said. The villagers  in  Bangladesh  “have  a  monthly  salary  that  is  very low so there had to be a solution that would  work  with  them.  We  tested  various  materials.  First we looked at T-shirts as a filter and then sari  cloth and we found that if the women who generally collected the water in buckets folded the sari  cloth  four  times  and  then  used  that  as  a  filter,  it  removed 90 percent of the bacteria.” In an earlier  interview,  Colwell  mentioned  that  the  effect  of  this filtration technique was immediately obvious  to the women collecting the water and caught on  quickly among other women in the village: They  could see the zooplankton wriggling in their sari.  Once they learned that these tiny creatures were  the carriers of cholera, they would not go back to  drinking unfiltered water again. Born  Rita  Rossi,  Colwell  grew  up  in  Beverly,  Massachusetts, “a stone’s throw from the ocean,”  she  says,  where  she  was  fascinated  with  science  but  stymied  by  teachers  from  studying  physics  and  chemistry  because  of  her  gender.  During  her  senior  year  as  an  undergraduate  student  at  Purdue  University  in  West  Lafayette,  Indiana,  Colwell,  took  a  course  in  bacteriology  taught  by  Dorothy  M.  Powelson  (1916–1988)  that  focused  her  attention  on  the  academic  possibilities  for  women  in  science  and  gave  her  the  impetus  to  pursue a career as a microbiologist. She met her  husband, physicist Jack Colwell, at Purdue, where  she obtained her bachelor’s in bacteriology and a  master’s in genetics; she married him in 1966, five 

years  after  obtaining  her  Ph.D.  in  oceanography  from the University of Washington in Seattle. They  have  two  daughters,  a  botanist  and  a  physician,  and three grandchildren. From 1984 to 1985, Colwell was president of  the  American  Society  of  Microbiology.  In  1995  she  was  president  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  which  publishes  the  journal  Science.  During  this  time  she  was also president of the University of Maryland  Biotechnology Institute, a position she held from  1991 to 1998, when she took a leave of absence  to become the 11th director, and the first woman  director,  of  the  National  Science  Foundation  (NSF). She was also the first director to continue  ongoing  research  during  her  tenure  as America’s  leading  proponent  of  science.  When  she  started  on  August  4,  1998,  the  NSF  budget  was  only  $3.5  billion.  Other  governmental  science  agencies  had  budgets  closer  to  $10  billion  or  more.  The  National  Institutes  of  Health,  for  example,  had  a  budget  of  $16  billion  at  the  time.  When  she stepped down on February 21, 2004, Colwell  had  raised  the  NSF  budget  to  $5.5  billion.  Her  work  led  to  her  2005  election  to  the  National  Women’s Hall of Fame, and in 2007 she received  from  President  George  W.  Bush  the  country’s  highest honor to a scientist: the National Medal of  Science. Colwell was the producer of the awardwinning  1982  half-hour  film  Invisible Seas,  and  she  has  authored  or  coauthored  16  books  and  more than 600 scientific publications.

negotiated the use and restrictions of the waters around Iceland. The agreement was similar to the contracts Iceland had negotiated with Norway and Belgium and offered licenses to a limited number of trawlers and restrictions on how much fish would be caught each year. Three spawning grounds were closed to all boats for certain times of the year, and even trawlers with licenses had to respect that some regions were off-limits to trawl nets and open only to fishing by small Icelandic boats. The range of political considerations during the Cod Wars showed that, as Mitchell wrote, “strategies may be adopted and viewpoints taken that relate only indirectly to the resource management problem at hand.”

246    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science On July 15, 1975, Iceland announced a further extension, to 200 nautical miles (370.4 km) that would take effect on October 15 that year. In 1982, after nine years of negotiations, the United Nations finally adopted “a constitution for the seas” establishing a Law of the Sea Convention. It took the United Nations another 12 years before the convention was finally put into effect on November 16, 1994. One of the most relevant aspects of the convention was to recognize a coastal country’s right to establish an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) out to 200 nautical miles (370.4 km) from shore, a limit the United States set in the MagnusonStevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act of 1976. In 1996 the United States agreed to the implementation of the convention as it applied to conserving and managing fish stocks, but did not sign or ratify the convention due to disagreements over the management of deep-sea mining of minerals beyond a country’s EEZ.

Further Reading Colwell, Rita R., et al. “Reduction of Cholera in Bangladeshi Villages by Simple Filtration.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (February 4, 2003): 1,051–1,055. This three-year study shows the effectiveness of using a sari cloth folded four times to remove cholera-laden copepods from drinking water. Doakel, C. S. M., et al. “Breakup and Conditions for Stability of the Northern Larsen Ice Shelf, Antarctica.” Nature 391 (February 19, 1998): 778–780. A reassessment of the Larsen Ice Shelf after its 1995 collapse. Kaneko, T., and R. R. Colwell. “Ecology of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in Chesapeake Bay.” Journal Bacteriology 113 (1973): 24–32. An early report linking cholera to zooplankton. Lobitz, Brad, et al. “Climate and Infectious Disease: Use of Remote Sensing for Detection of Vibrio cholerae by Indirect Measurement.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 97, no. 4 (February 15, 2000): 1,438–1,443. This study investigated the effectiveness of remote sensing for estimating the risk of cholera and provided strong evidence of the link between cholera and climate. Marmor, Jon. “Rita Colwell: You Can Call Her Dr. Science.” Columns (March 1999). This biography ran in the alumni magazine of the University of Washington. Available online. URL: http://www.washing ton.edu/alumni/columns/march99/colwell.html. Accessed on February 27, 2008. Mitchell, Bruce. “Politics, Fish, and International Resource Management: The British-Icelandic Cod War.” Geographical Review 66, no. 2 (April 1976): 127–138. A review of the Cod Wars. National Academy of Sciences. “InterViews: Rita Colwell.” On online audio recording of an interview with Colwell taken in October 1999. Available online. URL: http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=INT ERVIEWS_Rita_Colwell. Accessed on February 27, 2008.

Chapter 10 | 1991–2000    247 National Snow and Ice Data Center. “Larsen B Ice Shelf Collapses in Antarctica.” This online news release, posted on March 18, 2002, details the breakup of the Larsen B Ice Shelf. Available online. URL: http:// nsidc.org/iceshelves/larsenb2002/. Accessed on April 6, 2008. Shepherd, Andrew, Duncan Wingham, Tony Payne, and Pedro Skvarca. “Larsen Ice Shelf Has Progressively Thinned.” Science 302 (October 31, 2003): 856–859. A report on the thinning of the Larsen Ice Shelf and prediction on the timing of Larsen C’s collapse Versluis, Michel, Barbara Schmitz, Anna von der Heydt, and Detlef Lohse. “How Snapping Shrimp Snap: Through Cavitating Bubbles.” Science 289, no. 5487 (September 22, 2000): 2,114–2,117. A modern examination of a 20th-century mystery.

i

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Conclusion: into the twenty-first Century

Somewhere in the ocean a three-person submersible is preparing for launch. The researchers and the pilot climb into the top hatch and settle in for an eight-hour expedition to the geological feature on the seafloor they have come to investigate. Their map of the bathymetry is from a side-scan or multibeam sonar survey taken sometime in the early 21st century. On a more recent reconnaissance the marine scientists deployed a remote-operated vehicle (ROV) equipped with chemical and temperature sensors and a high-definition video-surveillance camera. But instead of being on a ship, they had operated the ROV from a laptop computer at their marine laboratory. Students from various schools had watched the video feed of the survey as it was happening and had helped the researchers by monitoring and analyzing the data, asking questions, and forming hypotheses about what they were seeing. Low light or perhaps infrared cameras allowed the researchers and students to explore the dark abyss without blinding the fish or damaging the photoreceptors on the shrimp they were observing. The above scenario is part of what is being called the Next Generation Ocean. The advancement of fiber-optic cables, high bandwidth, and various options to deliver electrical power underwater are making remotely operated underwater laboratories a reality in the 21st century. The change is going to be profound, says the University of Washington’s John Delaney (b. 1941), who has been at the forefront of establishing such ocean-observing networks: “Everything we do will be accessible all over the world.” ROVs, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), ocean bottom seismometers, CTDs, mass spectrometers, or any other surveillance or analytical instrument imagined, engineered, and deployed would be networked into a feed that connects to a transmission tower built on a mooring buoy. The power might come from a solar array or wind tower, it might come from harnessing the change in temperature between the surface and depth, or in some cases microbial fuel cells would be used to recharge rechargeable batteries. Built to sit in anoxic sediments with the top half in the oxygenated water, microbial fuel cells currently tap 249

250    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science into the power generated as the microbes transfer electrons through a membrane between the two environments. “High bandwidth, electricalpower enhanced telepresence with the public watching over our shoulders on the Internet as we make mistakes, have successes, and correct problems—that’s what’s on the threshold,” says Delaney. He adds that he is looking forward to having more students involved in the data analysis. “Who knows how many ocean Einsteins are out there?” A different type of deep-sea observation yielded a first in ocean sciences during the 21st century. In September 2005 Japanese scientists published the first set of photographs of a living giant squid, Architeuthis dux. The scientists, Tsunemi Kubodera of the National Science Museum in Tokyo and Kyoichi Mori of the Ogasawara Whale Watching Association, had taken the pictures a year earlier in the sperm whaling waters of the North Pacific Ocean. The giant squid at 2,950 feet (900 m) swam toward a baited hook with its tentacles flared behind its head, revealing its sharp beak, rolled into a ball of tentacles around the bait like a boa constrictor, and then struggled to detach itself. The camera was attached to the same fishing line as the bait. The squid escaped with a severed tentacle, one of its two longest still on the hook. The squid was estimated to have been 25 feet (8 m) long. Species of giant squid are some of the largest of the cephalopods, with perhaps only the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni, slightly larger. Commercially consumed squid is one of the more sustainable fishes. Squid typically reproduce quickly and have a short life span. Indeed, the greatest threat to their populations is not overfishing, but deep-sea trawling for shrimp; scallops; orange roughies; and Atlantic groundfishes such as cod, haddock, yellowtail flounder, and monkfish. Cephalopods lay their eggs on the seafloor, where trawl nets can mow over them. Global warming is also threatening squid populations. In 2001 the seawater temperatures near the River Plate estuary off the coast of Argentina, where the Argentinean flying squid spawns, rose 2.7°F (1.5°C). The change in temperature shifted the currents to move out into ocean waters, taking the newly hatched planktonic squid larvae away from their nursery. In 2002 the Atlantic haul of Argentinean flying squid fell to about 10,000 tons, a far cry from the nearly 300,000 tons a good year can bring in for the $1 billion industry. The Japanese scientists searched for the giant squid in waters where sperm whales feed, south of Japan around the Ogasawara Islands. The Japanese whaling industry annually catches about 1,000 minke, Brydes, sperm, sei, and fin whales, though the consumption of whale meat in Japan has declined since its peak following World War II. Japan spends about $60 million a year on whale hunts that are labeled “research whaling” under the International Whaling Commission, which in 1985 called for a moratorium on all but traditional indigenous whaling. Japan and Iceland both conduct “research whaling,” with Japan selling between 5,000 to 6,000 tons of whale meat annually to wholesalers. The

W & C Bangladesh Underwater.eps Conclusion    251

Switzerland-based World Conservation Union lists the sei and fin whales N among the five whale species that are endangered, along with the blue F whale and two types of right whales. Listed as critically endangered is the CS Marine Science Western Gray Whale, Eschrichtius robustus. eps Though overfishing in the North Atlantic was a major concern at the start of the 20th century, the sustainability of fish stocks is now a global 10 issue in the 21st century, and overfishing is only one of the contributing als 12/05/07

factors determining the ocean’s health. Other impacts on sea life include noise pollution; the abundance of plastic; cut fishing lines; ocean acidification from rising levels of carbon dioxide; coral bleaching from increased ocean temperatures; increased runoff and sewage outfall raising nutrient levels, creating harmful algal blooms, and causing changes to coastal ecosystems; and low-oxygen “dead zones” in the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Oregon, and elsewhere. Changing coastal habitats through destruction

With melting glaciers off Greenland and Antarctica, sea-level rise will most affect populations along low-lying deltas such as New Orleans, the Nile, and Bangladesh. This map shows how far ocean waters would encroach inland if sea levels were to rise 3, 6, 10, or 16 feet. Currently models predict sea levels will rise about 6 feet over the next 150 years; in Bangladesh, such a sea-level rise would affect about 17 million people.

BANGLADESH UNDER WATER

ASIA

Jamuna R. Pacific Ocean INDIA

Indian Ocean

AUSTRALIA BANGLADESH

Dhaka Water level

16 feet (4.8 m)

10 feet (3 m)

Karnaphuli Res. 6 feet (1.8 m)

3 feet (.9 m)

MYANMAR

Bay of Bengal

© Infobase Publishing

N

0

50 miles

0

80 km

252    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science of reefs, wetlands, and mangrove forests is also endangering human lives. With coastal populations on the rise, the danger is increasing. The 21st century experienced the worst tsunami disaster ever recorded in terms of lives lost. More than 220,000 people died during the December 26, 2004, Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. In comparison, the deadliest tsunami of the 20th century struck Messina, Italy, in 1908 and killed about 60,000 people following an earthquake of magnitude 7.1. A recent report in 2008 revealed that the tsunami was the result of an underwater landslide. The 21st century also faces coastal erosion from rising sea levels. Countries with low-lying coasts, such as Bangladesh, are particularly vulnerable. Efforts to mitigate tsunamis and rising sea-level concerns will have to involve managing coastal development. The 21st century has already had its share of amazing marine discoveries. In 2001 Deborah Kelley of the University of Washington, Seattle, and colleagues published their discovery of a new type of hydrothermal vent. Instead of tapping the heat of a magma chamber along an ocean ridge, Lost City—as they called the site found along a seafloor rise named Atlantis, 9.3 miles (15 km) away from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge—produces its heat chemically. A reaction between the seawater and the mantle rock below the oceanic crust converts olivine minerals to serpentine and in doing so produces heat. The hydrothermal fluid that escapes to the surface is a food source for bacteria that thrive in delicate white carbonate chimneys instead of the sulphide chimneys found at other vent sites. Several expeditions during the 21st century—the Census for Marine Life and the Antarctic benthic deep-sea biodiversity (ANDEEP) project, for example—have changed the way marine biologists view the abyss. Instead of a desert with the occasional oasis of life—produced along hydrothermal vents, whale falls, and cold seeps, for example—the deep waters of the ocean are thriving with marine organisms. During a survey of the Southern Ocean from 2002 to 2005, international teams found more than 700 new species on the seafloor. Marine scientists are also finding life under the ice sheets at both poles—a vast community of organisms thriving just under the surface. With the use of new methods of DNA analysis, the genetics of marine organisms are being discovered for the first time as well. There is a great deal of research being done to find useful means of fighting cellular mutations, such as cancer and other diseases in humans, in the genetic makeup of marine organisms. Overall, the history of marine science during the 20th century has revealed aspects of the ocean that rival the imagination. The discoveries continue in the 21st century, as does a better understanding of what is potentially being destroyed.

Awards of Merit in Marine Science

Alexander Agassiz Medal Sir John Murray (1841–1914) created the Alexander Agassiz Medal in 1911 in memory of his friend Alexander Agassiz (1835–1910). The U.S. National Academy of Sciences awards the medal and accompanying prize of $15,000 for original contributions in the science of oceanography. Information about past recipients is available online. URL: http://www. nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_agassiz. Accessed on March 11, 2008.

1913 Johan Hjort

1918 Albert I, Prince of Monaco

1920 Admiral Charles Dwight Sigsbee

1924 Otto S. Pettersson

1926 Wilhelm Bjerknes

1927 Max Weber 253

254    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

1928 Vagn Walfrid Ekman

1929 J. Stanley Gardiner

1930 Johannes Schmidt

1931 Henry B. Bigelow

1932 Albert Defant

1933 Bjorn Helland-Hansen

1934 Haakon H. Gran

1935 Martin Knudse

1935 T. Wayland Vaughan

1937 Edgar J. Allen

1938 Harald U. Sverdrup

1939 Frank R. Lillie

Awards of Merit in Marine Science 255

1942 Columbus Iselin II

1946 Joseph Proudman

1947 Felix A. Vening Meinesz

1948 Thomas G. Thompson

1951 Harry A. Marmer

1952 H. W. Harvey

1954 Maurice Ewing

1955 Alfred C. Redfield

1959 Martin W. Johnson

1960 Anton F. Bruun

1962 George E. R. Deacon

1963 Roger R. Revelle

256    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

1965 Sir Edward Bullard

1966 Carl H. Eckart

1969 Frederick C. Fuglister

1972 Seiya Uyeda

1973 John H. Steele

1976 Walter H. Munk

1979 Henry M. Stommel

1986 Wallace S. Broecker

1989 Cesare Emiliani

1992 Joseph L. Reid

1995 Victor V. Vacquier

1998 Walter C. Pitman III

Awards of Merit in Marine Science 257

2001 Charles S. Cox

2004 Klaus Wyrtki

2007 James R. Ledwell

Notable John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellows The MacArthur Fellows Program awards unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction. Each fellowship comes with a stipend of $500,000 to the recipient, paid out in equal quarterly installments over five years. Although nominees are reviewed for their achievements, the fellowship is not a reward for past accomplishment, but rather an investment in a person’s originality, insight, and potential. The purpose of the MacArthur Fellows Program is to enable recipients to exercise their own creative instincts for the benefit of human society. Further information about the foundation and fellows is available online. URL: http://www.macfound.org. Accessed on March 11, 2008.

1990 Mimi R. Koehl, marine biologist

1993 Jane Lubchenco, marine biologist

1996 Barbara Block, marine biologist

2000 Carl Safina, marine conservationist

2005 Ted Ames, fisherman and marine conservation specialist

258    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

2006 Edith Widder, oceanographer

The Goldman Environmental Prize The Goldman Environmental Prize was created in 1990 by San Francisco civic leaders and philanthropists Richard N. Goldman and his late wife, Rhoda H. Goldman (1924–96). Its mission is “to annually honor grassroots environmental heroes from the six inhabited continental regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South and Central America. The Prize recognizes individuals for sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural environment, often at great personal risk. Each winner receives an award of $125,000, the largest award in the world for grassroots environmentalists. The Goldman Prize views ‘grassroots’ leaders as those involved in local efforts, where positive change is created through community or citizen participation in the issues that affect them. Through recognizing these individual leaders, the Prize seeks to inspire other ordinary people to take extraordinary actions to protect the natural world.” The following list is of awardees in the field of marine conservation. A complete list of awardees is available online. URL: http://www.goldmanprize.org/. Accessed on March 11, 2008.

1990 Janet Gibson, Belize

1991 Samuel LaBudde, United States

1995 Noah Idechong, Palau

1996 Bill Ballantine, New Zealand

1998 Hirofumi Yamashita, Japan

1999 Bernard Martin, Canada, and Jorge Varela, Honduras

Awards of Merit in Marine Science 259

2001 Bruno Van Peteghem, New Caledonia

2002 Pisit Charnsnoh, Thailand

2007 Tsetsegee Munkhbayar, Mongolia, and Orri Vigfússon, Iceland

Prince Albert I Medal The International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans (IAPSO) established the Prince Albert I Medal in 2001 in partnership with Prince Rainier of Monaco. The award is named in honor of the late Prince Albert I of Monaco, a devoted participant in early oceanographic research who organized the Oceanography Section of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics in 1919 as well as other international ocean research organizations. Further information is available online. URL: http://iapso.sweweb.net/medal.html. Accessed on April 11, 2008.

2001 Walter Munk

2003 Klaus Wyrtki

2005 Friedrich Schott

2007 Russ Davis

Maurice Ewing Medal The American Geophysical Union (AGU) and the U.S. Navy award the Maurice Ewing Medal to those who have made significant contributions in deep-sea exploration; understanding physical, geophysical, and geological processes in the ocean; oceanographic engineering,

260    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science technology, and instrumentation; and to those who perform outstanding service to the marine sciences. It is named for William Maurice “Doc” Ewing (1906–74), who was singularly responsible for the development of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, serving as its founding director from 1949 to 1972 before leaving to found the Earth and Planetary Sciences Division of the University of Texas Marine Sciences Institute. Ewing and his colleagues wrote over 340 research papers, covering marine geophysics, seismic refraction and reflection, oceanic gravity measurements, sound transmission in seawater, ocean bottom photography, and Pleistocene glacial-interglacial oscillations. Information about this and other AGU awards is available online. URL: http://www.agu.org/inside/honors. html. Accessed on March 11, 2008.

1976 Walter H. Munk

1977 Henry Stommel

1978 Sir Edward Bullard

1979 Wallace Smith Broecker

1980 J. Tuzo Wilson

1981 Manik Talwani

1982 John I. Ewing

1983 Fred Noel Spiess

Awards of Merit in Marine Science 261

1984 Xavier Le Pichon

1985 Kenneth O. Emery

1986 John Imbrie

1987 William Jason Morgan

1988 Wolfgang H. Berger

1989 Klaus Wyrtki

1990 Carl I. Wunsch

1991 Charles David Keeling

1992 Charles S. Cox

1993 Kirk Bryan

1994 John A. Orcutt

1995 Jean-Guy Schilling

262    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

1996 Walter C. Pitman III

1997 Karl K. Turekian

1998 Richard P. Von Herzen

1999 Arnold L. Gordon

2000 Joseph L. Reid

2001 Richard G. Fairbanks

2002 Nicholas Shackleton

2003 Gerard C. Bond

2004 Bruce A. Warren

2005 Francois M. M. Morel

2006 G. Michael Purdy

2007 Marcia Kemper McNutt

Awards of Merit in Marine Science 263

Robert L. and Bettie P. Cody Award in Ocean Sciences The Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, awards the gold medal and accompanying prize of $10,000 to those who have made outstanding scientific contributions in oceanography, marine biology, and Earth science. Information about the award is available online. URL: http://sio.ucsd.edu/About/Awards/cody.php. Accessed on March 11, 2008.

1989 George Veronis, physical oceanography

1992 Holger W. Jannasch, biology

1994 Ken C. MacDonald, Earth sciences

1996 Kenneth H. Brink, physical oceanography

1998 Bruce W. Frost, biology

2002 Maureen Raymo, Earth sciences

2003 Mark Cane, climate science

2005 James Childress, biology

The NOGI (New Orleans Grand Isle) Award The NOGI (New Orleans Grand Isle) Award is the oldest award in the diving industry, dating back to the 1950s, when it was initially presented

264    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science to world-class spearfishing champions. In the 1960s, the award began to be presented to top achievers in the underwater world by the Underwater Society of America. Each year it is presented to distinguished divers, as selected by their peers in the Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences (AUAS). Awards are distributed in the categories of arts, science, sports/ education, and distinguished service. Past winners of the NOGI include diving luminaries Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Robert Ballard, and Sylvia Earle, as well as Scripps diving officer emeritus James R. Stewart. The following is a list of awardess in the science category. Multiple award winners are in italics. A complete list of NOGI award winners is available online. URL: http://www.auas-nogi.org/wst_page4.html. Accessed on March 11, 2008.

1960 George Ruggieri, Ph.D., and Eugene J. D. Vezzani, Ph.D.

1961 Jim Christiansen and Jack Faver

1962 David M. Owen

1963 Edward Lanphier, M.D.

1964 Captain George Bond

1965 Edwin Link

1966 Robert Workman, M.D.

1967 Hon. Jacques Piccard, Ph.D.

1968 Andreas B. Rechnitzer, Ph.D.

Awards of Merit in Marine Science 265

1969 Albert Behnke, M.D.

1970 Harold Edgerton, Ph.D.

1971 Christian J. Lambertsen, M.D.

1972 Joseph MacInnis, M.D.

1973 Arthur J. Bachrach, Ph.D.

1974 George Bass, Ph.D.

1975 Robert D. Ballard, Ph.D.

1976 Sylvia A. Earle, Ph.D.

1977 Robert Dill, Ph.D.

1978 Conrad Limbaugh

1979 Roger W. Cook

1980 Peter B. Bennett, Ph.D.

266    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science

1981 Glen H. Egstrom, Ph.D.

1982 Richard A. Cooper, Ph.D.

1983 Captain Otto Van Der Aue, M.D.

1984 Gene Shinn

1986 James W. Miller, Ph.D.

1987 Eugenie Clark, Ph.D.

1988 Richard A. Slater, Ph.D.

1989 Don Walsh, Ph.D.

1990 Robert I. Wicklund

1991 William (Bill) High

1992 Christopher Nicholson

1993 Jean-Michel Cousteau

Awards of Merit in Marine Science 267

1994 Alfred Bove, M.D., Ph.D.

1995 R. W. Bill Hamilton, Ph.D.

1996 Kathryn D. Sullivan, Ph.D.

1997 Phil Nuytten, Ph.D.

1999 Richard W. Grigg, Ph.D.

2000 John E. Randall, Ph.D.

2001 Bob Hollis

2002 Anatoly M. Sagalevitch, Ph.D.

2003 Jim Cahill

2004 Paul Dayton, Ph.D., and Richard Pyle, Ph.D.

2006 Paul S. Auerbach, M.D.

Glossary Antarctic Convergence the natural boundary of water surrounding Antarctica that results from the sinking of the cold, northwardflowing currents when they converge with relatively warmer surface waters located between 47° and 62° south latitudes. Also known as the Antarctic Polar Front aquaculture the cultivation of fish or shellfish in pens, called fish farms, for commercial consumption. Depending on their location, the species being cultivated, and the methods used, fish farms can be either detrimental or beneficial to the marine environment. All fish farms produce high levels of nutrients to the seafloor below them. In deep, low-nutrient waters, cases of mooring lines providing structures for reef nurseries have been documented. In other cases where the farms are placed over coral reefs, the reef animals die from, essentially, overfertilization of the waters around them. In areas where the seafloor animals are accustomed to anoxic or highly nitrified waters, the fish farms have less of an impact atmosphere a unit of pressure, abbreviated atm, measuring the increase or decrease in pressure relative to the pressure of the air at sea level, which is designated as 1 atm and is equal to approximately 14.7 pounds per square inch (101,325 pascals) bathymetry the measurement of water depth bathyscaphe a navigable submersible for deep-sea exploration consisting of a steel diving sphere, or crew cabin, attached to a gasolinefilled float and air tanks, which can be filled or emptied with seawater to control buoyancy bathysphere a steel diving sphere that is tethered to a surface platform or ship via a cable and capable of providing several hours of human life-support for deep-sea observation bathythermograph an instrument used to record seawater temperature at various depths bloom a rapid increase in population bycatch anything other than the targeted catch that is captured from the ocean 269

270    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science caisson a steel cylinder diving bell with airtight chambers that can be compressed or decompressed to allow divers to enter in and out while working on the seafloor or river bottom calving the gravity-driven breaking apart of section of ice from a glacier carbon credits the purchase of funds or credit in a carbon sink in exchange for producing a carbon source carbon sink a natural or manmade reservoir for carbon dioxide storage; opposite of a carbon source chlorophyll an important pigment used by plants in photosynthesis to convert solar energy into chemical energy, which the plants then use, for example, to convert CO2 into sugars chromosomes threadlike structures inside the nucleus of a cell that contain the DNA and most or all of the genes in an organism coelacanth any species of lobed-fin fish of the order Coelacanthiformes with fossil lineages dating back 70–410 million years ago commensal when one species benefits from having a close relationship with another species, but the other species remains unaffected continental drift the movement of the Earth’s continents relative to each other; also the hypothesis Alfred Wegener proposed in 1912 on the motion of continents copepods small marine and aquatic crustaceans, mostly herbivorous and considered prodigious grazers among zooplankton. They are typically identifiable from their long, horizontal antennae that form a “T” with the rest of their body Coriolis effect the deviation away from a straight line that a moving object makes on a rotating body, as seen from the reference frame of that rotating body; a result of the Coriolis force Coriolis force an apparent force caused by the rotation of the Earth that results in moving objects, such as air currents, to deflect to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere cryosphere the Earth’s frozen regions, including frozen land (permafrost) and water (glaciers and sea ice) crystals a body that is formed by the solidification of a chemical element, a compound, or a mixture and has a regularly repeating internal arrangement of its atoms and often external plane faces diatoms a type of phytoplankton made of silica; any of a class (Bacillariophyceae) of unicellular or colonial algae with silicified skeletons that form diatomaceous earth ecosystem a term coined in the 1930s as an inclusive descriptor of an environment’s ecology; the flora, fauna, and the physical properties—soil richness, moisture, light, and so on—inherent to that environment’s system El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) a global coupled oceanatmospheric phenomenon that centers over the Pacific Ocean and

Glossary 271 results in increased sea-surface temperatures, a weakening of the easterly trade winds near the equator, a leveling-off of the Pacific thermocline, a deepening of the Peruvian coastal upwelling, and droughts across Indonesia fisheries regions where commercial or sport fishing occurs; the industry associated with the harvesting of marine species food chains the arrangement of organisms by their order of predation food web the interactions of food chains in an ecosystem foraminifera marine organisms the size of a grain of salt that usually form popcorn-shaped calcareous shells and give muddy sediments a gritty texture fouling a growth of marine organisms along a ship’s hull below the waterline; also entangling or colliding another ship’s lines or nets ganoid scales fish scales consisting of bone, dentine, and an outer shiny layer of bone salt, resembling enamel. The scales grow in thickness as well as length during the growth of the fish gyres circular oceanic surface currents that circulate around an ocean basin hot spot an area of high volcanic activity hydrofoil a fast watercraft that uses slender blades to lift the hull above the water’s surface in order to reduce drag hydrothermal vents areas on the seafloor where heated water emerges. Typically when such vents form near spreading ridges, they can include black-smoker and/or white-smoker chimneys, formed when molten rock heats seawater as it circulates through the crust. Other vents are formed as olivine minerals in the crust react with seawater to form serpentine (hydrous magnesium silicate mineral or rock), and the chemical reaction of serpentization produces the heat needed to warm the water ice floe a broken but still relatively large section of solid sea ice that floats like a raft intermediate water a water mass or current that is located above and distinctive from bottom water igneous relating to, resulting from, or suggestive of the intrusion or extrusion of magma or volcanic activity; formed by solidification of magma krill planktonic crustaceans (especially Euphausia) that constitute the principal food of baleen whales lava magma that has reached the surface limiting nutrient a necessary nutrient for life that is in low supply in the environment, thereby setting a limit to population growth lithology the study of rocks or the particular characteristics of a rock formation lithosphere the layer of rock in the Earth’s interior that is above the asthenosphere and includes the crust and part of the upper mantle

272    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science magma hot silicate liquid beneath the Earth’s surface that contains dissolved gases and suspended crystals and, when cooled, forms igneous rocks mantle the part of the Earth’s interior between the core and the crust marine reserve ocean areas where the ecosystem has some degree of legal protection. Also referred to as marine sanctuary or marine protected area marine science any branch of scientific study that investigates Earth’s ocean and seas, estuarine and coastal environments, the seafloor or any physical boundary that interacts with the marine environment, or the organisms that live in, feed from, or otherwise use marine waters meiosis the processes of reducing in half the number of chromosomes in gamete-producing cells (eggs and sperm) Milankovitch cycles named after Serbian mathematician Milutin Milankovic´ [Milankovitch] (1879–1958), the cycles describe climatic periodicities that correlate with changes in Earth’s precession, axial tilt, and eccentricity mitosis the division and reproduction of cellular nuclei such that each new nucleus has the same number of chromosomes as the parent nucleus moulin a wide hole formed from glacial melt. In cases where the hole reaches the base of the glacier, the flowing water helps lubricate glacial motion, speeding the glacier’s retreat and calving processes niche the specialized role of an organism in an ecosystem ocean the whole body of saltwater that covers 71 percent of Earth’s surface; a specific region of this water body, for example the Atlantic Ocean O-ring a round rubber seal used to eliminate leaks phytoplankton small marine plants and algae that drift with the currents; they produce their energy through photosynthesis pillow lava mounds of basaltic lava that have erupted and cooled underwater plankton the collections of phytoplankton and zooplankton that live in fresh or marine waters profile a dataset identifying key features or measurements—as in a topographic profile of the seafloor, or variations in salinity, temperature, and depth along a vertical profile of the water column reversing thermometers specially designed mercury thermometers used for oceanographic studies during the first half of the 20th century. The thermometers could trap the mercury inside the glass capillary to track the coldest temperature reading without losing the reading as the thermometer resurfaced through warmer water seafloor spreading the theory that the oceanic crust is formed at spreading ridges and recycled back into the mantle at subduction zones

Glossary 273 seiche an oscillation of the water in a lake or other landlocked body of water that, like water sloshing in a bathtub, causes the surface water to rise at one end of the lake as it drops at the other end; usually wind-driven sounding the measurement of depth using a weighted line or wire that is hauled out by hand over the side of a ship until the sounding line reaches bottom thermocline the location in the water column where the temperature changes dramatically from warm, mixed surface water to the cooler, more stable temperatures affiliated with deep water. In small, calm bodies of water such as lakes, the thermocline can be felt as the area below the reach of the warming influence of the Sun’s heat thermohaline circulation the circulation that results from changes in seawater density derived from variations in the ocean’s temperature and salinity. Polar surface waters are colder and saltier than equatorial surface waters, for example, and tend to sink to greater depths, forming deep-water masses or bottom water titration a method to determine how much of a dissolved substance exists in solution based on the smallest amount of a reagent of known concentration required to bring about a given effect in reaction with a known volume of the test solution tow an instrument, such as a plankton net, side-scan sonar vehicle, or other device, that is towed through the water column from the stern of a ship while the ship continues moving forward; the act of pulling an instrument through the water column while the ship is moving; the line or cable used to attach a towed instrument to the stern of a ship. The opposite of casting, by which an instrument is deployed while a ship is stationed on site turbidity current a flow of dense, sediment-laden water that moves rapidly down a slope western boundary current a warm, deep, narrow, and fast-flowing current that occurs on the west side of an ocean basin. It is important in climate control for bringing warm water from the equator poleward. Its narrowness results from the displacement of the geostrophic “hill” to the western side of ocean basins due to Coriolis effect, compressing the currents on this side. Examples include the Gulf Stream, the Agulhas Current, and the Kuroshio Current. zooplankton small marine organisms or the larvae of larger marine organisms that eat other marine organisms, often feeding on other zooplankton or phytoplankton

Further Resources American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). “News Archives: Decline in Large Shark Populations Cascade through the Oceanic Food Web.” Scientists announce that all 11 great sharks have declined in populations over the last 35 years. This news release of March 30, 2007, is available online. URL: http://www.aaas.org/news/ releases/2007/0330sharks.shtml. Accessed on April 11, 2008. British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). “NZ Fishermen Land Colossal Squid.” This news report dated February 22, 2007, covers the capture of the first adult colossal squid Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni. Available online. URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6385071.stm. Accessed on February 28, 2007. ———. “Live Giant Squid Caught on Camera.” This report dated September 28, 2005, shows pictures taken by Japanese researchers of the first living Architeuthis seen in the deep sea. Available online. URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4288772.stm. Accessed on February 28, 2007. Billi, Andrea, et al. “On the Cause of the 1908 Messina Tsunami, Southern Italy.” Geophysical Research Letters 35 (March 19, 2008). This report identifies an underwater landslide as the source of the 20th century’s most devastating tsunami, which killed more than 60,000 people. Bostanci, Adam. “No More Surprises From Evanescent Squid.” Science 296 no. 5570 (May 10, 2002): 1,000–1,001. A report on the decline of commercially harvested squid as a result of ocean warming. Census of Antarctic Marine Life. “Antarctic Ecosystem.” This graphic Web page provides a look at the biodiversity in the Southern Ocean. Available online. URL: http://www.caml.aq/flash-index.html. Accessed on April 11, 2008. Census of Marine Life. “Making Ocean Life Count.” This Web site details the status of the census for marine life and includes an interactive map. Available online. URL: http://www.coml.org/. Accessed on April 11, 2008. Deacon, Margaret. Scientists and the Sea, 1650–1900: A Study of Marine Science, 2nd ed. Aldershot, Hampshire, U.K., and Brookfield, Vt.: 275

276    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Ashgate, 1997. This second edition of the 1971 book examines the early history of marine science. Deacon, Margaret, Tony Rice, and Colin Summerhayes, eds. Understanding the Oceans: A Century of Ocean Exploration. London and New York: UCL Press, 2001. DiveFilm.com “The Cousteau Diving Saucer at Scripps.” This video combines vintage 1916 footage and text from the silent film Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea with 1960s photography and a recent interview of Scripps deep-diver and marine geologist Doug Inman. Available as a podcast. URL: http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/divefilm-episode-50-thecousteau-diving-saucer-at-scripps/5 471073/. Accessed on April 6, 2008. Hanson, Brooks, and Leslie Roberts. “Resiliency in the Face of Disaster.” Science 309, no. 5737 (August 12, 2005): 1,029. An introduction to a special issue on disaster preparedness following the 2004 Sumatran earthquake and tsunami. Kelley, Deborah, et al. “An Off-Axis Hydrothermal Vent Field near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at 30° N.” Nature 412 (July 12, 2001): 145–149. This article announces the discovery of the Lost City hydrothermal vent site. Mathez, Edmond A., ed. Earth: Inside and Out. New York: The New Press, 2001. This book answers the questions posed in the American Museum of Natural History’s Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth: How has the Earth evolved? How do scientists read the rocks? Why are there ocean basins, mountains, and continents? What causes climate and climate change? Why is the Earth habitable? This book profiles historically significant Earth scientists and highlights case studies of present-day researchers. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). “Ocean Explorer.” This Web site offers links to ongoing and past explorations, as well as special features and educational lesson plans on the ocean. Available online. URL: http://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/. Accessed on April 11, 2008. National Research Council. 50 Years of Ocean Discovery. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2000. This book discusses the history of oceanography at the National Science Foundation from 1950 to 2000. Prather, Michael J. “Citation for Award of 2001 Roger Revelle Medal to James E. Hansen.” Eos 83, no. 17 (2002): 187. Schlee, Susan. The Edge of an Unfamiliar World: A History of Oceanography. New York: Dutton, 1973. A look at the history of oceanography before the discovery of hydrothermal vents. Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Time Line. This Web site provides an excellent time line on the history of Scripps. Available online. URL: http://sio.ucsd.edu/img/timeline/. Accessed on March 12, 2008. Sontag, Sherry, and Christopher Drew, with Annette Lawrence Drew. Blind Man’s Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage. New York: HarperPaperbacks, 1998. This highly recommended book provides a

Further Resources 277 fast-paced narrative and detailed investigative report on unclassified CIA stories of deep-sea espionage during the cold war. Sverdrup, Harald Ulrik, Martin W. Johnson, and Richard H. Fleming. The Oceans: Their Physics, Chemistry, and General Biology. New York: Prentice Hall, 1942. This book has been heralded as the first modern textbook in the field of oceanography. Available online. URL: http://ark.cdlib.org/ ark:/13030/kt167nb66r/. Accessed on March 15, 2007. Texas A&M University. “Researchers Confirm Dead Zone Off Texas Coast.” Texas researchers have reported that one particular “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico has been around for 23 years and will continue into the future. This press release dated April 2, 2008, is available online. URL: http://dmc-news.tamu.edu/templates/?a=5997&z=15. Accessed on April 11, 2008. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Oceanus. This magazine explores the oceans in depth. Available online. URL: http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/ index.do. Accessed on March 12, 2008.

Index Note: Italic page numbers refer to illustrations. abalone harvest 18 Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences (AUAS) 264 Acoustically Navigated Geological Underwater Survey. See ANGUS camera acoustic physics, ocean 41 Actinarians 197 active sonar 136 Adams, Charles Francis 55 Aden, Gulf of 185, 187 AEC. See Atomic Energy Commission Aegean Captain, collision with oil tanker 219 Agassiz, Alexander 3, 26, 45, 253 Agassiz, Elizabeth Cabot Cary 106 Agassiz, Louis 106 agricultural runoff 211 Ahlmann, Hans W. 87 air-sea interactions 69–70, 89 Akens, Jim 203–204 Albatross expedition 26, 187 Albatross Plateau 141

Albert I (prince of Monaco) 2, 28, 28– 29, 44–48, 259 Alexander Agassiz (research boat) 26–27 Alexander Agassiz Medal 29, 86, 253–257 Alexander the Great 77 Alexis, Carl 160 algal blooms, harmful 199, 200, 244 Alito, Samuel 222 Allentoft, Bjarne 183– 184 Alligator Head (La Jolla, California) 26 altimetry 134 Alvin (submersible) 153–156, 191 in bomb recovery operation 154– 155 in hydrothermal vent discovery 191–204 sinking and recovery of 155–156 amberjack 177 American Association for the Advancement of Science 245 American Geophysical Union 160, 166, 228, 259–260 279

American Heart Association 118 American Miscellaneous Society (AMSOC) 160 American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) 106–112, 169 American Ornithologists’ Union 213 American Petroleum Institution 54–55 American Society of Microbiology 245 Ammonia parkisonia 88 AMNH. See American Museum of Natural History Amoco Cadiz oil spill 219, 220 amphibious operations xxi, 96–97, 110–111, 125 AMSOC. See American Miscellaneous Society Amundsen, Roald 9–14, 10, 12, 72 milestones of 3, 5, 34, 36 Sverdrup (Harald U.) and 85–86 anchovies 98, 102 Ancon (ship) 44, 48 ANDEEP. See Antarctic benthic deep-sea biodiversity project

280    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Andersson, Gunnar 5–6 Anguilla anguilla 57 Anguilla japonica 57 Anguilla rostrata 57 ANGUS camera system 192–195, 203 Animal Ecology (Elton) 63 Annual Review of Microbiology 197 Anschütz-Kaempfe, Hermann 3 Antarctica, melting ice in 235–240 Antarctic benthic deep-sea biodiversity (ANDEEP) project 252 Antarctic Circumpolar Current 172 Antarctic Convergence 6–7, 8 Antarctic expedition 4–6, 9, 235–236 Antarctic exploration 4–14 Antarctic Polar Front 6–7, 8 Antarctic Treaty 226 antifouling methods 108–109 Anti-Submarine Detection Investigation Committee (ASDIC) 39 Aqua-Lung 95–96, 122, 125, 144 aquanauts 156–158 Aquarius (underwater habitat) 158 Arauz, Randall 174 Archimedean principle 122 Archimède bathyscaphe 191 Architeuthis 29 Architeuthis dux 250 Arctic Ocean Fram voyage across 19, 22

Nautilus under-ice voyage 72–75, 75 Northeast Passage in 85, 104 Northwest Passage in 4, 9–13, 12, 85 submarine studies of 69 Argentinean flying squid 250 aromatic hydrocarbons, for oil spills 215 arsenic, in groundwater 244 ASDIC (AntiSubmarine Detection Investigation Committee) 39 Atlantic Empress oil spill 219 Atlantic Ocean currents of, Meteor studies of 58–66 fishing/water rights in 235, 241–246 ICES and 2, 14–23 mapping of 141– 142 monitoring network in 170 overfishing in 1–2, 15–18, 21, 251 Panama Canal and 33, 41–49 salinity of 180– 181 Woods Hole and 54–58 Atlantis (research vessels) 58, 108, 146, 187, 234, 235 Atlantis (space shuttle) xviii–xix Atlantis I (vessel) 138– 139 Atlantis II (vessel) 172, 187 Atlantis II Deep 188 atmosphere, carbon in 142–148, 211–212, 223–226, 228

atmospheric studies, and diving 117–120 Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) 201 Atwater, Tanya 192 AUAS. See Academy of Underwater Arts and Sciences Ault, James Percy 73– 74, 87 autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) 249 awards of merit 253– 267 BAAS. See British Association for the Advancement of Science Bab el Mandeb Strait 185, 187 Baker, Charlotte 25 Baker, Fred 25–26 Ball, Henry 71 Ballantine, Bill 155 Ballard, Robert 192– 204, 198, 264 ballast, and invasive species 211, 216–217 balloons and balloonists 117–120 Baltic Sea, study by Pettersson (Otto) 14–15 Bancroft, Frank 25 Bangladesh cholera in 243– 245 sea-level rise and 251, 252 Barents, Willem 104 Barents Sea, abyssal plain of 104 barnacles 108–109 Bartlett, Robert Abram 13, 35, 40 Barton, Otis 71, 80–82, 121–122, 126, 169 basalt, on seafloor 164, 177, 189

Index 281 Bascom, Willard 160– 163 Bass Biological Laboratory 169 bat(s) guano of 98 and sonar 36 bathymetry by Albert I (prince of Monaco) 29 bathythermograph in 69, 69 by Bruce (William Speirs) 9 LIDAR and 137 mapping by Tharp (Maria) and Heezen (Bruce) 137–142 of Mariana Trench 125–126 sonar and 35–41 soundings of 9, 25, 125–126 bathyscaphe 117, 121– 133, 177, 191 bathysphere 80–82, 81, 106, 117, 121–122, 169 bathythermograph 69, 69 Bayesian search strategy 155 Beach, Edward, Jr. 121 Bear (U.S. cutter) 40, 41 Beaufort Gyre 86 Beebe, Charles William “Will” 71, 79, 80–82, 81, 106, 121–122, 169 Behm, Alexander 40 Belgica expeditions 9, 11–12 Belgium in ICES 15–16, 17–18 polar expeditions of 11–12 bends 75–82, 157 Benioff, Hugo 99 Benitez-Nelson, Claudia 70

Bennett, Mary 25, 27 Ben Nevis Observatory 9 Bergen School of Meteorology 87 Bermuda, bathysphere in 80–82, 81 Bermuda Biological Station for Research 55 Bertine, Kathe 201, 203 “Beyond the Mussel Watch—New Directions for Monitoring Marine Pollution” (Bertine and Goldberg) 203 Bigelow, Henry Bryant xxii, 34, 45, 45–48 milestone of 53 Revelle (Roger) and 146 Sears (Mary) and 108 Sverdrup (Harald U.) and 87 and Woods Hole 55–58 Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory 105 biological oceanography xx bivalves, as sentinels of pollution 203 Bjerknes, Jacob 145– 146 Bjerknes, Vilhelm 22, 85, 87 Black Sea, invasive species in 211 black smoker 196 Bland, Ed 156 Blodgett, Katharine B. 69–70 Blue Wing (steamer) 46 bomb recovery 154–155 Boule, Marcellin 28 Bouquet de la Grye, Jean-Jacques-Anatole 2 Bowie, William 55 Boycott, Arthur E. 77

brachyuran crabs, at hydrothermal vents 197 Bradner, Hugh 144 Brahe, Tycho 148 Breder, Charles, Jr. 169 Bretherton, Francis 214 Brewer, Peter G. 188 brine pools, Red Sea 185–189 Britain. See Great Britain British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) 15, 29 British Broadcasting Company (BBC) 217 Broecker, Grace Carder 227 Broecker, Wallace “Wally” S. 70, 136, 170, 212, 227–230, 228, 236 Bronn, Gudrun 87, 89 Brown, Harrison 121 Brown, Neil L. 119, 172, 183–184 Bruce, William Speirs 2, 8, 9 Bullard, Edward “Teddy” Crisp 118, 147, 161, 165 Bunau-Varilla, Philippe 43 Buono, Giuseppe 129–130 buoyancy control (BC) vest 79–80 Bureau of Fisheries 45–48, 55, 88, 108 Bush, George H. W. 147 Bush, George W. 245 Butler, Philip 203 bycatch 82 Bythograea thermydron 197 cable-controlled underwater recovery vehicle (CURV) 154, 155

282    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Cabral, Manuel 25, 26–27 caissons 77–78 California. See also Scripps Institution of Oceanography krill fishing ban in 65 California Current 88, 144, 147 California State Game and Fish Commission 55, 88 Calyptogena magnifica 196 cameras ANGUS 192–195, 203 Deep Tow 190, 192, 203 first photos of giant squid 250 Canada in ICES 17–18 overfishing in 18 Canadian Geological Survey 165 Canal Record 48 Capricorn Expedition 105–106, 147 carbon, atmospheric 142–148, 211–212, 223–226, 228 carbon credits 211–212, 226 carbon sequestration, iron for 211–212, 223–226, 230 carbon sink 211, 223, 226 Carl (prince of Denmark) 19 Carlieu, Louis de 78 Carlsberg Ridge 141, 164–165 Carnegie expeditions 73–74, 87, 145 Carnegie Institution 85, 86, 87 Carson, Rachel 105–106, 118, 154, 201–202

Castillo de Bellver oil spill 220 cell differentiation xviii, xix Census for Marine Life 252 Center for Short-Lived Phenomena 219 Center of Documentation, Research, and Experimentation on Accidental Water Pollution 219 Central Laboratory, of ICES 18–23, 27 Chadwick, Beryl 169 Chain Deep 188 Challenger (space shuttle) xviii–xix Challenger Deep 126– 133, 127 Challenger expedition xix, 15, 29, 45, 55, 58, 61 and deepest dive 125–126, 129 and seafloor mapping 139 Chamberlain, Fred M. 2 Chance, Fenner 109 Charcot, Jean-Baptiste 9 Charles III (prince of Monaco) 28 Charnock, Henry 187–188 chemical dispersants, for oil spills 214–217, 220–221 chemical oceanography 227 chemosynthesis, at hydrothermal vents 194, 196–197, 233 Chervin, Robert 214 Chesapeake Bay 17 Chilowsky, Constantin 35 Chiroteuthis grimaldi 29 Chisholm, Sally “Penny” 225

chlorine, in salinity measurement 20 chlorophyll 225–226, 244 cholera 243–245 Christian Michelsens Institute 87 chromate, in salinity measurement 20, 182 chromosomes xviii Churchill, Owen 78 circulation cell theory 69–70, 71 Cirroteuthis umbellate 29 Clambake I 192–193 Clambake II 192, 195 clams, at hydrothermal vents 192–199 Clapham, A. Roy 52 Clark, Elizabeth 230 Clark, Ellen Virginia 145 Clark, Eugenie “Genie” 168–174 Cleghorn, John 15 climate change 142– 148, 211, 227–230, 229, 233–240, 250 Clinton, Bill 230 coastal habitat, destruction of 251– 252 Coast and Geodetic Survey, U.S. 48–49, 55, 165 Coast Guard 88 Cod Wars 235, 241– 246 Cody Award in Ocean Sciences 263 coelacanth 69, 82–90 Colladon, Daniel 37 colossal squid 250 Columbia (space shuttle) xviii–xix Columbia University 117, 136, 137–138, 142, 163, 260 Colwell, Jack 245 Colwell, Rita R. 180, 235, 236, 243, 243– 245

Index 283 commensal relationship 243 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) 201 compressed air illness 75–82 conductivity, in salinity measurements 172, 183–184 conductivity, temperature, and depth (CTD) 172, 183–184, 189 Conklin, E. G. 55 Conshelf I (Continental Shelf Station) 157 “constitution for the seas” 246 continental drift 33–34, 141–142, 163–168. See also plate tectonics continental shelf, and national rights 240–241 Continuous Plankton Recorder 63–64 convection 58, 165, 173, 188 conveyor belt, oceanic 227–230, 229 Cook, Frederick 11, 13–14, 85 Cook, James xviii–xix Cooper, Isabel 80 Copenhagen Normal Water 182–183, 184 copepods 98, 101–102 and cholera 243– 245 and diatoms 101–102 phytoplankton blooms and 98, 243–245 coring, seafloor 61–66, 161–162, 188–189 Coriolis, GaspardGustave de 22 Coriolis force 22–23, 61, 89, 135, 170 Corliss, Jack 192, 193 Cortelyou, George B. 3

Courtenay-Latimer, Marjorie 82–90 Cousteau, Jacques-Yves 122, 144, 156–157 innovations of 78, 95–96, 122, 125, 144 milestones of 96, 155 NOGI award to 264 Cousteau-Gagnan regulator 78, 95–96, 122, 125, 144 crabs, at hydrothermal vents 197, 202–203 Crafoord Prize in Geosciences 230 Crane, Jocelyn 81, 106 Crane, Kathleen 192, 195 Craven, John 155 Crease, Jim 188 Cromwell, Townsend “Townie” 137 Cromwell Current 137 crust oceanic, origin of 147, 163–168 Project Mohole and 160–163 cryosphere 237 CTBT. See Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty CTD. See conductivity, temperature, and depth Cucaracha Slide 44 currents Antarctic Circumpolar 172 Atlantic, Meteor studies of 58–66 California 88, 144, 147 convection 173 conveyer-belt description of 227–230, 229 Coriolis force and 22–23, 61, 89, 135, 170

Cromwell 137 density of 178 depth and 172– 173, 178 double 185–187 Earth rotation and 170–172, 171, 178–179, 186–187 Ekman transport of 22–23, 23, 89, 97 El Niño 97–102, 102, 103, 108 gyres 86, 135, 135 Humboldt 80, 98 Kuroshio 170–172 Gulf of Maine 47–48 radiocarbon measurements of 170 salinity and 178– 179 study by Stommel (Henry Melson) 170–173 turbidity 131, 138, 173 western boundary 135–136 westward intensification of 170–172, 171 CURV. See cablecontrolled underwater recovery vehicle CUSS-1 (oil industry ship) 161 Cyana (submersible) 200–202 Dalén, Nils Gustaf 34 Damant, Guybon C. C. 77 Damon, Paul E. 230 Dana expeditions 57 “Dandelion Patch” 195 Danenhower, Sloan 74 Davis, Robert H. 124 Davis, Russ 172, 234 Daymond, Jack 192 DDT 201–203

284    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Deacon, George E. R. 62, 100–101, 136 decompression sickness 75–82, 157 decompression tables 77–78 Deep Diving and Submarine Operations (Davis) 124 deep-sea diving. See diving Deep Sea Drilling Project 189 Deep Sea Research 111 Deep Tow (sonar and camera system) 190, 192, 203 Defant, Albert 53, 172 Degens, Egon 180, 188 Delaney, John 249 Denayrouse, Auguste 78 Denmark, in ICES 17–18 density of currents 178, 186–187 of water, calculation of 37 Densmore, C. Dana 187, 188 depth and currents 172– 173, 178 and salinity 172, 183–184 depth measurement by Albert I (prince of Monaco) 29 bathythermograph in 69, 69 by Bruce (William Speirs) 9 LIDAR and 137 mapping by Tharp (Maria) and Heezen (Bruce) 137–142 of Mariana Trench 125–126 sonar and 35–41 soundings of 9, 25, 125–126

detergent, for oil spills 214–217, 220–221 diatoms 101–102, 132 Dietz, Robert 121, 124–127, 132, 147 Discovery (research vessel) 188 Discovery (space shuttle) xviii–xix Discovery Deep 188 Discovery expeditions Antarctica 5, 6–8, 9 Discovery Investigations 62–65 Discovery II expeditions 62–65 Discovery Investigations 62–65 Dittmar, Wilhelm 182 diving advances in 117– 133 Aqua-Lung and 95–96, 125, 144 ballooning and 117–120 bathyscaphe and 121–133 bathysphere and 80–82, 81, 121– 122, 169 deepest (Challenger Deep) 126–133, 127 deepest humanoccupied vessel 154 development of xxi, 75–82 NOGI Award in 263–267 Valdivia expedition 120–121 wet suit for 117, 144 women’s records in 76, 124 diving bells 77–78 Dolphin Rise 139

dolphins and sonar 36 and underwater habitats 157 Donnelly, Jack 193 Dorsey, Herbert Grove 39 double currents 185– 187 double-hull tankers 222 Douglas, H. P. 52 Driesch, Hans xviii drilling at hydrothermal vents 188–190 Ixtoc I explosion 219–220 Project Mohole 160–163 seafloor coring 61–66, 161–162 Superdeep borehole 163 Drygalski, Erich von 2, 5, 8–9 Dubioteuthis physeteris 29 Duggar, B. M. 55 Duma, Frederick 122 “Dumbo” octopus 29 dynamic oceanography xxi–xxii, 70–72, 87, 170 Earle, Sylvia 76, 156–158, 157, 158, 169, 264 earthquakes 141, 190, 252 Earth rotation, and currents 170–172, 171, 178–179, 186– 187 East Pacific Rise 200– 204 echolocation 36 Eckart, Carl 105 ecosystem 52 Edison, Thomas 38 Edmond, John 192, 194–195 education, marine science xx

Index 285 Edward VII (king of Great Britain) 19 eel migration 56–57, 57 EEZ. See exclusive economic zone Einstein, Albert 148 Eisenhower, Dwight D. 133 Ekman, Vagn Walfrid 22–23, 61 Ekman transport of currents 22–23, 23, 61, 97 Eledonella diaphana 29 Ellesworth, Lincoln 72 El Niño 96, 97–102, 101, 102, 103, 108, 147 El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) 100, 102, 147 Elton, Charles 53, 63 Ely, Eugene 34 Endeavour (space shuttle) xviii–xix English Channel, oil spills in 213–218 ENSO. See El Niño Southern Oscillation Enteropneust 197 Estonia, in ICES 17–18 Ethmodiscus rex 132 Everest, Mount 118, 130 Ewing, William Maurice “Doc” 136–139, 138, 139, 142, 164 award named for 259–262 milestones of 98, 99 Stommel (Henry Melson) and 170 E. W. Scripps (research vessel) 88, 89, 105 exclusive economic zone (EEZ) 246 exotic species 211, 216–217 exploration vessels 153–159

Exploring the Deep Pacific (Raitt) 106 Exxon Valdez oil spill 221, 221–223 Falco, Albert 157 Falkland Islands 62–65 Farrington, John 201 Fathometer 39, 73 faults, transform 143, 166 Federov, Konstantin 172 fertilization (reproduction) xvii, xvii–xviii fertilization, iron 211–212, 223–226, 224, 230 fertilizer agricultural runoff 211 guano 98–102 Fessenden, Reginald A. 38–39 Fessenden oscillator 38–39 Fiddler Crabs of the World (Crane) 81 50 Years of Ocean Discovery (Winterer) 163, 168 Filchner, Wilhelm 34 Finland, in ICES 17–18 Finnish Hydrographic Service 55 Fish, Charles 108 Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. 88, 169, 203 Fisheries, Bureau of 45–48, 55, 88, 108 Fishes of the Gulf of Maine (Bigelow) 48 Fish Hawk (steamer) 47 fishing industry 1–2. See also overfishing fishing rights 235, 240–246 Fixing Climate: What Past Climate Changes Reveal about the

Current Threat—and How to Counter It (Broecker) 230 Fleming, John 145 Fleming, Richard Howell 88, 96 Fleuss, Henry Albert 78 Floating Marine Institute 104 Florestan I (prince of Monaco) 28 Florida, Clark’s research in 169 Florida Institute of Technology xx Florida State University 36 FNRS balloon 119–120 FNRS-2 bathyscaphe 122–123 FNRS-3 bathyscaphe 126 food chain 51 food webs xxii, 51, 51–54, 63–65, 108 foraminifera 87, 88, 228 Forchhammer, Georg 179–181 Forlanini, Enrico 4 fossil fish (coelacanth) 69, 82–90 fossil fuels 142, 147, 211. See also oil Foster, Dudley 195, 202 fouling, marine 108– 109 Fox, George E. 180 Fram expeditions by Amundsen (Roald) 14, 85 by Nansen (Fridtjof) 8, 11, 13, 19, 22, 58, 74, 85 Français expedition 9 France in ICES 15–16, 17–18 polar expeditions of 9 in Torrey Canyon oil spill 213–217

286    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Francheteau, Jean 204 Franklin, John 10–11 Franz Josef Land 19, 104 Fraser, Francis Charles 62 “freedom of the seas” 240 frogmen 144 Gagnan, Émile 78, 95–96, 96, 144 Galápagos Islands 80, 106, 226 Galápagos Rift 189– 200, 204 Galápagos Spreading Ridge 189 Galapagos: World’s End (Beebe) 80 Galathea expedition 105, 106 galatheid crabs, at hydrothermal vents 197, 202–203 ganoid scales 83 “Garden of Eden” 195 Garmannia nudum 33 gas adsorption, on surfaces 69–70 Gaussberg 9 Gauss expedition 6–7, 8–9 Geneva, Lake 37 Geochemical Ocean Section Study (GEOSECS) 170 Geographical Journal 65, 85 Geographical Review 242 Geographical Society of Lima 100 Geographical Society of Paris 41 Geological Society of America 88 Geological Society of America Bulletin 165 geologic oceanography xxi Geologiya Moray (Klenova) 104

geology, marine 104– 105 GEOSECS. See Geochemical Ocean Section Study geosynchronous stabilizers 164 Gerard, Robert 136 Germany in ICES 17–18 polar expeditions of 4–5, 6–7, 9 giant squid 29, 250 Gjøa expedition 9–13, 12 glaciers, retreat of 234– 240, 251 gliders, autonomous ocean 172 global positioning system (GPS) 134, 164 global warming 142, 228–230, 234–240, 250 Glomar Challenger (drill ship) 162 Gobiosoma nudum 33 Goldberg, Edward 170, 178, 201–203 golden years of oceanography 153 Goldman, Rhoda H. 258 Goldman, Richard N. 258 Goldman Environmental Prize 258–259 Goodchild, Graham 217 Goosen, Hendrik 82–83 Gordon, Louis 192 GPS. See global positioning system Graham, Michael 48 Grampus (ship) 34, 45–48 Grassle, Fred 196 Grave, Caswell 2 Gray, Hawthorne C. 118

Gray, Robert xviii Great Barrier Reef 53 Great Britain in Cod Wars 235, 241–246 in ICES 15–18 polar expeditions of 4–5, 6–8, 9 in Torrey Canyon oil spill 213–217 Great Lakes, invasive species in 211 Great War. See World War I Great Waters (Hardy) 63–64 greenhouse effect 142 Gregory, William King 112 Grier, Mary 109 Griffin, Donald 36 Griffin, J. J. 202 Grimaldi family. See Albert I (prince of Monaco) Grimalditeuthis richardi 29 Grimpoteuthis 29 Grotius, Hugo de 240 Guanay Cormorant 98–101 guano and guano birds 98–102 Gulbransen, Earl A. 73 Gulf Stream 89, 106– 107, 135, 170 Gutenberg, Beno 72, 141 gyre 86, 135, 135 habitats, underwater 156–158 HAG. See harmful algal blooms Haldane, John Burdon Sanderson 77 Haldane, John S. 4, 77 Hale, Ralph 40 Half-Mile Down (Beebe) 82 Halliburton Company 162

Index 287 Hamilton, Edwin 147 Hammond, Earle D. 105 Hamon, Bruce 119, 172 Hansen, Godfred 12 Hansen, Helmer 13 Hardy, Alister Clavering 51, 52, 53, 62–65, 63 Harmer, Sidney 62–65 harmful algal blooms 199, 200, 244 Harriman, E. H. 24 Hart, Joseph 225 Harvard’s Center for Population Studies 145 Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology 45, 108, 109 Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain 125 Hayes, Harvey 48 Health of the Oceans, The (Goldberg) 201 Heath, Edward 244– 245 Heezen, Bruce 117, 119, 136, 138–142, 140 helium-oxygen mix, for diving 78 Helland-Hansen, Björn 58, 87, 145 Hemingway, Ernest 112 Henry, Dora 109 Hensen, Matthew 13 herring, food web for 51, 52 Hertwig, Oskar xvii Hess, Harry 121, 154, 160, 165 Heydt, Anna von der 237 Heyerdahl, Thor 98, 158–159, 159 high nutrient, low chlorophyll (HNLC) zones 225–226 Hill, Maurice 163–164 Hirondelle (ship) 28, 44–48 Hirondelle II (ship) 29

History of Oceanography, A (Schlee) 58, 74 Hjort, Johan 5, 34 HNLC zones 225–226 Hollister, Gloria 81, 82, 106 Holmes, Arthur 141, 165 hot spots 165–166 hot springs 177. See also hydrothermal vents Houot, Georges 126 Hudson, Henry xviii Hudson Bay Company 55, 86 Huggett, R. J. 202 Hulbe, Christine 237 Humboldt Current 80, 98 Huntsman, A. G. 55 hydrogen bombs, recovery of 154–155 hydrogen sulfide, at hydrothermal vents 194 Hydrolab 158 hydrothermal vents chemical heat production at 252 chemosynthesis at 194, 196–197, 233 discovery of xx, 177, 189–204 dynamics of 196–197 of East Pacific Rise 200–204 of Galápagos Rift 189–200, 204 life at xx, 177, 192–204, 194, 195 mineral deposits at 188–189, 200–202 Red Sea anomalies and 185–189 IAPSO. See International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans Iberian Abyssal Plain 135

icebergs Coriolis force and 22 melting of 233– 240 sonar detection of 33, 38–40 Titanic sinking by 35–36 ice floe 5–6, 40, 74 Iceland fishing/water rights of 235, 236–240 in ICES 17–18 ICES. See International Council for the Exploration of the Sea ice shelves, melting and collapse of 233–240 igneous basalts, on seafloor 164 IGY. See International Geophysical Year Indian Ocean international expedition in 147, 163–164, 187 mapping of 142 indicator species 108 Influence of Sea Power upon History (Mahan) 43 “inner space” 156 Institute of Oceanographic Sciences 184 intelligence, oceanographic 95 Intergovernmental Oceanographic Committee 201 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 233–234 intermediate water 187 International Association for the Physical Sciences of the Oceans (IAPSO) 184

288    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science International Congress on Oceanography 164 International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution 212 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) 2, 14–23 current membership of 17–18 establishment of 2, 14–18 as marine science model 17 standards and measurements of 18–23, 37, 182–184, 184 International Decade of Ocean Exploration 166–168, 190 International Deep Sea Drilling Project 165 International Game Fish Association 112 International Geographic Congress 29 International Geophysical Year (IGY) 144, 160, 163, 166–167, 187 International Ice Patrol 55 International Indian Ocean Expedition 147, 163–164, 187 International Institute of Peace 29 International Oceanographic Commission (IOC) 147 International Oceanographic Tables 183–184 International Tank Owners Pollution

Federation Limited (ITOPF) 220 International Whaling Commission 65, 250 Inuit people 11, 13–14, 40 invasive species 211, 216–217 Invisible Seas (film) 245 IOC. See International Oceanographic Commission ion analysis 184 IPCC. See Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Ireland, in ICES 17–18 iron fertilization 211– 212, 223–226, 224, 230 “iron hypothesis” 224 Isachsen, Gunner 53 Iselin, Columbus O’Donnell 108, 109, 145–146 isohaline maps 172 isotopes 70, 136 ITOPF. See International Tank Owners Pollution Federation Limited Iwo Jima, Battle of 110 Ixtoc I drilling rig, explosion of 219–220 Jackson, Frederick 19 Jannasch, Holger W. 197 jellyfish at hydrothermal vents 197 invasive species 211 Jennings, Feenan 168 JIM suit 76 Johannesson, Olafur 242–245 Johansen, Hjalmar 19, 85 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur

Foundation Fellows 257–258 Johnson, Carl 105 Johnson, Lyndon B. 162, 167–168 Johnson, Martin Wiggo 88, 96, 146 Johnson, Philip C. 106 JOIDES. See Joint Oceanographic Institutions Deep Earth Sampling Joint Oceanographic Institutions Deep Earth Sampling (JOIDES) 162, 189 Joint Panel on Oceanographic Tables and Standards 184 Joubin, Louis 29 Journal of Geophysical Research 165 Journal of Ocean Engineering 184 Juteau, Thierry 202– 203 Kadar, Susan 188 Kaiser Wilhelm II Land 5, 9 Kannemeyeria simocephalus 82–83 Karluk expedition 39– 40, 41 Keeling, Charles David 117, 142–148, 228 Keeling Curve 142–148 Kelley, Deborah 252 Kellogg, W. N. 36 Kemp, Stanley 62 Kennedy, John F. 162 Kennel, Charles F. 148 Kipfer, Paul 117, 119–120 Klenova, Maria Vasil’yevna 98, 104 Klenova Seamount 104 Klenova Valley 104 Knauss, John 132 Knorr (ship) 39, 192 Knudsen, Martin 19– 23, 182

Index 289 Kofoid, Charles A. 25–27 Kohler, Robert 36 Konstantinou, Aya 168 Kon-Tiki (raft) 159 Kotzebue, Otto von 185 krill 65 Kristof, Emory 192, 195 Krümmel, Otto 5 Kubodera, Tsunemi 250 Kuenen, Philip Henry 99 Kulp, J. Laurence 201 Kunen, Steven M. 230 Kunzig, Robert 230 Kuroshio Current 170–172 Kvale, Anders 99 Lady with a Spear (Clark) 169 La Jolla, California, as research base 26–30 Lake, Simon 73 Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania 101 Lambert, Alexander 78 Lambertsen, Christian 78 Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit 78 Lamont, Thomas W. 99 Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory 117, 137–138, 142, 163, 260 La Monte, Francesca Raimonde 112 Lamont Geological Observatory 136, 137–138, 139 Langévin, Paul 35 Langmuir, Irving 69– 70, 70, 71 La Niña 102 Larsen, Carl Anton 4–6, 62, 235–236 Larsen, Henry 73 Larsen Ice Shelf 233– 240, 238–239

Last Voyage of the Karluk, The (Bartlett and Hale) 40 Latimeria chalumnae 84 Latvia, in ICES 17–18 Laughton, Tony 164 Laurentic (wreck) 76–77 law of the sea 240–246 Law of the Sea Convention 246 lemon sharks 169 Leopold III (king of Belgium) 120 Le Pichon, Xavier 156, 166 Lepidoteuthis grimaldi 29 Le Prieur, Yves 36, 78 Lerner, Helen 106–112 Lerner, Michael 106– 112 Lessepian migration 43 Lesseps, Ferdinand de 41–43 Lewis, Edward 184 Libby, Willard 201 Lichte, Hugo 37, 37, 40–41 LIDAR. See light detection and ranging light detection and ranging (LIDAR) 137 Lill, Gordon 160, 161 Lillie, Frank R. 53, 54–58 Limbaugh, Conrad “Connie” 144 Limited Test Ban Treaty 201 limiting nutrient, iron as 224–226 limpets, at hydrothermal vents 197 Lindström, Adolf Henrik 13 Lister, Clive 189 Lithuania, in ICES 17–18 Little Green Laboratory at the Cove 26–30 Lohse, Detlef 237 Loma (Scripps yacht) 26–27

London Naval Treaty 72–73 Loosanoff, Victor 70 Los Angeles, as research base 24–25 Lost City 252 Louderback, George 145 Lulu (ship) 155, 192, 194, 196 Lund, Anton 12 Luzon, Philippines 110 Lyman, John 132 MacArthur Fellows Program 257–258 Macdonald, Ken 190, 200 Mackintosh, Neil Alison 62 Magellan Strait 106 magma 165–166, 196–197 magnetism, 12–13, 165 MagnusonStevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act of 1976 246 Mahan, Thayer 43 Maine, Gulf of 34, 45, 45–48, 46, 47, 58 Makaroff, Stepan Osipovich 185–187 malaria 41, 44 Manni (Inuit) 13 mantle 141, 160–163, 190 MAR. See Mid-Atlantic Ridge Mariana Trench 106, 125–133, 127, 141, 153 Marine Biological Association of San Diego 26, 27–30 Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole) xvii, 54–58, 169. See also Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

290    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science marine biology xx–xxi marine geology 104– 105 Marine Life Research Program (1947) 147 marine protected area 3 marine reserve 3 marine sanctuary 3, 177, 242 marine science future of 249–252 v. oceanography xx Marine Sciences Act (1966) 167 Marr, James W. S. 62 Martin, John 215, 223–226 Mary Sears (survey ship) 96–97, 111 Mason, Max 57 Mason, Ronald 165 Massachusetts. See Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution masses, water 58, 61, 135 Mast, S. O. 2 Matthews, Drummond “Drum” Hoyle 154, 163–165 Maud expedition 85–87 Maurice Ewing Medal 259–262 Maury, Matthew Fontaine 29, 139 Maxwell, Arthur E. 147 McKenzie, Don 166 medical knowledge, marine studies and xvii–xviii Mediterranean Sea, Suez Canal and 41–43 meiosis xviii Menard, Henry William 99, 131, 147, 166 Merriam, John C. 55 Merz, Alfred 52, 58–61 Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni 250

Meteor expedition 54, 58–66, 87, 108, 139, 172, 188 Michael Sars (ship) 58 microbial fuel cells 249–250 micronutrients, in seawater 225 Microphis brachyurus lineatus 33 Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) 61, 138–142 MidPac expedition 147 Milankovitch cycles 233 milestone time lines 1901–1910 2–5 1911–1920 34–37 1921–1930 52–53 1931–1940 70–73 1941–1950 96–99 1951–1960 118– 121 1961–1970 154– 157 1971–1980 178– 181 1981–1990 212– 215 1991–2000 234– 237 military research xxi, 33 Miller, Arthur “Rocky” 187 mineral deposits, at hydrothermal vents 188–189, 200–202 Mir I and Mir II (submersibles) 154 Mitchell, Bruce 242, 245 mitosis xviii Mohole, Project 159– 163 Mohorovicˇic´, Andrija 160 Mohorovicic seismic discontinuity 160 Mohr, Friedrich 182 Mohr method, of salinity measurement 182

Monaco, oceanographic research of 28–29, 186 Monitor (Civil War ship) 177, 178, 242 monitoring network, ocean-wide 170 Morgan, John 166 Mori, Kyoichi 250 Morley, Lawrence 154, 165 Morning (rescue ship) 6–8, 9 Mosby, Haakon 53 Moses Sole fish 172 Moss Landing Marine Laboratories 225– 226 Mote, William 169 moulin 236–237 Munidopsis 197 Munk, Walter xxi, 88–89, 135, 146, 160, 161 Munns, Robert “Munnsie” Guy 188 Murphy, Robert Cushman 97–98, 100, 101 Murray, James W. 188 Murray, John 5, 15, 16, 34, 45–46, 126, 253 Mussel Watch 203 “mystery interval,” in climate 230 Mytilidae 197 Nansen, Fridtjof Amundsen (Roald) and 11, 12 Bjerknes (Vilhelm) and 87 Central Laboratory (ICES) and 19, 21–22 Fram expeditions of 11, 74, 85 milestones of 52, 72 Nansen bottles 146, 183

Index 291 Nares, George xix NAS. See National Academy of Sciences National Academy of Sciences (NAS) 55, 57, 160, 162 National Council of Marine Resources and Engineering 167 National Geographic 192, 195 National Medal of Science 230, 245 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 39, 48–49, 153, 153, 158, 203 National Research Council 106, 160, 168, 211 National Science Foundation (NSF) 153, 160, 163, 189, 235, 245 national water rights 235, 240–246 national wildlife refuges 1, 2–3 NATO. See North Atlantic Treaty Organization Natural Environmental Research Council of the British Antarctic Survey 64 Natural History 140, 227 Nature (journal) 57, 165, 166, 187, 188 Nautile (submersible) 153–154 Nautilus (nuclear submarine) 74–75, 127 Nautilus expedition 72–75, 75, 87 Naval Hydrographic Office 55, 109 Naval Oceanographic Office 109 naval research xxi, 33

Naval Research, Office of 142, 145 Naval Research Laboratory 54, 109 Naval Weapons Plant 132 Navy Electronics Laboratory (NEL) 124, 127, 147 Navy Marine Mammal Program 157 Nekton, Project 126 NEL. See Navy Electronics Laboratory neoprene 144 Nerine (trawler) 83 Nero Deep 128, 130 Netherlands, in ICES 17–18 Neumann, Conrad 187 Neumayer, Georg von 12, 97 New Orleans Grand Isle (NOGI) Award 263–267 Newton, Isaac 148 New York Times 40, 133, 219 New York Zoological Society (NYZS) 79, 80, 169 Next Generation Ocean 249 Nichols, John 112 Nier, Alfred O. 73 Niino, Hiroshi 104 Nimitz, Chester 111 nitroglycerine 62 Nixon, Richard M. 168, 179 NOAA. See National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOGI (New Orleans Grand Isle) Award 263–267 Nordenskjöld, Otto 4–6 normal seawater 182– 183, 184

Norman, J. R. 84 Normark, Bill 202–203 North, Wheeler J. 217–218 North Atlantic currents of 58–59 fishing/water rights in 235, 241–246 ICES and 2, 14–23 mapping of 141– 142 overfishing in 1–2, 15–18, 21, 251 salinity of 180– 181 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) 241, 244 Northeast Passage 85, 104 North Pole, race to 11, 13–14, 85 North Sea Convention 15 Northwest Passage, in Arctic 4, 9–13, 12, 85 Norway in ICES 14–23 polar expeditions of 9–14 Norwegian North Atlantic Expedition 182 Norwegian Polar Institute 89 Norwegian Sea 58 NSF. See National Science Foundation nuclear fallout 201–202 NYZS. See New York Zoological Society ocean basins, plate tectonics and 166, 167 Oceanographer Canyon 191 Oceanographic Museum of Monaco 28–29, 186

292    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science oceanography biological xx chemical 227 disciplines involved in 54, 96, 170 dynamic xxi–xxii, 70–72, 87, 170 future of 249–252 geologic xxi golden years of 153 v. marine science xx “Oceanography” (Bigelow) 57 Oceans, The (Sverdrup et. al) 88 octopus 29 Octopus alberti 29 Odyssey oil spill 220 Office of Naval Research 142, 145 Ohgushi 36, 78 oil 211–223 deposits of 54–55 drilling for 161– 163, 219–220 in ocean, sources of 218 Oil in the Sea (National Academies) 222 Oil Pollution Act 222–223 oil spills 211–223 Amoco Cadiz 219, 220 biological effects of 217–218 Castillo de Bellver 220 cleanup of 214– 217, 220–221 emergency preparedness for 220–221 Exxon Valdez 221, 221–223 Ixtoc I explosion 219–220 Odyssey 220 Tampico Maru 218–219

Torrey Canyon 213–217, 220 Okinawa, Battle of 110–111 Ollitrault, Michel 234 Omond, Robert 9 Omond House 9 One-Atmosphere Armored Dive Suit 76 ophiolites 163 Opossum pipefish 33 Orcadas 9 organic solvent, for oil spills 215 Orr, Phil 227 Osborn, Henry Fairfield 80 oscillator, Fessenden 38–39 overfishing xxii, 1–3, 14–18, 235, 251 Owen (frigate) 164 oxygen rebreathing equipment 78 oxygen saturation 157 oyster harvest 17 ozone hole 233 Pacific Ocean El Niño and 97–102, 101, 102, 103, 147 Panama Canal and 33, 41–49 Scripps Institution and 24–30 Packard, Francis 214 Panama Canal 33, 41–49, 42–43, 44 Pardo, Arvid 241 Parker, Robert 166 passive sonar 136 Patterson, Claire 225 PBDEs. See polybrominated diphenyl ethers PCBs. See polychlorinated biphenyls Peary, Josephine 13 Peary, Robert 11, 11, 13, 13–14, 85

Pelecanus thagus 98–101 Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge 1, 3 penguins 8, 9, 233 Peress, Joseph 53 Perlman, David 192, 195–196 Persey expeditions 104 Peru, El Niño studies in 97 Peruvian Booby 98–101 Peruvian Guano Administration Company 97, 100, 108 Peruvian Pelican 98–101 pesticides 201–203, 211 Peters, Homer 26 Pettersson, Otto 14, 24, 44–48 Phalacrocorax bouganvillii 98–101 Philippines 110 Philippine Sea 57 phytoplankton and cholera 243– 245 El Niño and 97– 98, 100, 101 iron fertilization and 211–212, 223–226, 224 Piccard, Auguste 98, 117–125 Piccard, Jacques 117, 121, 122–133 Piccard, Marie-Claude 124 Pikford, Grace 105, 106 pillow larva 189, 193 Pisces II (minisub) 154 plankton and cholera 243– 245 El Niño and 97–102 iron fertilization and 211–212, 223–226, 224 mobility of 126

Index 293 in seafloor coring 61–66 study by Hardy (Alister Clavering) 63–65 study by Sears (Mary) 96, 101, 108–109, 111 plastic debris 203 plate tectonics boundaries and mechanisms in 143 major active features of 168 ocean crust and 147, 163–168 oceanographic research and 153, 177 Red Sea anomalies and 188 rift valley and 140–142 seafloor spreading and 165–166 Wegener’s theory and 33–34 Wilson Cycle and 166, 167 Plexiglas 121–122 Point Loma Laboratory 88–89 Poland, in ICES 17–18 polar exploration 4–14 Antarctic 4–6, 9, 235–236 Belgica 9, 11–12 Discovery 5, 6–8, 9 Français 9 Gauss 6–7, 8–9 Gjøa 9–13, 12 Karluk 39–40, 41 Maud 85–87 Nautilus 72–75 race to North Pole 11, 13–14, 85 race to South Pole 14, 85 Scotia 8, 9 Polar Front, Antarctic 6–7, 8

pollution 178, 201–203 iron fertilization for 211–212, 223–226, 224 oil spills 211–223 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) 203 polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) 201–203 Portugal, in ICES 17–18 positioning system dynamic 159 global 134, 164 potash, and diving 78 Powelson, Dorothy M. 245 Practical Salinity Scale 184 “precarious miscellany” 160 PRETOMA 174 Prince Albert I Medal 259 Princess Alice (ship) 29, 58 Princess Alice II (ship) 29 Principles of Physical Geology (Holmes) 141 Proudman, Joseph 145–146 radio acoustic ranging (R.A.R.) 59 radiocarbon measurements 170 radioisotopes 70, 136 Raff, Arthur 165 Ra I and Ra II (papyrus vessels) 159, 159 Rainier (prince of Monaco) 259 Raitt, Helen 106 rebreather, potash 78 Rechnitzer, Andreas 128, 129 recompression chamber 76–77

Redfield, Alfred C. 71 Red Sea anomalies of 185–189 Suez Canal and 41–43 Vitiaz expedition in 185–186 Reed, Walter 41 Reed, William 108 remote-operated vehicle (ROV) 154, 249 research whaling 250– 251 Resolution (drill ship) 162 Revelle, Ellen 105, 147 Revelle, Roger 117, 142, 145–147, 146 and Project Mohole 160, 161 Sears (Mary) and 109, 111 and women at sea 105–106 Rhodaliid siphonophores 197 Richardson, Lewis Fry 38, 172 Richter, Charles T. 72, 141 Ridgeway, Robert 99–100 Riedel, William 161 Riftia pachyptila 196 rift valleys 140–142, 165, 189–200, 204 Risebrough, Robert W. 202 Ristvedt, Peder 13 Ritchie, G. S. 126 Ritter, William Emerson 24–30 Ritter Hall 58 Roaring Forties 4, 60–61 Robert L. and Bettie P. Cody Award in Ocean Sciences 263 Rockefeller, John D. 54–55, 87

294    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Rockefeller Foundation 54–58 Roger Revelle (research vessel) 235 Roosevelt (ship) 13, 40 Roosevelt, Theodore 3, 4, 43 Rose, Ruth 80 Rose, Wickliffe 54 “Rose Garden” 196 Ross, David 188 Ross, James Clark 12 Ross, Murdock 71 Rossby, Carl-Gustaf 145–146, 170 Rossby, Thomas 172 Rossi, Rita. See Colwell, Rita R. Ross Ice Shelf 239 rotation, of Earth, and currents 170–172, 171, 178–179, 186– 187 Rouquayrol, Benoît 78 ROV. See remoteoperated vehicle Royal Geographical Society 174 Royal Society of Arts 124 runoff, agricultural 211 Ruser, Hans 5 Russia (Soviet Union) drilling project of 160, 163 in ICES 17–18 submersibles of 154 salinity maps 171 salinity measurements 178–184 conductivity 172, 183–184 Forchhammer method of 179– 181 Knudsen (ICES) method of 18–23, 182 Mohr method of 182

in parts per million (ppm) 183 in parts per thousand (ppt) 20, 180 Practical Salinity Scale 184 salinometer 182–183 sampling standards 18–23, 182–184 sanctuary, marine 3, 177, 242 San Diego, as research base 25–30 San Diego Tribune-Sun 105 San Diego Trough 161 San Francisco (nuclear submarine), wreck of 133–134, 137 San Francisco Chronicle 192, 195–196 Santa Mariana (ship) 128 Sargasso Sea 56–57, 57, 106, 170 Sargent, Grace “Peter” 105 Sargent, Marston 146 Sars, Michael 17 “save the beaches” 215 Scandinavian Naturalists Association 15 Schlee, Susan 58, 74 Schlick, E. Otto 4 Schmidt, Johannes 5, 37, 53, 57 Schmitz, Barbara 237 Schott, Wolfgang 61 Schroeder, William C. 48 Schulert, Arthur R. 201 Schweigger, Erwin 97, 100, 101 Science (journal) 36, 80, 99–100, 174, 213, 228 Sclater, John G. 189 Scorpion (nuclear submarine) 133 Scotia expedition 8, 9

Scotland in ICES 15 polar expedition of 8, 9 Scott, Robert Falcon 2, 3, 5, 6–8, 14, 34, 62 Scripps (purse seiner) 55, 145, 146 Scripps, Edward Willis “E. W.” 25–30, 72, 145 Scripps, Ellen Browning 25–30, 58, 145 Scripps, Robert Paine 72, 87–88 Scripps, Virginia 25 Scripps Institution for Biological Research of the University of California 30, 54 Scripps Institution of Oceanography Clark (Eugenie “Genie”) and 169 Cody Award of 263 establishment of 24–30 expansion of 54– 55, 146 in hydrothermal vent discovery 190–204 in International Indian Ocean Expedition 163 in Project Mohole 160–163 Revelle (Roger) and 117, 145–147 Sverdrup (Harald U.) and 87–88, 146 women and 105– 112 Scripps Institution of Oceanography: Probing the Oceans, 1936 to 1976 161–162 scuba xxi, 78–80, 96, 117, 144

Index 295 scurvy 6–7, 11 sea anemones, at hydrothermal vents 197 Sea Around Us, The (Carson) 105 seafloor. See also specific features coring studies of 61–66, 161–162, 188–189 life on xx, 177, 192–204, 194, 195, 252 mapping of 117, 133–142, 137, 138 origin of oceanic crust and 163– 168 plate tectonics and 141–142, 153 positioning of submerged vessels on 133–135 vessels for exploring 153– 156, 177 seafloor spreading 165–166 Sealab I 157 Sealab II 157 sea-level rise 251, 252 “Sea Monsters and Deep Sea Sharks” (Clark) 172 Sears, Mary xxi, 96–97, 101, 108–111, 125 sea-surface elevation 134, 135, 170 sea urchins, reproductive studies of xvii, xvii–xviii, xix seismic discontinuity, Project Mohole and 160–163 Seismicity of the Earth (Gutenberg and Richter) 141 self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. See scuba

Semtner, Albert 214 Serena (schooner) 87 Seven Miles Down (Piccard) 123–124, 125 Sewell, Seymour 145– 146 Shackleton, Ernest 5, 5, 6–8, 62 shark(s) xxii, 168–174 shark fin soup 174 shark repellant 172– 173 Shepard, Elizabeth 105 Shepard, Francis 99 Shinkai 6500 (submersible) 154 shipping and invasive species 211, 216–217 and oil spills 211–223 shipwrecks Ballard and 197 Laurentic 76–77 Titanic 39 Shor, Elizabeth Noble 105, 161–162 Shumaker, Lawrence 128, 129 Silent Spring (Carson) 201–202 silver nitrate, in salinity measurement 20, 181–182 Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science 63 Skate expedition 127 Smith, Edward Hanson 104 Smith, James Leonard Brierley 84 Sobral, J. M. 5 SOFAR 125, 172 sonar active v. passive 136 ANGUS 192–195, 203

Deep Tow 190, 192, 203 development of xxi, 33, 35–41 Soule, Floyd 73–74 sound, speed of, through water 37, 38 sound fixing and ranging. See SOFAR sounding 9, 25, 125– 126 South Atlantic currents of 58–66 mapping of 142 Southern Ocean Discovery Investigations in 62–65 HNLC zones in 226 polar expeditions in 4–14 seafloor life in 252 Southern Oscillation 100, 102, 147 South Georgia Island 62 South Pole, race to 14, 85 sovereignty, and sea 240–246 Soviet Union. See Russia space exploration, marine studies and xviii–xix Spain, in ICES 17–18 speed of sound, through water 37, 38 Spencer F. Baird (ship) 105–106, 161 Sperry, Elmer 5 Spiess, Fritz 58–61, 181, 200 Spilhaus, Athelstan 69, 72 Spitsbergen-Greenland ridge 74 spreading of seafloor 165–166 Sproul, Robert Gordon 147

296    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Sputnik (satellite) 160 Squalus (submarine) 78 squid 29, 250 Stakes, Debra 192 standards, water sample 18–23, 182–184 standard seawater 182– 183, 184 Standard Seawater Service 182, 184 Stefansson, Vilhjalmur 39–40 Steinbeck, John 161–162 stem cells xviii Stemming the Tide (NRC) 211 Stenhouse, Joseph Russell 62 Stewart, James R. 264 Stommel, Henry Melson 89, 135–136, 153, 170–173, 171, 203 strontium-90 201 Sturm, Charles 37 submarines Nautilus expedition 72–75, 75 positioning on seafloor 133–135 sonar detection of xxi, 33, 38–40 under-ice studies by 69 Submarine Signal Company 38–39 submersibles 153–156, 177 Alvin 153–156, 191–204 bathyscaphe 117, 121–133, 177, 191 bathysphere 80– 82, 81, 106, 117, 121–122 deepest humanoccupied vessel 154 Trieste (deepest dive) 117, 123– 133, 153 underwater habitats 156–158

Suess, Hans 147 Suez Canal 41–43, 185–186 Sula variegata 98–101 sulfur, at hydrothermal vents 194 Sunshine, Project 201 Superdeep borehole 163 supertankers, oil 219 sverdrup (unit of measurement) 89 Sverdrup, Harald U. 85–89, 86 depth-current studies of 172– 173 milestones of 71, 96 in Nautilus expedition 72–75 and Scripps Institution 87–88, 105, 146 and Woods Hole 55 in World War II xxi, 88–89 Sverdrup, Otto Neumann 13, 85 Swallow, John Crossley 135–136, 172, 173, 188 Sweden in ICES 14–18, 17–18 polar expeditions of 4–6, 8–9, 9 swell shark 169 swim fins 78 swordfish 112 Sykes, Lynn 156 Tailliez, Phillippe 122 Tampico Maru oil spill 218–219 tankers, oil 218–223 Tansley, Arthur G. 52 tectonics. See plate tectonics Tee-Van, John 81 Tektite II 157–158

telephone, underwater 128–133 temperature at hydrothermal vents 189–204 at Red Sea anomalies 185– 189 and salinity 172, 183–184 Terra Nova (rescue ship) 8, 9 Tharp, Marie 117, 118, 119, 137–142, 165 thermocline 97–98, 100, 101, 132, 172 thermohaline circulation 58, 61, 136, 172, 187, 227–230, 229 Thomas, Albert 162 Thomson, C. Wyville xix Thomson, Frank xix Thoulet, Julien 2, 29 Thresher (nuclear submarine) 133 Tibby, Emmy 105 Tibby, Richard 105 Titanic discovery of wreck 39 sinking of 35–36 titration 20, 181–183 Tonga trench 106 Torrey, Harry B. 25 Torrey Canyon oil spill 213–217, 220 tow net 63–64 trade winds, and El Niño 97–102, 103 transform faults 143, 166 Trask, Parker 55 Tremoctopus hirondelli 29 tributyltin 203 Trieste bathyscaphe 117, 123–133, 153 Trieste II bathyscaphe 123 triggerfish 169 Truesdale, Bob 192 Truman, Harry 240

Index 297 tsunami 252 tubeworms, at hydrothermal vents 194, 195, 196–199 turbidity currents 131, 138, 173 turbulence 172 Turekian, Karl 203 Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (Verne) 29, 73, 78 Udall, Stewart 145 Ulrik, Harald 88 undercurrents 185–187 underwater habitats 156–158 Underwater Society of America 264 underwater swimmers 144 UNESCO. See United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization United Kingdom. See also Great Britain in ICES 17–18 United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea 241 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 146, 147, 201 United States Geological Survey 55 University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) 234, 235 University of California 24–30, 54–55, 144 University of Connecticut xx University of Hawaii 163 University of Maine xx University of Maryland 172, 243, 245

University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science xx University of South Carolina xx University of Washington xx, 58 UNOLS. See University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System UQC (underwater telephone) 128–133 Urey, Harold Clayton 70 Uruguay (rescue ship) 6, 9 USSR Academy of Sciences 104 Valdivia expedition 120–121 Vampyroteuthis infernalis 105 van Andel, Jerry 192, 193 Van Dover, Cindy L. 156 Vaughan, Thomas Wayland 54–58, 86–87, 145 Vema (research ship) 139 Verne, Jules xix–xx, 29, 73, 78 Versluis, Michel 237 Vibrio cholerae 243–245 video, underwater 124 Vine, Allyn 153 Vine, Fred 154, 164– 165 vitamine 11 Vitiaz and the Pacific Ocean (Makaroff) 186 Vitiaz (Vityaz) expedition 132, 185–186 Voeikov, Alexander Ivanovich 185 volcanoes 165–166, 189–191

Volchok, Herbert L. 201 Von Herzen, Richard 192 Wadati, Kiyoo 99 Waksman, Selman Abraham 118 Walker, Gilbert Thomas 100 Walsh, Don 121, 128–133 Walsh, John 213 Wandank (ship) 128– 133 Wangenheim, Julias 26 water density, calculation of 37 water masses 58, 61, 135 water rights 235, 240–246 water sample standards 18–23, 182–184 Watson, David Meredith Seares 84 WAVES 109 Waves and Beaches: The Dynamics of the Ocean Surface (Bascom) 162 Webb, Doug 172, 234 Wegener, Alfred 33–34, 34–35, 36 Weinberg, Samantha 83 Weismann, August xviii Welsh, William W. 46, 48 Wesly, Claude 157 western boundary current 135–136 westward intensification, of currents 170–172, 171 wet suit 117, 144 Wexler, Harry 144 whale falls 233, 252 whaling industry 62–65, 250–251 Wharton, William 186 White, Errol Ivor 84 White, Robert 164 white smoker 196

298    Twentieth-Century Science |Marine Science Whitley Gold Award 174 Whitney, Frederick C. 72 WHOI. See Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Wiik, Gustav Juel 13 wildlife refuges 1, 2–3 Wilkins, George Hubert 72–75 Wilkins, Suzanne 73 Williams, Dave 192 Williams, Kathleen 109 William Scoresby (ship) 62–65 Willm, Pierre-Henri 126 Wilson, Edward Adrian 6 Wilson, Eric 82–83 Wilson, John Tuzo 155, 165–166 Wilson, T. R. S. 188 Wilson Cycle 166, 167 Winterer, Edward L. 163 Wisting, Oscar 86 Woese, Carl 180 women. See also specific explorers and scientists diving records of 76, 124 history at sea 104–112 Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES) 109

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) establishment of 54–58, 87 first research vessel of xviii–xix goals of 58 in hydrothermal vent discovery 190–204 in International Indian Ocean Expedition 163 and Nautilus expedition 72 Sears (Mary) and 108 Stommel (Henry Melson) and 170 Titanic discovery by 39 women and 104 Woodward, Alfred Smith 84 “Work of the Royal Research Ship Discovery in the Dependencies of the Falkland Islands” (Hardy) 65 World Ocean Floor 142 World War I 33, 39 World War II 95–97 oil contamination in 218–219 Revelle (Roger) and 146

Sears (Mary) in xxi, 96–97, 109– 111, 125 Stommel (Henry Melson) in 170 Sverdrup (Harald U.) in 88–89 worms, at hydrothermal vents 194, 195, 196–199 Worthington, L. Valentine 135–136, 173 Worzel, J. Lamar 170 Wunsch, Carl 170 Wüst, Georg 52, 58–61, 59, 135, 173 Wyman, Jeffries 170 Wyrtki, Klaus 173 yellow fever 41, 44 Yoke Peter (jet), salvage of 124 Younger Dryas period 227 zebra mussel 211 ZoBell, Claude 105 zooplankton and cholera 243– 245 El Niño and 98, 100, 101 iron fertilization and 223–226 mobility of 126 study by Sears (Mary) 108