section_path: Humans and the sea/History of oceanography and deep sea exploration
section_name: History of oceanography and deep sea exploration
paragraph_text: History of oceanography and deep sea exploration
  
  Scientific oceanography began with the voyages of Captain James Cook from 1768 to 1779, describing the Pacific with unprecedented precision from 71 degrees South to 71 degrees North. John Harrison's chronometers supported Cook's accurate navigation and charting on two of these voyages, permanently improving the standard attainable for subsequent work. Other expeditions followed in the nineteenth century, from Russia, France, the Netherlands and the United States as well as Britain. On HMS Beagle, which provided Charles Darwin with ideas and materials for his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, the ship's captain, Robert FitzRoy, charted the seas and coasts and published his four-volume report of the ship's three voyages in 1839. Edward Forbes 's 1854 book, Distribution of Marine Life argued that no life could exist below around 600 metres (2,000 feet). This was proven wrong by the British biologists W. B. Carpenter and C. Wyville Thomson, who in 1868 discovered life in deep water by dredging. Wyville Thompson became chief scientist on the Challenger expedition of 1872–1876, which effectively created the science of oceanography.
  
  On her 68,890-nautical-mile (127,580 km) journey round the globe, HMS Challenger discovered about 4,700 new marine species, and made 492 deep sea soundings, 133 bottom dredges, 151 open water trawls and 263 serial water temperature observations. In the southern Atlantic in 1898/1899, Carl Chun on the Valdivia brought many new life forms to the surface from depths of over 4,000 metres (13,000 ft). The first observations of deep-sea animals in their natural environment were made in 1930 by William Beebe and Otis Barton who descended to 434 metres (1,424 ft) in the spherical steel Bathysphere. This was lowered by cable but by 1960 a self-powered submersible, Trieste developed by Jacques Piccard, took Piccard and Don Walsh to the deepest part of the Earth 's oceans, the Mariana Trench in the Pacific, reaching a record depth of about 10,915 metres (35,810 ft), a feat not repeated until 2012 when James Cameron piloted the Deepsea Challenger to similar depths. An atmospheric diving suit can be worn for deep sea operations, with a new world record being set in 2006 when a US Navy diver descended to 2,000 feet (610 m) in one of these articulated, pressurized suits.
  
  At great depths, no light penetrates through the water layers from above and the pressure is extreme. For deep sea exploration it is necessary to use specialist vehicles, either remotely operated underwater vehicles with lights and cameras or crewed submersibles. The battery-operated Mir submersibles have a three-person crew and can descend to 20,000 feet (6,100 m). They have viewing ports, 5,000-watt lights, video equipment and manipulator arms for collecting samples, placing probes or pushing the vehicle across the sea bed when the thrusters would stir up excessive sediment.
  
  Bathymetry is the mapping and study of the topography of the ocean floor. Methods used for measuring the depth of the sea include single or multibeam echosounders, laser airborne depth sounders and the calculation of depths from satellite remote sensing data. This information is used for determining the routes of undersea cables and pipelines, for choosing suitable locations for siting oil rigs and offshore wind turbines and for identifying possible new fisheries.
  
  Ongoing oceanographic research includes marine lifeforms, conservation, the marine environment, the chemistry of the ocean, the studying and modelling of climate dynamics, the air-sea boundary, weather patterns, ocean resources, renewable energy, waves and currents, and the design and development of new tools and technologies for investigating the deep. Whereas in the 1960s and 1970s, research could focus on taxonomy and basic biology, in the 2010s, attention has shifted to larger topics such as climate change. Researchers make use of satellite-based remote sensing for surface waters, with research ships, moored observatories and autonomous underwater vehicles to study and monitor all parts of the sea.