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Aquatic Science History: Expeditions

Exploration

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Viking Exploration

Viking exploration.
The most important European explorers during the Middle Ages were the Vikings, also called the Norse. The Vikings originally came from Scandinavia. About 800, they settled the Shetlands, the Faroes, and other islands in the North Atlantic Ocean. About 860, a storm drove a Viking ship to a large island that was later named Iceland. The Norse began to settle Iceland about 870, and it became the base for later voyages. About 900, Gunnbjörn Ulfsson <<GOON byawrn OOLF suhn>>, a Viking leader, sighted Greenland. About 982, Erik the Red began exploring the coast of this huge island. Erik and other Vikings later established colonies there. About 986, another Viking leader, Bjarni Herjolfsson    <<BYAHR nee hehr YOHLF suhn>>, was driven off course while sailing from Iceland to Greenland. Herjolfsson sighted a coastline to the west—probably North America—but he did not land there. Instead, he went on to Greenland.

About 1000, Leif Eriksson led an exploring party to the land Herjolfsson had sighted. Leif was the son of Erik the Red. Leif set up a base at a place he called Vinland. Most experts believe that Vinland was the Canadian island of Newfoundland. The Vikings made several other voyages to Vinland and established a colony there. But conflicts with the native peoples and other problems led the Vikings to abandon the colony about 1014.

©Robinson, Michael F. "Exploration." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2016. Web. 12 Oct. 2016.

Chinese Exploration

Meteor Expedition

en.wikipedia.org

Some Early German Contributions to Oceanography

"The last major expeditions of German oceanographers prior to the Second World War were those of the Meteor. The first Meteor Expedition (1925-1927) was literally launched to determine if gold could be economically extracted from sea water. To do this, the chief scientist, Alfred Merz, designed a series of predominantly east-west lines along which water samples, soundings, bottom samples, and even gravity cores would be obtained. Unfortunately Merz died early in the expedition and the scientific direction of the expedition was taken over by the Meteor's captain, Fritz Spiess. As it turned out, extraction of gold from seawater was not economical; but, from the standpoint of hydrographers and bathymetrists, the Meteor Expedition was a figurative gold mine. Approximately 67,000 acoustic soundings were made during the course of this expedition. These soundings revealed the ruggedness of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, discovered the nature of the abyssal hills marching off from the axis of the Ridge, and hinted at the existence of a median valley. By 1938, subsequent expeditions by the Meteor led Gunter Dietrich to unequivocally identify the median valley of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge as well as surmise that the adjacent abyssal hills were roughly parallel to the ridge axis and each other." © 2016 Geomares Publishing.