| 4000 B.C. | Egyptians develop sailing vessels. These were probably used only in the eastern Mediterranean near the mouth of the Nile River. |
| 600 B.C. | Phoenicians develop sea routes around the entire Mediterranean and into the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. They made it all the way around Africa near 590 B.C. They also reached England by sailing along the western European coast. They were trying to find sources of tin to use in producing bronze. Although they understood celestial navigation, they probably stayed within sight of land whenever possible. |
| 500-200 B.C. | Greeks develop trade routes throughout the Mediterranean. They used the length of the day (corrected for the time of the year) to estimate latitude. |
| 450 B.C. | Herodotus (Greek) publishes an accurate map of the Mediterranean region (Fig. 1-2 in your book). |
| 325 B.C. | Pytheas, a Greek astronomer and geographer, sailed north out of the Mediterranean, reaching England and possibly even Iceland and Norway. He also developed the use of sightings on the North Star to determine latitude and figured out that tides were related to phases of the moon. |
| 200 B.C. | Eratosthenes determines the circumference of the Earth using angles of shadows in Syene and Alexandria. His estimate was about 40,000 k.m.; the real value is 40,032 k.m. |
| 150 A.D. | Ptolemy produces a map of the Roman world, including lines of latitude and longitude, the continents of Asia, Europe, and Africa and the surrounding oceans. | 600 A.D. | Europeans, having lost access to Greek and Roman texts, have forgotten much of what they knew about the world and ocean navigation. |
| 900 -1430 A.D. | Vikings explore and colonize Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland (Canada) using the North Star to determine latitude. |
| 1405-1433 A.D. | Chinese send seven voyages in 317 huge technologically advanced ships with 37,000 crew. These missions were not for conquest, religion, or trade, but instead were designed to extend Chinese influence and impress their neighbor states. Economic pressures ended the expensive voyages after a short time, and China isolated itself. |
| 1410 A.D. | Ptolemy's map of the oceans is published once more after European crusades capture Roman libraries from Arab peoples. |
| 1498 A.D. | Vasco da Gama sails around Africa from Portugal; reaches India to establish trade routes |
| 1519-1522 A.D. | Ferdinand Magellan's ships circumnavigate the world (although Magellan died partway there). |
| 1768-1780 A.D. | James Cook explores the southern parts of the oceans looking for the southern continent (Antarctica). He was the first to use a chronometer (very accurate clock) to determine longitude. |
| 1831-1836 A.D. | Charles Darwin sails on the Beagle, exploring the Galapagos and many other areas. It is this work which led him to develop the concept of natural selection and evolution. |
| 1872-1876 A.D. | The H.M.S. Challenger traveled around the world on a purely scientific mission, taking sediment samples, water samples, soundings, and collecting many biological specimens. |
| 1925-1927 A.D. | The Meteor, a German vessel, sails around the Atlantic, taking detailed echosounding measurements that reveal much new information about the structure and shape of the ocean floor. |
| 1968 A.D.-present | International scientific deep-sea drilling programs (DSDP, ODP, and IODP) run drilling cruises throughout the world's oceans, creating a huge repository of sediment cores, measurements, and information. |