Image Courtesy of NOAA Digial Library

Progress was made in understanding the oceans by using specilized ships. One of these was the Glomar Challenger. It was part of an extensive Deep-Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) to study major geological features in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. Another type of vessel used, FLIP (Floating Instrument Platform), was developed by the Marine Physical Laboratory of the University of California, San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Upon being towed to an area of research, the ballast tanks are flooded and the ship is "flipped" into a verticle position to study the ocean environment.

Satellites continue to trace their paths across this blue planet providung a continuos stream of data. We have used several products from these satelites to give us a better understand of our "water world".

We have discussed some of the more exotic types of technological achievements in oceanography, but probably the most important discovery was the development of the Aqua-Lung by Jacques Cousteau. This invention, today called SCUBA, allowed man for the first time, to explore, untethered, portions of the ocean's depths. This extended his "down time" to more than a few minuites. You can use your Virtual SCUBA gear to explore the wreck of the Lartington and Montana [you will need QTVR (Quicktime Virtual Reality )]on a coral reef in Bermuda or to explore the coral reef.

The Lartington, crashed into a portion of the Bermuda reefs in December of 1879 on a voyage from Savannah, Georgia to Russia. The freighter encountered heavy storms and was hit by a giant wave, cracking her hull and sending her to the bottom of the sea. The remains of the Lartington have been scatterered across the reefs by the frequent storms which roll over the islands and reefs, but her steam boiler, stern section, and propeller still remain visible.

The Montana, was a Civil War blockade runner that made trips between North Carolina, England, and Bermuda. In December 1863, the Montana struck the coral reefs of Bermuda and sank. The wreck can be located by its steam boilers and paddlewheel frames. These images were created by the Jason Project on their trip to the Bermuda Islands.

Exploration of the ocean continues to advance as technological innovations also advance. To keep up with these advances you might want to look at these links:

• Center For Ocean Technology
• The Office of Naval Research