Challenger expedition
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The Challenger Expedition was a scientific expedition that made many discoveries to lay the foundation of oceanography.
Prompted by the Scot, Charles Wyville Thomson - of the University of Edinburgh and Merchiston Castle School - the Royal Society of London obtained the use of a ship, HMS Challenger, from the Royal Navy and, between 1870 and 1872, modified it for scientific work, equipping it with separate laboratories for natural history and chemistry.
The ship, commanded by Captain George Nares, sailed from Portsmouth, England, on December 21, 1872. Under the scientific supervision of Thomson himself it traveled nearly 70,000 miles surveying and exploring. The result was the Report Of The Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76, but started voyage in 1871 or 1872 which, among many other discoveries, catalogued 4,000 previously unknown species of animal. John Murray, who supervised the publication, described the report as "the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries".
The Challenger Expedition also lead to the discovery of new information for oceanography at the time. Some of these achievements come are 127500 km covered during the expedition, 492 deep sea soundings, 133 bottom dredges, 151 open water trawls, 263 serial water temperature observations, and about 4717 new species of marine life were discovered.
The Space Shuttle Challenger was named after HMS Challenger[1].
[edit] External links
The Challenger Expedition was a scientific expedition that made many discoveries to lay the foundation of oceanography.
Prompted by the Scot Charles Wyville Thomson of the University of Edinburgh and Merchiston Castle School, the Royal Society of London obtained the use of a ship, HMS Challenger, from the Royal Navy and, between 1870 and 1872, modified it for scientific work, equipping it with separate laboratories for natural history and chemistry.
The ship, commanded by Captain George Nares, sailed from Portsmouth, England, on December 21, 1872. Under the scientific supervision of Thomson himself, it traveled nearly 70,000 miles surveying and exploring. The result was the Report Of The Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76. Among many other discoveries, the expedition cataloged 4,000 previously unknown species of animal. John Murray, who supervised the publication, described the report as "the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries".
The Challenger Expedition also lead to the discovery of new information for oceanography. Some of these achievements were: 127500 km covered during the expedition, 492 deep sea soundings, 133 bottom dredges, 151 open water trawls, 263 serial water temperature observations, and 4717 new species of marine life discovered.
The Space Shuttle Challenger was named after HMS Challenger[1].
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[edit] References
- R. M. Corfield. The Silent Landscape: the Scientific Voyage of HMS Challenger. Joseph Henry Press, 2003. ISBN 0-309-08904-2
- Report Of The Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76
- Challenger Report description from 19th century science.orgde:Challenger-Expedition
fr:Expédition du Challenger sk:Expedícia Challenger sv:Challengerexpeditionen
