Deck 2: A History of Marine Science

Question 1

Which island group was originally colonized by the Polynesians?

A)The Aleutian Islands
B)The Bahamas
C)Indonesia
D)The Hawaiian Islands

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which voyage was the first expedition devoted purely to marine science?

A)Columbus' 1496 trip
B)the Challenger expedition
C)Benjamin Franklin's first voyage across the Atlantic to take up his post as American Ambassador to France
D)Captain Cook's voyage to Tahiti in the ship Endeavour

Answer 2

B

Question 3

The invention of the compass is attributed to the ____.

A)Americans
B)Chinese
C)Spanish
D)British

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The cousin of which scientist worked out the first rough chart of the Gulf Stream?

A)Darwin
B)Forbes
C)Magellan
D)Benjamin Franklin

Question 5

Contributions by early Chinese scientists and philosophers include ____.

A)developing specialized steering oars held against the right side of their ships
B)designing ships that used only a single mast
C)development of the chronometer
D)designing and developing watertight compartments

Question 6

Who was the first person to compile a picture of the large-scale wind and current systems?

A)Ben Franklin
B)Matthew Maury
C)Eratosthenes of Cyrene
D)Wyville Thomson

Question 7

Which statement is true with regard to latitude and longitude?

A)Longitudinal lines are drawn parallel to the equator, while latitudinal lines are drawn from pole to pole.
B)Latitude and longitude comprise a system of imaginary lines dividing Earth's surface into a grid.
C)Greenwich, England was the original location of "zero longitude."
D)Zero latitude is the prime meridian and zero longitude is the equator.

Question 8

Which individual would be most likely to receive the title of "first marine scientist"?

A)Matthew Maury
B)Captain James Cook
C)Christopher Columbus
D)Wyville Thompson (of the Challenger expedition)

Question 9

Which statement is true about Christopher Columbus and his explorations?

A)Columbus had the primary goal of discovering new lands.
B)As with many early explorers, Columbus thought Earth was flat.
C)One of Columbus' biggest errors was in estimating Earth to be only about half of its true size.
D)Columbus was the first explorer to see the mainland of North America.

Question 10

Which individual was the first to publish a reasonably accurate chart of an ocean current, specifically, the Gulf Stream?

A)Edward Forbes
B)John Harrison
C)Benjamin Franklin
D)Captain James Cook

Question 11

What was the most important outcome of Matthew Maury's work?

A)The discovery of the Hawaiian Islands
B)The formulation of a working hypothesis for the formation of coral reefs
C)The invention of a chronometer for the determination of longitude
D)The charting of ocean currents to significantly shorten the travel time of sailors

Question 12

What was one accomplishment of Captain James Cook?

A)He was the first to circumnavigate the world.
B)He was the first to land on the coast of Antarctica.
C)He was the first European to explore the South Pacific.
D)He mapped the coasts of Australia and New Zealand.

Question 13

Longitude can be determined with the use of a(n)____.

A)pendulum clock
B)echo sounders
C)chronometer
D)remote operated vehicle

Question 14

Why did the Chinese abandon ocean exploration in 1433?

A)They were too slow in developing ships that would allow them to stay at sea for long periods of time.
B)They were distracted by the turmoil of the Dark Ages.
C)They were not interested in showing the wealth or power of the Ming Dynasty to other peoples of the world.
D)They were victims of changing political winds, and the cost of the exercise was deemed too great.

Question 15

Which navigator led an expedition in the early 1500s to be the first to circumnavigate the world?

A)Ferdinand Magellan
B)Captain James Cook
C)Christopher Columbus
D)Prince Henry the Navigator

Question 16

Who is considered to be the father of physical oceanography?

A)Jacques Cousteau
B)Ptolemy
C)Matthew Maury
D)Captain James Cook

Question 17

The word "oceanography" was first coined in association with ____.

A)Cook's third voyage
B)the Challenger expedition
C)Columbus' fourth and final voyage
D)Captain James Cook's first voyage

Question 18

Who was the first European explorer to journey to Hawaii?

A)Magellan
B)Forbes
C)Thompson
D)Cook

Question 19

A(n)____ is a graphic representation that depicts information about the ocean and ocean features.

A)map
B)echo sounder
C)chart
D)atlas

Question 20

Which group briefly colonized the mainland of North America 500 years before the arrival of Christopher Columbus?

A)The British
B)The Chinese
C)The Norwegian Vikings
D)The Polynesians

Question 21

A chronometer is a timepiece that can be used to determine longitude.

Question 22

The Hawaiian Islands were one of the last of the Pacific Islands to be colonized by the Polynesians because they are the farthest away, some 2,000 miles from other islands.

Question 23

Eratosthenes was a scientist who was interested in the size of Earth and used methods of geometry to determine the circumference of our planet.

Question 24

Which is a recent technology currently used in modern marine science?

A)The remotely operated vehicle
B)The chronometer
C)The pendulum clock
D)The leadline, or sounding line

Question 25

Captain Cook was the first scientist to drift in the ice pack of the Arctic.

Question 26

Latitude is a measurement that uses the prime meridian (Greenwich, England)as a reference point for determining the exact location of a specific point on Earth.

Question 27

Prince Henry the Navigator was a well-traveled explorer who was the captain on dozens of sea voyages.

Question 28

Edward Forbes was an Edinburgh professor who thought that ____.

A)life was plentiful in the deep sea
B)there was an easy route to the orient from Europe
C)no life existed in the deep sea because of high pressure and lack of light
D)the Pacific Ocean was much smaller than it truly is

Question 29

The Library of Alexandria was an important gathering place for intellectuals, and a warehouse for written knowledge relating to trade, natural wonders, artistic achievements, and other items of interest to seafarers.

Question 30

Which technology, available to modern oceanographers in the last few decades, has revolutionized our ability to study the ocean?

A)remote sensing via ROVs and satellites
B)shipboard SONAR
C)leadline soundings
D)compass/chronometer

Question 31

The hybrid remotely-operated vehicle, Nereus , accomplished what feat in 2009?

A)It circumnavigated the world.
B)It reached the bottom of the world's deepest ocean trench.
C)It collected the first manganese nodules, sparking an interest in deep sea mining.
D)It collected the longest complete core of deep sea sediments.

Question 32

During the Age of European Discovery, Henry the Navigator was the first to recognize that Earth was spherical.

Question 33

Viking ships were the fastest and longest ranging ships in Europe during the Dark Ages.

Question 34

Modern oceanography began with the efforts of ____, who trapped his ship in pack ice to explore the Arctic.

A)Forbes
B)Wilkes
C)Thompson
D)Nansen

Question 35

What type of information about the ocean are satellites most likely to provide to scientists?

A)sea surface height
B)pH of the ocean in different locations
C)sea floor bathymetry
D)sea floor sedimentation rate

Question 36

The first scientific expedition to use an echo sounder was the ____.

A)Challenger expedition
B)Meteor expedition
C)United States Exploring expedition
D)voyage of Trieste

Question 37

Glomar Challenger is known mainly for ____.

A)being the first modern scientific survey ship to circumnavigate the globe
B)being the first nuclear powered scientific research vessel
C)being owned and operated simultaneously by four governmental agencies
D)taking the first complete cores of sea-floor sediments

Question 38

The Challenger expedition (1872-1876)was a unique and historic voyage. Why?

A)It is the longest continuous oceanographic expedition on record.
B)Its scientists developed the first reliable navigational charts to indicate current and wind patterns.
C)It was the first expedition to use an echo sounder to study the seafloor.
D)It proved the hypothesis that life could not exist in the deep sea.

Question 39

Humanity did not spread to nearly all of the inhabitable areas of Earth until after the European voyages of discovery in the late 1400s and early 1500s.

Question 40

What device bounces sound waves off the ocean bottom to study the depth and contours of the seafloor?

A)echo sounder
B)satellite
C)bathyscaphe
D)submersible

Question 41

How do echo sounders work and what kind of information can they provide about the ocean floor?

Question 42

How are clocks used to determine longitude and why does a pendulum clock fail to produce accurate estimates of longitude at sea? Why was the invention of the chronometer so important for explorers?

Question 43

Modern technologies enable scientists to acquire information about the ocean relatively rapidly. How have satellites changed the way we perceive, navigate, and study the ocean?

Question 44

Using specific examples, describe how advances in navigation and voyaging relate to the advent of marine science.

Question 45

Describe the contributions made by Matthew Maury that improved our understanding of ocean science.