1) Earth is only planet in solar system w/ significant liquid water
71% of surface covered by water, 97% of water is in ocean
volume of ocean 11X greater than volume of land > sea level
"Oceanus" a better name than "Earth"
2) Although earth's crust formed ~4.6 BYA, ocean only formed ~4.0 BYA & not 'salty' until ~2.5 BYA
3) First life (prokaryotes) arose ~3.8 BYA, and complex cells (eukaryotes) by ~1.8 BYA, but marine communities we see today arose in last 500 million years
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4) Much early history of marine science tied to "voyaging" ("travelling on ocean for a specific purpose"; text pg. 24)
Greeks & Phoenecians most extensive early ocean voyagers
first records of exploration kept in Library of Alexandria
two important Librarians were: Eratosthenes (235-196 BC; first to compute earth's circumference) and Hipparchus (165-120 BC; invented regular latitude & longitude lines)
5) Two other great voyaging peoples were Polynesians & Vikings
6) Remaining notable feats of navigation were by Europeans (Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, James Cook)
determining longitude is a problem
7) Three important marine biological explorations: Cook, Darwin on the Beagle, Challenger expedition (birth of oceanography)
8) The 'Scientific Method' is the process by which we come to have 'knowledge' of the natural world
really little more than a formal dispute-resolution mechanism (observation, hypothesis, test)