1. deepseanews
  2. Challenger Expedition on Google Earth

Challenger Expedition on Google Earth

By petnoyer on July 16, 2008.

i-6408d0004c9d57744926c7a788dfcd48-HMS_Challenger_Google_Earth_sm5.gif

People seem fascinated by the prospect of purchasing virtual real estate at Second Life, but if you ask me, Google Earth is a better place to stake your claim. For instance, I am studying deep sea-fans, or gorgonians, in the West Atlantic twilight zone between 50-150 m. Many of these have their first description in the reports by Wright and Studer (1889) of the HMS Challenger expedition 1873-1876. This expedition is a piece of history that could come alive again in a "Google Ocean" environment.

The main difference between then and now is that 19th century biologists studied dead and broken colonies dredged or trawled from the abyss, while modern scientists use submersibles and ROVs to study the organisms in their natural habitat, in all their living splendor. An online expedition in Google Earth today could incorporate georeferenced text, photos, audio, and live video, plus graphics and animation to help illustrate these bizarre and fascinating benthic habitats.

The original species descriptions for my gorgonians are microscopic, lacking any knowledge of community ecology. Species are well illustrated, but the descriptions are quite dry. We have no idea what these animals looked like when they were alive. This is necessary so we can identify them in-situ. So, I'm seeking historical background to put the Challenger observations in context.

Like a modern guy, I quickly turn to Amazon for background material (books) and Google Earth for a visualization (maps). As a deep-sea biologist, the first thing I need to know is "where did the HMS Challenger collect their samples, exactly"? This a simple map based function. The chances I will find the Challenger Expedition on Google Earth are good, actually, thanks to "Hill" a "Master Guide" at Google Earth, and a professed Google Earth "addict". He's uploaded and georeferenced the maps at this site here so I can tell at a glance where they've been, and where they've not.

You may search the H.M.S. Challenger Library at 19th Century Science. I see lots of room for improvement to this unique format and presentation, but it makes me wonder, how can I see more of this kind of thing on Google Earth? Where will it develop and grow? And, when was the last time we sent a ship around the world collecting deep-sea samples for such a broadly interdisciplinary group of scientists?

Tags
Uncategorized
Categories
Life Sciences

More like this

ARCHIVE: 25 Things You Should Know About the Deep Sea: #7 Most Deep-Sea Organisms Are Miniatures of Their Shallow Water Relatives
In one of the earliest papers on the deep-sea fauna, Mosely (1880, p.593) noted, "Some animals appear to be dwarfed by deep-sea conditions." Almost a century later, Hessler (1974) noted that "individuals of certain taxa are routinely so small that they are of meiofaunal size." Thiel (1975, p. 593…
ARHIVE: 25 Things You Should Know About the Deep Sea: #12 Where Deep Sea Organisms Come From
The series continues! Chris Mah and Peter's recent and wonderful posts have goaded me into next segment of the 25 Things You Should Know About The Deep Sea (the last post in this series links to all the previous). The beginnings of deep-sea science in the late 1800's was dominated by two ideas…
ARCHIVE: 25 Things You Should Know About the Deep Sea: #3 The Vast Majority of the Deep-Sea Remains Completely Unexplored
Although the earliest interest and sampling in the deep sea occurred in the late 1800's, a majority of deep-sea exploration did not occur until after the 1960's. The current amount of sampling and exploration of this great environment is without precedent. Despite this, new species and new…
Just Science #4: The Impacts of Big Animals
The sea cucumber, Scotoplanes globosa, at 1500m in Monterey Canyon. Just Science Entry #4 Not giant squid or man eating sharks...megafauna, those organisms those organisms large enough to be caught in trawls or seen in photographs or video. (fish, crabs, lobsters, starfish, urchins, sea cucumbers…

Actualy, Google Earth is rather boring, IMHO. I mean, sure if you want to look at some house you're planning on buyin in RL, but for science exhibits? Seriously, Google Earth can't be programmed. No building is functional, no science exhibit can be customized in a few seconds time "in world," etc.

If you want ideas for educational uses of Second LIfe, go talk to the on-duty librarian at the LIbrary of Second LIfe. He or she (or it) will steer you to myriad educational exhibits and things to do. IF you want to see them really get excited ask them a non-SL-related question. You know, like the ones you would as a real life librarian...

Oh wait, they ARE RL librarians...

I think there is room for both, but in truth I agree with Peter that Google Earth is an exciting tool for research, visualization and communication in science. University of Delaware did some excellent physical oceanography visualization in Google Earth. Georeferenced data layers with salinity, temperature, wave height, etc.. all updated automatically from their servers which are fed from buoys and other remote instrumentation packages.

Someone else had a remote sensing overlay showing chlorophyll data along with a number of phys. oceanography layers for the northwest US, again automatically generated and updated. While the capability has been there in special or one off packages, now I can access them, and better yet so can a class of first year undergrads, or 3rd graders studying Long Island Sound. They mostly intuitively understand GE and since they can't break it, they feel free to twist it and tweak it.