The periphery of world capitalism The pressure on peripheral countries in the era of neoliberal globalization has increased compared to the previous period of Keynesian capitalism. If in the 1960s in relation to the countries of the “third world” one could speak of “catching up”

6. System of global terror The generally accepted classification defines three main types of terrorism: political; spiritual (religious); economic. However, this classification of terrorism is incomplete. At the same time, it is important, considering the specifics of modern

The ocean was a hostile element for ancient man. The peoples who inhabited the coasts of the seas and oceans were engaged only in collecting seafood washed ashore: edible algae, shellfish, fish. Centuries passed, and the oceanic expanse opened up more and more to humanity. The sailors of ancient times - the Phoenicians and Egyptians, the inhabitants of the islands of Crete and Rhodes, the ancient peoples who inhabited the shores of the Indian and Pacific oceans - at that time had a good understanding of the prevailing winds, sea currents and storm phenomena, skillfully using them for navigation. The Phoenicians were the first sailors of antiquity (3000 BC), information about which has reached the present day. At first they swam along the shore, without losing sight of the land. Even then, the Phoenicians, who lived on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, extended their possessions far to the west. They knew about the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the shores of Africa, and went to the open sea without a compass, guided by the stars. The means for long-distance voyages could be rafts, and then, according to the famous Norwegian scientist Thor Heyerdahl, reed boats. In Mesopotamia and ancient India, seaworthy reed boats were built of quite impressive sizes. The centers of such shipbuilding were, apparently, only in South America, Africa and India. Several decades ago in India, north of Bombay, the ruins of the seaport of Lothal were found. In its eastern part, a huge shipyard lined with bricks (with an area of ​​218 30 m2) was excavated. Such structures have not been found either in Hellas or in Phenicia; this port is approximately four and a half thousand years old. An even more ancient port has been discovered on the island of Bahrain. Such discoveries enabled scientists to suggest that the primacy of navigation with the Phoenicians could be challenged by the inhabitants of the Indian Ocean coast.

IN ancient times The main routes of the peoples inhabiting its shores ran through the Mediterranean Sea, many of whom became famous as skilled sailors. The Greeks, who replaced the Phoenicians in dominance of the sea, began to study and develop coastal areas and the nature of the sea during their voyages. During the first voyages of the Greeks to the Pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar), many Greek colonies(Massilia - now Marseille, Neapolis - now Naples, etc.). The scientist and traveler Herodotus (5th century BC) already argued that the Indian and Atlantic oceans are one, and also tried to explain the essence of the tides. The ancient Greeks noticed that ships approaching the Pillars of Hercules found themselves in a zone of high waves with a cloudless sky and no wind. This phenomenon was terrifying for the ancient Greeks, and only a few daredevils could challenge this terrible element.

The works of Strabo speak about the unity of the World Ocean. The great scientist of antiquity, Ptolemy, in his work “Geography” brought together all the geographical information of that time. He created a geographical map in a conical projection and plotted on it all the then known geographical points - from the Atlantic Ocean to Indochina. Ptolemy claimed the existence of an ocean to the west of the Pillars of Hercules. Aristotle, the teacher of Alexander the Great, in his famous work “Meteorology” also summarized all the information known at that time about the ocean. In addition, he showed great interest in the depths of the sea and the propagation of sound signals in them. He talked about this to young Alexander Macedonsky and about the benefits that can be obtained by penetrating into the water depths. Assyrian bas-reliefs depicting people trying to dive under water using goat skins have survived to this day. Ancient chronicles say that, on the advice of his teacher Aristotle, Alexander the Great spent several hours underwater in a cast sphere of thick glass. After such experiments of Alexander the Great, the profession of divers appeared, who played a large role in naval wars that time. There is information that in ancient Rome there was a special corps of divers. To communicate with their agents in besieged cities, the Romans sent divers, who had thin lead plates with dispatches engraved on them attached to their arms. Already in the Middle Ages, the art of divers was completely forgotten. And only with the advent of the Renaissance and great geographical discoveries it is reborn again. The famous Leonardo da Vinci is interested in designing breathing apparatus for diving into the depths of the sea.

After the Greeks comes the time of Roman dominance at sea. Having defeated the inhabitants of Carthage, the Romans conquered the entire eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea and left a detailed description of the conquered coastal lands. The Roman philosopher Seneca supported the hypothesis according to which the Earth and the waters of the Ocean emerged from the primary Chaos. He had a correct idea of ​​the balance of moisture on Earth and believed that evaporation was equal to the amount of water poured into the sea by rivers and rain. This conclusion allowed him to conclude that the salinity of the waters of the World Ocean is constant.

In the early Middle Ages, Scandinavian sailors (Normans, or Vikings) made their journeys, well aware of the existence of currents in the Atlantic Ocean, as evidenced by the Scandinavian sagas.

In the Middle Ages, there was a long break in the development of geographical and oceanographic knowledge. Even former well-known truths were little by little forgotten. Thus, the idea of ​​the sphericity of the Earth was forgotten, and by the 11th century, the rather perfect maps of Ptolemy were replaced by very primitive ones. During this period, although sea voyages were made (voyages of the Arabs to India and China, the Normans to Greenland and to the shores of North-East America), no significant oceanographic discoveries or generalizations were made. The Arabs brought a compass from China, with the help of which they achieved huge successes. Thus, the period of exploration from the ancient Phoenicians to the era of great geographical discoveries can be called the prehistory of scientific research of the ocean.

Further development of research is associated with major geographical discoveries of the late 15th - early 16th centuries. In preparation for his voyage, X. Columbus was the first to observe the trade winds over the Atlantic and make observations of currents in the open ocean. At the end of the 15th century, B. Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, calling it the Cape of Storms, and established that the Atlantic and Indian oceans are connected. Sebastian Cabot, who discovered Labrador and Newfoundland after the Normans (1497-1498), was the first to consciously take advantage of the Gulf Stream. At this time, the cold Labrador Current also becomes known. The first circumnavigation of F. Magellan (1519-1522) practically proved that the Earth is a ball and all oceans are interconnected. At the same time, the relationship between land and ocean was determined. Vasco da Gama's expedition paved the sea route from Europe to India. Along the way, observations of sea currents were carried out, wave processes and wind directions.

In the 16th-18th centuries, numerous voyages were made to various areas of the World Ocean and information in the field of oceanology gradually accumulated. It should be noted the voyages of Vitus Bering and A.I. Chirikov (1728-1741), as a result of which the Bering Strait was opened (secondary after Semyon Dezhnev, 1648) and the vast expanses of the northern part of the Pacific Ocean were explored, the work of the Great Northern Expedition (1734- 1741) in the seas of the Arctic Ocean (Chelyuskin and others) and three expeditions of J. Cook (1768-1779), who explored the Pacific Ocean from Antarctica (71 S latitude) to the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic. In all these voyages, important information was collected about the hydrology of the Pacific and Arctic oceans and their seas.

Great geographical discoveries indicate that it is the ocean that determines the appearance of our planet, influencing the nature of all its parts. Since then, the ocean has received close attention from scientists, politicians and economists.

In the 19th century, expeditionary exploration of the World Ocean became even more interesting. Valuable oceanographic materials were obtained as a result of domestic and foreign voyages around the world. Among them, the voyages of I. F. Kruzenshtern and Yu. F. Lisyansky on the ships "Neva" and "Nadezhda" (1803-1806), which carried out deep-sea oceanographic observations, determination of currents and observations above sea level, and the voyages of O. E. Kotzebue, stand out on the ships "Rurik"

(1815-1818) and "Enterprise" (1823-1826). Particular mention should be made of the expedition of F. F. Bellingshausen and M. P. Lazarev on the boats "Vostok" and "Mirny" to Antarctica (1819-1821), which discovered the shores of Antarctica and made a great contribution to the study Antarctic ice(their classification and physicochemical properties).

But fundamental, comprehensive and intensive scientific research of the World Ocean began only in the second half of the 19th century, when one after another oceanographic expeditions began to be equipped on special vessels. This was largely dictated by practical considerations.

Among the expeditions, it is necessary to note the significant work of English scientists on the Challenger corvette in 1872-1876. Over three and a half years, British scientists carried out 362 deep-sea studies in three oceans. The materials collected on the Challenger were so extensive that it took 20 years to process them and the published results of the expedition took 50 volumes. The beginning of modern comprehensive research of the World Ocean is associated with this expedition.

In those same years, comprehensive studies of the depths of the ocean, the topography of its bottom and bottom sediments, physical characteristics water column, bottom flora and fauna were carried out in the Pacific Ocean by the Russian naval officer K. S. Staritsky. And in 1886-1889. Russian sailors on the corvette Vityaz, under the leadership of S. O. Makarov, carried out new research in all three oceans.

A little later, Russia showed interest in studying the Arctic Ocean, organizing an expedition led by G. Ya. Sedov.

IN late XIX century in Berlin at the International Geographical Congress, an international council for the exploration of oceans and seas was established, whose task was to study marine fisheries in order to protect them from predatory extermination. But the council also did a lot for the development of science. He published international oceanographic tables to determine the salinity of sea water, density, and chlorine content in it. The Council established standard horizons for observation in the seas and oceans, and divided the World Ocean into regions between countries. In addition, the council was also involved in the standardization of new research methods in the creation of scientific equipment.

At the beginning of the 20th century and before the Second World War, active research was carried out in polar latitudes and in Antarctic waters.

After World War II, expeditionary research into the World Ocean received new development. The works of the Swedish round-the-world expedition on the ship "Albatross" are widely known; Danish expedition on the ship "Galatea"; English on the Challenger II; Japanese on the ship "Riofu-Maru", a number of American studies on the "Discovery" and research carried out by Russian scientists on the ship "Vityaz II". At this time, about 300 scientific expeditions from various countries worked in the World Ocean on specially equipped vessels. Many sea expeditions discovered equatorial countercurrents, clarified the boundaries and regimes of already known currents, studied the Western Winds and the Eastern Current in Antarctic waters, discovered the deep Cromwell Current in the Pacific Ocean and the Lomonosov Current in the Atlantic, and the Humboldt Current under the Peruvian Current. Numerous echo sounding measurements made it possible to obtain a general, fairly detailed picture of the topography of the bottom of the World Ocean. New ridges were discovered (the Lomonosov Ridge, crossing areas of the Arctic Ocean), many depressions, and underwater volcanoes. A new value for the maximum depth of the World Ocean was determined, discovered in the Mariana Trench and equal to 11,022 m. Intensive human penetration into the depths of the ocean began to directly study them. In the middle of the 20th century, much attention was paid by scientists to the creation of deep-sea technology. Deep-sea vehicles are being built in France, Japan, England, Canada, Germany, Russia and a number of other countries. A significant contribution to the creation of underwater vehicles was made by the Swiss physicist Auguste Picard, who in 1953 descended to a depth of 3160 m on a bathyscaphe of his own design. After the death of O. Picard, his work was continued by his son, Jacques Picard, who in 1960 on the bathyscaphe "Trieste" dived into the Mariana Trench with Dunn Walsh. From then on, intensive study of the sea depths began.

For deep-sea diving, it was necessary to improve the breathing system for underwater vehicles. This discovery is associated with the name of the Swiss scientist Hans Keller. He understood that in the respiratory system it was necessary to clearly maintain the required pressure of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide at the same level as at normal atmospheric pressure. Scientists have calculated thousands of gas system options for various depths. At the end of the 1960s. In the former Soviet Union and the United States, a whole series of underwater vehicles appeared for exploring the ocean depths: “Ichthyander”, “Sadko”, “Chernomor”, “Pysis”, “Sprut”. At the end of the century, submersibles reach a depth of 6000 m (Argus, Mir, Cliff). The Atlantis ship appears in the United States, equipped with robots to study organic life in the deep layers. At the same time (1983-1988), deep research in the Indian Ocean was carried out from the ship "Keldysh": samples of volcanic sediments were lifted from a depth of 2000-6000 m. At the same time, the "Polymode" experiment was carried out to study oceanic underwater vortices in the central Atlantic, reminiscent of atmospheric ones cyclones and anticyclones. The dimensions of these vortices are 200 km in diameter and penetrate to a depth of 1500 m. The famous “Bermuda Triangle” was chosen as the test site for this experiment.

An important contribution to the study of the World Ocean was made by the expeditions of the world-famous scientist and writer J. I. Cousteau on the ships "Calypso" and "Alsion". Over the 87 years of his life (1910-1997), he made many discoveries: he improved scuba gear, created underwater houses and diving saucers, studied organic life in the World Ocean. He has written more than 20 major monographs and shot more than 70 scientific documentaries about life in the waters of the World Ocean. The scientist received his first Oscar for the film “A World Without Sun”. J. I. Cousteau was the permanent director of the Oceanographic Museum in Monaco. His research showed humanity the possibility of building special underwater laboratories. Back in 1962, he first conducted an experiment called “Precontinent-I”. Two scuba divers in the underwater house-laboratory "Diogenes", installed at a depth of 25.5 m, conducted an experiment and worked for 5 hours a day in scuba gear at a depth of 25-26 m. In 1963, J. I. Cousteau conducts a second experiment - "Precontinent-II" - in the Red Sea, where two underwater houses were installed. As a result of generalizing the valuable experience of two experiments, “Precontinent-III” appears, conducted in 1965 in the Mediterranean Sea near Monaco (Cape Ferram). At a depth of 100 m, six scuba divers live in an underwater house for 23 days. During this experiment, the researchers dived to a depth of 140 m. Afterwards, the Precontinent-IV experiment took place with a dive to a depth of 400 m.

In the 70-80s. XX century J. I. Cousteau was the first to raise the problem of pollution of the World Ocean. Makes numerous dives into the depths of the World Ocean.

Since the end of the 20th century, scientific research has been carried out on specially equipped vessels using the latest measuring devices, telemetry, physical and chemical methods, quantitative analysis, cybernetic techniques for processing information using a computer.

Modern ocean research is characterized by international coordination of research results, which flow into the International Oceanological Committee (IOC). Nowadays, as part of the scientific navy According to the UN, there are more than 500 ships in all countries of the world.

The world ocean, covering 71% of the Earth's surface, amazes with the complexity and diversity of the processes developing in it.

From the surface to the greatest depths, ocean waters are in continuous motion. These complex movements of water, from huge ocean currents to the smallest eddies, are excited by tidal forces and serve as a manifestation of the interaction between the atmosphere and the ocean.

The ocean water mass at low latitudes accumulates heat received from the sun and transfers this heat to high latitudes. The redistribution of heat, in turn, excites certain atmospheric processes. Thus, in the area of ​​convergence of cold and warm currents in the North Atlantic, powerful cyclones arise. They reach Europe and often determine the weather throughout its entire territory up to the Urals.

The living matter of the ocean is very unevenly distributed across the depths. In different areas of the ocean, biomass depends on climatic conditions and the entry of nitrogen and phosphorus salts into surface waters. The ocean is home to a great variety of plants and animals. From bacteria and single-celled green algae of phytoplankton to the largest mammals on earth - whales, whose weight reaches 150 tons. All living organisms form a single biological system with their own laws of existence and evolution.

Loose sediments accumulate very slowly on the ocean floor. This is the first stage of sedimentary formation rocks. In order for geologists working on land to correctly decipher the geological history of a given territory, it is necessary to study in detail modern processes of sedimentation.

As it turned out in recent decades, the earth's crust under the ocean is highly mobile. Mountain ranges, deep rift valleys, and volcanic cones form on the ocean floor. In a word, the bottom of the ocean “lives” vigorously, and such strong earthquakes that huge devastating tsunami waves are rushing across the surface of the ocean.

Trying to explore the nature of the ocean - this grandiose sphere of the earth, scientists encounter certain difficulties, to overcome which they have to use the methods of all the basic natural sciences: physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, geology. Oceanology is usually spoken of as a union of various sciences, a federation of sciences united by the subject of research. This approach to the study of the nature of the ocean is reflected in the natural desire to penetrate deeper into its secrets and the urgent need to deeply and comprehensively know the characteristic features of its nature.

These problems are very complex, and they have to be solved by a large team of scientists and specialists. In order to imagine exactly how this is done, let’s consider the three most current areas of oceanological science:

• interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere;
• biological structure of the ocean;
• geology of the ocean floor and its mineral resources.

The oldest Soviet research vessel “Vityaz” has completed many years of tireless work. It arrived at the Kaliningrad seaport. The 65th farewell flight, which lasted more than two months, ended.

Here is the last “running” entry in the ship’s log of a veteran of our oceanographic fleet, which over thirty years of voyages left more than a million miles behind the stern.

In a conversation with a Pravda correspondent, the head of the expedition, Professor A. A. Aksenov, noted that the 65th flight of the Vityaz, like all previous ones, was successful. Comprehensive research in the deep-sea areas of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean has yielded new scientific data that will enrich our knowledge of marine life.

Vityaz will be temporarily based in Kaliningrad. It is expected that it will then become the basis for the creation of a museum of the World Ocean.

For several years, scientists from many countries have been working on the international project PIGAP (program for the study of global atmospheric processes). The goal of this work is to find a reliable method for weather forecasting. There is no need to explain how important this is. It will be possible to know in advance about drought, floods, rainfall, strong winds, heat and cold...

So far no one can give such a forecast. In what main difficulty? It is impossible to accurately describe with mathematical equations the processes of interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere.

Almost all the water that falls on land in the form of rain and light enters the atmosphere from the surface of the ocean. Ocean waters in the tropics become very hot, and currents carry this heat to high latitudes. Huge vortices arise over the ocean - cyclones, which determine the weather on land.

The ocean is the kitchen of the weather... But there are very few permanent weather observation stations in the ocean. These are a few islands and several automatic floating stations.

Scientists are trying to build a mathematical model of the interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere, but it must be real and accurate, and for this there is a lack of data on the state of the atmosphere above the ocean.

A solution was found in very accurately and continuously taking measurements in a small area of ​​the ocean from ships, airplanes and meteorological satellites. Such an international experiment called “Tropex” was carried out in the tropical Atlantic Ocean in 1974, and very important data were obtained for constructing a mathematical model.

It is necessary to know the entire system of currents in the ocean. Currents carry heat (and cold), nutritious mineral salts necessary for the development of life. A long time ago, sailors began to collect information about currents. It began in the 15th-16th centuries, when sailing ships entered the open ocean. Nowadays, all sailors know that detailed maps of surface currents exist and use them. However, in the last 20-30 years, discoveries have been made that have shown how inaccurate current maps are and how complex the overall picture of ocean circulation is.

In the equatorial zone of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, powerful deep currents have been explored, measured and mapped. They are known as the Cromwell Current in the Pacific and the Lomonosov Current in the Atlantic Oceans.

In the western Atlantic Ocean, the deep Antilo-Guiana countercurrent was discovered. And under the famous Gulf Stream was the Counter-Gulf Stream.

In 1970, Soviet scientists conducted a very interesting study. A series of buoy stations were installed in the tropical Atlantic Ocean. At each station, currents were continuously recorded at various depths. The measurements lasted six months, and hydrological surveys were periodically carried out in the measurement area to obtain data on the general pattern of water movement. After processing and summarizing the measurement materials, a very important general pattern emerged. It turns out that the previously existing idea of ​​​​the relatively uniform nature of the constant trade wind current, which is excited by northern trade winds, does not correspond to reality. This stream, this huge river with liquid banks does not exist.

Huge vortices and whirlpools, tens and even hundreds of kilometers in size, move in the zone of the trade wind current. The center of such a vortex moves at a speed of about 10 cm/s, but at the periphery of the vortex the flow speed is much higher. This discovery of Soviet scientists was later confirmed by American researchers, and in 1973 similar vortices were traced in Soviet expeditions working in the North Pacific Ocean.

In 1977-1978 A special experiment was carried out to study the vortex structure of currents in the Sargasso Sea region in the western North Atlantic. Over a large area, Soviet and American expeditions continuously measured currents for 15 months. This huge material has not yet been fully analyzed, but the formulation of the problem itself required massive, specially designed measurements.

Particular attention to the so-called synoptic eddies in the ocean is due to the fact that it is the eddies that carry the largest share of the current energy. Consequently, their careful study can bring scientists significantly closer to solving the problem of long-term weather forecasting.

Another most interesting phenomenon, associated with ocean currents, has been discovered in recent years. Very stable so-called rings (rings) have been discovered to the east and west of the powerful ocean current Gulf Stream. Like a river, the Gulf Stream has strong bends (meanders). In some places, the meanders close, and a ring is formed in which the temperature of the bottom differs sharply at the periphery and in the center. Such rings are also traced on the periphery powerful current Kuroshio in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. Special observations of rings in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans showed that these formations are very stable, maintaining a significant difference in water temperature on the periphery and inside the ring for 2-3 years.

In 1969, special probes were used for the first time to continuously measure temperature and salinity at various depths. Before this, the temperature was measured with mercury thermometers at several points at different depths, and water was raised from the same depths in bathometers. Then the salinity of the water was determined and the salinity and temperature values ​​were plotted on a graph. The distribution of these water properties over depth was obtained. Measurements at individual points (discrete) did not even allow us to assume that the temperature of water changes with depth as complexly as shown by continuous measurements with a probe.

It turned out that the entire water mass from the surface to great depths is divided into thin layers. The difference in temperature of adjacent horizontal layers reaches several tenths of a degree. These layers, from several centimeters to several meters thick, sometimes exist for several hours, sometimes disappear in a few minutes.

The first measurements, made in 1969, seemed to many to be a random phenomenon in the ocean. It is impossible, the skeptics said, that the mighty ocean waves and currents do not mix the water. But in subsequent years, when sounding of the water column with precise instruments was carried out throughout the ocean, it turned out that the thin-layered structure of the water column was found everywhere and always. The reasons for this phenomenon are not entirely clear. So far they explain it this way: for one reason or another, numerous fairly clear boundaries appear in the water column, separating layers with different densities. At the boundary of two layers of different densities, internal waves very easily arise that mix the water. In the process of destruction of internal waves, new homogeneous layers appear, and the boundaries of the layers are formed at other depths. So this process is repeated many times, the depth and thickness of layers with sharp boundaries change, but the general character of the water column remains unchanged.

In 1979, the experimental phase of the International Program for the Study of Global Atmospheric Processes (PIGAP) began. Several dozen ships, automatic observation stations in the ocean, special aircraft and meteorological satellites, this whole vast array of research equipment operates throughout the entire World Ocean. All participants in this experiment work according to a single agreed program so that, by comparing the materials of the international experiment, it is possible to build a global model of the state of the atmosphere and ocean.

If you take into account that in addition to the general task of finding a reliable method for long-term weather forecast, you need to know many particular facts, then common task ocean physics will seem very, very complex: measurement methods, instruments, the operation of which is based on the use of the most modern electronic circuits, rather difficult processing of the received information with the mandatory use of a computer; construction of very complex and original mathematical models of processes developing in the water column of the ocean and at the boundary with the atmosphere; conducting extensive experiments in characteristic areas ocean. These are the general features of modern research in the field of ocean physics.

Particular difficulties arise when studying living matter in the ocean. Relatively recently, the necessary materials for general characteristics were obtained biological structure ocean.

Only in 1949 was life discovered at depths of more than 6000 m. Later, the deep-sea fauna - the ultra-abyssal fauna - turned out to be a very interesting object of special research. At such depths, living conditions are very stable on a geological time scale. Based on the similarity of the ultra-abyssal fauna, it is possible to establish the former connections of individual ocean basins and restore the geographical conditions of the geological past. For example, by comparing the deep-sea fauna of the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean, scientists have determined that there was no Isthmus of Panama in the geological past.

Somewhat later, an astonishing discovery was made - a new type of animal was discovered in the ocean - pogonophora. A thorough study of their anatomy, systematic classification compiled the contents of one of the outstanding works in modern biology - the monograph by A.V. Ivanov “Pogonophores”. These two examples show how difficult it has been to study the distribution of life in the ocean and, even more so, the general patterns of functioning of the biological systems of the ocean.

By comparing disparate facts and comparing the biology of the main groups of plants and animals, scientists have come to important conclusions. The total biological production of the World Ocean turned out to be somewhat less than the similar value characterizing the entire land area, despite the fact that the ocean area is 2.5 times larger than the land. This is due to the fact that areas of high biological productivity are the periphery of the ocean and areas of rising deep waters. The rest of the ocean is an almost lifeless desert, in which only large predators can be found. Only small coral atolls turn out to be isolated oases in the ocean desert.

Another important conclusion concerns the general characteristics of food chains in the ocean. The first link in the food chain is the single-celled green algae phytoplankton. The next link is zooplankton, then planktivorous fish and predators. Dairy animals - benthos, which are also food for fish - are essential.

Reproduction at each level of food value is such that the produced biomass is 10 times higher than its consumption. In other words, 90%, for example, of phytoplankton dies naturally and only 10% serves as food for zooplankton. It has also been established that zooplankton crustaceans perform vertical daily migrations in search of food. More recently, it was possible to discover clots of bacteria in the diet of zooplankton crustaceans, and this type of food accounted for up to 30% of the total volume. The general result of modern research in ocean biology is that an approach has been found and the first block mathematical model of the ecological system of the open ocean has been constructed. This is the first step towards artificial regulation of the biological productivity of the ocean.

What methods do ocean biologists use?

First of all, a variety of fishing gear. Small plankton organisms are caught with special cone nets. As a result of fishing, an average amount of plankton is obtained in weight units per unit volume of water. These nets can be used to fish individual horizons of the water column or to “filter” water from a given depth to the surface. Bottom animals are caught with various tools towed along the bottom. Fish and other nekton organisms are caught by mid-water trawls.

Unique methods are used to study the nutritional relationships of different groups of plankton. Organisms are “marked” with radioactive substances and then the amount and rate of grazing in the next link of the food chain is determined.

In recent years, physical methods for indirectly determining the amount of plankton in water have been used. One of these methods is based on the use of a laser beam, which probes the surface layer of water in the ocean and provides data on the total amount of phytoplankton. Another physical method is based on the use of the ability of plankton organisms to glow - bioluminescence. A special probe bathometer is immersed in water, and as it dives, the intensity of bioluminescence is recorded as an indicator of the amount of plankton. These methods very quickly and completely characterize the distribution of plankton at multiple sounding points.

An important element in studying the biological structure of the ocean is chemical research. The content of nutrients (mineral salts of nitrogen and phosphorus), dissolved oxygen and a number of other important characteristics of the habitat of organisms are determined by chemical methods. Careful chemical determinations are especially important when studying highly productive coastal areas - upwelling zones. Here, with regular and strong winds from the coast, a strong accumulation of water occurs, accompanied by the rise of deep waters and their distribution in the shallow area of ​​the shelf. Deep waters contain dissolved amounts of significant amounts of mineral salts of nitrogen and phosphorus. As a result, phytoplankton flourishes in the upwelling zone and, ultimately, an area of ​​commercial fish aggregations is formed.

Prediction and registration of the specific nature of the habitat in the upwelling zone are carried out using chemical methods. Thus, in biology, the question of acceptable and applicable research methods is being resolved in a comprehensive manner in our time. While widely using traditional methods of biology, researchers are increasingly using methods of physics and chemistry. The processing of materials, as well as their generalization in the form of optimized models, is carried out using the methods of modern mathematics.

In the field of studying ocean geology over the past 30 years, so many new facts have been obtained that many traditional ideas had to be radically changed.

Just 30 years ago, measuring the depth of the ocean floor was extremely difficult. It was necessary to lower a heavy lot into the water with a load suspended on a long steel cable. Moreover, the results were often erroneous, and the points with measured depths were hundreds of kilometers apart from each other. Therefore, the prevailing idea was of the vast expanses of the ocean floor as gigantic plains.

In 1937, a new method of measuring depths was used for the first time, based on the effect of reflection of a sound signal from the bottom.

The principle of measuring depth with an echo sounder is very simple. A special vibrator mounted in the lower part of the ship's hull emits pulsating acoustic signals. The signals are reflected from the bottom surface and captured by the receiving device of the echo sounder. The round trip time of the signal depends on the depth, and a continuous profile of the bottom is drawn on the tape as the ship moves. A series of such profiles, separated by relatively short distances, makes it possible to draw lines of equal depths on the map - isobaths - and depict the bottom relief.

Depth measurements with echo sounders changed scientists' previous understanding of the topography of the ocean floor.

What does it look like?

A strip stretches from the coast, which is called the continental shelf. Depths on the continental shelf usually do not exceed 200-300 m.

In the upper zone of the continental shelf there is a continuous and rapid transformation of the relief. The shore retreats under the pressure of the waves, and at the same time large accumulations of debris appear under the water. It is here that large deposits of sand, gravel, and pebbles are formed - excellent building material, crushed and sorted by nature itself. Various spits, embankments, bars, in turn, build up the coast in another place, separate lagoons, and block river mouths.

In the tropical zone of the ocean, where the water is very clean and warm, grandiose coral structures grow - coastal and barrier reefs. They stretch for hundreds of kilometers. Coral reefs provide shelter for a great variety of organisms and together form a complex and extraordinary biological system. In a word, the upper shelf zone “lives” with a vibrant geological life.

At depths of 100-200 m, geological processes seem to freeze. The relief becomes leveled, and there are many bedrock outcrops at the bottom. The destruction of rocks is very slow.

At the outer edge of the shelf, facing the ocean, the drop of the bottom surface becomes steeper. Sometimes the slopes reach 40-50°. This is a continental slope. Its surface is dissected by underwater canyons. Intense and sometimes catastrophic processes take place here. Silt accumulates on the slopes of underwater canyons. At times, the stability of the accumulations is suddenly broken, and a mud flow falls along the bottom of the canyon.

The mud flow reaches the mouth of the canyon, and here the bulk of sand and large debris, deposited, forms an alluvial cone - an underwater delta. A turbidity current emerges beyond the continental foot. Often, individual alluvial fans are connected, and a continuous strip of loose sediments of great thickness is formed at the continental foot.

53% of the bottom area is occupied by the ocean floor, an area that until recently was considered a plain. In fact, the relief of the ocean floor is quite complex: uplifts of various structures and origins divide it into huge basins. The size of the oceanic basins can be estimated from at least one example: the northern and eastern basins of the Pacific Ocean occupy an area larger than all of North America.

Over a large area of ​​the basins themselves, hilly terrain dominates; sometimes there are individual seamounts. The height of the ocean mountains reaches 5-6 km, and their peaks often rise above the water.

In other areas, the ocean floor is crossed by huge, gentle swells several hundred kilometers wide. Typically, volcanic islands are located on these ramparts. In the Pacific Ocean, for example, there is the Hawaiian Wall, on which there is a chain of islands with active volcanoes and lava lakes.

Volcanic cones rise from the ocean floor in many places. Sometimes the top of a volcano reaches the surface of the water, and then an island appears. Some of these islands are gradually being destroyed and hidden under water.

Several hundred volcanic cones have been discovered in the Pacific Ocean with obvious traces of wave action on their flat tops, submerged to a depth of 1000-1300 m.

The evolution of volcanoes may be different. Reef-building corals settle at the top of the volcano. As the corals slowly sink, they build up the reef, and over time, a ring island is formed - an atoll with a lagoon in the middle. The growth of a coral reef can continue for a very long time. Drilling has been carried out on some Pacific atolls to determine the thickness of the coralline limestones. It turned out that it reaches 1500. This means that the top of the volcano sank slowly - over approximately 20 thousand years.

Studying the bottom topography and geological structure solid ocean crust, scientists have come to some new conclusions. The earth's crust under the ocean floor turned out to be much thinner than on the continents. On continents, the thickness of the Earth's solid shell - the lithosphere - reaches 50-60 km, and in the ocean it does not exceed 5-7 km.

It also turned out that the lithosphere of land and ocean differs in rock composition. Under the layer of loose rocks - products of destruction of the land surface, there is a thick granite layer, which is underlain by a basalt layer. In the ocean, there is no granite layer, and loose sediments lie directly on the basalts.

Even more important was the discovery of a vast system of mountain ranges on the ocean floor. The mountain system of mid-ocean ridges stretches across all oceans for 80,000 km. In size, underwater ridges are comparable only to the greatest mountains on land, for example the Himalayas. The crests of submarine ridges are usually cut lengthwise by deep gorges, which have been called rift valleys, or rifts. Their continuation can be traced on land.

Scientists have realized that the global rift system is a very important phenomenon in geological development our entire planet. A period of careful study of the rift zone system began, and such significant data were soon obtained that there was a sharp change in ideas about geological history Earth.

Now scientists have again turned to the half-forgotten hypothesis of continental drift, expressed by the German scientist A. Wegener at the beginning of the century. A careful comparison of the contours of the continents separated by the Atlantic Ocean was made. At the same time, geophysicist Ya. Bullard combined the contours of Europe and North America, Africa and South America not along coastlines, but along the midline of the continental slope, approximately along an isobath of 1000 m. The outlines of both shores of the ocean coincided so accurately that even inveterate skeptics could not doubt in the actual enormous horizontal movement of the continents.

Particularly convincing were the data obtained during geomagnetic surveys in the area of ​​mid-ocean ridges. It turned out that the erupted basaltic lava gradually moves to both sides of the ridge crest. Thus, direct evidence was obtained of the expansion of the oceans, the spreading of the earth's crust in the rift region and, in accordance with this, continental drift.

Deep drilling in the ocean, which has been carried out for several years from the American vessel Glomar Challenger, has again confirmed the fact of the expansion of the oceans. They even established the average expansion of the Atlantic Ocean - several centimeters per year.

It was also possible to explain the increased seismicity and volcanism on the periphery of the oceans.

All this new data served as the basis for creating a hypothesis (often called a theory, its arguments are so convincing) of the tectonics (mobility) of lithospheric plates.

The original formulation of this theory belongs to the American scientists G. Hess and R. Dietz. Later it was developed and supplemented by Soviet, French and other scientists. The meaning of the new theory comes down to the idea that the rigid shell of the Earth - the lithosphere - is divided into separate plates. These plates experience horizontal movements. The forces that set lithospheric plates in motion are generated by convective currents, i.e., flows of the deep fiery liquid substance of the Earth.

The spreading of plates to the sides is accompanied by the formation of mid-ocean ridges, on the crests of which gaping rift cracks appear. Basaltic lava flows through rifts.

In other areas, lithospheric plates come closer and collide. In these collisions, as a rule, the edge of one plate moves under the other. On the periphery of the oceans, such modern underthrust zones are known, where strong earthquakes often occur.

The theory of plate tectonics is supported by many facts obtained over the past fifteen years in the ocean.

The general basis of modern ideas about the internal structure of the Earth and the processes occurring in its depths is the cosmogonic hypothesis of Academician O. Yu. Schmidt. According to his ideas, the Earth, like other planets of the solar system, was formed by the sticking together of the cold substance of a dust cloud. Further growth of the Earth occurred by capturing new portions of meteorite matter while passing through the dust cloud that once surrounded the Sun. As the planet grew, heavy (iron) meteorites sank and light (stone) meteorites floated up. This process (separation, differentiation) was so powerful that inside the planet the substance melted and was divided into a refractory (heavy) part and a fusible (lighter) part. At the same time, radioactive heating was also active internal parts Earth. All these processes led to the formation of heavy inner core, lighter outer core, lower and upper mantle. Geophysical data and calculations show that enormous energy lurks in the bowels of the Earth, truly capable of decisive transformations of the solid shell - the lithosphere.

Based on the cosmogonic hypothesis of O. 10. Schmidt, Academician A.P. Vinogradov developed a geochemical theory of the origin of the ocean. A.P. Vinogradov, through precise calculations, as well as experiments to study the differentiation of the molten substance of meteorites, established that the water mass of the ocean and the Earth’s atmosphere was formed in the process of degassing of the substance of the upper mantle. This process continues in our time. In the upper mantle, continuous differentiation of matter actually occurs, and the most fusible part of it penetrates to the surface of the lithosphere in the form of basaltic lava.

Ideas about the structure of the earth's crust and its dynamics are gradually becoming more precise.

In 1973 and 1974 An unusual underwater expedition was carried out in the Atlantic Ocean. In a pre-selected area of ​​the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, deep-sea dives of submersibles were carried out and a small but very important section of the ocean floor was explored in detail.

Exploring the bottom from surface vessels during the preparation of the expedition, scientists studied the bottom topography in detail and discovered an area within which there was a deep gorge cutting along the crest of an underwater ridge - a rift valley. In the same area there is a transform fault, clearly expressed in the relief, transverse to the crest of the ridge and the rift gorge.

This typical bottom structure - a rift gorge, a transform fault, young volcanoes - was examined from three underwater vessels. The expedition included the French bathyscaphe "Archimedes" with the special vessel "Marseille Le Bihan" supporting its work, the French submarine "Siana" with the vessel "Norua", the American research vessel "Knorr", the American submarine "Alvin" with the vessel "Lulu" .

A total of 51 deep-sea dives were made over two seasons.

When performing deep-sea dives up to 3000 m, the crews of underwater vessels encountered some difficulties.

The first thing that initially greatly complicated the research was the inability to determine the location of the underwater vehicle in conditions of highly dissected terrain.

The underwater vehicle had to move while maintaining a distance from the bottom of no more than 5 m. On steep slopes and crossing narrow valleys, the bathyscaphe and submarines could not use the acoustic beacon system, since underwater mountains prevented the passage of signals. For this reason, an on-board system was put into operation on support vessels, with the help of which the exact location of the underwater vessel was determined. The support vessel monitored the underwater vehicle and controlled its movement. Sometimes there was a direct danger to the underwater vehicle, and one day such a situation arose.

On July 17, 1974, the Alvin submarine literally got stuck in a narrow crack and spent two and a half hours trying to get out of the trap. The Alvin crew showed amazing resourcefulness and composure - after leaving the trap they did not surface, but continued to explore for another two hours.

In addition to direct observations and measurements from submersibles, photographing and collecting samples, drilling was carried out in the expedition area from the famous special purpose vessel Glomar Challenger.

Finally, geophysical measurements were regularly taken from the research vessel Knorr, complementing the work of submersible observers.

As a result, 91 km of route observations, 23 thousand photographs were made in a small area of ​​the bottom, more than 2 tons of rock samples were collected and more than 100 video recordings were made.

The scientific results of this expedition (known as Famous) are very important. For the first time, underwater vehicles were used not just to observe the underwater world, but for purposeful geological research, similar to the detailed surveys that geologists conduct on land.

For the first time, direct evidence of the movement of lithospheric plates along boundaries was obtained. In this case, the boundary between the American and African plates was explored.

The width of the zone, which is located between the moving lithospheric plates, was determined. Unexpectedly, it turned out that this zone, where the earth’s crust forms a system of cracks and where basaltic lava flows onto the bottom surface, that is, a new earth’s crust is formed, this zone is less than a kilometer wide.

A very important discovery was made on the slopes of underwater hills. In one of the dives of the Siana submersible, fissured loose fragments were discovered on a hillside, very different from various fragments of basaltic lava. After the surfacing of the Siana, it was determined that it was manganese ore. A more detailed examination of the area where manganese ores are distributed led to the discovery of an ancient hydrothermal deposit on the surface of the bottom. Repeated dives yielded new materials proving that, in fact, due to the emergence of thermal waters from the depths of the bottom to the surface of the bottom, iron and manganese ores lie in this small area of ​​the bottom.

During the expedition, many technical problems arose and there were failures, but the precious experience of purposeful geological research gained over two seasons also important result this extraordinary oceanographic experiment.

Methods for studying the structure of the earth's crust in the ocean differ in some features. The bottom topography is studied not only with the help of echo sounders, but also side-scan locators and special echo sounders, which give a picture of the relief within a strip equal in width to the depth of the place. These new methods provide more accurate results and allow the relief to be depicted more accurately on maps.

On research vessels, gravimetric surveys are carried out using onboard gravimeters, survey magnetic anomalies. These data make it possible to judge the structure of the earth's crust under the ocean. The main research method is seismic sounding. A small explosive charge is placed in the water column and an explosion is generated. A special receiving device records the arrival time of the reflected signals. Calculations determine the speed of propagation of longitudinal waves caused by an explosion in the earth's crust. Characteristic velocity values ​​make it possible to divide the lithosphere into several layers of different composition.

Currently, pneumatic devices or electrical discharge. In the first case, a small volume of air, compressed in a special device with a pressure of 250-300 atm, is released into the water (almost instantly). At a shallow depth, the air bubble expands sharply, thereby simulating an explosion. Frequent repetition of such explosions, caused by a device called an air gun, gives a continuous seismic sounding profile and, therefore, a fairly detailed profile of the structure of the earth's crust along the entire length of the tack.

A profilograph with an electric discharger (sparker) is used in a similar way. In this version of seismic equipment, the power of the discharge that excites oscillations is usually small, and a sparker is used to study the power and distribution of unconsolidated layers of bottom sediments.

To study the composition of bottom sediments and obtain their samples, various systems of soil tubes and bottom grabs are used. Soil tubes have, depending on the research task, different diameters, usually carry a heavy load for maximum penetration into the soil, sometimes have a piston inside and carry one or another contactor (core breaker) at the lower end. The tube is immersed in water and sediment at the bottom to one or another depth (but usually no more than 12-15 m), and the core thus extracted, usually called a core, is lifted onto the deck of the ship.

Bottom grabpers, which are grab-type devices, seem to cut out a small monolith of the surface layer of bottom soil, which is delivered to the deck of the ship. Self-floating dredge models have been developed. They eliminate the need for a cable and a deck winch and greatly simplify the method of obtaining a sample. In coastal areas of the ocean at shallow depths, vibrating piston soil tubes are used. With their help, it is possible to obtain columns up to 5 m long on sandy soils.

Obviously, all of the listed devices cannot be used to obtain samples (cores) of bottom rocks that are compacted and have a thickness of tens and hundreds of meters. These samples are obtained using conventional drilling rigs mounted on ships. For relatively shallow shelf depths (up to 150-200 m), special vessels are used that carry a drilling rig and are installed at the drilling point on several anchors. The vessel is held at a point by adjusting the tension of the chains going to each of the four anchors.

At depths of thousands of meters in the open ocean, anchoring a vessel is technically impossible. Therefore developed special method dynamic positioning.

The drilling ship goes to a given point, and the accuracy of determining the location is ensured by a special navigation device that receives signals from artificial Earth satellites. Then a rather complex device such as an acoustic beacon is installed at the bottom. The signals from this beacon are received by a system installed on the ship. After receiving the signal, special electronic devices determine the displacement of the vessel and instantly issue a command to the thrusters. The required group of propellers is turned on and the position of the vessel is restored. On the deck of a deep drilling vessel there is a drilling derrick with a rotary drilling unit, a large set of pipes and a special device for lifting and screwing together pipes.

The drilling ship Glomar Challenger (so far the only one) is carrying out work on an international deep-sea drilling project in the open ocean. More than 600 wells have already been drilled, with the greatest depth of wells being 1300 m. The materials from deep-sea drilling have yielded so many new and unexpected facts that there is an extraordinary interest in studying them. When studying the ocean floor, many different techniques and methods are used, and we can expect the emergence of new methods using new measurement principles in the near future.

In conclusion, it is worth briefly mentioning one task in general program Ocean Research - about the study of pollution. The sources of ocean pollution are varied. Discharge of industrial and domestic wastewater from coastal enterprises and cities. The composition of pollutants here is extremely diverse: from nuclear industry waste to modern synthetic detergents. Significant pollution is created by discharges from ocean-going ships, and sometimes by catastrophic oil spills during accidents of tankers and offshore oil wells. There is another way to pollute the ocean - through the atmosphere. Air currents carry over vast distances, for example, lead that enters the atmosphere with the exhaust gases of internal combustion engines. During gas exchange with the atmosphere, lead enters the water and is found, for example, in Antarctic waters.

Definitions of pollution are now organized into a special international observing system. In this case, systematic observations of the content of pollutants in water are assigned to the relevant vessels.

The most widespread pollution in the ocean is petroleum products. To control it, not only chemical methods of determination are used, but mostly optical methods. Special optical devices are installed on airplanes and helicopters, with the help of which the boundaries of the area covered by the oil film and even the thickness of the film are determined.

The nature of the World Ocean, this, figuratively speaking, huge ecological system of our planet, has not yet been sufficiently studied. Proof of this assessment is provided by recent discoveries in various fields of oceanology. Methods for studying the World Ocean are quite diverse. Undoubtedly, in the future, as new research methods are found and applied, science will be enriched with new discoveries.

HISTORY, CURRENT STATUS AND PROSPECTS

Several periods can be distinguished in the history of ocean exploration and the development of oceanology. First period research from ancient times to the era of great geographical discoveries is associated with the discoveries of the Egyptians, Phoenicians, inhabitants of the island of Crete and their successors. They had a good idea of ​​the winds, currents and shores of the waters they knew. The first historically proven voyage was carried out by the Egyptians along the Red Sea from the Gulf of Suez to the Gulf of Aden, opening the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Phoenician half-merchants, half-pirates sailed far from their home ports. Like all sailors of antiquity, they never voluntarily moved away from the shore beyond its visibility, and did not sail in winter or at night. The main purpose of their travels was to mine metal and hunt slaves for Egypt and Babylonia, but at the same time they contributed to the spread of geographical knowledge of the ocean. The main object of their research in the 2nd millennium BC was the Mediterranean Sea. In addition, they sailed through the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean to the East, where, bypassing the Strait of Malacca, they may have reached the Pacific Ocean. In 609-595 BC, the Phoenicians crossed the Red Sea in galleys, circumnavigated Africa and returned to the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar.

The discovery of the Indian Ocean is associated with the sailors of the ancient Harappan civilization that existed in the Indus basin in the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. They used birds for navigation purposes and had a clear understanding of the monsoons. They were the first to master coastal navigation on the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman, and opened the Strait of Hormuz. Subsequently, the ancient Indians, sailing through the Bay of Bengal, entered the South China Sea in the 7th century BC and discovered the Indochina Peninsula. At the end of the 1st millennium BC, they had a huge fleet, achieved significant success in the science of navigation and discovered the Malay Archipelago, Laccadive, Maldives, Andaman, Nicobar and other islands in the Indian Ocean. The sea travel routes of the ancient Chinese ran mainly through the waters of the South China, East China and Yellow Seas.

Among the ancient navigators of Europe, it is worth noting the Cretans, who in the 15th-15th centuries BC were the first to penetrate through the Sea of ​​Marmara and the Bosporus into the Black Sea (Pontus) and became the discoverers of a significant part of Southern Europe.

In ancient times, geographical horizons expanded significantly. The area of ​​known lands and waters has increased significantly. Achieved amazing success geographical science. A native of Massalia, Pytheas in the middle of the 5th century BC made voyages to the North Atlantic, where he first explored the phenomena of tide and discovered the British Isles and Iceland. Aristotle expressed the idea of ​​the unity of the World Ocean, and Posidonius developed this idea and clearly outlined the theory of a single ocean. Ancient scientists knew a lot about the geography of the World Ocean, had a fairly detailed description of its nature and maps with depth measurements.

In the middle of the 6th century, Irish monks sailed far to the north and west of the North Atlantic. They were not interested in trade. They were driven by pious motives, a thirst for adventure and a desire for solitude. Even before the Scandinavians, they visited Iceland and apparently reached the island of Greenland and the eastern coast of North America in their travels. The Normans played a significant role in the discovery, often secondary to the ancient Irish, and exploration of the North Atlantic in the 7th–10th centuries. The main occupation of the ancient Normans was cattle breeding and maritime trades. In search of fish and sea animals, they made long voyages across the northern seas. In addition, they went overseas to trade in European countries, combining it with piracy and the slave trade. The Normans sailed the Baltic and Mediterranean seas. A native of Norway, Eirik Thorvaldson (Eirik Raudi), who settled in Iceland, discovered Greenland in 981. His son Leif Eirikson (Leif the Happy) is credited with the discovery of Baffin Bay, Labrador and Newfoundland. As a result of sea expeditions, the Normans also discovered the Baffin Sea, Hudson Bay marked the beginning of the discovery of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

Arab sailors dominated the Indian Ocean in the second half of the 15th century. They sailed through the Red and Arabian Seas, the Bay of Bengal and the seas of Southeast Asia as far as the island of Timor. The hereditary Arab navigator Ibn Majid in 1462 created “Haviyat al-ikhtisar...” (“Collection of results on the main principles of knowledge about the sea”), and in 1490 completed the poem “Kitab al-fawaid...” (“Book of benefits about fundamentals and rules of marine science”). These navigational works contained information about the shores of the Indian Ocean, its marginal seas and the largest islands.

In the 12th - 13th centuries, Russian Pomor industrialists, in search of sea animals and “fish teeth,” explored the seas of the Sulfur Arctic Ocean. They discovered the Spitsbergen (Grumand) archipelago and the Kara Sea.

In the 15th century, Portugal was one of the strongest maritime powers. At this time, in the Mediterranean, the Catalans, Genoese and Venetians monopolized all European trade with India. The Genoese Union dominated the North and Baltic Seas. Therefore, the Portuguese carried out their maritime expansion mainly in a southern direction, along the coast of Africa. They explored the western and southern coasts of Africa, discovered the islands of Cape Verde, the Azores, the Canary Islands and a number of others. In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope.

Second period The study of the World Ocean is associated with the era of great geographical discoveries, the chronological framework of which is limited to the middle of the 15th and 17th centuries. Significant geographical discoveries became possible thanks to the successes of science and technology: the creation of sailing ships that were reliable enough for ocean navigation, the improvement of the compass and nautical charts, the formation of ideas about the sphericity of the Earth, etc.

One of the most important events of this period was the discovery of America as a result of the expeditions of Christopher Columbus (1492-1504). It forced us to reconsider the previously existing views on the distribution of land and sea. In the Atlantic Ocean, the distance from the coast of Europe to the Caribbean was established quite accurately, the speed of the Northern Trade Wind Current was measured, the first depth measurements were made, soil samples were taken, tropical hurricanes were described for the first time, and magnetic declination anomalies were established near Bermuda. In 1952, the first bathymetric map was published in Spain, indicating reefs, banks and shallow waters. At this time, the Brazilian and Guiana Currents and the Gulf Stream were discovered.

In the Pacific Ocean, in connection with the intensive search for new lands, a large amount of factual material was collected about the nature of the ocean, mainly of a navigational nature. But military campaigns and merchant shipping of this period also brought scientific information. So F. Magellan, during his first circumnavigation of the world (1519-1522), tried to measure the depth of the Pacific Ocean.

In 1497-1498, the Portuguese Vasco da Gama discovered a sea route to India along the western coast of Africa. Following the Portuguese, Dutch, French, Spanish and English sailors rushed into the Indian Ocean, covering its different parts with their voyages.

The main goal of voyages in the Arctic Ocean is the discovery of new lands and communication routes. At that time, Russian, English and Dutch sailors tried to reach the North Pole, travel the North-East route along the coast of Asia and the North-West route along the coast of North America. As a rule, they did not have clear plans, ice navigation practice, or equipment appropriate for polar latitudes. Therefore, their efforts did not produce the desired results. The expeditions of G. Thorne (1527), H. Willoughby (1553), V. Barents (1594-96), and G. Hudson (1657) ended in complete failure. At the beginning of the 17th century, W. Baffin, trying to find the Northwest Passage, sailed along the western coast of Greenland to 77 ° 30 "N and discovered the mouths of the Lancoster and Smith Straits, Ellesmere Island and Devon. Ice did not allow him to penetrate the straits, and Baffin concluded that there was no passage.

Russian researchers made a significant contribution to the study of the Northeast Passage. In 1648, S. Dezhnev first passed through the strait connecting the Arctic and Pacific oceans, which later received the name Bering. However, S. Dezhnev’s report letter was lost in the Yakut archives for 88 years and became known only after his death.

The great geographical discoveries had a profound impact on the development of geographical knowledge. But, in the era under review, they were carried out mainly by people who had a very distant relationship with science. Therefore, the process of accumulating knowledge was very difficult. In 1650, the outstanding scientist of that time, Bernhard Varenius, wrote the book “General Geography,” where he summarized all the new knowledge about the Earth, paying significant attention to the oceans and seas.

Third period Ocean exploration covers the second half of the 17th century and the entire 18th century. The distinctive features of this time were colonial expansion, the struggle for markets and dominance of the seas. Thanks to the construction of reliable sailing ships and the improvement of navigation instruments, sea travel has become less difficult and relatively fast. WITH early XVIII century, the level of expeditionary work gradually changes. Travel, the results of which have scientific significance, begins to predominate. Some geographical discoveries of this period were events of world historical significance. The coastline of Northern Asia was established, North-West America was discovered, the entire eastern coast of Australia was identified, and numerous islands were discovered in Oceania. The spatial horizons of European peoples expanded significantly thanks to travel literature. Travel diaries, ship's logs, letters, reports, notes, essays and other works compiled by travelers and seafarers themselves, and by other persons from their words or based on their materials.

In the Arctic Ocean, maritime rivalry continued between Russia and England in the opening of the Northwest and Northeast Passages. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, the British organized about 60 expeditions, some of the results of which never became the property of scientists and navigators.

One of the most significant Russian expeditions of this period was the Great Northern expedition(1733-1742) under the leadership of V. Bering. As a result of this expedition, the Bering Strait was crossed to the shores of North America, the Kuril Islands were mapped, the Eurasian shores of the Arctic Ocean were described and the possibility of sailing along them was established, etc. The sea, island, cape and strait were named in honor of V. Bering. The names of other expedition members are Cape Chirikov, the Laptev Sea, Cape Chelyuskin, the Pronchishchev coast, the Malygina Strait, etc.

First high latitude Russian expedition to the Arctic Ocean was organized in 1764-1766 on the initiative of M.V. Lomonosov. During this expedition, under the leadership of V. Ya. Chichagov, a latitude of 80° 30" N was reached, interesting material was obtained about the natural conditions of the Greenland Sea, the Spitsbergen archipelago, and information about the conditions and specifics of navigation in ice conditions was generalized.

In the 60s of the 18th century, Anglo-French rivalry on the oceans flared up. One after another, the round-the-world expeditions of D. Byron (1764-1767), S. Wallis (1766-1768), F. Carter (1767-1769), A. Bougainville ( 1766-1769), etc. A great contribution to the chronicle of territorial discoveries was made by the English navigator D. Cook, who made three round the world travel(1768-1771, 1772-1775, 1776-1780). One of the main tasks of his expeditions was to search for the Southern Continent. He crossed the Arctic Circle three times and was convinced that the Southern Continent existed in the area of ​​the Pole, but could not discover it. As a result of expeditions, Cook established that New Zealand is a double island, discovered the east coast of Australia, the South Sandwich Islands, New Caledonia, Hawaiian and other islands.

Despite the large number of expeditions and voyages, early XIX century, many geographical problems were not resolved. The Southern continent was not discovered, the Arctic coast of North America and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago were not identified, there was very little data on the depths, relief and currents of the World Ocean.

The fourth period the study of the oceans covers the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. It is characterized by increased colonial expansion and colonial wars, a fierce struggle for markets for industrial products and sources of raw materials, and significant intercontinental migrations of people from Europe to other parts of the world. Geographical discoveries and research in the 19th – first half of the 20th centuries were carried out in more favorable conditions than in previous periods. In connection with the development of shipbuilding, new ships had improved seaworthiness and ensured greater navigation safety. Since the 20s of the 19th century, sailing ships were replaced by sailing ships with a steam engine as an additional propulsion device, and then by steamships with auxiliary sailing weapons. The introduction of a propeller since the 40s of the 19th century and the construction of ships with an iron and then a steel hull, and the use of an internal combustion engine since the end of the century have significantly accelerated and facilitated research papers, significantly reducing the influence of weather conditions on them. A qualitatively new stage in navigation began after the invention of radio (1895), the creation of a gyrocompass and a mechanical log at the beginning of the twentieth century. Living and working conditions on long sea voyages have improved greatly thanks to advances in technology and medicine. Matches appeared, industrial production of canned food and medicine was established, firearms were improved, and photography was invented.

Some of the geographical discoveries of this period were of world historical significance. The sixth continent of the planet has been discovered - Antarctica. The entire Arctic coast of North America has been traced, the discovery of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago has been completed, the true size and configuration of Greenland has been established, and the coast of the Australian continent has been fully identified. Literature about voyages and travel in the 19th century is becoming almost endless. From it, the most important sources of new geographical information were the reports of circumnavigators and polar explorers, the works of geographers and naturalists.

Around the middle of the 19th century, the importance of collective research organized by national academies, various museums, intelligence services, numerous scientific societies, institutes and individuals. The limits of human activity have expanded immeasurably, all seas and oceans have become objects of systematic study by expeditions in which general geographical and special oceanological research was carried out.

At the beginning of the 19th century, during a circumnavigation of the world under the leadership of I.F. Krusenstern and Yu. F. Lisyansky (1803-1806) measured the water temperature at different depths of the ocean and made observations of atmospheric pressure. Systematic measurements of temperature, salinity and density of water at different depths were carried out by the expedition of O. E. Kotzebue (1823-1826). In 1820, F. Bellingshausen and M. Lazarev discovered Antarctica and 29 islands. A great contribution to the development of science was the journey of Charles Darwin on the Beagle ship (1831-1836). In the late 40s of the 19th century, the American Matthew Fontaine Maury summarized information about the winds and currents of the World Ocean and published it in the form of the book “Instructions for Mariners.” He also wrote the work “Physical Geography of the Ocean,” which went through many editions.

The major event that marked the beginning of a new era of oceanographic research was the English round-the-world expedition on the specially equipped Challenger ship (1872-1876). During this expedition, a comprehensive oceanographic study of the World Ocean was carried out. 362 deep-sea stations were made, at which depth was measured, dredging and trawling were carried out, and various characteristics of sea water were determined. During this voyage, 700 genera of new organisms were discovered, the underwater Kerguelen Ridge in the Indian Ocean, the Mariana Trench, the underwater Lord Howe, Hawaiian, East Pacific and Chilean ridges were discovered, and the study of deep-sea basins continued.

At the beginning of the 19th century, studies of the topography of the Atlantic Ocean bottom were carried out to lay an underwater cable between Europe and North America. The results of these works were summarized in the form of maps, atlases, scientific articles and monographs. When developing a project for a trans-Pacific underwater telegraph cable between North America and Asia, since 1873, naval vessels began to be used to study the topography of the ocean floor. Measurements that were carried out along the line about. Vancouver - The Japanese Islands made it possible to obtain the first latitudinal profile of the Pacific Ocean floor. The corvette “Tuscarora” under the command of D. Belknap first discovered the Marcus Necker seamounts, the Aleutian ridge, the Japanese, Kuril-Kamchatka and Aleutian trenches, the Northwestern and Central basins, etc.

From the end of the 19th century until the 20s of the 20th century, several large oceanographic expeditions were organized, among which the most significant are the American ones on the ships “Albatross” and “Nero”, the German ones on “Edi”, “Planet” and “Gazelle”. , English on “Terra-Nova”, Russian on “Vityaz”, etc. As a result of the work of these expeditions, new underwater ridges, rises, deep-sea trenches and basins were identified, maps of the bottom relief and bottom sediments were compiled, and extensive material was collected about the organic world of the oceans .

Since the 1920s, an even more detailed study of the ocean began. The use of deep-sea echo sounders and recorders made it possible to determine depths while the ship was moving. These studies have significantly expanded knowledge about the structure of the ocean floor. Gravity measurements in the World Ocean clarified ideas about the shape of the Earth. Using seismographs, the Pacific seismic ring was identified. Biological, hydrochemical and other studies of the oceans received further development.

British expedition on the ship “Discovery - ??” discovered the South Pacific Rise, the New Zealand Plateau, and the Australian-Antarctic Rise. During World War II, Americans on the military transport Cape Johnson discovered more than a hundred guyots in the Western Pacific.

Polar explorers, especially Russian ones, have made a huge contribution to the geographical study of the World Ocean. At the beginning of the 19th century, N.P. Rumyantsev and I.F. Kruzenshtern proposed a project to search for the Northwest Passage and a detailed study of the coast of North America. The implementation of these plans was prevented by the War of 1812. But already in 1815, O. E. Kotzebue on the brig “Rurik” set off to explore the polar latitudes and discovered the bays of Kotzebue, St. Lawrence and others. In the first half of the 10th century, F.P. Wrangel and F.P. Litke carried out their expeditions. The results of these expeditions contributed significant contribution in the study of the ice and hydrological regime of the Arctic Ocean. Enormous achievements in the study of this ocean belong to Admiral S. O. Makarov. According to his design and drawings, the first icebreaker “Ermak” was built, on which Makarov’s expedition reached 81°29" N latitude.

Great value for geographical study The first international polar expedition in the history of human civilization took place on Earth. It is known as the First International Polar Year and was carried out in 1882-1883 by representatives of 12 countries in Europe and North America. The first through voyage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean via the Northwest Passage was made in 1903-1906 by R. Amundsen on the small yacht “Joa”. He found that over 70 years the North Magnetic Pole has shifted 50 km to the northeast. On April 6, 1909, the American R. Peary was the first to reach the North Pole.

In 1909, the first steel icebreaker-type hydrographic ships “Vaigach” and “Taimyr” were built to study the Arctic Ocean. With their help, in 1911, under the leadership of I. Sergeev and B. Vilkitsky, bathymetric work was carried out from the Bering Sea to the mouth of the Kolyma. In 1912, Russian researchers undertook 3 expeditions by G. Brusilov, V. Rusanov, G. Sedov to study the through passage along the coast of Siberia and reach the North Pole. However, none of them were successful. In 1925, R. Amundsen and L. Ellsworth organized the first air expedition to the Arctic and found that there was no land north of Greenland.

Significant research in Greenland, Barents, Kara and Chukotka was carried out in 1932-1933 as part of the International Polar Year. In 1934-1935, high-latitude complex expeditions were carried out on the ships “Litke”, “Persei”, “Sedov”. The first through navigation along the Northern Sea Route in one navigation was made by an expedition on the ship “Sibiryakov” headed by O.Yu. Schmidt. In 1937, under the leadership of I.D. Papanin, the hydrometeorological station “North Pole - 1” began operating in the Arctic ice.

And yet, by the end of this period, many geographical problems remained unresolved: it was not established whether Antarctica is a single continent, the discovery of the Arctic was not completed, the nature of the World Ocean was poorly studied, etc.

Beginning in the mid-twentieth century fifth - modern period studying the World Ocean. At this stage of human history, science has become the main force in the development of society. Advances in geosciences have made it possible to resolve a number of global issues. Obtain direct evidence of the mobility of the Earth's lithosphere and its planetary divisibility. Establish the structural features of the earth's crust. Find the ratio of land surfaces and oceans on Earth. Reveal the existence and significance of geosystems. Get started with space technology to collecting information about geosystems different levels for any period of time.

After the Second World War, oceanographic technology was improved. Three expeditions around the world, equipped with new equipment, set off into the vastness of the World Ocean: the Swedish on the Albatross (1947-1948), the Danish on the Galatea (1950-1952) and the British on the Challenger - ?? (1950-1952). During these and other expeditions, the thickness of the crust of the oceans was measured, heat flow at the bottom was measured, and guyots and the bottom fauna of deep-sea trenches were studied. The mid-ocean ridges of the oceans and the giant faults of Mendocino, Murray, Clarion and others were discovered and studied (1950-1959). An entire era of oceanographic research is associated with the work of the scientific vessel “Vityaz”. During numerous Vityaz expeditions since 1949, major discoveries were made in the field of geology, geophysics, geochemistry and biology of the World Ocean. On this ship, long-term observations of currents were carried out for the first time, the deepest point of the ocean in the Mariana Trench was established, previously unknown relief forms were discovered, etc. The work of the Vityaz was continued by the scientific ships Dmitry Mendeleev, Ob, and Akademik Kurchatov ”, etc. The post-war period is characterized by the development of international cooperation in the field of studying the World Ocean. The first joint work was the NORPAC program in the Pacific Ocean, which was carried out by ships from Japan, the USA and Canada. This was followed by the international programs of the International Geophysical Year (IGY, 1957-1959), EVAPAC, KUROSHIO, WESTPAC, MIOE, PIGAP, POLIMODE and others. Stationary observations in the open ocean have been developed. The largest discovery of the 50s was the discovery of Subsurface Equatorial Countercurrents in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. The accumulation and generalization of scientific data obtained during sea expeditions made it possible to identify patterns of air circulation on a planetary scale. Geological and geophysical studies of the World Ocean in the 60s contributed to the development of the global theory of lithospheric plate tectonics. Since 1968, the International Deep Sea Drilling Program has been carried out using the American ship Glomar Challenger. Research under this program has significantly expanded knowledge about the structure of the bottom of the World Ocean and its sedimentary rocks.

In the Arctic Sulfur Ocean, along with specialized expeditions, laboratory and theoretical research was carried out during this period. The characteristics of the ocean ice cover, the structure of currents, the bottom topography, and the acoustic and optical properties of Arctic waters were studied. Joint international studies were carried out. The materials collected by the expeditions made it possible to eliminate the last “blank spots” on the map of the Arctic. The discovery of the Lomonosov and Mendeleev ridges and a number of deep-sea basins changed the idea of ​​the topography of the ocean floor.

In 1948-1949, with the help of aviation, numerous short-term studies from three hours to several days were carried out in the Arctic ice. The work of the North Pole stations continued. In 1957, an expedition led by L. Gakkel discovered a mid-ocean ridge named after him in the Arctic Ocean. In 1963, the submarine Leninsky Komsomolets sailed under the ice to North Pole. In 1977, a high-latitude expedition of the Arctic and Antarctic Institute on the nuclear icebreaker Arktika reached the pole, which made it possible for the first time to obtain reliable, modern information about the ice of the Central Ocean.

In the 70-80s, significant scientific research was carried out in the World Ocean within the framework of the “Cuts” program. The main objective of this program is to study the impact of the ocean on short-term fluctuations in the Earth's climate. Under the “Sections” program, oceanographic, meteorological, radiation and aerological observations were carried out in energetically active zones of the ocean. More than 20 voyages of research vessels were carried out annually. The program was carried out mainly by USSR scientists. Unique data on the nature of the World Ocean were obtained, and many scientific articles and monographs were published. Currently, under the auspices of the International Committee on Climate Change and Oceanography, ocean research is being conducted under two major programs, WOCE and TOGA, which provide for comprehensive research of the World Ocean.

The further development of oceanological research is determined by the demands of practice and improvement technical methods studying it. The expansion of methods and ways of using the ocean increases the requirements for forecasting its state, which leads to the need for comprehensive monitoring of the World Ocean. It consists of continuous recording of surface temperature, waves, near-surface wind, frontal zones, currents, ice, etc. To implement it, it is necessary, first of all, to develop space observation methods, communication networks for transmitting information and electronic computers for processing and analysis. It is also necessary to develop traditional methods of ocean research. Using the entire array of information will make it possible to develop mathematical models of the structure of the ocean and its dynamics.

The increased scale of anthropogenic impact, the increase in the extraction of natural resources of the World Ocean, the development of maritime transport and recreation require a detailed study of its nature. The main task of these studies should be the development of particular mathematical models that describe individual natural processes and phenomena occurring in the World Ocean, and the creation of its complex model. Solving this problem will make it possible to reveal many of the secrets of the World Ocean and will make it possible to more effectively use its enormous natural resources that are absolutely necessary for humans.

Deep-sea exploration of the World Ocean. Since time immemorial, man has sought to get acquainted with the underwater world of the ocean. Information about the simplest diving devices is found in many literary monuments Ancient world. As legends say, the first diver was Alexander the Great, who descended into a submarine in a small chamber that resembled a barrel. The creation of the first diving bell should be attributed to XV? century. The first descent into water took place in 1538 in the city of Toledo on the Tagus River. In 1660, a diving bell was built by the German physicist Sturm. This bell was about 4 meters high. Fresh air was added from bottles, which they took with them and broke as needed. Built the first primitive submarine at the beginning of the 15th century? century in London by the Dutchman K. Van Drebbel. In Russia, the first autonomous diving equipment was proposed by Efim Nikonov in 1719. He also proposed the design of the first submarine. But only at the end of the 10th century did real submarines appear. Klingert's diving apparatus, invented in 1798, already had qualities characteristic of modern spacesuits. Two flexible tubes were connected to it to supply fresh air and remove exhaled air. In 1868, French engineers Rouqueirol and Denayrouz developed a rigid space suit. Modern scuba gear was invented in 1943 by the French Jacques Yves Cousteau and E. Gagnan.

In parallel with spacesuits, underwater vehicles were developed, while in which the researcher could calmly work at great depths, study environment from the porthole, collect soil samples using manipulators, etc. The first fairly successful bathysphere was created by the American scientist O. Barton. It was a sealed steel sphere with a quartz glass porthole, capable of withstanding high pressure. Inside the sphere there were cylinders with fresh air and special absorbers that removed carbon dioxide and water vapor exhaled by people inside the chamber. A telephone wire ran parallel to the steel cable, connecting the participants of the underwater expedition with the surface ship. In 1930, Barton and Beebe made 31 dives in the Bermuda area, reaching a depth of 435 meters. In 1934 they descended to a depth of 923 meters, and in 1949 Barton brought the diving record to 1375 meters.

This was the end of the bathyspheric dives. The baton passed to a more advanced autonomous underwater ship - the bathyscaphe. It was invented in 1905 by Swiss professor Auguste Picard. In 1953, he and his son Jacques reached a depth of 3150 meters on the bathyscaphe Trieste. In 1960, Jacques Piccard sank to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Developing his father's ideas, he invented and built a mesoscaphe. It was an advanced bathyscaphe that could make autonomous voyages using ocean currents. In 1969, Jacques Piccard, in his mesoscape with a crew of six people, made a multi-day voyage along the Gulf Stream at a depth of about 400 meters. Many interesting observations have been made of the geophysical and biological processes occurring in the ocean.

Since the 1970s, interest in the natural resources of the World Ocean has sharply increased, which has led to the rapid development of technology for exploring its depths. All deep-sea vehicles are divided into two large groups: uninhabited underwater vehicles (UUV) and manned underwater vehicles (UUV). NPAs are divided into two classes - observation and force. The first ones are simpler and easier. They weigh from several tens to several hundred kilograms. Their task is detailed optical survey of the bottom, inspection of technical installations at the bottom, especially pipelines, identifying faults, locating sunken objects, etc. For this purpose, RVs have television and photographic cameras that transmit images to the ship, sonars, orientation systems (gyrocompasses) and navigation, ultrasonic flaw detectors that allow you to detect cracks in metal structures. Power UUVs are more powerful, their weight reaches several tons. They have developed system manipulators for self-fixing in the required areas of metal structures and carrying out repair work - cutting, welding, etc. The working depths of most RVs currently range from several hundred meters to 7 km. The ROV is controlled via cable, hydroacoustic or radio channel. But no matter how wide the range of tasks performed by uninhabited vehicles is, it is impossible to do without lowering a person into the depths. Currently, there are several hundred manned underwater vehicles of various designs in the world. Among them are the Pisis devices (maximum diving depth 2000 m), on which Soviet scientists explored the bottom of Lake Baikal, the Red Sea and the North Atlantic rift zones. The French apparatus “Siana” (depth up to 3000 m), the American “Alvin” (depth up to 4000 m), with the help of which many discoveries were made in the depths of the ocean. In the 80s, devices appeared that operated at depths of up to 6000 meters. Two such submersibles belong to Russia (“Mir – 1” and “Mir – 2”), one each to France, the USA and Japan (“Mitsubishi”, depth up to 6500 m).

Methods, instruments and equipment used in the study of the World Ocean. The ocean is studied using a wide variety of means - from ships, airplanes, and from space. Autonomous means are also used.

Recently, research ships have been built according to special projects. Their architecture is subordinated to a single goal - to make the most efficient use of instruments lowered to depth, as well as those used in the study of the near-water layer of the atmosphere. Modern equipment is widely represented on ships Computer Engineering, designed for planning experiments and prompt processing of the results obtained.

To study the ocean, ships use probes for various purposes. The temperature, salinity and depth probe is a combination of three miniature sensors that measure temperature (thermistor), salinity (conductivity sensor, from which the salt content in water is calculated) and hydrostatic pressure (to determine depth). All three sensors are combined into a single device mounted at the end of a cable rope. When lowering the device, the cable-rope is unwinded from a winch installed on the deck of the ship. Data on temperature, salinity and depth are sent to a computer. There are similar probes designed to record the concentration of gases dissolved in water, the speed of sound and currents. In some cases, probes operate on the principle of free fall. Lost (disposable) probes are widely used. One of the types of probe - “fish” - is a temperature, salinity and current speed meter towed behind a ship. As a result of the development of technology for sounding the depths of the ocean, the older methods of lowering and raising thermometers and taking water samples from different depths are used less and less.

An important class of instruments are current meters capable of operating at maximum depths. Recently, electromagnetic and acoustic current meters are being used more and more widely, instead of various “turntables”. In the first of them, the flow speed is determined by the potential difference between the electrodes located in sea water. Secondly, the Doppler effect is used - a change in the frequency of a sound wave as it propagates in a moving medium.

When exploring the ocean floor, two traditional instruments are still widely used - a scoop and a geological tube. A soil sample is taken from the surface layer of the bottom using a scoop. The geological pipe can penetrate much deeper - up to 16-20 meters. To study the bottom topography and its internal structure, echo sounders of new designs are widely used - multibeam echo sounders, side-scan sonars, etc. When studying the internal structure of the sea bottom to depths of several kilometers, seismic profilers are used.

The range of autonomous tools for ocean exploration is also significant. The most common of these is the buoy station. It is a buoy floating on the surface of the water, from which a steel or synthetic cable runs down to the bottom, ending with a heavy anchor lying on the bottom. Autonomously operating devices are attached to the cable at certain depths - temperature, salinity, and current speed meters. Buoys of other types are also used: an acoustic buoy of neutral buoyancy, buoys with an underwater or surface sail, laboratory buoys, etc. Important autonomous means are autonomous bottom stations, research submarines and bathyscaphes.

The use of airplanes and helicopters makes it possible to study currents and waves on the ocean surface. Aerial photography allows you to obtain interesting data about the bottom topography at shallow depths and detect underwater rocks, reefs and shoals. Magnetic aerial photography of the ocean makes it possible to identify areas of distribution of certain minerals on the ocean floor. Using sophisticated aerial photography using a range of light waves, pollution in coastal waters can be detected and monitored. But airplanes, and especially helicopters, are tied to their bases on land, and aerial photography relies on electromagnetic waves that cannot penetrate deep into water. Therefore, space methods of ocean research are more promising.

Without exception, all space observation techniques are based on the use of one of three ranges of electromagnetic waves - visible light, infrared rays and ultra-high frequencies of electromagnetic waves. The most important parameter characterizing the state of the ocean, the temperature of its surface, is measured from space by radiometers using the natural radiation of this surface with an accuracy of 1° C. The regime of the surface layer of air can be determined just as accurately. For measurements, the process of scattering electromagnetic waves on the ocean surface is used. A narrow beam of radio waves is directed at the ocean surface at a certain angle. By the strength of their scattering in the opposite direction, the intensity of surface ripples is judged, i.e., the strength of the wind. Currently, surface wind measurement accuracy of up to 1 m/s is achievable. One of the most important instruments installed on oceanographic satellites is an altimeter. It operates in location mode, periodically sending down radio pulses. By distorting the shape of the altimeter radar pulse reflected from the sea wave, it is possible, with an accuracy of 10 cm, to determine the height of the sea waves. In addition, it is relatively easy to record water with elevated levels from space. biological productivity, observe large-scale changes in its geophysical characteristics, conduct observations of pollution of the World Ocean, etc.