In December 1872, the HMS Challenger embarked on the first round-the-world oceanographic expedition. Its goal: to shine a light for the first time on the mysteries of the deep sea. For the next 42 months, the Challenger’s naturalists explored the oceans, encountering never-before-seen marvels of marine life.
The expedition’s achievements are the stuff of legend. It identified major ocean currents and defining features of the seafloor, including the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Mariana Trench. It measured worldwide sea temperatures and chemistry, creating baseline data for ocean research. And it collected nearly 5,000 sea creatures and plants new to science.
More than 150 years later, the expedition’s findings are also shining a light on the effects of climate change. Off Portugal, the scientists encountered a brilliant starfish now threatened with extinction by microplastics; in St. Thomas, they saw teeming coral habitats that today have been severely damaged by ocean warming; and at remote Ascension Island, they found the breeding grounds of the now-endangered green turtle. Author Gillen D’Arcy Wood considers this scientific odyssey and its legacy.
Wood’s new book, The Wake of HMS Challenger: How a Legendary Victorian Voyage Tells the Story of Our Oceans' Decline (Princeton University Press), is available for purchase.
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