What were the major contributions of the H. M.S. Challenger to the study of oceanography? How did its expedition contribute to future studies of the ocean?

The H.M.S. Challenger embarked from Portsmouth, England on December 21, 1872 and changed the course of scientific history. Physicists, chemists, and biologists collaborated with expert navigators to map the sea. This interdisciplinary spirit has continued to the present day. During the 4 year journey, the voyages circumnavigated the globe, sounded the ocean bottom to a depth of 26,850 feet, found many new species, and provided collections for scores of biologists.

C. Wyville Thomson led the expedition but died of exhaustion from the journey, which ended on May 24, 1876. The Challenger had zig-zagged around the globe and had visited every continent, including Antarctica.

The reports of the Challenger expedition were supervised by Sir John Murray, whose biological conclusions were of great importance to the later development of marine biology. He concluded, for example, that the deep-sea fauna was not "ancient," in that it did not resemble the faunas found in ancient fossil deposits.

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