Expeditions

Scripps Institution of Oceanography built a fleet of ships, and after World War II its scientists sailed the oceans of the world to study the seas, marine life and the geology of the sea floor. See what they did, where they went, what they saw, what they found, and what they published.

November 1, 1907
Alexander Agassiz Expedition
First expedition of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

1939
Gulf of California Expedition
First hydrographic survey of the Gulf of California.

1940
Gulf of California Expedition
This expedition followed up on the findings of the 1939 Expedition.

1950
MidPac Expedition
Discovered the Mid-Pacific Mountain Range on the bottom of the Pacific.

1952
Capricorn Expedition
Used scuba divers to explore the Pacific seafloor and studied the 35,400 foot deep Tonga Trench.

1952
Shellback Expedition
First Scripps Expedition to work in the southern hemisphere.

1953
Transpac Expedition
Transpac Expedition sampled water masses and pelagic fauna in the north and northwestern Pacific Ocean.

1955
NORPAC Cruise
This cruise undertook a great synoptic survey of the western and central North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea.

1957-1958
Downwind Expedition
This two-ship expedition made geological-geophysical studies of seafloor topography and crustal structure of the Southeast Pacific basins and Peru-Chile trench.

1959-1961
Naga Expedition
This early survey of the marine resources and climate of the Gulf of Thailand and the South China Sea established the current and motion patterns in the Southeast Asian region and described many previously unidentified fish species.

1959
Vermilion Sea Expedition
Vermilion Sea Expedition undertook a two-ship geological-geophysical delineation of the Gulf of California’s tectonic elements and the sedimentary characteristics within its basins.

1960-1961
Monsoon Expedition
Scripps Institution’s first shipboard field study of the Indian Ocean was part of UNESCO’s International Indian Ocean Expedition (IIOE).

21 August-1 December 1961
Swansong Expedition
Explored the Pacific Equatorial Undercurrent at the equator in the North Pacific and Easter Tropical Pacific.

1962
Lusiad Expedition
The longest Scripps expedition explored and charted the Indian Ocean.

1967
Nova Expedition
Studied the floor of the Pacific Ocean and Coral Sea just as the Plate Tectonics theory was first proposed.

1968-1969
Circe Expedition
This circumnavigating expedition undertook a multi-phase geological-geophysical program and collected from the Southwest Indian Ridge chasms the first definitive matic/ultramatic igneous rock suites from the lower crust and upper mantle.

1970-1971
Antipode Expedition
This expedition studied the age and movement of vast ocean bottom crustal masses in light of the sea-floor spreading hypothesis.

1976-1977
Indopac Expedition
This international expedition explored the sea floor and circulation of the western Pacific Ocean.