The ''Albatross'' expedition (''Albatrossexpeditionen'') was a Swedish

oceanographic Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamics ...

expedition that between July 4, 1947, and October 3, 1948, sailed around the world during 15 months covering 45 000

nautical miles A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Today t ...

. The expedition is considered the second largest Swedish research expedition after the ''Vega'' expedition. The expedition was very successful, received international attention, and is considered one of the important steps in the history of oceanography.

The ''Albatross''

The expedition was carried out on board the newly built training ship ''Albatross''. The 70 meter long and 11 meter wide vessel was a combined motor and sailing vessel. The Boström line (''Broströmskoncernen'') had just built the student ship to train prospective ship's officers and this vessel with associated crew was lent to the expedition. Since the Boström line lent the ship at almost no cost, the expedition could be financed and carried out with only private donations. The leader of the expedition was Swedish physicist and oceanographer Hans Pettersson. The main task of the expedition was to take up to 20 m long sediment cores from the ocean floor. This was made using a newly developed corer, known as piston sampler, developed by Börje Kullenberg. Until then the longest cores that could be taken were 2 m. The expedition also carried out the first

seismic reflection Reflection seismology (or seismic reflection) is a method of exploration geophysics that uses the principles of seismology to estimate the properties of the Earth's subsurface from reflected seismic waves. The method requires a controlled seismi ...

measurements of the sediment thickness, using sink bombs. The results of the sediment studies were ground-breaking since they revealed that the sediment thickness increased away from the mid-oceanic ridges, along with the sediment accumulation time. This was one of several pieces of evidence that eventually led to the acceptance of the theory of

plate tectonics Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large ...

. Apart from sediments, the expedition looked at

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

. The first deep sea trawling, at 7 600-7 900 m depth, revealed that those depths were not the dead zone that previously had been the accepted view.Reinke-Kunze, Christine. (1994) Welt der Forschungsschiffe. DSV-Verlag GmbH, Hamburg.

Notes

Other sources

*Hans Pettersson (1950) ''Med Albatross över havsdjupen'' (Stockholm: Bonnier) *Eric Olausson (1996) ''The Swedish Deep-Sea Expedition with the "Albatross" 1947-1948'' (Novum, Grafiska AB) {{DEFAULTSORT:Albatross Expedition Oceanography Science and technology in Sweden Oceanographic expeditions Expeditions from Sweden