Oceans, navigation & cartography

An editorial selection for comparing processes, events, and lives. The interval and counts describe selected records, not the historical boundaries or importance of the subject.

Canonical records: 43
Events: 21
People: 4
Processes and periods: 18

Compare in the atlas Selection criteria and limits

Topics represented

Oceans, navigation & cartography (37) · Ocean navigation (14) · Nautical cartography (12) · Empire, trade & power (10) · Instruments & positioning (9) · Hydrography & bathymetry (8) · Indigenous knowledge (7) · Institutions & standards (7) · Oceanography (6) · Infrastructure (4) · Technology (4) · Transport & mobility (4)

View distribution by region and period

Canonical records by regional label and start date. These are numerical analysis bins, not universal historical periods. A multi-region record appears in multiple rows; do not add rows as a unique-record total.
Region	Before 3000 BCE	3000–1 BCE	1–1499	1500–1799	1800–1899	1900–1999	Since 2000
Africa	0	1	8	0	0	0	0
Americas	0	0	1	2	1	4	0
Asia	0	1	10	0	0	0	0
Europe	0	0	5	7	0	3	0
Oceania	1	2	0	3	1	2	0
Global / no specific region	0	0	0	7	3	10	2

Records and sources

Ordered by start date. Long lives and processes may begin before the period you want to study.

1919–1921
Hydrographic cooperation gains a permanent institution
A conference of 24 nations agreed in London in 1919 to create a permanent body, and the International Hydrographic Bureau began work in Monaco in 1921. It sought to coordinate offices and standardize charts and documents; since 1970 it has operated under the International Hydrographic Organization convention.
1920–2006
Marie Tharp
An American geologist and cartographer, Tharp transformed echo-sounding profiles and seismic data into coherent maps of submarine relief with Bruce Heezen. By identifying the Mid-Atlantic Ridge rift valley, she made evidence for seafloor spreading visible despite barriers that initially kept her from going to sea.
1922–1925
Echo sounding accelerates depth measurement
In 1922, USS Stewart crossed the Atlantic taking hundreds of depths with an acoustic echo sounder, and survey vessels adopted such equipment over the following years. Measuring sound-return time gradually displaced point-by-point lines and enabled denser seafloor profiles.
c. 1932–c. 2010
Pius “Mau” Piailug
A pwo navigator from Satawal, Piailug mastered a wayfinding system based on stars, swells, winds, clouds, and wildlife. By guiding Hōkūleʻa in 1976 and teaching a new Hawaiian generation, he shared Micronesian knowledge that proved decisive to the modern revitalization of Indigenous ocean voyaging.
1957–1977
Tharp and Heezen make seafloor relief visible
The 1957 physiographic map of the Atlantic and later syntheses by Marie Tharp and Bruce Heezen turned scattered profiles into a continuous picture of ridges, valleys, and abyssal plains. The mapping helped interpret plate tectonics and culminated in a 1977 world ocean-floor map.
1964
Transit enters operation as satellite navigation
Transit became fully operational in 1964 so U.S. submarines could determine position from Doppler shifts in satellite signals. It moved navigation’s reference into space and opened a technical and institutional path toward GPS, although fixes were intermittent and the system initially served military purposes.
1976
Hōkūleʻa sails from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti without instruments
The double-hulled canoe Hōkūleʻa reached Tahiti from Hawaiʻi under Mau Piailug’s guidance without modern instruments. The voyage did not “prove” one prehistoric route, but demonstrated ocean-wayfinding capabilities and catalyzed a cultural and educational revitalization of Pacific navigational knowledge.
1978
First NAVSTAR GPS satellite
The first NAVSTAR satellite launched in 1978. Satellite navigation combined precise time and radio signals to calculate position, becoming infrastructure for orientation, logistics, and mobility.
1992–2006
TOPEX/Poseidon maps the ocean surface from space
The joint NASA–CNES mission measured sea-surface topography with unprecedented accuracy for more than thirteen years. Its global observations of sea level, currents, and tides transformed dynamic ocean mapping and linked space navigation, geodesy, and climate science.
1995
GPS reaches full operational capability
The 24-satellite GPS constellation reached full operational capability in 1995. Globally available positioning changed air, maritime, and ground navigation, as well as location-based digital services.
1999–2026
Argo observes the ocean interior globally
Since 1999–2000, the international Argo program has deployed autonomous floats that profile temperature and salinity to about 2,000 meters and transmit open data. The array reached 3,000 active floats in 2007 and continues expanding toward polar seas, deep water, and biogeochemical variables.
2000–2018
Electronic charts become a navigation standard
In 2000 the IMO accepted ECDIS as meeting chart-carriage requirements, and in 2009 it adopted phased mandatory requirements for specified ships. The transition integrated charts, position, and notices into a digital system dependent on updated official data, training, and backup procedures.
2017–2026
Seabed 2030 assembles an open global bathymetric map
The Nippon Foundation and GEBCO launched Seabed 2030 to assemble scattered soundings into an openly available global bathymetric grid. As of 20 April 2026, the project reported 28.7 percent of the seafloor mapped to its standard, about 104 million square kilometers; this is a dated snapshot, not a completed map.