BIO 475 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Johann Friedrich Von Eschscholtz, Adelbert Von Chamisso, Johann Reinhold Forster
● The first voyage of the Endeavor (1768-1771) introduced the spectacular coral islands of
the pacific to the wider public, as well as to the Age of Reason’s new naturalists and
scientists.
● James Cook; Discovered Hawaii , went across the pacific and noticed all of the reefs
and atolls
○ How do atolls form? ( the pre-eminent coral reef question)
● Johann Reinhold Forster: on cooks second voyage J.R. Forster wrote that corals
instinctually grew to from atolls
● Adelbert von Chamisso: recognized living corals live on top of old dead corals (1st to
observe that), Thought maybe corals grow up from the bottom of the ocean
● Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz: Recognized problem is the corals that are on reefs
only occur in shallow water, corals can’t grow from the bottom of the ocean.
○ Noticed atolls are in rows along the ocean, they are in a line (often), noticed that
high islands (mountainous) often occur in lines as well , atolls are just the tops of
the island's/mountains that never made it to the top of the surface
● Frederick Beechey:+Samuel Stutchbury: not that atolls are on top of mountains, its
actually volcanic craters, atolls are growing on the rim of the crater
● John Williams:High islands that are clearly volcanic, but there are also raised limestone
and those had to be reefs that were raised up by something, then colonized by corals
● Charles Lyell: Canonized the idea that atolls form as coral colonizes uplifting volcanic
craters
● Charles Darwin: Voyaged on the U.S Beagle, supposed to catalog things that he saw,
tasked with trying to figure out how atolls formed
○ Earthquake in Peru, parts of coastline lowered, other parts uplifted. Realized the
Earth isn’t static and it changes.
○ Guessed how atolls formed before seeing them
○ Described atolls, barrier reefs, and fringing reefs
○ Described rates of coral and reef growth
○ Atolls form by island subsidence and coral reef growth
● James Dana: On US exploring expedition, showed that the polar currents on the eastern
sides of the oceans prevent reef development. (Ex. Cali)
○ Supported Darwin’s hypothesis
● John Murray: geologist on Challenger expedition, first oceanographic cruise
○ Studied seafloor sediments
■ Sediments would raise summits of seamounts to photic zone
○ No need to invoke subsidence
● Alexander Agassiz
○ Visited Florida Keys and MArquesas; No signs of subsidence
■ ( On continental shelf, thats why theres no subsidence)
● John Wesley Judd:
○ “We are quite ready to admit that the evidence obtained at Funafuti does not
prove that all atolls are formed by subsidence”
○ 1,114 ft through the ground only coral fragments
Operation crossroads, bikini atoll 1946
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
The first voyage of the endeavor (1768-1771) introduced the spectacular coral islands of the pacific to the wider public, as well as to the age of reason"s new naturalists and scientists. James cook; discovered hawaii , went across the pacific and noticed all of the reefs and atolls. How do atolls form? ( the pre-eminent coral reef question) Johann reinhold forster: on cooks second voyage j. r. forster wrote that corals instinctually grew to from atolls. Adelbert von chamisso: recognized living corals live on top of old dead corals (1st to observe that), thought maybe corals grow up from the bottom of the ocean. Johann friedrich von eschscholtz: recognized problem is the corals that are on reefs only occur in shallow water, corals can"t grow from the bottom of the ocean. Frederick beechey:+samuel stutchbury: not that atolls are on top of mountains, its actually volcanic craters, atolls are growing on the rim of the crater.
