List of undersea explorers

This is a list of amateur and professional explorers of the oceans, including Archaeologists, Treasure hunters, Biologists, Marine Geologists, Geophysicists, Ocean Engineers, Oceanographers, Submersible Designers, Pilots of Submersibles, Cave Divers, Cavers, and Speleologists, and First Generation Diving Safety Officers.

Archaeologists and treasure hunters

Global Underwater Explorers

Global Underwater Explorers (GUE) is a scuba diving organization that provides education within recreational, technical and cave diving. It is a not-for-profit, membership organization, based in High Springs, Florida, United States.

GUE was formed by Jarrod Jablonski and gained early prominence in association with the success of its well known Woodville Karst Plain Project (WKPP), which now has the status of a non-profit affiliate of GUE.Jarrod Jablonski, President of GUE, promoted the ideas of "Hogarthian" gear configuration and the "Doing It Right" (DIR) system of diving to a global audience. Following WKPP's introduction in 1995 of a standardized approach to gear configuration and diving procedures, there was a significant reduction in diving incidents within the Woodville Karst Plain cave system.

The standardized approach is the basis of the diver training program of GUE, marking an important difference from the programs of other diver training organizations. GUE also focuses on protecting the maritime environment. The most popular GUE course is GUE Fundamentals, which is designed to introduce the GUE system to non-GUE divers and is the pathway to technical courses. Further courses are offered in recreational, technical and cave diving, as well as instructor courses.

Underwater

Underwater refers to the region below the surface of water where the water exists in a natural feature (called a body of water) such as an ocean, sea, lake, pond, or river.

Extent

Three quarters of the planet Earth is covered by water. A majority of the planet's solid surface is abyssal plain, at depths between 4,000 and 5,500 metres (13,100 and 18,000 ft) below the surface of the oceans. The solid surface location on the planet closest to the centre of the orb is the Challenger Deep, located in the Mariana Trench at a depth of 10,924 metres (35,840 ft). Although a number of human activities are conducted underwater—such as research, scuba diving for work or recreation, or even underwater warfare with submarines, this very extensive environment on planet Earth is hostile to humans in many ways and therefore little explored. But it can be explored by sonar, or more directly via manned or autonomous submersibles. The ocean floors have been surveyed via sonar to at least a coarse resolution; particularly-strategic areas have been mapped in detail, in the name of detecting enemy submarines, or aiding friendly ones, though the resulting maps may still be classified.

Northern Greece

Northern Greece (Greek: Βόρεια Ελλάδα, Voreia Ellada), is used to refer to the northern parts of Greece, and can have various definitions.

The term "Northern Greece" is widely used to refer mainly to the two northern regions of Macedonia and Thrace; thus the Thessaloniki-based Ministry for Macedonia and Thrace was known as "Ministry for Northern Greece" until 1988. The term may also, according to context, incorporate the region of Thessaly and/or Epirus. When Epirus (but not Thessaly) is included, it is broadly coterminous with the "New Lands" (Νέες Χώρες), i.e. the territories added to the Greek state after the Balkan Wars of 1912–13, as opposed to pre-1912 "Old Greece" (Παλαιά Ελλάδα).

Voreia Ellada is also one of the four Greek NUTS regions, created for statistical purposes by the European Union. Until 2014, it encompassed the 4 administrative regions East Macedonia and Thrace, Central Macedonia, West Macedonia and Thessaly. Coming into effect in January 2015, the Greek NUTS regions were redefined, with Voreia Ellada now encompassing Epirus instead of Thessaly. This NUTS division is not used by Greece for any administrative purposes.

Exploration

Exploration is the act of searching for the purpose of discovery of information or resources. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans. In human history, its most dramatic rise was during the Age of Discovery when European explorers sailed and charted much of the rest of the world for a variety of reasons. Since then, major explorations after the Age of Discovery have occurred for reasons mostly aimed at information discovery.

In scientific research, exploration is one of three purposes of empirical research (the other two being description and explanation). The term is commonly used metaphorically. For example, an individual may speak of exploring the Internet, sexuality, etc.

Notable periods of human exploration

Phoenician galley sailings

The Phoenicians (1550 BCE–300 BCE) traded throughout the Mediterranean Sea and Asia Minor though many of their routes are still unknown today. The presence of tin in some Phoenician artifacts suggests that they may have traveled to Britain. Some scientists speculate that they voyaged all the way to Central America, although this is disputed. According to Virgil's Aeneid and other ancient sources, the legendary Queen Dido was a Phoenician from Asia Minor who sailed to North Africa and founded the city of Carthage.