2021-03-03 Wed

Considered the father of modern oceanography, John Murray was born today on 3rd March in 1841. He was a pioneering British oceanographer, marine biologist and limnologist. His particular interests were ocean basins, deep-sea deposits, and coral-reef formation.

In 1868 Murray began collecting marine organisms and making a variety of oceanographic observations during an expedition to the Arctic islands of Jan Mayen and Spitsbergen, off Norway.

He also directed biological investigations of Scottish waters (1882–94), surveyed the depths of Scottish lakes (1906), and took part in a North Atlantic oceanographic expedition (1910). He was knighted in 1898. His writings include the paper “On the Structure and Origin of Coral Reefs and Islands” (1880) and, with Johan Hjort, The Depths of the Ocean (1912).

To honour him Christmas Island postal Department has issued a stamp of the value of 3 cents in 1944. Image Source: https://in.pinterest.com/