Less than a tenth of the ocean floor has been mapped in detail
We think of the age of exploration as over, yet only a small fraction of the ocean, under a tenth, has detailed maps, and even less has been seen directly. Exploration also covers caves, outer space, abandoned buildings, mineral prospecting, and the way ants and bees scout for food.
Exploration means searching with some hope of discovery. Organised expeditions are largely human, but exploratory behaviour appears in most animals able to move purposefully and learn, including foraging social insects, where scouts returning to the nest change what their nestmates do. Researchers describe a typical sequence beginning with search, in which an animal moves about until something catches its attention and then approaches to investigate, breaking off to flee if danger appears or to resume searching if the find is dull.
Geographical exploration, often treated as the core meaning, is the discovery of distant or hard-to-reach parts of Earth. Historians see two great eras. The first, spanning most of human history, saw people leave Africa, settle Europe and Asia, and about 14,000 years ago cross the Ice Age land bridge from Siberia to Alaska, largely unaware of one another. The second, over the last 10,000 years, brought growing contact through trade and travel. Writings on exploration go back to Egypt in the 4th millennium BC, Ptolemy was a pivotal thinker in the 2nd century AD, and from the 5th to the 15th centuries Chinese and Arab travellers led the way before Europe's Age of Discovery, fuelled by rediscovered classical geography, unsafe land routes and ambitions of conquest.
Dry land has been surveyed fairly thoroughly because it is easy to reach, but the underwater and underground worlds remain poorly known. Systematic ocean survey, recording and publishing data is the most effective way to learn enough to manage and conserve the seas. Space exploration relies mostly on telescopes, but robotic probes and human flights became possible once powerful rockets arrived in the mid-20th century, justified by science, prestige, international cooperation, humanity's long-term survival and military advantage.
Other forms have their own methods. Urban explorers photograph and document abandoned or hidden structures, sometimes risking injury or arrest for trespass. Mineral prospectors once relied on spotting ore in outcrops but now use geological, geophysical and geochemical tools to find anomalies, then sample soil, drill and run seismic surveys to judge whether a deposit is worth mining. What sets exploration apart from a survey is the expectation of finding something new.
Source: Exploration
