Project history

The GEBCO chart series has its origins at the turn of the 20th Century. Read more about the development of GEBCO from its initiation by Prince Albert I of Monaco in 1903 to the present day.

A book, "The History of GEBCO, 1903-2003" is now available.

Beginnings

Soundings and contour lines appeared on European charts during the 16th century. After M.F. Maury published a chart of the North Atlantic in 1853, bathymetric charts became more frequent, particularly in the reports of oceanographic expeditions. However, due to the lack of an international agreement, nomenclature and terminology were anarchic.

Consequently, the 7th International Geographic Congress (Berlin, 1899) nominated a Commission on sub-oceanic nomenclature, which was also responsible for the publication of a general bathymetric chart. The Commission convened in Wiesbaden (April 15-16, 1903), with Prince Albert I of Monaco in the chair, and adopted the characteristics defined in a memorandum by J. Thoulet. The 24 sheets of Carte générale bathymétrique des océans printed in Paris in 1905, hastily prepared, were harshly criticised by E. de Margerie.

Immediately Prince Albert decided that a new edition should be made for which a second commission convened in Monaco (1910). The second edition was printed from 1912 to 1931 with contour lines representing the terrestrial relief and a revised nomenclature. The use of sonic and ultrasonic devices increased the amount of data tremendously. The responsibility of the Chart was then transferred to an international organisation: the International Hydrographic Bureau.

For the third and fourth editions there was a major change in organisation. Following the death of Prince Albert, his scientific team was disbanded and the International Hydrographic Bureau was invited to take over the project. Again delays were caused by war and by 1972 only certain sheets of these editions had been published.

Development of the GEBCO 5th Edition chart series

Following recommendations by the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR), it was then decided to modernize the whole series and bring in the expertise of the scientific community to meet the needs of present day users. The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO was invited to cosponsor a 5th Edition, and strong support was provided by the Canadian government. With this structure in hand, the GEBCO Guiding Committee was in a position to offer marine geoscientists in many countries of the world the possibility of publishing their work in a prestigious chart series of high quality. World coverage on the original scale of 1:10 million was completed and published by 1982, followed by a small scale world sheet in 1984.

The GEBCO 5th Edition chart series is available in paper form.

The GEBCO Digital Atlas

Since the publication of the 5th Edition, and largely because of its success, considerable support has been forthcoming, and in 1994 the GEBCO Digital Atlas (GDA) on CD-ROM was published. The first release of the GDA was produced by digitising the bathymetric contours, coastline and shiptracks from the printed sheets of the 5th Edition. It represented the first seamless, high-quality, digital bathymetric contour chart of the world's oceans and now provides the base for the regular updating of GEBCO. A second release was published in 1997.

The latest release of the GDA, the Centenary Edition of the GEBCO Digital Atlas was published in 2003 and is available from the British Oceanographic Data Centre (BODC). It includes a global set of digital bathymetric contours and coastlines, the GEBCO One Minute Grid and the GEBCO gazetteer of geographic names of undersea features. It is accompanied by software for viewing and accessing the data sets.

The GEBCO One Minute Grid

The most recent development for GEBCO is the preparation of a gridded bathymetric data set covering the world's oceans. This requirement has become of increasing priority for ocean modellers, in particular for world climate research. The new gridded bathymetric data set is now available on CD-ROM as part of the GEBCO Digital Atlas and also for direct download from the web at BODC.

The GEBCO world map, which is based on the GEBCO One Minute Grid, is available in the form of a JPEG file.

Training

In order to widen the GEBCO community and to encourage more younger scientists and hydrographers to become involved in mapping the ocean floor, GEBCO has proposed the training of a new generation of younger scientists and hydrographers in ocean mapping.

We have been funded by the Nippon Foundation, based in Tokyo, Japan, to train a new generation of ocean bathymetrists through the Postgraduate Certificate in Ocean Bathymetry (PCOB) at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), USA.