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Paper short abstract:

From the mid-nineteenth century, the Strait of Gibraltar became a model for studying ocean circulation at larger scales. This paper highlights the importance of four periods of oceanography at the Strait asking for their global epistemological, geopolitical, and environmental significance.

Paper long abstract:

Since the mid-nineteenth century, the Strait of Gibraltar has become a model for studying ocean circulation at larger scales. Historians can also approach it as a miniature ocean. This paper highlights the importance of four periods of oceanography at the Strait asking for their global epistemological, geopolitical, and environmental significance.

The first period revolves around the British investigations of the 1860s and 70s, in particular William Carpenter and the demonstrations of the existence of an undercurrent (as well as its important precedents and techno-scientific context). The second period are the “Scandinavian” expeditions of the first half of the 20th century (including here the importance of the temperature-salinity diagrams in the debates of the 1920s and 1930s on the Mediterranean deep current). The third period I study is marked by the transnational studies of the second half of the 20th century (emphasizing especially the role of NATO's military patronage in fostering scientific and military interest in investigating the influence of local fluctuations in the thermocline). Finally, the paper explores the current oceanographic monitoring system Argo (autonomous buoys that allows the study of non-surface water layers, thus complementing the information provided by oceanographic and meteorological satellites).

This longue-durée approach to a very specific place invites us to pose new questions about the interrelationships between science, geopolitics, and oceanic environments.