A Gateway to Ocean Circulation

• Published in: Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences
• Main Authors: Camprubí, Lino, Robinson, Sam
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of California Press 2016
• Subjects: History and Philosophy of Science; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/hsns.2016.46.4.429; http://online.ucpress.edu/hsns/article-pdf/46/4/429/377717/hsns_2016_46_4_429.pdf

The Strait of Gibraltar has a long tradition of political and scientific uniqueness. Twentieth-century submarine warfare added the ocean’s depth as a new dimension for those wanting to control and understand the Strait. During the Cold War the surveillance of this chokepoint became urgent and entangled with local disputes predating the two-blocs conflict, in particular the sovereignty of Gibraltar for which Spain and the United Kingdom competed. This paper explores a number of transnational research programs on ocean dynamics at the Strait and discovers a network of collaborating researchers who used, and went beyond, international institutions such the International Geophysical Year and NATO. In the process, the Western Mediterranean was constructed as a key maritime place for global ocean circulation, both as a factor to North Atlantic convection and as a model through which to understand it.