I believe in just enriching the economy. And we’re leaving so much on the table, 72 percent of the planet. – Robert Ballard
I’m a geophysicist and all my earth science books when I was a student, I had to give the wrong answer to get an A. We used to ridicule continental drift. It was something we laughed at. We learned of Marshall Kay’s geosynclinal cycle, which is a bunch of crap. – Robert Ballard
It is a quiet and peaceful place – and a fitting place for the remains of this greatest of sea tragedies to rest. – Robert Ballard
There are more active volcanoes beneath the sea than on land by two orders of magnitude. – Robert Ballard
Almost a quarter of our planet is a single mountain range and we didn’t enter it until after Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin went to the moon. So we went to the moon, played golf up there, before we went to the largest feature on our own planet. – Robert Ballard
I am really dedicated to understanding the planet/creature on which we live and know that means I must go beneath the sea to see 72 percent of what is going on. – Robert Ballard
Well, when I was a kid, I grew up in San Diego next to the ocean. The ocean was my friend – my best friend. – Robert Ballard
If you compare NASA’s annual budget to explore the heavens, that one year budget would fund NOAA’s budget to explore the oceans for 1,600 years. – Robert Ballard
What drives me is exploration with a purpose, more the classic Royal Geographical Society genre. – Robert Ballard
I think the most important thing people can do to save our planet and the human race is to empower women! – Robert Ballard
Where I live in Connecticut was ice a mile above my house, all the way back to the North Pole, about 15 million kilometers, that’s a big ice cube. But then it started to melt. We’re talking about the floods of our living history. – Robert Ballard
There’s a long list of technologies that have now made it possible to carry out very precise search efforts in the deep sea. – Robert Ballard
Fifty percent of our country that we own, have all legal jurisdiction, have all rights to do whatever we want, lies beneath the sea and we have better maps of Mars than that 50 percent. – Robert Ballard
There’s probably more history now preserved underwater than in all the museums of the world combined. And there’s no law governing that history. It’s finders keepers. – Robert Ballard
Most of the southern hemisphere is unexplored. We had more exploration ships down there during Captain Cook’s time than now. It’s amazing. – Robert Ballard
My family came in 1635 from England and settled in Williamsburg. Shortly after, they split up; half went to New England and half stayed in Virginia. I’m a Virginian Ballard. – Robert Ballard
