Oceanus

\ \/ ITU

?*&&??<£.

**&&&

^— — ~^: ' \

Trj>+Ji:fo-lLZFn&*r

-..:

f!ff~

EDITOR: JAN HAHN

WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION

WOODS HOLE, MASSACHUSETTS

Henry B. Bigelow
— Chairmaruof the Board of Trustees —

Arnaud C. Marts
— President of the Corporation —

Published quarterly and distributed to the
Associates of the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution and others interested in Ocean-
ography.

Edward H. Smith
— Director —

Alfred C. Redfield
— Associate Director -

— Senior Oceanographers —
Columbus O'D. Iselin
Bostwick H. Ketchum

wee

There are three Principal Points worth the curious
reader's Observation in the following Treatise'.

(I.) A description of the NEW KNOWLEDGE
concerning the Sea of Carib, alias the West Indies
Sea, the discovery of its bottom and the manner in
which it is explored, having not been treated of
so circumstantially, as far as I know, by any other
author before.

(2.) An account of divers voyages, made by the
command of scientific curiosity, for the discovery of
a DEEP HOLE in the sea, the success of which
proved very fortunate, as will be evident from the
ensuing Treatise.

(3.) A succinct account of that monstrous fish
called the SHARK and the manner how it is taken.
The whole of which I have comprehended in sev-
eral draughts obtained from the eminent engraver
D. M. Owen and others. Fareivel.

EDITORIAL

W. M. Dunkle

Coon after the voyage of Columbus, the Antilles were well explored,
first by the Spanish and Portugese, later by the Dutch and English
and the French. Still later, geologists studied the rock formations of
islands and shores; but the Caribbean basin remained an unknown
territory.

Few oceanographic investigations were made in the area, until
it became a favorite haunt for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Insti-
tution, when, during the winter months, work in the stormy North
Atlantic is not practicable for our small vessels. However, one must
not think of the Caribbean as a smooth sea. The past few months
saw more bad weather than good, with days on which the northeast
Trade Winds were absent and it blew hard from the southwest.

Often called the American Mediterranean — which includes the
Gulf of Mexico — the Caribbean Sea yielded many of its secrets, as
Dr. Officer points out in his article.

The Associates of the Institution may be proud that their fund
was used to support in part the work in the Caribbean, which has
added to our store of knowledge of the earth.

The Caryn shows her keel on a blustery day in the Caribbean.

Atlantis under full sail entering St. Thomas.

D. M. Oicen

Martinique

by C. B. Officer

Jf. •-

Exploring The Caribbean

An account of the winter cruise of the R.V. Atlantis
and the R.V. Caryn.

ONE of the more fascinating phases
of oceanographic science in the
recent years has been the geophysical
investigation of the geological struc-
ture below the oceans. Largely through
the impetus of Professor Maurice Ew-
ing, Director of the Lament Geological
Observatory and long a member of the
staff of the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution, the work in this field has
progressed at a rapid rate. In 1947
and 1948 the first seismic measure-
ments over deep water were made
from the research vessel ATLANTIS.
In 1949, 1950, and 1951 many seismic
refraction profiles were taken from the
ATLANTIS and CARYN over the
Western Atlantic, the approaches to
the North American continent, to tie
in with Professor Ewing and his col-
laborators earlier work over the conti-
nental shelf, and to a smaller degree
in the Caribbean. These profiles led to
a basic understanding of the geologic
structure of the oceanic areas and how
they graded into the continents. From

1952 on, the work has continued from
our ships and others extending the
coverage over the eastern and Southern
Atlantic, the Mediterranean and Nor-
wegian Seas, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Gaps in knowledge

At the time of the present cruise
one of the biggest gaps in geologic
knowledge was that of the structure
of the Caribbean, the island arc of the
Antilles, and the associated Puerto Rico
trench (the deepest part of the Atlan
t ic Ocean ) . It also turns out that an
understanding of such an area is most
important to the basic questions in
geology, for these are the active areas
of today; and much of the land geology
that we walk across points to the hypo-
thesis that once they were similar in
structure.

The geophysical equipment on both
the ATLANTIS and CARYN was such
that measurements were obtained of
the topography of the ocean floor from

p/ecision echo sounder recordings,*
the upper portion of the sedimentary
column from seismic reflection profiles,
<md the total sedimentary column and
underlying crystalline rocks down to
the substrata from seismic refraction
profiles. In addition measurements of
sound transmission in the ocean were
obtained over the differing water and
bottom types encountered. A seismic
profile is made by one ship, say the
ATLANTIS, heaving to and preparing
to listen and record from sensing ele-
ments in the water. The second ship,
the CARYN, then proceeds away from
the ATLANTIS on a prescribed course
firing explosives, gradually increasing
in size from one half pounds of TNT
to 350 pounds, out to a distance of
40 to 50 nautical miles. The CARYN
then heaves to and prepares to listen,
and the ATLANTIS gets underway
firing charges up to her to complete
the profile.

Some Statistics

Twenty-three tons of explosives
were used to fire about 2,000 shots in
the completion of 47 seismic refraction
and reflection profiles. The ships each
sailed more than 4,500 miles, so that
9,000 miles of bottom records were
charted by echo-sounding. The scien-
tific data obtained during the cruise
weighed approximately 500 pounds
and the laboratory analysis of these
records will take at least six months.

Those primarily responsible for the
geophysical work were Mr. Richard

&

See: "New Instruments", Oceanus,
winter 1955.

The track of the vessels, the Puerto Rico Trench
and the Cariaco Trench.

'And there 1 was hacking me way through the

sargassum' — Milton (Bucko) Rutstein—

best beard — inveterate story teller.

.;

Profile of the eastern end of the Puerto Rico Trench made with the Alden recorc

Captain Bray holding a struggling oceanic bonito,
one of many game fishes caught on the cruise.

A conference in Trinidad. Dr. Officer (seated left),
Henry Johnson and John Ewing discuss sailing plan.

Edwards and the author on the AT-
LANTIS and Mr. John Ewing from
Limont Geological Observatory and
Mr. Henry Johnson on the CARYN.
The geophysical equipment on the
ATLANTIS came from the Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution and
that on the CARYN from Lamonc
Geological Observatory and Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution. Other
programs that were carried out con.
currently were one in chemical ocean-
ography by Dr. Francis Richards and
Mr. Ralph Vaccaro, joined for a por-
tion of the trip by Mr. Sayed Wardani
from Scripps Institution of Ocean-
ography; one in marine biology by Dr.
John Ryther, and one in a combination
acoustical and optical investigation of
the deep scattering layer by Messrs.
Johnson and David Owen.* Also
aboard engaged in one or another of
the phases of investigation for a por-
tion or all of the cruise were Messrs.
Alvin Bradshaw, William Dunkle,
Gerrit Duys, Jan Hahn, William Hud-
son from Bell Telephone Laboratories,
William Moss, and Milton Rutstein.

The ships left Woods Hole on the
nineteenth of January, stopped at Ber-
muda, and arrived in St. Thomas on
the second of February, after an ex-
tremely stormy passage. The work in
the Caribbean area was along tracks
from St. Thomas south to the coast of
Venezuela and up to Martinique, from
Martinique out to the Atlantic and
back to Trinidad, from Trinidad north
along the Grenadine Islands and across
to Puerto Rico, from Puerto Rico east

Woo.

ing system and the Edo echo sounder. Depth of flat bottom is 3828 fathoms (22,968 ft.)

Loading explosives and clean laundry in Port of

Spain. Each box contains one 350 Ib. aerial bomb.

Ralph Vaccaro has just handed Dr. Richards

a pile of pillow cases.

toward Antiqua and back to the west;
north of the islands, and into St.
Thomas on the twenty-third of March.

Was the cruize a success? We defi-
nitely think so. We obtained almost
twice as much geophysical information
as we had planned, and we feel that
we have the data in hand to determine
the geologic structure and variations
in geologic structure over the various
features of the Caribbean area.

The cruise was supported in part
by the Associates through payments
for most of the operating expenses of
the CARYN. I wish to express my

"Over the side!" Dick Edwards tiring a 1/2 pound
block of TNT with a 24-second fuse.

thanks to them for this support.

It was a blow to all of us to learn
on returning to Woods Hole that one
of cur group, Mr. Gerrit Duys, had
died cf a heart attack. Mr. Duys had
become sick during the cruise from a
virus infection. He was left at Bar-
bados and upon recovering returned to
Woods Hole. I know that the other
members of the scientific party and the
officers and crew of the ships join me
here in expressing their sympathies at
the loss of such a fine person. He was
one of the most generous and kind
hearted persons that I have known.

The Caryn rolling on "silent ship" station.

Camefish Studies Down To The Sea

OUR game fish expert, Frank J. |n ShJDS
Mather 111, is presently on board

the FWS Oregon in the Gulf of Mex- qpHE officers and crews of our re
ico. Through the courtesy of the Fish 1 search vessels are often taken for
and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department granted. It may be appropriate, in this
r.f the Interior, Mr. Mather is able to Caribbean issue, to salute Captain Scott
observe "long line" techniques for the L>ray of the Atlantis, his engineers.,
catching of large tuna, marlin and mates, steward, cooks and seamen for
swordfish. This method is a modifi- tj,eir part ;n making our scientific-
cation of the successful Japanese long work a success. There were many days
line trawls. Mather hopes to use long ar sea and but few in port,
lines in his tagging program, so that

more fish can be tagged than with the Captain Arvid Karlson and his offi-

present, more interesting but slow. cers and crew had an even more diffi-

method of rod and reel fishing. cult task. Due to the small size of the

Proceeding to Bimini in May, where Caryn her fuel and fresh water capacity

all tuna caught in the annual tourna- was often stretched to the limit of en-

ment are released, Mr. Mather hopes durance. Lack of washing facilities in

that the participants will aid his studies a warm climate can be most unpleasant,

by marking fish with the new dart tag Due to engine trouble, engineers

he developed during the past winter. Sutherland and Leslie spent five days

From Bimini he will go to Cat Cay, to crawling in the crowded engine room,

work in cooperation with scientists of where the temperature must have been

the University of Miami's Marine over 100 degrees.

Laboratory to study the migration of . .

i , \ r + r The cruise started with an extremely

giant tuna during the annual Cat Cay , , TT .

Tournament. stormy passage from Woods Ho e to

All northern tuna anglers and their Bermuda and, for the Caryn at least,

.IT .1 ended in the same way. That the scien-

clubs are urged to participate in the .

dart-type tagging program during the tlhc results were successful is in no

coming summer. Tags have now been m^an way contnbutable to these men

produced in quantity and may be ob- and to Port Captain John Pike, who

tained, free of charge, from the Woods is responsible for the safe and smooth

Hole Oceanographic Institution. operation of the ships.

In Memoriam
William D. Winter

Associate William D. Winter was Association of New York, Mr. Winter

a member of the Executive Com- g^e an address which largely con-

i £ i cerned itself with the activities of this

mittee and one of the most active . . , . , ,

f Institution. Mr. Winter explained that

members of the Corporate Committee. ^ cause$ resukmg in exposing men

In addition he was a member of the an£j women to the hazards of the sea

Corporation of the Woods Hole Ocean- C(lU\d be removed, in a wider sense, by

ographic Institution since June 30, encouraging scientific investigation of

1952. the oceans.

One of his last acts on our behalf The Woods Hole Oceanographic

occured last January when, retiring as Institution and its Associates can ill

P-esident of the Life Saving Benevolent afford the loss of this Benefactor.

ASSOCIATE NEWS

I ATE in February the Executive
•* Committee and the Corporate Com-
mittee held a joint meeting at the New
York Yacht Club, to discuss the growth
and the activities of the Associates
Program.

Admiral Smith explained current
activities at the Institution and made
special mention of the fact that the
cruise of the R.V. ATLANTIS and
R.V. CARYN in the Caribbean Sea
was financed in part by Associate funds.

Other uses to which your contribu-
tions are being applied were men-
tioned by President Swope. $4,300
provides for the salary of Miss Beatrice
Stern to operate a spectroscope in the
tracing of "tagged water" (see Oceanus
III, 1 ) . Also supported are six lectures
to be given this summer by Dr. Gifford
C Ewing of the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography. Dr. Ewing will also
act as consultant oceanographer during
the summer months. Further funds are
applied to basic research, a fellowship
and the making of a motion picture
on oceanography.

A report on the vigorous activities
of the Committee on Corporate Associ-

ates was presented by Chairman Noel
B. McLean. Mr. McLean noted that
about $3,500. was received in addition
to $16,000 obtained from member
corporations and companies.

Mr. M. C. Gale reported that he had
explored the need and cost of a game
fish library to be established at the
Institution. It was thought that such
a library would be useful but not es-
sential, and the proposal was tabled. It
was suggested that an exploratory
article might appear in Oceanus asking
for an expression by the individual
Associates.

Finally, it was reported, that a plan
to be known as the Woods Hole
Oceanographic Associate Fellowship,
will provide funds to permit an out-
standing young person to obtain a doc-
torate degree in the earth sciences and,
it is hoped, a career in oceanography
at the Institution. One fellowship will
be awarded this year, two the next year,
and three yearly thereafter. "Thus",
Admiral Smith concluded, "Ocean-
ography and the Institution will be
nourished with new talent by the use
of funds made possible by the
Associates."

New Corporate Associates

General Dynamics Corporation, New York
The Glenn L. Martin Company, Baltimore, Maryland
Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, Inc., New York
Sperry Gyroscope Company, Great Neck, New York

In addition to welcoming many other individuals, we are pleased to in-
troduce our first foreign Associate, Senor A. E. Llavallol of Buenos Aires,
Argentina.

8

THE CARIACO TRENCH

>y Francis A. Richards

A basin of stagnant water was found in the Caribbean Sea and proves

of great aid in studying the nutrient cycles in the sea and

the formation of petroleum in sedimentary basins.

THE Cariaco Trench* is a basin just
north of Venezuela, in the south-
eastern Caribbean. About 780 fathoms
at its greatest depth, the trench is shut
off from the rest of the sea by a sill
which permits no ocean water to enter
from depths greater than about 80
fathoms.

Before any observations were made
there, a study of bottom charts showed
that the configuration of the trench
imd the isolation of its deeper water
made it interesting, since it seemed
possible that the trench might contain
stagnant water and thus afford a place
where biochemical processes were tak-
ing place in an essentially static part
of the ocean, thus simplifying investi-
gations by eliminating the time-motion
factors which are so difficult to evalu-
ate in the open ocean.

First Visit

The trench was first visited by AT-
LANTIS in December 1954, at which
time L. V. Worthington found that
the water was anaerobic — free of dis-
solved oxygen — from about 1,600 feet
down. This showed that the place was
static — at least much more so than any
known part of the open ocean where
dissolved oxygen is present at all
depths. At that time, it was obvious
from the odor of the water samples
that hydrogen sulfide was present, al-
though the ship was not equipped to
determine the substance chemically.

* See chart on Page 4.

Similar situations are known to exist
in the Black Sea, in threshold fjords
and in certain semi-enclosed basins, all
of which receive considerable land
drainage. This drainage supplies an
abundance of nutrients, principally
nitrate and phosphate, which so ferti-
lize the upper layers that a greater than
usual amount of organic matter is pro-
duced by the growth of plants — the
microscopic phytoplankton. Upon
sinking into the stagnant layers, this
organic matter decomposes, using oxy-
gen until all the oxygen is gone. After
that, bacterial decomposition continues,
but the oxygen is supplied by the sul-
fate in sea water, thereby reducing the
sulfate to sulfide. During this decom-
position the organic compounds of
nitrogen and phosphorus which were
bound in the bodies of the organisms
during their growth in the upper layers,
are again released to the water in solu-
tion as inorganic compounds of nitro-
gen and phosphorus.

In the deep water of the open ocean,
the supply of organic material from
the surface is so slow, and is so bal-
anced by fresh supplies of waters that
were at one time aerated in the surface
layers, that anaerobic conditions do not
arise. The ocean circulation also prob
ably brings about a slow return of in-
organic nutrients to the surface layers.
In anaerobic parts of the sea, such ex-
changes either do not occur or are very
slew, and processes of deoxygenation,

sulfide formation and the regeneration
of nutrient salts are uninterrupted.

The trench differs from the other
known anaerobic parts of the sea, be-
cause it receives little land drainage,
and its upper layers, almost completely
open to the sea, are far from semi-
enclosed. Therefore, the manner in
which nutrient materials are brought
into this marine environment are quite
different and give us a new field for
study.

Exciting Discovery

The fact that the Cariaco Trench is
anaerobic was a rather exciting dis-
covery. Woods Hole scientists were
anxious for additional information, and
a return visit was made in February
of this year. The lower laboratory of
ATLANTIS was equipped for the
determination, at sea, of dissolved oxy-
gen, hydrogen sulfide, nitrate, nitrite,
ammonia, phosphates, and other chem-
ical properties of the water, Mr. Ralph
F Vaccaro, bacteriologist, who studied
the nitrogen compounds, Dr. John H.
Ilyther, microbiologist, who conducted

experiments to determine the produc-
tivity of the plankton population, and
the writer, who did other chemical and
hydrcgraphic work, were aboard. Mr.
Sayed Ali el Wardani, of Scripps Insti-
tution of Oceanography, came on board
at St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, and did
the determinations of sulfides and hy-
drogen ion concentrations, subjects in
which he has specialized at Scripps.
Water samples were taken from the
surface to the bottom at several places
in the trench, and core samples of the
bottom were obtained. The work was
carried on in conjunction with Dr. C.
B. Officer's geophysical cruise which is
described elsewhere in this issue.

Only preliminary studies have been
made of the data obtained on the
cruise, but they should prove helpful
in understanding the nitrogen and
phosphorus nutrient cycles in the sea,
the microbiology of an anaerobic en-
vironment, the circulation of the
trench, and sedimentation processes
which may be of application to studies
of the formation of petroleum.

GIFTS AND GRANTS

With pleasure we report that the
following gifts and grants have been
received :

Alfred P. Sloane Foundation,

Inc. . $5,000.

Shell Company Foundation $ 500.

Both grants have been made to con-
tribute toward the cost of making a
motion picture on oceanography, the
purpose of which is to inform the pub-
lic and especially prospective college
students about the science of the sea.
The final draft of the motion picture
script is presently in preparation.

In addition to the above, the Insti-
tution received a check for $5,000
from Mr. N. B. McLean, President of
the Edo Corporation, College Point,
New York.

Although the annual Corporate As-
sociates contribution is $1,000, Mr.
McLean sent his larger contribution
with the statement: ''We sincerely be-
lt c-ve that the basic research being done
at Woods Hole contributes immeasur-
ably to the industry in which ive are
interested and also to the welfare and
support of our country".

10

SHARKS

No/ c/j" of/672 encountered at sea as they arc in popular literature,
much remains to he learned of their behavior.

A problem that has always faced the
^*- naturalist who is interested in the
ocean's larger creatures, is that he rare-
ly can spend enough of his time at sea
to accumulate a significant number of
observations. The whales, porpoises,
sec turtles, sharks and large fishes are
less often encountered than one might
suppose from reading much of the
literature of the sea. At the Institution,
those who see such animals most often
are the officers and crews of our vessels

whose job may keep them at sea almost
continually. It is in this field that these
men can best contribute directly to our
scientific endeavors.

Illustrative of this is the shark-
fijhing program in which the ATLAN-
TIS has been engaged during the last
couple of years. With some extra effort
in examining specimens and keeping
careful records, what was formerly
sport or the seaman's traditional ven-
geance, has been turned into science.

11

During the last nine months, led by
Captain Scott Bray, First Mate A. D.
Colburn, Boatswain Carl Speight, and
former Radioman Thomas Lyon, the
ATLANTIS has preserved data from
45 sharks.

Whenever the ATLANTIS is hove
to for coring, hydrographic stations, or
is the "silent ship" in an underwater
sound exercise, a couple of stout lines
with chain-leadered hooks are thrown
over, bearing table scraps provided by
amiable Steward Joe Lambert. Gen-
erally the cry of "Shark!" even brings
up "the watch below". The hooked
shark is dispatched by a volley of rifle
fire by the ATLANTIS' gunbugs. The
moribund shark is hauled aboard,
whereupon it is measured and cut open.
Sharks are hard to kill and more than
once the fishermen have had to take
to the rigging to avoid the snapping
jaws and flailing tail of a supposedly
deceased specimen.

The open ocean shark, widespread in
the warmer parts of the Atlantic and
common in the Caribbean, is the white-
tip shark about which, in spite of its
commonness, little is known. It is a

brownish shark easily identified by its
rounded dorsal fin, the tip of which is
white. This shark is usually the nucleus
cf an interesting aggregation of other
animals. The silver and black-barred
shark pilot* often accompanies it, but,
contrary to legend, generally swims
above and behind the shark rather than
in the lead. One or several remoras, or
shark-suckers, are almost always adher-
ent to the white-tip, and so persistent
is their grip that they are hauled aboard
with the shark. Sometimes a small
school of the beautiful blue-green-
yellow dolphin fish swims with the
white-tip. These are often caught as
they swim near the hooked shark.

ATLANTIS records have shown
much about the white-tip's food, breed-
ing habits, and behavior. One of the
more interesting points revealed is the
tendency for large areas to contain pre-
dominantly male white-tips, while the
females are predominant in another
aiea. This phenomenon is little under-
stood, but continued efforts on the part
of the ships' crews should lead us to
the answer to this question and many
others about some of the ocean's bigger
animals.

Two 'pilots' may be seen on page 1 1 just to the left of the shark's dorsal hn.

Remora

Coming on board.

At the Third Annual Associates Dinner: Mr. & Mrs. Gerard Swope, Jr. (left)
and Mr. & Mrs. George H. Richards.

In the model room of the N. Y. Yacht Club before the dinner, from left to right:
Mr. F. L. LaQue, Mrs. T. H. Wickenden, Dr. A. C. Red field. Mr. T. H. Wickenden,
Mrs. F. L. LaQue.

Third Annual Associates Dinner

The Third Annual Associates Dinner took place on April 19 at
the New York Yacht Club. The 140 Associates and guests present,
heard an address by Mr. Robert H. Simpson, hurricane specialist of
the U.S. Weather Bureau, and saw a motion picture of Hurricane
"Carol's" havoc at Woods Hole. The picture was made last fall from
the Institution's windows by oceanographer Wm. S. von Arx.

13

SPRING CRUISE OF THE BEAR

by J. B. Hcrsey

From the deepest spot in the Atlantic Ocean to the Blake Plateau,
the Bear had some rough going.

THE research vessel Bear, a 103
foot motor vessel, departed Woods
Hole on the first of February for St.
Thomas, V. I- She was held in Ber-
muda for several days by very rough
seas, eventually reaching Charlotte
Amalie about the middle of the month.
With the aid of our new precision
echo-sounder recorders we made sur-
veys of the Caribbean approach to the
Anegada Passage in the Virgin Island
area and made various studies of sound
scattering including lower ings of the
acoustical view finder camera ( see
Oceanus III, 2 ) and other purely
acoustical observations. Continuing
this work off the southern coast of
Puerto Rico we sailed to Mayaguez,
a seaport on the western coast of
Puerto Rico.

There, the scientific party visited
the Department of Biology of the
University of Puerto Rico and were
treated to a very pleasant tour of the
newly established marine biological
station and zoological garden, being
set up on an island off the southern
coast by Dr. Juan Rivero, as part of
the University's instructional and re-
search program. Dr- Rivero not only
welcomed us most cordially to the
University but was most helpful in
solving some logistic problems that
would otherwise have delayed our
work considerably.

Departing Mayaguez on February
28th, we kept rendezvous with the
R/V Vema of the Lament Geological
Observatory at a point northwest of
Puerto Rico near the deepest part of
the North Atlantic, the Puerto Rico
Trench. The Vema was equipped with

a precision echo sounder of Lamont's
design and together we were able to
make tracks of parallel soundings over
the deep ocean just east of the Bahama
reefs, from the Trench to the North-
east Providence Channel of the Baha-
mas. The Puerto Rico Trench has a
flat bottom (see page 4) over which
both ships passed on somewhat differ-
ent tracks. We were gratified to find
that soundings taken by the two ships
agreed within two or three fathoms on
the flat bottom, at a depth consider-
ably over four miles.

A number of seismic refraction pro-
files were made on the continental
shelf and the Blake Plateau between
the Bahamas and Charleton, S. C, con-
tinuing a study commenced by the
Atlantis and the Bear last year. Dur-
ing March, sailing out of Charleston,
the Bear under the leadership of Mr.
Ralph Wyrick of this Institution, and
the Vema under Dr. John Nafe of
Lament, continued the seismic studies
in this area until the end of the month
when the Vema left us and the Atlan-
tis joined in the work, after complet-
ing her Caribbean work under Dr.
Officer. The special target of the work
in March had been to study the geo-
logic structural relations between the
2600 fathoms deep ocean to the east,
the Blake Plateau, which rises to a
depth of 200-700 fathoms in the mid-
dle and the less than 100 fathoms deep
continental shelf on the western side
of the area- During April, with Messrs.
Henry Johnson and Richard Edwards
on Atlantis and the writer on the Bear,
we studied the structures where the
Blake Plateau narrows down between

14

the shelf and a topographic ridge
which extends outward from the con-
tinent into the adjacent ocean basin.
In one month, we could hope to do
little more than draw a rough outline
of the underlying structure. A prelim-
inary examination of the results tells
us that the topographic ridge is indeed
i1 surface expression of a large fold in-
volving the whole outer crust of the
earth here. We believe that further
study of our present data will tell us at
least part of the relationship between
this folded structure and the deep
ocean basin, the North America basin,
to the east.

In addition to the seismic obser-
vations, the Atlantis obtained a few
cores of bottom sediment while the
Bear made more lowerings of the
acoustical view finder camera. The
weather, which had been remarkably
good until the middle of April, be-
came about equally poor for the re-
mainder of the cruise- As a result the
last part of the planned program had
to be abandoned. After nine days of
nearly constant seas of about twelve
feet high, we were relieved to cross
the Gulf Stream and find much calmer
seas for our return to Woods Hole
early in May.

Oceanography?

Oceanology?

servations there was a sign on Dean
Bumpus' door stating: Laboratory of
Oceanology.

This is all very well, but we have
heard many people mispronounce
oceanographic in various ways and we
fear to think what they might do to:
Woods Hole Oceanological Institution,
if this ever came to pass.

The difficulty with this science is
that it is no science at all, but rather
a series of sciences. Many people still
appear to think that an oceanographer
is someone who catches and looks
at strange fishes, not realizing that
physicist, chemist, biologist, geologist,
meteorologist, geophysicist and almost
every other 'ist' but the astrologist
have a part in the study of the ocean.
Finally, this study of the sea is also
but ONE of the earth sciences while
at the same time containing all of the
disciples who study the earth sciences.

By this time we are almost — but
not quite — as confused as our readers
and can only suggest that you peruse
this once more carefully and you will
know more about oceanography or
oceanology than we can hope to tell
you for some time to come.

In the next issue of DEEP SEA
RESEARCH, Dr. J. N. Carruthers
of the British National Institute of
Oceanography will refute Commander
Hall and his use of the term
oceanology.

JJST about when oceanography has
become rather widely known, up
comes Commander C. P. N. Hall,
R.N., to suggest in the journal DEEP
SEA RESEARCH, that we use the
word oceanology since this describes
the science of the ocean or ocean study
while oceanography means description
of the ocean.

Some European scientists jumped
into the fray and have started to use
oceanology and before you could say
geomagnetic electrokineto graphic ob-

Whenever in or near Woods Hole,
Associates are cordially invited to at-
tend our weekly staff meetings, held
Monday evenings at 8:00 p.m. in the
Conference Room of the Laboratory
of Oceanography. At these meetings
one of our staff members or a visiting
scientist gives an informal account of
the latest developments in his work
or field.

15

CURRENTS AND TIDES

Dr. M. S. Longuet-Higgins, of the
British National Institute of Ocean-
ography, visited in April and lectured
on "Analyzing the sea surface."

Staff members on the air. On June
21 from 9:30 to 10:00 DST, and on
June 23 from 8:30 to 9:00 DST, you
will be able to hear a shoal of staff
members discoursing on NBC's pro-
gram "New England, a Regional Sur-
vey". The interviews, recorded last
winter, are part of Program number 7
of the NBC series which will start on
May 3-

On a recent visit to U.S. Coast
Guard Headquarters in Washington,
Admiral Smith demonstrated a model
of the new Air Sea Rescue buoy de-
veloped for the Navy by our Messrs.
Harold E. Sawyer, F. deW. Pingree and
Robert G. Walden. The exhibit model
is on loan to the Office of Naval Re-
search and was designed by Mr. G. G.
Pasley.

Plans to invade a "foreign ocean",
are being made by Mr. Henry C.
Stetson, submarine geologist on our
staff. Mr. Stetson plans to take AT-
LANTIS to the South Pacific next fall.
This would be the first time the ship
has left the Atlantic Ocean and ad-
jacent seas.

Many grade and high schools featur-
ed the oceans in their science programs
this spring. A flow of material was
sent in reply to dozens of letters from
many states. The largest single group
of letters came from Mitchelville, Iowa,
which we have not been able to find
on a map. Such requests are suggestive
of a growing interest in oceanography.

A record of whale noises, made by
our ketophonist Mr. W. E. Schevill,
was sent to the Gilbert School in Win-
sted, Conn., to be used during a liter-
ary discussion of Moby Dick and other
whaling books.

Seventy-three newspaper feature
writers, editors and TV men from the
West and mid-West visited the Insti-
tution in April under the auspices of
American Airlines. They made a cruise
on the CARYN from New Bedford to
Woods Hole and were given a guided
tour of the laboratories. During the
cruise they witnessed the rescue of our
overeager Public Information Officer,
who followed a plankton net over
the stern.

"The Continental Shelf", is the title
of an article by submarine geologist
Henry C. Stetson, in the March issue
of "Scientific American."

16

MBL WHOI LIBRARY

LJH 17YN S

ASSOCIATES

of the
WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION

President: GERARD SWOPE, JR.

Secretary. JOHN A. GlFFORD

Executive Assistant: RONALD A. VEEDER

Winslow Carlton
Rachel L. Carson
George F. Jewett
Noel B. McLean
Henry S. Morgan

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Edward A. Norman
Malcolm S. Park
Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
James H. Wickersham

CORPORATE COMMITTEE
Chairman: Noel B. McLean, President
Edo Corporation

Charles F. Adams, Jr.

Robert M. Akin, Jr.

F. M. Bundy

W. Van Alan Clark

Pomeroy Day

M. C. Gale

Frank Pace, Jr.

T. V. Moore
Raymond Stevens

Parker D. Trask
Thomas H. Wickenden
Miles F. York

President, Raytheon Manufacturing Company
President, Hudson Wire Company
President, Gorton Pew Fisheries
Chairman, Avon Products, Inc.
Partner, Robinson, Robinson and Cole
President, Monarch Buick Company
Executive Vice President, General Dynamics

Corporation

Standard Oil Development Company
Executive Vice President, Arthur D. Little,

Inc.

Research Engineer, University of California
Vice President, International Nickel Company
President, Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company

EX OFFICIO:
OFFICERS

of the
WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION

. . y

X

V