Chapter 12 



Tagged Water Masses for Studying the Oceans 



123 



ship, preferably slightly submerged on a suit- 

 able barge or special vessel. Bringing large 

 quantities of activity to the waterfront prom- 

 ises to be more expensive, but practical experi- 

 ence in this should be valuable for later plan- 

 ning of large-scale disposals. 



The more controversial question of how 

 much radioactivity can safely be introduced into 

 the sea is not without reasonable solutions; but 

 the recommendations depend upon the cir- 

 cumstances, especially, upon the particular part 

 of the oceans to be studied. At the outset, 

 barren areas of ocean rather than those produc- 

 tive of things leading to human food must 

 be selected since the former can yield equally 

 good information regarding purely physical 

 phenomena. 



Deliberate tagging of surface waters (^Opera- 

 tion PORK CHOP) 



Surface waters mix in a turbulent manner 

 due to forces not yet fully understood. Better 

 knowledge of this layer is badly needed justi- 

 fying the consideration of water tracing experi- 

 ments involving introduction of fairly large 



amounts of activity. Greatest care must be 

 exercised here because these waters are those 

 most close to humans, in several senses. 



Rate of mixing to the bottom of the mixed 

 layer, and rate and character of lateral motion 

 as functions of the usual parameters of the sea 

 are of most immediate interest, and observa- 

 tions lasting even a few days or few weeks 

 would be of great value at the outset, especially 

 if repeated frequently. A simple surface water 

 experiment now will be proposed in briefest 

 possible outline. 



Figure 1 presents schematically some of the 

 procedure which might be used and some of 

 the phenomena to be expected. Guided by 

 suitable navigational aids, here represented by 

 deep-anchored buoys No. 1 and No. 2, the ship 

 A proceeds on a straight course while dropping 

 two quantities of radioactive materials (a and 

 a') mixed with enough surface water to leave 

 near the surface a small contaminated patch 

 having nearly neutral buoyance. These are 

 essentially point-source initial conditions in this 

 scale of dimensions; although, they are not as 

 convenient as the plane-source initial conditions 



BUOY » 2 



OPERATION "PORK CHOPS' 



Figure 1 



