400 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1961 



TAUT-LINE BUOY SYSTEM FOR EXPERIMENTAL DRILLING PROGRAM 



^^— i RADAR REFLECTOR 



SURFACE BUOY (libe-gloss covered innerlubo) 



ELASTIC SHOCK CORDS (3) 



1/16" GALVANIZED STEEL STRAND 



(to raise ond lower transponder) 



7/32" GALVANIZED STEEL STRAND 



(min. B. S. 7,000 lbs,, 19 strands) 



SONAR TRANSPONDER (sonar system) 



DEEP BUOY (oluminum elliptical 



dished heads, wt. in air 630 lbs.) 



THREELEG BRIDLE 



7/32" GALVANIZED STEEL STRAND 



CHAFING CHAIN (6 length) 



ANCHOR (cast concrete, abo 

 wt. in air 4,150 lbs.) 



OCEAN BOTTOM 



Figure 1. 



thinner than its average 5 miles, and the total distance from the sur- 

 face to the Moho is only about 6 miles, 3 miles of which is water. If a 

 drill string could be made 20 percent longer than that of the record 

 hole on land, and if the drilling could be accomplished from a ship, 

 the eventual Mohole seems possible at sea. The 20-mile depth, of 

 course, ruled out a boring on land. 



Before an experimental drilling program at La Jolla, Calif., in 

 3,000 feet of water that preceded the deep-water experiment, oceanog- 

 raphers had reached no farther than 75 feet below the bottom of the 



