304 OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 



Besides all this we have the laboratory work associated with it, 

 testing of materials, both real and hypothetical, for the qualities they 

 will have under the deep heats and pressures, and the analysis of the 

 cores when we get them back. 



Besides the scientific things, there are two technologies, really ; one 

 of them would be drilling technology and the working at sea and the 

 other would be the oceanographic type technology, both of which 

 stand to gain tremendously from this particular project. 



It is our hope that we will have at least consultants from all of 

 these fields somehow represented in our group, because we would like 

 to see a great many people in the geophysical business and the oil busi- 

 ness involved in this project. 



I might say a little bit more about the practical aspects of this. 



I was specifically asked about the influence of tliis on the oil in- 

 dustry, but there are other people who stand to gain in a more prac- 

 tical way from what we are going to do. As scientists we do not like 

 to talk about the practical outcome of tliis because we are mainly 

 looking forward to the scientific objectives that will be accomplished. 



So far, the heaviest work that has been done on the bottom of the 

 ocean has been essentially with a half-inch cable. This has essentially 

 a working stress of 5 or 6 tons. Oceanographers have traditionally 

 worked with tools and equipment too light and cheap to do the job 

 they have to do at sea. They always work a little too small and 

 consequently are always right on the limits of what they can do. 



When we have at least reached the bottom with, let us say, a 31/^ 

 inch drill string, we have increased the capability for doing lieavy 

 work on the bottom and perhaps oriented work on the bottom by 

 a factor of 50 to 100. This has tremendous implications for anybody 

 who is going to do heavy work at sea, such as might be involved 

 in various problems of submarine hunting, for example. We do not 

 intend in any way to get involved in classified projects, I should say, 

 but there is no way we can do this without having a great deal of mean- 

 ing for people who have the problem of locating things on the bottom 

 of the deep ocean, laiowing what the stresses are for both shallow and 

 deep water, and for placing things where they need to be put on the 

 bottom. 



As you perhaps are aware, tliere seem to be great possibilities in 

 the mineral deposits on the bottom of the ocean, both phospates in 

 fairly shallow water, a thousand feet deep, and in so called manganese 

 nodules which are also rich in nickel and chromium and cobalt. 



Of course, that would also include manganese, all of which certainly 

 look as though they are going to be one great source for these materials 

 in the future. There are probably other things on the bottom tliat we 

 do not know about because it has not been surveyed as well as it should 

 have been. 



In order to do this we have to develop our technologies for our own 

 use there. For example, it miglit be useful in some way for us to have a 

 television set working in very deep water which would inspect what 

 we are doing, and take a look at the instrumentation which we put on 

 the bottom. No such instruments now exist. The deepest ones go to 

 about a thousand feet. 



If such a device were developed in some way and tried out and used 

 with this project, it would be a ti"emendous step forward in inspecting 



