Possible Injluence of the Earth's Magnetic Field 161 



netic field. They also speculated that the oxidation-reduction po- 

 tentials believed to have existed would have an influence on the 

 growth of the biota occurring on opposite sides of a flowing river. 

 In all of the above experiments only the ability of the vertical 

 component of the earth's field has been considered as a potential 

 producing mechanism. What are the effects of the horizontal 

 component and what can be learned of the charge carriers by 

 considering the associated processes? As an example and for 

 simplicity only those oceanic regions adjacent to the equator will 

 be considered. Here the verticle component of the earth's mag- 

 netic field is essentially zero and the horizontal component is 

 maximum. 



THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS 



When a charged particle of mass m and charge e crosses 

 a magnetic field of H gauss at right angles and with a velocity v, 

 it will trace out a path such that the impressed force due to the 

 magnetic field will be equal to the centrifugal force. Thus* 



Hev/c = mv^/r ( 1 ) 



and 



r = vc/H • 1/^ (cm) (2) 



m 



where r is the radius of curvature of the path and c is the velocity 

 of light. The direction of the curved path will be determined by 

 Fleming's right hand rule ( see Fig. 1 ) . 



In the northern hemisphere of the equatorial zone, the verti- 

 cal component of the earth's field is zero, the horizontal com- 

 ponent is maximum, and the ocean current is from west to east. 

 According to the right hand rule, negative charge carriers will 

 trace out curved paths such as to move them toward the bottom 

 of the ocean. As the operation is continuous, one might expect a 

 relative concentration of negative charge in the vicinity of the 

 ocean bottom. At the same time there would be a concentration 

 of positive charge near the surface of the ocean. The net result 

 is a sustained potential difference between the surface and the 

 bottom of the ocean. In the southern hemisphere a similar situa- 



* This theoretical equation has not been corrected for viscosity effects which 

 are important for particles larger than l/i. 



