Possible Influence of the Earth's Magnetic Field 163 



at first, it decreases rapidly with the lower velocities at depth, A 

 charged bacterial particle will thus start out on a broad circular 

 path toward the bottom, but as it goes down it will execute an 

 ever tightening circular path. It will then be essentially trapped 

 at some depth where the velocity approaches zero. In relatively 

 shallow water the velocity may be low enough such as to coin- 

 cide closely with the bottom, whereas in the ocean deeps it may 

 be considerably above the ocean floor. In either case there will be 

 a tendency to cause a separation of charge between the surface 

 and the ocean bottom which will be maximum in the equatorial 

 region. For the purposes of this analysis, it is thus expedient to 

 consider only those charge carriers whose radii of curvature is 

 commensurate with coastal and ocean depths between, i.e. 0.05 

 to 3 km. 



Figure 2 shows the radius of curvature vs the velocity for 

 various values of the total charge to mass ratio. It can be seen 

 that for nonnal ocean currents of 0.01 to 4 km/hr, the charge to 

 mass ratio which will be important to this process will vary be- 

 tween about 10^ and 10^. Figure 3 shows the mass vs the charge 

 for the charge to mass ratios in this range. If the carrier possesses 

 a unit charge, the possible mass range for normal ocean currents 

 will be 5 X 10~^^ to 10~^® grams respectively. This mass range is 

 in the colloidal particle size. It is therefore possible to essentially 

 rule out the migration of singly charged inorganic metallic ions 

 in sea water as the cause of a potential difi^erence such as being 

 considered here. 



One now asks what are the possibilities of magnetic influence 

 on multiple-charged particles of larger mass such as large col- 

 loids or microorganisms? Although not much is known about the 

 electron charge on the surface of marine microorganisms, an order 

 of magnitude calculation is instructive. Bacteria and other micro- 

 organisms generally canv a negative charge. The adsorbed excess 

 negative ions on the surface of the organism give rise to a strongly 

 attracted positive ion layer adjacent to the surface of the particle. 

 Successive layers adjacent to this socalled "electric double layer" 

 become increasingly less positive as they grade out into the bulk 

 fluid medium. An electric potential, the zeta potential, is de- 



