Possible Injluence of the Earth's Magnetic Field 165 



veloped across the diffuse part of the double layer. Moycr (5, 6) 

 has shown that the surface charge per luiit area, <t, is given by 



a = i D/4TrA 



where D is the dielectric constant of the medium and A is the 

 thickness of the diffuse part of the double layer. Using this type 

 of calculation, Abramson ( 1 ) has shown that typhoid bacilli 

 carry about 3 x 10^ electron charges. Accepting this as a rough 

 figure altliough it may be a little high for some bacteria, and the 

 fact that bacteria of this type have a mass of about 10"^^ grams, 

 then the charge to mass ratio is approximately 1.5 x 10^. 



From Figure 2 it can be seen that a charge to mass ratio of 

 tliis magnitude falls in the shaded area for current velocities of 

 from 0.3 to 4 km/hr, i.e. between these currents a charge carrier 

 of bacterial size can be deflected to the ocean bottom for depths 

 of from 50 m to 3 km respectively. Average equatorial ocean cur- 

 rents, however, are closer to 0.3 km/hr and thus correspond to 

 a radius of curvature of about 50 m. Depending on the surface 

 current and the current gradient the radius of curvature will 

 decrease with depth for a given e/m ratio. 



For the e/m ratio being considered here, the radius of curva- 

 ture can be shown to approach a radius of about one meter when 

 the current velocity drops to about 0.006 km/hr. For an average 

 surface current of 0.3 km/hr, a velocity of 0.006 km/hr is not un- 

 reasonable for depths of 50 to 100 meters. When the radius of 

 curvature and velocity drop to a value of this order of magnitude, 

 the bacterial charge carrier will be trapped. The net result will 

 be a zone of enriched bacteria in the ocean which will vary some- 

 what in depth depending on the current and the e/m ratio. Of 

 course, convection and other local currents will interfere with 

 this hypothetical picture to some extent, but over broad regions 

 it is reasonable to assume that a zone of bacterial enrichment can 

 be produced by this process. 



It is proposed that the above effect is a contributing factor 

 leading to the known distiibution of bacteria in the sea, and is at 

 least in part the reason for a charge distribution in ocean water. 

 At an average depth of about 50 m there is known to be a distinct 

 peak in the vertical distribution of marine bacteria. This high bac- 



