24 THE OCEAN FLOOR 



deepening of the floors of the Atlantic valleys on both 

 sides of the ridge could have accommodated the water 

 masses thus discharged. The same probably applies to 

 the ridges running from south to north in the western 

 Indian Ocean, and the bottom in the eastern part of 

 that ocean has presumably subsided, like that of the 

 central Pacific, at the release of water from the under- 

 lying substratum. 



This view of the interplay between the ocean floor and 

 the water masses above it must naturally be considered 

 a hypothesis, to be tested by future work undertaken 

 by new expeditions like those recently sent out with 

 such signal success from Scripps Institution. 



It appears very probable that the adherents of the 

 slow-soak principle are in the ascendant and that a 

 continued discharge of further masses of crustal water in 

 coming ages is likely to occur. 



However, the reverse process, the disappearance of 

 water into the earth's crust, is also possible. Perhaps, as 

 Revelle has intimated, a cyclic process of water dis- 

 charge and absorption by the substratum beneath the 

 ocean will be operating in the future to shape and re- 

 shape incessantly the bottom profile. In any event, the 

 prospect of our planet ultimately becoming desiccated 

 and its oceans vanishing appears very remote — a com- 

 fort, at least, to oceanographers. 



