Marine Science Affairs 



ment evaluation field project in the vicinity of Barbados served to test and 

 evaluate equipment to be used in the 1969 BOMEX effort and collect pre- 

 liminary meteorological /oceanographic data. 



2. Antarctic Oceanography.— Ocesinographic studies will continue in the 

 southern oceans, between latitude 45° S. and the shores of Antarctica. The 

 Eltanin will be committed to multi-disciplinary research efforts during the 

 FY 1970 season in the southern Indian Ocean area south of latitude 45° S., 

 an area which was not included in the International Indian Ocean Expedi- 

 tion. The new research vessel Hero, to be based in Antarctica, will be 

 operating in the Antarctic Peninsula areas. It will concentrate on biologi- 

 cal trawling, including studies of the population and distribution of the 

 krill, and investigations of seals and whales. The ice breaker Glacier will 

 continue investigating bottom water movement, taking cores, and collecting 

 oceanographic data in the Weddell Sea. All of these programs are being 

 carried out in cooperation with Chile, Argentina, and other nations interested 

 in the area. 



3. Deep Ocean Drilling. — The purpose of the Ocean Sediment Coring 

 Program is to obtain core samples by drilling entirely through the sediment 

 layer of the deep ocean floor to explore the uppermost layer of the earth's 

 crust under the sea. The program involves scientists and technologists from 

 academic institutions, private industry, and government agencies. While it 

 was planned primarily to advance basic science, the discovery of petroleum 

 in the deep ocean floor of the Gulf of Mexico during the first few weeks of 

 drilling has industrial and technological implications. Also, a bore-hole was 

 drilled in the floor in more than 17,000 feet of water, within the first few 

 weeks, and at other locations more than 2,500 feet of deep ocean sediment 

 were successfully penetrated.^ 



The program will include reconnaissance surveys of the Atlantic and 

 Pacific Ocean basins from the Glomar Challenger shown in Figure XIV-2. 

 It envisages investigations of mid-ocean ridges, rift escarpments, abyssal 

 plains, and continental rises. The preliminary analysis of the core material 



'On Aug. 19, 1968, in 11,720 feet of water, drilling penetrated the seabed to a 

 depth of 472 feet and bottomed in material consisting of calcium sulfates (gypsum 

 and anhydrite), pyrite, lime, and free sulfur, the typical minerals of the caprock of a 

 salt dome. In addition, partly in the caprock and partly in a sandy bed just above it, 

 the cores indicated presence of liquid petroleum and some gas. The hole was im- 

 mediately plugged and cemented to prevent seepage of the oil. In addition, a bore- 

 hole was drilled in the floor in 17,567 feet of water (a drilling record for a free-floating 

 platform) east of San Salvador, and samples of Jurassic sediments, 15 million years 

 older than any sedimentary rock previously found in the deep oceans, were obtained 

 from the San Salvador site. 



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