Hot lava, cooling rapidly after contact with seawater, forms basaltic rocks such 

 as these, photographed from the Atlantis II during Project FAMOUS site sur- 

 veys. 



showing the worldwide chemical composition and distribution of 

 the nodules has been compiled. Other studies on the environmental 

 conditions under which nodules grow, their rate of growth, and 

 changes over time have been completed. Methods have also been 

 devised to standardize analyses to facilitate comparisons between 

 laboratories. Plans have been prepared for a detailed sample 

 collection program in the North Pacific over an area rich in nodules. 



Exploration of ocean basin structure and history acquired a new 

 and powerful tool in deep ocean drilling supported by the Deep Sea 

 Drilling Project, a part of the NSF's Ocean Sediment Coring Program. 

 During 1973, the drilling ship Glomar Challenger operated in the 

 Indian Ocean, in the southern ocean around Antarctica, and in the 

 marginal seas of the western Pacific, the Tasman Sea, the Philippine 

 Sea, and the Sea of Japan. Drilling in the Indian Ocean added 

 significantly to our understanding of that ocean basin. 



The oldest portiort of the Indian Ocean crust was found to be in the 

 eastern part, where sediments approximately 130 million years old 

 were sampled in the Argo Abyssal Plain off northwest Australia. 

 Further evidence was found of major gaps in the record of Indian 

 Ocean sedimentation. At many sites, sediments 70 million to 35 

 million years old are either very thin or absent. Similar gaps in 



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