28 FRONTIERS IN OCEANIC RESEARCH 



In view of the recent U.S. Navy contribution to the deep sea exploration, a 

 news release from Washington, D.C. dated April 21, 1959, which appeared in 

 the San Diego Union is of interest. Pertinent excerpts are as follows : 



"Deep sea diving operations of the San Diego-based bathyscaph Trieste are 

 'opening the way to a new era of undersea exploration,' Gordon Lill, Chief of the 

 Geophysical Branch of the Office of Naval Research said today. 



" 'The Trieste,' Lill said, 'is the forerunner of a fleet of deep-diving craft of 

 several types that within a few years will be exploring the ocean fully in its 

 third dimension — depth.' " 



The bathyscaph was a proven oceanographic research platform before its pur- 

 chase by the U.S. Navy. In 1957, dives were conducted in the Mediterranean 

 under the auspices and support of the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research. Uti- 

 lized by a team of American scientists from several Government laboratories, the 

 craft was found to be useful for oceanographic studies. The success of the Medi- 

 terranean operations prompted the outright purchase of the craft by the U.S. 

 Navy. Since its purchase, the bathyscaph has provided an effective platform 

 for deep sea research off San Diego and near Guam. 



New instruments for wresting information from the abyssal depths where 

 temperatures and pressure often pose serious problems for the design engineer 

 have been slow in development. Prototypes have been tested under actual oper- 

 ating conditions. Instruments for the deep sea often involve completely new 

 ideas and are not available as an off-the-shelf item. In many instances, the 

 pressure requirements preclude the use of standard components and some manu- 

 facturers refuse to guarantee their products at the pressures to which the 

 equipment will be subjected. In addition, until the environment has been ob- 

 served and phenomena observed, it is not possible to adequately design equip- 

 ment to make measurements. During the 1959-60 dives with the Trieste new 

 ultrasensitive water current meters, electronic depth gages, and temperature- 

 sensing devices were tested. The bathyscaph has provisions for housing and 

 powering delicate instrumentation and the vital component — man — to monitor 

 the new devices that can effectively obtain more complete data than ever before. 

 Continuous profiles of certain physical conditions from the surface to the bottom 

 can be obtained. The capability is extended by a compact multichannel tape 

 recorder, that effectively provides a simultaneous record of data obtained by all 

 the instruments providing information for correlation analysis. 



The bathyscaph is readily recognized and accepted to have unique capabilities 

 of direct use to all of the major oceanographic disciplines as is exemplified by 

 the bathyscaph research program that will involve many scientists that is 

 scheduled for execution off San Diego, Calif., and other areas of the world when 

 adequate logistic facilities are made available. 



CURRENT NAVY RESEARCH PROGRAM 



1. Oceanographic projects 

 (a) Submarine geology : 



(1) Topographic studies — study of features too large to photograph and 

 too small to study easily with echo sounders. 



(a) Channels at mouth of La Jolla and Scripps Submarine Canyon. 

 (&) Study of "levees" on channels in San Diego Trough. 



(c) Study of detailed topography of upper continental slope — 50-500 

 feet. 



(d) Study of topography of continental slope between borderland and 

 deep ocean. 



(2) Mass physical properties of sediments. 



(a) "In situ" sound velocity and absorption measurements, 

 (o) Strength and penetrability study of sediments. 



(c) Slope failure and slump studies and relation to topography sedi- 

 ment types. 



(d) Temperature studies in sediments. 



(3) General studies. 



(a) Geology and hydrology of closed basins. 



(&) Areal distribution and environmental studies of phosphorite and 

 other minerals. 



(c) Geology, topography, and hydrology of borderland basin sills. 



(d) Dynamic processes affecting the distribution of sediments and 

 sedimentation processes. 



