ANALYSIS OF THE ACTIVITIES OF THE INSTI- 

 TUTIONS ACCORDING TO SUBJECT 



The activities of the institutions engaged in 

 oceanographic work have been tabulated according 

 to fourteen topical headings. Only short notes 

 will be made on each of the topics, except "instruc- 

 tion" of which there will be succinct but fuller 

 discussion. 



Seismology. Although seismological research is 

 not prosecuted at any of the institutions here con- 

 sidered, except the United States Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey, many stations have seismographs installed 

 on their premises and they cooperate with seismo- 

 logical specialists. The vital importance of seismol- 

 ogy for oceanography is shown by the article con- 

 tributed to this volume by Professor Gutenberg. 



Hydrographic s^irveys. Each important country 

 has a hydrographic service usually attached to its 

 navy. The United States divides its hydrographic 

 work between two organizations, the Navy, for 

 foreign waters and the high seas, and the Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey, for home waters. The hydro- 

 graphic services of several countries are among the 

 foremost contributors to oceanographic knowledge. 

 Tidal records and research. The note on Tides 

 by Mr. H. A. Marnier in this report gives a picture 

 of tidal research. Automatically recording tide 

 gages are installed at many marine stations, but 

 tidal research is prosecuted at very few. Among 

 those that are active are the Liverpool Observatory 

 and Tidal Institute, England, the Institut fiir 

 Meereskunde, Berlin, Germany, the Geophysical 

 Institute at Bergen, Norway, the Borno Station, 

 Sweden, and the Thalassological Institute of Fin- 

 land. Tidal experts are connected with most of 

 the larger hydrographic services, and some of them 

 conduct researches on problems of tidal theory. 



Records of temperature and salinity. Records of 

 temperature are kept at many, probably nearly all, 

 marine stations for at least a part of the year, and 

 at some for the entire year. The determination of 

 the salinity of the water Ls not so general. The 

 fully equipped oceanographic institutions conduct 

 systematic studies of temperature and salinity over 

 the entire field of their operations. It is probable 

 that more work is indicated in the table than is 

 actually done, biit accuracy was not practicable. 



Physics. Mo.st of the work on the physical prop- 

 erties of sea water is of a very simple kind, such 

 as the depth of the visibility of a Secchi disc, but 

 at some institutions the researches are of excellent 

 quality. Among the subjects investigated are the 

 depth of penetration of radiant energy, evaporation, 

 convection, heat conduction and diffusion, and the 

 content of radioactive substances — a subject that 

 is both physics and chemistry. 



Chemistry. Because of the biological significance 

 of many chemical features of seawater, routine 

 chemical determinations and some actual research 

 are conducted at many stations. Much of the chem- 

 ical work has appHcations to other aspects of 

 oceanography, for example, to .studies of circulation 

 and to geological problems. 



Dynamical oceanography. Although water move- 

 ments are observed and recorded more or less 

 qualitatively at many places and although numerous 

 institutions are building up bodies of data necessary 

 for the study of the dynamics of water masses, 

 researches on the principles and the application of 

 the principles of modern dynamical oceanography 

 are prosecuted at relatively few institutions. The 

 training of a larger number of young people in 

 dynamical oceanography is one of the needs of the 

 science. 



Sediments. Marine bottom samples are collected 

 by a number of institutions and several others serve 

 as depositories, but actual research is conducted at 

 only a few places. This subject is further discussed 

 on page 35 of this report. 



Meteorology. Observations are recorded at many 

 places, and a number of institutions are repositories 

 of data, which are compiled, averaged, and plotted, 

 but there is far too little fundamental research. 

 Investigations in marine meteorology involve re- 

 searches in physics, also included under that caption. 



Gravity at sea. Since the determination of gravity 

 at sea depends upon having submarines available 

 for the requisite cruises, such work is necessarily in 

 conjunction with the Navy departments of inter- 

 ested countries. The leader in this work is the 

 Netherlands. Other countries that have been 

 active are France, Italy, Japan, and the United 



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