109 



CORES BEACH 30 FEET 



Although the cores reached only 30 feet, Woods Hole oceanographers reported 

 that electronic soundings suggested that the thickness of the mineral beds ex- 

 tended more than 300 feet. Woods Hole plans an expedition in 19G9 to make 

 deeper and more widespread samplings. 



Dr. John M. Hunt, chairman of the Woods Hole department of chemistry and 

 geology and a chief scientist on the expedition, described the discovery in a re- 

 cent interview as the "most concentrated ore deposit of underwater minerals 

 that has been found to date anywhere." 



Its estimated value of $1.5-billion was arrived at by the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey and was based on only one of the three "deeps" and deposit thick- 

 nesses of only 30 feet. The survey estimated that the one basin held some 130 mil- 

 lions tons of copper, zinc, silver and gold. 



However, according to Dr. Hunt, present methods of extracting minerals from 

 the sea would probably prove too expensive, making immediate exploration of the 

 deposits uneconomical compared with land operations. 



ORIGIN UNEXPLAINED 



Scientists are still left with the origin of such deposits and such hot-water 

 basins unexplained. 



The prevailing theory, Dr. Hunt said, is that the heat erupts periodically 

 through cracks in the earth's crust. One of the main rifts runs the length of the 

 Red Sea. The warm water, which would ordinarily rise to the surface, is trapped 

 by its own unusually salty weight. 



The high salt content presumably comes from submerged salt beds remaining 

 from the ancient days when the Red Sea is believed to have evaporated to only 

 a small fraction of its present size. This is generally associated with the Biblical 

 account in Exodus of the sea becoming dry land after "Moses stretched out his 

 hand over the sea." 



The same submarine eruptions probably account for the high metal content, 

 according to the Woods Hole scientists. When metals dissolved in the brine rise 

 to the boundary of the normal waters, they apparently turn solid and fall to the 

 sea bottom below and sink into the sediment. 



[From the New York Times, Aug. 7, 1967] 

 Riches of the Sea Bed 



Submarine colonialism is not yet a major international issue, but it could be- 

 come one in the 1970's. The term refers to a possible race among nations to appro- 

 priate the sea bed — and the riches lying over and under it. The incentive for such 

 appropriation becomes stronger with every advance in man's ability to live and 

 work under the ocean's surface. 



Illustrative of the treasures waiting to be tapped in the future is the rich 

 concentration of gold, silver, zinc and copper ores recently found in just one area 

 under the Red Sea at a depth of 7,000 feet. A very conservative estimate puts the 

 value of ores in this deposit alone at about $1.5 billion. 



There is no reason to suppose that this find is unique. On the contrary, much 

 evidence suggests that more mineral wealth lies under the seas and oceans than 

 under the world's present area of dry land. It is now neither technically feasible 

 nor profitable to attempt commercial mining operations under depths anything 

 like that at which the Red Sea gold has been found. But in an era when men 

 routinely .send rockets to the moon, there can be little doubt but that mining the 

 .sea bed under 7,000 feet of water will some day be both possible and economical. 

 If that were true today the Red Sea states would almost certainly be arguing 

 over ownership of this sea bed. 



An attractive proposal to avoid such quarrels was suggested at the recent 

 World I'eace Through Law conference in Geneva. The more than 2,000 lawyers 

 who met there urged the United Nations General Assembly to assume "jurisdic- 

 tion and control" over the huge mineral resources in the oceans and under them. 

 Such a move would iiltimately make it possible for the United Nations to have 

 its own independent income and to use for the benefit of all men and all nations 

 riches that now belong to nobody and benefit nobody. And such a resolution of the 

 issue would forever prevent submarine colonialism from threatening the world's 

 peace. 



