117 



STATEMENT OF DR. HAROLD L. JAMES, CHIEF GEOLOGIST, U.S. 

 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, DEPARTMENT OE THE INTERIOR 



Dr. James. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



First of all, I would like to introduce the man accompanying me, 

 Mr. Thomas Howard. 



Mr. Fascell. Mr. Howard, why don't you join Dr. James at the 

 table? 



Dr. James. Mr. Howard is Director of Mining Research in the 

 Bureau of Mines. He will be here to help answer any questions on the 

 technology of mining. 



In discussing this matter of the mineral potential of the oceans, it 

 seems rather convenient to divide it up into the continental shelves and 

 slopes, and into the deep ocean basins. 



I am sure you are well aware that it is very difficult to make any pre- 

 cise definition of what these units are in terms that stand up legally or 

 in terms of depth of water. The separation is somewhat easier, geo- 

 logically. 



The continental slielf and slope is part of the continent. The rocks 

 that are exposed on the continent continue out under the shelves and 

 on out onto the slope. The continental area therefore consists of the 

 continent as we now see it and the shelf and the slope in addition. The 

 area of the United States is something in the neighborhood of 3,600,000 

 square miles. If w^e add the area of the shelf and the slope to this we 

 add about 1,300,000 square miles to it. 



So the shelf and the slope we are talking about is an area about a 

 tliird the size of the United States. It is a very large area. 



The position of the shoreline at present is purely accidental. It has 

 been very much inland at times in the past. It has been very much out 

 at sea in times past. 



Just to illustrate this, I would like to show you a couple of illustra- 

 tions here of the Bering Sea. We are doing quite a lot of work with 

 the Bureau of Mines in the Bering Sea at the present time — this re- 

 gion out here. We are studying the area for the possibility of gold 

 placers. 



These rod lines represent the old shorelines, the old beach strands 

 Russia. Here is a part of the Bering Sea adjoining our coast of Alaska. 

 Here is the famous Yukon River, Nome, Here is the closest part of 

 Russia. 



These red lines represent the old sliorelines, the old beach strands 

 at different times. 



Here is one which is at depths now of 400 feet. 



These blue dashed lines represent the course of old stretun channels 

 across the Bering Sea. This area has been dry land at time within 

 the last 100,000 years. It is across this dry land that the pre-Indian 

 groups came to North America. So this is really part of the con- 

 tinent. The fact that it is covered with water, at the present time, is 

 rather accidental. 



We are studying these areas just as we would areas on land. 



In rather similar fashion, we could look at the east and gulf coasts 

 of the United States. This inside red line represents the inner side 

 of what we call the coastal plain sediments. The outer line is the 200 



