OCEANOGRAPm' 1961 — PHASE 3 207 



To be sure, commercial interest has been confined largely to the 

 continental shelves; while academic intei-est has raii,<i:ed (U'er all the 

 ocean. 



For some types of measurements, such as undersea coring, the dif- 

 ference between the continental shelves and the deep ocean is formid- 

 able; while for other measurements, such as seismic studies, the 

 differences are merely those of technical detail. 



In order to cope accurately and rapidly with the masses of data 

 acquired in commercial operations, the industry has been forced to 

 develop integrated systems of operation. All phases of data gather- 

 ing and data handling have been coordinated and automated to the 

 maximum possible extent. 



Shipboard operations are conducted in such a way as to produce 

 data in a form best suited to automatic or semiautomatic processing. 

 Data processing equipment in turn is specially designed to handle the 

 acquired data and to provide finished presentations. 



The first example submitted here is a time-distance seismic refrac- 

 tion section prepared by one such system. 



Some 500 oscillographic traces have been plotted to scale, with 

 all necessary corrections and adjustments accurately made. 



Conventional academic style processing of seismic data is done 

 manually from directly recorded individual traces. 



To prepare a handmade plot analogous to the one presented here 

 normally requires many days of work on the part of a skilled seis- 

 mologist. This presentation was prepared in a total working time 

 of less than three-quarters of an hour by one technician and his 

 assistant. 



The automatic presentation in addition offers vastly more useful 

 information than does the manual one, and is far less subject to 

 human error. 



My second example of automated system operation in oceanography 

 is one which is more readily understandable to the layman. This is a 

 seismic reflection cross-section through the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. 



Essentially, this represents what one would see if he were to slice 

 down tlirough the ocean floor to a depth of 25,000 feet below the 

 bottom. 



During the 40 years of its existence, the commercial geophysical 

 industry has evolved to a high state of development without the use of 

 outside funds. Millions of dollars of research and development money 

 have been invested by private organizations in order to improve and 

 perfect tecliniques, instruments, and equipment. Our motivation has 

 been the incessent urge driven by competition to obtain better data at 

 less cost. 



We have developed our own ships, hydrophones, cables, arajjlifiers, 

 tape recorders, cameras, computing devices, and countless other items, 

 all of which have to f miction together smoothlj'- as a unit and have to 

 be used in many different types of operation. 



Moreover, every item has to have an extremely high reliability, since 

 a single breakdoAMi can be very costly indeed. 



For example, a 10-minute breakdown on some marine operations 

 may entail a total loss of one-half hour in returning to position ; all at 

 a total cost of about $250. 



Because we cannot afford to waste research men on routine survey 

 work (not that we could get them into routine work if we tried) our 



