92 THE NAVY OCEAN SCIENCE PROGRAM 



weather, is dependent to a significant degree upon the surface 

 chemistry of the topmost layer of the water. We are just now 

 beginning to appreciate the possible importance of diffusion 

 processes near the deep ocean bottom; in some cases these may 

 be studied by natural tracer methods, such as the upward dif- 

 fusion of radium from the sediments into the bottom water. 

 Mixing mechanisms and rates between the upper, intermediate, 

 and deep layers of the ocean can be studied by natural chemical 

 tracers and by the artificially radioactive tracers being con- 

 tinually delivered to the ocean sxuf ace in the form of world-wide 

 fall-out from nuclear test explosions. 



Navy support of chemical oceanography in the past has been 

 relatively small. The importance of this field, however, both 

 to the Navy and to the nation as a whole, requires that its 

 support be broadened and increased. In determining the scope 

 of such support, it is important to recognize that the problems 

 of marine chemistry are, in a real sense, merely a part of the 

 overall problem of the geochemistry of the entire earth. Thus, 

 man's pollution of the coastal waters and of the atmosphere must 

 inevitably produce corresponding changes in the chemistry of 

 the world ocean. Support of research in chemical oceanography 

 should not, therefore, be restricted merely to considerations of 

 seawater as a complex chemical solution, although this is certain- 

 ly one of the more important areas of interest. Since the aim of 

 Naval research in oceanography is to understand the medium in 

 which the Navy must operate, meirine chemistry must be recog- 

 nized as an integral component of the mix of inter-related 

 disciplines which comprise the ocean sciences, and receive a 

 corresponding measure of support. 



BENTHIC BOUNDARY STUDIES 



Underwater cameras and television, heat probes, and the early 

 dives by deep submersibles have each provided special begin- 

 nings of information about the waters immediately above the 

 ocean floor, or benthic boundary. As the use of manned vehicles 

 near the bottom in great ocean depths increases, the nature 

 of the benthic boundary layer will determine their limitations. 



