319 



Mr. Anderson. Charley, would you like to handle that one? 



Dr. HoLLiSTER. No; I am an oceanographer. In my 15 years or so 

 in the business, I look at sediments in the seafloor and the rocks as 

 a predictive scientist. 



What we are trying to do is to learn about the history of the 

 oceans, back in time, so that we can do some credible predictions in 

 order to answer the types of questions you just put forward. 



And the way to do this is simply take a core sample of the 

 bottom of the ocean. We did this about halfway between Hawaii 

 and the Aleutians. And we learned a lot. For example, we learned 

 that this part of the North Pacific has been stable for at least 65 

 million years. During this time, the dinosaurs died out, the Alps 

 were formed, the Himalayas formed, the Hanford Basalts were 

 extruded, the Isthmus of Panama closed, the ice ages came and 

 went, and of course Mount St. Helens was the most recent example 

 of geologic unpredictability of the continents. 



The point is, there are some areas on the ocean that are very, 

 very active: Earthquakes, lots of them, faults, et cetera. But based 

 on volumns data, not the least of which are the results of the deep 

 sea drilling project, we have been able to make a geologic map of 

 the other 70 percent of the globe. 



So, by way of answering your question, there are very predict- 

 able areas in the sea floor that we have been able to identify. And, 

 certainly, vast areas of the north central Pacific have simply been 

 moving northwestward for nearly 200 million years at a rate of 

 about 6 feet in 60 years, which is, say, a man's height in his 

 lifetime; the whole plate is moving slowly westward. 



There are large areas in other oceans that are also away from 

 spreading centers, away from volcanos, and also are beneath areas 

 of extremely low biological productivity. 



If one considers this stability and the account of history one then 

 has some credibility in saying that next 10,000 or 100,000 years 

 may be equally boring in that this piece of real estate chuggs its 

 way westward at about 3 or 4 inches a year. 



Dr. Anderson. Mr. Chairman, the record that has been devel- 

 oped on that 24-meter core we think is a continuous record from 

 the day we took it back approximately 70 million years into the 

 past. Nothing has been found that shows that the area has experi- 

 enced an3^hing that would make it unacceptable. Information like 

 that gives us a very strong basis for predictive response of global 

 processes over up to 1 million years. 



Mr. Studds. I, of course, would not be inclined to challenge 

 anything said by a doctor coming from Woods Hole, an5rway. I 

 appreciate that. That was an answer comprehensible to a layman. I 

 appreciate that very much. 



Mr. Carney? 



Mr. Carney. No questions. 



Mr. Studds. Mr. Akaka. 



Mr. Akaka. Thank you very much. 



Mr. Studds. I am sure you took note of that map. 



Mr. Akaka. Yes. 



I notice that the discussion has been all about the Pacific. And 

 you commented that the area north of Hawaii, between Hawaii 

 and the Aleutians, I think you said that is about the most stable 



