R/V KNORR, a 240' AGOR class research vessel equipped with cycloid pro- 
pulsion, will be at sea nearly a full year as it sails from the Arctic 
to the Antarctic on the Atlantic Cruise of the GEOSECS project. The 
ship is the most modern in the fleet operated by Woods Hole Oceanograph- 
ic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, U. S. A. A subsequent Pacif- 
ic Cruise will be made by her sister ship, R/V MELVILLE, operated by 
Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, U. S. A. 
The basic purpose of the Geochemical Ocean Section Study, 
GEOSECS, is the detailed measurement of oceanic constituents along Arc- 
tic to Antarctic sections at all depths to provide, for the first time, 
a set of physical and chemical data measured on the same water samples. 
Input of these data will permit quantitative studies of oceanic mixing 
and organic productivity and, at the same time, serve as a base-line 
for levels of pollutants and of fission and waste products being added 
