39 



sediments, as they relate to the circulation and 

 the nutrition and geochemicai cycling of ele- 

 ments are other exciting fields of research. A 

 major interest is in the sediments that are being 

 continuously deposited on the ocean floor; in 

 them are preser\'ed, through varying mineral 

 and fossil types, a record of the earth's history. 

 And finally, researchers probe into the sub- 

 bottoms of the oceans to determine their imder- 

 lying structure and the history of the basins 

 themselves. 



The support of these and other facets of physical 

 oceanography by the Environmental Sciences 

 Division began to increase in tempo in about 1958, 

 when $470,000 was expended in supporting 25 

 grants at oceanographic institutions. Since that 

 time, there has been a tenfold increase in expendi- 

 tures, and the number of grants made in FY 1965 

 has almost tripled the 1958 figure. $8,000,000 has 

 been budgeted in FY 1967 to support investigators 

 working in physical oceanography. 



ANTARCTIC PROGRAMS 



The National Science Foundation serves as the 

 principal Federal agency for the development, 

 coordination and management of all United 

 States scientific activities in Antarctica. Since 

 July 1962, oceanographic research has been con- 

 ducted aboard the USNS ELTANIN in the area 

 between about 50°S latitude and the edge of the 

 ice pack. 



ELTANIN provides the platform for high lati- 

 tude research programs of many government 

 agencies and universities in upper atmospheric 

 physics, meteorology and all phases of oceanog- 

 raphy. To date, the ship has worked the Scotia 

 Sea and Drake Passage areas between South 

 America and the Palmer Peninsula and has made 

 several cruises in the South Pacific Ocean. Crtiises 

 have also been conducted between New Zealand 

 and Chile and between New Zealand and the Ross 

 Sea. 



Research conducted aboard the vessel includes 

 biology, hydrography, air-sea interaction, marine 

 geology, and geophysical investigations. In addi- 

 tion to the shipboard operations, research on the 

 materials and data collected aboard ELTANIN is 

 supported at institutions throughout the United 

 States. 



The remarkable growth in oceanographic sup- 

 port by the Office of Antarctic Programs is evident 

 by the fact that in 1958, only one grant was made 

 for $2,000; by 1965, the 32 oceanography grants 

 totaled more than $3 million. Of the total expendi- 

 tures, about 47 percent was used to support 

 biological oceanography and 53 percent for 

 physical oceanography. This of course, includes 

 the operational costs of the ELTANIN. 



The work will continue in FY 1967, with a total 

 of $2,300,000 budgeted for oceanographic studies 

 in the Antarctic. 



OCEAN SEDIMENT CORING PROGRAM 



One of the Foundation's larger new eff"orts is an 

 extended program of ocean sediment coring. This 

 program is considered very important in the study 

 of both the ocean and the solid crust of the earth. 



The earth's crust beneath the oceans is not as 

 well understood as the crust beneath the continent. 

 Actual samples of this crust would yield data on 

 many excidng scientific problems that could have 

 practical significance. The extent of our knowl- 

 edge today is such that we do not even know the 

 age of the ocean basins. We do know that marine 

 sediment rocks laid down in comparatively shallow 

 water, and now consolidated into the condnents, 

 are as old as two billion years. Yet, the oldest 

 samples we have been able to dredge from places 

 in the ocean basins where recent deposits have 

 been swept away are barely 100 million years old. 

 We do not know whether the deep basins actually 

 date from only about 100 million years or whether 

 we just have not found older samples. Hopefully, 

 core samples extending through the sediments 

 may help answer this question. 



Deep sediment drilling would also enable 

 geologists to obtain a longer record of the earth's 

 climatic history. By studying microfossil dis- 

 tribution and their O'VO'^ ratios, changing 

 events could be determined by isotopic tech- 

 niques. This would expand our knowledge of 

 both long and short range climate cycles. 



The origin, history, and structure of the con- 

 dnental margin, a feature that presendy baffles 

 most of our geologists and geophysicists, could 

 be investigated in far greater detail. Studies 

 on the continental shelf may result in the dis- 

 covery of new mineral resources. Cores from the 



