The Ocean Bottom | 23 
tions also exist between Australia and New Guinea; and be- 
tween the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java and Borneo. To 
trace continental shelvés and other features of submarine 
topography a bathymetric chart of the world oceans will be 
found useful. A very small scale chart is provided on page 
22. The word “bathymetric” comes from the Greek word 
“bathos” meaning great depth, and the ending “metric” 
meaning measure. Bathymetry (pronounced: “Saturday 
night BATHs In all likelihood preceded a science like 
geoMETRY’) is the study and measuring of great ocean 
depths. 
HOW DEEP IS THE OCEAN? 
A favorite question of old time oracles, sphinxes, and 
riddle-makers was “How deep is the sea?” Now many of the 
questions asked by those old timers have never been an- 
swered. But the one about the depth of the sea has an 
answer supplied by the science.of oceanography. Oceanog- 
raphy (pronounced: “OCEANs are studied in geOG- 
RAPHY”), by the way, is the overall term used to cover all 
branches of the science of the sea. It includes marine biology, 
the study of ocean currents, water masses, physics and chem- 
istry of sea water, in much the same way as the words Fed- 
eral Government cover the President, Congress, and the Su- 
preme Court. 
But to return to the riddle: “How deep is the sea?” 
At the outer bounds of the continental shelf you will find 
that the depths fall off rapidly from 100 to 1000 fathoms. This 
region is called the continental slope. It is the beginning of 
the true ocean depression. Depths greater than 1000 fathoms 
are called abyssal regions, and they make up the bulk of the 
