CONCLUSIONS 



1. Oceanic environmental research has been success- 

 fully conducted to the maximum known depth in the oceans 

 using a manned vehicle, the bathyscaph TRIESTE, 



2. The validity of the concept of sending man and 

 machine as a team into the depths for oceanographic re- 

 search has been proved by successful scientific observa- 

 tions and measurements of water clarity, bioluminescence, 

 water currents on the sea floor, gravity, sound velocity, 

 water temperature, sea-floor studies, and other facets of 

 marine biology, marine geology, and physical oceanography, 



3. Observations at the sea floor using the bathyscaph 

 lead to several important conclusions: 



a. The presence of currents along the deep-sea 

 floor of sufficient magnitude to cause the coarser sediment 

 to form ripple marks had been previously noted by deep- 

 sea camera studies. Inasmuch as no current measurements 

 can be made during camera studies, it was not known 

 whether these were intermittent or continuous currents. 

 The bathyscaph observations have confirmed the presence 

 of these deep ripples, and have further established that 



the current present in the area at the time was not strong 

 enough to cause the rippling. The currents are therefore 

 intermittent. The presence of such deep currents hereto- 

 fore unknown (before camera and bathyscaph studies) is 

 an important oceanographic phenomenon which, at present, 

 physical oceanographic theory cannot explain. 



b. The TRIESTE has found abundant evidence of 

 biological churning of the bottom. The marked variance 

 and dispersion of these minor features has been especially 

 augmented and compared to sea floor photos, 



c. An important contribution was made to knowl- 

 edge of the topography and structure of the sea floor by the 

 dives off Guam which demonstrated that the submarine part 

 of the island is a thin coral cap on a massive volcanic 

 structure having only a scattered veneer of sediments. 

 This not only demonstrated the actual structure, which was 

 previously unknown, but also showed that the island arc- 

 trench structure of which Guam is a part has not subsided 

 to any great extent. 



d. Important contributions were made to studies 

 of the topography and structure of the great trenches of the 



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