worldwide collection of samples. As the collection grows, some discretion 

 will have to be exercised with regard to accepting and storing samples. 

 Some that are offered may have small value because of past handling 

 practices; others would be cheaper to replace than to pay storage costs. 



The Smithsonian Oceanographic Sorting Center is primarily a service 

 organization set up to assist in oceanographic research, both at the oceano- 

 graphic institutions and at universities, including those not now involved 

 in marine research. Two lines of research are compatible with this service 

 concept: 



1) Carefully controlled investigation of the changes that 

 occur in cores and grab samples with respect to method 

 of storage and length of storage time under present 

 storage methods; and 



2) Development of new storage methods not presently in use. 



The second section of the Smithsonian that will be involved in work 

 with marine sediment samples is the Division of Sedimentology of the Museum 

 of Natural History. This division is charged with the permanent storage of 

 those samples that have immense value, because of information they contain, 

 or because of high replacement costs. Examples of this type of sample would 

 be those from the Mohole and certain deep-ocean samples. The Division would 

 take title and permanently store parts of these samples. 



Along with the above responsibility, the Division of Sedimentology will 

 have an active program of research on sediments and sedimentary processes. 

 The program of research is not yet fully defined and will depend a great 

 deal on the wishes of the scientists involved. We do not intend to encroach 

 upon areas that are assigned to other agencies or that are being adequately 

 investigated by other scientists. We welcome cooperative projects with 

 other governmental agencies or with oceanographic institutes. 



Concentrated ecologic studies and the sediment influence on plant and 

 animal communities would be an interesting field of research for the Division 

 of Sedimentology. This could be developed in conjunction with the biologists 

 and paleobiologists already established in the Museum. Another field, which 

 does not appear to be overly crowded, is that dealing with diagenetic changes. 

 This does not mean that we would be limited to these areas and, probably, we 

 will not be so limited. 



In conclusion, neither of the two programs of the Museum of Natural 

 History will be operative until July 1, 1965. We have high hopes that both 

 programs will contribute to the field of sedimentology. 



I will attempt to answer any questions concerning the role of the 

 Smithsonian in the field of sedimentology. 



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